The Ultimate Snow Ramp

The weather turned just a little warmer yesterday and today (mid-30's) so it was an opportunity to build the ultimate snow ramp. Bob and Yasmin and Elias spent almost 4 hours on Saturday and our friend, Chris joined after church on Sunday to get the ramp ready for the deep freeze which blew in on Sunday afternoon. Now we just need a new blanket of white stuff to make it the perfect jumping off point for sledding down to the neighbor's driveway.

The Hubert Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Wrestling Action

Elias started his second season of wrestling action last week. This along with Yasmin's need for TaeKwonDo sparring practice has resulted in a very violent household.

Elias is in the center of the wrestling mat in the green shirt. And Kia maintains her position as pound-for-pound, the fiercest Hubert of them all!

Snow Fun!

Two snow bunnies . . .

Ahn-Bao Update

Ahn-Bao experienced his first Christmas program at his preschool last week. He followed directions and took his place on the stage very dutifully, but it had to be very confusing for him to be experiencing such an odd phenomenon for the first time for such a fresh little mind! Ahn-Bao is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday, December 16 to have his tonsils and possibly adenoids removed. This has become necessary to prepare for his next palate re-repair and expansion which will likely be in January. The palate repair this time will be a pharyngeal-flap procedure (wikipedia has an explanation of the procedure at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngeal_flap_surgery) to expand what his plastic surgeon says is a too-short palate. While he is under anesthesia for the tonsils they will also clean out his ears and check to make sure that the tubes that were surgically placed in April are still in place. The ENT surgeon expects to schedule his surgery for early in the morning and keep him overnight in the hospital just one night.

If all goes well for both procedures, this should help him be ready to learn to make more of the consonant sounds that he is now lacking. He is getting speech therapy through the school district every couple of weeks and we're working on homework in-between. He's very motivated and talks up a storm, but requires a family translater (often one of the other kids) to be understood. We are very hopeful that once the anatomy is repaired, that he can really have a chance to be more understood. It would be such a joy to hear the independent thoughts, feelings and observations that he trys so hard to express.

Ahn-Bao will also have an ultrasound of his kidneys on December 12. This is a precautionary measure to make sure his kidneys are not compromised by the melamine contamination of milk in China over the past few years. It has just been coming to light recently and it's likely that Ahn-Bao would have had some exposure. He's already had clear laboratory tests so the ultrasound is just to put his parents minds at ease.

Get Out the Vote!

The Hubert Family all joined in the "Get Out the Vote" campaign on election night tonight. Our polling place, Autumn Ridge Church had special ballots to allow the kids to vote too. Everyone got an, "I Voted" sticker (you can see Yasmin wearing hers on her cheek). You'll have to ask them how they voted and what they think of the results as they roll in.

The Cousin's Halloween Costumes!

Cousins Bailey, Caden, Connor and Olivia shared photos from a distance of their Halloween attire which we have taken the liberty of sharing with all of you!

Olivia is a Ducky!

Bailey is a vampire, Connor is Spiderman, Caden is a knight in “shining” armor, and Lisa is tired.