Hunter Family Christmas Party

It is officially the Christmas Season! We celebrate Christmas with Kyle's family the Sunday before Christmas as a new tradition because Christmas Eve and Day are so busy, that it is just easier to celebrate before hand. It has really worked out well so far because then we can have Christmas Eve dinner at home and invite Grandma over and the kids can go to bed at a decent hour. We are also going to reinstate a tradition that the Hunter family used to do and go kazooing. They couldn't always remember the words to songs, so they would kazoo the songs at people's houses, so we are going to try it this year. (Those pictures will come later!)

We are fortunate that Aunt Erin is married to someone who has a father who LOVES to play Santa. This is the second year Santa has come to our family party. At first Gordon wouldn't go to Santa, but then when he heard that he could have a candy cane, he was all for it. Unfortunately, my camera wouldn't turn on in time, so I'll post the picture when my sister-in-law has a chance to email it.

We were just in the middle of getting ready to open gifts from Grandma when Santa showed up, so the kids didn't know what to do. They wanted to see Santa, but they didn't want to leave their gifts. We had to tell them they could put their gifts down to go see Santa!

This is the gift that I got from Marla for Christmas. I have the BEST mother-in-law. She has known for a while that I would love to have a fainting couch and she found one at an estate sale. Apparently it was pretty yucky, but after cleaning and painting, it is beautiful and I can't wait to put it in my house!!!

Eddie's Birthday

Honestly, I still can't believe my little boy is 4. He's getting so big. He can't go to kindergarten for two more years, but he is going to be able to go to preschool next year and he's really excited about the thought of being able to go to school like Celeste.

Eddie wanted a Lightening cake again like every year, so once again, I made him Lightening.

What are Eddie's likes this year?

Toy Story is a new like, but he loves it. He also loves Cars, cars, and anything boy!

Kyle and I decided to buy him a Leapster 2 for his birthday because he is constantly taking his sisters without asking, so we remedied it! He is in love with it and we are love with it because it often keeps him occupied while other things are happening!

Aunt Erin and Uncle Spencer got Eddie a Cars tent for his bed. This is Celeste and Eddie on Eddie's bed playing their Leapsters together. It was too cute not to take a picture!

Happy Birthday my Eddie Boy, I love you!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

So, I'm catching up slowly, but surely! After Thanksgiving we took out or Christmas decorations and our Christmas tree to decorate for Family Home Evening. We talked about Baby Jesus and we put the ornaments on the tree. I decided to not worry about what the finished tree looked like and let the kids completely decorate the bottom of it, so if you come to my house, don't look too closely at the tree!

Gordon LOVED decorating the tree. Often the ornaments would fall off after he put them on, but he never got frustrated and just tried again until the ornament would stay on!

Eddie got to put the star on the tree this year. Next year is Gordon's turn and Celeste is so upset that she has to wait for two years to have a turn again, but she'll get over it!

Our finished tree. It doesn't have the tree skirt on in this picture, and the ornaments are perfect, but the kids LOVED every minute of it and we are ready for the season!

Happy Halloween

This year, Halloween has been lots of fun. Gordon is older and understands what is going on a little more, so everything has been a lot of fun for all of our kids. I think the only thing we missed this year was making sugar cookies, so we'll try and add that to our activity list next year!

A week before Halloween we carved pumpkins. Casey and Roy'l came over with Javin and brought Roy'l's brother to carve their pumpkins. While we were starting, Kyle's sister, Erin, called to see what we were doing. When she found out we were carving pumpkins she wanted to come over and join in the festivities. She's still newly married and with it just being the two newly weds, it doesn't seem as fun to carve pumpkins without lots of people around. We had a house full, but had so much fun.

I do have to say, Gordon LOVED all of the pumpkin activities. He was even eating the raw pumpkins and seeds. It was slightly gross for the rest of us to watch, but he just loved the whole experience!

These are most of the pumpkins all lit up after they were done being carved.

Friday before Halloween Casey called to see what we were doing, so we came up with plans! We decided to have homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner and then make caramel apples for dessert. Eddie was supposed to go with Nana that night to spend the night with Leann, so we invited Nana and Leann over for caramel apples also. It was a sticky mess, but the kids LOVED all of the yumminess. Okay, the adults loved it too, but you can tell from the little boys that they definitely loved it!!

Javin and Gordon enjoying their caramel apples!

HALLOWEEN NIGHT

Gordon did great with keeping his costume on this year and being able to say "Trick or Treat", but he definitely prefered the candy! Kyle always takes the kids out and I stay home to pass out candy. I don't seriously know how he did at the door, but he sure loved going out. He was so upset when he had to come inside! (He's an elephant, but has been called an aardvark by Uncle Casey!)

Celeste was going to be a zombie Little Red Riding Hood, but a few days before Halloween, she decided she wanted to be Sleeping Beauty because Auntie Erin's dog was going to be Sleeping Beauty. So, here is my princess instead of my zombie! Eddie wanted to be Lightening McQueen over a month ago. I was looking for used costumes because I didn't want to pay for the costume, but I wasn't able to find anything. Then I went to a consignment sale and found Mater for $5! It was the best day ever to be able to find the costume for so cheap. So, I brought it home and we talked Eddie into the costume and he has been excited to be Mater ever since.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween. We sure did. Now it's on to Thanksgiving!!

Hood River Harvest Festival

A few weeks ago we went to Hood River to go through the fruit loop like we do every year. It was the most beautiful day! The sun was shining and we were able to go to all of the places we love to go the most. There is this great cookie and pie store that we just have to go to every year, if not for the cookies, for the hand held pies - yumm! Of course we had to go to the pumpkin patch also so the kids could find the perfect pumpkin for them. They had so much fun being able to walk around without rain or mud and we were even able to get a family picture with the pumpkins. I love this time of year with all of the fun fall activities and holidays. I'll be posting our carved pumpkins next when I have a chance to download the pictures! Until then, Happy Fall!!

Fishing

Kyle took the two older kids fisihing a few Saturdays ago and took pictures of the kids, so I thought I would share them. It ended up being a beautiful day that day and they had a great time, even if they didn't catch anything!

For Father's Day we got Kyle his own tackle box, so he doesn't have to borrow my dad's anymore because Celeste and Eddie have both decided that fishing is something they really enjoy with their dad. With pictures like these, you can't really blame them can you?

The Zoo

On Friday my parents took all the grandkids and moms to the zoo for the day. We had a great time with all of the kids now old enough to know what is going on. The little ones loved watching the big animals and the older kids loved learning new things about the zoo even though they have been a few times before. Since my parents have a yearly pass I'm hoping we get to go a lot this summer and really help the kids learn new and different things about the zoo and the animals.

They have a new African exhibit and when you first walk through there are some drums there for the kids to play. Celeste and Eddie loved trying these out.

In the new African exhibit they also have lions. We couldn't see the lions well while they were sitting on top of the rocks, but the statues of the lions were fun. Celeste enjoyed climbing on them with the other kids and was willing to take a picture for me!

While some of the other kids were in the petting zoo, Gordon got a chance to get out of the stroller and run around. He loved climbing on the benches and chasing the birds.

Starlight Parade

Last Saturday we were able to go to the Starlight Parade again. It was raining all week and we really thought that there was a possibility that we couldn't go, but it ended up being really nice and a perfect day for a parade. These are just a few of the pictures taken of the parade. During the Starlight run that happens before the parade, there was a guy running who was dressed up like an outhouse.

Celeste enjoyed playing with the glow necklaces.

Gordon enjoyed running away from us and eating the bubble wand!

And Eddie LOVED the sidewalk chalk. I have never seen him draw and color the way he did in the street. Since then it has been really rainy, but every chance he gets he wants to draw on the street!

I love being able to take my kids to these kinds of things. We decided not to go to the Rose Parade this year because Kyle wanted to take the kids fishing and I just wasn't really up for it, but we will probably have at least one more parade to go to next month, so my kids will be ready!

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend was a rainy weekend to kick off the summer, but before the weekend began Kyle had the opportunity to take Eddie to a flag plant up at the veterans cemetary. Kyle had never been before. We think that his pack and troop never participated in flag plants, but he is sure glad that our pack now does, so he could be there to participate. Eddie said his favorite part was the guns shooting and the helicopters flying over head. He also seemed to enjoy saying the names and then telling them thank you while saluting them. I love that Kyle got a picture of Eddie saluting, it's so cute!

Saturday we stayed around town so Kyle could get some homework done and Celeste could attend a birthday party. On Sunday we went up to Lake Merwin to visit with my family who were up there already for the weekend. It rained so much over the weekend though, that we had to have a propane fire pit under the canopy. That's camping for ya!

Even in the rain, Gordon and my nephew, Javen, had a great time playing together. They don't always play together, but they sure had a great time running around, playing in the grass and soaking themselves. .We just let them play until bedtime and then got them nice and warm in their pjs, so they didn't miss a minute.

We went home Sunday night to get a good night rest because we planned to spend the day with Kyle's brother, Brandon, and his family. We went back up to Washington hike the Ape Caves at Mt. Saint Helens. I had been once when I was a kid and Kyle remember going once when he was a kid as well, but neither of us had been in a long time, so it was fun for us to go. With the kids there, we just hiked the lower cave, which was almost more than enough for Gordon and Eddie, but we had a great time. It is definitely somethine we'll have to remember to do again when we are trying to think of an activity to do in the future. We took glow necklaces and braclets for the kids and the kids had their own flashlights, so they could look around and keep themselves from getting scared.

We are definitely ready for summer to be here, now we just have to convince the weather that is is summer!