He's got soul!

Sam LOVES this song right now--loves, loves, loves it! I think it is so interesting to see which songs they grab onto. Anyway, we love hearing him sing it:)
Jen

Our little sweethearts on Valentine's day...

Whew, I can't seem to stay caught up these days! Ah well, here are some pictures of Sam and Amelia celebrating Valentine's Day:)

First was their party at preschool. Fun and treats and crafts abounded:)
When they first get to school they have "open exploration" until hello circle starts. Their classroom is a studio full of fun things to spin on, slide down, jump over, etc. What fun!

This is Sammy's favorite thing to do at school first thing in the morning. He likes for me to give him a few spins before I leave:)

Sam and Vera decorating his Valentine Bag. Sam gave his friends matchbox cars with their Valentines (he was very excited about this:) and Amelia gave hers salt dough heart necklaces that she made with Mammy.

The three amigos enjoying some treats.

Sharing a lick:)

The preschool party aftermath!:) They were both clutching chocolate, which of course melted and made a mess! It was so cute though.


Hope your Valentine's Day was lovely as well!


Hope to write more soon,
Jen

Early morning musings.

I'm here in the guest bed with sweet Amelia. She has been sick for about a week and we are running our normal cycle. She gets sick, then when she's almost better Sam gets it and then she often gets it back from him. Fun! So we have been up since four- more medicine administered, then a coughing fit ending in throw up, and now quiet and fewer coughs and maybe some sleep? Though now that I'm up, my tummy is feeling on edge and hungry, a seemingly constant combo these days.
Anyway, being up with them frequently during the past week's nights has made me remember back to their infancy and to the new infant that Lord willing will join us in September. I thought to myself tonight, " it's the beauty and the challenge." Now, I hazily remember the deliriousness that came from lack of sleep, the frustration of trying to get Amelia to sleep ( it's been her lifelong challenge), etc. But I also remember the beauty that comes with that sacrificial love. It gets us outside of ourself- it stretched me and grew me and increased my dependence on the Lord.
I thought of that tonight as I lay next to Amelia after she threw up. I was telling her that she was always so brave when she is sick and how proud I am of her that she doesn't complain ( a virtue I admit i do not possess) when she doesn't feel well. I told her what a strong girl she is and in that moment I thought , " There IS beauty in being up at 4 with your little one. Having the chance to affirm her strength and to stretch my own." I think of Sam in our room laying next to Joel, feeling safe and loved next to his daddy. I think of Joel, who has been sleeping at least part of the night next to that little boy for almost four years now, that snuggly, wiggly, crotch kicking little sleeper and once again I think- " yep, it's the beauty and the challenge." Now then, all is well. It is five and Amelia is back to sleep. I'm going to go get a piece of toast and try to get some more sleep myself.
Love to you this early morning and feel free to remind me of this post in the future:) Jen

Theme of the week: Hearts!

So, I know I haven't been very faithful in blogging about pre-school themes, but better late than never! So, this week at school they will be learning about hearts! The body part, the shape, and the emotions that come from the heart will be discussed, danced about, explored through art and music, etc.

At home, I'm keeping it pretty simple. Mom has already been doing Valentines crafts with them (another area where Mammy excels and mama happily takes a back seat!) and today I pulled out some books about love and Valentines day. Also, tonight before bed we read in one of their little devotional type books about what love looks like in action. How do we love our family, friends and neighbors?

Love is something to get excited about! Sure, Valentines day can be annoying and expensive if we make it that way, but this year I want to keep it simple. Use it as a reminder to think about true, nitty gritty love. The love of God shown through people in our lives here on earth.

Shown through my mom when she came and completely, unselfishly, unabandonly loved and cared for us when the babies were born (and a million other times in my life).
Shown through Joel when he comes home from work, tired and bleary eyed and takes out the trash or loves on the babes or one of the hundred other things he has on his plate.
Shown when a neighbor calls and said she made some extra dinner and wants to know if she can share (yes, every time:).
Shown when a sweet Sam holds his sisters feet "so she won't fall in the potty" as he knows she is a bit on edge in public restrooms.
Shown when we mamas hold our children close when we most want to push them away.
Shown in millions of little ways, every day, across the world; helping us catch a small glimpse of the power of the true love of Christ.

So, there ya go. Preschool theme for the week is hearts. A theme I guess I must really love:)

Yes, in the first picture Amelia is practically sitting on my head. I love it because this is such a perfect picture of her. She WILL be close to you and if you say you don't want her to sit in your lap, well, this is what you get:)






All for now, Jen

A "smooky" story, just for you!

Sam and Amelia love for me to tell them "smooky" (spooky) stories. Their favorites are this series I tell them about two little girls named Jenny and Jennifer (yes, Jennifer K, this is me and you!) who go on all kinds of adventures and get lost in cornfields, and forests and on beaches, and by rivers! They always have so much fun, but eventually run into trouble...trouble like scary noises, large constructions sites that try to scoop them up in cranes, wild pigs chasing them through fields and valleys. It's a crazy, "smooky" world out there, but they always find a way to get home to their waiting mamas! :)

Anyway, Joel and I had a spooky adventure of our own tonight, and since this isn't the kind of story I can tell Sam and Amelia, you are the lucky listeners! :)

Joel and I went to the movies tonight! Yes, this is a big deal. I don't even remember the last time we went. We've never been great about getting out on consistent dates since Sam and Amelia were born. The only times we really go out are when we trade a friend baby sitting or when our parents are visiting. But now, Mammy is here! Woo hoo! So, out we went.

We saw The Fighter and it was so, so good. We also ate popcorn for dinner (no butter, if that makes that sound any better:). Fun stuff. I don't mean to get to mushy gushy, but as we walked out and Joel took a phone call (he's on call), I thought to myself, "Boy is he handsome. Boy do I love him." Yep, dates are good!

So, we were waiting on the elevator to come take us to the parking garage and waiting with us was one other man. He was not creepy looking really, but was dressed in all black and when I caught his eye I wasn't sure how to read him.

Let me back up and say that I finished reading The Gaurdian last night. My mom read it and then I picked it up because I was wanting a new novel to read. She failed to tell me that it was a CREEPY, SCARY book! I was totally and completely freaked out last night. I couldn't stop reading but I couldn't quit jumping at every sound I heard. So, I may have already been a bit on edge tonight.

Okay, back to the elevator. It finally came and the three of us got on. Soon after we got on the man slapped his hands against his coat making a loud noise and I think I jumped 2 feet. Still not sure what he was doing but I looked to find the alarm button on the elevator just in case. Then, oh then, when we had about 2 floors left to go he reaches into his pocket and pulls out....latex gloves. I am not kidding. He puts them on! I almost pressed the alarm but knew the doors were about to open. Whew. After we got out I put two and two together and realized he must have been a janitor coming to collect trash (I'm pretty sure his coat had the movie theater emblem on it), but not before Joel said, "I'm glad we didn't just get murdered!" He had put the keys in between his fingers to stab him if something had happened. Sheesh. Spooky indeed!

Sweet dreams....bwah hahahahaha.

Okay, I won't end this on that note. I'll share this picture with you. While we were fighting for our lives (ha ha), all was well and happy at the home front. It is so fun to go our completely relaxed because you know the little ones are spending time with their Mammy! They were watching Mary Poppins and loving it!:)

Jen

A story of life and letting go...

Oh goodness, I have been putting off writing this post because it is just. so. complicated. Such is life, I guess, messy and complicated and not the nice, neat package that we all desire.

The bottom line is that we decided to postpone our adoption plans. It was a hard and very emotional decision.

It was a bumpy road from the very beginning, really, but I know many adoption journeys are. Looking back, we realize that Joel felt we began the journey too soon. We began without a firm foundation of how we would pay the enormous adoption costs (while paying off some credit card debt,etc) and without a foundation of knowledge about adoption in Ethiopia. We just knew we had always wanted to adopt, we knew it was a long process and that Joel had good income finally, we knew Ethiopia was currently one of the smoothest adoption processes, and we knew of a great agency with a long history in Ethiopia, so let's do it!

I quickly realized that the paperwork piece of the adoption was like a part-time job and I wasn't nearly as efficient at it as I imagined I would be! I also felt Joel's hesitance in getting his part of the paperwork complete. Now we realize that he was feeling pressured and I was feeling frustrated because I knew there were time limits in getting the stuff done!

And so the months went by.

Along the way, we gained knowledge about the adoption process and with knowledge just came more questions. We realized that one reason for the looooong wait (sometimes years once your paperwork was in Ethiopia) is because there is a long,long,long,long line of adoptive parents waiting for healthy babies to be born and come into agency care. In a sense, the demand is outweighing the supply! Meanwhile, there are millions of waiting children around the world who are a bit older or who have special (minor or major) medical needs who are waiting for families while families wait for babies. We realized we wanted to change our focus to a waiting child adoption.

We needed to do more research,though, on which special needs we thought we were able to parent, etc. Meanwhile, our paperwork was expiring (again) and we were having to basically start our dossier over. It just became too much. Too overwhelming for me to do alone, and after some difficult conversations I suggested we stop the process until we had time to get on the same page, take some time to establish a firm financial foundation, continue researching the many facets of international adoption, etc. It was a tough couple of days that followed. I just felt so very sad , confused, weary. At the same time, it felt right and also felt like I was able to release the process back into the hands of the Lord.

I know part of the disappointment was how it would look to everyone. Fail. We failed! I knew of so many friends who also desire to adopt and felt like somehow we would go before them and then be able to support them on their journey! I see now that it was pride.

I don't know why the Lord had us go through this process. I'm sure it was refining in many ways. Maybe we will continue the journey in the future. Maybe there is a child/children He will allow us to parent and love through adoption at some point. But for now, His plans are different.

Two days after we made our decision and contacted our agencies, my mom talked me into taking a pregnancy test. She said she just really thought there was something going on beyond my sadness and disappointment over the adoption. I thought she just didn't realize how deep my disappointment went. Also, we had not been able to get pregnant without clomid before or since the babes, and so why would I be pregnant now?!?! To appease her, I took one and it was immediately positive! So were the next two that I took! We were seriously in shock (well, my mom was not surprised at all:).

The timing. It was an absolute gift from the Lord. Not that I consider having "my own" baby any better or more true than if our adoption would have gone through. I just mean it is a gift that we found out about the baby after we had already made the decision to postpone our adoption. That the babe wasn't at all the reason we chose to stop the process. That may not makes sense, I don't know, but it does to me!

So we move forward, thrilled and thankful and so very surprised about this new life (only seven and a half weeks along). We still very much support adoptive families (hello, our neighbors have the most precious newborn baby Charlotte that I am totally in love with!), and would love to share any lessons we have learned. The most important being to be on the same page as much as possible with your spouse before you begin. Have the difficult, honest, raw conversations along the way as need be. Have lots of grace with each other. Research adoption. Read adult adoptee testimonies. Read about attachment. Read the hard stuff and read the beautiful stuff--there is lots of both. Talk to adoptive families. Find out their challenges and their incredible triumphs. And, finally, I guess we learned that it's okay to let go.

Whew, that feels better. Now you are up to date friends.

Love to you, Jen

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