Happy New Year!

We had our official new year's eve celebration with the kids at 9:08. Dad had found some sparklers, so they each let one go on the front porch. They also got to stay up an hour late watching a movie and have popcorn with real butter. I know, we're party animals!

I am a robot

As I was packing up the christmas decorations today, I found a present we forgot to give Sammy. His sister loves to play dress up, so after halloween, I got him some costumes to play with. This was the coolest one, so I saved it for Christmas. We can see how well that plan worked! It is the coolest costume, though. If you push the button on the bottom, it says "take me to your leader." He really enjoyed it, then moved on to his loader - robot construction!

Day at the park with Dad

I always tease Maryann for having so many pictures of her kids...now that I have my cool camera, it looks as if I am going to have to eat those words... We all went to the dentist today, then to the park. It is a special treat to have Dad at the park. It just doesn't seem worth it to go on the weekends when you live on 150 acres. It's good to have him there. He really pushes Pearl, which is why she looks so pained in so many of the pictures. Fun times!

Thank you, auntie Maryann!!!

So, the only Auntie and Uncle that Pearl and Sam are not seeing this year are Maryann and Brian, who live too far away and have too many babies to brave the airport system in iffy winter weather. There are a lot of things I love about Maryann, I think mostly because we have such different talents. Can you believe the tutu she made for Pearl? She is a very resourceful student! And, the one thing I complain about the hulberts is their UTTER lack of time sense, but I think the kids appreciated the presents much more than they would have amidst the craziness of Christmas day. She also knitted Sam a super hero cape, which he excitedly ran around with shouting "I a superhero, I can save the day" for about a minute, until he decided that the box was an even better toy. When he couldn't fit inside it, he tried to put it on his head...we're definetly not ready to leave home yet. Pearl really enjoyed her photo shoot, especially the part where I asked her to dance on the table. What a ballerina! I have to mention why she's laughing so hard...she likes to make up her own jokes, that only she and her friend Makayla think are funny. The joke of today was...what do monkeys eat when they don't like bananas anymore? Ostriches! I'm still not sure where her sense of humor comes from...

ok, really last one for today...

This is Sam looking over his shoulder at his dad riding a power scooter behind him...I think Daddy's looked a lot cooler!

ok, one more fav...

We got Sam a huge wooden crane from Pottery Barn Kids for christmas...this was the look on his face when he saw what it was..."It's a crane!" Too cute!

Pearl and Lizzie Scoot

This is Pearl pontificating on the Safety rules - like, always wear a helmet, come in before it gets dark...she is definetly one cautious kid!

Lizzie loved Sam's new scooter...it's a good thing Sam took a nap so she would get a turn. I did bring the little tricycle so Lizzie would have something to ride too, but all the kids wanted the scooter. Lizzie was actually pretty good at it...I should have made Mara buy one for her this christmas too. I have a feeling there will be a lot more playdates at my house...she can at least ride Pearl's while Pearl is in school! I was very proud of my cautious daughter -she actually started to glide by the end of the day (never mind that Lizzie and even Jack were gliding within 15 minutes...different skills...)

Moments I would have missed...

So, I got a Nikon D60 for Christmas from Jared basically because I am a spoiled brat and was jealous of Maryann and Sara's pictures. I still have to learn Photoshop (in a big way) but I was so excited about my first pictures - especially of Sam. Pearl holds a pose, but Sammy moves too fast. This was one of my favorites - it definetly would have been blurry before, if I had even caught it! Sam was sad because he was playing light sabers with Dad and he was hitting too hard and got in trouble. I think he was mostly tired...but it was still too cute! More to follow, for sure!

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Yes, I a good boy! Bring me a scooter!

Santa claus 2

I could hear Pearl talking to Santa, even from the back of the room. She appeared to be trying to convince him that she was a good girl...nice to her brother, cleaning her room...she listened very intently to his message to her...

gingerbread

Ok so no posts in a while...I know. I thought I should get our pre-christmas parties up before christmas comes, though...

One fun thing we did this year was have Pearl's friend Tegan and her family over to make gingerbread houses. They were really yummy, but they fell apart (despite all the engineering expertise we had available!) It was fun anyway, the kids just cared about eating cookies and sampling the candy. We did end up busting out the emergency graham crackers, and were able to make small houses for the kids. Fun times!

Merry Christmas

Yes, I was in charge of Sam and Evan when they both decided to eat a christmas tree light ( yes, eat, as in crunch crunch. I did fish the wire and the base out...). Sam has since decided it was "yucky" (I think he was following the "in" crowd...oh dear, wait until he's a teenager...) and luckily there have been no signs of a perforated intestine.

We go to LA

Sam and I went with Grandma, Auntie Annie, Jack, Auntie Mara, and Lizzie to LA to visit great grandpa Rikalo. The highlight, of course, was the BEACH!!! It was great, we relaxed and the kids had a good time together. It was nice to see Grandpa, too:)

Train Museum

Well, it was time for another Hulbert Family adventure. We decided to take the kids on light rail to the train museum downtown. The train was really exciting at first...

Once we got there, we got to go in some old trains and see lots of cool informational exhibits. The kids loved the toy train exhibit upstairs - with a complete Thomas train table that Sam cried when he had to leave!

They also loved the model trains - you could push the button and make one of the trains go!

By the time we were waiting for the train to go home, we were a bit tired. Pearl did her job of telling us to get off at Hazel to eat dinner at spaghetti factory - she was very proud of her reading aiblities. Sam fell asleep at 6:30 in the car on the way home, and went straight to bed. Fabulous treat for mom!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving with the Weir cousins, as usual. We ate the whole meal in a record 16 minutes, which was quite amazing. My mom always cooks the best food. Pearl said it was the best thanksgiving ever!

Thanksgiving Vacation Hike

Thanksgiving vacation - what do you do with your kids for a whole week? Tami and I decided it was high time to get some use out of the boots and take the kids for a hike down to the creek (which, unfortunately, this time of year is dry). It was great fun. We got to hike, eat lunch on a picnic blanket, and find all sorts of interesting things in the meadow. I don't often appreciate having 150 acres, I guess we should use it more. It's always more fun with friends, though! All I can say is, thank goodness for jogging strollers and backpacks!

Laundry Nirvana

Ok, so not totally... I have no laundry room. I'm lucky to fit a stackable washing machine in my bathroom. Which makes my bed the folding laundry center. Only, the problem is, it's hard to sleep on a bed that's covered in a very large pile of clean laundry. (often 5 loads or more...at least it's clean!!!). So, usually, I have a large pile of clean laundry on the floor next to my bed. Jared was a little tired of it, and he knows better than to criticize me...so he built me a laundry center. In the corner of our room, there used to be a bookshelf that harbored all sorts of interesting things. We cleaned it out, moved it to the office, and Jared built me a shelf for folding laundry with two large baskets underneath to hold the clean laundry that I haven't gotten around to folding. Now, we can use the bed for it's intended puropse! The other bonus is that I can fold laundry early in the morning (my best work time) while Jared is still sleeping:)

Thanksgiving play

So, Sam and Pearl have been playing together very well lately, which is good because thanksgiving vacation has started and they are going to be seeing a lot of each other. I'm a sucker for the Little People, so this year we bought the Mayflower and Thanksgiving Celebration sets. When it came, they played together with it for like an hour. This is how it went - Pearl make all the players do the right thing like sail across the sea and meet the Native Americans for Thanksgiving dinner. Sam said "ARRGH" and made the captain walk the plank and say "ow" when he hit the floor. Don't worry, Pearl has since corrected him (SAM, IT IS NOT A PIRATE SHIP!!!)

The next day, this is how I found them. Pearl was putting on a thanksgiving play, and Sam was obligingly sitting in the car seat she had dragged in for him as the audience. Pretty cute. He must have been tired (Mr. I don't think I really need a nap anymore) because he sat for the whole thing...much to Pearl's happiness, and confidence as a playwright!

Breakfast with Daddy

Yes, that would be whipped cream and sprinkles on his cereal. Dad was in charge. Enough said.