December!

Shaun was so impressed with the lights on the Christmas tree! They are just normal multi colored lights, but he loved them! Every time he first saw them, he pointed at the tree and “ooohed” and aaahed” and squealed like crazy. It was really cute. He also wanted to touch the tree a lot, so we had to constantly tell him to not touch it. He pulled it down twice! The second time I caught it before it actually hit the floor. No damage though. We haven’t put our tree up in a few years, so I was excited to have it up again! Last year, being 7 months pregnant, I didn’t want to have any more “chores” than necessary, and we knew it would be the last time we would have the opportunity to not put it up. And the prior 2 years I think, we just weren’t in the mood to put it up. We have still collected our tree ornaments every year though. We buy an ornament every year, with the year on it. This year it is a baby’s first Christmas ornament, with a picture of Shaun in it. So, someday our whole tree will be filled with ornaments from each year of our marriage!

Shaun has started drinking out of a sippy cup. He drinks “juice” in it throughout the day. I say “juice” because it is really water, with just a little bit of juice to give it a little bit of flavor so he will want to drink it. He is really good at drinking from it when lying down. He is still working on tipping it up properly when sitting.

Shaun loves to be on his feet and “walk”. No, he isn’t walking yet on his own, but he wants us to hold his hands and walk around with him. His little feet want to run too! I think we are in big trouble soon. If he still wants to walk around after we stop, he gets all mad until the walking starts again, and this is basically just going round and round the living room. He loves his new race car that he can walk behind, see the pictures linked at the right for December.

We had a good, but unusual Christmas. See the previous blog for all about that.

Happy New Year!!!

An unusual Christmas!

This year was an unusual Christmas for our family because of the weather! First, we postponed the Christmas Eve gathering at my Aunt’s home in west Seattle because we didn’t want to travel on the slippery roads, and it was still snowing! We postponed it until Saturday, but the side roads were still not good enough, so that gathering is now not until January 17th because that is when everyone is available! However, we still went over to my parent’s house. We had Shaun open up the presents from us, so they could watch since Shaun doesn’t yet know what is really going on.

Christmas day, we slowly and carefully drove to my parent’s house. It was a blizzard outside, but we were not going to miss getting together with family on Christmas day. We slipped and slid there, without incident.

Then we had a mini scare. About half an hour after arriving, our SUV slid down their driveway into the garage door! We heard a bang, and everyone said, “What was that?” Everyone was scattered throughout the house because Dad & Renae had just come in from shoveling snow. I went and looked out the front window and our car was down next to the house! I said, “It’s our car, it’s our car!!!” I couldn’t seem to get out an intelligible phrase like, “Our car has slipped down the driveway and hit the house..” Everyone came running over, and there was a moment of panic, before Dad, Bill and Renae all rushed outside to “fix” it.

Luckily there was no damage that couldn’t be fixed. First they worked on getting the Explorer back up the driveway. Apparently the vehicle slid down on ice even though the emergency brake was on and we thought we had left it far enough at the top. We are guessing that the e-brake slowed the car down a lot, thankfully. After they finally got the car back up the driveway, after a lot of sanding and slipping, they worked on clearing a place on the street to park it! This involved putting chains on and a lot more shoveling! They were all running on adrenalin because we hadn’t even eaten our Christmas brunch yet, so no one had anything in their stomachs yet besides coffee. (And it was still a blizzard outside!)

The car bowed in the garage door, but the 3 of them were able to “unbow” it with all their strength, and it still works! While this was all going on, Mom and I determined that the other family should not come over today because it was too treacherous and slippery! So, we had a quiet day there with just the 6 of us again. We had our brunch (after reheating) and opened presents. We watched “Back to the Future”, a present Dad got, and went out sledding in their backyard. It was a lot of fun! We hadn’t been sledding down the backyard in probably 15 years. Usually there is not enough snow to sled. All 6 of us went sledding many times, even Shaun (on Dad’s lap of course!). Abby chased the sledder down the hill each time and she could keep up even though we would go fast!

So, the postponed Christmas day gathering happened today, Sunday with the rest of the family (My Aunt, Uncle, Grandma, Cousin & Cousin law in addition to my sister and parents again!). Finally the weather has turned to rain, instead of the snow and cold we have had for the past 2 weeks!!
Here are some pictures of Shaun and his gifts! He is not spoiled, is he???

Learn & Groove Table from Mom & Dad

Race Car from Grandma & Grandpa

Popper from AuntieBaseball bat and ball from Grandpa & Grandma Hunter

Basketball Hoop from “Aunt” Jess & “Uncle” Albert
Hammer set from Great Grandma NairnCube that plays lots of music and noise from Great Aunt Beth & Great Uncle Jon

More Snow!

Well, we have more snow folks!!! This has been quite a storm for us here in Western Washington! The first round was last weekend and then the second round started Tuesday night. The ice never went away between the storms either. The highs were maybe up to freezing, maybe not! Wednesday was a bit warmer, but then round 2 hit. It has snowed almost all day today. I have spent three days this week working from home so far, and it looks like maybe tomorrow too. I actually want to go back to the office. Now that is saying a lot! Our street is still fully covered. And we are supposed to get more in the coming days too, when will it ever end!!!!!?????

I was also bummed because I missed 3 gatherings that I was looking forward to. The first was on Wednesday, a work luncheon up in Bellingham for a coworker who is leaving. The second was our playgroup Christmas party Wednesday evening. And the 3rd was our office holiday potluck/party today.

Here is another cute video of Shaun (& Abby & Dad this time). Dad went out Christmas shopping between storms on Tuesday evening and he came back with this sled also. Grandma & Grandpa got him the cute hat!

Snow!

Shaun experienced snow for the first time today! (It snowed a few times after he was born, but he was too little to go out in it back then.) It snowed yesterday and last night. We got a total of about 3-4 inches. It's supposed to be cold all week, and maybe more snow! The roads were a little slippery this morning, but we made it to church. We are even going out again this evening to the church Christmas show! As you can see, Abby gets energized by the snow, she loves it!

Our New Stockings!

We have Mom & Dad stockings now!!! And Shaun has one too!

Our stockings and tree!

Christmas Card & 2008 at a glance!

A look back at 2008….

This year we did not send a letter with our Christmas card. Instead I directed all of you here! So, welcome if this is the first time reading our family blog. We have tried to move to the 21st century! I (Suzanne) try to post at least once a month, on the 1st, if not more often to update you on our life and share pictures! Here is a summary of the highlights of 2008 for the Hunter Family:

January – Anticipation of our son’s arrival. Doctor visits, last minute preparations, supply buying, baby showers, baby classes….. I could go on, and on…. ;)

February – Great anticipation on when the birth will come, and it started 9 days early with my water breaking at work! How our life changed! Shaun was born on 2/12 weighing 7 pounds 14 ounces and 21 inches long. We all went home from the hospital on Valentine’s Day! We learned how much longer it takes to get out of the house!

March – Grandma (Hunter) came to meet her 4th grandchild with Uncle Seth from Montana. Uncle Seth is only 14 and already has 2 nieces and 2 nephews! Shaun joins Kyra (6), Kayla (4) & Kamron (2) as grandchildren on the Hunter side of the family. However, they live in Montana, so Shaun hasn’t met them yet. Hopefully someday soon.

April – We took the first family trip to the ocean with Shaun. We felt like we were moving in! Who knew that one little person could have or need so much stuff!?

May – My first Mother’s day. It was very special, in fact, every day I love being a mom! Shaun and I and his friends and their Mommies started up our own play group. Shaun is 3 months old!

June – Bill’s first Father’s day. The start of our weekly summer day trips to the cabin at the lake. I returned to work 2 days a week. I decided to start a blog to keep you all updated and get up to date with technology!

July – I returned to work full time and Bill is officially a stay at home Daddy!

August – Shaun is 6 months old! Wow, how time flies! We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.

September – I turned the big 3-0!!!

October – 2nd Annual applesauce making party with Renae & Jessica. Shaun’s first Halloween and first trip to the pumpkin patch.

November – Shaun is 9 months old! First Thanksgiving Feast!

December – First time on Santa’s lap & Christmas! We learned that Shaun will be getting a new “cousin” next summer! Ok, what will Shaun and this new baby be to each other if their moms are cousins? We will call them cousins anyway!!! Until then, Shaun is the only child of this generation on my side of the family. Bill can see the light at the end of the tunnel for school. He has one more class next quarter, and then he has his Bachelor’s degree! Whoohoo!!!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!! We hope that 2009 will be good to you and your family!

November!

At the beginning of the month Shaun gave up the army crawl and now is only doing the regular crawl. He can move super quick! He also started walking along furniture too. He turned 9 months. His 9 month professional pictures are linked at the right.

He also started eating what we eat for dinner and other finger foods. He has been eating baby food out of jars for 3+ months now. He thought that the harder textures were weird at first. It took him awhile to realize that he can put the food in his mouth himself. Of course, everything but food goes in the mouth easily! We started with Cheerios and Kix for practice. He learned really quick how to feed Abby though (and so did Abby)!

His first meal of ours was a hot dog (ground of course). He seemed to love it! He also enjoyed his first Thanksgiving! He had our feast, ground to make for easy chewing. I’m excited to have him eating what we are. Doc said that he should be eating everything that we are by his birthday, so we are starting slowly. We dropped one bottle, so he is down to 3 a day and 3 meals instead of 4 bottles and 2 meals. I am still pumping so he is still getting my milk and usually 1 bottle of formula a day now. This month we had to start adding formula because my supply is decreasing in preparation for stopping. I’m going to be done with pumping around his birthday! My goal from the beginning was for him to have my milk for a year, and I think I will make it.

Bill reenlisted for 4 more years in the Navy reserves. He is just trying to make it to 20, so he can officially retire. He is on the downhill side, on year 12! It’s hard to believe that I met him when he was in year 1!

I am thankful for a lot this year. Most importantly for my family and my job security! I love being a mom and I love how our family has changed this year. I love seeing how good of a Dad Bill is. It makes me love him even more. I am grateful that my job is not in jeopardy during these rough economic times. There has been talk on the news about state employees being laid off and worried about their jobs. I am grateful to be in an agency and job that brings in the money, so we even add jobs when the economy goes down. I also just learned that my cousin is expecting her first child. This is a big answer to prayer and we are excited to have a second little one in the family close to home.

We also went and visited Santa Claus for the first time! Shaun didn’t know what to make of it I think, but he did not cry! We are all now getting into the Christmas spirit!! Merry CHRISTmas!