MERRY CHRISTMAS from our family to yours!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Last year, our family found a new tradition!
We went into the city to see the windows and a light show
that was put on with organ music in an old department store.
After the light show, we wanted to check out all 3 floors of
this department store. While doing so, we found the "Dicken's Village"
from "A Christmas Carol". It is wonderful! You walk through
the village and see the wonderful, classic come to life! So, in order to keep
it a tradition, we went back to the city, today, to see it again! This year, we had
Samuel with us, in person, as opposed to being, "Bump"! ;0)

Gabriel LOVES "Handy Manny"!
Adriana with her new "Mia" doll!

More Handy Manny!!!

Samuel with paper...his favorite toy! ;0)

A new bath toy...much needed!
Being #4, bath toys aren't in the
best shape anymore! However,
something tells me this "boat"
doesn't belong on Sam's head!

Nathaniel and his Wii games!
Looks like Daddy has more bonding
time coming up with Nathaniel!

Seeing through the eyes of children!

Psssst....it's my 1st Christmas and I'm so excited!!!

Samuel was so pleasant for a random photo op!
The only problem was that every time I had
him right where I wanted him and how I wanted
him...he would crawl right to me just as I was
about to take the picture!!!

Nathaniel's Big Debut...Feels vaguely familiar!

Two years ago, Adriana was asked to be "Mary"
in her nursery school's Christmas play!

This year, Nathaniel was asked to play, "Joseph"!
He was so excited and took it very seriously!
He literally directed the other kids where to
stand, while up on stage!



I had to throw a picture of Sam in...it is, after all,
his first Christmas!!!!

More NYC fun!

Little Sam, all tuckered out!


A view from the elevator going inside 30 Rock
Can you say, "C-R-O-W-D-E-D!?!?!"

Another view by the Rockefeller Tree

Grandpa was so nice to fight the crowd with
the stroller!

Ah, what a loving picture of Gabriel with Grandma!
Gabriel was giving Grandma his knife, because
that's just what Aaron and I usually have them do.
Grandma didn't know what he was doing at first, and
I happened to catch everything at just the right moment!

We're taking over New York City...and a million other people!

Rockefeller Center...
We couldn't even get close enough to the ice rink...there were so many people!


Samuel is so happy to be in the "Big Apple"!

Our first destination was the American Girl Place. Once
we finally arrived and walked through a sea of people...
we found out that in order to even enter the store, you had
to stand in line!!!!! Go figure! Note to everyone...never
go to NYC the last two weekends before Christmas!
Here's a picture of Grandma Gail and Adriana in the
American Girl Store! Adriana asked for Mia, the girl
of the year for Christmas. When we were at the store,
she had no idea that she was getting the doll! She moped
around the entire place saying, "I wish I could get a doll....
but, I guess I can't!" So the drama!


The American Girl store was so neat! There
were set ups of each character's homes all around.
This was Molly's house.


Grandpa "Bud", Aaron, and the boys...
enjoying the American Girl Place!!! What
patience they had!

Driving around looking at Christmas lights finds....

Every night we seem to go out venturing off
to new territory looking at Christmas lights.
There are so many neat set ups, yet, this one
won our hearts! What a sight to see!

A trip to the mall finds.........

Our dear friend, Laura, working at
Bath and Body Works and Santa!

Go figure...Nathaniel and Gabriel would not go
near Santa! They would only give him "five"!
Weren't we just at Disney World with a million
people in costumes? You never know!
Samuel, on the other hand, sat really well on
Santa's lap! Adriana was at school!
The kids fascinate me because they love
pretending about Santa, yet still always talk
about the real reason for Christmas....Jesus!!!

Christmas Pageant...."Christmas Present"

Samuel with "Auntie Donna"!
Gabriel...our little "Comic Relief"!!
He was supposed to be a present in the program and didn't show up until the very end!

Our little Performers!









Nathaniel and his buddy, Jason.

Thanksgiving 2008

It's hard to believe that it is already Christmastime! Thanksgiving feels like it came and went. However, it was an eventful, fun holiday! It was filled with family, food, and freezing fun! For those of you who do not want to watch a really long slide show...I'll let you know what we did. Dad and Mom H. came out, along with Heidi and Mark and their boys. It was a full house! Not many know such things, but Aaron and I aren't big fans of Turkey. We make it anytime we have people over for Holidays. Also, even though Aaron doesn't like Turkey, he does a beautiful job brining and cooking one!

After a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and letting the kids just "hang out", we relaxed the rest of the weekend. On Friday, Heidi and I woke up early and went shopping. That was crazy in its own way. Then, all of us went to a state park where you bring hammers and bang them on the rocks. The rocks then "ring"! It was pretty cool! Aaron and I have been wanting to go to that park...it's on our "Bucket List"! Even though we can technically cross it off of our list, I think we'll definitely make it back there!

Now, if you're in the mood....watch the slide show! I mainly put these pictures on here so that I can share a lot more easily with family than I can by emailing them!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Nathaniel's Thanksgiving at Pre-K...

Nathaniel's class had a little program for their families just before Thanksgiving. It was very cute. Nathaniel actually had a part that he had to "read"! He did so well! He made his vest and hat. We're finding out that he really has a love for painting!

Poor Samuel! He is still too young to fight anything we put on him!