Hunt Family Connection

Lane County Fair 2010

Grandma Chery wanted to go to the fair and so did we...so we joined forces on Saturday to check it all out.

This is what we saw when we arrived at the fair - Graham was sooo excited and wanted to ride it. Unfortunately, he's a bit short yet...maybe next summer :)

Enjoying our fair food - Chery and Graham had corn dogs and I had a funnel cake....YUM! 

We at our fair food while we waited for the pig races....that's right, PIG RACES! I've never seen it, but I have to say it was rather entertaining - look at 'em go! 

And you know that saying about pigs flying??

After the pig races we wandered off to find the rides Graham was tall enough for.

He was pretty excited to ride the airplane....

...he had fun floating in the boat....

....but his favorite was driving the car.

He loved it so much that he wanted to go again.

He actually loved all of the rides and would have been quite happy to stay there all afternoon, but we moved on to the animal barns.

We saw a LOT of sheep, chickens, rabbits, and this giant pig and her babies...it kind of looked like she was smiling :)

We stopped to play here before leaving the barn - finally something that was just perfect for Ellie. The girl LOVES taking things in and out of buckets. She carried these vegetables around putting them into and taking them out of the baskets. I had to laugh because another child came in at one point (a boy probably closer to Graham's age) and he started gathering up all of the vegetables and tried to take the ones Ellie was hanging on to.  He got one out of one of her hands, but when he tried to grab the other she just looked at him and held on TIGHT.  He gave up and she walked away with her ear of corn - she's going to be a tough one...I'm afraid her brother is raising her that way :)

After this everyone was getting a bit tired so it was the perfect time to head back home for naps. It was a very nice day to be at the fair - thanks Grandma Chery for coming along and treating us to a whole bunch o' fun!

One more Christmas....

First things first...take a look at little Miss Ellie - such a happy girl (most of the time!)

She's a busy girl these days and doesn't want to miss a thing that's happening around her. Too busy to eat and sleep during the day! Sleeping a little more at night - 6-7 hours at a time now.

Mum-Mum and Pop-Pop were sick the weekend we originally planned to do our Christmas together, so we rescheduled and they came this past weekend to celebrate. We had some yummy meals, great card games, and some gift exchanging.

Graham got a great little train set, some new clothes, and Mickey Mouse. Eleanor got cozy leg warmers and some new clothes. Wil and I got some great goodies too, including this computer book for Wil and a signed copy of a book that I will have to share more about when I read...

Warren and Sarah both got books to read too, along with some other goodies. It's so fun to be able to stretch Christmas into the middle of January!

Of course no matter what you get kids, it seems you always end up finding them like this....

....playing with a cardboard box of course!

December Daily Project: Preparation

It's our first Christmas as a complete family of four and I'm feeling compelled to document it. For the past few years I've been watching others do December Daily projects and it all just seemed so overwhelming to me given everything else that had to be done. It seems that doing prep ahead of time is the key and just plain making this a priority will also be important in getting the project done. The goal is to have an album in the end that documents our holiday season activities, feelings, and traditions.

So to prepare and get psyched up for the project I've been doing a lot of reading. I've been inspired by the following resources:

December Daily project by Ali Edwards - she's really the pioneer of December Daily and has been doing the project for several years now - you can follow her process and get TONS of info from her blog.
Holiday in Hand by Jessica Sprague - a free class that was offered this year - lots of good page prompt ideas and some great free digital goodies
Pre-Planning Digital Pages and Projects by Katie - a great post detailing how Katie is planning for her all digital December Daily album

Next step is to gather materials, so that's just what I did the other day. I did a search of Christmas goodies from Designer Digitals, made note of the products I might want to use for my pages, then raided my stash and made copies of those goodies to put into a dedicated folder to keep on my desktop called "December Daily Materials"  Here are the goodies that I've gathered so far, complete with links to the DD store in case you want to go grab some of these things yourself.

1. December Daily Template Package 2. December Daily Template Package Vol 02  3. Speed Byte No 122  4. Christmas Dreams Kit  5. December Magic Kit   6. Balsam Hill Paper Pack  7. Holiday Hand Drawn Brushes  8. Holiday Word Art  9. Krafty Cut-Ups: Holiday  10. Christmas Dreams Glitters  11. Krafty Cuts: Christmas  12. Posted Holiday Postage Stamps  13. Absolutely Acrylic: Festive Trees  14. StraightLine Stitch Red No 01  15. Stitched by Anna Borders Red No 01

I'm sure I'll add some things here and there, but to keep things as easy to complete as possible, I'm going to try to stick to these products for the most part.

I will be using this album for my pages (in the chestnut color), and in the window that you can see through on the front, I'm going to arrange some of these cute square stickers.

December starts tomorrow and I'm sure I'll be sharing my pictures and pages along the way :)

Pictures found...

It really does seem they were able to retrieve all of the data that was on the bad hard drive - yay! I had just uploaded some pictures from my camera when it crashed, so I'm just now finally getting them edited to share....a little leftover from Halloween :)

Auntie Linda gave us this onesie when she came to visit and the pants (hand-me-downs from our friend Anna) were a perfect match! I give you 'Ellie the Friendly Ghost"....

I also wanted to try and take a better picture of Eleanor in her Halloween costume - between bad lighting and all of her sleeping on the night of Halloween, I never got a good shot. So here's what we ended up with....

 

Fun family fact about this costume - I originally got this for Graham to wear on his first Halloween, but he grew too tall so fast, that his little legs came busting out of the bottom!  Luckily it fit Eleanor perfectly :)

I'm working on a special Halloween album, inspired by Cathy Zielske, that will document their costume choices each year. You can find out more about her album and get templates to make your own on her blog here: BOO ALBUM

Here are the pages I have done for my album so far....

Happy Anniversary to Us!

I dug up a couple pictures from our wedding SIX years ago :) One from dinner the night before the wedding, and one that jumped out at me as I was looking through wedding pics. I am happy to say that we are still standing right next to each other, holding hands through whatever comes our way. We’ve met our share of challenges but have also experienced some of the greatest joy that either of us have ever known.

We are extremely blessed to have our children, our home, our family and friends, our health, and each other. We know how lucky we are and acknowledge it often.

We’ll be spending our anniversary close to home with Graham. We usually do some looking back on the past year and talk about things we might want to work on in the year ahead. On Monday Graham will be at daycare so I think we’ll be going to lunch and then we’re scheduled for a little spa treatment in the afternoon – can’t wait!

Happy 4th of July!

I’m sitting in bed and just got done editing the pictures I’ve got so far from the weekend. The neighborhood fireworks have just started and I have the perfect view of what must be an illegal fireworks display in someone’s yard (they are far too big and pretty to be legal!)

There are a lot of firecrackers going off on our street and I saw some of those parachute ones floating outside of my window. So far I’ve seen a couple of the cats race in here and under the bed. Graham hasn’t been fully awakened yet, but I do hear him fussing in there a little bit.

The picture is from earlier today as we were getting ready to head out to Art in the Vineyard. I went out there last night too, but with some girlfriends…

 
from left to right: Kara, me, Louisa, and Teresa

We set up our chairs in the shade, everyone that could got a glass of wine, and then we headed over to the food court. Kara and Teresa really seemed to enjoy their buffalo burgers (with giant chunks of bacon on top – YUM!)

After dinner we walked around to check out the art – I didn’t take as many pictures as I usually do, but  here are a couple of my favorites…

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are always so many creative and colorful things to look at. Also a lot of fun and pretty jewelry to admire.

After browsing a bit we went back to our chairs to chat before the music started again, and before long someone mentioned dessert and we were back in the food court. We went back to our chairs with ice cream and spent the rest of the evening people-watching, listening to music, and chatting. It was a wonderfully relaxing (and yummy!) evening. We went back to Kara’s and caught a fireworks show taking place after the Ems’ baseball game.

I was pretty tired this morning, so Graham and I played at home this morning. G did a fantastic job of letting me rest up a bit. After his nap we got dressed and ready to head out to Art in the Vineyard. We saw Grandma Chery and walked around with her a little before she had to leave, then we found a shady place on the lawn to put down our blanket. We went for a walk and found a nice little kid area where Graham went “fishing” for some little toys/prizes. His favorite is a whistle (that he is still learning how to use!)

We walked over to the food court and got pad thai and a fruit parfait for dinner, which we enjoyed together on our blanket while listening to music. Once we finished that up it was time to get back in the stroller and make the trek back to the car and then home to play a little more before bedtime. Here’s a shot of Graham playing with his new little toys while I cleaned up…

Which brings us to where I started this post – Graham is still sleeping and the fireworks are still going strong….seriously, who are these people?? For a backyard display, this is pretty awesome! It will be fun when Graham is old enough to stay awake for this :)

Father’s Day (I know it was last week – just catching up!)

I just realized that I forgot to post about our Father’s Day and share a few pictures that I have.

Graham and I let Wil sleep in and went out to run some errands (which included getting Wil’s Father’s Day present :) We brought a coffee treat home to Wil and all had lunch together. After nap time we got ready to head over to Jim and Chery’s for a Father’s Day BBQ – it was raining when we arrived, but it managed to clear up enough for Graham to enjoy some outside time in their lovely backyard – Daddy and Pa-Paw had him flying high in the swing!

Chery and I requested a picture of the boys – it’s hard to get a good shot with Graham (too busy) and Wil (too camera shy). I stole this one from Chery – seemed to be the best of the bunch:

We had a yummy dinner of salmon and veggies and an awesome dessert of ice cream and Oreo cookies.

I also put together a scrapbook page to remember the day. I was watching Wil and Graham play in the yard and they were both laughing and having such a good time – those really are the times I love most and want to remember :)

 

Page Credits: all of the goodies used here can be found at Designer Digitals

There – all caught up! Can’t believe a whole week has gone by already. Time sure is flying by… No big plans for today, but I see the sun is already out. Might be a good morning to play at the park after breakfast…before it gets too warm out.  Hope you all have a wonderfully relaxing Sunday :)

Happy Father’s Day!

To all of the fathers in our life – we wish you a very relaxing day. Graham is very lucky to know and get to spend time with his daddy, three grandpas, and even one great-grandpa!  We love you all :)

I leave you with some pictures of Graham with his daddy…

Memorial Day

It was a very good day :)  It was wonderful to get up not dreading a Monday – relaxing in bed until Graham woke up….heading downstairs to make muffins and play….walking to the park with a bucket and shovel…heading back home to hang out with Wil and have lunch. 

After lunch Graham actually asked to go down for his nap – while he was sleeping I managed to clean up my desk (it was a bigger task than I had anticipated – how does it get so messy when I hardly ever sit there?!)

Later in the afternoon Pa-Paw, Grandma Chery, Kara, Brian, and Sam all came over to hang out and have a BBQ. We had a blast playing inside and outside – there was a LOT of laughter….love that :) 

I leave you with a few pictures from our day…

View Full Album

Happy Mother’s Day!

This is the pretty little gift I got from Graham that he made (helped make) at daycare. I’m told he was in charge of the eye dropper that colored the flower. It has a pin on the back so I can wear it as a corsage today ;)

Looking forward to beautiful weather and a nice, relaxing day with my boys.  Wishing all of the moms in our life a wonderful day with some (or LOTS) of special treatment!