Thanksgiving 2011

Okay, still playing catch-up...

Happy Thanksgiving! We are so thankful that Rob, Holly, Taylor, Porter, Hannah & Frodo came to spend Thanksgiving with us!!!

This is our makeshift banquet table--the food was delicious and prepared by all.

 Rob and Holly making the famous Hacking rolls--they did not disappoint

 It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a little (Packers) football.

 Taylor multitasking--watching football and reading

 Hannah and Shayla preparing the turkey favors

 Porter, Garrett and Grant playing Risk on the Ipad

 Braving the cold to play in the canyon--frisbee and races

The kids are really fast when they are this cold :)

 Miya LOVES Frodo--if she wasn't with him, she was running around the house screaming, "Puppy! puppy? Puppy!!!" looking for him.

 Rob and Miya enjoying the Holidazzle parade--a Twin Cities tradition--parade of lights that takes place every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There was a great fireworks show to kick it all off.

 All the kids going to the North Pole at Macy's

 This Santa was the best! He even asked each of us adults what we wanted for Christmas.

I had to take a picture of the stroller (alias: coat holder) I don't know what we'll do when we outgrow the stroller days.

 Garrett thought he'd be funny and ask for a Polly Pocket for Christmas...
Ty and Porter asked for Barbies, Shayla asked for tofu, and Grant asked for a DS.
Miya and Tyler both asked for a puppy :)
I can't remember what Taylor, Holly and Hannah asked for...I asked for a day off :)
And Rob volunteered to watch our stuff so we could go in and see Santa.
This Santa was SUCH a good sport!

Miya was only a little scared of Santa.

It was such a great Thanksgiving! Food, Family and Football--everything you need to make a great Thankgiving!

random shots

Miya loves to climb in boxes, and play with legos. She has been playing with legos from birth (luckily she wasn't one to try and eat them)

After all is said and done, the legos are the one toy that the kids come back to time and time again. What's not to love? There's always something new you can build.

Miya loves to make us laugh. This is her eating carrots a while ago. It's a wonder she didn't choke!

She is such a happy girl--laughing and singing about everything. Yet very passionate if you mess with her puppies or her babies. Such a little personality.

catching up-Miya's 2nd birthday (Nov. 30th, 2011)

 Breakfast in crib - when we walked in with her tray, Miya popped up and started saying, "Mine! Mine!" as she grabbed the items off of the tray. Yeah, she is 100% a two-year old.

 The delivery crew

 Birthday pout--I think someone snitched something off of her tray.

 Miya is a chocoholic! Hence the chocolate-chocolate cake (modeling her new birthday dress from Grandma. As soon as Miya tried it on she started spinning :)

 Big eyes!!

 The fork is optional

Miya with her new puppy!!!

Happy Belated birthday, Miya!!!

Tender Mercies

Hanging out in the kitchen of the church during a recent home showing.

We put our house on the market in October and aside from a few showing and open houses at the first, haven't had any activity. So when we got a call that we would be showing our home last Sunday we had a bit of getting ready to do. Luckily they gave us 24 hour notice so we got the house mostly ready Saturday. We got home from church Sunday at 1pm, and had until 3:00 to be out of the house. No problem. Well...there was a message for us that someone else had wanted to see the house at noon. I called the realtor back and she said she'd check with the people if they could still come over. She called back--"Yes, they'll be there at 1:30," she said. HEART ATTACK!

Getting ready for church in the morning is a monumental task, as you all know, and we had left a bit of a tornado in our wake. Cereal boxes were still out, towels from the kids baths, etc. And I had planned to sweep and vacuum just right before we left (because i would have to redo it anyway if I did it Saturday, right? and it is so nice to have fresh vacuum lines in the carpet for a showing :) so we had a TON to do before the house would be show ready, and we only had 1/2 an hour. 

Let me just say that there were not fresh lines in the carpet that day, but I was so impressed by how each of my kids dug in and helped so furiously to get our house as ready as possible and all of us out the door.  (when really all they wanted to do was eat).

Ty spot-vacuumed the house, Shayla finished cleaning the bedrooms, Garrett helped pick up the bathroom and took out the trash, Grant packed us a snacky-lunch to take with us (it was so cute to see him counting out just enough cheese sticks/clementines for all of us), and Miya ran around watching us all (and didn't get things back out when we had put them away.)

I was so grateful for their help and knew that it was no small miracle that we got everything cleaned up and looking great in half an hour. 

If only I could get them to work that efficiently on a Saturday morning...

We had fun playing games at the church and then enjoyed Sunday dinner at a friend's house. What could have been a disasterous day turned out great thanks to hard-working kids and a kind friend.

Tender mercies indeed.

uh-oh

This is what I woke up to the other day. Weird thing is that Shayla also had a bloody nose in the middle of that same night. Must be the dry winter air around here.

It was a good motivator to wash all the bedding--trying to look at the bright side of bloody noses :)

Below--Miya LOVES shoes. Tyler's are a bit on the big side but that doesn't stop her from walking around in them.

Brrrrr...

We woke up to -13 degree temperature, feels like -31 with the wind chill.

Guess who is staying home today by the fireplace?!!

Merry Christmas 2011!

 Christmas Eve cookie making and delivering

 Miya was Mary for our Nativity--she was so tender with her baby Jesus.

 Celebrating with our good friends Jim and Cindy

 Tracking Santa on the Ipad... the excitement was building...

 Christmas morning--the kids woke us up at 5:59 (they were supposed to wait until 6--not bad:)

After Church on Christmas Day. Notice Miya's red lips--she was loving her red chapstick she got in her stocking. We had a lovely program with lots of Christmas music--it was such a great way to focus on the true meaning of Christmas (even though Grant, Miya and Garrett all fell asleep by the end of it). I wish we had a church service every Christmas.

So I was a slacker mom and forgot to take pictures the rest of the day. Needless to say, Santa found us this year and the kids enjoyed lots of presents and playing with their new toys all day. 

Merry Christmas!!

Happy New Year!!!

So one of the Hacking family traditions that we enjoy is eating strange foods to ring in the new year. i forgot to take any pictures this year, but we had a great new year's celebration with some good friends over to share it with. We feasted upon blue-cheese stuffed olives, cajun cheese curds, headcheese (not my favorite), varieties of pate, lots of crackers and cheese, smoked salmon, and of course, bubbly (sparkling cider).

So these pictures are from a few days later when we opened the can of sardines we had missed earlier for the celebration. I love how Miya just thinks it is normal to eat little fish out of a can. I wish I had her same enthusiasm :) Grant has a palate more like my own and he couldn't stomach the little fish. Shayla didn't like them either. All in all it was a great start to the New Year. Still working on my resolutions...

Happy Birthday, Shayla!

 Shayla - 6 months old. She used to do this intense head-tilt when flirting with her Dad.

Shayla turned 9 today! My, how she has grown! This is her just a few days old.

What we love about Shayla:

Dad: Shayla is a great friend, very nice and inclusive, an overall great friend to have.

Mom: Shayla has a beautiful smile and a very kind heart. love you!

Ty: I like that Shayla cares for others, plays with those who are sad and feels bad when i get in trouble.

Garrett: I like that Shayla protects me.

Grant: Shayla helps me when I get hurt

Miya: a my dis my dis my dis puppy. (anyone want to take a stab at an interpretation?!!)

 Breakfast in bed

 Crepes with strawberries and chocolate pudding

 Fashion bag to personalize with markers for our crafty girl

 Modeling one of the new shirts Grandma W gave her

 Making a wish--Shayla LOVES donuts, not cake. 

Shayla loves to be dramatic and funny and recently performed in the school production of Cinderella. She was an "adorable pumpkin" and did a fabulous job--can you just feel her enthusiasm?

We love you, Shayla!