presenting staff sergeant hafner!

on october 3, 2011 shane was promoted to a staff sergeant in the marine corps! these are pics from his ceremony.

^ that's him back in the shadows.

^ i got to stand next to him and pin his new rank on his blouse.

^ aw, look at that happy smile! =)

^ there he goes swearing his life away again. ;-P

^ it's sorta hard to shake hands while trying to also hand off a giant framed certificate.

^ first family photo with ssgt daddy!

^ wow! 2 photos with all 3 kids looking!

^ just me and shane

pictures from september

with school starting, we didn't do as many structured activities that i can bundle and label, so instead here's a whole bunch of pictures in order of occurance. =)

^ trayson is all about climbing into things. here, he sits in a drum. and he'll stay there for quite a while before moving!

^ not sure why teagan spends so much of his time squatting. he's going to have super leg muscles!


^ wrestling!

^ the boys modeling their new pjs from grandma banana (aka shane's mom)

^ teagan's expression is so funny in this one. =)

^ there's a good one!

^ all three boys smiling... well, almost trayson. ;-P

^ maybe it's because i'm his mom, but i think this kid is ridiculously cute!

^ i guess he was tired.

^ poor teagan. he got sick on sept. 15th and ended up in the emergency room with me for 4 hours. it was pneumonia, but we caught it early enough that he recovered very quickly.

^ teagan spent that whole day on the couch... using part of his time to stick stickers all over the side of it. trayson was just feeling snuggly for a moment and wrapped himself up in a blanket.

^ trevin made that hat in kindergarten. trayson, of course, likes to wear it since it's a hat.

^ me and my baby. he's getting so big! and don't we look so much alike!?! ;-P haha!

^ oh trayson with the things on your head! that's a plastic bag. i probably shouldn't be letting you do that.

^ but i did. he wears it all the time actually. what a weirdo. and, yes, i'm always watching him closely while he does it. =) it's one of his favorite things to do lately. dump the blocks, since those aren't fun, and walk around with a bag on his head.

^ ooh! messy trayson!

^ yummy.

^ he is really enjoying making this mess.

^ he looks so stuffed! too much lasagna buddy?

wilmington, nc day trip

on september 5th, shane didn't have to work, so we took a little drive down to wilmington, nc to check out the serpentarium and the children's museum. =)

^ a yellow snake... don't ask me for any more info. i don't know. ;-P

^ another snake. this one's poisonous, but again, i don't know much else.


^ trevin getting a good look at some sort of rattler

^ this cobra was eyeing trevin. and i didn't like it! i don't care that there's glass there, it made me nervous!

^ after the serpentarium, we checked out the children's museum. here, the boys are "grocery shopping".

^ trevin playing cashier while teagan plays shopper

^ trevin the builder!

^ he really liked those giant blocks.

^ trayson and me in a crazy mirror.

^ yummy! fake food!

^ this was cool! they had a green screen you could sit in front of and be the weatherman. here trevin's having a turn.

^ being "mad scientists" and mixing colors!

^ teagan appears to be having fun!

^ trayson did awesome on our trip! there wasn't much he could do, but he seemed to enjoy getting pushed around in the stroller and seeing the sights! =)

hurricane irene

i hadn't even left emily's driveway to head home from SC before i got a call from shane warning me that there was a hurricane headed our way. it looked like irene was headed straight for us. so i drove back to NC to prepare for the storm.

^ there were several possible storm tracks. this was one. we live right above the "T" in wilmington on the coast.

^ and here's another. this time we're right under the "O" in wilmington. none of the projected paths looked too good for us. so we stocked up on hurricane survival gear and hunkered down to ride out the storm.


^ we even sandbagged the garage door and the front door. we have a problem here with flooding since our house is at a low spot. they were expecting up to 18 inches of rain, so i thought we should do our best to keep it out. here, it's just after 5 pm on friday the 26th.

^ only hours after the storm's edge reached us, the water was creeping up!

^ around 10:10 pm, i got a call from my neighbor to warn me that there was a tornado spotted in the area and we had to seek shelter. i ran into trayson's room to get him, while shane scooped up the boys and we headed to the laundry room. we spent the night there, since there was another tornado warning a couple hours later.

^ luckily, the tornados missed us, but the wind caused plenty damage. here's a neighbor's roof.

^ standing water next to our house

^ oh look! i have an indoor pool now! =)

^ silly trevin plugged in shane's ipad to charge it when it started to die. too bad the power was out. ;-P

^ the teeny tiny laundry room everyone slept in. that was a rough night! it got hot in there!

^ our fence got a bit of a lean.

^ downed trees a block over from us.

^ this tree is right next to my neighbor's fence. thank goodness it fell the other way! it would've gone right through her dining room!

^ after staying up all night, listening to the radio for tornado warnings, i was exhausted the next day. trayson tried to wake me up, but i was OUT!

^ the boys, entertaining themselves.

^ that's our neighbors shed, cruising down the street. the wind caught it and ripped it up and over the fence.

^ the tree in our backyard, between gusts of wind.

^ the same tree during a gust. i thought for sure it was going to snap.

^ the stop sign at the end of our street has a bit of a lean now too.

^ and the next morning, it was clear, blue, beautiful skies. crazy!