The Haffner's World: March 2016

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Happy 8th Birthday Claire

Claire! Where do I even begin? I seriously can not believe that you are 8 years old! It doesn't seem possible. You are a bright light everywhere you go. You are sweet, kind, caring, loving, passionate, funny, shy yet out going. You are an awesome dancer and you still love it. I love watching you dance and seeing your personality come out through it. You will not dance for us just because. You will not show anyone your dance numbers - but put you on a stage and WOW! You come to life! Around new people or even people you don't live with (ha ha) you are very reserved and shy. We have to coach you through speaking to people and not coming across rude.
You are a perfectionist. If you can't be perfect at something you get very anxious. Most time you just won't try because you want it to be perfect and you hate failure. Again - we are coaching you through all of this and showing you to try and even if you fail at least you tried.
You have a very compassionate heart. You want people to know Jesus and you want them to see the love that He has for them. I love that you love Jesus so much.
Claire - we are so proud of you. We are so proud of who you are and who you are growing into. We love your silly personality and you laughter. I hope you have an amazing day.

We love you!

Friday, March 18, 2016

Holes in our heads and thighs

On Wednesday we took Callen for his 15 month check up...we kind of didn't know about it and thought our next one was at 18 months...so we had his 15 month check up on his 17 month mark - oops! Callen is 31 inches tall and 25 pounds. Our doctor never says what percentile that is so I'm not sure. He's a healthy height and weight. Last week Callen went into see our Dr twice - on Monday and then again on Friday. He ran a fever on Monday into Tuesday - because strep and flu are just now hitting our schools I was terrified he was sick with one of those. All test came back negative. The doctor said it was virus. By Tuesday night he was fever free but still not acting like himself. Thursday and Friday he still wasn't feeling like himself. On top of that he wasn't eating. So I had Michael take him back. I had several people say they had been tested for flu and it came back negative and then 3 or 4 days later they had a positive. Well Friday they ran everything again...and negative. The doc gave us an antibiotic (I kind of told Michael he wasn't allowed to leave unless the doctor gave him something lol) for an unknown illness.
So when we went on Wednesday he was feeling MUCH better, eating, sleeping, and happy! Doctor noticed that he had a cough...he has had a cough for a while it is very much allergy related. But, he put us back on breathing treatments to make sure it doesn't get out of control. He was given 3 vaccines in his thighs and we have to go back in 2 months for the next round that was supposed to be next month...

After the doc we headed to the mall to get Claire's ears pierced. We had promised her at 5 she could get her ears pierced. She never pushed it...we never really found time. But this week we had the time and she was ready. She was a rock star! She didn't even tear up. She loves them and so far they are looking very healthy!

Houston Zoo

When we asked Claire what she wanted to do for her birthday she said - The Zoo! I loved that because we took her to the zoo for her 1st birthday, 2nd birthday, 3rd birthday(which apparently my computer crashed and I didn't have the pictures - click on the words 1st birthday and 2nd birthday above to see those posts) - after that things changed a little. We always go to the zoo on Spring Break we usually don't call it for her birthday. So I was very excited she wanted to go for her birthday adventure.

Beautiful girl!

This kid now says "cheese" when he sees a phone or camera lol

Cole loves animals. He could tell us facts about random animals, knew the real names of them, read the plaques of the ones he didn't know, wanted to know more and more about them, he was so passionate about each animal we saw - big or small. I asked him if he wanted to be a zoo keeper or a marine biologist when he grew up (he adores sea animals) and he responded - No, I just want to be a ninja!

At 10 Cole was hungry and was not in the mood to take pictures until we got some food in him. So he refused to jump in pictures. Callen on the other hand - is always up for a picture!!

Still hungry...and not going to take a normal picture

We had a wonderful day at the zoo. Because it is Spring Break we knew it was going to be very crowded and parking would be hard. We have learned how to do the zoo over Spring Break - you arrive 30 minutes before the zoo opens (we parked up front!) and you leave by 12:30 - 1:00 at the latest. When we left there were people fighting over our parking spot, a line a mile long to purchase tickets to get in, and the exhibits were getting very crowded. We stayed ahead of the crowd the entire time and really never felt the pressure of the Spring Break masses!
After the zoo we ate at Chuy's (another request from Claire), and then went to the mall - we picked up a few things for our secret vacation - which is fun because our kids don't know about it either!! He he!!

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Claire's 8th Birthday Party

Claire wanted to have a Descendants movie watching party and that is exactly what we did! Descendants is a movie about the Villains in Disney Movies and their kids. Maleficent, Cruella DeVille, Jafar, and Wicked Witch. The villains kids get to go to boarding school with the Prince and Princess's kids from the same movies. It is SUPER cute with great music and Claire loves it.
We had a great night. Claire and her friends laughed, talked, and had a great time. They ended up singing karaoke at the end of the night. It was probably the most laid back, low key party I have ever thrown and it was perfect!