Thanksgiving and Our Big News

Thanksgiving has come and gone and Christmas will be here by the end of the week! Time is just flying by but I wanted to post about our Thanksgiving and the big decision we have made. It is always nice to have this season to remember all that you are thankful for and this Thanksgiving we were most thankful for our extended family and for the opportunity we have had to live so close to them.

There are big changes coming to our little family... Dan has accepted a new job out in Hannibal, Missouri with General Mills. His start date is January 3rd so he will be heading out on the 27th and Ellie and I will follow close behind. We are so grateful for this great opportunity and it feels like this will be a great move for our family - but with all the exciting aspects of this decision there are also a lot of sacrifices that will be made.

We are so sad to be leaving Boise. It has been such a wonderful place to live and we have been really blessed here. We will miss our fabulous neighbors and friends, I will miss my job and the great people I work with, and we will miss our ward family. Most of all we will miss my dear sister and her family. We have LOVED living by Becky and it has been so great for Ellie to be able to play with her cousins. She looks up to them and watches every move they make and wants to be just like them. Sarah is our number one babysitter and always watches over her so carefully. Savannah is Ellie's very favorite person in the world and her favorite place to be is right on Savvy's hip. Andrew is her special play buddy and everytime our doorbell rings she runs to it yelling Andwew! Andwew! Emmy is her protector and makes sure she doesn't get hurt when they play. When Ellie gets hurt and is crying she always calls for Emmy. We will miss our cousins so so much!!

And of course I am going to miss my best friend Becky. She is my partner for so many activities. We make our raspberry jam, applesauce, and salsa together. We go shopping at least once a week together. We babysit eachother's kids weekly. We go swimming, we plan parties, we have weekly Sunday dinners, we go to lunch at Costa Vida, we pick out all our spring flowers together, we have been known to do some Jillian workouts or go running together, we lose every week at rook to our husbands, and she continually teaches me how to be a better cook, a better friend, and a more patient mother. I honestly don't know how it is going to work without having her so close.

Knowing that we will soon be going out on our own it was really nice to be able to spend some time with all of the Hunzekers for Thanksgiving. We are also really going to miss having Grandma and Grandpa so close because they are such wonderful grandparents/parents and Ellie just adores them.

This Thanksgiving was in Twin Falls and we were able to get the entire Hunzeker family together. We also were lucky enough to get Grandma and Grandpa Call and Aunt Renee to join our party.

This Thanksgving Ellie and Natalie decided they really liked it when Grandpa dragged them around on a blanket. Grandpa was a good sport and dragged them around all day.

Ellie also got to go swimming with her Grandpa... one of her very favorite activities.

We made about 14 pies and two cheescakes. I learned a lot about how to make a good pie crust and all of our desserts turned out really yummy. This was one of our apple pies.

Grandma and Grandpa helped the kids make their own gingerbread houses.

Since we finally had everyone all together we took the opportunity to take a family picture. So here is the Hunzeker family November 2011.

It was so great to see all of our family and we are really looking forward to Christmas where we will get to see our Risenmay and Mensel side of the family! With all the changes that are about to come we are reminded daily that we are so blessed to have the best family and no matter where we go we know we will always be able to feel their love and support.

Halloween Buzz

Ellie was our happy little bee!!

She was a busy little bee exploring the ward trunk or treat

Checking out the other kids.

Our not so happy little bee

We went to a fun Halloween party at the library with the cousins. Andrew is pretty excited about his new book!

Enjoying some beautiful fall weather before we get ready for trick-or-treating

Andrew and Emmy helped carve some of our pumpkins from the garden. Bet you Can't you guess who chose the ghost and who chose the kitty.

Fun trick-or-treat buddies. We are lucky to have them so close!

Can we go yet??

TREAT! Ellie's new favorite word. For some reason she thought each doorstep was Grandma's so she would walk up to the door saying "grandma? grandma?" By the end she learned that she was supposed to say "Treat!"

Enjoying some of the loot.

Ready to go home after a long night of Trick-or-Treating.

Happy Halloween!

Flashback

Today I have been missing my newborn baby. It probably started because I was looking at so many pictures of our new niece Kaitlyn Jane... who is adorable. How did our baby become a toddler so fast?? This phase is fun because it is really exciting to see how much she is learning. It is funny how proud I am whenever she learns a new word or puts a block through the right shaped hole. But this phase also has its challenges which recently has started to include fits of temper, pulling down furniture, and always always always trying to get on top of the kitchen table. I am ready to glue my kitchen chairs to the floor or just get rid of them all together.

So today while my little troublemaker is taking her nap I feel like looking through some videos we made when she was only a few months old. I miss that little baby! Hopefully we will be blessed with another baby soon... but for now I will just have to depend on old videos to get my baby fix!




And yes... she still loves to dance!

June - September 2011

I am behind on my blog again so I figure that the easiest way to catch up will be with some highlights from each month. So here goes!

June:

Baby girl has just been growing and growing. She loves to dress up and goes from wearing Grandpa Risenmay's hat to trying on mommy's shoes. She loves to brush her hair and look in the mirror. While she is brushing she will things like "cuuute" or "pretty". We are loving the high self-esteem.

Elisabeth is a busy busy girl and it can sometimes get her into trouble. If mom turns her back for a minute she can tear the kitchen apart in no time.

But seriously... who can resist this face:

July:
For the 4th of July we introduced Elisabeth to the famous East Millcreek Parade.
We had a great holiday at Grandma Jane's and loved seeing all the cousins!

Isn't Uncle Dan great with all the kiddos???
During the end of July and beginning of August we had a few family reunions. We saw the Risenmay family for a week and then went straight to the Fagergren family reunion at Reid Ranch.This is a shot from the Risenmay reunion:

August:

In August Dan and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary! Dan surprised me with a little trip.... to France! Oui oui!
It was amazing and we took over 500 pictures. Mainly we took that many pictures because there were so many amazing sights.... but the fact that it was the only activity that didn't cost an arm and a leg probably played into our over-exuberance as well.
We had so much fun visiting the Louvre, Versailles, Rouen, Notre Dame.... a lot of places. It may sound cliche but my favorite was the day we spent at the Eiffel Tower. It was the most beautiful day and we had so much fun. I would love to go back again... soon!

We also had a great garden this year thanks to a huge water bill :) We enjoyed fresh spinach, green beans, beets, onions, strawberries, raspberries, corn, canteloupe, watermelon, peas, a few tomatoes, and brocolli. Plus we have about 12 good size pumpkins ready to go for October.
Dan and Elisabeth spent Saturdays together harvesting the crops and then I spent the rest of the week figuring out what to do with all the produce... lets just say that I am getting pretty good with a pressure cooker!
Our peach tree did awesome this year. It is so fun to can peaches from your own tree!

September:
It was family picture time! Our cute neighbor took some pictures of us down by the Boise River. I will put up a few of our photos here because we had some grandparents requesting to see the latest and greatest.






Ok done for now!

What we have been up to...

Here is a quick update of what we have been doing in 2011:

Ellie and I took a trip to Zoo Boise with the Hanson family.
Ellie hangs out with these kids so much I think she thinks she is their sister.
She does look a lot like Sarah.... but she is my baby I promise.

Loving the zoo!

The giraffe or "gi-gi" is Ellie's favorite animal... after kitties.

We have also enjoyed the spring weather around Eagle.
Ellie and the cousins and I went on a picnic by the lake.
We love feeding the ducks and enjoying beautiful Boise.

Emmy and Andrew took turn pulling the wagon to the lake
while Sarah and Savvy rode their bikes.
Once we got there we had a great picnic.


And of course one of the MOST important events of the spring....
Ellie turned one!!

As you can see she loved her personal ladybug cake.

We had a great time celebrating with family and friends and Elisabeth had a great time opening lots of presents.

A VERY spoiled little girl!

We have been spending a lot of time getting our yard in order
and here Ellie is enjoying the flowers outdoors while
Daddy builds Mommy some new flower beds.

Our Memorial Day weekend was spent in Twin Falls and Pocatello.

Ellie modeled her new cherry dress
that Aunt Robin made for her.
How lucky to have such a talented Auntie!!

Then of course we spent some time with new baby Zander.
Brit and Kyle have a darling new baby boy and we loved
spending some time snuggling this cutie.

After Zander time it was off to the hotel pool so
Ellie could swim with "Bamp Pa"

As for what Elisabeth is up to now.... Well lets just say that she is hard to keep up with.
She loves to play the emptying game and yesterday I found her emptying out my wallet.
I guess you are never too young to want mom's money.





Well those are some of the fun adventures we have been on lately. On a more serious side I wanted to share that our sweet Elisabeth gave us a scare a few weeks ago when she experienced some febrile seizures. She has been doing great lately and we are so GRATEFUL for her health and happiness. Nothing is as scary as taking your little baby to the hospital. We are still doing some tests and hope that all will continue to be well with our precious girl. We love her so much and appreciate all the prayers that have gone out on her behalf!