The 2008 Rewind

Since I have wanted to do this blog thing for so long I have a lot to post. So here we go......

We had little Miss Olivia Wenona Hunsaker on January 2nd. Another C-Section for me, but one healthy little girl, so that's worth it.

With nothing better to do with our time, we decided to obliterate my parents kitchen, (and eventually the rest of the whole 1st floor), and get a remodel done. I wanted to do something nice for my parents and I did help out as much as I could with 3 kids, but Josh and his dad worked really hard.

Damon liked to be at the "jobsite" and attempted to help mostly by taking scrap wood from one pile and placing it somewhere else in the house which only meant we had to pick it up again. What a helper!

Joel enjoyed taking off his shoes and walking through the piles of sawdust and other construction debris.

There was a lot of hard work and late nights, but it was worth it for the great Sunday lunches we have enjoyed (courtesy of Jean, Jean the Chef Machine) for the past five years.

In May we headed to Salt Lake City for Lauren & Ernest's Wedding. It was a fun weekend......hanging out with my family and taking a break from our normal schedule at home. Lauren looked "bellisimo" and is now Lauren Hayes. Damon and cousin Ethan had a good time hiding underneath the gift table at the reception. Occassionally you could hear them giggling and their hands would pop out from the table cloth from time to time. (Those 2 are from the "All Boy/Trouble" mold).

As you can see......trying to take pictures was hard work. The attention span of those 3 and under was minimal! This picture sums up so much.

We hit up Silver Falls on a Saturday afternoon. I just want to go places so I can spend time with my family and take pictures. The hike was a great "work out" for Josh & I since we haven't exercised since we had Damon in 2004. By the time we got back to the top (each of us carrying a child) I was sweating and trying to act like I wasn't gasping for air. Pathetic huh!

While putting the road in for our property we had some major clean up to do. We don't hire out the work, we do it ourselves. Plus Damon would never forgive us for passing up the chance to run a giant track hoe.

June took us to California for Luke & Greta's Wedding. It was a classy event, very Luke.

We almost spent the night at a hotel that could have easily been on "Intervention" (it was scary nasty), but luckily ditched it and relocated to a much more family friendly and clean environment. Damon and Joel loved it because it was right next to a smaller airport (aaaahhh planes/helicopters) and had a pool. We hit up San Francisco and checked out some of my dad's childhood memories, so that was fun cruzing San Fran.

With the addition of Rocco to our family in mid July the request for a fence became the daily nag. The kids always wanted to be outside, but had a tendancy to head to the road or in some direction leading away from our property. I was getting tried of trying to get the dogs out before they had an accident (Tank was fine, but Rocco would bark & howl non-stop...very irritating) and then checking on them to make sure they weren't on a "neighborhood tour." So I won, and some time was spent putting up a new fence in the backyard. Then we scored a bunch sod and stayed up till midnight or so trying to get it all in and watered. It was a great birthday present to have the kids fenced in....and the dogs too.

In October we went to the Pumpkin Patch for the first time as a family. (Plus Uncle Jake & Logan and Granny & Gramps came too). Logan and Joel got a ride in the wheelbarrow until the pumkins took over. Once out of the wheelbarrow, Joel headed toward the sound of a running tractor and figured he could climb up to the drivers seat. I got to him just in time, but he wasn't happy that I foiled his plan.

Damon wandered through the whole patch by himself, stopping and talking to some teenage girls for a moment or two, and enjoyed staying as far away from his parents as possible. Finally he came around and I asked him what kind of pumpkin he was looking for. He said he was looking for, "a Dinoco Blue Pumpkin." I told him, "Good luck!" I think I was the most excited about going to the pumpkin patch just so I could take some pictures.