Play Date

If you look at the link on the right hand side, you will see my friend April's blog.  Click on that link and it will take you to a blog where her daughter Ella and Haven had a play date last Friday.  There are some really cute pictures.

Centennial Celebration

We had a church picnic today to celebrate the Nazarene Centennial.  Wonderful weather, good food, fun and friendship, oh and a lot of work, but it was worth it.  Here Haven is getting a ride from Stan.  Stan and Norma were missionaries for over 30 years and moved from California to be close to their daughter.

Jonathan has been running around crazy for weeks preparing, but finally got to relax a bit and play horse shoes.  Andrew is one of our college students.  He was playing hooky from studying, but we didn't mind!

Lorena and Taryn are Haven's little mother hens.  They watch over her and play with her.

Michael said this was my redneck husband drinking tea out of the jug.  He came from California, but is midwest at heart.

Jonathan played tug-o-war.

He participated in the sack race too,  He was everywhere having fun.

Haven called a football a ball ball.

Jonathan and I doing the three legged race.  We were second.  We also did the egg toss and would have won if it didn't break the very last throw.  Well, duh, but hopefully you know what I mean.

Zoo Surprises

We finally made it to the St. Louis Zoo with Haven!  It was the PERFECT day!  The sun was out, but it was cool enough out that we never got hot.  I actually wore a sweater part of the time.  The ant eaters are such weird looking animals.  Actually there were a lot of unique animals.  It is amazing how creative God was when creating the world!  What an imagination.

One thing I love about the St. Louis Zoo is how beautiful it is.  There are so many paths that are just full of wonderful plants, flowers and bushes.  It is actually very peaceful in so many places.

What a surprise it was when we rounded a corner and this woman was looking at me like she knew me and waved.  I was even more shocked when I realized it was my cousin from Olathe Kansas.  We had just gotten there and so we were able to spend the day with the cousins.  What a pleasure it was!  Jenna loved spending time with Haven.  At the end of the evening we went out for supper and Haven was a bit slap happy after a long day without much of a nap and Jenna was so cute making Haven crack up for at least five minutes straight.

The hippos came extremely close, but the picture was bad due to the murkiness of the water.

Jenna just loved Haven riding in the stroller with her.  It was so cute how she put her arm around her.

Logan is only a couple of weeks younger than Haven.  He has a full set of teeth to Haven's six.  Logan had the greatest smile.  You could tell it even under the pacifier.

Daddy carried Haven a lot and held her up to look at the animals.  He sacrificed a sore back for his daughter.  What a daddy!

The elephants were amazing to watch.  This one was drinking and eating.  The way they use their noses is just fascinating.  

Haven loved to push her stroller.  She ended up riding in the Sparks's Zoo stroller more than her own, so she pushed hers when she wasn't riding.

She watched the animals.....but

mainly she watched Jenna and the kids.  She was so tired since it was nap time.

Logan and Radford were tired too, so they took a small nap.

This was a strange beast.  It's tongue is like a giraffe's and its legs are like a zebra.  The plaque said that it was closer to the giraffe than a zebra.

It was such a wonderful thing to spend the day with cousins.  I don't think I got a picture of Ericka though.  Here are all the kids.  Tyler, Austin, Jenna, Logan and Haven.

Like I said Haven was a bit tired, so there was not all that much excitement on her face.  At first I don't think she knew what to think of riding up and down and in circles.

We got to see the feeding of the penguins.  There was a statue of one that Haven hugged.

This was a rescued brown stork that had an amputated wing.  He was really close to the glass.

Haven and daddy watching the penguins swim and splash.  I never did warm up after being in there!

We also got to see the feeding of the bears.

We really have to run after Haven now if we put her down.  I need a leash!  Aunt Amie this is the outfit you got her MONTHS ago.  It fits perfectly now that she is actually starting to grow a bit.

Look at that double chin.  This was one large animal.  He was sticking his food out at us.

Haven fell asleep on the way to the car.  Long day, but a very amazing one.

Is it a boy?

Well here is the new addition to our family.  This was taken at about 15 weeks.  Sorry a bit blurry, but it is a picture of the slightly blurry picture!.  You can see ?his? head and a little fist by his mouth.  I think it looks like a boy profile.  What do you think?

The arrow is pointing at ?him? sucking his thumb.  So that will make two thumb suckers.

Poor ?boy? I am exposing his parts to the world....we think.  Here is why the tech said she thought it was a boy, but no guarantees this early.  We will know in about four weeks what the final diagnosis will be.  The horse shoe shape is ?his? rear end and ?his? legs and in the middle is ?his?....hmmm.

Wagons and Boo Boos

Haven sat herself in one of her wagons.

And made her self comfortable after I got her out the first time and wouldn't take her out the second time.

But of course I had mercy after she couldn't remove herself from the situation and started getting upset about it.

Haven took her first concrete head dive off of a step.  I guess it was closer to a side dive off the step.  She wasn't paying attention and I couldn't get to her fast enough.  If you look it is near her hair line...on the left as you look at the picture.  I was just thinking that she really hasn't had many scrapes and bruises, but of course Monday she scraped up her arm and we have no idea how and now her head.  She is getting to that age!

Here is a side shot.  It really could have been worse.  It just scraped, but didn't bleed.  It looks bruised, but it's not it is just the picture.

Chubby Bunny

Chubby Bunny is a game where you stick as many large marsh mellows in your mouth as possible while still being able to say chubby bunny.  Last night my Wednesday night young adult class, along with a couple from church, went to the park to play sand volleyball.  We cooked hot dogs, had some chips and a few of us played chubby bunny.  Here is Jonathan shoving marsh mellows in his mouth.

It's hard to say chubby bunny with your mouth full!  His strategy was to shove one in his lower lip and one in his upper.  Didn't really work, I tried :o)

I couldn't stop laughing and I had to use the restroom, so it was really bad!  I think this was only four large marsh mellows.  The record that night was tied at 7.

I think I was trying to make a whole and I was in the middle of saying it here.  Didn't work so well.  They really get mushy and hard to shove once they have been in there for a while.

Then when they get slimy they start to ooze back out.  Six was the most, but I tried seven and this was the result.

Relaxing

We bought a very comfy chair while we were in Minnesota and Haven has commandeered it as her comfy chair.  The past couple of days she will climb up and just sit back and relax.  It just cracks me up.  She acts all grown up in it. 

Kicked back and chillin' out with her bear.