Thanks

I just wanted to thank everyone who sent a Christmas card this year! We have a collage of pictures on our fridge of all the people we love and I tell you, it's just makin' me happy. So thanks!

A Christmas Miracle

While playing with Connor the other day, I discovered how to play "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains" on the piano pictured. Is anyone else impressed? We're calling it a Christmas Miracle around here.:)

The Tale of the Christmas Stockings

So, I LOVE Christmas. I don't know what our parents did special to make Christmas such a wonderful and magical time for us three kids, but we all love it equally. We found out a few years ago that our then 18 year old brother could quote a poem that was on the advent calendar my mom had cross stitched and we had hung every year for Christmas. My sister still gets teary eyed when someone mentions, "believe" this time of year. Are you starting to get a picture here? We LOVE the Christmas our parents created for us--it was magical! One of the things we loved were the Christmas stockings our Mom made for each of us. They were each unique and we would dance around them with Christmas music playing and talk about who's was the best. This is serious people, no joke. I think since the day Byron and I got married, I've been thinking about the Christmas I would like to create for our family and the special stockings I would like to make. This year it finally happened. I created the patterns, I bought the fabric, I embroidered the names...they are complete! I know they're not as great as some that could be bought, but I just hope our kids know how much thought and love went into each of their stockings and I hope some of the magic of the season has started to sprout in our home! Merry Christmas!

a Parade, a Surprise, and a Party

A Parade

While Byron was studying this morning for finals, my friend Christine and I took Connor and her little girl Jordan to the Chapel Hill Christmas Parade. What a great time! We made a whole adventure of it by taking the bus first since we knew parking would be an issue. The kids loved that. We didn't know what to expect crowd wise since this was our first time to the parade and were pleasantly surprised to find low crowds and a festive atmosphere. (It seemed maybe most people in Chapel Hill were participating in the parade.):) We got great seats on a stone wall and the kids were totally mesmerized for the first 30 min! Some of the highlights were some beaded necklaces, balloons, and Santa and his Reindeer to finish the festivities. The kids had a great time running around the open grass area, and most shocking of all...Christine and I actually got to have a lively conversation! A Christmas Miracle!:) We finished the morning with lunch at a Deli and a little more playing. Byron was so sad he had to miss and we're hoping we can all go together next year.

A Surprise

While Connor and I were gone at the parade, some friends of ours, the Maxwells, brought over their son Harrison's car garage for Connor. Can we say early Christmas? When Byron was getting Connor up from his nap I heard him tell Connor he had a "surprise" for him. Connor was so thrilled and kept on calling it his "prize".:) Thank you, thank you Maxwell's for giving this to Connor; it's really a gift for all of us!

A Party

Tonight was our ward Christmas Party and it was such a fun time! I was a little concerned how Connor would do because I knew the night was based around musical performances and I didn't think Connor would be into appreciating all the music offered. I was very surprised and pleased to see Connor entertaining himself with the leftover cups and pop caps from the drink table. He and his best bud Jaxton had a great time stacking, hording, and spinning the caps. Good job boys!

What a Saturday! I'm pooped!:)

What's Connor Up To These Days?

Whenever we talk to family or friends, they always ask, "What's Connor up to these days?" Here are a few things our little buddy's been doing recently.

1. Connor loves Christmas and Christmas lights in particular. He calls Christmas "Ha, ha, ha" meaning "Ho, ho, ho" which to him represents Christmas. We know he's spotted Christmas lights while we're in the car because we'll hear an enthusiastic, "Ha, ha, ha!" from the backseat. He also calls the Christmas trains we see at Target "Ha,ha T." We're the only two people in the world who up until now, knows that means "Christmas train".:)

2. Connor is repeating more and more of what we say. I've discovered I say, "neat" and "nice" a lot because those are two new words he mimics a lot. Cool mom, huh?:) Tonight we were having Sugar Snap Peas with our meal and Connor was mostly interested in getting the peas out of the pod. Byron was calling the peas, "little guys". When Connor didn't want to eat them anymore, just play with them, he would get them out of the pod, hand them to me calling them "guys". That cracked us up!

3. Connor loves stuffed animals right now. He keeps on asking for more to be pulled from the shelf and put into his bed. We hear him talking to them, he gives them kisses, he wants one to be tucked in next to him at night, and he even wants one to sit with him in his highchair at times and "feeds" the animal before he feeds himself. We find all of this very very sweet.

Hope you enjoyed our update, I'll try to keep them coming!

Ushering in Decmeber

I'm not quite sure what I've been up to since Thanksgiving but I know I've been busy and tired. I'm an avid exerciser and I haven't worked out in over a week. If you know me well, you'll know that's unusual. My eyes have also been burning and weird things in my body have been aching. I took a nap today and feel oh so much better. Sorry for no blogs recently, you just read my excuse.:)

So tonight, Byron and I had a date! On this date we spent a hefty hunk of change (thanks to Christmas money from parents and grandparents) at a local toy store. Can any one guess what we bought? Think hard, Connor asks for it every day, multiple times a day. We read books about them, we watch videos about them, we even go to a store to play with them about 5 days a week. Any guesses? If you guessed Thomas the Train then you are right! We are so thrilled with the purchases and brought them in and set up the track. I wonder who's more excited about Christmas morning, Connor or the two of us? Considering Byron had a dream about setting up the track with Connor, I'm guessing us.:) Way to kick off December with a bang!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm grateful.....

for Apple Pieto be a wife and mother
for our little buddy

Happy Thanksgiving!

Let's Dance

My friend Rachael had this posted on her blog and I found it inspiring. Check it out if you want to add a little cheer to your holidays. love, the Kubiks
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9562013855

Pure Happiness

What could be better than snuggling with Daddy after a nap? Snuggling with Daddy, 2 blankies, and three stuffed friends. Ahh, what a good life.

Good Bye Old Friend

Byron and I were cleaning out our closets yesterday, moving our fall/winter things to the forefront (about time) and our spring/summer things to the back (I thought this day would never come). I took the opportunity to be "real" with myself and get rid of things I hadn't worn in a few years. I was putting some things aside when Byron noticed these shoes and said I had to take and picture and blog about them. You see, these shoes have a story. They've been the best shoe friend I've had in a long time. When I came home from my mission in December of 2002, all the clothes I had worked so hard to acquire during the previous years had vanished. This didn't matter to me though since I thought the clothes I had worn home on the plane where really the only things a girl could need. I mean they're just things to cover your body right? (I was living on a higher plane at the time). The story of my first trip to the mall after coming home is a blog in itself so I'll just leave it with saying that it took me less than 30 seconds upon entering the mall to realize the reality of my situation. My parents had realized my plight long before I did and were so wonderful to give me money to start over and get some clothes before heading out to BYU. Among the things I bought were 3 pairs of shoes. Brown boots, and two pairs of black shoes including the ones pictured above. These shoes were my staples. I loved them. I wore the pictured shoes every Sunday. Many days to school. Over the next few years, I wore them every day to work. They expanded with my feet during my pregnancy. I even continued to wear them after the elastic had broken on the sides. I couldn't find another pair their equal! A big event for me was even close to being ruined because these shoes were not ready from the Shoe Repair Shop when they said they would be and I really had nothing else to put on my feet. I had to borrow my sister's shoes which are 2 sizes bigger than mine and stuff tissue at the toe and slide around most of the night. Is it sad and pathetic? Yes? Is it true? Yes again. One day after going through 9 months of pregnancy and 4 months of reclaiming my sanity after having a baby, I looked around and realized I was quickly becoming outdated. No wait, I wasn't becoming, I was outdated. These shoes that had been my friend and ally were no longer "cool". I just couldn't bare to part with them though. I mean, if I threw them away, what would that say about me? What kind of cold hearted person so quickly discards something that has given them so much? Well, apparently me. After not wearing them for 2 years, I've made the call. They smell, they're broken, threads are sticking out on them, and it's time to say good bye. I just want you to know friend, you're the best. Thanks for sticking with me through it all. It'll be a long time before I can call another shoe "friend".

Power

The power of a Thomas the Train DVD.

Bathtime

Recently Connor has found great joy in getting on his tummy in the tub and kicking and splashing around. Last night he "dove" for a sponge fish and came up with it in his mouth. Should I be proud or concerned? I mean, isn't that what bears do?:)

Riding the Bus

Connor and I have felt more like a twosome lately than a threesome, so when Byron told me he was able to take the day off from school work on Saturday we shouted for joy and planned a fun adventure to do all together: Connor's first ride on the bus. Since the bus doesn't come by the stop close to our house on Saturday's we decided to drive to the University Mall, let him play with the train sets and the two toy shops there (always a big hit) and take the bus from there to Franklin Street, the heart of all things centered around the University of North Carolina. We were surprised when Connor was more than a little upset once we entered the bus. Our best guess is that it was the fear of a whole sea of new faces as opposed to the actual bus that was unsettling to him. He got over it quickly though and seemed to enjoy people watching and tree watching (because Chapel Hill appears to have been carved out of a dense forest). It was exciting to get off the bus and discover we were in the heart of the Homecoming buzz. Carolina blue was everywhere! The weather was beautiful too so we walked down to a Mexican restaurant, Chipotle, and had a fantastic lunch. I don't know which one of us had the better time! We then walked further down to a small shop that specializes in Popsicles called LocoPops. We got Connor the cookies and cream pop and he slowly but surely ate the whole thing. He also had a great time being set free from his stroller and running up and down the sidewalks. It was a happy morning spent all together, we love those!

Sleeping after a fun morning

Waiting for our first busEnjoying LocoPop

Waiting for our bus home

Connor and Daddy!

Weekend

We had a great weekend with my family! It always go by too fast though. Thanks so much for making the effort to come everyone, we had a great time!

Happy Halloween!

We had such a fun time trick-or-treating with Connor this year! He was so excited about his costume as a monkey and loved to say, "Oooh, Oooh" like a monkey when he was wearing it. We got to go out with some friends, and Connor caught on to saying "Treat!Treat!" at the door. He was a little hesitant at first, but when he saw what was going on, he muscled his way through to get his candy! He enjoyed a few pieces along the way and loved seeing all the Halloween decor. I don't think I've had this much fun since I was a kid! Happy Halloween!

Making Cookie Memories

Last year my friend Ruth invited a few friends over to decorate Halloween sugar cookies and it was so much fun I wanted to continue the tradition. We got together with our friends the Peterson's and had a cookie extravaganza! The boys weren't too interested in decorating, so Jami and I had a great time talking and icing. Here's our delicious work below.
Connor was pretty interested in eating the cookies....
Here's the aftermath. Poor cookie, it never had a fighting chance.

Mommy's Little Helper

Lately Connor has been super interested in all aspects of doing laundry. He wants to help me put clothes in the washer and then help move them to the dryer. He likes to unload the clothes form the dryer to the "to be folded" basket, and his favorite is actually folding where he mimics me shaking out shirts before folding and patting them down on the floor after folding. (It's amazing what I've learned about my own habits by watching what he mimics. I had no idea I patted the folded clothes after I put them on their respective piles until I saw him doing it and then caught myself in action!). We had a minor mishap recently when I left the dryer door down and left Connor pulling clothes out into the basket. I ran upstairs to get something and heard Connor calling my name. When I made my way back downstairs and turned the corner into the kitchen, I stopped dead in my tracks to find Connor on top of the counter over our washer and dryer. He was standing holding out a Starburst candy he had found wanting me to open it for him. So, yes, we now have a major climber on our hands!

Meet Me At the Fair

We had a great time at the North Carolina State Fair today! Connor discovered the joy of cheese fries today at the fair. Here's a list of the fair foods we indulged in today: 1 corn on the cob, 1 steak gyro, 1 cheese fry, 1 Italian sausage dog, 1 cotton candy, 1 ice cream, and one North Carolina Barbecue sandwich. Delicious.
Rain, Rain Go Away...

The heaven's opened for the first time in 5 mths and poured baby, poured. We found shelter under a tent next to a Baptist Church Recruiting Center and had a nice talk with an elderly man named R.C. Looking back, it's funny that we were the only 3 people under there while hundreds of others were trying to cram under the eaves of buildings. Guess we were the only brave ones. We had plenty of room to spread out, that's for sure!
When we left Chapel Hill in the morning is was nice and sunny, who knew we needed ponchos? Connor loved playing in the rain and mud though and the sun came out and dried us all off as the morning went by. It brought me back to trips to Kings Island with my family growing up and getting drenched and moving forward with fun. Nothing was going to get in our way of a good time and good food!




Here's Connor chowing down on his corn on the cob. Yum.

We had a such a great time and already can't wait to make another trip next year. I feel a new family tradition coming on!

One Down...

I am THRILLED to report that on this day October 16, 2007, I Kristi Kubik, have completed my son's baby scrapbook! Yes! I have to admit, I am a little nervous about being able to duplicate a baby scrapbook for hopefully more children to come, but at least this is one down, hopefully a few more to go.:) Enjoy my last pages about Connor's first words, and the closed, completed book. Ahhh, victory.

When at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again

I am thrilled that we have had two very successful Family Home Evenings over the past 3 weeks. The first was on Noah and we used a toy Noah's Ark and children's book with the story to talk about it. The next week we talked about reverence using a book we have titled I'm Reverent When and Connor now folds him arms when we ask him to be "reverent". Yes! Success! Each successful FHE has finished with a treat which is happy for all three of us! This past Monday night was a complete bust however. Connor was not in the mood and demonstrated this to us by sliding himself from Byron's arms, from the couch and rolling around the floor saying "Nooooooooooo" as we were singing our opening song, "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam". Apparently, Connor wasn't feeling it. So...we ended with a treat. We need to give our child consistency right?:) We'll try, try again next week!

It's Pumpkin Time!

Connor's been so thrilled with pumpkins this year. He calls them "balls" and points them out whenever he sees them. (We have three on our calendar for this month so it's a daily thing we do to point them out while we're eating dinner now).:) I couldn't help but buy two when we were shopping this past week. I bought a small pumpkin just for Connor. When he saw it he hugged it and said, "ball" in the most loving way and carried it with him the rest of the trip. It was totally worth the $2 to see his love and care towards his very first pumpkin. I love this time of year!

And the Winner Is...

Even though our apartment complex is old and showing it, I really appreciate the staff. They work really hard to make Booker Creek Townhouses a nice and happy place to live. Thank you staff!:) One of their recent efforts was a fall decorating contest. I received a flier on my door stating the parameters of the contest and decided since I already had my fall wreath up, might as well "register". (This consisted of going to the office and finding I was the first one to sign up. It was the last day to do so). After I registered, the competitive side of me reared its ugly head (I've been successful at beating it down for many, many years in order to live a more happy, conflict free life, but sometimes it gets the better of me). So the competitive Kristi started looking around at the other apartments. Shock! There was no fall beauty to be found anywhere! I've been sitting patiently waiting for my grand prize ever since. Three weeks later I found a note on my door saying I had received second place and to pick up my prize the next day. Since I had successfully recaged competitive Kristi, I was very pleased with my second place and happily received my prize at the office today. I am the proud recipient of an hour massage (gratuity not included). I've never had a massage before. Are they nice? Do they hurt? I was more hoping for some sort of restaurant gift certificate or maybe a month's free rent, but beggars can't be choosers right? I'll have to put my game face on next contest.

Cart Sneaking

It appears my days of children sneaking things into my cart at the store has officially begun. We were doing our routine "walk through" of the toys before racing through grocery shopping when Connor found a DVD that had all sorts of super heroes on it. He's been fascinated by pictures of super heroes lately so this DVD caught his eye. He looked it over and studied it and then came to the cart reached up on his tippy-toes and threw the DVD into the cart! I just wanted to burst out laughing. Seriously, is that hysterical to anyone else? I was pretty proud of him too that he had figured out what goes in the cart, comes home with us. I think I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on what goes through the check-out from now on though. I could become like that lady who sold the "snuck into the cart Pokeman cards" on Ebay for what, like $50? Maybe this isn't such a bad thing after all....

Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping for Connor and I is an event. We travel 20 min to Super Wal-Mart and we start out by playing with the elephant ride at the door. I put him in the cart for 3 seconds to get something I need, then let him walk around playing with toys, etc for another 15-20. I then begin the luring to the cart process where I try to get him in with some candy and then go to the baby section to find a duplicate of his own soft blankie in the car (remember we can't bring it into the store because I'm a germ freak). The blankie keeps him content until about the pasta isle where I whip out our second treat of the shopping trip. This keeps him happy until the produce section where I now begin talking about getting to see the elephant again and ultimately, this is where our shopping trip comes full circle. It's a great life for Connor isn't it? The other day, our neighbor brought over some things from her pantry that she no longer wanted. (To us, it was like striking gold! Green beans, pasta sides, yes!) She brought them over in two brown paper bags. Byron and I were finishing eating dinner and we heard Connor just talking and working away. When I came out from the kitchen I found that he had unloaded all the items, placed them in groupings on the stairs, and was choosing his products for purchase and placing them back in the empty bags. It cracked us up! Maybe he likes grocery shopping more than he lets on....

One of My Favorite Things...Cake!

krist

This past Saturday was a wonderful Women's Conference put on by the Durham Stake Relief Society. I was able to attend 3 hour long classes (all were great) one of which was cake decorating. Now, if you know me at all, you know I live for all things sweet, especially cake. I was so so so excited to learn a little bit more about decorating one. (I have visions of many award winning birthday cakes coming our way over the years, right.) There were about 20 of us in the class and the teacher had already baked cakes for all of us in various molds. I happened to stand in front of a football player so I had a great time making a Carolina Blue Tarheel. It was so much for to create and I decided we needed some help eating this cake! Our friends came over and their two boys and Connor loved the evening of cake and ice cream eating (um, was there a birthday we could have celebrated?) and playing. It's not often we get to eat cake for no good reason...let's do it again!