My new nephew Phalkun Hunter!

This is the newest addition in the Hunter family! Phalkun Hunter was born on November 20th, he was 7lbs. 5oz. and 18 1/2 inches long! What a cutie!

His name is Cambodian and it means great accomplishment! I think it is so cool that he has a name with such meaning to his heritage! We call him Phal- like Paul, what a cutie!

Then here we have my adorable nephew Luke as Batman for Halloween!

Max surprisingly went as himself for Halloween! Okay maybe he was a nerd, but still pretty close to the original!

We miss you guys!!!
Give Phal a kiss from his favorite Aunt Dev!

My Mattie!

I've just got to take a minute and thank my Mattie! He is the greatest guy around. I've said it a million times what a lucky girl I am and that I couldn't have hand picked a better fit! This has been a ridiculously crazy 5 months. The time apart, the packing and unpacking, all the moving, and a new baby, plus the other four running around- its kind of taken its toll.

I feel like Matt has been living with a crazy person, but he has never lost his patience with me even a little. He's ridden the hormonal rollercoaster with me and never once complained! He loves me and he forgives me. He makes it all worth it. I love you Hoss!


PS- "Thanks for Asking!"

Scripture Study

Some nights when we are in a hurry before bed, we read from a "Book of Mormon" reader, kids books. We were reading this passage... about Lehi and his family and the Liahona.

We always ask the kids questions to see how much they remember and are understanding. Here was a conversation we had with Taite the other night-

Matt- "Taite, who is this (pointing to Lehi)?"

Taite- "The Prophet Lehi!"

Matt- "Great, and what is this (pointing to the Liahona)?"

Taite- "Well, a pumpkin!"

Matt- After stifling a laugh, "A pumpkin? Or the Lia..." trying to prod her along.

Taite- "The Lea-hia-hea-hona!"

Matt- "Right!" Close enough right?

We are in Unchartered Territory Now!

That is right, we have had a first at our house.
Cyrus is the 4th child and this is the first time that
we have had to put a
Lock
on our fridge and pantry!

These pictures here are the result of his inability
to open the door!

Its just SO unfair!

Hey what do you know-- its
HEREDITARY!

Poor Cy

We just can't get enough of him!

We are all obsessed!

Most of the arguing these days is who gets to hold Gus!

That can't be a bad thing right?

We love our little guy!

Here's the Scoop!

After much inquiry here's the deal with yet another move! Matt found himself down a totally random road by "coincidence" and saw a lovely house that he though would work for us. Called on it and long story short- we moved again! This place is awesome and we feel like Heavenly Father really blessed us.

Now I feel really bad even talking about moving from the farmhouse, because I truly am grateful to just have a roof over our heads and it was always going to just be temporary until we could sell our house. But it did have some funny old house "charm" if you will. I think with a house that old and not really updated tons, you're going to have some funny things like no heating in the upstairs at all. The original 1932 bathtub completely worn through the enamel. Only 1 outlet in the kitchen, behind the fridge. We had extension chords running everywhere and the outlets were really sensitive- the breakers would trip ever 5 min! No air conditioning! No dishwasher (Cy eats ever 5 min so you can imagine), our new house just works a lot better for a family of 7.
We feel like it was meant to be, if we hadn't been in the farmhouse month to month, we couldn't have gotten into this new place! Plus, they want to sell when the market recovers, and we want to buy when the market recovers and we can sell our Eagle Mountain house. Maybe timing will work out perfectly again!

Anyway- we are loving Indiana. Especially me with all the SNOW!! This is what we woke up to the other day and this was just the beginning, it snowed all day long. No School!

Tagged!

Okay this one seems fun- maybe a little embarrassing too! 7 random facts or funny quirks about me. Thanks Lindsay- sorry it took me so long to get around to doing this!

1-Totally weird- I can't handle the feel of most unfinished wood! Yep no wooden spoons in our house! I can only eat a popsicle with a napkin wrapped around the stick--very strange!

2- I have dislocated my pinky finger about 20 times and finally tore all the ligaments requiring surgery (pretty dramatic for a stupid little finger, you should have seen the cast-really did they need to immobilize my whole arm?) Any way, now my finger doesn't straighten all the way, its pretty ugly!

3- I love organization, I was a total freak until getting married and having kids. They have beat it out of me! I just can't keep up. If I had my way, everything would be alphabetized etc. I have managed to keep some of my favorite things like my closet is color coordinated and all the clothes have to be on white hangers and facing the same direction. Wish I could have EVERYTHING like that!

4- I LOVE a schedule! Particularly with my kids- same time everyday for certain things. Especially sleep! I am lovingly called the "Sleep Nazi" I don't care though! Its true and I love it. It is 8pm and all 5 of my kids are asleep, three youngest at 7 & the two oldest at 8 and the rest of the night is mine to unwind! We are BIG on sleep training!

5- I HATE shopping! Shopping is my idea of torture. I really only shop at Target or Walmart because I can get some shoes or whatever the kids need and I can do my grocery shopping there too! Its pretty bad, Matt mocks me because I still wear clothes from like 10 years ago! I'd rather do that than go "shop" for new ones! How many t-shirts does a girl need anyway?

6- I admit this reluctantly, extremely reluctantly but I am a smidge hard of hearing! I had some ear trouble as a kid and was really limited in the hearing department, but I have recovered most of the hearing. But I still really struggle with "distinction" as my Dr. nicely put it. I can hear the noise, but can't make out very easily what is actually being said. That is why if you aren't looking at me, or facing my direction-- chances are I won't be able to know what you are saying. This is where the wonderful nickname "deafyn" came from. Nice.

7- I am a TOTAL freak about Led Zeppelin! There is NO greater music or band in the world. They are fantastic!! I am not joking when I say that Matt and I never would have married if not for Led Zeppelin- our blind date was headed toward disaster until we discovered our mutual love of Zep and the rest history! My kids are already brainwashed and dance like little "Led Heads" its great!

I tag Kelli, Jen Solomon, Ashlee Barker, Amy Easley & Harmony!

Here's the stats!

In all the craziness in our house lately, I missed sharing Taite's 3 year old and Cy's 18 month check-ups. This cracks me up because he is only 18 month younger than her.


Taite is in the 97th percentile for height 38.5 inches tall, 95th percentile for weight 38lbs.!! (don't you love the outfit she picked out!)

Cy is off the charts I'm pretty sure 36.5 inches tall & 37 lbs.!!

He is only 1 lb smaller than her and barely shorter!

I just love these two! I hope they are always buddies!
They are both such wonderful parts of our family!

1 Month old already!

Gus is awesome! He is 12.2 lbs already and 23 1/2 inches long! Fitting right in with the fam!

This month has gone by so quickly, we moved again (we'll talk about that later) you forget how fast it really goes. I just cherish everything with him. I can't always take extra time with him since I have 4 others to run around after, but I hold him as much as I can and take as much time as I can with him. I think especially because this is probably our last baby, it is extra special for me with little Gus! He is such a good baby too, it has just been so great adding him to our family. I feel like he is such a special little boy and important part of our family! I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for him and each one of my kids.

My friend Raquel shared a post not long ago that really touched me because it is exactly how I feel- I just wish I could stop time for a little bit. This stage in my life is so awesome and all of my kids are in such fun stages. I look at each one of them and see them getting bigger and older and changing all the time. I just don't want to miss anything or take anything for granted. It all moves on too quickly. Here is a picture from a spur of the moment photo shoot in our backyard before we moved.

All the SKILLS from their Momma!!

Oh yeah Baby!
Some of you are aware of what a tremendously talented dancer I am!
It is hard for a person to appear humble when they are as skilled as I am!

These girls are obviously rising stars!!

Okay, everybody knows that I am clueless and clumsy around a dance floor! Its like I am 80 years old and just had my hip replaced okay! I am aware of the problem.
Apparently the girls are headed in the same direction as me. My Mom and I were laughing so hard when we took these pictures because they were just flopping around so awkwardly it was hilarious! I am sure it was much harder to watch for my Mom, a wonderful dancer herself. Somehow, it skipped a generation-- well maybe two!

Now don't get your undies in a bunch- my dancer friends (you know who you are Deidre!) but I am kind of relieved that they have no dancing skills. See now I won't have to see their disappointment when they try to be the first 6 foot 4 inch ballerina!

Did we all vote today?

I hope everyone voted today!! We are big on politics around our house and now we live in a "key" state, a "battleground" state! Kind of exciting!

I didn't realize that the kids were picking up or I guess that they were interested in all our political discussions. But they have, the other day Elle came home from school all excited. "Mom, I voted for McCain today!! Not the Obamer guy. But I was the only one in my class that voted for McCain." I guess they had a littel "election" I don't think I had ever talked directly to her about the Presidential race, but she was aparently listening.
She was really upset that she was the only one voting for McCain. Then, true to Ellery's personality, she said "After we voted I talked to 2 of my friends and told them they voted for the wrong guy. They said that they changed their minds." Perhaps we have a future political strategist in our family!

Bailey calls him "Obamer" too! I love it! She had a "vote" in her class too and she excitedly let me know that she voted for "Josh McCain"

Ever since that day, they bring the subject up often, they have prayed about it, worried about it, and asked a million questions about the election. They didn't even want to go to bed tonight until they knew who won. Maybe we have unintentionally brainwashed them!

Trunk or Treat!

You try getting a 19 month old to sit still for a picture!

After several failed attempts-









We decided on separate pictures!





But here he is, cutest dalmatian dog I've ever seen!

Two beautiful witches, an awesome pirate and a pumpkin so cute I could eat him!

Those of you who know me well know I hate Halloween. A holiday devoted to over-sugaring and scaring my kids, two things I don't like. If everyone preferred the cute little "Casper the Friendly Ghost" approach as opposed to the "how scary and gross can I be" approach that some people like, maybe I would enjoy Halloween a little more. But hey we got all dressed up and I let the kids get as much candy as they possibly could --I'll just ration it out over the course of this next year!! Trust me I know, I know, I'm a party pooper! What can I say, the only real reason that I like Halloween is that is means that Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner!!! YAY! (I am listening to Christmas music as we speak!! It drives Matt crazy because it could be June and I would put on Christmas music if I feel the mood!)