Birthday Fun

Last night, we celebrated Miss Jazmin Ament's 8th birthday. This was a very special birthday party as it was at CHUCK E. CHEESE!!! What an incredibly FUN--no, make that SUPER FUN time for all the kids lucky enough to be invited! I know every single one of my kids (even the adult kids) enjoyed the evening immensely! Of course, I forgot my camera, but my cell phone always works in a pinch. (What did we do without cell phones back in the day?) (This picture shows up again later. I tried to delete one, but couldn't figure out how to do that...)We are singing Happy Birthday to Jazmin with Chuck E. Cheese! What a beautiful cake (more information on that to follow...).

I can't believe I got such a good picture of her blowing out her candles! ON MY PHONE, no less! What a great blessing!!! Nichole made that cake for her. It turned out great! She bought a 1/4 sheet cake just in case this was too small. Wise move. . . about 2/3 of the sheet cake got eaten up in addition to this cake. Of course, the Nichole cake was by far superior to any made in a store!

Jazmin got lots of gifts for her birthday. Over the weekend, her mom and dad took her to the mall to build her very own bear. She chose a puppy (of course) and had them insert a barking sound. It was stuffed with the traditional teddy bear (or should I say puppy) stuffing, then finished off the ensemble with a pair of ballerina shoes and a pretty pink dress. In the picture above, she is standing by the present we got her. . . ZU ZU PET! These are so cute!!! She already has several, and the girls love playing with them. We got her the hedgehog, a ZU ZU pet carrier, and a blankie bed thing. I think she loved it! I suspect my girls will be wanting their own for Christmas.

Chuck E. Cheese is not just for little kids. . . well, maybe it is. At least the little ones at heart.

Of course Cynthia would come to her sister's big party! Who is the guy? Her new boyfriend, Devon. So far, we are all agreed. . . he is an incredibly nice young man. He opens the door for her AND her mom, he writes songs for her then sings them, he even pulled out her chair at dinner! Pretty impressive for a 17 year old!

Chuck E. Cheese was a new concept for Esther and Cerena. They didn't know what to make of him. Esther was the first to warm up to him. Cerena. . . not so much. She enjoyed the special sippy cup though!

Jazmin. . . Very happy to be celebrating her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese. Love the blow up birthday crown. . . complete with extra tokens to be spent on various games and activities.

Jazmin and her birthday guests. Cerena was not about to get anywhere near the giant rodent!

Jazmin and her Daddy and Mr. Cheese.

Jazmin and her beautiful Mommy enjoying the company of that most famous critter. . . CHUCK E. CHEESE!!!

Below, Jazmin is all ready to hop into the Ticket Blaster Machine Thingy! She stood in the midst of tickets being blown all around. Her mission: grab as many as she can in 30 seconds flat! Notice the safety glasses. . .

She got the golden ticket!!! Actually, she got several golden tickets which were worth 100 redeemable tickets each! Esther and Cerena were so kind. . . they each gave all their tickets to Jazmin so that the Birthday Girl could redeem them for a better prize!

I had to include at least one picture of Selena and Mike working out the details with this spetacular party hostes. I secretly enjoyed calling her the 'servant girl', she was so incredibly helpful. The kids responded to her very well. Over all, the evening was great fun, and a complete success!

Homework CAN be fun!

Well, I finally remembered that we have a family blog! And I am just about on speaking terms with the computer (which dumped all my pictures from the whole summer! WILL I ever learn?). So, time to start over!

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Homework? Well, it is universally well known that this has been a year of many changes for our family. Tim serving a mission, moving to horse farm, adding Esther and Cerena to our family, moving off the horse farm, Jessica getting married, Marissa graduating from High School, Jessica and Mick inviting a son to join their family (due to arrive pretty much exactly 9 months from honeymoon!), Selena and her little family moving just down the road a bit, etc. What may not be universally known is the HUGE change in our methods of educating the children in our family.

A bit of an explanation may be in order here. For years, the Hunt children have received their education primarily at home or through alternative sources. Many have questioned and even disapproved our educational decisions. Rob and I are very serious about education and refused to base this decision solely on the opinions of others. We considered all available options. We fasted and prayed. Ultimately, we determined that alternative schooling was the right decision for our family.

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However, times change and decisions made sometimes need to be reevaluated. When we made our move from South Dakota to Washington, a serious reevaluation was made. So many new options were available to us. Homelink, online school (WAVA is still my favorite), Skills Center, Running Start. The Hunt children all benefited from such programs.

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Shortly after making our last move, both Rob and I began to feel prompted to reevaluate our educational decisions again. I actually resisted those promptings for a while because I enjoy being with my children so much. Before long, those feelings were too strong to ignore. So we prayed and sought answers at the temple. We prayed some more. We went to the temple again, and again (it is wonderful to be so close to a temple!). We fasted. No doubt about it. The time had come to place our children's education into the hands of the public schools. Although our educational goals remain the same, our original reasons for homeschooling no longer exist. This is the right choice for our family at this time.

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Happily, we are surrounded by schools with excellent reputations. My research has proven that they are some of the best in the area.

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Cerena is enjoying kindergarten immensely! She is learning to write her name (legibly ;) ). Esther has proven herself to be a very quick learner, and I suspect the teachers might have their hands full keeping her motivated. Jamie is adapting to 8th grade quite well, and really enjoys her art and choir classes. Rachelle? She LOVES high school! She is running cross country, and has made vast improvements in her abilities this season. I wouldn't be surprised to see her run for college (which she has every intention of attending). Marissa is trying to figure out just WHAT she wants to do now that she has successfully completed high school. And Nichole has decided that college is where she wants to be. She begins her first quarter in January. All in all, I would say that my children are very successful educationally!

Updates can be good once in awhile, right?

It has been so long. . . and apparently we have been one very busy family! Just a few highlights...

We moved our little family to Vancouver. We live in a nice little house with a nice little yard in a very nice little neighborhood. We absolutely love our new ward. The people in it are just so friendly and welcoming, it would be difficult not to love! It appears that all of our children are as happy with the move as I am, and that makes this place just about perfect as far as I am concerned.

I am now a mother-in-law, and I LOVE it! My dear, sweet, Jessica now belongs to Mick Swenson for all time and eternity. They were married on June 4, 2010 in the Portland, Oregon Temple. It was a beautiful ceremony. Jessica was a beautiful bride. Mick was a most dashing groom. Nichole, Marissa, Rachelle, Jamie, and Cynthia were beautiful bride's maids. Jazmin was a beautiful junior brides maid along with one of Jessica's close friends Ellie Epperson. Esther and Cerena were beautiful flower girls. Alan was a very handsome groom's man. And my heart truly skipped a beat or two for my very handsome husband of nearly 22 years. We had many family members share our joy at a nice reception held later that evening. Jessica was gracious enough to keep everything simple, which actally added to the spirit of the evening. She requested regular layered cakes on pretty cake plates and stands. So, Nichole baked and baked and baked until there were something like 5 cakes (plus a few cakes that didn't quite turn out right). As a wedding gift to Jessica, Nichole baked and decorated her first wedding cake. There were three tiers decorated with a robin's egg blue ribbon and topped with a topper Rachelle made out of left over flowers and tulle. Oh! It turned out. . . well, beautiful, of course! It was a most memorable and wonderous day!

Cerena turned 5! Such a sweet little lady! She wanted a big chocolate cake. Happily, Nichole is becoming quite the cake baker and was happy to oblige her with a very pretty layered chocolate cake. The girls had a dance festival practice that night, so Cerena was kind enough to delay the actual cake and presents till the next day when we could all be together. For a temporary fill in, we had chocolate cupcakes and Cerena got to blow out a candle on hers. Then she got to celebrate her special day again the next day. She was really very sweet about it, and she ended up enjoying having a two day long birthday!

I can't express the joy that she and Esther have added to our little family. Oh, how I love my son and all of my daughters. Motherhood truly is a calling I deeply charish. In all honesty, there are days I wonder if maybe the Lord overestimated my abilities. Fortunately, all of my children have been very forgiving of my weaknesses. They are wonderful, and I can honestly say that I feel blessed among mothers. But, I digress. . .

Marissa, Rachelle, and Jamie participated in a huge dance festival at the end of June. There were over 2000 youth from 7 stakes participating with them. I really have no words to adequatly describe the event. Amazing doesn't really convey the reality. But for lack of a better word, I will say it was amazing. I was so proud of the girls for all their hard work and simply for their desire to participate in the first place. The theme of this dance festival was "How Firm a Foundation". It might seem a little odd to say, but these kids were somehow able to share a very strong united testimony of the Savior through music and dance. I was deeply touched...not only by the performance itself, but the effect the whole experience had on my daughters. They glowed with that satisfaction of a job well done. And they seem to possess a newfound inner peace that they didn't seem to have before. I am very thankful that the church provides such faith-building experiences for our youth.

Nichole has just turned 19. She announced that she only has two years till her mission. My experience has taught me that two years is not a long time at all. In fact, they tend to fly by in the blink of an eye. Especially when we are busy. Nichole will be going to school, so she will indeed be busy!

So, life has been really enjoyable for the Hunt family over the past few months. Perhaps, one of these days, I will be able to put some pictures on here. Sadly, my camera's recharging cord got lost in our move. Any pictures I have taken were done on my phone and some one time use cameras. Eventually, I will get those developed and put onto a disk. . .

Pictures by Nichole

Yesterday, Nichole decided to take some pictures. Of course, she headed straight for the pets. . .

Of course, Ludo and Monster do look very content and picture-worthy. On a sunny day, this is the "hottest" spot in the whole house. We turn the chair to face the window and it becomes the best place for a wonderful cat-nap.

Purrrrfectly content

Of course, no photo shoot of Nichole's would be complete without a shot of her sweet little puppy!

Up, up, and away

One day, someone filled up a hot air balloon right next door! It was so beautiful, I had to take a couple of pictures!
We could actually hear the burner as it heated up the air in the balloon. It was very exciting!

What and how we love. . .

"We are created in the image of our heavenly parents; we are God's spirit children. Therefore, we have a vast capacity for love—it is part of our spiritual heritage. What and how we love not only defines us as individuals; it also defines us as a church. Love is the defining characteristic of a disciple of Christ."
~Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Love of God," Ensign, Nov. 2009, 22

Here are a few of the things I love. . .

The Salt Lake City Temple--I actually took this beautiful picture myself!

The best man on the planet just happens to be my husband and the wonderful father of my children.

My lovely bride to be daughter, Jessica.

And of course, her husband to be, Mick. I love the smile he put on Jessica's face!

My missionary son, Tim.

My sweet daughter, Nichole.

My happy daughter, Marissa.

I had to throw in a picture of her muscles! Wow!!!!

My tender hearted daughter, Rachelle.

My compassionate daughter, Jamie.Darling little Esther, soon to be my daughter.

Fun loving Cerena, soon to be my daughter.

The Portland, Oregon Temple.

The things I love the very most are my family and the wonderful Gospel of Jesus Christ which provides a way for me to be with my family forever.