Christmas a little early

While my parents were here, we had an early Christmas with them. The girls were very excited about wrapping their gifts for them and excited to get to open presents early too! It was a fun night.

This was the number one gift on Taitem's list this year! Of course she was hoping that Santa was bringing it, so when she realized that Oma...her precious Oma had given it to her well before Christmas, excited doesn't begin to describe!

Just a little bit happy, ya think?

This was the extent of Gus' interest at this age..."Ah! Something to climb on!"

Such a cutie though.

Cy has a small obsession with Diego, so I knew he was going to love this. He even makes us call him Cyrus Diego sometimes. When he was opening it, he kept saying "Is it? Is it?"

Think they are a little excited about their MP3 Players?

This picture just makes me happy. I LOVE to have my back tickled...I even pay the kids as often as I can convince them to tickle my back while I take a little snooze on the bean bag!

I inherited this love from my Dad. I remember as a kid playing "beauty parlor" Lindsey and I would get our hair stuff and brushes and we would pretend to shampoo his hair, comb and brush it softly, give little facial massage while we were at it! We thought our Daddy was so sweet to let us play this girly little game. It wasn't until later that we realized he was being sweet....but also enjoying a little relaxing as well. Sometimes he would even fall asleep!

How funny was it that I came out and found the girls playing "beauty parlor" with their Papa! Only they were smarter they took pictures of him. Maybe they could blackmail him somehow! Ha ha! I love my Dad so much.

The Big Baptism Day

Ellery was baptized today, what a GREAT day! It is something you think about for a long time, but once it finally gets there it is just more than you could have imagined. Ellery is such an amazing child and wonderful daughter, words just can't put into words how much I love her. I am so proud of her. She has always been a very obedient girl who truly wants to do what is right. Matt and I are so happy that she has made this big decision and is so willing to obey her Father in Heaven. It was really special that her Birthday fell on a Sunday and such a nice perk out here in "the mission field" that we could baptize her right on her birthday! No waiting for Stake baptism day.

Here she is all ready to go. We have obviously been talking A LOT about baptism in the months leading up to this big day. I asked her recently if she was nervous and I was surprised to hear her say yes. She has just seemed so excited that it never dawned on me that she might be apprehensive. I was worried a little. She quickly explained "I just don't want to do anything wrong." I started to think "deep". Was she worried about making decisions after she is baptized? She hates to disappoint anyone....EVER! I was feeling badly that she was stressing out. But no.

She continued "You know, I just don't want my foot to pop out or my hair to not go all the way under...what if my hand comes up?!?!" How funny, she just wanted to get it right the first time. She HATES to get anything wrong! Matt jumped in and assured her that she was lucky to have a Dad who is one of the best "dunkers" around and he shoved her down to the ground and quickly back up, no worries Elle! It gave me a good laugh because she was reassured instantly!

She did still insist on wearing piggy tails...to help with the hair floating up problem! Crack me up!

What a happy day! She picked out this material and the pattern to go with it. "Long Princess Sleeves" she insisted! What a cutie, glad I got it right.

Papa and Oma were able to make it all the way from Utah. Ellery had asked Papa to confirm her, I thought it was precious. It was extra nice to have Matt's sister Beth and her wonderful husband Jason come with their two kiddos. That was all the family that came so we were small in numbers, but it was great. I think sometimes we used to take for granted living in Utah when so much family would gladly take time to come support us in big events like this. It is a good lesson and I dearly miss the big old Hunter Fam!! But such a wonderful day!! What a blessing the Gospel truly is and how exciting it is to see my little ones slowly and steadily gaining their own testimonies. Life sure is good!

It was definitely a busy day. I found out 3 days earlier that I had to speak in sacrament meeting. Then my Mom and I both spoke at the baptism and Taite and Bailey sang the cutest duet ever! Good job girlies!

Ellery turns 8!

After her baptism we all headed back to our house for a big old party! She is such a sweet girl and everyone loves her! It was a great afternoon! Lots of food and Lots of fun!

Presents, presents, presents!

Gus had a great time at the party too!

He has become such a cheeseball lately.

Cy went and visited a couple of farms with Matt and saw them all in their overalls. He started calling them "farmers" because, duh...the farmers were wearing them. So now he is obsessed with wearing his "farmers" all the time! Uncle Jason, who Cy LOVES decided to bring up some "farmers" himself! Too funny, Cy loved it!

Fun with Papa and Oma!

It was such a great time having Papa and Oma here for a long weekend. Ellery really wanted to go bowling for her birthday! So we went out and hit the lanes! It was hilarious to say the least and I think it is now officially the kids' favorite thing to do. We had a great time!

The older two girls were really pretty good, here is Ellie's ball headed right down the middle with no help from the bumpers. She was pretty serious about the whole thing...surprise surprise, checking the scores out constantly!

Taite, as always, was just in it for the fun! She was hilariously cheering everyone on and dancing all over the place! She barely missed her own toe at least 5 times, just dropping the ball straight down.

Papa and his buddy Cy. He was adorable. Every time he, or anyone else bowled he would stand there cheering..."You can do it!!!" He was loving it!

As always, I am just all about "style" Ha! What ever, I hung in there with the boys. I had a commanding lead in the first game, but choked big time on the last couple frames...lets somehow blame it on being pregnant, shall we? That always works, right ladies!

Dad the Pro. Good form!

Matt kept cracking me up. He was awesome, as usual with anything athletic. We were congratulating him and with a straight face he replied, "Well, I did take a couple of bowling classes in college." What?!? Big football jock took bowling? Definitely before we started dating, or I don't know.... what a nerd!

I feel bad, there are no pictures of my Mom. She hurt her knee pretty badly and was the designated camera lady. That and trying to keep Gus happy, always a big chore when he sees anything with any kind of a ball going on.

It was so adorable, Gus was a BIG fan of my Dad! He would run to him and lean for him. He is a Papa's boy for sure! It made my heart melt. Here he is at the end of bowling...he had definitely had his fill of being left out!

Love this Picture

I found this pic the other day and I just LOVE it! It captures both their personalities so well. CrAzY Gus and

ever helpful and LOVING Ellery!

Totally random and it makes me smile and happy everytime I see it!

I hate computers

Our computer is having some major issues and I have hardly been able to post anything lately...which is saying a lot because you know what a blog-a-holic I am. I can't help myself, there is always so much going on around here and I am not a scrapbooker-the blog is IT!

Any whoo,
There won't be any pictures, which hurts me because I love pictures...not much of a no pictures lady, but here are a couple of funny stories from Cy and Taitem lately.

Cy-
We are sitting in sacrament meeting yesterday, you have to remember that we are a small branch and our normal numbers are around 50 I think, and our room we meet in for sacrament meeting is not much bigger than most Relief Society rooms. So, the Branch President was going through some calendar items and announced Ellery's Baptism this next Sunday. He said "Everyone come support her, it will be so wonderful! A very happy day for Ellery, very cool."

Cy talks very loud and has such a deep voice already, and a VERY loud laugh - total volume control issues! He says "Yeah!! My Errry (Ellery) soooo COOOOOL!!!" Then gives a big loud chuckle.

Of course in such a small group and room, everyone heard him and started laughing which just made him even happier with himself and started chuckling even louder. He thought he was pretty funny, so did I.


Taite-
She is convinced that as she is growing bigger, I am growing smaller (I wish this were true in some aspects) It is not just smaller either, as she gets older, I in turn am getting younger. Again, wouldn't that be nice.
To her, I am going to be her child when she grows up! I keep telling her that she is going to have babies of her own some day...her own family. She agrees and then says, you are going to be one of my babies! No changing her mind.
Tonight we were wrestling around and I was tickling her pretty good. She grabbed my face with her hands and said "When I grow up and you grow small....you are going to GET it!! I am warning you young lady!"


Another funny thing she says now days.
We call Gus many names; Gus, Gus-Gus, Gussy, Augie, Red, Gustus, and Augustus etc. I probably am the only one that ever calls him Augustus and every time I do Taite will say something to him after me and call him "Hey, THE-Gustus!" instead of Augustus...it cracks me up.

A Great Quote

"My dear brothers and sisters, may the laughter of children gladden our hearts. May the faith of children soothe our souls. May the love of children prompt our deeds. 'Children are an heritage of the Lord' (Ps. 127:3)...
It is our solemn duty, our precious privilege—even our sacred opportunity—to welcome to our homes and to our hearts the children who grace our lives...
Parents everywhere realize that the most powerful combination of emotions in the world is not called out by any grand cosmic event, nor is it found in novels or history books, but merely by a parent gazing down upon a sleeping child...
May our Heavenly Father ever bless these sweet souls, these special friends of the Master, is my humble and earnest prayer. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
Thomas S. Monson "Precious Children-A Gift From God" Ensign Nov 1991

Oh how I LOVE President Monson.
That is EXACTLY how I feel!

We've never been good at keeping a secret around here, this is my way of announcing that we are

PrEgNaNt & OvErJoYeD!

Log Heaven

So we had a couple of our million and five trees in our yard cut down this week. To say the kids were mesmerized would be a severe understatement. They were transfixed with the huge crane, the guy with the chain saw and the machine that chopped all the small limbs up. The two men worked for 7 hours to cut down these three trees and the kids watched as much as they could! Hilarious.
We have several families in our branch that rely on wood for their source of heat during the winter. So we kept all the wood to chop it up and give away. In the meantime however, they can't get enough of climbing and playing on all the piles.

It is just amazing to me the things that will entertain kids! Who needs toys...here is some wood!

The First Thanksgiving

Well we headed down to Ft. Wayne the Sat. before Thanksgiving to have a FeAsT with Matt's fam! It was FaBuLoUs! Great job Beth and Jason! I just love getting together with them, they are going to be absolutely sick of us if we can ever move down closer to them. Ha! I look forward to driving them nuts!

Mamau was visiting from Oregon, an extra treat!

I really didn't take too many pictures because the kids were too busy off playing with their cousins! I did get a few pics of me and Beth, we are nerds... I already know.

It was awesome the hubbies all stayed with the kiddos while the girls headed off to a movie! We wanted to see "Blind Side", but it was sold out. We still had a blast after a not-so-good second choice movie. Here we are at Target with some random hat for a photo shoot. Don't let Beth fool you, she loves me! Ha! What a great day, and what a fantastic family!

Bring on the Cake!

We had Gussy's Birthday party! So much fun! He was not hesitant at all with the cake, dove right in. A guy after my own heart.

The Cake! A little out of order, but hey that is how it fit!

"Back away from the cake"

That is what happens when you get too close.

He loved opening his presents, at first he just kept throwing

them...his favorite thing to do is throw things! But once he

got the idea, he was having a blast tearing into the presents!

Go COLTS!

He even loved the cards!

Oh how I love this boy! My little Gus Man, Gus Gus, Gussy, Augie...any way you say it we adore him! Thank heavens he joined our family! I just can't believe that he is 1 already, it just isn't fair that if flies by so quickly! We are very blessed!