Wow, I think this has been the longest delay I have ever had since beginning my blogging adventure. I will try a little harder to keep things updated, but with the weather getting warmer, the Simmons family is ALWAYS outside!! I really don't know what we have been up to for the last month. We have had a couple of trips home to visit with family, but other than that we have enjoyed our fun little daily routines here. We are fast approaching our one year anniversary of living in Abingdon and I think we have all adjusted nicely. We officially have a truck, and of recent a yard tractor (more on that later!), a new garden, lots of little people and big people friends. We really like it here so I guess we might hang out in the area a little while longer!
Right now Hunter is almost 20 months old. He is growing up so fast and it is really hard to believe he is going to be 2! We have started Kindermusik and Hunter and I both really enjoy the class and our teacher, Mr. Lyndsey. Hunter is shy and slow to warm up to most all situations, so after the first couple of classes he shook off the shyness and is now doing ring around the roses all by himself. We do all kinds of fun things in music class, including dancing, singing and playing with fun instruments. Hunter really likes the egg shakers and balls the best! His vocabulary has expanded from mommy, dada, and hot to include quack, baa and moo. He has also figured out that shaking his head left to right means "no." Such an easy word, yet he refuses to say it and when I ask him to say it he just shakes his head, "no." He is on a clapping strike at the moment and every time I ask him to clap his hands, you guessed it, he shakes his head no and laughs. Funny little boy!
Our big purchase for the month of March has been a mower, aka a 'lawn tractor.' For those of you who have seen our yard, we have a really big yard to mow and a very steep yard to mow. So according to David, our tractor expert, we needed a big mower with four wheel drive. You guessed it again, we now have this great big Kuboda mower that has four wheel drive. I really don't know who enjoys it the most, David or Hunter. I also enjoy having the mower. We would wait for weeks last summer for the guys to come and mow it and it was so hard for Hunter and I to walk around in and I was always afraid of snakes. We actually saw 2 in the yard, but thanks to Abby and Ibis those snakes are history! It is nice to know that we don't have to wait forever to get the grassed mowed.

It is hard to tell in this picture, but one of our projects has been to relandscape around the bottom of our driveway. It was lots of fun and hard work and Hunter loved it. His favorite part was looking for worms in the dirt! He was such a trooper while David and I worked, he even helped move all the rocks...although he would do just about anything for a ride on the mower!
Another outside project, my garden. I am so excited! I hope I can keep the deer away. We may have to put up a fence. I am trying to get the soil just right, it is too early to plant anything around here. They are actually calling for snow the next couple of days and I am really bummed about it. The lovely trees in the background were planted by my darling husband and son. Didn't they do a good job?
Our friend Adam. We helped him celebrate his 2nd birthday. Hunter loved the train table!
Here it is....the mower of our dreams! I think they have already put on about100 miles! Pretty soon when the weather gets warmer they may be driving it to town!
Hunter really likes to help me cook, especially bake! In this pic we caught him tasting the icing. He loved it of course!
Uncle David being a great sport and entertaining in the freezing cold!
Papa's tractor.
We took Hunter golfing for the first time and it was great. I didn't think he would last more than 3 holes, but we managed to play 6 before we needed to break for lunch and naptime. We took his clubs (all 2 of them...a putter and a driver) and let him play. He actually sank a 15 foot putt. We were so proud. The highlight of the day was riding and help driving the fabulous golf cart. We might could play 18 as long as we have the cart!

If you have a toddler and it suddenly gets really quiet in the house you need to go and search for them! Hunter found the pasta and thought the sound and feel of it crackling under his feet was irresistible! We let him crunch around in it for awhile so it was easier to vacuum up!