Merry Christmas From The Hunt Family

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. Some might say it is too late to write a Christmas letter but I say it is never too late. If you don’t get it by Christmas then it can be considered a New Year letter. We hope you are all doing well and that 2010 was a great year for you. We are all well and had a great year ourselves.

It is amazing to me how fast time flies. I was looking through the past four Christmas letters we wrote and couldn’t believe the changes in our children and family. Some of those memories seem like they happened just yesterday while some feel a life time ago.

This year has brought some new and exciting memories for the Hunt family. One of the biggest and most exciting was watching our first home be built and then purchasing it in April. We have truly enjoyed having a home of our own. Now over the next year we get the fun of working on the landscaping. We look forward to creating many happy memories here.

Now on to the girls, Courtney is two and is busy as ever. She has quite the imagination. The problem is that it often manifests it’s self at bedtime when she is supposed to be trying to go to sleep. She will take on conversations with me about all kinds of fun, scary and exciting things all when I am trying to get her to calm down and go to sleep. She loves to play and has really started learning how to play with others. She is often heard saying “come play with me.” She is excited about life and you can’t help but smile when you see her excitement.

Shaylee successfully passed Kindergarten and is now six and in first grade. She got glasses in the Spring, but really only has to wear them when reading and doing school work. She is making lots of new friends and learning to read better all of the time. I am excited for her to be able to read because she really enjoys books. She has a very kind and tender heart and we love having in our family.

Now for Kelsi, she had a big year. In March she turned eight and was baptized. This was a very exciting time for her and our family. We are very proud of her choice. She also finished second grade with success and is now in the third grade. She was nervous about starting at a new school but has been doing great! She is growing up fast and learning to be quite the helper. She often jumps in and helps me with things even when I don’t ask. She is a great help.

Jeremy and I love our new home and are busy as ever with his job and home responsibilities. We are looking forward to a new year and all of the fun it brings with three beautiful, lively and fun filled daughters.

We hope that you all have a wonderful year and enjoy the simple joys of life we have all been blessed with.

Love,
Jeremy, Cindy, Kelsi, Shaylee, and Courtney Hunt

Kelsi's Pictures

A friend of mine, who is starting up a photography business, took some pictures of Kelsi and is going to be taking some pictures of our family on Saturday. If you want to check out the pictures of Kelsi here is her blog. Rachel Belle Photography I think they turned out great.

It's about time...

Okay so blogging and reading blogs hasn't been a strong point for me lately. So now I will do a little catching up. I have probably lost the few followers I had because of the lack of blogging. So here is a picture overview of the last few months.

July

4th of July fun!

Just relaxing

A bit of silliness.

24th in St. Johns. Watching the parade.

Loved this float. Abe actually stood up and sat down. It was neat to see a parade that actually had some real floats. Not just political and business ads.

August

Back to school

Kelsi is in 3rd

Shaylee is in 1st

Build a Bear Workshop

We has a trip to Tucson for the Gaslight theater and Build a Bear. We all had a blast. The girls each made a stuffed animal and we watched Space Wars at the Gaslight Theater. It was a farce on the movie Star Wars. It was so much fun. If you have never been to the Gaslight Theater in Tucson, I would highly recommend it. They do a great job of entertaining in a family friendly way.

September

Was a slow month for pictures. I don't think I took many at all. This month was full of school and more school for the girls.

Kelsi did get to make some eatable art at school that she really enjoyed.

October

Riding the Merry-Go-Round at the County Fair

Shaylee's art project her class did for the fair.

The amazing juggler at the fair.

Dress up fun with Courtney

Kelsi's school program about tall tales and heroes.

Halloween

Courtney as Super Girl.

Shaylee as a black cat.

Kelsi as a black cat.

The three of them.

November thus far hasn't been too bad. Courtney and I did have to make a trip this last weekend to Gilbert for dental work. Poor Courtney had cavities that needed to be filled. Being that she is still so young she had to have an IV sedation. She did very well and I am grateful she wasn't awake to deal with how many times she was poked to get the IV in. She has about 10 or 12 puncture wounds from them trying to find a vein that would work. All she remembers is the initial shot they gave her to put her to sleep.

The highlight thus far for November has been the official adoption of my nephew Samuel to his parents Jason and Kelly Edington followed by their sealing in the Gila Valley Temple as an eternal family. What a wonderful blessing that is.

November has a few more exciting and fun things yet for us and many things to be thankful for.

Summer Fun

So far our summer has been full of swimming, dancing and playing. Kelsi and Shaylee took swim lessons again this year. They did really well but have decided they don't want to do session two this summer. I guess we will just go to the pool and practice what they have learned and start again fresh next summer. Courtney spent her time playing and making friends at the kiddie pool. She would carry around a pair of goggles and call them her "giggles." She rarely wore them but had to have them. It is hard to see them in this picture because they are clear, but they are in her right hand.

Kelsi had to face some fears this summer by jumping in the deep end and swimming across without a lifeguard in the water. She did pretty well but would panic halfway across when she came up for air.

Shaylee had fun and just worked on perfecting some of the basics. She went off the diving board a couple times this sessions but was still very afraid of doing so on her own and refused to the day I brought the camera.

They all love to swim and play in the water so I guess we are going to have to do a lot of practicing during the rest of the summer.

They have also been taking dance. They have been wanting to do this for a while and we finally broke down and signed them up. The really seem to be enjoying it. I'll post a video of it soon. I tried tonight but it didn't work.

Hope you all are having a great summer!

Kelsi's Baptism

I have a little catching up to do but we will start with Kelsi's baptism. In February Kelsi got to go pick out a beautiful baptism dress with her Grandma CG. She tried on several but the one she liked the most in the beginning was the one she ended up picking in the end.

Here are a few of the ones she tried on.

Here is the one she ended up liking the most. I think she picked out a very pretty dress. She looked beautiful in it.

Here are some pictures we took for her baptism announcement in her beautiful dress.

Kelsi turned eight on March 24th and was baptized on the 27th.

Kelsi and her Dad(Jeremy)

Kelsi got to share her baptism with a friend Briley.

Kelsi got to have her hair done up special for the day by her Aunt Tamra. The flower was from her Aunt Jennie. Thanks to all of her wonderful family!

We are so proud of your choice to be baptized. You are growing up way too fast. We Love You Kelsi!

Watch for more updates soon. Hopefully! ;)

My New Life

Little Miss Runaway

What do you do when your child somehow escapes nursery and none of the leaders notice until my husband brings her back after finding her wondering the halls? Well that is what happen today. After Sunday school Jeremy had a feeling to go and check on Courtney in the nursery. When he looked in the window they have there for the parents to spy in he couldn't see Courtney. He at first thought maybe she was too close to the door for him to see, but he could hear her and couldn't figure it out so he started down the hall a little ways and there she was. He expected to see me come around the corner at anytime but I didn't. She was there all alone. He quickly went to the nursery room to ask if they had known what was going on and apparently they hadn't known she was gone and thought maybe she got out when one of the leaders had taken another child to their parent. They asked Jeremy if he wanted them to take her and he said no that he would hang on to her for the rest of the meeting. They got a little huffy and got Courtney's shoes for him.

It is hard to trust other people with your children especially when something like that happens. We are grateful nothing bad happened. I also can understand that having several little children in nursery it can be hard to keep track of them all. She doesn't know how to open the door so it isn't like she could have gotten out all on her own. I know that never sending her back is not necessarily reasonable but what do you do?

What's in your VCR?

I ask what is in you VCR because you might be a little surprised to find out what I found in ours today. (Or maybe not if you have or have ever had a 22 month old.) So here is the story. We have one of those VCR and DVD combos and I went to put a VHS in the VCR and it went half way in before it got stuck and wouldn't go in the rest of the way or come out. Because
of the jam the machine shut off and wouldn't stay on if I tried turning it back on. After unplugging everything I leaned it forward a bit and out slid a DVD. My first thought was okay that must have been what caused the problem. I still couldn't get the VHS out and was starting to think we were just going to have to replace the system. Well, with a little pushing and pulling I finally got the tape out. Everything seemed to be working fine now so I put the tape back in only to have it get stuck halfway in again. My first thought was that there was damage and that was causing the problem. Luckily I was able to get the tape out and Jeremy suggested that maybe there was something else stuck in there. Well, sure enough there was. Our little pack rat had been busy and we found her secret storage area. Along with the DVD she had stuck a pen cap, a pecan with the outer shell and some other thing that I was unsure what it was. It was hard and greasy and I think it may have been bologna at one time. Oh the joy of a toddler.

The House

Well, we are almost ready to move in. The paint has been changed to a much better color. The cabinets and plumbing are finished. The appliances are in as well as the tile and carpet. The light fixtures and electrical outlets are all in too. There is just a few minor things left for them to do like touching up the paint and putting up the mirrors. The builder is hoping to be able to hand us the keys this week! We are so excited! We still have a few things to finish up with the bank but the builder is going to let us move in before that and just pay rent or the interest on the construction loan until that is all worked out.

Our House

Carpet and tile. The tile needs to be mopped but that wont be done until after the construction is complete.

Plumbing fixtures in the girls bathroom.

Our kitchen and appliances.