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.

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