Celebrating 5 Years

Better late than never.  We went up to Wisconsin in October to celebrate our 5-year anniversary.  We left the kids in Canyon and spent a week relaxing and refreshing.  We started in Minneapolis with a visit to our good friends who just relocated to the Twin Cities from Fort Worth.  We stayed at their cabin for a few days before driving over to Appleton, Wisconsin at the end of the week to celebrate Nate and Kendra’s wedding.  We had lots of good food, good beer, and of course all sorts of local cheeses from Wisconsin. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Jennifer worked on her knitting early and often

We took a walk in a great park near our friends’ house

The fall color was magnificent. Check out this tree!

Here was our view from their beautiful cabin.  All we did was sleep, eat, read, knit, watch movies, and canoe around the lake. So relaxing! (We should be receiving our AARP cards soon )

This was my favorite restaurant.  An old fashioned drive in with hand made root beer.  I stopped in there almost daily for refills.

The food was outstanding!

One day we went over to a state park to do some hiking and take in the fall color.  Here we are recreating our honeymoon pose.

Jennifer saw a bald eagle fly over while we were at this scenic overlook.

We had some great German food as several of the local towns were celebrating Oktoberfest.

On the way to Appleton, we visited the Leinenkugel Brewery in Chippewa Falls.  The samples hit the spot (even if it was only 10:30am).

This probably summarizes our trip the best.  We saw hundreds of big red barns.

We were so busy at the wedding that we didn’t even snap any pictures, but we had a great time catching up with old friends and celebrating Nate and Kendra’s big day.

Merry Christmas from Canyon and Angel Fire!

We had a great visit in Canyon with everyone.  We drove up to Canyon on Christmas Eve and arrived just in time for dinner with turkey, dressing, and all the fixings.  Before dinner, we did a balloon release for Anne. She loved celebrating Christmas. We wrote her messages on each of them and sent them her way.

Hannah wasn’t too crazy about letting her balloon go, but luckily Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Jon Michael thought ahead and got her two backup balloons, which she eventually also released.

After dinner, we exchanged gifts.  The big hit for Hannah was her Tangled coloring book (can’t you tell that’s what she has on her head?)

Hannah also got some new snow gear which she was able to put to good use with some cross-country sledding on Christmas morning.

Here is a video of all of us getting in on the sledding fun:

(note: if you are trying to view by email or on your phone, the video may not work and you will have to access our blog from your computer)

Sledding in Canyon

 

The next day we drove up to Angel Fire, NM to ski.  Hannah is our newest little ski bunny.  She skied two days for about an hour each day.  The first day she skied with me in between my legs.  The second day she took a lesson from a ski instructor named Johnny.  When we told her that Mr. Johnny was going to teach her to ski, she said “No, I want Prince Phillip,” her favorite prince from Sleeping Beauty.  To be on the safe side, Johnny agreed to be Prince Phillip for the day.  Now, when Hannah is telling us the Sleeping Beauty story, she says, “…then one day along came Prince Phillip and he taught her to ski then he kissed her and she woke up….”  He obviously made a pretty big impact on her.

Getting fitted for her boots.

The Hubley ski bunnies

Ready to go

Skiing with Dad

Here are a couple videos of her skiing:

 

On the mountain (with no kids )

After skiing, Hannah also tried her hand at downhill sledding.  She had a blast doing that too!  Here are a couple of videos:

 

Christmas in Southeast Texas

We went down to visit Nan and Pop the week before Christmas.  Hannah LOVES playing with her cousins.  We all had a great time even though it was a short visit.  We can’t wait to get back down there soon.

Hannah definitely has the “presents thing” figured out.

Pop is always ready to help open gifts and put new toys together.

All the cousins in the kitchen. Hannah and Betsy had to be dressed alike.

Nathan liked riding in the buggy with Nan.

The kids piled up on the floor to watch a movie.

Saturday evening, Pop cooked us a big steak dinner and then we headed over to Devers the next morning to visit with Mimi and O.  We had a good visit with Granny, Donna, Cheryl, and Tara.  Cousin Josh and Beth Anne even made the drive to play dominoes.  Again, it was a quick visit but we had a great time.

Here is O with the youngest grandbabies.

Hannah busy at work opening gifts.  Her technique and pace reminded us of Anne.

A couple of times, she didn’t quite finish the job…

All of us in our new gear.

Here is O and Nathan.

On Monday morning, we rode out to Aunt Mae’s farm to check on the cows.  We gave Broady a test run as a cow dog.  I’d give him a grade of C+.  He definitely felt at home around the cows, just didn’t know what to do.  He kept jumping out of the truck on the way home and running back towards the herd.  After the visit to the farm, we loaded up the Toyota and headed back to Fort Worth. We looked like Santa’s sleigh loaded down!

Meet the Norberts

 

Scott and I have been blessed to be a part of a wonderful small group in our church. We meet weekly to hang out, study God’s word and eat some really great desserts!

Over the past six months, our grouped has also started ministering to a refugee family here in Ft. Worth. They attend the Swahili service at our church and need help adjusting to life here in the US (that’s actually an understatement). They were in a refugee camp in the Congo for 10 years. I’ve read a little about life in a refugee camp and I can’t comprehend just how bad it probably was for them. Their mother died (we think during childbirth) while in the camp, leaving Norbert (the dad) with five children.

When our church first heard about this family they went to their apartment and literally found roaches everywhere. One volunteer said they were like a blanket on the floor, in the beds, and all in the food. The kids rooms smelled like urine and there was no food in the cabinets. A big group went in and literally fumigated their apartment and cleaned it as best they could. Our church furnished them with furniture, bedspreads, pots and pans, cleaning supplies, food, etc. But this was only the beginning. What this family needed was someone to come along beside them and show them HOW to clean, HOW to grocery shop, HOW to cook, HOW to use a washer and dryer…basically, HOW to live. The easy thing to do (for me anyway) is just throw money at them and walk away. Give them things and walk away feeling good about myself. The harder thing to do is give them our time, but that’s what this family so desperately needs.

So, we go over and hang out with them once a week. We help with homework, filling out forms, cooking dinner and anything else that might come up. We had a little Christmas celebration with them and this really seemed to take our relationship to a new level. We had them over to one of the couples homes and ate dinner, opened gifts, and talked a lot about the differences in our cultures.

Here is Amos really enjoying his meal.

Mandolini really wanted some Hello Kitty shoes. She was so excited to open them, she didn’t even care that they didn’t fit. I had to convince her to let me take them back to the store to get a different size.

I don’t care what culture you come from, a little girl just wants a pretty dress. This made her so happy.

 

If you would like to read more about refugees, you should go on over to Heather’s blog and read this.

Merry Christmas Eve from Fort Worth!

Our family celebrated Christmas this morning before we departed for Canyon.  Our sweet neighbor Ms. Wanda joined us.  We celebrated by exchanging gifts, eating birthday coffee cake, and then Hannah led us in singing “Happy Birthday Jesus!”  From our home to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

 

Nathan Walks!

This just in, Nathan can walk.  Reported by Dad!

December Happenings

We’ve been having lots of fun this month getting ready for Baby Jesus’ birthday. Scott says he feels a little like Ricky Bobby because we talk about Baby Jesus so much. We pray to Baby Jesus, we sing to Baby Jesus, we read about Baby Jesus, we play with our nativity Baby Jesus. Hannah thinks all the lights on people’s houses and all Christmas trees and all the presents we wrap are for Baby Jesus. She is so excited about it all.

We put our tree up right after Thanksgiving and have had Christmas music playing pretty much everyday. Dance parties are an everyday occurrence around here.

 

We hung our stockings…

and wrapped our presents.

A sweet friend gave me this candle to light everyday to help us count down to Christmas Day. Hannah has really enjoyed this.

She loves picking out her verse and fun activity from our Advent calendar each day.

We took the kids to a Christmas pageant at a local church one night and she really loved that. When Mary and Joseph were walking up the aisle it was really quiet and Hannah yelled, “Hey, there you are!” It was pretty funny. She watched the whole thing very intently.

Especially when a ballerina and angels made their appearance (she’s so into dancing).

She wanted her picture taken with the angels after the show.

They had a camel and donkey outside.

We made some Candy Cane Kiss Cookies for our neighbors (Hannah ate a few before we delivered them.)

She also enjoyed making S’mores by the fire (and eating them).

Little Brother just liked watching the fire.

He also really likes bath time (It’s not really related to Christmas, but sooo cute)!

Hannah likes showing Baby Jesus and all the other nativity people the Christmas tree and informing them it is for Jesus’ birthday. She holds them up to it and says, “Look! Look! It’s Jesus’ birthday! Look!”

She also likes to put them in the tree…

Scott and I got away for a date night downtown….so nice.

And last night we drove around to look at Christmas lights. This is a house in town that goes all out with lights. They even had Frosty and Rudolph!

I told Scott this is the first time I’ve been this excited about Christmas in a long time. In order to prepare our home and our hearts for Advent, we’ve had to plan and be more deliberate with our time. In doing so, I have a peaceful anticipation that has been missing in years past. Also, it’s just so fun to see Christmas through Hannah’s eyes. Her excitement, her innocence, and her explanation of what and why we are celebrating is refreshing in the midst of all the commercialism that surrounds this season.

As Hannah says, “We’re waiting on you Baby Jesus.”