Make the Car Go Crazy

Eric remembers this from his childhood.  The car would swerve back and forth, seem to turn without warning or some other such craziness.  He wanted our van to go crazy and wind up somewhere we could have a yummy breakfast.  Good idea except Jodi found out we were going for breakfast and when we said, "Not McDonald's!"  there was meltdown and hiding behind the couch in tear gushing disappointment.  Well that saved us $40 at a sit down restaurant dear, thanks.  No, actually we made a compromise: you can be happy and go where the crazy car goes or you can stay home.  We went to breakfast.  Smart girl.  None of us have eaten since then either.  Granma's House of Pancakes has HUGE portions - I'm so glad I'm not counting calories or watching my weight!  (can you hear the sarcasm?)  It was a lot of fun anyway.  I love that you can count on American's to have a great breakfast!  I'm comparing the breakfast options they have in Europe which are frankly downright dismal.  Eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, pancakes, crepes, omelets, hash browns, fruit, whipped cream , orange juice, chocolate milk, hot chocolate - this was just at our table - the menu had so many more options.  Yummy!  Sorry we forgot the camera or I would have a picture of Marcus' adorable Mickey Mouse pancake.

Drive around and look at lights

I love Christmas lights!  The twinkle and sparkle just help define the holiday.  A tasteful and artful quality should also accompany one's obsession with lights but unfortunately this is not always the case - oh well it gets ooohs and aaaahs and wows from the children section of the vehicle when one of these light displays is discovered.

We got one picture and its not a good one but so be it.  One house just around the corner from us merits a return visit when we have more snow - lights look sooo much better when they have a good covering of snow. I'm curious who likes the new LED lights?  The jury is still out on that one at our house.   I can't quite decide but I'm leaning toward the good old use up as much energy as possible kind of lights.  Now I'd better go get sewing - my days are quickly disappearing before I've got to have everything under the tree.  Merry Crafting!

December 14 - Neighborhood Coat Drive

Our local newspaper had an article about a couple of the local schools and kids who don't come to school wearing coats.  They asked people to bring coats and such so I decided we'd better try and do something.  (Northern Indiana has had its fair share of news coverage so the country can see just how bad the economy is - borderline propaganda but there are quite a few families really struggling and if we can help we should!) We needed a Christmas service project.  It wasn't quite as extensive as I wanted but we did collect 2 bags worth of warm stuff.  Hopefully the kids got something out of the activity but we'll just have to keep planning ways to serve people - that's celebrating Christmas!

December 13 - Stuff Christmas Cards and watch a movie

Well we got in a viewing of The Bishops Wife but as per earlier post I've been a bit busy planning and cooking so Christmas cards are not done and pictures have not been ordered.  Let's see if we can get ourselves going again.  I need a jump start from somewhere but this morning I have to start with dishes.  Hooray for Mondays!

December 12 - Christmas Spectacular

When is the show gonna start?  I want the show to start!  Where is Samantha?  When is Samantha going to sing?  I can't see Samantha.  Is there another song?  I want those kids to sing.  Is it there turn?  Is this a long show?  Is there another song?  Is there another song?  This is loud.  I see Samantha!  My fingers are thirsty.  Can I give them a drink in my mouth.  I don't want this to be a long show.  I can't see Samantha.  Is that a pretend Santa?  Are those kids supposed to be off the stage?  Is it time to go to Grandma's yet?

This is what its like sitting through a major musical production with Cora.  Jodi on the other hand was eating it up.  The H.S. Eric teaches at (which is also the same one I attended) has an amazing music program.  4 choirs, 3 bands, 2 jazz bands, orchestra, dance team, etc. and its cool to be a part of the music program.  Every year they put on the Christmas Spectacular and all the music groups get their time to shine on stage.  It really is quite amazing and for most people its family tradition to go to this show.  Jodi has gone 3 times now and Cora had her first taste.  I'd say the two sisters have different interests.  It was a fun activity and Eric walks away every time amazed that so many kids are involved and have that opportunity.  An opportunity he did not have where he lived in Northern California.  Merry Christmas.

December 11 - Polar Express Night

We really only had time to read the book because this was the night I was responsible for my Dad's surprise date night.  A romantic date night for 17 couples, china dishes, roses, lights, menus, a multiple course dinner (I even did Baked Alaska!)...the works.  I was at my dad's model home (gorgeous house with an amazing kitchen!) from about 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. kids included.  It was quite a night!  It felt like I had a restaurant for one evening and whew it was quite a lot of work.  I did have helpers (Lillian, and some sisters who were the servers) so that made things a lot easier.  The food turned out great I must say and planning was about perfect - not very many left overs and everyone at the dinner left stuffed.  I even got a round of applause, which has never happened for MY cooking before.  Proof that people can come a long way - my freshman year at BYU NO ONE would have applauded my cooking.  Big props to the America's Test Kitchen cookbook!  I need to buy it now - it was a borrowed cookbook.  I'm sure I owed this evening to my dad for all the things he's done for us.  In the end I rather enjoyed myself.  Hard work produced a fantastic result!

December 9 - making cookies

Hooray for good chocolate chip cookies.  We made them tiny so there were more cookies from one batch of dough.  It was too blustery and freezing last night to take plates around to neighbors but we'll do that one of these days before Christmas.
Here are a few pictures of the crew cookin' goodies.

Oh, I guess they lost some interest.  They did actually help measure and mix but since they couldn't use the cookie cutters they got out they lost interest.

Can you see the chocolate chips in his hand?  I prefer the mini's because then you get more chocolate per bite of cookie.  I call it optimal chocolate effect and that is my preferred method.

Splendiferous Christmas

Tonight was a Fancy Christmas Night thanks to our love of Fancy Nancy.  We opened a new book, Fancy Nancy and the Splendiferous Christmas, got dressed up, ate a fancy dinner and then made a fancy ornament for our tree.  It was quite a night let me tell you.  Jodi even said, "This is going to be my favorite dinner ever!"  As a  mom you love to hear your kids praising your scheming and working.  Keep it up Jodi!  Marcus just has to say, "WOW!" and I feel like I've accomplished great things.  Cora has the ability to light up her face in such a way that no words are necessary.  All my planning has to be worth it - fun night to be sure!  Pictures to follow I'm wiped out.

Marcus wouldn't pose in his suit and this is the only shot I wanted of myself - the veiled woman of mystery.

Lookin' good in his dapper duds!

Spumoni ice cream and pound cake for dessert.  I saw the ice cream and had to bring it home for our party because it is very much a Haffner thing to eat spumoni with pasta!

These are the fancy ornaments we made - they even look a bit like the one Fancy Nancy makes in her book.

Family Fun (oh and a photo shoot!)

I've got to send you all to go look at our family pictures.  My friend Lillian took the kids pictures last year and offered to do it again this year.  I love how they turned out.  She has a fun perspective to photography and catches a lot of personality with her work.  She's great and really good at all kinds of stuff.  Check out her Photog Blog and look at our fun family pictures.

Learn about German Christmas Traditions

Here are the cute little snowflakes playing together in our dusting of snow. Cora wants the snow to cover the grass not just the driveway and Marcus had a meltdown when I told him he had to come inside. Hooray for the outdoors!

Since we have quite a bit of German blood in our veins we want the kids to know about Germany and Christmas because the two go together so beautifully. A visit to Himmel Haus got us some goodies. St. Nicholas would normally have come last night and left treats in their shoes (or a switch if they were naughty) but we wanted to go visit this cool store. As it turns out if tonights behavior determined what St. Nicholas left then Mom & Dad would get to eat more treats. We didn't really get to sing any German carols like I wanted or even talk about Christmas trees and Lebkuchen but there is still time to teach them the finer points of German Christmas traditions. Aren't those lady bugs the cutest? The kids are happy and excited and that is what we want for this time of year. The family time and the fun!

Gingerbread Cookies and Christmas Devotional

Today was gingerbread day.  I'm proud of myself for actually making the dough yesterday and chilling it overnight like one is supposed to!  I was so busy making the cookies that I failed to take any pictures of the process - Cora was the best helper.  We made big gingerbread men and baby gingerbread men.  There were even circle cookies with gingerbread men cut out of the center.  Very cute and yummy which is why I can't take a picture of the finished product - they are gone!  My family came over and we shared our cookies with the aunts and "Ampa" and Amma."  We also watched the LDS Christmas Devotional Broadcast and as usual I loved the messages and stories.  

A Night in Bethlehem

Our activity at the church tonight was a Night in Bethlehem.  We were ordered by a decree from Caesar to be taxed and so we made the pilgrimage.  I loved the marketplace.  Hummus and pita bread...yuuummm!   The primary was asked to sing in the program so we went from citizens to heavenly messengers pretty quickly.  Eric had a great costume, but we all looked pretty good I think.

December 4 - Decorate the tree and the house

I'm not sure what it is about this advent day but didn't seemed too overly Christmas-y to me.  Oh, yeah because we took family pictures yesterday and then had a party to go to.  That left only time to get out one box of ornaments which Marcus decided to take off as fast as the girls put them on.  I want to do cranberries and popcorn strands but I'm running out of time and Eric isn't hot on it.  Marcus would probably just eat it anyway even though the boy is 2 years old and by the look of him is clearly NOT starving!  I did lots of lights because I love the sparkley white things.  Anyway its up and the girls wanted to kneel around the tree and sing "O Christmas Tree" to it.  The tree's name is Christmas Bingo and it is a boy.  Good to know.  

Go Get a Christmas Tree

I'm opposed to the fake tree (at least for us) and so we went to where to get our tree...LOWE'S.  :)  We'll go cut down a tree with the kids some year in the near future but this was not that year.  Now I'll have to keep Marcus from climbing it.  Jodi is all ready to have fire in the fireplace, drink hot cocoa and decorate the tree.  She'll have to wait until tomorrow.  Shh...that is day 4.

Ready for action!

This little guy slept in the bottom of the Lowe's race car cart while we tromped around looking at all the decorations for sale.

December 2 Christmas Countdowns

I love Christmas countdowns and there are so many variations out there I think I'll try different ones every year.  Candy will most likely be involved at some level regardless so we'll be in good shape on the sugar end of Christmas.  Here are some pictures of  making our countdowns.  I love the anticipation of Christmas and all the fun things you can do together!

Christmas Game and a movie

Play a Christmas game

Christmas Bingo was just the thing to play, especially when someone won everyone got to eat the markers.  M&M's are good for everything!

Whoa...its been awhile!

My goodness I've missed 2 whole months.  I need to post Halloween and Marcus' birthday but this is the start of our Christmas Advent Calendar.  Some of you may remember last year and I'm thinking we've got a fun and festive tradition started.  Sorry you've missed us for the past 2 months but now I've got to post something for all of our 25 days of Christmas.  Hooray for me.  In my defense however, Eric is going back to school (University of Phoenix) and when I have time to sit and blog it happens to be the same hours he needs the internet to do his homework.  Hence, no posts for far too long.  Hello again blogger friends the Haffners are back.

Jodi's 5!!!!

Jodi Bug we sure do love you! (you love showing off your lost tooth) We also let you have your first birthday party. I don't really want to do the big birthday parties very often - 5, 8, 12, 16 isn't that often enough? Since you are getting so big and are now a whole hand worth of fingers we needed to have a birthday party!

You wanted a butterfly party so we had butterflies everywhere. You had several friends come over. You decorated Butterfly wands, searched for Butterfly nectar and pretended to be any bug we could think of. Short, sweet and to the point. We loved it!

Eric managed a suprise!

My birthday way on a Tuesday and there was (of course) a Cross Country meet that day. That meant Eric would leave at 6 a.m. and come home at about 9 p.m. This also meant my birthday would be a "usual" day. So be it. Eric had other plans though. He left as usual and I (of course) went back to bed. Here comes the unusual. I woke up to Eric sitting on the bed telling me happy birthday. My brain was a bit groggy - "Are you home during your Prep Period?" I asked him. It turns out he took a Personal Day so we could all go and play during the day. We packed a picnic and swimming suits and took off for a park close to his Cross Country Meet. It was a wonderful day! We played outside, ate fried chicken and homemade salsa, went on a hike, took a dip, got lost going to the XC Meet, watched a XC Meet and then headed for home. A bonus was the whole XC team swarming the car and singing me happy birthday. Eric did good! He even impressed his team. One of the guys told him, "Man, Coach you are a good husband!" He was right about that! Thanks hon!

Do you think rules really apply to everyone? Even on their birthday?

We hiked the Peppermint Loop and I'll be darned if we really found any!

A picnic lunch and a playground...can you think of a better birthday party?

Its all in the family!

We had a crazy photo shoot down in Muncie and all tried on some wigs my Aunt Pam had. Some pictures are pretty discusting and some of my sisters actually look alright. Enjoy laughing!

Don't Mess

Don't mess with the Buff Boyce's (and Haffners!). Family Photo Shoot in August.

I beat you Erin

Erin Youngstrom this post is for you! So we had a great "what are the odds: moment in Seattle after a Mariners game. It was great to see a Mariners game again - luckily for Eric I didn't have a MLB team I was partial too and so when we got married I could adopt his Mariners. Anyway, we were able to take Cora and Marcus to their first Major League Baseball game thanks to Bapa and after all the fun we were trying to get ourselves out of the masses of people to the car. Out of the blue someone said Eric's name and it turned out to be the Youngstroms who are good friends from our Provo days. They live in New York and we're in Indiana and besides blog pictures we haven't seen each other for a few years but Erin recognized Eric amidst the people on the sidewalk. Crazy! It was so fun to see you guys! I'm so glad you were paying attention because we sure weren't!! (We got home at 2 a.m. by the way. Hope you enjoyed your drive to Auburn!) I had to beat you with this post Erin becasue I'm usually so slow at updating this thing!

There and Back Again...

Chapter 1-
Hello Family and Friends!

We've had quite a time the past few weeks. As I just heard Cora and Jodi describe our trip... "It was a long long ways!" "We went to another bathroom and another bathroom and another bathroom and another bathroom all the way to Nana and Bapa's." We did get to see quite a few rest areas along Interstate 94 and 90.

We got back Thursday from our almost 3 week trip out to Washington to see the Haffners, Chans and Edlers. We drove in our Taurus the whole way but at least we did plan to stop and so we only drove about 12 hours a day. My memories of family trips involved sleeping in the seats, on the floor or taking turns on the platform bed that fit into the back of our 15 passenger van.

I don't have pictures loaded yet but we'll post some of our favorites. We saw quite a variety of scenery and space and I think all the people worried about over population need to take a road trip!!!

We had a great vacation!!! Stay tuned for further chapters as I try to document some of our adventures.

Kitty Love

This is hilarious. Perhaps its borderline animal cruelty but I grew up on a farm and I've never felt sypmathies for PETA. Regardless Marcus has a great time with our kittens. They're up for adoption!! These kittens are learning quickly - See Marcus Run Hide!

Camping and Curls

We had a camp out in the back yard. The girls played in the tent ALL day and then when it came time to sleep we did the bedtime routine and Eric and I came inside. It only took about a minute for the girls to start crying for mommy and that was it -- campout moved to indoors!
This is a very typical shot for Marcus...on the move!

I just had to post a picture of his curls. I love the girls and their curls but there is something about a little boy with a head of curls that is just too cute! Add the humidity and what little hair Marcus has just becomes tight little curls all over his head. I love it!

Great Grandma

My grandma came to visit my parents and we got to go spend quite a bit of time with her. I like to think my grandma and I have a special bond. It helped growing up across the driveway from Grandma - I could just run across the way and pop in and see her anytime! She was my best friend as a little girl and I've always been so grateful to have that relationship with her! It was that much more fun to introduce "Great Grandma" to my kids! We love you!

(p.s. poor Marcus had no other option than to borrow his sisters pink pants - poor boy!)

STAYcation

We took one day during Spring Break and did something spontaneous. It was a blast! We decided to drive north along the shore of Lake Michigan and see what we could find and thanks to a phone call to our friend Sue Mack we saw so many fun things.

I spy with my little eye...a lighthouse, a slide, 282 stairs, a steamship, the world largest picnic table, Dutch wooden shoes, a windmill, flying children, Marcus' 1st out to eat experience, letters in the sand, flying shells - rocks - sand & sticks, a muskrat, fishermen, boats, a ferry without a ferry, and one happy little family.



Eric called it our STAYcation and I think he's coined a new phrase as well as a new family tradition. We saw all those things and more on our way to a city only 2 hours away. Exploring is quite fun!

p.s. I'm just a little annoyed that my computer isn't reading my mind and putting the pictures on correctly...I'll fix it later I've gotta post this and get some shut eye.

I loved this picture - I got all of our shadows! (unfortunately I look an awful lot like a tree!)

This little man is fearless!