A budding young artist

What a day for Haven. This morning I framed some of her paintings, and here she is pictured at her first art showing.
Quite impressive for a three year old!









Then later we went Christmas shopping at the local artisan fair. They had a stage setup that was abandoned, and Haven jumped right in, grabbed the mike and did a rousing version of 'Jingle Bells.'

This kid is destined for greatness. :)

The new toilet seat's here! The new toilet seat's here!!!!

Hooray! Haven had to try it out right away. It's very exciting because it has TWO seats, one small enough so little girls don't fall in. Which happened once, and once is enough.

O C Bee

We had a somewhat disaster trying to eat breakfast at the Old Country Buffet this morning, but at least we got this great picture out of the deal.

Oh no!

What about Halloween??? Haven was a clown, by her own adamance.


Here she is with her trick-or-treating buddies, Trace (scary guy) and Ryanne (Tinkerbell.) We were in Eureka to surprise Grammie on her 60th birthday, so I got to take Haven to the neighborhood I used to trick-or-treat in. Once she figured out what was going on she was very excited; after each house she'd say "Are you going to get MORE?!?!?!?!?"

A week in Mexico

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=124051&id=500882481&l=aaed618f1c

Here is a link to the most of our Mexico pictures, no need to post them twice!



Haven LOVED being a flower girl. Well, until her part was over. Then she wanted the whole wedding to end so we could get on to the part about the cake.

Puffy coat weather

Our good friend Jess came up from Tacoma last weekend to visit us. We went for a beautiful hike up on Mt Baker. The fall weather was chilly, but gorgeous.

Even though the hike was quite vertical, once Haven got ahold of her walking sticks she was a champ.

Fall Farm Day

We have been having some gorgeous fall weather. On Saturday we went to a fruit festival at a local farm. Haven painted some pumpkins, we tasted fruit and cider and had a picnic in the grass while a celtic band played. Haven ate all the caramel off of her caramel apple. We love fall!

First Dance Class

Most of Haven friends are starting preschool this year, but we decided to wait until next year to start her in school officially. For one thing, I am not ready to send her off! Also it's not the best time for us to undertake preschool financially, so we decided instead to invest the money in dance classes. Haven started pre-ballet on Thursday. She was very excited to put on her pink leotard and tights.
I was a little disappointed in the 'teachers' (high school students who knew nothing about little kids and taught the class like a regular ballet class) and the floor in the kid studio was a disgrace, but we are going to stick with it for at least this month before we switch studios. Haven reports that she did not have fun and she did not like it, but she wants to go back. It was the first thing she asked for this morning. All in all it was VERY cute to witness and I'm already one of those horrible dance moms.

Subdued Stringband Jamboree

Last Friday we had so much fun at the Subdued Stringband Jamboree. For the entire walk back to the blanket after I bought Haven this ear of corn she sang "I have some corn, I have some corn!" It was adorable. Another high point was the smoothie booth with bicycles rigged up to the blenders. Buddy Nicole blended our smoothie for us, we decided to call in a pinch peddler since we had a racer on hand!

Eggs-alent!

Our chickens have started laying! It has been very exciting for us, tomorrow morning for breakfast we eat our own eggs!!!

The chickens, all grown up. So far only the black one will let me pet her.

Haven the Ham and baby Mia

Big Tina and her baby Mia Soliel came to see us today. It was great to see them and we had a very nice and long overdue visit.

Bear in the beer garden

Haven loves the Boundary Bay beer garden, let's face it, we all do. It is a fabulous part of our summers around here.

Go Bells!

We have been bugging Papa to take us to a baseball game all summer, so last week we went and saw our local minor league team the Bellingham Bells play a team from Bend Oregon. We ate nachos and hotdogs, and Haven's favorite part was their mascot: a large yellow chicken. They let the kids chase him across the field, and she screamed in delight the entire time, not even seeming to notice she was the slowest runner. The chicken got many high fives and hugs from Haven!

In a final act of catch up...

Haven very sweetly tucked her kitty in for a nap. She brought from her own bed her special blankie and favorite snuggle buddies. Sadie appreciated it!

Three little monkeys

Happy Birthday Zoey!

A month in Montana

Our family mourned the loss of our matriarch in July; Memaw passed on July 18. It was a long month for all of us, and on the bright side we got to spend a lot of time with our family. Montana was beautiful but we are very glad to be home.


















There aren't many pictures of this month. Here is Haven wearing Uncle Casey's hat at Grammie and Grampie's cabin.














Haven and Grammie walking through the courtyard at the main cabin at Twin Meadows.

Strawberry picking in June

Haven and I picked 14 and a half pounds of strawberries at the U-pick farm. YUM. That doesn't count how many we ate!














Now they are mostly all frozen in our deep freeze for a winters worth of summer deliciousness. Since then we have picked 13 and a half pounds of blueberries and 13 pounds of raspberries. Most is frozen, but some of the raspberries will be made into jam.

Fathers Day 2009

We had a fun day today! We went to two, count 'em TWO parks. First we went to the one close to our house, Haven rode her bike there! She rode the swings and the slide with great delight.


Then later in the afternoon we rode the big bikes down to Zuanich park, which is right next to Bellingham Bay. It is the park of choice for kite flying and we brought our christmas present from the Stones, Macaw the kite. She flew like a champ and was the prettiest kite around! Later we ate some delicious Italian food. Hooray for papas!!

Happy Birthday Haven!

Haven had a nice birthday party in our backyard. Many of her friends attended, we barbequed and ate cupcakes. Haven received many fabulous presents. Then it rained and everyone went home early, which was okay cuz the kids were worn out!

We can't believe it has been three years already since we welcomed Haven into our life!!!

So durn cute

Today in the garden we saw one of these. I said, "Oh Haven did you see the spider?" to which she replied... "That's not a spider, that's a dondy legwise."

Little Best Friends

"Mama look! I'm holding Margaret!!"
If it's not clear by the look on her face, a more accurate description of what is happening here is that Haven cornered Margaret. Hee hee.



And big best friends, too.

Haven and George Bush

I mean, why not?

Happy Birthday Papa!

Last weekend was Wm's birthday weekend, so we loaded some friends into the bus and set out for a camping trip.

The weather couldn't have been better and we found a perfect spot on the river to spend our days whiling away in the sunshine.

I believe this picture was taken by Alora, age 2.

The bus was a champ as always, and we had a great time.

A view of the beautiful Nooksack river.



HAPPY 36th William Sorgen!!

Smarty bath

Wm and I are pretty convinced that the way Haven has arranged her letters is a sign of her extreme intelligence. Our friend Chris, the architect, thinks she may have a future in design.

What a day!

Yesterday we went to a parade and a circus in one day! No pictures, but I just wanted to say: we live in a very cool place!!!

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day we went on a fabulous hike to Fragrance Lake. It was about two miles each way, and very steep on the way up. Haven hiked about half of it herself, enjoying a new game she just made up called "Quick, the spiders are coming!" She had to run fast because the spiders were after her goldfish crackers.



It was a beautiful sunny day.



There were some amazing rock formations around the lake. Papa helped Haven to climb some, and hide behind some to jump out and scare Mama.



We enjoyed a picnic lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It was a great day!

The Champ

This is the bout that secured me a third place trophy in the Eureka Rendezvous "Battle of the Arms." Apparently the same lady comes down from Canada each year to win it, and she tipped my arm over like a cup of juice. Well, that is once she was done breastfeeding her infant, which was awaiting her out in her car.
The point is that I won a trophy! That month of lifting weights paid off! I owe it all to William, who believed in me. Maybe next year I'll even take second!

Weekend at the HUMP

Last weekend Haven and I went on an adventure to points south to celebrate our friend Jess Sheinbaum's birthday. First we went camping in Humptulips. Yes you read that right, Humptulips. It is a beautiful spot. Haven dipped her toes in the river, and now fully understands why she can't get in every river we see.



Next we visited Jess's awesome studio apartment on the beach. It was a beautiful sunny day.



We rode the train home. Haven LOVED it. Every once in awhile she would turn to me and shreik "WE RIDING ONNA TRAIN!!!" It was a fabulous adventure.

Easter

Haven loves Easter. I think it 's the candy, but the egg hunts were fun too, plus they ended in candy. We took Haven to a hunt at a local lutheran church. She got her picture taken with crosses!







Then she participated in an easter relay. She didn't really get the directions, and cracked her parents up when she insisted on putting the eggs in the basket, even when it was time to take them out one by one.








They had the egg hunt part in the church nursery. Most of the kids were like 'oh look, toys!' but Haven was all over the eggs. I had to get her out of there after she cleaned out half the room to leave some for the rest of the lutherans.







She enjoyed opening up the eggs with papa, except for the ones with measly goldfish crackers in them and some bible verse about becoming a fisher of men.