Swishers, Surprise Party, Six Months, and Solids

The Hunter family has been very busy the past few weeks!

First, we were delighted to have the Swisher family back in Chicago for a visit on Epiphany (Jan. 6) to celebrate the baptism of their Godson, Manuel "Manny" Mark Sanchez. The Swishers are dear friends who used to live in Chicago and attended All Saints Orthodox Church with us. Now, they live in State College, PA, where Brandon is earning his law degree and Corene is busy raising their three young children: Jude, Abigail, and Ezra. The Swishers met Miles for the first time, and we met Ezra for the first time. These two young lads are two weeks apart (Miles is older). It was so good to see them! Here are some pictures (if you can't figure out which baby is Miles and which baby is Ezra, look at their eyes. Miles' are mostly closed and Ezra's are really open!:)

In case you are wondering what two five-month-old babies do when they get together, here's a video:

Next up for the Hunter family was a surprise visit to Granner and Dee's house to celebrate Dee's 60th birthday! All three Meyer siblings and our spouses and children went to Cincinnati to surprise Dad/Dee. He was certainly surprised and we had a lot of fun, as pictured here:

After all that fun, we continued on to celebrate Miles' six month birthday (January 17) with a half birthday cake. He started eating baby cereal this week and will soon venture into the world of sweet potatoes, avocados, and bananas. Oh to be six months old again, eh? Here are some pictures from his half-birthday . . . and a few others we thought you might like (I'm trying to make up for not having posted for so long, can you tell?)

Needless to say, all this fun makes Miles very . . .

very . . .

sleepy.

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year! It has been an exciting year thus far for the Hunters. Let me take you back to Christmas Day, when Miles finished opening his gifts. Thanks for the phone, Aunt Vickie and Uncle George!



In addition to opening gifts, we took our traditional Christmas Day walk around the neighborhood. Miles was ready for the cold weather!

On December 26th, Brian drove us over to Uncle Seth and Aunt Carina's house bright and early, so Miles and I could hitch a ride with them to Ohio. We loaded up the van with three adults and four kids. It was the first time that all three Brownlee children were able to ride facing forward in their car seats. Big day!


Granner and Dee were glad to see us. Here's a nice shot of Miles with Dee:


Brian, along with the rest of the Meyers and Brownlees, joined us for New Year's Eve and Day. As soon as everyone arrived, we celebrated our Meyer family Christmas. It was a wild time! Everyone got into the spirit. There was cousin Jake and Uncle Nate:
There was "Explorer Cole" and "Princess Lydia:"

Granner just loved having her newest grand-babies with her!

Miles had a good time too, as you'll see in these photos. His favorite gift this year is the "Elmer Fudd" hat that Granner and Dee gave him. It's a classic!



Once all the excitement died down, Miles unfortunately came down with something . . . we think it is croup. He has had symptoms for almost a week now, but we think he's on the mend now. The drive home from Cincinnati wasn't easy, but we made it in one piece. We also think Miles might be starting to teethe, but thankfully he has his thumb to soothe him, especially for the long car ride.
We hope you all had a blessed Christmas and New Year. We still hope to mail out a Christmas/New Year's card by the beginning of next week, so look for us in the mail!

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!