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.

Brian & His Fishing Buddy

We've recently discovered that Emma loves fishing with her papa & let me tell you, that's made one papa a very happy papa! She now has her own pole & will be getting some new fishing things from jolly ol' st nick. She is a daddy's girl through and through!

Tutu's & Boots

Really no need to add any commentary to these ...

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!

Bex and her Boots

A few years ago my sister mailed some clothes out to Emma and in the box was an adorable pair of little Justin Roper boots. She said they had been passed down through several families but as a typical pair of Justins, they were still in good shape. Since I've been away from the whole horse scene thing for a long time I really didn't have any idea if those kinds of boots were still in style or not but I still had very fond memories of my boot wearing days and was very, very happy to have them.

Little Emma though wasn't nearly as impressed with them as I was so they basically just sat in her closet. That is until little Rebecca came into our life. It didn't take us long at all to realize that Rebecca loves all things cowgirl related - boots, horses, "fahms" (farms) and really any kind of animal. Deep down in her little soul is a cowgirl! She noticed the boots right away and loved wearing them and while she seems to have a knack for being very rough on shoes, those little boots held up for her for a very long time. When it came time to replace them we looked in several places and could not find any child size boots other than a pair at Target. Needless to say, those didn't hold up under her wear very long at all!

My brother knew about Rebecca's love for boots and when we went to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving he took both of his little niece's to the local feed store and bought them both a brand new pair. I think the only time she's had them off since we've been home is on Sundays when I make her wear her pretty dress shoes. Who would have ever guessed that a pair of boots would make one little girl so very happy!

'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!