Hunt Family Connection

Eleanor's 2 month check-up

It took me a crazy long time to get me and both kids out of the house this morning (how will I ever get to work on time?!) but Graham got off to daycare and Eleanor and I made it to our dr. appointment on time.

Dr. says she looks great - here are the 2 months measurements...

    Weight - 11lbs. 6oz (60th percentile)   
    Height - 22 3/4 in. (60th percentile)

I had fun looking back at G's 2-month stats - he was a couple lbs. heavier and a few inches longer at this age and was apparently sleeping for 7 hours in a row at night!  Eleanor's longest stretch is about 5 hours - really not all that bad.

She had the beginnings of her vaccinations (see G's 2-month stats post for specifics) and was not at all happy with the poking. The nurse was super-quick though and had some funky Sylvester band-aids for her little legs. She actually smiled when I peeled them off her leg this afternoon!?

She's been a little "off" since getting the shots - a bit fussier than usual. I've been keeping her dosed up on Tylenol so hopefully she has a peaceful night of sleep.

We walked to get Graham from daycare this afternoon - the sun was out and apparently we won't see it again for some time...thought we should take advantage. When we got home from the walk I sat down on the couch and started feeling a bit "off" myself. As the night went on, I felt worse and thank goodness Wil told me to go lay down after dinner. I crawled under the covers, shivering, and took a nap until it was time for Graham to get ready for bed and Ellie's bottle. I gave E her bottle while Wil got Graham in bed (THANK YOU WIL!) I'm feeling a bit better now - the nap was a big help and I imagine the ibuprofin I took is kicking in too. I have no time or energy for sickness and I certainly don't want to pass anything along to Eleanor. Here's hoping it's a fleeting bug I can continue to fight off with rest, liquids, and meds.

Feeling better...

We've had some sick around the house these past few days, but things are looking much better today. I took Graham to the doctor on Monday because he had a fever and was telling me that his ear hurt. Sure enough, he has an ear infection and sore throat. Between tylenol and the antibiotic the dr. prescribed, he's feeling much better and was full of energy yesterday. His voice is still a bit wonky with the sore throat, but he's having fun with that too - thinks it's pretty funny that he sounds so different.

Ellie and I have managed to stay well (knock on wood!) - I'm taking her to the dr. today for her 2 month check-up. I got a little video of her playing yesterday, so I leave you with that....

Trick-or-Treating at the Mall

I give you the Itsy Bitsy Spider and our little bumble bee....

 

We had Pa-Paw and Grandma Chery over for homemade pizza last night, and then we got Graham and Ellie dressed up and ready to go to the mall for trick-or-treating.

Graham has been anticipating this for some time and was very excited people would be giving him candy. He has been wearing his costume every day and practicing being "scary". Once we got there he was a little shy and his "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" was in a very tiny voice. He definitely noticed other kids in their costumes and was a bit frightened by one little boy in his scary mask, and quite intrigued by a beautiful, little fairy princess :)  It was so much fun to watch how excited he was about the whole thing - definitely one of the best parts about being a parent.

I leave you with a little video from our mall trick-or-treating...

Trick-or-Treating - a preview....

We went to daddy's work on Thursday to go trick-or-treating with the nursery kids. Technically, this was Graham's first time and he was sooooo excited! He LOVES his costume and can't stop talking about Halloween and trick-or-treating. He was a little shy when we first got there, but still very excited.

I just love this picture - not really in focus, but you can totally see the excitement on his face :)

Can't wait to take him out again this evening - more pictures soon!

Johnson Farm Fun

Johnson Farm is quite close to our house...so when the weather was halfway decent last weekend I got the whole family packed up and into car to go visit.

They have this really cool hay bale maze for little kids - Graham was a little hesitant at first, but started running and jumping around in no time...

There are some tunnels to explore in the maze and Wil got right in there with G to check it all out :)

After a good chunk of time in the maze, we wandered in to check out the produce...

Graham picked out a gourd to take home and before we left, we had him stand next to the measuring stick...

Looks like he's about 3ft. tall.  It's amazing what a difference 2 1/2 years make. Looking at Eleanor and thinking that it was such a short time ago that Graham was that size....there's no other word for it, it's just amazing. Graham is talking SO MUCH now and so often!  He has a lot of thoughts and wants to share them all. He's VERY excited about Halloween - he knows what he and his sister are dressing up as, and more importantly...he knows that if he says "trick-or-treat" people may give him candy! 

We're going to try the whole trick-or-treating thing today at Wil's work - can't wait to see how it all goes!

More smiling :)

I LOVED this picture of Ellie smiling in her little princess shirt and had to find all kinds of pink, princess goodies to scrap it...

see page credits HERE

Makes me smile - hope it makes you smile too today :)

We will miss her....

We were soooo very sad to say goodbye to our beautiful kitty Suki today...

This is part of a layout I did about Suki in 2006 - she really was a beautiful girl :)  We jokingly called her our "model" kitty because she was sooo pretty and the thinnest (lol) of our kitties.

She was good to her people and ADORED her older kitty sister, Hazel - from day 1 she was following Hazel around and wanted to be right on top of her (and sometimes she was!) We were always amazed at what Hazel let her get away with. She was very talkative, and I can't say that it was her best feature, but it was who she was!

Suki was a littermate of Talia's (our kitty that passed away a couple months ago) and it appears that there must have been some sort of genetic predisposition that led to them both becoming very ill. Suki has been sick for awhile, but she rebounded for a bit and then recently took a turn. Today we decided it was time to let her go. She was having a very difficult time getting around the house and while she was doing her best to hang in there for us, it just wasn't right to let her suffer.

Suki was only 6 years old, but we think she had a pretty wonderful life - our cats get LOTS of love and attention. We will miss Suki and Talia terribly - I imagine Hazel might too, though she would never admit it :) 

She Smiles....

A milestone has been reached - Miss Eleanor SMILES at us now!

She was just starting to put together a smile when Warren and Sarah were here, but she's pretty consistent about it now. It's so exciting to see her interacting with us and responding to all of our silly faces and voices :)

Big Brother

Graham's relationship with Ellie closely paralells the ups and downs we experience with him as a 2-year-old. One minute it's crazy, loud, dangerous and frustrating...

And the next minute you witness something that just makes your heart melt....

Those pictures literally happened just seconds apart from each other yesterday morning. Graham so desperately wants to help with Eleanor (most of the time) and I try to let him be as involved as possible without putting her in danger. He's learning to 'gently' replace her pacifier when she loses it, and yesterday he really wanted to share his "guinea pig" (I know it's a dog, but they just got guinea pigs at daycare and Graham wants one too!) so he placed it right there on her head.

After he got down looking at and talking to Ellie yesterday (he says "I'm telling her") he took the guinea pig off her head and tucked it under her arm....such sweet moments tucked away in between the crazy ones!

I'm guessing that this is kind of what it will always be like. He will find moments and reasons to torture the poor girl, but under it all he really does love her :) I have a feeling Miss Ellie is going to grow up to be good and tough though too - I'm sure it won't be long before we see her fighting back. 

And so it begins.....

At the coast...

Day 3 (Monday) of the Aunties' visit took us to the coast. We took Graham to daycare and made it to the coast in time for lunch at Mo's in Florence.

I'm fairly certain everyone enjoyed their lunch, and then we wandered up and down the streets of Old Town Florence to do some shopping.

We stopped to catch a glimpse of the ocean before heading back to Eugene. We grabbed some groceries for dinner, including some incredible steaks and a pumpkin pie from Costco. We grilled the steaks, had cheesy potatoes - it was sooo yummy!  After Graham went to bed we had the pie and played cards.

We had a nice relaxing Tuesday morning - I got the Aunties to the airport later in the morning. It was sooo much fun having them here - a little bit of home/family was just what I needed :)  It's also a lot of fun to show off this wonderful place where we live.  I'm hoping Linda and Barb spread the word and convince more of my family to come out and see us!

More fun with the Aunties...

On Sunday Graham and I took the Aunties to one of our favorite parks to play after breakfast.

The park is right by the river and it was a really beautiful morning - check out the awesome fall colors...

Graham had a lot of fun playing...

....and Ellie slept through the outing.

 

After our morning at the park we went home to get Graham some lunch and settled down for his nap before the girls headed back out for an afternoon at King Estate Winery.

We had lunch in the restaurant and tasted some wine, then waited patiently for a tour. We were the only ones waiting, so we got a private tour of sorts :)

We have so many beautiful wineries here in Lane County, but King Estate is hands down my favorite. It's hard to beat scenery like this...

On our way back home we picked up pizzas, then enjoyed a nice (LONG!) walk after dinner. I still have one more day to report on, but haven't sorted through those pictures yet....coming soon!

I leave you with a picture of me and my baby girl, waiting for the tour to begin :)

The Aunties Were Here

It's been awhile since I updated - first it was because there wasn't a whole lot to talk about after Mum-Mum and Pop Pop left, and then it was because we were crazy-busy while Auntie Linda and Auntie Barb came to visit!  I took them back to the airport this morning, so I'm going to start catching up and documenting our visit with them.

Let's start with Saturday....

Graham and I went out to the airport on Saturday to meet the Aunties. The sun was shining when we went into the airport, but when we came back out to the car, it was pouring rain...welcome to Eugene!

We went back to the house to have lunch and get Graham down for his nap. While he napped, the girls all went to explore Saturday Market. It is always fun to visit Saturday Market with visitors and see it through their eyes :)

checking out twirly-skirts

tye-dye everything...

lots of beautiful veggies...

We got a snack from the Dana's Cheesecake booth and found shelter from a bit of a downpour, then when it dried up again we wandered around a bit more before heading home.

Graham was very happy to see us back at home...

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out around the house, had drinks and dinner, and then went for a walk around the neighborhood. Graham went to bed and we spent the rest of the evening watching a movie.

I have many more pictures to edit and stories to tell - will be back with more soon :)

Visiting the Pumpkin Patch

After naptime yesterday we got bundled up in sweaters...

...and made our way out to Lone Pine Farm to find our pumpkins!

It was a very busy day there, so when we arrived I went right over to get our hayride tickets while Graham fed the goats.  Thanks Mum-Mum for buying goat treats :)

After feeding the goats we got in line for the hayride - Wil went to grab a snack and Graham played in the gravel we were standing on (during bath time I found 2 rocks in his pants pocket!) When the wagons pulled up, Wil hoisted Graham up to get a better look at everything...

We got on our wagon and headed out to the pumpkin patch...

Graham was soooo excited to see all of these pumpkins and enthusiastically got right out there to look for some to take home.

Wil wandered way out into the middle of the patch to find some good ones and we stuck a bit closer to the wagon. Graham decided he wanted to take home this one - the chosen one!

He was pretty darn proud of his pumpkin and very excited to be out there. As we were riding back to the farm on the wagon he yelled out, "bye pumpkins!!"

Where was Eleanor during this whole outing you might wonder? 

She was tucked safely and quite happily away in the Baby Bjorn - I'm so happy that she seems to like it in there :)  When we got back from the hayride I found a place to feed Ellie while everyone else paid for our pumpkins. We eventually got everything packed up - the boys went to get pizza to bring home for dinner and the girls went home to get settled back in and ready for dinner.

The rest of the evening included an episode of Jack's Big Music Show, playing "volleyball" with daddy, tubby time, stories, a nice and quiet bedtime for G, and cards. A very happy day....

Mum Mum and Pop Pop are in town!

Mum Mum and Pop Pop arrived Friday afternoon, and came with some really wonderful things to share...

...these awesome Tonka trucks that Wil had as a child for starters.  A dump truck and a digger - Warren and Graham got right to work on the bark mulch in the backyard :)

They also brought this great wagon - it's very useful in hauling those Tonka trucks around...

(I had fun playing with this pic in Lightroom!)

Eleanor's quilt is also finished and arrived - Sarah/Mum-Mum did an amazing job with it and I know it will be a very special treasure for her.  I got it hung over the crib yesterday and have really enjoyed looking at it every time I'm sitting in the rocking chair with Ellie.

(if you click on the picture you might be able to see it a little better?)

Friday night we went on a little walk around the neighborhood after dinner - Graham was excited to ride his bike with us.  We also played cards (the ladies won - woo hoo!) On Saturday Pop Pop and Mum Mum stayed home with Ellie while I took Graham to a yard sale and music time at the library. We were very happy to meet up with Sammy and Miss Kara there as well.  Saturday night I took a little "me time" and had a very nice night out with friends - dinner at Mekala's and drinks at the Bier Stein. 

And that brings us to today - Sunday. Various members of the household are napping/resting at the moment and when everyone gets up we will be heading out to Lone Pine to find our pumpkins. Graham has really been looking forward to this so I'm excited to see what he thinks of the whole thing. 

I'm sure there will be some pumpkin patch pictures coming soon - for now I leave you with a shot of Eleanor - I'm sure there should be some clever caption for this, but I'm just not coming up with it at the moment - suggestions are welcome :)

What we've been up to...

I meant to get this post up last night, but I fell asleep while watching Glee! Luckily I also DVRd Glee, so I can watch it today. I've been falling asleep with Eleanor around 9ish, and then waking up somewhere between 11 and 12 to feed her again and put her to bed. Last night was a little crazy though 'cause Graham woke up after I put Ellie to bed and it took awhile to get him back to sleep - I'm rather tired this morning and anticipate there will be a nap at some point during the day!

As for what we've been up to this week....let's see if I can recap a few things.

Monday Night Football


The Packers and Vikings were playing and I didn't have any beer, so I made my favorite green drink - lime vodka and 7up. Given the outcome of the game, there really isn't much more I have to say about this.

Being Outside


The weather has been awesome - I love fall!  In an effort to get serious about dropping the baby weight, I've been trying to get out and exercise more. I've been having fun getting the double stroller out and walking Graham to daycare or walking him home...one of these days I might get crazy and do both :)  Graham has also been wanting to play outside when he gets home so I've been trying to do that too. On this particular day I was watching him from inside the house and caught him trying to be helpful by "pulling weeds" in the yard. Eleanor doesn't seem to care if she's outside or not - Graham was much different as a baby and was always happier out in the fresh air. It's fun to notice the differences between the two of them...

Lunch with the girls


I got Ellie dressed up for Wednesday lunch with Kara - loving the little ruffle and pink stitching on the jeans AND the great shoes (actually a gift from Kara!) She's such a petite little thing - these clothes are size 0-3 months and they still look HUGE on her.  Newborn sized clothes still fit the best, but I'm sure she'll start growing into the other stuff soon.  

Craft Project


It's been a long time since I've done a craft project, but I found my glue gun, picked up a few things at Michaels, and got to work on this. I have been looking for new quilt clips in anticipation of Ellie's baby quilt arriving. As I was taking down Graham's quilt, I looked at the clips I had used for him. I purchased them online, but upon closer inspection I noticed that the clips were just like the ones on hangers for pants! So here's how the project went...

1. I purchased the hangers ($2.99), the wooden hearts already painted (3 for $1.00), additional wooden hearts to glue behind the pink and yellow hearts as they had a hole in the middle ($0.29/ea.), and a white wooden paint marker ($2.99).
2. I painted the wooden hearts that were going behind the pink/yellow ones and pulled the clips off of the hangers
3. I hot glued the hearts on the back then the clips - and as always also managed to hurt myself with the glue gun - it never fails!
4. And finally, the finished product!  It really only took 15 minutes to get these put together and they are MUCH cheaper than the ones I purchased for Graham.  Might be time to open up an Etsy shop and sell some myself :)

Learning New Things

This is a picture of an assignment I was completing for a class I'm taking with Ali Edwards at Big Picture Scrapbooking called Yesterday and Today.  I'm working on a separate page about this to share my experience in the class so that will be coming soon - more about this picture another time.... 

The Sick Ones


Suki is on medication and we are hoping that it fixes whatever is causing problem with her liver. It seems more likely though that she has something like cancer that we cannot cure, in which case we are hoping that we can keep her comfortable as long as she is with us. We are very sad about the possibility of losing her so soon after Talia. Wil hasn't been feeling so well this week either - don't they both look so sad?! Hopefully he is feeling better today...

So that about sums it up I think...I have a few goals for today - getting to the grocery store and the post office, doing a load of laundry and changing bedsheets in our bedroom and the guest room. Wil's mom and Warren are coming tomorrow to spend some time with us - getting to know Ellie and helping out with Graham too.

I leave you with a scrapbook page I put together this week. Cathy Zielske is now selling templates at Designer Digitals and I'm excited to be able to give you a sneak preview before they are up in the shop this weekend!

Page credits: By the Numbers Set 1 - CZ Design, Crisp October Kit and Supplement Papers - Jesse Edwards, and Roughed Up Carstock: Greens - Katie Pertiet