Fun Times

Last weekend our ward put together a Hoedown. It was a lot of fun and there were lots of people there. We enjoyed a nice BBQ, great friends, and a pie eating contest. We all wore our best cowboy attire. Jude even had a cute outfit.

Last week was the first day of swim lessons. Yes, we signed Jude up for a water babies class. He LOVES the water, and he loved it. We learned how to kick, although he was more interested in jumping in off the side and slashing. We are excited for our weekly swim class.

This weekend we are off to support John run his marathon!!

Happiness

Jude is so happy. He is always smiling. He loves people. He loves to play. And he brings his parents so much happiness.

Here is our happy boy in action.

One of his loves:
The bath. Lately he loves to stand up in the tub. Smiling and singing.

First Visit to the dentist. ( okay not really, just hanging out in daddy's dental chair.)

Okay, I know I need to post a video or something because Jude is totally walking around. It is no longer just taking a few steps than falling. He can walk from the kitchen all the way into the family room, and he can even walk and turn around!! He is going to be running soon!! I am scared.

Labor Day Weekend

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend. We really enjoyed our time we were able to spend as a family.

First of all I have to tell of this SWEET deal. Over the summer we purchased a used kelty kids carrier backpack from craigslist. We used it for our backpacking trip and it was great. There was a hinge/pole that was lose and broken. It was covered under warrenty so we sent it in, expecting to receive the same backpack once fixed. Well, we just received the backpack back, and it is NOT our backpack. No, they gave us a brand new top of the line carrier. This thing is sweet. So we bought a carrier for $45 (already a really good deal), and we recive a brand new $230 backback. We love kelty!!! Here is John and Jude trying it out!!

Anyway, back to the weekend, we spent the afternoon on Saturday at the National Buffalo wing festival. We saw several of our friends while there. There were TONS of wings, and some festivities like the wing eating contest but we missed it!

Here is Jude munching on John's ear while riding his shoulders at the wing festival.

Family Pic

I just love getting kisses from Jude.

On Monday, I ran the 15K run into buffalo. I ran this race a few years back. This time around I did not train as much as I needed too, and was not looking forward to it. I was lucky enough to run it with a few girls from the ward and it ended up being a nice run!

Here I come running to the finish line!

Check out my breathing skills.

Crescent, Me, Caroline, and Katie. Great job girls!

After the race with my boys.

Here are the husbands and kids who came to support their wives.

On the way home from the race, Jude loved to chew on my apple.

That night John and I had a little date night and watched 17 again while enjoying ice cold root beer and sparkling Italian lemon beverage! It might have been a little easier for me to watch the movie than John thanks to Zac Efron.

Today I go to the Doctor for Jude, so I will let you know his stats.

And I will leave you with these:

Yes, I caught Jude playing in the toilet and digging through the trash.

September

Good News

* I took a little run today and saw three little dear running through a creek. It made my run a little more enjoyable.

* I got my teeth cleaned yesterday. It had been over 18 months:(

* Jude took his steps on September 1st!! Crazy

* The weather is Beautiful! Sunny and clear high 78, lows in the 50's= Cool and crisp at night.

* Made some new goals, one of which is to keep a budget. We will see. . .

Not so good news

* I have insidious lesions in between my teeth. Don't know what that means. But I need to floss more or else I will get cavities within the dentin= bad news and fillings.

* I will not be done with school until August, I was planning on being done in March.

* Jude is taking steps. Which means he will be walking soon, which means he will be running soon= growing up way too fast.

* Maxima is still not working. . . What is new? I am so ready for a new car.

Happy September to ALL!

Busy Busy Busy

Now that Jude is on the move, he is crazy busy ALL day long!

He loves to crawl everywhere, and stand up all my himself.
He loves to talk, and squeal and drool.
He loves to eat.
He loves to find all those things he is not suppose to have.
He loves to put everything in his mouth.
He loves to brush his teeth.
He loves to look at himself in the mirror.
He loves to pull out all the books from his shelf.
He loves to pull out all the DVD's from the shelf.
And he loves to pull out every page from a magazine.
He never stops.


We love you Jude!!

And watch out, Jude is officially behind the wheel.

County Fair

So we have here for 3 years now and have not been to the Erie County Fair, I figured since this is year 4 we had better go. Luckily, our wonderful friends invited us to go with them. I am so glad we went. There is nothing like enjoying the ambiance of the fair and eating yummy fried foods! Jude had fun too!

Here are the guys with the babies. Look at cute little Ivy, she is so cute. (but she is hiding from the camera).

Jude loves animals. He loves to touch them. He loved all the animals at the fair, there were cows, pigs, and sheep. He loved having the sheep sniff his hand. He also helped feed the sheep hay.

Who needs fried dough when you have a delicious teething biscuit?

We also enjoyed a wonderful day down at crystal beach. I can't believe I forgot the camera. It was Jude's first visit and of course he LOVED it.

And back to Arizona again. . .

So on our drive home from Utah, we stopped into Flagstaff for some quick lunch before heading back into Phoenix. . . or so we thought. While enjoying lunch my dad was talking to this lady that had gone to one of the Cardinals training practices there in Flagstaff, she also mentioned that there was another one that afternoon. We enjoyed the rest of our lunch, and my dad and john tried talking us into spending the afternoon in Flagstaff to watch the practice instead of getting home earlier. Reluctantly we agreed. But after the experience, we were glad we did.

Yes, we were that close. My dad and his wheelchair have some definite perks. They brought us right up to the field line, and not only that but right in front of where Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin were playing. We also were able to see Matt Lienart and Kurt Warner practicing.
We got a little football for Jude and after the practice he got 3 autographs!! I have to remind John that this is for Jude.

Well, we finally made it home. It felt so good to be home in Arizona and just relax a little. Nothing was really planned. I was able to get a massage. We hung out with friends a lot, went swimming, and enjoying a few of our favorite restaurants.

Here is Jude with his friends. No he is not the oldest, but he looks like a GIANT. The girl to his right is 6 weeks older, and the girl to his left is 1 week younger. The other boy is 3 months old. Jude is enormous. I did not realize what a large child I have until I saw this picture.

We were are doing the 4 stack at John's mothers house!

And for an early birthday present from Jude and myself to John we surprised John with this handgun that he has been wanting for years. It is a sub compact Springfield Armory Xd. He went shooting twice when we were there.

We had a fabulous time on our numerous vacations, but are glad to be home in Buffalo. Jude missed his own toys and own bed.

Park City Summer Reunion

This Year for my family reunion we spent a week up in Park City Utah. It was beautiful. We enjoyed many days with the family. Each day was filled with fun activities such as swimming, outlet mall shopping, and spending a day on the mountain going on the alpine slide, alpine coaster, the zip line and the boys did mountain biking. We also enjoyed a concert in the park and picnic. It was nice and relaxing too. We had a nice place to stay so we were able to all relax together in the evenings.

We were able to take a few family pictures.

Apart from mommy and daddy of course, Jude's next favorite person just might be his Grandpa. He always talks to him and gives him plenty of smiles.

Mom and Dad

The Hunter family with their 3 crazy boys.

My mom found these cute little Davy Crockett hats for each of the boys. They crack me up. Little Jude with a pony tail, I love it!

One day we spent at this amazing indoor facility. We spent all day at the pool, but they had a rock wall, racquetball courts, and a gym. The pool was awesome. It was perfect for Jude. He LOVED it. He was in for hours and did not want to get out. They had slides, a lazy river, diving boards and a huge kiddy play ground thing. Jude thought he was so cool that he could stand up all by himself in the water.

Here are all four boys in their cute monster pj's. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa.

Jude sure loves all of his cousins. And they love him. Here is Caden one morning with Jude as they both enjoy Jude's toy and his baby einstein.

And if you know our family at all, there is no reunion without yummy food! We enjoyed lots of wonderful meals and desserts. And yes, don't be fooled this may look like dessert, but this is breakfast.

We had lots of fun, and thanks to mom and dad once again!

Happy 85th Grandma.

Surprise!!

We made our way into a small town Ely Nevada to surprise my grandma for her 85th birthday. Most of my dad's family was there to help celebrate. It was so great to see everyone, many of whom I had not seen in years. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast and then enjoyed the day down at the McGill park and pool.

Here is my dad along with his 4 brothers with their mom!

Here are all the grandchildren with Grandma! Notice only two boys with all those girls, and there are 3 more girls that were not there.

Jude enjoyed his day at the pool. Here he is showing a little too much skin.

We forgot the swim diapers, so this poor thing was weighing him down.

Here we are at the pool. With my sister and our cousin Chris. Jude's favorite new thing is when he is on your shoulders, he bends down to look at you and smiles.

During our visit to Ely Nevada, we were able to stop by Great Basin National Park and visit Lehman caves. They were amazing.

Before the cave tours we were able to enjoy a nice picnic and a little bike ride.

I think Jackson had the best seat in the house!