~Hunter's First Hunt~

Dave took Hunter out on his first hunt yesterday. Well, I don't know if you'd actually call it a hunt. They were going to go out to shoot grousse, but did't see any so ended up shooting rabbits and some other bird (Ican't remember the name). Hunter had fun bonding with the boys.
Dave and I brought Hunter a Samari sword back from New York, and he used that to clean the rabbit. GROSS!!!!

I wouldn't want to run into these 2 walking down a dirt road. lol.

Our dog, Marley, made Dave proud. He is a good hunting dog. Dave said that Marley and Hunter fought over the animals that were shot.

I know now why I'm never invited, cause this would never have flown with me. My baby is too young to shoot guns!

~Lexi is 1 Year Old~

Lexi turned 1 year old on September 18th. I can't believe how fast a year has gone by. It feels like just yesterday that I was in the hospital with her :) She is getting so big. She can walk, says "dada", "doogie", "mama" (finally), "hi", and "uh-oh". She is eating regular foods and I just upgraded her to a big kid car seat. She has 2 of her bottom teeth, and 4 of her top teeth are starting to peek through. She sleeps through the night (and has since she was about 6 months old). We are so lucky to have her in out family.

She has such a fun personality. She loves to play peek-a-boo, she loves to hide behind the couch and stick her head out, and she gets a kick out of chasing her brother and sister. We love to hear her laugh cause she has the cutest laugh! Mckell, Jasmin, and Lexi opening her presents (she needed a little help, cuz she had no idea of what she was supposed to do)

Lexi loved eating her birthday cake with her hands. She pretty much ate the whole thing. Well, with the help of Mckell.

I think Hunter and Mckell liked opening and playing with Lexi's new presents just as much as she did :)

~New York~

Dave had to go to New York this past week for work, so of course I had to go with him :) We flew out a day early so we could have time together to see the sights of New York, and for only being there 3 days I was sooo impressed that we got everything in that we wanted to do. We saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Wall Street, Little Italy, Chinatown, the Empire State Building, Rockefellar Center, took a carriage ride through Central Park, Went to Times Square, saw the Broadway Play Wicked (which I loved), took a river tour cruise at night to see the city lights, visited the Ground Zero Memorial, visited a cathedral, and rode in the Subway. And I have to say by the time we got home we were EXHAUSTED!!! And can you believe that Dave worked too. We were super busy, but had a blast being in New York. It was fun to get away just the 2 of us (I don't think we've done that since our Honeymoon).

We were going on 24 hours of no sleep when we visited the Statue of Liberty. So that is why Dave doesn't look all that thrilled. Really he did enjoy it!

The view of the city from the Statue fo Liberty.

President Obama was giving a speech at the Federal Building(right acrossed from the stock exchange) that is why everything was blocked off. It was kind of cool, because we saw his helicopter fly into the city, and then there were tv crews everywhere on wall street. I know we were on tv somewhere because we walked by several reporters reporting on what Obama had said.

At Times Square.
So we were looking for the Naked Cowboy, but instead found Elmo.

Us ontop of the Empire State Building. The View of the city was AWESOME!!!

Our carriage ride through Central Park was a lot of fun. It was nice to get away from the business of the city and relax going through the park.

We ended up meeting up with Jerry and Darinda on the last day we were there. They flew in for business meetings, so we spent the day with them.

Dave playing on the BIG Piano.

We ended our trip with a stretched limo ride. It was pretty cool.

New York is a CRAZY city. We were shooked at how cars don't stop for pedestrians, and pedestrians don't stop for cars. We saw a guy on a bike get hit by a taxi, but he just jumped up and walked away (it was a pretty hard hit too), we saw people escape getting hit by a car by the skin of their teeth. And we were amazed at how many poeple there were.

I think our favorite thing was going to Chinatown and Little Italy. We had a blast, but we are glad to be back home. :)

~Mckell's 1st Day of Preschool~

All summer long, Mckell has been asking me when she can go back to school. She has missed her teacher and all of her school friends (Mckell is our little social butterfly). She is so lucky to have such GREAT!!! teachers, whom she absolutely loves, Ms. Jamie and Ms. Jodie. She loves school and can't wait to do homework :)

~Labor Day Weekend/Smeding Reunion~

For over 30 years now, my mom's side of the family get together over Labor Day weekend for a camping trip/family reunion. It all started with my Grandma and Grandpa Smeding with their kids and My Grandma's Brother Max and his family. It is alot of fun, and we look forward to it every year. Originally, we always went up to Afton, Wyoming to camp. That is where my Grandma Smeding and Uncle Max grew up. But over the years, we made our reunion closer to home. We go up to North Fork to camp.

Over this weekend we have fun hitting the pinata, playing Capture the Flag, doing a fish pond, playing several relay games, getting a horse ride, and sitting around the fire visiting.

Hunter and Mckell getting ready for the paper airplane throw.

Hunter won the paper airplane throw. His airplane flew the farthest. He won a box of Reese's Pieces (my favorite)

Dave and Hunter pairing up for the egg toss.

Me in the bubble blowing contest (I don't think I even got an actual bubble)

Dave was quite the chef up camping. He cooked the marinated chicken, corn on the cob, and egg omlets for breakfast. I guess that's what happens when you've got camping equipment :)

Hunter's prize from the fish pond.

Lexi hitting the cute spider pinata.