The Great Clean Up....well, maybe great isn't the right word.

I have been trying to take advantage of my days at home during Christmas Break.  For me, I've been pretty productive so far.  Whatever I'm doing I have to do in short bursts because there seems to always be somebody needing me for something.  Two days ago I cleaned our bedroom, well mainly I cleaned off the desk.  You can actually see the top of it now.  Yesterday I was busy doing other things so I didn't get much cleaned up.  Today I cleaned our "cubbies" out.  Here is a picture of the finished work.

I'm pretty happy with the way it looks today.  I'm sure it won't last.  When school starts next week the piles will creep back.  I threw away papers that were dated 2009.  I'm not sure how many pairs of shoes I cleaned out of there either.   There were at least 5 singletons that I have yet to locate the partner.  I am thankful that we have such a space in our house though.  It's one of my favorite things.  You may be wondering why we only have four spots, but 5 Hunt's.  Well, we only had room for that many cubbies in that particular location heading into our garage.  So, Harley is probably going to move most of this stuff to the garage as Haddon gets older and needs her own space.  He is getting used to us taking things over, and usually bows out graciously.  

Tonight I cleaned the pictures off my camera.  It has been a while since I did that too.  There were pictures from Halloween to Christmas and in between...over 350 of them.  I desperately need to get an external hard drive to store my pictures.  I've had my macbook for five years, so I have that many years worth of pictures on it.  If it every crashes I'll be devastated.  I have a feeling it might be on its last leg...maybe that's just wishful thinking because I want a macbook pro :).  

Halsey took my camera one day and snapped about 100 pictures.  Most of them were of her toys or the driveway, but this one really caught my eye.  I just love it.  They were outside and the lighting was just right.  This is not the first picture of this type Halsey has taken either.

I took this at Halsey's birthday party at TNT Tumbling - where the girls take gymnastics.  This was before all the fun began and I could actually get them to stop for a second for my camera.

Hayleigh had her first major sleepover for her birthday.  I don't even know how many girls we had, but we had a good time.  We had a spa.  I have to give a special thank you to Harley's sisters and mom for coming over to help.  I could not have pulled it off without their help.  This is a picture of them being silly.  Charity was a late comer, so I added a picture of her too.  She added lots of life to our party! :)  It was so great to have them all there.  I have to admit that I was glad when it was over too.  I was pooped!  Thanks to my mom for keeping Haddon, and Mandy B for letting Hals stay with her that night.  

I did a horrible job taking pictures on Christmas morning.  I only got about 15, and none of them were of the three girls together.  I hope this next year I can do better all the way around with pictures: taking them, loading them, developing them, etc.  The girls are only this age once, and I want to make sure we don't miss anything.

Well, it's late.  Thanks for reading!  

Oh yea, I have a blog!

Well, it's been right at a month since my last post.  We have been super busy, and I am just now starting to unwind from the holiday rush.  Who would have thought I would be fighting allergies the last week of December, but I am really struggling to breath at the moment.  My eyes are itching and my nose is running like a faucet.  The weather changes are messing with my system.  One good thing about the warmer weather though is that I can still wear my flip flops.  I actually wore them Christmas Eve night at Harley's parents house.  My mom would be proud of me today though because I wore my Toms with socks all day long.  

Lots of things have happened this month.  I've posted a few pictures so you can see.  They are not necessarily in order of occurrence.  

This is Hayleigh and Halsey acting silly for the camera.  Uncle Logan is behind them.  We had a fun time meeting Logan's girlfriend Shelbie before she went home for Christmas break.  The girls took lots of silly pictures with her on my phone, but I figured I would wait a while before I completely embarrassed the girl. :)

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree after Santa paid a visit.  Hayleigh wanted a white board.  She really wanted a projector and a document camera too, but we had to explain how Santa cant go overboard because he has lots of kids to cover.  She is happy with what she got, and Harley already has it hanging on her wall so she can play school.  Halsey was pretty easy, she loves anything that has to do with Barbie.  She has had her eye on this camper for a long time.  Haddon loves baby dolls and pushing things, so the cart and baby doll was fairly easy to put together too.  All three girls were more than excited to come down stairs.  It is a lot of fun to watch them have such a good time.  I know the time is coming soon when it wont be a big deal to them, or they will want such expensive things that they can only get a few presents, so I am enjoying the time while I can.

This picture is pretty blurry, but I could not resist it.  I knew there was a chance they would wake up with the flash, but I took it anyway.  We have recently put Haddon in her own big girl bed.  It took her about two weeks to realize she can get up on her own when she wants.  Well, let me tell you, we have had a time keeping her in her bed all night long.  I joke and tell people that it's like having a newborn again, but really it's the truth.  She is up every two to three hours standing by my side of the bed wanting to get in.  I have to admit, sometimes I let her.  She is the best cuddler of the group.  Sometimes I wake up and she is in our bed asleep and I have no idea when and how she got there.  Then other times I have to march her back upstairs to her own bed.  Harley and I have resolved that we have to take her back every time now.  That is our goal over break - that she stays in her bed all night long.  Last night she actually only got up twice, so maybe we are making progress.  In this picture I found her in bed with Hayleigh when I went to bed.  I thought it was cute.

I am so proud of this next picture.  This was taken at the Fire Department Christmas banquet.  Notice how dressed up Harley is.  Well, that's because he was officially promoted to Battalion Chief.  I actually got to pin his badge on myself during the ceremony.  We are very proud of him.  He is the new Fayetteville Fire Marshall.  This is a job he never thought he would have.  Now he has an office (he's never sat behind a desk at all) and is trying to learn as much about his job as he can.  One perk, is that he works 8 to 5 every day.  This is much different from our life of the last 13 1/2 years where he worked 24 on and 48 off.  He is home every night and it has really been nice, although I feel compelled to cook more.  I dont expect we will be having cereal for dinner any time soon.

One of the other things that have happened this month - Hayleigh has finally got to start riding lessons.  This is the horse she gets to learn on, her name is Estella.  She has only had three lessons so far, but she is loving it.  I'm so glad she gets to do it.  We are on our way to learning how to take care of a horse of our own some day.  

Well, I've gone on too long.  I probably should have saved some of this for my next post.  I sure hope everyone had a great Christmas!  Thanks for reading.  Hopefully it wont be another month before my  next post.  :)

Skunks dont wear flip flops!

Well, we had some suspicion all day yesterday that we had a skunk in our garage.  It was confirmed last night after I went out to get my iPad from the car and came face to face with the little "stinker"...tail up.  It all started Saturday night.  I was coming down stairs after checking on the girls at bed time when I heard a scratching on the door to our garage.  I assumed it was the cat that shows up every  now and then.  He usually finds a place to sleep and so I figured he just got shut in when Harley closed the doors.  Anyway, I opened the door and did not see or hear anything (the cat usually meows when I open the door) so I shut it back and went to bed.

The next morning Hayleigh was heading outside to check on her rabbit and she came running back up stairs all excited saying she saw a skunk.  When Harley went out there he couldn't find it anywhere.  We were late for church because of all the excitement - but we did have a good story to tell.  So, after church Harley swept out the whole garage and cleaned out some other things....no skunk.  We just assumed that somehow it must have scurried out that morning when Harley opened the garage doors.  We had Hayleigh's family birthday party and everything went just fine.  About 9:30 that night I went out to my car and there it was.  I calmly came back in and informed Harley...he went out and saw it as well.

We spent the next 30 minutes or so trying to coax it out of the garage and away from the house, all without getting sprayed.  There were rakes involved and a lot of close calls.  I wish I had thought to take a picture or two.  Anyway, the crisis was everted.  Nothing or no one got sprayed!

I mentioned before about Hayleigh's family birthday party.  We had a great time celebrating with family. I made her a possum pie and we ate lasagna and garlic bread.  We are thankful for Hayleigh in our lives. She is such a blessing.  She works hard at everything she does, whether it's learning to hit a softball or working on math facts.  She will be 8 years old on Wednesday.  I'll post some pictures as soon as I get them off my camera.  

One last thing, Harley started his new job as the Fayetteville Fire Marshall today.  I am very proud of him.  It was a hard decision for him to leave the guys on shift to take this promotion.  He has a lot to learn about the job and he has never sat behind a desk before, but I know he will do a great job.  He's excited about it and he gets to go to Las Vegas next week for an arson training.  I'm trying to think of a way that I can get the school to pay for me to go to Vegas :)  Just kidding, but I would like to go someday.  

Hope everyone has a great week!  I need to thank my mom and grandma for helping with the girls all the time.  I don't know what I would do with out them!

Sometimes you have to wear your boots

I actually took this picture a couple of weeks ago, but the rain we are getting reminds me that sometimes you shouldn't wear flip flops! I have slipped more than once when my flip flops got wet. It's not a good idea to wear them when you check cows either! :)  I actually broke down and purchased a pair of rain boots that are suitable for public wear...in that they are not covered in something's poop.  Maybe I'll get a chance to wear them tomorrow.  The weather has been so crazy lately.  We are all fighting the hacking mucus cough and headache....good ole Arkansas weather!  If you don't like it, just wait a little bit and it will change.

We have a short school week this week! It makes it easier to get up and go for some reason! I love my job, but I'm excited about the small break for rest and family time! I'm looking forward to the food too for sure!  I plan to take the girls to see The Muppets on Wednesday.  It looks like a cute movie and I used to love The Muppets when I was a kid.  The Swedish Chef is probably my favorite character, even though he doesn't get a lot of attention.  It cracks me up the way he talks.

I have so many things to be thankful for.  I try to be thankful for our blessings every day, but also really enjoy reading what others post about their thankfulness as well.  It's nice to be reminded to remember to count our blessings.

Haddon has really started to develop a little personality lately.  She has started climbing up to get candy and then running upstairs to eat it.  Then she will come downstairs to get another piece and run right back up to eat it.  She tries to distract me - she'll say "you go in der".  She also asked to go to "hinese" food today.  That is her way of saying Chinese food.  We like to do that after church on Sundays.

Well, it's about time to start baths and bed time.  Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Is this gonna work from my phone?

I picked a picture of the girls on Halloween to try this out. I love this picture - The Lady Bug, The Rodeo Princess, & The Zebra!

November = Flip Flop Weather?

Well, we are smack dab in the middle of November in Arkansas.  The weather today was in the 60's...perfect flip flop weather.  It is actually supposed to get a little cooler for the rest of the week, but I have a rule that anything over 45 degrees is fair game for the flip flops to come out.  That is really just a joke, but it is possible to wear flip flops all year long in Northwest Arkansas, so I take advantage when I can.

Today was a good day!  I continue to bask in the many blessings God has provided for my family.  We are all healthy and happy (most of the time)!  The girls are growing and blossoming into their own personalities.  It amazes me how three girls that look so much alike can be so different from each other.  We love all three of them so much.  I will be sharing more stories about the girls as we go along.

This post is going to be pretty short.  I really just wanted to get the first one out of the way.  I'm also playing around with the Blogger App so I can add pictures from my phone.   I've got to go though and pack for my trip tomorrow.  I am going with the other counselors in my district to the Arkansas School Counselor's Association Fall Conference in Hot Springs.  I am going to miss Harley and the girls, but I am looking forward to being with coworkers and other counselors and learning as much as I can.  I'm also hoping I can get some school work done while I'm in my hotel room at night.

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day tomorrow! :)