Saturday, December 25, 2010

Holiday Highlights

Warning: Long post :)

I was cleaning off the camera tonight to get the Christmas pictures off and I found a few extras. So, I thought I'd recap some of the last few days and our holiday activities.

First of all, I started my Christmas shopping in September. I was close to being done by early November. I wanted to take December easy and enjoy the holidays. About a week and a half ago, I started with kidney pains. I spent a good 3-4 days in pain. It wasn't so bad that I had to go to the Doctor, but it definitely wasn't fun. I passed one large and about 3 small stones. Luckily once they passed, I felt just fine.

This week was Little Man's Christmas program, and Big Man's Christmas party at school. It was a fun week with lots of anticipation leading up to Christmas. Christmas Eve we had absolutely NO plans during the day so I spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, and baking. My house was absolutely spotless. It was a good (yet short-lived) feeling. While I was busy at work, Jeff had fun entertaining the kids. They were playing some music and dancing. It was pretty cute.







We spent Christmas Eve night at my parents house. My mom goes all out with party planning. We had a dinner theme of 'Around the World'. Everyone made a dish or two from different countries. After dinner, the kids told how people from that country celebrate Christmas. We played a few games, and did the pinata. We watched a video on the Savior and the kids wrote down one gift for they would give him this coming year. It's always good to remember the real reason of the season along with the other events. The final event of the night was opening gifts. I love watching kids open presents. Every time I would take a picture of Little Princess, she would tip her head and pose. What a nut.

Big Man got a Razor scooter. He was pretty excited when he opened it.
Little Man got lots of guns for Christmas. He was in heaven.
One of Little Princess's favorite gifts was dress-up clothes from her cousin. She wanted to wear them for the rest of the night. She kept saying 'I'm a princess'. I know I'm biased, but she does look like a princess. She's so cute.

We got home from the party right around 8. The kids were exhausted and went to sleep between 8:30-9. We gave them a big pep talk about staying in their bed until 7:00 a.m. I had visions of last year getting up in the 5:00 hour, but the first kid was saw this morning was Big Man. He came up at 7:10. It was so nice. We had to wake up the other two to go open presents.

The theme of this year's gifts for the boys was Legos and guns. They also got a ton of other fun stuff. So much for not spoiling them. Little Princess got a couple of Dora things, a piggy bank, a cleaning set, a tea party set, and other fun girl stuff. They had a great morning playing with toys.

In addition to all the Christmas festivities, the day wouldn't be complete without celebrating Big Man's birthday. We officially celebrate his birthday in the summer, but we try to make a big deal out of it on Christmas as well. I can't believe he's 6. Where has the time gone. I can't believe how much life has changed in the last 6 years since he joined our family. He's such a cute, bright, fun addition to our family. He continually amazes us in so many ways. Happy Birthday Big Man.

Big Man's biggest Christmas wish was for the Battle of Endor Lego set. He's been asking for it for about 6 months now. He didn't care that it was for ages 9 and up and had around 900 pieces. We couldn't resist, so that was his big Christmas gift. Jeff knew that he'd be the one assembling it. He was a good sport, it took several hours today to get it all put together. Here are the results.
Little Princess is at such a fun age. She loves imagining and playing. She got a cute little 'tea set', and this is one of the many 'tea parties' we had this afternoon.
We had a great Christmas. I feel very blessed and fortunate to have such a great family, and such cute kids :) I had a great time spending Christmas with them today.

Just after it started getting dark tonight, our doorbell rang. Little Man opened the door and yelled, 'there's a huge basket'. We brought it inside and read the letter inside the basket. It's called the Traveling Christmas Gift Basket. It was full of fun Christmas stuff, books, videos, games, and treats. The note said that we get to enjoy the basket for a full year, and then next Christmas we give a Traveling Gift Basket to someone else. I'd never heard of anything like this before, and I'm so honored that someone thought of our family. The note that came with the basket said that the purpose was to bring our family closer together by doing things as a family. What a great idea. I look forward to enjoying all the gifts and then paying it forward next year.

I've also been thinking for the last little while about some changes that I'd like to make for the New Year. 2011 is going to be full of LOTS of changes for our family. The biggest of which will be our new addition in 11 short weeks. Here's hoping for a happy, fun, productive year.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Best Concert in Town

This is our third annual Christmas Concert at the Riverton City Center. The first two years featured Big Man. This year was Little Man's turn. It's fun to see him growing up.


As always the lighting there is horrible. I tried every setting on my camera. This is one of the best I got. If you look close you can see Big Man wandering the place. He had trouble sitting still since it wasn't about him.

The kids had fun goofing around before the concert started.





Little Man is the one right next to the girl yelling :) I don't think he moved a muscle on this song.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Merry Christmas From the Hansens

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is getting and sending Christmas cards. The years that I'm pregnant or just had a baby I'm not really in the mood to be photographed. This year I seriously thought about not doing Christmas cards, but in the end decided to. I did however cut my list way down. There are so many people that either see my pictures on my blog or on Facebook. So if you didn't get a card from us this year that may be why. Just know that we're still thinking of you :)

I tried forever to get the kids to cooperate for a picture, but Little Princess was being a stinker. This is the ONLY shot I got where one of them wasn't making a funny face, or Little Princess wasn't trying to escape. It turned out pretty cute though.

I can't believe how big they're getting. This last year they have grown up over night. Big Man loves Kindergarten. He's a really good student and very smart. It's fun to hear about what he's learning and doing at school. Little Man started preschool this year as well. He doesn't always tell me what he's learning, but things will come out when we're talking and I'll ask where he learned that. He'll proudly tell me 'at preschool'. He's a good big brother (most of the time) and has a lot of fun with his siblings. Little Princess amazes us with all she says and does. She's a smart little girl, and she has such a fun little personality. She's a good little helper and she's practicing to be a big sister with all her baby dolls.

Not much has changed for me this year. I continue to teach online classes for the Globe Education Network. It is the perfect job and I really enjoy what I do. I was released from cub scouts earlier this year and thrown into Gospel Doctrine. I am really enjoying studying and preparing for each lesson. Jeff is still doing real estate. The market is still slow, so that's been challenging. He also works with my brother selling optics on VIPoptics.com. He's the second counselor in the young men's presidency working with the teachers. He loves working with the youth and is making a positive difference in their lives.

We've been very blessed this year and will continue to be blessed next year with the addition of our new little girl in March. We have much to be grateful for. As we approach this Christmas season, we're grateful for the birth of our Savior and for all he has done in our lives. We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and the best the new year has to bring.

Jeff, Meggan, and family

Friday, December 17, 2010

Tis the Season...

Going to Temple Square to see the lights sounds fun, right? Well it probably is if you don't go on a Friday night right before Christmas. What a zoo. We rode Trax downtown. With the U basketball game, the David Archuleta concert, ballet, and Temple Square goers, it was PACKED.

It was a quick visit, but I think the kids enjoyed the lights and seeing the temple. Next year we'll plan it earlier in the year.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

We've got a bug...

We've caught a bug at our house-the NAUGHTY BUG. I'm about ready to sell three children for Christmas. Holy cow. Anyone else have naughty kids right before the holidays? I can't remember how they were last year, but these last few days have about done me in.

Little Princess had help making this mess, but the Kleenex box was all hers. This is the SECOND box of Kleenex she has destroyed. Of course they wait until I'm occupied elsewhere to make their moves. I was making phone calls this morning while this little destructive tornado passed through.

And don't let this sweet little smile fool you. There's a monster underneath all the cuteness. This may not look like a mess, but it turned into a big one. He started out making a spaceship on the stairs. It soon turned into a major detour from one level to the other, and we couldn't put anything away because it was part of the 'spaceship'.
In addition to these two minor messes, Little Man decided to terrorize the toy room. He dumped out every toy bucket into the crib and on the floor. When asked to clean them up he claimed that his brother and sister did it. He spent an hour and a half fighting it, but in the end he did clean up his mess. The next mess was while my visiting teachers were over today. He took a box of puzzles and games that had been relocated to the basement and dumped them out. This was much worse than all the toy buckets. Puzzles and games can't just be thrown back into a big pile, at least not if you want to play with them again. I'm all for the kids having fun, but I'm not for the destruction and senseless messes. The thing is they know better too. The rule is one thing out at a time, but that is obviously not happening. Maybe things will calm down after Christmas. Only then there will be more toys to mess up.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

The 4-year old strikes again

We've had tickets for the Festival of Trees for over a week now. A friend in our ward helps organize things for the festival and gets discount tickets. I've had them on my board waiting to go this weekend. Originally we were going to go Thursday night, but Thursday was a very long day, so we decided to go Friday afternoon after Little Princess woke up. While Little Princess was napping, I was making some phone calls, and Little Man came down and asked if he could hold the tickets. I told him no, I didn't want him to lose them. He took them anyway. After I got off the phone, I asked for them back, but he didn't get them. I asked several more times and by the time Little Princess woke up, he didn't know where they were. We looked for the tickets for 45 minutes with no success. I finally told the kids we couldn't go without the tickets. They were pretty upset, but what could we do.

As a last resort, I called my friend on her cell phone to see if there was any way we could still go without the tickets. She knew we'd bought them after all since we got them from her. She just laughed and told us to come find her and she'd stamp our hands.
I'm glad we were able to make it. The trees are all so beautiful. It was a fun family activity. As for Little Man, sometimes he makes me want to pull my hair out. He hasn't done something like this since he flushed my birthday money down the toilet. Good thing I love him and he's cute or he'd be in BIG trouble.

The rest of the weekend consisted of Ward Temple Night, a ward party, a friend's birthday party for the boys, and a Polar Express party at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It's been a busy, but fun weekend. December is always busy and crazy, but it's a great time of year.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

25 down, 15 to go

I have 3 friends who have all had their babies in the last few weeks. It's making me very jealous :) I am kind of glad that I will deliver in the spring. Hopefully all the cold, dark, gloomy weather will be over (for the most part), but sometimes that seems so far away.

I am 25 weeks and so far so good. I feel pretty good, other than tired and ornery a lot :) I have not had kidney stones with this pregnancy (knock on wood). I had one with Little Man at 19 weeks, and one with Little Princess at 25 weeks. She's very active when I lay down and actually relax. It's fun to feel those little movements.

Big Man suggests new name ideas for the baby everyday. Some of his favorites are Lila, Lily, and Ava. I can't remember the others. Little Princess keeps kissing my belly. Then she'll lift up her shirt so I can see her baby. What a nut.