Are You Ready For Some Football?

Um, YES! We are definitely ready for football. We kicked off football season with some homemade chili and lots of football. We are very excited about this football season! Lance can be a little louder this year, which he is thrilled about. Last year Grant was a brand new baby and so Lance was super quiet and I think he missed his cheering. We are also looking forward to watching football with our friends and BBQ'ing all season long! Please note: if you are wondering why we never invite you over to watch the Raider game with us it is because we never invite people over for the Raider game. Lance needs to be focused and prefers to not be entertaining while watching the Raiders. If you think you are a football fan, I am sure you are and I am sure you are dedicated to your team, but there is no one like Lance! Thats why I love him so much though. He is very dedicated, will never leave his team, and will fight with them until the end!
We are also excited for the Raiders to play on Thanksgiving, however they play at 3 and we are wondering what they means for Thanksgiving dinner, because God knows Lance will choose the couch over the dinner table. And lastly, we are also excited about being in California on January 3rd. That is the day of a Raiders home game and we will hopefully have tickets to the game!!

Anyhow, we hope every enjoys football season as much as we do, and if you dont, then we hope you at least enjoy some beer and good food on a Sunday!

Another Round

Lance and his parents relaxing in the lake

Grantman swimming in the lake with Mimi

"Mom, this is serious business driving the boat - don't take my picture"-Grant

With Great Grandma Mare and Great Papa G

I even took my naps on the boat

Floating in my starfish

Aw, with my Dada

This post is way overdue. Back in July we went home to California for a vacation. We spent most of our time at my parents house in the mountains at Pine Mountain Lake. There, we enjoyed boating, golfing, and family. This trip was so fun and special because it was with both of our parents! Lance's parents came up from San Diego, which was so awesome. My parents were also there as well as my two sisters and my grandparents that live up there. We absolutely love spending time on the boat. It is one of our favorite things to do. My parents also truly love the boat. They enjoy boating with their friends, having cocktail cruises, and taking the boat down to Don Pedro, which is the bigger lake. Down at Don Pedro we can go faster and tube behind the boat. There really are not words to describe the fun we have while on the lake. It is a family party and we all love it. We were so proud of Grant for doing so well. We would spend all day on the boat and in the water and he just loved it. Grant would take his naps on the boat and wake up nice and happy and ready to swim. There are so many funny stories and great memories - but that would make this post even longer! It was such a fun trip and we cannot wait to spend another week at the lake next year!

PS- The name of my parent's boat is Another Round (Golf, Cocktails, and Boating)

Into Everything

Grant is officially into everything! I have to be completely honest and say that it is not driving me entirely crazy yet. However, it does drive me nuts at times - specifically when I am doing anything in the kitchen! He knows how to open cupboards now, but this is the only one he will open in the kitchen, which is so weird. He opened some in the bathroom this morning, but that is about it. He has only shut his fingers in the door once, so we will see if he learns from it. As for now, he loves the fact that he can get into everything!

Straws

Grant loves to get into things that he shouldn't be in. He really likes to play in the kitchen a lot. He enjoys playing with the lazy susan because that is where I keep all of my tupperware - I am fine with that. He tries to crawl fast towards the fridge when I have it open, but I quickly close it because I am not OK with that. His new thing is to pull up on the window ledge and look outside, which I am perfectly fine with. He also likes to get into the pantry. I don't like him to play in there because there are probably a million things he should not touch, but the stuff at his reach is actually, for the most part, fine for him to play with. They consist of water bottles, soda liters, paper plates, and other such things. There is also a paper bag with a 200 count of straws. Grant got into them and I let him play with them. I know they could be dangerous if he put them in his mouth and crawled around, so I made sure to watch him. He was really just playing with them and having a good time. It was something new that was not one of his toys - which clearly makes for a super cool new toy! As he was playing Missy, our girl kitty, comes wondering over. She thought he was trying to play with her. So for a couple of minutes Grant would wave the straws around and Missy would try to catch them and eat them. It was so cute because Grant was loving the attention from Missy. He obviously rarely gets up close and personal with them because they still run from him. However, Missy was loving the attention too and did not care if he would get loud or touch! I was happy to have caught the moment! Cute huh?

Avocados vs Strawberries

These are two of my very favorite foods. I love avocados and I also love strawberries. If there is a choice of flavor for something, whether it is ice cream, cheese cake, or cream cheese, I always prefer strawberry. I also absolutely love avocados. I love chips and guac and actually really like to make guacamole. ( I also have a secret ingredient I like to add to my guac!) Grant also loves both of these foods. They are super good for him and require basically no preparation other than being cut up. So far it sounds like we just love strawberries and avocados, right? Well we do, but I have a bone to pick with avocados!

You would think that strawberries, being red and juicy, will stain everything. Well, I actually have a great carpet cleaner that gets the stains out and strawberries actually come out of my clothes in the wash! So I feel pretty good about feeding them to Grant. Back to the bone have to pick with avocados - They stain everything. What the heck? They stain my clothes, they stain Grant's clothes, and MOST annoying of all they stain my dishes and silverware! This is super annoying. I have to scrub, I mean scrub, the spoons, knives, and bowls that touch avocados. It drives me crazy!

We will continue to eat avocados in our household. However, I simply wanted to point out this interesting fact: strawberries do not stain(usually) and avocados do! Weird!

He struck again!

Yep, that is Dodger. He is at it again, being the naughtiest cat ever! I would first like to mention that his new playground area is in fact in the soy bean field - Yes, the place where he went missing for about 6 hours. I found him playing in there again. And guess what? He doesn't get to go outside much anymore!
Now to the picture. Dodger is a very protective cat. Whenever Lance travels he stands guard at the top of the stairs until I go to bed. Once I go to bed then he comes in the bedroom and either sleeps on Lance's pillow or he sleeps in my doorway. He is very funny. His latest spot is laying in the doorway of Grant's room. This is where he prefers to take his naps. I was in Grant's room the other day putting away some clothes, and what little surprise do I find? Dodger was taking a nap in Grant's crib. Now, I know that many cats do this, especially when you first bring a baby home from the hospital. It is the cat's way of showing its jealousy. Nope, my cats aren't jealous anymore. He was just being naughty. I have NEVER caught them in the crib before.

This cat is driving me crazy! You don't even want to know all of the bad things he does, so I will will just tell of the funny and unusual!

(Excuse the creepy big eyes - flash on phone is not very good)

Where's Spot?

We read Grant 1 or 2 books before he goes to sleep at both nap time and bed time. I have a great passion for children's books and we have hundreds of them. However, we only have about 20 board books. Board books are the books for younger children that are made out of thick cardboard pages, so kids can be more rough with them. Anyhow, Grant definitely has a favorite. Where's Spot (Why doesn't my blog offer underline?) is his favorite book, and ours as well. It is a lift-the-flap book, which Grant just loves. He loves lifting the flap to see the animals that are hiding. Spot's mom, Sally, is looking all over the house for Spot because it is dinner time. In each place she looks there is a different animal. When Grant lifts the flap, every time he smiles so big. It is like a game of peek-a-boo for him. I love the book because of its large print and short sentences. It really exposes children to the symbols of our alphabet and each individual letter. Even at Grant's age, it is very important to see print. I also like how the flaps are different shapes and sizes and lift in different directions. It helps with his fine motor and challenges him a bit. The truth is we have read it so many times that he knows which way each flap goes! Every time I read it to him I get excited to see him smile!

1st Tooth

Grant popped his first tooth.....finally! Lance got his teeth late when he was a baby and teeth are genetic. So our Doctor told us that Grant would probably get them late as well! So, at 10.5 months Grant got his first tooth! Hooray!!

Confession

Ok, since I love to laugh at people and their funny stories, I might as well share the wealth. Here is a good one. While I am absolutely, definitely not Betty Crocker or Paula Dean, or anything even remotely close, my cooking is.....well alright, my cooking is probably a little below average. I can cook a mean lasagna and everything else is just average-ish. Fortunately Lance and I are not too picky and so dinners are easy, quick to make, and good.

Well, the other night we were ready to make dinner and neither of us felt like anything in particular, but we didn't want the same old dinners that we usually make. So I decided that we would have pasta, no sauce, Parmesan cheese, and artichoke hearts! Yum. So I cook the pasta and chop up the artichoke hearts. I drain the pasta and go to get the olive oil. Problem, we don't have olive oil. Now this is rare for our household. We always have olive oil. So I tell Lance the problem and he suggests a little butter. Genius, why didn't I think of that. I go to the fridge and we have no butter. Now, this is not rare. We never use butter. Maybe we use it if I make grilled cheese for lunches, but that is not very regular. Other than that, we never use butter. So I decide that I will just make do with what we have. I had some vegetable oil so I just used a smidge of that and then put in some artichoke marinade, thinking it would be like a salad dressing or something.

After all that we sit down for dinner. Fortunately I prepped Lance in saying, " I really don't know if this is going to be good at all". Well thankfully I did, because Lance took one bite and said, "Jame, I'm sorry, this is disgusting." So I took a bite just to confirm and sure enough it was gross.
I was not up for making another meal and neither was Lance.

So we ended up going down the street to Buffalo Wild Wings. Now, for all of you Californians reading this.....Chicago has had BWW for a very long time and that is one of our favorite places to eat out here. I know they opened one up in Dublin, so I hope you all enjoy it!

Anyhow, we are thankful that BWW saved us the other night. It sure was nothing to be proud of.....but go ahead and laugh - I cooked something that was not edible and according to Lance, "disgusting"!

We Built A Fort

Playing with my fun Daddy!

We were bored the other day and wanted to do something fun and out of the ordinary, so we built a fort. The architecture was very simplistic - four dinning room chairs and a big old blanket! Grant thought it was the coolest thing ever. When he decided to come and play with some toys his face was priceless. It was something new and different and he liked it. Some days go by and I feel like we are always just playing and sitting in the front room. It gets old after some time. So, we spiced it up and did something different! Glad we did because it sure was fun!

Playing in my fort!

A Worst Nightmare

Just over two years ago my sister Jana was in a terrible, horrible, very scary car accident. There is no need for details. All that matters is that she is here with us today. We are VERY lucky for that. Since then I have been very paranoid of Lance's travels. Lance drives a lot for work, leaving early in the mornings and driving home late at night. I am always nervous of him getting in an accident and that scares me very much. No matter if he is driving across 3 states or driving just 3 miles down the road to the grocery store, when he is leaving I always say "I Love You. Drive Safe". I know just how dangerous driving can be. Two weeks ago, my worst nightmare came true.
Grant and I were in the car driving to the pool to meet a friend. Lance calls me and says "Do not freak out, I was just in a bad car accident but I am fine." My heart sank and a million things raced through my head. Sure he was telling me he was fine, but what does that mean? He only has 3 broken bones, fine? Or he only sees a little bit of blood, fine? There could be a million kinds of fine. I could hear a woman in the background say, "Oh my gosh, are you alright?" At some point I asked what happened and he told me that someone hit him from behind on the freeway. The conversation was very brief. Lance told me he needed to make sure someone was calling the police and he promised to call me right back.
Side note----- Lance was on his way home from an appointment and I remember him telling me it was about two hours away. I just didn't know how far he was on his drive.
If you know me well, you will know that I am very anxious about getting all the details about any situation. Even when Lance is on the phone with someone else, I am always putting in my opinion if it involves me, or interrupting in some way. I know that is a terrible habit and I even get mad at myself for it. That is all to say that I was desperately wanting more details of his health and wellness and of the accident, but also knowing that he probably needs to take care of some things like insurance, police, and all of that stuff.
Eventually I get more of the story and start making my way to where Lance is located. He was about an hour away. I was so thankful to give him a hug when I saw him. Then I saw the car. Wow. That is when I was overwhelmingly thankful to hold his hand and stand next to him.
So what happened? Lance was driving with the flow of traffic which was about 45 MPH because it was a construction zone. He was on the freeway in the left lane. A Ford F150 comes flying through, going between 70 and 85 MPH and hits one car, then hits Lance, and the hits a Semi. Lance gets hit from behind, does circles all the way across the freeway to the right lane, then all the way back to the left lane and smashes into the cement wall head on. Yes, we are thankful he is alright!
Of course there are more details, but none of them really matter. The very scary thing is that sometimes it doesn't matter how good, safe, or reliable you are as a driver. There are people out there who can cause very serious and scary accidents. The bottom line for us is that we are so very thankful that Lance only walked away with some burns and back and neck stiffness/pain. It turns out the pain is gone and the stiffness has faded. The burns from the air bags have since disappeared.
There is only one real reason that I even decided to write a post about this. I really just want everyone to remember how dangerous it can be on the road. Please be safe. Don't speed. Whatever it is that you are in a hurry for, it can wait. It is much better to be safe and late, then injured, or have caused an injury, and early.

Dodger The Cat

We have two cats. Our boy kitty is named Dodger. He is crazy. Every morning he sits at the front door and just meows until I let him go play outside. I leave the front door cracked open and the cats go in and out as they please. They come in when the dogs are out playing and then go back out to be adventurous. The really great thing about them is they will come inside when I call them, just like dogs. Dodger, especially is really funny with this. He almost gets excited when I call him in and he sprints inside so fast, as if it were a game. Anyhow, the other day he did not come when I called him. Now, this has happened before. Sometimes he is lounging under a tree and just doesn't want to come in. So I go down to the field and get closer to him and then the game starts; He sprints home! So I walked down to the field and didn't see him. I know he is very adventurous so I just went back in the house and figured he would come home shortly. Like I said, this has happened before where he takes his sweet time coming home.Well, our girl kitty, Missy, starting acting nervous, like she knew he was missing or something. So I went back out a little bit later and still couldn't find him. So Lance went out there to check, and this went on all day. I thought either he went too far and couldn't find his way back home, or possibly maybe something jumped out of the field and ate him. I don't know what, maybe a snake or a fox - do they even have foxes in IL? Anyhow, I go out there yet again at about 5:00. I was in the middle of making dinner so I asked Lance take over while I went outside. I took the cat treats with me, because I know that whenever the cats hear me shake the cat treats they make a be-line for me. I am out there walking the edge of the field and looking around and all of a sudden I hear a faint meow that is clearly Dodger. He is in the field approximately 30 feet or so deep. OHMYGOD! I sprint home as fast as I could and tell Lance I need his help. We turn off the stove, grab Grant, and Lance puts on his steel toe work boots. We go down to the field and try to get hm out. This field was a corn field last year and now is a soy bean field that has corn patches in some places. The soy beans are about 2-3 feet tall and there is no way that you can see anything in there! The plants are very close together and the cat cannot see basically anything either. So Lance tries to find him but the cat keeps going another direction. So I am a little on edge and I take over. I put on Lance's big old boots and have at it. I am stomping down all of these soy beans in a panic to try and find that cat. (Part of me felt bad for destroying some soy beans, but then I realized that my cat will surely die if I don't get him out....what can you do.) There are millions of bugs all over the places. Bugs I have never even seen before. There are also thousands of frogs jumping all over the place. It really felt like I was on the show "Dirty Jobs". Well finally I find him and I pick him up. I put him down on the grass for just a minute and he falls over. The poor cat is so dehydrated and tired that he can't even stand up. He also is a filthy mess. He was so muddy and yucky - so I had to give him a bath. So we take him in and fill the sink with water and give him a bath with my tick and flea killing shampoo (Thank God I bought that for no reason last year because it came in handy!) So here is a picture of Dodger, all nice and clean and wet, trying to lick himself dry!

-----There is a side note. We forgot to close our garage that night. So our neighbor texts Lance at about 10:30 to let us know it is still open. So Lance runs out to close the garage and when he comes back in he tells me that there are tons of frogs in our garage. So the next morning I go to take a look and sure enough there were about 15 frogs in our garage - and some of them were big and were also dead. EWWW. They were disgusting. So I had to chase them all out of the garage with a broom and then get the dead ones out as well. ------

Thank goodness that fiasco is over! Damn cat!

Quiet at the Concert!

Here's a good one!!! So we went to Ravinia, an outdoor concert venue with our friends the Stefanksi's and the Larson's. We left Grant with our friends Brian and Jamie, which is a great story in itself and will post about that next! Anyhow, the concert was some symphony orchestra. We were more interested in playing games and enjoying a good meal with one another than we were of just sitting and listening to music. You can bring food and drinks, including alcohol into this venue so we all brought some piece of the meal and some drinks. Lance and I arrived right as the concert started and everyone went very quiet. So we just thought that people were going to listen to the beginning or that maybe someone was going to give a speech or something. Well, everyone stayed fairly quiet the whole time! And I mean, pretty darn quiet. So we enjoyed our delicious dinner without really talking to each other, other than loud whispers here and there. When dinner was done we were just chatting and hanging out, in voices just above a whisper. Now, I know I am loud person, but I have toned it down over the years. I was not being loud and had only had 1/2 glass of wine, so was not feeling silly either. A woman walks over comes right up to me and says, "I can hear you all the way over where I am sitting. There is not talking during the performance. Thanks" and she walks away. WHAT? First of all, I was truthfully not talking in a normal voice, I was talking in a loud whisper. Secondly, there are no rules about no talking during the performance. and yes, we did read the handout and the tickets to be sure! It was so strange. So yes, I Jamie Hunter, got Shh'd at an outdoor concert. WEIRD ! Even though we could barely hear each other the whole night, it was a great night of fun and we had a wonderful time making fun of the fact that we had to be quiet!

Grant's First Haircut

On Grant's 9 month birthday we decided it was time for a haircut. The good news is he has a ton of hair like his Mom and Dad! We went to Kid Snips where they specialize in childrens haircuts. We got to pick out a DVD for him to watch while he sat in his cool car. We chose Winnie the Pooh. He did not care about watching the movie at all. HE just wanted to play in his car. He was such a good boy. We even got to take home a certificate with his picture on it and a snip of his hair! Hope you enjoy the photos!


Look at my cool car!
Look at me!
Playing with the race car!
I see you !
Family Picture!

Will Crawl For Beer

This is one of the first videos of Grant crawling.Around 6.5 months Grant would scoot and roll all over the house, but just was not interested in crawling. Then he started pulling himself up on the couch and walking along the couch, and still no crawling. Then we made some progress and started crawling backwards! Now, around the 8 month mark, Grant is a crawling machine! Lance gave him a bit of an incentive.....some Beer! Be sure to watch him spit out the beer after he drinks it! This is especially funny because Grant would drink beer instead of milk if I would allow him to. Why do all babies love the taste of beer? Anyhow, please enjoy!