baby#2 pics

We got pics of beautiful baby#2 at the end of last month. In the top one, you'll see a thumbsucker. And, in the bottom one, you'll see mouth open completely zonked asleep. Baby was very sleepy and wouldn't come out from between Crystal's pelvic bones so we couldn't get pics near as nice as Landon's late-in-the-game shots. Regardless, we're thrilled to be meeting baby soon! According to counter bottom page right, we're at 55 days to go. WOW!

I have been tagged by Jenni!!

I was tagged by my friend, Jenni to post the following survey about me!

Four jobs I’ve had:
1. Babysat every summer through JH and HS for my neighbors in Valpo. BEST job ever!!!
2. Hollywood Connection (ran the lazer tag game)
3. sales gal at the Guess on Rodeo Dr.
4. traveling make-up artist for Christian Dior in CH

4 movies I’ve watched more than once:
1. Wedding Planner!!! love it!!!
2. Dumb and Dumber!!!! My fav and Amos can't stand it, but he has watched with me!!
3. Walk to Remember
4. Jerry Macquire

4 places I’ve lived:
1. Valparaiso, IN (all of my growing up years)
2. LA, CA (college)
3. Elmhurst, IL
4. Indianapolis, IN

4 TV shows I watch:
1. American Idol
2. Greys Anatomy
3. Oprah
4. Days of our lives (I know ridiculous, but if Landon is sleeping and there is a lot to get done....you should know I would rather sit down and put my feet up to watch some horrible TV)

4 places I’ve been:
1. AZ
2. CA
3.FL
4. Costa Rica (honeymoon)

4 people who e-mail me regularly:
1. Amos
2. My mom and her goofy forwards
3. my senior girls
4. friends from the Well

4 of my favorite foods:
1. Chocolate and some more Chocolate!!
2. Anything sweet!
3. Mexican food
4. Pizza!

4 places I would like to visit:
1. New Zealand for an anniversary someday (it is so far away, though)
2. Camping out East with my Hubby!!
3. Spa vaca with girlfriends in FL
4. TX to visit my new little niece

4 things I’m looking forward to in the coming year:
1. New arrival of baby #2 the end of May (that is next month)
2. The adventure of a family of 4
3. God's plan for our location
4. My hubby is turning 30!!

4 friends I’m tagging since I got tagged:
1. Nicole
2. Shannon Pongratz
3. Shannon Poe
4. Beth

4 years

Hottie Wife_

It's difficult to begin with, to quantify the number of glorious things in/about/about/because of our marriage in the past four years, that is. But...the best place to start might be a refresher on the "Big Day."

I remember how crazy nervous/excited we were the night before (or during our 3 month engagement as a whole). I remember getting ready and being pretty collected while hanging out with the guys, praying (a lot...mainly that I didn't pass out, bawl my eyes out or vomit anxiously on the stage) and wondering what you were doing right then. I recall raising up my eyes as the doors opened and seeing you walk down the aisle glowing like a princess! And, I kept standing, which was beneficial for having a wedding ceremony. I remember floating out of the sanctuary (to Cecil's 'Send Me On My Way' licks - thx Rusted Root) together. Some pics. Snap. Smile. Snap. Off to reception. Leave reception in fan fare. De-virgination celebration. On to Costa Rica for a week living together in words-can't-do-it-justice Sacred Romance. And; home to a entirely new home to build together. And, don't forget - an amazing magnolia tree in full bloom.

Since then, WOW, we've...redone an entire house (with the help of amazing friends and family), laughed a LOT, taken three Houseboat trips, cried, lost weight together, renewed our vows once alongside hundreds of other couples, gained weight together (but you had the pregnancy thing as a good reason), gotten a Chloe, started traditions, ushered in some in-laws, helped start a local church body, been in weddings together, continue to learn to consume less and give more, seen a ton of sporting events, led marriage courses, welcomed a beautiful baby boy into the world (and get to do that whole thing over again soon!), rocked out to some really good shows and countless other awesome things.

Of course, zero of the things listed above could have been done without the blessing/leadership/guidance of our amazing God.

...It's been a good run. I think we should keep at it. :) Words can't really express my joy, wonder, excitement and enthusiasm to keep writing these pages with you.

I love you.
Happy Anniversary, My Bride Forever.
...only through Him as we continue Becoming One...
- the husband.



ps...the post says 4/2, but our anniversary is actually 4/3. It's hard to post stuff like this in the same house with a chick, so late night and early morning measures needed taken!

java coupe

A relaxing Saturday morning brought LA quite a discovery. While he knows coffee is "Hot! Hot! Hot!" (as he would put it), it's not too hot to drop a toy car into. Happy Saturday! Don't forget to catch the season opening IndyCar race tonight on ESPN2 at 8pET.

Easter Sunday

We first attended The Well for our Easter gathering with both of LA's grandparents. It was still early in this picture and it took Landon a little while to wake up. I wanted to add in this post where I got LA's super cool tie!!!!! I was so pumped to find this company online called daintycouture.com. Look under little man ties. The quality of the tie is incredible and I can't wait to buy another tie for another special occasion!! If you have boys and like great ties.....check out their website!!!

He is growing up so fast!



One proud Momma!!!!


Amos and I hosted Easter at our home with both sets of parents and aunts and uncles. It was such a great time!!! This is LA having a blast with his Uncle O.


And enjoying his time with Aunt Elisha!


There is most of the gang.


And a goodnight picture!

LA cleans up his act

(I think Swiffer might owe us some money for posting this.) :)

World Water Day

World Water Day is tomorrow.

It's our single most bountiful resource. Yet, water is a daily privilege millions take for granted. If it's not clean or available, you die. The little known truth is that lack of clean and accessible drinking water is the second largest worldwide killer of children under five.

Educate yourself on the issue and respond.

http://www.worldwaterday.net/
http://www.unwater.org/
http://water.org/
http://one.org/
http://www.tapproject.org/

Great project here getting restaurants involved across the U.S. this week. Check out the video below by UNICEF & The Tap Project...




Isn't is also incredibly fitting that World Water Day, a campaign for clean water awareness, falls on Easter weekend, a holiday commemerating the price paid for clean Life everlasting.

Will he float?

Landon has been intrigued by his bright green and blue life vest for a few months now, so Crystal decided to try it on him and he absolutely loved it!


So, he kept it on...and played...and worked at his work bench...and played some more. Look at that cute little toosh! -- Ideally, March starts to feel like Spring and we can start to think about putting this little vest to the real test. Until then...we're flood ready. AND...green for St Patty's Day (even though it seems the color green wasn't really intended to be St Patty's Day's color).

WIN A MOD MUM SLING!!!!!

You have to check out the ELLINGHOUSE website to win a Mod Mum Sling!!!!

I really want to win one for our new little addition. The one I hope to win is the Viv. Yes, it is plain black but I can wear it with everything!!! There are a ton of awesome designs to choose from. So, check out Emily's blog to see pics and register to win a sling!!! I can't wait to become a baby wearing Mom just like Emily!!!!

A project...

...completed...


...is a project...


Enjoyed!

Spring Fever

It's 63 and sunny! Let's go play outside!


Just woke up from nap time, but a toddler is never too sleepy to climb into an H2.


...or get under the hood with Papa.


Papa is pushing LA around because he's still a bit timid of the noise it makes when he pushes the pedal (Landon that is. Papa isn't scared of nothin'!).


Who says you need snow to sled?!


Bubbles!


Walkin' with Papa.


In Papa's boat (on the trailer in the garage) and playing with fishing worms.


Snacks while getting my bottom cleaned. How much better can it get?!


What a day...

How Old Are You?

LA was sick AGAIN and is getting better!

Last Friday LA was back on his antibiotic for a cough and fever.



How cute is this? LA snuggling with Dadda and Pooh. He a very snuggly baby anyways, but during the sick times he is extra snuggly!!



He knew Mamma was taking a picture and says "cheese!"


27 weeks and counting! Can't be more joyful for a healthy baby#2 on the way.

Mozilla, Firefox and webgeeks GIVE back...

The makers of the web browser Firefox have hit 500 million downloads and they're celebrating by giving to Free Rice (a partner of Poverty.com)

FreeRice has two goals:

1) Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.

2) Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

Click on the image below to see how you can help. It's majorly easy! HINT: have dictionary.com pulled up in a browser window beside the one you're using. Good luck!

LA and Raymond

Landon and his cousin Raymond hanging out on the couch together.



Nana is feeding Raymond and Landon is watching while sitting on his truck.

We are finally feeling better here at the Haffner home. No more snotty noses. We went through so many boxes of Kleenex, I switched over to toliet paper for myself. It was crazy! We are looking forward to our first completely normal, relaxing week. Thanks for all your prayers!

Selling our home

Many of you know that we having been working to sell our home by owner for a few months now. With some success (but no formal offers), we've opted to move into the Spring buying season by officially listing our home.

It's a very bittersweet thing for us. In our 4 years here, this house has become a home through the blood, sweat and tears of not just us, but so many other friends and family members. Man...how many late nights did we all spend here picking off wallpaper from an entire room in postage stamp sized increments? How many pizzas and beers were consumed pulling nails from our amazing hardwoods (the animals had carpet covering them for 50 years!)? Then, there's the rearing our first child in the place thing to consider...And, on and on.

So, why sell?

1) We feel an eternal responsibility to free up more of our resources to give more away. By taking the profit on the house, paying down other equities and moving into a less expensive home, we can do this.

2) Our local church body, and many of those in that community, all live north of us. Which, is where we're likely headed.

3) This house has always been an investment. It's just taken us 4 years to flip it. :)

So, spread the word. Or, just buy the place.

Wii Baby

Granted, this isn't Landon. And, we're pretty anti-video game in the Haffner Home, but this is majorly cute...

Free kid's T-shirt offer

We found this great kid's T site through The Elling House blog. Polly Todd. There's some hip baby clothes for very decent prices. The drum kit tee below is our favorite for Landon. Polly Todd's isn't just offering great kids duds, they're shelling out free items to those who help spread the word. Check out how easy it is to take advantage of the free offer by clicking here.

the crate.....

We were so excited to have Sophie and her Momma (Shannon) over to play this morning! I love this picture and had to share...Landon plays in Chloe's crate quite often, but has never had anyone besides Chloe try to enter. His face says it all! Thanks for coming to play with us! We love you guys!!

The un-paci-fication

We're opting to slowly work toward removing the paci from day-to-day life around BPM. Once baby#2 arrives in June, LA can't be stealing his little bro or sis's paci. From what we know, after only 6 months, the need for non-nutritional sucking is gone. We haven't gotten into a this-is-a-problem phase (at least yet anyway). LA only gets the paci at naptime and bedtime. (Actually, in the picture above, we were at a wedding and LA was in a really good mood and kept wanting to talk. So, we' plugged him up.) We're just trying to think ahead on this one. We all know those 3 year olds running around with pacifiers jammed in their mouths. Not a good look. What are your thoughts on ages to un-paci and what method works best?

King and Queen of the mountain (Kangaroo Climber)

You can sort of tell why people keep thinking Crystal is a Mother of two whenever they're all out together. To which Caroline always quickly points out, "She's not my Mom."

Dadda rub your shoulders?

Crystal and LA have a new friend!

I am watching a little girl, named Caroline 1.5 days a week. It is going great! She is 5 and loves Landon. For the most part, Landon deals with her playing "mom."She is a wonderful little girly girl.



As you can see Caroline has everything to play house and she does it very well. While she is preparing food she puts Landon in his "room" until she is ready. So cute!



This is Landon's favorite toy. It is a trampoline with handles. Sometimes he gets jumping so much he falls right off.....stay tuned for a video clip in the near future.

I am really enjoying watching Landon interact with Caroline. I can sometimes leave the room to go to the bathroom....which as many of you know is a big deal. Landon really likes Caroline and gets excited when we see her. It is great!

Baby 2!

By 20 weeks with Landon, we had seen the little man like 4 times. With this little bundle, we hadn't gotten any pictures until this morning. It's been a long wait. But, well worth it. We are SO joyous to report a healthy growing baby (insert gender guess here) Haffner!


A proud happy Mama looking at baby2. Technology seriously is amazing.


Click on the above image to look at the ultrasound image montage enlarged.

LA and Raymond at dinner

The other night we went out to Maggiano's to celebrate Crystal's Uncle Frank's 70th birthday. The video below is Landon playing with his little cousin Raymond after dinner. The video is pretty dark, but the end is pretty cute when Landon says his lil cous's name for the first time.

New Year's Eve in Chicago!

Every year we get to take a New Year's trip with our dear friends Ty and Rachel. This year, we did a short one (they're typically 3 to 5 day experiences, a la Miami, upper Michigan peninsula, etc) up to Chicago for the night.


We had dinner at this amazing Latin eatery called Carnivale that lived up to all the cuisine hype of the city.


We drudged through the snow and cold (actually we took a warm taxi, urban legend has it the driver piloted like a "Bad @$$" and was told so by someone in the car) and got back to the Hyatt on Wacker Dr where we chilled to the ends of 2007...


...and welcomed "8" in with style. Nevermind her very tired eyes, props to the pregnant Haffner who stayed up well past 12amCT to celebrate!


Caught some fireworks off Navy Pier from the comforts of our hotel hallway.


Little Landon got to stay overnight with Papa and Nana while his parents gallivanted north. He ended 2007 with a bang (or a "boom boom" as he calls it) right into the bedroom dresser when he stumbled over Chloe. Here's to the little man's first shiner!