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!

We The People

LOVE that statement, (READ the constitution people!) expecially when I see what has been going on today. "We the people" need to stay involved and make the right kind of "change" - I'll keep my dollars, Obama can keep the change! Anyway, this is for anyone in this area (or elsewhere look up your local 9-12 project!). My husband was so wonderful today, he went to a TEA Party for me. I had sick kids and couldn't go so he went for me and talked with Scott who was "in charge." We need 1000 names for our area so anyone who feels inclined...sign your no longer silent majority self up on www.michiana912.org. I tell you I LOVE America and what our Founding Fathers stood for and that is the America I want to fight for! God Bless the U.S.A.!!!!!

March Madness

Okay so this isn't a bracket post of anything - that's Eric's department even though I do love to watch college basketball if the chance comes around. This is just a post to make sure I get a post in March.
I love to have a project to work on and while I'm very excited to go out and get in the dirt today is a little chilly so I've been looking up quick projects I can finish while Marcus finishes his nap and the girls watch a movie. I'm introducing them to "old school" Disney (The Three Lives of Thomasina to be specific) because even some of the new Disney movies use language I'd rather the girls don't pick up on yet. Anyway I'm also justifying myself because they have to finish their chores and the last time I let them watch a movie was a week and a half ago. Got that off my chest. :)
I'll have to let you know how they go but I'm going to try and make some felt food and a crayon roll up or 2. We'll see just how productive my sewing machine can be in the next hour or two. Can I just say I love tutorials! Wish me luck even though I never did catch a leprechaun on Tuesday.