As it turns out....

Stella likes candy canes! David was trying to win some points with Estelle since she is very clearly a momma's girl and he offered her a candy cane! She loved it!

Christmas 2010

This was around 11am on some day around Christmas this year. It is all a blur to us - we were wiped out by germs this year. Here's hoping for health in 2011!

The photographer got this picture on the first try in this pose!

Henry in his three-and-a-half-year-old glory!

Estelle!

All three smiling at once!

Christmas 2010

Opening presents! What a great time the kids had! :)

Check out the beautiful pearls Dave got me! I must have been good this year! I was painting sissy's nails with the new nailpolish set that santa brought her.

The best gift of all! :)

I took the kids to see Santa on Tuesday and isn't this priceless! Henry was so excited to see him that he budged everyone else in line and just ran right up to the big guy! I had to explain to him about waiting in line! He was adorable. Sophie was such an angel too! She picked up his reindeer bells that Stella booted from his lap and she's convinced that this is going to keep her on the 'nice' list this year! :)

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa!

A little man-to-man talk on the stairs! :)

Sophie got an email from Santa and we all watched it together! She had to take her shirt off to cool down from playing so many video games!

We just got back in last night around 10pm from a last-minute trip to NY to see family. This is a picture of us at the hotel during the trip. The kids act like we're at Disney World!!

Stella & the sippy

I was just loving Stella's adorable smiles this quiet morning and thought I'd share them!

She can use the sippy cup by herself now & is very proud!

all smiles!

The end of an era!

We finally had to pack away the bean table this weekend! Now that Stella is crawling she searches out every stray legume she can find and pops it in her mouth! We packed them into a tupperware tub and will play in it when she's napping or contained! Thanks Grandpa for making the table for us!!

Bun Bun and Dino wearing gloves to keep them warm while playing outside with the Hilberts.

The kids have created a new game where Sophie and Henry play that they are Fred and Sara Hilbert. This is their house and baby bun bun (the rabbit Sophie brought for me at the hospital when I had Stella) and dinosaur (that we won out of the game at CiCi's pizza) are their children. Dave and I are the grandparents and Stella is the cousin.

Fred Hilbert having car and shoe trouble under the pine tree

Sara Hilbert working on perfecting her rope swing form (you can just see her purple legs climbing to try the rope swing for the thousandth time)

Grandma and Grandpa sent matching pj's for the kids! They wore them for the first time all together! Aren't they adorable?

Stella's CRAWLING!! This is her venturing into the downstairs bathroom while I was trying to send an email! I called her name and this is her peeking out!

'Hi Mommy!!'

She flaps her arms and waves her hands when she's excited!

And then crawls over for some hugs and kisses!

Such a happy baby!!

We had a playdate and the kids made turkeys with the feathers they found scattered around our backyard. Sophie had a great time! Henry wanted to run over the feathers with his 'tractor' and was bummed that this wouldn't be allowed!

The kids eating 'dirt' out of a flowerpot! We put chocolate pudding and crushed oreos in the glass bowl and then added fake flowers! We kept it on the center of the kitchen table and nobody ever guessed that it was the snack for the day! :)

This is cute-as-pie Henry at his Thanksgiving Feast for pre-school.

Henry - Benry making cookie-mix-in-a-jar for his teachers for a Thanksgiving gift. He loved handing these out and was so proud!

This is Henry explaining what he would say if he encountered a monster. He would tell him "You stoop out!" (In a very loud and scary voice)

This is Sophie showing off her cookie-mix-in-a-jar gift for her teachers for Thanksgiving. We talked about what she is thankful for this year and at the top of her list is food!

Stella hung out in the sink while I picked up the dishes from making the jar cookies! Isn't she so cute?

One of my girlfriends invited us over for dinner on a night while both of our hubbys were working late. Look at all of the kids!

Sophie loves jumping in leaves and she's introduced her little sister to the fun!

The three happy kids!

She loves this so much!

Sophie holding up a huge boulder on our hike at 'bear's den'

She really loved climbing on top of all of these huge rocks!

The view was absolutely beautiful

Daddy and Henny benny