Bye, bye binkie!

Kayli started sucking on her fingers occassionally last month. I noticed her trying to do it more often and attempted to stop her whenever I caught her. It is sure a lot easier to remove a binkie than it is fingers! We had a great time one night at dinner trying to put the binkie in instead only to have her figure out how to pull it and put in the fingers. It really produced a lot of laughs from the kids. By the time we gave up I think she figured out what we were trying to do. She had started trying to be sneaky and slowly move then binkie and then quickly shove in the fingers! So, we officially have our first finger sucker. It has turned out to be nice, though, that we don't have to look for lost binkies anymore.

It's been awhile....and our own little miracle

Yes, I've been slacking on the posts. I've been busy the past month and just haven't taken the time to stop and post. Barry has finally listed the other house so hopefully we won't be now. At the beginning of October I started doing some work for Angela, too, and that has been fun - after you hit the learning curve. I think I'm still in it, though.

I also spent time getting together Box Tops for PTO and working on other fundraising projects for the boys' school. We've done great with the Box Tops since I started, though, so it is getting funner! I handed over some of the promotional material to the principal this week and they will be starting team/classroom competitions in the next week or two. For those of you interested in doing that with your school they are lots of fun. I have a Thanksgiving collection sheet for 10 Box Tops if you kids want one to turn into their school, too. There is a different holiday one for each month or one for just about every sport kids would participate in.

As for the kids, I've noticed they all seem to be growing like weeds the past month. I bought the boys news pants at the beginning of the school year and they are both already outgrowing them! I wasn't planning on that. Hopefully Tyler can transition into Braden's old ones even though they are two sizes bigger. Braden seems like he is going to catch up to me pretty quick. WAAHHHH!!! Sniff, sniff.

Kayli keeps learning new things each week. This week she has discovered toes. If I cover them up she gets this confused look on her face like, "hey, where did my toys go?". It really kind of funny.

Karina is getting quite a bit bigger, too. At present she is preparing for her role in the Nutcracker again this year. She's very excited about it and was showing me how I was practicing her dance wrong with her tonight. Hehe. So much for mom being a helper! We are going to videotape the teacher next week, though, and e-mail it to the moms that want it so they can make sure their girls properly learn it. That should help us some because I'm confused on some of the arm motions in various spots.

We also had our own little miracle today that revolves around ballet. Barry accidentally took my van keys to work today. He was supposed to bring them home before ballet so I could get Karina there. If she misses any of the practices in November they said the girls can't be in the production. Since we just bought a bunch of tickets I really didn't want her to miss it. Barry got stuck in meetings, I couldn't contact and obviously he didn't show up. I'd mentioned to Barry earlier that maybe we could take the truck and he said we couldn't as it doesn't run right now.

Well, Karina and I were desperate. I decided we would just try the truck anyway. We loaded up, said a heartfelt prayer to help the truck start so we could get her there and it worked. I dropped her off instead of taking her in as I didn't want to turn it off and get stranded. I even told her I might not be there to pick her up right away and why. (Her best friends mom is the teacher so I knew she'd be okay with being there a little longer.) I told Karina she had her own little miracle and that Heavenly Father had helped the truck to start so she could go.

Well, apparently I didn't realize it really was a big one! When I went to go get her I had no luck. (Apparently she has more faith then I do! Haha) The truck wouldn't start so I tried calling Barry again. When I told him what happened he was stunned that the truck had started. He kept saying, "No, I don't think you understand. There is really no way that truck should have started." He still had meetings and when he got her an hour later he was still amazed that the truck had started and said it really was a miracle as it definitely shouldn't have.

It's amazing to see how when we ask we can get blessed with even the littlest things we need. I'm glad Karina got a chance to see that Heavenly Father knows her needs and loves her.

Welcome to Winter - yeck.

I'll start by saying it's late so I always ramble. However, now is a better time for me to do our update than later.

Life has been busy around here since I posted last Wednesday. Angela came to stay on Thursday and Friday while she attended a real estate broker training class. She had lots of fun laughing at us and telling me she feels like a squirrel when she comes to our house - aka always hoarding food while she is here. You should have seen her face when I told her I needed to pick all the corn and we walked out there. She got a look of disbelief and less than unenthusiastically said, "ALL of it?" She said later she was looking at the field thinking she was going to have to pick the field of dreams. In reality as you know it wasn't very much and we did end up having fun with it.

She did manage to time her visits for the last two weeks just right, though. Last week was potato gleaning and this week we had to get all the corn and onions in because it was supposed to freeze that night. Oh, and then there are the usual chicken duties and collecting the eggs. Unfortunately I didn't realize the corn would go bad within days and we've already had to throw some out. We will be doing what survives tomorrow night for family home evening. Who knew corn went bad within days of picking? It survives at the store just fine and we all know that stuff isn't fresh.

Saturday the kids and I went to Pocatello to help Barry on the house. I didn't get much done but Barry and I really enjoyed actually spending time together. Kayli was such a good girl, too, and just hung out for HOURS while we worked! It was quite unusual but very nice.

Later Saturday evening I went to drop off Tyler and Karina (Braden had stayed the night at A's) to Angela's while we worked. However, on the way I was turning from a stop sign and kept on going. I flipped around slid right toward a bunch of cars. I stopped in the middle of the road and missed hitting a lady and scraping down her side with my front by an inch. I actually ended up facing her driver's door. She was very nice about it. However, I was freaking out elected to go back to Agate and stay there since we were now facing that direction again anyway. That was horrible sliding toward her knowing I had no control and we were going to hit. It really was a miracle we didn't.

I called A and told her we weren't coming and Braden might have to stay longer as I wasn't going to drive and come and get him. Fortunately, Brent was there and drove the truck while Barry drove the van when we went home. I REALLY appreciated that as I was still really scared to drive. I did have to drive from Brent's and was white knuckled, again, the whole way. Geesh, I told Barry he needs to teach me how to drive on ice and snow better since obviously I am really crappy about it. I thought I was being careful, too.

Today we've had a nice relaxing day and just hung out. At church the library is still under construction so I was working out of boxes on the stage. The copier was at the other end of the church, too. It made for nice running around and a little chaos. Hopefully the remodel will actually get finished this week so we can get everything put back together by next week.

After church we came home and I got to take a four hour nap!!!! It was SO nice. I have been up very late every night this week either visiting with Angela, up with a baby or who knows what. I got 4 1/2 hours of sleep on Friday so I know it was needed.

Apparently the kids were out playing in the snow while I slept. Our front room is now lined around the fireplace with wet coats, etc. I'm glad to see all the kids are so excited for winter. As for me, after yesterday I'd like to just skip straight to spring, please.

Woohoo! We have lights!

Woohoo!!! As some of you know, the boys' bedroom lightswitch is broken and has been for awhile. I finally decided Barry had enough other things to fix and I could do and fixed it all by myself!!!! Yippee! It's SO nice to have light in there again.

At one point in time I did call Dad to ask him a question about installing it. He sounded a little nervous and afraid when he found out what I was doing. Well, at one point in time I did seriously tell Braden that if he heard a "ZZZZZZZTTT" sound and a big thug to call 911 and told him exactly where the phone was. You know, you think most people who didn't know what they were doing would be wise enough to stop at that point.

However, I figued it out, survived and then felt so cool that I did it all by myself. Yeah, all you men can laugh at me and all the women can rejoice in the fact that we can fix things when we need, too, and have great fun doing it.

Hansen Family - Christmas 2007

Kayli - our newest addition

General Conference Weekend and family update

Well, conference was good as usual. Saturday the kids did pretty good about staying in the room and listening while playing legos. Sunday we tried a new tactic. Steven called saying he has made a website with general conference bingo cards. We printed some of those off and had a good time. Although, while they helped the kids listen they also made it worse at the same time! They were so busy talking about what they heard of which ones to cover I had a hard time hearing and had to keep telling them to be quiet. I even jumped in, though, and was really diligent about filling out my card once Barry offered kitkats for a blackout. Apparently he has a huge candy stash the rest of us didn't know about!

Afterwards we asking the kids what they learned from conference. Karina said she learned about loving. Tyler was a bugger and said, "Nothing, because I didn't listen." He did because I saw him filling in bingo squares but apparently none of it stuck. Hmm, and now I can't remember what Braden said.

I really liked the talk about marriages and being a good spouse. Barry and I also got a chuckle out of President Monson saying to enjoy the dishes, laundry, messes, etc., your kids make now as they will be gone all too soon. I was just complaining on Saturday about how frustrated I was about keeping up with it all when nobody was willing to help out with nagging. (The kids made up for it, though, and helped a bunch that night, though.)

For other unmentioned news for the week, Kayli is turning into a noise maker. She has started make all kinds of fun squeaky, coo, whatever noises when you talk to her. I've also decided this week that she is a blanket baby. She has some smaller flannel ones that she loves to just hold and chew on.

Karina is also still doing ballet and went again on Thursday. She is absolutely loving it and you can see a definite improvement. Which reminds me, we loaned out her "dancing" CD and need to get it back. The sweet thing just can't stand to not do some dancing every day.

Tyler has also had a visit from the tooth fairy this week. He has been trying to pull this tooth for awhile now. He even had one of his buddies push really hard on his teeth trying to loosen it. That little bugger. The kid didn't loosen the one needed but he sure did Tyler permanent front ones! I told him NOT to do that again or he might lose some teeth that will never come in again.

Braden had his last football game on Thursday and unfortunately didn't make it. We were out gleaning potatoes and I had no way to get back to the van to take him without leaving everyone else stuck there for awhile. He's not a huge fan of flag football, though, so he didn't mind one bit missing it since he got to be with his cousins instead. He's decided the next thing he wants to sign up for is swimming team. We'll have to look into that one.

As Emilie said on her website, Barry and Brent are getting close on the house. I'm getting REALLY excited for it to be done. I feel like he's missed Kayli's first three months of life except little snatches here and there. Plus there is lots that needs done on OUR house. Of course, there's ALWAYS plenty to do around here. Haha. It sounds like the first thing Barry wants to do when he is done with the other house is buy a furnace! No more ashes covering the living room, getting up in the middle of the night to stoke the fire, having a blazing warm room you can't stand to go in while the back of the house is still cold........Oh, wait. I like that one blazing warm room.

Right now I'd be happy with a fire, though. I'm FREEZING. I didn't think to have him light one before he left so I'd better go do it. Have a great week all!

Mmmm, homemade french fries.

We finally made it to potato gleaning last night with the Hatchs and Carters. Yeah! The trip did involve jumping and then push starting Barry's truck. I haven't done that for years so it was somewhat amusing. Seth and Braden seemed to think it was great fun being Heman and being able to push a truck.

I'd like to say it was great fun getting the potatoes, too, but I didn't get to do any of it! By the time we went the wind had picked up and Kayli was really miserable in it. So the two of us sat in the Carters truck with their two-year old, Aubrey, instead. We had fun visiting with her, though, as she is just such a cutie. Her older sister Kimber, who is two weeks younger than Karina, hopped in with us as well towards the end and just absolutely adored Kayli.

The rest of the group looked like they had a great time, though. Angela and her boys really enjoyed it as apparently they really never have been before! I could have sworn we went together as a mutual activity when we were younger.

We went to a field owned by a couple in our ward. They are very giving people and were nice enough to dig a section for us and then leave all the potatoes. So all we had to do was just pick up the whole pile and load it in our trucks. There was another big pile we could have done, too, but it was getting dark so everyone decided they had enough.

Afterwards we came home and made our homemade french fries and visited. Good food and good company. What more can you ask for, right? Haha. It was great to see the Carters and realize how big all the kids are getting. Their oldest three are the same age and gender as ours so it works out great that everyone has a buddy. We got so busy yacking, washing and cutting potatoes, though, we got a little out of hand and did too many. The chickens are getting a nice french fry feast for lunch.

So if anybody else is up for homemade french fries and visiting, come on over!

And Mom can choose to censor posts published by children....

Fun for the kids and not bad for Mom, either.

This week has been the regular week except for the kids' visitors and Kayli's milestone. Not that we mind regularity, though, because that means nothing really bad has happened either.

Monday I put Kayli down for her tummy time on the blanket and she surprised me once again. She'd been working on grabbing toys and directing them where she wants them to go. She still struggles with the toys but she did manage to figure out the binky. I looked over a few minutes later and there she was happily sucking on her binky. She'd finally figured out how to grab it and stuff it in her mouth. I watched her do it a couple of times for entertainment as she attacked it with her mouth trying to get it in. Then a little bit later she fell asleep with it. She seems to learn something new everyday.

Tuesday we had the regular hectic schedule with a new twist. Grandma Dawn came up to run an errand and picked up Karina on her way to come stay the night. Karina was SO excited to go. As soon as she woke up she packed her bag, sleeping bag and all. Then I got to hear all day, "When is Grandma Dawn going to get here?"

After they left we dropped Braden off at flag football practice. His last one - hurray! His last game is tonight. We'll have a little break from sports with him until basketball starts up next month.

After we dropped him off, Tyler and I headed for his soccer game. Tyler has definitely improved this year and it's great to see. He's been easily distracted in the past so it's fun to see him stay on the field for the games this year and actually get into the game a little bit. His coach does comment about how they have two goalies, though, as Tyler likes to play back there even when he's not supposed to.

Unfortunately the boys' schedules overlap this year so I've only been to one of Tyler's games when Barry swapped for the night. Braden has to be picked up from flag football and taken to scouts during the middle of the game. All the running around makes for a long evening for Kayli and Karina.

Wednesday the excitement started to pick up as Angela, Seth and Mason came to stay through Friday. From the time school was out until they arrived I got to hear a new version of the question of the week. "When are the Hatch's going to get here?", was the main refrain for the day.

Happily they have arrived and everyone is enjoying themselves so far. Later tonight we are all going potato gleaning (Seth swears he has never been) and also taking some other friends. We're all looking forward to homemade french fries after that. I also did freezer peaches on Wednesday so between that and the potatoes we'll have so nice additions to our food storage.

So our week has been pretty regular but good with fun visitors thrown in. We hope everyone else's has, too.

Uh-oh. We're in for it now!

I laid Kayli on her tummy yesterday to play for a bit. I turned away for a minute and when I came back she was on her back! She looked so proud of herself and had a little gleam in her eye. Her expression looked an awful lot like, "Ooooo! Look what I just did. This is cool. Hehe, you're in for it now, Mom!" She rolled over a whole bunch. Of course, when I tried to record it she stopped. She'd only do it when Braden was recording. Silly kid.

school

Today at school I learned how to climb on top of the monkey bars. Then to get off you just sit on a rung, grab a different rung with your hands, and slide in between them and hang there then drop. Sofia taught me to get on. She gets of by sliding down a 8 inch thick pole.

Braden

Where did he go?

Well, the office must be a big hit. The kids all wanted to have FHE down there. I must say the excitement of being able to use it didn't help the reverance issue. Neither did the fact that Tyler and Karina fit nicely in the new ottomans with the lids on and kept hiding from us.

Then this morning we couldn't find Barry anywhere when it was time to take the kids to school. He wasn't anywhere upstairs so I finally decided he was outside. I was thinking it was odd that he was outside for so long. Then he came up from the basement! One of the other reasons he really wanted an office was so he had somewhere quiet that he could lock the doors for his morning prayer and not get interrupted. It was kind of shocking to see him come up from actually using a room down there!

Our little drama queen - oh, I mean fashion queen!

Karina got a new birthday outfit from the Hatch and Page families. She absolutely LOVES how beautiful she looks and was so excited to wear it to preschool today. They saw the shirt and skirt and said they were just perfect for Karina. I laughed when I saw the shirt because they are right. It fits her personality perfectly. There are crowns all over it and it's emblazed with "Drama Queen".

Barry's Office

Happy Birthday to Barry with the office reveal!

Hi, everyone! Today was Barry's birthday and I think he had a pretty good one. We had the primary program at church today and it was pretty cute. The boys did really well and were pretty well behaved. No "cock-a-doodle-doo" this time. Karina needed help with her part but she still did pretty good. I was wishing I was in the primary again today so I could join the ice cream sundae/brownie/nacho party. Mmm, it looked good. At least it saved me having to make lunch for the kids.

We missed those of you who didn't get to join us for Karina and Barry's birthday party. It was lots of fun and pretty crowded. I'm glad the weather was nice enough to let most of us eat outside on the deck. For those of you who missed the grand reveal, I've been working on Barry's gift for awhile now. He got his new office today and is VERY excited. We locked it all week and put paper up on the windows so he couldn't see what we were doing. Haha. Amazingly enough Karina didn't give away all the details so most of it, if not all of it, was a surprise. He couldn't resist trying to drag information out of her, though. Then he was scanning me trying to find any stray bits of paint I'd missed washing off so he could figure out what the color was. He knew one desk was in there because it was gone from our room last night but I don't think he figured out the rest!

The kids and I were really excited, too, and loved handing him his keys to the door. He promptly went downstairs to go see it followed by everyone else. We videotaped his reaction when he got to see it, too.

He came into the boys' room later and had Kayli do the happy dance. (Okay, he jiggles her around and makes her dance like a puppet). He joyfully said it was time to go buy office supplies. He has really wanted an office for awhile now and had a few specifics. Fortunately we were able to work those in. He definitely needs it now with all the studying he's been doing for his GRE and starting his Master's work.

It was hard to pull some things together but it all worked out in the end, looks great and it was lots of fun to give him a present I knew he'd be REALLY excited about.

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it or called to make his day special!