A Very Merry Christmas

I know that I am super late posting these Christmas pictures, but let me explain. See, we have had a virus on our computer and had to wipe it clean and start all over again. So, I just barely got my computer back. We had a wonderful Christmas at our house and got to see lots of family too. On Christmas Eve we got to go to my Grandma Hess' house and sit on Santa's lap. Emmi had a hard time with Santa this year as you can see, but the boys loved him!This is a cute shot of while we were waiting for Santa. Left to right, my brother-in-law Rob (I wish he wasn't so hidden), Nephew Tanner, Sam, my sis Erin, and Keaton.All of my Grandma Hess' 10 Great Grandchildren were there Christmas Eve. We were lucky to get them all to sit still for a minute. Left to right: Lauren (Jeff and Ab), Brightyn and baby Dax (Katie and Donovan's), Carson (Nate and Shelby's), Halley (Katie and Donovan's), Zach (Nate and Shelby's), Tanner (Jeff and Abby's) and Sam, Keaton and Emmi (Mine).Here we are listening to Grandpa "B" tell us the story of Jesus' birth before we open presents. That's my cute Mom sitting with the kids.Lauren and Emmi showing Abby how excited they are about their Cinderella dolls.Emmi's face was just priceless after she opened this big beagle stuffed animal from Uncle J. It really is as big as she is, but she still drags it around with her anyway.Sam and Tanner sporting their new Hulk jammies and "Hulk Hands" that Grandma and Grandpa gave the boys for Christmas. They wouldn't put those things down!Emmi cried and cried until we gave in and made the boys let her wear their Hulk Hands. I snapped this picture just after Em went over and popped Damma for no reason. You can tell my Mom was surprised!Christmas afternoon we went over to Chad's Mom and Dad's house and finished out the holiday. Kim gave the boys remote control trucks. Here is Chaston and Keek taking them out for a spin in Kim's dance studio.The boys again and their trucks with my niece Mccall down playing in the corner. Kim gave the girls very nice babydolls.Sorry, this is a little out of order, but this is Christmas morning. And this year more than any, it looked like a tornado hit by time everything was opened, (so don't mind the mess :). Emmi just loved the kitty that Santa brought her. This is her giving her kitty a kiss.Papa surprised her with another "baby".The boys got Star Wars toys and lots of transformers, so I say that they made out pretty good! It was another year that Chad waited to go shopping until Christmas Eve. He was gone for hours, but he spoiled all of us rotten, (especially me) so I can't complain. We hope you all had a great Christmas too!

Our Family 2008

These are some of the pictures that were taken at our photo shoot with Lindsay, (that I had mentioned in my last post). Even though I got quite a lot of funny faces from the boys, I got sweet pictures. These are my favorites. Thanks again Lindsay, you did such a great job!

Help! How do you...

teach your kids how to smile for the camera?? Or is it just a matter of making them laugh? Just recently we got family pictures taken by my good friend Lindsay (Child) Stevens who is amazing at what she does. And to her credit we did get a handful of beautiful pictures (above is one and I will post the good ones soon), even though my boys were pulling faces. No matter what we said or did, these two wouldn't give Lindsay a decent smile. At first I thought that they were being stubborn, but I am starting to think that they don't know how when asked. Do I make sense? If any of you mothers have any help please share!!

The Hunsaker Clan 2008

I know that Thanksgiving Day usually means turkey and all the trimmings, but at the Hunsaker house it also means family picture time. This year was no exception. Before we were able to stuff ourselves on all of the delicious food, we headed out, kids and all to take some snapshots. We decided to pay homage to the Fam's favorite football team, knowing that the men would be delighted not to dress up; (I joke with Chad that BYU paraphernalia is the only thing he wears anyway). Yes, we are quite aware that our team did lose this year, but we still love them. The first shot above is Kirk and Kim and the grand kids.

We are saying, "Go Cougars!" Notice what my boys (on the right) are doing in this picture, they make me smile.

Another one of the whole clan. I don't know why I'm laughing and I don't like myself in this one, but everyone else is so cute, so I swallowed my pride and posted it. (I just barely realized that I am also the only one wearing a white shirt in the picture. Oh dear! It's the only BYU shirt I own :)

The kids. 3 boys and 3 girls. My favorite is the little cheerleader in the middle:)

Daddy trying to steal a kiss, but Emmi has a mind of her own.

Just my three little cuties.

Uncle Tyler trying to get her to smile.

Sorry, I have a lot of Emmi on here, but I just couldn't resist her in the uniform, piggy tails and shy pose. She is my sweetie.

I finally got me a new...

Yesterday, Christmas came early to my house. I have been hinting for months that I would like a new camera. I even stopped by BestBuy last weekend, hoping that if I called Chad and begged hard enough that he would let me bring one home. Well, he said no. Little did I know that he had bought one last week and it was already on its way. I was so surprised to see the UPS man stop by my house, but even more surprised to the very camera I have had my eye on, nestled in the box. What a sweet husband! Needless to say, I have been taking pictures of the kids like crazy the past couple days and discovering cool things that my camera can do. I am so in love with the camera, it is the new Canon SD88O (if any of you are curious). Here a few pictures that I have so far, such a big difference in quality from my old one,(I think), and I still have a lot to learn. Thanks again Chad, I love you!

An Apostle Knows...continued

To those of you who wanted to know what address my last post about Elder Maxwell was taken from, here it is:

"A More Determined Discipleship" by Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the
Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy. An address delivered at
Brigham Young University, 10 October 1978.

Sorry, I would have posted these details earlier, but I wasn't given the info at the time.

An Apostle Knows

Just this morning I received an e-mail from my hubby with the quote below from the great Elder Maxwell, who of course passed on almost four years ago now. The quote hit me hard especially since just before I checked my e-mail, I was reading another headline on Yahoo about the thousands that are protesting Proposition 8 and the ban on gay marriage. It does not surprise me in the least how inspired Elder Maxwell was about our current situation. I know that he is a true apostle of the Lord. How grateful I am for these great men who live their lives so they can be directed by the Lord and in turn direct us. His statement gives me hope and courage and I hope it will to you too.

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life. This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.
Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive.. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened....Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat.'
--- Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Trunk-or-Treat!

This is Chad and the kids at the start of our neighborhood Trunk-or-Treat. Sam is the "Bumblebee" on the left and Keaton is the "Optimus Prime" on the right. Down in center of course is my baby Yoda. At first the boys wanted to be Darth Vader and Darth Maul, so I was looking for a little Leia costume for Emmi. But the only Leia I found was too big and this Yoda was just too cute on her to pass up. Then of course the boys wanted to change to Transformers, so Emmi is the lone Star Wars character. A back story on the Yoda thing- I guess one of my uncles called me Yoda as a baby. I was pretty bald and got pointy ears from my father, so I guess I did. So, you could say my baby girl just had to wear Yoda at least once to honor her Mama! ha ha The boys right before the candy raid. They have been waiting for weeks to finally be able to wear these costumes. I think they look pretty cute! I wanted to get a shot of my kids with my friend Sheila's that were also there tonight. She has two twin boys Sam's age, that are in his preschool class, and a little girl who is a year older than my Emmi. I couldn't get one with Emmi looking at the camera. She was mesmerized by Malone's costume I guess. Sam's preschool class just after their Halloween party. (Sam is Bumblebee with the mask).

The first video below is Keaton and the morning Kindergarten Halloween parade. His teacher is the "witch" in black and Keaton is at the very end of his class. The next video I shot during the trunk-or-treat. It makes me laugh to see Emmi run around in her costume because she really looks like Yoda from behind. What do you think? I hope you all had a Happy Halloween!!

A Democratic Halloween

I saw this cartoon on my friend Leslie's blog, and thought it was too fitting for this halloween with the upcoming and election and all. I just had to post it too!

Cornbelly's

We were so lucky this week. My neighbor Sara gave us 2 free tickets to Cornbelly's down at Thanksgiving Point. (Thanks again Sara). We had heard how fun it was last year, so with the free tickets we just had to take the kids. Like my neighbor said, it really is kid paradise and was well worth the money. I think we are going to have to go every year now and make it a tradition. Here are some of the many pics that I captured last night. Enjoy!
You gotta love the smiles going down the slide. (Sorry about the red-eye, did I tell you I need a new camera, or what?!) Sam still has to pull a funny face every time:) This was the cow train that was pulled by a tractor around a bumpy path. I sat with Emmi in another cow in front of the boys. It was quite the ride! Emmi in the princess carriage, reaching for her Daddy. One of the funnest things was this huge tower of carved pumpkins. The boys loved the SpongeBob, Charlie Brown and Snoopy ones, Emmi couldn't stop pointing to the Dora one and me and Chad loved this center one for our Cougars, of course. On the right you can also see the Jazz pumpkin, but I didn't want to get one of that because it was next to the Ute pumpkin:) I would really recommend this place to everyone with little kids. But hurry, it closes on the 1st!