Your Father's Corn Hole

What a wonderful group of dads we have in our family! All the men seemed to have a ball with their little ones. Congrats to Paul on his first Father's Day! Whada ya say we celebrate with some corn hole? So the kids didn't quite get the idea of the game... or maybe they improved it?!

Father's Day

So I suppose you could say it was a new Father's Day for Papa this year, as he is a father to three for the first time this Father's Day. Here is one proud Papa with his beautiful children!

Indiana Holiday

We wanted to share some of the images of the fun we had a recent trip to Indiana. Wonderlab, in Bloomington, was a particular favorite... second only to the s'mores. But I suppose that's as it should be!

Master of Her World

Sabrina has pretty much mastered grasping objects - and even manages to help them find their way to her mouth most of the time! What will she master next?

More Claraisms

"Dis BROH-en" (This broken - usually whenever holding one of Mama's necklaces in her hand.)
"You pit me up pwease, Daddy" followed up by, "Dat too hi."
"One, two, fwee."
"Yewoh is mine favrit tolor."
Where are you shoes? "I don know; dey're hidin."
"Let get on road toad."

Clara-isms

I (Adam) have been meaning to post this for a while. Clara-isms are those little sayings that are unique to Clara. I know of a few, but I'm curious what you've heard. This past week, according to Clara, we stayed at Ratoon Rids (Raccoon Ridge). Here are some other Clara-isms:

"Me otay" (I'm okay)
"Me do it mineself" (I'll do it myself)


I know there are more, but I've misplaced my list. So, add a few of your own!

Park visit with Grandparents

Almost a month ago, Grandma and Grandpa Hoeben joined us for a little park time. Clara spent much of her time on the swing while Christopher made friends and explored the entire place. As you might have expected, when it was time to leave it was the parents and grandparents who were exhausted.

Flower child

These were taken in the backyard yesterday while practicing with a new lens.

Airplane

This was taken sometime last week ... when the sun was still shining around here rather than all this stormy weather we've been having. Papa and Christopher are playing airplane in the backyard hammock.

Sleeping time

Sabrina is spending her first night in the crib as we type this blog post. We put up the crib yesterday and so far so good. We'll see how the night goes. You may find it interesting that at 10:23 p.m., her sister is clonked out in the big girl bed but Sabrina's not quite ready to hang it up just yet. If you click on the photo you can probably see her little eyes between the bars of her new crib.



Wonder what he's dreaming about....

Basement

So, here's what our basement looked like on April 8th. This weekend we started the process of "moving back in" as our stuff had been in the garage for the entire time. Actually, in the garage, in the living room, in Clara's room, in our bedroom, in the kitchen, and just about everywhere else except for in the basement. In a few days, we'll post photos of what it looks like now.





Sabrina looking at Papa in early April. Wonder what she's thinking...

Child of God

Another celebration we held this weekend was the Baptism of our little girl. God bless you Sabrina-bean! Thanks to all the friends and family who joined us for this blessed event - especially her Godparents, Gina and Tim.

Celebration

We're so excited for Katie and Paul who are expecting their first baby in one month! This weekend, the ladies got together to Shower Katie with blessings, advice and, of course, presents. Thanks to all who came to help Katie celebrate!

Turkey Ridge

Our annual trip to Turkey Ridge Farm in Nashville, IN. was awesome! As you can see, we had many wonderful adventures.

Announcing Sabrina!

Toddler love

Sabrina Smiles

We've posted far too few photos of our little girl... without further adieu, here are a few papa caught of her smiling and cooing at mama... that's right, she's smiling already! What a beauty! More to come as soon as possible.

Sabrina

We've had a few things going on lately, sorry for not posting more frequently. There are some photos of Sabrina when she was much younger but they haven't been posted yet (obviously). We'll try to get some up soon.

CorningWare

So, in the garage (which formerly belonged to Adam's grandma) there was a shelf above the minivan which held a 20 year collection of Pyrex, CorningWare and glass dishes. One quiet afternoon during nap time, Annette heard a loud CRASH. She got up and discovered that the shelf had broken free from the wall and all the dishes came crashing down. A really really big pile of broken stuff was ALL OVER the garage - and several pieces landed on the hood of our minivan causing some pretty nasty dents.

This all happened in late March. Fast forward several weeks to last Thursday ... Adam is taking grandma (aka Babo) back to her home when the discussion about the dents on the hood is brought up. Adam said, "Remember all those dishes you had in the garage?" She replied, "Uh, no."

"You know, the Pyrex and CorningWare stored on the top shelf in the garage?"

"Nope. Don't know what you're talking about."

He insisted saying, "They're dishes you used to bake with." She still shook her head. He went on, "Well, the shelf fell down and all the dishes dented the hood of my wife's van." Without missing a beat, Adam's 90 year old kind grandmother shot back, "Well, I'm not gonna pay for it! You broke my dishes!"

Seriously folks. You can't make this stuff up.

Chaos

Annette was taking a break today around dinner time so it was my (Adam) turn to feed the older two kiddos and attempt to keep things orderly. We were playing outside while the pizza cooked in the oven when Clara spotted a cat coming near the fence. I raced outside to see this black feline and was surprised by how patient it was with them. Duke, the backyard dog, however was not. He lit out a litany of barks that really irked kitty. It was hard to get the kids distracted from all the excitement long enough for them to come back inside but eventually I won them over. Duke had calmed down by this point and the cat seemed disinterested in him. Nevertheless, while we were eating pizza he lit up his barking cacophony again. I stood up from the table and muttered "Aw shhhh..." but stopped myself before you know what slipped out. Of course this caught Christopher's attention but he was more interested in why I said "Awsh" rather than what I was saying it in response to. Annette was in the back trying to sleep despite the dog's incessant barking. The picture below is what I saw when I got up from the table. I went back to check out the view from her window and must admit it was a much better angle but let's just say pain pills prevented me from taking the photo I really wanted.

For the record, Clara eventually explained to Christopher that Papa was actually saying "Aw shoot!" Funny stuff.

Photos from Sabrina's birthday

Baby Sabrina

Yesterday afternoon, Sabrina Howard was born. She weighed 8 lbs 10 oz and measured 21 1/4 inches long. She and Annette are healthy and well. From her father's perspective, the most unexpected part of the whole thing is her strawberry blond hair. Enjoy the photo below taken earlier today. We'll certainly have more images very soon after Annette gets a chance to take Sabrina into the studio.

Hungry

This is what happens when you try to spend an evening doing something other than playing "Guitar Hero." No Alcohol was involved in the making of this film.

No baby yet

'Nuff said.

Our little book worm

Here's one of the shots of Christopher and I messing around in the studio tonight. What better way to spend time while waiting for Baby #3 to arrive than making pictures of "baby" #1?!

Sleeping

Sometimes these little people can act so grown up, but other times they still look really really small.