We are keeping busy in good ol' Idaho Falls. I am finishing up my first year of teaching. I love it but am quite exhausted by my many first graders (and some crazy parents). One of my wee ones said to me the other day "You are my favorite teacher in the whole school, which is this much (and spread his arms far apart) and when I like you this much that means 10,029".

Marshall is working away at school full time. He recently changed his mind about going into nursing and at this point is wanting to change his major to criminal justice. He was nervous to make a change in his major but (among other factors) after talking to Reed and discovering that Reed was once planning on going into Drama he decided the criminal justice change would be okay.

Izzy turns four next month (I can hardly believe it). She is anxious for her birthday party. One of her new favorite words is "fancy". She wants to have a "fancy birthday party" and get "fancy presents", dress in "fancy clothes" and eat fancy food. Tonight we visited her Grandaddy (Uncle George to many of you) and decided that she likes to eat his "fancy olives", she decided they are better than regular "black olives" (which was her original request). Perhaps we will have to have fancy olives as part of the fancy birthday party food. : )

Set a date...

Hello everyone. So some thoughts have been tossed around at getting together in the first part of July. I don't know that it will work out for many of us, so Andrea and I wanted to toss out the idea of scheduling some sort of Cousins vacation/reunion. We could go someplace or just stay in Idaho. What do you all think? This is open for all cousins to comment on! If we started planning soon, we could get a time that most or all of us could come.

Andrea hasn't signed on yet, so I am going to take the liberty of posting something on her behalf....

Olivia holding Sara (December)

We made cookies for the Christmas party. Grandma's brown paper bag technique never fails!

This is from an email Andrea sent me earlier today:

Last night at dinner Olivia stopped eating, put her elbow on the table and rested her chin in her hand and asked Reed "So daddy, what do you want to be when you grow up?" (Olivia frequently engages us in 'grown up' discussions and we treat them seriously). Reed responded "That's a very good question. I think I want to be a teacher and I want to be a psychologist so that I can help people." Olivia politely asked a few more questions about how psychologists help people and then Reed started talking about the kinds of occupation plans he had when he was little. He must have talked a little too long because Olivia finally cut him off and asked "Daddy, do you want to be a pirate, or a monster, or a doctor?" Respectfully, Reed paused for a moment and considered his response. He said "Well, I don't think I want to be a pirate and monsters aren't very nice and can be scary so I don't want to be a monster. . . " and before he could finish Olivia jumped in with "But you could be a nice ghost! Then you wouldn't be scary." (Keep in mind that the whole conversation is happening with a very serious tone of voice - this is a conversation about real life plans.) Again a pause while Reed thought about his response (and squinted his eyes while trying to hide some smiles). "Yes, that's a good point. I could be a nice ghost." Then they talked about what Olivia wants to be. . . her first response was that she plans to be a witch, but when we asked her why, she described an environment and experiences that sound more like a queen - so we asked if she wanted to be a witch or a queen - she said she wanted to be a queen or maybe a princess, daddy could be the king, and mommy could be a witch.

so there.

February in Miami

Hi All-

Here is an update from the Wilkerson-Paredes family. Sara continues to be the most fantastic baby on the planet (I'm biased, I know). She is one week short of hitting the 5-month mark. I'm posting a picture from last month. Sara's Nana (my mom, Aunt Lila to some of you) arrived last week. We are all enjoying the wonderful South Florida weather. Right now it is a little overcast, but in the 70s. Divine!

Harry started a new job two weeks ago. His days at Kodak are long gone, he now works in sales for a software company called Group 1, a subsidiary of Pitney Bowes. Change is constant. I am well, busy with work, Sara, and life.

Love to all!
Chelsea

Check out these hotties!!

Hello!

Hello everyone! We have been in New Jersey now for about a week. It has been pretty cold here. Last night we got about 3 inches of snow. I was hoping for much warmer weather, but hopefully it will get that way before too long. This weekend we are heading for Philadelphia. We are going to see some of the historical sites (and the King of Prussia mall - I hear it is huge!). I hope the weather is warm enough to take Anja to the zoo there. It is the oldest zoo in the United States.

I am including some pictures for you all to see. The first one is a picture we had taken with the "real Santa" at Macy's in NYC. That experience was a bit like waiting in line to see Mickey Mouse in Disneyland. Anja loved it though. The second one was taken in January of this year. As you can see there is a lot of snow outside our house. (Not as much snow as last year, though.) It had started to melt, but I am told quite a bit more has fallen since. The last one is a picture of Anja and Evan at my parent's house. Anja and I spent a week at the beginning of this month with my parents. She loved it! She got to play every day with Evan. They had a lot of fun together.

Hope you all are doing well!
Love you all,
Kasey

Recent photos

Hi Howdy Cousins!

I thought I'd post a couple of photos....a couple of the photos were recently taken by Bryon (Tiffani's husband) when he flew to Paris in 2007. The other photos are from Christmas, 2006. Tiffani's youngest son, Jonathan, received a little blue chair and he is rocking his older (and much bigger) brother to sleep. I think they might have tipped over after the photo was taken!

Ciao!

David

Where is Andrea???

Hi Everyone!

I was just wondering if anyone has talked to Andrea in a while. She still hasn't signed up for the blog and I haven't heard anything from her in a while. Did she go to Idaho for Shelley's dad's funeral?

Ashton's Update

Hey everyone. Thought I'd let you know what we are up to. We are in the process of adopting this little girl from Haiti. As you can see, she is adorable. She will turn 2 in June. I am going to Haiti in April to work in the orphanage she lives in for a week. I am very excited. Our paperwork is done on our part, so we are in the waiting process right now, which we are getting very good at (this one should end on a positive note, however). We hope to be able to bring her home in the summer!

Johnson Fam

Hello!
Good idea Kasey, but it sounds like you haven't heard that yet! This will be fun! Idaho is wet and cold. We are taking off on thursday with my mom and dad for Disneyland! Evan turned 2 last week so we decided to take him to see Mickey Mouse! We will enjoy some warm weather for a couple days at least. I hope all is well with everyone. Lots of love, Johnson family

Hi Cousins!

Hi Cousins! Way to go, Kasey, this blog is a great way to keep in touch!


Yes, Stephen is taking the plunge...Here is a photograph of the smoochy smoochy couple! At Christmas time our family got together in Georgia, and Nicole flew out to join us.... She and Stephen are very happy (I know, not a surpise!) I took some photographs of them together, and Tiffani has put the photographs and other objects into some kind of wedding proposal book!

I won't say what the temperature here is......all right, it has a 6 in the front! (On the other hand, there is consant traffic here) We celebrated my dad's birthday yesterday....Some of our parents will be going on a cruise next month...sounds like fun!

David

Rubbing it in....

I just thought I would let you all know (and rub it in a little bit) that it was 59 degrees in Draper, Utah today. It is really nice here (although we still have a ton of snow at our house). Denver says it is pretty cold in New Jersey, so I am hoping it will warm up there soon!

I have sent emails to the California cousins and am waiting for their replies. I don't have any of the Groth's email addresses. If anyone has them, you could send them to me and I would be more than happy to send them an invite as well.

Kasey

Hi Again!

Hi all. Great to see so many people here. I think it would be great if we could get the CA cousins and the Groth cousins on too :)

Not too much new news with me. Holly and I visited Chelsea in Miami a week and a half ago and had a great time. Surprise surprise, I think Sara is pretty great. Chelsea will have to supply the pictures to prove it!

Is it cold where you are? SOOOO cold here, but no snow.

Cindy

CA Hunter News

Hello! What a great idea, Kasey -- thanks! I just got an e-mail from Aunt Bobbi yesterday. She told me that Stephen is going to propose to a girl on Valentine's Day -- Whohoo! Finally a Hunter Boy is taking the plunge. Anyway, she said the girl is really sweet and they are very excited. She said the wedding would probably be on August 12. Just thought I'd pass on the good news! I think we need to get those CA Hunters on this blog, too. Can you do that Kasey? lol, Steph

Thank You Kasey!

Thank you for getting this going so fast! I agree that Grandma would be... well I'm sure IS very happy that we are still a family.
Speaking of family, do you think the David Hunter cousins would be interested in joining in?

Hansen Family Update

I am so excited to see more cousins on our new weblog! We just need to get the other ones on. Anyway, I thought I would start with an update from the Hansen family. Not much is going on. Denver is still working in New Jersey. He should be there until the end of April. Anja and I are going to be flying out there to stay with him on the 17th of this month. We will be there for a month and then come back here. It is really nice to spend "family time" together. Other than that, not much has happened. We have a ton of snow in our back yard and are anxiously waiting for it to melt. Hope to hear updates from others! I would love to see pictures of baby Sara!

idahooooooooooo

well hello! i am finally here. this is great. now i just need fun information to share with people - that is the next thing to work on. i would just like to say that our family rocks! hunters rule!

Very cool

This is a great idea. Now, where is everyone?

Great idea!

What a great idea! Hope to see more cousins here.

Say, what do people think about a Hunter family reunion this summer, maybe around the 4th of July?

Cindy

Awesome idea!! I am all for it!!

Welcome To Our Blog

Hi everyone. When Jessica, Amy, Allison and I got together for dinner last week, we talked about starting up a cousin blog. I thought it might be fun for all of us to make posts on this site. If you are totally against it - not a big deal. I have invited everyone in the Bob and Chuck Hunter family (except Tom - he doesn't have an email address) and everyone in the Wilkerson family (except Shawn - I don't have his email). You should all be getting an email soon inviting you to be a part of this blog. Let me know what you think about this!