SWINGS

Today was the day that we as kids had to make good on the christmas presents we had given to Mom and Dad. The big swing was put up for mom in front of the house, without any broken bones. The guys also finished a work bench and shelves for dad in the barn. I have to say that it is the fastest I have ever seen anything get accomplished, but I guess with multiple minds and hands things always goes faster. The kids spent the entire day playing, inside and out-although outside was still quite cold. Tonight the snow is falling-we will see how much accumulates over the evening hours.

THE LAST BIG PARTY

It was just a tad windy today

Off to the ice bergs

Andrea got the present opening down- always so excited to do it herself.

What a bunch of kids-so patient, we managed the christmas story and a beautiful redition of Away in a Manger before the present opening began.

I wouldn't mind working in the kitchen if this was my view every day

CRAZY by the end of the day!! (add two big dogs and you can imagine the chaos)

A wonderful dinner

Today was the family haveman party. What a house full, ten adults and nine kids. Becca started the morning by making cinnamon rolls with Uncle Dan. She was in her glory, getting to eat the little ends and clean up on all the extra cinnamon and sugar. Brayden loved keeping up with his older cousin Micah although he did help scrub the potatoes. Ron sported another expedition to the ice bergs, which thankfully all kids made it back safe and sound. We started the day by having all the kids exchange their gifts, I think they all would have been very happy with just that. Andrea has been so fun to watch, she gets so excited no matter what the gift, bouncing on her haunches and giggling. Becca had the most fun hiding in a big box and popping out with a huge grin on her face. With mom's broken wrist this year the girls took over the kitchen along with dad-although there were many times Mom was told to sit down. Ham balls with salad and twice baked potatoes were enjoyed mid day. We ended the evening by sitting in the dark. Yes, Jody's kids had just given mom and dad a little hand wind lanturn because mom and dad had no flashlights in the house this past summer when the electric went out. No sooner had dad opened his lanturn the entire house went dark-crazy, it had been terribly windy all day but at that moment things shut down. Thankfully they have a generator and we were able to finish the day with some power. The kids all received toy guns along with hand made barns for their horses and lots of playmobile.

Everyone is sleeping in the house tonight, amazing that all kids are asleep and we even managed to play a couple rounds of wits and wager's. We will see how quiet the house is tonight. I think the adults are whipped which means the kids will be up!

THE FUN CONTINUES

We are on to the second part of our christmas celebration. Yesterday we moved everyone to Ron's parents house, we will see how much stuff I left behind at my parents house. There were many fun memories from this past week. Sitting in church with my entire family Christmas day, listening to some beautiful christmas music with trumpets was very special. Seeing all three kids up at the organ after church talking to grandma is always fun to see. Brayden had a lot of fun playing in the snow as long as his hands stayed warm. Aunt Robyn kept him busy building a block house this past afternoon which he was very proud of. The boys kept the WI busy and even I tried my hand at some mario cart....which I took 11th place every time, although I did strike out my son on baseball. We ate tons of fudge, cookies, bars and candy. Thankfully our family stayed out of the coal business this year. Unfortunately for my Grandma she is stuck with it this year something about a speeding ticket. I do think my brother David deserved it for fish hooking my mother in the lip this past summer....but as usual he gets off Scot free. Brayden couldn't quite figure out the whole coal thing and at one point said he actually wanted the coal. We informed him that he was on the naughty list for breaking a window this year -after he saw the big fuss about receiving it he was pretty proud that he didn't get it. The kids had lots of fun opening presents from all the Aunts and Uncle's, mostly just having fun bugging uncle Doug and David. Andrea loved Emily's new johnny jump swing and was not too happy about seeing Emily in it. After all the snow we endured a long day of endless rain and gloom, then after moving to the beach we endured a hung wind storm during this past evening. Both Brayden and Becca were up thinking bears were trying to get in their room...what a night. Sad to say Becca has come down with her typical respiratory infection, but seems to be tolerating it better than in the past, thankfully there are plenty laps willing to hold and snuggle her. We will see what memories transpire in this next week.

SLEDDING

After being inside for about two days and not doing much of anything besides eat we decided to hit the hill today. WE have a ton of snow but last night some rain fell and iced everything over. We arrived at the hill and as we walked up the backside Ron took note of all the broken sleds along the path...must be a bad sign. Well, turned out we could hardly make it up the back of the hill let along walk along the top. Many people were just crawling on all fours just to get around-funny to see. Brayden had a blast, he loved going down the hill with Uncle David on the saucer-although his was not too sure about trying to make it to the woods...bears live there you know. Well, we actually managed to have a lot of fun, regardless if we could walk or not. Our main goal was to avoid the jumps..not a good sign when the snow is discolored with blood on the down side of the jump. Brayden made it down with out wiping out, although he did lose a boot about half way down on one of his runs. Of course we decided to do some crazy rides, mostly resulting in snow up the boots, cold behinds or bruised bodies. Ron, Sharon and I loaded up on the toboggan and took off . Bad thing was that Sharon decided to fall of half way which I didn't realize and so I kept hanging on to her feet, needless to say she made it to the bottom but not on the sled, just was dragged behind for most of the way on her hip. Ron then convinced me to layer up on the runner sled, I should have know with him driving...although he blames me for leaning the wrong way. Anyway, it resulted in us going over a jump, I think you could hear the air come out of both our lungs when we landed. Sounds crazy but we all had a good laugh, and as long as we made it back with out any major accidents it was a great memory!

WALKING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND

We made it to snowy MI. Everyone was quite concerned about the drive, but turned out we had wonderful weather/roads till we hit MI. Brayden was so excited when we finally saw snow on the ground. We made pretty decent time and the kids did great. Andrea was the little fusser but managed with snacks and books. Becca and Brayden enjoyed some new video's and loved looking out their windows at all the snow and ice. Today we dressed the kids till only their eyes were showing and headed out doors. Brayden was excited to help shovel the driveway with his new shovel, Becca was just excited to be outside....for a minute, till she realized how cold it. After falling over in the snow bank, not being able to walk and losing a mitten she was done for the morning. Brayden on the other hand actually sat in the snow bank and had grandma blow snow on top of him and daddy. It is crazy the amount of snow here-the banks lining the driveway are taller than the kids. Andrea stayed inside but managed to sneak in a little snow snack. We found her in the entry way eating snow...totally content. Ephie also loves the snow, although it is so deep that in the back yard she has to leap like a deer to get anywhere. Tonight Ron tied her up to the toboggan and she pulled the kids on the road. I should add that I enjoyed all this from indoors, the snow looks beautiful but the cold if another matter. It is a lot of fun and truly feels like christmas.
The kids are also having a lot of fun with their cousin Emily, although she is in a state of shock half the time as they love to be about one inch away from her face when talking/singing to her. They are all so sweet and gentle-amazing for how rough they are with each other. Check back for pictures, the line is just to slow to do much with ....or I just need more patience!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Daddy couldn't open get the baby out fast enough

Brayden is having some smiling issues

Today was our family Christmas celebration. Crazy to think that just last weekend we celebrated Becca's third birthday. The kids were super excited...all they care about is opening gifts, no matter how much we talk about baby Jesus and his birth the idea of receiving gifts is what most excites them. We started the morning by getting our family picture done. Something that I have been wanting to do but just lacked the motivation to haul everyone off to some picture studio. Thankfully we just headed over to a friends house. There was no comparison...I didn't even break a sweat and the kids did great. After reading the Christmas story we started the much anticipated opening of the gifts. The kids did great opening and taking turns. Becca loved passing out everyones gifts, no matter whose name was on the present. Almost all of Brayden's concern was spent on keeping track of whose turn it was to open a gift. Andrea wandered in and out of the living room but loved Becca's new baby-almost more than Becca, she got a new one as well (thank goodness, because I am ready to get rid of their old dirty ones!) We ended the afternoon with a late Christmas feast-funny because it was just Ron, Brayden and I, the girls bit the dust and took a nice long nap. I got the most enjoyment just sitting back and watching everyone open gifts...I love giving and seeing the kids reaction. Brayden was bouncing all over-litterly and at one point I over heard him say to himself..."this is just AWESOME" He is currently in bed with an incredible hulk hat, gloves and slippers-he informed me that it was too cold in his room.

What a day, the house is disaster, the kitchen counters have no room left and the kids rooms are covered with clothes and toys-but this is one HAPPY household. I am so thankful for the many blessing we are given and to top them all the birth of Jesus, the best blessing which gives us all the reason to celebrate.

TO EVERYONE WHO MAY HAVE RECEIVED OUR CHRISTMAS CARD....AND EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T, THIS IS OUR VERY MUCH LOVED DOG WHO SOME HOW HAS GOTTEN GYPPED OUT OF PICTURES THIS YEAR.

What???

Okay, so I know I just posted but this was just too funny. I never know what Brayden is quite up to in his room during his nap time....obviously not sleeping! This is what he walked out in today. Just a note-both outfits are for a 12 month old-take a look at the legs!

AND THE FUN BEGINS

Today was Brayden's Christmas party at school. They invited the parents and Ron was able to take off early from work to be there. Brayden was so cute when he saw us walking in up the stairs, he just got this big grin on his face-such a great feeling when your kids still loves to see you. The class sang a song with motions, although at this moment I can't remember what it was. Ron asked if we had practiced at home, he had been talking to some other parents and they told him their kid had been singing for the past two weeks. Funny, I knew nothing about any singing, Brayden never talked about it or sang/practiced at home. Anyway it was lots of fun to watch. We had cookies and pop then just hung around. Brayden was a good little host, asking Ron and I if we wanted something to eat or drink. What a fun outing this afternoon.

I can't believe that it is Wednesday. This week seems to be just flying by. Not a whole lot has been going on out of the ordinary except for the weather. Sunday afternoon the kids played outside with Ron, at one point Brayden was running around without his shirt and Ron was complaining about being hot. Late that afternoon Ron went for a run and when he came back the winds had turned, can you believe we had a high of 75 earlier in the day and by the evening the temps were in the 20's. Funny thing was that I didn't realize it was truly COLD and so I hauled everyone out to go fly kites early evening-I had promised Brayden for about two days and he wasn't about to let me forget . So after having 50MPH winds for two days and 65 degree weather we flew kites in bone chilling wind-okay I lasted about 2 secs. Brayden was the only one oblivious to the weather-running all over the field with his kite, not a care in the world. We ended up all sitting in the car and reeling in the kite through the window. There was another car in the parking lot when we left....they must have been laughing pretty hard at us trying to carrel kids and kites.
Schools were cancelled both Mon and Tue. The roads where actually pretty icy the first day, the kids had Dr's app and a normal 10min drive took us thirty minutes with about 5 cars stalled or in the ditch, crazy!
Besides for trying to Christmas shop with three kids not a whole lot else has been getting done. I think after unloading the troop about 3 or four times by the time we get home house work just seems unbearable. The kids do great shopping although Becca loves to wander and doesn't really seem to care if she is with us or not. This is totally opposite of Brayden who is petrified I am going to leave him in a store.
Andrea had her 15months app along with Becca who had her three year check-up. Both are running about 50% for height and weight. Becca was the happy camper when she found out she didn't need any shots. Andrea on the other hand started crying when she hit the table. Andrea continues to grow and understand more everyday. Today she actually helped empty the dishwasher...okay maybe not really but she did put the silver wear in the correct drawer without me even telling her to. Also her new word for the week is hungry-a very funny word to hear her try to say.
Well that is the update for now, we are loving listening to christmas music, Ron fixed up the stereo so I am able to run the i-pod through it. Becca spent the morning dancing to christmas music with blackie...her favorite bear, so fun to watch.

BIRTHDAY GIRL

THE MANY FACES OF OUR
BIRTHDAY GIRL

REBECCA GRACE HAVEMAN is now THREE!! It is becoming hard to remember clearly the events of her birth. I do remember very vividly my water breaking at the house and being in shock...she was a little early and we were supposed to take Brayden to see Santa that night. The hospital was full and we spent time in the holding area with no TV and missed the final survivor episode. Brayden was at a friends house, although I can't remember how he got there. I also remember calling family on my way to the hospital and no one was answering their phones. Becca was in a hurry to meet the whole and ended up with quite a bruised face and spent a bunch of time under the lights. It is hard to believe that that little baby is now our Becca, talking up a storm, running all over the house, prancing around like a princess-still just as snuggly as she was last year.

We love her a bunch!

THE BIRTHDAY GIRL-A DAY EARLY

This is Becca all ready for the parade-the shoes didn't make it but she had her lip gloss with her the entire time.

Almost getting blown away in one of the downtown wind gusts

Watching so intently-they all love the floats and bands.

Becca has much more tolerance for Brayden than I would

We decided to celebrate Becca's birthday today and after wondering about what we were going to do we managed to make it a pretty fun day. Becca started the day by getting to go to the donut store by herself and pick out her own donut-pink, with sprinkles. She got to listen to her birthday song-ZOOM FROM THE MOON was heard from many time today! We then headed out to a horse jumping show at the fair grounds. It was a lot of fun, we got to sit right up to the arena, even Andrea had fun watching the horses go through the course. The one place that was not on my list of things I thought I would ever do, I did today and that was walk through a farm show. Brayden had lots of fun looking at the big tractors-best of all the four wheelers. Becca just liked all the free candy and peanuts. She was the girl trying the eat peanuts and walk through a crowd at the same time. It was a busy morning and all three kids took great naps. Our snack time was Becca's cake and party. She was so excited but the ever kind sister was once again willing to share and was okay about letting Brayden help her open her gifts. I told her she didn't need to since it was her day-she informed me that she had a hurt thumb and that she needed help from Brayden. Brayden did pretty well, although he had a major melt down when he realized that there really was NO presents for him and he didn't get to blow out any candles. Becca loved her cake and ate her entire piece, Brayden enjoyed the frosting but then informed me a little later that it gave him a headache...too much sugar-he sure didn't get my sweet tooth! We ended the evening by headed out for the Annual Tulsa Parade. This was something I was debating about skipping this year, we have a bad track record with this parade, usually we can't find parking, which makes us late then we can't find a spot and by the time we do find a spot I am in a horrible mood and on top of it all it is usually freezing. You would think we would get it right by now. We left almost a whole hour early, we parked in the first lot we spotted with spots open-had all the right clothes. I thought we were doing great, then I realized that as we were walking up the street parallel to the parade route, along the actual parade route there was a big balloon...then a band-yup, we had the wrong time and the parade had started, we just can't win. Ron looks at me and says, no big deal and makes brayden get in the chariot and we just take off like it is a run except I had my clogs on and basically run to the end of the route. Turns out we didn't miss much and we ended up having a lot of fun beside for almost getting blown away. What a lot of fun, Becca loves the horses, Andrea loved all the dogs and Brayden loved the four wheelers.