Conference Weekend

For those of you who watch General Conference, just wanted to let you know about a great website I get my kids packets from. I've looked at several over the years and she has come to be my go to gal.  I haven't even looked at the others so I'm still assuming she has the best ones again. :)  If your kids sit perfectly and require no crayons at all then..............Honestly, I don't know who you are or what to say. :)  Awesome, so
take a look at http://foodstorageandbeyond.com 
If you are not familiar with General Conference, it is a great spiritual televised meeting presented by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Two wonderful days of uplifting talks this Sat and Sun.  You can watch it on line at http://lds.org or on television.  Have a great weekend!

Huntsman Reunion 2011

Every other year we have our family reunion and get to celebrate one of my most favorite people in the world.  My Grandpa.  We used to celebrate his birthday during Labor Day since his actual birthday is in Sept.  However, with a growing family, summer is a much easier time to get together.  Therefore, this July was jam packed with lots of family fun time.  Isn't he the cutest Grandpa ever!  Payton is definitely his daddy's boy but I think he also looks a lot like Grandpa H. Especially the smile. 

 Oh the kids had so much fun with all their 'new' cousins.  Every year they meet someone new.  They had such exhausting fun each day.  At the crack of dawn, they would head to some cousins camp and 'live' there most of the day.  Halle even told her Aunt Jodie that her mom doesn't feed her.  What! She always wanted what they were having and the thought of having to separate even for a moment was torture to her. ha ha :)

 We had a few craft tables and books and quiet time places for the kids.  I wish I could have a video camera to just follow them around the whole time.  They loved every moment.  It was so fun to see their imagination and all the little games they would play. 

 Halle was making delicious treats for the program that night.  A special present for the program she insisted.  Here she is presenting it to Grandpa.  He was laughing and thought it was cute.  I love Grandma's look.  She thinks Halle is crazy. She didn't understand why Halle wanted them to eat bark.  lol. 

 Payton was able to do lots of 'boy' things as he said.  Baseball, hiking, tag, diggin in the dirt and volleyball.  Every day they would say, "This is the best day ever! We got to play ALL day mom!!"

 We learned how to do all sorts of cool things, including making bags and wallets out of duct tape.  Yep, duct tape.  They had all sorts of colors and prints-they were very cool.  Wish I would have took a pic of the finished project. :(  The kids did bead work and other art projects, went on several hikes and joined in two plays and programs. 

                                    Such strong muscles.
She worked a long time on her 'treats'. She is so cute!

 Uncle Nick and the kids had done a rain dance.  (Man I really wish I'd had a video of that!!) Anyway, afterwards we had a huge down pour.  It lasted quite a while.  We had just got all the food sat out and everyone had to run for cover.  We kept thinking it would pass like the other storms but after 15 plus min of serious hard rain, we had to start moving quick.  Poor Grandpa and Grandma were sitting in chairs with umbrellas.  We were afraid Grandma would fall since water was rushing down the hills so C just picked her up and got them to the car.  Luckily we had purchased a better tent this year and lots of extra clothes.  The fire pit was full of mud and water and it was hard getting a fire started with wet wood.  Thanks to our Eagle Scout men for workin hard to get us warm again.  We finally had to throw gasoline to get it started and had our own little, "Wilson, look what I have done!" moment.
The rain didn't dampen our spirits though and we finished our delicious food and had a program where I have to say, I seriously have the most talented and funny family EVER! 

 It was wonderful to spend the week in the mountains again.  That's one thing we always miss out here.  But mostly it was so nice to just relax and spend time with family.  It's always sad to say goodbye, I love them all.  

 A 'few' of the grand-kids and Grandpa.  And a 'few' of the great-grand-kids with Grandpa and Grandma.
I may be off [if so someone will tell me I am certain :) ] but I counted 38 grand-kids, 108 great grand-kids, 2 great-great grand-kids, plus all spouses at 206 total.  11 have passed and we have 7 on the way.
Happy Real Birthday today Grandpa!! We love you and wish you a happy 102nd.  :)  We are so thankful that families can be forever.

Got fish?

Some people see a nice sun rise like this and they can just sit and enjoy it.  I most prefer to see it while looking out the window from a nice comfy bed.  My hubby..he is out an hour before the sun rise, with a pole in his hand.  Since Payton is generally in school, Halle is the first mate and gets to go on a lot of trips with dad.  She LOVES it!  She is a princess but this girlie girl is a dang good fisher-woman.  She is not scared at all and loves cleaning the guts out. 

 Catching a few perch at the pier. 

 All in a mornings work.  I love the model hands they have here... :) Like it's the 'Price is Right' showcase or something.  And yes, there are still plenty of fish out there! 

 When the cousins came to visit, they had a great time with Uncle Andy.  Even Boo got to go. 

 Don't you just love the blood on her shirt.  Nice touch I think. Gross to me!

 Payton is starting to like fishing a lot more each time he goes.  Mostly, eating them is his favorite part. 

 She could barely hold this fish, lol.  The one below was a 21lb catfish.  Got it behind the house, crazy! 

 Yeah, we go fishing once and a while....Hey, I could think of worse hobbies. :) 

June

 We have had rain only 2 times since February.  We are in a major drought.  This is #1 day of rain, several months ago.  The kids were so happy they had to run out and enjoy it. 

 This girl sure does love here dog.  Best buds. Payton loved sneaking in the hose too.  We miss rain.  I wouldn't even mind a hurricane at this point.  Our church stake fasted for rain, and Texas should be grateful! :)  WE were so grateful!  We had day #2 of rain last week.  It was so wonderful. 

 Daddy isn't around as much as he'd like, but when he's home he does a good job playing with the kids.  Morning time is Halle time.  I love the look on Andy's face.  He is so excited.  My battery died, but they were playing barbies after this.  :)  He wants to market a 'Swamp Barbie'.  That's how we play here.  Texas y'all. 

 Since it is so dang HOT here, we spent almost every week day at the pool.  Payton was in school this day, but Halle had fun at a little play date with the girls. 

April Activities

 Dad rarely gets time off work, so when he has a short 2 days, we try to do something fun.  We headed to San Antonio since we've never been before.  I've heard lots of nice things about it.  I'm guessing that we obviously didn't have enough time because I didn't get what everyone was talking about.
We saw a few really nice places though.  We went to the Alamo and I thought the grounds and old building there were really neat. 

 They have a lot of artifacts there and you can visualize what is must have been like.  It's really amazing when you think about it.  Texas history baby.   I loved this tree.  I wish the picture could do it justice. 

 Never shy to have her picture taken. 

 I didn't remember much about the Alamo history so it was nice to have a tour and hear them tell about it.  I love the architecture of the buildings.  It was a super hot day, especially for this early in the year. We didn't have time to do the River walk. I hear it's the best thing about San Antonio.  We were able to see a drunk guy pass out and another guy rob him and leave him in the bushes though.  That was exciting. ;)

 We hit Sea World, which is kind of weird since the sea is pretty far away from here.  Again, it was REALLY hot so we were happy to see lots of water and splashing about.  They had a nice water park that the kids enjoyed.  Halle was sad cause she was too short to go on a lot of rides. We went on the one ride she could about 10 times though. :)

 Of course, ya gotta have a pic of the orca.  It really is amazing to me how they teach them all these tricks.

 The kids really enjoyed getting to feed the dolphins.  Thanks to my hubby, they are used to touching dead fish all the time and they managed to make many little dolphin meals out of the few fish they had.

 The sharks are my favorite exhibit but I can never get a good picture in there.  The kids were kind of mellow, mostly due to the heat, but they keep talking about it so I guess they had a great time.  Honestly they are always more excited about staying in a hotel than anything else on our trips.  I'm going to start just going to a hotel and call it good. Save a lot of $  :) 

 Our yearly Easter tradition wouldn't be complete without decorating eggs.  Every time we do this they say, "Mom, this is my favorite!  We should do this every day!".  They were trying to come up with a list of other foods that we could color and eat every day.

 We had several Egg hunts.  Well, Halle anyway.  Payton was at school. :(  A group of our friends had a little hunt and picnic at the park.  We each brought eggs and the kids were so fun to watch running around gathering eggs.  I don't know how they didn't see us throwing them out before we started, but yet they kept saying.  "Wow, that bunny sure left a lot of eggs!"  We actually did see a bunny.  It was deemed too small to be the 'real' Easter bunny.  They claimed it must be it's kid.

                                                 The gang. 
We also had a fun activity and hunt at the library.  Halle read stories, made crafts and found lots of eggs around the books.  She couldn't figure out why the bunny would leave them in the library though. :)

 Our last hunt was at a friends house.  It was SO funny watching.  The kids took it serious and had races to see who could gather the most eggs.  They were literally speeding around.  Can't remember who won, but everyone had big smiles. 

                             "Look at me mom!"  

These two crack me up!! Heaven help us with these little diva's.  This is seriously how they posed when I asked to take a picture.  :)