Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas.  Hope you did too!  This is my 7th blog post today, so check out what we have been doing all month long in the other posts. ( I really need to just stay up on things weekly)




Kyle got the Basket Ball Hoop that he had been wanting.



Oldest to Youngest annual photo, just like when I was growing up



Me and my big belly, as Trent said " I guess Santa really does have a big fat belly this year", Yes, Trent you are right!


Happy New year to you all!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we had Mike, Ashlee & Jensen, Tennille, Whit and kids, and Randy, Keri & girls over for dinner.  We had Navajo tacos, then played games and ate snacks.  It was fun and the kids always love playing with their cousins.



Whit & baby Bryn (Randy & Keri's newborn) slept most of the time.



The boys playing the Wii

Jensen loved the trains



Playing "Ticket to Ride"




The girls with baby Bryn

 After everyone went home, the kids opened "one" present, P.J.s and I think they were disappointed thinking it would be toys, you would think that they remembered getting the same thing last year, and me telling them about the tradition I had growing up, we always got p.j.s  on Christmas Eve.

Snow Day (December 2010)

A couple of days before Christmas we woke up to a ton of newly fallen snow. 

Ray decided to stay home and play with the boys.  They built a snowman in the front yard, then went to the church to build a snow cave.  Several of the neighborhood boys joined them.  They played outside until about 3 p.m. that day.  I am glad that Ray takes the time to play with his kids.

Grand Canyon Trip - December 22nd and 23rd, 2010

In a previous post I talked about the family that Ray baptized in Brazil and how they are here.  Well, the parents were going to be returning to Brazil a few days after Christmas, and they wanted to see the Grand Canyon, so Ray took them , along with Trent and Tyler on a whirlwind, 1100 mile road trip to the Grand Canyon and other stops.

It snowed the night they got to the Grand Canyon, and sadly in the morning it was really foggy.  If you have every been there, you can see forever on a clear day, it did clear out a little, but not like what it looked like for us back in 2007.  (I know we were there in June, but I feel a little bad, they couldn't see it so great).

Grand Canyon Fog

Cleared up a little

2007 clear day in June



Goose Necks, on the trip back home.



Crazy road they went up



Goblin Valley - I love the way this one turned out!



 The boys really were excited to go to Goblin Valley.  They got there just at dusk, so they didn't get to spend as much time as they wanted there before it got dark.  They got home around 9:30 p.m. that night.  I think they had a great time.

While they were gone I had a neighbor friend call me and ask if she could tend Kara and Kyle while I went Christmas shopping.  I got so much done in 2 hours.  I love my neighbors!

Preschool Gingerbread house (December 2010)

Kara made her first preschool gingerbread house and got to bring it home to share.  Kyle eyed that candy.  He wouldn't even look at me for the pictures.  It only lasted maybe a 1/2 hour at home, before Kara started giving candy out to everyone.  By the end of the day , it was completely dismantled and all the candy was put in a bag to eat later.

Nerf gun bandits (December 2010)

Trent and Tyler's friends, Ethan & Tyson, showed up dressed like this, so then Trent and Tyler had to get dressed up too. I especially love Tyler's safety goggles!

New Mexico Trip - November 27 - 29th, 2010

We went to Farmington for a quick trip.  Ray's brother , Brad, and his wife , Reta, blessed (in the LDS church) and baptized (in the Catholic Church) my newest (and super cute) nephew, Zoilo.  It was a super quick trip.  When we got there in the afternoon, it was sunny and so nice, quite the change from the freezing weather we left here.  The kids had fun playing outside on skateboards and with cousins.

Sunday we went to church at 9 am and the Zoilo was blessed.  Then we came back to Ray's parents and had a little brunch with all of Reta's family.

Then we went to Mass at noon, followed by the baptism at 1 p.m.  Luckily, Louise and Jenny planned a head and realized it would be a lot of "church" = sitting still and being quiet for the grand kids, so we got several young women to come tend all the kids while we went to Mass and baptism.

After the baptism we went back to Ray's parents and ate lunch, yummy soups from the Olive Garden, and to many desserts from the Olive Garden (they were super yummy though).  It was fun to see all of Reta's family again.  We got to spend some time with them when Brad and Reta got married.



Grandma's Christmas Village

 We stayed at a hotel, and we didn't get to swim Saturday or Sunday, so first thing Monday (when it opened at 9 am) we went swimming and had the pool to our selves.  The kids had fun, and it just  might have been their highlight of the trip.  It snowed Sunday night, so it was good to let the roads melt a little before we left.  Then we headed home.  We didn't really run into snow until Cortez and it was pretty snow packed, but we made it home safe.

Thanksgiving . . . . I am a little behind

For Thanksgiving this year we went to my Aunt P.T. and Uncle Steve's home.  (P.T. is what we have always called her.  Her real name is Patricia, she is my mom's youngest sister)  Their daughter, Lacey, was the one in the Olympics earlier this year.  My mom's sister Margie and her family were there as well.



It was a lot of  fun.  The food was yummy and it was fun to just see everyone.  We don't get together nearly often enough.

Growing up we never had a video camera, but the Schnoors did.  Their oldest daughter put together a compilation of Hafen family get togethers.  It was fun to watch, kind of painful to see my clothing and LARGE hair, but it was fun.  It is funny how you forget things, like what you got from your aunt for Christmas in 1991 and what my little brothers looked like when they were 3 and 7.

We took some family photos.



Here is P.T. & Steve and their family



Here is Margie & Mitch and their family



Here is my whole family, everyone was able to make it . YEAH!





Trent turns 9

Trent celebrated his 9th bithday the week of Thanksgiving.  Trent LOVES pumpkin pie and wanted that instead of a cake, I'm glad his birthday is always close to Thanksgiving.  I love pumpkin pie too, so I guess if his birthday was in the summer we would have it then too.   :)

4 boys, 1 little princess (a very dramatic little girl at that!)

So, if you didn't see my sneaky post announcing my pregnancy, I am due April 8th and we found out on Thursday that it is a BOY!  Back when I had Kyle I knew there was one more, and since then I have told myself it would be another boy, I had a small "hope" that Kara would get a sister, but it isn't meant to be.

Boy names are so hard for us to come up with, so any suggestions would help.  I actually think it will work out for the best being a boy.  Kyle gets a little buddy just like Trent has Tyler and Kara gets to keep her room all to herself and be the only little spoiled girl in the family.

Kara is 4

Miss Kara celebrated her fourth birthday this week.  She was super excited.  She got up early and wanted to open presents.  We waited until everyone was awake then she did.  She loved everything she got, so thank you grandmas and grandpas!  She especially loved the lip stick from grandma and lip gloss from her primary teacher.



Mr. SAD because Kara wouldn't let him hold her gum and eat it.



On Saturday we had a little get together with both sides of the family.  My parents came up for that and to watch our kids primary sacrament meeting presentation, and Tennille's kids too. It was super convenient for both of our wards to have them on the same day. 

Randy and Kara share a birthday, so he got a special cup cake that wasn't girly, but he didn't want us to sing to him.  Party Pooper TINY!

We ordered pizza and had "super bowl" type food, well that is what it seemed like to me, veggies and dip, grapes and bean dip, go CARBS!

The kids of course had fun with all the cousins and I think Kara had a great day.

Happy Birthday Kara!  We love you!

Amigo = Portuguese for Friend (and in spanish too)

In January we had some Brazilian friends over.  The husband, Victor, is here going to BYU and the wife, Viviane, was a member of a family that Ray had baptized on his mission, and so we invited them along with their son Cezar to come for dinner.  Victor spoke English very well, but Viviane didn't really.  We spoke most of the night in English and it was fun to get to know them, but I felt bad that Viviane and I could not communicate so well.

Fast forward 10 months later, Viviane had a baby and her parents came from Brazil to be with her for a few months.  We invited them all over for dinner.  The parents spoke very little English, so most of the night was them all speaking in Portuguese and me wishing I could somehow upload Portuguese so I could understand all their stories.  I was very impressed at how well Viviane spoke English, since we last saw her.  We could carry on a normal conversation.  I don't think that if I lived in Brazil for 10 months I would learn Portuguese so well.  We also invited a ward member that is from Brazil to come and him and the father hit it off.  I would of thought he was one of their best friends the way they laughed and talked.  Victor wasn't able to attend but here we all are minus George (neighbor) he is taking the picture.

Even though I couldn't speak their language I enjoyed having them over and meeting them.  They are neat people. 

Trent and scouts

Trent earned his wolf badge in cub scouts. I am proud of him, but with his Bear we (= me -- need to be more on top of working on things earlier so he can get done and work on some arrow points.) Here we are at pack meeting. Ray bought me a "mother's ribbon" that the boy can pin the mother's pin on, so much easier than on my shirt.  These pictures aren't too awesome, we had our old camera with us that night, then I forgot to take one of just Trent.



But this is a cute one of him in his shirt.



If you can't tell by the picture, I am making an announcement, it has been quite obvious for a while.  For those of you who I never see, YES , I am pregnant.  I am due April 8th, but I am hoping that my Doctor does what he has on the last 3, and starts me a week early.  I find out this Friday what it will be.  I have pretty much convinced myself that it is a boy, so we will see.  This will be #5 and that is it for us.  I am just getting to old to be "with child".  I already am hoping I can make it another 4 1/2 months.  If I do to much, which to me isn't to much, like going to Costco and a few craft stores, I get crampy (spelling?) and feel like I am going into labor, this is WAY to soon for this to be happening don't you think?  It happened with Kyle like the last 5 weeks.  This happened the other day so I just came home and rested a bit and prayed that the pain/feeling of a baby falling out would  go away, and well  it did, but it seems pretty pathetic to be happening at 19 weeks.  I am not sure what to do, any suggestions?