Chicago

Rewind...We went to Chicago with my brother Jeremy, his wife Kristi, and their daughter Holly over New Year's this year. Chicago is one of our favorite places to go, so we were so excited to take Aly there.

A very early flight makes for one very grumpy girl.


Aly had flown once before, but she didn't really remember it.
Getting there truly was half the fun for her.


Public transportation was a whole new experience for Aly. She loved riding around town without a car seat! Buses, taxis and trains are also a great place to catch up on some sleep.



Having a delicious breakfast in the city was such a treat every day!
The Corner Bakery is our favorite breakfast spot.


The Adler Planetarium


This was definitely Uncle Jeremy's favorite stop, but we all had fun there.



The Planetarium Cafe was right on the lake and had an incredible view of the city. Months later, when Donny asked Aly where she wanted to go to lunch she said, "The star museum by the water!" I'm surprised he didn't buy plane tickets.


The Lincoln Park Zoo
Fun and free!


The American Girl Place was a definite highlight for all us girls. Holly and Aly picked out dolls and then we took them to a tea party and had their hair done at the salon. The boys went and did more manly things while we had our girly day.


Aly, "Little Aly", "Rose", and Holly


We went to the top of the John Hancock building. The girls got their own audio tour, which they thought was pretty great.

We are strong believers that you can't go to Chicago and resist having pizza at least once a day.

The girls' first carriage ride

The Field Museum
Aly was looking forward to the "dinosaur museum" more than anything.


This is Sue, the most complete T-Rex ever found and Aly's favorite thing about Chicago.



Shopping at Macy's to replace some of Mommy & Aly's lost luggage
We got it back the same night thankfully.


Garrett's Popcorn
Another must have in Chicago.


Ed Debevic's
Intentionally rude service, dancing on the tables. The girls loved it!



Aly was fascinated by the tall buildings. I have to admit, they never get old for me either.



We had a beautiful view of the city from our hotel room. This is where Aly liked to play and where we watched the New Year's Eve fireworks to avoid the cold and the crowd.



We had an amazing time as a family on this trip. Donny and I really want Aly to realize that there is a whole big world out there to enjoy, outside of our little comfort zone. I think this trip was a step in that direction. Little did we know until the day we got home that we were expecting a new addition to our family! I can't wait to go back with our new little angel!

Aly's Going to be a Big Sister!!!

For those of you who don't know, Donny, Aly and I will be welcoming a new member of our family on or around September 5th! We are so happy and so excited!

We won't find out the gender until April 22nd (hopefully!) but Aly is already insisting that it's a girl. One day, while walking into Walmart, we were talking about the baby and she mentioned that it would be a girl. I said, "But if God decides to give us a boy, that would be ok, right?" She shouted at the top of her lungs, "God wants to give us a girl!!!!" I'm not sure how we are going to change her mind if we find out otherwise. Even if it is a girl, we are going to have to convince her that her name is not going to be "Daisy Duck".

Even though she has strong opinions about the gender, she already talks about how much she is going to help take care of the baby. She says she's going to feed the baby a bottle and wipe the baby's bottom. That sounds pretty good to me.

She does talk to the baby in my belly all of the time, which is so sweet I can hardly stand it. She always remembers to tell it goodnight and even kisses my belly goodbye in the mornings. Precious.



As we get closer to the halfway point, please pray that all goes well and our baby grows into a happy, healthy newborn. We are so blessed!

We love being girls.

I know it's been so long since my last post that you have given up on me, but I've had a hard time getting motivated since my computer crashed and I lost all of my pictures. Donny luckily has them backed up, but I haven't made the time to sit down and go through them all quite yet. So much has happened since December. Some of the most wonderful memories have been made and so many exciting things have happened! But as of today, I just had to take a few minutes to share my latest sweet memory with the coolest kid I know...


Aly's new favorite book (they change weekly) is Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann. It's about a little girl who makes pink cupcakes with her mom on a rainy day and then eats so many that she turns pink. One night while we were reading it for the thousandth time, she asked me if we could make pink cupcakes like the ones in the book. How could I say no?

Aly has become a real pro in the kitchen. She already knows what to do as soon as we put our aprons on. I basically just get everything together, do the measuring, crack the eggs, and use the oven. She does everything else herself!

Not quite perfect, but they still tasted great!

While we were letting the cupcakes bake, Aly decided she wanted act out different pages in the book. She found this page where the girl is looking out the window and said she was going to do it too. It was hilarious!

After that, she decided she needed to dress like the girl in the book too. We raided her dress up chest and oddly enough, found an outfit very similar to the one in the book.

She helped frost the cupcakes and got to add her most important ingredient...cherries!

Mmmmm....pinkalicious!

Aly, I hope you remember this day because I know I always will. I love how creative your sweet little mind is. I love how excited you are about everything you do. I love hearing your ideas, watching you do everything so meticulously, and sharing so many special moments with you. I love everything about you and I thank God every day that He gave us you. I love you, sweet Angie Pie.

Love, Mommy

The Polar Express...What an adventure!

One night, several weeks ago, in an effort to keep from watching "Ice Age Dinosaurs" for the millionth time, Donny suggested "The Polar Express" movie for Aly to watch. I bought it years ago when it came out because I loved the book so much, but it has been collecting dust since then. Aly surprisingly agreed and immediately fell in love with it. Since then, she has watched "Choo-choo Express" pretty regularly and has become very fond of the book. So, when Donny found out they do Polar Express train rides on the Branson Railways, we decided it wasn't something we could pass up. We immediately bought tickets for that week and planned a quick weeknight trip to Branson and back. I know it sounds crazy, but Donny and I have always been big believers in sacrificing a little to make big memories. We feel like we won't ever remember how tired we were the next day, or how we would have spent the money if we didn't go, but we will always remember the experience. And boy, will we...

First of all, let me just say that we were, in true Hubbard fashion, running late. Donny was driving like we were running late. The roads were extremely curvy. Aly puked in her coat.

We didn't have a minute to spare and she PUKED in her COAT! I've been extremely prone to car sickness my entire life and I was feeling pretty green. Unfortunately, Aly was too. We yanked her out of the car, let her finish her business, stripped her down, redressed her, and were on the road again in about 6 minutes flat. Here's the kicker.... our car is at the dealership being worked on and we were in a loaner! Serves them right for taking their time if you ask me.

So we finally get to the train station. Aly's coat and hat are covered in throw up, so we threw a blanket around her and made her wear the hat anyway. (We've been battling ear infections and even had a ruptured eardrum this week. That's another story.) We literally ran to the station as they were loading the last group of passengers. We went into the ticket office/gift shop and the lady behind the counter held up our tickets and said, "Are you the Hubbards?" We grabbed them and took off again. As I turned, my suitcase of a purse smacked into a postcard display and sent postcards flying! They assured us they would clean them up, but I was mortified.

We got to the train and one of the conductors said, "Are you the Hubbards?!" Wow, we must really be late. As he directed us on where to go, I'm hearing walkie-talkies screaming out, "We are waiting on the Hubbards! Has anyone seen the Hubbards?" It was crazy! Thank goodness, we made it to our seats just in time. Even though we did wreak of vomit for the rest of the evening, I think it might have been one of our favorite memories we have made with Aly so far.



The conductor punched our tickets just like he does in the movie! He punched the first letter of our names into our tickets. A nice touch for a major Polar Express fan like Aly.



They made us buy our tickets in even numbers since we were in the dining car. Kitty became the fourth passenger at our table. If you know Aly at all, you know Kitty is well loved and travels with us everywhere. Mr. and Mrs. Claus gave Kitty a lot of extra attention.


In the movie, the little boy puts his ticket and his bell in his robe pockets. I was so disappointed I didn't realize they could wear their pajamas until Aly discovered she had pockets just like the boy in the movie.


This is our server showing us pictures from the book as it is being read over the loudspeaker. They also played the music from the movie and Christmas carols during the rest of the ride.

Hot-Hot-Hot, Hot Chocolate!


Yummy cookies, too!

We picked up Santa and "Mother Claus" (as Aly calls her) at the North Pole. They gave all of the kids a bell like the one in the book and sang Christmas songs with them.

This is a video of when we arrived at the North Pole. The elves were doing flips and handstands, which I missed because I was too busy taking video!



Aly asked Santa for a dinosaur, big surprise, and happily posed for pictures.

October 2009

Pumpkin Patch

She was not into the idea of reaching into a slimy pumpkin and pulling out the insides, so I came up with a new plan. I think her "jack-o-lantern" turned out pretty cute.

Daddy carved the dinosaur pumpkin she requested. As you can tell, she LOVED it.

She originally wanted to be a dinosaur or a shark for Halloween. I'm so glad she changed her mind and decided to be a kitty cat instead. We went to Trunk-or-Treat at church and then stayed home and handed out candy on Halloween night. This was the first year she really understood what was going on and was really excited about it.



I love so many things about this little girl. I love her silly laugh, her imagination, her singing voice, her curiosity, her love of learning, her affection towards babies and animals, her sensitivity and compassion for others, and even her slight bossiness, which I like to think of as early signs of a maternal instict. But one personality characteristic that I have really loved watching develop recently is her sincere appreciation for things that are given to her or done for her. Whether we take her some place special (Chuck E. Cheese and Little Gym still remain her favorite destinations), buy her a new toy or book, or just give her a compliment, she thanks us a thousand times, which is usually followed by a precious, "I'm so happy." There's nothing that melts my heart quite like knowing that my baby is truly happy.

These are some of my favorite recent moments:

• Out of nowhere she will stand up in the cart at Walmart to give me a hug and say, "I looove you, Mommy!"
• I know she's getting a little old, and a little tall, but I still rock her before bed every night. That is when we have our sweetest moments. The other night she said, "Mommy, your mole is so beeeeautiful!" My mole! It makes me think back to when I was little and thought everything about my mom was perfect.
  
• Her new saying is, "Mommy, I love you in the whole wide!" (I'm assuming she means the whole wide world.) She also says, "You are my favorite girl I've ever seen!"
• She starts every prayer the same way. "Dear Jesus, thank you for today. Thank you so much for Daddy, Mommy, and Aly... "I tear up just thinking about it.
  
• Donny and I were dressed up to go to a charity event and she said, "Your dress is so beautiful! Is my daddy going to dance you?" When we were shopping for the dress, I tried a blue one on and asked Aly if she liked it. She replied, "No, it's too dressy. And too bluey."
  

The love God has created between a parent and a child continues to astound me. What a privilege it is to watch this little miracle learn and grow every day.