Thanksgiving

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What a wonderful fall day!  We all stayed home and spent the day cooking, playing the wii and bonding with each other.   Part of me would have enjoyed going to spend the day with our extended family but the other part (the part that was in my jammies all day)  was content to be at home.  Plus, tomorrow will be a big day with climbing around the mountain looking for the perfect tree.  

Alyssa dressed up as an Indian Princess for her Thanksgiving party at school.  It was really cute.  Each child had to bring a lunch for a friend and write a card saying what they were thankful for about this friend.  Each child got up in front of the class, held a microphone and 'read' their letter to their friend.  They were very excited about this.

I didn't get any pictures of her at the party because my old camera took a turn for the worse.  So off to Best Buy we went last night.  Thanks to Jen, I bought my first SLR camera and LOVE IT!

In between taking care of the baby, cooking and watching the family play the Wii, I watched a few tutorials on the camera and i can't wait to use it in the mountains tomorrow.  Hopefully I will get pics for the Christmas cards and newsletter.  

A birthday party for Sarah

This time is nuts for us and birthdays but we love it. I like to think it prepares us for the holiday season because we have many parties for 6 weeks, off for 3 weeks and then Thanksgiving is here.

We went to a pizza parlor and they had individual pizzas for the kids to make. Very cute idea!

Sarah and Alyssa posing on the pumpkin. Looking forward to going to the pumpkin patch!

All the kids at the party. Nathan is the little boy on the left and we just celebrated his birthday 10 days ago, he also turned 4

.

The kids were supposed to raise their hand up and say "Ole!" but only our little ham did it. Nathan did crack up at that though.

Our little guy

This is by far one of the cutest pics I got. I love it when he purses his lips together. Adorable!






Look at his rolls! So darn cute. I wear him most of the time and I get people all the time commenting on his legs since that is really the only thing that see.



He just sneezed from the flash (I think) and his eyebrows turned red.






Loves his excersaucer.


Bath time! Well, actually they just got out. Froggie and kitty are ready for bed.

Ryan is 4 months and is getting stronger and louder by the day. He is started to make sounds that I can understand and he actually enjoys tummy time unlike his sister. I think he will be crawling a lot sooner than Alyssa did for this reason. He just rolled over two days ago from tummy to back. He also will lift up his hands when you go to pick him. My aunt told me the other day that when I walked up he leaned over to me. Of course I believed her. ; ) He weighs a whopping 22 pounds (remember Alyssa was only 18.6 on her first birthday). I don't think he will get bigger only taller now as his %'s actually decreased a little bit as opposed to staying the same like they did at his 2 month appt.

The birthday girl turns 4!

The birthday fairy once again came to the Hunt household and decorated the birthday girl's room. She was so happy to see the decorations. We have a video monitor in her room that brightens her room up quite a bit so when one of them woke up they saw all the decorations and woke the other one up. (will never have kids who share the same room for this reason LOL)

We walked into her room singing Happy Birthday with her favorite breakfast...french toast with cream cheese only Daddy forgot the cream cheese. oops. In his defense I asked him to go get the french toast ready (key word was ready) since we all know that it isn't french toast unless it has the cream cheese on it. She was still happy although she did ask about it. Ha.

One of the gifts that the Birthday Fairy left for her. The shirt says "I'm the birthday princess, It is my day!"

Amelia has never seen the birthday fairy before. Luckily her birthday was a week before Alyssa's so there was no questions as to why the fairy didn't decorate her room. Her mom is

probably hoping that she forgets it by next year. Ha.

We went to Red Robin (her choice) for her birthday dinner. They all sang to her and she was quite shy but apparently it was worth sitting through it for her ice cream. She only got 4 bites and then she gave it to Tyler. Score one for big brother!

Yum!

The eve of her 4th birthday

Her little friend Amelia spent the night and boy did they have a great time. They find such joy in bathing together that it seriously cracks me up. Even picking out pj's is a blast for them!

Bathing beauties!

Gotta love animal towels. We bought these two towels when Alyssa was born and she uses them every night. I really do love Pottery Barn Kids and this is why!


Last night as a 3 year old!

Mommy and Me playdate

We went on a Mommy and Me playdate this morning and it was such a nice way to bond...baking! There is this cute little store owned by two moms who apparently loved baking so they opened up a little shop for us to come in with our wee ones and have some fun. They have all sorts of different things like making pizza, cookies, muffins, cakes but the best part is that it is all customed for individual treats and they go down an assembly line and read the sign that tells them how much to put it and they do it. It is great! It also works on their math, counting, adding, and of course the time with Mom!

The very first thing we do is wash our hands! She put on her apron first but the owner doesn't know Mommy's rules. ;) I let them slide this time.

Her friends went with us. Gianna is on the left and Natalie is in the middle.



The little signs are in front of them and they read it and then count how much it tells them. So cute.

Even with having to bake and chat with friends she still had time to strike a pose!


The finished product. Pumpkin muffins!

Ryan-3 months

Our little guy is 3 months old and is so much fun. He is grabbing things and interacting with Alyssa. He loves to watch her run around and talk to him although sometimes he gets a little frustrated because he can't always find her as she moves too quickly for his eyes to settle on her.

He is very talkative and it is so cute. He will imitate some sounds that we make as well as imitate us sticking our tongue at him. His hair is coming in blonde and he has a lot of it!

Alyssa's first day of pe K

Alyssa started Pre-kindergarten yesterday. Oh boy!

This year is going to be different for us in many ways but one of them is her preschool class. She isn't going to 'just' learn how fast she can go down the slide or how many things she can build with sand, she will learn what sounds the letter makes and the correct way to write her name. So what if her S's or backwards? I think it is cute! but not anymore, she is gearing up for kindergarten which means times to pay attention and learn useful things like how to hold a pencil. Along with all of this learning, Rob and I will be helping her at home which means we get homework with our 3 year old (almost to be 4).

I am still on the fence on whether I will be putting Alyssa into Kindergarten next year or hold her back. It seems like everyone is holding their kids back and I don't want mine to be the only one is turning 5 during her school year. Tyler is hanging out with kids who are 14 and some who are turning 15 before school gets out and he will just turn 14 in late October. But, our close friend who is a school teacher feels that she may be bored if she is kept back. Luckily her new teachers will prepare her for kindergarten year and then let us know if we should send her or keep her back and then we can decide. I don't like the idea of her graduating high school at 17 but I also don't want to hold her back for JUST that reason.

Anyhoo, back to this year. She is with her favorite pal Lyle. Unforatunately, while we were on vacation I received the most horrible news. The Rideout family (Lyle's family) is moving to North Carolina September 15th. Even as I write it the tears are falling down my face. How am I going to console my dear daughter that her best friend is moving to a place we cannot drive to? How am I going to tell her that she will not be celebrating her birthday with her at the end of the month? When she looks forward to playing with her at school, what am I going to say? Nothing. I have no words as I don't understand it myself. I mean, sure, people move but not your friends! They are supposed to be available for hugs and stuff. Now I will have to learn to give cyber hugs.

Sorry about that. I am so heart broken over having to tell my little girl that Lyle is leaving. Ugh!

Onto pictures that are so sweet.

Our last hoorah!

I actually thought I already posted this but apparently I just saved it. Tyler rarely wants to have is picture taken especially on the goofy ones but he went through the entire zoo posing like the one above....


Sleeping angel....



Ryan and James....James is always in a great mood probably trying to sweet talk Ryan into playing with him. He is not quite ready for that but almost!


Tyler was holding him while I was taking pictures of the Penguins and one of the Penguin jumped out of the water and Ryan laughed. He only did it once but he was mesmerized by the Penguins jumping out of the water. They were so fast we were surprised he could actually see them.

Ryan's view of the penguins. Unfortunately, one didn't jump out as I took the picture so all you get to see is the water.







Tyler and I took the kids to the SF Zoo the Friday before school started. It is pretty crazy when your 2 and 3 year olds know exactly where the animals are. We were walking along the giraffes and they said' The Gorilla is next!". Which is true. Either I need to start going to the Oakland Zoo every other time or I need to go a different path inside the zoo. I need to keep them on their toes!