Hunt Family Connection

Other things that went on this week....

I was going through pictures and wanted to add a few from the week that was...everyday kinds of stuff, but definitely stuff I'd like to remember :)

Graham was the "special helper" at preschool on Tuesday - always a nice treat :) He wore that sticker right up until bedtime, at which point he stuck it on his wall.

Ellie falling apart and tantruming on the kitchen floor....the girl definitely has a tendency to be a little dramatic.  I'm told I have this coming ;)

Cuties are all the rage around here right now. Ellie sang about her cutie all the way to the car on Wednesday morning.

It's hard to limit screen time when they use to get along and be so gosh darn cute together! Ellie's trying to learn how to play her Leap and Graham has been trying to help...it's pretty sweet :)

And finally, this was the scene on Thursday morning on the way to daycare. I think she's going to be a trendsetter!

A busy, but good week - looking back at the pictures makes me appreciate both the good and the trying moments. The weekend has started with some ups and downs, but also with some more fun photos that I will hopefully get posted soon :)

Shots

Graham's preschool notified me that Graham needed to get updated on one of his shots to attend school. When I set up the appointment, they suggested that I might also want to get G's Kindergarten shots done at the same time. Great idea...why not get it all done at once?!

So we've been talking about this for about a week now, and Graham was super excited this morning about getting his shots. I'm not sure why, because he also seemed to clearly remember that the last time he got shots, he cried. By the time I went to get him for the appointment this afternoon, his attitude had changed a bit. I told him that we needed to get the shots so that he could go to school...he declared that he doesn't really want or need to go to school....he's just going to get a job :) A great discussion followed, with me explaining that you'd have to go to at least some school to get just about any job. So the shots were back on ;)

I was thinking ahead this morning and brought the Leap Pad so that he would have something to do while we were waiting (is the dr. office ever on time?!) and it would be a nice distraction when it was time for the shots.

We were doing fine until we got into the exam room and the nurse told asked him to take off his shirt so he could get the shots in his arm. While she was out getting the shots he started to panic a little bit and was refusing to take off his shirt or sit on the exam table. Then I started to panic a little and threw a bribe out there. If you're brave and follow directions, I'll get you a new game for your Leap Pad. And then we were golden...

It was a total of 5 different shots, but a couple of them were combined, so it ended up only being 3 sticks. Two in one arm, and one in the other. There was a little bit of "that hurts that hurts" and just the tiniest of whines, but no tears....super brave!! I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went.

I told him we'd look for a new Leap Pad game after dinner, but he's been so busy doing other things that he seems to have forgotten about it. We'll see how long that lasts :) We're one step closer to being ready for Kindergarten - next week we'll be visiting some elementary schools and thinking about our school choice options....big, exciting stuff!

Then and Now - The Pink Robe edition

When I was home at Christmas, mom gave me a few pieces of clothing that I wore when I was Ellie's age. I got out one of those items tonight for Ellie to wear....this pretty pink robe :)

She put it on and I kid you not...she said, "it's beeeauti-pull!" - Indeed it is! Now here's where it gets fun....

This is me! The back of the picture says January 1977. I was three....the very same age that Ellie is now in January 2012...exactly 35 years later. (p.s. I still really love Rice Krispies!)

I'm told that my Aunt Rose (who is 10 years older than I am) made this robe as part of a project. Not bad work - it sure held up well! Ellie LOVES the pretty, pink robe, and I LOVE that my mom has hung on to things like this so that I can share them with Eleanor and make these kinds of CONNECTIONS between yesterday and today.

Saturday afternoon in Newport

It's been raining here....all. week. long. I know I shouldn't complain much, 'cause it really hasn't rained a lot this winter, but I was just getting kinda tired of it. So on Saturday we decided to just drive away from it (not that there looked like there was any way to escape it, the forcast said it was raining everywhere) but it just seemed like a good idea to get away for the afternoon.

I'm not sure where in the drive it happened, but all of a sudden I noticed blue sky!

We were amazed to find it bright and sunny in Newport....

We visited Ripley's Believe it or Not first, 'cause I've never been. These were a few of my favorite things there....

It was fun, but I think it's going to be awhile yet before the kids are old enough to appreciate it. It was still really nice out when we came back out, so we walked up and down the street.

Some things I saw along the way....

sea lions sleeping on the dock

art

and scenes that caught my eye.

Oh - and did I mention the sun?! We were very happy we decided to escape to the coast.

We had dinner at Savory Cafe & Pizzeria. I picked it out because they have different board games painted on their tables...I reserved the Yahtzee table.

We had the BBQ chicken pizza....but more importantly, who won at Yahtzee??

Good games, but I'm still the undisputed Yahtzee queen :)

Dinner compliments of the Pioneer Woman

I've been trying to cook a little more...so tonight I pulled out a Pioneer Woman recipe I've been saving. It's a pretty easy one...not a lot of time to prep...

Sour Cream Noodle Bake (The link takes you to the recipe if you're interested in trying it for yourself!)

Everyone seemed to like it - the kids even ate more bites than their age (that being the required number of bites to qualify for dessert!) There was a lot leftover, and I have a feeling it will be just as good reheated with some nice and warm french bread :)

New Baby News!

So very happy for my friend Melissa and her family....Melissa brought a healthy baby boy into the world and their family this afternoon :) A big welcome to baby Jacob and big congratulations to Melissa, Josh, and big brother Justin!

Visiting Wisconsin

Since I was so far behind on my blogging while we were there, I decided to wrap up details about our Wisconsin visit in just one post. Unfortunately, it has taken me a bit of time to pull that all together!

We left for Wisconsin on the 27th, flying out of Portland. We drove to the airport late morning, grabbing lunch on the way, parked our car in the long term lot, and caught the shuttle to the terminal.

We had no trouble getting through security, and one of the guys was so nice he let me know I could just slow down and relax :) He also deputized Graham before we headed off to our gate.

We didn't have to wait too long to board the plane, and when we did we were delighted to find out that it wasn't a full flight and we would have the entire row across the plane to ourselves! Graham and Kenny sat on one side, and Ellie and I were on the other.

At this point Ellie hadn't napped and I was hoping that she would sleep at least half of the trip away....

This sweet and beautiful picture only last about 20 minutes. That left about 2 1/2 hours of flight time to try and keep her happy and entertained....it wasn't pretty.

Graham did a great job though - he fell asleep before the plane even took off?! And then he spent the rest of his time just hanging out or playing with his new Leap Pad (THANK YOU SANTA!)

We made it in just fine and were pretty happy to find Nana and Papa, and a playground to get the wiggles out while Kenny and Dad got our bags (which all arrived without incident!) The ride back to Durand was uneventful - of course Ellie fell asleep about 5-10 minutes from their house....I totally predicted it.

There was a lot of just hanging around the house on our first day there. Unpacking, wrapping Christmas gifts, and playing Candyland.....Graham became obsessed!

Ellie became equally obsessed with "Dora Princess" on the iPod Touch.

We had dinner with Aunt Linda, Uncle Sam, and Tessa - it was nice to have time to visit with them and nice for Kenny to see a familiar face since he had already met Aunt Linda when she came out to Oreogon for the breast cancer walk.

On Thursday we visited with Auntie Barb and Great Grandpa/Great Grandma. I also took Kenny into town to show him around and visit the cheese factory (had to get some salami cheese for our evening activities).  Some memorable moments from the morning....

...a very blurry picture of G and Kenny playing with dominos

...and snuggling with my baby girl :)

Thursday night was our Christmas celebration so Joel and his family joined us. As always, mom's tree was beautiful!

Graham was very excited about all of his gifts, but this game for his Leap Pad elicited a very special response...

One of my favorite gifts were these view-master-like things that I created for the kids with pictures from our summer vacation at the coast.

And the littles seemed to enjoy one of Ellie's new toys....

But then it was on to the importnat stuff...one of the best things about visiting Wisconsin....

Fried cheese curds! Kenny's first time - he loved them....I will always love them! Big THANKS to Joel for thinking to make them :)

Friday morning Joel took Kenny ice fishing. No pictures of it, but I'm told they had a great time. Another first for Kenny, and he says he was a little nervous about all the noise the ice was making. They caught some fish, but tossed them all back in. While they were out fishing, Mom and I took the kids to the mall to look around a little, and then had lunch at Noodles & Co. (one of my favs!)

(Graham's showing off his new Batman lunchbox....Ellie got a Hello Kitty one)

On Saturday we hung out around the neighborhood....Mom made homemade chicken noodle soup for lunch (YUM!) and during Ellie's nap time we took Graham to the farm to see their new tractor.

The boys went out for a Gator ride when we got back to Nana and Papa's house....

We headed over to the barn to visit the cows at milking time. Ellie was not terribly comfortable around the cows....

...but Graham was a little less scared than he was when he first visited the cows.

It was New Year's Eve, but I think Kenny and I are the only ones that were awake at midnight. Certainly not this little boy....

We hadn't seen any snow until New Year's Eve - the next morning we got the kids bundled up to go play in the snow.

It was soooo windy and cold, but the kids really wanted to stay out and play in the snow. Graham helped Papa shovel....

Made a snow angel....

....and ate a little snow!

Ellie held on to a shovel....


And seemed less than thrilled to be outside in the cold wind.

I asked her several times if she wanted to go back inside, and each time she very clearly said "no". We did a little snow plowing with Papa....

During nap/rest time, Kenny and I snuck off for a bit to have mall Chinese food for lunch. We did a tiny bit of shopping, and I drove him around Eau Claire showing him a couple places that I had lived and worked. Before I left for Eau Claire though, I took some pictures of my nieces....such pretty girls!

Sunday night is pizza night, so we went to Joel and Carrie's house for dinner. It was a great way to spend our last night in Wisconsin.

We got going early the next morning and started the journey home. It went much better than our flight to Wisconsin and the kids slept most of the way home from Portland.

And I think that gets us all caught up! It was a wonderful trip and I'm so glad that we were able to go. THANKS to everyone that made it possible :)

 

Meet the puppies!

Ok, they're not exactly puppies - I'm told they are both about 4 years old - but that's what the kids call them. They are Lhasa Apsos that belong to Kenny's parents. They are unable to care for them at this time, so they are staying here for now. The kids were pretty excited about it, and I enjoy having them here too (most of the time!)

This is Sammie, or as Ellie calls her, "Yammie" ('cause she still doesn't get that initial 'S' sound!) Sammie is the smaller of the dogs, but she is definitely in charge. A bit of a princess, but I'm hoping she'll adjust to her new status 'casue she's not the only princess in this house :) She LOVES having her belly rubbed and is so patient with the kids - they love to pet her.

This is Bandit. He's a bit bigger than Sammie, but she definitely bosses him around. Bandit LOVES to play - Graham often plays fetch wtih him, and he's discovered a new game that Bandit enjoys...chasing the light from a flashlight around the room  :) Bandit is a little bit nervous, but he's settling in ok.

They have been with us since right before Christmas, and everyone seems to be adjusting just fine. We'll enjoy having them here as long as they're with us. I'm sure you'll see them lurking about in our pictures around the house...they like to know what's going on and be around the action.

Sticker chart

So Graham and I had a great little chat about things to work on over dinner Wednesday night, and I showed him a sticker chart that I found online. He was pretty excited to see Iron Man on the chart, and while I thought we could just fill in a few lines of things to work on, he wanted to fill up the whole page :)

We counted 15 stickers that he could possibly earn before Sunday, and decided that if he got at least 10 of them, he could earn an overnight stay at Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery's house on Sunday night.

So this morning I walked into G's room and let him know that it was time to get up...to which he responded with a loud and whiney "noooooo!" I gently reminded him that we were starting the sticker chart this monring and I sure would like to give him stickers for calm voice, following directions, and being independent. I left his room to finish getting myself ready, and when I came back out he was just leaving his room....dressed! He also got his shoes and coat on when asked....and buckled himself into his booster seat. I made a huge deal about the stickers and let him know how happy I was (Mommy is so much happier when the morning routine goes smoothly!)

And so it goes....I know there will be mornings when he just doesn't care about getting the stickers, but here's hoping that it helps with the morning routine and makes things a little more peaceful in our home.

Now, what to do with this little girl that keeps waking up at 5am?!

Tennis Lessons and other thoughts

I didn't have any meetings scheduled this afternoon, so I was able to get away and watch Graham's tennis lesson at ESTC. Pa-Paw signs him up a month at a time and we kind of judge by availability and what's going on to see if he'll participate that month. Pa-Paw does most of the transporting and signs him up for the class, but I'm always excited to pop in when I can and see how he's doing. Since I only go once in awhile, it's easier for me to see big improvements and changes over time.

He seemed to do a great job following directions and running through all of the drills as directed, even helping everyone pick up balls (this has been a struggle in the past!). I was happy to see things going well, 'cause for the past couple of days he's been throwing some giant-sized fits in the mornings.

Graham's had a lot of trouble following directions (not really new), but lately he seems a little more stubborn and a lot more dramatic in his displays of displeasure. On Tuesday morning we had a giant meltdown because he couldn't take his goggles to daycare (long story...trust me, it shouldn't have been a big deal) and on Wednesday the drama was about wanting help getting dressed. He seems to want help doing MANY things that he is able to do indpendently and was doing without any problems before.

I know that a large part of this is about being 4, but I want to make sure Graham knows what my expectations are, and knows that he will be held accountable for bad behavior. I knew he would want to spend the night with Pa-Paw tonight, but I wanted him to come home with me so we could stay consistent and keep working through this. I asked Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery to take Ellie for dinner so that Graham and I could spend some time together shopping a little bit, and then talking about some things I'd like him to work on. More info on our plan another day....here's hoping things go a little smoother in the morning :)

Preschool Changes

Today was the first time I had dropped Graham off at school this year...usually I do pick-up. There's a new routine in the classroom....

The parents always sign the kids in and out of the classroom, but now there is a sign up sheet at the entry for the kids to put their own names on as well!

Graham has been able to write his name for awhile, but it was pretty awesome to see him doing it as part of the classroom routine. Constantly reminded that I have a big boy on my hands now :)

Leftovers

Leftovers from our Sunday night steak dinner made for an awesome breakfast of steak and eggs - a pretty awesome way to start a Monday!

The day at work was definitely productive - here's hoping the rest of the week goes just as well.

RV-palooza and more

Got a few more things done around the house this morning, then headed out to the fairgrounds with Kenny. We went to look around at "RV-palooza", but got sidetracked by the flea market that was also going on out there.

At least two different people mentioned to us as we were approaching that they had left lots of great treasures in there for us :) It was so fun to walk around to all the different tables (it was much bigger than I thought it would be!) and look over all the treasures.

For some reason I was drawn to this collection of belt buckles....

We each ended up taking something home - this is what I found....

....a new airplane night light for G's bedroom. I thought it looked cute soaring over our Lego house :)

We finally made our way over to RV-palooza and had fun walking through a few of the incredibly large motor homes.

I think that the most expensive one we walked through was $650,000. I've never even considered living in a house that is that expensive!

I got my grocery shopping done, hard boiled a dozen eggs, finished a book I've been reading (highly recommend the Hunger Games series!), and even found time for a little nap! Kenny and I went to Bates Steakhouse tonight to use a Living Social coupon I got - the food was YUMMY, but the atmostphere was pretty "country".

It's been a great weekend - balanced with things that I had to do and things I wanted to do. Time to get rested up for the busy work week ahead!

Sherlock Holmes

After a very productive day getting things done around the house, I went with Kenny and Faith to see Sherlock Holmes. I loved the first one and have been looking forward to seeing this, but just haven't had the opportunity yet....

The movie was great - I highly recommend. And if you're looking for someone to see it with, I'd love to see it again :)

Good friend and wise words

I called Leila earlier this week and asked her what she was doing after work on Friday....she said she was going to be hanging out with me :)

No kids...just me and her catching up over a glass of wine, take-out Chinese, and a fire in the fireplace. Definitely a great way to end this week.

I really loved what my fortune cookie had to say....

Hoping to get a post about our trip to Wisconsin up over the weekend...lots of fun stories to tell and pictures to share :)

Our first Lego Creation

Graham got the "big kid" Legos for Christmas. He decided to open them up for the first time on Wednesday night and we started building a house that had 20 steps of directions.

We got about halfway through the directions before bedtime, and then finished up tonight. We worked together - Graham would point out what sections were new in each picture direction and then I would find the pieces for him to place. He's pretty observant and caught a couple things that I missed :)

And there ya have it! Our very first Lego creation. I LOVE Legos and am so excited that Graham is starting to show more interest in them. Looking forward to seeing what he creates!

Back at work....

Yesterday was professional development and 2 hours of furlough time, so today was technically the first full day back at work and the first day back for kids. I checked in at both of my schools, and then settled into my desk to try and tackle the pile of files that didn't go away while I was on vacation.

You learn something new every day!

The kids are with Wil tonight, so it seemed like a good time to take down the Christmas tree. Kenny helped me and we decided it would be best to take it out through the patio doors. But get this...

I had no idea that BOTH of the doors opened up! I'm not sure that this information would have benefited me at any point up until now....I'm feeling a little bit embarrassed that I didn't know this, but also a little excited to find another exciting feature in my little house :)

Heading for Home

More on the entire trip soon, but wanted to share a shot of the kids on the plane...ready to head home to Oregon!

The flight went pretty well and the kids did great considering they were being asked to sit still for over 3 hours! Lots of snacks and electronics got us through the trip :)

One Little Word - 2012

Happy New Year everyone! I love how this day feels....fresh, new, and full of possibilities.

For the past four years, inspired by Ali Edwards, I've been choosing a word to focus on for the upcoming year....something to inspire me to make positive changes in my life. Words I've used before include:

PATIENCE
PRESENT
ENJOY
FORWARD

This past year I feel like I really focused on my word and used it to accomplish a number of things to move forward...both literally and figuratively. I felt like I was in a really great place when the year ended and I'm proud of all I did to get here :)

So it's time to pick a word for 2012. It came to me when I was taking a shower a few weeks ago. I was thinking about one of my nieces, and was wishing I was more CONNECTED to her...a bigger part of her life even though I live over a thousand miles away. So I got to thinking about other meanings and thoughts about CONNECTION, and I got to thinking about a "mind-body" CONNECTION. I don't want to obsess on any diets or specific weight loss goals, but I do want to spend more time thinking about what's healthy and feels good....I definitely want to keep moving forward! The CONNECTIONS I already have are very important to me, and I want to spend the year nurturing and strengthening those CONNECTIONS.

Brene Brown talks a lot of about CONNECTION....she says,

“I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”

When I shared the word with my friend Kara, she sent me this article - Making Time

I also stumbled upon this quote from Harriet Goldhor Lerner that spoke to me....

"Only through our connectedness to others can we really know and enhance the self. And only through working on the self can we begin to enhance our connectedness to others."

And so I'd like to spend the year enhancing my self, and enhancing my CONNECTEDNESS to others. I have some ideas of things I would like to do...and I'll be using some of the prompts from Ali Edwards' One Little Word workshop at Big Picture to help keep my focused. I think it's going to be a really great year :)

Would love to hear if anyone else out there has chosen a word...