Lucy and Ethel do Halloween!!

My best friend Patty hosted a Halloween party last night, and guess who showed up as Lucy and Ethel? Finally, after years of truly acting like the famous duo, we had the opportunity to dress the part, choosing the Chocolate Factory episode as our "theme" for the night. We had SO much fun! We wined and dined on devilish delights and played a very animated game of "Taboo", pitting Patty and her Soroptomist buddies against Diane and the Bunco babes. The Soroptomist buddies prevailed, but we had a great time. Check out the pictures in my Photo Album.

Bath Time for Tasha

Tasha likes to take baths, especially because she gets to go in Grammy's "princess" tub (that's because she is a princess, too.) Brian gets in the tub with her, and Ann assists by handing him shampoo, soap - whatever he needs - and she keeps Tasha occupied with various toys. Tasha's favorites are the rubber ducks that light up when their bellies are touched. She has big ducks, little ducks, Christmas ducks, Halloween ducks, birthday ducks. She is one lucky duck, seriously. When she is all finished with her bath, she gets to put on her yellow ducky robe that Grammy got her. She doesn't like to have the hood on her head, but she was a good sport so Grammy could take some fun pictures for the scrapbook! Our Photo Album has more pictures of our little duckling in the water.

Tasha's First Birthday Party

Tasha will be one year old on November 10. I thought it would be fun to celebrate her birthday while they were still here, so we invited her great-grandparents and other family members, as well as my friend Patty and her husband Jim for a Hello Kitty birthday party. She opened her presents with some help from her mommy and daddy and Cousin Ryder. After munching on some pizza (Tasha preferred Cheerios), the time for the main event arrived - singing happy birthday and watching Tasha with her birthday cupcake. She was equipped with her "first birthday" bib, and our floor was prepared with a large shower curtain strategically placed under her high chair. She didn't disappoint us. The cupcake was squished into many tiny pieces, some which even made it into her mouth. She was very entertaining, and it was also fun to watch Ann and Brian as Tasha destroyed the cupcake and swept it back and forth on the tray. This was obviously quite a test for them as they go to great lengths during meal time to keep her and her tray clean. Not this time!! Tasha had learned to point during her visit with us, first with her arm and hand extended and then using her index finger. Every time she used her index finger we kept saying that she was going to be "one". We like to think that she made the connection! Check out more pictures in our Photo Album.

The Hayneses do Sedona . . . and more!

One of the places that Brian and Ann originally asked to visit was Sedona. We had a great time there with Dave and Meg four years ago, so we thought it would be a fun trip for the seven of us. However, after all of the Christmas activities, day at the zoo, etc., Ann and Brian got cold feet and said they didn't want to go. Dave and Meg were jazzed for the road trip, so we promised Ann and Brian that we wouldn't do a lot of walking which was one of their concerns, not to mention the long car ride with Natasha. We rented a mini-van, packed it with our water bottles, sodas, and snacks and started out on our venture. Jim and I have been to Sedona many times (we actually went there on our honeymoon in 1975!), so we were pretty familiar with the road to get there. Jim also brought his GPS for extra measure. All was going well until the Garmin instructed us to make a turn which took us off our usual route. Instead of trusting his gut instincts, Jim continued on the new path. At first we were delighted in the sights we saw, particularly the autumn leaves and farm-style houses. But it became apparent that our new route was taking us into very unfamiliar territory. As it turned out, we took a HUGE detour - I saw Mormon Lake and Lake Mary for the very first time, and we drove through parts of Flagstaff, a place that Megan had expressed an interest in seeing. And to add a little more drama to the whole scenario, Natasha threw up in her car seat. Fortunately, on a whim, I had thrown some paper towels in the van as we were preparing to leave the house. We pulled over to the side of the road (there was absolutely no traffic to contend with!), changed her clothes, and did the best we could to clean her and the car seat with water and baby wipes. Frankly, she was in a great mood once she was cleaned up and eventually fell asleep for a good part of the trip to Sedona. Four hours (twice as many as it should have taken) after we left the house, we arrived at our destination. One "advantage" of going out of our way was that we had the opportunity to drive through Oak Creek Canyon. The autumn leaves were gorgeous, and it really was a spectacular sight. We had lunch, walked through a few shops, and stopped at the chapel to take a few pictures. When the girls bellied up for their picture, Ann said that Tatyana started kicking. Megan thought maybe she was trying to high five her cousin. On the way home, we made stops in two cities that I have never been to - one for a potty stop for the pregnant ladies and the second for a very important diaper change for Natasha. It was an exceptionally long day - but as we promised Brian and Ann, we didn't do a lot of walking!

The Princess broke her crown

Sunday night we dined on Mexican food at Macayo's, a "must" for the boys when they are in town. Natasha had entertained us throughout dinner, especially having fun with her Uncle Kevin. While we were finishing up our meal and enjoying the ambiance on the patio that overlooks the water, I felt something hard in my mouth and proceeded to fish out part of my crown! Unfortunately, I spent two hours in the dentist chair the next day getting the tooth prepared for a new crown and having a temporary one put in. This was definitely not an activity I would have planned during the boys' visit!! That night we went to Grandpa and Grandma Henning's house for dinner, and Ann and Natasha had the opportunity to meet my Aunt Flo and cousin Jan. We watched "Dancing with the Stars" and got a kick out of Natasha's dancing along with the music!

The Traditional Trip to the Zoo

The day after "Christmas" we observed another Haynes family tradition - a trip to the Phoenix Zoo. Brian and Natasha wore the U of A shirts that Grammy gave them for Christmas and looked pretty darn cute. Unfortunately, our temperatures returned to the mid 90's, and Ann and Megan didn't think they could handle all the walking in the heat. We rented electric scooters for them, although I think Meg would have preferred a Sedgeway (the zoo didn't have them!). We all agreed that the babies were about a year away from really enjoying the zoo experience, but Grandpa and Natasha sure enjoyed the time they spent together at the zoo.

Christmas in October

Our family learned this year that Christmas can be celebrated whenever families can be united, no matter what the date is on the calendar. Our Christmas in October was planned many months ago when Brian, Ann, and Natasha booked flights to come to Arizona from Thailand for a three week visit. Our nieces Christy and Pamela wanted to come to meet Brian and his new family and suggested that we celebrate Christmas in October as they wouldn't be able to make another trip from Minnesota and Seattle, respectively for the holidays. Brian thought the idea was splendid, so Dave and Megan made arrangements to also fly in from New York for a 10 day visit. Our immediate family celebrated Christmas Friday night with our gift exchange. It was a very special time for Jim and me to be able to share our Christmas traditions with Ann and especially our granddaughter Natasha. Because her parents do not celebrate Christmas in Thailand, this was technically her "first" Christmas. The next day, the entire Haynes family

• Dad and his wife Rosie,
• brother Tom, his wife Diana and daughters Christy, her husband Charles and their 7 month old son Clark, Pamela, her husband Brian and their 8 month old son Benjamin, and Lauren,
  
• brothers Ted and John,
• Jim, Dave, Meg, Brian, Ann, Natasha, and Kevin, and I

gathered to celebrate a very special Christmas for all of us. Ted arranged to have a professional photographer take pictures of the Haynes clan at the ASU Research Park in Tempe, so we were able to capture this Kodak moment. The festivities at the house (besides eating!) included more photo ops, the highlight being pictures of the three babies wearing red velvet pajamas provided by Christy and reindeer antlers from me. We exchanged gifts and had a great time being all together - a first since 2004. Since then, we have celebrated two marriages, the birth of three babies, and the anticipated arrival of two more in the next few months! How fortunate we are to have such blessings in our lives.