Crazy Summer Winding Down

We have had one heck of a crazy summer! It’s been filled with a trip to Ohio to visit with family and friends, three nights of classes every week (Mel in class, Josh dealing with home life on his own), trips to the park and the pool, bike rides, the street fair, a trip to the farm, a visit from our German friend, Chris, and a 106-degree day at Six Flags in St. Louis. Yes, it’s been crazy – crazy fun!

With just a couple weeks left before the girls return to school, we thought you might enjoy some of the highlights. We will hopefully get some more pictures out here in the coming weeks to help tell you all about the specific events. Until then, enjoy the delightful images below!

~Mel

What's in a Name?

I was talking with a co-worker the other day about how people come about choosing names for their children and he enlightened me to a modernist approach to naming children. Using this approach, the parents would wait until the child is old enough to name him or herself. He explained that this is how skier Pikabo Street came by her name. Now, I don’t know if that’s 100% accurate, but it is an interesting premise. It got me wondering about our own offspring – if given the opportunity, what would they choose for their name? As for Cooper, I’m certain he would pick something like Hey Buddy Hapner or Applesauce Hotdog Hapner. I was able to ask Dani and Jessi and this is what they came up with:

Jessica automatically replied with Awesome Dude Hapner. And Danielle would choose Joey Lee Hapner, but people would call her “Joe.”

So, if you could rename yourself, what would you choose?

We're back!

We've taken a bit of a hiatus, but we're going to try this blogging thing again. As you may have notices, we've changed the name and color scheme of the blog. Josh came up with the name - Hectic Tranquility. This seems fitting since we are constantly on the move and also constantly content.

Here are just a few pictures to catch you up with Cooper. We'll be posting more items in the coming weeks and try to keep up with it from here on.

-Melody

It's A Cooper Thing

Coop is coming up on five months this week. We thought we should share some recent pictures of him since he has changed so much since you first met him in May. He has even doubled in size, weighing a whopping 16 lbs. and measuring 27 inches!



Here he is with Daddy.




And would you believe that he and Toby have become quite chummy lately?




Here with Mommy.




Little-big-sister, Jess.




Big-big-sister, Dani.




Look at




those




blue




eyes.

Soccer Queen

Dani is about half-way through her first soccer season. She is really enjoying the experience. Here are some pictures of her during a recent game. They aren't that great because we still haven't had time to read the manual for the camera. But you can get an idea of what a game is like. This one was a particularly muddy game and she had a particularly fun time with it.

A 9-Year-Old's Birthday Party...

Well, Jessica turned 9 years old on September 18. We decided to let her have a friend spend the night. She asked to have a friend from church stay over and Josh and I thought it would be nice to have the friend's sister also stay so that Dani could have a friend over as well. So, all of the sudden, we were making arrangements to have four tweens to entertain for Jessica's birthday. Then Tia and Sabine's mom told me that they had gotten Jessica a birthday present, even though it wasn't supposed to be a "birthday party." We always decorate for the girls birthdays anyway, so I decided to get some party favors and arrange for the girls to do some crafts at the non-birthday party. Then I mentioned that if Jessica would like we could also invite Cooper's babysitter's daughter, Elaina. Hmmmm.... As it turned out, Jessica had a birthday party and it was a blast! Here are some of the highlights:

What a Summer -- Now We're Back to School!

We sincerely apologize for the lack of posts in the past month, but as we warned early in August, we are all back to school and unable to keep up with the blog as much. We did; however, promise to do at least two postings a month, so here is the first posting for September.

Here are some things you may have missed over the summer:

Coop wearing his first suit (from Grandma Buttery)


Yep, at exactly 3 months, Coop rolled over for the first time and now he's a rollin' fool! (Actually the most up-to-date news about Coop would include our discovery of his first tooth this past weekend!



This is Coop dreamily sleeping in the Hapner family cradle (see the name above his head).


And just before school started we had an indoor back-to-school picnic in the living room.


Not sure why Jess always crosses her eyes when there is a camera around...


Here's Coop lounging in his swing during the picnic



In addition to going back to school, we are trying our hands at a more restrictive budget. So far, Josh is a champ at this, and Mel is struggling... But in an effort to have a quick meal on the cheap, she concocted this little treat for supper one night:

Stir Fry Ramen!

The Cave!!!

Yesterday we went to Rock Bridge State Park. We went though many trails. We went on the Devil's Ice Box trail and the Sinkhole trail.

We first did the Devil's Ice Box trail. The Devil's Ice Box trail is 1/2 mile long and you have to walk on a boardwalk. We saw saw the Rock Bridge and then we saw the cave. We went inside the cave and took many pictures. We took many pictures of each other too.

The Sinkhole trail was a mile and a half long. When we found the sinkhole, Mel and Daddy told us there are a lot of sinkholes in Florida and if you build a house on top of one without knowing, it may sink and tear up your house. WARNING: Get out of your house when it starts to sink.

We ate lunch between the Devil's Ice Box trail and the Sinkhole trail. We had ham and turkey sam'iches, grapes and strawberries, and chips. I ate half of a bag of cheese puffs.

-Just Jess

Here are some pictures from the day:

Kids do the darndest things

This is our last two weeks of summer vacation with the girls and already it has been full of laughs.

Jessica's moment:
Last night I took the girls to the YMCA with me while Josh mowed the lawn. While at the YMCA, I went on the top level to run so that I could keep an eye on the girls as they played downstairs on the gym floor. Next to the open play area, there was a karate class in progress. As I ran around the track, I noticed Jessica staring at the participants in the class and inching closer and closer to them. Finally when she was within a yard of the instructor, staring at him, I called down to her to move away from the class.

Jessica was in her own little world and completely mesmerized by the karate class. But it made me laugh to think of the people participating in the class and watching it as they were sure to go home that evening and comment on the "strange little girl that stared at them throughout the class."


Danielle's moment:
This morning while making their lunches, I asked Dani and Jessi if they preferred a cup of applesauce or a cup of Mandarin oranges. Danielle looked at me and said, "peaches." Ok, this isn't the first time she has done this to me, but I really thought we had clarified the last time, that when I give her options, those really are the only options. So I asked her, "why do you do this to me?" "I just really wanted peaches," she said.


Hope you enjoy our little bit of humor and a look into the minds of 8 and 10 year-old little girls. If you are confused after reading this... join the club!

-Melody

Wrapping Up the Challenge

Well, we've done it. We wrote something every day for a month. Yes, you might say we lost steam at the end there, but we still did it. Our little challenge was a good way to get this blog started and to get everyone into reading it. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, depending on your perspective), we are not going to be able to write something every day from here on. In the future, you can probably expect 2-5 postings a month. I've said it before and it hasn't changed: We really aren't that interesting of people, especially when the girls aren't around. We just thought this would be a good way to keep everyone up-to-date on our minimal happenings. :)

In August the girls will return to school, Josh will be taking classes toward his BA and I'm going to be starting online courses toward a teaching certification. In addition, Josh and I have made a commitment to start reading (and studying) the Bible together, as well as have family sessions while the girls are around. When all of that starts, we'll try our best to keep this updated. If you should notice complacency on our part, feel free to let us know.

In the meantime, we love hearing from everyone, whether it is through e-mail (joshmel74@gmail.com) or comments on our postings. If you do place a comment or become a follower, please either sign it so that we know who wrote it or send us a quick e-mail. There have been a couple of times we have been clueless as to who left a comment.

Take care. We miss each and every one of you who are far from us. Remember you are still with us in our hearts. (<---evidence in support of Toby's initial post about cheeze.)

-Mel

Acting up

The computer is acting up tonight, so this is a short one. We'll write more tomorrow night.

-Mel

Miss Our Girls

Well, we didn't get to see our girls tonight. Due to unforseen circumstances, they didn't make it back to town in time for us to pick them up and spend the evening with them. As a result, you are currently reading a completely different blog posting than what was planned. We were going to ask one of the girls to write this evening, but now your just stuck with rambling Melody. Oh well, better luck next week. In the words of the late, great Paul Harvey, "good day!" (don't forget the weird pitch at the end of that statement... what was that all about?)

-Melody

Mel Forgot

Mel forgot to post anything tonight. So here's the post. The streak continues.

-Josh

Softball Playoffs - Round 2

We got beat. The season is over. Better luck next year.

-Josh

The Story Behind the Blanket

My mother is a wonderful, beautiful woman who I have tried to emulate in a number of ways over the years. One of those things involves making special heirloom crib blankets for new babies in the family. These blankets are painstakingly hand-stitched over the course of several months, perhaps even taking over a year to complete. The tiny little stitches in different colors create a fabulous picture on the blanket. Then padding and backing are sewn on and finally the edging and lace are added.

In 1999 I purchased all of the materials to make one of these blankets for a friend of mine. I took the blanket back and forth to Turkey and Saudi Arabia with good intentions, but I did not finish the blanket in time to give it to my friend for the birth of her little boy.

When I moved to England, I packed the blanket in a box and didn't pull it out again until my deployment to Bosnia. I thought I could surely complete it during my five months there, but I didn't even come close.

On my move back to the US (Florida to be exact), the blanket was once again placed in the bottom of a box and forgotten for several months. Since I always took it on my deployments, it was only right that I should also take it to Baghdad in 2005. But this time it was never even taken out of my bag.

Then in October, when we found out Cooper was on the way, I pulled the blanket out of the bottom of a box for the last time. I may be over-exaggerating when I say that I had been working on this blanket for nearly 10 years, it had been all over the world with me, and it was only about 10% complete.

When Mom and the rest of my family came to visit in December, I had the blanket out on the sofa. I confessed to her that as much as I would like to finish this blanket before Cooper was born, I didn't think I had the time or patience to do so. Perhaps subconsciously I hoped Mom would do what she did and offer to finish it for me.

We rarely spoke of the blanket again between December and this past weekend when Mom gave it to us. What a treasure; the love she put into this for our little boy.

Thank you, Mom, for having the focus and patience that I will probably never be able to emulate.

I Mitts You Aweready, Aunt Kiki!

Where'd you go, Aunt Kiki? I think Mommy and Daddy forgot you at da Huddle House... We can come back and git you if you want. I tawt you was gonna stay in ouwah batesment foe-ebbah, Aunt Kiki. I'm yo sidekick, Aunt Kiki. We did it all togethah, Aunt Kiki. Sit in da swing, sit in da reclinah, sit in da swing...

We had so much fun, Aunt Kiki. Wook, he-ah we are habben fun.



And I know Mommy wiked habben you he-ah, Aunt Kiki.



Just yestahday, Aunt Kiki, we took this picture.



I mitts you, Aunt Kiki. You come back soon as you can. We wub you, Aunt Kiki.

-Coop

Thank you, Kiki, for the tremendous help you have been the past five weeks. We miss you and can't wait to see you again. -Josh, Mel, Dani, Jessi, and Coop