Thursday, November 20, 2008

Finally an Update


11/5 Eric trying on the kids noise blocker earmuffs.


All 3 of our kiddos 11/9

Big Brother Ethan 11/9


Haven's 1st Sunday and home a week. 11/9


Haven's 1st veggies. Yummy squash mixed with rice cereal. Ding, ding, ding we have a winner and finally a way for her to eat her cereal. In case you hadn't heard that is one of the few things that makes this normally sweet, easy going baby get so mad that she actually throws up on you...feed her plain rice cereal. 11/9


Haven's first trip to the zoo. 11/4


Haven is the sock houdini. She can get almost any kind off. You'd think she was from the tropics or something. Sorry girly, welcome to a real winter. Mom's trick is to put on shoes over the socks that are almost impossible to take off, but she still tries. You should hear her giggle when her toes are bare. 11/4


Miss Haven thinking she's big enough to hold her bottle. Sometimes we let her. LOL


Haven deciding she's had enough of tummy time. 11/4


Someday I'll remember to enter the pictures in reverse order since that's what Blogger adds first. 11/3--Eric giving his new baby sister a bottle. Also, Happy 3rd Birthday Eric. We made it home in time. Yeah!!!

Hi All,

Ok I'm quickly going to try and get an update done while Haven is napping. Crud, I think I jinxed myself as I just heard her in the baby monitor. Well we'll give it a try.

I know it's been a while of silence. Sorry about that. As you can imagine, we've been pretty busy settling in. It's going pretty well. Haven is a sweet, easy going baby (for the most part), and a good sleeper. Hallelujah!!! For those that know us well, you'll know that her 2 big brothers are not exactly laid back.

The time change transition actually went pretty well for Haven, and Mike and I are starting to emerge from the jetlag fog. Although I'll warn you, once the kids are in bed--we're zonked and soon going to sleep ourselves. So...don't call after 9:00pm if you want to talk to us in a good mood. Hee, hee. Or at least Mike seems to be getting to bed at a good time. You know after all since he's getting up a lot with the baby and all. Oh wait a minute, that's usually me. Hmmm...need to work on that. Thankfully, Haven was only getting up 1-2 times a night recently and in the last couple of nights has slept through the night since I added a 2nd cereal/veggies feeding into her daily routine. So we are feeling blessed.

The boys are doing great with having a new sister. Ethan is in his element. He loves to give Haven bottles, talk, sing, and play with her. He's really a great big brother. Haven smiles the most for Ethan of anybody.

Eric is doing pretty well, too. He also likes to give Haven a bottle. Although neither boy actually feeds her a whole bottle, it's fun for a minute. For the most part, Eric is off doing his own thing and leaving Haven alone, but he's been super nice to her...so we couldn't ask for a better transition. He is struggling a bit as expected with not being the youngest member of the family anymore. We've seen a few more fits and attitude, but overall Eric seems to really be adjusting well.

Mike's oncall this week so we're just trying to survive that and start gearing up for the holiday. We celebrate our first Christmas next week while with Mike's family at Thanksgiving. For some reason, I've had a hard time switching gears into holiday mode this year. Hmmm...wonder why. We'll be driving 3+ hours each day, for 3 days in a row so that should be a great test of how Haven does in her carseat, which obviously she didn't have in Vietnam. She really, really, dislikes the carseat cover, and absolutely hates the face flap. Poor child, still thinks she's in the tropics. Too badfor her, she can't see the boys' travel DVD player. She's quite the couch potato and loves TV...unfortunately. Her room at the orphanage had a double bed for her and 3 other babies to share and a TV in the corner...that's it. Whenever the TV comes on...she's glued. In Vietnam, soccer was her favorite.

Well got to go.

Blessings,
Shae

Monday, November 3, 2008

We're Home!!!

Hi all,

Many thanks to Dave and Sherry that already posted pics of our homecoming. That was one of my smartest moves ever adding them to the blog authors since I'm sure it would have been awhile if you had to rely on us to get it done. Ha!

We're home safe and sound and on schedule which is a miracle and with all our luggage. Now to just get settled in and survive jet lag, colds, and upset tummies.

We had a huge crowd welcoming us at the airport which was wonderful. Dave, Sherry, all the kids, and Mike's folks were there to meet us right away and by the time we were leaving the Departure area my Mom, Sister, her kids, and my Aunt and Uncle had all arrived.

We're so glad to be home and to be reunited with our boys now as a family of 5.

Love to all,
Shae

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Welcome Home Haven!

My welcoming committee at the airport!
I finally met my two brothers.
One happy family of 5
I got to meet a few cousins.
My first nap in Omaha. I love Grandma!