July 4th

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First off, I saw this meme, and it cracked me up. Seriously. Love it.IMG_0809

3/4 looking isn’t too bad, right?IMG_0819

Thankful for an amazing neighborhood with great get togethers and lots of yummy food…IMG_0821

 

Though I’m thinking we might need to get Aiden a new camping chair… his doesn’t quite fit him any more!IMG_0822 IMG_0823

Bounce houses for the win. Knowing there were fireworks later that night, we went home for a short movie and hopefully nap time. Only one of the four took us up on the sleeping option, but the relaxing quiet time definitely helped them all!IMG_0824

I do want to know why kids despise naps so much, though. If you told four adults they could pull out sleeping bags for a movie and fall asleep, they wouldn’t make it through opening credits…IMG_0826

Now that we’re big 4 year olds (and a 7 year old), late night fireworks aren’t an automatic no. We had a blast with glow sticks, snacks, and campchairs by the water.IMG_0832 IMG_0834Happy Independence Day, America!

 

Long time no see…

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve really kept up with this thing.

At the same time, it’s been because of, well, life. Life with 4 kids. Life in Hawaii. Life in general. Fair warning, this post is pretty pic heavy, so be warned!

On that note, now that the kids are getting older and it’s not as much of “here’s something cute they learned how to do today” as it is “wow, look at this cool adventure our family went on!” I’m going to be working on moving away from just updates about the kids to more, well, updates about life in general. Where we are, where we were, where we are headed. Thoughts and musings on events and activities.

That said, what have we been up to, you want to know? Well, we just came off of Easter and Spring Break, so I’ll start there. The kids all had egg hunts and parties at school the week before Easter.

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Yes, this is the unicorn of Easter Bunny pictures. All are looking, all are smiling. Not a tear in the room. It only took 7 years of trying 😉

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Easter was absolutely wonderful, complete with a boat egg hunt the day before, and a sunrise service aboard the USS Missouri. Why in the world would I want to get four kids up at 5 am so that we could go to a sunrise service, you ask? Well, it was sunrise service on the Battleship, why wouldn’t we?!

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The kids actually did wonderfully, and it’s not like 6:30am is really any different than our normal morning routine. They just had to be dressed a bit earlier than normal.

The rest of the week was a bit of odds and ends. The kids actually went to “camp” MWF all day long so that I could get some things done. Run, errands, scuba dive, the norm…

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Thanks to a wonderful friend, I had a dive camera to borrow and I wasn’t disappointed!

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Lots of random appointments filled the gaps that take a bit too long for the normal weekly preschool routine, but aren’t worth booking them into afterschool care to get done.

Now? We’re back to school and the normal routine. Aiden has started back up with karate again on weekends!

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And, of course, there’s the pool.

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So now on to the near future, hopefully next time I won’t be catching up a few weeks’ worth of events!

Christmas 2014

So for actual Christmas we escape and flew to the Big Island for 5 days of wonderful family time. Lots of hiking, driving, and sightseeing later, we were sad to leave but had a lot of amazing memories.
Active Volcano viewing? Yes, please!

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These kids are amazing. 4.5 miles of hiking including 400 feet down to a crater (and then 400 feet back up).

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After a long day hiking we were grateful for our huge rental house with space to lay back and relax.

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They managed to get two different Junior Ranger badges while there, and had a blast doing it!

Christmas Eve we made Gingerbread houses and read the Night Before Christmas.

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Christmas brought more hiking at the waterfalls.

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And on our way off the island we finally managed to get to the lava flow. Thankfully, it had stopped flowing towards the housing, but it also made for less exciting pictures 😉

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From there it was back to home sweet
home and our wonderful toys.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful holiday at home and I think after 9 years of marriage and many recipes, finally found a turkey recipe that is to die for!

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It isn’t Thanksgiving until Princess Anna shows up to join you 😉

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The pumpkin pie tarts were so good you had to lick the filling out, apparently.

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After dinner, what should you do? Watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” of course!

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Too much excitement for some people, though…

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In lieu of traditional Black Friday shopping, we did a Black Friday Fishing Derby instead! Even the triplets got in on the fishing fun. While we didn’t catch anything, we certainly had a good time!

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Halloween Fun

So I’ll skip ahead to the fun stuff…  The pictures! We had a blast trick or treating even with a little rain. Such a difference from last year when they wouldn’t really go up by themselves.

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Aiden also got to go to the pumpkin patch with his class, and had a lot of fun!

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The triplets got to have a fun Fall party in class.

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I do miss jeans and boots and hot cider in the chilly fall air, but paradise is quite fun too! It’s hard to believe it’s November when it’s 80 degrees out but we’re enjoying wearing costumes without snow jackets and going on field trips without risk of frost bite!

Eager anticipation

Christmas sure is a miraculous thing when you have small children in the house. Aiden is finally at that age where he still believes that a jolly old man in a big red suit can actually come down a chimney (thank goodness we have one!), but yet not so old to not enjoy the little moments like cookie decorating or a Charlie Brown Christmas.

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Round one of two rounds of cookies. Because, really, one round is never enough.

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Icing tastes just as good straight from the bag as it does on a cookie!

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Round two of cookies. The triplets still don’t really “get” what’s coming up, but they are loving the festivities. Cookies abound, and they are happy icing covered children because of it.

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Disclaimer: We did not share these cookies with anyone else. Even I won’t eat the cookies that they decorated for themselves.

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The blue icing was entirely his after this.

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Yum, three layers of icing on one cookie!

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At least we have one semi-neat child! 

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Note to self: Copy this idea next year and decorate before sweeping/mopping. Or at least pretend that your floor was purposely left dirty because you knew cookie day was coming up. Length of time does not need to be specified.

So that brings us to Christmas Eve. These little guys have no idea what’s coming tomorrow, and I cannot wait to see their faces when they realize the presents under the tree are for them, from the people who love them near and far, and that pajamas all day is perfectly acceptable!!

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All dressed up with somewhere wonderful to go. Yay for childrens’ church services where ours weren’t the loudest by far (and were actually behaving quite acceptably… either they’ve figured it out or we finally bored them into submission haha)

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And our tradition of a new movie, popcorn, and pizza on Christmas Eve continues. Some quiet family time before the craziness of the holiday itself begins.

We remember, as we celebrate this holy day, this holiday, that while presents and stockings and lights under the tree are wonderful, family is the real thing to celebrate. These four little people who we are so blessed to share a home, to raise, to nurture, and sometimes to annoy, and the love in our home.

Happy Christmas, from our family to yours. No matter why you celebrate, or if you celebrate at all, remember the love between families this day and year round.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Luke 2:11-14

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas is magical. It is pure. It is holy. It is absolutely divine.

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We had four little helpers this year. Sure, it’s not a Pinterest-worthy tree, and there are only maybe 1/4 of the ornaments that we normally would put on it hanging from the branches… but they did it. The elves may have spaced some ornaments out later that night (“Look mommy! I put three in a row!” And by in a row, he meant on the same branch), but they did it.

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And Christmas pajamas. Is there anything cuter than Christmas pajamas??

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Yes there is. Christmas dresses. (Aiden bargained that he’d be nice at the Santa breakfast if he didn’t have to wear his dress shirt. Pick your battles).

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So yeah. And we even have snow here in the beautiful northeast. Snow, lights, presents under the tree… stockings are hung… it is a bit commercialized, but they’re also old enough to talk about Jesus’s birthday, and Mary and the angels, and it really couldn’t get much better than this.

 

 

 

Pictures finally!

Without further adieu, Thanksgiving pictures. Mima was here visiting with us and it was a wonderful holiday meal with good family, delicious food, and excellent wine 🙂 (side note: I try not to post photos of anyone other than the kids and hubby and I)

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Happy Easter (almost)

You know how you walk into Target attempting to just. buy. ONE. thing? Yeah. Happens to me at least three times a week.

Do you know how many times I walk out of Target with that one thing and ONLY that one thing? As often as I get to sleep in or pee in peace. Aka: Never.

Hence the Easter Basket shopping fun. You see, the Easter Bunny had a few small things in mind, the perfect sized baskets to fill, and was all prepared for just a couple things.

Somehow I ended up putting things back and STILL didn’t have room for it all.

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Let me back track a bit to what the table was used for earlier today, however. Egg dyeing.

Wait, you think… I didn’t realize that Nikki was crazy enough to attempt egg dyeing with four kids 5 and under? Oh yes. I am. I’m not crazy enough to let them keep their clothes on yet, however I have learned some fun tricks.

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The first: Use a larger bowl under the small bowl of dye. The small bowl WILL get tipped. Or knocked. Or an egg dropped in and splashed everywhere. And the bowl helps at least a *little* bit.

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The second: Use a whisk. Now, everyone I know had issues with this method because of the obvious: How do you get the dyed egg out of the whisk after dyeing it without getting it all over your hands?? The obvious solution: Use an old crappy whisk like I have where you can bend the metal easily. You pry it open, scoop the egg from the dye, and voila! Magic clean hands and clean babies.

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You might argue that it’s just not as much fun if they don’t get messy. I argue you’re not the one who’d have to bathe them tonight.

Hope you had a great Easter weekend and can’t wait for the crazy festivities tomorrow!

Don’t forget the REAL message behind Easter (and not the slogan from Weight Watchers due to the insane amounts of sugar and chocolate consumed). There’s more to Easter than just eggs and bunnies 🙂

Love, The Hunts

Happy Christmas 2012!

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ~Luke 2:11

A lot has changed over the years, but the theme of Christmas remains the same. Love those around you. Celebrate the birth of our Lord. And rejoice with each other for another year together.

Last year there was love and laughter, and a 3.5 year old who loved to “help” his babies open their presents.

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Christmas sure will be interesting this year. The babies still don’t really “get” the presents and pageantry associated, but they are curious about presents. To which, our first presents under the tree were placed there after bed tonight, and Santa has his own pile in the living room. For some reason shiny paper with bows under a twinkling tree attracts an 18 month old’s attention better than any toy, camera, or shiny object we can find. When you have three 18 month olds, and a 4.5 year old who thinks that it should be Christmas already because it should be (for no better reason than that), the presents remained hidden until the last moment.

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He still insists on “helping” his babies open their presents, but I’m not too sure they’ll actually let him this year! Christmas service was interesting with the babies mobile. Jaina colored on paper, Jacen tried to jump off the chair, and Valerie happily danced to any music that she heard (and got upset when it ended).

From our family to yours, we wish you a very Happy Christmas, and a Merry New Year! I pray for happy adventures, good tidings, and peace to you and those you love.