2 Birthdays and An Anniversary

Okay, I know I have been a phenomenal slacker at posting for the past month! I apologize- we have just been so crazy it seems. In the past few weeks, we celebrated Matt's Birthday and Calvin and Marsha's 40th Wedding Anniversary as well as Matt's grandmother's 88th birthday.
Matt's parents, Calvin and Marsha at their surprise Anniverasry Party this past Saturday:

The Cake....
We celebrated Matt's Birthday over the past few weeks and the kids had a wonderful time- you would have thought it was their birthday- they were so excited for him. Matt had a meeting on the evening of his birthday and we stayed home and made snickerdoodles and birthday cards and surprised Matt when he came home. The kids were so funny and Matt was definitely surprised.
Matt and his birthday cake made of Caramel Corn!
Matt and Isaac describing Isaac's carefully created Birthday Card:
Isaac and his cousing Zach with crazy hair! :)

Daphne at the party!

Troubled on Every Side... Yet Not Distressed

Well, at the end of one very difficult week and at the dawn of a new day, I feel compelled to record a few of my experiences from this week. I contemplated posting a humorous anecdote on my terrible, horrible no- good very bad week. We seemed to encounter one struggle after the other: I was sick, Isaac was sick, Matt’s car broke down, Daphne managed to eat some peanut butter cake at preschool on Friday and had a terrible reaction ... I could go on and detail all of the other mishaps and set backs from this week… but I fear that it would be a little too much for all of us! I must admit that yesterday I was doing a pretty good job of feeling sorry for myself. I wept- just allowing the emotions of the week to envelope me.
But this morning I awoke to the tender mercies of the Lord! I read in II Corinthians ch.4: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body of the dying Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh… For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory…”( v. 8-11, 17). Again I am humbled by the tremendous grace and mercy of our Lord. How foolish and selfish I have been this week- I know that my natural self wants to cling to my own sorrow and self-pity, but Christ wants me to cling to His perfection and become more than I can imagine!
I sit back and I look at my life- my loyal and steady husband- faithful to Christ in all things, my precious and delightful children- healthy and happy and joyous, my family, who will drop everything in a moment to help me out of a bind, my dear friends, who buoy me and support me and guide me back to Christ, I could go on and on counting my blessings… but I’ll spare you that!  Suffice it to say, I love my life!
And just because my kids are so cute- here are some pics of them at Isaac's first soccer game last week:

How Great is My Joy!

Matt's sister Raegan took pictures of Daphne for her third year of life. I am having a little trouble deciding which one of Daphne to hang on my wall. I want all of them! Help me decide! I am going to crop out her house in the background... I put the numbers before each pic. Thanks!
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First Day of School!

Well, this was a week of firsts for the Hunters... Monday was my first day at the University, Tuesday was Daphne's first day of Preschool, and Wednesday was Isaac's first day of Kindergarten! I was bummed that I would be teaching on Isaac's first day, but Matt took off work to take him and pick him up, and I think it was for the best seeing that I cried at Back to School night and at his Kindergarten Assessment!
Here is Daphne on Tuesday morning right outside her classroom!

I decided to make a "First Day of School Cake" for the kids each year... I know I am not much of a cake decorator, but it's functional enough... At the bottom are their initials and the grade they will be entering this year. The idea is that we make it together the night before school starts and then we can eat a piece of cake when they come home and they can tell me about their day at school! I hope it will continue to work in the future...



He looks so grown up with his back pack on...

Here is Isaac all lined up with his class... he is the tallest one!


I guess Isaac's first day went well... he was a little teary eyed and kept saying that he needed to barf! We thought he was just nervous, but later that evening, he threw up his "First Day of School Cake" all over our van! Yuck- I have definitely had more enjoyable days! Daphne is doing really well in her class- she never wants to leave! School is going very well for me also, and Matt is just chugging along trying to keep up with all of us!

Daphne's Birthday

Okay, so I have been a slacker and haven't posted about Daphne's Birthday in July. We celebrated it early in July with Matt's family in Utah, and then on the actual day while in Texas. Actually, Daphne thought that we were going to Texas for her birthday! So, here are some pics...

GiGi was so sweet to make a Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Cake for Daphne, who was thrilled!

Opening Presents


Daphne in her new Strawberry Shortcake outfit from her GiGi!

Here is Daphne at her birthday celebration up here in Utah in early July...

Yummy Cake!!

A Fairy Princess!!

Busy...

I just thought I would add a post saying.... I'm too busy to post! I am getting ready for school to start for me and Daphne and Isaac, being a Mommy and helping at Church, and well... I'll post something as soon as I can...

Laura

Tea Parties and Dress Ups!

My mom had a plethora of dress up clothes for Daphne to use during our recent visit... Daphne made good use of all of them! Also my dear friend Carole gave Daphne a tea set for her birthday and Isaac and Daphne enjoy having tea parties now! Here are some pics of them playing at my Mom's house...

Sea World!

When Isaac was 2, we took him to Sea World and ever since he has been asking when we can go back to that place with all the big whales. He is also quite the little shark aficianado (we are enjoying Shark Week on the Discovery Channel). Here we are at the beginning ofour Sea World trip- already pretty sweaty!

Isaac and Daphne playing in the tunnels...

Isaac feeding the Seals and Sea Lions- they loved this! We also fed the dolphins.

Here we are on the little Shamu roller coaster. Isaac really enjoyed this and then he went on to ride the steel eel 3 times! I was pretty surprised that he was tall enough to ride all but one of the roller coasters.

Daphne and I in the tea cup ride, which was fairly anti climactic for both of us... but it kept Daphne from screaming while the boys were off riding the Steel Eel.

TEXAS!!

Yea!! Our Family was able to come down to Texas this July! We were feeling adventurous, so we drove in our Van with our two young children for 24 hours straight! We really know how to have a good time. Actually, God blessed us so much and our children were very happy throughout both the trip down and the trip home. We spent 3 days in San Antonio and then drove to Dallas to be with my family and we had a delightful time!
Here is our family just outside my Mom's Church.

Here is Matt helping Daphne on our less than enjoyable jaunt down the Riverwalk. We got started on the wrong end and it took us quite a while to get to the restaurant where we had lunch!

Isaac and Daphne smiling happily after filling their bellies with delicious Tex Mex!

07/07/07

Many of you may not be aware of Matt's family reunion holiday thingy, which we refer to as PIGWAB. That stands for "Party in Gear Without Any Beer", since we don't drink! I can't believe I am telling all of you this... but here goes. Every thirteen months, we have a little reunion with Matt's Dad's side of the family and we call it PIGWAB, as aforementioned. We started this tradition on January 1, 2001 and continued with February 2, 2002 and so forth. So, of course, this year we celebrated on July 7th, 2007, 07/07/07... Each year we have a different theme, typically falling in line with the corresponding holiday of the month. SO, this year's theme was a Patriotic, All American PIGWAB... and if you have followed this far, here are some pictures to reward you for your time!


Daphne and her cousin, Luke Skywalker, (yes... that really is his name!) enjoying the Bluebell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream that Matt's parents so generously buy in 3 gallon drums from Outback Steakhouse!

Matt lighting fireworks in the PIG-BOMB contest (each guy designed a pig and rigged it to blow up with fireworks- not real pigs, though... that would be gross.)

Isaac bobbing for apples, in the PIG-BOB contest...

Mommy and Daphne...

The sack race... I apologize for my arm right in front of Isaac racing, but we didn't get a whole lot of pictures of that boy- he won't hold still long enough! We all had a lot of fun on this one!




Isaac and Daphne participating in the children's pie eating contest... Matt and I were in the Adult pie eating contest, but we'll haver to wait until we get pics from someone else, as my face was in the pie!



Here we all are participating in the PIG-LOB water balloon toss...