Draney Happenings

Boy has it been busy at the Draney house this past month and a half:) Life never seems to be dull or slow around here. That is a good thing I think. Though the end of the year is always busy, it is also fun to watch the kids in all of their activities. Here are a few of the things that have been going on.

I know that I briefly posted a little about Dylan's county fair, but these are pictures from that night. I wasn't actually able to go since I was in Indiana visiting Suzie and Rob's family. I was so proud of Dylan and how hard he worked on his county projects. I helped him a little with his float, but he did his report and brochure completely on his own. Dylan you are awesome! Also, we were able to get a DVD of the program, it was great! Grandma and Grandpa, if you want to see it, let me know and we will bring it to Idaho the next time we visit:)

Trey had his preschool graduation on May 17th and boy was it an experience. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a good experience, but it was memorable. I have never had the kid that throws a fit at the performance or protests at a program.....until now. I can truly say that it is a good thing that Trey is the youngest, because if he had been first I would have been so embarrassed. Instead, I just took pictures of him protesting the entire graduation ceremony. I tried sitting with him to calm him down and persuade him to participate, his speech therapist tried to persuade him, and finally he was just carried across the stage to get his diploma. I am sure that the teachers were as grateful as I was to see the 30 min. program come to an end:) Trey never even thought about participating, he just looked at the rest of the preschool kids like they were crazy....thinking "why in the world would you want to sing in front of all of these people!"

It was quite an experience for me, since all of my other three children are such performers. I guess that Trey just likes to have say on what performances he will or won't participate in.

Well, we got through it and I took Trey and his friend Ben to Wal-Mart to celebrate their graduation and we got treats and a Tom and Jerry video.....no I don't see this as rewarding bad behavior, I choose to view it as re-writing history...hopefully Trey remembers it as a raging success.....and maybe I might get to were I remember it as being not so awful:)

Devin had his 1st grade program: Dinosaurs, last week. It was a great program and run very well.(Just like all of the Bluffridge Elementary programs) It was about 30-40 minutes long and was so much fun. Devin is a natural performer and was having such a great time. For their costumes, the kids made dinosaur shirts that I volunteered to help make. The first day I went and helped the kids paint on the dinosaurs with stencils, and then the second day I sent Jason to help since I flew out to Indiana. I spoke to Jason that night and asked how volunteering went. He said: "I was given the instruction to supervise the kids painting a background for their dinosaurs. I thought that meant that I let them do it themselves...after Devin was done I looked around and all of the mom volunteers were helping them paint professional scenery. After that I tried a lot harder with the other kids...pretty much I found out that I suck at painting." I chuckled and said: "I should have told you that it isn't just the kids that are graded but the parents as well." Jason has now decided that he will leave the volunteering to me from now on.

If it's spring then it's baseball!! I will try to post some baseball pics of Devin soon. But here are some of Dylan. It is so much fun to go and watch Dylan's games. This year we found out that Dylan is quite a good pitcher. His form is great and I hope to see him pitch in some games this year. He also plays third base a lot and short stop as well. Sports are so much fun to watch and be a part of. Dylan reminds me a lot of Robbie, in that he is fairly hard on himself, but he also remembers to have fun. Devin and Trey like to watch and most often they know that if they nag mom enough that she will give them money to buy a snow cone:)

This past weekend Taylor and I went to her LAST competition of the year at West High School in Salt Lake City. It was so much fun. We stayed at the Marriott Residence with her friend Alex and her mom over night. Solo night went really great for Taylor and she scored her highest score of the season and was only 1 point away from getting a diamond ranking. (Which is the highest you can get and is very hard to get. Only a 3 people in our studio got a diamond and Taylor was the highest after them) She performed her solo better than I have ever seen her do it and I was one proud mom:)
Saturday Taylor performed her group numbers and her team got first on two of them and in hip hop they got third. This was such a hard competition with soooo many amazing studios. I was so proud of her.
Also my group number that I choreographed and taught (and that Taylor was in) got 1st in its division and got over all high point out of every dance in that division. Which means that it scored the highest out of every dance (jazz, lyrical, hip hop) in its age and ability level. Pretty cool! I was very happy with how they did and they were so excited!!

So over all it has been a great May so far. Love you all:)

The front, left side of our house, with our little trees!

Here I'm standing in the area that will someday be my garden.

WE GOT SOD!!!!!!!

That green beautiful stuff around my house? Yeah, that's my sod!  As most of you know we have had a horrible time trying to get our lawn figured out.  But today was a great day.  Steve did an amazing job putting in half our sod this morning.  We got up at a very ridiculous hour (6 am) and saw them pull our sod off the trucks and line the pallets up on our driveway.  It was too muddy for them to put them around the yard, so we had to use a wheel barrow.  I was a little worried because I helped from 6-8 and by the time some of his friends showed up we only had 6 pieces of sod laid down (we were doing a lot of prep work).  But  once more guys showed up it seemed to speed up.  It was nice to see some of the guys from the ward there too.  We will be getting the other half of our sod on Tuesday, so hopefully we'll get some people from the ward again, along with family and friends and bust it out!  I can't wait to roll around on it, it's SO BEAUTIFUL I COULD WATER IT WITH TEARS OF JOY!!! 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's day to all the mothers in our family! Each and every mother in our family is so beautiful and important to our tight, loyal family. How blessed I feel to have so many wonderful women to look up to. Your examples make me think about who I am and the mother I want to be someday. I have a deep love for each of you. Our Father in Heaven has a very special place in his heart for his daughters, and I see that in the women in our family. I look at each mother in our family, and I want to be like each of you. I've been watching and  I see who I want to be through your examples. I just want to say I love each of you. We have such a great family. I'm humbled to know that my Father blessed me so great and put me in this family. Each of you are such exemplary women. Thank you for your faith, love and examples. 

Happy Mother's Day.

Cinco De Mayo!

Hey ya'll! We had a big party at the Larsen household last Saturday! Ya'll who weren't there missed out! We had food that could feed an army, we had chips, pineapples :), pinatas and cake! Check out the Larsen blog for picts!

Check it out!

Hey just wanted to direct everyone over to the Strengthen Home and Family Page. I just posted about the emergency preparedness car kit that I put together as well as this weeks FHE on Priesthood Power. Hope you enjoy them!

Back and on the Mend

So just a quick update...I am just about done with my course of antibiotics and I am feeling remarkably better. This last week has been a tough one, having four kids that don't ever slow down, it was tough to keep up. Jason was a life saver and helped a ton so that I could rest and truth be told, I just let a lot of things slide.

But now it is back to life, back to reality as the song says and Mon and tues I am going to be going on Trey's field trips to the fire station, because as we all know, changes in schedule are not his friend so his teachers are concerned. Then on Thurs. Taylor is being given some awards at her school award night and on Fri. she is competing her solo in Kearns. Also this week my kids all have CRT testing for the end of the year.

As Dora in finding Nemo says: Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming.....this is my mantra for the rest of the school year:)

Have a great day everyone!

I know what i'm going to be when I grow up!

Ok! So I'm just bouncing off the walls right now and have to share this with ya'll. So my mom does the Life Coach thing though WGU, and well, I was invited to do it as well, so I was assigned a Life Coach (other than my mom :) and I had the first real call today. I went into the phone call wanting to find a path or way to fulfill my goal of becoming a web designer. I want to be a stay at home mom, but be able to have the ability to work independently on the side- hence the web design which would also allow me to be creative in the process. So, I was stumped. What do I do for school? I had so many options, and it would take a very long time to tell you all of them. So, I think best when I go for walks, because I then think out loud and work it out. So my goal for the end of our coaching call was to have an idea of what I wanted to do for school- and how that would help me reach my goal. I think my coach was kind of unsure about it at first, because that's a major life decision that I wanted to make in like 30 minutes. Hahaha. But, it was like MAGIC! I went for the walk, and talked with her on the phone, she asked a few questions, then I just talked my problem out and she listened and I found my solution! My plan is to stay enrolled at WGU and get my business degree with an emphasis on marketing management, then go back and get my IT degree with a software emphasis. I just makes sense! It was a very big light bulb that went off in my head! and my coach was so surprised that I just worked my way to my solution! So this coaching stuff works. It made my day. :) 

Parable of the Talents

Hello Family!
You know how sometimes a conversation, something you read, or situations will conspire to help you gain better understanding of yourself?  Well I had one of those experiences yesterday.  I work with lots of different "types" of people.  Like you, I see on a daily basis the seeming "injustices" of life.  Some people are blessed with drive, talent and extraordinary intellegence - where other just have to struggle for every last thing be it temporal, intellectual or spiritual.  Yet we are all Heavenly Fathers children and he loves us the same. 

The Parable of the Talents came to my mind and it isn't something that I had really given more than a passing thought to before.  Back in Christs time "talents" were money - but in today's language "talents" are something completely different.  In the story (as in life) the Master of the vineyard gave "talents" to each of his servants.  As you will recall the first servant received five talents, and during the Masters absence he doubled the amount and was able to return 10 talents upon his Masters return.  The second man was given two talents and was also able to double that to give back to his Master.  Finally, the third servant recieved only one talent, but he was too scared to do anything with it and hid it away to give back to his Master upon his return.

I think it is interesting to see that both of the first two servants received the same reward, even though their cumulative return to the Master was different.  However, I think the saddest part of the story is the motivations, decisions and outcomes that the third servant created for himself.

That third servant, from my interpretation, operated from a position of fear and without faith.  He was afraid that if he went out and tried to do anything with his talent he would lose it, thereby angering the Master.  Upon finding what the third servant had done, the Master of the vineyard got after him and scolded him for not going out and at least investing it with the bankers.  Because of the third servants inaction - be it through fear, laziness, or whatever, it resulted in the Master throwing the servant out. 

Upon reflection, what I have learned from this parable is that too often I am like the third servant and too afraid and without faith to invest, act upon and create something with the talents that the Master has given me.  While on our trip to Indiana I was talking with Robbie and he was telling us about many of the things he was doing and about some of the humanitarian expeditions he had been on.  We were marveling at his bravery to "get out there" and do something with his talents.  His response was that "you should never be afraid to get out there and do something good."  From most that would sound trite and cliche - but from someone who had actually done it - it was very meaningful.   The same holds true with the example of Suzie, and the very fact that she is even out in Indiana literally using her talents in the Masters vineyard. 

So my challenge to myself - and to all of you - is to take a harder look at what my/your "talents" are, and how they can be invested into the world.  I belive we are the stewards of our various talents and we are responsible to return and report how we have used them for the benefit of our Master and his vineyard.  Every person in our family has the good fortune to be like the first servant who was entrusted with the most talents - so our responsiblity is even greater.  Also, I believe, our potential for happiness, based on the return of Masters investment in us, is also so much greater.

So brush off your fear and have faith that the Master knew what he was doing when he entrusted you with your unique talents!   Get out there are invest them!

Heidi

Symphony of Sickness

Well, this time of year has finally caught up to me. Things have been pretty busy here, starting with Taylor's first competition a couple weeks back, then Dylan's school projects and play, followed by the Indiana trip and just this weekend Taylor's Spanish fork competition. So needless to say I have been sleep deprived and just a little stressed for a while, so with this past weekend staying at a seriously horrible no tell motel, I came home from Tay's competition pretty sick. I have been hacking up a lung and so I haven't answered any phone calls for the past couple of days. I am calling a doctor today to go in since I know that I have ear infections. Yesterday I was pretty concerned that my ear drum was going to burst because of the pressure of the fluid that is behind there, also this is a pretty bad bug, cause it has been hard keeping the crap from gathering in my lungs so I might get a breathing treatment as well. Ok mom...don't get concerned I am getting into a doctor to get on antibiotics:) but I might not be answering the phone for a day or two til I can talk decent.

Anyway, enough of my whining. As for the weekend, Taylor had an amazing weekend. She was 1 point away from getting Queen on her solo, so she was 1st attendant. I was so proud of her, she did great! Then in the team competition her team got 1st place an every dance that they competed...it was awesome! So much fun, but I am so tired as well.

Looks like we found renters for our town house! We met them today and signed a year lease. I'm feeling really blessed to have that taken care of so we can keep focusing on getting our new house's yard in.

If you haven't checked out this book you really should

I just had to plug this on our homepage. I have just finished the first chapter and was talking to Jason about it last night. He said that it echo's a lot of things that he liked about the book "The road less traveled" which he is picking up tonight on his way home. If you have time head on over to our Strengthen Home and Family page and click on book club. This is our first selection and it could not pertain more to my family. In fact I am going to have Taylor read the first chapter and then we are all going to do the exercise at the end.
Anyway, if any of you are reading this as well I would love to start a discussion in the comments under this book club selection on Strengthen Home and Family page.

Indiana

As most of you know, Heidi and I flew to Indiana on Thursday to visit Suzie, and Rob and Lyndsay. I don't have tons of pictures, so Rob, Heidi and Lyndsay I'll need you guys to post yours too.
I don't Loooove flying, but I have to say it wasn't bad. Everything went pretty smoothly getting through security except on the way back when I made the mistake of wearing blingy pants, so I got the official pat down:)
It was so much fun to see everyone! Suzie has an awesome set up at the mission office there and it is pretty obvious that they love her and find her indispensable. Since it has been a year since Suzie has seen us, we felt it our duty to remind her what a wild and crazy bunch she belongs to.....insert wicked laugh here! We gave Suzie a picture album from all of us, with our pictures and well wishes for her hump day gift. Our favorite picture that became our mantra for her is "Hey, you can do it!" with this cute little kid on it.

So of course Heidi and I ran with this.
Suzie took us to see some of the sites which was really fun. We visited the Indianapolis 500 Speedway were we took a tour, and I can honestly say that we didn't go on that tour, we WERE that tour. It was so much fun and Suzie definitely loosened up and embraced our theme of "You can do it!" After visiting the mission home and hearing Suzie lament about how insufficiently the Elders clean their bathrooms, we can up with this motivational card that Sister Collins can tape to their mirrors...it says it all

We also were able to see all over Indianapolis which was very fun...I've never seen so many trees! Also the air is soooooo clean and I can honestly say I have never been able to take such deep breaths in my life. If our family ever wants to relocate...I vote for the Midwest. It's so pretty and clean and green. However, to us home is close to family so I guess I will have to wait til we all start heading back that way with handcarts.
We were also so excited to see Rob, Lyndsay and the boys. I had so much fun inducting them into the official Hunsaker Cousin Jedi Council! Heidi and I actually had some epic lightsaber duels with them, and they loved Heathers amazing superhero capes. I also can't believe how much endless energy that Cohen has. It's amazing! He really never slows down, he's got things to see and places to go. I was also struck at how affectionate they naturally are. They showered us with hugs and kisses. My kids take waaaaayyyyyy longer to warm up to people. We loved snuggling with them and being the fun aunts.
Rob and Lyndsay, it was awesome to chat with you! We were the lucky ones that got to go out, but everyone feels the same...we love you! When all of us went to meet Pres. and Sister Collins they were asking who we all belonged to, and we said Becky and Bruce, and as they were making the connections, they said to Lyndsay "Oh so you are the one and only sister in law." We were quick to correct him though by saying "She's not a sister in law, she's a sister". No distinction needed.

On our last day, the girls went shopping in the posh town of Carmel while Robbie got to experience the "joy and wonder of fatherhood".

It was fun to go to Charming charlie's, Vera Bradley and all the other stores. My personal favorite part of the day was when Suzie went baha'n over a curb barrier to get to a parking spot. Normally I would have been a bit nervous about doing that in the middle of traffic, but hey we were being blessed since after all she is on a mission.

The only down part of the trip.....saying goodbye. We are definitely checking into tickets and will be making the trip again.
Here are some of my pictures. Like I said, feel free to post yours.

Living Scriptures--Charlie's Take

     So we've signed up for the Living Scriptures videos, and it has been super fun to see the videos I was raised with through Charlie's eyes.  It was so awesome the first time he told me parts of the Nativity: "Mawy is Jesus' mommy.  And Mawy and Josf go to Jewuselum.  Den the Angel come and say Jesus is born!"  Super sweet moment. 
     Of course, all the moments haven't been that cherubic.  Charlie's favorite songs are the two from Nephi and the Brass Plates and Journey to the Promised Land.  And it will be like Chinese water torture.  He'll sing like three lines from one of the songs over...and over...and over...and over...until I'm about to crack.  But the worst part is that I can't freak out on him when he's singing, "I will go and do what the Word (Lord) haf commanded, for I know in my heawt if I twust in him, the Word will prepare da way."  Faith of a child is wonderful, and I need to work on my patience to get me from the 178 verse, to the 179.
    And of course there are great lessons in there, like when Laman and Lemuel are beating Nephi with a stick Charlie always makes sure to tell me, "Waman and Wemuel are hitting Nephi!  We don't hit!"
     But today I had a good laugh when Charlie tried to quote Nephi when he said, "Laman and Lemuel are murderers in their hearts!"  But it came out, "Waman and Wemuel aw BURGERS in der heawts!"
     So we are having a lot of fun seeing what he picks up on and watching him enjoy learning about the scriptures.

My Container Garden!!!

I spent my Saturday planing my container gardening. This new house had like 20 pots! 
So, in my little container garden I have
(4) Tomato plants
(4) gypsy pepper plants
(1) banana pepper plant
(2) strawberry plants
(2) red onion plants
(3) different kinds of basil 
(1) pot of sage
(1) pot of rosemary
(1) pot of cilantro
(1) pot of chives
(1) orange mint plant
(1) pot of mint
(1) pot of dill
and 2 flower pots in the front of the house. 
Pretty awesome! Way worth it. And the best part is. Alma 32. If I have faith it will grow. :)

Hi, I'm trying to learn this but...............it just ain't happenin'.

Hey, I'm here with the girls and I'm told we're going to have a dynamically legendary time...and I managed to find my way back to Carmel from the airport. Amazing!!!!

Crazy Days!!

Wow the last couple days have been sooo crazy! Trying to get Dylan's county float done and ready before I leave has been a trial to say the least. I never feel that our schedule is too crazy, until I try to go somewhere. It seems that is when things get crazy out of no where, yesterday we had to work on Dylan's float, Taylor's solo that she is competing next week, and I was asked by some good friends if I could please, please, please work with their daughter who is trying out for cheerleader on Fri. So I went to the church after solo practice, and working on the float and I worked with her from 8:30-11 pm. And today is no less hectic,I am volunteering in Devin's class today to get their shirts for their program made, and then I am furiously going to get all the to do's done before Taylor has dance pictures after school.

I don't want to sound like it's all bad, because through this craziness I have been so grateful. I am grateful for a husband that is willing to take off 2 days from work just to be given a 3 page typed "to do" list while I'm gone. He is willing to volunteer in Devin's class tomorrow, and do my crazy chauffeur schedule, and homework with kids. Not to mention I am missing Dylan's end of year program and Jason is going to video it and take pictures so that I can feel like I was there. And that is only for tomorrow and doesn't include the soccer games and baseball draft and dance lesson running and preschool running that he is doing on the other days. He is amazing!
Also I am grateful for parents that are willing to help out my poor husband while he is taking over my "mommy duties".

I am proud of Dylan and how hard he (and I) worked on his float. His teacher has very high standards not only for the kids but for the parents, so we worked our buts off to meet those standards. Dylan had to have 3 things depicted on his float as well as having the sides and front decorated with the name of his county. Dylan has Juab county and we chose to put Topaz mountain, the sand dunes, and a corn farm on his float. I think it turned out pretty good, the only thing left if to type up a sign for each and attach them to the float with toothpicks. Check it out:)

April 17, 2012

It has been a very busy couple of days.  Heidi and I are working at figuring out 4-H.  We went to a meeting this evening.  I think we can do this.  I am trying to figure out how to use a fancy font like Hollie does.  Please tell me how you do that.  Is there somewhere you can go to get it.  Hollie sent me a picture of Dylan's Utah county float.  WOW!!!!  a true art project.  I want it after the Utah fair so I can show it at my school.    We are in the middle of end of year testing and I have inservice all day tomorrow and kids are out.  THIS IS IN THE MIDDLE OF END OF YEAR TESTING.  REALLY!!!!! GIVE ME A BREAK!  We are going to Utah this weekend to see Heather, help Jason and pick up Heidi and Hollie at the airport on Sunday.  We all lead very busy lives.  I LOVE MY NEW IPHONE!!!!!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Hello everyone!  I just wanted to put a quick shout-out to my awesome hubby on his birthday.  Whether his name is Jacob, Bret or Pooky it's all the same to me.  He is an awesome dad and the best partner on our "purposeful adventure" called life.  It has been 25 years since our eyes first met over the music stands at USU band camp and it has been a great ride ever since.  The best part is we are just getting started!  Happy Birthday Jacob!!

I'm still running, how about any of you??

So this is just an update. I have somehow managed to continue to progress with my feeble attempt at running. I'm hanging in there and what's even more strange is that I'm actually enjoying it. I have decided that running outside is really the only way for me. I enjoy the breeze and the sunshine a lot.
When I started running a couple months back, I started slow with 2 minutes running followed by 3 minutes walking. I am now to where I can run sustained for 22 minutes at an 11 min. mile pace (so I get to about 2 miles) then I walk for a couple minutes til I can run again. Then I go for speed spurts. I try to go 2 minutes of running at a 10 min. mile pace.
Today I went 5 miles in 1 hour! For me that is pretty good:) My goal is to be running sustained for 30-35 minutes by the end of May so that I can run an entire 5K race.

Hope all is well with everyone! Can't wait to see Suzie, Robbie, Lyndsay and the boys at the end of the week:)

April 14, Saying Hi!

Guess What!  I visited with Hollie.  I am going to get going with enjoying this blog and reading the things that are going on.  I am also going to contribute.  I enjoyed visiting Hollie and Heather this weekend and their wonderful families.  It is great to be around people that are excited about what they are doing.  It is catching.  I will be contributing as I learn how to do this.  I got a new iphone.  I am going to be calling Rob and Lyndsay to facetime. 

Larsen Blog

Hey ya'll! I updated the Legendary Larsen blog with a few new posts. Including Easter weekend and Dad and I's latest adventures! Just google Legendary Larsens and it'll be the first thing that comes up.

Easter weekend in Idaho

Here are some photos from this past Easter weekend up in Idaho.
The Easter bunny tried something new this year with the kids. Instead of baskets they had to hunt for a treasure and a treat. I think that it worked out great!

These are just a few that I have so if you have ones that are different please share!
It was so good to see you Vicki:) And a big thanks goes out to the Larsens and Mom and Dad....thanks for a great weekend!

We would love to see pictures or hear about everybody's Easter festivities:)

Family Calendar

Hi everyone,

If you want to add an event to our family calendar, everyone should be able to click on the family calendar link and it will take you to our google calendar where you can add. If you try to add something to the one that is embedded on this page you won't be able to alter it, but anything that is added through the link will show up on the embedded calendar. That is why you need to click on the link so you can be redirected to the google calendar site. Once there you should be able to click on the date you want to add an event and a little window will pop up, then just type in your event and publish it. If you want to add flare to it (a cake icon for a birthday or basketball for a game ect) then there is a button for that on the right side of you screen that says "add flare". Call if you run into trouble or are not able to access the calendar:)

He is Risen

Easter is the one holiday where we don't foster any fantasies in our house. We don't pretend that there is an enormous bunny hopping around pooping out candy (You would have to have seen the movie Hop to get that:) Instead we try to make sure that our family focus' their attention on Christ. We try to teach our children to appreciate the Atonement that Christ made on our behalf, and though we can never pay him back, we want to focus on using the gift that Christ has given us to increase our faith in Him and to repent of our sins and come closer to him. We hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Rob it was great to talk to you:)

So no pictures of us today, only of Him...He is Risen!

Family List

A Few Instructions

Hey everyone! So I think that I have things figured out, however, I am not completely done setting all of the pages up.
You can feel free to post but here are a few instructions to make it easier.
If you want to post on a page under either "Strengthen Home and Family" or Cooking with the Family, all you need to do is follow these steps (For this example we will say that I want to post something about emergency preparedness):

1- From hunsakerhive click on Strengthen Home and Family
2- When you get to that page, select New Post in the upper left hand corner
3- Title your post what ever you want and type the body of your post
4- Make sure you put in the lower labels window- Emergency Preparedness (This way the post goes on the right page as well as the Strengthen home and families page)

This works the same if I want to post a freezer meal:
1 Click on Cooking link from Hunsaker Hive homepage
2 Click on the New Post in upper left hand corner
3 Prepare the post and don't forge to put Freezer Meal in the Labels: window at the bottom


I hope that this works:) Please comment on this post and let me know if you are not able to view the different links or if you are not able to post.

Under Construction

Hey everyone be patient with me while I get things set up. Please comment on anything that you would like included in our family blog.

April 2012

Family History Effort

One more thing that I wanted to add to my previous post, is that the main motivation to start this blog besides keeping each other updated on our lives, was also to have a way of organizing and easily compiling our family history.  At the end of each year we plan to print out that year in blogs and make a family yearbook.  I am super excited.  

Hi All

Hi family!
Welcome to our new family blog.  This blog was started after Samantha was trying to get all of us to participate in a family newsletter.  I loved her idea of keeping our family close even though we are separated by many miles.  All of us are invited as authors so everyone can post pictures and make changes to your family pictures on the sidebar.  Suzie and Vicki, I didn't have a picture of you and your spouses so I haven't added it yet.  You can do it yourself or send me or Samantha a picture by email. Or of course call and I can walk you through it.  I can't wait to get caught up on what has been going on in all of your lives.  Cody did you take any pictures on your wilderness adventure?  Whether or not you did, we would love to hear about it.  Rob and Lyndsay, we can't wait to see pictures from your Disney World Trip!
We are so blessed to be part of such a wonderful family<3

Love you guys  

Hi all, I just received the invitation to join the Hunsaker Hive. (Hunsaker Hive...clever clever) Cody and Jocelyn are coming to visit on Sunday. hopefully we can all get together.