Hunt Family Connection

Welcome Miss Maya Elizabeth!

In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, Miss Maya Elizabeth made an early, surprise entrance into the world.

Approximately 30 days early, but weighing in at about 7lbs, she is a beautiful and healthy baby.

Maya belongs to our friends Brian, Miss Kara, and Sammy, and I was so excited to hear that she had arrived! I was able to go visit at the hospital yesterday afternoon and Kara, Melissa, and I all had our regular Wednesday lunch date - Maya's very first one :)

As I was when she had Sammy, I'm so very proud of my friend Kara and all she went through to carry this sweet baby and bring her into the world. I can't wait to watch Maya grow, but right now I'm looking forward to some sweet baby cuddling :)

My Sweet Boy....

Because the week has been long already, and it's only Wednesday....I want to put something here that will make me smile when I see it.

Graham has been trying my patience lately, but in between those crazy moments he also has these moments of pure sweetness.

The stubborness, the hitting, the bad behavior....we'll work that out and it will go away....but these are the moments I will remember the most....

He's a sweet boy...I'll be doing everything in my power to keep him that way.

And just to reinforce the fact that he is a boy, about 2 minutes after he offered me these flowers, he took them back and threw them all up in the air to see what would happen :)

But he also helped me pick them all up again.....sweet boy :)

Weekend in review

It's been another great weekend here and I have a few pictures to share with a recap.

My weekend started with a Friday at Four birthday celebration for my friend Tamra, who turns 30 on Monday - that's right...30! I even put together a little game for everyone to play - a quiz about whether or not something happened before or after Tamra was born in 1981 :) After the Friday at Four festivities Matt and I grilled steaks and potatoes for dinner - yum! We had a little adventure with a fuse in the laundry room - luckily I learned a little about my house and the fuse box in good weather while it was light outside. I will be much better prepared if I ever need to get into it in less than pleasant conditions.The steak was sooo good and it was nice to sit out on the patio while it cooked slowly.

I picked up some things on sale at Target on Saturday that I've been watching for awhile - the cashier was impressed with what a deal I got on these....

I'm very much looking forward to some nice evenings by the fire pit - I think it needs some pops of color though, so I'm going to be keeping my eyes open for something to decorate the fence....maybe some colorful lanterns....we'll see.

Saturday night I went to the roller derby for the first time - what a blast! My co-worker Wendy (aka "Terrin Skirtz") plays on one of the teams and I finally got to see her do her thing....she's awesome!

She's a jammer (rent "Whip It" for further explanation!) and she's sooo fast - really great on those skates. We stayed for the whole first bout and Wendy's team won. Out for dinner after, then home for a movie - another nice day/evening.

The kids were with Wil on Friday night and I heard they went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. On Saturday night they stayed overnight with Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery. I just got some great pics of Graham in the tub....looks like fun :)

They also spent time at the park, and doing all kinds of other fun stuff. I know Graham was out at the airport today before coming back home.

They are both back here with me now. Ellie is still napping, and Graham is picking a bouquet of flowers for me....of course moments before this sweet flower picking incident, I caught him throwing dirt and rocks over the fence...nice.

 

It will be a quiet afternoon/evening here as we prepare for another week :)

 

No Hurry, No Worry

Backing up just a tiny bit further - my last weekend started on Friday morning. After the kids were off to daycare I finished packing up and then got started off to the Oregon Coast with Matt. Our goal was to get to Seaside, OR, but we had no schedule or agenda....we just slowly made our way up the coast, enjoying the scenery and stopping when the mood struck.

Our first stop was in Newport at the Hatfield Marine Science Center...

While there we saw this....

and could have touched this (though we both chose not to!)....

We also saw the octopus come out to say hello, though I didn't get a picture of it, and I saw halibut alive for the first time (I'm used to only seeing it as my Friday night plate of fish-n-chips!).

We had lunch just down the road at the Rogue Brewery....

....where we had this lovely view while eating lunch.....

....and tasted some of their yummy beers (my favorite taste was the McRogue Scotch Ale).

Back in the car after lunch to keep making our way up the coast. Next stop was the Tillamook Cheese Factory - can you believe I've never been?!

Of course I've been to a cheese factory before (I am from Wisconsin after all!) but this is a HUGE operation. We enjoyed some free cheese samples, looked around a little, and enjoyed some ice cream before getting back on the road.

We made it to our destination - Inn at the Shore - about mid-afternoon. Just in time to enjoy our view and rest a bit before dinner.

This was the view from our patio - it was nice enough to leave the patio open the whole time so we could hear/see the ocean. Sooooo peaceful and relaxing!

The hotel was great - friendly staff and the room was nice. They had videos in the lobby that we could have borrowed, and LOTS of cable channels! I will admit that I spent some time catching up on some HGTV watching.....

another favorite view from my hotel room....love, love, love Sarah's House!


We had dinner at the Shilo Inn - the restaurant is right on the beach and the view was incredible. We got there just in time to see the sun drop out of the clouds and over the water for the most beautiful sunset I've seen in a long time. I have no picture of it - I'm not sure I could have taken one that would have done it justice. The food was great too and it was a great way to wrap up our vacation day.

The hotel also has bicycles that you can take out for a ride, so Saturday morning we took them out and rode all the way down the promenade (about 1.5 miles each way I have since read)

We had some breakfast and a little walk out onto the beach before heading back down the coast. We stopped in Lincoln City so I could do a little shopping at the outlet mall, and at Mo's in Florence for dinner so Matt could have clam chowder in a bread bowl. It was another great day of just going with the flow and taking things as they come - not ruled by work or kid schedules. It was just the break I needed - a great get-away!

Sick Day

I've finally had a chance to go through and edit some pictures from the past few days and I'll spend the next couple of posts catching up a bit....but a little backwards I guess as I'll be starting with today.

It's Monday and the kids and I are all at home. As I mentioned in my last post, both kids hads moments of being sick yesterday, so we stayed home to work on getting well today. Poor baby G - looks so sad, doesn't he?

Let's jump back in time a little bit to yesterday (Sunday). Wil brought them back over in the morning and we had breakfast together. After breakfast I thought it would be fun to take Graham out for a ride on his new bike. I pushed Ellie in her stroller and Graham rode alongside of us....

He did great for his first time out and was super tough when it didn't go so great - "I'm ok, I'm ok" anytime he fell off. We're still working on steering while pedaling, not going too fast and spinning out of control, and watching where we are going. Grandma Chery met us along the way and walked back home with us. Graham had such a blast and I think really felt like a big boy out there on the bike.

We spent a lot of time outside in the afternoon too and Graham brought me these pretty flowers from our yard....

Since we spent a lot of time outside, I wasn't surprised to see Ellie fall asleep before finishing her lunch....

And I wasn't suprised to see Graham fall asleep on the couch while watching a tv show....

I was a little surprised to see Ellie lay down on the pillows and lay pretty still for awhile after getting up from her THREE HOUR nap....

And this my friends is where things started to go a little sideways.

 Shortly after I took this picture Ellie got up and got sick. She seemed ok after that and did fine for the rest of the night - slept all the way through until about 6am!

Graham was fine until bedtime rolled around. As we were reading stories he started complaining about his tummy hurting - he was holding it and just seemed uncomfortable. He ended up getting sick twice before falling asleep and once at 1:30am when he woke up. By morning he looked like this....

He got sick one more time before breakfast then throughout the day got more and more of his energy back - by the time I put Ellie down for a nap he was begging to play his Diego Wii game and go outside to play.

I want to take a minute to point out the little record album laying on Graham's blanket - you may notice it was also in the first picture of this post. We found that while walking yesterday and he's been a little bit obsessed with it. He has been taking it everywhere with him  - not sure what it's all about. It took awhile to explain what it is, and I'm pretty sure he still doesn't really get it as he keeps wanting to put it in the Wii or somewhere in my computer. I'm going to have to do some googling to show him how it works :)

Ellie stayed home with us today too 'cause I didn't know how she would be feeling. She looked like this much of the day....

Crazy, crazy girl - sassy and full of energy. She's developing quite a little BIG personality, complete with temper tantrums, squealing with delight and distress, and all kinds of new words.

I tried for an early bedtime and both kids fell asleep quickly. I think we'll be back to "normal" tomorrow - heading to work and daycare. Thankfully we don't see sick very often here, and for that I am very grateful. I know how lucky I am to have happy and healthy children and that's something I tried to keep at the front of my mind today :)

Spring Yard Tour

I meant to update the blog with thoughts on Mother's day and a weeks worth of our life, but it's just not meant to be. Graham and Ellie both had moments of sick today and I'm just exhausted from that and the nice, long weekend that came before it. I did find a post hidden away in my drafts, so will share this instead and try to get some sleep.....

It's always fun being in a new house and discovering what will pop up in the spring. The previous owners did a great job of landscaping and I love looking at all of the color coming out.

My favorite part has been the lilacs - the smell reminds me of home (in-Wisconsin-growing-up-home!)....

A couple more shots from the backyard....

Every time we come home and I get Ellie out of the car she comes face to face with these....

"oooohhhhh preetttty" she often says (in Ellie-speak of course!)

Here's a better view of a similar bush on the side of the front yard....

The previous owners really made this house beautiful, inside and out, and I'm enjoying every bit of it :) I leave you with one more splash of color from the front yard...

Mother's Day Weekend

This is one of my favorite pictures....

It just really makes me feel like a mom every time I see it.

There is never a dull moment with Graham and Eleanor, and I'm so very blessed and thankful to be their mom. This morning Graham told me that "everyday should be Mother's Day!" - I agree :)  He also thought that a good way to celebrate would be for us all to stay in our pjs - he's pretty smart. We had a slow start this morning and while Ellie slept in, Graham laid in bed with me playing Cut the Rope on my iPod Touch and I played around on my computer and had a few mini donuts (breakfast in bed!). We had a great breakfast then played some, took baths, and watched a couple of kids shows (right now the favs are Diego and Backyardigans).The kids got me a fun Mother's Day card and a gift card to Ross to do a little shopping (thanks for helping them with that Wil).

We enjoyed a Mother's Day dinner of Pizza Hut pizza - thanks to Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery for bringing that over so I didn't have to cook. It was a good weekend - I got to spend time with and without my kids...it all worked out just fine :)

Graham's new bike

Graham got a new bike for his birthday - a two-wheeler with training wheels. The weather is finally getting a little nicer, so we've been able to be outside after daycare a night or two this past week.

Graham asked to ride his bike, and I thought that was a great idea :)

I thought it might be an even better idea to get some of this video-taped so I could share and remember. I don't get the video camera out nearly as much as I'd like to.

Things to notice while watching....

• Graham is a rockin' big brother - look at him pushing his sister on the swing - love that!
• He's still learning about how the bike works, so as he approaches the fence you may notice that he does in fact run right into it
• But look at how quickly the boy learns - I explained the braking and you can see when he comes back on the bike and gets to the grass, he does actually use the brakes!

Click here to see Graham's bike-riding video

I'm sure this is just the beginning of all kinds of bike riding - I'm hoping one of these days we can even wander out onto the bike path together.

 

A beautiful May day...

It was chilly this morning, so we waited to head outside until after nap time. It was beautiful and sunny - finally it looks and feels like spring!

Graham went straight for the sandbox and was so excited when he built a sandcastle (the sand was still wet enough to work really well in the molds). Graham also wanted to ride his new bike (he's doing great with it!), play golf, swing, and play catch - a little bit of everything.

Ellie joined us after her nap - she had fun with the sidewalk chalk, playing in the car, swinging, and climbing the play structure (with supervision!)

One of my favorite moments of the day....

....Graham being a super big brother by pushing Ellie in her swing.

Grandma Chery came over and played with us too, then Pa-Paw joined us when he was done flying. I put some hot dogs on the grill and we all had a picnic-like dinner together.

After dinner we got all of the sand and sidewalk chalk washed off in the tub, got ready for bed, read bedtime stories, then lights out. The kids were both out pretty quickly - fresh air works wonders!

Feeling very lucky, relaxed, and happy - great weekend :)