MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I hope that everyone had a great Christmas Season, and that you are ready for 2009! Christmas was great this year. The kids are at the age that they actually play with what they get, either because they are old enough to play with the toy and not just the box or paper it was wrapped in, or they get what they want and so they are happy! We did one big joint present for the kids (we caved and bought a Wii) and then they also got a few little things. It has been great! I think the only time the Wii is turned off is when they are sleeping!
Now the fun begins for our house, you see we have 2 birhtdays in 2 weeks! The fun part is now, trying to figure out what to get them for gifts! We cannot possibly out do Santa!

This is our families 3rd year of getting together to make lunches for the homeless in downtown Salt Lake City. It started out as a Young Womens project for my niece and has kept going from there! The kids love doing it. It is a great way for them to realize all of the blessings that they have. Even though when we are putting the Ding Dong's into the lunches, Baylor says "No fair! The homeless are so lucky to get Ding Dong's!" I hope that is stays a tradition for many many years to come!

Backing Up

So I need to back up to June, to Riley's birthday, so that you have the whole story with my next little adventure in life! Riley got a dog for her birthday! It was all she asked for and so it was all she got! Riley is 10 and so we figured old enough to have a pet! She has been great with the new responsibility and totally loves her dog! The dogs name is "Cookie" (we adopted her at a year old and so the name came with the dog) and she has been great! Until two weeks ago when she discovered my neighbors garden!
We didn't know where she was one afternoon, and so the kids and I went searching all over the neighborhood, just to find her next door! Now, that's not the problem, the problem is that she eats all the rotten veggies in the garden and comes out completelycovered in burrs!!! I have had to cut almost all of her hair off with kid scissors! Cookie is a ShihTzu, so she has longer hair (or did, until I had to cut off her little beard, part of her tail, all the hair on her paws and under her chin!) I feel so bad for her, she is a total of 9lbs. and needs all the insulation she can get now that it is in the 30's, but the stupid dog won't stay out of my neighbors garden!
The picture included is when we first got her, so now just picture her with longer, patchy hair!

The holidays are here!

It always seems that as soon as Halloween is over, it is a made dash to the New Year. Which now for us is fun because it is Lainie's birthday, but this time of year is my favorite and it seems to come and go so fast that I feel a little dissappointed that it's gone.
The kids this year (as you can see) all followed some kind of theme for costumes. Riley is cotton candy, Baylor is a "Crunch" bar, Payton is a bag of jelly beans, and Lainie is candy corn! It was fun to make the costumes this year (to me that is what Halloween is: deciding what you want to be and getting creative in pulling it off) they were all really into the trick-or-treating except for Riley, who I had to talk into dressing up for her school party, and trick-or-treating! I can't believe that I am to the point in my life where my oldest doesn't want to trick-or-treat anymore! I'm not that old!
In preperation for Halloween I took the kids to pick out their pumpkins for carving! Todd has been so busy with work lately that this is the first year he hasn't made it with us to pick pumpkins! It was weird doing it without him, but we took lots of great pictures to make it up to him!
So some of you might notice the time that I entered this blog: 5:15 AM! This whole day-light savings thing is KILLING me! Lainie hasn't changed her clock and I am afraid that I will be up at 5:15 every morning until APRIL!
Anywho! I have started discussing with a friend of mine what to do for our kids for Christmas. It is always so hard to figure out what they will really enjoy, what they will play with longer than just Christmas morning, and what they need! Even though my kids really don't need anything! It is harder for me now that Riley and Baylor are getting older and the kinds of things they want are $250 each!

Okay, so it has been awhile and a few things have happened that I should mention! Baylor's birthday was in August, and Todd gave him tickets to two Rockies games! They went in September, just the boys, and had a great time! Baylor was able to go down on the field, run the bases, and see the teams warm up! During their second game, Bay caught a foul ball!! The boys have decided to make this an annual trip!

Here are Payton and Lainie on their first days of school. I have to admit that I don't have pictures of Baylor and Riley, I totally spaced taking their pictures this year! I have my three oldest kids at a Charter school in Draper called Channing Hall. This is our 3rd year there and we all love it! That is why Payton is in her oh so cute uniform! I still have 2 years until Lainie has dress code and so until then, I will have dressing her up! The Pre-school that Lainie is in is great, and half of her class is younger siblings of the kids Payton went to Pre-school with! She has such a great time and is having fun learning her letters, numbers, and "spanish"! FYI: Spanish to Lainie is english words just said slower!

We are finally done with fall sports! YEAH! Riley's last soccer game (pictured) was raining, windy and freezing! Baylor just finished his 2nd season of flag football, and so now my dad, Todd and Baylor are all trying to convince me that he should play tackle football next year! I am sure that I will lose this one. We are just plugging along here in Riverton, trying to keep up with homework, chores, laundry, and eachother! We are all looking forward to Halloween, now that we have all decided what to be (I am just glad I convinced Baylor that being a toilet was just too hard to walk around in) we just hope that the weather is good for us this year!

When does it stop? We just ended with baseball last week and now we move right into football. At least I have only one in football, and Riley is almost done with soccer. I love having my kids involved with sports and groups, it's just that some days I would love to not have to open my garage door!
Lainie went to her first friend birthday party on Saturday. It was of course a princess party and so she wanted to dress up like the princess she truly is!! She had such a great time. In the meantime Todd took Riley, Baylor and Payton fishing up to Strawberry Resevoir. It was the first time this fall that Todd had the boat out, and it was a success! Riley caught her very own 23 inch rainbow, and she was very proud.
I seem to be having a total memory loss right now, either from too much in my tiny little brain to hold onto, or just not enough sleep/alone time to remember what has happened in the last week or so. When I can control my little ladies and have minute to myself (hahaha) I will update all that has happened to the Hunts!

HOLY %&$#@

So school has started for all four of my kids, and so I need to vent! With carpool, homework and cranky kids with not enough sleep, I feel like I live in my car these days with driving to the school 3 times a day, sometimes more with CHAPS meetings (it's our schools version of PTA). And I have one in soccer which is two practice's a week and game's on Saturday, and two kids in baseball which is two games a week per kid!!! I know my kids love it and I do too, but... HOLY #$%!@
Okay, I feel better now! So, let me start from the beginning! Riley is my oldest daughter at 10, Baylor is my only son at 8, Payton is 5 and Lainie is 3! They do keep me going, and my house a mess, but I wouldn't change a day!


Here is a picture of my kids, and my husband Todd! This picture was taken this spring on a family trip to our Ranch in Idaho! We love this place, and wish it were closer for us to visit! It takes about 7 hours to get there over freeway and dirt roads, but it is so worth it when we do! This summer/fall has been filled with soccer games, birthdays, baseball games and vacations! I will try to upload pictures as soon as I can, not just to share, but to also remember myself!




I will start with Baylor's 8th birthday party. Here he is with his sisters and some cousins in our backyard! It is great to see Baylor with all of his girl cousins, there is only one boy cousin on my side and 2 on Todds, with 13 girls on my side, and 9 on Todds. He either doesn't stand a chance or will be in girl heaven when his sisters cute friends come around in about 8 years!



Riley has played on the same soccer team with the same coach for the last 6 seasons! They have really gotten pretty good! She loves it, and has made some great friends! Baylor has played baseball since he was 3 and is really beginning to understand the game! This is Payton's first year in baseball and thinks she is pretty cool being the only girl on her team!

Getting started

So I have heard from many people how they love to blog. I am not going to even pretend that I know what I am doing, but if it helps me keep in touch with my family and friends, I'll do it!