BliZZard of the Month

My brother Jacob and I decided it was high time to bring back the Blizzard of the Month. Mostly because the blizzard is called Midnight Truffle. It just sounds good so we had to try it.

Midnight Truffle Blizzard

"Rich truffles and dark fudge blended with creamy vanilla soft serve. Give your Valentine a box of chocolates in a Blizzard."

(This is J's picture from the road - taken from MO.)

Jacob said: "As I approached this epic blizzard I had mixed ideas if I would like it or not. Although chocolate is not my favorite I found it hard to put it down just like a good book."

I say: "Finally. A blizzard for Chocolate Lovers. You must go try this delectable treat. The only thing that could possibly make it better is even more chunks of chocolatey goodness. But really no complaints. It is fabulous."

We're Tough

We all have colds, again! Ugh, this must be the year for us. Today was quite the day...

Jack has pink eye. When we went in to get him out of his crib this morning, we of course had to deal with the pink eye gunk that accumulates overnight. It took two of us to entertain him and clean him up. After that it was diaper changing time. Somehow Jack's diaper came off and he had poop all inside his little sleep sack. His hair brush was in there too - that one's a mystery, not sure how it got there. Anyways, his day started off a little rough but he has been a real trooper with being sick and all.

Mark and I also got a bunch of shots today...so I think we are pretty tough too! I got 4 shots today and Mark got 3. AND, we bought our tickets to Ethiopia. We leave March 25th, assuming the rest of our paperwork goes the way it should.

Hope all our colds go away soon!

Jack relaxing and trying to be happy, despite not feeling well.

Who needs toys?

Who needs toys when you can play with cans and Mom's cake decorating sprinkles?

Princess Party

A little shout out to one of my favorite 6 year olds, Lucy. She recently had a very lovely Princess Party to celebrate her birthday. I got to work on her cake, which was modeled after the picture below.

Lucy, wishing you a wonderful next year.

Free Day

This week there was a free day at the zoo. We went to one last October but I figured we would go again. There is still a lot Jack doesn't care about - but, he was able to enjoy and appreciate more this time than he did last time.

Jack and I headed down with our friends Treena and her son Justus. Our boys are just a couple weeks apart and so it is really fun to watch them together. The weather was sunny and in the 40's. Not only did the boys pay more attention to the main attractions: the animals. They also paid more attention to each other. The next couple of pictures are when we took the boys to the aquarium to check out the fish.

Valentines Day

We had a lovely Valentine's Day. Jack got lots of Valentine's in the mail - pretty popular boy!

We gave Jack some books as a Valentine's present from Mom and Dad. Kind of a present for us too, we read him the same books over and over, we thought some added variety would be good. He loved the ribbon the best around the books.

After J. went to bed, Mark and I had a nice dinner via the dressed up card table (table cloth, candles, etc.) in the living room. Since we didn't go out (and really why would we want to? It is Presents Day weekend in a resort town - there are tourists galore!) we ate at Restaurant a La Hubbard. We enjoyed a tasty Calzone from Giampietro's (yeah, I didn't have to cook), salad, and wine. Ooooh and Hot Fudge Pudding cake for dessert, one of Mark's favorites.

Thankful for my 2 boys this valentine's and my little girl too!

Oh and a walk down memory lane to Mark and I's first Valentine's Day together - Feb 2005. We were dating, so I went over to his house and made dinner for the 2 of us. We ate chicken kiev and he gave me The Notebook on DVD! So sweet.

I asked him last night if we could watch it together and he laughed! Instead we watched an episode of Criminal Minds. Ah, I love you my valentine, hope to celebrate many more "heart days" with you!!

Our daughter

SHE passed court and is officially our daughter. Her given name is Jitu, which means "green land," "moisture." We will be calling her Hannah Jitu Hubbard. We are so excited that we are one step closer to bringing her home. Here are a few pictures of our precious little girl.

Our referral picture, which we got on 10/26 but was taken in August when she was 5 weeks.


Three and a half months




5 months old in December 09


Hannah at 6 months!








We love you Hannah and will keep praying for you and asking God to keep you safe and love you well each day. We can't wait for you to be with us.

Tomorrow

Today I am nervous and anxious. I am hoping for good news regarding Hannah's court case. I want it to be official, I want to be her mother and for her to be my daughter. I want to start really planning for her homecoming. I am hoping and praying for everything to come together.
Please say a prayer for Hannah tonight as you are going to bed...they are 10 hours ahead of us.
Can't wait to share good news and her precious picture tomorrow (hopefully)!

Patty cake

Me and the boy playing patty cake.

Happy 9 Months

Dear Little Man,

You are so cute and we love you so much. Your smiles still melt my heart. I can hardly wait to get you out of your crib each morning - your excitement and squeals of delight are adorable. You are almost always Happy. You have the cutest little laugh which I hear often through out the day. At this stage you are very inquisitive, you want to touch EVERYTHING!!! Everything is something you want to see, touch, put in your mouth, etc. Which is probably why you are so mobile, you finally want to get to things bad enough that you will go to them. Your mode of transportation is somewhere between a crawl and an inchworm style motion. You often get up on all fours but mainly just try to stand from this position - which you can only do if you are holding on to something.

But you are pulling yourself up. You love to move and walk. The walker is helping you move across the room in addition to walking along the couch. Also your daddy likes to take you for laps around the kitchen holding his hands. "Gimme 5" - you learned how to do this AND how to wave "hi."

(Trying to give Daddy "Five" through the tent)

The dogs are becoming much more interesting as little Macy loves to sit below your highchair when you are eating in hopes of getting some delicious morsel you might accidentally drop. You are a GREAT eater. Earlier this month you had a cold and this is about the only time I have seen you not be enthusiastic about eating. You love every food we give you - even the carrots and the peas. Toast is probably one of your favorite foods and you eat it all by yourself. You seem to be pretty adaptable and did well when we took you to Denver this month for a weekend of fun with a bunch of middle schoolers. Also you have discovered Elmo. A couple of times a week I turn on "Elmo's World" for you during Sesame Street and it is so cute to hear you giggle when you see him. I can't wait to see how you continue to amaze us during this next month. You are a good son - Love, love, love you Jack!