Sunday, December 13, 2009

Merry Christmas 2009 (Christmas Letter)


Dear Friends and Family,

There is no snow on the ground but the fantastic neighborhood lights are all pointing to the holiday season. Additionally right now Shae is practicing some beautiful choir music for this year’s Christ Community Church musical. We always enjoy the type of music which fosters sentiments of gratefulness for the true meaning of Christmas.

Shae still works as a CHO (Chief Home Officer). However, her company Ethan and Eric Industries, LLC, merged about a year ago with another company to form EEH International, Inc. The primary shareholders are talking about going public as I write. Though she is an executive, Shae’s job looks amazingly, like an admin assistant to three other up and coming executives. All three primary shareholders of EEH International, Inc. have different schools or schedules and they bring home a mountain of paperwork (crafts and handouts) daily. Add to that meeting cancelations for sick days and doctor visits, the only thing she is missing is booking international air travel. No wait, she’s done that too. She also is busy as a MOPS table leader, choir, bible studies, and co-leading our Small Group and young families Sunday school at church.

The 2009 spring was a blast. The boys reached a new level of fishing competency. Eric learned if he left his lure in the water, he would catch as many fish as his brother. We enjoyed a couple days at the trout pond and also discovered the lake ½ mile from our house is loaded with pan-fish and small channel catfish (they fight like sharks ). Shae’s nieces and nephew even made it out a couple of times to catch some of their first fish. It was not uncommon to have 3 fish on 3 different poles at once with daddy/uncle Mike running amongst them with pliers and new bait. Mike was also blessed with a respectable Spring turkey and 2 Fall deer.

Over the summer we played in the backyard family pool and city pools a much as we could. Early June seemed to be monopolized by our baby girl’s 1st birthday party. You’ve never seen so much pink in one place. As you can imagine Haven is a growing little lady. She started walking the day before turning 14 months and was running within a month. She is saying many words. However, she responds with “NO!” to most all inquires regardless of the context.

As the summer continued, Ethan turned 6 in July. He loves Kindergarten, is reading very well, and is a whiz at math. Ethan has also set himself apart at Awana’s Sparks as a high achieving memory verse memorizer. He found out you could memorize future weeks’ verses and earn vest awards (jewels) ahead of schedule; and the rest was history. Mike has also worked with the boys during their bible story time (morning) and daily devotions (evening) time, and now they can go on for about 10 minutes quoting memorized verses.

For once there was a cousin’s wedding within a day’s driving distance that Shae wasn’t in late pregnancy for, so we made it to her cousin’s Chicago wedding over the 4th of July. The two towheads made a great impression on the reception dance floor. Both boys have unique styles of dancing. Ethan was a natural at Mr. Robot. Eric reminded us of Animal from the Muppets who could break-dance. Following the wedding 4 cousin’s families (7 adults, 12 kids) joined forces to brave the Chicago trains and went downtown to see the Chicago Field Museum and some authentic pirate treasure from the famed Whydah shipwreck. We also continued to the Wisconsin Dells and enjoyed more swimming, some Paul Bunion flapjacks, the deer park, and riding the Duck boats.

As fall kicked off we beat the streets in search of candy. Our motley crew showed no mercy. It is amazing when you bring a Power Ranger (Ethan), Pirate (Eric), and Kitty (Haven), even bold and daring home owners cower in fear and give large offerings of candy. The natives practiced their pillaging at Mike’s company holding each manager for ransom, as long as the manager had a cute orange paper pumpkin thumb-tacked outside their office door.

Eric is in Awana Cubbies at and earning lots of patches. Eric attends Sonshine Christian Preschool 2 days a week where he’s doing great. Eric turned 4 in November. As some of you might recall we returned from Vietnam just prior to Eric’s birthday last year. As a result we celebrated our 1st “Family Day” Anniversary in October since Haven joined our family a year ago.

In typical fashion the boys find great enjoyment beating on each other, their friends, and their dad if his back is turned. Though there were wrestling “time and place” rules in existence, they were very difficult to enforce. Amongst the prior mentioned statement and other reasons, they boys are taking martial arts lessons. Their cousin CJ is also a regular attender. The boys have also really enjoyed the 14’ trampoline Shae found (really cheap) at a moving sale.

Dasha (our dog) continues to slow down. Other than being sway-back it is very difficult to judge age with the Samoyed breed. She looks great, but has the motivation of a 10 year old (70’s).

We just celebrated 3 years in our new house, two years in Mike’s latest position with his company as a Manager of Systems Admin., and will celebrate 11 years of marriage in January. We’re also grateful to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus and pray that we, our children, and our friends and family will grow in our relationship with Him.

Merry Christmas,
Mike, Shae, Ethan, Eric, and Haven

Friday, November 20, 2009

Haven at 17 Months, Halloween, Eric's Birthday

Hi all,

Whew! It's been a busy month since we posted last. We began to laugh about phone calls on Wednesdays. Those calls brought us guests for the weekend immediately following for 4 weeks in a row. It was fun to see friends and family and less travel for us...just lots of cleaning--which if we don't have an incentive doesn't happen, so it's all good! LOL!

Well we celebrated Halloween over a 2 weekend period starting with Ethan's school party (which I helped at) and Trick or Treating at Mike's office. Then the next weekend we hosted Shae's clan to celebrate Halloween and Eric's birthday. He's always asking when his party is, so we had to oblige. I actually do feel a bit bad for him. There's so many Summer birthdays amongst the cousins on both sides (and 2 of his siblings & Daddy) that there is many times one big party or several smaller parties. The Fall birthdays do seem to get left out. He always looks so forlorn that I think I try extra hard when it's his birthday.

It was quite the houseful for Halloween night as well. Shae's sister is early on in studying to be a nurse and was taking her CNA certification over 5 weekends including Halloween. So we had 7 kids and one college kid (Shae's cousin who is in college here in town) in costume going door to door. Haven had figured this out pretty well starting with Mike's office Trick or Treating on the 23rd. She was quite upset when the time came to an end that day. She did better Halloween night.

Then on Eric's actual birthday we just had a nice night at home with our family. The following week (it was our first night free after his birthday) we went to Pizza Machine which has become a birthday tradition for the kids. It's pretty expensive so we try and reserve it for the birthdays (and save up our coupons).

This week Wednesday we went to Coco Keys, an indoor waterpark the likes of a Great Wolf Lodge just on a smaller scale. They'd been offering free admission (which saved us between $60-$100 hence why we hadn't gone yet) if you arrived between 3-5pm Monday thru Thursday for about a month and this was the last week. You could then stay to close at 9pm. The catch is that they reach capacity about 15 minutes after the doors open, and I knew this was not something I was going to try without Mike. Ethan gets out early on Wednesdays so we zoomed right after that and met Mike at the water park. It was kind of crazy with all those people and catering to our different ages--the boys like the water slides and Haven likes the lazy river and maybe the Zero Entry pool. We did have fun, but arrived home exhausted after 8pm. Hey got to get your money worth. Um right, since it was free. Oh well!

Haven's jabbering up a storm with new words like bubble, neigh, book, thank you, ball, and lots of others sprinkled in amongst the jibber jabber. Some of "her" words are also changing like ba to ba'l which is now 2 syllables instead of one (just missing the 't' sound) for bottle. She also calls her sippy of water, 'bo_ _le (ba'l). She calls her blankie may (or nay--I'm not quite sure but she'll respond to may), and she's very attached to it as well to a little black plush dog (Abby). She carries around her babies some and gives lots of air kisses to her animals, babies, and family members with the appropiate "mwaa" sound. She also likes to play with whatever the boys are playing with that she can't have. Hmmmm... She can climb up on the couch by herself, but still can't remember to get down backwards which we are trying to work on. She loves running to the door when Mike gets home with a big "Daddeee," which I know melts his heart. She talks on her phone and likes to carry around a "purse" or bag. She LOVES to take off her shoes and socks, especially in the car, much to Mom's delight especially on errand days where we make up to 5-6 stops. That's my tropical girl. She's still a good eater and loves the kid junk foods like mac & cheese, pizza, chicken nuggets. Good thing she doesn't get to eat them very often. She still loves books and will bring them to you to read frequently.

Well, Thanksgiving is next week and I think we're in 3 cities in 3 days with 3 kids. Ha! Wish us luck!

Enjoy the pics below. Just click on one to see it larger.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Shae

Halloween Pics

10/23/09. Trick or Treat at Mike's work. Taken in his office.

10/23/09. Haven looking happier now that she could play with her candy.

10/23/09. Cheesy grin.

Happy Birthday Eric!

10/30/09. Mike reading to the kiddos.

11/3/09. Eric's 4th Birthday!

11/3/09. Mike & Haven chillin'.

11/3/09. Eric opening his presents.

Pizza Machine

11/5/09. Mike & Shae went to White Christmas the musical at the Orpheum. Their 1st musical since before the kids.

11/11/09. at Pizza Machine. Look at the screen of the Mariokart video game. Eric's trying to get his face lined up.

11/11/09. Haven having fun on the carousel at Pizza Machine.

11/11/09. Eric & Mike on the Go-Karts at Pizza Machine.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Haven's Homecoming Anniversary


11/02/09. Riding home from the airport. Haven's 1st time in a carseat.



Some of Haven's welcoming committee at the airport! Plus another crowd arrived a minute later.
Haven finally met her two brothers.
Family of 5.

Hi all,

Today, we're celebrating the 1 Year Anniversary of Haven's homecoming. Mike, Shae, and Haven landed back in Omaha on November 2 just in time for Eric's 3rd birthday on November 3rd (a huge answer to prayer). It was the day our family of 5 was finally all together in one place.

Blessings,
Shae

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Happy Family Day Haven!

10/4/09. Haven now...and then.

8/8/08. Haven's Referral Picture at almost 2 Months Old.

10/19/08. Haven at 4 months and 1 week old when we first saw her.

Hi all,

Haven is 16 months. Last year at this time, Mike and I were in Vietnam, and the boys were in SD with Dave & Sherry (Mike's brothers family). I know I'm a bit late posting. However, I wanted to wait so I could post about her Family Day Anniversary as well.

Mike and I left Omaha on Thursday the 16th of October. We'd driven the boys to SD on Tuesday and had gone back to Omaha on Wednesday. We landed in Vinh, Vietnam in the middle of a monsoon (literally--I've never ever seen rain like that before) on Sunday, October 19th with our first tarmac (not gateway) plane exit. We drove to the orphanage up in the mountains and by that evening we were driving away with our baby girl in our arms. The next day it was official. We landed back in Omaha on Sunday, November 2nd to a big welcoming party just in time for Eric's 3rd birthday on the 3rd. It's sometimes hard to remember that she came home differently than the boys. We're very busy running after 3 little ones, but our hearts are very full. What a blessing! It also makes us think of Haven's birthmom and all she had to give up for our family to be what it is. We're thankful for her loving choices and to our Heavenly Father for Preserving Haven in a Safe Place. Little Hanh Phuc sure lived up to her name meanings (Haven's Vietnamese name for those that need a reminder) of Happiness and Blessed from Above. She is quite the happy little girl.

Well, on to what Haven is up to. She's running all over the place getting into lots of fun stuff and keeping Mommy really busy. She loves to help which like most toddlers is super sweet but not exactly helpful. She's also getting a bit sassy which is probably good considering the rest of us. She says lots of words, but not always together, and doesn't always repeat the same ones. She knows lots of animal sounds as well. She loves to read books. We hear this from the church nursery as well. We also hear from any nursery worker that is with Haven for the morning how much of a joy it is to be with her. She really is such a sweet little girl (and we're not the only ones who think so--LOL!) She loves to sing, dance, and play our piano on tiptoe unless Mommy holds her. She seems to still be slimming down so for those that like to know her sizes (Grandmas) she's wearing 24 month one-piece outfits and 18 month separates although many of her shirts would be 24 months. She's really long.

Our Family Day celebration was kind of spread out over a few days. Mike is on-call all week Monday to Monday so we went out to a local Vietnamese restaurant on Sunday for lunch after early church. Then we spent the evening out at one of the State Parks enjoying probably the last nice day of the year. Monday night (her actual Gotcha Day) we had a little cake and each kiddo got a couple of small presents. Haven's will be things from Vietnam and related to Vietnam each year.

There's lots of pictures so enjoy. You can click on an image to see it larger. It's fun to see how much she's changed in a year from the above pics to the ones below.

Blessings,
Shae

Carnival Games, Orchard & Pumpkin Patch

9/11/09. Eric found this game at a garage sale. The boys played it for weeks. It's one of those claw carnival games that never gives you a toy. This one actually does.

9/26/09. At Ditmar's Orchard and Pumpkin Patch.

9/26/09. Haven posing with the pumpkins.

Pumpkin Patch and Hungry Hippos

9/26/09. All 3 kiddos with their pumpkins.

9/26/09. My tough guys having fun climbing on the playground tractor tires at the Orchard.

9/27/09. Haven thought she should get to play Hungry, Hungry, Hippos. It's so funny watching her try and see over the edge of the table, and then she started to beg. Which if you haven't heard it, her begging is something like a cross between a siren and a whooping gibbon. (monkey at our Children's Zoo--she really does sound like that and it's that loud!)

9/27/09. She was right. She was big enough to play. She did great!

Ethan's Teeth and Baby in Red

9/28/09. Ethan's missing front teeth. He's missing even more now. He has to lose at least 3 baby teeth to make room for 2 big teeth.

10/2/09. Just posing.

10/4/09. I can't help it. How can you not photograph this baby in a red dress.

10/4/09. Haven being silly after Mom ended the red background photo shoot.

Haven Reading & Pigtails

10/4/09. Haven "reading" her ladybug book. Don't you love the slippers?

10/9/09. Trying pigtails again. Unfortunately, the hair that needs to be up the most (the front) is what falls out first.

10/9/09. Little Miss Personality.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Celebrating Family Day

10/18/09. Feeding the horses. This is out of order. It should be pic #3.

10/18/09. Eating at a local Vietnamese restaurant for Family Day.

Haven enjoyed her food.



10/18/09. Later we went out to Platte River State Park where we petted and fed the horses (they were eating dried leaves from the boys--weird), ate a picnic, hiked out to the waterfall, and then made a leaf pile to jump in while Mike made hot chocolate over a campfire in the dark. All in all a busy day.

Celebrating Family Day

10/19/09. The 3 kiddos about to eat cake. Obviously, I couldn't make up my mind what we were officially going to call the day since the cake says "Adoption Day."

10/19/09. Haven opening her gifts from Vietnam. Here she's saying "shoe". Although I'm not sure these little boots will fit her anymore. The book is "ABCs across Vietnam". It's a photo book with the alphabet corresponding to a picture like W=Water Buffalo.

10/19/09. Haven really loves books and you can tell as we've got a ton! She's also really getting into shoes, or maybe it's just because she can say the word.

10/20/09. Haven enjoyed some leftover cake. She's got the chocolately face and the pony tail (to keep her hair cleaner) to prove it.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Haven at 15 Months

Hi all,

Well it took me 2 days, but I finally am done with this month's post. I seem to have less and less time in one sitting anymore. So this may be the new normal. Sorry to all the family members that get the Update Emails. I know you always get a bunch and now they're spread over multiple days. LOL!

There's a ton of pics below and as always just click on an image to see it larger.

Well let's see. Haven having her check-up appointment yesterday bought me a few days so I'll start with that.

She is 32 inches which puts her at 90% for height, and she weighs 23 lbs 2-1/2 oz which puts her at 55% for weight. So she took a little dip as far as top of the charts for height, but she's still really tall for her age. Also, she dropped 15% in the weight class after gaining less than a pound in the last few months. Walking will do that to you.

Yes, I said Walking. You probably remember that she took her first steps the day before her 14 month landmark and now at 15 months she doesn't crawl at all anymore. She made the big transition about 1 1/2 weeks ago. That Friday the 4th, we went to the Children's Museum(minus Ethan & Mike since it was in the morning), and she had a blast pushing around a shopping cart and walking some. Every time she would fall, she would still "knee walk" (well what else do you call it?) over to something and pull herself back up to walk again. Later that night she started standing up without having to pull herself up on something. So that was it for crawling. Now when she falls she just gets back up. She's getting faster though. This last Friday the 11th, we had a meeting at church, and afterward Haven had a blast cruising through the big open spaces. I remember the boys just had to run in those big open hallways when they were toddlers. It was too hard to resist for them. I know what some of you are thinking, "you let them run in church". No not very often, but our church building is huge (4000 people) so we just don't run in the sanctuary. Hee, hee.

Otherwise she is still jabbering up a storm. She says at least 20 words, lots of animal sounds, does some sign language, mimics us a ton, and now that she can walk is Mommy's little shadow. She loves to "help" which creates tons of lovely messes but I appreciate the spirit behind it.

We went to the Nebraska State Fair again this year...since this is the last year it will be in Lincoln. It was a lot of fun again. There's a ton to do for the kids and most of it is free. Ethan was chosen to be a Frog Trainer at one of the kids shows. 4 frogs competed to get the longest jump (or actually series of 3). Ethan than chose his cousin, Kamber, and the announcer chose another Dad. It was a good thing, since both Ethan and Kamber refused to touch the frog. Ethan has caught frogs and toads in the past, but their frog, named Pee Wee ( and not because he was little) was huge so I don't totally blame them. They both got a "trophy" (there's a picture below, yes it's made out of a plastic cup) and a certificate. Ethan was over the moon. He's been wanting his first trophy for a very long time. Then of course, Eric needed a trophy so Mike played a carnival game (darts and balloons...he's such a good shot) and won Eric a stuffed animal or "trophy".

We also went to something new for us thanks to a friends mentioning it. It was a hot air balloon show and Glow event. There's pics below. It was very cool and something very memorable.

I think this has been one of the busiest summers/falls I can think of, but somehow we've managed to shoe horn in a few of these events to spend time as a family. I'm thankful for that as it's a really busy year for Mike at work. Time sure is precious.

Blessings,
Shae

3-D Glasses, Soup Weather, and Skyfari Pics

8/15/09. The kids model their 3-D glasses. This was their "free gift" from the Day Out with Thomas event for getting 4 location stamps on their event maps. The boys are holding the 3-D poster that went with the glasses.


8/20/09. Kind of a Fall/cooler day memory from my childhood that we've carried over/expanded into our own family. Taking homemade soup to a park usually in thermoses. This time we just grabbed the whole pot of soup. We try and do this at least once a year. Here we're at Zorinsky Lake where we had Haven's 1st birthday party. After dinner, we walked off our soup on the trails.

8/22/09. Mike, Eric, and Haven on the chair behind us. Ethan's been begging since they opened it...so we were finally able to ride the new Skyfari ride at our Zoo. It's basically like a ski lift which I've never been on one due to my fear of heights. I told Ethan that for sure we had to wait for Daddy to be along to help with everybody. Just for the record for those who know me well...I didn't panic (at least outwardly since I was riding with Ethan) although going downhill is a little unnerving. I still say they could install seatbelts. No really, I'm serious. LOL!

Skyfari and State Fair

8/22/09. View from the Skyfari at the Zoo.

The 3 Kiddos at the Zoo.

8/22/09. Haven and her Walk Behind Toy

8/29/09. Ethan & Kamber with their Frog Trainer Trophies and Certificates at the NE State Fair.