Brief updates

Finally the snow is melting away so things around here can get back to normal. We have started work in the basement and I will post pics of the progress at some point. Our plans are to have the basement refinished by the time the baby comes so keep your fingers crossed.

I am 26 weeks and feel pretty good. Not as comfortable as I was with Hunter, but I have had really good check ups at each doctor's visit. For those of you that haven't seen me lately, I am big. Hunter actually referred to me as an elephant the other night as we were reading one of his bed time books. I did not find this one bit flattering, but he thought it was hilarious. We haven't picked out any names yet, but we are working on it.

David still loves working at the hospital. Not much has changed there. They should be moving over to the new hospital around this time next year.

Hunter is a mess and such a sweet little boy. He is our little repeat, so one must really watch what they say. He loves to cuddle at naptime and bedtime. These are extra special times for us as a family so I am a little curious as to how the dynamics of this routine will change with the new baby. I am hoping it will be just more boys to cuddle with! His favorite things to do are read books, play with his Legos, work puzzles, help me cook and clean, play with play dough, play with his trucks and cars and of course play with his friends at shcool. His reading is lots of fun. He loves to read the books by himself and he is getting really good at it. He knows all his colors, can count to 10 (most of the time) and right now we are working on the alphabet and recognizing letters and numbers. Poor thing is learning to recognize numbers from helping me warm up left overs in the microwave! He also loves to write and can officially start off his name with an H. I think he is glad to see the snow melt so we can get back into our little routine.

We took a picture of Hunter's first H!! Didn't he do a good job.

More Christmas...With the Hunter's!

Yes folks, Bruno is still with us! He survived the long holiday season and Chloe.
Chloe wanting to help and hold her new cousin, Shelton. He is almost as tall as she is. I think she is going to be a really big helper when Simmons #2 comes around.
Hunter and his new big dump truck.
Soaking in the Christmas spirit...
Proud Grandmohter. Shelton slept right through all the present opening.
Dad is probably wondering where the rest of his presents are stashed.

Okay, so this was our last Christmas celebration and once again we enjoyed time with family and all the good food. We are very blessed with such a loving family. In case you haven't noticed, David gave me a really snazzy camera for Christmas so I hope you have all enjoyed the pictures!

Christmas with the Sam's family

It took two and they managed to blow out the candles.

Not the best pic of me, but for those of you out there that haven't seen my preggo belly.
Dad really excited with his new baby!

Thanks to Roger and Susan for having us over for some yummy food and good times. They have this great stereo system and Hunter and Chloe danced the night away. Not sure why I didn't get any pics of that!

Christmas with the Shouse's

This year we celebrated Christmas at my Aunt Jackie's house after Christmas due to the big blizzard we had around here. Instead of drawing names like we usually do, we opted for a spirited game of dirty santa. It was lots of fun and I enjoyed watching everyone open their gifts.
Once again Chloe and Hunter were professional present openers and everyone was kind enough to let them take turns opening presents...even after they had opened all of theirs. In this picture Hunter is giving Chloe one of the many looks of the night which read, stay away this is mine to open! He got really good at saying, "It is not your turn!"
I love David snickering in the background. Dad is opening his gift and I don't think he was too pleased with it.

Aunt Jackie and Uncle Joe got the kids some great hand puppets. Chloe is hooting it up with Gaga.
David working on Hunter's dinosaur puppets.

Nana and Uncle Larry gave Hunter some puzzles. Apart from reading, working puzzles are his next favorite thing to do. I bet we have already worked these puzzles a 1000 times!

Just a really cute picture. Not sure what I am doing here. I am probably holding him back from grabbing presents that are not his.
Likes his gift. First season of Criminal Minds..who wouldn't?
He slowed down just a minute to grab a bit to eat.

Now it is time to play!

Lots of playing in the basement. Too cold outside and too much snow, but we had lots of fun just playing all day!
David's present from Santa...FOOSBALL!
Little helpers putting on the finishing touches to David's new table.
Big jumper brought by Santa. It is great and what a fantastic way to get the sillys out when your stuck indoors for days!
Time out for juice and then off to more jumping!

Aunt Jaime putting Chloe to work with Cowboy serving as supervision!
Trip to Lowes with our two little helpers.

Christmas 2009!

Some before pictures so you can actually see how festive the holidays were for us this year. We were all very blessed with good food, great family company and loving gifts. The kids were even more happy with all the blessings they received from Santa. We had the most fun watching their excitement build throughout the day.


All I could think about was how long it took to prepare for this one day and how fast the house was turned completely upside down. We all had a great time getting ready for the holidays, but I think it seriously took 30 minutes and you couldn't even see our floors!

This is the first year that Hunter really learned how to open presents by himself. Needless to say it didn't take long to learn what opening presents was all about. Santa brought him a cool guitar like Daddy's.
He played it and carried it around all morning.

Santa brought Chloe and Hunter some great bean bags for relaxing.
Gaga and Papa got Chloe and Hunter some really cool scooters.Granddaddy enjoying his book of pictures and a nice cup of hot coffee.

Snow day fun

We had to find lots to do indoors with all the snow around here. Hunter was not a big fan of playing in it. I think he would have really liked it if we would have had his snow suit. (More on that later!) He just didn't like bundling up in all those clothes and then not being able to move.

With daddy making sugar cookies. Decorating with colored sugar.
Cutting out the cookies.
All that sugar makes one a little thirsty!

Our finished batch of cookies and they were really yummy!
Even the puppies were up for some indoor fun. They could barely walk through the snow!

Blizzard of 2009

We were supposed to be celebrating Christmas with my mom's side of the family, but 15 inches of snow kind of put a damper on things. Poor Hunter was ping ponged between PM and Abingdon for almost 3 months until the snow forced us to hibernate on our little hill until Christmas. David had swithed a day with a fellow co-worker so he could join us for the festivities. Unfortunately, we were only able to stay one night in PM for fear that the snow wouldn't allow us to get home in time for David to go back to work. We left just in the nick of time and boy did we do the slip and slide all the way to our house.....and then we got my car stuck in the driveway. It was beautiful, but boy what a mess we had around here for awhile. Welive in a fantastic neighborhood, and to make a long story short, lots of folks pitched in to get our driveway cleared and my car out of the middle of the front yard!

Chloe's Christmas program

Chloe did a great job and we really enjoyed watching her sing. Even Hunter, whom is normally extremely shy in a crowd, wanted to join her on stage to dance and sing!

Chloe's birthday

Meet Bruno, formerly known as Elvis. I think he was a birthday present. Good luck little puppy!
Chloe showing off her moves for Eli.
All my nieces and nephew and Hunter. Cute kids! I had to post all the pics of this one I could!

I think this one is my favorite! Happy 4th birthday Chloe!

Visit at Granddaddy's

We had a great time visiting with Granddaddy and the York-Simmons family. Hunter has so much fun playing with cousin Eli and baby Linden and David and I love seeing and catching up with Kevin and Noelle. Unfortunately, our visits are short and far between. Hunter still talks about Eli and Uncle Kevin and asks for them daily. Hopefully, we will get to see them all again sooner than later. This trip we also got to spend some extra time visiting with Great Grandma Reeves.

Lap time. Eli is such a cute kid, too bad he's got a hold of that ugly flag. We have some work to do there!
Wonder which one thought this would be a fun idea? Poor Benji and Toto....can't even escape to Granddaddy's room.
Maybe someone told them they weren't really dogs...
Our cutie pie niece! She had a blast watching the boys run around.
More lap time.
Hunter trying to hold the baby. He really is giving it a good shot. I think he is going to be a really sweet big brother.
Great grand daughter.
Hunter and Eli on the tractors at Norma's house. I think this might be Hunter's favorite spot.

Jeep fun. It was really cold, but the boys had fun outside anyway. They did a great job taking turns at the wheel. I was a little worried how Hunter would react to getting out of the driver's seat. He has the Simmons car gene you know...