ELIJAH'S FIRST CHRISTMAS HOME!

Don and I were just as excited as any little kid this Christmas. We couldn't wait to see Elijah's reaction to everything about the season and to our family traditions.
We spent Christmas Eve as a family and went out to dinner then on to Christmas Eve candlelight service. (One of my favorite services!) Elijah and Emilie stayed in the nursery until communion time and then after our family made it through the line for communion we got Elijah to share in the final candlelight part. WELL...this is a very solemn, quiet time and Elijah decided to make his voice heard! He said "Hi Mama" and I whispered back to him "hi baby"...then louder he said "HI MAMA" and I whispered back "hi baby"...this went on for about 10 times. He really wanted me to say it louder! Then as we made our way around the circle, he saw his Sissy handing out candles to people and very loudly he said "HI SISSY". We attend a very small Church who understand kiddos and afterwards several came up and said...Hi Mama...with smiles! =) A great memory to share in the years to come.
Christmas morning was filled with all of the joys we could have imagined. I think even the older kids were excited to have a little one in the house again. Elijah was thrilled with all of it. He loved his car and basketball goal and opening presents was fun too!
We feel so truly blessed to have him home this year to celebrate these holidays with us. As we drove to my in-laws in the afternoon, I took in the sight in my car. I had all 4 of my kids together with me. WOW~ God has been so good to us. These kids hold my heart and I love them more than I could have ever imagined. Knowing that next year will bring many changes to our house and that we may not all be together for the season next year made this year even more memorable to me. SO...I shed a few tears and thanked God for blessing me with an amazing husband and 4 really great kids!
Here are a few pics from our holidays...
*Santa came and then the older kids decided to play their nintendo!

*Elijah enjoying his car AND his basketball goal

*Weeble treehouse...Loads of fun!

*BIG Hubbard Christmas (12/26) seeing Santa again! He did enjoy them much more this time. Walked right up to them and talked and climbed up on their lap to open his gift!

I hope your Christmas season was filled with lots of love and joy!

Blessings~

Tina

ONE YEAR AGO...(another celebration!)

One year ago today we became the legal parents (In Ethiopia) to this precious boy! We did not hear on Christmas Eve but on Christmas Day we received this wonderful news. I struggled through Christmas Eve and the morning of Christmas until we heard we had passed. It was tough having him so far away from us on his first Christmas.
It still amazes me to walk into his room at night and see him laying in the crib. For so many nights and days I would walk in there and pray for him and wish to see his face or just to know who he was. Now I get to hold him...hear him call me Mommy and watch him learn new things daily. I love watching the wonders of Christmas through his eyes! I love to hear him pray and and say "cank you Jesus!" This boy has opened our eyes to many things in this world.

(If you look close you will see an ornament with his referral pic in it!)

I pray that you all have a wonderful Christmas! We are so excited to share it with ALL 4 of our kiddos this year.

Blessings~

Tina

THE SANTA EXPERIENCE...

I have been anxiously waiting to take Elijah to see Santa. I knew I could not take him alone because someone would have to chase while the other stood in line. Plus, both of us wanted to be a part of the 1st Santa experience.

**Elijah walking into the mall to get in line for Santa! He was on a mission...
**Seeing Santa. He did fine walking up to him and he said "HI Santa...then he babbled something and said "tree" and then said "car and cruck" were things he wanted. THEN Mommy put him on Santa's lap! At first he cried then he just got his serious "I am not comfortable with this" face on. They snapped the pic and he got his candy cane said "cank u" and BYE!

**After all of that he needed a drink and to get out of there! Another mission...

**The Santa experience just took it all out of him! He fell asleep about 2 minutes after we got him in the car!

Praying you are all enjoying your season of CHRISTmas!

Blessings~

Tina

RE-ADOPTION COMPLETE!

YES! I said complete...finally, after having 2 extra home visits AND tons of changes and "stuff" it is final. When we got there last Friday were told the judge may make us wait another 6 months to finalize and that was going to make me MAD! We have already been home 10 months (TODAY!) so I knew there was no need in the wait period again.
It was pretty quick and easy once we got in the courtroom. Elijah ran around the whole time and even took the microphone at the end and sang to them. He is such a ham!!!! Here are a few pics of the event!
***Celebrating after with lunch at Red Robin. The boy loves lemons!!!

**Checking in and really wanting to push the button on the snowmen (AGAIN!).

Bereket Donald Hubbard is now officially Elijah Simon Bereket Hubbard...WOOHOO!!!!!

Blessings to all~

Tina

SATURDAY FUN...

***We brought Elijah home in a snowstorm but at 9 months old he never really got to experience a snowfall. SO...I took him outside to watch it for a few minutes. You can't see the snowflakes coming down but he thought it was "COOL"...although, very windy and cold!

***Elijah LOVES to drink my peach tea when we eat at Olive Garden so for a treat we got him his own. He was very happy...later we were not! He only drank half of it...but oh my gosh did this guy wet! He peed through his clothes. YIKES...thinking no more peach tea of his own.

***Waiting for the Christmas in Park light show to begin. (This was when we realized he had soaked through his clothes! UUGH~)

***The fuzzy CHOO-CHOO

***My sweet boy all cozy in his bed with blankie and thumb! And to think a year ago I was so sad to see this crib still empty!! SO very thankful for this little guy.

Have a wonderful week!

Tina

FUN IN THE HUBBARD HOUSE!

We have been busy this week with some fun things and some not so fun things. Earlier in the week we were preparing for ANOTHER homevisit (our second) just for the re-adoption. Long story really but made simple by the fact that the adoption judge here in our county is very picky about some things and not so happy about you using a "friend" lawyer. Her clerk is also new so things did not happen as they should have. Quite interesting really! Anyway...with that under our belt we now have a court date for Dec 17 for our re-adoption (it only took about 5 months to get this done!) We are pleased to get it finished and move on to the next round of paperwork for citizenship. Elijah was his cute adorable self during the meeting, of course. We told her he is a huge people person.
We made some Christmas ornaments this week. Heidi was here and I had promised her and Em we would get them done. I wanted to make some with our very cool Africa cookie cutter. My house smelled of cinnamon for awhile but it was fun to see them working hard on them. Elijah made an Africa one with his thumb print in the place of Ethiopia. Something I hope we can treasure for a long time!
Friday we spent the day baking for the Holidays. I usually get this done earlier in Dec but we just did not have any openings PLUS I still have a lot to do. My friend, Debra and I like to get together and get it done. We made banana bread, pumpkin bread, peanut butter balls, haystacks, oreo balls, pressed cookies, and choc covered pretzels. YUMMY!! Tifanie joined in on the fun as did Elijah. I still have some to do but we got a great start to it.
We are enjoying the Christmas season very much here. It is fun to see it through a toddler's eyes again! He loves SANTA but has yet to see him in person. That is coming this week. I am excited to see what his reaction will be.
Hope you are enjoying the season!!
Blessings~
Tina
***Making his ornament

***After enjoying some powdered donuts

***He loves to cover his head with blankets and this time he got my table cloth and was roaring at everyone

***Rolling peanut butter balls with Sissy

***Baking with Mommy

TIME FOR A HAIR CUT...

Since we are a "military" family, we like short clean cut boy hair cuts. I had been debating about keeping Elijah's longer for a little while. I was enjoying being able to rub those soft curls! BUT he hated having it brushed out and it was starting to get a little frizzy on the ends. SO...when Daddy said he may try to shave it himself...Mommy rushed him to get it professionally done. =)
Oh my, does he look so much older! That is always tough for me. They start looking more like little boys and not so much like babies. =( He did a great job getting it cut BUT was very unhappy when she was combing it out to cut it. There was hair everywhere!!!! You don't realize how long it is until those curls are combed out. And of course, I didn't have my camera. When he was all done and had schmoozed all of the ladies there, he got his sucker! He was then a very happy boy.
BEFORE

AFTER

**The kid loves to have his picture taken!

Blessings~

Tina

HUBBARD HAPPENINGS...

*Playing wii*

*Loving the singing snowmen*

*Putting the angel on the tree*

*Having his first Thanksgiving Dinner*

Well...As you see I fell off the wagon once again! I check several blogs almost daily and see no recent bloggings and feel sad and the disconnect I feel and then I remember..."UH...how long has been since I have blogged!?"

So...to catch you all up: Elijah is now 18 months old. He is amazing! He can count to five very well and we are working on going to 10 now. He sings almost non-stop but you can't always make out what he is singing. He loves quinkle quinkle little tar. =) He weighs 25 lbs and is a big boy for sure! He is finally saying Mommy (the sweetest sound EVER!) Everytime I hear my heart skips a beat. He is ALL BOY! He gets into everything all the time. He loves Mommy's tea (and I normally do not share with anyone (including kiddos or hubby!) because it gags me. A few days ago I put away all of the 12 month clothes as he is now in all 18 months. I was very sad. He came home wearing 6-9 months a little over 9 months ago and has grown by leaps and bounds. He saw his Pedi this week (sinus infection) and she is SO amazed at him and how well he is doing. She kept saying how advanced he is. Funny thing is he kep telling her "all done!" and "BYE" as she was trying to exam him. He does not like going to Dr.

I am so looking forward to the Holidays and the joy of having a little one again. We put the tree up and he was so excited. He loves everything musical so all of those were big hits. He helped Daddy put the angel on the tree and was eager to help with ornaments. Now he tries to take them off the tree and eat them! As I said he is ALL BOY!

The other kiddos are doing good. Randy is almost half way through his SR year! UUGH~ We have had Sr pics taken and family pics taken as I am not sure where he will be next yr. =( Tifanie is doing well and is now going to college and working at QT part time. She is here a lot more now that Elijah is here. He lights up when she walks in and yells SIS SIS or Sissy! Em is doing well in school and getting much better at her flute playing. She seems to be growing way too fast as well!

Well....there's an update on the kiddos. Hope you are having a wonderful start to the Christmas Season!

Blessings to all~

Tina