Baby Ethan's Website (Labor Story and Lots of Pictures, including some new ones)
Dear Family & Friends, What a fun year we've had! To celebrate Eric's birthday, we began the new year in Memphis, watching BYU participate in the Liberty Bowl Game. The game itself wasn't great, but we had a lot of fun anyway and met a lot of new people. We stopped by Graceland on the way home � what a hoot! Basically the whole street around Graceland is devoted to Elvis (complete with the expected "Heartbreak Hotel"). And the stone gates outside it are covered with love letters inscribed to him (I wouldn't let Eric write one � call me jealous). No, we didn't spend the money to actually go inside, but we had a blast looking at the crazy pictures in the tourist shops. We were thrilled to participate in the Nauvoo, Illinois, temple open house and dedication over the summer. For those of you who don't know, Nauvoo was one of the first temples built by our faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not long after our then Church leader Joseph Smith was murdered, the members were forced out of Nauvoo and this temple was destroyed. Thus, the rebuilding of the Nauvoo temple was an important symbolic event for members of our faith. We were excited to have the opportunity to volunteer several days during the Open House, helping with the mass influx of visitors (to give you an idea of the enormity of the need � during the 6-week open house when the temple was open to the general public, over 300,000 people descended on a town with a population of just over 1000 people). We also were able to attend one of the dedicatory sessions, when the temple was set apart for religious sacraments, which was a highlight of the year. Of course, the big event this year was Ethan's birth. For those of you who don't get our email newsletters (and if you'd like to be put on our mailing list, please email us at le_hunters@yahoo.com), here's the synopsis. Laura was induced at 5pm on October 9th; Ethan was born via C-section at 2:47 am on October 11th. He weighed 8 lbs. 11-1/2 oz. and was 21-5/8 inches long. We went down to Dallas to visit Eric's parents over the Thanksgiving holiday; Ethan loved meeting his grandparents for the first time. While we were down there, we also had Ethan's baby blessing. Ethan is now just over 9 weeks old; he's almost 14 lbs and 24 inches long. Eric is the proud pappa, telling everyone that the little rolls on Ethan's arms and legs are actually muscles. Ethan has mastered smiling and can hold his head up; he's now working hard at laughing and rolling over. There's really just so much to say that we don't know what to put in this short letter. I guess the bottom line is that we are having fun watching our little man grow. Eric is still enjoying his work as an Associate Research Scientist for the University of Iowa; we will be going to Denver sometime next year, probably around August (yes, the date keeps changing). Until then, he continues to juggle his research and managerial responsibilities. This year, he has attended several conferences and has numerous papers in various stages of production. In February, Eric was released as a Church Sunday School teacher is now working hard as our ward's Mission Leader. Laura spent most of the year employed at the Iowa Geriatric Education Center, working right up until her due date on September 30th. She is now home being a full-time mom, which is definitely keeping her busy. (She tips her hat to all the stay-at-home mommies out there as she is finding the responsibilities of running a home more difficult than any she had in the workplace � and there's extra pay for working overtime or the graveyard shift.) When Eric was called as the mission leader, she was released from her service as 1st Counselor in the Stake Relief Society Presidency (which is our Church's women's organization) to serve with Eric. We love you all. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Eric and Laura
