5-29-13

Three days, three milestones!! 

Today Juliana waved bye-bye!!  I cannot believe how much she has learned just all of a sudden!  Andy is going to be stunned at what she can do when we get back home!

5-28-13

Two biggies today - not only did Juliana SIT UP yesterday...today she PULLED up into a standing position!!! 

On top of that, the tooth next to her upper front right tooth has peeked through!  My goodness!

5-27-13

Today Juliana learned to sit up on her own from a laying position!  Go big girl!

Went out on the boat today with Nani and Pawpaw...

Then back to their house to play...

5-26-13

Juliana first tub bath---she totally loved it!

Then the rascal got out and was so stinking cute--Pawpaw had to get his hands on her!

5-23-13

Juliana's top left tooth (when you are looking at her) finally broke through today----it's been hard won!!

My girls "playing" together - Anna Claire wants to play with her, but is stronger than she knows!

5-21-13

I keep finding Anna Claire climbing up in Juliana's crib.....she just wants to see her!

And look at Miss Hollywood - what a doll!

5-20-13

Juliana's first time in the pool - not sure at first but she warmed up to it!

5-19-13

Well, we received some wonderful, although unexpected news today:

I had taken THREE previous pregnancy tests that were all negative....ALL NEGATIVE!  When I didn't start my period STILL though, I decided to take one more.  Since I'm never away from my children, I dropped them at church, ran back to Walgreens and bought a test, then came back to church to take it.  I liked to fell on the floor right there in the church bathroom..... HAH!

So, then I decided to wait until after the youth Senior Roast and tell Andy.....here's how I did it.....

He was so excited!

We are both so excited, although the shock hasn't worn off yet! A baby is always a blessing, regardless! Based on my best guess, Baby Hunter will be born next January. Oh, the things we will need to be doing before then! Definitely a new vehicle and a home remodel for an additional bedroom. But God always provides and I know he will this time as well!  Big day!! :-)

As an aside - look at how pretty my two girls looked today in their blue dresses!

And lastly - here's Andy with the Senior youth guys....special group!

(L-R: Cody Chilton, Caleb Warg, Nathan Boley, Andy, Colby Butler and Davidson Granberry)

5-18-13

Riding around church in the electric wheelchairs.....life of a youth pastor's daughter!

5-15-13

There's a few cute things to report around the Hunter Household.

Juliana is becoming more cute and expressive every day!  Some people lament their babies not being tiny babies anymore, but not I - I'm so excited to get to know her little personality more and more!  I love seeing glimpses of who she is becoming!  Such a sweet little person!  Now, understand me, I am NOT saying that I'm not a bit sad about Anna Claire growing up.  At her phase of the game, I am a bit meloncholy about her continual growth and independence.  Every step she takes on her own, is a step away from her total reliance on us.  I adore how much she loves us right now, and I know that as she grows, she will ultimately cherish other relationships and friendships just as much as ours, and in all likelihood, during her teenage years, MORE than ours.   I can only enjoy the moment and keep the hope that if we can "keep her heart" so-to-speak, then when she is grown, she will treasure our relationship and friendship on a new level.  I do hate to see how teenagers discount their parents....if they only knew how deeply and fervently they are loved.....but, alas, that is part of teenagehood.  They just don't know....and can't.

Anyway, that's not what I wanted to write about!! :)  Funny how the mind goes off on its own....

Anna Claire is doing something new and funny - we took the side rail off to her crib last Friday night to allow her to be able to get up to go potty, and she's done very well with it.  But along with this new freedom, comes a new reaction: when she gets up from any kind of sleep (nap or "big sleep") she walks in to us, throws her arms out to the side like she is going to make a pronouncement of some sort, and says "I sleep good!!"  I guess she picked the phrase up from when we pray with her at night - I have noticed that Andy especially will pray and ask God to help her "sleep good."  It cracks us up!  :)

Anna Claire is also extremely interested in finding "futterflies" (butterflies).  I soooo want to take her to the butterfly dome at Calloway Gardens.  I've never been but I've heard its really neat! Yesterday she took me outside by the hand to see the "futterfly." I honestly just thought she was going to show me a random bug, but sure enough - she really DID see a butterfly!  A pretty orange one!!  I wish that we could find one of the butterfly gardens you can buy online, but it's probably too late in the season this year....

Juliana is crawling better every day.  She HATES her carseat and cries almost instantly when we put her in it!  She's also becoming more finicky about what she will eat.  Anna Claire was never finicky.  She hated peaches and the Gerber baby chicken, but otherwise would eat anything.  Juliana will try something then start gagging dramatically!  Andy says we have ANOTHER drama queen in training!  Last night I was trying to feed her mixed vegetables and chicken.  She started that gagging nonsense, so I got some bananas and with each bite of the "good stuff" I would douse it in bananas and she ate it all up! GROSS!!  (Oh, and when I say "GROSS!" Anna Claire will repeat me - "Goess!!" HAH!)  So now, when she won't eat something, then I just cover it in bananas!

Juliana will laugh at almost anything Anna Claire does.  I have to EARN my giggles from her, but Anna Claire can get her to laugh almost without effort! So sweet!

5-14-13

Juliana rode in a buggy for the first time today! And where, pray tell?? Walmart! Just like Anna Claire! Haha!

She got a ton of attention too! I bet five or six different people talked to her or to me about how pretty she was and how sweet!

5-10-13

Its been an interesting day! My aunt, Nancy, and Granny Jones stopped by for lunch and a quick visit on their way to Gulf Shores. (a pretty big detour, but we appreciated the visit all the same!)

Then, a little later, the girls and I rode to Marianna to meet my mom as she was driving to Gulf Shores to meet them. I wanted to give her her Mother's Day present (an Origami Owl locket--I was excited!) A great little visit with her also!

Then tonight we went on our first family bike ride tonight! Girls did great in their bicycle trailer! You never know how they will tolerate close quarters, but today they did marvelously! Didn't ride too far--just to the park to play and then back home. By then, Juliana was ready to be home! :-)

5-12-13

Cutie pie!

5-11-13

Anna Claire had her first self-initiated "tea party" with Juliana today!

5-9-13

Big day: Junia started crawling AND her right front tooth broke through!!! Yay!!

Andy setup a tent for him and Anna Claire to sleep in (theoretically) but after playing in it for a while he decided not to attempt overnight!

Instead they took a big bubble bath!

5-8-13

Anna Claire can't wait to sing with her Daddy! And I can't wait to see it too!

Oh, and she wanted to brush my hair....ow!!

5-08-13

I could literally write DAILY about all the things my two girls are learning and doing!  We have such a blessed life!

Today we went to McDonalds for a playdate with Candice Kent (Matthew and Jace), Heather Deese (Connor and Anna) and Danielle Reinelt (Cooper).  Anna Claire did great with her potty-training efforts, going four times perfectly before forgetting and making "poopy panties!"  Great job!  It was comical though - before we left home she had on Cinderella panties with jean shorts.  I went to fix my hair and she yelled that she had to go pee pee. I heard it flush and she announced she went pee pee.  She had shorts on.  All seemed well.  It wasn't until we got to McDonalds that I realized that she had no panties on! :)  She kept calling her shorts her "pretty panties."  :) haha!  That girl!

Juliana is precious and growing - kills me how cute she is!  Anna Claire likes her pretty well most of the time now, and even came over and kissed her on her head for no apparent reason while we were at McDonalds today.  :)  I can't wait to see them grow together.  One of my greatest concerns as a parent is how to teach them to love and care for one another.  I always wanted a sister, and I want them to love each other, be kind and truly be friends.  I am realistic in understanding that they will fight too - that's just part of things - but I don't want them to fight ALL THE TIME like some siblings do.  ::sigh:: That's one of those parenting issues that I wish I knew all the "right" answers for before we even get there. 

I am convinced that parenting is a constant exercise in self-doubt and second guessing yourself.  I am always unsure that I have handled things properly, or if Anna Claire is understanding me properly.  She tests me constantly and is SO SMART and you really have to be on top of things to keep up with her.  I'm proud of her feisty personality and I love the fact that she has so much spunk but is still so loving.  I have wonderful babies.....

5-5-13

Anna Claire surprised me at church today.  We got out of Andy's truck (he had taken Juliana in my car earlier) and started to walk to the church.  We were talking about the color of vehicles around us - "white car," "blue truck" etc.....then she saw my car and said "Mama car!"  I just couldn't believe she would have paid enough attention to recognize our vehicle.  She must be much more observant than I give her credit for!!

Her biting has drastically improved also - no biting since Monday night.  We had revival and I was in the nursery.  She was in the older kids class and she bit the visiting music minister's daughter.  They brought her to me and I took her to the bathroom and asked her if she bit her, yes she did she said, told her it was wrong, yadda yadda and then I told her I had to spank her.  Spanked her.  She then went right back in the nursery and within fifteen minutes she bit another child (incidentally it was the visiting music minister's YOUNGEST child - ACK!!) so I took her back to the bathroom and told her that I would have to bite her so that she knew how it felt.  So I did it.  Against all my parenting instincts, I bit the poor child.  Not hard hard, but enough to hurt.  Then I asked her if it hurt - she said yes and I asked her if she wanted to make other kids hurt - she said no (tearfully).  I felt like a BIG. FAT. JERK.  But she hasn't bit again since then!! YAYAYAYAY!

Nani had to leave today. She was sad and so were we!

Anna Claire looked so pretty for church!

But Nani left this girl a surprise! She loves her little princesses!