Happy Holidays from our beautiful new home! We are all settled in, and love our new surroundings. Hunter and Rebecca once again have their own rooms, although Beck sneaks over to visit her patient, football-loving, big brother’s room to play after bedtime. They both have made good use of their new playground, and Beck is catching up to Hunt in both size and climbing skills. Michael is right near his golf course, and Mama is delighted by how close her favorite places are.


Hunter had a fun visit to the zoo this spring, posing for his routine picture with the statue of Massa the Gorilla. When she was little, Mama and Mimi Yvonne used to visit the real Massa, which Hunt knows all too well from hearing every one of Mama’s stories. Mimi is doing well after getting her ‘bionic hip,’ about the same time as Michael broke his ankle. They are both still recovering, but getting there!


Beck is getting so big! She got her first set of stitches this year after a tumble, and gave everyone a run for their money in the process. She is so tough, nothing fazes her. Except: maybe roller coasters. The kids enjoyed a trip to the fair, and their first coaster ride. Hunt went several times, Beck went once. She is sassy, outgoing but cautious, demanding, smart, and so sweet and kind.



Thomas enjoyed his pretty typical summer activities, video gaming, golfing, trips to the Lake with Grammy and Pappy, and some water skiing and tubing. Then, Ashley signed him up for overnight Camp Cadet for a week, run by the County Police. Yay, marching! Yay, push-ups! Actually, it was a beautiful camp site on French Creek, and it sounded like he had a great time. They went fishing, had an appearance from a SWAT team, went swimming, and sat around campfires. Fun!




We had a fun Halloween trick-or-treating in the ‘hood. The kids dressed up as Scooby and the Mystery Machine, everyone knows what a Mystery Beck is! There were even Bonus Treats at Mimi’s house.



We are so proud of all the kids, their strength, resilience, understanding, optimism, and sense of humor. Just today we saw how amazing they are as they tossed stones and climbed together down by the river. Peace, from us to you.






See Ya!
Merry Christmas! Love, All of Us

Fall Traditions

Another year at the orchard! Last year was unseasonably warm and we were all sweating and somewhat uncomfortable, so this year Mama decided to even things out and leave the kids' jackets at home and let them freeze on an overcast and chilly day. But we all had a great time!




And last year's...

Hunter's Prehistoric Birthday Bash

Hunter's 4th Birthday was a perfect opportunity to throw him a really great party. We had never done anything party-like for him outside of the family dinner and cake routine. For his first birthday, we drove Mimi home and he had peach ice cream at her house, and I baked him a cake. For his second birthday, we were down at the shore and we had a little party at our house with Grammy and Pappy when we got home. For his third Birthday, I gave him a four month old sister and we went to Grammy's for dinner. You get the jist.

So for the fourth, and to celebrate going to a new school, we decided to throw him a dinosaur party and invite his new classmates along with his old friends. There was much talk of dinosaurs pre-party, and we studied his dino books at length. I had so much fun designing his invitation and planning the food, it reminded me of the old days when I was catering in college. We even made a recon trip out to Jimmy Johns and picked up the best hot dogs on the east coast, after doing some sampling and playing with the trains, of course.

On the big day, the farm was transformed to a prehistoric site! The dino bones I cooked, (really, I am still traumatized and will not discuss them at this time), looked great in the garden, the moon bounce was inflated (and much quieter than I thought it would be), and Heather was ready and decked out in her Dino saddle cover, (she was thrilled to be giving pony rides, ask her). I finally got to do the picture collages of Hunter that I've always wanted to do for a birthday, and I hung them around the old pin oak.

Mimi and Bunny were in attendance to help keep an eye on everyone, and Pappy George enjoyed himself in all of the excitement. The kids had a good time and it was fun for the parents to meet each other and enjoy the summer day!

These are just a few of the highlights of the day...

Pumpkin Pie

At school, Hunter takes a class called Stripes, it's an integral part of his school. This month he is learning about his Faith Stripe, and on parents night his teacher explained that Faith is laden in tradition, so talking about tradition with little one's can help them begin to identify Faith.

I thought about the traditions that I am trying to practice with our family. Some traditions are new one's, like taking Hunt and Beck to the town Halloween parade in homemade "Pairs" costumes. Some are old traditions; my mother used to hide the baby Jesus figurine from our creche in the drawer of the dresser where the bucolic scene rested year after year. Her theory was that Christmas was Jesus' Birthday so He should not make an appearance until Christmas morning. Now, I just need to remember whose turn it is to take out our baby Jesus for our creche scene that Mimi gave us.

This year I decided that our new tradition could be baking pumpkin pie from scratch. Hunter loves pumpkins, and I thought this would be a good way to get him to eat something with a more sophisticated flavor. They say if the kid is involved in the making of the food, they are more inclined to eat it. I wasn't holding my breath though, pumpkin pie was a bit outside of Hunter's current palate. I also thought it would be a good opportunity to show him that pumpkins, a lot of veggies for that matter, come from the vine before they end up on the table, they don't necessarily come from a can or the microwave.

Enough foolosiphizing!

Getting started, Hunter has a selection of pumpkins and a can of pumpkin, he said, "Just in case we need it"



Ready for the oven!




Mixing it up!



Finished Pie...



Hunter ate his whole piece, and declared it "Delicious"



Let Pie season begin!

Catching Up?

Meg says blogging every day is easier than sporadically since you don't feel as if you need to "catch up." Well, sheesh, that is how I feel a bit. Mostly I have been procrastinating and using a few excuses to take some time off. First, I totally killed my ProShot camera when I left it out in the rain the evening of Hunt's Big Birthday Bash. I am still wondering how exactly I let that happen. We were cleaning up and wandering around the property hanging out chatting, and I guess I just spaced it out. So I have yet to be able to replace it and take pictures, and it feels yucky. Hopefully soon I will be able to get a little something to tide me over, I have my eye on a pocket ProShot point and shoot, but alas, I am afraid even that won't happen for a while.

The other thing is that I have been stalling on starting another blog. Mostly since I am unsure of the best way to go about it. I have the idea and the name at this point, I think what is holding me up is the publishing. Obviously, there's a few different routes I can take, I just need to decide on one.

Hunt is just now finishing his first full week of Pre-K. That is a post all its own!

Blerghhhh

I haven't posted in so long. It's been a long few months. This is the summer I had the pleasure of taking lots of prednisone due to a loser doctor and my own forgetfulness.

Hunter is starting EA in 9 days.

Count 'em.

Hunter Golfing ScrapBlog