A winter adventure...

Ok, I have GOT to break this non-blogging spell! It's a case of "I have too much to write and I don't know where to start!". Anyway, I'll just start here.

Joel, my mama, and the babes went snowshoeing with friends over the weekend! I was feeling yucky and stayed home (not so yucky that I couldn't meet them for a Cafe Rio salad afterwards...mmmm), but I was so excited for them to get out of this terrible, inversion polluted SLC air and into the crisp, clean mountain air. They had a blast. Mom was a such a trooper and did great and loved it, and the babes just got into their mountain zen zone that they get into and had so,so,so,so much fun. Joel had found this awesome sled thing at a yard sale over the summer and this was his first time using it to pull the kids (though they did snowshoe a lot!) and he said it was great. They just laid back and zoned out. Well, Amelia sang a lot as well. Oh, they are just the best entertainment in this almost 4 stage!

Without further ado, here are some of mom's pictures that I stole:)

In other exciting news, here is a super bowl commercial that my little brother is in--woo hoo! He is the handsome guy with long hair playing bass.

Guess that's all of the excitement for now. Goodness gracious, hopefully I'll be back sooner than later!:) Jen

Proud of my man:)

Here is a link to a recent interview Joel had with the City Weekly newspaper concerning the outreach program he is a part of at the clinic where he works (turn to page five and click on the article he is in and then under options, you can enlarge it). I really am proud of the way Joel has followed his passion, done the hard work it took to become a Physician Assistant, and continues to stretch himself and find new ways to meet the needs of the population he works with. It inspires me to work hard and follow my dreams as well! Love you Joelie.

Bears, bears, bears!

I've always meant to keep a written record of the things we do at home to go along with their weekly pre-school theme, but as of yet I haven't done one post about it! So, one New Year hope is that I will be diligent to do one post a week about our learning basket theme. We'll see how it all pans out:)

This week is bears! Miss Erin, their wonderful teacher, gives us a detailed lesson plan she will be using at the beginning of each week. It is a wonderful way to know what they are reading, singing, playing, etc. when they are at pre-school to provide extensions at home. Sometimes I don't, but most of the time I at least go through our book stash and find some books to go with the theme.

When I read today that the theme was bears, I was excited! I knew we had several books on bears, some beloved (like "Going on a Bear Hunt" , "Jesse Bear, What will you wear?", and "Winnie the Pooh") and some non-fiction and even a poetry book. I get excited about these things:)

I pulled our bears out of the animal basket and we sat down and started in on the books this evening. They played with their bears in the bath tonight. After all, tonight we read all bears can swim.

Ahhhh, give me a theme and you make my teacher's heart and mama's heart and just my heart in general, happy. It brings me a small sense of control in this wild world-ha.

So, there ya go. We'll read our bear books this week and on into next I'm sure. We'll play "bears" and make dens to hibernate in, we'll sort our color bears, and maybe make something with honey in the kitchen:) I have a Jesse Bear print out that I've been meaning to laminate, like a paper doll that they put weather appropriate clothes on. Maybe I'll finally get that project done. Probably not. Never say never, though.

Okay, that's all for tonight. I'll try to keep these posts short so that I don't intimidate myself into thinking they need to be elaborate:)

Jen

New year and times of transition.

I know, I know, I still haven't posted our Christmas pictures! Goodness, time is just quickly marching on!

There is so much newness going on in this New Year. Here's what's been going on at the Hunt house:

Joel went on a trip to Texas to pick up my mom's stuff and drive it to Utah. He got to have some quick visits with family, and we were so thankful for that!

He got to spend some time with his Gee Gee:) We love her so much!
He got to meet his niece Lucy Faye for the first time...they loved each other right away:)

Sam and Amelia were sick for most of the time he was gone. That wasn't so fun for any of us:/

Along the journey back, Joel and his dad slid on ice and into a ditch!

Amazingly, they were fine and the car only suffered minor problems. Still, that coupled with two blowouts made the trip to Utah a misadventure for sure! I love this picture of Jim....so telling!:)
Mom flew into SLC on Jan 1st, surviving an attack from mama kitty while going through airport security. We are so happy to have her here! She has jumped right into exploring the city, playing in the snow, organizing our house, sleeping on the futon in the living room until her basement bedroom is complete, finding a new church, etc. She's had a busy first week!:)


(Amelia and Sam are having so much fun with their new Dr. kits. Amelia heard chipmunks in her Mammy's tummy, but we think she'll be okay:)
Grandpa Jim is still here too, working as hard as ever to finish the basement for us. He is so good about taking time from his work to love on Sam and Amelia, though, and they adore him just as much as ever!



As much love as we have had in our house in this New Year, times of transition are always tricky. Sam and Amelia have been fussy and quarrelsome, testing the boundaries and sometimes just disregarding them altogether. I look so forward to things settling in, to routines developing, a new normal to emerge. Until then, we are celebrating the lovely moments, and there really are lots of them, they are just sometimes hidden under all of the whining:)
Love to all of you in this hopeful New Year, Jen

My favorite picture from 2011.