Snow Bunny

Haven got to be a little snow bunny this week.  I was worried we wouldn't be able to try out her snow suit this year.  I wondered if she would be "afraid" of the snow like she was of the sand at Christmas, but she just got right on down and started to try it out.

The one thing she didn't like was snow in her face.  She started crying when a chunk was stuck to her nose.  She didn't like it when Jonathan and I were throwing snow at each other and her, and she really didn't like it when she fell and landed face first in the snow.

Not sure if you can see, but she had the cutest rosy nose and cheeks.

The extend of her "play" was taking her hands and moving them back and forth in the snow.

What she mainly did is walk.  She did great!  She walked all the way down the road and we had a hard time getting her to go back to the house.  A couple of times we asked if she was ready to inside and she said a definite "NO".

It is hard to tell, but in one of the tire tracks you can see her little tiny boot tracks.

Haven really enjoys hiding.  Daddy taught her long ago how to hide in the pillows.  Sometimes she will crawl on the couch and hide herself.  This time daddy and her hid together.  She will do this with blankets too.  One of us will be out of the room and she will get a blanket and say "hide", and we will have to hide from the person not in the room.

She is so excited when she is found.  It is so cute to hear her giggle in anticipation when she is hidden.

The other day I had some random clothes that were to big for her out and she decided she wanted all three items on at once.  She is now starting to "cheese" when the camera comes out.  Most of the time it is a grimace or pure teeth, but sometimes she manages a "cheese" of a smile.

Christmas Adventures - Pt 7 Last Post

For the last five years we have been able to be with Cullen on his birthday.  He turned six this year.  Aren't these the cutest cupcakes!

Amie liked them so much, according to Cullen she ate three.  Look at the plate for proof.  Actually everyone kept putting their liners on her plate.

Colten really likes children so he was cute with Haven.  He liked riding in the car with her wherever she went.

Cullen got a drum set for his birthday and Haven LOVED it.  She pounded away.

The second story had a small balcony that looked towards the lake.  The lake was that close!  I love this picture.

Christmas Adventures - Pt 6 The beach

Eugene and Sheryl have friends that have a beach condo with beach access, so they offered that access to the family.  We had a wonderful day at the beach with them.  The water was a bit chilly, but it was a beautiful day.

Haven wasn't so sure about the sand and the water.  At first she didn't like walking on the sand and she really didn't want to get into the water!  So we just looked on.

She saw a bird.

The boys were the only brave ones to get into the water.  The girls hung out on the beach being warmed by the sun.

My favorite picture!  PawPaw and Haven.

Cullen was buried in the sand.

Before Haven got brave, so was content to be in the arms of mommy or daddy.  It also was her nap time, but she did wonderful anyway!

Haven finally warmed up to playing in the sand, and when she played she really decided to go all out!  Yummy gritty sand!

Playing in the hole left by Cullen.

Definitely needed a bath after that day.

Christmas Adventures - Pt 5 Lost License and Pampering

I have to say that part of vacation was very stressful!  I was buying a gift and some baby boy clothes in Florida and realized that I didn't have my license!  I really started freaking out when I got back to Eugene's house and could not find it anywhere.  I took every article of clothing out of the suitcases and shook them out.  We moved the suitcases, we looked in the house, and in the car.  So, I proceeded to make a million phone calls to figure out what I was suppose to do to get back home.  A police report was called in to Orlando because I was told to bring a copy to the airport.  Then I called the MO DMV to see if they had any ideas (I wanted to cover all bases).  They said I could get a clearance letter from them, so I looked the application up online and guess what....it needed to be notarized.  When we went to get it notarized we found out I needed a picture ID.  So we went to the local DMV and they could not help.  You would think the DMV would have realized that I needed a picture ID to have their letter notarized.  So, the manager at the MO DMV suggested that I go to the local police department to have them request a "blow up".  We got there and after a bit of a wait an officer came out and gave me a case#...not what I needed.  I explained what I was looking for and he said he did not think he could help me, but took my paperwork to find out.  Keep in mind I was silly enough to give him ALL my paperwork with vital and personal information.  Sheryl had called her PD friend to see if he could help.  While we were waiting for the officer to come back with my paperwork, Sheryl's friend called back and a co-worker came out to help me.  She was incredibly helpful.  Back to my paperwork...the officer got called out so my paperwork was missing!  Anyway Heidi, the helpful lady, asked if we had anything planned like shopping, if so we could go do that while she worked on my paperwork.  So we went to have a manicure!  French tip on my toes makes me feel sexy and a pregnant woman needs to feel sexy, so I got the French tip.  It was a nice end to a very stressful day.  Everything was still up in the air, but at least my feet were sexy!

Okay, so after the manicure I called to see if the officer had my paperwork.  I was trying to sound so professional, but used the la-la land phrase and mom and the sister-in-laws all started cracking up, which made me crack up on the voice mail.  They probably thought it was a prank call.  I had to wait until the next day to resolve the situation.  Okay, so with fax problems and other misc issues I finally got the blow up and letter!  That next day we all went to get a massage, which was also a nice break in the stressful situation.  Okay, so the ending to the story is this.  We were loading up to leave four days later and Jonathan saw something on the floor.  What could it be?  My license!  We had looked multiple times in that same spot and had moved the suitcases to another room even and yet there it was!  Thank you God. 

My sexy toes :o)

Christmas Adventures - Pt 4 Japanese Steak House

We had the opportunity to go out to eat a few times.  Eugene and Sheryl know what day the kids eat free!  We went to a Japanese Steak House that was absolutely delish.  Everyone split a plate because the portions were huge and it made it cheaper.  Jonathan had never experiences the fire and cooking right in front of you.  Haven loved the rice, sprouts and surprisingly the mushrooms.  She tried this "meat" and did not want any more.  Later she wanted it again, I think she forgot she didn't like it.  The second time she spit it out and was trying to scrape her tongue off with her hands.  We laughed so hard at her trying to get it off her tongue.  It was a liver patty!  She looked so cute in the hat.  She didn't keep it on though.

Colten, Sheryl, Eugene and Cullen.  They love this place.  Colten and Cullen eat the liver patty thing...yuck!

Amie and Jimmy the walrus.

Dad and Mom --- the whole family was there!

Christmas Adventures - Pt 3 Wipe Out

Eugene and Sheryl belong to a community that has dug out a couple of ski lakes and then they built their house just yards from the lakes.  My brother is a competitive water skier, so this is his dream home.  He can ski every day if he wants.  Needless to say, there was the opportunity for Jonathan to try and get up on skis.  Before I go into that, they also have a couple of tubes that they go tubing on.  One day Jonathan went out with the boys and the story goes he hit a wave on the tube and it launched him into the air and over the head and tube of Cullen.  Jonathan landed on the other side.  I was in taking a nap with Haven, so of course I missed the show!  I also missed tubing since I am prego.  I was sad as that is one of my favorite things to do.  My brother Jimmy who has not skied in years, was able to get up on the slolumn (have no idea how to spell it!).  It is just one ski and then you weave in and out of the bueys (again no idea on spelling!).

Haven and I went out on the boat to watch daddy try to get up on the skis.  Every time Jonathan got in the water, she would sound worried and say daddy.  This life jacket was Colten and Cullens when they were babies.  My nephews have actually been skiing also since they were a couple of years old!

Here is Jonathan putting on the skis.  He had to back off of the platform and flop into the water.  It was quite humorous from where I was :o)

There are so many things to try and remember.  Keep the skis parallel, stay in a ball with your knees bent, don't lean back, keep your arms straight and don't pull the rope towards you, let the boat pull you up.....I actually remembered most of the advise from when I first learned to get up on skis.  I probably could not get up now though.  I barely made it up the last time!

This was after Jonathan had water pushed up his nose a few times from leaning back to far.  Looks like he is going to get up doesn't it!  

Nope, he didn't.  He really tried hard and almost had it a couple of times!  He just got to worn out before he had all of the positions in place.  I forgot to tell him to work out before we left!

Christmas Adventures - Pt 2 Family Fun

Well we had a lot of different kinds of family fun.  There are some very specific activities and I will blog about those individually.  Here are a few misc. ways.

Jonathan decorated a cool gingerbread house with the boys.  Mostly what Jonathan did with the boys all week was either watch them play their new Wii or play with them.

Jonathan and the boys playing with silly string.  A creative way to make them pick it all up was to have a contest on who could make the biggest ball :o)  Sneaky.  As you can see Eugene and Sheryl have a huge front yard.

Jimmy loves to fish.  The ski lakes are stocked with fish, so Jimmy went fishing and caught a big one!

Mom and Haven took a couple of walks down by the lake.  You have to watch out for fire ants in Florida!  So watch were you are walking.

The boys played a rousing game of baseball.  Haven joined for an inning and hit a good one!

Christmas Adventures in Florida - Pt 1

We had so many adventures on our Christmas vacation in Florida, so I will break them up into parts.  I was trying to figure out how long it had been since I had been to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Florida.  I know it has been over six and a half years!  It was before Jonathan and I met.  This year all my family traveled to Palm Bay Florida to have Christmas.  Jimmy, Amie, Jonathan, Haven and I all arrived Christmas day and mom and dad arrived the next day.

Haven of course loved opening her presents.  My nephews Colten and Cullen really enjoyed Haven.  Here you can see Colten peeking over her shoulder to see what she got.  Notice the short sleeves and shorts.  The weather was perfect the whole time we were there!  High 70's low 80's.  The day we left it was chilly at around 70 degrees :o)

Here are my two nephews Cullen on the left and Colten on the right.

Haven was very upset when she ran out of presents and everyone else was opening theirs.  She thought she should be able to open them all!  Grandma was nice and let Haven help her.

It is hard to see this outfit, but it was the cutest.  I bought it a long time ago for Haven to wear this spring.  Good thing we went to Florida, because it fit perfectly now.  Haven loved this toy.  She pounds as hard as she can to get the balls to go into the box.  Now we just have to teach her not to use the hammer for other things!  Mom and dad drove down to Florida, so we didn't have to worry about getting the toys back home on the plane.

Christmas - Break in Tradition

Sometimes it is necessary to break with tradition.  Growing up we were never allowed to open any presents on Christmas Eve.  We always had to wait until Christmas morning.  I remember waking up every couple of hours and looking at the clock anticipating the big opening.  We could wake mom and dad up around 6:30...I think.  It has been so long ago now.  What I do remember is that mom never had all the presents out.  So it was torture waiting the extra time it took for her and dad to set everything up.  It seemed like at least an extra half a hour to hour.  Probably it was closer to ten minutes give or take.  Anyway, this year Jonathan, Haven and I would be leaving at 3:30 in the morning to travel to St. Louis for our flight out to Florida.  That left Christmas Eve to celebrate our Christmas.  Open presents on Christmas Eve, YIKES!  It actually worked out really well.  It felt more like Christmas Day than Christmas Day did since we were traveling that day.  

That day for some reason Haven, who always takes off her hat as soon as she gets in the car, finds a "new" hat and wants to wear it pretty much all day long.  She even finds her doll's hat and has me put the dolls hat on so they match.  

Jonathan and I thought that we would let Haven open one present at a time and then let her play with it a while and then when she was finished, pull out another present.  We of course did not know any better.  Haven is now to the age that she just LOVES opening presents.  She pretty much went from one to another.  She acknowledged the toy played a couple of seconds and then went for another present to open.  She has played with her gifts a lot after all the gifts were open.

Haven loves to read, so she got a few books.  These pictures are when we were opening one at a time.  She actually sat through a couple of the short stories.

Haven loves to sing into microphones.  So we found one that looked like a "real" microphone.  It plays music and records short clips of your voice.  She really enjoys it.

Haven opened up her presents from Jonathan's side of the family while his parents were web chatting with us.  What a neat way to share Christmas when we are miles apart.  She thought that they should be able to talk into her microphone.  She tried Grandma and grandma sang, but we found out that Grandpa doesn't sing or rap :o)  Then she put the microphone up to her face on the screen.

It turned out to be a wonderful Christmas Eve Christmas, but I won't break tradition unless it is necessary!