This summer...

.... has been hard. I miss my family more than anything. I know that everyone is busy and financially it is a lot to come visit us, but that doesn't make me miss them less.Luckily I get to see family at the end of the month. My best friend is coming to visit. She is truly a sister to me, not just a friend. We talk all the time and she is always there for the emotional support that  I need. We have a give and take relationship. We are constantly helping each other and comforting one another and there just to talk. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father placed her and other friends in my life to fill voids that are in other relationships in my life. So, I'm counting down the days and secretly hoping she just decides to live at our house for the rest of forever :)

OKC Temple Trip

Moving to Tulsa has been really good for us. We have learned to come together as a family and completely rely on one another. We've had a hard time making friends, but that has only increased our love for one another. We enjoy every moment that we can spend together. One of the hardest things for us has been having a temple almost 2 hours away AND not having family around to drop Charlotte off for the day. We do have a handful of friends that I'm sure would take her, but I feel bad burdening them with another child for 6-8 hours. Or a child at all if they don't even have kids! :) I know it's silly, and we learned our lesson for sure yesterday. We have had some trying circumstances since we moved here and wanted to go to the temple for answers to our prayers. We went seeking peace and comfort. Needless to say, we didn't receive the peace we wanted. Satan worked on us so hard yesterday. He put good things in our way to distract us from leaving at the time we wanted. He gave us trials on the way to the city that were so stupid, but made it frustrating to get there and feel the spirit. When we got into OKC we were almost 3 hours early for the next session. So we decided to shop around for nothing, really. We stumbled upon a suit store in the mall and decided to get George a couple new suits because they were on sale and it's his birthday AND Father's Day this month. We lost track of time and were only 6 minutes late to the only session we could attend. I was going to do the session and George was going to do other work after I finished. It was so upsetting. I wanted answers! I wanted peace! I NEED comfort, dang it!! I was angry and had a really hard time trying to feel the spirit in the temple. I came out and George had a big smile on his face, expecting me to come out happy and spiritually refreshed. Not so much. He held me in his arms as I cried in anger and frustration. He's so good to me. He offered to just go home and he would skip his turn, but I thought maybe HE would get the answers and comfort we were seeking, so I asked him to take his turn for an hour. When I came back to get him, he felt the same as I did (minus the water works, he's so brave). He too was frustrated and angry and couldn't get the stupid "Baby Songs" video that was on in the car, out of his head. This was the hardest we have EVER had to focus while in the temple. Satan worked on us all day. I have never felt his power so strongly before. It was awful. On our way home, George and I talked about major decisions and questions we've had since we've been married. With each one, we were able to be in the temple TOGETHER and sit and ponder and pray and communicate our feelings TOGETHER. Yesterday we were seeking the same sort of thing, but didn't get to be TOGETHER. We have learned a lot and will be prepared next time. Babysitter, change, sleep, leave early, leave work at home, uplifting music, etc... Now we know, but it was a hard day anyway. While we waited, I did take some pictures of the temple. It is the smallest temple I have ever seen. Smaller than the Vernal, UT temple!! Anyway, here they are!

OK seriously, how cute is this? Oh yeah, Charlotte's walking guys. :)

Summer Fun

This afternoon we went swimming :) Charlotte is sportin' her new swimming suit! I love it!

I made some whip cream and let her lick the spatula after.

This is Turkey Mountain (so not a mountain.... the top is 758ft above sea level)

BUT- the incline is a NICE workout!!

more trail...

...did my first 5k in 3 years here the other day!!

This is what the "mountain" looks like from the road.

Charlotte just learned "Patty Cake" and really just claps and does "mark it with a 'C'".... sorry it's blurry.

Some tornadoes have come through Tulsa lately. Here's the park right to the side of our apartments that has a torn up tree :( It was a HUGE tree too.

It's kind of hard to see, but in the middle, far right there's a SNAKE that I saw on a walk a week or so ago... SCARY!!!

Charlotte didn't mind the snake... she just wanted to swing. It's her favorite!

That and Mr. Bear.       

      

George took us to the hangar at his school. See those little planes under the tail of the BIG one? Those are the planes George will be able to fly by the end of this year!!!

They're TINY compared to that commercial plane!

That's about all that's going on here!

Zoo, Nose and Build-a-Bear

This past week was very eventful. There were some tornadoes that went through OK, so we got LOTS of bad weather. Including an actual tornado that went RIGHT through Tulsa. Awesome. It was really early in the morning, around 2 or 3 or something. It was pouring rain, flash after flash of lightning, thunder clapping over and over and super strong wind. We woke up because it was so loud and just looked out the window. We like storms. We thought it was just super windy! Come to find out it was a 90mph tornado. Not just wind. Haha. Trees were uprooted all around us. A roof to an Ace Hardware was ripped right off. Schools and homes were demolished around the area. We were completely OK. I am so grateful that we were kept safe. My friend here is very pregnant and we wanted to see if walking might kick start her labor, so we went to the zoo. It was nice. I love being outside!

A goat trying to eat Charlotte's stroller. She was not a fan.

Charlotte found her nose. Awesome. Now I can't keep that finger OUT of her nose. Or her ear. Or her belly button. 

Tragic day in the Hunt house. Charlotte has this bear. She got it for Christmas from a Hunt family friend. SHE. LOVES. IT. It is her favorite toy of all time. Now that we've taken away her binky, we've been putting it in her crib for comfort instead. She adapted to the no binky very well, by the way. Only one night of crying. Awesome. Anyway, back to the bear. It was SO dirty. She kisses it all the time and all over it was crusty. Gross. I found out that Build-a-Bear will re-stuff the bear for you so you can wash it at home. You just un stitch the back and take out the stuffing and wash it then take it back to the store and they'll re-stuff it for you for free. YAY! So we had a couple days of no bear and she was sad.

But after they gave it back to her, she was one happy baby :) She didn't put it down all day.

Charlotte's Birthday!!

One year ago today, our precious daughter was born into this world. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by. She is so perfect for our family. We feel so blessed to be able to raise her. Because she is our first, and a girl and one year old... I totally went all out with the decorations and girly stuff. It was fun. :)

She got a new toy. She loves it :)

This is HER smash cake, for later. 

This was the big cake I did for everyone else. I found it online and thought it would be easy to do. It was just one round pan and two square pans. Strawberry, devils food and yellow cakes. The flowers are just Fruit Roll Ups that I cut out with little flower cookie cutters I found for 50 cents each.

The party set up at the park by our apartment. It was cloudy and humid and kind of windy, but it was much better considering the tornadoes yesterday... haha, don't worry, we didn't get hit at all.

Charlotte eating her cake.

Yum!

Party guests. We're so grateful for friends... and the missionaries :) We love them.

These could quite possibly be the best Elders we have ever met. We love them!!

The End.....

...... of year one. 

My First Mother's Day!

So weird that a year ago tomorrow I was going to the hospital to be induced! I was bummed that she didn't come on Mother's Day, but glad she was comin' soon! I love being a mother. I have never been so happy and felt so much love in all my life. I am so grateful for our Eternal Family. Charlotte and George are my world. I am so lucky.

Well, here's my new (used) sewing machine that I got for an early MD gift! I'm so excited for my first project, tab top curtains for Charlotte's room. They will be dark chocolate brown curtains with pink tabs and different sizes of pink dots on the curtain part. Kind of hard to visualize, so I'll post pics when they're done.

Charlotte and I went for a walk by the river yesterday and I took some "Almost ONE" pictures of her. I can't believe how big my little girl is.

This is about 3 weeks, she looks totally different!

And now, almost a year later!

Playing with leaves.

Some pretty purple flowers by the river... not sure what they are, but they're pretty!

Just Charlotte.... being Charlotte :)

Reading books, Wii Fit and eating. Love her :)