Grateful

Hi everyone,

Well, I am afraid that I have so much to say that I don't have time to get it all on the Hunting Family Blog.  I have spent life living instead of documenting.  Plus, I have about a zillion pictures (okay not really but it is over 800, though!)...and I haven't downloaded them off of the memory cards yet.  So for me to share all of those sweet memories with all of you will take some time.  I do have a work-in-progress though, so I will do my best this week.

Still, I feel the need to share with all my family and friends how grateful I am for life.  I am so blessed and I feel grateful for Steve, our precious kids, our wonderful extended family, and dear friends.  Steve and I are at a place in our lives where we realize how precious time is: time with our children, time with our grandparents, time with our siblings, time with our parents, time with each other, and time with our friends.  We also realize how the blessings of our life are really just the fruits of our heritage.  After all, would we honestly be who we are without the decisions and teachings of our parents, grandparents, and other amazing role models?  Their sacrifices are in the forefront of our minds so often as we stand in awe of our blessings in life.  I really hope that we can pass this on to our children, who need to know what an amazing heritage they have!

Finally, just a few personal thoughts on this journey of life.  Many of you know that my Grandma Dallin passed away last month and when things like that happen it is difficult not to ponder the meaning of this life.  My grandma really lived a full life, though she had challenges over the past few years and couldn't share her amazing talents and wisdom with those she loved.  As I talked with my Grandpa, reviewed her book of remembrance, and read her journal writing, I was reminded of how she lived such a life of service.  She lived her life serving others, her family and God.  It is amazing to learn of and remember the sacrifices, trials, heartaches, joys, successes, wisdom, and love she experienced during her full life.  She was an amazingly talented seamstress with classic beauty and style.  She is sorely missed.  However, as I ponder the meaning of life I do believe that life doesn't end here.  Our purpose is eternal and our family relationships can continue beyond this life.  I have full confidence that my Grandma and I will have a joyful reunion when my journey is complete and I pray that I can learn from her tremendous example.  So, I want to express gratitude for this amazing life, for the amazing people in my life, and for amazing blessings that remind me to find joy in the journey.

Emma (5) and her Great Grandma Dallin

Go ahead, laugh out loud. It's okay.

Sometimes, a moment comes along and you just have to capture it. Then, in a moment of genius, you decide to share it with the world…even to the humiliation of the ones you love. Fortunately, I have had one of those moments.

This picture was taken as a “before” picture, as in before we colored my mom’s hair an awesome dark brown color. Naturally, we decided to make it particularly outrageous by teasing the hair and posing. The sad part is that we never took the “after” picture. The kids thoroughly enjoyed improving this picture with me and adding the appropriate text. Enjoy.

11 Years!

Today is Steve's and my ELEVENTH anniversary! It is amazing to think that I've been fortunate enough to spend over 1/3 of my life with this amazing man.  Time has passed by so quickly. Life has been good to us and the journey is even better with my best friend by my side. Steve has always been my biggest support and my strongest critic. Without his constant concern for my success, I am confident that I would be content with mediocrity. Since I met Steve, he has encouraged me to analyze my motives and choices to bring out the best in me--he won't allow me the luxury of pure laziness or failure! I fully credit Steve for my transition from a failing freshmen in college (just one quarter when I decided to stop attending class--that's a bad idea, by the way) to a 4.0 doctoral student. Thankfully, his encouragement and patience led me to a change of heart, mind, and attitude of "I can, I should, and I deserve it!" No excuses because I deserve nothing but the best. Which is why I married Steve, of course.  He makes me laugh, he is a great father who actually plays with his kids (listening to him play with the girls' Polly Pockets or LPS is HILARIOUS), he cleans and cooks regularly, he serves others, he is creative, he is a hard worker, he is quick to apologize, he has high expectations, he has good taste in decorating and clothing but he is wise enough to know when it is not prudent to replace or overextend to get something we want, he is frugal, he expresses his love and appreciation regularly, and the list could go on and on.  Basically, I feel extremely blessed that our paths were united in Logan, Utah when we moved into side-by-side apartments and I convinced Steve that he was madly in love with me.  Okay, now enough of the cheesy, sticky sweet, nausea-inducing, mushy, lovey-dovey commentary...Enjoy this little blast from the past!  In case you are confused, these are actually pictures of Steve and I.  Just in case you can't tell.

The Engagement Photo

Love you.

B-Day, B-Ball, and Bargains

Happy Birthday Dad!!!


We celebrated Steve’s birthday a couple of days late because of our travels but I think he’ll tell you it was worth the wait!! He was very surprised at this present from the kids (the bike) and he was unimpressed with the nail gun from me. I don’t understand why…..Okay, maybe I do….you see, I have been asking for a nail gun for my birthday or Christmas now for a couple of years and he recently informed me that he would not be giving me that. So, naturally, when I was in Chicago and found a nail gun that was a great deal I went ahead and snatched it up. I wrapped it up with some hearing protection just as a gag gift with a note that I was going to make him something awesome with it….but something tells me that Steve wasn’t too thrilled. Of course, that wasn’t his real present!!! I actually made reservations at a restaurant in Portsmouth and we went to dinner. At dinner, I gave him his real present which was a new MP3 player. I hope that his 33rd birthday ended up being fun and memorable!!  The kids enjoyed dressing him up like a rock star and putting a crown on his head!


 
Softball and T-Ball

This spring the girls have both been playing softball and T-Ball. Emma has done great playing her first season. She particularly loved playing catcher for one game! The highlight of the season was yesterday, though, when she actually caught a ball and got a player out as the second baseman. Way to go LaPierre Septic!! You gotta love those business sponsored team names!

Lauren has had a fun, but less exciting year—her games were all rained out! She has only played 4 times but has 3 games scheduled for this upcoming week to try to make up for it. Still, she has enjoyed playing and is excited to keep going next year. Good Job M&J Landscaping!

Yard Sale-ing

While it is debatable which day in life is a mother’s proudest day, I believe I have had mine. Yes, it has happened—my children have discovered the thrill and joy of yard sales! It began 3 or 4 weeks ago when I got out with the kids at about 7 am to visit a yard sale that was advertised on Craigslist. All 3 kids were psyched to go with me and Steve was psyched not to.   He doesn't exactly like the idea of spending money on other people's junk and while I continue to bring home things that are decidedly not junk, he is yet to be convinced of the benefits of Yard Sale-ing.  Well, the yard sale we attended that morning was not nearly as great as the advertisement made it out to be, but the kids loved taking a small amount of money and purchasing a mother-approved quality item. Well, the appetite was created and now all the kids have gone with me to different yard sales over the past weeks. Our favorite purchase so far: An unfinished solid wood dollhouse for $1 that we are making our summer project. This little house is going to be a luxury home, complete with stainless steel appliances, hardwood flooring in the living room, framed real family portraits, shingles, and other high end extras! We are, of course, doing it on the tightest budget possible and could not handle the sticker shock of the cedar shingles at the craft store ($46.99 a bag?!! We needed two bags!) so we have been brainstorming all the time and have come up with some AWESOME substitutions for a fraction of the cost! Definitely going to be an awesome home to Polly Pocket, LPS, and miniature princesses---not to mention the pillaging pirates and race cars that have already come to call.

Speaking of yard sale bargains, yesterday was amazing. I only wish I had more cash with me or felt that Steve wouldn’t freak out when I spent a small fortune. So I passed on a few finds that I really wish I had tried to bargain for (doll house accessories and Hummel statues)! We did get 10 very gently used DVDs (mostly Disney classics that we have on VHS) for dirt cheap. However, the real gem of the day was the new, unopened 80 Gig iPod for $50! This baby was about a year old but in a sealed box. After getting home I discovered why they let this originally $250 iPod go for so cheap---the iPod actually had a company name engraved on the back so I assume that this was probably a prize or a marketing tool. Do I care? Of course not! So since I washed my MP3 player in the washing machine a couple of months ago, I was more than thrilled to snatch up this amazing bargain. Ahh, I just love yard sales and as a proud mother I am elated to pass this tradition on to my children.

Chicago

It is amazing how much can happen in just a short time.  Life flies by and it occurs to me that the past six weeks have included a vacation, Steve's birthday, a visit from Grandma Dallin, softball and T-ball, house projects, home reorganization, a new neice, and loads of fun!  Because I think that the photos are the most important part of our blog, I haven't updated until I could get all 450 recent photos off the camera...The hard drive was full and the external hard drive was taking too long to sync all the old pictures for my short attention span.  Finally, the long wait is over and you can stop crying yourself to sleep at night waiting for the Hunting family blog update.

Chicago

During this year's April vacation we decided to take a short [17 hour drive] road trip to Chicago to visit my parents' new home.  A home is still new if they have been there a year, right?  Chicago is great!  I must say that I envy the parks near their home--we visited 3 playgrounds/parks within 2 minutes of their house!  The kids had a blast!  What was even more exciting is that my sister Liz and her family drove up from Dallas, TX for the week as well.  Jessica couldn't be there because she was nearly 9 months pregnant and Michael had to work, otherwise it would have been just perfect!  They were greatly missed!

Our time together was so much fun, though, and we enjoyed touring The Windy City.  Some of our favorite highlights:

This is my favorite picture.  Dallin looked so adorable that I had to snap this shot before this one started to happen: 

"Don't take my picture, mom!" Of course, I snapped up 4 more of these precious cranky shots before he ran off bitterly.

EAT AT ED'S

Eating at Ed Debevics is quite the experience.  Their job is to insult you.  Of course, my parents didn't tell us this until after we walked in and they said, "Toddlers?  Gross."  and  "Is that old guy with you?" (referring to my father).  My sister and I dropped our jaws and soon after realized that this was part of the "experience."  We then had a hayday with our most entertaining waiter.

Happy Birthday, Steve!

Befor Steve headed home, we celebrated his birthday!  Nothing says happy birthday more than a carry-on bag.  Love you, Steve!  The rest of the party had to wait until we got home so Steve could get his real birthday presents (a new bike and an MP3 player that also holds movies, plus some tools that were mostly a gag gift, since I knew he didn't want those!).  I'll blog about that later...

On the way to the airport, Steve and I had a chance to stop at the Chicago, IL Temple for our church.  This is a very unique temple and looked more like a church or stake center than a temple.  It was cool to visit the grounds for a few minutes.

After Steve left, we mourned his absence for a few minutes before enjoying ourselves some more.  The kids loved riding the train into Chicago to visit Grandpa.

We were relieved to learn that we would all clear security.

By the way, I love Chicago Pizza.

The rest of the trip, we just enjoyed playing and spending time together.

Transformations

Call it spring fever if you will, but we are changing! You may be shocked at these amazing Huntings after these recent transformations:

You may not recognize this superman: Steve competed in the "Fat Boy" competition at work and lost over 35 pounds to win! Wow, we are amazed by his strong will power and Iron Man workouts, since he lost around 25 of those pounds during the months of January and February alone! Here he is looking super-sveldt:

 

The season is changing and strange now, too.  Just the other day the weather was in the 80s!  Keep in mind that New  England can often have big snowstorms in April so this is unseasonably warm weather.  The kids even broke out their swimming suits to run through the sprinker!

Dallin is looking good, too, with his short haircut (though I really like his hair longer, too!)  He still has those baby-fine blonde locks that are just so adorable!

Next up: Emma chopped off her hair for charity...FINALLY! This hair was almost unmanageable but now it is adorable. In the words of her teacher at school, "Emma looks like a little college student!" What a cute A-line cut!

Not to be outdone: Lauren had her hair cut to a cute bob

Finally, Mary has been going to Planet Fitness 4 days a week and you will not believe the transformation after only 2 weeks of intense work! Check it out!!!

Alright, maybe this isn't really Mary but someday she may have those long lean legs and gorgeous bod.

Visit with the Dallin Gang in February

When Steve and I went to Punta Cana, we needed someone to watch our kids...and what better chance to have visitors!!  Jessi, Matthew, Katelyn, Liz, Selina, Chloe, and Granny Shanny came to hang out and supervise the chaos in this home while we were soaking up the Caribbean sun.  And believe me, it was chaos!!  Apparently just moments after takeoff (okay, that is a slight exageration) Lauren began vomitting followed shortly thereafter by Dallin, the headlight went out on the Civic and prompted a traffic stop, water spewed forth from the sink, the refrigerator door was bent by wrestling 2-year-olds, and fevers spread from child to child to adult!  Believe me, I am quite confident that the time at our house was nearly as relaxing as the time Steve and I spent in Punta Cana!  Here are just a few pics of the fun times and mishaps of the trip:

Fixing the leaking faucet

Fixing the fridge

Replacing the headlamp

We had so much fun with everyone and wish you were here always!!

Paradise

Steve and I had an amazing opportunity last month to go to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic with my work to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the practice. It was amazing!! We were able to have my sisters and mom come to watch the kids so we went sans kids for the first time in almost a decade! Unreal! The experience was just amazing and we packed our days with plenty of recreation and relaxation. We had never been to an all-inclusive resort before and would highly recommend it for couples or families! We often wished that our kids could enjoy the awesome activities as well, but here is a run-down of some of our highlights: Swimming in the ocean, snorkeling, scuba lesson, rock climbing, sailing, kayaking, eating yummy food, working out everyday (twice!), biking tour of the city, reading on the beach, ping pong, shopping at the vendors, swimming at the point where the Atlantic ocean meets the Caribbean, chartering a catamaran, and relaxing on the beach. Whew! We had a total BLAST!

Sledding in New England

This past Saturday we went sledding at Emma's school for the first time.  Some of our friends ended up going that day too and , thankfully, they brought their camera with them so I have stolen some of their fun shots of the kids sledding!