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!

Christmas with family!

We headed up for time with Amos's parents in the middle of the month so that we could all get time together before schedules got too hairy. It was a great time. And, Landon loves his new rocking horse from Grandpa and Grandma Haffner.


Don't fear for Adam's life (read title of book)... his Mom picked this up for her. Good times.


On Christmas Eve it was up to Muncie for a large family gathering at Landon's Great Grandparents house.


Amos & Crystal did some proactive thinking and showed up about 2 hours early for some extra time with the "Greats." It was also time for LA to get acclimated before the masses arrived and it worked. He was 100% himself for the 20+ plus crowd of family...did crazy talk, all his animal noises, turned in circles, played cars with Great Grandma Turner, scratched his belly and ran around like a nut until 1.5 hrs past his bedtime.




Great Uncle Wayne showing Landon the "Balls!"


On Christmas Day, after some time at home with just the three of us, we headed to Brownsburg for time at Papa and Nana's. Landon got to spend the afternoon with his cousin Raymond, Uncle Frankie and Aunt Ruby as well.




Landon opening up his new F150 audio truck with boat in tow! Papa was pretty proud of this find.


The Haffner Home along with Crystal's brother and sister created three framed and mounted pics of their three grandkids for the hallway that leads to the loft where the kids always play. They were very appreciative!


"If he could only reach the spicket." thinks the Westie.


Papa and Landon closing out the night with a new Colts football and Billy Bass.

cuddling with Mama

Amos is officially off work until 2008 and we're doing some relaxing today!

#7 -- Junky Car Club Calendar

...in the "Top Ten Gifts That Give"

What?

This 2008 calendar features beautiful shots of Junky Car Club members and their vehicles. The Junky Car Club is a group of members who are learning to live with less so they can give more.

"We're a bunch of happy drivers who are politely rebelling against consumerism by driving junky cars. We encourage our members to use their dough to support social justice causes instead of making fat car payments. We believe in environmental stewardship and hanging onto things a little longer. Junky Car Club members sponsor kids living in poverty through Compassion International."

Check out this sweet ride from their gallery...


Why?
Because not only is the Junky Car Club itself a great cause and message in a world of bigger, better, faster, more...but 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this calendar will benefit the Corps of Compassion in Las Vegas. The Corps of Compassion currently delivers food to over 700 homeless and at risk children in 14 schools every weekend through their backpack program. Currently, there are over 4,000 homeless and at risk children living in the city.

Cost?
$12. Or, pick up a bundle for $40 and divy them up to even more friends this Christmas season.