Halloween 2009

I really love Halloween. I've always loved candy and the fact that I have little kids that I can dress up however I want.............well, that makes it even better. So this year I wanted to go all out and get the whole family to dress up together. I decided we could all be The Wizard of Oz. Josh was quite hesitate and never really agreed to participate. By the time I focused on Halloween Costumes, I was running out of time and had to delegate them out. Josh put Damon's together, I had Joels from a previous year with Damon, and Granny helped me out with Olivia's.....well she really made the whole dress. (Thank you!!!) When it got down to it, Josh got his wish of non-participation because I didn't have time to get myself turned into the Wicked Witch, which meant I didn't have a leg to stand in wanting Josh to be the Scarecrow. So we were almost the entire cast of the Wizard of Oz.

Damon was the Tin Man, Joel was the Lion, and Olivia was Dorothy.

After we hit all the "family" stops we figured the kids had enough candy and so that was the end of the Halloween 2009.

Yep, We're Still Here

So I've been on Blog Hiatus for the last 6 months. I've got a lot of catching up to do. Can't guarantee it will be fast, but I'll get to it.

Yard Cleanup

I really like Fall, how it gets colder outside, how the leaves change color, and that Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are that much closer. What I do not like about Fall is having to clean up my yard.

When I want to clean up the leaf debris outside, I can't just let all the kids out of the house....I have to get their boots, warm coats, hats, and gloves on and hope they stay bundled up. Once I get them all outside I have to hurry to rake up all the wonderful leaves into piles while trying to keep Damon and Joel from running through the piles (for some reason they love to obliterate my leaf piles). Usually the kids don't last long, and they get bored and want to go back inside the house. The other day I got lucky though.

Damon grabbed the spray gun for the pressure washer and imagined it to be his giant hunting rifle.  He ran around the yard "hunting big game" which means he imagined that all moving things were his target (Tank, Rocco, Joel, Olivia, me, planes in the sky, and overhead birds). 

(Damon with his "hunting rifle").

At one point he tip toed over towards me, made a shooting sound, and then told me that I was an elk and that he shot my leg so I was supposed to hop around on one foot. He then de

monstrated the wounded elk walk....it was funny. So I hopped around for a little bit while raking up my leaves.

Joel managed to run through a pile of leaves before I could get them in the garbage can, and he spread them everywhere. I told him to help clean up the pile and handed him a rake. I think he was more than happy to rake up the leaf pile he destroyed.

Olivia kept finding leaves to show me....mostly the ones that weren't all dead and brown. Then she brought me some acorns and those things that come from Oak trees that crunch when you step on them ( I tell Damon they're "oak poppers").

Of course by the time I was finished raking and disposing of all the leaves in the backyard, Damon was harassing Olivia and Joel, Joel was getting annoyed with Damon, and Olivia just wanted to go inside, as displayed by her crying at the back door and taking off her boots.

The Pumpkin Patch

We ventured down to the pumpkin patch last Monday.  Joel and Olivia were tired so getting them to be happy about picking out pumpkins wasn't really going well.  Plus everytime Joel picked up a pumkin it had those prickly things on the stem, so he just got mad.  It seems that everytime I want to get pictures of my kids, they never want to cooperate.  After Josh gave them all rides in the wheelbarrow and acted silly with them, they cheered up.  

(Olivia was the happiest after she saw the lambs, goats, and chickens).  

(Joel was super happy climbing on top of the hay bales).  

We got some good pumpkins and the kids ended up having a good time.  I got some pictures and lots of pumpkins so I was happy. 

   

A Self Serve Breakfast

The other morning I could hear my two little mischief makers down in the kitchen.  When Joel and Olivia are together....it usually ends in some sort of mess.  I didn't hear the fridge alarm beeping, so I knew they weren't there.  I did hear the sound of glass being knocked together so I hurried downstairs before whatever glass thing it was ended up in pieces on my kitchen floor.  When I got downstairs I found this.

Nothing broken, no giant mess, just Olivia and Joel on the counter top helping themselves to a breakfast of Nilla Wafers.  They even got out some trays to put their food on.  The breakfast cereal is in a cupboard too high for them to reach so I guess they figured the Nilla Wafers in a cupboard they could reach would work just fine.  These two kiddos are funny!

The House that Damon Built

While driving in the car I saw a bright blue house and asked Damon if he liked it. Surprisingly, the kid who loves all things blue said "no." He proceeded to tell me that our own house was "lame" and that we needed to have a blue slide so he could slide downstairs instead of having to walk down every time. "There would be a blue bed at the bottom of the slide so you wouldn't break your back." "Well what else should we do to our house Damon?" I asked. "We need to be next to a runway so we can fly the plane. There would be a runway into our blue garage where we can just get in our plane and fly so we don't have to walk or drive to a airport hangar. In the backyard there could be a giant lake with a boat launch and our plane would have giant floats and we would have a diving board with no diving board rules and we could jump in, plug our nose, and float with our life jackets on. There would be a slide longer than the slides inside our house that would let us go super fast into the lake. We could have floaties at our lake and lots of rubber sharks. Five rubber swordfish, five great white sharks, five hammer head sharks." "Do they have to be made of rubber? Can't they be real?" "Not real, because if they were real they would bite us.........they all have to be rubber!" "Anything else our house should have?" "Yeah it should have a blue roof and blue walls. The stools in the kitchen need to be automatic so they come out of the ground and I don't have to pull a lever to make them move up and down." "Wow, those are some good ideas, thanks Damon. We'll have to let dad know all your great ideas."

So one minute he didn't want a blue house, and the next minute he wants a lake, a garage/hangar, indoor slides, a diving board, and of course......a blue garage, a blue roof, and I'll just assume the whole house will be BLUE.

Where are you?!?

The other morning I was cleaning up after breakfast and witnessed Olivia trying to find some secret escape hatch in order to get away from her brothers. She was more than content in the cupboard with the plates and bowls. I didn't hear a peep from her. I had Damon come into the kitchen and try to find her. I had to show Damon which cupboard she was because she was being so quiet. He opened up the cupboard and Olivia let out a happy little giggle. Maybe she'll be a regular winner in Hide-N-Seek. She is very mischevious, but cute all the while.....and she knows it.

Our First Family Flight

We have been trying to visit my brother, Austin, and his family in southern Cali ever since Josh got his Private Pilot's License back in April. In true Hunsaker fashion ("things never seem to work out as you had planned them to") our hopes of getting down were not sooner than later, but definitely later. We were going to head down for my birthday weekend, but no dice, and so the story had been going. Eventually (as Hunsaker fashion does.........or more likely when Our Father in Heaven sees the time as right) things worked out, and we were able to get a trip in to visit Austin's family.

We got to the airport just as it started to rain, but luckily our departure went smooth and Josh was able to find some clear patches and we maneuvered through the rain storm. I will not lie......I was nervous because this was my second time on an actual flight with Josh as my pilot, and we had all the kids in the back seat for their first flight. So it could have gone very badly with the kids going crazy, but luckily they slept, ate, and played nicely for the majority of the flight. Thank goodness for answered prayers!

We had to avoid some forest fires in Nevada and California, but nothing scary. By night fall we were landing and were greeted by our cute cousins Makenzie and Ethan and Uncle Austin. It was nice to be out of the plane and heading to Austin's house to relax.

On Saturday we hit the beach in LaJolla and it was so nice. We haven't spent much time at our freezing Oregon beaches with the kids, and so I wasn't sure how they would be with the waves and the mass loads of people. Luckily the kids stayed close by, chased seagulls, rode boogie boards, and had a blast! (Damon running around like a wild man and loving every minute of the ocean).

(Joel didn't stop laughing the entire time he was in the water......well except for the times the waves got a little bigger than him and his open laughing mouth got filled with salt water! Then the laughing turned into spitting).

(Olivia had fun, but by the end of the day she was exhausted).

Austin and Josh took Makenzie, Ethan, and Damon over to an area where Leopard Sharks were breeding. It was an experience to be that close to sharks with no protective gear on, but this shark breeding is a regular thing and the sharks just mellow out (as we were assured by Austin). They all came back alive to our little beach area so Austin was right.

Sunday morning Cherisse wasn't feeling well and so Austin ended up taking her to the hospital to get checked out since their little boy was due in about a month. I was worried that the steak dinner Josh had cooked up the night before didn't sit well with her, and that's what made her not feel so great. A few hours later we got the phone call that Austin and Cherisse had welcomed their new little boy into the world. I was stunned they had the baby, relieved that Josh's cooking hadn't made her sick, and so happy that we were in town to help take care of our cute little cousins. This trip was definitely perfect timing.

The kids played and played, built forts, read books, fought, all the usual kid stuff. We had a good time hanging out with all the kids and on Monday Austin arranged for us to go swimming at a friends house. Since we happened to be in California during some 100 degree heat wave, we opted for the pool time and that was a great decision. The 5 kids had a blast (poor Olivia slept the entire time we were there and missed out on the pool fun). We were very grateful for Austin's hospitable friends sharing their pool.

(The Cousins: Joel, Olivia, Damon, Tessa, Ethan, the neighbor kid....and Makenzie was at school).

We ended up leaving on Tuesday morning and had a safe flight home. Once again the kids were great in the plane. (As we landed I finally took a picture of the kids in the plane. Damon with his headset, Joel was asleep until he got the forearm to the face, and I'm pretty sure Olivia was checking out all the other planes).

It was a blessing to be in California when we were, to help watch some cousins so Austin and Cherisse could be with their new little boy. I think Austin and Cherisse felt bad we didn't have some "California Adventure Vacation," but that's not why we were there. We were meant to be at their house at that time and I'm so happy we could be there to help. That's what families are for.

So our first family flight will truly be memorable.

Green Damon

A conversation between Damon and dad:

Josh - "If you're done with your yogurt go throw it away Damon."
Damon - "Throw it away?"
Josh - "Yeah, go put it in the garbage can."
Damon - "Why would you throw it away when you can recycle, you crazy!"

I thought this was funny because I am always rising out plastic yogurt cups, or putting emptied cereal boxes in our giant blue recycle bin. So, obviously Damon hangs with mom all day and is realizing that we can recycle without too much effort. If Damon starts advising that we switch to a low flow shower head, I will definitely be putting my foot down there!

Damon & His New Pal (Phil)

We have had some heat this week and are lucky enough to have pool set up in the backyard. Claire and Phil came over for a cool down and Damon didn't hesitate to join them. It seems that eveytime Phil is around, Damon spouts out some interesting comments.

While playing in the pool, Damon kept referring to Phil as "you." So Phil decided to clear things up and said, "oh, by the way my name is Phil." Damon replied: "Oh, thanks for warning me!"

Once Damon figured out Phil's name then came, "Hey.....I remember your name. I can say it 5 times.....watch! Phil, one. Phil, two. Phil, three. Phil, four. Phil, five. See!" (Good thing Damon counted it out, Claire and Phil probably would have lost track of how many times he said Phil's name).

He informed Claire and Phil that he had 20 girlfriends at church, but they were all sick with colds, coughs, etc. (This is news to me. I thought he only had his eyes on one or two.....not twenty).

Once everyone was done in the pool they came inside. Phil has been to our house before but Damon didn't remember that. He was quite hospitable and felt the need to treat Phil like he was part of the MTV Cribs crew, showing him all around the kitchen, and even inside the fridge. "Here's the oven so you can make hot food. Here's the fridge, we have grapes, apples, meat. That's the toaster. This is the microwave where you can heat up food to eat...........the garbage..............here's some towels to dry off your hands. Here are some knives, but they are sharp and can cut you very bad."

Phil was very gracious for his tour but just needed to use the bathroom. Unfortunately he couldn't use it until Damon gave him the run down. "This is the bathroom........You poop and pee there.........Here's the fan if you make it stink up in here..........Make sure you wash your hands and this water can get very hot so be careful..........Dry your hands with these towels here." After continuing on for a few more mintues Phil was finally able to use the bathroom.