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.

Our little spitfire...

Today Amelia was repeatedly asking for Cheerios. I told her no because we had just eaten not long before. She went in to use the bathroom and from the kitchen I heard her yell, " If you don't fix me some lunch I'm gonna go shoot an animal and eat it!" "What did you just say?" I asked. Again, clear as a bell she yelled, " If you don't fix me some lunch I'm gonna go shoot an animal and eat it!" Oh, she makes me laugh!!!

This from a girl who lives in a home with no real nor toy weapons, who has never seen a movie with a gun used in it! We have talked about what guns are used for after she saw some friend's toy guns and that lovely machine gun on an arcade game she walked by and Pa's gun in our Little House books. The latter is where today's comment originated from I think.

Anyway, just want to keep track of some of the things they say:) Like today Sam said that he was going "to drive the Kinney's burben to old McDonalds and then go to the tool store.":) A little guy after his grandpas' own hearts-his Papa Joel works at a "tool store" and Grandpa Jim can build just about anything! (Ahem, how does he know what Old McDonalds is?! Okay, okay it's my fault--I just can't resist their playground sometimes on snowy, blustery mornings! I know this grieves Joel's heart that our children can identify both Taco Bell and McDonalds. Oh, and Chick Fil-A. Maybe Starbucks. I better stop now. Love you Joelie! Trying to get better in that arena, I promise! )

All for now,

Jenny

(p.s. Do I at least get some points that they have no idea what a Happy Meal is? Come on now!)

She'll be comin round the mountain when she comes...

You heard me right in my last post, my mama is moving in with us!! I can hardly believe it myself.

She's ready for a fresh start and we are thrilled for her to have one here with us! It's a bittersweet thing for her, of course, leaving so many beloved ones in Texas, but everyone is cheering her on (though often through tears I imagine)! It won't be a forever thing...Texas is where her heart is, but we are planning on a few years!

I look so forward to lots of giggles, tabouli, gardening, long walks, mama kitty, oh gosh....just on and on.

Joel and his dad are driving her stuff and car up here and will be here by Sunday! Crazy, huh? Life is about to change here in the Hunt house, and the outlook is very sparkly indeed. We're ready and waiting for you Mammy!
Jen

Box Play!

I was inspired by Teacher Tom's post (as I always am when I read his blog!) about boxes. So today, as Joel is out of town again (though this time he is coming back with the best gift of all--my mom! She's moving in! More on that soon:) I knew some fun was needed to be had by all. I wanted a strong day to start off our series of days with no daddy time in the evening.

In the end it was great! We went for a walk (scoot) around the block and then played with our friends at their house for the morning (boy I love friends!), had a yummy ice cream treat (I promise they didn't eat all of that ice cream...half of each is saved in our freezer:), and then home for rest time and PLAY!



I got out all of the boxes from the garage--hello Amazon!--and we colored them first and then I pulled them down the stairs in the boxes to the basement to shouts of "This is crazy! AHHHHH!" :) First the boxes were trains. Amelia was going on a journey "to Bethlehem, but Mary said she couldn't stay because the stable was closed." Haha. Sam was going to the Dinosaur Museum but he had to exit his train and take a ship to get there.
Then the boxes became a stable for Amelia to rest in because she didn't feel well. Sam made all kind of concoctions to help her feel better--mostly shark and fish soup--but alas, his patient was not very eager to feel better and stayed in the stable for quite a while.
Then the boxes were tunnels for their trucks. Oh, I must mention that yesterday while playing with their trucks I overheard Sam say to Amelia, " Don't worry. My driver texted the garage and they have more garbage cans there!" Oh my.





Anyway, all this to say, once again I was convinced about the power of playing with my children! For bonding, learning, creating, imagining, building, energizing, making days more than just "getting through."

Do I have the magic formula for allowing time for getting on the floor to play while making sure the house is tidy and dinner is made? Um, no. Working on it as ever, but no. We drank green smoothies and ate lunch meat and carrots for dinner--ha! It's okay, though, it was worth it to me for sure.
Jen

More signs of the season...

Sammy was pretty proud of this igloo he and Joelie made. Amelia's contribution was bringing her umbrella out to "keep the igloo from melting:)"
It does all of us so much good to bundle up and get outside each day (even if the prep and aftermath are no fun at all!)
I let them eat a sugar cookie before breakfast one morning. They were very, very excited:)

We went to "A Candlelit Christmas" at This is The Place this year. It was really fun, peaceful, and so neat to see a live nativity with them. A great thing was that we saw some friends leaving as we were arriving and they got us in free with their membership--thanks friends!!!



Another thing we have been loving is watching birds eating from our new bird feeders! They are coming by the droves. One of my new years resolutions is going to be to learn the names and songs of our bird friends (as well as flowers, plants, trees, and bugs--it's going to be a busy year! Haha).

I think I'll end here. Christmas pictures coming soon. It was a pretty simple, special day! Jen

Preschool Winter Performance...

This is mostly for our far away family who I know wanted to be at Sam and Amelia's special performance, but anyone is welcome to watch of course! We really do love their little Creative Arts Preschool, and how they are all given the opportunity to soar in their own way:) Here ya go..sorry for the poor filming, it was on our phone:/
Jen

Moments.

This morning as they ran around the house finding "acorns" for all of their little stuffed animals, I may have gotten a little teary thinking about when they will move on to more "sophisticated" toys. May the day be far away that they lose interest in the world of their beloved animals. It fills me up to the brim to watch their imaginations in action. Really, truly.

As we were about to head out the door to go on our daily walk around the block (no matter the weather, I have to keep reminding myself we MUST get outside. Daily. No excuses:) I checked the mail and found a letter for them from their friend Vera. They were SO excited and clutched their letters during our entire morning running errands:)


Our two very important errands today included going to eat pizza and shop at the thrift store:) Our life is so harried! Haha.
We went to our favorite (gross/good) pizza place that has a fireplace (ahhh), kids eat free, they have those little IQ games with pegs that S and A love to play with...it's just great. They also have terrible arcade games on the way to the bathroom where Amelia learned the lovely word "shotgun" while walking past...Hmmm, I guess no place can be perfect! Anyway, while we were eating I had given them some pizza with meat on it and Amelia said, "I don't want this kind. I want what you're eating." So I said, "Well, Amelia you know what? My pizza had meat on it too but I just took it off!" She said, "CLEVER, mom!" as if I was the smartest person in the world.

Then in was onto the thrift store to gather some more Christmas goodies for the cousins. I may not be a handmade Christmas mama, as in you will find no felted manger scenes in our home nor will I be sending knitted sweaters and gloves to my nieces or nephew (I wish!), but this Auntie can thrift some pretty wonderful books and find some wooden cars for my kids to paint for one of their sweet cousins, if I do say so myself:) Love what you are, right?!

Anywho, while busily painting Sammy says to Amelia: " This will be brilliant Mena." She answered, "Yes it will Sammy." Oh, I loved it. Then Amelia proceeded to make one of her enormous messes in a way that you would just have to see to believe and then Sam drank a big gulp of the yellow watercolor paint thinking it was Orange Juice. Oh my. Everyone was okay and we have two very thoroughly painted vehicles.


A bit later I was in the kitchen making dinner with two whiny, tired kids sitting at the bar waiting not so patiently to eat. I was sighing some heavy sighs and thinking, "Even the good days are long." Then, wouldn't you know it? We were listening to Elizabeth Mitchell and "So glad I'm here" came on, and reminded me once again that even in the whiny moments, I'm so glad to be a mama and to spend my days with my children. It gave me the boost I needed to rise above the moment (added with two good recent conversations with Anne and Tara about showing true, Jesus love to our children), finish dinner, give baths, read lots of bedtime books, and tuck them in bed.

Here I am now. Tired, but good. Sharing some of our moments with you.

All for now, Jen

Oh, P.S. I forgot about listening to the Johnny Cash Christmas album in the car. You know how kids get hooked on a song and want to listen to it 4 million times? Well, today it was Hark the Herald Angles Sing. I have to say it was pretty amazing truly listening to it while driving through the snowy, whiteness. " God and sinners reconciled!" Amazing and hopeful and what I want Sam and Amelia to understand about Christmas. Why was "baby Jesus" born? So that God and sinners could be reconciled. Joyful, all ye nations rise!

Joel says hello to San Francisco.

He went for a mandatory conference for his federal loan repayment contract but ended up having quite a bit of time to explore--aren't the pictures amazing?! Next time, we are ALL going (we would have if we knew what the schedule would be like). All for now, Jen