On with the new!

Five Months have flown by. Wow! It's amazing how fast. No excuses...just busy! On with the new year & the goal of blogging a little more regularly. I'd love to share what we've been up to since Chase was born, there has been quite a bit. I'll try to do it as briefly as possible! First off, I love this quote so much that I wanted to have it permanently displayed on my blog, it's "Love is how we got here", taken from my sis in law Brooke. I love it . I've felt very blessed to have such a full life, with 5 sweet kids & an amazing hubsband. My life has become what it is today because I met & fell in love with this boy.

Here we are the night we were engaged. 12/97

Love is how we got here....

Almost 13 years later--our family. Chase's blessing day.

I left off blogging right after Chase was born so I'm going to back track here and begin with a few shots in the new new newborn phase. As you'll soon see Chase isn't EVER put down much around here. :) Here he is with Allison.
Chase is adorable. He has such a sweet, mellow, smiley personality (thank goodness). He really has brought such joy into our home. All the other kids adore him and their favorite thing is to get him to giggle.

We blessed Chase in October. We were blessed to have family drive long distances just to support us. I love these men in my life. My Dad is on the right & BJ's Dad is on the left.


All the family that made it down.

I love this picture with all of them in white, just being together.

Baby Chase.


Halloween 2010

sleepy tiger

Allie & Chase. Allie loved being a witch this year and loved chanting & singing the tune, "I'm a mean old witch with my Hat...and I ride on my broom with my cat". It was hilarious.

Sleepy Mommy & sleepy Chase. Oh how I love this feeling. I can't complain though, Chase has been my best sleeper. He's sleeping through the night. Yahoo!

Crazy story. this is the edge of our yard! One morning Allison was down watching cartoons & I was resting upstairs. Chase was asleep. All of a sudden I hear a BOOM! Allison calls up to say the TV turned off because of the loud sound. I came down & glanced out my kitchen windows to see huge puffs of smoke & fire raging on the edge of my yard. Our hill was on fire. I ran in to tell BJ (who now works from home everyday... so nice), called 911, then ran out to turn on my hose. The fired dept. was already on it's way. It was a power line that blew. It was scary. I ran through my mind what we'd have to do if the fire wasn't contained. It was contained pretty quickly however. What a blessing that it wasn't at night. You just never know what life brings tomorrow.

Ahhh. My kids with my Mom. What great timing it was that my Mom's flight came in the morning I delivered Chase.

Here comes the smiles!

Sorry Chase, but this was so funny. Thank your Dad.

All the family at the Pumpkin Patch

Loren. We can't believe she'll be 12 this year!

This was a random trip to the pumpkin patch. I told the kids to put on clothes that were either orange, white or black and we walked down. It amazingly turned into a really cute, "everyone's in the mood to smile" photo shoot. I love this picture.

In Sept I got to fly out to UT with Allison & Chase to show my family the baby. It was a whirlwid trip, but so worth it to introduce the little guy to my grandparents & siblings.

Later for Thanksgiving our whole family drove out to UT & found the snow to play in of course!

Lindsey, turning 10 this year!

Jake, who turns the big one this year... 8!

Loren & Lindsey with cousin Ellie, my sister Natalie's oldest. We LOVED playing with these sweet cousins. We miss them!

My sistas! Man, I look tired.

All the cousins

Bean Museum in UT

My Sis Nat, cousin Ellie & Chase

What's Thanksgiving without the pie! The trip wasn't long enough, as always, but it was so great to be with everyone with great food, lot's of family & great memories. We miss all of you guys!

Loren & Chase.

loving the smiles!!

Christmas time. Lindsey is the winner when it comes to who wants to hold Chase. She's always the first one to run and get him out of bed or grab him from me after he's done eating.

Had to get this in for documentation. Chase is frequently caught with these two fingers in his mouth.

Ah. Don't get grossed out but in my attempt to get back into shape after baby #5 I keep getting injured! I've rolled my ankle playing wracketball (bad shoes) & now I have "Bursistis" on my knee cap. It's still there. Not as big, but it's not going away. Too much kneeling the Dr. say's :) It's not very painful but it's been a pain. It's just fluid, and UGLY. It's been almost 2 months now and it's still there. There could be worse things , right? Still, it's a pain.

Chase, getting bigger & chubbier & more personality. He's so fun!

Christmas break we went up to N. California to visit our family on BJ's side & got to go ice skating in San Francisco. For most of our kids, it was there first time & we got to play with Aunt Shannon! This was a major highlight of our trip.

On our drive back from up north the Grapevine was closed down due to snow. We had to do an extra 3 hour detour to get home. We couldn't believe the snow coming down on the drive & the kids were hoping that some stuck in our neighborhood (which really hasn't happened since the 80's). Even though it was pitch dark when we got home Jake & Lindsey got on what cold weather gear we had (most of it we had left in UT) and made a snow man. He was still there in the morning!

Although I've left out quite a bit, including basketball season, gymnastics season, Christmas pics, etc. we've had some great times & most of the camera time has been directed to our newest addition who brightens up the room with his smiles & giggles. We feel very blessed! Onto 2011!

Chase William Hunter is here!

Chase William Hunter

Born August 19th, 2:06am. Stats: 6 lb. 14 oz. 20 1/4 inches long

Chase was born 3 weeks early. I knew he'd be early and I just had a feeling it would be around the 1st week of school. Well, it was the 2nd week of school! BJ called it as we prepared to go to my 37 week appt. to the OB. He asked me, "So where should we go for your last meal?" Red Robin it was. My appt. was just before noon and by 6pm I was in a steady pattern. After BJ picked up Lindsey from gymnastics & we got the kids settled & ready for bed we called over a friend to stay while we headed to the hospital to see if this really was it (I'd been contracting for days and was a 3-4 dilation in the OB office that day). So, when we arrived I was checked out & was already a 5-6. For sure I thought once my water was broken I'd go super fast. Within that first hour I was contracting every 2-3 minutes & when they broke my water I was already a 7 plus. In the past once my water was broken it was 30-60 minutes tops until I was complete & ready to push (my fastest was 1.5 hours from getting to the hospital & delivering). But this time it took 3 hours to go from a 7 plus to 10 (total of 5 hrs from the time we got to the hospital to birth) & we realized why as I began pushing. He was posterior! Face up. He turned on his own just at the right moment and so we avoided the Dr. having the manually turn him or worst case scenerio a C-section. I feel so blessed that we avoided those situations! Besides some nice facial bruises he was a healthy boy & our biggest baby yet! I've recovered pretty well. My Mom flew in at 5am from Hawaii the morning of his birth. So BJ went straight from the hospital to pick up my Mom. Perfect timing! :) It was so wonderful to have her here & she helped me so much. BJ's Mom made the drive down too & got to see us in the hospital & stay the weekend. so we had two Grandma's taking care of everything that was needed. My kids were in heaven &

I was spoiled!


1 day old. One of my favorite pictures of our little guy.

Aw. :)

Just a little swollen & banged up. Not too bad!

This is what Allison keeps saying... "Aw...listen to his little sounds", "Aw...look at his litlte toes", "Aw... he's so cute". Yeah, she's in heaven. Loving every minute of it & loves to run & get me anything I need!

Big brother Jake. He's happy.

Lindsey & Chase. Oh does Lindsey love holding babies!

Allie & Chase

Loren & Chase. Loren is feeling very mature this time around. She loves holding Chase & tells me she is old enough & ready to carry him while standing up. Hard for Mom... but she is growing up! She's volunteered to change 2 diapers already. Nice!

The whole gang. BJ brought the kids over first thing after school. Mommy looks pretty sleepy!

Definitely lips from my side of the family!

A few days old & loving his new chair from Grandma H.

I feel so blessed to have had another sweet spirit enter our home & that he and I are healthy & doing well. Chase has been such an easy going, calm baby. He's adorable. The kids adore him. I have been quickly reminded what one of my favorite things is...a sleeping baby crunched up & asleep on my chest, snuggled in and warm. Such a sweet feeling.

I have had so much help & so many sweet acts of service given. I'm so grateful for the amazing family & friends that I have been blessed with. I've had so many meals, treats, gifts & visits. I've felt very loved & supported. I have more recent pics & will share them soon! Promise.

Spring/Summer wrap up & baby #5 is almost here.....

Wow. The time has flown by & I have quite a bit to catch up on! I can try to blame it on summer with 4 kiddos at home or being super pregnant but I won't. Blogging has just been on the back burner. Period. But, I'd love to catch up a little and share what's been happening around here lately.

This past Monday I went in for my 36 week appt. with my OB and was told I'm dilated to a 2-3 and 70% effaced. He begged me to please lay down for another week so that I could atleast get to 37 weeks! So, that's what I've done this week. Lot's of sitting and laying. I don't know how those women do bedrest for weeks and weeks. I'm going about nuts just doing 1 week! Meanwhile each day I'm having loads of contractions and twinges...all of which are getting stronger and more painful and closer together.. but then settling down. I've debated lot's of times on going in to the hospital but then I've been able to hold on. Makes for lot's of anxiety! I don't want to wait too long. Don't want to have a baby at home or in the car, thank you! Anyways, my goal was to atleast make it to the weekend and here it is...Friday! I just want this little guy to be ready and to not regret a thing.

So, we'll see what happens!

I finally had Loren take a few pic's of me at this stage, 36 weeks to show my belly (my sisters say they didn't believe I was really pregnant because they had no proof!). Believe me now?!

School started yesterday, August 12th, 2010. Just can't believe it! Here are Loren, Lindsey, Jake all ready to go...with Allie in her PJ's joining in. I'm glad I didn't have to miss it!

I think Jake was up since 5:30am ready to go. :)

We only had 2 months of summer. Here were some of our end of spring and summer highlights! First off, this little girl had a birthday and turned 9!

Beautiful, sweet Lindsey

Party time in the backyard with church friends, gymnastic friends & school friends.

Happy birthday Lindsey! Favorite gifts: new reading lamp, alarm clock & a new bike.

A little beach time!

On the last awards assembly of last school year all three kids got "Citizenship".

Proud moment...they are GOOD kids!

Jake finished up spring baseball

Loren wrapped up Tennis and loved it.

and this lovely restaurant has finally made it to California! Ah the memories. Too bad it's clear by the airport at 45 minutes away...but it's worth it!

ahhh.... shredded chicken salad with everything on it. Yum!

Loren turned 11 July 4th. Can't believe I have a 6th grader! For her birthday she wanted her ears pierced and to have a shopping day in San Francisco. I wasn't allowed to go...BJ thought I'd go into labor early walking around San Fran. I guess I did have a tendency to go early this time around! Anyways, BJ forgot the camera so no pictures of San Fran but we have lot's of fun pictures with the cousins while we were up there for July 4th weekend.

Beautiful, sweet Loren

Lovin her newly peirced ears & wishin the time would go by faster so she can wear all her other earrings!

Party at the cousins

Lot's of swimming fun. Allie & Michael

Lindsey & Ally

All the older girls. Loren, Lindsey & Ally. Best buddies.

Jake & Matthew

Allie & cousin Ally

All the cousins. Only a few sad ones in the mix.:)

We had such a fun weekend with all the family. Loren scored in San Francisco and was a power shopper with gma & Aunt Shannon & Dad. When Loren's official birthday came, it was on Sunday, so after church we drove over to Sacramento & stayed with our really good friends the Oehlers. They spoiled us & really made Loren's birthday special.

Jake lost his first tooth! He's waiting a very long time to join the club.

The kids have had some great tomato, zucchini and lemonade sales!

Here is a sample of what our weekly crop has been and it's still coming. A great summer in the garden. Lot's of zucchini bread, salsa and grilled tomato and cheese samdwhiches. I don't have a picture here but our nectarine and peach trees went crazy this summer too. One of the kids jobs has been almost daily to pick the tomatos. Wish they'd eat them!!

Last minute Lego Land trip for Jake & Dad to join BJ's brother Daren & his family while they came down to see us. Jake had such a great time with his cousins & first ever chance to see Lego land.

We had a blast at the Santa Barbara Zoo with great friends, picnics & lot's to see.

A highlight for Allie, a zebra car that was broken!

The hit of the zoo, the playground area at the top with a large "ant hill" with pieces of cardboard for the kids to slide down on. Go figure!

Our whole gang!

A little crafting... Loren & I made a crayon roll

Not bad... of course now all the kids want one!

A spontaneous visit from a dear friend, Tamar & her cute 3 kids! We go back to nursing school & our first jobs at American Fork Hospital. She was on the delivery with Jake. So great to catch up & play.

A great day at Magic Mountain with Dad...and one of Loren's best buddies, Maya.
Even greater when it's free. Thank you reading program incentive from Magic Mountain!

This summer was a fun ride!

Onto the next adventure...a new baby boy, number 5.

Anyday. Stay tuned. :) I'll try to post sooner than every 3 months next time!