Talk about different lives....

We have a Hunt family group text which I absolutely love. We talk on it almost daily just sending random thoughts or pics or videos or whatever. Modern technology rules that way.

My brother, Davis, is awesome at keeping in touch. He always sends pics and asks how everyone is doing etc etc etc. some nights we get special pictures like so:



Apparently that is sea urchin that he is eating for dinner. Do not ask me why. We had chic fil a.



These were pics he sent us on thanksgiving from new york. I sent him one of my Black Friday (late Thursday night) shopping trip to Wal Mart in myrtle beach.

In any case, it just cracks me up how different our lives are. He is a single dude, working at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a CPA in New York City, lives in Murray Hill in manhattan, eats out three meals a day at exotic restaurants and wears hipster glasses.

I'm a stay at home mom, I live in South Carolina, I eat cereal and turkey sandwiches and wear sweatpants. Daily.

Our lives are kind of polar opposites. There are days (many) where I would love to escape to New York and pretend to be cool for a minute. There are not as many days I imagine that he would like to switch with me and do diaper duty.... Ha! But that's ok. This is where we are in our lives and as much as I joke, I would it change it for anything. And definitely not for a sea urchin dinner!

Love you, D! ;)


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My favorites......

So Carrig is just in the best stage ever right now. Like I really want to bottle his sweet little hiney up and never ever ever ever EVER want to let him grow up. Currently my favorite thing on this earth (and I say that a lot I know, but this time I REALLY mean it) is reading/singing/cuddling him before he goes to sleep. Naps or bedtime. Neither he nor I discriminate.

We sit in his chair in his room, he gets his paci and he snuggles up really really close and doesn't move a muscle. We read "the little mouse, the big hungry bear and the red ripe strawberry" which i can recite word for word btwn Declan and know C, then we cuddle for awhile.....he usually likes to turn over, go cheek to cheek (ah i could die right there) and my favorite song to sing is the lumineers "ho hey". i sing my favorite chorus over and over and over and he just lays with me and I know, with everything that I am, that there's nowhere else he would rather be in the whole wide world.

There is something cool about being that person to someone. A mom. Carrig's mom. There's just nothing like it.

Awesome craft! Do it today.

So Declan is a kid that has to have something to do all the time or he gets antsy and somehow gets in trouble. I have a feeling I will have him enrolled in every sport imaginable just to keep him busy.....
If he gets bored, he is a disaster. He is not one of those kids that just kinda plays nicely by himself. He has to be stimulated and challenged constantly and it is exhausting but I've learned way too often the hard way when I don't have anything planned for him. So - we craft a lot. Yesterday we did something I saw on Pinterest and he looooved it! It was pretty cool and before he went to bed last night he asked me if we could do the "science experiment" again tomorrow. :) pretty cool.
We had all the stuff at home so it was easy. I just put vinegar in three diff cups, added diff food coloring, filled a Tupperware container with baking soda and let him use an eye dropper to squirt the diff colors into the baking soda. Good for fine motor skills too if we are getting technical ;)










It bubbles up and I even thought it was cool. For awhile he stuck to the eye dropper but then he decided to see what would happen if he put some baking soda in the cup. That was cool bc it bubbled up a lot. Then apparently he Thought hmmm what if I dump the cup in the baking soda? And it bubbled up A LOT. I had to hold back and just let him go because I know he was learning and experimenting which I totally want (and I love watching him learn like that) but the mess was less than awesome to clean up.
So anyhow - if u have a toddler and are looking for an easy/cool
Activity that will keep them busy for longer than ten minutes, try this guy!


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Roller coaster!

Declan is being very sweet and giving Carrig some turns on this. Cracks me up every time he gets so serious:

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Declan's class party!

Was a total success. It was so fun to be able to see him in his element and meet some of his buddies! He is always always always talking about "jake" so I finally got to meet this man. And he is a mess. Go figure :) a good mess!!
The kids loved the "turkey" (shocker) and the little headbands we all made went over like gangbusters. I was nervous about how two yr olds would sit and do a craft but the teachers have a system down and it worked perfectly. They know what they are doing, I tell ya what.




Declan and jake siting on the "purple rainbow"


Blake! We love him!



Dancing/jumping/singing





Declan and Sofia. Hear about her a loootttt and she was so sweet. And full on carried on a conversation. That was new for me.


This pic just makes me laugh.....


I loved it and had such a blast. Thankful that we were able to get involved and super thankful that Declan is surrounded by such a cool group of people at school. Couldn't ask for anything more!

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Friday and on....

Our assistant coach from Wake, Suddesy, was with her family at Ocean Isle which is only about an hour away from us so Friday, Tracy, Declan and I took off for the beach! She has two kids, Roscoe and EJ (Ella Jean, obsessed with that name ps........obsessed......) who are insanely cute and awesome little kids. Rossi is the perfect age for Declan - he loves kids that are older than him, but not as old as mommy or daddy. Cause we are not nearly as cool.............
We had such a fun time playing on the beach and then pillow fighting it up inside. That's Declan's game right there - wrestling and pillow fighting with an older boy who can handle his intensity. He was in heaven. Talk about not wanting to leave....















Schmoops and ej! Suddesys husband is one of THE coolest dudes I've ever met. Serious. He has let me call him schmoops since 2001 when a couple of my friends and i caught him picking up Suddes for a lunch date........trying to be real sneaky. We were onto his game from day 1........









Lifelong friends......


On our way home Paul had us pick up some items for "Fried Food Friday" - holy crap. We fried hushpuppies (delightful), pickles, raviolies, Oreos, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.......I mean it was discusting. But so good. I look a good 5 months pregnant right now, thanks a lot, Paul........



Tracy left on Saturday morning and so it was just us the rest of the weekend. We took walks, went to the playground, watched movies and just layed super super low. It was relaxing and so what I think we all needed. Sunday night came and I felt like crying because I didn't want it to be over. I love when Paul is home and able to really be here. Like BE HERE. Not worrying or thinking about work. It was wonderful...........









More walks. Declan still loves to be up in the backpack. Win win cause its a killer workout with that kid on your back.

Thanksgiving week...

...a week late. But it was AWESOME!
We had such a great one....it always takes me awhile to get back in gear after family and friends are here. Mainly because I'm in a bit of a depression ;) I love having people here and hanging out, keeping the boys busy and happy.
On Friday, Nana and Pop came in with the twins and then Saturday Nancy and Scott drove in and everybody was here until Wednesday. The weather was not cooperating - pretty chilly and rainy - which was not exactly beach or playing outside weather which stunk but luckily there was a pool at their hotel so we were there quite a bit :) All the boys are water babies so it works out!












This pic of TJ kills me. My children would never, not in a million lifetimes, fall asleep like this. It's so crazy he will just sleep right thru total craziness. He was here for at least 2 hours. Go on buddy.



In the meantime the other three boys were maniacs then we finally put them in the bath:



C loves his Aunt nancy!



Monday we were all going to meet up and head to the mall for some Santa and jumphouse fun but Sunday night was unpleasant (to say the least) for Decky and I. I had it coming out one end, Decky the other.....TMI?!??!! Well either way, it was bad news but Aunt Nancy and Nana to the rescue, they came and got Carrig for me first thing in the morning and took him for the day so Decky and I could recover. In a week full of thankfulness flowing, I was verrrry thankful for the two of them that day. Carrig got some special cousin, Nana and auntie time which was really wonderful.
Then Wednesday the Hensons went home (boo) but Nana and Pop stayed to have Thanksgiving with us and after Decky's speech therapy I dropped him off for the day. To say he had a blast is an understatement. Declan does awesome with Carrig and for the most part he's adjusted to having a brother but I know he misses good quality alone time, so this was really great for him. He got to hang out with his Nana and Pop ALL BY HIMSELF, go swimming, walk on the beach, cuddle, read books, he even got to go to a special store and meet Santa...................all without a crazy little brother clammering for attention too. Thank you, Nana and Pop, for showing Decky some love...he loved it :)
Aunt Tracy came into town on Wednesday too with Chaco too and stayed until Saturday. We had soooo much fun with her here! Serious - I can't even believe our lives sometimes. She is the one I stayed with on my recruiting trip to Wake, basically the reason I went there, I pretty much lived at her house my sophomore year of college, we both moved to Colorado in '05 to coach, we both worked at CU with my husband :), we both now live in SC....its just funny how our lives mirror the others and I love it. She's a wonderful friend and super aunt to my little dudes!!!! Fun lady, I tell ya....





Declan desperately wanted Chaco to take a nap with him. Lasted a solid 7 minutes.





Thanksgiving was filled with an enormous amount of food and fun. I still feel foul from all the food I consumed. "Fried Food Friday" did not help but more on that later.....Food aside though, we had a great day and while Thursday was the day you're supposed to really reflect on all that you are thankful for, every day is that for us. Truly. I've said it before, we don't have a ton of STUFF, but we do have a ton of LOVE and for that I will never, not for one second, stop being grateful. Thursday was just a day to cook a lot of delicious, fatty foods :)
More of our week to come in the next post. This one is long enough. You're welcome.

I belong with you. You belong with me.

You're my sweetheart.




Happy 9 month birthday, my sweetheart.

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Baby's best friend

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I don't want this weekend to end.....

I have so many posts to do as we have just had the best family/friends week. We had aunt nancy, uncle scotty, tj, matty, nana, pop, aunt tracy, chaco, suddesy, ej, rossi, and shmoops all around at some point in the last week and its been so wonderful. Serious. I haven't even taken that many pictures, I've just been soaking it all in............

Best of all, Paul has been here all week and has hardly been to the office. Never happens. I'm loving it more than anything.

Don't want it to end. Boooooooo :(


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If you eat your hot dog.....

"I'll get you some more cauliflower."

Odd, right? I literally had to bribe Declan to eat his hot dog with more broccoli and cauliflower. He has a very non two yr old like obsession with cauliflower. I don't know. But I don't argue.
He ate this entire bag tonight. All by himself.



Well that's not true. I gave Carrig a little broccoli:











Therreeee ya go!






God, I love that kid.

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I give birth to linebackers

I mean........

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Decky taught Carrig to clap!

Actually deckys friends mom did but it is still really cute how excited decky gets when C does it. "Yayyyy Carrig James Hogan!!"

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Before

Declan's thanksgiving party in his class is tomorrow and I'm in charge of it with another mom. This is my first attempt at being a cool school mom so this is what we have:







I've literally been working all day on this (minus the time I was cleaning up throw up from my sick buddy - we have been up since 3am and until 7am decky was throwing up every 20 minutes....it's awesome). The Rice Krispie turkey treats were much more difficult/messy than anticipated and cutting 48 feathers is not as fun as you might think. Odd. I know.
We will see how this goes! Good thing two yr olds aren't the judgemental type :)

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Dearest C-man.....

There will come a time when you are no longer the sweet one. The innocent one. The one that keeps everyone sane. Your baby years are far too quickly coming to an end and toddlerhood lurks in the far too close wings.

But for now, you are the "good one". The one everyone wants to hold and cuddle and the one who makes every single person you come in contact with smile. There is no attitude. There is no defiance. There is no tantrum throwing. There is no getting up from the table every two seconds when we are all trying to eat dinner. There is just peace and love. Truly.

I say this because a) I have your brother and b) your cousins are in town. :) there was a time that decky was the gem. Then it was tj and Matthew's time. Now all three of them are lunatics and you are the reminder that there was once peace. And to treasure it because we know what is ahead..........

I love you so much, Carrig James. You will never ever know how much. You light up my world and even though we spend every waking hour together, I can't get enough of you and I literally go in and wake you up in the mornings because I can't wait to see you. I should let you sleep, I know, but your smile is the best thing in my life so why not get it going early. I love you my sweet baby. Our rock.



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Superhero

Today was Declan's first venture into the land of dressing up and superheroes and clearly I have some work to do. He thought it was cool but had no idea really what was going on. He enjoyed sparring for a couple minutes then was back to his cars and trucks. His buddy, Blake, was much more cape and mask savvy..............

Gotta work on that imagination, little dude......we can't drive trucks forever!



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Why I love where we live...

Monday was beautiful, low 70's so we headed to the beach:

 The sand consumption was enormous. The diaper following was horrendous

By far my favorite picture. When ya gotta go ya gotta go............

Declan would have stayed all day if I had let him. All Carrig wanted to do was hold my hands and walk into the water...............for an hour. my back still hurts.

Then Tuesday it was a little cooler (still really nice), Paul had raked up big piles of leaves, so what does your two year old boy want to do once daddy has worked hard raking? Jump in and ruin them!

The wind up:

In air. Most of my pics are blurry these days of this kid....

And my favorite of the day:

Love him.

One day at the beach, the next day jumping in big piles of leaves as if it really is Fall around here. Can't beat it.