What's new at the Hansens?

School's out!

2011-06-13T21:27:00.000-06:00

The kids got out of school on June 3rd and we've had a blast ever since. Actually, I think today is the first day we didn't really do anything. So far we've been to the zoo several times, tennis lessons 4 days a week, volunteered at the North Stake humanitarian weekly projects, kids' summer movie, Kayli's last PAT program with a picnic at the park, more park time, etc. Today we got rained out so tennis got cancelled after a few minutes which of course killed Kayli and I's zoo visit for the day. The kids have tennis right by the zoo and playgrounds so Kayli gets to pick what she wants to do. It's so fun.

Braden also is teaching Kayli how to be "cool" apparently. In his mind, the funny thing he has taught her is to smack her chest, say "peace" and do the peace sign. It is cute to watch if she forgets the first part.

"Peace!"

I took a picture the other day of Kayli wandering around in the morning with her blankie/aka sheet. Now you all know one reason she loves it so much. The elastic edges curl around her nicely and she loves to walk around with it like this.

She also loves the full ghost costume. Then she walks around the house and smacks into things, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not.

Ha! Vindication!

2011-05-31T21:21:00.000-06:00

Barry and Braden had scouts tonight and were selling candy bars to raise money for scout camp. (Barry is the scoutmaster for those who don't know.) I tried to get both of them to wear scout uniforms telling them they would sell more and they wouldn't do it saying they'd be too hot. (Rolling eyes here...) They ended up coming back to the house to drop off Barry's car and one of the other boys had his scout shirt on so I made Braden put on his. (Way to go Allen's!)

Barry and Braden came back a few minutes ago just laughing. Braden and Peyton teamed up, with their scout shirts on, and the other two boys went together, with no scout shirts on. Guess who sold more? Yup, Braden and Peyton sold three times as many candy bars! I couldn't resist and had to tell them I told you so as I was laughing. Then they both caved and said I was right after all and they were glad Braden had worn his shirt. Of course, the funniest part was the other dad that went bought $20 of candy bars from Braden not knowing there was a competition going on and his son was on the other team. Apparently it was really funny when the other boy found out his own dad had "gone against him". Haha. Scouts are so fun! Ahem, and yes, I feel vindicated now thank you very much.

Karina's learned how to ride a bike!

2011-05-31T20:15:00.000-06:00

For Memorial Day weekend, we went to Cherry Springs with Barry's family on Saturday. Kent and Linda brought up their trailer so we'd have somewhere dry to play while it rained. Our family really likes to bike ride so we all brought our bikes to ride the trails on. Karina has tried several times to learn to ride a bike but didn't have any success. I think it is because he bike is so heavy. It is heavier than any of the other bikes we own and I didn't even clue into that until it was too late.

I took the big kids riding around while Barry worked with Karina. When we all got back together Karina had learned to ride her bike! Barry said she was really needing help and then all of the sudden she just took off and went. She was SO happy! The big parking lot worked out in our favor as she had lots of room to ride and show us. Of course, as with anyone learning to ride she had a few good crashed and required band-aids by the end of the night but she had a good time.

On Sunday we were talking about it some more and discussing how it is about time for Karina and Tyler to move up in bike sizes. We talked about spray painting Tyler's bike pink for Karina and he would use Braden's old one. Then mom had an epiphany! My old banana bike that I got when I was her age was still in Grandpa and Grandma Gallafent's storage and it's PINK. Was being the operative word because we drove down that evening and went and picked it up from Grandpa and Grandma.

Grandpa and Grandma were so sweet and got it all ready for her. Karina is really excited that she gets to ride mommy's old bike and it is in great condition since it was stored in a good place for so long. The bike itself is just a little bit big for her but it will fit her for a long time at least. I know that for a fact because I took a spin around on it and it almost wasn't even too small for me since I had the big seat to slide back on. Ah, the good old days and the memories! I remember riding circles and circles around Grandpa and Grandma Scott's unfinished upper addition during the winter when Angela and I got those bikes for Christmas. I think they held off on finishing it just so we could come ride our bikes in circles for hours every Sunday at their house. I get they loved the constant drone of that. :-)

So, our pretty princess finally learned how to ride a bike, she won a new pink bike helmet last month and she just got a new-to-her pink bike. How much better can it possibly get for a 7-year old? Haha.

Merry is the Month of May....

2011-05-24T13:59:00.000-06:00

Rain, rain, rain and more rain. Barry and I are really liking the rain for a few reasons: it's not snow, my very few plants that made it past a dead seed are growing nicely now and lastly we don't have to water our lawn, The latter being a definite bonus since our sprinkler system is still broke. Our tulips are blooming (at least those that Kayli didn't pick when her dad said she could pick all the dandelions she wanted) and all four of the kids have turned into trampoline magnets again.

Our highlight for the month is Braden turning twelve and receiving the priesthood. He looks great in his new suit and you should see how his demeanor changes when he puts it on. It's fantastic to watch! Haha. I'm sure that in combination with graduating from primary has affected his attitude change at church. All the grandparents came up to see him ordained. Barry and Kent happily brought Braden to priesthood beforehand and I can't decide who was smiling the biggest, Barry or Braden. I got a good laugh out of it. He also finished up his Faith in God award and received that, too. He did a great job passing the sacrament his first time and it was fun to watch, although Kayli was wondering where Braden went since he wasn't by us. Braden did say the Bishop wants him to start sitting up on the stand to be a "messenger" for him. Hopefully we won't get Kayli trying to escape up that and get her buddy.

Kayli this month has decided she REALLY likes going to grandparents houses. She's been asking a lot lately to go to Grandpa's. When we came home from church on Sunday she crossed her arms over her straps when I tried to unbuckle her. She then told me, "No! Grandpa's!" and wanted to leave right then to go. We had to coerce her in to eat lunch first. They was great joy when we finally headed out. Now, whenever she doesn't get what she wants, she starts crying for Grandpa. It's really funny to watch as she is such a drama queen. :-)

All the active boys that attend my Webelos group have graduated. This leaves just Tyler and I until the middle of July. I'm sure Tyler will be excited to find out he gets to pick out anything he wants to do out of the book. This also, of course, makes him the oldest cub scout and I'm sure he'll love that. I keep calling every week for the other two and hopefully they'll start coming, too, but if not we'll have a good time. One bonus is that since Tyler is the only one, Barry gets to take him to Webelos overnight camp instead of my going. Haha. Garrett, we are hoping you'll come, too, since Barry took Braden, Seth and Zach together.

Karina has been my gardening buddy this month. She helped setup a potting bench with me, replant our strawberry plant from the store, plant all the seeds in the tray, and has dubbed herself The Waterer. She got to pick out a new watering can and loves to make sure they all have a drink. I'm hoping she'll get Grandma Dawn's genes for growing and not mine since she likes it so much.

Barry has started working away again on his master's paper. I'm not sure how it is going but he seems to spend some time on it every night since summer session has started. I'm crossing my fingers that he can still finish up in December or May at the lastest since he has to take a cumulative test on every class he's taken.

As for me, I've spent a fair amount of time at the auto mechanics this month. I was driving the van and it started lurching and jerking on me, then acting like it was going to stall. It's been in twice already and it is still having problems on occasion. It was interesting trying to get us places as the truck was in the shop getting a new clutch. Hence, we had a five-seater car with six people. We're really grateful to Mom and Dad Hansen for letting us borrow their blue car. The mechanic and Barry keep telling me it is fine for them now so I'm not happy about looking like a silly woman who doesn't know what she is talking about. We were out delivering phone books Saturday, though, and it started doing it again so Barry finally got to hear it and I told him, "See! See! It really does have problems!". He wasn't too happy to see I was right after all. So, those two trips plus getting a new clutch in the truck set us back about $2,000.

Barry would love to share this next funny story so I'd better include it. We decided to try delivering phone books so Braden could earn money for scout camp. That didn't end up working out so well as it turned into a whole family project to get it done. We were on the last road and couldn't find it on the delivery map anywhere. I turned to Barry like we were in luck and said, "Oh, you know?! There is a phone book right behind my seat. It'll have a map in it." I meant the blue phone book from the house that was already in the van and had totally forgotten about the ton in the back. Barry looked at me with this mocking incredulous look and in a shocked tone said, "A PHONE BOOK? WOW, REALLY?!" Then I realized what I'd said and we just busted up laughing. I laughed so hard I cried. I guess you had to be there but we were all laughing hysterically at it. For any of you ever thinking of trying this sometime, though, don't. WAY too much time for the amount you get paid.

That's all for this month. Everyone have a good memorial day weekend!

Moving on to bigger and better things.

2011-04-07T16:31:00.001-06:00

Braden came home with information from Eagle Rock Junior High this week. I am trying to reconcile myself with the fact that our oldest will be in junior high. I HATED junior high. (As those of you who went to school with me can attest.) Braden is REALLY excited to be going, though. He has a lot of friends from other schools that he has gotten to know through PACE and orchestra. This week we get to deal with registering him for classes and he got to go on a tour of the juinor high on Tuesday. When I asked him what he thought of the tour his comment, he responded, "Well, they told us if we went we would get cookies afterwards and then they just gave us pencils." :-) Some of the kids apparently only agreed to go when their teachers said there would be cookies and were not happy afterwards when there weren't any. I thought the tour would be fun for me, though, as I've never been around the school. Apparently this parent found that idea more exciting than the actual kids going there.

While I'm not too excited to have him going he is so that is good. He's definitely looking big enough to go unlike some of his other classmates. Karina's is almost as big as a few of them. And big he is. He's almost as tall as I am and has bigger feet than I do. He'll be outgrowing his dad's shoes in not too long. Braden's eagerly anticipating when he'll be taller than me - in another 2 inches. He just keeps growing up and while it's fun to watch I'd love to keep him little forever.

Every family has to have it happen once, right?

2011-04-07T16:26:00.000-06:00

I really thought I might get off with this never happening but apparently not. My visiting teachers came over last night and Kayli came to cheerfully visit us streaking through BUCK NAKED and dripping wet to dance for them! She'd escaped from the bathtub while Barry was engrossed reading the paper while sitting on the bed "supervising". The kid went right past him and he didn't even notice. Hahaha. I did just laugh and take her back to her daddy who then felt quite sheepish that she'd gotten away from him. :-) Ah, you got to love kids!

All of yesterday, and half of Tuesday, Kayli has been stripping off her diaper and clothes every time her diaper is wet. We keep finding her running around naked with a huge grin on her face. The past two nights I'd gone in to check on her when sleeping and found she was naked with no diaper. So, obviously she doesn't want to be wearing wet diapers. We tried some training underpants on her after the streaking incident and she was SO excited. Hence, I went shopping last night and got all the stuff we need to potty training and tomorrow is the day. I'm hoping that she'll quite streaking once she gets rid of the diapers so wish me luck!

Grammie-Great and Audrey

2011-04-04T23:57:00.002-06:00

I love this photo of my Grandma Scott holding Audrey, my sister Camille's new baby. What sweet loving!

Kayli's First Haircut Photos

2011-04-04T23:56:00.000-06:00

Here's our little princess with her first butch - oh, I mean haircut - that he daddy took her to get. :-) Her bangs were down to her nose before her haircut as I could decide whether to grow them out or cut them. Obviously her daddy decided to cut them.

I have my camera back! Yippee!!!

2011-04-04T16:11:00.000-06:00

I accidentally left my camera at mom and dad's in February. It took until yesterday to get it back. I've noticed that if I don't have pictures, I don't blog usually. (See, no pictures and no blogging since then!) Now I can get back to sharing pictures which say a thousand words, right? Which means I don't have to type a thousand words. :-)

The one thing I did miss having it for was the kids' ice skating lessons. Karina and Tyler took lessons from January - March and Braden did just March. For spring break, we all went ice skating for the first time together as a family. Happily we found a babysitter for Kayli both days and we ended up having a blast. She wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much we did. Barry went with us the second day, his first time ever, and he only crashed once that I recall. I, on the other hand, was using hockey skates and kept forgetting I didn't have toe picks so took more tumbles than he did, as my very bruised knees can attest. I'd love to have had the camera to take pictures that day.

The newest activity the kids are in is jump rope for heart activity at school. They go once a week for 6 weeks and have a competition the last day. Since Braden is in 6th grade, he is a student helper/teacher this year instead.

Kayli just keeps on growing and keeps us laughing. I substituted in the nursery a few weeks ago and we found out who the real ring leader of trouble is in there - Kayli! Everyone was laughing pretty hard when I told them her antics. I saw Kayli and one other girl, who are the only ones with big brothers, were the only two girls playing trucks with the boys. Gee, imagine that.

Then when snack time came, I found out Kayli is the big eater of the group. I was informed that when they have sandwiches, she'll have eaten four quarters in the amount of time the rest of the kids will eat one. She also pounded the goldfish crackers when I was there. You'd think we never fed the kid. I thought about and asked if she was the kid that had the most older siblings and sure enough she was. In other words, her mentality could be "if you don't eat now somebody else is going to and you might be out of luck" where the rest of the kids don't have quite so much competition for goodies at their houses.

My favorite, though, was the wild rampage. Some of the kids started running around being wild. Kayli was sitting on my lap pouting (because she wanted Dad) when this started. She promptly cheered up, got her mischevious look on her face, got the hands up in pounce mode and said "I'mmmmm gonnna get you!" and started chasing all of the kids. Obviously this happens a lot because all of them instantly when into group mode and started running while she chased them stating she was going to "get them". I laughed really hard and don't think I can adequately describe how funny it is, mostly because Tyler plays that game with her all the time. It is their favorite but since he wasn't there, she turned the tables and took his normal position, chasing all the rest of the kids and getting them really wild.

That's about all that has been up in our lives since we last posted. We've been sick, gotten better, done activities and normal life. We hope everyone else is doing well and Happy Spring!

Kayli's first haircut

2011-01-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

The big news at our house for last week was Kayli finally got her first haircut. I'd been putting it off, and off, (and off some more) because I have such a hard time emotionally getting the girls' hair cut. Their hair takes so long to grow I hate to cut it.

Well, while I was at orchestra practice on Saturday Barry took her to get her hair cut. Sneaky little devil. He says he didn't think I'd mind and it needed done. I came home and Braden promptly showed me Kayli had gotten her first haircut. The poor thing now has hair shorter than the boys! The lady at Walmart gave her a boy haircut and so, of course, I cried and cried on Saturday knowing it will take years to regrow her hair. She was finally starting to let me put hair things in and now it is too short.She was finally starting to let me put hair things in and now it is too short. I've finally resigned myself to it, though, (what choice do I have?) and even though her bangs are way too short she does look better in the back and her hair looks shinier. Why does getting girls hair cut have to be so trauamtizing for their mommy? (Picture coming later.)

Busy, busy...

2011-01-16T21:46:00.000-07:00

This week has been a fun and busy week! Wednesday night was Tyler's Pinewood Derby, Thursday was Braden's D.A.R.E graduation, Friday night was Karina's mini-cheer camp performance at the Skyline-Highland game and Saturday was an interesting date night.

Braden's graduation was at one of the jr. high school's and was really fun! Unfortunately, Barry said he "never saw my camera" after Wednesday night so I couldn't take any pictures. He found it yesterday hidden on his tool shelf. Hmmm.....so, no pictures to share. I don't remember having a cool graduation like the 6th graders here did. Diplomas were awarded, winning essays shared and then an awesome video was presented to the kids that they had all made. I may cave and pay the $5 for it but we'll see. They showed clips of kids touching a real lung pumping oxygen and their faces were great! I think the favorite, though, was the videos of the kids trying to walk with beer goggles on. They were falling all over the place and it was a good practical lesson on why not to drink.

The last item of the night was a surprise. Apparently their is a band of police officers called "Police Line" and they played for the kids and were so good! Braden must be his mother's child because he got really into it, jumping up and down with his buddies and bouncing all over. The group ended up doing three encores the kids loved it so much. There were a bunch of little kids Kayli's age dancing in the aisles and it was so cute to watch. Kayli decided she was too tired to join them, though, and just hung out in my arms instead.

Friday night was Karina's mini-cheer camp performance for the girls' basketball game. She had workshops on Tue-Thur and then they performed the next night. She was having a great time at the game - until she fell off the band performance platform. I kept watching for her and didn't see her get down with the other throngs of girls as I was behind her and thought she had jumped off the end to join the rest. Apparently someone had pushed her off accidentally. She ended up hitting her head, getting a bruise and scrap on the shoulder and banging up a knee. She cheered up quick, though, and had fun cheerleading for the 2nd quarter and doing the half-time dance performance.

Karina's words on the night:

"I liked it when I got a blue balloon and a blue necklace. I loved cheering in front of the people because it is so fun. And I liked it because I got a little stamp on my hand and a cheer t-shirt."

PINEWOOD DERBY TIME!

2011-01-16T19:52:00.003-07:00

We had our last Pinewood Derby this week with Tyler now becoming a Webelos Scout two weeks ago. He and Barry had a fun time making the car this year. Barry says now that he has done this for three years previous, that he thinks he's got it figured out how to make a car go faster. He was grinding wheels with his grinder, measuring wheels and the whole nine yards. I had a fun time teasing him while the car was being made. Tyler did a great job picking the body style and doing his part, too, because he won 2nd place overall! The kids had so much fun that Braden, the pack den chief, didn't have to do his little kids' activity after all and everyone, including Kayli, just watched the races.

The crew and our VERY happy Pinewood Derby racer, Tyler!

Tyler tearing up the track on his first race.

Tyler as a new Webelos Scout with his Pinewood Derby Car.

Tyler won "Best Driver" thanks to his lego creativity.

Another one bites the dust...

2011-01-07T17:15:00.003-07:00

Well, after two weeks we have all finally gotten the stomach flu and hopefully we are done. Tyler was our last holdout. I think this is the worst stuff we've had at our house for awhile. Last fall I bought a Kirby carpet cleaner/shampooer and it turned out to be good timing. We definitely got good use out of it this week. Braden had it first and he definitely had it the easiest of the bunch and then shared with the rest of us. Does anyone else find that unfair? I am he didn't get horribly sick, though.

As a consequence of being sick, Karina and Tyler ended up missing their first day of ice skating lessons. I was rather bummed out about that but we got to do a make-up day on Thursday. They both said they loved it and had lots of fun. Yay! After doing a quick calculation of how much it cost to rent skates for all three sessions, we decided to look into buying them. We managed to find a pair for both kids that were on clearance and are adjustable, so they can wear them next year, too! I am so happy that they both enjoyed it as we need something to replace ballet for Karina and Tyler just hasn't shown much interest in sports for a couple of years now. It was great to see him so excited and find something he likes. I'm not so sure I want to mention hockey teams, though. I think that is one of the more violent sports out there.

We really enjoyed our Christmas break but I think everyone (except Barry) was glad to get back to a normal routine. Structure is nice. The kids did miss their music lessons this week since they were sick so we got to gradually work back into everything. Next week will be full bore back into activities.

You'll NEVER see this again...

2011-01-03T15:48:00.005-07:00

Barry's coworkers had a small contest to see who could grow the best beard during the month of November and I just have to share the photo of right before he shaved. As he said, "You will NEVER see this again!" I'll admit he might have complained, ahem, a lot about how itchy it was. He came back from Thanksgiving break and everyone else had caved and shaved so apparently he won because he held out the longest. He was so happy to shave it off. He actually looked pretty good with it, though, and I was kind of sad to see it go - momentarily. I think the girls were quite happy to have it be gone, though, as then they didn't get scratchy daddy kisses anymore. I had to laugh as they had started cringing at his scratchy kisses like I used to with my Grandpa Scott.

New Year's Resolutions - hmmmm, really?

2011-01-03T15:22:00.003-07:00

Well, it's a whole new year and that means time for New Year's resolutions. At first I didn't plan on making any and then I thought it through and decided I would.

My biggest goal is actually a family resolution. We bought the book "The Children you Want With the Kids you Have" by Marie Ricks last week. We've been to a number of her classes at BYU-I Education Week and LOVE them. If you ever get a chance to go to one of her classes, GO! We've tried her system a number of times, it works, then we fall off the band wagon as we forget exactly how it goes. Hopefully now that we have the book and the family rules in writing it will help. So basically our goal is to get on a better family contribution/cleaning schedule with the kids.

Okay, onto me! I've still got to ask Barry what his goals are. I think his foremost one is going to be to finish his Master's Degree - and then have a textbook burning party probably.

1. Participate in NaNoWriMo, a writer's challenge I found out about from one of Barry's cousins to write 50,000 words during the month of November, aka a novel. I can about 100% guarantee you it won't be great but I will at least have done it! I've always wanted to write one so hopefully this will actually get the job done.

2. Potty train Kayli. Okay, so this might not exactly qualify but it is must for this year and one I hate to do so I think it counts. I'm hoping she'll be fairly easy about it. She already likes to come and tell me about needing changed and say "Ewww, gross!". It's really funny. You should hear it.

3. Teach Karina to ride a two-wheeler. Hmm, now that I think about it, this goal should go under Barry's list and he's the one that taught the other two. Does it count if I make a goal to have Barry do it?

4. Actually update our blog. See, I'm already doing great! My goal is to update our family blog, or have kids do it (I know Barry never will) once a week. It'll be fun to read it at the end of the year and review everyone's antics.

5. Get a full 3-months worth of food storage and household items. Seriously, I am bad at keeping track of this one. We may very well have it and I don't know it because it's not kept track of. Years ago Barry got me the Food Storage Planner program and every so often I get on and use it. (Like, maybe once a year.) I'll get on, update everything we have, get gung-ho for a little bit. Theoretically every time something is bought you are supposed to add it onto your computerized inventory or remove it every time it is used. Umm, never happens. I'll totally quit because it just seems like such a big task and so long away to finish. So, I figure 3 months ought to be a lot easier, right? I'm thinking we might be realistically close to that in some areas but this way I can actually see a big fat 100% at some point in time where the other way I never will. Plus, it's nice knowing if something happens we can survive. We definitely enjoyed having it last semester while Barry was only working part-time.

You know, I think that is plenty of resolutions for this year. Here is a big Happy New Year to everyone and may you all have joy and success in your New Year's Resolutions and I'll look forward to seeing mine all done at the end of the year.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

2010-12-20T09:14:00.006-07:00

Because it's snowing and snowing and snowing! Hello, everyone! It's been awhile so I thought I'd do a end of the year post.

We've gotten a lot of snow the past couple of days. We went down to Pocatello earlier this week and we were all amazed that once again they had pretty much no snow! The kids were saying they would have to come up to our house for Christmas if they want a white Christmas. Then when we were there that night it was snowing enough we ended up staying the night. Hopefully it will stick around for all of you for Christmas (just not to the roads).

As for us, we've got lots of snow. Barry had to snow blow the driveway TWICE yesterday so people could get in our driveway for a meeting. Then the roads were bad enough only two people came. Unfortunately that also meant Grandma and Grandpa Hansen didn't come up since the roads were slick. We missed you and we'll make our cake again for you the next time you are up.

Enough about the weather. The kids and mom are all very excited to have school out for two weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in until 8:30 today. They are already planning out cousins sleepovers and play dates with friends.

Barry will take his last final on Wednesday and I am hoping maybe he can actually hang out with us for Christmas and not be stressed he should be doing homework. I think the next week, though, he will have to spend starting his 60 page paper. I asked him if he had lots of charts and graphs he could stick in it so we can see him occassionally once school starts. Since they don't offer 9 credits worth of classes that he needs (and we're discovering he may only need 4 more!) then he has to go back to work full-time. They only let him work half-time if he is going to school full-time so now he will be trying to write this massive paper while maintaining a regular schedule. Please keep him in your prayers. He is really discouraged right now and wants to just quit due to a number of reasons but he is so close he is going to try to stick with it. Unless of course I said I'd be fine with him not finishing. Then I think he'd run while he had the chance.

Braden, Tyler and Karina are all doing fairly well in school. Karina had an absolute perfect grade and behavior report card at parent teacher conferences this month. Her teacher said you don't get any better students than her. I'm hoping some of the boys past teachers will get Karina to make up for the boys. Haha. The boys, amazingly enough, BOTH had good conferences this trimester. Normally I get frustrated teachers that don't know how to get them to focus and both teachers said they are doing well and are very smart boys. If they'd focus, they could get even better grades so the teachers are challenging them on that.

We also got Braden's ISAT scores back and he was advanced on everything so then we found out from his teacher that those scores are what they use to determine honors classes. She let him know how important it was to keep those up and to work hard on his math since he wants to be a scientist. Tyler got advanced on math, too, so we were excited to see that. They both absolutely love science and by now know more than their mother. I never could stand it so I think I promptly forgot all of it as soon as I passed each test.

Kayli is getting to be a big girl and is SUCH A TEASE! She just loves to play with Tyler and they tease each other constantly. She is a smart little bugger, too. We were helping her to say words and the conversation went like this:

Dad: Say "I"
Kayli: I
Dad: Say "Love"
Kayli: Love
Dad: Say "Daddy"
Kayli (with a very mischevious smirk and a laugh): Mommy!

She did the exact some thing to Angela and Jared, throwing in Jared instead of Angela and then laughing.

Kayli is also a dancing and singing girl. Right now we are working on teaching her Jingle Bells. I keep telling the kids they can't sing the silly versions of songs from school as they will confusion, especially the Jingle Bells ones.

As for me, as my family knows, I've been busy with Angela working on our website, Coupon Stretch. Some of my family members went to a internet boot camp conference and so we started picking their brains for information. We've made the website awhile ago but dropped it as we couldn't figure out how to monetize it well. So now we've got it set up and are already making money. It's very nice and is lots of fun to do. If anyone else has web pages, could you please add the link to ours to yours? Right now we have deals, printable coupons, a store and review on there. We will slowly be adding more stuff to it as time goes on but it is finally ready for everyone to see. I think my favorite part is the coupon codes feature, though. I had no idea there was a nicely organized place with all the coupons and deals for lots of major stores out there. Since you all know how much I love to bargain shop this is a good fit for me. No more scouring the internet for a coupon before I go to a dept. store. Even Barry liked it.

Debra, I went and looked at your website when I found the link on this page (that I apparently haven't been to for awhile) and love it! You two are doing a great job with that and it looks great. I was really impressed with the whole Spanish section.

Okay, thanks for stopping by everyone and have a great Christmas!

So much to do, so little time and other fun stuff

2010-03-24T08:53:00.002-06:00

Oh, I'm starting to regret my time decisions earlier this week. I have tons to do before we leave on Friday and I'm starting to feel stressed. I forgot to factor in Braden's 5th grade patriotic performance tonight and the big one, pack meeting tomorrow night! I will be spending most of tomorrow and some of today doing awards, going to the store and preparing for that.

Plus there are lots of other things I need to get done before we can go. I look forward to taking Kayli with me to get the tires rotated and transmission flushed on the van "like a poke in the eye" as Barry puts it. However, they really need done before we drive somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,500 miles these next two weeks.

On a very happy note, only 2 1/2 days left until we leave. I caught Braden sitting at the bar last night with a smiley dreamy look on his face as he said to himself "only 2 1/2 more days until we leave". Hahaha.

For other news, the kids all started a 6-week jump rope program at school last week. This is so fun for them and a great $5 deal for mom to get them to EXERCISE. Tyler got his jump rope at school yesterday as they didn't get the older kids in on time. Last night after dinner he was begging to go out and jump rope so he headed for the back deck. The last time he tried this program he was frustrated because he tried and tried and really couldn't do it almost at all. Last night he was jump roping backwards with a huge smile on his face! Looks like he has finally figured it out.

Braden has been telling me about all the things he can do with a rope but I haven't seen them yet. I am going to go outside with them later today and have everyone show me what they are learning. They came home with a list of different skills by level and a point value for them. I can guess what most of them are but are at a loss for the others. Apparently Braden has gotten past his mentality that jump roping is a "girl thing". He has been getting comments from his classmates about how good he is at when they jump rope during P.E. So, that makes me a little curious because he certainly didn't learn it at home.

Karina is really excited about it, too. Once the kids are in 1st grade they can join an actual jump rope team that I think will start doing competitions. One of the ladies doing it was a jump rope champion for some high level like national or world or something. THAT would be very interesting to watch!

From the frying pan and into the fire as they say...

2010-03-21T21:57:00.002-06:00

Barry got his new calling at church today and was released as the Cubmaster only to be sustained the Scoutmaster for the 11-13 year olds. We both got a good laugh after church when we were visiting about it. He said he had a lot of people come up and comment to him and somewhat express condolences on his new calling and I got the same from a few people! Fortunately we are both really excited about the new calling and he is very enthusiastic so we just had a good chuckle about it all instead of agreeing with all of them.

He was really excited to tell me that the troop already has planned a 50-mile (or is it 150-mile?) bike trek later this summer. I had fun needling him about getting to relive his "glory days" as a scout and finally getting to go on a scout bike trek. There are lots of other ideas floating around in his head (some quite wild) so I'm sure the scouts are going to have a fantastic time with him, especially Braden.

Ahem, yes, it's been awhile

2010-03-18T09:49:00.004-06:00

Now that I haven't posted in over a year, maybe I should do that, eh? I would upload some pictures but I don't have any recent ones. Another thing I seem to have been slacking on. I'll rectify that later this week since Karina is having another ballet on Saturday.

As for what is new in our neck of the woods - not much. Kayli is still a big tease like always. Having learned it from Tyler and that is who she teases the most we all just get a good laugh. Her favorite game with him is to go over, sit on his back and bounce up and down while he laughs and tells her to sit on his head. They have a great love/tease relationship. She is also signing to use more so we are having a better idea of what she is wanting. Fortunately she is attempting to throw in the words she learns on the signing time videos so she is at least saying something, too.

Karina Ballerina is still loving dance and we are trying to decide what to do with that. As you can guess, it has extra costs and other things associated with it so ballet isn't the cheapest of hobbies/sports. However, she absolutely loves it so we will keep at it awhile longer and debate for a few more months what to do when Barry goes to work part-time.

Tyler is such a sweet smiley boy. He had his first piano festival last weekend and got a superior. He was expecting something more like a recital apparently. When we got all done and left, later that day he asked me when he was going to have his festival in the chapel. He didn't realize that festival was just walking in the room, playing your scales and pieces for a judge and you were done.

Tyler also finally got qualified for speech therapy through school. He started that a week or so ago and is very happy about that. He is working on his "th" sounds at the moment and is practicing them fairly well.

Braden is still in the "the oldest child who thinks he knows everything" phase. Exactly when does that go away, if ever? He thrills in learning all kinds of new stuff - and then "sharing" it with all the jocks/bullies at school who harass him about being a nerd. I'm sure that doesn't help the situation but at least he is being true to himself I suppose. He is still playing the cello and had his first concert with the jr. high and high school this month. Oh, hey. I even have video of that, too, now that I think about it. I'll add that a little later. If you see the camera bouncing around it is because Kayli wanted to help.

Barry is busy with school, work and as of next week a new church calling. We are a little nervous about how he is going to fit that calling in as it involves lots of time, money and effort but I'm banking he'll be blessed for saying yes and everything will work out. More on that later since it hasn't officially been announced in church yet.

As for me, life is just regular duties - cook, maid, chauffeur, errand runner, cub scouts, etc. With no bear leaders at the moment I've added that onto the Webelos leader and advancement chairperson assignments so that Tyler has some cub scouts to go to. I have fun with the boys, though, and since Braden is the only consistent Webelos it gives him someone to do activities with.

So there is the rather mundane (happily so) update of our lives for the moment. Hopefully I won't take a year to post the next one.

Lose Weight! Feel Great! Or something like that...

2009-01-22T16:09:00.003-07:00

Haha. Barry is a student this semester so we were able to get a gym membership to the Apple Athletic Club for less than the cost of a regular individual one. We have had SO much fun. My favorite part, though, is I feel GREAT this week!

The boys' particularly love the youth area. When I worked in the nursery there a couple of years ago they didn't have anything in this area. Now they have the WII equivalent to Dance Dance Revolution (with bigger industrial strength footpads), stationary bikes that had video game monitors on them so the kids can race together and some cool kind of laser game that gets you moving. It honestly looks like something off a sci-fi show. They have some other fun stuff in there, too. Dad, you would get a kick out of seeing how excited my kids are to go "work out" at the gym. They never want to leave!

Karina's favorite part is swimming. Barry is working on teaching her and Tyler how to swim. When we went this week it was Kayli's first time ever. We had size s/p swim diapers for her and guess what - they were WAY too big! The little peanut only weighs 12.5 lbs so they looked like Erkel pants on her.

We even managed to get Barry to finally work out yesterday. I got a kick out of his, "Wow. You can just drop them all off and go workout?" comment in a somewhat stunned voice. Yes siree, and now we all know why I like the gym so much! Hehe. I love my kids but it's nice to see them so excited to go get some exercise while Mom goes and does hers.

Our membership ends May 30 since it's a student one but until then - play on kids aka go get some exercise!

Scratch that last post

2009-01-22T16:08:00.002-07:00

Braden says:

"Scratch that post. I win at video games. He does not. It's the other way around. And I still don't get why he likes school."

School Time

2009-01-22T16:01:00.003-07:00

Tyler says:

"My little sister has an Easy Bake oven. She is very cute and pretty. I have a baby little sister. She is cuter than my other sister. At school I learn math. That I like. My family is the best family in the world. My dad is silly. My sister is funny. My little cute baby sister is very cute. I am a good person at school. Braden does Cub Scouts and so do I, too. My brother is great at video games. I usually beat him at video games. School is the funnest place ever. I like my family."

Chef Karina

2009-01-13T17:32:00.004-07:00

Karina says:

I made my very first cakes today. I shared it with my family. They were chocolate."

Karina got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas from Santa. Today we took a regular cake mix that cost a $1 and divided it up into twelve packagkes. Our little chef's savings by not using the Easy Bake mixes - $71!!! (If anyone else has an Easy Bake - it's 1/4 cup mix and 1/6 cup water for two cakes.) She did everything from start to finish, including setting the timer and serving everyone, all by herself. She is so happy that now she has 10 more cake mixes (we ate 2) to bake whenever she wants because she can do it ALL BY HERSELF! Plus, she knows how to make more mixes later when she needs them. At the moment she is selling the last cake to her brothers in exchange for chores or a quarter. We'll see which brother wins. Haha. Good job, Chef Karina!

Tyler's Baptism

2009-01-13T15:41:00.004-07:00

Tyler turned 8 on December 30. We took the kids to Leo's Place to celebrate and had a blast. They have a huge maze of straps and pipes the kids can crawl through and they absolutely love it. We got fortunate, too, that Tuesday happened to be token night. So we got a bunch of tokens to play at the game arcade. My personal favorite is the alligator one where you have to bash them on the head. The kids line up with me and we go at it together.

Tyler was so excited when Saturday finally arrived and he got to get baptized. He was jumping around and so excited when he was sitting on the bench waiting for his turn. I haven't seen him with that big of a grin or that excited in a long time. It was awesome to see him so happy to be baptized.

Thank you to everyone for coming. We missed you Camille and Josh but everyone else was there. We especially appreciate the King and Gallafent families for extending their trips to be there. We love you all and thanks for being there for his special day!

Bye, bye binkie!

2008-11-24T14:24:00.002-07:00

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

2008-11-13T22:31:00.003-07:00

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.

2008-10-13T00:51:00.003-06:00

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!

2008-10-08T12:55:00.004-06:00

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

2008-10-06T10:39:00.001-06:00

Kayli - our newest addition

2008-10-06T10:29:00.001-06:00

General Conference Weekend and family update

2008-10-06T09:36:00.002-06:00

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.

2008-10-03T11:30:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-10-02T15:26:00.004-06:00

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

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

2008-10-02T12:51:00.004-06:00

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!

2008-09-26T13:52:00.006-06:00

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

2008-09-23T16:11:00.008-06:00

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?

2008-09-23T15:56:00.005-06:00

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!

2008-09-22T16:45:00.003-06:00

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

2008-09-21T23:32:00.002-06:00

Happy Birthday to Barry with the office reveal!

2008-09-21T22:48:00.006-06:00

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!