Favorite Photo Friday

With summer winding down, the cooler weather moving in and the first few leaves that have been falling - I can't help but go back and look at some of the pictures from this summer.  I know I drive my friends and family crazy with snapping photos but I love pictures.  So many feelings and emotions are brought back from some of  these.

With that said, this picture tickles me to the core of my soul in so many ways.  First, Ryan & Emma have such a unique relationship and they are alike in several ways.  He loves the rough and tumble play and she enjoys receiving it as much as he loves dishing it out.  Secondly, Ryan has finally discovered that having an adorable spunky little sister can work to his advantage in, umm ... how do I say this, in certain "situations".  Which typically means if there are cute little teen chickas around then Emma is going to somehow be involved in something!  Thirdly, Emma has the ability to even look graceful being tossed in the pool.  Please tell me all these gymnastics lessons are going to bring more value to her life than making her look cute flying toward the water!

Back To School

Like a month late ... again, I'm behind on this blessed blog o' mine.


Life just gets in the way of blogging sometimes.

So, school started - almost a month ago.  This year sees my baby girl Rebecca off to Kindergarten, Emma to 2nd grade and Ryan into 8th.  I still can't believe my last has started school and yes, it's been a bittersweet time for me.  She's outgrowing some of her little girl things but thankfully she was ready & happy for school to start.  Getting to ride the bus with Emma was a HUGE thing for her and each day since has been a happy day for her & she is enjoying learning all the new songs and words. 

Oh, and Rebecca's buddy "Flat Norah" saw her off to school too.  "Flat Norah" came to visit from The Netherlands earlier this year & my intention was to take her to visit a lot of sites - but a broken wrist put a slight damper on that.  Norah is one of the little girls that lived at the Starfish Home with Rebecca & her mom sent me several pictures of Rebecca when they were there adopting their daughter.

Speaking of the Starfish Home, I bought Rebecca's shirt back earlier in the year as a reminder of her time at the Starfish Home.  In retrospect, I wish I had bought several for all of her little Starfish buddies.  By the time I thought of it though the line had already sold out.  :-(

Sweet sisters!

And then there's Ryan who thinks he is too big for me to take his picture getting on the bus.  This was as close as I could get to getting a 'back to school' shot of him.  What's with these teenagers and getting their pictures made?  One day they're saying "LOOK MOM - TAKE MY PICTURE!" then before you know it they see the camera come out and they duck and hide.  I don't get it.

Happy back to school!

Sweet Sweet Summertime

Well, it looks like summer is coming to a close for us.  School starts back next week and with that there will be a few new additions to our already busy schedule.  Ryan is running cross country this year and has already been in training the past month or so.  Emma is moving up to level 3 in gymnastics which means an additional 3 hour practice each week and that she will be participating in meets.  Of course as luck would have it, Ryan's meets are on Saturdays which is the same day as Emma's second practice.  I joked on facebook the other night that we will be "meeting" ourselves coming and going. haha!

So, we'll be busy these next few days trying to get in as many of the 'sweet sweet summertime' fun things that we enjoy so. 

For the girls, that just so happens to be watermelon.

Happy Thursday!

My Sweet Family

Banana Boat Time

This so far has been Emma & Ryan's favorite beach activity!

Greetings From Gulf Shores Alabama!

They may not always go along with my plan ... but I sho' love my kiddos!

A Helping Hand's Annual Family Picnic

Our adoption agency hosts an annual family picnic which we've unfortunately missed the past year or so.  Thankfully though, we were able to go this year and had the best time!  There were only a few families from our first travel group but since then we have made friends with some other families - so in a way it was almost like a family reunion.  The girls had a blast playing with their friends from China ... and me, well - I got a little misty eyed thinking of the girls from our first travel group and how Emma has "known" them even before she became our daughter.  It just further instilled in me how important it is that or Lianjiang daughters have a life long bond.

Susan was our travel guide with Rebecca's adoption.  In fact, the area we traveled to was her hometown!  While we were there we were blessed to enjoy some homemade dumplings that her mom sent to us at the hotel.  Best I've ever had!

Emma and Kate - We sat close to her parents on the trip to China and then became good friends too.

Emma, Sheridan & Mattie Grace - our little "Lianjiang Sisters"



Emma & Rebecca with Jenna - the daughter of a local family we met while waiting on Rebecca's adoption.  Neat thing with this friendship is that they are in the process of adopting again and their new daughter is from the same orphanage Emma was in. How cool is that?!!!

And just for fun - this picture was taken at the very first AHH Family Picnic we attended which was just about a month  after we had gotten home with Emma.  She was blowing kisses already!

Red Orchard Park

A photog friend of mine recently purchased a new macro lens and brought it in for me to try out ... I'm always on the ready to take pictures so we headed off to Red Orchard Park for some photo fun!

Girlfriends like to practice their "cheers"

And cheer formation - if that's what you call it :-)

And pose for ol' Mom

 



And Play In Old Barns










And play with various things from the trees 



Then roll various things down the slide - WHEEE!

Then before you know it, it's time for that last slide down the slide ....

Have I ever mentioned how pretty Kentucky is?

Hanging Out

Emma is such a little monkey ... It seems as though she can climb just about anything and does it with the utmost of ease. It's really amazing to watch her because there looks to be very little effort on her part.

Case in point. Brian was busy helping Rebecca with the slider thing at the park while Emma just shimmies up the pole - a regular metal kind of pole. No foot holds. No indentations. No nothing other than a straight up pole.

Check out how she's just hanging on as though it's normal for people to hang on to the side of a pole any ol' day.

This just cracks me up on soooo many levels ...

Family Traditions

Somehow attending the Shelby County Fair has become a Hunter family tradition.  This year was no exception - not sure what the kids would do if we ever told them we were skipping a year.  I think we'd have a mutiny on our hands!

There was a slight change this year though, there was a rodeo going on the night we were there.  Not sure how much of this I've shared but I grew up with horses and either attended or participated in more rodeos than I could ever say grace over.  My kiddos though ... well, they don't know much about horses.  Or rodeos.  Or cowboys.  Or rodeo clowns.  Or livestock.  If only I could have had a recorder or a notepad with me that night.  Girlfriends asked a LOT of questions.  And funny questions too.

We had walked down and were looking at the various cattle - there were calves which I explained were for calf roping.  Steers for steer wrestling and team roping.  The girls were asking questions faster than I could explain anything and while there was a short pause - I looked at Rebecca as she was studying a steer with a questioning look on her face and she asked "are those ears real?"  The funny thing is, she was asking about his horns!  Just wish  I could remember the rest of their questions, I just remember being in stitches pretty much the whole evening.

They were in awe of ol' mom though when I told them I used to do some of those events and of course they had to tell people the rest of the night that their momma used to be in the rodeo! 

Fun times!

Does the "Tea Party" have a new logo?  :-)

Does this make then 'Tea Party' members?

Sun Kissed

Sun Kissed - Yes Indeed!

Fun Fourth

Our 4th of July was a little more low key this year than in previous years but we still had a great weekend. The kids all enjoyed their fireworks with Brian & Ryan really being the biggest kids of all!  Some of the fireworks are still a little loud for the girls - and me. 

Wouldn't you know it though, the most fun thing we did over the long weekend & I didn't have my camera!  What is wrong with me!!!!  Friends invited us to a swim party and at one point all the daddies were going off the diving board - what a hoot!  One dad in particular had quite the moves - soooo wish I could have caught that on film.


 

New Do

Emma is sporting a new "do" ... I think it looks adorable on her.  But then again, I can be just a tad bit biased1

Derby Fun

One thing we've learned about living in Louisville is that the two weeks leading up to Derby and then the Derby itself is a big deal. There are things going on all around town and generally speaking - just excitement in the air. We usually try to make it to a few of the events but this year the weather didn't cooperate too well - but thankfully we were able to get together with some friends to watch the race. I always enjoy time with our friends!!!

Just as a last minute thing I threw together some fondue things for the girls - and my oh my - it was quite a hit!