Our Crazy Bunch

A New Baby Is Coming

2011-12-11T03:14:00.002-07:00

Polly, Penelope, Patricia, Piglet, Pooh Bear, Paisley, Primrose, Phoebe, Paige, Pellie, or Roo what will it be. We've been having fun seeing what everyone thinks the new baby will be named since this is the first time we haven't told anyone. We have laid out the clue it begins with a "P," but that is all and the kiddos are going crazy not knowing what their new little sister will be named, but also having fun at guessing the name. We only have a little more than a day now and we can hardly wait to introduce our eighth child to the family and to the world. We feel very blessed and loved that God has entrusted us with another blessing from above and especially at this holy time of the year. Praise be to Him!

One of these days, I WILL JUST GET IT!

2011-11-07T08:15:00.003-07:00

So, let me start off by saying, again I have not updated the blog and I have over a 100 photos waiting to be used in some posts, but I need to get this out of me. I love my husband! I love have talks with him and I love how he shares his view points with me and tries to make me understand things that I just don't get. Hopefully, one of these days, I WILL JUST GET IT, without him having to help me get there. Here's some backstory: most people know I didn't grow up in the LDS religion, but I had many friends who were LDS and I attended mtgs. activities, and even seminary with occasionally. I didn't become a member of the church until I was 19, but loved everything about it. Fast forward a few years and some not-so nice wards(one where we buried our eldest son and no one in the ward knew of his passing until the morning of the funeral-yeah, ball got dropped somewhere with the Bishop and others)and experiences and it has made me question the culture and as of late I have confused the two-church teachings vs. the church culture. I keep telling myself they are two separate things, but we have moved into an area where I am having a hard time distinguishing the two. It seems our ward brings out the culture aspect a little too much. We seem to keep having the same group/cliques shuffled into all the callings in our ward-which is extremely annoying me. I have a hard time believing that the callings are indeed "called from above." When all is done is the primary presidency seems to be shuffled into the Young Women's presidency which they then get shuffled into the Relief Society Presidency, and the same goes with the men. It's like we have a handful of the same people just getting shuffled into the presidencies and it has started to bug me. How is anyone else suppose to grow and share and bless others if the same people are getting called to all the positions. I have struggled with this, mainly because to me it just seems like a popularity contest and I've gotten released from callings because of having babies and now I'm sitting on the sidelines watching this ridiculous game of juggling the same group of people into different callings. How is this really a calling from above? That was my question to my hubby yesterday, and he helped as best as he could saying the Bishop only can do what he knows and in it's way it is a calling from above, but it bothers him too. He as well sits back and watches the show, because no matter how many times he asks for a calling he is overlooked. I don't know why it is, but after 5 years it is getting very frustrating for the both of us. I need to remember to keep in mind that the church is not about it's people it is about Christ, His teachings, and making it back to my Heavenly Father. It has been extremely hard to not get caught up in the culture and let it deter me from going to church. I don't like the politics, the games, the cliques. I never have, but hopefully, I will be able to concentrate on being more Christ-like, understanding that He does know and see me, and trying to make it back to Him someday. It's an interesting point that the hubs has- most people that grow up in the church don't see a church culture, but those that don't, struggle with the culture vs. the truths/teachings of the church. How he, one who has grown up in the church, sees this as a reality makes me feel lucky. I can talk to him and he doesn't judge me, he just tries to teach me to stay strong and not get so frustrated and to stay on that straight and narrow path I promised to do back when I was baptized. I love this man more than anything and am glad he can look out for me.

Random Ramblings of a Pregnant-hormone hyped mamma of 7

2011-08-17T08:00:00.002-06:00

So yeah, it's been awhile and my camera is in some serious need of emptying the ten thousand pics it has of our going-ons for the past 6 months, but I haven't uploaded them yet. I thought I would get my ramblings out of my head for awhile and update this nice lit'l journal of mine, since it has cobwebs in it from the lack of posts.

It's been a busy, crazy, fun, exciting, worrisome, loving last 6 months and I've come to the conclusion that yes- I AM DEFINATELY CRAZY! I don't know what I was thinking when 6 months ago I thought yeah, why not add another little one into the mix. It was weighing heavily on our minds and our hearts that we just were not done with our family and after the loss of our baby we didn't know we were gonna add, we believed another little spirit was waiting in the wings and sure enough-we were right. Now don't get me wrong, we fully wanted our last little one to join us it's just then I got the crazy idea to add a few more things on top of it. We began re-doing all 4 girls' rooms(painted, moved furniture from basement to top floor, from top floor to basement, re-decorated to fit personalities that would be now sharing a room, got a new closet organizer put in a room that with two beds was just too small to hold a dresser in, and we rearranged all the nursery furniture as well)because being pregnant with 6 little people to take care of just wasn't enough to do- I guess. Then we thought, oh we should reorganize all the closets(well the hubs thought this up all by himself and began without even letting me in on it), reorganize the garage, declutter the entire house-you know since our ward had a DI drive and all(we could help others and ourselves, the thinking process of the hubs), and to top it all off I, yes me and me alone, thought hey I want to be out of debt by December 31st this year. This normally, for others I'm sure, would not be a problem-but you see we have been in debt since we lost Christian. We have been trying to get our grounding back-but when you add more children to the mix, the medical bills alone work against you. So I thought surely I could take an amount that no one would even think to pay off in less than 3 years and have it paid off in 8 months. Bring on the challenge, bring on the fear, bring on the STRESS, bring on the massive headaches. Yes, it's been challenging and stressful-especially taking an $800 budget for food and household items down to half that, but I can say(knock on wood) that we will be making our, okay my, goal of being completely DEBT FREE! I feel blessed and guided through this process of trying to get back on track. I lost that feeling for awhile when we had a scare with our little one, but I'm back and feeling better than ever. Our life really is crazy-BUT, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world! I would hate to be bored, able to sit around and laze around, doing anything I want, not be challenged, even not have some of the worries that come with having a bunch like we do. I love this crazy little thing called my life! It makes me stronger and challenges me every day making me a better person. I'm glad all of our little ones chose us to be their parents and guide them through this life. Yes, more money would be nice, more free time would be nice, more SLEEP would be nice, and more time with just the hubs and me would be nice-BUT, you know what I will get that soon enough. Kiddos grow up fast and life calms down too soon, so I'll take this crazy, rambling time that makes me crazy, but also makes me laugh so, so, so, much EVERY DAY! I don't know about anyone else, but just thinking and looking back on all we have done in these past 6 months makes me tired. Because through all of these things we still had our usual spring and summer fun-vacation, swimming, planting, weeding, movies, parties with good friends, birthday celebrations, church responsibilities, fundraisers, graduation from elementary school, starting school again, new job-hunting, ultrasounds and check-ups, playing at parks, hiking, girls' camp, and about a million more things we do every day. It's a crazy time, but exciting at the same time. Love and play with your little ones tons now, because one day soon, they won't be little anymore. I'm learning that more and more as the day grows nearer when I send my now junior higher, off to school. I still am wondering, when did this happen, but I'm glad I've spent so many fun times with her before she gets to the point of being too old to hang out with mom. Loving life with it's craziness and all it offers me!

Our Crazy Bunch is Going to Get Crazier!

2011-07-18T23:22:00.003-06:00

What's next on the agenda

2011-04-04T21:07:00.003-06:00

So lately I've been crafting a ton and learning how to take some really good pictures of the family, but now I'm SO ready for this... It's the 2nd book in one of my favorite author's new series. It comes out tomorrow and I can hardly wait to read it. This will be taking up my Thursday night this week. I would read it over the weekend, but we will be off on our first couples retreat. Good food, good times, good friends-what more could a girl ask for.

Why I've been MIA

2011-04-04T21:01:00.003-06:00

Everyone, meet my new little friend. My new Canon EOS Rebel T1i. I have been playing with this new little toy for the last few days and it is gonna be my new appendage this summer with the kiddos. I have big plans for some fun photo shoots of my cuties and I can hardly wait. Now if Mother Nature would just cooperate and let the sun shine and Spring begin, I could begin. But until then, I'll just learn how to take some really good photos.

Trial of Accepting God's Love

2011-03-14T17:35:00.003-06:00

We have all been through our own trials in this life. Some are small, some are big. Some we overcome and some we feel we will never be able to bear. I have experience all of these kinds of trial and although I thought I experienced an unbearable trial of losing my son, I have come to understand my real big trial is not this. My unbearable trial is accepting God's love and knowing that He does everything with a reason. I may not understand this now, but through His love and His plan for my life I will some day. I use to think and feel He had it in for me. I have battled this feeling for some years, especially as of late. I couldn't imagine that He actually loved me and listened to me until this past month. I felt that all my trials and troubles were because I had done something wrong, didn't have enough faith, wasn't strong enough. I was lost and blind to what He actually was trying to teach me. Faith is a fragile thing when you do not exercise it fully. Sometimes it's easy to say you have faith, but when it needs to be put into play, it may be a hard thing to do. I have been this person. I believe strongly everything the missionaries taught me. I know I'm a daughter of God, I know that our families can be together forever, I know that my Savior suffered for me personally, I know that I have been blessed immensely, and I know that my Heavenly Father gave me the Holy Ghost to give me comfort whenever I need it. What I have struggles with is knowing that my Heavenly Father loves me and hears my prayers always unconditionally. I struggled with this a ton when we were losing Christian. All I felt was He was not listening to my aching heart. He wasn't making the cancer go away. He only listened when I turned my will over to His and begged to take my sweet Christian away so he would not be in pain anymore. I again struggled when I lost my parents through divorce and in the end any relationship with my mother. I struggled when I begged to not lose another baby this past month. It's a hard thing to do, turning my will over to God's will. I prayed to let the baby stay and grow in me, but I also finally came to a point where I realized maybe it wasn't in God's will to keep the baby. In the end it was the case. We discovered at 9 weeks that the baby stopped growing at 6 weeks and I officially lost the baby 2 weeks later. Not an easy thing to do, but through this past experience I learned a GREAT deal of just HOW much my Heavenly Father really does love me. I had to actually take a medicine to get rid of the baby, due to my body just did not want to let go. It was painful both physically and emotionally, but I prayed so hard that I literally was brought to my knees sobbing, that this would go quickly and my body would be able to bounce back quickly. Well, through the power of prayer, this is exactly what happened. Instead of waiting 2 weeks for the miscarriage to take it's course, it happened within 24 hours of my shot. I also bounced back quickly and although I miss our baby and what would have been I know that God loves me and this too shall pass. This last trial of mine, although it wasn't like losing Christian it was at the same time as when I lost Christian. The two combined brought me down to a horror of a low level and I believe I only made it through by the grace of God. I now know that God does not give us our trials because we've done something wrong or as a way of punishment. I believe that He actually gives them to us to not only make us stronger, but as a way of showing us His love for us. I know that this will always be my trial, to remember He does love me and always will. He knows what's best for me and how to make me stronger. He gives me my trials and challenges in this life because He loves me and wants me to come back to Him someday. He wants us all to return to Him. We are His sons and daughters. He wants us all to live with Him eternally and it is through the trials we face that He shows his love for us and helps us come closer to living eternally with Him.

Valentine Decorations

2011-02-26T22:09:00.006-07:00

I wanted to add some new "love" day decorations to our house this year, but I wanted to make them myself. I just feel so accomplished when I've made something to decorate our home. With little money this year, I set out to the dollar store again. I bought this little beauty. It's a small cookie sheet, but it's the perfect size for what I had planned.I then scored these cute babies on sale at half-off. I can make something else with them too, because I only used half of them for my project.
I love countdowns for holidays, so I made this little beauty.

I mod podged the conversation hearts and some scrapbook paper and stickers I had on hand. I love when I have free supplies.

And here's our countdown all displayed on our desk. I filled half the containers with activities and the other half said, "You've got mail." I made 2 little mailboxes, one for the girls and one for the boys. I hit the target dollar spot for little trinkets. The kids loved getting their mail. I forgot to get a photo of the mailboxes, so next year I'll have to get a pic of them. They are all packed up now, because I just decorated for St. Patty's Day today. This was one of my favorite craft projects I've done for awhile.

I then made a love bouquet. I already had the rose petals and the basket. I just picked up these cute heart picks at the dollar store and put them in some styrofoam. Later on I added a little "lovebirds" sign to the front.

I also made these cute little frames. One is made with conversation hearts and the other two are actually soap roses. I got them at the dollar store too. They smell pretty. I had the hubs spray them with a sealant so they won't break over the years. I just placed cute love words in each one.

My last craft I made were these two love topiaries. They are made out of, get ready for it, bath sponges glued together. I got the tin pails from the dollar spot at Target and filled them with candy. I think they turned out so cute. I had a lot of fun making these new decorations this year and I'm now onto the next holiday-St. Patty's Day.

Eight 12 year olds all by myself, REALLY?

2011-02-26T21:40:00.006-07:00

It's winter, so ideas for birthday parties are hard to come by when there's snow. Well, introduce

WINTERPALOOZA!

We decided instead of working against the winter, we could use it to our advantage. Funny thing here is, we had tons of snow the week before her party. By the day OF her party, no snow, not a single snowflake was anywhere to be found. Well, so I improvised, like I always do in the days of mommyhood. We had pizza, treats, soda, and played our snow games indoors.
We kept the winter theme throughout the party. These were her cute favors.

Everyone got snowman marshmallows with hot chocolate, a snowman on a stick, and a penguin oreo. These were a huge hit with all the girls. I was so glad I could impress eight 12 year olds.

I made all the decorations. Alexis wanted penguins and snowmen, so everything was one or the other.

We went with blue, silver, white, and black for the color scheme. Alexis wanted cupcakes, so I ran with these. A chocolate cupcake with an igloo made out of frosting with snow crystals with a penguin on top. I was impressed with myself that my penguins actually turned out so cute. We also had snowmen marshmallows and york peppermint patties candy pieces on the table.

A close-up of my cute little penguins.

Some of the girls enjoying pizza, breadsticks, soda, and a lot of treats. This equalled to a lot of hyper girls. It was a lot of fun to watch them and hang out with Alexis. The hubs took all the other kids out, so it was just me with eight, crazy 12 year olds. It was TONS of fun. I missed out on a lot with being an only child. It's nice to see what a bunch of girls do together.

Crazy Human Snowman Game

We had plans to race building a snowman outside, but with no snow, the game moved indoors. The girls split into groups and they had to build a snowman using one person. They had 6 rolls of toilet paper, gloves, a hat, a scarf, a carrot, and they had to draw 4 buttons on their "snowman."

It was crazy fun, and hysterical! What was even crazier, was what happened after.

I let them have a "snowball" fight!

What was I thinking?

They all buried Alexis under the "snow" and then dog piled her(no one got hurt). They had tons of fun, lots of giggling and laughter.

Here is just a small look at the "snowball" fight. A mess, but it was hilarious watching them. The hubs would have been going crazy, so it's good he wasn't here during this. Alexis had a fun time and her 2 hour party turned into half the girls staying for a late night and one actually spent the night. I was happy she had so much fun. Preteens are so silly and crazy! I LOVE IT!!!

Alexis turns 12

2011-02-26T21:20:00.003-07:00

It finally happened!

My first baby turned 12!

EEK!!!

I can't believe it. She is actually 12 now, and she is no longer in Primary. She is in Young Women's now! OH MY HEAVENS!!! What's a mother to do. Oh, I know. If I hide under my covers and pretend it didn't happen, will she still be a baby? Please, pretty please, with a cherry on top.

No, you say she's only gonna get older. Man, this being a mom is hard work on the heart. Time just keeps flying by. Well, if she must be 12, then I guess I'll have to deal with it.

She's a GREAT kid, I mean, young lady. I could have never dreamed of having such a wonderful daughter, and I ended up with four. I'm very lucky!

Alexis is growing into a wonderful girl and I'm so proud to call her my daughter. She is so considerate, loving, responsible, funny, beautiful, smart, talented, sporty. I could go on and on about this girl of mine.

Each year the kiddos get to pick out their birthday breakfast and she chose cinnamon rolls this year. Don't they look de-lish? They were SO yummy!
This year she was having a big party, so we did dinner at home, but I did make her this decadent oreo cheesecake. It was gobbled up by everyone.

This year we lucked out and Alexis's present was actually given to us from the hub's parents. His grandma was a painter and she passed away a few months before. Well when they were cleaning out her place they found this easel and asked if we wanted it for Alexis. We said yes, and knew we could give it to her for her birthday. Needless to say, she LOVED it. We also gave her some canvases, and she has already completed some masterpieces. This was a hard birthday for me to wrap my heart around. I just was having a hard time realizing things are getting faster and faster here, and as a result, the kiddos aren't so young anymore. I feel like I need to catch up to them. I will, eventually, but in the meantime, can the younger ones slow down please?

New Year's Eve

2011-02-26T20:56:00.005-07:00

We decided this year that we wanted to have a party, but we wanted it to be low key. So we invited my dad and all of the hub's family over. The kiddos had a blast as you can tell by this picture. They love having parties, and I love giving them.The activities were easy, since the kiddos got an arcade basketball game and an air hockey table from grandpa for Christmas. And we also had the Wii, which everyone loves. I had purchased a gingerbread house kit after Christmas which was only a couple of dollars, knowing the kids would love to decorate it, and boy did they ever LOVE it.

Even Bella was loving it, however, I think it was the eating the candy she really loved.

We had good eats, lots of things we knew the kiddos would all love, since they almost outnumbered the adults-almost.

Cute little Josh with his daddy.

Bella loves sitting with Grandpa Renga, and he loves her to death. He's been smitten with her since he first held her after she was born.

We had noise makers and horns for the kiddos, but Bella couldn't blow the horn, so I gave her pots and pans to beat. She loved making the noise.

This was Bella's first time sitting at the big table in the morning. She quickly returned to her high chair the next day, because she wasn't quite ready to sit in the booster seat. This is fine with me, I'd like to keep her little a little longer. I'm not quite ready to see my baby not a baby any more.

Here's one more pic of the kiddos decorating that house. They really enjoyed this activity. We all had fun and it was a very calm, relaxed, fun party. I love throwing parties, especially when they are simple.

Christmas Eve 2010

2011-02-26T20:22:00.006-07:00

Okay, so I am finally gonna get caught up from the past couple of months. I'll start with Christmas Eve. We have adopted the hub's family tradition for our crazy bunch-we always stay home on Christmas Eve, just the eight of us. We use this night to come together and celebrate with just our little family. We spend most of Christmas day running all over the place, so Christmas Eve is our time to have with our kiddos. We have a fancy-well, semi-fancy, dinner. We then read the story of Christ's birth, the kids tell us on video tape what they would like this year from Santa, they do a little performance(they all LOVE this part), then they get to open one present(mom and dad choosing this one), we get ready for bed, set out our cookies, milk, and carrots, read Twas the Night Before Christmas, and then it's off to bed. We have come to enjoy this time more than any other time during the holidays. The kids even say they almost like this night better than opening presents, but then they say they still like their presents more.This year I attempted to make ice candles. We ate by candlelight with the kiddos. They got a big kick out of this. Next year, I think I'll get some kind of bowl to hold the candles instead of my pie plates.
This was our nice table set up. The kids love using the fancy napkins.

Here are the kiddos telling dad what they would like this year.

Laney did a song and dance performance. Man, look at those dancer legs and pointed toes. She's a natural. She's so excited to take dance this fall. Right now she just doesn't have the time, because she keeps wanting to do play after play.

Alexis made a comic book for the night's performance. This girl can really draw and write. She's amazing, and keeps amazing me day after day. We didn't even know that this was what she had planned for the evening.

Logan and Noah sang a couple of songs together. Kaleigh also did a dance and song, but I missed snapping a picture, but I got it on video.

As tradition goes, the kiddos' present is always jammies. Alexis was thrilled with her penguins. She just LOVES penguins!

Kaleigh rockin' the monkeys.

Laney pretending to be a penguin in her favorite candy jammies that are PINK too!

Logan got some cool polar bear ones, but unfortunately they have only lasted him one month, due to a growth spurt. They are floods now.

Noah was thrilled with his Mickey ones.

Little Miss Bella in her cutie Minnie jammies. She looks so old in them. My baby, oh where did she go?

After all was said and done for the evening, the kiddos were more riled up then before, but what kid wouldn't be waiting for Santa. I certainly was excited for Santa. We had another fun Christmas Eve with our crazy bunch and can't wait until next year.

The Talk!

2011-02-19T22:13:00.003-07:00

It's been an eventful Saturday in the Hansen home. The hubs and I finally sat down with the two older girls(separately) and talked to them rather openly and very frank. We have had small talks with them in the past, well-actually, I have had talks with them, but never have we sat them down and taken them through everything between a man and a woman before. We threw body part words at them, which they kinda knew already due to our talks, but we explained to them exactly what takes place during sex and making a baby.

I picked up this great book to help me prepare and then sprung it on the hubs that he was gonna sit down with me and the two older girls. Needless to say, he was less than excited. I have been meaning to do this for awhile, but life's been a tad bit crazy around here. The book recommends talking with them at age 8, which we have had talks before, just nothing quite so BIG before. We let them in on the amazing, wonderful, awesome, "secret." We also told Laney she would get to know the "secret" this year on her birthday. She's rather excited. I totally love building the "secret" up just like the book recommends, because sex is not dirty, weird, or embarrassing. It is extremely wonderful, awesome, and intense. I want our children to know and feel like they can come to us and ask us "anything." I didn't have an open relationship growing up with my folks, but I sure want my kids to have that with the hubs and I.

We were both kind of nervous to have this talk, but it actually was a lot easier than either one of us thought it would be. We stressed to them a lot on NOT doing anything until they are married, but we felt they needed to know about all the facts about sex-the why, how, who, when, and most importantly God's plan for the power a man and woman have when they come together. There were lots of questions, more from Kaleigh than Alexis(which I expected, due to Alexis's quiet-in-her-head personality), but both girls felt informed, and like they could talk/ask us anything. Mission accomplished in my book. It's a crazy world out there and we want our kids armed with everything possible so they can make the right decisions and not be left in the dark. We also feel that opening up to them and having frank discussions a lot will help them stay on the right path. We know there will be bumps and mistakes along the way, but we stressed to our girls making this mistake-having sex of any kind before marriage, is one we hope and pray they do not make. They understood and no one squirmed or felt uncomfortable which was very nice. I highly recommend reading this book. It helped me gather my thoughts and organize exactly what/how I wanted to say things. My hardest part was actually using the right terms for the parts of the body-I'm still working on this, but by the time it's little Miss Bella's turn, I'll be a pro.

Sobering Day for me today

2011-02-16T15:48:00.002-07:00

12 WEEKS

Today would have been 12 weeks now, but again for the second time, tis not to be. Here's to trying again down the road, maybe.

Another peek inside of me

2011-01-31T09:46:00.002-07:00

So, everyone has tough times in their lives, I know this. But when it's your turn for a tough time you feel as though no one has ever felt the pain you do. I am here in this hole and it was only after looking at the hub's eyes and actually hearing his words that I'm able to put our life back in the right perspective. You see, I cry, A LOT, these days and the poor hubs try as he might, has not been able to help me stop. It's a roaring rollercoaster here and I really wanted off, but didn't know how to get off, until I looked into the hubs ever-loving, concerning, worried eyes this morning. He told me to remember before things get too bad that there are others to talk to. I told him I would NEVER, EVER doing anything harmful to myself or anyone else, I know what awfulness that would bring from past personal experiences. I would always be here for my family and kiddos. To which he clearly, and very profoundly stated, "you need to be more than just "here" though." A wise man I married, I tell you. I sat with those words for a bit and thought about the harm I was doing without even knowing it. I need to be more than just "here." I need to be present and alive. I don't like my circumstance I'm in, but only time and God can heal my wounds and let me move on happily. Eventhough the hubs doesn't believe EVERYTHING happens for a reason, I do, and I need to put my trust in God's hands and believe He does NOT have it in for me. Oh me of little faith, I know. I feel I am letting myself down and my faith has been shaken quite a bit over the past few months, but I'm still learning day by day how to strengthen my faith and not let it quiver. Not having gone to church my whole life, the trust and faith with God has gotten built up slower than most LDS people, but I'm working on it. God does love me and sometimes(even a lot more for some), bad things just happen to good people. It's a jungle and a trial, this so-called life, but sometimes, it's the GRANDEST time! I have a lot of great things in my life, but in the throws of despair, I forget a lot of the best things I have. I'm glad I have the hubs to pull me up when I'm down, and remind me all is not lost and this too, shall pass. He's the best friend a girl could ever have, and I'm glad he chose me to spend all eternity with. When he's down, I pick him up, when I'm down, he's right there to help me up. We work as a team, and it's the best feeling in the world! We've been through a lot together, and I'm sure there will be more hard times along the way, but as long as we've got eachother and remember we have God on our side too(I need to remember this more than he does)we can enjoy our ride on the up/down rollercoaster of life. God is good. God is love. God is Grand!

Alexis's Christmas Program

2011-01-28T20:55:00.003-07:00

This year the 6th grade put on a program for Christmas. They did a cultural spin on it to fit the district's "no Christmas celebrations" guidelines. She picked an ancestor to feature and made a wooden doll for the "Festival of Trees" project. She picked my great-great grandma Pauline who was Polish. She did FABULOUS! The classes also sang a bunch of songs and then served us cookies and juice. They also talked about their own tree projects. They all had to pick a word and do special things for someone that went along with that word. She picked the word "useful" and picked me do serve for 2 weeks. It was suppose to be secret, but I kinda knew already. She makes me very proud and she has grown into a wonderful, caring, helpful, smart girl. I can't believe sometimes that she is my kid, she is SO good. Just look at how grown up she looks.
Here she is telling us all about her ancestor. My pics didn't turn out well because I was wrestling Noah and Bella.

Here she is during her program. I love going to school programs and this one was definitely one not to be missed. So glad I went and saw her in her last program of her elementary career.

Catch Up!

2011-01-28T20:05:00.005-07:00

Day 24

Activity

Tradition as follows, mom bakes cookies the night of the 23rd and as a family we decorate them the morning of the 24th for Santa's arrival. The kiddos have grown up doing this and about the 2nd day of December they started counting down the days until this activity was upon us. It wasn't a surprise for the kiddos when Alexis pulled down the sock and it said activity. They all shouted, "Cookie Day!"

Kaleigh showing off her frosting covered fingers.

Some of the finished masterpieces.

Day 23

Present

The kiddos opened up a new book. It's frosty the snowman and when you open it, it plays the song. We were constantly hearing it due to Mr. Noah's love of that song.

Day 22

It was an activity. We delivered our neighbor gifts that we made the day before.

Day 21

We made our neighbor gifts, and I forgot to take pics. We made chocolate popcorn munch-popcorn, toffee bits, and green/red m&ms. We made a cute tag with the hub's tagline, "Seasons Eatings," and bagged them up. The kiddos love being in the kitchen, they must be mine!

Day 20

Activity

It was the hub's and my anniversary, so in stepped grandpa to get pizza and a movie for the kiddos. I love when my work is done for me. And the kids love pizza and a movie night!

Day 19

Activity

We had a family party with the hub's family. The kids ate, laughed, and performed to their hearts' extent! Fun was had by all!

Day 18

Activity

My dad took us all out for a movie. We don't all go out to the movies very often, so this was a real treat. I was afraid the kiddos would be bored by the movie(they had never seen/heard of yogi bear), but they were laughing and loving the entire movie. Kuddos to grandpa for picking another winner!

Day 17

Present

The kids got a new book for Christmas, Jingle Bells, which plays when you open it. These kiddos LOVE their books, hence why we have boxes of books because we have no more space in our 6 bookcases!

Day 16

Activity

We saw the 3 older girls in their play, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It was a blast and we loved it!

Day 15

Present

We gave the kiddos Toy Story 3 on Bluray. Man, is bluray ever so clear. It is so sharp and bright. They were really happy to get this. They had been begging us to get it ever since it came out, but we told them we couldn't because we didn't have any extra moola to buy it. Little did they know, mom scored with a sale and coupon! How sweet it was!

Day 14

Present

The kiddos got a new game, and although it's advertised as a little kiddo game, all the kiddos had a blast, including this one. Scatterpillar Scramble is HIlarious! It's a challenge even for me, but oh so much fun.

Day 13

Activity

We finally got to go see Santa, and even better, NO WAIT! The kiddos got to sit right on his lap, mom got to take as many pics with her own camera as she wanted, and Bella didn't cry at the sight of the Jolly Ol' Elf! Good times and the kiddos walked away with a fun new book. Gotta love Fashion Place Mall for leaving Santa alone and not demanding to make a buck off of him.

Don't they all look so HAPPY! They all enjoyed this last year's advent calendar and so did we. They all kept telling their friends and their church leaders and now some of our neighbors are wanting to do this fun way of counting down the days too. If you're not having fun along the journey, what is the point of the destination, right? And man, are we ever having fun along our Hansen Family journey!

A New Year and New Luck!

2011-01-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

Another year has started and man am I glad it began with GREAT, WONDERFUL news! The end of 2010 was a rough one for me personally and for our family. A lot of bad things happened and then more bad things happened. Many do not know the bad, the ugly, and the horrible because the hubs and I just don't share what's going on in our lives. We've kind have been like that our whole marriage, but not now. I'm spilling the beans, mainly 'cause I'm SO glad it all worked out for the good. My life has flashed before my eyes and I've come out of it with a new determination to NEVER sweat the small stuff and ALWAYS enjoy the here and now. Not that I didn't try really hard before, I just have a new viewpoint now.
    Let me back you up. I really thought I was done having kids, but my inner soul kept bugging me about one more. I know, you would think 7 is enough for anyone, but I guess not me. Well in strolls September's events. We lost the hub's grandma and so we had the whole family in town for the funeral. Perfect timing for a family photo. The hub's and I had a suspicion I might be with child, so we laughed at how every time we take a family photo, there's a bun in the oven-making the family photo all ready null and void. Fast forward to a week later and said bun-in-the-oven no more. I lost what we now refer to as the maybe-baby while on a family getaway to our family's cabin. I wasn't sure at the time it was really a MC(can't even type the word), but after many months of problems we now know it was. This event however, wasn't even the worse of the last 3 months. Moving on to what I like to call a little Too Much Info for some.
   The problem with being on a family getaway is you don't want to end the fun, or at least I didn't, so suffering silent is what I did and after about 10 days of pain it finally stopped-so no doctor did I see(looking back, SO wish I had). This is what started the ever so stress, worry, and life scaring events for me. I wasn't the same after this(luckily I am now), at least my body wasn't. I was having problems emotionally, physically, and mentally. Finally after a few weeks I was able to see my doc, only to be put on an emotional rollercoaster. They wanted to test me for everything from cysts to the ever dreaded... CANCER! We really don't like that word, but with my symptoms and family history, they really, really thought it was. I was a nervous wreck waiting for the results. The hubs and I would talk, but he didn't want to hear it. One night he got really upset and asked if I would stop wondering how/what we would tell the kiddos. My life of only 33 years was quickly flashing before me and I couldn't get out of the what if I do have cancer, what will my kiddos do, what will we do, what will the hubs do? It was a place I never want to visit again. While all this was going on with me, I also had to deal with my dad's results for his heart test as well. I was scared to think of losing him too. It will kill the kiddos to lose their grandpa, he's too young. My dad was a little bit of a wreck too, he had never been sick in all his 57 years, so this was a new thing for him. He didn't like the prospect of having to go under for heart surgery just as much as I didn't like it. I felt overwhelmed, neurotic, angry, and just plain old TIRED! On top of all this, the holiday season was upon us and the last thing I wanted to do was put on a happy face and celebrate, but that's exactly what I did. Finally, by the end of December we had some news, but it went from o.k. to NOT, very quickly. I didn't have any cysts, blood work was o.k., but was told symptoms are not and I needed a few more ultrasounds and scans. So, in I went and finally had an answer the first week of January. Heed this advice from someone who learned the hard way... if you think you have suffered a MC and your body starts to act funny, get in to a doc ASAP! My GREAT news that I received was I all clear, not even a spec of precancer cells anywhere. Just a body that should have been cleaned up after the MC and since it wasn't, I had an infection and it was messing up with my natural hormones causing all the confusion and pain. And on top of that GREAT news, my dad's heart is finally healing with the new meds they gave him and so it looks like he might stay out of the operating room. They are giving him another check-up in 6 weeks, but the doc is very optimistic that it will heal 100% by then. I mean in a little less than 2 months it went from 29% pumping to now 42% pumping. Let's just say I'm crossing my fingers, hoping and praying that the meds do indeed fix it all the way. I'm very thankful we have the medical advances we do today. I hated the thought of my dad in surgery and I'm glad I don't have to think about it for the time being. I'm also glad it is a new year with a new chance of great things to come.
   I know, a long story, but it explains why my blog/journal is a month behind. Hopefully I'll get it caught up over the weekend.

Advent Calendar and cute Bella!

2010-12-12T20:06:00.009-07:00

This lit'l gal is growing SO fast! I can't catch my breath!

She had her 18 month check up and man, she shot up through the roof on her height. She is now in the 80th percentile and still 48th percentile in weight. She's growin' like a weed, but doesn't she look so cute in her Christmas dress.

She loves this little Santa ornament. She gets it out everyday and plays with it. So cute!

We also started our family countdown to Christmas. Last year we started doing 12 days of activities and 12 days of family presents. It worked out so well, I thought I'd continue it so here's what we've done so far. I'm gonna do it backwards because I'm a tad bit behind in my blogging.

Day 12- Present
This is what they got...

Day 11-Present, they got Pictureka Flipper and had a blast! My camera was down so no pics of them playing it, but they had fun searching all over for the items.

Day 10- Present

This is a huge floor book that's just like the Where's Waldo books, only it's where's Santa?

Day 9-Activity

We went down to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point and we met some new friends!

Oohing and ahhing over our new friends

Bella screaming and pointing, and at one point trying to climb out of daddy's arms to touch this...

An adorable reindeer all nestled in hay. It was so cute and so fun to see the kids so excited to see some of Santa's reindeer.

One of the light displays Logan yelled at because it was an elf fixing a house. He's very excited about Christmas and just loves the elves.

Day 8-Present

Christmas t-shirts that everyone just loved. So much that they had to wear them right then eventhough it was almost bedtime.

Day 7-Activity

We went and did our annual trip to Christmas Street, Bible Street and the Christmas Utah house in Murray. The kids had a blast and there was much laughter and cheer had all around.

Day 6-Present

We got the kids a new Wii game and they love it! It's just like the ride at Disneyland and now they can hardly wait to go and check out the ride. The great thing about this game is that EVERYONE can play it, even Noah and yes, sometimes Bella too!

Day 5-Activity

We made some ornaments. We did some fun paint ones and the artist of the family really enjoyed herself.

Kaleigh chose the colors of Tinkerbell and it actually does remind me of that cute lit'l pixie.

Here are all 8 of them done and we all had fun. We also made some memory ones with everyone's initials on them. We then each wrote 5 things we liked about this year and placed the strips of paper inside the ornaments. I thought it would be nice for the kids when they are older to open them and see what they wrote about the year 2010.

Day 4-Present

We added a new family game, Sorry Sliders. It is so much fun. The hubs and I played it that night with the two older girls and we were laughing the whole time as we each knocked eachother's pieces out of the scoring rings. Good times!

Day 3-Present

The kids got a new tent with a tunnel. They all love playing in it and they can all sit inside and play a game together. I really like items that all the kids can use at the same time. It cuts out all the fighting and we can have a fun time without the screams and tears.

Day 2-Activity

We made friend presents and Bella screamed until we finally gave her one. They are snowmen on sticks. They turned out really cute and it was an easy thing for the kids to make their friends. They got to take them to school and hand them out. They all loved helping in the kitchen. I think I might need a bigger kitchen to let us all have more room when we are all in there.

Here's Alexis trying her hand at dipping her snowman. She had a hard time at first, but once I showed her how to hold it at an angle, it was a piece of cake-or marshmallow if you will.

I made some for the younger ones to eat right then because they were drooling at the bits. I mean, who wouldn't, when there's chocolate, marshmallow and candy around.

Logan could hardly wait to eat his. He almost couldn't wait while I was trying to take a picture of him. I just love those gorgeous, big green eyes!

Here's what they all looked like when we packaged them all up. These ones were Kaleigh's. She liked the Christmas colors and went for that color scheme on all her snowmen.

Day 1-Present

The kids could hardly wait to open a present. Noah was singing and dancing until he realized that the presents weren't under the tree, they were over on the other side of the room.

And this is what the kids got to kick off our countdown-Gator Golf! They played all day and night, even Bella was whacking the golf balls all over the place. She thinks that she is one of the big kids.

All and all, we've had fun so far with our countdown and can hardly wait to finish it up. We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

More crafts!

2010-12-12T19:28:00.004-07:00

So, I've been a busy lit'l bee trying to get family presents done, baking, and our advent calendar has been going on too. I decided to make each kid their own personal present this year and when you have 6 of them, it takes a lot of careful planning-especially when they are home the whole month. I decided on an art display board for Alexis since she is all about the art. She always ask me where she can hang her new drawings and now she'll have a place. I just got a piece of molding and spray painted it black and did her favorite colors for the giant clothespins. I spray painted them blue and green and then modge podged scrapbook paper on top of them.
She can now hang it in her room and display all her drawings anytime she wants-at least when she gets it for Christmas.

I also made photo holders for her with the same scrapbook paper. I again spray painted wooden spools black and then added the paper.

I made cute little spirals out of wire and hot glued them to a wad of paper and stuck them in the top of the spool and voila...

Cute photo holders for my baby-well, she's not much of a baby anymore.

After almost 4 1/2 years of searching, I finally found an entry table that I'm in love with. It was on sale and in the exact color and size I needed/wanted. So, of course I needed to make some cute decorations to display on it. I'm in love with vinyl right now, so I made some cute glass blocks with a nativity scene on them. I also made some $store hurricane candle holders. I just bought a piece of glass and a candlestick and then glued them together and voila...

cute new decoration! This one is on our table in the dining room/craft room.

Here's the one I placed on my new entryway table. I can change them out for each holiday/season.

I stumbled upon this 3 pack of frames in the $ spot at target and thought I could do something with them and here it is. I just took some scrapbook paper and some chip letters I had and instant decoration. I can change it with EEK/BOO for Halloween too. Love multi-purpose decorations!

This one kinda got rushed, but I still like it. I just modge podged scrapbook paper on an old canvas I had laying around, put the believe letters on it, and sprayed it with glitter(the picture doesn't do it justice, it's quite sparkly).

So these are just a few of the projects I've done this past week. I also finished up all the in-law presents, but I can't post them, just in case they still read this blog.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

2010-12-04T20:52:00.005-07:00

Here she is lovin' on the Christmas trees. She is just so cute! I love this age at Christmas time. She gets all into the lights, the trees, the sounds, the smells! Ooh, I just love my kiddos.We have a tradition of trimming the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. And on Thanksgiving, we give the kids a small present-a new ornament for their tree. I like to take a picture of the kids holding their ornament and one of them placing it on the tree. We start the trimming with the new ornament first.
Here's Bella with her fluffy penguin. We got this one for her because she just LOVES cuddly things.

She wasn't very happy putting it on the tree. In fact she cried until we let her have it back. At least until she saw the other kids putting their ornaments on the tree. Then she was okay with it on the tree. She loves coming in to see the tree with all the ornaments on it all lit up. She squeals in delight EVERY time!

Noah, very happy that he got a train ornament this year. This cutie and his trains. Oh my!

We needed to help him put it up high-out of reach of Bella. You can always tell when we have a walking baby in the house, the ornaments start about 3 feet off the bottom of the tree.

Logan got a backpack this year and it's green-his "FAVORITEST" color of all time. He is SO excited to go to school next year and this is to remind us of that. We have been having "mommy school" and he loves it. I'm in trouble though, 'cause I have another smarty in my midst. I still need to put his picture in his ornament-we're having a hard time picking one(Logan mainly).

Laney got a barbie ornament and simply loves it! Her and Barbies are BEST FRIENDS!

Kaleigh got a performing Hannah Montana ornament. It fits her so well, after all she loves the dramatics and performing!

Alexis has an artist ornament. Fitting that it is about drawing and this year she won in Visual Arts. I think I'm pretty good with the ornaments, I picked them out last year after Christmas for this year's ornaments. Not bad, if I say so myself. Yep, there I go again, tootin' my own horn. Don't hate me 'cause I'm awesome and all! :)

Once everyone put their ornaments on the tree, we stood back, and the hubs and I realized...

we just might have to get a bigger tree soon. The thing is packed and we still have a few more years before any children will be leaving/moving out. I guess that's what happens when you have ornaments for 7 kids-yes, we do still get one for Christian every year. The hubs and I will be keeping his always and forever. I am proud and love having that many ornaments on our family tree, even if we do have to get a bigger tree soon.

New Crafts and improvising!

2010-12-04T19:57:00.004-07:00

This fall I wanted some new decorations, but with the times I couldn't spend much money, so enter my improvising and the Dollar Store. I made this cute swag with some berry garland I already had and glitter foam leaves from my scrapbook supplies and chipboard letters hot glued to the leaves spelling out GIVE THANKS! I loved it, the picture doesn't due it justice though. I also made some wreaths for our bar stools. Again my supplies came from the dollar store and with a coupon and half-off deal at Roberts. I got the wreath forms from the $ store, and some big buckets of silk leaves that only cost me $3. I also scored some fall floral picks for only $2 for all 6 wreaths I made.
All 6 wreaths for under $20. Score, and now I have new wreaths for years to come.
I love making my own stuff. I just can't buy anything now, at least it takes a lot to get me to BUY decorations. I keep seeing stuff, looking at the price tag, rolling my eyes with "I can SO make that for cheaper" look, and then end up not buying anything but supplies to make something similar-but ending up with a way cuter decoration.

I also made Bella a Thanksgiving shirt this year. I was quite proud of myself. I am in LOVE with Heat N Bond and making my kids' shirts cuter. I can't wait to show them their Christmas shirts.

And here she is showing off her shirt and having some fun with lit'l trees just her size. Can you see the trees off to the side. They are my pride and joy this season :) ! Just kidding, but for reals, I'm quite proud of my porch trees. I have wanted 2 porch trees since... FOREVER! I just think it would be so cute to have a tree on each side of the front door on the porch. I was gonna buy some way back when, BUT... when I found out that they were like $40-$50 each(for the really nice, fluffy/full ones)I decided that was WAY too rich for my blood. So, I put it out of my mind-yeah right, well at least I thought down the road I could buy them. In enters a BRILLIANT idea- I could try and make some. So, I set off to tackle them and here's how I did it...

Bought some planters at half off, filled with some sand(so as no wind blowing over would happen), used our old tomato cages as the structure/shape of the tree, and bought some rope garland at Home Depot(75 ft for only $5). I just place the tomato cage over the planter and began wrapping my garland around it.

This is where I had to add another rope garland.

My two trees almost done, aren't they cute? I think they are WAY cuter than store bought porch trees. Now on to the last step for my cutie patootie porch trees.

Wrapping my extra strands of clear lights around them. GORGEOUS, I tell you! And Bella just couldn't stop oohing and ahhing over them. They were just her size and she loves them! I had a lot on hand, and in the end, these two beauties only cost $12 a piece. Not bad, if I do say so myself! Don't you just love when the picture you have in your head of a project outcome actually works out in the end. I LOVE it!

Here's another lit'l decoration/craft/gift you can do. We made these for the family and Eric's side as well this year. You just take 2 candy canes and wrap them with yarn around the middle. We glued on eyes and a nose, and VOILA...

Christmas reindeer! So simple, yet SO cute!

And since I made wreaths for Fall, I needed to make some for Christmas. I decided one day walking in the craft store that I really wanted to do something with bells. I have seen these bell wreaths all over the place, but holy-moly, are they ever SO expensive! Well I'm cheap, not really, but my money ALWAYS goes to the kids, so enter my need to CRAFT! I purchased 3 buckets of bells(again, half off) and went to crafting. I made a wreath shape out of some heavy duty wire I had and strung on two bells of the same color until my wreath was full. I tied a bow at the bottom with some wire ribbon I had in my stash, hung them on the bar seats again and just LOOK....

B-E-A-U-T-I- FUL!!! I love these even more than the fall ones. Every time the kids sit up at the bar they all ring the bells. I love hearing jingly bells! I made 4 of these and it only cost me $10 for all of them. I couldn't even get ONE of the store bought ones for that price, so call me Mrs. Happy!

My last new craft from this past week was another improvising decoration. Since the hubs and I moved into our first house we have had a kid tree and a nice tree. My nice tree was gold, glittery, and white. While the kids' tree had all their ornaments and mine and the hubs' on it. Then when Christian got sick a tree was done in his honor for the Festival of trees. The hubs' parents bought it and the hubs brought it home(kinda sneakily)from them and put it up in Christian's room-where it remained until he passed away. Well now, we just do the kids' tree and Christian's Peter Pan tree. I have had all the decorations from my pretty tree just sitting in a box in the storage room for the past 5 years. What a waste I thought, so I repurposed some of the ornaments into this...

A pretty ornament ball wreath. Again though, the picture doesn't do it justice. I didn't even have to spend a dime on this decoration, because I had everything already. Don't ya just love repurposing, I know I sure do!

So this is why I haven't kept up with my journaling lately. I've been busy CRAFTIN' my patootie off. I've also done a lot of other projects, but I can't post anything quite yet, 'cause they are all gifts for people that just might read this. Although, I don't think many read my rantings anymore, but that's okay. I do it for myself. It's like journaling and scrapbooking all rolled into one thing. I can't wait to publish my blog/journal into a book. It's the new way to keeping a journal. I just love it! Well, here's to wishing and hoping a very Merry Holiday Season to all!

Time to play Catch Up!

2010-12-04T19:44:00.004-07:00

Our oldest has done it again! Miss Alexis won the Reflections contest this year at her school. She entered in her favorite category, Visual Arts, and came up with a storyline for her running comics she does. She has made up these characters, The Squins, and makes up very cute stories and pictures with them. She won this category out of her whole grade. Her entry has now moved onto the council level and we are waiting to hear how that goes. She was quite surprised and happy this day. She loves her medal and it has her name engraved on it.Here she is in front of her entry(btw, I just love those cute lit'l doggies too).
Holding up her medal with a little annoyance that I kept taking pictures(yep, I guess she's at that age where mom with the camera makes her annoyed). She wore this medal ALL day and so did NOT want to take it off, even at bedtime. She was really happy she won this year, because she won Principal's choice when she started elementary school and now she has won again in her last year of elementary school-her words, not mine.

Poor Kaleigh was so sad she didn't win. She was crying that she didn't win, but she was still very happy for her sister. It's hard being the younger sister. Alexis keeps shining and Kaleigh wants to be just like her. Kaleigh submitted a poem and we liked it a lot. She just has a hard time when she doesn't get the awards too. We did, however take them out that night to get their free frozen yogurt that all 3 girls got for entering the Reflections contest-so in the end, they were all happy. Laney submitted a cute picture of her school and playground, but she left so quickly after the assembly that I didn't get a picture of her.

Exciting News!

2010-12-03T11:26:00.002-07:00

New gene for childhood cancer neuroblastoma is discovered
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2...

I'm so excited for this. They are finally getting closer to being able to actually fight Neuroblastoma and make it go away. There's still a long way to go, but we're finally one step closer! YAY!!!!

I want to Win!!

2010-12-02T13:49:00.002-07:00

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?
I really want Eric to find his passion in his work again or a new job to give him his passion back. It would make us all happy.
2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition?
We have all our kids come down the stairs from youngest to oldest one at a time to see the tree and what Santa has brought us.
3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?
I would ask for an all paid trip to Italy for 2 weeks spending it in a villa.
4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?
We do a lot of activites and pack up a box of food for the food bank and deliver it.
5. What games did you play with your family growing up?
We played a lot of card games and when I was older my grandma taught me how to play poker(with play chips of course).
6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?
I make cookies for all of us to decorate on the morning of Christmas Eve.
7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip?
I would love to take the family to Disneyland or New York City.
8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?
Donkey Kong Country Returns, DSi for Kaleigh, Laney, and myself, and the Wii Fit with balance board.

I know giveaways are hard to win, but I thought I would toss my hat in and I think you should too. Who knows, YOU just might win!

Another New Freebie!

2010-11-23T14:51:00.004-07:00

Okay, so I gotta give a shout out to Shutterfly and their amazing promo they have going on right now. I love, love, love doing Christmas cards and they have some of the cutest ones. Check them out http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards. Well because times have been thin this year I thought the cards were going to get the boot, which would be so sad due to we are having our family pictures taken this year. It's the first time since Christian was with us. We just haven't had it in us to update our family pic, but it's about time now with our 3 new family members, so it would just be down-right awful if I couldn't send out cards. Enter Shutterfly! By doing this little shout out they have offered me up 50 free cards and if you check them out you can see if you get 50 free cards too! How awesome, and Merry "early" Christmas!

Day 23

2010-11-23T13:11:00.002-07:00

Today I'm grateful for the medical world. I'm thankful for the modern advances in medicine and that I can just drive a few minutes to get to a hospital. Thinking of all the people in the olden days who died from illnesses because of the lack of medical advances is sad and makes me glad that we have what we do. I'm thankful for all the hard work researchers do to make our lives healthier and longer and for the research to save children when they need saving.

Day 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22

2010-11-22T08:54:00.002-07:00

I have gotten a little behind again(much ado has been happening around these parts of the woods) so I'm combining all these days into one HUGE thing. I'm very grateful for my children. I'm grateful for their smiles, laughs, tears, anger moments, bad moments, misunderstandings, love, but most of all- I'm grateful that I have them. I have been in a state of turmoil over losing babies, a son, and now the possibility of ever having that one last baby my heart aches for. I should be grateful that my house is filled with the six children I have, but alas, my heart has been aching for more and I have spit on what I do have(really not intending to, but kind of what happened). I want to be able to be happy with what I have, I need to be happy, but it's a hard thing to do when your heart and mind are playing tug-of-war against one another. So, a new day, a new chance to be ever so grateful and love all that I DO HAVE! So, this is my blessing for these days and I vow to remember it and cherish all my children and pray for their continued health and happiness. Giving thanks and praise always to the Man upstairs for all that He has blessed me with.

Day 17

2010-11-18T08:43:00.003-07:00

I'm very grateful for nap time! I know it's a silly thing to be grateful for, but one that is needed a lot everyday. I love my kids, but they can be a handful sometimes and this blessed time of the day known as nap time, gives me the recharge I need. I get to sit and either craft, blog, or catch up on house duties that I have fallen behind on while playing with my children. I love this time also because of the quiet it brings. When all the children are sleeping and nothing is on or making noise in the house, it is SO peaceful. I get a lot of thinking done during these times and it is great! I love to just sit in a quiet space and hear myself think and appreciate all that I do have. It helps me put life into perspective in a very deep way.

I also love that I get time to browse other blogs and get inspired to make something or try something new, like making the homemade baby wipes. I've also tried out making my own dryer sheets, and let me just tell you, they work like a charm. You just cut 3 sponges in half and put them in a container and pour some fabric softener in and let them soak. Every time you need a dryer sheet, pull a sponge out and ring it out and throw it in the dryer with your clothes. You then put it back in the container when your load is done. Reduce Reuse Recycle baby, that's what it's all about. It may be a small thing, but I feel I'm doing my part and saving some cash at the same time. This is what my glorious nap time lets me do. I love it and will miss it when it's gone, because, oh yes, it will be gone soon. My babies are becoming not so baby anymore and nap time is slowly drifting away. I will HATE it when that day comes! But for now, I am extremely grateful for it.

Day 15 & 16

2010-11-16T11:42:00.004-07:00

So again, I'm combining two days. I am very grateful for this one huge thing. I'm grateful for groups that are forming to bring about a new awareness to the world. I'm talking about the awareness for children suffering a horrible disease that they shouldn't- CANCER! No parent should ever have to hear the words "your child has cancer." It's horrible and I hope to never hear it again and hope that no one near me has to hear theses words. It shakes your world and changes you and your family forever, no matter what the outcome. Unfortunately, I'm sure this will happen due to the research for these type of cancers get little or no funding. I'm grateful for the groups of people, myself included, who have said "enough is enough, save our children." There's a great movement beginning to get more money for research and for, hopefully, cures so that our children do not have to suffer. I'm grateful that we as a group can be heard and as the awareness begins to grow we will be heard and hopefully our children will get what they so deserve-to live, healthy, long lives!

I put this video link on here asking for you to watch it. Let me warn you, it is a very difficult thing to watch, but I believe every person should see it. It brings the awareness of what families and children experience to light. God bless and hopefully we will cure our children sooner, rather than later.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI4h7u4yNC8

Day 13 & 14

2010-11-14T11:09:00.002-07:00

Today I'm combining two days of what I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for love. Not just the "swoop you off your feet and melt your heart" kind, but also for the sisterly/brotherly kind, the caring for someone who's sick, the love that you receive even when you don't deserve it kind, and the ability to love when you know it's "gonna hurt like heck in the end" kind of love. I'm sure we've all been broken-hearted by a loving relationship and we've all experienced the love from a family member or been cared for when sick. And I'm sure most of us have had the "swoop you off your feet and melt your heart" kind of love. And for all these things I'm grateful for. I'm glad I've been able to feel love, show love, and have love for others. I've seen or experienced very grumpy, sad, mad people in my life-and it makes me wonder if they have ever held love in their hearts or have received it. Love goes a long way and it's the best thing out there, even when you get hurt by it, it's still one of the best abilities we have. Even the quote, "it is better to have loved and lost, than to never have had loved at all," is so true. I will always choose love over not loving in every way I can. Yes, it does hurt sometimes, but it makes us stronger and grow into more considerate, loving individuals who learn to put others first. Love makes the world go round and today, I'm VERY grateful for it!

Day 12

2010-11-12T14:56:00.002-07:00

Today I'm grateful for talents! I love that Heavenly Father has given each of us special talents. I'm thankful for the opportunity to grow my talents and to teach my children to foster theirs. Today was a special day concerning talents. My lovely Alexis won the Award of Excellence for her school's Reflections contest. She was the only one in her age group that won. I'm so proud of her and glad that she is fostering her talent. She has many, as I'm sure most people do, and I'm glad she knows and loves them all. I enjoy practicing my talents and am thankful for the ability to do so.

Day 11

2010-11-11T09:45:00.002-07:00

Today I'm thankful for my dad, my FIL, and all the other men and women who have served this country and who are still serving. I have many family members who are/were veterans and it takes a lot of bravery to do what they do. I think many of us would not be here if it weren't for these honarable men and women, so my heart full of gratitude for their service goes out to them.

Nosy Neighbors

2010-11-10T16:05:00.002-07:00

Have you ever noticed that once someone gets married EVERYONE bugs the couple on when the babies will start? Then once the babies start EVERYONE again bugss the couple on when is enough, enough. I mean, c'mon, it's no ones business but the couple who are or who aren't bringing little lives into this world. Now this does not go out to anyone single person, it's just something I have noticed as of late. It's sad that we as a society think it's our business what a couple does with their procreation abilities. I have many friends and family suffering this fate at the moment, and I have suffered it in the past, and let me just tell you-it's no fun sir re bob! Let's remember to mind our p's and q's and not pester our neighbors. I did once with a dear friend who I hadn't seen in awhile and just asked her, "so when are you two gonna have a baby"(they got married 5 months before me and we had 2 kids already)not really meaning to bug her, just joshin' with her and the response made me feel bad for days. They HAD been trying with no luck. So, please do your dear friends/family/neighbors a favor and just don't ask.

A Little Late to the Thankful Party

2010-11-10T14:01:00.002-07:00

As I'm sitting here coughing up a storm and watching my voice disappear, it dawns on me that it's the 10th of November and I haven't been posting what I'm thankful for. You see, I had it all in my mind that I would post one thing that I'm thankful for everyday throughout the month. Well, busy mommy taking care of everyone who is sick, I forgot. So better late than never.

Day 1 Time I have with my dad

Day 2 The opportunity to vote and let my voice be heard

Day 3 My girls and the joy on their faces as they rehearse for a play

Day 4 My boys and Bella- being able to play with them all day

Day 5 School and the joy it brings to the kids when they love learning new things

Day 6 The changing seasons, it's miraculous!

Day 7 Daylight Savings Time- love when I get that "extra" hour

Day 8 The changing weather, I love when it's all rainy and I can be cozy with a blanket

Day 9 The hubs and his help with our sick little ones

Day 10 Being sick- It reminds me how I love being well and to try and stay healthy more.

So here's my list so far. I have a lot to be thankful for and reminded to think of all that I have. We all have our challenges and stresses, and although they might not be the same, we all need to remember to count our blessings even during the hard times. It's funny how I forget this so much. I dwell sometimes, okay a lot, on the things that I have lost(or the people) and it brings me so down. I hope to remember a little more at what I DO have and not grumble at what's been lost. I have a great many of blessings to be counting, so I should count them one by one.

New Photo Shoot with Bella

2010-11-06T17:06:00.003-06:00

I haven't done a photo shoot with Bella for awhile, and although we will be having family pictures taken in about 3 weeks, I wanted some with her with all of our leaves in our backyard. She's so adorable and easy to get pictures with. So, here's what she gave me..

She was loving all the birds and dogs that were out. Her facial expressions say it all! She wasn't so sure about sitting with the leaves at first, but then she liked playing with them. My favorite is posted to the side. Her daddy is smitten with her and swears she could/should be a baby model.

Showing some extra love for the hubs

2010-11-06T16:36:00.003-06:00

I decided I wanted to take a different approach to our date nights. I wanted to do some fun, eventful, dates, so every month I will take a little more time in planning our nights out.

We have usually just set up dinner and a movie, or dinner and chatting. Don't get me wrong, we love getting out, and we haven't been doing it much until late, but I wanted to show the hubs how much I love him with spending some time coming up with funny themes for our dates.

We had been talking about the "choose your own adventure books" with Alexis and we were sad that she had never heard of them before. An idea popped into my head for a theme for our date. I also thought it would be nice if we made it a double date with our friends Liz and Scott. It's nice that the hubs and Scott get along SO well. It's like they were cut from the same cloth.

Any who, here's the invite I gave him a week before our date night. To say the least, he was quite intrigued and excited.

I made up rhymes/clues to 5 different restaurants the boys both liked and they had to choose which one they wanted to go to. On our way there we had car tasks that everyone had to do. We did things like sing "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree" with exaggerated hand gestures , rock out to "talk radio", party and dance with blaring music until the light changes, etc. Then when we got to the restaurant we had restaurant tasks. Each of us chose one out of an envelope and had to complete it before dinner was over. We then had 5 rhymes/clues for our activity and the boys had to choose which one they wanted do. We ended the night with dessert at Sonic. We all had a blast and laughed all through the night.
This is what I gave the hubs for just lovin' him this month. I filled it with some of his favorite candies(which are gone now) and he was surprised when he came home and found it. I'm just glad he enjoys the little things I do for him and I need to remember that it was the two of us before our crazy bunch arrived. So here's to showing the hubs a little affection and appreciation.

An EXCITING Announcement!

2010-11-05T17:40:00.001-06:00

I have an exciting announcement concerning Alexis, but I can't spill the beans until the 12th!

So stay tuned.

I am SO, SO, SOOOO, proud of her!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-03T15:40:00.006-06:00

I just love the holidays! I can do so much with each and every one. We had our traditional Halloween spooky dinner before we left for our tricks and treats. I made bats and guts as our appetizer. The kids really get into my creepy names. Even when my dad asked for something if he didn't call it by its spooky name they didn't pass it to him. Haha, funny kids!
Then we have our bumps on a log with worms. Yummy!!!

Our bone breadsticks, again, those creepy worms kept crawling all over our food.

Edible eyeballs, yummy stuff.

Our table with our annual putrid punch. We actually lucked out and have had this drink twice this year-since Noah wanted it at his b-day party too.

And our main course, mummy pizzas. I like them this way better. They are on sliced french bread, and ooh, were they yummy.

The kittys from the bunch.

Miss A as a penguin. She was so loving her costume. I just can't decide which one I like best out of the four that I made.

Miss B as the cutest lit'l giraffe you ever laid eyes on. She worked this costume during the 3 days of celebrating.

Of course Noah had to be Thomas. He wouldn't let me make him any other costume, so he chose this one that we already had.

Logan decided to bring out his true nature and request a monkey costume. I loved seeing him in it. Too bad I didn't get a close up of his tail. He loved his tail and banana the most. His tail curls around and is furry.

And she's at it again, strike a pose Kaleigh. You go girl. She saw this sweat suit at target and fell in love. So did I, cause making her into a cheetah would be a piece of cake with this outfit. Now she can just wear the sweat suit all winter. Love when costumes do double duty.

Miss Laney Banes as her all-time favorite animal. Can you guess? I hope so, she's an elephant. I had a lot of fun making this one, and again her costume does double duty as well. All the costumes that I made do. They can now wear their outfits throughout winter. I either safety pinned parts or used elastic. All removable parts, love it!

Smiley Noah so happy to be at the girls' school parade.

Just another cute pic of Bella. She's so adorable!

My favorite group picture of the kids being silly right before we headed out into the rainy night. I love them all and as you can probably tell by this picture, they are a funny, fun-loving bunch of kids. Is it any wonder why I love them and being their mommy so much!

Arrgh Mateys! Birthdays are a coming!

2010-11-03T15:21:00.004-06:00

We had great plans for Laney and Logan's Birthdays. As it happens life laughed at us this day and happened while we were planning our plans. We were all set to go to Pirate Island for their birthday, all dressed in our pirate garb nonetheless, when out of nowhere I turned the key in our car and...

NOTHING!

The car was dead, the family car, and we couldn't even get it to jump start. So, on to new plans. Luckily I had a gift card to 5 Buck Pizza, so we still had our pizza and cake and just played some pirate games and watched a pirate movie.

The kids loved their pirate ship cake. Another very simple cake for mommy. I love when the cake that is requested is very simple to make.
I love that the cannons are the candles, so did Logan.

The front of the cake.

From the side view.

The kids with grandpa all ready to head off. Haha, little did we know, we were marooned.

Our whole family, poor Noah barely made it in the picture.

I just love these kiddos. Look at the excitement they possess. Although we had to stay at home, both kids still enjoyed their party. Hopefully next year's birthdays will go as planned. It definitely has been a bad year for birthday parties.

Decorating Pumpkins

2010-11-03T15:05:00.005-06:00

We have a family tradition of doing our pumpkins in the morning and then watching a movie with some popcorn. This year I was feeling more like a fall spin on the popcorn, so we made vanilla cinnamon popcorn. The BEST tasting stuff. It's very addictive, but oh so yummy!We have these parts to make a pumpkin face that we like to do just because I'm too scared to let the lit'l ones carve. Next year the older girls will carve with the hubs and me.
Kaleigh hard at work at creating her monster.

So proud!

Alexis laughing at her creation! Boo-tiful!

The hubs helped with Noah's. Those little parts take some umph putting in. So happy about his pumpkin monster.

Laney just loves to go cutesy. She's such a doll.

Logan's love of all things green and dogs got much representation with his pumpkin creation. We had a blast this year with our pumpkins and can't believe it's over already.

Old McDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-Pumpkins!

2010-11-03T14:43:00.002-06:00

Off to the farm we went in search of pumpkins and fall fun. We went to Wheeler Farm and had a fall-filled fun day. We all got to pick a pumpkin, go on a tractor ride, and wander through the corn maze. We fed some ducks too and then we were pooped from all our fun.Noah was done with the whole picture thing, so he gave up.
Logan was having tons of fun feeding all the ducks and geese.

Noah was trying to perfect his throw. He was trying to get his bread away from the geese and give it to the ducks.

Kaleigh wandering through the maze, stopping to strike a pose.

Bella not quite sure of what to think about all the corn in the maze. She starts out having fun because we are out and about, but then when she gets near something she doesn't know about she gets this grumpy look. Funny girl.

Princesses, Fall fun, and The Great Pumpkin, OH MY!

2010-11-03T14:03:00.004-06:00

Oh how I love fall. I love being able to get out the warm clothes and dressing this lit'l one up. Here she is doing her favorite thing, rumaging through my cupboards. Isn't she cute? I love this lit'l babe.We went to the Great Pumpkin Fall Festival at Farnsworth Farms in Sandy and had a blast. We ended the night there by watching The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown on the side of a truck. Bella enjoyed sitting on my lap playing with my sweatshirt strings.
She looks so angelic here.

This was her happy face right after she grabbed my drawstring to my sweatshirt.

The kids all sitting up on Snoopy's doghouse waiting for the movie to start. Cute kiddos. I love them to pieces. They all look so old now, though. Where has the time gone, oh yeah, out the window flying away.

I actually agreed to a photo with the kids. It's usually me taking the pics and the hubs with the kids. I think we're all kinda cute in this pic.

Miss Bell's wasn't quite sure about the tractor ride.

Noah was sure lovin' it though.

I love the look on Bella's face. She was not happy to be sitting on the hay, but then when Laney sat down too, she was really unhappy.

There was a playground set up for the kids there too. My kids are like bees to honey when it comes to swingsets. They stick to them like glue.

Noah all proud of himself for climbing up all by himself. Sheesh, the boy turns 3 and thinks he's all grown up. What's up with that?

Now this is what I call a boy teeter totter. I couldn't get the boys off this airplane. They were in pure heaven.

We also went to a fundraiser carnival with the hub's folks. It was raising money for a family who has 2 kids with the same terminal disease. Our hearts still go out to them and hope and pray for as much time possible with their little ones. The carnival had some people dressed up as Disney characters-which had my kiddos jumpin' out of their skin.

The girls were lovin' it. We saw a magic show, got our faces painted, had some snowcones and churros, and ended with me purchasing a magnet(a green one 'cause Logan said so)and having dinner at Arby's. The community was awesome at this carnival. Everyone donated everything, so anything that was purchased went straight to the family. How AWESOME!!!

And a shower for a new mommy

2010-11-03T13:43:00.003-06:00

Eric's cousin Candice was expecting her first baby in October, so our family of gals decided to throw her a shower. She now has her cutie patootie, Drew, in her arms. We all pitched in and I took decorations and desserts. My favorite things to do.Lovely gals chit-chatting in the front room.
I made a bunch of these pom poms in her colors she said she was doing in her babe's nursery. Her colors were black, turq, tangerine orange, and green.

Here's the cutie-baby bump and all- opening some gifts. I wish I looked this good with only 1 week to go. Man, I look this way like when I'm barely 2 months. Good genes, that whole family has them. None of them ever look that pregnant, then they bounce right back right after the baby is out. I need to take a lesson from all these gals.

I made some party favors using blow pops.

This was one of my favorite decorations. A diaper wreath. Candice got to keep all the decorations as gifts from the shower.

The dessert bar.

I made reese's quiches, baby booties with trail mix, and chocolate cookie dough cupcakes.

I also made some cute wrapped candy decors too. They are washcloths made to look like starlight mints.

I had fun making this lit'l guy too. It's a diaper baby, made entirely out of diapers then dressed in boy clothes(since baby Drew was coming soon).

Lollipop receiving blankets. I had fun making these too. I chose colored blankets that would go with her baby room. I love cuddling babies in blankets-you can never have too many. The shower was a lot of fun both during and the preparation for it. I love my crafting and when I have a purpose-such as a shower, it's even more fun.

All of the Hansens-well minus one!

2010-11-03T13:35:00.003-06:00

Before we got away we had a reason to all get together again...Eric's dear grandma passed away on September 15th. She was such a caring and loving grandma and always spoke so lovingly of our family. She loved each and everyone of our kids and was saddened at Christian's passing. She always spoke so highly of us as parents and we will miss her tons. I wasn't going to post this family pic, due to the fact some terrible events took place to me after, but that seems to always happen whenever we have a Hansen family pic. Just my luck I guess. We took this right after the funeral since everyone was in town. It's cute and shows how our family is growing. I'll always remember this day as a sad one, but know that we'll all be together again some day.

Dinosaur Park

2010-11-03T13:23:00.003-06:00

When the kids were off track in September they wanted to go up to the cabin, so off we went. We haven't been up there in some time, and we now wonder why. We had a blast with our bunch and my dad came along for the ride. We played games, went on walks, had tons of food and laughter and of course we had to visit the Dinosaur Park in Ogden.As you can tell, the kids love this place.
Here's one of my fav. pics. This bunch are very "dangerous creatures." Each and every one makes you want another "dangerous creature."

This one hated, and I mean H-A-T-E-D the sand. She was less than pleased that I set her down in the digging area.

And this cute fella had a blast the whole time. I love him and his smile so much!

He was mesmerized by the talking and moving dinosaurs. Screams were heard all the way outside when it was time to leave his "rarrs." We had a blast on our getaway weekend and can't wait to have another in a couple of months.

Our annual WITCHY adventure

2010-10-18T14:28:00.003-06:00

We LOVE Gardner Village at the holiday seasons. Every year we go for the witches and then the elves.

We have made it a tradition to take the kids picture all sitting across this ledge every year. It's nice to see how they have all grown and changed.

When we went they were playing 50s music over the loud speaker and the kids wanted to cut a rug. They were having so much giggly fun.
This was them twisting to "Twist and Shout."

We did our witch hunt and then we just started taking pictures of some funny witches.

Kaleigh and Laney really liked this one.

I really liked this one. We finished the day with our hunt prize, a chocolate chip cookie from the Bakery store. The kids had fun and so did we. We just love our annual trips.

Zoo with Grandpa Renga!

2010-10-18T13:59:00.006-06:00

Another majorly fun day out with the kids in September and my dad came along for the ride. This is my absolutely FAVORITE picture I got that day.

The kids just love my dad and it shows in this picture!

I was really hoping that the animals would be active this day and they did NOT disappoint!

I think this was one of our favorite days at the zoo. The animals were so ACTIVE and LIVELY and they were doing things we have never seen before.
We actually saw this guy come across the bridge overhead of us and walk straight into this bath of water. He was even growling for us, which the kids thought was the coolest thing. They have never heard the animals up close like this and this loudly. They were gigglin' so much and had a BLAST!
Of course we had to watch Baby Suri, and she was playing around with all kinds of toys, again, nothing we have seen before. It must have been the fact we were there right when the zoo opened and it is fall now.

These guys were chasing each other and wrestling one another. The boys got in the act and started play wrestling with each other too. They were makin' monkey sounds and everything.

Of course we can't go to the zoo and not see Kaleigh's FAVORITEST animal, the giraffes. These guys were so close to us and they were eating their mid-morning snack. We saw a lot of animals getting fed this day. We even saw some wolves being hand-fed raw meat. It was quite the show.

The tiger getting out of the water and roaring and growling at the kiddos. Here I thought they would be scared, but no, they were laughing and running along side him and everything.

Mama's feeding time!

We always get a picture of the kiddos on this statue every time we visit the zoo. My crazy bunch is getting so big!

We spent 10 minutes with this lit'l fella. He kept whistlin' at us and saying "I love you, and hell0." The kids were talking back and then he would start laughing. I've never seen one laugh and giggle before. It was so much fun.

Logan had to sit up on the rhino statue. He loved it!

I braved the stinky bird and reptile house, but as a reward, I got some gorgeous pictures of some pretty birds. This trip actually convinced me that we need our zoo membership renewed next year and we need to go more often in the early morning. We can't wait to visit the animals in the winter. Apparently this is when the animals are most active. I guess we'll just have to see.

Provo River Raft Fun

2010-10-18T13:47:00.003-06:00

Well, we have been quite the busy bees for the last couple of months and I'm trying to catch up with all the blog posts of all the activities we have done. In September when the kids were off track we chose to do a raft trip down the Provo River with the three older girls. Man, was it tough work. I think we needed more adult man-power, but it was a fun adventure. The girls got a huge eye-opener though and at first they weren't sure they liked our adventure, but when it was all done they said they had a blast.

Everyone paddling so we stayed on course, again, more adult man-power is recommended.
Laney loving the ride.

The gorgeous fall colors of the mountainside.

The girls all proud of themselves that we made it down the river. It was an enjoyable 3 hours of high sea fun, well at least high river fun!

Funny Lit'l Bella!

2010-10-18T13:42:00.003-06:00

Isn't she precious?

Bella just loves brushing her teeth. She loves it even more when we give her the toothbrush so she can do it herself.

I think she loves the way it feels against her gums and teeth that are coming in.
However, don't take the toothbrush away until she is ready or this is what you get...

Throwing My Hat into the Fire!

2010-10-11T09:09:00.003-06:00

Disclaimer: These are just my own feelings, please don't judge all "LDS" people on them.

So, I feel strongly about this last conference set of talks and not just the controversial one from Boyd K. Packer. I believe the world is thrashing at the sanctity of the family more and more these days. I feel it within my walls of my own home. I believe that the over all theme of this last conference was for us to remember to protect our families and strengthen them against the evil forces of the world. However, most people are outraged with Packer's talk and judge all LDS people as racist and hate mongers. I, however, did not get this feeling from his talk. I believe he was just trying to remind people about our God-given ability to procreate and we need to remember that this is the way God has set up our world. Packer, by no means, said or should anyone jump to the conclusion, that we hate the gay, lesbians, etc. We do not believe or feel that they are evil, or at least most do not. As in any case, there are some people-LDS or not who do feel hatred for all kinds of people. I feel like he was just trying to remind people of the doctrines concerning family. God created us and gave us the power to procreate and it is sacred between a man and a woman. I believe this whole-heartedly and always have and always will. I am a convert of 14 years now, but never have I felt so picked on in my life until now. I have friends that are gay, non-LDS, LDS, and straight, and all of them seem to hate what was "reminded" to all of us and therefore have a hard time accepting my view and think of me as close-minded. I do not understand how because of what/how I feel, I am now looked at as less of a friend. Before I converted I was friends with these same people and we got along and had fun. We were very friendly and laughed with each other all the time. Now, however, my whole world has gone topsy-turvy. I don't understand this. How is it that because I believe God's word(and yes, I do whole-heartedly KNOW that this is His word)I am less of a friend and I'm being judgemental and hateful. We do not feel hatred and evil of anyone. I have been feeling like a lone wolf for quite some time now, but now with this huge debate going on amongst all my friends, I really feel lost. I feel more lost when I wasn't LDS! I just want everyone to know, just because I feel the way I do about God's words does not mean we have to be in battle. We are all God's children and we are all loved. We all have our trials and temptations to overcome, does this mean we abandon one another when we need each other the most? I enjoy my friendships, each and every different one, but if I'm gonna be lashed out at by anyone, I will have to step away. I am the same person I have always been, and If you can't seem to see that, well then I'm sorry. It is time for us all to remember we are ALL different and that is okay. Just because we have diff. opinions or beliefs does not mean we shouldn't/can't be friends. I feel like the Fox and the Hound. Now that I'm all grown up, a lot of my "friends" think we can't be. I believe what I believe and you believe what you believe. It's okay. I love you all anyway and would hope you feel the same way for me.

For the love of October

2010-10-07T10:55:00.003-06:00

I wake up every morning and see this!

I made myself a calendar last year and this is October's page. These 2 little loves were born only 3 days apart in the same month(of course they are 2 years apart as well). This is my favorite pic of them. It's from last year's Witches at Gardner Village. They were giggling and dancing, and singing to the music that was playing and I snapped midway of them goofing with each other. I just love these two lit'l babes-however, they are not so little anymore.

Welcome October and Fall, I sure do love this time of year!

Homemade Baby Wipes- WONDERFUL!!!

2010-10-04T14:30:00.002-06:00

So as many of you know, I've been trying to save as much $$ as I can, and man have I stumbled upon a GREAT one!

I am making my own baby wipes and have been using them for a few weeks now and guess what... they work and better yet, I know exactly what's in them and what's going on my baby's bum.

Here's the details...

2 cups of water boiled then cooled down to room temp.

Mix in 1 Tablespoon of baby oil and 2 Tablespoons of baby wash or shampoo.

All you do is take a roll of paper towels and cut it in half making 2 rolls. Then pull the middle tube out of one and place in a tupperware bucket with a lid(I got a set of three snap lid rubbermaid ones at Walmart). Just pour your liquid mix over the paper towels and snap lid on and let sit for @ least 30 minutes. Then flip over and let the towels soak up the rest of the liquid. You can just leave them in the container, or fold them up and place them into an old wipe container(I've done both and they both work great). Basically you get 2 containers of wipes for a dollar(I get my paper towels at the dollar store or with a coupon at Walmart For $1 each). Not bad, considering one container cost around $2.50 and refills are over $5 for a 3 pack.

This is one of my new favs for saving some cool, hard $$$!

A Great lesson learned and one to remember

2010-09-28T18:48:00.001-06:00

Remembering to be and feel GRATEFUL!

2010-09-27T14:44:00.003-06:00

So, we went away for the weekend up to our family's cabin and had a fun time, but at the same time, I suffered and had an extremely hard time. I need to remember to be grateful for what I have and only allow myself small moments of sadness. In order to do this, I feel the need to write down my blessings...

My faith- even when it gets shaken up a bit

My loving Father in heaven

My Savior and all he suffered for me and His understanding of my pain I am feeling

My husband, who is trying his hardest at understanding and sympathizing

Alexis

Christian-even though he's gone now

Kaleigh

Laney

Logan

Noah

Bella

the unnamed babies we have lost

My dad-he's awesome and can lighten up any moment

All my family across the country

My in-law family

My ability to be able to stay at home with my children

Being alive and healthy

Knowing that as long as I try my hardest, I'm going to make it

My friends-always there to make me smile

The beauty of the changing seasons

Knowing when I fall, I'll be picked right back up

The loving hubs-he counts twice!

*Pictures of our fun coming soon.

I'm NOAH...the Pumpkin King!

2010-09-21T22:37:00.007-06:00

I can't believe my eyes, my little Noah Gabriel has turned another year older!I mean look at this adorable lit'l angel sleeping

and...
walking!

Well with another year older comes a special birthday for our lit'l guy. He ABSOLUTELY loves the Nightmare Before Christmas movie, so we threw him a "Jack" party! These are his invites to his party- a present for everyone.

with special info inside.

This was our entrance to our party. My dad took the boys out before the party so the hubs and I could decorate the house and keep it as a surprise for Mr. Noah. And boy, oh boy, did he just jump for joy. My dad said they didn't even pull into the driveway before Noah screamed, "Halloween Jack!" Noah has been singing "this is Halloween," from the movie every morning and afternoon when he wakes up. He also yells, "I'm Jack, the pumpkin king!" Funniest kid ever. He flipped out with his party. I forgot to get pictures of a lot of the decorations, but we basically used a lot of black and white crepe paper and balloons mixed in our Halloween decorations and some Christmas ones too.

"Zero" is by far my favorite decoration that I made. The kids love him and we are keeping him up until Halloween is over. He's hanging from our fan, so the kids just swing him around and he flies around our table. Bella loves him too and just screams and laughs in delight!

I made this Jack hanging for pin the "santy" hat on Jack. We lucked out and had most our family back in town, so we had a full house of kids to play the game. We have kept this hanging up too and every morning Noah says hi to Jack.

Noah's cake with worms in it. It was one of the simplest cakes I've done in awhile, but Noah loved it because Jack was on it.

I also made brownies with skeletons and bones in them. The kids all enjoyed eating the bone candy.

I made party hats for all the kids and any adult who wanted one. The treat bags were for our pinata fun we had at the end.

I found these cute spider lanterns at the $ store and thought they added a nice touch. I kept the food simple with sweet and sour meatballs for the adults and bat/bone pb & J sandwiches for the kids. We had finger dip and veggies, eyeballs, bread, and bubbly putrid punch with worm cubes. My kids loved the bubbly drink. I have never done dry ice before and they thought it was the coolest trick they had ever seen. Ah, the simple pleasures of life.

I picked up this little utensil holder at Ikea and was going to spray paint it black, but alas, I ran out of time, so I just decked it out to match the theme. I think it came out cute. We put forks in one side and knives in the other.

This was Noah lurking behind the couch debating on whether or not to play the "Jack" game. I made him the shirt he is wearing as well. He was so excited when he saw it and when he found out it was his to wear for the party, he just couldn't get it on fast enough.

Here is the pinata I made for the party. The kids loved that they got to hit the "oogy boogy man" until he broke. I decided to make one, because they are so simple and I just can't pay all that moola for a store bought pinata that is just going to get hit to pieces. For my first one ever, I think it turned out pretty good. And man, was it a strong pinata! It took quite the beating and only after I whacked it several times did it finally break!

Here's Noah taking a whack at it. We had this cute little orange "carrot" bat that the kids got for Easter. I added some black felt and turned it into a jack 'o lantern.

Mr. Noah being ever so patient at getting his loot from the pinata. Mad dash of kids kinda made him wary of getting near the loot, but grandpa helped him out. It was a fun party for our bunch and now I'm on to the next project-a baby shower. I love all the fun I get to have! I love making my kids' day. I hope they grow up knowing and feeling loved, because the hubs and I thoroughly love and enjoy each and every one of our kids. They make my world go round and I am very blessed to have them entrusted into my care. Happy Birthday my dear Noah Gabriel! I hope this 3rd year brings lot of love, joy, and happiness your way!

New Mantra

2010-09-09T16:08:00.002-06:00

God doesn't give us what we can't handle;

God helps us handle what we are given.

I am a child of God and He loves me and I put all my trust in him!

Kaleigh's 9th Birthday

2010-08-31T14:24:00.008-06:00

FUN IN THE SUMMER SUN!

Kaleigh's invitations for her party.

We put an otter pop in each one with this saying...

I'd OTTERly love it if you

could POP on by for some fun,

summer birthday fun.

She was so excited to be able to have a friend party this year and we came up with "summer fun in the sun," as our theme.

She loves being 9 and is having a blast!

We love her so much and we're glad she is a part of our family. She is so bubbly and can give smack like no other. She fits right in and really can dish it out just like her daddy.

I've been procrastinating this post because it turned out horrible for her and for me to see my 9 year old in tears sitting on our grass. She invited 7 of her good friends and she was excited to play all the games we came up with. We had a balloon catching game, silly string tag, tug-of-war over the filled kiddie pool, water sponge ball game, and of course her cake and cupcakes. It all came to a screaming halt about 20 minutes into her party time.

I hadn't received any RSVP's but just thought people just would show up. Insert my BIGGEST pet peeve-no one RSVPing whether coming or not. Well not one of her friends showed up. Picture that cute, bubbly girl, balling on the grass. Heart-breaking!!! We called up some cousins to see if they could quickly come over and a couple of neighborhood kids who weren't doing anything and our very upset lit'l girl was once again happy.

These were our party favors. I didn't want to just give trinkets that would break in about 5 minutes, nor did I want to give them a ton of candy. Insert the dollar tree, I found these cute beach buckets, bubbles, water, silly string, and chalk. I made 8 of them and the total worked out to be only $3 per kid. Not bad if I say so myself. Love that Dollar Tree store.
We added the leis at the last minute(I got them awhile ago at Walmart in the clearance section)and the candy was left over after making the cake and cupcakes. I fancied up the water and bubbles with some cute paper to tie into her theme. Each kid got to pick the colors of sponge strips to make their own sponge ball and then they got to take them home.

I love these little waters, perfect size for the kiddos.

The beachy, ocean cupcakes. Kaleigh loved them and so did all the kiddos.

I made a surfboard to serve the cupcakes on. I know the fin goes on the bottom, but K wanted a pic of herself on it. The birthday girl gets what she wants on her party day.

Here it is with all the cupcakes on it. The kids were thrilled to find out they each could have TWO!! Wanna make kids' day... give them more cake to eat. They'll love ya for it!!!

I like to make a little cake for the kids at their friend party. Kaleigh absolutely loves sharks, so I made this one for her especially. The cake was rainbow too, which she also loves.

It was windy outside, so the second we lit the candle it blew out. We sang "Happy Birthday" to her and she dug in and ate the shark right away.

Friends and Family enjoying their good eats.

We gave her our presents we had for her and she was over the moon when she saw them. I made 2 hair clips for her, one was a flower and the other one was a corker ribbon bow. I used them in place of a bow and it turned out really cute.

This is one outfit we gave her. It came with some guitar leggings and a skirt. She also got a new pair of pants and a bop it game. Alexis has one and Kaleigh has been wanting one ever since.

Here are the leggings that go with the shirt. She loves them and put them on first thing Monday morning. Glad I could make her happy and I was very glad we could find some friends and cousins to attend the party. I was afraid she was going to hate this birthday. In the end we found out that it just so happened that all her friends she had invited all had other family plans that day. It would have been nice if the parents had RSVPed, but oh well. I think however, if it ever happens again with another friend party I will not be doing them anymore. I just don't want to see my kiddos so upset again.

Craftin', Bakin', and Pluckin' the garden, make this woman VERY satisfied!

2010-08-27T10:32:00.007-06:00

I love being busy! And man, have I've been busy with tons of stuff and it's only getting busier for me and my bunch. You would think summer was our busy time, but nope, come August, we don't stop until the end of January. I guess that's what ya get when you have four birthday children within 2 months. Then we have the 3 major holidays and closely followed by the oldster's birthday(and it's a big one, she'll be 12 ya know-insert tears welling up). Anywho, I love creating new things out of old and trying my hand at new things. I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE finding treasures at the D.I. I found this lovely beauty... It used to be a cork message board, but the cork was all scratched(knifed up is what the hubs called it) and it had drawings and some sticky stuff on it. I saw its great potential and for only $8 it was a steal! It is really big and thick and I had to have it for our new craft room.

So began the transformation. I took it all apart so I could cover it with fabric and spray paint the frame. The frame was in really good condition, It just didn't match the decor in the room.
Here's the piece all covered and ribbon on it to make it my new message board. I love the birdie fabric. I love it because Bella says "birdie" everytime she sees it.
And here it is all done. We hung it up on the wall in the dining/new craft room. I love it and can't wait until the room is all done!

I also made up some stuff for Kaleigh's party. We were going for some summer water fun. What's better than buckets of water and throwing homemade sponge balls. This was so simple, but the kids LOVED it so much. I just went to the $ store and bought a pack of sponges.

You cut each sponge into 3 long strips

Then you stack 9 strips together and tie with twine and VOILA...a homemade sponge ball! I let the kids pick their colors so each one was unique and it was a craft project for them at the same time. I just did this one to show them how they would look.

I have also feel in love with the corker hairbows that we see everywhere. However, they start to add up when you have 3 girls who love hairstuff. These bows are sold in boutiques and at kid to kid, but cost about $5 for one. Way too rich for my blood these days, so i decided to try making them myself-guess what, they are super easy!

You just wrap your ribbon on dowels and bake them!

Then you unwrap them after 25 minutes of baking and this is what I had. I cut each strip into 3 pieces(4 inches) and just sewed a bunch together.

Then I wrapped an alligator clip with ribbon and hot glued the corker bow on top and voila... the cutest little hair bows ever. I love making things that my kids wear and I'm getting really good at it. The hubs says I should sell them because I like making them so much.

Oh how i love fresh garden veggies. Aren't these gorgeous! Unfortunately, the rest of the garden didn't turn out so well, but we did get about 10 lovely zucchinis. Maybe it'll go better next year when I have more time to help with the garden. Poor hubs, he was so frustrated with the garden that he nuked it a week ago with weed killer. Oh well, we'll just try again!

I have also been trying out my new recipe concoctions. I've had this one in my head and wanted to try it out. I think I have finally come up with the best blueberry muffins! I've been trying at this for awhile now. They have been either too dry or too sweet, but this one is so YUMMY!

Blueberry Crumb Muffins

3 c flour 2/3 c oil

1 1/2 c sugar 2eggs

1 tsp. salt 2/3 c whole milk

4 tsp. baking powder 3 c fresh blueberries(Costco's are great)

Topping

1 c sugar 1/2 c butter 2/3 c flour 3 tsp cinnamon

Mix sugar, eggs, milk and oil together. Add salt, flour, baking powder, into the wet ingredients. Fold blueberries in. Drop into cupcake liners and fill about half way. Mix the topping ingredients together until crumbly and sprinkle some over each muffin. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Eat and Enjoy!

This is one yummy, easy dessert that is quick too.

Ice Cream Cake

24 ice cream sandwiches

16 oz tub of cool whip

whole bottle of magic shell

In a 9 X 13 pan lay out 12 of the sandwiches(unwrapped in case ya didn't know), you need to kinda of squish them so they all fit. Then spread half of the cool whip over the top, then layer the next 12 sandwiches on top. Spread the remaining cool whip on top and then pour the magic shell on top. Put it in the freezer for at least an hour. Slice and serve. People will be amazed at how easy and DELISH this is. There are so many flavors of ice cream sandwiches, you can make all kinds of cake. This one was Neapolitan layer and a vanilla layer with heath topping.

Eat and Enjoy!

Leapin' Lizards!!!

2010-08-17T14:35:00.004-06:00

Well, it's finally over and man alive, are we ever so pooped! We had a blast doing "Annie," but it was time consuming and a lot harder for me juggling things than I thought it would be. Mental note: don't do a play while still nursing a baby, it makes it extremely stressful when rehearsals last 7 hours the last week before the play. Other than that, the girls and I enjoyed ourselves so much we are thinking of the next play we can do. It's loads of fun, and life needs to have a load or two of fun in it!Cute lit'l sister orphans. They made tons of new friends and managed to stay on top of school work too!

Here we all are dressed in our parts. This costume was extremely hot up on stage, however, it could have been the fact they forgot to turn on the a.c. during our performances. Oh well, the show MUST go on =)!
I'll be posting more pics of rehearsals and our last show later. If you missed it, you really did miss a very cute show. The orphans stole the show. So cute, we had 70 orphans and they did a WONDERFUL, AMAZING job. It was a fun cast and crew to work with and we will DEFINITELY be doing next year's BAAB's play. The hubs may even join in on the fun. He misses the theater, I mean stage. Can't let it out of the bag that he has a love of theater now can we. Until we meet again our lovely audience. We bid you farewell! =)

And through it all...I Still Got You Babe

2010-08-05T09:16:00.003-06:00

Can I just say how grateful I am that God knew so well what life would/could throw at us he gave us all the opportunity to experience it with a helpmeet(aka a wonderful spouse). I love my hubby more and more every day, but lately I've come to love him more than I ever thought possible. I know, crap this post is another personal/mushy love fest for the hubs. I just wanted to write down some thoughts about life and the ever so much hard times that are made bearable by having him in my life. We have experience many hardships and have had a lot more to deal with as of late, spinning my life upside down as I know it, but it has been made easier knowing I have my love of my life spinning with me. The world is a scary, stressful entity right know for our bunch, and at times I have wanted to just throw in the towel, but then I look at the hubs gorgeous, Hazel eyes and I know I CAN'T just give up. I would lose him, our seven children that we share and our wonderful promise that we will be eternally together. Now, why on earth would I ever want to lose us. He makes me laugh and giggle when all I want to do is roll up in a ball and cry, he reminds me that we have always come out of our trials stronger, and that we have/and still are surviving the greatest loss anyone can experience in this life-and doing it ever so slowly, but with strength. He lifts me up when I have fallen into the deep pit of I'm-feeling-sorry-for-myself hole, and he rarely ever loses it when he has every gosh darn right to. I love this man who has been my Mr. Hansen for a lovely almost 13 years. I try to be the best I can and the best I know I am, but when I'm not he reminds me of who and what I am. He has more confidence in me than I do at times and he makes me believe I can do whatever I want, because I am great! You gotta love having a partner like that live with you through not only the good, but the bad, ugly, and the oh -man- I -don't- think -we- are- in -Kansas- anymore- moments! Man, I love that man of mine. I know that with him and with God in my court, I can get through anything that is thrown my way. Life may not always be roses, and it hasn't been much in our 13 years, but the bad makes me stronger and it makes me grow and realize that I am lucky to be married to such an amazing man. Here's to the hubs, may we always keep our chins up even when the world is spinning out of control around us.

Cute lit'l Pixies!

2010-07-29T14:28:00.004-06:00

Look at these two cute lit'l pixie girls!

These two girls are so giving and loving, and brave too! They cut their hair off and donated it to locks of love. I love that they chose to do this. I did it back in April when I cut off 11 inches and they wanted to do it too. Well we waited, and waited, and waited, until finally we had 10 1/2 inches to give. It's a little shorter than I thought it was going to be, but they couldn't be happier. I mean look at those smiles. With their hair out of their face you can really see how much they look like their brothers. Laney looks so much like Christian, and Kaleigh looks so much like Logan. Funny, how kids pair up in families and look like siblings. We have Alexis and Noah, Kaleigh and Logan, Laney and Christian, and well Bella looks like Kaleigh and Logan.

Anywho, I'm so proud of these two girls and I am proud to be their mom. They give so much and LOVE doing so! These girls are going to make awesome adults and they bring so much to our lives. I love them tons and hope they always remember others and serve one another always! They did this out of love and remembrance for their brother and I know that our family's tragedy has made them(and all of us for that matter)stronger and more aware of others' needs. They have a greater love for family togetherness and serving others than anyone I know. It has given our family a different perspective on life and made us all value each other a little more everyday.

A Release Party and Have your Cake and Eat it Too!

2010-07-29T14:09:00.003-06:00

Calling Bishop D. George Hansen

We thank you for your service and you are now officially

RELEASED!

My lovely FIL was released this past Sunday after a long, dedicated 5 years of serving as a bishop in the hubs' childhood ward. Coincidentally, my FIL's childhood ward as well. They both grew up in the same house, same neighborhood, same schools, same major, same career. Hmmm, I wonder if the hubs will follow his dad's steps and be called as a bishop some day. He says ABSOLUTELY NOT, but I say, you never know.

Anywho, the family had a dinner/party-it's what my kiddos called it, and I made this beauty for the dessert...
It's a red velvet cake with raspberry buttercream frosting covered with chocolate-covered strawberries on top. It tastes as good as it looks, trust me! I know this not only because I had some, but everyone liked it. My MIL even liked it, so much that she took a 2nd piece before we left, so she could have it later. She hardly ever does this, she's not into the sweets much(I need to be that way a lot more, but alas, I like my treats). I love to bake and love it even more when I can share at family functions. I get better every time I make something(the hub's words, not mine)and this will help me in the future when I open up my dream bakery/cafe. I like to try new things and this beauty was my first attempt at making a "pretty" cake as well as tasty one.

I've been a BUSY lit'l bee!

2010-07-29T13:47:00.004-06:00

I love the feeling of accomplishment! I love de-stressing! I love seeing my kids' smiling little faces when I complete something for them! I have been able to do this all this week. I've been busy with some small crafting projects for my kiddos. I have loved it so much that for Christmas I'll be doing almost all of their presents. Here's some of the projects I have done this week...

We got these stickers for free in the mail and the magnets are off the phone book-also free. I put the stickers on the magnets and then cut them out into...

These! The boys love playing with them on the fridge while I make dinner. I love them, because I'm not tripping over the boys and their toys while I make dinner.
Gotta love a new, FREE, toy!

I also made another trip to the dollar store and bought a wreath form, and some curly ribbon bows and made this...
Isn't she lovely? I saw one like this in a store for around $25 and thought, "I could so make that," and so I did. Mine, however, only cost me $8 for the whole thing.

I have also made some more bows and hairbands for Kaleigh and Laney. This one is a felt pom-pom bow that can interchange on different headbands. She loves it! Making these things inspired a present for Christmas, but I can't show it yet-they sometimes look at the family blog. I have had some really stressful days as of late, so all the crafting has brought me down a bit. Good thing, the hubs is stressed out himself, so someone has to have their head on right to run the house.

Some of the fabric flowers I made and put on headbands. The girls have been in need of some cute, girly, hair accessories due to their new hair(more on that later). I love these flowers, they are the no-sew kind. Just a hot glue gun and scissors. Gotta love me some easy crafting!

One of thee cutest headbands! I just sewed on some buttons to an elastic headband to spice it up a bit. The girls again love it and want all kinds of different ones. Good thing I have lots of buttons in my craft supplies. I don't think I'll ever buy another hair accessorie again, I'm having way too much fun making my own. So that's just a snipit of what I've been up to lately, plus school starting for the girls, new haircuts, boys going to the dino museum with cousins, making 4 batches of jam, making all kinds of bread, and oh yeah, keeping the house running! Busy, busy, busy lit'l bee I've been!

Floats, Bella, and the 24th of July!

2010-07-26T14:24:00.004-06:00

Our last week of our summer fun was filled with tons of outings and one of our events-checking out the floats for Pioneer Day! We love doing this every year, but this one we had a bigger reason to check them out. Our stake made a float(we didn't know about it until it was done, no announcement made to us)so we wanted to see it. The kids got to even push the remote to make the bunnies pop up and eat the carrots. The theme this year was "then and now." Here are the kids at the front of the float...

The backside of the float

The front side again. It had a cow on top making moo noises and shaking its cowbell.

I also tried to get some pics of Bella standing and "trying" to take a step, but she wasn't having it. Instead I got this cute pic of the way she sits when she is playing with one of her MOST favorite peeps. Look at her legs. She just thinks she's a big kid now-minus the fact she is STILL nursing and WILL NOT even try walking. Oh well though, at least I get to enjoy her babyness a little longer.

Love, love, love the way she sits.

She won't actually ride or walk with her little car, but she sat on it and flashed a big ol' grin to Logan(her favorite lit'l peep).

I just love my little bunch of munchkins. Today was the first day of school and I miss my older girls and can't help but feel sad that one day soon this lit'l munchkin will join the fleet of the school children. I better enjoy her tons and tons, 'cause the time flies fast around here and it will seem like just yesterday that she was born. I know this all too well, because my oldest has started her last year of elementary school-YIKES! Oh man, time is just zoomin' past me.

JELL-O FIGHT!!!

2010-07-21T22:07:00.006-06:00

Have I mentioned how much I looovvve our Thanksgiving Point membership? Well, I do, and we have had another fun, family night outing down there. We went and had our FHE fun at the gardens. It was a BIG, FUN, RED, JELL-O FIGHT! We met up with our lovely family friends the Stones, and everyone had a blast. It's great getting together with them because everyone has a friend to play with including the hubs and me, haha =).All the kids after their sticky, messy, fun!
Laney posing, but giving Scott a weird look. Silly monkey girl!

Lookin for more jell-o. It went fast and flyin' through the air.

Noah finding all kinds on the ground, to then come running full throttle towards Liz.

Logan was having a blast at getting mom. Crazy boy, but sooooo funny! Yep, I got dragged into the big, sticky, mess. It was fun, however, not so much to the hubs. He hung back with Bella the whole fight. He was disgusted with the sticky mess, which as he says is funny with him being the mess-maker, unorganized one of us, and me being the neat/organized one.

Kaleigh's back side after she slipped on jell-o and got pelted with a bunch of jell-o. I think she had the most fun of all of us, but then that's Kaleigh for ya.

After the sticky, messy fight they turned on the sprinklers and well... all the kiddos got themselves soaked. Mental note: next time bring towels. This was all the kids laying in the sun that was left, so they could dry off. They all look like such good friends. We definitely do enjoy meeting up with the Stones. Good friends, good times, and a GREAT FHE once again.

Crafts and Girls' Night fun!

2010-07-21T21:28:00.005-06:00

I finally, I mean we finally got a night just us gals. The hubs took the boys up to the family cabin for a fathers and sons night and that left us girls to have some fun. I don't get much time with just the older girls due to the boys always wanting in on our fun, so it was nice to be able to get the paints out and have some undistracted, creative, fun. I kept to the true nature of a girl night with junk food, movies, rootbeer and some crafty fun. When I was younger our girl nights included eating just tons of junk food for dinner while watching a movie and gabbing, so that's exactly what we did. I rented Tooth Fairy, the girls have wanted to see it for awhile, and we had nachos, candy, rootbeer, and some rice krispie treats we made earlier. They wanted popcorn and ice cream too, but that was just too much for me to handle. I didn't want our night and morning of fun to end with tummy aches so I held back a bit. I picked up these unpainted, cute bird houses at the dollar store( I just loooovvve that place)and we went to paintin' up a storm.

Just look at how cute they came out...

Laney, Kaleigh, me, Alexis
The backside of them
A blast was had by all and the girls want to do it again soon, now I just need to figure out a way to kick the boys out again. I must admit, eventhough we had Bella, it was way fun and calm in the house. I enjoy the calm for a little while but about 9 in the morning I was missing my boys a ton! They may be loud and crazy, but I couldn't live life without them.

I have been busy doing all kinds of little crafts to keep my stress level down and thought I give you a peek at some. My kids love to take my pens and they never seem to make it back to the pen storage, so I made some of these...
Super easy and now they don't run off with my pens, or at least they get put back in their new homes. It helps to make them look dressed up, it's too hard to hide them now.

Here's their new storage home

I have also been learning to make some hairbows for my girls. These ones are super easy and because I'm falling in love making stuff, I've decided to make Christmas this year. I have a ton of cute ideas for all the kids, but will probably need to start soon given there are 6 kids to make stuff for.

I got this 6 pack of ribbon in the dollar section at Target last Christmas and it has been sitting in my closet ever since. Enter in the thought to make a hair bow. I just cut each ribbon in half which game me 12 pieces. I just glued the strips in circles, yep that's just using my hot glue gun(my new lover, haha).

Then I just hot glued them in the middle making figure 8s. Now if you do this, I suggest using very little glue or you'll end up with a big gluey(is that a word?)mess.

Then just glue three of the strips(each different one)in a criss cross and do the same with the other three.

Then I just glued them together, again criss crossing the two bows, so it looks like this...

I am going to get a cute button and put it in the center of the bow, I just haven't had the time to get to HobLob yet-ya know 6 kids keep me busy and all. And I found out a tip about alligator clips,which this beauty will be going on. You can get 80 of them at Sally's Beauty Supply center for like $5. SCORE! SWEET! So that means I can make tons of cute bows for all of my girls for Christmas, well at least 3 of them, the oldest would so NOT love that! I tallied the cost and I made 2 bows(the other ones not pictured)for only $1.14, that's WAAAYYY less than buying one at Kid to Kid-which is usually $3-$5. Yee-haw, won't be buying bows anymore! I love making stuff! The joy and satisfaction I get is SWEET! I think I need to start a crafting club that meets once a month and we can all do a craft and teach everyone how to do them. Sounds so good, I just may have to do it.

July 4th Fun And This is the Place Park

2010-07-17T23:08:00.006-06:00

We had a busy 1st week the kids were out of school. The first weekend was the 4th of July and we had to do a ton of fun stuff. We went down to T.P. on Saturday, on Sunday we made some tasty treats for the day and for Monday(we were gonna spend it with my dad at the pool). We made a yummy strawberry/raspberry poke cake. Very easy, and very delicious.Top of the cake
Inside of the cake.
It's just a white cake mix baked with some raspberry extract. We let it cool and then we made raspberry jello using 1 cup less water then the box calls for(big box of jell-o) and poked holes in the cake. We then poured the jell-o all over and let it set up in the fridge for a couple of hours. We then mixed some more raspberry extract in with a whole container of cool whip and frosted our cake. We garnished with strawberry stripes. Now, a lot of people do blueberries to make a flag, we didn't because my munchkins don't like to eat blueberries unless they are in muffins or pancakes.

We made these yummy, fruity cookies to take with us for our BBQ with my dad on Monday. These too were made from cake mixes and jell-o. I used 2 boxes of white cake mix(1 for each color), 2 eggs, 1 c melted butter, 2 Tbsp. of water, and one box of raspberry jell-o and 1 box of blue raspberry jell-o. I mixed the cake mix, one egg, 1/2 c of melted butter, and 1 Tbsp. of water with one of the jell-o. Then did the exact same thing for the other color. I had one red mix and one blue mix. I also added a little more color to them using gel color. I rolled them into balls and baked the cookies for 8 minutes at 350 degrees. I then just frosted the blue cookies and stuck the red ones on to make a sandwich. I then melted a bag of white chocolate chips and added a tsp. of shortening and decorated the cookies. We sprinkled them with red sprinkles, and VOILA... festive cookies for our celebration.
They were gobbled up by everyone after a day of swimming and BBQing.

The blue side, I didn't add enough blue to make them really pop, but they were still so cute and YUMMY!

We spent last Friday up at This is the Place State Park on their Family Fun Day. Admission was free and they had a bunch of activities going on. The kids did laundry, beat blankets to get the dust out, watered the garden, and learned a new game. We ended our fun with a "train" ride and a free Popsicle(which was much enjoyed due to the heat). It was very busy, like crazy busy, and Logan was extremely tired and had a HUGE meltdown. So, we left early and missed the square dancing and crafts, but we still had tons of fun. Even the big kid, the hubs, had a blast.

A beating the blankets

The new game the kids learned

The hubs teaching the munchkins how to keep their hoop up and rollin

Poor Laney got her hoop going so fast she started running after it to "catch" it and fell and skinned both knees up, again. Her lit'l knees were just startin to heal from her falling and skinning them up the week before, but alas, the girl is so active her knees take a toll.

Kaleigh excited that she finally got it to work

Such a precious lit'l munchkin

Pure joy and excitement from riding the "train." It was just a bunch of cars that were made to look like a train, but the boys LOVED it.

Logan so in love with being on a train he has hit his "high." Really, this pic does look like he is doped up, but his excitement just hit the roof, plus this was right after his HUGE meltdown. The train wasn't coming fast enough for him, but once it did he was in heaven. Our family had an eventful week and we have just kept on going. We've been busy this last week too and have so many plans next week that I will sigh with relief when the girls go back to school on the 26th, I'm pooped, but havin' a blast being so. We love to be busy when it's pure fun we're having.

Family trip to the gardens(and this time we saw it all)

2010-07-17T22:52:00.003-06:00

We decided to go down to the gardens over the 4th of July weekend on Saturday. It was such a nice day, the temp while we were there was only 66 degrees-soooo nice. We didn't get a chance to see everything the last time we went, but this time I think we finally managed to see it ALL! We spent a good 2 1/2 hours down there and we all had fun. This is the rose garden with the cute munchkins posin' again-love Laney's foot in this pic, it about sums up that cutie-pie.
The munchkins are in love with the fish. We have to see them everytime we go down there.

We found the Secret Garden, love it, it's so peaceful and pretty. It smells really good walking through the honeysuckle when entering the garden.

This lit'l gal has me in love. She makes me smile and giggle all the time, and the kids adore her. She had so much fun squealing in delight the whole time.

I love waterfalls! The kids love them too, but only because this one has a huge hill next to it that they run, roll, chase, and yes FALL, down. They love it and no one ever cries, just laughter here. I absolutely love Thanksgiving Point! It's our family's go-to fun spot.

So, I thought we had seen everything, until...

we saw this guy. Logan screamed and said, "Mom, a moose, he's gonna be my friend and take me for a ride." Gotta love the boy and his excitement and imagination. So, I guess we'll never be able to say, "we've seen it all," just because we keep finding new things there every time we make a trip out there. I love that I can just let my kids run wild, explore, and have a time-of-a-lifetime down there. It makes outings with them all that more fun.

Fun Felt Library Bags!

2010-07-17T22:36:00.002-06:00

Man, am I behind in my journaling.

Here are our cute, summer-kick-off library bags we made when the kids got out of school at the beginning of the month. If you have a bunch of munchkins like me the library can be a weight-lifting class. When taking all 6 kids and getting all their books, which the hubs or I end up carrying, it turns into a real workout. So, enter these cute no-sew bags. They really are durable for my munchkins and were very thrifty at my love-Hobby Lobby. I just bought some of their big pieces of felt, glued(yep, hot glued them)two pieces together, punched holes to string ribbon through to make handles and let the kids at it with decorating them. Each kids' personality truly are represented on the bags(except Bella's, I haven't done it yet).

Alexis's
Kaleigh's(the girl and her giraffes)

Laney's

Logan's

and Noah's

Now our arms don't hurt quite as much when we make it a family trip to the library. The kids love carrying their own books and SO DO I!

End of School Year & Tradition!!

2010-07-13T14:25:00.003-06:00

Another school year has come to an end for us and look at these AWESOME girls!

They are all posing and showing off their awesomeness of reaching their goals. Our elementary has an award system set up for all the students to reach different levels of the Rocky Ram Award. This year, not one, not two, but all three of our girls achieved the Mastery level-the highest level of the award. Way to go, my little darlings! I'm so proud!! We have amazing, talented, smart young ladies. Look out world, 'cause here come the Hansen gals.

And to go with the end of the school year comes our family tradition. We have waffles and ice cream. Well, I forgot that kindergarten got out a day earlier and Miss Laney Banes wanted her special dinner too. I didn't want to do waffles and ice cream two nights in a row, so enter funnel cakes. Yummm-my! It was enjoyed by all and made them all want our night of waffles and ice cream that much more, but alas, they had to wait one more night.
Easiest recipe ever! I love making these. I believe I have finally perfected my recipe as of last September when we had them after our State Fair day. They're light and tasty, but you still can't(or shouldn't)have too much of them, gotta preserve those hips ya know.
Funnel Cakes:
3 eggs 2 cups of milk 6 Tbsp. of sugar
3 3/4 c of flour 3/4 tsp. of salt 3 tsp. baking powder

I mix it all together and use about 2-3 cups of oil in a skillet. Cook it for about 2-3 minutes, flipping over when it starts to brown, and place it on a paper towel lined plate to drain. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Eat and Enjoy!

Here's our official end-of-the-school-year celebration dinner. I use to have these when I was little with my dad. I was in love with them after he introduced me to waffles and ice cream. It's not the greatest/healthiest dinner, but for a celebration, they are GREAT!! We made beligian waffles and the kids chose what ice cream they wanted and topped it with some hershey's syrup and whip cream. Another yummy dinner treat(hence why we only have it once a year).

Here are all the kiddos ready to dig in to their yummy desert dinner. Gotta love the smiles and faces. This really has become a family tradition. Every year when the kids are getting ever so closer to being done they ask if we're going to still have ice cream and waffles. I love that they are remembering our family fun and special things we do. I love raising my bunch.
We have since been very busy with crafts, outdoor activities, holidays, and big changes are happening in our family. Who knows, but maybe the changes will come sooner to us! As soon as they do we'll let you in on our newest adventure that we are headed into. I love summer and the changes it brings!

More crafts!!

2010-07-02T21:49:00.003-06:00

Funny story here.

I went away for a few days in June to visit some family in Washington. While I was there, my aunt took me shopping and we stopped in at Nordstroms. My uncle works for them and Nordstrom was having it's Half-yearly anniversary sale, so we looked for some shoes. I found these cute snake skin sandals, but my usual size wasn't fitting me, so my aunt made me try a bigger size. Well it took me two bigger sizes to finally have them fit well. It looks like my feet have grown and I didn't even know it. This must be why my feet have been hurting in shoes for the last few years. Sheesh!! I can't believe I didn't even think to try and see if my feet were a different size. I thought when you become an adult your feet stop growing, turns out, that's not the case. So, here's the extra funny part... I use to wear a size 9, turns out I should be wearing a size 11. Oh my heck!! Really, my feet are that big!! Goodness, gracious. Guess the hubs was right all those years ago on our first date, I DO have big feet.

So, because of this new found discovery I went and bought me some new flip flops at Old Navy. I scored big time, because the day I went everything in the store was 30% off. My flip flops only cost me $1.75 a pair, so I got 3 new pairs. They were kind of plain, so I added some flair to them...

My fourth of July inspired ones.

My giraffe ones-Kaleigh is so jealous, she wants me to make a pair for her now too. That girl and her love for the giraffes.

And of course, I had to make a pair for my love of baking. Cute little cupcake ribbon on my charcoal pair of flip flops. All I did with the ribbons is sewed straight down the middle and pulled on the thread to "ruffle" the ribbon. I put a cute glass jewel in the middle and VOILA... a one-of-a-kind pair of flip flops. I think I may have found a new way to de-stress myself, and this one is fat-free. However, I'm sure to still bake, just probably not as much.

Busy week with more crafts

2010-07-02T21:25:00.003-06:00

So, in this house we just love us some smores. We could eat them always, but they're always such a mess with our lovely bunch. Enter, smores on a stick. The greatest, smartest, and just plain WOW, way to enjoy us some smores. We had so much fun making them and then even MORE fun eating them.All you do is take a marshmallow put a lollipop stick in it and dip it in melted chocolate. Then you just roll it into crushed graham crackers and VOILA... you have a very, easy, clean, tasty smore.
The kids all ready to make them and of course we had to have a pic. They are getting so use to the pic taking that they all said, "wait, we need to get the camera out and take a picture." Aww, gosh, I just love my crazy bunch.

Laney just enjoying hers so much. She is the slow, savor, kinda girl.

These two are the put -the -whole -thing- in -your- mouth, kind of eaters.

And this one hasn't changed since she was a wee lit'l one. She puts it in her mouth, eventhough her mouth is kinda small, and just sits there chewing away with her chipmunk filled cheeks. FYI-when she was a babe she put 3 carrots, a bunch of apple slices and a cracker all in her mouth at once and she looked like a lit'l chipmunk storing food in her cheeks for the winter.

And then we have this little cutie pie. The look says it all. She loves her sweets, and boy, did she ever LOOOOVE this one.

Now these treats are really not messy, but this one seems to always make a mess no matter what. Gotta love the cutie patootie!

My mind slipped this past month and I didn't do any crafts for July. What was I thinkin? Oh, yeah, my dad, Noah, Kaleigh, Bella, and the stress of job huntin. Well, when I finally did think about it I decided to go on a hunt at the dollar store. By the way, I think it is one of my new favorite little finds. Best place to come up with crafts and to think outside of the box. I needed, no wanted, a new 4th of July decoration this year. I wanted it to do double duty though, so here's what I came up with. Some star dishes and bowls. Cute all by themselves, but this is what I came up with...

It's my new table centerpiece and will soon be filled with some candy/treats on each layer. Love it and it only cost me $6. Golly, gee, I just love the dollar store.

Field Day Fun!!

2010-07-02T20:35:00.005-06:00

The girls all had field day at school this week and I went with them for the first time ever. It was Alexis's last one, because they go to Boondocks in 6th grade, so I just HAD to go. It was so much fun watching Alexis and Laney. Apparently their school does field day in sections, so I was unable to see Kaleigh's. Hers wasn't until 1 p.m. and I only had a sitter for the morning session. I'll just have to go to hers next year. The girls and I made these cute flip flops just in time for their water day. We made them for the pool, but we thought why not wear them to field day-it's just a big day of water fun anyways. Aren't they just so cauuute! Guess who's who feet.
Here's the potato sack race. Alexis had a blast.
Laney's class doing parachute games. It was one of the few waterless games. It was nice because Laney's class was only one station behind Alexis's class, which made picture taking very easy. I didn't have to run across the field trying to grab pics of both girls.

They also had this huge slide that almost everyone in A's class jumped off instead of sliding. Hence, why the pic of A is just of her head at the bottom of the slide. By the time I got to the pic, she was already done. CRAZY girl!!!

Laney's class at the tug-of-war. This was so funny because they were pulling over a kiddie pool filled with water. She loved it!!

Miss Laney Banes at the chalk drawing station. She loves this too. It was a perfect day for this smiley girl. It was fun for me too and very informative for me as well. I learned that I have another little thrill seeker on my hands.

Ready. Set. Throw!! This was girls vs. boys in throwing the wettest balls at each other. As you can see in the pic, A enjoyed herself a lot. She was glad I came and so was I. Thanks to my MIL for watching the little ones, I could go have some fun with my girls.

Laney jumpin' as fast as her little legs would take her.

A's class at the tug-of-war. The parents were mean to the bigger kids at this one. They sprayed them with the hose as they tried to pull the other side into the pool. Needless to say, they were ALL soaked after this station.

Funniest part of the whole field day. A decided to try the dunk tank out and man was she SOAKED! She loved it, but looked like a drowned rat afterwards.

This is her BEFORE

and...

here's my little drowned rat AFTER.

And here is what I was talking about with Laney and her thrill seeking...

SHE WENT IN THE DUNK TANK TOO!!!

My sweet little kindergartner all soaked...

She ABSOLUTELY loved it!!!

She really wanted to do it, but once up on the seat she gave it another thought, but in the end she went for it. I AM IN TROUBLE!!! I now have two, brave, thrill-seeking girls. I'm sure our life will be filled with bumps and bruises along the way, but oh how so much fun we will have. This was a very, fun day for us all and I am so looking forward to our 3 weeks of summer fun.

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder!

2010-06-27T14:20:00.004-06:00

Here I go again! Learning a good lesson about myself again. I just looooove when that happens, not really, but I'll take it and run with it. As women, we all at sometime cut ourselves down. Well, I'm notorious for this. It drives the hubs batty, but I can't seem to help it. I feel bad with the way I look and can't seem to get past it. My eyes just see yucky, unbeautiful me, while my hubs and kiddos see me as pretty. I wonder why that is? I mean, I do have my days where I catch myself lookin' pretty dang cute, but most I just see as blah. Well I've learned to tell myself I'm pretty dang cute at least 3 times a day, because I need to learn to love myself and believe it. I have also learned that no matter what my size has been I have always been in disgust. See here I am now, 7 kids later with a lot of extra weight, and I've been disgusted with this photo of me. And here I am before kids and I was disgusted with my size then too. Now I WISH I looked this way again. I feel like this pic shows just what a cutie patootie I really am and could be again. Funny thing, I sooooo didn't feel this way back then. I need to just love ME! Whatever the size I am and I'm sure less blah days will follow. I've been inspired by others who have had horrific accidents or diseases that have left them scarred, but they still feel like a million bucks. I need to get off my pity, ugly party and be thankful for who I am and what I look like. All the extra weight and all. I don't judge others by their cover, so I need to not judge myself. You know that saying, "I'm smart enough, I'm good enough, and gosh darn it people really like me," well I will be repeating this over and over to myself until I whole-heartedly believe it! To all those who know to love themselves no matter what they look like thanks for the inspiration of what beauty is. We are all God's children and are all beautiful in His eyes and that's all that really matters! I am a child of God and I am one of His amazing, beautiful, daughters. Thank you so much, my Heavenly Father for another wonderful self-discovery and lesson in my life! Although, I'm sure I will be learning this lesson over and over again. It's a hard one for me to learn and remember always. It's my life-long struggle.

Father's Day 2010

2010-06-23T23:12:00.004-06:00

I just love Father's Day!

Funny thing to love, I know, but I love to celebrate all the men in my life. This year was extra special and meaningful for me, because of all my dad's health problems that have come out of nowhere. I wanted to show all 3 men in my life just how much they mean to me, so out came my craftiness, and here is what I came up with...

For the FIL

I made him a lazy susan art piece. It has a bunch of photos of him when he was younger and a bunch of him in our life with us and our kids. He really does "make our world go round." He's been there ALWAYS for us and our crazy bunch. So what better way to tell him how much we love him.

Now for my dad the kids wanted to get in on the gift making so this is what we came up with...

A one-of-a-kind shirt, just for him. This is what the front looks like...

and here is the backside of the shirt...
I also gave him a basket full of his favorite treats along with a new card game that we introduced him to on his birthday. It's called Monopoly Deal, and he loved playing it. He loved it so much, he told our long-time family friends about it and they wanted to borrow it to play. Gotta love when you surprise your Daddy with just what he wants.

We spoiled the hubs and he LOVED it! The kids all made cards in their classes at school and primary and then we got him a bunch of his favorites. I helped the kids pick out something really funny... a gargoyle statue.
It's been a long, funny, joke between the hubs and me. He has always wanted one for the garden, but we have never gotten one. Well now he has one! And he absolutely couldn't be any happier with it. It tells him secrets, you know.

All he really wanted from me was some homemade lemonade, which he is enjoying in this pic, and chocolate chip cookies. He can never get enough of these two things. They are his fav. We also got him a black U of U shirt, along with a lunch tote filled with a few of his favorite treats for game time, or movie time. Whatever floats his boat. I think he really enjoyed being showered upon. We might need to do it a little more often, just so he knows just how much we love him and appreciate all that he does for us. Times have been hard and stressful, but he has always kept us laughing and smilin. We love him soooooo much!

And in tradition, I made him a card for Father's Day just to let him know in words just how MUCH I love and adore him! Hope everyone else had a wonderful Father's Day and took the time to let their men know how much they mean to them.

Our House Party!

2010-06-23T15:04:00.003-06:00

So we had our fun Hasbro Game Night sponsord by House Party last week. We had a ton of fun even with our small gathering. It seems like summer should be the time to gather and have a party, but that's just not the case. Summer means everyone is SUPER busy. I guess this means we'll just have to have another. We had a belly-aching time. We laughed, ate, and had some mean rivalry boy vs. girl game action! We all tested out the new Trivial Pursuit, Bet You Know It, and had some good times. We played the boys against the girls, and us girls let the boys win! Haha =)! The kids were all itchin to dig in to all the good eats. We had sandwiches, fruit, treats and other tasty snacks. We ate until we dropped, just kiddin'! The kids, however, did eat until they dropped into dreamland. They love a good party!

We had to have us some balloons. The kids say, "it's just not a party unless there are balloons."

I made some tasty party favors for everyone who came. I thought they were really cute and Lana decided she would copy them for their party game nights too.
Laughs, fun, rivalry, and good times were had by all. The best thing for us is we now have 3 new games for our family and friends to play with us. I just love our free game package from HOUSE PARTY and all the fun we have had with it!

God, MORE lemons, REALLY?

2010-06-15T13:23:00.004-06:00

It seems that I keep getting lemons thrown my way. You know the saying, "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade," well unless life is going to give me the sugar and water I need, all I have is lemons. I went away for 5 days, yep only 5, and came back to my baby Noah covered head to toe with the worse case of eczema I have ever seen and my dad barely living. I checked on my dad when I got back, he hadn't been feeling well before I left, only to discover he had swollen up, could barely move without having to catch his breath, and he even said he was no good. Knowing my dad, he's mister positive man, I knew this was NOT good. He went to all these doc appt. and discovered his bp was through the roof(240/190), his kidney wasn't functioning all the way, and the poor guy's heart was enlarged. When he left his appt. his bp finally came down to 195/100, but this still is no good. They think that the high bp is the cause of it all, but won't be sure until he's been on his bp medicine for at least a week. He gained 35 lbs. in water weight from all this too, but now has lost 10 of it since being on water pills and bp meds. So, knowing me, I'm going out of my mind CRAZY! He's the last family member I have, at least that lives close by. I have some cousins and 2 aunts and uncles, but no one really close. Because we don't know what is going to happen with my dad, the hubs and I have decided to keep the kids in traditional school for the next year. I'm nervous, seeing that no man in my dad's family lived into his 60's except his dad-but he had major health problems, all of them died of heart problems including his own mother. So, to make my life a little easier I'll just be supplementing the girls' education so they don't get bored at their school. Isn't it funny, everytime I go planning away, life throws me another curve ball, haha! Not really though. I would REALLY like for life to go smoothly just once.

And for the concern over Noah, apparently we have to slather him in some potent steroid cream 2x a day to help his poor skin. We have been doing it for a week now and he looks SOOO much better. He was so itchy and not feeling well, he wasn't eating much. Now, he's back to his cheery self. I really hope next year will be better. After all the medical scares, the A.C. breaking down, our car needing an overhaul, us barely floatin' on fumes since the hub's pay cut, the school drama, and now my dad's medical scare-I could REALLY use a break from life. I want just a nice, smooth, ride next year-PLEASE! Can you request life rides from above? Just my luck and you probally can't. Oh well, they say "what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger, " right? By the time I'm done raising my crazy bunch I should be THE strongest woman out there! =)

ARRGH, Y'MATEY! Happy Birthday Christian!

2010-06-12T21:46:00.007-06:00

Today was a special day for our family. The time has come once again to celebrate our son's birthday. We try to do something that our little guy loved and this year we came up with pirates. We don't like to be home and dwell on the sore feelings we have and think of how we miss him tons-although the hubs and I still do think of all that we are missing with him. We wanted to do something big this year, because our boy would be 10 today. WOW! Enter in this new, fun, adventurous place...It's a fun themed restaurant in Orem and the kids ABSOLUTELY had a blast!

This was our very last birthday with Christian, and lucky him, the Make-A-Wish foundation combined his wish with his birthday. He REALLY, REALLY wanted to go to Disneyland and have a party with Goofy, and poof- they made it happen. The best time ever! This year it was really hard to celebrate and realize he would be 10. Trying not to cry and be upset, I wanted to be out and doing some fun, big activity. We even got the grandparents in on it. The hubs' parents came with and seemed to enjoy hangin' with us. We of course went up to the cemetery first and took our boy some balloons. The weather was nasty, so we just let them go and got back in the car due to the rain and wind, but at least he got his birthday balloons.
This place was so cool. They don't call it Pirate Island for nothing. Pirates EVERYWHERE, and a huge pirate ship in the dining area. The kids were in complete awe, as was I. I love when my ideas turn out and everyone has fun. There were cannons going off, an ARRGH cade, pizza, pirate playground, pirate shootin gallery, and games galore! Poor hubs, he's soooo tired now. He took the kids to the games and fun while I fed Bella and finished eating myself. He's all tuckered out!
This is part of the pirate playground. It had 2 slides, a climbing wall, steering wheel, and a bunch of other things to do. Noah loved it and we couldn't get him to leave it without a little protest. I had to bribe him with getting him a prize with tickets from the games we played.

The canons on the big ship that fired off 3 times while we were there. Maybe more, but I only noticed it that many times.

Miss Kaleigh bugs just needed a pic with the pirate statue sooo bad. It greeted us as we walked in. The entrance alone was crazy. The kids were in awe and then more so once we were escorted to our table.

This is the backside of the ship where we were sitting. Fun, fun. Lanterns, music, pirates singing, cannons going off, crickets chirping-it was great!

The kids all got some balloon animals too. They all loved them. Alexis got a crocodile, Logan and Noah got monkeys, and Kaleigh and Laney got parrots-perched on their shoulders and everything.

Pirate on the plank-loved it. His eyes glowed green when the pirates started talking and getting ready to fire the cannons.

Skull cave that was the entrance to the Arrghcade. Such great detail to everything. We were even served by a pirate that took great care of us.

Pirate shooting gallery. Alexis had some great fun here!

More of the shooting gallery

Even the bathroom hall was decked out. I'm crazy! I needed to get pics of everything.

More of the entrance. Love the detail!

The end of our evening, we had to get a pic of all the kids. They all were so tuckered out they fell right to sleep when we got home. Fun was had by all!

Logan and Noah even got to ride on a train. I think this is where Noah was finally ready to go home. No nap makes for one tuckered out Noah.

Bella on the way home. What do ya think? Think she had fun? I can't believe my baby is big enough now to sit forward in her big baby car seat. Ahh, time needs to slow down. I had a lot of fun with my little family today and I didn't cry once while we were there. It's kinda hard to see my other boys without Christian, but at least I know he's still mine. Logan will be older than Christian was when we lost him at the end of this month. That's something that stings, but hopefully the sting will get easier over time. Boy do I sure miss my Mr. C! May God take care of him until I can again! Love you my dear boy and Happy Birthday!!

Some more pics I just thought were adorable

2010-06-11T22:57:00.003-06:00

Here's some more cute pics, all of them of Bella with everyone. I will NOT be posting any pics with me, simply 'cause I look horrid and don't want them on here. Although, my lovely cuz decided to post them on facebook for all to see. Let's just say-Shamoo anyone? Anywho, this one you can totally tell Bella was LOOVIN' Christina and vice versa. Aren't they just sooo caaute, to boot!Bella always happy when she was with Christina, as long as she didn't see me, then not so much.
Loved, loved, loved the cell phones. She even has a "new" one that was sent home with us. It's her new toy-and yes it really is an old one with the battery taken out.
I love that this face was finally caught in a pic. She does this ALL the time and it is the funniest thing ever. She puckers and brings her bottom lip over the top one. She was havin' a good ole time crawling discovering new and fun things.

Isn't this just precious? She really did enjoy everyone she met, well maybe not Micah that much. She had a hard time warming up to the guys, except Dan. She really liked him. Funny that he doesn't like holding babies, but looked like he was in love with Bella while holding her. She has that affect on people. My cute lit'l babe with her cell phone and her kitty. The real, black one scared her to death when he jumped up on this chair on the arm and hopped up onto the back of it. She learned how to say "moew," now we need to teach her it's "meow." Cute baby, cute aunt, and VERY fun trip. Will remember it ALWAYS!