Hansen Happenings

Let's Get Ready to Rumble...

2012-02-02T23:20:00.000-08:00

I love my kids. They are hilarious, creative, and energetic. I will give them that.

Last summer I let the boys take some of their own money to a few yard sales in Nephi. They picked out these lovely boxing gloves. I am not an advocate of fighting and really don't want to promote it, so I let them play with them a few times and then they quietly slipped away into the yard sale box.

That was until today. I got out the yard sale box to take pictures of. There's a group on facebook for an indoor yard sale, so I was going to post a few things. I took all the pictures while they were playing at their friends house. They came home and immediately went through it all. Before I know it, Little Man is yelling that they need to change into shorts. Not just any shorts, but shorts that match their boxing gloves. The fighting began. Before I knew it they'd recruited their sister to be the announcer. Next thing I know she's changed into a pair of blue shorts and has on a pair of boxing gloves while Big Man is doing the announcing. (Complete with a toy microphone from the yard sale toys) It was utter chaos. I finally convinced them to at least take the boxing downstairs so Baby M could sleep. When Baby M woke up she became a spectator and the boxing event continued.

They are creative and adorable (even if they are loud and a little rough and tumble).

Couponing

2012-02-02T22:55:00.001-08:00

I have taken up couponing. I have wanted to for a while, but didn't know where to start. I found some awesome websites that post weekly deals and other information that helps me save money. My favorite site is http://freebies2deals.com

A couple of weeks ago I ordered two newspapers. I've also been printing out some coupons online. I've found some good ones on coupons.com. My first few weeks I saved about $30. Not too bad right? For a family of 6 that can add up to $1500 a year. This week I saved $50. That savings isn't all in coupons, it's store discounts too. I do a lot of my shopping at Smiths. In addition to the good deals, I'm also using my rewards points for fuel discounts. More ways to save!

I've learned that a successful shopping trip requires a lot of planning. So here's what I've done. Sometime after getting the paper on Sunday I cut out all coupons. Sometime after that I organize them into my binder. After the weekly Smith's ad comes out, I match up the weekly deals to the coupons I have. I've also learned to take my binder to the store in case I come across an unadvertised deal. It's come in handy a few times.

Here's a few of my favorite deals: Smiths was marking down their packaged Pepperoni. It was marked down to $.69 I had a coupon for $1.00 off two. This made each package $.19 Score. I had several coupons, so I stocked up. Now we can make out own pizza anytime we want for the next few years :)

Another deal was Trident gum. The coupon was for a $1.00 off three packs. Smiths had the big packs on sale for $.69 each. I had three coupons, so I got 9packs for $.36 each. Fun right?

I'm still learning, but I love saving money. My next step is upgrading my binder. You're supposed to have a zipped binder with baseball card plastic sleeves to organize it. When I got started, I didn't have that available, so I made my own. I thought it would work just fine-until today. I got to the store ready to shop-only to find my baby had fallen asleep. I carefully lift her out of her carseat and grab my binder. I grabbed it upside down. All of my coupons go flying. It was a wet windy morning, so half of the coupons are stuck to the ground, half are blowing across the parking lot. Ugh. I put Baby M back in her chair and went running after all my hard work. (I had literally spend at least an hour planning out this shopping trip and getting the coupons ready) Now it was just a jumbled mess. I made the most of it though and still saved a bunch.

Here's to saving more money in 2012!

Baptism in Boise

2012-01-23T07:44:00.000-08:00

The first weekend in January we went to Boise for my nephew's baptism. He is the first cousin on Jeff's side of the family to get baptized.

Jeff took some random pictures before the baptism. Somehow we didn't even get a picture of A (the one getting baptized). Oh well. It was a fun weekend.

Big Man and his lego creating.

No actual baptism pictures, but lots of pictures of Uncle Andy kissing his girlfriend.

Happy New Year

2012-01-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

I feel like I missed most of January. It has gone by in a blur. The biggest reason for that is me and the kids being sick for TWO weeks. We're finally on the mend and things are looking up. I thought I would update what we've been up to in the new year.

The first weekend in January we went to Boise for our cousin's baptism. I will put those pictures in another post. It was a fun trip. It's always lots of driving, but fun to see everyone.

Last weekend Big Man got to go to his own Baptism preview. It was a cute program where the kids learned about what it means to be baptized and start Scouts. Big Man was ready to go right then. Unfortunately, it won't be until the end of the year for him.

Baby M started with a cold about two weeks ago and it turned into an ear infection. She was one sick, miserable little girl. Thankfully she is doing much better and back to being cute and fun (for the most part). Me and Little Man caught the cold as well and have been feeling pretty yucky for over a week now. Little Man missed a few days at school, but got to go on his 'space' field trip. It was a big blow-up dome where they projected different constellations and pictures on the wall. It was pretty cool.

I also visited the bookmobile for the first time. It comes to the elementary school every other Tuesday. We picked out some books and movies and had a fun time. Since there's not a library close, this is the next best thing.

My girls sharing some computer time.

Baby M also got some new teeth while she was sick. She now has 8 little chompers in there.

I found this picture on the camera. Jeff took the kids fishing over Christmas break at the local fishing pond. Fishing at the end of December-only in this crazy weather.

My Little Sunbeam

2012-01-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

It's always fun when the kids get new teachers at the beginning of the year. The biggest change this year was Little Princess. She's now a SUNBEAM. That just blows me away. She's always loved church. She called nursery 'her class'. She was always so excited when she brought home papers or other handouts. She's growing up so fast.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T13:28:00.000-08:00

We had a fantastic Christmas. We spend Christmas Eve at my parents house and then came home after the party. Grandma Susie and Uncle Andy spent the night Christmas eve to watch the kids open their presents. It was fun.

I took some random pictures. Most were videos. Here's what I have:

The funnest part of Christmas is celebrating Big Man's birthday. He turned 7 this year. I can't believe I have a 7 year old. Time really does fly. We've been celebrating his birthday in the summer so he can have an actual birthday party, but it's become tradition to have brownies in the afternoon on Christmas Day and sing Happy Birthday. We got to do that this year with our cousins in Hawaii via Skype.

Merry Christmas From the Hansens

2011-12-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

Well here it is for all of our online friends. This is the picture that should've gone out with our Christmas cards this year. I messed up on the address the pictures were shipped to so they didn't get here in time. I ended up printing some off the computer. They were still cute.

We hope that you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
From the Hansens

Baby M is 9 Months!!!

2011-12-12T11:29:00.001-08:00

I found the cutest picture online that someone took for their baby's 1 year photo. I thought it would be fun to try for Baby M.

It didn't turn out as well.

She was happy if she had her binky. If I took it out she cried.

The ones by the Christmas tree turned out better. So much for my bright ideas.

I can't believe 9 months have passed since Baby M has joined our family. It's gone by really quickly. She's such a cute little baby. She doesn't go in for her 9 month visit until after Christmas so I don't know her stats. She is yet to crawl, but does move around on her tummy. She loves sitting best or cruising around in her walker. Although she did say Mama first, she quickly moved on to Dada and hasn't gone back :( She jabbers all the time and loves to watch her brothers and sister. They can make her giggle pretty good too. She's a sweetheart.

The Nutcracker

2011-12-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

Right after school started, Big Man brought home a note about auditions for the nutcracker. He told me that he wanted to be in it. He was cast as a toy soldier. Since then he's been practicing once a week on Tuesdays with full cast rehearsals this past month. He's put in a lot of time and energy into learning his part. I'm proud of him for sticking with it. The performances have been this past weekend. The cast is very young, but they do a great job.

Christmas Picture Preview

2011-11-29T22:26:00.000-08:00

I dressed the kids up today to take our family Christmas picture. I should've done it on a day when Jeff was home to have some help, but oh well.

Little Man was getting a pre-picture snack and we were testing out the camera.

Testing out the location.

Trying to get 4 kids to cooperate is quite a task.

The kids wanted to take a goofy picture before we were done.

You didn't think I was going to actually show you the Christmas card picture did you? I'll tell you this, it turned out cute. I got online and used Photoshop to brighten the colors. It was fun. I have the cutest kids.

Let the season begin...

2011-11-26T17:47:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is over, let the Christmas season begin. Today in Nephi, there was a Christmas extravaganza. They had crafts for the kids and then Santa came. I don't think we got any Santa pictures last year, so it was fun to get one of the kids this year. Baby M stayed home with dad, so we'll have to get one of her next year.

After Santa, there was a preview of the Nutcracker. Big Man is a toy soldier in it this year. They've been practicing for a couple of months and he's done really well. He was kind of nervous today with their first performance. He did great though. I think the most traumatic part of the whole event was putting makeup on him. He did NOT like that at all.

The other big event this weekend was shopping Black Friday. This was my first time going. We left the kids asleep at my parents house and me and Jeff headed to WalMart around 9:30. I had to park at the far end of the next parking lot to even get a spot. I've never seen so many people in my life. People went nuts over all the toys and electronics deals. Once we got all our goods we had to wait in line for another hour and half just to check out. It was nuts. I didn't mind the whole experience other than being extremely tired since then. The good news is that with the exception of two gifts, all my shopping is done.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-22T11:35:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving. Little Man had a feast today at preschool. He dressed up as an Indian. I got my camera out before school to take a picture only to find the battery was dead. Luckily his teacher took a picture.

I have much to be thankful for this year. A great husband, cute kids, wonderful family, a home, a job, and so much more. I love this time of year to reflect on all that I am blessed with. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Where has November gone?

2011-11-17T20:10:00.000-08:00

We took these pictures from our back deck the other night. We have the best view of Nebo. It looked awesome as the moon was coming up over the mountain.

As I looked at the date tonight on my computer, I was amazed that November is already more than half over. I can't believe it's going by so quickly. I am usually done with my Christmas shopping by now and getting excited for the holidays.

This past week was a crazy and sad one. Jeff's grandma passed away and her funeral was a week ago. She was 92 years old. Three of his siblings came down. On the way home from the funeral, Jeff's sister received word that her father-in-law had passed away suddenly. It came as quite a shock to them (and everyone). This past Tuesday we went up to Pocatello for his funeral. Prior to these two funerals I hadn't been to a funeral for almost 7 years. Two in one week is enough to last me for a while. Hopefully there won't be any more any time soon.

Best Buddies

2011-11-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

Little Man has made a pretty good friend at preschool. They play together frequently after school and on their days off. They're so cute and play really well together. They have a pretty good time.

Little Man loved to pack stuff up. Backpacks, containers, wagons, etc. Anything he can find that is empty, he will fill it up with toys. He's usually going camping, or hunting, or something fun and exciting. He doesn't love putting it all away, but he has a fun time.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T19:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a Happy Halloween at our house, but a long one too. I'm kind of glad to see it over with. I definitely have some pretty cute little kids all dressed up.

Our festivities included watching the school parade, a class party for Big Man, a trunk or treat at the school, and a carnival for the finale. It was a lot of stuff, but lots of fun.

The pretty kitty. Or whatever you want to call her. I think it's supposed to be a leopard. She thought she was pretty hot stuff when she got to use some of mom's makeup for the whiskers and nose.

The penguin suit can be retired this year. All four of my kids have worn it. It's been a good costume for our family :) Baby M wasn't real happy with it. She couldn't move. Oh well, at least she was warm.

I took these pictures of Baby M yesterday. She's wearing her sister's cat ears and looked adorable.

Happy Halloween everyone.

Trick or Treating in Nephi

2011-10-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

All of the stores on Main Street in Nephi did Trick or Treating today. They handed out candy and tickets. You used the tickets to redeem prizes at the park. The kids had a great time. They had fun getting dressed in their costumes.

If you can't tell Big Man is Jack Sparrow. Little Man is Ironman. Little Princess is a leopard, or 'kitty cat' as she describes it. It was cute. I love Halloween. Kids make it fun and exciting.

Just to make you smile...

2011-10-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

Baby M is all hands these days. Anything that is within her reach is fair game. She didn't get this on her head by herself, her brothers thought it would be funny. I can't believe how quickly she's growing up.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-24T20:43:00.001-07:00

Me and the girls are sure having fun going on Little Man's field trips with him. Today was the pumpkin patch in Nephi. We went on a short hay ride, picked out a pumpkin, posed for some pictures, let the kids run through a 'hay maze' and ate some cookies. It was a fun filled hour :)

Hocus Pocus...A night of dance

2011-10-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

Little Princess has only been in dance a month, but tonight her dance teacher had a Halloween dance recital. None of them really knew the routine, but it was still cute anyway. Her age group got to be pumpkins. I was a little worried about her sitting backstage the whole time for the rehearsal and recital, but she did great. She was pretty pleased with herself when it was all over. What a cutie.

7 months

2011-10-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist taking a picture of Baby M today. She was 7 months a couple of days ago and I forgot to get a picture for her book. I put a bow in her ponytail today and she looked adorable. I can't believe how big she's getting. Each stage is so much fun.

Small Town Soccer

2011-10-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

We've spent our Wednesday and Thursday nights during the month of September at the city park for Soccer. Both of the boys played and LOVED it. There were 6 teams and three fields. It was very low key and laid back. It was supposed to be over last week, but because of the snow last week we finished up tonight. Jeff got some good action shots of Little Man tonight.

Big Man was too busy socializing and watering up to get any good action shots. It's amazing the difference between last year's soccer and this year's soccer for him. In Riverton he whined about going to most games and didn't enjoy it. This year he had a blast. I signed him up mainly for the social aspect of things (and the exercise), but he ended up being really aggressive and good. He scored goals in several of the games. It was fun to see him have fun with it.

Here's the little cheerleader. She spent most of her soccer time at the playground.

In a small town it's kind of fun to get involved in something like this. Everyone in town is at the park for the games. I met lots of new people and had fun talking to people I already knew.

Fire Station Field Trip

2011-10-06T10:46:00.001-07:00

We went to the Fire Station today with Little Man's preschool class. Me and the girls got to go too. It was fun.

He wouldn't try on the jacket, but he got to hold it.

I didn't take my good camera because it was out of batteries, so I kept getting a glare, but this is his whole class plus the younger class.

I put Baby M in her first Halloween outfit. It's a size too big, but she definitely won't fit in it next year, so it'll work. She looked adorable.

Little Princess Turns 3

2011-09-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my little girl is 3. She seems so grown up. A little friend of hers is in a dance class in Nephi. I called the teacher and it was very inexpensive, so I decided to sign her up as well. Her first class was today. She was SO excited. She looked adorable all dressed up.

We had our family over on Sunday for her birthday party. She was so cute opening her presents. She was so excited about her clothes and toys. It's such a fun age.

It's been so fun to have Little Princess in our family. Jeff was a little nervous to have a girl, but she has him wrapped around her little finger. She's definitely a daddy's girl. We love you Little Princess. Happy Birthday.

This and That...

2011-09-21T21:14:00.001-07:00

The first thing on my mind is my aunt and uncle. They lost everything in a fire early this morning. What can you say at a time like this. They lost several animals, but no one else was hurt. My heart goes out to their family. They are in our thoughts and prayers.

On a happier note, everyone laughed when I cut Baby M's hair a couple of months ago, but it is coming in nicely. It's at that wild, crazy stage so today we tried her first pony. It's pretty little, but it's really cute. She wasn't very thrilled with it.

She went in for her 6 month visit last week and I found out she weight 17 lbs 2 oz! What a chunk!

Jeff and the kids went up the canyon the other day. It started raining and he took this cool picture out the window. I've really enjoyed the rain storms down here. I enjoyed this particular rain storm from my bedroom window snuggling with my baby.

Little Princess had a cold. She was pretty miserable, but didn't want to miss out on the fun.

This picture was from Little Man's birthday a few weeks ago. I found it tonight on the camera and thought it was cute. Already Baby M has to be a part of the action.

Remembering 9/11

2011-09-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write down some of my feelings about 9/11. I turned on the TV for background noise tonight while I was doing my grading and watched two different 9/11 specials. The first one was a documentary on the fire fighters and the second started out with a tribute to the kids born to fathers who died in 9/11. I didn't think I would be so emotional about all of it, but I am. What really got me was listening to these sweet children who are growing up without a father. They know their fathers deaths were tragedies, but they seem happy and well adjusted.

I'm also saddened by the news of the fire fighters who are struggling today 10 years later with feelings of guilt because they survived. There continues to be victims of 9/11 today. They talked about the firefighters who have died of cancer they think is related to breathing the toxic fumes at ground zero.

10 years have gone by really quickly for me. When 9/11 happened I was up at Utah State. I remember listening to my radio getting ready for school and hearing about it. On campus all the TV's were showing images of the towers. I remember feeling like I wanted to go home and be close to my family. My next reaction was, how can I help? I wanted to give blood or do something even though I was so far away. I remember it being an emotional day. On the anniversary every year, I remember what happened, but I feel pretty removed from the tragedy. I didn't lose a loved one or even know anyone that did. But for some reason this 10 year anniversary has really made me think and reflect.

I'm grateful to those who selfishly give of themselves to help protect others. Amidst all the tragedy and sadness, there are acts of courage, bravery, selflessness. It reminds me that people can be good, kind, and giving towards others.

It will be interesting to see what the next 10 years bring.

6 Months

2011-09-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

Where has the time gone? Baby M is SIX MONTHS OLD today. I took a few pictures and I just couldn't choose between them, they were all so cute.

So here's what she's up to: she broke her first tooth last week (thus the drool in some of the pictures). I'm pretty sure she's working on more. She's been kind of sad and ornery the last couple of days. She started solids about a month ago and LOVES them. She's a little piggy. She can drink from a cup and sippy. I can't take a drink without sharing :)

She loves to talk and scream and giggle. All her siblings can get her to laugh, but she giggles the most for Big Man. It might be because he's so goofy with her. He makes me laugh too. She can roll over both ways, but usually doesn't. She's only done it a few times. She is a big Mama's girl, which should be flattering, right? Well, it's not. She cries for anyone but me (including her dad). Sometimes this mama needs a break. I guess that's what nap time is for.

All in all, she's a cute, happy, fun, healthy baby. She brings a lot of joy to our lives and we're happy she's part of our family.

Little Man's BIG Day

2011-09-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

Today is Little Man's Birthday and his first day of preschool. He was one excited little guy. We celebrated last night with family and had a great time. He (and his brother) couldn't wait to wake up this morning to play with all his new stuff.

I can't believe my kids are getting so big. They get cuter and cuter too! I sure do love them.

Hauling Hay

2011-09-04T20:24:00.000-07:00

Didn't know I married a farmer. I'm learning so many new things about my husband after (almost) 9 years of marriage. He started last weekend with cutting, bailing, and hauling hay. He tried it with just him and the boys one Saturday and decided it was too much work alone, so I got enlisted. All I had to do was drive the Exped. and trailer around while he threw the hay on. I got pretty good at it after a while. We spent several days doing it and had a good time. I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I wanted to, but here's a few I took.

Life in a Small Town...

2011-08-26T15:00:00.001-07:00

Before I moved to Mona, I asked a friend that lived here-'What do people do in a small town'. She just laughed at me and said lots of things. I'm finding out that's true. I seem to stay pretty busy, just with different things than before.

This is my retake of Big Man's school picture. This was on his second day of school. So far he's doing pretty well. He's been tired adjusting to being in school all day. He's made some friends (mostly girls), but seems to be adjusting pretty good.

I'm trying to make some new friends too :) I signed up for the craft night for our new ward. It was making super hero capes. I thought the boys would love them and they did. I had a fun time getting to know some new ladies and sew without kids around.

In all my spare time :) I've been out raking rocks. Our yard is a work in progress. We're going to be planting grass soon, but we have to get the dirt ready first. There are tons of rocks and weeds from when they were cut down several weeks ago. I didn't take any before pictures. These pictures are 'in progress'.

You can't really tell from the pictures, but there are about 20 little rock piles that now need to be relocated. The lot is .70 of an acre. We're not going to plant all of it, but it's still been a big job.

First Day of School

2011-08-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

So come to find out my camera settings were off. I'll have to retake this picture since you can barely see him. Today was Big Man's first day of first grade. He was pretty excited. It's going to be an adjustment for him (and me) to have him gone all day. I can't believe how fast he's growing up.

Family Pictures 2011

2011-08-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

We had some family pictures taken a few weeks ago. With the move and everything else going on, I haven't had a chance to post them before now. They turned out pretty cute. My kids got restless (as you can tell from some of the pictures). Getting them all to cooperate was quite a task. We've definitely got some of the cutest kids around (and parents and grandparents too) :)

Cousin Camp

2011-08-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

The first weekend in August every year is the Donaldson family reunion, aka 'Cousin Camp'. My kids have looked forward to it all year. It's a fun place where we camp. We had a good time.

All of my kids have had their picture taken in the dolphin swing, so we had to get one of Baby M. She loved it.
My boys ran around in their swim suits most of the weekend. There's a little creek that runs through the property complete with rope swings, bridges, and more. Hours of entertainment for wild crazy boys.

Me and Baby M. She's been a good little camper this summer. Between cousin camp and Lamb Day she did awesome. She actually sleeps better while camping (probably because she sleeps by me).
These little girls crack me up. Little Princess and Cousin O are about the same age. They have a great time together.
At the fishing ponds checking out the boat. All the kids (except Little Man) went out on the boat.

Best buds :) They're at such a cute age.
It's always a lot of work to get ready and a lot of clean up once we're home, but we're building memories.

Living in Mona

2011-08-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

So in case you haven't heard the Hansens have moved. We now live in Mona. We sold our home and moved to the country. Mona is a very small town, no stores, no stop lights. It's ten minutes one direction to stores, restaurants, etc. and 20 minutes the other direction. We have only been here one week and so far it's been good.

This is our new home. It's a little roomier than our last house. We love the house. The yard will be a work in progress.
This is the view of Mt. Nebo off our back deck.
It's going to be an adjustment for this old city girl, but so far it's been a fun adventure. School starts in a week and a half and I'm quite excited for the kids to make some more friends. There are lots of kids in the area, but we haven't met them yet. School and church will take care of that.

Happy Un-Birthday Big Man

2011-08-07T18:01:00.001-07:00

I am way behind on blogging. I guess that's what happens when you move. Last weekend we celebrated Big Man and Grandma Snell's birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Snell and Chris & Becky and their kids all came down to see our new house and to have a party. It was kind of crazy since our house was still in disarray, but it was fun.

I had to include this cute picture of Baby M. She has not liked this whole moving business. She thinks she needs to be held all the time and that definitely doesn't work while moving and unpacking. This is what she thought of the exersaucer.

Oh Boy

2011-07-25T21:55:00.001-07:00

My kids are getting to the age that if you buy one something, you have to buy the others something as well. So today I stocked up on school supplies. I bought a bunch of stuff that Big Man will need for First grade. I knew the other two would not be happy without anything, so I got them a few things as well. Little Princess got some crayons and colored pencils.

I was hurrying to get her to bed because I had somewhere to be, so I didn't think anything of her having the new crayons in her room while she was supposed to be going to sleep. I got home later to find out that she'd been up to no good.

I'm not even sure if crayon comes out of fabric. I guess we'll see tomorrow. When her dad saw what she'd done (before I did), he told her she was grounded. She just smiled at him, like yeah right. Oh boy.

Lamb Day 2011

2011-07-17T21:53:00.001-07:00

I didn't get very many pictures of Lamb Day this year. It's kind of hard to keep track of four kids and take pictures of everything. That and I don't know how to work the new camera yet. I've got to get going on that! We signed the boys up for mutton bustin. They were kind of nervous, but did great.

Big Man took this picture at the parade. It wasn't nearly as hot this year which was so nice. The weather is usually in the 90's or higher, but this year it was a little more mild. At night, it even got a little bit chilly.
This was my 10th year at Lamb Day. Jeff and I started going when we were dating. I can't believe it's been that long. It's fun to see good friends, relax, let the kids play, watch softball and fireworks, etc. It's always a lot of work going anywhere for the weekend with kids, but it was fun. We're building memories together as a family and I think that is important.

Books Cliffs Camping Trip

2011-07-17T21:49:00.000-07:00

Jeff drew a tag for the Book Cliffs this year. He took the boys and his mom last weekend to go check it out. They had a good time, even though it rained.

New Camera

2011-07-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

Jeff and I decided to get a really nice camera. He wants to use it for hunting and I want it for pics of the kids and other fun stuff. Jeff had fun taking some new pics. I have yet to experiment with it, but I will. I can't believe what nice pictures it takes. Amazing.

Swim Lessons

2011-07-17T21:38:00.000-07:00

Want a good way to tire out the kids? Sign them up for swim lessons. This was Little Princess's first year of swim lessons. She was so excited. Definitely the cutest little swimmer in the pool.

Parade & Carnival

2011-07-06T20:41:00.000-07:00

Our neighborhood has a fabulous parade and carnival every year. It's one of the things we've really enjoyed living here. In previous years, the kids have ridden on the fire truck, but this year the guy who arranged the fire truck retired. The kids still had a fun time though. Here are my girls getting ready for the parade.
I loved this 'float'. Very creative and fun.
Nothing like wearing long sleeves in the middle of summer :)
A new part of the fun this year was a dunk tank. Big Man was in line immediately. He was dunked 2 or 3 times. He thought that was pretty cool.
There was also face painting. Big Man wanted to be a skeleton.
I'm not quite sure what Little Man turned out to be. He wasn't sure either.
In his own words, Big Man 'chowed down' on the watermelon.
There was snow cones, popcorn, a fish pond, dinner, and good friends to visit with. It was a fun night.

Lessons Learned...

2011-07-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

Is it just summer, or is it a new phase of learning for the Hansens? I don't know. All I do know is that we had a very rough week. Here are some lessons we learned.

1. You don't hit random kids at the McDonald's play land (even if they hit you first). You will leave without getting ice cream.

2. You don't sneak in the neighbor's garage when they're not home to 'rob' them of their popsicles, your brother will tell on you and there will be trouble.

3. You don't throw a doll house toy at your invited play date guest. It will cause a goose egg, he will be sad and want to go home early.

4. If you have too many mishaps in one day, your mom and dad will not take you to the carnival like you thought they would. You will be sad.

5. You do not start a random water fight at Dad's family reunion. Kids will be wet and upset. Mom will not be happy when another parent at the playground tells her that you repeatedly keep dumping water down the slide and none of the kids like it.

6. If you don't stop bugging the little girl at mom's lunch with her friends, she will bite you. It will hurt and draw blood.

7. If you stay up to watch the fireworks until 10:30 at night, you will be tired and ornery at church the next morning. Mom and dad will not be happy.

8. If you don't stop kissing, touching, bugging your baby sister, your mom will go crazy, and that is not pretty.

I'm sure there are more, but I may have blocked them out at this point. Here's to hoping for a better week.

Bear Lake

2011-06-27T13:13:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking about Bear Lake a lot lately and how much fun I had there as a kid. I wanted my kids to be able to experience some of the magic as well, so I called my uncle to see if we could stay at his cabin. It was kind of a last minute decision, but it all came together very nicely. We invited Jeff's sister and her family since we wouldn't see them at all for the rest of the summer.

It is such a beautiful peaceful place. This was taken from the swimming pool at the clubhouse by the cabin. There are so many great views of the lake.

The last time I went to Bear Lake was 9 years ago. Jeff and I were dating and went up from Logan a few times that summer. My grandparents still owned the cabin and it was exactly how I remembered it from my childhood. Things have definitely changed in the last 9 years. There are a lot more cabins, my uncle now owns my grandparents cabin, and I have grown older and maybe even wiser :) This sign was by one of the new cabins by us. My kids kept looking for the troll.
We went 'into town' to get a famous Raspberry shake. It was taking way too long, so the kids were checking it out.
There were lots of fun hats at the cabin for Jeff to wear. This was his hat of choice to wear to town. Earlier in the day he wore a nice ladies hat to the pool.
We had fun with cousins. Big Man had fun chasing J around. She's a cutie.
The kids had fun playing out in the yard and exploring.
Big Man had a great time helping Jeff build a campfire. We roasted 'smarshmallows' and ate smores.
We also had fun at the beach. The water was freezing, but that didn't stop us from getting in.

It was a fun trip. I know my kids won't have the same memories of Bear Lake that I do, but it was fun to take them all the same.

Chubby Baby

2011-06-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

Lots of firsts for Baby M this weekend: first time swimming, first time going on a vacation (Bear Lake), and first time giggling. Good thing we had the camera around to capture it all. I cant believe how big she's getting.

Summer is Here...

2011-06-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

I'm not really in summer mode yet, even though it is here. I don't know if it was the rainy cold weather in May or what, but I'm just not there mentally. We've got some fun things planned this summer. We signed up for free bowling for the kids. We're doing the Tuesday movie club at Movies 9, and Wednesdays we have a playgroup at various splash parks. I think once we're in the routine, I'll be better adjusted. I've also incorporated morning chores and afternoon 'quiet time'. The kids are still adjusting to those.

Baby M is getting so big. She loves to smile and 'talk' which her brothers and sister love. Whenever she makes certain sounds, the kids try to get me to make her do it again-as if I can magically control her. It's funny. For all of the other kids we had this thing I called a tent toy. You place it over babies on the floor and they play with the hanging toys. Well, it was ruined after Little Princess was a baby, so I got creative and made a similar one out of PVC pipe. So far she loves it. My other three little helpers placed the excessive amount of toys on it.

As I was getting the pictures off the camera, I found this one of Little Princess. Her eyes are so blue in it. It's amazing to me how quickly she is growing up.
Little Man also surprised me tonight by writing everyone's names on some new squirt guns we bought. I didn't know he knew how to write and spell his brother and sister's names. He knows his really well, but it's amazing the things he's picked up from his older sibling. I am a lucky mom and have the cutest kids.

Riding Horses

2011-06-04T20:38:00.000-07:00

My boys went horseback riding in Mona today. Big Man rode a horse all by himself. He was pretty proud of himself. What a big dude.

Two of my three favorite guys. You can't tell me they don't look like trouble.

While the boys were riding horses, us girls were having a yard sale. It's always a lot of work, but it's nice to go through stuff we don't use and get rid of it-and make a few bucks in the process. It was fun. I took the girls to dinner at Chick-Fil-A and had a blast. It's fun to watch Little Princess without her brothers around. She's much more mellow. I'd say it was a good day for the Hansens.

What a Helper

2011-06-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

Big Man helped me get Baby M out of the tub and lotioned tonight. When I came into my bedroom this is how I found her. At least she smells good and is super soft :)

School Carnival

2011-06-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

Big Man's school had a carnival this last week. There were a lot of fun things for the kids to do. It was a crazy but fun night.

Photo Shoot

2011-05-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

My cousin is starting a photography business and needed some models. She mainly wanted to shoot babies, but my other kids got to join in the fun as well. We had a good time. If you want to check out her pictures her blog is http://dimplesanddaisiesphotography.blogspot.com

I of course am very biased, but I think my kids are the cutest :)

Thanks Chelsey for the fun pictures.

More This and That...

2011-05-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

There are a bunch of random pictures on my camera. I took this picture of Little Princess because her hair was done up really cute. You can't see the hair, but I was blown away by how old she looks. How did she get so big? What a cutie

Big Man is at it again. He's really into playing angry birds on Jeff's phone. So one morning he decided to decorate the house with a bunch of angry birds. Some of the birds are from the movie Rio. He's so creative.
Our neighbors across the street had a yard sale. The kids found out about it on Friday night. On Saturday morning they were up early and excited to head over there. We told them they couldn't go over until 8:00 when the yard sale started. This is how they 'patiently' waited. They wanted to check out the toys and goods. I was pretty excited because I'm trying to get rid of a bunch of toys and stuff (ok not really). We're having a garage sale of our own this coming weekend.
We went to the zoo on Memorial Day. It was kind of bizarre to see snow on the ground. The weather held out while we were there until the last 15 minutes. At this point it started to hail. Crazy weather. We had a fun time though.
Baby M kept warm and cozy in the stroller for her first trip to the zoo. She was a trooper.

This and That...

2011-05-17T16:34:00.000-07:00

Nothing too exciting has been going on with our family. We're getting used to being a family of 6. Baby M is two months old and gets cuter and cuter every day. In the last few weeks she's started smiling and cooing. I love to listen to her 'talk'. She's always doing something funny with her hands. If she falls asleep unwrapped, she'll stick her hands straight out. This is her ninja pose.
I'm sure she has MUCH more of this to endure. With three older siblings, I'm sure she's bound to be picked on a time or two. (Don't you love her cross eyed look?)

Big Man has the week off for Kindergarten testing. He did his test last Friday, so this week he's been a little bored. Today while I was exercising, this is how he spent his time. I'm surprised Little Princess sat still for him.

Not only did he do Little Princess's hair, but he also made a bunch of tickets for his hair shop. It's up and running if you need an appointment.
Finally we're grandparents-as far as chickens go. The baby chicks that we had at our house last year are parents this year. Jeff and the boys went down to the farm this week and were able to see the baby chicks. So cute.

Where's Little Princess?

2011-05-02T12:05:00.001-07:00

It's like one of those Where's Waldo pictures. Can you find Little Princess?

Jeff and I always have a good time going and checking on the kids after they fall asleep. We'll call the other one in if we find something funny. When I couldn't see Little Princess right off, I was about to look in another room. As a last minute thought I looked under the bed. She's never fallen asleep here before and it wasn't easy getting her out. What a nut.

Big Weekend

2011-05-02T11:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend was Baby M's blessing. In the past we've invited all our extended family, but this time we just invited immediate family (so if you didn't know about it that's why) :) It was a lot less stress keeping it small. Jeff's sisters came down from Boise and we had a fun weekend. My little angel looks adorable in her white dress.

Before the weekend festivities began, I cut off all my hair. I usually do this when I'm pregnant, but this time I waited until now. It is nice to have it off my shoulders.
On Saturday we needed something fun to do to entertain everyone (not that running around the house wasn't entertaining). We decided to go bowling. The kids had a great time. It was fun to watch them. I have to mention that I got the high score at 114. I haven't been bowling in years, it was fun.
Our little brunch after Baby M's blessing.
Little Princess and her cousin O. They're pretty close in age and had a great time playing together. They were so cute.
We had a good time with all our family. We appreciate all their love and support.

Three Piggy Opera

2011-05-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

Big Man's Kindergarten class had a performance this last week. It was the Three Piggy Opera. They practiced really hard on all the songs and their short speaking parts. It was really cute.

He told me he had 'stage fright'. But he did great. I can't believe how much he's grown up this year. The school year has gone by really fast for me.

Easter

2011-04-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

We had a fun and eventful Easter weekend. Riverton city has an Easter egg hunt for kids on the Saturday before Easter. We went last year for the first time and the kids had a blast, so we did it again this year. We got there a little bit later than we'd planned, so I didn't get many pictures. The only one I got was of Little Princess waiting to run and grab some goods.

We also had an Easter egg hunt at Grandma & Grandpa's house. The kids had a lot of fun. Each grandchild had a different color to look for, the oldest boys had to look pretty hard for some of theirs. Grandpa had fun hiding them.

After the egg hunt was over, the grandkids had fun playing in these big plastic balls that Grandpa got.
Even Grandpa had fun.
I was a little bummed all weekend because I had forgotten to charge the battery for the camera. I took some of the previous pictures with our old camera, but then that battery died as well right before this next picture.

It was our annual Easter photo. I love taking pictures of the kids in their new Easter outfits. The boys looked so handsome in their shirts and ties, and the girls had cute blue dresses. The only camera we had available was Jeff's I-phone. It takes great pictures, but for some reason they won't save any bigger. If I try to adjust the size, it distorts the picture. I was kind of bummed. This was my only shot at the group photo, after church the kids were out of their church clothes and into play clothes pretty quick.

The same thing happened with this cute photo of Baby M last week. She looked adorable and this is the only photo I got. The good news is the camera is fully charged, so now it won't be a problem.

One Month

2011-04-12T13:28:00.000-07:00

Sunday Baby M was one month old. Time sure flies when you're having fun, and we are having fun with her. She's a cute baby and everyone loves her (sometimes too much). As I looked down at her chubby cheeks the other day, I realized I need to take a lot more pictures of her because she is growing TOO FAST.
I love this picture-it looks like she's smiling.
You can't tell from this picture, but her eyes look pretty blue. If they stay that way it will be 4 for 4 with blue eyes. I have no genetic pull at all with my children :) Oh well, I love blue eyes.
It's been a crazy month, but we're sure glad to have her part of our family.

My Visit to PCMC

2011-03-31T21:12:00.000-07:00

What a blur this week has been. Now that it's calming down a bit, I have a moment to reflect. Last Saturday night Baby M started sounding a little congested. It shouldn't have been a big surprise, her sister had yet another cold and kept putting the binky in her mouth. Sunday Baby M had a stuffy/runny nose, and Monday she just cried and cried (which isn't like her). Monday afternoon, I made an appointment for her to see the Dr. I just wanted to get her looked at and make sure she was okay. In the office, her temperature was 100.3 The Dr. said that if it got over 100.4 I needed to take her into Primary Children's. That kind of freaked me out. This is my 4th kid and you'd think I would know that, right? Wrong. I guess I've never had a sick baby before.

That night was a birthday party for my cute niece. We went and had a good time, but I was worried about Baby M. We came home, she ate and slept and then woke up at 12:30. The second I picked her up I could tell her temperature was up. I got out the thermometer and it was 100.7 I debated on what to do, wait until morning to take her in or go now. There was an on-call nurse at her Dr.'s office and she advised us to take her in then. So at 1:30 in the morning, Baby M and I made the 35 minute drive up to Primary Children's Hospital. I have to admit I had a good cry on my way up there (good thing there wasn't much traffic). It's a very helpless feeling when a child is sick and there's nothing you can do. I feel like I'm turning them over to the Lord and putting my trust in him that they'll be okay.

We spent the first 3 1/2 hours in the E.R. at PCMC. They collected a urine and blood sample, put in an IV and did a spinal tap. Quite the workup for such a little girl. I guess it's standard for babies this young. They want to test for everything. As I watched them put in her IV, I literally felt nauseous. This same thing happened as I watched Little Man get staples in his head. I would rather be the one going through the pain than watch my own children do it. I stepped out when they did the spinal tap. After all the tests were run, they started her on antibiotics. We had to be admitted to wait for all the test results to come back. So we moved upstairs to a room and I got about 40 minutes of sleep for the night.

From the time the test were submitted we had to stay 36 hours. Everything ended up coming back negative (which is good), except for the Roto Virus. Which is basically the common cold virus. I'm glad it was nothing serious, but it ended up being the longest few days of my life. Jeff took two days off to stay with the other kids. It was hard not being home for them. We've had a few behavior issues as a result. They're still adjusting to having a baby take all of mom's time and attention, and then this.

I learned a lot of lessons through this experience. One is that I have amazing family, friends, and neighbors. Everyone was so willing to help. A friend brought Jeff and the kids dinner while I was gone, which was very thoughtful. Another friend watched the kids for a few hours before I was able to come home. It's always hard for me to accept help, but sometimes you have to. I realize how truly blessed I am to be surrounded by such great people. I also learned how precious these little people are. I am so blessed to be their mom. I also have an amazing husband. He's a wonderful father and my best friend. I've definitely cried on his shoulder a ton this last month (or more). The last thing I learned was that I could have things so much worse. There are so many sick kids at PCMC. I was amazed as I saw what some of them have to go through. I definitely need to count my blessings. I'm looking forward to some uneventful times ahead.

One Day at a Time...

2011-03-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

This is my new motto-just take it 'one day at a time'. Some days are better than others, but each one is an adventure. I can't believe baby M is already 12 days old. She's the cutest little thing and such a joy to have in our lives. I felt bad I hadn't taken any pictures of her since I've been home, so today we had a little photo shoot. She's not too thrilled about the headband. She keeps knocking it down over her eyes and then she gets really MAD.

Her brothers adore her. They always want to hold her. Even if it's just for a minute. Little Princess tolerates her. She's taking more interesting in her now. When Baby M first came home, Little Princess was sick and she was not happy about having her around. Now she's my little helper. Whenever we change diapers, she'll get the diaper and wipes. She hands me creams, plays with the binkeys and so much more. I have the cutest little family.

She's Here

2011-03-11T14:44:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to my newest Little Princess. Baby M was born on March 11th at 5:00 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 6 oz. and was 19 inches long. She's perfect in every way-and stinking cute. I had Big Man take this picture the night before I had her.
I had to call the hospital the morning I was scheduled to be induced. Once I got the go ahead, we headed in. I got to the hospital around 7:40. By the time I got changed and my nurse came down it was closer to 8:30. She took forever doing the history and getting my IV started. The Doctor stopped by around 9:15 to break my water. It didn't quite break the first time. The nurse started the pitocin after that. I was hoping to get going on it before 10 in the morning. Oh well. Because the Dr. had appointments all morning, he didn't get back down until noon to break my water again. This time it worked and things really picked up. Around 1:30 or 2 the contractions started hurting. Around 3:00 I got my epidural. I was only at a 3 when I got the epidural. I was thinking at that rate she wouldn't appear until evening or later. The epidural was awesome. Immediate relief. I was able to rest for a while. Jeff arrived at this point and hung out for a while. I told my nurse I was starting to feel some pressure. She checked me again and I was at a 6. Half hour later, an 8, and half hour later again I was fully dilated. It was the best epidural I've ever had because I didn't feel a thing. The Dr. was called down and I started pushing. Two contractions later she was out. It was the best delivery.

7 lb 6 oz is my largest baby yet, even though she still looks pretty teeny. She's got chubby little cheeks and is perfect in every way.
All the kids came to see their new sister about an hour later. They couldn't wait. You'll notice the two masked ones. They caught my cold. They loved their sister and couldn't get enough of her. It was cute.
I love how babies look after their first bath. They're so clean and pretty.
I think Baby M looks like her sister in this picture. Jeff was sure this one would be dark haired and dark eyed. We'll have to wait a while on the eyes, but I'm hoping she gets blue just like the rest.
Ever since she came out, all she's wanted to do is eat. She caught on pretty quickly and is nursing well. I'm a little sore, but hanging in there and loving every minute with my newest Little Princess.

Things I've Learned...

2011-03-07T12:22:00.000-08:00

Today is day #9 of being sick. It's been a long 9 days, but I've learned a few things. First of all, let me just say this is not your average typical cold. That I can handle-life goes on. This is knock you out flat, no energy, can't stop coughing, can't breathe, or talk, can't sleep, tired beyond belief sick. I feel like I've been on bed rest for most of it.

So here are a few of the things I've learned:
1. Sometimes you have to accept help from others. My parents have been great to take the kids while Jeff has been working long hours, and they even brought us dinner last night. It is greatly appreciated. I also ran into a neighbor and friend up at the elementary school last week. We talked for a second and she felt so bad because I sounded so awful. About 1/2 hour after I got home she showed up with a Papa Murphy's pizza dinner for us. I was so touched at her kindness. It was definitely nice to not have to worry about dinner.

2. Sometimes you just have to take it easy. Not that there was a lot that I needed to do last week, but I like to keep up on the housework, dishes, etc. so it doesn't get too out of hand. Feeling the way I did, nothing got done. Looking back that's okay. I had to learn to listen to my body. It needed rest and relaxation above all.

3. That I shouldn't take my good health for granted. Overall, I'm a pretty healthy person. I get occasional colds, but nothing major. The last time I felt this sick was when I was at the MTC back in 1999. I had pneumonia. I remember feeling like I was going to die. This ranks right up there with that.

4. Heavenly Father knows best. Last week was my 38th week for this pregnancy. I have never gone past 38 weeks with either of the previous three, so I assumed (and hoped) that this one wouldn't either. Although I was disappointed that I didn't go into labor, looking back I am very grateful. There was no way I could've gone through labor and caring for a newborn when I felt as crummy as I did.

5. I have a great husband and kids. I of course already knew that, but I was reminded again at their goodness. The kids were troopers while I laid around doing nothing. They entertained themselves and didn't even fight quite as much. Jeff had a busy week at work, but Saturday and Sunday he took on full responsibility for meals, entertainment, etc. for him and the kids. It was nice to have a break. He's such a good dad and the kids adore spending time with him. He even spent three nights on the couch because I was coughing too hard for him to sleep by me.

The good news is that for the last two days I have felt a tiny bit better. I was kind of hoping for a miraculous overnight recovery, but I see now that it will be gradual. I just hope that by Thursday I am feeling a LOT better. I just talked to my Dr.'s office and I'm on the schedule to be induced. I will be 39 weeks that day. I really wanted to go into labor on my own, but I decided on the induction for a couple of reasons: 1-my Dr. will be going out of town after that. 2-the next weekend, Jeff has a trade show he has to be at. 3-I'm a little worried she won't go into labor on her own. With as much back labor as I've had I'm wondering if she's turned funny. I could be wrong, but I guess we'll see.

So stay tuned to Thursday to meet the newest Hansen addition. I know I'm excited to meet her.

38 weeks...

2011-03-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

And all is still well. My vitals all look good, she's still growing, so we continue to wait. I was a little bit more dilated and effaced. I had the Dr. strip my membranes so we'll see if that will jump start things. If not, my Dr. said I could be induced next Thursday. I'll have to think about that one. I'm really crossing my fingers that it happens naturally on it's own before that. I know that officially I have two more weeks, but I've NEVER gone past 38 weeks, so to me this is full term.

The worst part is that I have a cold. I started coming down with it last Sunday and the last two days my lungs have felt like they're on fire. Every time I cough, my stomach hurts. I'm hoping I get over this cold soon.

This weekend...

2011-02-28T06:33:00.000-08:00

This weekend we celebrated Jeff's birthday with my family. Big Man had been over to Grandma's earlier in the week and he planned the whole party out. He made a list of games to play and a grocery list of stuff that was needed for the party. So last night, he was in charge of games at the party. It was hilarious. Some of them included: jumping, hula hoop, bingo, and pin the nose on the bunny. The kids had a blast and Jeff and my brother were good sports. Jeff had big man on his lap and told him that this was the funnest party he'd ever had. Big Man gets a smile on his face and says thanks dad, that makes my eyes water a little. He's such a cutie-and quite the event planner too.

I've been having trouble sleeping the last few nights. I went to bed at 10:30 last night, but as midnight rolled around, I was still awake. All of the sudden the alarm on the clock went off. I jumped up and turned it off. Before I knew it Jeff was out of bed and had picked up his phone. He was checking messages or something. He went into the bathroom and then headed downstairs. I waited a few minutes to see if he was coming back. Finally I decided just to go to bed. I actually fell asleep pretty quickly after that. So this morning I asked him about it. He told me went downstairs thinking it was 6 a.m. and was so tired decided to go back to bed for an hour. When he woke up an hour later, he wondered why in the world he was downstairs in the middle of the night. I can't stop laughing. I'm sure he'll be thrilled I shared this story, but it was pretty good.

Finally the last noteworthy event of the weekend. Sunday morning I woke up at 4:45 with a stuffy nose, sore throat and a major side ache. I laid in bed for a while to see if the side ache would go away. When it didn't I went downstairs and decided to read for a while. It only got worse. Little Princess's labor started out as a stomach ache that got progressively worse and turned into contractions, so I was kind of curious if this would be the start of labor. From 5 a.m.-1 p.m. my back and side were killing me (during which time I had to teach a gospel doctrine lesson-ugh) . It was a constant pain though and not starting and stopping. I called labor and delivery and she said if it was false labor to take a hot bath and it would go away. So I did. The pain lessened a lot and once I laid on the bed the pain came back in short little bursts-about 3 seconds every minute or so. It was really bizarre. By about 4:00 it went away completely. Through all this, I was really tired and ornery-sorry family :( Since then I have felt fine. I've never had false labor before and I have to say it's really disappointing. It gets your hopes up all for nothing. Not to mention being in pain for that long only to have it go nowhere. Oh well, I'm hoping this week we'll have some real results. Stay tuned.

37 Weeks and...

2011-02-23T12:07:00.000-08:00

All is well. In fact everything looks better this week than it did last week. My blood pressure is down, I was down 1/2 a pound (water weight I'm sure), I'm not nearly as swollen and I feel pretty good. So I'm guessing she's not in any hurry to come out. As long as I feel like this, I don't mind going another week (or two if I have to) :)

My Little Bride

2011-02-20T16:38:00.000-08:00

This is how Little Princess entertained herself today while I was grading homework. She raided my drawer to play dress up. The ensemble consists of my knee-high socks and a slip. What a nut.

This next picture is a bit small. I borrowed it from my friend's Facebook account (thanks Katie). We went out last night with some friends for Jeff's birthday. We ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then went to the RV Show. It was fun. I got a hilarious video of Jeff sitting on the saddle for his birthday at the restaurant, but so far he won't send it to me. The RV show was fun. There are some cool trailers out there. Some day we'll get one... Jeff had to try out the tub in this trailer. We had a good time.

Last Friday was 'walking report card day' at Big Man's school. I'd never heard of this before. I went to his class to see firsthand his progress over the year. All of the parents were invited. The teacher had a packet of stuff for each student to do. It included letters, sounds, reading, shapes, math, etc. It was a chance for Big Man to show off. I do his homework with him every day so I've seen his progress, but I was proud as I watched him do everything on Friday. He's such a smart little boy. My favorite part was a self-evaluation he got to fill in. There were three options-a smiley face, a straight face, or a frowny face. Most of his answers were smiley faces, but there were a few that he put straight faces on. One was listening to his teacher, another was working by himself. When I asked him about it, he said that everyone always wanted to talk to him. He makes me laugh.

36 Week Appointment

2011-02-16T16:57:00.000-08:00

Today was my 36 week doctor appointment. My blood pressure is starting to get high. This is around the same time when it was high with Little Princess. I am dilated to a 1 and 60% effaced. So now it is a waiting game. This is the part I am not good at. I'm not a patient person by nature and combine that with swollen feet, restless nights, and three other active kids-not a good combination. But we will plug away.

35 Weeks and counting...

2011-02-08T20:39:00.000-08:00

First of all I couldn't resist taking a picture of this little lady. She had to wear red to church on Sunday because I was wearing a red shirt. Next thing I know she's found a tie to add to the ensemble. She wore it to sacrament meeting and had to tickle everyone's face with it. That's what dad does with his tie during church. What a nut.

A friend of mine posted this picture of the kids. This was taken at her house. They live two houses down from us. The boys play over there all the time, but occasionally Little Princess will tag along. Looks like they had a fun time.

Finally the reason for my post. I am officially 35 weeks. Things are going well. I go in next Wednesday for my 36 week visit and my doctor will start checking to see if I'm dilated. Hopefully it will go by quickly!!! I'll keep you posted.

Before Baby List

2011-01-29T15:19:00.000-08:00

The other day I created a list of everything I want to get done before the baby gets here. I came up with quite a few. Most of them are little things. One of them was to catch up on my scrapbooking. I've done pretty good to stay caught up, but I wanted the next pictures I did to be of the baby. So I printed out my last photos at Costco this week and I spent the afternoon scrapbooking. I love to look at pictures. It reminds me of all the good times we've had and how cute my kids are. I love their expressions and personality as it's captured in the photos. I have good kids and I love them a ton.

So because my scrapbooks are all caught up, I will not be taking any pictures until the baby arrives :) At least that is the plan. We'll see how it goes. Stay tuned though for more posts as the countdown to baby begins.

Date Night

2011-01-23T21:27:00.000-08:00

This weekend we had a fun date night: me and the boys, and Jeff and Little Princess. Big Man's school had their annual night at Classic Skating. I thought it would be fun to take the boys, but didn't want to have to worry about Little Princess there. She'd want to be right in the middle of everything, but she's too little. So Jeff took her on her first daddy-daughter date.

We told Little Princess about it earlier in the day that only her and dad were going on a date. She thought about it for a minute and then said-I'm so excited. It was cute. It's funny to see her little mind working sometimes. They ended up going to the mall to ride the carousel, window shopping, eating some pizza, and then to feed the fish at Cabela's. Jeff said she was so funny walking in the mall. She really liked the jewelry and shoe stores-what girl doesn't right? She had a fun time. When I was a little girl and went on daddy-daughter dates, my mom would tell me as we left-no kissing. So of course before we left the driveway, I would kiss my dad. I did the same thing with Little Princess. I told her no kissing, so of course she gives Jeff a kiss. She definitely loves her daddy.

The boys loved their night at Classic Skating. It sure has changed a lot since I was a kid. You can now ride scooters on the skating rink. That's what we did since I didn't want to deal with skates. The boys had a blast. There were several friends from our ward and from Big Man's school, so they had fun keeping up with them. After they tired of their scooters, we went and played games for a while and then ended the night in the bounce area. They'd come check in with me where I was sitting and they were all sweaty and out of breath. They were playing hard. It was a fun night.

Saturday night Jeff and I watched the movie Inception. I'd heard how good it was from several people. I enjoyed it, but WOW. It was pretty intense. I'm not quite sure it's a good movie to watch right before bed AND being 8 months pregnant (when I already have weird dreams). I was up several times with bizarre scenes running through my mind.

It's now Sunday night and the weekend is ending with me catching a cold. When I was pregnant with Little Princess, I had four colds in the first four months of my pregnancy. This time around, I've only had one minor cold-until now. It's gotten worse as the day has progressed. I can hardly breathe I am so stuffy. I've taken a few Sudafed and they help for a while, but then wear off. I just hope this cold passes quickly.

Lunchtime at the Barnyard

2011-01-11T14:58:00.001-08:00

So what do you do with these long dark cold January days? We usually bake at our house. Today's item was Banana Bread. As soon as two dozen hot fresh Banana Bread muffins were done and cooling on the counter, I went back to some projects at my desk (still in the same room-mind you, but with my back to the counter). Minutes later, Little Man had all but 7 muffins cut up and divided to the barnyard animals. As he placed a piece in front of each animal, he told them 'wait, not yet'. Good thing Banana Bread doesn't take long to make or I would've been mad that our baking project had gone to the animals.

When I picked up Little Man from preschool earlier today, he says to me-Mom do you know you have taste bugs on your tongue? I just laughed and said, yes I know that. I told him that it was taste buds and since that he has told both his brother and sister at separate times-you have 4,000 taste buds on your tongue. I love seeing him learn new things. What a cutie.

30 down, 8-10 to go

2011-01-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

I'm not quite sure what I was thinking, but I was going through my New Year's pictures and realized that darling husband took this picture of me without me knowing. Ugh. I hate pictures of me when I'm pregnant, but oh well. I didn't realize I was getting so chubby :) I have absolutely NO pants that I like. Maternity pants are the worst. The ones that go below my belly won't stay up, and the ones that go over my belly sag down. I can't win. All of my shirts aren't long enough to cover the 'kangaroo pouch'. I think I'll just hide out in the house and not worry about it.

So today I am officially 30 weeks pregnant. Officially there are 10 weeks left, but since I have gone two weeks early with all three kids, I'm hoping for 8 remaining weeks. After the kidney stone right before Christmas, nothing eventful has happened. I did find out from my doctor's office that I am anemic, so I'm blaming that on the extreme fatigue and irritability :) I've started on iron pills, so hopefully I'll have some more energy soon.

Happy New Year

2011-01-03T20:08:00.000-08:00

We spent our New Year's in Meridian, Idaho at Jeff's sister's house. We had a great time. It started out with a 7 hour ride up there due to the bad weather. The kids were troopers-other than asking how many more minutes about 200 times. The kids always have fun when they get together. We counted down the New Year at 8:30 so the kids could still go to bed at a decent hour. We played some games, had Ice Cream, and made lots of noise.

We also went to Bounce while we were there. The kids thought this was great fun (Jeff included). I had a good time watching. In addition to the velcro wall, there was an obstacle courses, giant slides, and other fun bounce areas.

Little Princess and Cousin O. They were cute bouncing around.

It was a fun, relaxing weekend. The trip home only took 5 1/2 hours. Much better than 7! It is nice to be home and get back into our schedule again. Goodbye holidays, hello New Year and countdown to baby.

Holiday Highlights

2010-12-25T19:58:00.000-08:00

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.

Best Concert in Town

2010-12-21T19:10:00.001-08:00

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.

Merry Christmas From the Hansens

2010-12-18T07:33:00.001-08:00

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

Tis the Season...

2010-12-17T20:03:00.001-08:00

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.

We've got a bug...

2010-12-08T19:02:00.001-08:00

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.

The 4-year old strikes again

2010-12-04T20:11:00.001-08:00

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.

25 down, 15 to go

2010-12-02T19:33:00.000-08:00

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.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T20:11:00.001-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving. This year we spent the holiday with my family at my parent's home.

That morning, I decided to cut Little Princess's hair. It was getting pretty long (which wasn't a problem), but it's so uneven, and the ends were so thin. So I decided to even it up. I cut the boys hair all the time, but this is a bit different. She's very wiggly and has a short attention span so we had to work fast. Also, I didn't want the boys watching, so I had to wait until they were distracted. I can just see them trying it on her sometime without my help. I ended up taking off about an inch and a half. I didn't get any before pics, and the after pics don't show how cute it ended up. She's cute no matter what, but she looks all grown up.

After our Thanksgiving dinner we stayed at my parents and played games and visited. It was a great afternoon.

This year we didn't have much Black Friday shopping to do. Jeff went out to a few places, but for the most part we've just relaxed and hung out around the house today. I even read a book and took a nap. It's not often that we have a peaceful, relaxing day.

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I have much to be thankful for. My family, my home, my health, my job, and so much more. I'm grateful for this time of year to reflect on all that I have been given.

Loving the Snow

2010-11-22T19:23:00.001-08:00

We woke up yesterday to a foot or more or snow. It was crazy. We spent the morning clearing the walks, making a sledding hill on our rock pile, and building a snowman. I say 'we', but it was mostly Jeff and the boys. He's such a good dad and has such a fun time with his boys. Little Princess joined in the fun for a while, but got too cold and retired inside to watch Lala (Dora). I had to drag the boys in to eat lunch and get ready for church. This was one of the (only) days I was thankful for 1:00 church. After church a lot of the snow had melted. The snowman didn't survive-much to the boys disappointment.
Here's to a long, cold winter. Already looking forward to spring :)

A little early?

2010-11-19T20:13:00.000-08:00

I usually wait until Thanksgiving to put up my tree, but tonight I decided to go for it. Jeff is at a young men campout, so me and the kids had a good time getting out the Christmas stuff. Little Princess is at such a fun age where everything is exciting and fun for her. It started with Halloween, and tonight she had fun putting ornaments on the tree. I had to rearrange most of them, but she tried. With every decoration she'd find, or every ornament she'd put on, she'd say "Happy Halloween". Every time I'd say, no Merry Christmas. Pretty soon, she'd say 'Happy Halloween, NO, Merry Christmas. It was funny. It's going to be a fun holiday.
The good news is, I usually take my tree down the day after Christmas, so it won't be up for too long. Hopefully it will stay decorated this year and the ornaments won't be rearranged.
I also took a picture of the nursery/toy room. Even with half of the toys out of there, I still can't keep it clean. If you look close there are tons of toys in the crib. It's the new play place. There's more work to do, but it's fun to have it started. It's a good thing we're having a girl because I got rid of all my boy bedding after Little Man. It just didn't quite make it.

Future Blackmail...

2010-11-19T20:09:00.001-08:00

I always know when it's too quiet at my house that something is up. Big Man LOVES to dress up. This day he just happened to dress up as a girl. Awww, what cute little girls.

It's no wonder I can't keep up with the laundry at my house. They're always changing clothes.

All the Single Ladies...

2010-11-13T20:09:00.000-08:00

My boys love this song and sing it all the time. This week I have been a single parent while Jeff was hunting in Colorado. I definitely have a respect for single parents. I don't know how they do it all the time. A week was LONG ENOUGH for me.

Jeff got his deer Thursday morning and ended up coming home Friday night. I was excited because originally they were coming home on Sunday. The kids were so excited to see him. All they could do is hug him over and over. It was cute. Little Man has not left his side since he came home. He's definitely a daddy's boy.

I've had so many projects I've been working on this week and some of those created more messes (like the mailbox-read my other post if you don't know what I'm talking about). Jeff was kind enough to work on a few things for me today. I know he hates honey-do lists, but sometimes it's gotta happen. Jeff's never done brick work before, so he called his dad to come and help him. I'm happy to say that I have (what looks like) a brand-new mailbox. It actually looks better than it did before since it was falling apart and crumbly. It took them a while, but it looks great. I know that was not what he wanted to work on today, but I am very thankful.

The other big project I took on this week was painting our toy room. All four of our bedrooms are on the upper level. We've been using one of them as the toy room, but that will be the baby's room. Before it had blue on the bottom of the wall, and yellow on the top. Definitely not girl colors. To get it painted all the toys had to be rearranged. So while this project was underway, my upstairs looked like a disaster-toys were everywhere. I thought it would take two days, but it ended up taking four. I did taupe on the bottom of the wall, and a Plum color on top. Sounds simple, right? Well I sponged the top part of the wall. I'd never sponged anything before so I didn't realize how time consuming it would be. It looks really good. Once the painting was done, it took two days to organize toys and put things back. I boxed up some of the toys to go downstairs and moved the baby furniture up. Yes, I'm four months early, but it was fun to get it all set up. Besides the kids love playing in the crib. I'll post some pics later.

It's been a long week and I'm hoping this next week will be a little more relaxing. I've still got a few things on my to-do list, but no major projects.

Little Man's a Nut

2010-11-11T19:58:00.000-08:00

Little Princess was trying to get a toy to work. She handed it to me and I told her it was out of batteries. Next thing I hear is Little Man telling her 'batteries are not included'. I burst out laughing and asked where he had heard that (knowing full well that he's seen too many commercials). He responded by saying 'Nick Jr. High'. I love that little dude.

Exped Mirror Strikes Again

2010-11-11T19:41:00.001-08:00

We've had our Ford Expedition for about three years now, and we've had FOUR separate incidents with the mirror. The first one was my fault. I was backing out of the garage and got it too close. It bent back (which it's supposed to do), and broke several parts inside the mirror casing. Repair cost $85. Let me just mention that I got a bunch of crap about this little accident.

The second incident was when I was in labor with Little Princess. This time Jeff backed up a little too close to the edge of the garage. I don't remember what the repair cost was on this one. It was just nice that it was not my fault. It does make for a fun story though that while in labor leaving for the hospital at 3 a.m. Jeff hits the mirror.

The third incident was up in Boise. Jeff took the car through a car wash. I don't remember exactly what happened, but the car wash was at fault and ended up paying for it.

The final incident actually didn't ruin or hurt the mirror in any way, but there was damage. I always drive up to our mailbox which is at the far end of the driveway, get the mail, and then back up to go into the driveway. Well, as I was backing up, the mirror caught the edge of the mailbox. Instead of bending the mirror back (like it should-right) it moved the mailbox and took out the whole side of bricks surrounding it. I was a bit in shock, but the kids went crazy. They couldn't believe mom had 'destroyed' the mailbox.

So all I have to say to the Exped mirror is-let's be done!

What a weekend...

2010-11-06T20:30:00.001-07:00

Jeff is out of town this weekend deer hunting. It is his last deer hunt of the year-finally. I'm not quite sure why I'm more productive while he's gone, but this weekend has been busy and crazy.

Yesterday we bought a new kitchen table.
I've been looking on KSL for weeks and several really good deals have fallen through. So yesterday while I was in the middle of a small painting project, my mom called and told me about this one. It was up in Bountiful. I've found that for the really good deals, you have to act fast. So I stopped my project, grabbed my dad and his trailer and headed to Bountiful. I listed my old table on KSL last night and had a call about an hour later. A couple from Spanish Fork came up this morning and bought it. What a relief to get rid of it so fast.

So, after I sold my table I spent the morning cleaning the inside of my house. Because I had worked outside yesterday, the inside was destroyed. I even got the kids to cooperate and help clean up. It was great. I went to a friend's baby shower around lunchtime. It was a nice quiet break and yummy food.

After the shower, I had lots I wanted to do. The first thing on my list was to restain my deck. I've been wanting to do this for weeks and just haven't got around to it. This may sound like a big project, but it was really just touch up. Summer before last I spent endless hours staining the deck. It was all the tedious work of the railings, posts, etc. that took forever. Today I just went over the top boards that the stain had worn off. It took a while, but not too bad-and it looks great. Next I mowed the lawn and cleaned up leaves. I love fall, but I don't love leaves all over my lawn and in my gardens. I even swept out the gutter in front of my house. Yes, I'm obsessive, but it looks great.

You can see the deck and my nice lawn in this picture.
I fed the kids a quick dinner and then cleaned out the car that was destroyed during our trip to Bountiful yesterday. I'm always amazed at how quickly three little people can make such a big mess. The final two projects of the night were to clean up the toy room, and to clean my couch cushions. I got the kids to help with the toy room. Big Man was quite the little helper and organizer. It was fun to watch him.

My couches are microfiber and every couple of months they look pretty gross, so I use my green machine on them. In between all these projects I also sprayed the house for spiders and did the laundry. Needless to say, I'm exhausted.

I just wanted to document all of my hard work, because it doesn't happen very often. In fact I think I made up for three months of having no energy in one weekend. Good thing tomorrow is a day of rest because I'm sure I'll need it. Oh and I switched all the clocks tonight for tomorrow's time change. Can I just say I hate the time change. I used to love it before I had kids-an extra hour of sleep, right? Now the time change means a week of trying to get on a new schedule. I kept the kids up an extra hour hoping that tomorrow morning will go well. We'll see.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

I love seeing the holidays through my children's eyes. There's an excitement and enthusiasm that is just fun and contagious, especially as they get older. I always love fall and Halloween. My birthday is thrown in there to make October especially fun.

Our Halloween fun started last week. It continued this week with a parade and party at Little Man's preschool. I got to the school in time to watch the parade, except they went ahead and started early, so I missed it after all. I was kind of bummed, but Little Man had no idea. He was just thrilled with his bag of candy. I can't believe how big he's getting.

The next day was Big Man's school parade and class party. We have three different costumes for the boys, but they both chose to be Super Man at school. Throughout the last month, all of the costumes have been well worn.

I am the room mom for his class, so I was in charge of the party. I had a ton of help from a lot of the moms so it ended up being pretty easy. The kids had a good time. They were all so cute dressed up.

We've had our pumpkins for at least a month, but we didn't carve them until today. Little Princess enjoyed this the most. She was enthralled the whole time. Halloween has been fun with her this year.

I had to include this picture too. I don't know what they were doing, but I guess it was pretty funny.

By rights it should've been Jeff's turn to take them trick or treating this year, but I somehow ended up doing it. From about 3:00 on this afternoon it was cold and rainy, so we bundled up with tons of layers. The kids were so excited to go door to door and get candy. Little Princess had to go to every door with the boys, only she took twice as long. It was so cute to hear her say "Trick or Treat," only it sounds like "Trick or Pete". After a few houses, she would tell everyone "Happy Halloween." It may not sound cute, but you have to imagine her small little 2-year old voice. It was adorable.

At the end of the night the kids dumped out all their candy on the floor to look through it. They were so cute going through their candy, comparing piles, trading each other for some of their favorites, etc. Having kids definitely makes the holidays so much more fun. Next on to Thanksgiving and Christmas, two of my favorites. Oh and my Christmas shopping is pretty much done. Wahoo.

What really goes on...

2010-10-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

I usually keep pretty good tabs on my kids, but during nap time my boys get have been up to trouble. It's not their nap time, but mine and Little Princess's. I have been so exhausted that I will lay down when she naps. I give the boys some rules: don't answer the phone or door, don't go outside, don't make a mess, and don't come bug me unless it's an emergency. They usually do pretty good, but sometimes I wake up to complete chaos.

The other day, I woke up to find our family room all set up for a birthday party for Little Man. He just had his birthday in September, but they didn't care. There were extra chairs set up and this gift bag full of presents. They were all toys from their room, treats, and a t-shirt. I love these boys. They are so creative and fun. Big Man also made him a birthday cake out of marshmallows and fruit snacks.

This next adventure is one I did not know about. Little Princess has played in the dryer before, but I didn't know the boys had. Here's their photo shoot.

The other morning we woke up to about 5 inches of snow. It was insane. Of course the kids had to be out playing in it all morning. It's so amazing the difference a year makes. Last year, Little Princess was too young to participate in most of the boy's activities. This year she won't be left out of anything. She looked pretty cute all bundled up.

And another one gone...

2010-10-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

I knew it was only a matter of time before his second top tooth came out. Today while we were in the car, Big Man said his tooth was "hanging by a thread". I told him when we got home we'd try and pull it out and surprise dad. When we got home we had a message that I had to reply to, so he got a tissue and pulled it out himself while I was on the phone. The little booger, I wanted to pull it out. He was pretty proud of himself, and he looks super cute with no teeth.

33 Years and counting...

2010-10-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

Today was my birthday. I am a 1/3 of a century. That sounds so old, right? Sometimes I feel that old. Other times, I still think I'm in my 20's. I had a great birthday. Jeff and I went out to dinner last night while the kids played at a friend's house. It was a fun night out.

Today we spent the morning in the Draper temple. My cousin Ashley got married. I'd only been to the Draper temple during the open house, so it was nice to go back. My cousin is young and in love. It was cute to see them so happy. The sealing was absolutely amazing. The sealer was so insightful and gave such a great lesson about what takes place in the temple and why. It was such a good refresher.

We were supposed to have a soccer game today for Big Man but it was raining pretty good, so we decided to skip it. I took a nice refreshing nap with no little kids bugging me. That was a treat. I wanted to take the kids to see the witches (at Gardner Village) today as well, but we're going to wait until it's warm and dry. We opted to go out to dinner with the kids before hitting my cousin's wedding reception. It was yummy. Joe Morley's is one of my favorites. I had to fight three kids for the mud pie. They thought it was pretty yummy too.

The reception was so beautiful. I thought we were only going to stay for a second, but the kids were having way too much fun.

This picture of Big Man cracks me up. The guest formed a circle around the bride and groom for their first dance together. Big Man sneaks over by this girl (one of the bride's friends I think) and before we know it he's holding her hand. We asked him about it later and he said she asked him if he wanted to hold her hand. He had the biggest grin on his face the whole time. We may be in for trouble :)

Halloween Fun

2010-10-20T21:43:00.001-07:00

Tonight was our ward Halloween party. The kids have been trying on their costumes for weeks, but tonight they got to show them off. The party was fun. There were games, prizes, candy, and yummy desserts. They all had a good time.

Last night Big Man lost his 3rd tooth. It was barely hanging there, so pulling it out didn't take much effort. He was pretty excited to have it out. The one right next to it is loose too, so soon he'll have a big toothless grin. I can't believe how fast he's grow

It's official: Boy 3, Girls 3

2010-10-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

Looks like we'll be evening out the score in our family. The fourth and final Hansen child will join our family in March. My due date is March 17th, but I'm hoping for the first part of March since I always go two weeks early. We had our ultrasound this morning and it's a GIRL!!! Everything looks great. I am 18 weeks along and finally feeling pretty good.

We decided a while back (even before we got pregnant) that we would keep it a secret for a while. It sounded good in the beginning. From the moment I found out that I was pregnant, I felt awful. It's no fun being sick and having to put on a happy face. My mom told me I looked tired all the time, but she had no idea :) Around 10 weeks, I was ready to tell people, but Jeff still wanted to keep it a secret. I told him fine, but we were telling people at Little Man's birthday party the early part of September. He reluctantly agreed. At this point, my tummy was starting to get big and it was harder to hide it.

We had waited to tell the kids we were expecting until dinnertime the night of Little Man's party. They were excited, but it was kind of no big deal. We thought they would blurt the news as soon as everyone got there, but they didn't. When all of the adults were in the room, I asked Little Man if he wanted to share the news-he didn't. So Big Man says, 'My mom is going to have a baby." It was cute. Everyone was excited.

Even after we told family, it was kind of hard to just announce it to everyone I know. So if you didn't know before now that may be why. I did go ahead and tell my Gospel Doctrine class the first time I taught. I wanted them to understand why I wouldn't be able to remember anyone's name (pregnancy brain). I wanted to wait and announce it online after our ultrasound.

We're excited. I think it's going to take Jeff a while to get used to the thought of having two girls. He already thinks Little Princess is emotional and dramatic :) Now we'll have to times that by two. The best part is I get to use all my cute little girl clothes and bows and dresses again. Little Princess grew so fast that she didn't stay in some of her stuff for very long. The other good news is that now I can get of all my boy baby clothes. That'll clean out half of my attic.

Kids say and do the darndest things...

2010-10-07T21:41:00.000-07:00

I sometimes wish I wrote down all the funny things my kids say. Sometimes I remember, but other times I don't. Here's a few that I do remember.

Little Man: Mom, Dad just took a haircut, he needs you to come and see if it looks great.
Little Man: (after telling him that Grandpa was going to the temple) He's probably going to see Jesus.

Little Princess's favorite things to say now are 'nowhere' and 'because'.
Me to LP: where is such and such? Nowhere.
Me to LP: why did you do that? Because.
She's only two and got an attitude.

Kindergarten has been a great success so far. Every day Big Man comes home and converts a part of our house into something they've done at school. We have different 'centers' set up all over the place. While I was resting one day, he took all the bingo cards (that I was going to use for his Halloween party) and taped them around the house. It's just like 'write the room' that they do in school. I love that he's learning and having fun at school. I just wish it involved less tape and mess on my house :)

Every day my kids amaze me and make me laugh. I love learning and growing with them.

Happy Birthday Little Princess

2010-09-26T20:16:00.001-07:00

Warning: this post is EXTREMELY biased. If you don't care, read on. I just have to say that I have the most beautiful, adorable little girl in the world. She doesn't officially turn two until tomorrow, but we had a party for her tonight. She was so excited all day long. For church, I decided to curl her hair with foam rollers. It turned out so cute. I've got to take advantage of it while she'll still let me do her hair :)

Let the party begin. She was so wound up all afternoon. I've never seen her so wild and crazy.
She had LOTS of help unwrapping presents. Her brothers had a really hard time not doing it themselves.
She loved that we were singing to her. It's crazy the difference a year makes.

I love my Little Princess and feel like the luckiest mom in the world. I love having a little girl that I can dress up in frilly clothes and curl her hair. Her cute little voice, fun little giggle, and precious smile just melt your heart. It's been a fun two years with her in our family. We love you Little Princess.

Today was also my first lesson in gospel doctrine. It went rather well. Sacrament meeting went over and the bishop took the first 5+ minutes of class explaining the new Duty to God, so I didn't have a lot of time for the lesson. I was kind of nervous, but had a good time. I of course learned more than anyone in the class did.

I also was asked to be a room mom in Big Man's class. The first event is the Halloween party. I've already got it all planned out.I think it will be fun to be involved and see him in his class. He talks about what they do and the friends he has, so now I can actually see it all. Wish me luck.

Change is good, right?

2010-09-20T09:01:00.001-07:00

Sunday morning I get a call from the ward's Executive Secretary. We all know what that means. I met with the bishopric right before church. I knew a release would be coming soon. I have been in Cub Scouts for almost two years, which is crazy for this ward. No one stays in Cub Scouts that long. I thought all morning about if they would call me to something else. I secretly hoped for Activity Day leader, or Visiting Teaching supervisor-it's too bad you can't pick your calling. When the bishopric announced their intended calling, I think I just stared at them. They wanted me to be the co-teacher for Gospel Doctrine. For real? Me? Don't get me wrong, I'm a teacher by profession, but the Old Testament? Wow. I think somehow I said yes, but as I thought about it all day, a nervous excitement lingered.

I've never got so many well wishes and condolences all in one day. The teacher that I am replacing is amazing. Very knowledgeable and insightful. I have enjoyed his lessons. Now, I can only hope that people will enjoy my lessons.

So the lesson of the day is be careful what you wish or pray for. You might just actually get it and not in the way that you expect. My first lesson is next Sunday-the topic: Isaiah. I'm starting NOW to prepare. I'll let you know how it goes.

More Conversations with Big Man

2010-09-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

This week Jeff is gone deer hunting. I thought it would be a long and grueling week, but so far I've actually had a lot of fun with the kids. Today while we were at the park, Big Man came up to me and this is the conversation we had:

BM: Mom, I don't think Little Man believes in Jesus.
Me: Why is that?
BM: Because he's being naughty.
Me: (while laughing) BM, people can still believe in Jesus even if they're naughty.

This made me laugh. I am the luckiest mom. I have three amazing kids who made me smile and laugh daily. I usually want to pull my hair out too, but I guess the good and bad come hand in hand.

Conversation with Big Man

2010-09-15T19:32:00.001-07:00

I was helping Big Man get dressed and ready for soccer practice tonight. I don't even remember what we were talking about, but here's how our conversation went:

BM: How do you know that?
Me: Moms know everything.
BM: No, dad knows everything.
Me: Moms are pretty smart too.
BM: Did you know that M got chased by a bear?
Me: No.
BM: See, you don't know everything.

He had me there. I love that he thinks his dad is all knowing. Kids are so honest and unassuming. He's such a cutie.

Little Man Starts Preschool

2010-09-09T20:10:00.001-07:00

Another long awaited day-Little Man's 1st day of preschool. He was so excited this morning. It was fun to watch him go today.
We arrived a little early, so I took some pictures at the school. Some other moms were there with their little guys. I realized how much older Little Man is than some of his buddies. He just turned 4 and some of them are probably barely 3. It's too bad he barely misses the deadline.
I also hosted playgroup this week for Little Man's friends. It was fun and wild to have 3 extra boys at my house. After the afternoon calmed down, I sat down to do homework with Big Man. Little Man came and sat by us and had to do it too. It was cute. Luckily Big Man didn't care. I had a good time doing number flashcards with my boys. I love that they love to learn.

A funny story that happened this week: Big Man is always into creating things. One afternoon I was out in the garage and come in to find him gluing stuff. Grandma gave him some Elmer's glue for his birthday and it's been put to good use, we usually use glue sticks. I found that my outside (dirty, gross) broom was at my desk. He was making a flag. Of course my initial reaction is 'what a mess, get that broom outside, don't glue things to the broom, etc.' I wasn't thrilled about it. Later that night the broom made it's way outside. I told Jeff that Big Man had glued paper to the broom, he looks at us with a smile and says 'It's the Title of Liberty.' How could I be mad after that. It was such a sweet declaration and made me realize that they really are listening when I think they aren't. In the picture, the paper is folded down, but he'd written his name on it. What a cutie.

Incredible Pizza and more...

2010-09-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

On Monday for Little Man's birthday we took the boys to Incredible Pizza. It was right during nap time, so we left Little Princess home with Grandma. My boys are still a little bit too small for most of the things there, but they still had fun.
Little Man had a great birthday. I still can't believe he's 4. He was telling me that on his next birthday he'll be 5 and it about blew me away.
He's done nothing but play with his new toys. It's refreshing to see him play with stuff. Most of our toys sit in the toy room gathering dust. Which brings me to the next picture. I decided to clean out the toy room. I don't know why I always have helpers, but I do. This is the train toy box. Little Princess thought it was great fun to hide in there.
I got a brainstorm that I'm going to put some of our toys on KSL. My boys don't play with the trains much anymore. I figure if I can sell some of them, I can start my Christmas shopping. Who thinks about that in September, right? Well, me. For some reason when September comes around, I want to get going on Christmas. My goal is to be DONE shopping by Thanksgiving. We'll see how that goes.

Little Man Turns 4

2010-09-05T19:50:00.001-07:00

His official birthday is tomorrow, but tonight we had a family party for Little Man. I can't believe he's 4. Seems like just yesterday he was joining our family. He had a great birthday party. Thanks to all of our family who made it special for him.

What a good looking bunch of kids. Don't they look like trouble? They are.
We played a few games. Little Princess had to be blindfolded for the 'pin the light sabre on Darth Vader" game.

It was a fun night. Also, this week he starts preschool. He's growing up before my eyes.

Adventures with Dad

2010-09-04T21:12:00.001-07:00

Last night I was informed that Jeff was taking the kids on an adventure and I wasn't invited. That was his nice way of telling me that I got the whole day to myself. It was heaven. They all went to Cabela's first. That's tradition when you spend a Saturday with Dad. Next they were off on a drive. I'm not quite sure where all of these pictures were taken. Jeff's going to show me on the map later. I thought they were cute though.

They ended their drive down in Fountain Green at the farm. A rattlesnake decided to come out of it's hole and see what was going on, so they shot it. That was the first thing they told me about when they got home. It was quite a memorable experience.

I spent my morning going to Garage sales. I only found one thing. I was bummed that I didn't find any great deals. Oh well. After that I decided to go to the temple. It's rare that I don't have to rush home to kids after going to the temple, so I decided to take advantage of it. I even treated myself to Kneaders after because Jeff never wants to go there. It was a nice afternoon. I was going to come home and get so much done, but I laid down and fell asleep for 2 1/2 hours. That never happens. It was a very nice, peaceful day, and it made me appreciate my little munchkins more when they came home. Just seeing their little smiles and hearing about their adventures makes my heart melt. I'm a lucky mom, and Jeff is a great dad. Thanks for the day off.