Hope put her head in a toilet

Hi uncle nate,
Hello from Detroit. It is beautiful here. The air is just crisp enough to keep the mosquitos away, but warm enough to enjoy. The leaves are just beginning to change, and in a short time it will be flaming with colors of red, yellow, green, and orange.

Addy is very good at soccer, and the violin. She is in second grade now, and her favorite subject is gym and recess. At recess she play with Daniella, her close friend. She plays 4 square, jump rope, running games. She also plays with boys, and there is a little boy that loves to kiss her. Craig is gonna knock him out. She just turned 8 years old. We had a surprise birthday party for her at the bowling alley.

At Addy's soccer game, Hope insisted to go potty by herself at a public restroom. She came out with her entire head and hair wet. I thought, "you have got to be kidding me." I asked her if she put her head in the toilet. She replied, matter-of-factly, "uh-huh." "Why?" I asked. "Cause I wanted to." I explained how dirty and disgusting the toilet was and she said "I flushed it first." Oh, I guess that makes it better. I scrubbed her as best as I could, and gave her a good shampoo job at home.

Hayden walks around with a swagger. He loves balls, airplanes, and loves to throw rocks. If there is a mud puddle within a mile circumference of us, like a blood hound he will find it and plant himself in the middle of it. We love him, but he's just like Hope, crazy.


Addy's Birthday


At the bowling ally

Hope's long awaited 1st day of Preschool

I didn't notice she changed into mismatched princess heels just before leaving. That made a good first impression :)

Hayden Bows with Violin

Hayden is learning the violin.

Sept 4th

Dear Uncle Nate,

Things here are plugging away. It's labor day weekend so we get to spend some time as a family. The pictures are from this evening's walk. The sunset was beautiful. We went walking around the campus of Cranbrook, a private school with our good friends the Behrends and Williams.

Addy starts the second grade on Tuesday. She is note reading her violin music, and started her soccer league. She is adjusting to being back in Michigan. She is starting to get afraid of the dark at night. In fact we can't even get her to go to sleep by herself. She is really dramatic and tries to find any excuse to not stay in bed. "I'm really scared. What if a stranger comes in my room." or "im just really hungry" or "why don't you love me anymore?" Craig can't handle the female drama.

Hope is growing up. She also started soccer. She is now making art projects. Right now her project is to take a perfectly fine piece of white paper and cut it up into 50 pieces, all different shapes. Not sure why we just sit back and let her do it. Just as Hope tormented Addy's art projects, Hayden likes to come up and destroy Hope's projects. Karma. Addy just grins. Hope loves the movie Tangled. She loves Repunzel. She thinks she is a princess, we treat her like one even though we don't think she is one.

Hayden is officially in nursery. It's a big day for a parent at church when the baby is in nursery. It means you can try and enjoy church meetings without having to roam the halls with Hayden. Although sometimes he made for a nice excuse to exit. Hayden's nickname is Dizzle dude, started by you while he was in the womb. He can say it too. He's a happy little boy. He, like Hope, is very independent. While other children cling to their parents, he wanders off to do his own thing. Hayden says some funny words, "dizzle dude," yellow is "lellow" , he's polite because is likes to say "thank you." He loves to say "shadow." In fact today in church it was real quiet and he started saying "Shadow," over and over again real loud. Half of the congregation turned to look at who was saying it so loud, the other half don't need to look, they just know its the Noisy Hunter Family.

Craig is working. Thats about it.

I am still pregnant. Due in December. Craig and I went on a date the other night, and saw the last Harry Potter. It is really good. I can't believe we just saw it. It's been in the theaters for two months. Craig and I still have a good time together. We laugh together often. Nice because our kids are nuts, and we are adding to the chaos. Love you

Hope Swimming

Hope has finally learned how to swim, and we have found a way to finally exhaust her. She loves it. It reminds us of when Addy was learning to swim. We were watching Addy in the pool in Phoenix, she swam with great effort, and barely kept her head above water. Thats when Sam Colby jumped in the pool fully clothed because he thought she was drowning. We miss Sam.

Letter to Nate August 18, 2011

Hey Natey!

We are greeting you from Utah. We have been here for about 3 weeks now and will be heading back to Michigan next week. It has been awesome! We literally spend about 5 hours a day in the pool. Hope learned how to swim! She does the dog paddle and doesn't really move anywhere, but she can keep her head above water and make it to the edge if she needs to. Hope LOVES princess everything all of a sudden. She has a Repunzel dress that she never wants to part with. Addy is having fun school shopping with mom and accessorizing all of her outfits. Hayden is kind of a bully, in fact he was just beating on Kaden a minute ago and left quite the mark on his face. He loves balls, cars, and bugs. He's all boy. Craig is working long days and weekends at the hospital. We miss him, but I think we would be missing him at home too.
Love you Nate! We are heading up to Salt Lake for the Housten family reunion today. We'll be thinking of ya!

Love,
The Hunters

Letter to Nate #2, July 27th, 2011

Hey Nate,

So I just typed this huge email all about how naughty Hayden is, and just as I was finishing, he climbed under the computer and turned off the power switch. The little stinker. I was so bummed, but when I restarted the computer, most of it was still here! So here's your email about how naughty my little boy is. :)

We miss you so much! Addy still has your picture up on her nightstand and Hope still prays for you twice during every prayer. I know Laursie misses you because she's been home alone pretty much for the last couple of weeks and posts on facebook that she wishes you were there. We're so proud of what you're doing though. You're attitude, example and testimony bless all of us so much.

We head to Utah in 2 DAYS!! This Friday!! We can't wait! Craig will come for the first week, then has to come back for work. The kids and I stay til Aug 25th! I know it will go by way fast though. It will be busy with family reunions, trips to SL, boating, swimming, seeing friends, etc.

So here's a funny little story that happened yesterday. Hayden, only ONE-year-old, started a FIRE. He opened up a 400 degree oven, threw in a plastic toy truck, closed the oven, and watched it burn. He was so proud of himself. Hope tattled on him and I was able to put the fire out with an oven mit and a spatula. He is following in his sister's footsteps. Luckily Hope is starting to calm a little bit. She's become the official tattler on Hayden. She's always saying, "Hayden hit me....Hayden poked me... Hayden climbed on the table, ...Hayden went outside....Hayden's in the toilet, etc. Oh, that reminds me of another story. After Hayden flushed a toy car down the toilet we had to have the plumber fish it out for $250, Craig bought a lock mechinsim for the toilet seat. After being on there for one day, I went in the bathroom to find the mechanism disassembled IN THE TOILET, along with like 5 other things, shampoo, a toothbrush, soap, etc. He sure showed us! lI guess it's good that I always know what he's into because of Hope, but she says it in a whiny tattle-tale voice. Hayden copies everything she does so he uses the tattle voice when he's trying to mimic her. It's pretty funny.

Our new baby is going to be a sweet, cuddly, little mama's boy. He's GOT to be.

I hope you have a great week on the mission! Work hard!!

Love,

Aubree