Cody & Julianna

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Hunters stay for a little vacation

After Jordan went into the MTC, Mom, Dad and Becky stayed a little while longer. It was great! We enjoyed relaxing without a schedule. Louie showed Aunt Becky where to find the dandilion puffs in the mountains of Park City. Aunt Becky showed Louie how to blow bubbles in the water. Grandpa Lou showed Louie how to shove pistacio shells through the cracks of the deck. Louie showed Grandpa how to walk with his cane!
We took the Park City Mountain Resort Gondola up the mountain to have dinner prior to Mom and Dad getting on the plane. Louie was amazed by the ride up the mountain...Why does vacation time go so quickly?

Monday, July 19, 2010

"Hollywood" Before and After

My nephew, Jordan, is entering the MTC this week. He received his call to the Australia, Adelaide Mission. When he came to Utah, I didn't recognize him without his whispy hair and hip Hollywood sunglasses. Hence the nickname, "Hollywood." Despite his feeble attempt to scoff at his new nickname, you know he loves it. The pictures above are his before (last summer) and after (this summer) pictures in preparing for his mission.
In spending time with Jordan this week, it has been impressive to see my jokster young nephew morph into a humbled and prepared missionary ready to get on his mission. He is still the same crazy Jordan--joking around, doing wild antics on his snowboard and quoting movies. However, he seems more at ease to talk about his serious reasons for going on a mission and knowing that Australia was chosen for him by the Lord. I've known Jordan all his life. He has that personality trait of connecting with people from all walks of life...combine that with his testimony of Christ and he will do a great work for the Lord.
Jordan with Louie - an hour before putting on his suit to go to the MTC. He and Louie are enjoying some graham crackers together.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Bear Lake 2010

Bear Lake was HOT this summer! Our favorite relief was anything with water - whether it be boating on the water, water in a bucket or watermelon. In the first picture, Louie loved helping Grandpa drive his boat and toot-toot the horn. Occasionally he would look up and give Grandpa this gratuitous, hearty, loud laugh. It was hilarious.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Mudpuddle Mayhem

Mud! He must had motored around in that puddle for over half an hour. I tried to take the woobie away but -- not going to happen! Woobie got it's moment in the mud too.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

3 Steps Today!

We celebrated Mother's Day at Aunt Tiffany's house. Uncle Rich grilled some amazing steaks --driving the dogs crazy! For my Mother's Day, Louie took three steps by himself! Our safety kid walked from the couch to the coffee table (taking three steps) over and over due to the repeated applause from his parents, grandparents, cousins, aunt and uncle. I should have video taped the "audience" clapping and cheering for future motivation. He was on a roll today...started drinking from a cup with Grandma Martsey and loved it. Of course, most of it ended up on his shirt. But I think that was the draw.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Baby Animal Birthday Party at Thanksgiving Point

We took Louie to Thanksgiving Point to see all the new baby animals. He can make the cow noise and the dog noise (no surprise, we hear it often enough!). Well today! He showed us that he has more than two tricks up his sleeve. He was smitten with the baby goats! They would hop around each other and "maaa-maaa" to maneuver to get at the feed being offered them. Louie studied them for a few minutes and then blasted with his own response, "MAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He found himself quite humorous.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Louie on a Snowy Day

He LOVES the snow--sledding, kiddie tubing, and going on a snow hike. Recently, I used his sand toys he got for Easter to scoop up snow and bring it inside to play. He stirs and stirs the snow around in his sand bucket. Cody asks him, "Skippy, are you baking a cake?"

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Teething - what a pain!

Louie was teething all four molars on this day. Nothing in the world was right for Louie until he discovered the paper towels. I placed him on the floor and told him to "have at it!" He must have played there for an hour...and then Murphy wanted in on the fun!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Learning at Lightning Speed!

Waving bye-bye? No problem. High-five? Easy. Eating by himself? Doing that for months. The learning is happening so fast! One day, he learned how to make the cow noise, "!" Another day, he learned how to "give kisses." Another day, he is walking with his shopping cart without our assistance. I can't keep up with it all happening so quickly. He says "uh-oh", "doggie", "mama", "mum" or "mom" (usually it's "Maaaa!"), "cheese", "apple" and the beloved "NO." He's got that one down really well. Despite Cody's coaching of "daddy", Louie has said it but is very judicious with its use.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

"Hey Louie!"

I came up behind him and found him flipping through his books. As a literacy specialist, I couldn't have been more proud! Once he realized I was there, he started to show off... gave me his famous "gap-tooth" grin. Then he grabbed his woobie (ratty-tatty baby blanket) and "gave it a love." What will we do when the woobie is no longer around?

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Day

Louie didn't quite understand why everything was wrapped in paper but he loves his Fisher Price Barnyard Set! He played with it forever and wasn't interested in opening any other gifts. So Christmas will spread out over the next couple months as he needs something new on a rainy day. After our family Christmas of opening stockings and only one gift for Louie, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's home for our extended family Christmas. We enjoyed a delicious meal together and began opening gifts again. Louie only had eyes for his barnyard set and played with it all day.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Celebrating Christmas Eve

A few weeks after Louie was born, we started a new tradition. We invite Grandma and Grandpa Johnson to dinner for Christmas Eve. Last year, we mainly loved on our new baby Louie and ate a decadent dinner. This year, we changed it up a bit. Park City celebrates Christmas Eve with Santa and his reindeer coming down the slopes preceeded by a torch parade. Well, Cody was a part of the torch parade to celebrate Santa's arrival. After Louie met Santa and one of his reindeer, we went home for warm chili.

"Baking Off" for Santa

Cody loves to "bake off" for any reason. This time it was for Louie to leave cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. Louie was very intent on getting the frosting to stay on the cookie... and some happened to make it to his mouth as well. I think tonight we saw a glimpse of "like father, like son." I'm not sure if Louie was going to leave any for Santa Claus. Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Louie's First Birthday

He loved the helium balloons! He loved his new choo-choo train from Grandma! He loved his new birthday hat! He loved playing with his cousins! BUT, he wasn't so sure why everyone sang Happy Birthday and stared at him when his cake was put before him!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

A Proud Parent Moment

I don't know if I was more proud when Louie rolled over for the first time or when he received his FIRST PASSPORT! I had dreams of all the trips we would take, the stamps he would get in his passport, and at age 2 getting his own frequent flyer account. We started with his first international trip to Aruba. None of us had been there before and thanks to Aunt Becky, we were able to use her time share. Louie is a very good baby but even he was not a fan of a 9 hour plane ride. He was exhausted and WE were exhausted! Thankfully, we were able to recoup by enjoying the perfect weather on soft sandy beaches. My dreams have altered a bit (with his passport tucked away for safe keeping) ...I couldn't be happier with a 2 hour car ride to the best sand in Utah -- Bear Lake.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Our little pumpkin went trick or treating with his cousins - Maddy, Jake and Dylan. He was intrigued by all the costumes and watching the kids run from house to house. Bless his heart, he didn't even know he got a bag full of candy...just a little lollipop for our pumpkin. Next year will be a whole different picture.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Louie's first trip to Washington D.C.

The first picture is me as a baby in front of the Washington Monument. For posterity, we took a similar picture of Louie. It's a fun comparison side by side! Washington D.C. is one of our favorite cities. We both lived here and had amazing opportunities for our careers, traveling up and down the East Coast and enjoying the arts. This is where Cody and I met and have many great memories with our friends. Cody gave Louie the tour down memory lane... Eastern Market, went to a Nat's game, walked around the National Monuments and a tour of the Capitol Building. Couldn't leave D.C. without a visit to my favorite Mexican food place - the Rio. This restaurant has been the venue for many conversations analyzing life and taking in too many calories of beef fajitas and queso.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Grandma and Grandpa Hunter's 50th Wedding Anniversary

It was great to get together with ALL of my side of the family. We live all over the U.S and rarely are all in one location. Our family played in Park City for a few days visiting the Olympic Museum (Louie proudly holding his gold medal - his binky), zipping on the zip line and watching the aerial ski jumpers practice and land in a huge swimming pool. For the next few days, we traveled to Bear Lake for boating, skiing and, tubing. We ended with spending a few days in Yellowstone. It was so great to see my family and PLAY.

Welcome to our blog! What a change...we went from blogging about our travels to blogging about teething, taking first steps and talking about Elmo. Such a 180 degree turn and we love it! Louie and Blake are such a joy to us and can't imagine life without them.

Truly, we are thankful for adoption--for this is the way we will add to our family a third time. We are open to different nationalities, either gender and hope for an open adoption. We are comfortable going through a private attorney or an agency.

Please feel free to share our blog. Thank you in advance for mentioning our quest for adoption to your family and friends!

With Love,
Cody, Julianna, Louie, Blake and our dog, Murphy

About Me: Julianna

I was born in a small town in Tennessee. We lived there until I was in the fifth grade -- what a great place to grow up! In the nearby woods, we would play "house" by designing floor plans with sticks as our walls and a piles of leaves for furniture. As a child, I loved to play games, ride bikes and play barbies. With a family of six kids, often my dad would engage us in a game of hide and go seek to wear us out for bedtime. Or, my dad would play "wild music" on the piano and let us dance around to get our wiggles out for bed. Looking back, I think we must have been a high energy group of kids. This might be why we only could have "sweet cereal" on Saturdays. However, on Christmas morning, each child got their own box; which would be gone by the next day. My poor parents... 6 kids hopped up on sugar plus the Christmas chaos! Our family of 8 then moved to Ft. Worth, Texas. We happily adjusted to Texas BBQ Brisket and Blue Bell Ice Cream. We took advantage of our location and would visit my dad's parents in El Paso for vacations. My grandma made us feel like her greatest treasure. During high school I couldn't wait to DRIVE! After parallel parking an enormous green station wagon, I passed the driving test and had my license in hand. I was very social. My brother Jeff and I were very active in our church youth program. I participated in plays, church volleyball and basketball. I loved going to youth conferences and would sew new outfits. My sewing career was short lived...I'm too much of a perfectionist and would spend more time pulling out stitches rather than sewing them in. I left this talent to my mother and sisters. In high school, I helped to make homecoming floats, joined the pep squad and the German Club; which really was a party with the cutest guys at school. Ummm yeah, I think I have been boy crazy since I was 12. My crushes' names would end up in the doodling of my school notes. At age 12 I may have seen one too many soap operas when I stayed one summer in El Paso with my Aunt Barbara! College was creeping up and I needed money. Therefore, I've had a job ever since I was 15 working for a sandwich store, gelato ice cream store, Dunkin' Donuts (gained 10 pounds in my first month and saw the necessity to quit!) and as a receptionist my senior year for an attorney (work release program). After high school, I went to BYU and LOVED my independence. At age 21, I took an 18 month break from college to serve a mission in the Arizona Temple Visitor Center. By far, this experience was one of the highlights of my life--serving and loving the people of Mesa. Before graduating with my Bachelors in Education, I went to study abroad to Israel for four months. I learned about the Jewish and Muslim cultures, religions and histories... fascinating! I will always have a sincere respect for the rich history taken place on that soil. During my first three years of teaching first and second grade, I earned and graduated with a Masters in Education. I continued to teach in Utah for a few more years. I loved teaching but wanted to find new opportunities to stretch myself in the field. I moved to Washington, D.C. and began to work as a literacy trainer (of teachers) for a non-profit in Baltimore, Maryland. For four years, I had the wonderful opportunity to help improve children's education in inner city schools. My favorite memories were those of helping young children find and cultivate the love of reading. The success of learning to read increased their self worth and opened doors of opportunities in their future. I continued a similar position with George Washington University working with the DC public schools, teachers and students. I loved my time of living in D.C. Many opportunities helped me to appreciate and learn of our nation's history. I'm such a "hands-on learner." Knowing this about myself, I took advantage of my location and traveled to a few countries across the Atlantic Ocean to learn of their cultures and histories. D.C. will always be an important chapter of my life filled with wonderful friends --and of course, where I originally met Cody. In 2005, I returned to Utah and began teaching second grade. This is when I became reacquainted with Cody and our life together started its course.

About Me: Cody

I was born and spent the majority of my childhood in Bountiful, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. I was a fairly social kid and spent more time than a normal 5 year old visiting all the senior citizens in my neighborhood who had nicknamed me “Windy”. Apparently, I talked a lot. I was just there for the Iced Oatmeal Cookies sitting on their kitchen counter. So I would talk and talk until I could close the deal and walk away with my Iced Oatmeal cookies. I think they knew what my intentions were and would milk me in their boredom. Just give me the cookie! The steep hills of Bountiful provided the perfect childhood existence. Steep hills for sledding and skiing in the winter and the twisty streets made great neighborhood night games and Olympics in the summer. Life really is simple as a kid and maybe it is best to enjoy the first portion of your life in a relative blissful ignorance. Mom and I followed Dad to Juneau, Alaska for my 9th grade year, as part of Dad's work in developing mining operations. After a year of playing football on a rocky dirt field with a team of female line(wo)men, I was glad to move home and be a part of Bountiful High School's first back to back high school football championship. I really had great friends and was active in choir, madrigals, student government and sports. I bought my first car when I was 15 ½ (it supposedly sat in the garage for the next few months while I waited to turn 16) with my own money. I worked at Farmers Insurance at nights and mowed lawns in the summers. This was my first experience in just how expensive life was going to be. Either that, or I had high expectations of myself and what I wanted to accomplish, but I did learn early on that you'll get out what you put into something. My parents, to their credit, really stressed work work work. This undoubtedly helped me day in and day out when serving an LDS Church mission to Alabama. It drove me nuts to see the lack of work ethic some of the other missionaries had. Spending two years performing community service and other church activities was probably the most difficult but most worthwhile challenge in my life to that point. But, the best part is that none of it is for yourself. Service is a great thing to learn at 19 years of age. Following my mission I attended the University of Utah and received a degree in Business Management (Finance) while working full time and was active in student government, Sigma Chi Fraternity and participated as a moderator for a weekly radio and TV show called Coffee and Politics. During my senior year, I received an internship in Washington DC, which completely changed the direction I thought I was headed. I loved the energy and great minds I met and worked with in Washington. Following graduation I worked in New York City for an internet start up that eventually closed its doors following the events of Sept. 11. I jumped at the chance to move to Washington DC and began working for U.S. Senator John Ensign shortly after. I spent four years working on healthcare and financial industry policy before heading to Las Vegas to do some campaign work. In August of 2005, Mom and I took my Grandma and Grandpa Meyer to visit the sites of Washington DC. The whole time I lived there, I really hoped it would work out that they could come and visit and could show them around. We had a great time and on our last day I took them to a favorite Saturday morning market and breakfast joint called Eastern Market. As fate now has it, I ran into a mutual good friend, Jill Chappell, who told me Julianna was moving to Salt Lake. I am getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning...

OUR STORY
A couple of years ago in D.C., I had taken Julianna out a few times. We got to know each other over Mexican food at three different locations. However, at the end of our third date, instead of inviting me in, she gave me a luke warm side hug at the door. I understand girls have this need to be pursued but an awkward hug doesn't really lend itself to an “oh baby baby” hot pursuit! Please. So, three years later, our story picks up again when I ran into Jill at Eastern Market. She wasting no time reacquainting us, called Julianna and handed me the phone. Julianna asked me if I could take a precious duffle bag of shoes she didn't have room for on the plane. These were essential items needed for her first week of work in Utah. With lack of time in heading to the airport, she met me in front of the Smithsonian on the Washington Mall for the handoff. The day she arrived in Salt Lake, she called to get her shoes. I was in Houston at the time and promised her bag of shoes at the end of the week in exchange for a dinner of steak fajitas. I think in her mind this meant two things: the comforts of Mexican food and a reason to buy new shoes until her own arrived safely. After our date of steak fajitas, it all went quickly from there.