Dry Erase Art Projects

Tim and Savannah like to stay busy while their big siblings do their school work. Sometimes they do this in constructive ways and sometimes, well, let's just say they can be very creative using average, everyday household products.

Savannah always starts with a circle. And yes, she is still in jammies, and yes, they do not match. Welcome to my life.

Next some dots???

Look, it's a....person, alien, or a lopsided octopus?

Meanwhile Timothy worked on a portrait of our family.

Look, it's the Hubert family. I thought he missed a person but then he showed me that Savannah was being held by Phil and me. I am so glad we all have happy faces!!

AWANA Grand Prix Derby

Each year our AWANA club sponsors a day of racing -- also known as the Grand Prix Derby. After Phil was talked into creating vegetable-shaped cars a couple years ago, he put his foot down and told the kids, "We are only making cars this year. :)"

Our friends, the Nachbar family, invited our whole family out for a day of carving cars and a baked potato bar for lunch. Their family of 9 plus our family of 7 had a super time getting ready for the derby.


Each kid drew an outline of their car on the block of wood from their AWANA car kit.



Sweet little Allison watched as the cars appeared out of the rectangle of wood.



Phil goes to work on Tim's car.

Timothy is so excited to watch the races begin and enjoys watching with his buddies Devon and Brennen.

Father and son waiting for their turn to race Tim's blue and orange car.

Lindsay putting her car in the start gate.

One of the races for Tim's car.


Surprise, surprise. Timothy's car won first place in the speed category for his age division. Phil and Tim's secret to the fastest Cubbies car? He has no idea!!

A fun football season

It's been a fun year for the Hubert family (especially Phil and Timothy...okay, for me too) to follow the Chicago Bears football team. They made it to the final round of the playoffs and we watched their last game of the season at the Szymczaks.


All dressed in fan colors and ready to see if they can beat the Packers.


As much as Timothy loves to watch and follow his favorite team, he shakes losses off fairly easily. His response to their loss? With a semi-sad face, he said, "That's okay. They can try again next year." Then he ran off to play with Blake. Great attitude, son :).

Another cute Bears photo.

Sledding on the Bunny Trail

It's no secret I that am a fair weathered gal. Warm weather is even better. Hot weather really makes me happy.

Snow and cold temperatures are great, however they are best while nestled indoors near my fireplace. But....I want to make sure my kids realize there can be a small amount of joy playing in the snow. It's not that I dislike the "playing in the snow part", but rather I dislike all the layers and articles of clothing that go along with it. Multiply coats, snow pants, mittens, scarves, hats and gloves by 5 and you get A LOT of pieces of clothing to put away at the end of an outdoor excursion.

Stay with me. I am getting to the pictures and the post.

After 8-10 inches of that beautiful white stuff fell recently, I told the kids to bundle up and get ready to go sledding.


Wow - Savannah's mittens even match!

This little guy is ready with rosy cheeks before even stepping out of doors.

Lindsay was the first to try snow angels in the backyard.

The bunny trail? Yep, just outside our back gate and across the walking path is the perfect sized slope for the wee ones. And....it's a quick trip back home to the fireplace and hot chocolate!!

Another person to read to Savannah

Timothy loves his little reader books. He also loves anyone that will sit and listen to him read them. Savannah seems very content to let him read as long as he wants!

Glimpses of Joy

Savannah is the queen of pretend. She is usually the "Mom" and I am the "Grandma". JOY!


She is quite the stylish shopper.

Tim likes to pretend also - not so much into playing house as fighting, though. Swords, guns, shields all equal JOY for him.

Watching the Chicago Bears play football this year brought us all some JOY. This is the one team he won't desert to cheer for another...even if they are losing.

A JOYful football face.

Extra JOY when the Bears are telecast in our coverage area.

Blake will not have much JOY when he realizes this evening of fin was captured on film and posted to my blog. I am a bit concerned to see a ball flying in mid-air and a sword being used as a bat!!

A visit from a fun loving uncle from Florida

Jeannine, Larry and Greg visited us for a belated Christmas celebration. The kids had a blast playing with Uncle Greg and he seemed to enjoy himself as well.


Everything from Triominoes....



...to motorcycle videos on his phone...

...to Nerf gun fights.

As in Sheridan, this game lasted awhile and I found Nerf bullets for weeks afterwards.

Timothy quickly changed from gunman to a sword-wielding police officer. Notice his goggles still on...just in case.

A New Year's Celebration

What happened to January 2011???!! I apologize to any friends and family who have checked my blog only to find....NOTHING POSTED IN A MONTH.

Hang on, because I have some catching up to accomplish today (well maybe not all today, but hopefully within a week).

For the past several years we have hosted a large New Year's Eve Celebration with friends from church. However, due to a wedding invitation, we gladly partied in a different location with newlyweds, Matt and Kayla Horne.



While Tim and Savannah enjoyed their overnight slumber party at the Crabtree's home, the big girls and Phil and I dressed up in fancy wedding clothes and braved the blizzard of the year to celebrate with Matt and Kayla.



Hanging with our great friends the Szymczaks made the evening even more fun!

Kayla had prepared all the fixings so everyone could make s'mores...right at the table. The kids especially loved this.

But there were a few adults that joined in on the action...like our "never-met-a-piece-of-chocolate-I-didn't-like-friend" Dave Shellenberger.

The beautiful couple with Allie.

Allie and Aly....otherwise known to Brenda and I as the "Alyies"

Happy New Year!

Jim made his first official party appearance with his new hip that needed replaced after the last wedding reception he attended.

The father of the bride, Dean, being as practical as ever!!