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.


 

Happy Easter

From our home to yours, Happy Easter!

Way back in 2001 we moved to Kentucky and hadn't really been here that long when we received a call from a family inviting us to church. Long story, but an older couple we were really close to from our church in Texas had a daughter who was married to a pastor & they had lived out in the same county that we live in. By the time we moved here they had already moved to a different city, but our friend Naomi in Texas contacted her daughter and asked if their friends here would give us a call to help us feel welcomed and to invite us to church - this friend is who called us.

When she called, I hemmed and hawed and really wasn't sure that I wanted to go to church w/ someone who just called us out of the blue - but she went on to say they would meet us in the parking lot so we wouldn't have to go in alone. Not that going in alone bothered us one bit, but that struck me as a really nice gesture. Then she said they would take us to lunch. By the time we got to this part of the conversation I was really getting homesick, missing my family, missing our friends in Texas and really wondering if we'd made the right decision to move here and so I told her yes. We would come to church w/ them.

Needless to say, we have become best of friends with them and have somehow been adopted by their whole family. Wonderfully nice people, lots of fun, a little on the ornery(fun kind of ornery) side and very easy people to be with and enjoy. Our first meeting was probably in August or September and the following spring they invited us to their home for Easter. Now here we are 10 years later and have spent every Easter since with them!

Just goes to show, you just never know the fruit that can come forth by just one little act of kindness. Amazing if you ask me!

Halloween - Like 4 1/2 Months Late

As I mentioned the other day, I somehow missed posting halloween pictures. Here's one ... cutest little genies in the neighborhood. Not that I'm biased or anything :-)

Chinese New Year

Since Chinese New Year ended, I suppose it's time I posted our pictures. I'm doing a terrible, terrible, no good, very bad job with my blog.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from our family to yours!

We started our day as normal with a little Valentine surprise at each person's place at the table. What a fun way to start the day.

Then tonight we had this from Emma ... and it made my day. My sweet, sweet baby girl

Dear Family -

Happy valentine's Day!! I love you all. Thank you for getting me candy. Thank you for letting me be a car rider even though you needed to go to work. I thank you for picking me as your baby in China. I thank you to be my mom and dad. I thank you to bring my chips and masmellow (marshmellows) and all of the candy.

Happy New Year!

A Very Merry Christmas

We truly had a very Merry Christmas! Even though this was Rebecca's second Christmas with us, she knew the drill - and knew it very well indeed! All the kids were really, really sweet about wanting us to open gifts from them as well as wanting their siblings to open the presents they had bought for one another. It was so nice watching them being so kind and caring! Not that they aren't that way, it's just that they seemed to really be in the spirit of giving instead of just getting - if that makes sense.

Emma's favorite item in her stocking was meat sticks, which really tickled her papa. One of the first English words she learned was "meat" and she's pretty much been a carnivore ever since! She'll still pretty much take a piece of meat over any other food offered.
Rebecca's favorite present was a doll house and some barbie things. Emma never really has been a barbie kind of girl, although she does have one she plays with in the bathtub. So needless to say, there's not any barbie things laying around for Rebecca so she truly relished the ones she received.
I picked this out for her as well as a little coin purse in the same colors. The funny thing is, my sweet sister sent her a matching monogrammed hat - and she didn't even know I had picked out the same color scheme for some of the things I had bought! Now how fun is that?! Rebecca was wearing it around and saying she was a baseball player. Well, not sure about playing ball in a cute monogrammed/polka dotted cap - but that works for me!

Ryan's favorite gift and the thing he has been bugging me to get for months and months and months (or so it seemed) was an airsoft gun. He and his buddies have been having airsoft wars and he is totally into it. While not exactly what I prefer for him to be 'into', I guess it's better than a lot of other things :-)

For some reason this really cracked us up. We saw this view several times throughout the morning!

The messy aftermath.

Horse Time

My brother was so sweet to saddle up a horse for the girls and let them ride while we were in Oklahoma. Little Rebecca, I think that baby girl could ride all day! She kept going out to the fence and talking to the horses and then would really crack up when I would play with their mouth and make their lips move and I would talk like it was the horse talking. She would SO be at home living in the country!

'Tis the Season

Lots going on around the Hunter household. I'll spare you all the details, but goodness it seems like we're never home anymore. My plan was to have our Christmas trees up before we left to go to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving, would be able to do my shopping and get cards done as soon as we got home ... but you know the saying about the best laid plans ...

We had a wonderful trip to Oklahoma, the girls are ready to pack up and move but while we were there my computer went completely down. It's taken until just this week to get a new drive in, get everything re-installed and all my data retrieved. Whew. That on top of basketball starting, dance, gymnastics, church, shopping to do, a never ending pile of laundry and a messy house - you know the drill. Then the washing machine went kaput too, not fun. Not fun at all.

This past weekend it snowed and in my mind it was going to be the PERFECT opportunity to take pictures for our cards. I had bought the cutest red dresses for the girls and a new sweater for Ryan and I had this image in my mind of their little faces flushed from cold air and pictures of them frolicking in the snow. What I didn't factor into the equation is them being so cold from 'frolicking' without coats on, nor a grumpy son from not getting enough sleep over the weekend and therefore not in the mood to 'frolick'. Needless to say, good pictures of smiling happy children were not to be had that day. Well, Emma was happy - but she's always happy.

At this point Christmas cards are still not done and I'm not holding my breath that it's actually going to happen this year.

With that said, this is the best I got ... and from our home to yours - MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sparklers for Rebecca

My last note on fireworks, I promise :-)

Fireworks

We really splurged this year, we went across the river and bought fireworks. Now I'm not so sure I completely understand why we had to drive across the riva' but apparently IN fireworks are better than KY ones??? Someone please 'splain that to me.

The kids had a blast, this was Ryan's first year to do some of the bigger kid things like bottle rockets and he's hooked! The girls were content with their sparlers and watching some other things that Ryan had picked out for them.

We enjoyed some at home and then on then also had a get together with some friends on Sunday. Lots and lots o' fun. Pictures from there coming soon, maybe! After downloading to my pc, it would appear I did more visiting than picture taking!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day ... full of fun, food, friendship and lots of swimming. So blessed to have friends who include us in their family holidays! Here's a few shots from the day -
all three of our kiddos LOVE the water!

Happy Easter from Our Happy Home to Yours!

Our day started with a visit from the mama-easter bunny who had left baskets for the kids. Imagine my surprise when I found out that papa-easter-bunny & ryan-easter-bunny had joined in the fun and had left something for me too. It made my day, it did!

Then off to church as normal. Thankfully I was able to catch a few pictures before church w/ them all dressed up and in brand new shoes, well - for the girls. I bought them several months ago & Emma has been sneaking hers out and wearing them. I even caught her outside the other day riding her bike in them! She loves having "heels" on!

After church we headed out to our friends house, this was our 8th year to celebrate Easter with them. Precious, precious friends who love us despite our faults and ornery kids.

Their favorite things from their Easter baskets, no - not the chocolate - FLIP FLOPS! Little Emma, bless her heart - sometimes I think she loves flip flops more than life itself. Actually she loves shoes of any type and has since the day we got home with her.

Kindness and love runs in our friend's family, Brent's mom has a yearly tradition of buying kites for all of the kids. They all enjoyed them, but Rebecca seemed to especially enjoy it.

Then the egg hunt, all I have to say about this is ... Emma is LOT like my sister Charlotte. I'll leave it at that.

What a way to end the day, enjoying a cupcake on the porch swing. Life just doesn't get any better than that!

Happy Easter my friends, hope you had a wonderful day!