Thanksgiving Day

After Thanksgiving dinner we had a back-scratching line going!!

More scratching!  Too fun!

The girls reading to Grandpa.

Both girls with Grandpa and Grandma.

Grandma had the great idea to go find leaves to decorate the Thanksgiving table.

It turned into lots of fun in the leaf piles!

A very special Thanksgiving with Grandpa Stevo and Grandma Judy.  We enjoyed delicious food, laughs, and some card games, too. 

Happy 5th Birthday, Danielle Hope!



The four of us.



Danielle with Grammie & Grandpa. 



Love you, Uncle Tim!



The girls posing in front of the birthday sign.

Thank you Hubbard family for celebrating with us.



Since Jeff had the camera I took advantage of being in a few photos!  Samantha and I were cracking up!



Awww.  Sweet photo.

The birthday "cake".  It was easy and turned out cute.  Danielle liked it and that's all that mattered.

Me and my girls after Danielle's final birthday party!

What a wonderful week we had celebrating Danielle turning 5.  Jeff teased her all week long about only turning 4.  She was so excited to finally be 5 years old.  The last 5 years have flown by so quickly, but at least I can say I've done my best to enjoy and be thankful for each and every day.  I think I've mentioned this a time or two before but I'll say it again...I am so blessed.

Early Christmas Celebration

 Stockings!

A unicorn pillow pet.  So soft and sweet!

 And a puppy for Samantha.  Too perfect.  Thanks Auntie Kayleen!

 Grandma and Samantha

 The girls got these fun magnetic dress up dolls and they turned the space under the table into a Ball.

These were fun gifts from Auntie Jen and Uncle Mark (in the background!).

 Time for the gingerbread house.

 Complete with a pool and a lawn!  Definitely a tradition with lots of laughter and fun.

 A blue gingerbread man to snack on.

Thanks to a very sweet Grandma (and Dennis, too!) we had an early Christmas celebration this week.  Grandma contacted an Elf named Dixie to see if Santa could put together the girls' presents while they were here (we won't be here for the real Christmas).  We had a great time doing Christmas brunch, presents, a gingerbread house, and then lots of time to just play together. 

We are very, very blessed.

Celebrating Danielle...almost 5 years old! And lots of fun with family.

 Uncle John helps Samantha make a basket!

 Bouncing Girl!!

 Jeff & John had some fun with the big boxing gloves.

Heading up the rock wall.

 

She made it to the top!  She had quite the cheering section down below.

 Samantha got brave, too!

I love Auntie Kay!

 Blowing out the candles.

Samantha with Uncle John

 

 Grandma, Dennis & Girls

 Danielle and Uncle John

Such a priceless picture.  The girls love Uncle John and he seems to think they are fun, too!

We thought it would be fun to take the girls to this huge warehouse full of bounce houses.  They had a great time bouncing with Daddy, Uncle John, and Auntie Kay.  Then we had cake and presents for Danielle's birthday celebration.  I loved getting these great pictures of the girls with family who love them so much.

Quite a few more posts to come soon....

Danielle reading...

For quite awhile Danielle has been putting words together and wanting to read.  She started writing (phonetically - not accurately) a long time ago and has enjoyed sending notes, writing in her "journal", etc.  Well, this week she decided to really start reading. 

The other day I decided to do a little Circle Time (sing songs, read Bible story, a little prayer, etc.) with the girls before the day got away from us.  Well, Danielle got out a blanket for each of us to sit on and she chose books that she thought each of us would like.  For herself she got out her Hooked On Phonics box and she started doing the last lesson of the book (we were only on the 1st lesson last time we looked at it).  I was finishing up doing something in the kitchen when I hear her reading words out loud like "flannel", "rabbit", etc.  Yikes!  I was amazed.  I've never pushed Danielle to read but I definitely think it's my job to challenge her when she seems ready....so I pulled out this book called "Good Job, Dennis!".  It's the most difficult book in her Grade 1 - Level 1 Phonics box.  She read the entire book nearly perfectly!  She got stuck on a few sight words because we had never practiced them before but otherwise she sounded out all the words so well. 

I'm so proud of her and SO excited that she seems to love reading already.  I thought nothing could be more special than my girls' first words, steps, etc, but listening to her read like that was JUST as amazing. 

Now the only problem is that EVERYWHERE we go Danielle says, "Mom, guess what I just read!".  It's very neat but the difficulty is that she really wants me to guess!  I'm trying to drive, shop, etc, and she's asking me to guess all the words she is seeing all over her world. 

I am truly excited about all that her 5th year is going to hold.  (She'll be 5 in 2 weeks!!!!!!!)

Thankful

I found this fun Thanksgiving project in a really cool book called "How to Raise An American".  I wanted to read my girls the story behind Thanksgiving and was excited to find this, too!  So, we cut out the girls' handprints and got to talking about all we are thankful for.  We will be adding to this as we think of things leading up to Thanksgiving.  Danielle has since written that she is thankful for pre-school, her teachers, and that Samantha is thankful for "puppies!". 

We are looking forward to visiting family in Southern California for Thanksgiving this year.  Time to start thinking and packing for that trip!

Happy Halloween!

It's fun to have the girls' both old enough to enjoy "big kid" things....like trick-or-treating!  Samantha was very brave running up to houses and saying "trick or treat!" and then "Thank you!". 

Danielle was dressed as Ariel and Samantha was Cinderella.  (Each of their favorite princesses.)  Of course they had long sleeved shirts on and sweats or tights under their dresses since it's always chilly on Halloween in Scott Valley.

I think I have kind of weird kids, though....it's been 2 whole days and they haven't asked to eat any of their candy!  Weird, I know.  Samantha's has been dug into by mom & dad but Danielle was given the advice to hide her candy under her bed so mom and dad don't eat it all.  So, hopefully we don't forget that her bag is under there and in a few months find mice or ants have taken it over!