The Hunter Fam

So now I remember why I quit blogging ... something happened with the picture upload process such that portrait pictures upload in landscape & you can not rotate them.  Sigh.  Portrait seems to be my favorite way to shoot & so it was just confounded aggravating to me.  Apparently you can upload to picasa web albums and then port over & it's fine ... but that's several steps.

Okay, so now that I've complained - here's a family picture.  Hard to believe we have been home with Rebecca since January 2009 & this is our first family picture with her.  Okay, I'll admit it - I have issues being on the other side of that lense - but still, that's kinda sad!

Family Visit

This month marks nine years of us living in Louisville. We've had several family members come out to visit, namely my mom and her husband. My aunt and uncle have been out several times and another aunt and uncle have been out too. But my siblings have not, that is until this past weekend when my brother and sister-in-law came out. We had the best time showing them around to our favorite places in the area and then even to a place we'd only been to once before. More than just showing them around though, we had the best time just catching up and laughing - a lot! The girls really enjoyed all the special attention they received and poor little Emma just cried and cried when the left. Sure glad they were able to come out to see us!



A brother that will step in and finish up the toenail painting job is obviously one good brother!

Celebrating Chinese New Year

Our modified 'red sofa' photo op! I need to go dig out their original red sofa picture from 2005!

We celebrated Chinese New Year a little differently this year. Typically we attend an event that is put on by our local FCC (Families with Children from China) group but this year we were looking for something a little different and we ended up going to Lexington to an event that was held at the Lexington Opera House. This one was hosted/presented by the Kentucky Chinese American Association and had singing, dancing and even one number that was a combination of Bluegrass singing along with a Chinese instrument. Weird you might say, but VERY enjoyable! It was fun too in that the audience was mostly Chinese people instead of being mainly caucasian parents with children from China.

Earlier in the day a family from our first travel group hosted a pre-party for the girls in their hotel room and so we had an opportunity to visit and let the girls play. They had so much fun playing together and enjoying all the crafts, games and snacks that had been so well organized for them. It was just a great weekend all in all!

We hadn't originally planned on spending the night but we woke up Saturday to some yucky weather and the forecast for that night sounded like the roads could be a mess so we decided to spend the night ... which the kiddos just loved. Any night out is considered a vacation to Emma! Which meant on Sunday we got to sleep in, well - as much as 3 kids will let you sleep in. One of the traditions of Chinese New Year is to buy new clothes so before we headed home we went and bought some spring/summer things for the kiddos. Not that we did it for CNY, but that was a good enough excuse for me. Really I'm just ready for summer to be here and it made me smile to buy some cute little sundresses and some even cuter swimsuits. Not that either child needs yet another swimsuit - but I love buying them for the girls because they look so stinkin' cute in them! And of course if you wait until summer to buy a swimsuit you're basically outta' luck!

Labor

On this day 12 years ago, sitting in the lunch room eating my lunch in Ft Worth, TX and visiting with a coworker about labor and listening to her tell of her water breaking in the middle of the night and guess what happened. Yep. I'd read way too many books and relied on way too many statistics and for some reason had in my head that I would have to have my water broken. Nope. Ever try to discreetly leave a building when everyone is making a fuss? It doesn't work well. I was going to drive myself to the doctor's office becaue I had an appointment anyway but someone had called Brian and he had given strict orders for me not to drive anywhere! He had the audacity to want to take me straight to the hospital but the problem was that first of all, I had an appointment anyway. Second of all, I needed to change clothes and for some reason nothing matched and I wasn't going to the hospital with an outfit that didn't match. Thirdly, I hadn't packed a bag. Statistically speaking I still had plent of time anyway.

I did make it to the appointment, the same coworker mentioned above drove me and Brian met us there. He was in such a hurry to get to the hospital and I, well - I was not. Somehow he won that battle and after finally packing a bag we headed out the door.

Little Ryan was born shortly after midnight. Like I said, I had plent of time!

This picture was taken sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas of '97. My grandfather had passed away and my siblings and my cousins were together that evening.


Left to right: My cousin Kelly, the skinny chic with her hand on my belly is my sister. She was making fun of my huge belly, but the joke was on her - she was pregnant too but didn't know it! The tall guy behind and to my right is my brother. The last two on the right are my cousins Donna and Tim.