cassiehunt's Blog

Family Pride

2008-07-19T21:26:00Z

I want to take this moment to say how proud I am of my brother. He is an exceptional photographer, friend, and brother. For the last few years he has been working his tail off in New York City trying to make a living as a photographer and doing a pretty good job. Last year he planned a trip to Afghanistan to capture the story of the soldiers fighting for our country. The images he returned with were amazing and caught the eye of Men's Journal, who sent him back for more. Since returning he has become a father and has a little baby girl. He has also decided to follow the American soldiers as they return home to keep their story alive and put faces to a war that we hear about everyday.

So yesterday he announced that one of his photos made it on the cover of TIME magazine. He and everyone that knows him and his struggle to become a photojournalist were thrilled. So check out the issue and article online and his website and let him know how great he is. (Because a sister can only say it so many times.)

Way to go Chad! I love ya!

Link to the TIME magazine article: http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20080728,00.html

Link to his website (including more photos from the war:

http://www.chadhuntphotography.com/

My awesome brother

Adding a Deck to our House

2008-07-17T20:44:00Z

Over the last week we had our landing taken out back and put in a deck. I'm mostly excited because once we put up baby gates, I can take the girls outside and it's "fenced in". So I can actually sit down instead of running around trying to keep Violet from running down the street. Here are the before, during and after shots.

County Fair Fun

2008-07-16T16:48:00Z

Last Saturday we took the girls to the county fair. They had a chance to ride horses, play on bulldozers, pet bunnies, have fun on the rides, play games (and win prizes), and they discovered carmel covered marshmallows with sprinkles.

We went thinking that we would just stay for a couple of hours and then leave when they started getting cranky. Well, 5 hours later they were still going strong and still having fun. We decided to leave while everyone was still happy.

The most memorable moment was when Ruby threw darts at the balloons and actually popped them and won a prize. And I almost shed a tear when Ruby and Violet rode the little cars together. They were holding hands and it was Violet's first time riding all by herself. They are both growing up so fast.

Our Little Firecrackers

2008-07-05T16:56:00Z

Well we decided to try to watch the firworks closer this year, hoping the colors would distract from the noise. But the first test firwork that went up scared poor little Violet and she screamed and screamed and screamed. All the while Ruby and I were waiting in line to use the potty (the ONLY potty) and the fireworks started when she was actually sitting on the pot. I think it scared the pee back up inside her. LOL

So after some adjusting and watching them in the car, everyone had fun again. I made sure to take their picture before they got dirty. :)

Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

2008-07-01T13:58:00Z

We are in the process of replacing our futon with a sofa. Here's why I am so excited about this. This futon is the complete passing of our college-living-with-roomates years. This is one of the last pieces to be replaced with real adult furniture. The new sofa will be delivered today so for now the futon frame is hanging out in our garage and the mattress is in our living room on the floor. Something I balked about last night to Randy. I actally said "you left it right there? The first thing the girls are going to do is jump on it!".

I shouldn't have been so negative. It's true the first thing they wanted to do when they saw it was jump on it. But really who cares? It brought them tons of joy and I guess it's safer than jumping on the bed (which is what they usually do). So it will remain in the living room until we find it a new home. Until then the girls are welcome to jump on it.

Family Photos

2008-06-27T16:03:00Z

Our family photos have arrived and I'm so excited! They turned out great. I am really going to try and do this every year because I have so many photos of the girls and even Randy and the girls but we never have any of all of us in the same photo. We used Rachel at Fine Lines Photography (http://finelinesphotography.com/ ) and she was great. We met at a park and she took tons of photos. The hard part was narrowing down which ones we wanted. Here are some of our favorites:

Father's Day

2008-06-18T01:02:00Z

We all decided to surprise Randy this Father's Day by making him pancakes for breakfast and taking him fishing. Well, it was a surprise until Ruby spilled the beans. The first thing she said when she saw him was "Daddy, we are making you pancakes and taking you fishing tomorrow, it's a surprise".

So much for surprises.

But we had a great time despite the non-surprise and not catching any fish.

A not so fun trip to the library

2008-05-13T16:23:00Z

We went to the library today for storytime and I usually try and go to the one for 3 1/2 year olds but we had to run errands and ended up at the baby one.

The minute we got there another mom started talking to me about how wonderful her toddler was (this is not the snotty part, I enjoy hearing stories about other kids) and then she points out to me that Violet is climbing on the furniture (just as she tells me I reach down to get her and actually catch her from falling). She asks if I always let my kids climb on the furniture. (well, she is a climber and if I let her she would probably climb up a ladder and jump off, but whatever). I let it slide.

Then a minute later, Violet, Ruby and I are sitting at the table coloring and the mom yells from across the room at me "she's eating the crayon". (um, yeah, she sticks everything in her mouth. DUH!) But I kindly say thank you and remove the crayon.

Then a few minutes later Ruby gets the stripped hat from the Cat in the Hat off the shelf and asks me to put it on her head. As I'm putting it on the same mother says "Boy, you're brave. I can't believe you're putting that on her head. God knows where it's been and what's on it.

For the love of God woman do you have nothing better to do than to follow me around and critize everything I'm doing?! Besides this library is brand new and Ruby is probably the first child to even put that hat on!!! Anyway, all I said was, "well I'm a little more laid back and don't have time to worry about things like that." Sheesh I could have slapped her.