Hunt Family Connection

Weekend Wrap-Up Part II - Sunday

Graham watched Team Umizoomi while I spent some time with Ellie doing puzzles...I was stunned to see that she seemed to know how to do them all! She had the wooden puzzles mastered, so I pulled some tougher ones out of the game closet. It was fun seeing what she could do :) She also wanted to do a little writing with this pencil that Faith had left at the house after her birthday party....

After nap we all went out to the mall to see the model trains set up there. We were excited to meet up with Kara, Brian, Sammy, and Maya at the mall.

The trains were fun to look at....

And look at my boy....he wanted to bring his camera and he was snapping pictures all over the place!

Sunday night pizza was a great way to wrap up the weekend - a nice mix of hanging out at the house and getting out and about!

Weekend Wrap-Up Part I - Saturday

Morning always starts with Ellie proclaiming that she is "done weeping!" Usually closely followed by, "I hungry!!" Graham was pretty lethargic Saturday morning and just didn't look or sound like himself. He was running a low-grade fever, but kept saying he felt fine. I had decided he just caught a touch of whatever bug was going around daycare...that was until I got him dressed and he got upset when I touched his arm. He reminded me that he had shots the day before and said it was hurting. Of course...the shots! Totally made sense all of a sudden....I gave him some Tylenol and he perked up pretty quick after that.

We got the play doh out for a bit....Graham tired of it quickly (this was pre-Tylenol) but Ellie played for awhile.

Ellie was also super helpful with some cleaning I wanted to do. She helped me wipe some things down in the bathroom and then did some dusting around the kitchen.

After naps/rest and Tylenol, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and wandered out to the park with Kenny and Faith.

Some favorite shots from our time at the park....

Graham isn't as confident about climbing as Ellie is (the girl is fearless!) but he was pretty proud to have climbed up and back down this all on his own.

Faith and Kenny - we all had fun climbing and swinging :)

The tire swings were popular...Graham liked to spin, but Ellie was pretty freaked out by it.

We took advantage of the nice weather and grilled chicken for dinner...it was a good day!

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.