8 Months and Counting!

I can't believe this little angel is already 8 months old! She's getting old and way too big WAY TOO FAST!She is rolling all over the place trying to get up and crawl, but she gets frustrated too fast and just falls back down. She is doing the army crawl just pulling herself to reach a toy she wants or rolls(very fast I might add)to whatever or whomever she wants to be near to. She is eating everything in sight and is still up every 2 hours at night ready to contiue eating. She has finally put on some more weight, she is not as long and skinny anymore. She is still very long, she just is gaining weight so she's not in the 30% anymore.
She absolutely loves giraffes. This is her holding her giraffe that is a rattle too. She has about 3 giraffe stuffed animals and gravitates towards them all when they are around her. She loves Logan to death. She giggles and squeals when he comes near her and he feels the same about her. He loves her to death and I'm sure he will always look after her as they grow up together.

Bella also loves her daddy very much! She grins from ear to ear when he comes home for lunch and comes home from work at the end of the day. She's a sweetheart and we love her to death. Our family wouldn't be complete without this little lovely. I am sad that she is growing so fast, but excited for what the next day holds. She amazes me everyday with something new, but then again so do the rest of my little kids. It's amazing how someone so small and new can just take hold of your heart and make you love them more than life itself. I now have seven little angels doing that to me each and every day. Bella Georgia, we love you and can't wait to see you develop more each day.

Kisses and Hugs!

On the third day of Valentine's I made my true loves...

kisses and hugs cupcakes filled with chocolate raspberry surprise candy meltaways. They were BLISSful!

Here's just a couple of cute little pics of Bella flashing her gorgeous smile at mommy.
This is one of her favorite toys. She plays with it everyday, all day long. The other toy in the picture(the musical stacker) is her other favorite toy. If you just want to quiet her down and keep her busy for awhile you just need to put these two toys in front of her!

Going in for the tasty bite! She's teething on everything she can get her mouth on!

Day 2 for my true loves!

On the 2nd of Valentine's I gave my true loves...

homemade oreo truffles.

Don't these look scrumptious! They are, just let me tell you!

(Jenny, while making these I was thinking of you) Pure oreo cookies mixed with cream cheese and then dipped in chocolate-PURE HEAVEN!

Valentine's Countdown

On the first day of Valentines I gave my true loves...

some home-made felt fortune cookies filled with chocolate hearts.I put these in Eric's work bag and the girls' lunches as a nice surprise. They are filled with a love fortune and some chocolate hearts. I gave the boys and Laney theirs at lunch time at home. They all loved them. Logan got a fortune that said U R Special and he exclaimed "yes! I'm special, I'm special" It was the cutest thing ever. Aw, the simple things in life. I just love it.

More Cute Pictures of the Kiddies!

I just wanted to post some more cute pics of these cute little kidlets. This is Bella in her giraffe outfit she got for Christmas. Isn't she the cutest little girl in a giraffe outfit you have ever seen?Here she is sporting the cute lit'l "love legs" I attempted. They are a little short for her, but anything looks cute and adorable on this lit'l munchkin'.

The boys sporting their cute lit'l haircuts. My MIL took them to get their very first haircut ever given by someone else but mommy. I was under the weather and feeling very run down and worn out so she decided to take the boys out for a couple of hours. Their hair was really getting long so they were due for a haircut, but the previous week had been crazy with everyone sick and all, I just didn't get around to giving them their haircuts, so she did it for me. Yay, one less thing for me to do. Don't they look so old now? How sad my lit'l Noah looks like such a big boy now.

They got balloons at the haircut place too. They went to Cookie Cutters and had a blast.

I just love this pic. My MIL bribed them with toys to get them to go get a hair cut. Smart woman. Bribery always works on these two. Handsome Hansen Brothers!

Busy past 2 weeks!

So it's been a busy couple of weeks. The family has been sick and Eric even got sick. He was sicker than he has ever been(so much that he stayed home from work and slept an entire day)with a fever of over 102 degrees on Tylenol. We think he had the flu, but being the guy he is he didn't go to the doctor. So I could keep my sanity, I decided to feed my creative bug. It's been biting me lately, so I filled the little free time I have had trying some new things.

I fell in love with these things called baby legs-they're little leg warmers for babies and toddlers. I looked them up and found out they charge $12-$15 a pair. OUCH! My little babies grow so fast that that amount was way too much, so I decided to make my own. Bella has been rolling all over and attempting to get up on her knees to crawl and I thought lit'l leg warmers would be a good way to protect her lit'l knees from carpet burns. They also make changing diapers way easier cause I don't have to pull pants off or tights off.

So here's Bella wearing her cute leg warmers(made out of women's knee high socks). They only cost me $3 and she can wear them for awhile because they are big.
This is her sporting another pair. They are all sparkly and she just loves them. These ones are crew socks that were only $1.

Another craft that I wanted to try. It's heart garland made out of fun foam. I don't have many Valentine's day decorations, so I tried to make some. This only cost $1 for the fun foam sheets. I had the rest of the supplies I used to decorate it.

Finished product all glitz and glammed up!

This is a great FREE decorating idea for the holiday and the kids love it. I just took a bunch of our photos and placed them on the wall in this heart shape(I used tacky tape as to not ruin my wall). The kids love looking at all the photos and remembering the specific events in them.

Here are the sparkly baby leg warmers off of Bella.

These were my first attempt. I used a pair of ankle socks made out of terry cloth. Terry cloth is much harder to work with due to the fact it rolls up so the size is smaller. These don't cover much of Bella's full leg so these would be great for a newborn. They are still cute. I got much better with my other 3 pairs. I also learned that knee socks work way better than crew socks.

These are the last 2 pairs I did. I just love how easy and cute these are. I made both these pairs in 10 minutes. Easy peasy!

My last project! I have wanted a family home evening board for awhile now, but just haven't liked the ones I have seen at Deseret Book store. I don't like having to mess with chalk and that's all they have had lately, so I took to the craft store and this is what I ended up with. It's a magnet wood frame. I just painted it black, painted the lettering, got some cute pieces of wood, glued magnets on them and wrote everyone's names and parts of FHE and PRESTO-my cute little FHE board.

I have had a ton of fun with my little craft projects. I'm working on one more, but I won't post it until Bella's birthday-it's a present for her. I am also doing a 14 days of Valentines for my sweet little loves of my life this year. I have a bunch of recipes and projects with sweets that I have been wanting to try out so my little loves get to have a new one everyday. I'll post about each one every day. Have a great Love month beginning tomorrow!

Alexis turns 11!

This sweet girl just turned 11! Wow, I can't believe how fast time has flown by. I still remember when Eric and I brought her home from the hospital late at night and wondered what do we do now. Whew! At least we started to figure out what to do, but now I am wondering what do I do now with a tween! She's really a great kid! She helps out a lot and loves to help her younger siblings. She's smart and very talented with her drawing and painting. She had the best little birthday. My dad took her to Color Me Mine(it's a great little painting studio)and out to Red Lobster for lunch over the weekend. She chose a cute frog and had a blast at painting it. She then got to eat shrimp and lobster for lunch. Oh man, was she in heaven. Then the kids were off school on Monday so we went to Thanksgiving Point for the morning and then Tuesday was her actual birthday. She was so excited that she got a whole four days of fun and celebrations, especially since this is how Eric gets his birthday celebrations every year-his birthday always falls on Memorial Day weekend, and she got to have one too!This is the finished product all fired and glazed up.
Alexis chose the menu for me to cook this year instead of going to a restaurant. This is her root beer float cake. I also made homemade root beer ice cream to go along with it. Our dinner was peel and eat shrimp with cocktail sauce, shrimp scampi and pasta, garden salad, garlic bread and root beer to drink. These are all her favorite things, so what better day to have them all.

She got a new pair of reebok atheletic shoes from Eric and me. I was so happy to score a sweet deal on these. With coupons and codes I saved 75% off of them. And they are blue, her favorite color!
We then really surprised her by giving her a MP3 player. She was so excited! This is her saying "AWESOME!" We had told her she couldn't have one until she was at least 12 or 13 because they are fragile(and frankly can cost a lot if they get broken or misplaced easily) so she was very surprised. Again I got a really good deal on it, so if it does get broken, lost, or destroyed by little siblings because she leaves it laying around, it's not that big of a deal. This is the same kind Eric has only it cost WAY less! At the end of the day she said it was the best birthday ever! I love when we can make the kids' day! Sometimes its hard to be able to do that so it's a win-win for everyone today!

Just another cute picture of her frog!

This is when she picked out her frog and began creating her masterpiece.

Hard at work and lovin' every minute of it!

Her frog all finished and ready to go into the kiln. We get to pick it up in a few days. I am excited to go and paint something myself one day. Maybe as a mommy get away. They have some cool little deals throughout January and February I just might have to use.

A proud little painter who had a TON of fun and can't wait to do it again with grandpa! Alexis enjoyed her days of fun and I just can't stop believing she is 11 already! My little girl all grown up and on her way to becoming a teenager. YIKES!