Daphne's 6th Birthday, Part Two

A few days after her Birthday Luau, we celebrated Daphne's day with Matt's Family. She begged her Nanny and Papa for a Nintendo DS. This is an extremely interesting turn of events to me. Daphne likes video games infantessimally more than I do, which is absolutely none at all. So I was a little surprised that this was on her wish list. But her brother has one and all of her cousins have one, so I guess she just needed to be part of the crowd. She was ecstatic to receive one:

Our niece, Sydney, made Daphne the cutest hat and little flower clips to go on it! So adorable.

Daphne was equally impressed with their home-made card:

Somehow we missed pictures of the cake, but suffice to say it was beautiful and delicious! Daphne had such fun.

We did however, get afew gorgeous shots of Victoria:

Pardon all her little owies... she's two.

She is hearing unfamiliar sounds and looking around the lawn for the source...

note how she tried to cup her ear but actually covers it.

DAphne also got to spend part of her special day holding our newest niece, Savannah Rae, who weighed only 4 lbs. 10 oz. when she was born! Here is Daphne and Matt's dad holding up a loaf of bread next to her!

We are so grateful that she made it here safely. What a precious baby girl to have in our family.

Daphne's birthday is always a particularly nostalgic time for me. Perhaps because her birth was so dramatic that the entire scene is etched into my brain. But we are so grateful that our sweet Daphne sped her way into this world. And now that we know her better, we wouldn't expect anything less exciting or turbulent. Daphne is an amazing girl with the strongest spirit- we are honored to be her parents and pray that we will have the strength to help her become who God wants her to be.

We love you, Daphne. We pray for you daily and are so incredibly in love with your magnificent soul. Happy Birthday, Daffodil!

Aloha! Daphne's 6!

My sweet Daphne turned 6 years old this month! It seems like just a minute ago she was barrelling into the world.... I am in awe of her precious life and of the One who sent her to our family. I sometimes wonder if He giggles a little at my reactions to all her drama.
Daphne wanted a Hawaiian party for her birthday, and with a little help from Matt's parents (who have everything, it seems) we threw a pretty great luau!

Daphne wanted a "pool party" and I'm afraid that in our climate, this is the most practical pool for us. I was worried the kids would think an inflatable pool was kind of lame, but they had a blast!

Here she is with her friends, Lauren and Joseph.

I'll spare you the pictures (although they are pretty cute), but I spent the first half hour of the party trying to get Victoria to keep her clothes on! In that respect, she is much like her older sister at the same age.

I thought the bouncer would be much more popular than our rinky-dink pool, but they seemed to love both equally.

We had a water balloon toss with our famous pig from our family PIGWAB celebrations.

Which then broke into a water balloon fight:

We had sack races, which were a big hit:

After all the games, it was time for cake! Daphne picked out this cake, which I think is a design for anniversaries and such, but she wanted this one! So, we tried to get the flowers in sort of Hawaiian colors and go with it.

And we had yummy tropical sorbets. They are selling these at Costco right now, and when Daphne had a sample, she just had to have them for her party. Individual portions of sorbet served in fruit shells:

And then it was time for presents:

Boring clothes from her parents:

All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon. I think the kids stayed cool with all the water, and Daphne was pretty gracious for a 6 year old birthday girl! Matt and I both kind of felt like we'd been run over by a train at the end, so we headed to Crown Burger for dinner. Yum!

One Decade Ago...

Ten years ago I married my favorite person in the whole world.
Ten years seems like a long time, but I suppose it's true what they say.. you know- that time flies when you are having fun! I know it's cliche, but it's true. It does not seem that it could possibly have been that long ago that I went to the temple and became Mrs. Matthew Hunter. Who decided the woman's name can't even be mentioned? Mrs. Laura Hunter, who happens to be married to the most wonderful man in the world. There. That's better.
Anyway, Matt and I wanted to do something really wonderful for our 10th anniversary. Since we toured Europe last summer and I wanted new furniture this month, we decided just to make it a little get-away. We thought about going to Zermatt Resort, which is supposed to be like being in Bavaria. It really is beautiful- and there are any number of places we could visit around here- Utah is so magnificent.
But not being much of an outdoorswoman, (I think we all know that's an understatement) and considering the fact that we've never really left all three of our children before, I wanted to stay pretty close. So, we just headed down to Salt Lake City for a few days. We were feeling a little nostalgic, so we stayed in the Anniversary Inn and reserved the exact same suite we had on our Wedding night!
For the first evening, we weren't quite sure what to do without the kids... I kept turning around and looking for someone to need me. But we got the hang of it pretty fast- we went out for a late dinner at The Garden , which is a rooftop restaurant at Temple Square. These are a a few pictures from our table:

We had so much fun just relaxing and being together- and we were thankful to find we enjoy each other without the kids around! We love them so much and it's hard to be away from them; the first morning I couldn't even sleep in because my body is set to wake up with them. (Okay and because there was a crazy amount of sunlight coming through the hotel window right on my face).

Even though Matt and I were married in the Bountiful Temple, we wanted to use some of our time to visit the Salt Lake Temple. So we spent the morning there on Tuesday and loved being a part of that ceremony.

Later that afternoon, we just wandered around Temple Square for a while and checked out the new exhibit (is that the right word?) at the South Visitor's Center by the Temple. You may have seen the story on the news... Click HERE for the link to the story. Their pictures are way better than ours.

As someone who converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints a little later in life, I know from first -hand experience how curious people are about the temple. Matt and I noticed all over Europe that pretty much any beautiful Cathedral or Church was open to visitors... for a price. And we loved seeing all the magnificent architecture and interesting displays of devotion to the Lord. Our chapels, where we worship on Sundays, are open to anyone and everyone. Most display a large "Visitors Welcome" sign. Temples are a little different, and I totally understand why some people are skeptical, curious or even judgemental about that. I mean, God's blessings should be available to everyone, right? Right. We invite everyone to come to the temple. In the temple, we make sacred covenants with the Lord. We worship Him in a symbolic way, making very solemn promises about how we will strive to live for Him in this life. Every single thing we do there is symbolic of Christ's Atonement. Because we take those covenants so seriously, it is important that individuals be certain they are ready and willing to commit their lives completely to Christ before entering. (Just as was the case during Biblical Times) The Lord accepts us as we are when we are baptized, and then He expects submission to His will, which is made manifest by the actions in our lives. Someone who enters the temple isn't perfect, just completely committed to Christ and the Gospel.

So I can understand how people are curious about the temple. The truth is, every temple has an Open House, where the public is free to come and tour the rooms. We even have a magazine called Temples, where you can view pictures of the rooms in various temples around the world. But once a temple is dedicated to the Lord, only those who are prepared to covenant with Him will enter. The Salt Lake Temple is one of the oldest, and one of the most beautiful, and certainly the most widely visited. Since the Open House for this Temple is long past, there isn't really a way to see inside.

But the Church Leaders commissioned this model to be built, where individuals can look inside and see the rooms!

I love how it is placed right next to the glass wall so it is right in the shadow of the actual temple.

The link I posted above has much better photography, but you can see the layout and the rooms- it's pretty incredible. Even having been in the temple, it was very informative. The Salt Lake Temple is so large that you aren't always sure where in the building you are located, so this was really fascinating to see.

There is a touch screen monitor on each side, and you can select a room and take a 360 virtual tour, with a narrator explaining what happens in that room. Too cool. This takes out so much of the mystery that causes people to be skeptical about the whole thing.

I highly recommend making a trip to the South Visitor's Center to see this model! If you are in the area- it is a one-of-a-kind opportunity!

Matt and I had so much fun together. We were anxious to get back to our children- Matt's Mom was so generous and kind to watch them for us. I know from experience that they can wear a girl out! So, thank you, Marsha! We had a blast!

Independence Day 2010!

Last year, we were out of the country for the 4th of July, which was a rather anti-climactic experience. See this post for details on our weekend in Austria. This year, we were determined to have a more All-American celebration. Because the 4th of July fell on a Sunday, our events were spread out quite a bit. We try to make Sunday a special day, set apart for the Lord. I don't know how restful it is, but we try! :) Anyway, here are my little munchkins with the flag out front: On Saturday, the 3rd, we went to a party with some of Matt's co-workers. Here's Tori on the way: (She's playing with her little lap top that my Dad gave her):

They had a blast bouncing on the trampoline:

On Sunday, the 4th, we had our nieces and nephews sleep over. We thought in the morning we would venture out and see the city parade.

Our niece, Abby, is pretty much Victoria's favorite person in the world. Tori follows her around like a little puppy dog and Abby can pretty much get her to do anything! Here they are watching the parade together.

Isaac and our nephew, Zach:

The girls and I all had matching shirts and I was determined to get a picture of us together, but Daphne ran off throwing a fit and this is all I got:

Sadly, my sweet Matthew got a migraineduring the parade. Not the best environment. Matt's migraines are debilitating and I usually don't even talk about them much because I never know what will bring one on. He had to go home and rest and so I corralled the 7 kids back out of the parade and back home. Kind of a bummer on a fun day.

After he recovered, he was man enough to take the kids to the fire works that night (with the help of some ear plugs!) They were so excited and had a blast even though it cooled off quite a bit that night.

They actually needed blankets-on the 4th of July!

Hope you all had a fabulous Independence Day!