12/13/09-12/22/09

So, I got WAY behind on the blog while I was gone!! I can't even begin to catch up so I'll just

give some highlights and add pictures!

Meghan got me introduced to the Twlight Series while I was in Texas and I became obsessed! I stayed up way too late every night reading. I also waited for any lull in the conversations so I could go read! It was kind of my sanity time while traveling with all the kids for so long! Meghan and I enjoyed many little dorky inside jokes!

All of the cousins got along so well! My girls all loved taking care of baby Brooke and baby Trey. I think I might have a couple babysitters pretty soon!! Morgan just beams at the suggestion of living with one of her aunts and uncles for part of a summer to help with their kids! She is really growing up and won't let us forget that! She's even got quite the teenage attitude!

Cole did a great job hanging out with the littler boys. They would run around without any shirts on all the time. He had some rough times feeling like he was the only big boy but the bigger boys (Grandpa, Uncle Matt, and Uncle Tyler) kept him busy also.

Alysa thrived on being with Abby. She couldn't wait for Abby to get home from school each day. They did crafts galore.

Laina was the happy go lucky kid. She had fun with everybody and everything.

While we were there, the kids did their usual trip to the Dollar Tree to pick out presents for everybody. It seems to be one of their favorite traditions now! (We give them the money and they get to do their own shopping without any help then they run home and wrap everything in their own rooms. They love it!)

What are they wearing?

Laina playing in the Egg chair in the play room.

All the cousins slept in the Media room. It got a little crazy at times but the kids loved it!

Just a few stockings hung by the chimney with care!!

Jamie with Abby, Laina, Alysa, and Jake playing outside.

Chris visited Emiliana and her family for Family Home Evening.

From Chris' post:

I was very humbled this evening. I took a few presents over to this family in our ward, and was reminded just how important it is to focus on Christ and others. This sister lost her husband a while ago and is raising her two kids by herself. They invited me to have family home evening with them and I almost ended up in tears. Very cool people with a solid testimony of the important things in life. Now if I could somehow be a little more like them.

The gingerbread village that Grandma and the grandkids made.

Going Christmas caroling through the neighborhood. The kids had a blast but I think the adults were giggling the most!

Trouble makers???

Uncle Tyler is a kid at heart! The kids loved having him around!

Morgan loves that Aunt Jamie lets her cook!!

The gingerbread village again.

Meghan and I had to introduce Matt to the life of deal shopping at Walgreens! He says that he was humiliated but we know he secretly loved it!

Nate, Mom, Jamie, Meghan, Trey.

Grandpa took the kids on a carousel ride at the mall.

The girls working on their portion of the Gingerbread village.

Alysa and Abby! What great friends/cousins!

The boys would take their shirts off whenever they got too hot from running around. They loved to take the cushions off the couch and jump on them.

Playing at the park.

At the park.

The grandkids listening to Aunt Jamie play the harp.

Playing at the creek.

The girls making Trey laugh/Trey making the girls laugh. It was his first time popping bubbles.

What a fun trip we had!!

12/6/09-12/12/09

Sunday 12/6/09

Wow, the kids really didn't do well today with having daddy gone, being in another house, and not getting much sleep! They were all pretty upset today. Cole was throwing the biggest fits! Welcome to traveling with 4 kids for an extended period of time!

One disadvantage to being the sister-in-law to the primary president is that you don't get out of anything! I was asked to help sub the Sunbeams class. It was great though since Laina wouldn't go to class anyway.

Monday 12/7/09

I ventured to the grocery store today. It sure is nice to be able to understand everything that is being said!! It is weird to go places and hear Spanish. The kids and I are trying not to forget what Spanish we have learned but I have a feeling I'm regressing!

I am a list person and I really love to be able to mark something off my list. Today I was able to mark off that I finished my Christmas letters!! YEAH!!

Tuesday 12/8/09

I forgot how involved life gets until I came back to the states and tried to keep up with my blog. It almost seems pointless to write sometimes because I'm not doing anything super spectacular. Then I have to remember that this is our life even if it might be boring!

(Making special monkey cupcakes with Grandma)

Wednesday 12/9/09

This morning the kids, me, Jamie, and her friend went to the church to let the kids play in the gym. It's been so cold here that it's hard to get the kids to play outside! The boys especially had fun running around and throwing the balls. My favorite part was when Jamie was pushing the switch to lower the basketball hoop...not realizing that she had the switch for the projector screen and I was on the other end of the gym pushing the switch for the basketball hoop. She couldn't figure out what was going on. Once I let her in on the secret, she said that that was such "A Hunsaker thing" to do! I hadn't realized what a bunch of pranksters I had grown up with!

Thursday 12/10/09

I was so brave today! With the help of my parents, I was able to drive across town to Meghan's house. I really, really, really do not like the traffic here! The worst part is that most of the drivers are pretty rude! I do look forward to getting back to my slower pace of life in Xela!

It was a great day at Meghans. I was so pleased to see all of the deal shopping that Meghan has done. She has definitely bypassed my abilities in deal shopping!

We also did some Christmas baking. The biggest struggle that I have had with traveling is that I haven't had my own Christmas. For me, the stuff leading up to Christmas is the most fun. Being able to spend time with my sister and my mom making our goodies really helped me out! The best part was that the divinity actually turned out!!

Friday 12/11/09

This morning, I went to a neighborhood cookie exchange with Jamie and my mom. It was amazing to see how much stuff there was!! Decorations, cookies, food, people, etc. There were some really good treats but I think my favorite were the sugar cookies. I am missing Brandi Lund's sugar cookies though!! Her's are my favorite!

We got tickets to go see the Nutcracker tomorrow so I thoughts I'd get the Barbie in the Nutcracker movie for the girls to watch to get them ready. I went all over town trying to find it. I finally found it at the first store I was by that said they didn't have it when I checked online! What a hassle!

Since the girls were all going out tomorrow, the boys all decided to go to a hockey game tonight. I was so happy that my dad, Matt, and Tyler were all willing to take Cole with them. He's been having a little bit of a struggle without kids his age so it really helped me out to get to go hang out with the big boys! He came home with a huge grin on his face!

Saturday 12/12/09

The day began with a wonderful Christmas breakfast at the church. It's pretty tough to make it to 8:00 things when you don't wake up until 8:00 though!! Needless to say, we were a little late and once again we missed Jamie playing the harp! I have to blame it all on Meghan for giving me the Twilight book. I've been up until about 1:00 for the past two nights reading. I just can't seem to convince myself to go to bed!

I have been putting off taking my girls to the Nutcracker for several years. With their recent interest in ballet, I thought that this would be a perfect time to go! My mom, Meghan, Jamie and Abby, and myself and 3 girls went. It was completely worth it to watch Alysa, Abby, and Laina's faces when the curtains opened and the ballerinas came on the stage. I don't think Alysa's eyes left the stage for the entire performance. During intermission, I took the girls to the bathroom and Alysa was trying to do ballet moves the whole way.

During the second act, Laina started to get tired, cranky, and a little loud. During a silent moment between song, Laina proceeded to say in her loudest voice, "This is taking forever!". Repeatedly!! How embarassing!

I think the girls favorite part was actually getting to see the ballerinas afterwards. Morgan even asked for a couple autographs!

Some family pictures

11/29/09-12/5/09

Sunday 11/29/09
This was our last week of church in Las Vegas. It was a sad to say good bye again but they kept me busy playing the piano again.
I was pretty excited to get to pick Chris up at the airport again!! I feel like I live there lately!


Monday 11/30/09
Today was Laina's 4th birthday. She was so funny because she kept saying she wasn't 4 until she got to open her presents. She begged all day to open them! She got to go to a special lunch with Dad also. She was a happy little girl!


Morgan made a Happy Birthday sign for Laina out of legos.




Tuesday 12/1/09
We spent the day running all of our last minutes errands before we left for Texas. It was weird to be packing up and getting the house ready to leave again. It'll be sad to leave the house behind, but I am happy with the family that will be renting it.


Wednesday 12/2/09
We left at about 6:30 in the morning to start our drive to Texas. It was a beautiful day. We kept commenting on how long and straight the roads were. The kids were thrilled to get to go to Denny's for lunch. I don't know why but they have been asking to go there since we got back to the states. We made it past Albaquerque, New Mexico when the sun went down and all of the sudden the temperature dropped and our windshield started freezing. The defroster couldn't keep up with the ice build up, so we had to stop earlier than planned in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. We lucked out and found an inexpensive hotel that had two queen beds and a hideaway so that the whole family could fit in one room. It even included a free breakfast and free internet so we were happy. The kids fell asleep so fast!


Lake Mead, Nevada

The new Hoover Dam bridge.



Thursday 12/3/09
We woke up early again only to have the kids yell, "There's snow!!" UGH!!! Why is it snowing in New Mexico??? We hadn't even considered that there might be bad weather!


Once we finally left the hotel and headed for the highway, the entrance was shut down!! The radio station kept saying to stay home unless there was an emergency. Does getting to Texas to get on the airplane on time count as an emergency? We found a round about way to another entrance and we were able to get on. The roads were o.k. and the traffic was o.k. for a while but then all of a sudden everything completely stopped. We spent the next couple of hours going between 0 and 10 miles per hour. We later learned the the semis couldn't make it up the "hills" (bumps in the road!) so they had to close down the freeway until they could sand them. A person at a gas station said that it took him 3 hours to go 11 miles!

If you look really closely, you can see the long line of semis going as far up the road as we could see. We were completely stopped for well over 1/2 hour.


After we got through that slow area, the rest of the drive was pretty decent. With our delay, we didn't get into Dallas until almost 9:00!! The kids (and Chris and I) were definitely ready to be out of the car!
After that trip, I am so thankful for redbox and for the built in DVD player with headphones! The kids watched so many movies, but we had very limited arguing. It was wonderful!


Friday 12/4/09
Yea! We're finally in Texas. We spent the day hanging out with my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. It was great to get to see everybody again! The kids had fun getting to play with their cousins.



Saturday 12/5/09
My wonderful sister in law, Jamie went with us and took our family pictures. We definitely put it off to the very last minute. Since Chris was heading back to Guatemala today and not coming back until Christmas Eve, we really needed to get them done!
It was a very sad moment when Chris had to leave for the airport. Laina was crying uncontrollably. It was very pitiful! We definitely look forward to him getting back for Christmas though!