Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve 2011

December Fun

It has been a fun month getting ready for Christmas!  Once we got past the stomach flu, we have enjoyed decorating cookies and gingerbread houses, listening, singing and dancing along to Christmas songs, visiting a live nativity, seeing a fabulous Christmas light show, going to a concert at a local church and lots more.  I have really tried to focus on the true meaning of Christmas, but it seems that all of the photos I take do not reflect this so I need to reconsider if I'm really doing a good job myself and in teaching our children. 

Elaina and Owen went right up to Santa this year.  Audrey was very excited until about 2 seconds before this picture was taken and then she changed her mind. 

2 Gingerbread houses and 1 Gingerbread ship with guns.

I took the girls to the mall this week to ride the Christmas train.  It was fun, but we missed having Owen along.  He was having fun celebrating the Holidays Around the World in 1st grade.

Christmas Tree

Every year I think it would be easier and cheaper to just buy an artificial Christmas tree, but then we go out and have the experience of cutting one down and I am very happy to continue this tradition.  We had a beautiful sunny Saturday for a very fun family outing to find a tree, enjoy some hot chocolate, and then head home to decorate.

Erik really did all of the work- the cutting, hauling and the photography!  We found a beautiful tree.

Owen loves the Santa hat that used to be our tree topper.  Thanks to Grammy, we now have a homemade angel on top.

He loved that hat so much when it first came out of the box that he wore it to bed for several nights!

This is such a fun month!!

Extended Family Time!

We had a wonderful 2 weeks spending time with all of our siblings and their families both in PA and NY.  We are so grateful to be closer to our parents so that our kids can spend more time with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  With 11 cousins ages 5 and under, our 3 kids always have lots of playmates whenever we get together with family!!

Our girls love babies!

Riding the tractor is always a highlight!

All of the Hubbard grandchildren love to listen to Papa read a story

The 3 oldest cousins

Uncle Mark does a great job of getting time with the kids one on one

I had to include this picture of Gramma... enjoying and playing with her 9 great grandchildren!  Love it!!

Family

Here's our latest family picture!

Happy Halloween!

Here are our adorable trick-or-treaters:

October Snow

We woke up to a winter wonderland on Saturday morning, much to the delight of the kids! 

Soccer was canceled today... O decided to make his own soccer ball with the snow!

Can't say I've ever build a snowman in October before... the kids had a blast!!

Edzo loved it too!

Pumpkins!!

We had a fun family night of carving pumpkins!  The kids were very excited to carve the pumpkins that grew in our backyard this year.  We gave them the option of getting bigger ones at the pumpkin patch, but this is what they wanted so we went with it.  I think they turned out great and we still got lots of good seeds for roasting!!!

Erik is definitely the master carver.  Owen convinced him that "If I can draw it, you can carve it" and Erik was up for the challenge.  It is especially cool looking when it is lit up.  Thankfully the girls were very happy with my simple shapes!

Big Girl Bed

We recently put Audrey in her big girl bed.  As you can see from the pictures, she was and still is a very proud, happy girl! 

She sleeps really well in it too!

Soccer

We've had a WET soccer season this Fall.  Owen enjoys the games, especially playing defense, but not so much the weekday practices after a full day at school.  These pictures were taken on one of our rare sunny Saturday mornings:

Hangin' out on defense

Columbus Day Weekend

Mom, Dad, Shawna and family came to visit us for the long weekend in early October.  We had a fantastic time visiting the pumpkin patch, playing outside, and going to the animal park.  The cousins have so much fun together and we love having them visit!

A trip to the pumpkin patch

Audrey loves babies and held Evan every day he was here.

My favorite attraction at the animal park... so funny to watch them feed this gentle beast!

McConnell's Mills Park

The grandkids worked together to decorate a pumpkin for Nana and Papa to take home.

Colorado Visit

I had the chance to go visit my brother, sister-in-law, 2 nephews and niece for a long weekend.  As much as I would have loved to bring our whole family with us, I loved having time to focus on my adorable niece and nephews and get to know them a little better.  It was a wonderful visit and I can't wait to go back, hopefully to show our own kids where they were born.  Thanks, Mark and Megan, for a fantastic weekend!

After a beautiful drive in the mountains, we stopped for a picnic lunch.

Me and my "little" bro... loved the time we had to catch up and chat!!

Happy Birthday, Audrey!

I just can't believe that my baby is 3!!  She was such a cutie celebrating her birthday.  We had a family party and a Minnie Mouse party with her playgroup friends.  She was so happy during both of them!

She loves pink, marshmallows and merry-go-rounds so I thought this was the perfect cake for her at her family party.  She was very happy with it even though she thought the elephants were snowmen!

We love Minnie Mouse at our house!

I made these ears for all of the kids at the party- it was so cute seeing them play together with them on!

1st Tooth!!

We had a visit from the tooth fairy last Sunday when Owen pulled out his first tooth.  I remember when that tooth poked through about 6 years ago and all of the fussiness it caused him- this time he was so happy, despite all of the blood running down his chin.  I cheered when that tooth poked through 6 years ago- this time I was feeling quite nostalgic!

Hair

Elaina has been very into putting pigtails and barrettes on her stuffed animals and dolls, and now she has moved on to doing her own hair.  Here's what she came downstairs with (very proudly) yesterday morning:

Colorful and out of her eyes- the 2 most important things for her!

Not to be left out....

Audrey started something new this week too!  She learned how to pedal her bike all by herself.  I have to say that although I was very proud of her and loved seeing her so excited about it, I was also sad to watch her pedal away from me.  None of my kids need me to push them around anymore!  It has honestly been a bit of an emotional week for me as we made the final decision not to grow our family anymore, sending 2 kids off to school (with one being gone all day) and then Audrey reminding me again about what a big girl she is becoming.  It's a strange feeling and I'm having a hard time with it!

Preschooler

Elaina's night before the big day treat!

So happy to be starting school!

We couldn't get in the van fast enough for Elaina.  She is so ready!!

1st Grader

His night before the big day special dessert.

He was so happy to be getting back to school!

It was cold and rainy that first day, but he couldn't wait to be picked up by the bus for the first time.  I was excited for him, but I couldn't hold back the tears after he left.  He's gone a long time each day!

Havin' Fun Doin' a Dance

This video captures Elaina's personality to a tee!  Notice Audrey trying to get out of the circle of water in the background....

One Last Hurrah

I can hardly believe that summer is over.  I am so thankful for having such a fun, safe and healthy summer!  Here are some pictures from our last days in the pools for this year:

This guy really got the hang of swimming this year and likes to spend more time under the water than above.

Elaina and Audrey enjoy the big pool, but are still much happier in our back yard.