Our little preschooler!

When did my little firefighter lovin', goggle wearin', motorcycle lover, Manch dippin', M&M sneakin', sweet baby boy become old enough to enter preschool? Seriously, when did he go from this....


to this....



It's hard to believe that Dane had his first day of preschool today. He was such a big boy! He immediately ran to the rice table and then began pointing at all the fire related items in the classroom. Dane really wanted Mommy & Daddy to stay, but he didn't cry when we told him that school was just for kids and just like a big boy he said, "You always come back." A couple of hugs and kisses later we were heading out the classroom door. Of course, Dan had to take a few more pictures and Dane turned to him and yelled, "That's my Daddy!" Very disruptive, but oh so cute! Through watery eyes and a few sniff sniffs, Mommy & Daddy reluctantly left the building and let Dane begin his educational journey.

Big smiles around here these days....

because this little fella is FINALLY sleeping through the night!!!!! And it only took 13 months! I couldn't be more thrilled with my little chunk-a-monkers. Even with as much as I love him, I'm happy to not see him at midnight, two and four am.

He's pretty thrilled with himself too.....

Ahhh.....just seeing that sweet face makes me a wee bit sad that I won't be seeing him in an hour.

First steps

Our trip to the barber was a lot more eventful than usual.

Jaeger Ray decided to take his first steps while Daddy was getting his hair cut. Capital Barbershop is a one chair shop with Rhonda behind the chair. She has an adorable barbershop complete with toys for the boys, a mellow gray faced dog named Bear and plenty of Tootsie Pops for good clients. ;) You may remember this picture of Rhonda and Dane from Dane's first haircut.


So, here's how it went down...
Jaeger was holding on to the stroller and suddenly let go and just stood there for awhile. It was as if he didn't even realize he was not holding on to something. I then put my hands out to him and he took 3 steps toward me before falling to the ground. He managed a few more steps before he gave up completely.
I am thrilled that we were all there to witness this milestone!

Of course, neither of us had our camera so the picture of Jaeger falling down was taken from Rhonda's phone. We're glad to at least have one photo from this monumental event. And as soon as we catch him in action again we'll post a video.

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Boy

It's hard to imagine that you are 3 today!!! Where has the time gone? We feel so blessed to have such an amazing son. You bring more joy to our lives than you can possibly know.

Here's an interview we did with Dane about some of his favorite things.

Who is your favorite friend? Kellan
What is your favorite color? broooo (blue!)

When you get big, what do you want to be? I want to get a big toy when I get big. I want a big toy called a fire truck.

What is your favorite toy to play with? A firetruck
What makes Daddy happy? I do (So true and very sweet!)
What makes Daddy sad? When I'm loud
What makes Mommy happy? I do make mommy happy. Sometimes firefighters make me happy.

What makes Mommy sad? When I cry.
What is your favorite food? Chicken Nuggets
What does Mommy do that is funny? Crying that's funny (I do this really loud pretend cry and Dane gets me a bottle - he thinks it's a hilarious.)
What is Mommy's favorite thing to do? Your favorite is to play princess (hmmm.....we've never played princess before!)
What is Daddy's favorite thing to do? Have chocolate ice cream (he's got him nailed!)
What is Mommy really good at? Making cookies
What is Daddy really good at? Making ice cream (hmmm...have I missed something here? Maybe he should have said getting ice cream out of the freezer! ;) )

What do you like to do outside? Play firefighter

What is your favorite dessert? Chocolate. I want chocolate after dinner.

What do you think is scary? A sea lion. I don't know what else is scary.

What is your favorite animal? A piggy cow

What do you love doing with Daddy? Mowing the lawn.

What do you love doing with Mommy? Going to the park.

Sun, sun, sun!!!

Where have we been?

Playing in the sun, that's where. :)

And right in the midst of this beautiful weather my family arrived and we've been busy scaling large mountains to get to beautiful blue glacial ice caves, flying to lodges, watching Orcas frolic in the ocean, and of course, playing firefighter over and over and over again. ;) (I'll post pictures of all of our wonderful adventures soon!)

And now school has started, so life in the Hubert household just got a little crazier.

Here are a few photos of a recent trip to the beach with our friends Mindy & Delayna.

This is Diver Don and he made Dane's whole day.
Let me explain...

We've recently been playing "scuba diver & water" where we dive to see ocean animals (all in our kitchen) and Dane puts on all of his gear (a snorkel, slipper flippers and of course, scuba goggles.) So Dane was quite excited to see a REAL LIVE diver. We watched Diver Don put on all of his gear and then go for a swim in the chilly Alaskan water. Dane was pretty enamored with the whole process and Diver Don was a great sport letting us watch him dress & letting Dane touch all of his gear.

They're finally here!

After 27 hours (yep, you read that correctly!!) Grandpapa (my dad), Grammie (Pilar), Uncle Lee, Auntie Stephie and Uncle Chris arrived from Connecticut. It was a grueling trip on their end, but we are sure happy they endured it. We've been having a blast! Dane sure is loving having constant playmates. :)

Today we went to the Shrine of St. Therese. I think it's safe to say everyone was amazed by the beauty and serenity of this amazing place. Here are some photos of our afternoon.

Grandpapa taking it all in.


A peaceful moment for Uncle Lee


My big brother (Uncle Lee) and me.

Auntie Stephie got this uber cute picture of Dane!!

Grammie didn't waste even a minute - she got right into Grandma mode the second she got here and the kids loved it. :)

The pictures below were taken at the Juneau Airport when Dan went to pick up the gang.

Uncle Chris being a goofball. It's hard to get a serious picture of this guy!

I had to include this handsome picture of Lee!!

Grammie and Dane all tuckered out!

*All pictures taken by the lovely Auntie Stephie!

Sunday Snapshot

Look at those chunky hands!!!!
I LOVE 'EM.
This pic was taken on the airplane on the way back from California.

Movie Monday (plus a bonus picture!)

Jaeger learned two new tricks while he was in California. Here's a picture of one...

*pulling himself up and standing, not playing the xylophone (although, hopefully one of my children wind up with some musical ability! Jaeger is named after his musical great-grandfather, so maybe he'll be the one.)

And a video of the other (Jaeger did already know how to crawl, but he was famous for the "army crawl" and never really got on all fours until our CA trip.)

Sunday Snapshot

I think we've actually recovered from our California trip and we can get back to some normalcy in our lives. ;) Which means we can get back to our weekly blog treats. (Don't worry though, I still have some more great photos from California - the Orange County Firefighter Station, Disney Downtown, and Dana Point just to name a few.)

Dane recently discovered LEGOS and his deep deep LOVE for these little men. We actually had to drive to the LEGO store in Downtown Disney to get these beloved men, but it was worth it as Dane just can't get enough of them. Notice that all of them have a helmet with goggles - a requirement with any person Dane now plays with. (I guess Dane just wants his little men to look just like him - helmet & goggles on 24/7.) He loves lowering the goggles and taking the helmet off and on over & over & over & over.....