First Day of Kindergarten

Chase started Kindergarten on Monday and he is having so much fun!  He was talking about going all summer long and he was so bummed out when he found out that he didn't get to go on the first day that Michela and Hunter did.  Kindergarten started a week later so the teacher could have one on one evaluations with all her students to see what they know.  Chase aced all the questions in his evaluation.  He was so proud of himself.  He is such a smart little guy and is getting to be such an awesome reader.  I personally think the school should have let the Kindergarten kids go early since they were the ones who really wanted to go to school!

When I picked Chase up after his first day he told me that he had made a new friend.  He told me that his new friend was a boy that had been crying because he was worried about his Mom leaving him at school.  Chase helped him by making friends with him and making Kevin's first day more fun.  Chase can be such a sweet kid sometimes.

Of course the battery in my camera was dead when I dropped him off on the first day, but I got some cute pictures of him before he left for school this morning.  Here he is with his cool new Transformers backpack.  

Digital Scrapbooking

I have found a new love. Digital Scrapbooking is so much fun! No more cutting, gluing, getting finger prints all over my pictures and no more mess all over the room! Don't get me wrong, I do still like to scrapbook the old fashioned way, but I am starting to see all the advantages to digital scrapping. I did my first whole album all done on my computer in Photoshop. I found a lot of great websites that offer tons of free products and I bought a few too. The great thing about buying digital supplies is that you can use them over and over and you can alter them however you want to in Photoshop. Now that's getting your money's worth! Plus I love that I can crop, shrink or blow up any picture I want without cutting into it or paying to have it reprinted. I made a family album for 2007 and I think the pages turned out pretty darn cute. I uploaded all of my pages to shutterfly and put them into a book. I just finally ordered it today and I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'll let you know when I get it. I thought I would share a few of my pages with you because I am so proud of them!

13 Years of Happiness

I can't believe it has been 13 years since the day I married Mike.  Who knew that when that shy carpet salesman, who didn't like to dance, asked me to dance with him that we would end up falling in love, getting married and having four beautiful children.  We've had a wonderful life together.  Sure it hasn't been the best of times all of the time, we do tend to disagree now and again, but I wouldn't trade any of it.  

Mike is such a generous man and so willing to help anyone at the drop of a hat.  He is such a great friend and my biggest support.  He is a wonderful father and I don't think there is anything more beautiful than watching him as he has held our babies for the first time or rocked them to sleep.  

He is a sensitive soul and is so easily touched by the Spirit.  I remember him crying and crying as we knelt across the altar from each other.  I just couldn't stop smiling, but he was in tears.  

He has a beautiful smile and gorgeous blue eyes.  I remember one of my friends from back home said to me at our wedding reception, "I don't know where you found him, but he sure is cute!"  I love his hands that are so strong and capable.  I love the feel of his arms around me.  And I love the little smile lines that crinkle up around his twinkling eyes when he is teasing me.

Thank you Mike for all you do for me and our family.  I love you more than words can say!   

Hunt Family Reunion 2008

I love my family and I hate that I don't get to see them very often. Half of us live in Utah and the other half live in California. We are lucky if we see each other twice a year and then it's usually not all of us. In 2000 we had out first biannual family reunion with just our parents, siblings, spouses and children. Our first was in Bear Lake where we rode in the boat and got thrown around on the banana on the lake everyday and at night we would hang out eating dinner and playing games together. In 2002 we went to California and stayed at our parents' house where we took day trips to an amusement park, the lake and a bike ride through Berkeley.

In 2004 we were back in Utah in Park City where we rented a fabulous house and had fun at Jordanelle, the Alpine Slides and just enjoyed hanging out together and relaxing.

In 2006 we stayed in Tahoe and enjoyed the lake, the pool and played lots of badminton and croquet in the backyard.

This year we went up to Ogden and rented a house at Wolf Creek Resort which is up above Pineview Reservoir. The house was perched up on a hill and it had the most gorgeous views of the lake and valley. On our first day we went on a Pirate themed scavenger hunt with GPS devices. The ladies who were our guides were so much fun and the kids as well as the adults had a blast.

The hunt ended at a little man made lake where we had to "walk the plank" before we could go kayaking on the lake to find the treasure map. Michela did great out there all by herself and it was so much fun having the lake all to ourselves.

Hunter and Craig found the map and then the kids dug up the treasure box full of necklaces, hats, and all kinds of other "booty". Here's Aria showing off her muscles and hanging skills. I think she had been watching too much of the gymnastics in the Olympics.

The next day we split up and the guys went golfing at a beautiful golf course in Layton while some of the girls went horseback riding up in the hills. My horse was a ornery cuss named Elmer, Michela rode on hungry Cody, Tiff plodded along on ol' Macy, Hailey had young Snickers and Shelley rode on feisty Midnight. The ride was wonderful. It was so peaceful and relaxing as we made our way up a little canyon and back out again. The horses were so funny. Every time we would come close to a bush or stop for a minute they would immediately start munching. I must admit I was kind of sore for the next day or so, but it was worth it.

After lunch we loaded up the kayaks and went down to the reservoir. We had a fun time playing on the beach, swimming and cruising around in the kayaks. Mike also took the kids out for a little ride in the zodiac raft. The water was surprisingly warm but a bit murky.

Our last day we relaxed and people went biking, walking, golfing and swimming at the pool. Michela, Hunter and Hailey had a fun time playing catch with Uncle Brian.

We had contests to see who could swim across the whole pool under water, Brian made it up and back, and who could hold their breath the longest. I was surprised that I could still swim under water for so long!

Every night we had wonderful dinners, enjoyed talking to each other and watching some of the Olympics. One night we played a memory board game that Tiff and I made with trivia questions about the family and spaces where you had to share memories about certain places where we grew up. We were laughing at all of the stories and the kids learned a lot about their parents, grandma, aunt and uncles.

The cousins had a lot of fun playing downstairs in the game room, watching movies and staying up late being silly and driving their parents crazy. :)

The guys, and me, had a ping pong tournament that brought out the competitive spirit in our family.

I don't know who ended up winning it all, I actually don't know if the championship match was ever played between Craig and Mike, but we did have fun doing it.

Aria was in love with all of her uncles and grown up cousins Kyle and Marcus. She loved being passed off from one man to the next. She would often reach for one of them while I was holding her! One day she saw Uncle Kurt laying down on the floor and she went over, climbed on top of him and laid down for a nap. Kurt loved tickling her to sleep and didn't even mind the big puddle of drool on his shirt.

I've loved all the reunions, but I think this might have been one of my favorites. We did miss Dad, especially when we were all laughing and joking around, but we shared plenty of funny stories about him that kept him in our thoughts and hearts. There is just nothing better than spending time with the ones you love the most.

First Day of School!

Today was Michela and Hunter's first day of school at their new elementary school.  They both said they didn't want to go back to school but when Michela had already picked out her outfit for today before church yesterday I knew she was bluffing.  It was so fun back to school shopping with them this year, they were really getting into the whole clothes thing, especially Michela.  Maybe there is hope for her fashion sense after all.  I remember how excited I used to get when school started again and how important that first day outfit was.  It was so much fun walking them to their classes and I couldn't believe how big they looked standing next to each other in the hallway.  

Hunter is in a Spanish Immersion class this year.  He has two of his best buddies from our neighborhood in his class with him (that's them making goofball faces for the camera).  His teacher was at Challenger last year, where they used to go, so I was really excited that she was going to be Hunter's teacher this year.  I'm probably more excited about the whole spanish thing than he is because it will give me a chance to brush up on my espanol as well.

Michela was a little shy about going to her new class.  Her best friend Ethan is in a different class so she didn't have him to draw strength from.  Luckily two of the girls from our neighborhood are in her class so at least there were some friendly faces.  I can't believe they are growing up so fast, where has the time gone!?  I am so proud of both of them, they are such hard workers and fast learners.  Michela was a little put off by the review test they took today.  I asked her what the problem was and she said it was stuff she had learned in 2nd grade!  Hopefully they will be challenged and keep their love for learning, I know they both have bright futures ahead of them.  

Organization

When Mike was in Pebble Beach I decided to tackle a couple of organization projects.  I can't do these when he is around because he can not stand all of the stuff laying around.  Doesn't he understand that you have to pull it all out before you can put it all back in?  My major concerns were the pantry and the toys in the garage.  The pantry has been getting completely disorganized, things have just been tossed on the shelves and I can't ever find what I am looking for.  I like my pantry shelves to look like grocery store shelves, organized by food type and in neat rows and stacks.

         

In the garage when we built the house we had one set of shelves built so we could put the kids outside toys in them so they wouldn't be left all over the place.  Over a year later it was still a complete mess and I couldn't handle it anymore.  There was all kinds of stuff shoved into these shelves, stuff that had no business being there.  I remember reading somewhere about how the key to staying organized is having a home for everything.  I did this with the toy room downstairs, where I have bins with labels on them so the kids know exactly where to put their toys.  So I applied this to the garage as well.  I had the kids put the toys and sports equipment into categories and then I made labels for each shelf so they wouldn't have an excuse anymore about knowing where things belonged.

       

I must admit I love being organized.  In fact I crave organization in all parts of the house.  In my closet my clothes are arranged by type and color, as well as my shoes.  This must be why I can't stand shopping in discount stores where everything is all jumbled together.  Michela is starting to follow my lead with her clothes as well, or maybe she's just sick of me coming in and reorganizing her stuff when she isn't home.  I even have my sewing thread and buttons organized by color.  

      

And don't get me going on my movies.  Those are all organized by type and are then alphabetically ordered.  Sometimes I think I might go a little overboard, but it makes my life easier.  The label maker is one of my favorite tools, even though technically I did give it to Mike for Christmas a couple of years ago.  :)  Mike is not too happy with me right now because I am going through all of the kids' clothes and have piles and boxes of clothes all over the place upstairs.  Oh well, at least he should be happy that he didn't marry a disorganized slob!

Breaking Dawn

I have been so excited for the new book in the Twilight series to come out.  This last week I re-read the first three books.  Mike thought I was a little insane, but I wanted everything to be fresh in my mind.  Breaking Dawn came out on Saturday, but Mike had been out of town and didn't get home until about 8:30pm.  As soon as he walked in the door I grabbed my keys and drove down to my beloved Border's bookstore and got my copy of Breaking Dawn.  I finished the book in two days, it would have been faster, but I do have a family to take care of. :)

It was so AWESOME!  It wasn't at all what I was expecting which made it even BETTER!  I love to be surprised and this book had a lot of surprises in it.  I was totally bawling through the entire book.  It had me on edge from the very beginning and I didn't want to put it down because I was so anxious to see what would happen next.  I don't want to give anything away, I hate when other people do that to me, so I will just say that it was an INCREDIBLE read and you won't be disappointed.  Through the ages we have had Romeo and Juliet, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, Tony and Maria, Rhett and Scarlet and now we have Edward and Bella.  Thank you Stephenie Meyer for creating such a wonderful story.  Happy reading everyone!