Guest Blog: Jacob
Well, since my mom hasn't gotten on here recently, I decided to get you all up-to-date on our life. First off, I am one now! My birthday was November 19th and I had my party the Saturday before. I had a great time visiting with family and friends and eating cupcakes!

We even had a campfire for roasting marshmallows. I got lots of fun gifts although I think Nathan is going to try them all out for me first.

Then on Sunday I got dedicated at church. There were only 60 other kids along with me! I think I am famous because I made the large screen at church...

For Thanksgiving we went to Boonville to eat and hang out with some family from Daddy's side. Tonight we are going to put our Christmas tree up and I get a month to figure out how to knock it over.

I am really starting to get the hang of moving around. I am just starting to cruise and can pull up on anything. Mommy better watch out because I will be walking before long!

Joys of Home Ownership
So about a month or so ago when we were gone to visit family, a few floorboards in our hallway warped and popped up. We weren't sure what the problem was and figured it was the large amount of rain we had gotten recently.

The other day I was researching it and one of the causes I found was a leaking. I decided it was time to go in the crawlspace and rule that out. Under the house I went and there it was... a rainstorm! There was a hot water leak that was spraying out pretty quickly. I, of course, called the plumber and they came out the next day. They said they went under and it wasn't too bad and they made a little fix on the hot water heater and left. I went back under and the leak was still happening. I called them and they came back out. It turns out they had to pull out the water heater and replace the piping going down into the crawlspace.

I am glad we have that fixed. Now we just need to fix the hardwood flooring.

Jacob Crawling
So Jacob decided today was a good day to start crawling normally. Here is the video to prove it...

Happy Halloween from a Cowboy and his Horse!

Vacation Time
This past Thursday-Monday we were able to take off some time to go to Alabama to visit my brother and his family. Their son is 4 months younger than Nathan and they had a blast! They were best buddies the whole time. It was very cute. Where they live is about an hour from Atlanta so we went there one day and went to Ikea (yay!) and ate at Sweet Tomatoes (yum!). The drive there took about 9 hours with the stops. It wasn't too bad. We were sure and took plenty of rests. Here are some pictures of the weekend...

Been A While
Sorry for the lack of posts recently! I will try and give a recap of the last few weeks. Please forgive my erratic spacing. The space bar on my computer is messed up and sometimes will put one space, sometimes two... quite annoying!

Spa - I got to go get my nails done as a birthday present. That was a nice get away!
Zoo - A couple girlfriends and I took the kids to the zoo. 3 moms + 8 kids = a zoo of our own!
Parent Visit - Daryl's parents had the chance to come in town and visit a few weekends ago. It was good to see them. It had been a while.
Daryl Birthday - I missed the chance to do a cool blog posting for his birthday. Sorry! You'll have to settle for just an embarrassing picture of him.

I guess the biggest excitement recently was last weekend my mom and step-dad watched the boys overnight and we had a date weekend. It was so great! We officially celebrated our birthdays by going to a play, a very nice restaurant, and drum roll please... sleeping in!!! The dinner we had was at a restaurant called 610 Magnolia. The meal was a set price and came out in 6 courses. It was something I had never done before and was a very neat experience. The dinner lasted 2 hours and was wonderful. In the morning we ate at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. I had never been there and it was great!

Here are some random pictures. Jacob is getting pretty good now of pulling up to his knees. Sometimes he can get to his feet if it is the right height. He always looks so proud of himself...

Daryl and Nathan decided to take a nap the other day. Here is how I found them. Like father like son...

Biking in Style
Here is our most recent purchase. They seem to really enjoy the ride!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY!!!!

And now... for something COMPLETELY different... Sing with me...

Happy Happy Happy Birthday
Happy Happy Happy Birthday
Happy Happy Happy Birthday
To You, To You, To You
OLE!

Help me wish my lovely bride, Jenny, a happy FIRST 29th Birthday today!

I love you! XOXO

--DW

To the Doctor
So Jacob still has been having some yucky diapers recently so I took him to the doctor's yesterday. Turns out he has a little ear infection in one ear. I am not sure if that is causing all of the other, but he is on some medication now. He got weighed as well and now is a hefty 18 pounds, 7 ounces. That was with his diaper on, so it is probably a little less than that, but at 9 months he only weighed 17 pounds, 2 ounces. I am glad he seems to be getting bigger now.

We got sent home from the YMCA today because Nathan had 2 yucky diapers, so it is another day at home tomorrow. If he isn't better tomorrow, I'll take him to the doctor. Ugh!

Visitors
Last weekend we had our friends, Chris and Angie, come in town for a visit. We went to Purdue with them and then we went to Seminary with them and then Chris and Daryl worked at LifeChurch.tv together. So, we have known them for a while. They have a son who is a few weeks older than Nathan. The boys had fun playing together and we enjoyed visiting as well.


FUN Week
We had an interesting last week. I have figured out that I have cleaned up every sort of body liquid possible. Here are the gory details...

1. pee - Nathan had some wardrobe malfunctions this week. Several mornings when he woke up one of the tabs on his diaper was broken so he peed all over the bed and himself. Pretty gross in itself, but it gets quite worse.

2. spit up - Of course Jacob is a pro at this and it required some cleaning on my part.

3. blood - We went to the park when our friends were in town and Nathan ended up taking a tumble and his lip and the step became friends. He bled all over his shirt.

4. vomit - All of us in the house, except for Nathan, have had a bug this past week which resulted in vomiting. The worse was probably when Jacob got sick in bed. I went in to get him and he was swimming in a lake of poo and vomit. Ugh!

5. poo - Jacob has had a good case of diarrhea along with the vomit.

6. snot - Jacob and Nathan have a runny nose now.

Needless to say, my washing machine has been running overtime this past week. I am hoping that all of our bodily fluids will stay where they belong for a while. I am sure you didn't come to read the blog to hear about all of this, but that is what is new with us. I was out of work for 4 days last week with it.

New Jacob Milestone
Today Jacob went from a lying down position to sitting up. He did it twice. We'll see if he got lucky or if this is a new skill for him. He is getting a lot better at getting up on his knees as well. He'll get up and rock from time to time. He is trying to pull up, too!

Well, we are doing well. Not too much new happening. Jacob has been honing his crawling skills and is pretty good now. He still does the army crawl. He loves to crawl over to where Nathan is and mess with what he is up to. I guess it will be that way for a long time now. Nathan does pretty well with it and thinks he is pretty funny. At least so far.

This past weekend we went to a community festival and Nathan and Jacob experienced their first parade. The firetrucks were his favorite... and the candy.

Here is a fun picture of the boys tonight in the bath together...

Reunion
This past weekend we were able to visit with a lot of family from my dad's side at the Weir family reunion. Daryl played golf on Saturday morning and his team won, Jacob and I went to a BBQ on Saturday evening, and then today (Sunday) we had the actual reunion. There was a good turnout this year and it was great to see everyone. Most people there we get to see just once a year. Nathan and Jacob both did very well. There were lots of boys for Nathan to play with. They definitely outnumber the girls.

Funny....
So I found this video tonight and I think it sums up life with kids pretty well.

A, B, C...

Here is Nathan's version of the alphabet.

Nathan's Evaluation
The lady came today to see how Nathan is doing with speech and such. She had some puzzles and little toys for him to play with. He loved that. She also asked me some questions and observed Nathan. She thought that Nathan is doing very well with things. She said his speech will come along with time. That is good to know.

I think his frustration issues are a lot better now. My theory is that he got a little touch of the sickness that Jacob had and that made him tired and cranky. That is what I am hoping anyway... I don't want that Nathan to return!

Jacob is mobile!
So Jacob is now officially army crawling! Here is a video of him doing it. It is funny to see him doing this because Nathan never did this. It is so cute.

Nathan Talking
So his speech evaluation is tomorrow after I get off work. That should be very interesting to see what the speech therapist thinks. She is coming to our house for the evaluation, so that will be nice. I'll update to let you know how that goes. On a good note, today he said mommy consistently for the first time. Before this he would either say momma or bobby. Yay!

Visitors!
This past weekend we got to visit with Daryl's sister and her family. They came to visit us. It was good to see them and their 5 kids. It was an adventure trying to get all 7 of our kids checked in and to their correct Sunday School class.

Jacob
He went in yesterday for his 9 month checkup. The doctor thought things were looking good with him. He is still little, weighing 17 pounds and 2 ounces, but she thought that was fine. Nathan at this age weighed 20 pounds, 11 ounces. He was 27.25 inches long. That is just a little shorter than Nathan. Also, measuring a squirmy baby is not an exact science! :) He didn't have to have any shots this appointment and he will return at one year old.

Nathan
Now for Nathan... he has been SUPER fussy and whiney these past few weeks. He is a little better here at the house, but whenever anyone comes over or we go out to someone's house, he turns into crazy child. I don't know what is up with him, but Daryl and I are praying it passes quickly! We think he may have a touch of what Jacob had last week. He got sick one morning last weekend and has been kind of clingy and tired recently and also his appetite has been coming and going. Even the teachers at his class at the YMCA have commented the last two days that he is not himself.

While we were at Jacob's appointment, the doctor asked how Nathan was doing and we got on the subject of his slow talking. She suggested I call and get him a speech evaluation to see if he would benefit from some speech therapy. I called a program in KY called Project First Step. I guess they come to the house and will test him to see. Hopefully some of the behavior issues are the result of him not being able to communicate his needs and desires. We'll see. I'll keep you updated about this.

Training Our Troops!

So, last night I got the coolest opportunity to help train our American soldiers for combat.

Down by Fort Knox, they have a place where civilians can participate. It's called the Zussman Urban Combat Training Center and I got be a terrorist.

Yeah, I know what you're saying... "but DW, you have a red goatee and I'm pretty sure that terrorists don't look like that. You're too white!"

But, see below... are you sure about that? Some of us got guns! At least the guy on the far right (Maxim) looks like a terrorist! Crazy Ukranians :)



We got to participate (about 20 civilians total) on two different training exercises. I've never been to bootcamp, nor seen anything like this. It felt very very real when you see explosions, helicoptors, tanks and hear gunfire and troops yelling "get down get down get down." We had normal paintball guns. The troops had super-mega "military" paintball guns. Instead of the normal round paintballs, they were 9mm "pill size" paintballs. It was pretty cool.

I personally played more of the lookey-loo "random citizen on the street who sometimes gets to close to the troops" both times. I wasn't arrested and was generally left alone. If I got too close the troops, they yelled at me until I figured out what they were saying (I couldn't speak english of course) and ran away.

I look forward to going back.

--DW

Sick Baby :(

So Jacob has been sick for the last few days. It started last Thursday morning when he threw up at the YMCA. We had to leave early. It seems when he gets too much food, it all comes back up. So today I have been feeding him just a few ounces every few hours and that seems to be helping him. He is pretty pitiful though. He is sleeping a lot and gets pretty droopy like the above picture.

Boys Everywhere!
This past weekend Daryl invited two coworkers and their families over for a cookout. With all of the kids it turned out to be 8 boys, the ages were 6, 4, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, and 0. It was pretty funny to see them running around and that there were no girls. Nathan freaked out a little in the beginning when they started touching HIS stuff, but he was fine after a few minutes.

Counting...
Nathan is doing better with talking. We are really starting to try and make him talk instead of whine for everything. The whining really drives Daryl and me crazy. He can now count to 10. He loves to tell us the time and point out letters on signs and in the store.

Almost There
Jacob is not crawling yet, but he is really wanting to get up on his knees. If I help him he can get up for a little bit. He can rotate around in a circle pretty well. He has 4 teeth now and his hair is getting pretty long. It is so blonde which is pretty interesting. He goes back to the doctor in 2 weeks, so that will be good to see how much he weighs now. He is a skinny-minny.

Just for fun
Nathan with a goatie and Jacob with a mohawk!

My Dad (Dan Hunter)
Some of you may know, my Dad went into the Hospital last Sunday with chest pains and an irregular heartbeat. He's been there ever since getting a lot of tests and procedures done.

Turns out, that he was pretty close to two bad things - stroke and heart attack.

When his heart started freaking out, it was causing blood to not circulate properly through the heart and that could easily lead to stroke. So, they did all sorts of fun complicated medial stuff, and got that working again. During the process, they found out he's diabetic, so now he gets the joys of a new diet and lifestyle.

When his heart got back in rhythm, they had scheduled a heart cath to see if there was anything to be worried about. When they did THAT procedure, they saw he was over 90% blocked in one area of the heart and had to put a stint in. Wow. 90%. So, that was a heart-attack ready to happen. They put in two stints and he had to lay flat on his back last night.

But, the GREAT NEWS is that I just talked with him and he gets to go home tonight. Praise God!

Anyway, please pray for my Dad, Dan. He's doing well, but I know this was a small shake up.

Please pray for my mom, Delores, too as she deals with an aging... no.. old... no... MORE EXPERIENCED Hubby... yeah... that's it. More experienced is a better word.

--DW

Random Stuff
Here is cute photo I took a few days ago of the boys...

A few weekends ago we got to stop in and see our friends, Chris and Angie. They have moved back to Indiana and live between Daryl's parents house and our house. It was great to visit with them and see their son. He is just 2 weeks older than Nathan. They had a good time playing together. Here is a picture of them. Daryl had to be behind them to keep them still for 2 seconds while we took the pictures...

6 YEARS

Another year to create
precious memories together.
Another year to discover new things
to enjoy about each other.
Another year to build a life
rich in love and laughter.
Another year to strengthen a marriage
that defines "forever."

-I love you Daryl!

Long Time No Post
Sorry to not update the blog in so long! In an effort to fix this, I have created some new posts and dated them in the past so that it doesn't get too confusing. You'll have to go through and read some of the older entries to get caught up.

Things are well here. The YMCA job is going very well. I enjoy it and the kids are enjoying playing with others as well. My class has about 12-14 kids right now. I am getting to know them pretty well. When school begins in a month or so we will have 22 kids. I work with another lady and she is the lead teacher for the room.

Our garden is coming along. The tomatoes are going crazy! They are very tall and have tons of tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen now. It will be a little while longer for the others. I have gotten several cucumbers, zucchini, and yellow squash as well. Here is a picture of some twins we had a little while back...

Nathan vs. The Dentist
We just got back from the dentist for Nathan's first appointment. It went okay overall, but we basically had to hold him down. He didn't think it was a very good idea to look at his teeth. All looked well to the dentist except for the fact that he does have an underbite. We'll see how things go when his adult teeth come in. If it continues at that point, we'll have to go to an orthodontist to see what to do to get that corrected.

Family Visit
I was able to see both of my brothers this past weekend. We hadn't been all together for a few years, so it was great to see them! My oldest brother lives in California with his wife. She was not able to make the trip unfortunately. My other brother lives in Alabama with his wife and almost 2 year old son. He and Nathan got to play together and have a good-old-time in the sprinkler and on the slide. They are starting to get to the age where they are actually starting to play together. Here are some pictures from our time together...

Happy 4th of July!

Hunter Family Reunion '07
Well, we just returned from Southern Illinois to visit with Daryl's side of the family. We had a great time. There were 18 of us total. With 10 grandchildren in the family, Nathan and Jacob have a lot of other kids to play with. We stayed in a cabin with Daryl's parents. It was a nice place and they had a lot of farm animals to look at. We got to eat, swim, play snakes, go to church, see my nephew get baptised, have a bonfire, visit, and eat some more. Jacob went swimming for the first time and we found out he is a fish! We are going to try to do this each year around the 4th of July. Here are some pictures...

Wiiiiiiiii

Our new Wii just arrived and we are enjoying it. There is bowling, pool, golf and many other games. Daryl is much better than me on the games, but it is still fun. It is fun to play with friends and actually requires you to move around unlike most video game systems. It is pretty cool so far.

Quick YMCA Update
I got my TB test done and my background check came back so I am good to go. On Monday I go in to fill out some paperwork and then I start officially next Wednesday.

Jacob Update
Today I took Jacob in for his 7 month weight check. He is doing well and gained 3 ounces since he was 6 months. That's not very much, so the doctor asked me to add a few feedings to his schedule to make sure he is getting what he needs.

Another exciting event in his life is the emergence of a tooth. It is his front bottom left tooth. That should explain the massive drools!

YMCA
I finally heard back from the Y and they offered me the position from 8-10 each day in the 4-5 year old room. I went yesterday to get the first part of my TB test and go back tomorrow for the follow-up. When that gets done and my background check comes back, I can start. I think it will be neat and low stress.

Caffeine Free!

For any of you all that know Daryl, you know that he is a Diet Coke addict. Well, you will be amazed to know that he has now been off caffeine "cold turkey" since last Friday evening! Can you believe it? He had his share of withdrawal symptoms (headaches, tiredness), but he is doing very well with it. I am pretty proud of him for this. We figured it up and he averaged about 3 liters of Diet Coke with caffeine a day before! Here is a link to an article from John Hopkins Medicine about the effects of caffeine withdrawal... pretty interesting.

Nathan to English Dictionary

bobby --> mommy
dookah --> diaper
boap --> boat
hoo hoo --> train
dy dy --> bye bye
dahdoo --> doggie
boo --> cow

Makes perfect sense, right?

To Daryl's parents...

Job for Me?
There is a possibility for me to get a part-time job at the YMCA. (Cue the Village People now.) It is a position in the childwatch area which is their daycare part. It is in the 4/5 year old room and would be 8-10 each morning. Nathan and Jacob could come with me and they would go in the childcare area for kids of parents working out. I think it might be a good chance to get out of the house, give the kids some playtime and earn a few extra bucks. I would also get a membership. I am supposed to hear back from the director at the end of this week or start of next week. I'll keep you informed.

Cincinnati Visit
This past Saturday we went to Cincinnati to visit our friend Jamie. While there we went to the Children's Museum, toured where Daryl used to live, toured Jamie's church, saw her apartment and her future rent house. We had a good time, but it was a long day. Here are some pictures...







Diplomas
Daryl got his Southwestern diploma a few days ago. We got it framed and ready to hang in his office next to his Purdue one. Here is what those look like...

Lawn Work
We (mostly Daryl, to be honest) have been doing a lot of work outside at the house. The former owner was into gardening and such, but it was all overgrown and junglesque. We have removed 3 trees, lots of shrubs, pruned back other shrubs, and lots of other work. We put in a garden that includes zucchini, cucumber, yellow squash, green peppers, 8 regular tomato plants, one cherry tomato plant, and a Roma tomato plant. We should be well stocked in tomatoes! Already here was a grapevine, a plum tree and some blackberry bushes. I already harvested the whopping 15 strawberries we got from them. Ha!

Jacob's 6 Month Check-up
We went this morning for Jacob's 6 month well child check. Things looked good, but he didn't gain as much weight as they would like. He had only gained 6 ounces in the last 2 months. So, we have to go back in in a month to get that checked out. We are going to start doing solids more regularly now since he is 6 months, so that should help a lot. They also suggested I drink more water and take Fenugreek for a couple days. That is an herb used to increase milk supply. So here are his stats...

Height - 26.5"
Weight - 16 lbs, 7 oz

Nathan went for his 6 month check-up a week late, but here were his stats then...

Height - 27"
Weight - 18 lbs, 1 oz

Sleeping Arrangements
A week ago we decided to take the plunge and have the boys sleep in the same room. Well, it has worked out great and they are roomies now. Nathan likes to make noise before he falls asleep and it doesn't seem to bother Jacob, thankfully.

Graduation
Daryl's party went well this past weekend. We surprised him really well with a new TV. It is a flat panel and is really nice. Hey, I also get the benefit of it! We also got him his tassel and hood to have as a memento. He should receive his diploma in a few weeks.


Company Picnic
Today we went up to Huber Farm in Starlight, Indiana, for my dad's company picnic. Nathan got to ride a horse, go down a really long slide, jump in a bounce house, eat, shoot some corn cobs from a canon, launch some balls from a slingshot into a lake, take a hayride, feed some goats, and a few other things. We had a good time!

Half Birthday
Today is Jacob's half birthday! We got a picture of him like we had of Nathan. Here are those two next to each other. I have also posted some new pictures in our online gallery. You can see those by clicking on the link above and to the right.

It is finished!

This week I will be an official graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, or SWBTS as they call it.

I started Seminary in August of 2002, so this has been a process consisting of:
* 67 graduate hours of studies
* 500+ pages of written term papers/homework
* Countless hours reading material which frankly, at times, is boring
* 5 school years
* 3 states - Texas (twice), Oklahoma, Kentucky
* 2 apartments
* 3 houses
* 2 children
* and 1 wife :)

I turned in my last paper on Monday. I had my last debrief conversation with my professor on Tuesday. The graduation (we will not attend) is on Friday. And they should send my diploma to me in the next couple weeks.

I completed the MACE - Master of Arts in Christian Education program which is roughly 1/3 theology and 2/3 educational fundamentals, foundation, and administration.

What next in the world of education for me? Nothing to speak of. I'm confident that I'm in a good place in life. I enjoy being a "Jesus Geek" and am serving at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. I am currently serving as a Technical Services Manager where I lead a team of 5 other IT Professionals (Desktop Support/Help Desk and Network Administrators). It's a fun place and fits my gifts and talents well. I've always heard "if at first you don't succeed, go back for another degree..." but I think I'm done.... for now! ha!

Anyway, I don't think I've ever posted on the Hunterfam blog, so I thought I'd give it ago and share some happy news from the Hunter Family.

Much Love, --DW & Family

Happy Derby Day!
It isn't the best weather today for the 133rd Derby... pretty rainy and dreary. I went last night to Kroger and saw them making the garland of roses. It is really pretty. Some interesting facts...

• it is made up of 554 roses
• the garland tradition started in 1932, before that it was a horseshoe-shaped arrangement
  
• it takes about 8 hours to complete

Here is a picture I took from last night...

Nathan Update
Nathan is getting more and more words each day. It is really neat to see and hear. A lot of the words only we can recognize at this point, but they are coming. Here is a video of a few of them...




Another exciting milestone for today is that he went poo poo in the potty! Well, I heard him grunting so I ran him over to the potty and he went in it. I'm not sure how much he understands of it all, but it is a start!

Balloon Chasing
This past Saturday was The Great Balloon Race which is part of the Derby Festival. We got up really early and drove to where we could see them pass overhead. It was really neat and Nathan liked seeing them. We left a little late and only saw a few of the balloons though.

Jacob Update
Jacob is doing well. He is very smiley and content most of the time. We got him on a pretty good routine now. He wakes up around 7ish and then goes to be around 8. Nathan and Jacob both nap at 1, so it is nice to have some quiet time! A few nights ago he rolled from his back to his belly, but he has yet to do it since then. Here are some recent pictures of him...

Boo Boo!
I'm a boy, 'nuff said!

Louisville Zoo
We went to visit the zoo this past weekend and had a good time. It was a really nice day, we all got a little pink from the sun. There is a new baby elephant there that was so cute. Here is a picture...


Jacob is 5 Months
A few days ago Jacob rolled from his belly to his back for the first time. I think it was an accident though because he hasn't done it since. For Jacob's 5 month birthday I gave him some bananas to try. He liked them a lot and he did a good job at eating. I'll probably wait a little while longer though to introduce solids for good. Here is a picture of our little monkey...


Nathan's Such a Big Boy!
We decided it was time to put Nathan in the big boy bed. He got a bed rail for his birthday and slept in it for the first time last Friday night. We set up a web camera in there so we can watch him in case he does something he shouldn't. He does really well now. Here is a picture of him tonight before bedtime...

Nathan is 2!!!
Well, it has been a while since I have written. Sorry about that! Nathan had a doctor's appointment today for his 2 year old well child check up. He weighed 35.5 pounds and was 35 inches tall. He didn't get any shots but did get a finger prick for a few tests. He did really well with that. He goes back next when he is 3 and doesn't need shots again until he is 4!

Nathan had his birthday party this past Saturday. There were so many grandmas and grandpas there he didn't know what to think! Since he is so into trains right now, that was the theme of the cake:


You can see more images here. For Nathan's birthday I took the kids to get portraits made. They turned out pretty cute. You can view the whole collection here.

Speaking of images, I have changed the way that I am putting our photos up online now. Hopefully it will be easier to navigate and for me to upload to. The full album is online at http://www.hunterfam.net/gallery.