all the holidays

last night ella's prayer included these words..."we're thankful for christmas and hannukah" (pause) "and for the chinese new year".

some days are so sad

 i'm so saddened to read about elizabeth edwards lost battle to breast cancer.

it sort of hits close to home.

 i'm so sad for my sweet sister.  she has to have her smokey put down tomorrow.  i know it will be a hard day for her.  i'm sorry kara bear.

and this guy, my uncle rand, will be missed. 

(sorry i stole your picture ches)



christmas letters

cute christmas letter templates from marthastewart.com

we burned our letters tonite and watched for the smoke.  you see, the smoke sends the words to the north pole for santa to read.  this is a tradition of my dad.  we do this every year and every year our girls are so frustrated that they can't see the smoke.  but i assure them that santa can read it and they seem somewhat satisfied.

more birthday fun

oh what a crazy, fun birthday party ella had yesterday!

 i do believe i've made two or three sets of vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting

and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting over the past week.

 these little girls are decorating their own bags for their party favors

 oh, did i mention that afton planned the entire party? 

she had great ideas and the little party-goers loved everything!

afton invited two of her friends to help her.

 the girls made hair-clips with flowers, beads and ribbon, and they also made bracelets.

 we had a little freeze dancing, and even a conga line! 

we also had a pinata, but i didn't get very good pics.

and last but not least-

presents!!!

i felt like i should duct tape all these girls to their seats.  they were sooooo excited to be as close as possible to ella.  they were hysterical! 

we had a very fun and festive two hours of craziness.

happy birthday sweet lady!

what could be more perfect?

we got our first snowfall on the first day of december.

how great is that?

the girls had a great time playing in the snow right after school. 

in the days following, parts of western new york received 36 inches. 

ryan's worksite is in south buffalo and was one of the hard hit areas.  there was a driving ban in the area of buffalo that he works.

so, that meant we got to have ryan home a day and half!  woo, woo!!



more birthday celebrating

 monday had a little (15 minutes) celebration in her classroom at school

that's her cute teacher sitting next to her.

 here's her buddy mckenzie

 here she is with her beautiful mother

 grandma and grandpa sent a check.

ella bought herself a rockin' barbie guitar

and a phone for her bedroom. 

what kind of a mother would let her daughter buy a phone for her bedroom?

seriously.

our 6 year old

 yesterday was my birthday!

 i opened my presents yesterday.

love ella

 yes, that's right.  ella turned 6 years old yesterday! 

she had a few requests for the day...

pancakes for breakfast

a little tennis time with the family

lunch at mcdonalds

dinner at red robin

 i'm happy to report that all requests were fulfilled. 

 we also spent a few hours searching for the perfect desk for ella's room.  she's been dying for a desk for a while now.  luckily we found the one and a bright pink chair that you can raise/lower.  it also spins and rolls.  oh boy.

 the day ended with a sundae at red robin and later chocolate cake with chocolate frosting at home. 

we love our ella. 



happy thanksgiving!

happy thanksgiving from the hulse family!

 if you were here with us,

you could work on a puzzle or

make rolls.

 afton says she is thankful for her family and friends.

 ella is thankful for her family and friends and sisters and brothers.  but then she was told that she doesn't have any brothers.  hmmm.

 ryan says he is thankful that we get to make thanksgiving dinner all together, except for amy who hasn't helped at all!

i'm thankful that i don't have to cook thanksgiving dinner, because we have great friends who invited us over!  i'm also thankful for my family and the time that we get to spend together this weekend. 

happy thanksgiving!

the bookfair...

time again for the fall bookfair.  this year was a superhero theme.  here's hero the heim husky disguised as a superhero.  i'm not sure our way of hanging hero the husky on the wall was very professional, but he didn't fall down one time!

 each class in the school visits the bookfair prior to its opening to make out their wishlists.  here's ella carefully spelling the title of her wished-for books.  i've never been a big fan of the wishlist, so i try to emphasize that these books are not guaranteed to be purchased by your loving parents.  mostly, i'm talking to my own two sweeties!

 here's hero!  i'll never divulge the secret of who wears the costume.  whoever he/she may be, they do a great job!  the kids love hero! 

here's my co-conspirator, cynthia.  she is sooooo much fun and is a joy to work with.  this year we purchased these aprons for all the volunteers to wear.  they were a big hit.  at least, they were a big hit with us.  and that's all that really matters. 

love doing the bookfair.  glad it is over!

marmee's visit

marmee came to visit .

 marmee and the girls baked

 we went to visit amish country and stayed at the cherry creek inn.  it was very fun and the girls were able to go exploring all through the house.  they loved it!

 we went to an amish toy store, a quilt shop, and lots of other places.  see their buggies?

marmee loved how the laundry was hung on a giant clothesline.

we also shopped and dined and played while marmee was here.  we love you marmee!

accomplishing much?

i've been a little concerned about myself and what i have been, or rather, what i haven't been accomplishing throughout any given day.  especially concerning is the time that the girls are at school.  so, i'm listing here what i've accomplished so far today.  i'm also trying to keep in mind that i need time to be quiet and rest my mind.  this is completely for me, but i need to write it down.  maybe if you think about your accomplishments for the day, you'll be surprised at how much you've done for yourself and others.  so here goes...

*ate breakfast

*read scriptures

*went to the school to work on bookfair stuff

*did yoga

*folded two batches of laundry

*made a card for my niece (won't mention when her birthday was!)

*tidied up the family room

*did the dishes

*sent an email to ella's teacher

this is the first half of the day.  it's noon-thirty now and i feel pretty good about these things.  in fact, i feel so good i'm going to take a hot shower and then read a book by the fire! 
remember, quiet time is needed too.

autumn in new york

 autumn wouldn't be complete without a trip or two to the pumpkin farm

 afton's jack-o-lantern design was voted as the favorite by her classroom.  she brought the pumpkin home and we carved her design on it.  then the pumpkin went back to school to be displayed during the week of halloween.

 afton was dressed as a "fall fairy" for halloween this year.  beautiful!

ella was gabriella.  make that...gabriella montes.  gabriella montes from high school musical, thank you very much.

she was a little freaked out by her reflection in the mirror when she put on the gabriella wig.  not a little freaked out.  a lot freaked out.  so freaked out in fact, that she only wore it when it was dark outside.  no amount of complimenting could convince her to wear it at school or at the parties she attended.  

a halloween reading

and heeeeeeeerrrrrrrreeeeeeee's ELLA!

the newest violinist

hello, i love you

the new carpet is finally here.

ryan's dad asked if i'd be able to sleep last night because i was so excited!

 so, here's the bamboo transitioning to the family room

 here's a close up!

 now here is a close up of the carpet against the new tile.

 here we are on our way to aftie's room. 

 it is soooo soft!

and one last view of the closet.

my sister megan said we should all sleep on the new carpet tonite. 

we just might.  we just might.

thanks mom & dad!