Christmas at Our House

Well, I have to say, we do up Christmas pretty hard! It is everyone's favorite holiday in our family, and since we live so close to the Christmas house, we have a great excuse to go all out! We decorated really early this year, so we got to enjoy the season for two whole months! We have been trying to get Jim's parents for quite a few years now, and since they both retired this past year, they finally came down! We were SO EXCITED to have them celebrate the season with us and see how we celebrate Hurtubise style! They spent two wonderful weeks with us, the girls got totally spoiled with love and we all had a blast! We had our annual Christmas party, which was HUGE success. Santa himself came to visit, bringing gifts for every child that was at the party, which was AMAZING! It was so incredible to see how much each child lit up when their name was called and they received their gift from Santa! There are some pics of the girls working on some Christmas gifts and crafts we did that turned out pretty cute! This year, for Christmas Eve church, Bryden picked out the outfits for her and Emmy, and she picked matching dresses. There are some super cute pics of them in front of the tree. Bryden, as usual, wanted to put on the modeling moves, and Emmy, with an ever watchful eye, wanted to do her own modeling show too! So cute! We traditionally have breakfast for dinner on Christmas Eve, so there are some cute pics of that too! I don't have any good pics of Christmas day, my settings were off on my camera and they are all blurry, a little disappointed, but I guess I can't get them all right! We do have some good video though, maybe I will get that up one day soon! Enjoy the pics!

Kaya Turns One!

Yay! It is Kaya's birthday and he turned One! We went to the Ozkan house for his birthday party and had a great time, especially with the balloon maker that was there! Fun times! The best was watching Kaya eat his cake! He doesn't like messy hands and he doesn't feed himself...I know, typical body, so dependent!...but Emmy was right there to help show him how to make a proper mess! I don't have pics of that, I will have to get them from Chandra, I was on video camera duties at that point!

Big Girl Bryden

I was getting ready for a run one day and Bryden decided she wanted to come too. So, she got her running shoes on, her iPod and head phones all set, and we were off. We made it to the stop sign and back, about a mile of walk / jogging, not too bad! There are also a couple pics with Bryden giving Emmy a pedicure with her pedi kit she got for her birthday! Then, the last pic is of Bryden, who is growing up so fast, and her own dinner that she put together all by herself! So proud of how responsible she is getting!

Emmy's Hospital Visit

Well, Emmy woke up one morning with a bit of a cough, and late that night, after going to bed, she woke up coughing so hard and so hoarsely and couldn't breathe very well. We decided to take her to the hospital because she had such a hard time breathing. She was a trooper and by the time we got to the hospital, she was already sounding and breathing better since I put the windoes down on the way and I think the cool air helped. But, none-the-less, I had her checked out anyway, and she had croupe. Here are a couple of her pics, she looks exhausted and crosseyed with no glasses :o)

Here are some sweet pics of Emmy snoozing! I love how peaceful kids are when they sleep! I love the ones with Bryden and Emmy holding hands across my chest, and the one where Emmy fell asleep reading her book at naptime! So sweet!

November Chills

Well, we didn' do a whole lot in November this year. Swim team practice starts at St. Catherine's and it throws off our schedule a little bit and it takes some readjusting! We did start decorating for Christmas the first weekend in Novemeber this year, so that was fun. We are also in the process of giving our kitchen a face lift, and Emmy helped me paint after we FINALLY picked a color (which took about a dozen different samples). Emmy was very proud of her efforts!

Happy Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween! The girls were very excited for Halloween this year! Bryden was a Ninja Dragon (???) and Emmy was Minnie Mouse! This is the first year that Emmy understood what was going on and she walked around for days saying "tri-treat" and "candy"! She doesn't even like candy, except lollipops, but she really enjoyed going door to door and giving her line. The Moore's came over too, and both girls were excited to go trick or treating with their little buddies! The Ozkan family and Nanne and Grampa joined us as well. Although it started raining as soon as we went outside to trick or treat it started to rain, then pour, we still had a good, albeit short, evening dressed up and out in the 'hood! Check out Emmy's organization of her candy. She sat on the floor for a good 20 minutes and pulled out all of her candy, and she lined up all her Kit-Kat's like a chain...is she a Montessori girl or what! Enjoy the pics!