Arrgh Mateys! Birthdays are a coming!

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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

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.