Aeva's First Pony

Hi everyone! I am over 14 months old and almost have enough hair to call it a pony tail!

Haun Approved....

We feel like as part of our blog we should make recommendations of items that we like or can recommend. These items are from now on known as ***Haun Approved***. Our friend Aimee introduced us to the fine product below..... (Thank you Aimee)


Clorox Greenworks is one of those items that has past our strict standards and made "the list". It is made from naturally toxic all-purpose chemicals. You can tell because it has a flower on the packaging. I used 1/2 a bottle on Friday cleaning our gross refrigerator, then used more to spiffy up the kitchen counter, and touch up the floor. I am addicted. My favorite use to date for this product is to spot clean the children. Lift up your arms Maddie let's get those armpits.... Gracie let's see those feet. It is all-purpose. I must admit I am very pleased with the performance of this "must have" product. But mostly I am in love with its clean citrus smell... and the fact that Green Works makes a wonderful Waffle Topping.... Why waste money on syrup????

Smell of course is one of the Swiffer Five signs of Clean (also ***Haun approved***)....Other than Smell do you know the other Swiffer Five Signs of Clean???? (I have added one... See if you can pick it out... Once you have your list of five, see the answers below.) Enjoy our little quiz.

Smell (the freebie we already gave you)

See

Trap & Toss

Shine

Feel

Spill all over the floor because the dirt-dissolving cleaning solution isn't attached correctly...

Upside Down Testing

This was actually quite painful! I was attempting to relive the days when I could do many advanced and impressive tricks. Apparently my body now outweighs what my biceps are able to lift. Troy was enjoying himself fully while doing his best to take the picture "quickly."

Smells Like Pepper????

(Better than Teen Spirit I suppose....)

I saw this and thought it was funny. More of our signs should show more humor. I edited the coarse "number two" language...

(Click On Picture To Magnify)


Of course this sign is for all of you MC Hammer fans...
(you know who you are... and if you don't the parachute pants give you away)

To walk or not to walk...that is the question.

Aeva has come to consider herself a professional crawler. She is just now (at 14 months) deciding that she may need to try out her feet. We (the walking people) are trying to find objects (it will probably have to be food) that she will want bad enough to let go of the table with both hands simultaneously.

Bulldog Fall Festival

Maddie's school has a Fall Festival every year to raise money for the school. It involves lots of fun little games and tons of wonderful "points" (food) for eating.

Maddie and Aeva riding the horse. Aeva is pointing and saying "yuk" for look. I think that means we are supposed to be watching her.

Gracie may be in the running for Rodeo Queen!

Face painting, anyone?

I think we were being misled into thinking that there were actual animals behind the small cardboard box that said "jungle safari." Gracie threw her bag over the top and asked for an elephant. Apparently they were out because she got a set of glow in the dark vampire teeth instead. She was still quite pleased.

Practicing for Family Pictures

We went to have our family pictures taken. The girls and I arrived a little too early and had to "practice" for family pictures. They didn't turn out half bad considering I am not a professional photographer, I had a $70 camera to work with and I don't own a little black umbrella to reflect my flash...at least I think that is what the little black umbrella is for. Oh and somehow the road ended up in the background. Oops.

Maddie's First Soccer Game

I am not sure if Troy is aware that this is not his division.

"The Pose" - Thank you Vanna

Our team - The Purple Penguins

I can only assume that the ball was somewhere in the vicinity.

Tagged! - 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals

We've been tagged by Jamie! Here's the deal - we now have the wonderful opportunity of listing 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, and 3 facts about ourselves. I am then instructed to "tag" 5 people by leaving them a comment on their blog. I will have to pray and ponder on who the lucky bloggers will be! Applications are being accepted for all that are interested!

3 joys:
Tiff - family
Maddie & Gracie - playing dress up
Aeva - eating food

3 fears:
Gracie - bugs
Maddie - the possibility that she may do ANYTHING wrong
Troy - that Tiff will bug him during a football game

3 goals:
Tiff - get Gracie (and Troy) to quit sleeping in their soccer "unicorns" (uniforms).
Maddie - to have the longest hair in the kingdom.
Gracie - to understand all the things "in this world."

3 current obsessions/collections:
Tiff - Pulling weeds out of the grass.
Aeva - Yelling at the rest of the family from the loft.
Maddie & Gracie - WebKinz

3 facts about yourself:
Troy - loves sports despite his pretending to have no interest during the dating years.
Maddie - thinks falling asleep at night is the hardest thing imaginable and often worries that there is "something wrong with her body."
Tiff - I often think I am right only to realize that Troy can also be right....on occasion.

Soccer

Maddie and Gracie have started soccer! Troy and I are the lucky coaches. I am looking forward to the moment when Gracie realizes that the fun part of the game is kicking the ball and not the frequent water breaks or searching for the post game treat.

Oh! The suspense!

Kati told Gracie to kick the ball so she could get a picture. Gracie quickly took a pose and said, "ok - I'm ready."

Go Tigers! - other potential names included the race cars, horses, pumpkins and Gracie's personal favorite...the trees.

Aeva is anxiously awaiting her turn to play!

Collages

So, one of Maddie's first homework assignments was to make a collage about herself. Of course Gracie had to join in and make on of her own. Here are the results.

All of the things Maddie loves - her family, ice cream, Disneyland, soccer...and the Jonas Brothers

If you look closely you will see all of the things that Gracie loves...her new Hispanic family (that we have not had the pleasure of meeting), frog stickers and Easter eggs!

Local Raptor's Game

Our local baseball team mascot. I don't think we saw one play of the game...but, we got what was important. Oggie the raptor!

Balloon Festival 2008

Those sprinklers are in our front yard. It is pretty cool how close some of the balloons can get!

View from our back deck...same balloon.

This is a cool event that happens each August right up the road from our house. We enjoy waking up to hot air balloons everywhere!

Bear Lake Trip

Baywatch Girls....

And you thought Gracie steering her bike was scary!!!

Cabana Boy Troy shading the "children" from the harmful sun.

Ingesting Points.... Delicious....

Aeva playing "Sand In Your Pants"

Last Saturday we went to Bear Lake with some of Troy's cousins. We had a great time on the wave runners, floating on the tubes and gorging ourselves with "points." Troy's sister Kati and his mom are counting points for their fitness program. We no longer thing of food as actual calories...just points. Troy and I have come up with our own calculation system. For example, on Kati's program a twinkie would be like 5 points. On our program a twinkie is -2 points. Our program helps us maintain our more roundish figures. Anyway, sorry for the side note! I will attach some pictures of our trip for your enjoyment. If you need any more information on our fitness program I am more than happy to share!

We are here....

Thank you to all of the good examples that have guilted the Hauns into posting our own blog. It is really a neat thing to do. A blog can serve as a family journal and is a good way to communicate with loved ones who live far away. All it took was a rainy day and a couple of cuss words while trying to figure blog-posting procedures out and away we go....

Left to Right: Maddie, Aeva and

Gracie Rett camping out on the deck

Let me introduce my children....

Maddie is six years old. She is a first grader and has just finished her first week of school. Maddie is a Valley Elementary Bulldog. She enjoys school lunch (a new experience, since Kindergartners only go for half the day and don't get to participate). Maddie has told us that she has to eat lunch quickly so the third graders don't pick on them. Maddie and her schoolmate Autumn get "the most food of all the Kindergartners" so they are the last ones left when the third graders show up.... Maddie already has received "Student of the Day" honors. Maddie explained that this means that she is line leader.....She was very pleased with herself and I am proud to report that all of her lines functioned properly....

Maddie and Gracie Rett at the 2007 Valley Elementary School Carnival.
Maddie is next in line to ride the horses.... She can't hide her smile.

Gracie Rett is four years old and will be attending Leap Frog Preschool. Gracie simply refers to it as "Frog School". Gracie is very excited for school to start as she has been without her sidekick Maddie the last week and is "bored" without her. Tuesday afternoon when Gracie saw Maddie get off the school bus she told Tiff that "her heart is laughing" and she is happy to see Maddie come home. It is good to know that Maddie and Gracie are good friends.

Aeva mocking the people below.

Aeva Ann is our 1 year old. She was born July 12, 2007. She is a lot of fun. She is a crawler, had two teeth poking out of her top gum (finally), and likes to say "uh-oh" and "look".... Aeva's favorite thing to do however is to climb up into our loft and look down at the people and point and mock. Aeva is noisy and likes to be loud during church meetings. I figure that she is really smart and one day she will have the vocabulary to tell us some very important information.