...almost.. not quite ... good bye

summer.

not here.

yet.

we wait.

patiently.


Is this a foreigner in my car?  No, my mother, 'freezing' from the 68 degree weather we had last week.  In her defense, turns out she had a fever from a cold.  Sad goodbye as she goes back to Florida.

Is this a bugger?  No, a raisin.  Our first child to stick things up their nose.  What is our future with this one?

Did we have another baby?  No, this is Lexi with Wendell.

Is she crazy?  Yes, she finally got her head phones that mute out loud noises.  I will be using these this summer with an 'on break' sign.

Love at first site?  No.  She has just started enjoyed swinging the past month.  She enjoys swinging on the 'big' swing too.

Is slavery legal in the US?  No, but this is not slavery.  My kids help me clean.  This day was windows.

Challenge: find three ways for our family to save $$.  This is one that I thought of today.  (it has been kind of fun to hang them out)

Ridiculous: the price of these extra long pegs online.  This is a 'classic' or 'vintage' light bright and it works MUCH better than the newer cube version.  But finding pegs is difficult.  We lucked out and got some at Goodwill for $3.  A bargain!  Next challenge will be finding new papers.

Classic: picture of kids sleeping.  Did I tell you that our kids all sleep in the same room?  There is a slang term for this that I won't use.  The kids love it and it has worked well for the most part.  Glad that we haven't put raising our kids in a box of American expectations.  We are happy to have them all together and loving it.  It has allowed to have a play room upstairs.  This picture is a panoramic so it's a bit messed up.  And yes, I did turn the light on to take the picture.

Sad goodbye.  My brother is moving to California.  He's been offered an awesome opportunity for work that might allow him to be an entrepreneur.  A bit of a shark tank story.  He's not the shark.  We 're excited for him but will miss having him and his family in Iowa.

I'm sure we'll see them for holidays; and we know how to skype so all will be well.

Do you like green food?  Not really but this actually tastes REALLY good.  It is potato spinach soup.  Basically make potato soup but put lots of spinach in with it then blend.  It tastes like potato soup and is very good.  Now we just need to get past the 'greenness' of it.  A great way to use up the 'borderline' spinach.

We also tried zucchini chips which did not turn out well.  And a chick pea salad which was good.  I'll try and post another time!

Here is the playdough recipe that I like.  I especially The kids enjoy playing with it warm!
http://www.playdoughrecipe.com/

Ask (Grandpa) and you shall receive....

                                a treehouse!!

Grandpa Jim built us a 'tree house' without a tree : )

And we are SUPER excited!!  .. maybe a little scared (for injuries).

Done just in time for summer to be here!

THANK YOU GRANDPA!!

food and fun

Seems like our lives revolve around food and fun.  

Evidence = the pictures we take.

I hope that someday when I'm old and in the nursing home that I can look back on my blog and enjoy looking at it. I hope my (and my kids) memory is of the good stuff, the love, the joy, and how God blessed us; now the 'bad' or 'sad' things.  

When I I die, I can't take it with me but I know the love will go and that will be awesome.  For some reason, I think of dying and heaven a lot; (mentally preparing myself?).

Here we go!

Toothless:  this boy has lost 8 teeth.

Sillyness: us girls are pretty silly sometimes

 and we love it!

 and I love her!

She is awesome now that she's past the 2yr old phase. 

Very much a joy to have around!

This is almost a hobby/chore/part time job of mine now.  I cut lots of veggies and cook them up with some eggs.  They make a great healthy and quick breakfast.  Especially good in a wrap for a breakfast burrito.

Recycle often?  The Hunt kids love to dig through our recycling and 'make' things - usually helmets.

 or hats.  This time, they were super hero's so off to the park we went to 'fly'!

This one cracked me up.. we have been watching the Star Wars series with Wendell.  Guess who I thought she looked like?

this character : )  Mr. Jar Jar Binks

So this was a brilliant idea but he came up with better.  (He's pulling her with a rope).

Oh yeah!!  This has made my life so much easier!  He loves pulling her around! Now I don't have too!
Yes, he did take her over the ramp.

So precious!  This dog's tail wiggles when you pull him and he kind of quacks like a duck.

We ran out of diapers so I attempted potty training for a day.  She went once and I know she can hold it quite well.  Maybe in another 6 months or so.

Nice!  My mom mailed me a dress and a wig for Easter.  What do you think?

Field trip: to the Youth Pavilion with Harlie's preschool class.

 Harlie on the bike.

 Harlie dressed up.

Harlie's class watched some chicks hatch from eggs.

She was pretty excited to show us.

What you looking at?

We rode home and she snacked on an apple slice.  This is how I found her when we got home.  It was just hanging out of her mouth.  I think she was pretty tired.

Our race car driver.

This was my newest 'clever' idea.  I got Ali a potatoe head for her birthday just so we can use the pieces for playdough.  On a side note, I highly recommend making your own playdough.  It's super fun to play with warm, it's cheap, smells better, you have a lot more to play with, and it's stores well.

 Selfie.

 Ali's creation.

Wendell's music concert

Our newest addition breaking ground.

Wendell asked my dad to build him a tree house.

So it has begun.

And we wait patiently for them to come back and finish it!


I am so excited for summer... letting the kids stay up late, sleeping in, not getting dressed right away, eating when we're hungry not because we have to get going, playing outside, jumping in the sprinkler ... on and on I could go.  We'll see how I feel a few weeks in but for now.. I'm ready!