Adventures of Amazing Mommy

Rebekah Louise

2009-08-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

Sunday 8/23/09

3:31 pm
8 lbs. 8 oz.
20 3/4 in.

Our precious Bekah surprised us on Sunday afternoon. My body was still showing no signs of going into labor so we were not even thinking about a hospital visit in the near future. I went to church with the two oldest kids because the younger two were still coughing. So was I but I thought that our Primary president might be the only one of the presidency at church that day due to illness and sick kids so I decided to go to church. However, the last 1/2 hour of church I started having quite painful contractions. I still wasn't sure that it was the real thing because, as I said, my body showed no other signs. These got more and more regular and I told Paul that something might be happening when I got home. I changed and dished up some of the bean dip he made and as I lay on the bed eating the pains got more intense. You would think that by the 5th child I would no for certain that I was in labor, but my husband had to convince me that I should go to the hospital. About 15-20 min. after getting home we were packing bags, calling my mom to watch the kids and loading up in the car. By then we were pretty certain that there would be no return trip without a babe coming back with us. I tried not to show the kids how much pain I was in but that was probably impossible. They handled it well, they were too excited for that baby sister to come out!

I have never had to drive more than 5 min. to get to a hospital while in labor. I thought that I was going to die! I was always grateful when the contractions would hold off for an extra minute between--they were coming every 3-4 minutes! We checked in to the hospital and got changed and weighed and hooked up to the monitors. Around two they checked me and I was at 4 cm. In the next hour they had me answering all their preliminary questions, hooking up an IV and getting me an epidural.

The epidural was a failure. She tried to get one in for 20 min or so (I don't know for certain since pain was making clear thought impossible--it might have been 10 minutes!) Anyway, she couldn't get one in. She thinks there might have been some scarring from a previous epidural. I think that it didn't help that the contractions were coming so hard and fast that I couldn't hold a good position for long. She finally gave me a spinal block and left. However, my reprieve was short lived. After about 20 minutes I was feeling the pain again! An hour after checking in I had my spinal and was checked and was at 8 cm. By now my doctor was there and he told everyone that I go fast and so they got the room ready and 15 min. later I was at a 9 so they finished readying everything and me and I pushed (with a lot of pain since my spinal wasn't working anymore!) But it was short lived. She was born about 5 minutes later; a precious miracle that we could now hold in our arms.

We love her so much and think she gets cuter everyday. I have been awful at taking pictures/videos of her. I am suffering from exhaustion, baby blues, and getting my older kids off to their first week of school. Here are a few of the pictures that we have of her first week at home.

She arrives!

Adoring family

Papa brought the kids to meet their new baby sister that evening and Nama and Grandma Hansen came to visit later that night after the Seminary Fireside was over. Everyone was so excited to meet our little Bekah.

Getting ready to come home

Look at all the hair!!!

We have brought all of our children home from the hospital in this outfit

First bath at home

Miscellaneous photos of her first week

Our tiny bundle of joy. She has been a very good baby! She sleeps all the time right now, we'll see what life is like when she wakes up!

One Week Old!

Our Sleeping Beauty

2009-08-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

My youngest son seems to fall asleep all over the house whenever he gets too tired. I think we have more pictures of him in strange sleeping positions and places than all our other kids combined. This has increased since he has learned to crawl out of his bed and will NOT stay in his big boy bed while all his siblings are running around playing (ahhh, one of the joys of summer). I suppose I could be a good mommy and take time out of my day to lay down with him and make him go to sleep, but that boy will not lay still and it is more frustrating and uncomfortable than a nice relaxing time with my baby (maybe being pregnant adds to the frustration as well!) Anywho, all this is leading up to some great pictures of Joshua catching a little needed beauty sleep. Enjoy!

He always seems to have a dirty face! : )

Notice the crossed ankles! This is his normal sitting position. I Love It!

Having trouble sleeping? Try a nice lawn mower ride!

This was at Yellowstone. Just a minute before he had been searching for wild animals, but he was asleep by the time we found some elk--right outside his window!

Just before this he was on top of the chair watching a movie and singing along. A few minutes later I found him like this!

Too tired to even take off his coat first!

We couldn't find him for awhile. We checked all his usual haunts and called and called and I was starting to panic. Then Paul remembered that he had let Joshua watch a movie on the computer. As he walked over there he could see the top of his blonde head and when he turned the computer chair around this is what we found. (He was holding the measuring tape which is one of his favorite toys!) The chair had been pushed in all the way so it didn't cross our minds that he was still sitting there!

This one would be funnier as a video. The position is awkward but with his hand covering his mouth and nose you could really hear him pulling hard to get in a breath of air. Needless to say, he didn't sleep very long this time!

And now the piece de resistance. The next photos are the most recently captured of our Sleeping Beauty:

I was in the other room with the older kids folding clothes and watching a movie. I hadn't heard from Joshua in a while and called out asking him where he was and what he was doing. I didn't get an answer, but I wasn't worried because I hadn't heard any opening doors or anything (they squeak and he always slams them closed!) A few minutes later Paul came in and found him in the above position. At first he only saw his back so he thought he might be playing with his cars on the counters but when he walked around he found him asleep and took that photo. He left and came back a few minutes later and found he had shifted into a more "comfortable" position so took the final photo--gotta love the little plumber's crack there!

LOVE THIS KID! He is always bringing a smile to our faces.

8 Months and Summer Vacation

2009-07-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know that I am one of the worst bloggers out there and anyone who actually reads my blog (all 5 of you!) probably wonders why I even bother. My excuses are numerous; however, the main reason is probably that I am in my 3rd trimester (8 months along) with my 5th child. I seem to lose all brain power and much interest in life at this point in my pregnancies. I just can't think of anything interesting to say to any of you or think of an interesting way to say over and over that I am exhausted and slightly overwhelmed with life right now since all the kids are out of school for summer vacation. So I keep silent. So now you know. I still read all my friends blogs and the blogs that I lurk on, but leave few remarks because I can't think of anything to say most of the time. I wish I could say that in 6 weeks or so I will be doing better but anyone who has a newborn knows that is wishful thinking. I will try to improve my picture taking so that I can at least post a few pictures of our summer activities and when the new one is born. No promises though. I just went through the 4th of July with all the fun, family, food and fireworks and only remembered to take pictures at the very end and they aren't worth sharing. This is so not like me. I am the family historian. I am always taking pictures and video taping everything or forcing my husband to. I'll try to snap out of it.

Boohoohoo.....all right, enough crying and self pity. In spite of how depressed the above sounds I am not doing too badly as long as I don't try to do too much. We are still a pretty happy group of people with love for each other and our family and friends. I just can't put a lot of brain power to blogging. I guess that I could include a few photos and comments on what we have been doing the last few months.

My wonderful husband, who is a fabulous father, has been building a play house for the kids. It is a slow process but we are nearing the end so maybe the kids will be able to enjoy it before school starts.

My oldest daughter had her dance recital in May. She looked beautiful and had a great time performing on stage and posing for photos after.

My two oldest were involved in the community Little League this year--my husband also volunteered his time as coach for my son's team. Can't claim that they loved it. It was too hot, got in the way of what they wanted to do and they really weren't interested in becoming good ball players so found little to crow about in the practices. However, they stuck it out (because mom and dad wouldn't let them quit--the big meanies!) and ended up learning a little in the process.

We went on our annual fishing day with my grandparents. The kids always look forward to this day each year. I don't know what they enjoy more: fishing in the lake or in the big box of snacks my grandma always brings.

My youngest brother (the middle one in the back row) came home from his mission (SLC South, Spanish speaking) in May. Of course I forgot to take my cameras to the airport so have no pictures of the cute welcome home signs the kids made for him. My mom took some but they are all still on her computer. I don't even have any of Danny with the kids at this time. I tell you, my photo skills are way down right now!

Paul and I celebrated 11 years of wedded bliss on July 10th. (Sorry, no pictures of this event.) We left the kids with my parents (who just spoiled the kids rotten) while we went to Seattle overnight. Being 8 months pregnant I of course was not interested in doing much but we had fun doing a small amount of shopping in North Bend, eating at the Cheesecake Factory, seeing a movie, watching another movie in our very nice room while eating cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, and attending the temple together and remembering our first experience together there 11 years ago. I love my husband and his many wonderful qualities, not the least of which is his ability/willingness to forgive and overlook my many weaknesses.

We have managed to fill in the rest of the time with doctor appointments, family gatherings, running through sprinklers, some swimming, trying to get in some naps and trying to keep our home from spiraling into true and utter chaos. You know the kind--where it would be easier to burn the house down and just start from scratch. We have started taking the kids on their special school shopping dates early since I will be less and less able to handle all of that when we get closer to school time. Baby Bekah is actually due a few days after school starts up. Here are a few cute shots of the kids doing random things.

The last two photos are when Paul shattered the outer pane of glass in our sliding door while weed eating. You could hear the glass continue to crackle for at least 10 minutes after it happened and then we just heard a big crash as the pane of glass fell out.

I will stop now and I am proud of any of you who actually spent time reading all the way through this. I am sure that you have improved your skills in patience and fortitude. : ) I have lots of cute stories to share from the mouths and actions of babes but they will have to wait for another post--or maybe just be lost in the hazy memory of pregnancy. Until next time--whenever that is!

Torture Rack!

2009-04-30T07:29:00.000-07:00

How does this . . .

. . . turn into this?
(I couldn't get this photo centered. Sorry!)

We have been trying to train our youngest to sleep in a "big boy bed" for many months now. I got the great idea to train him now since we will be needing the crib in a few months for our new little sweetheart. However, this turns out to be one of the worst ideas that I have had in a while. In the beginning it was hard to get him to stay in his bed at all so he usually ended up back in the crib anyway. We have finally moved up to only having to get him back in his bed a couple times before he stays there. It is so sweet to listen to this little boy put himself to sleep. He sings, he imagines little conversations with his cars or animals he is sleeping with, he even said a blessing on the food perfectly the other night (something he refuses to do without help at meal times!), and just generally talks to himself. Don't let that sweetness fool you! We are now facing the problem of getting him to stay in his own bed all night long. He is in love with his mommy right now and every time he wakes up in the night he comes to "sleep wis mommy." Being pregnant, very large and extremely exhausted I usually allow him to stay because it is so hard for me to carry him back to his bed (though I sometimes do--I am not a terrible parent) and Paul is either too tired to wake up enough or ignores the situation if it isn't directly affecting him (which is easier now that we have a kings size bed.) So we often get up in the morning feeling like we have been tortured on the rack with no energy for the day. I have sometimes laid down with him in his own bed and tried to get him to go back to sleep there but that is no better for me in the torture department (but Paul likes it because it spares him some agony--not that he ever makes me sleep in there : )!) Therefore, we are still at square one because to save our sanity we make him sleep in the crib for a few days after a few days of torture. We don't know when this will all be worth it. We have never struggled this much for this long to make any of the other kids stay in their beds. I hope that I survive. I have an even foggier brain than my normal prego brain and have absolutely zero motivation due to this small tikes antics. Of course he never seems to feel it. He wakes up bright and cheerful, smiling and talking and laughing and even singing! Do any of you have tips for me? Help!!!!!

How can such a sweet face be the cause of so much trouble and agony?!
(Those of you who know him probably aren't surprised, huh?)

Easter Photos

2009-04-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

Easter has come and gone and I wanted to share a few of the pictures that I took while we celebrated this weekend.

We will start with the Easter egg coloring that the kids count down the days for and I dread! It all went well in the beginning. Everything was pretty much ready and set up by the time the older two came home from school. However, we discovered that I didn't cook the eggs enough when one of them was dropped and it looked like Elmer's glue was seeping out all the cracks! I do not know how I managed to do this. I generally overcook them! I guess it is just my pregnancy brain at work and trying to do too many things at once. So we put them all back in the pot and reboiled the eggs. Of course all the dye was gone after this process so the kids had the fun of dying the eggs twice so it all worked out in the end. Here are a few pictures of the fun.

This one does everything with a gusto--even smile!

The older ones loved coloring their own designs on with the white crayon before dying the egg.

He found the egg dye to be delicious! I don't where he gets his taste for vinegar. He did this almost as much as actually dying his eggs.

He loved having a colorful tongue.

He was into multi-colored eggs. You can't tell from the picture but he is showing off a blue and yellow egg.

This is a typical Emma shot. She rarely has a big smile for the camera anymore. I don't know why because she is generally a happy kid--though more quiet and solemn than her older sister.

This is typical Hannah! She and Joshua seemed to have a greater love for the camera and hamming it up than the other two!

Now we have the fun of hunting for the eggs on Saturday morning. Oh, the fun! the joy! (Sarcasm. I do enjoy the egg hunt more than the egg coloring but I guess I am an Easter scrooge masquerading as a fun-loving mommy who provides all these glorious experiences for her children and sometimes my scrooginess peaks out too much : )! )

A good action shot!

Some golden finds!

This is the first year that he really got into the egg hunt. It was so cute to watch his excitement over each find--even if he had kept us up for most of the past four nights!

Here is Hyrum so you didn't think that he wasn't involved or that I neglected him!

Last of all we have the glam shots of the kids in all their Easter finery. I feel bad that this year Hyrum didn't have anything new to wear, but he was still handsome and doesn't really care too much about clothes (especially church clothes). At least Paul got him to wear a tie which is usually not done because Hyrum doesn't like how they feel. He is going to have to get used to them soon because he will have to wear one when he turns twelve and passes the sacrament. Maybe he will like a real tie better than a clip on. Anyway, enough of my rambling tangent.

My handsome boy.

Sweet Emma!

Vibrant Hannah!

My firstborn. I can't believe he is getting so old and tall. What a handsome kid.

Group Shot. The girls are actually the only ones with new clothes to wear (thanks to Nama). But the boys are looking very handsome with some ties added to celebrate the season in style. What a beautiful group of kids! I am one proud momma!

Well that is all. Sorry for the length, but most of it is pictures so I hope that it wasn't too onerous.

Firsts

2009-03-19T12:14:00.001-07:00

Well, I have been out of the blogging game for months now and am having a very difficult time getting back into things. It might be the fact that I still do very little in life due to exhaustion or it might be the pregnancy brain that is keeping me in a fog all the time. To help me ease back in I am copying this from my sister-in-law's blog. I hope that it isn't too boring for you.

Who was your FIRST pet? A German Shepherd named Kizzy. I don't know if she was a purebred or anything but she was a very gentle, sweet dog.

Do you still talk to your FIRST love? Everyday! I married him almost 11 years ago.

What was your FIRST job? Growing up I mostly just helped out at home. Occasionally I would help my dad with something on the farm. I also baby-sat some. However, my first "real" job was as a para-pro in the elementary during summer school. I was in charge of helping a little boy with Down's Syndrome.

What was your FIRST car? My parents had a blazer that I drove around in high school or I drove one of the family cars. When Paul and I first married we got a Thunderbird and drove that until we were expecting our third child.

Who was the FIRST person to text or call you today? The doctor's office, I think. They called to let me know that my prenatal quad screening blood work all came back negative so everything is good there.

Who was your FIRST grade teacher? I can't remember. I can see her face and I think that her name was something like Miss Eggbert (something with egg in it), but then she got married 1/2 way through the year and I can't remember anything about that name. It is also possible that I can't remember her first name and the "egg" name came with her marriage. : )

Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane? I think it was when my family went to Disneyland. I think I was about 6 years old.

Who was your FIRST best friend & do you still talk? Jorja Cox. We don't keep in touch. I moved away when I was 8 and that was it. We do still say hello if we ever run into each other at church things but that is very rare.

Where was your FIRST sleepover?Probably at my Grandma Jean's house. When my younger sister was born I guess I was jealous and stepped on or kicked her in the head so my Grandma took me to her house for some extra TLC. I don't remember it but that is the story. I was 2 1/2.

Who was the FIRST person you talked to today? I don't know. I think it was to my oldest telling him to be quiet. He was beating out rhythms on my bathroom counter while I was still in bed trying to sleep!

Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time? I have never been "in" a wedding. I don't even remember attending one until I was about 14.

What was the FIRST thing you did this morning? Helped my daughter put her hair in pig tails for school.

What was the FIRST concert you ever went to? I have never been to a concert.

FIRST set of stitches and how? I never had stitches until I was 18 years old and got my wisdom teeth out.

First piercing? My ears when I was twelve.

First foreign country you've been to? Canada--the only foreign country I've been to.

FIRST movie you remember? I am having a hard time remembering. Like Michelle, I think I remember seeing the Fox and the Hound in the theaters.

What was your FIRST bike? I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was 8 or 9. I think my first bike was pink and white with a banana seat, but that's all I can remember.

What was your FIRST computer? I had an old Mac computer of my dad's when I went to college.

Who was your FIRST roommate? Candice was the first name of my room roommate. I can't remember her last name. I also was roomies with Alison, Ilene, Colleen and Carey. They all became some of my best friends and made those two years of single college life fantastic. I still keep in touch with a few of them and I love it.

Well, that is about all you're going to get from me. I had a hard time with some of these. My memory is rather faulty as it is, but you add the fogginess of pregnancy brain and it is amazing I could think of the answers at all.

Family Photo Fun

2008-12-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

We took our family photo on Sunday for our Christmas letter. We were lucky that we were able to get a couple shots that were not embarrassing out of the 15-20 pictures my dad shot of us. Here are a few of-----

The Good

The Bad

and The Ugly

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2008-12-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

Just a photo of our little mess maker at his sister's school birthday party.

Children keep us humble. I love it when things come out of their mouths that bring to your attention the different phrases that we say too often. Last night:

My toddler is found smearing pudding all over some new coloring books, the kitchen counter and stool.

Mommy: Joshua!

Joshua: Knot (knock) it off?

I then have to spend a moment turned away trying not to laugh because I probably would have said "Knock it off!" Poor little boy. He is so curious and in the destructive phase of his development and I am worn out trying to keep up! I probably do say "knock it off" too often. Another phrase that I found out that I over use is "That's not a good idea." Imagine a little toddler voice saying "Not a dood idea?" Really cute. I wish that I could convey the cuteness through words but I am not that good. He says so many things that bring a smile or laugh to us everyday. Even with the stress and chaos he brings to our home he brings so much more joy and laughter. We couldn't do without him!

I just had to add these cute photos. Two minutes before I took this picture he was standing on top of the chair watching Mary Poppins and by the time I came back with a piece of bread for him to eat (since he was refusing to eat anything else for lunch--I am not a bad mother!) this is how I found him.

Another Catch Up Post

2008-11-17T09:41:00.001-08:00

Well, here I am again after having let too many things slide by without a post. I will give a few highlights and pictures of the last couple months. Sorry if this is a rather boring post but I don't have a lot of time and I do have a very messy house.

First off, my oldest daughter turned 7 in October. I can't believe how quickly the time goes by. In the blink of an eye she is going to be eight and getting baptized. I am so blessed to have Hannah as my daughter. She is completely different from me in personality and is rather feisty which tend to end with some collisions between us but she brings life and excitement and drama into everything she does and I am grateful for her vibrancy, intelligence, sweetness (yes, feisty and sweet can be mixed together) and her love for me. Here are a few photos of her enjoying her special day.

Our next highlight is the family vacation that we took to Yellostone National Park from the Oct. 10-14. It was so much fun even though there was an early snowstorm moving through that weekend. The kids loved the snow and, except for Saturday, you were able to stay warm enough while you were hiking the trails. It was like a winter wonderland. I was also able to celebrate my 31 birthday while on vacation and it was a great day even though it was the coldest day of the weekend. We drove around Yellowstone a little and hiked one trail before it got really bad. Then we went and watched an IMAX movie about Yellowstone and went out to eat and got free fried ice cream. Then, since my parents were with us for part of the weekend, they stayed with the kids while Paul and I went down to the hot tubs and relaxed for a while. It was a nice day. Here are a few photos of our vacation.

Here are a couple of our family photos at Yellowstone

Here is a photo of me freezing by a hot spring on my birthday!

Our winter wonderland! It was just so beautiful in some places!

There are a ton more pictures but I don't know how interested any of you would be in them. We did have one adventure. After my parents left we decided to go see a few more things before we left the next day. We went to see the Yellowstone Falls. We decided to go on Uncle Tom's Trail to get a good view of the Lower Yellowstone Falls. When we read this sign we should have taken it more seriously!

We had to go down a steep trail (which was snow covered) with a double stroller with Joshua in the front so that there was no weight in the back. We abandoned the stroller when we got to the steps. There were at least 6-8 long, steep staircases on the way down. My legs were shaking by the time we got to the bottom and it was hard to take a picture! It was a great view of the falls, however. Of course the pictures we took don't do it justice so I won't show them. Then we had to go back up and help our children along the way. Paul was helping Joshua and I helped the girls. When we reached the end of the stairs my throat was on fire and my legs were dragging and we still had to go up the steep, switchback trail with the stroller. Paul and I both had to push to get that thing up the trail at first because Emma wanted to ride too. She had to get out because it was too hard. We eventually did make it up the trail but we were too tired to do anything else so we just went back to the hotel to swim and watch a movie!

Our last big event in the last two months was, of course, Halloween. The kids love that holiday. I used to until I had to be the one in charge of all the costuming and holiday activities! I really don't like pumpkin carving and it is stressful to me to try to come up with cute costumes (especially since I don't sew and all the costumes are so expensive when you are trying to dress up 4 kids!) and I am in the Primary which means for the last 4 years I have been involved in all the Primary and Ward Halloween functions. However, I do it and the kids love it and that makes me happy. Here are a few pictures of the kids:

Just Call Me Speed Racer!

2008-11-17T09:33:00.000-08:00

This week I received another ticket! That's right. After 15 years of driving and never even getting pulled over I have been pulled over and given tickets (not warnings) twice in 3 weeks. I don't think the police around here like my face. This one was another stupid "spaced it" situation. My sister-in-law and I were driving to to town to visit another sister-in-law and her newborn twins, having a great conversation about our lives, and I blithely drove by the reduced speed sign without slowing down (not on purpose, mind you). Of course when the fancy, black, undercover cop car started flashing me I realized my mistake. I think the police need a second little device that would allow them to know when the law is being broken consciously or unconsciously and then act accordingly! I mean people get warnings all the time for speeding worse than me consciously! Maybe I need to cry rather than be sorry and look like a flake and then they might be nicer to me.

*My Week

2008-10-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

A few things stick out to me about this week. One is that my oldest daughter has now lost her other front tooth and we now have our own live jack-o-lantern for Halloween. I haven't taken any pictures of it yet but we will carve pumpkins tonight so I will send those along next week.

Another thing is that I baby-sat my sister-in-law's kids on Thursday and my youngest son and her youngest son, both two years old, had quite a little adventure. They were outside by our cars and shed playing with trucks in the dirt. I kept feeling a little nervous about this but told myself that my son does this every day and I always feel nervous and nothing is ever wrong. The worst my boy has ever done is travel out into the field behind our house. Well, I should have realized that two little boys could come up with much greater adventures and danger than that. I had felt the need to check on them for the last 5-10 min. and finally decided to take the trash out and check on the darlings. When I walked outside there was Dad. He told me that as he was driving past the fertilizer plant across the road from where we live (I know, really picturesque, right?), a friend from the ward waved him over. In his truck there were two little toddlers! Those boys had pushed their dump truck and school bus out across the gravel in front of our house and across O Road (who knows how long they played on the road!), over by fertilizer plant and then into the little barrow pit where Joshua had to stop because his shoe-less feet were full of stickers. It seems to me like he might not even have had pants on! (What a great mom!) This episode still makes me cringe inside and thank Heavenly Father that no harm came to those little guys out there. I just wish I had been faster at following those promptings. Rest assured, they were never, and never again will be, allowed to play outside the fenced in area! I have been trying harder ever since to follow through on thoughts that come to me just in case they come from the Spirit.

My youngest also managed to dump a whole container of Brasso cleaner on the desk and carpet this week. My husband uses the Brasso to repair scratched DVD's. He left it on the desk after fixing Cars and I didn't realize it so I left my son there watching a movie while I went and got dressed and ready for the day. He comes to me with this DVD that is all foggy from Brasso being put on and rubbed off and tells me he is cleaning "Caws." I tell him that he is not allowed to do that, only daddy can, and go out to see the damage. A large puddle on the desk and floor! Luckily nothing valuable was in contact with it or ruined but I got sick off the fumes while I was cleaning it up. my wonderful husband had to get out my new carpet shampooer (my requested birthday present) and start the clean up process for me because I couldn't get by the computer without choking. So all in all there was no real damage and I got to try out my birthday present and find out that it is a pretty good machine! Will this boy ever stop being so curious?! Or at least stop making huge messes in his curiosity!?

The only other thing of note is that I got my first speeding ticket. On my way home from town on Wednesday I was driving past one of the schools in town and failed to notice the 20-mph-flashing-lights-sign. Before you judge you should try spending a full day in town with my two year old and see if you are completely alert! I saw that there were a few kids walking around and remember thinking that they must get out earlier than our schools but that is as far as my awareness of the situation went. I was at a complete loss as to why I was pulled over until the policeman told me. Since the original speed limit is 35 mph when the yellow lights aren't flashing and I was going 36 mph I was 16 miles over in a school zone which gives me a whopping $353 ticket! I am trying to get up courage to call Pre-paid Legal and try to get the ticket reduced. I mean, it isn't like I live in that city and am completely familiar with all the zoning there and I have never been pulled over in my whole driving lifetime except for once when I was a teenager and one of my headlights was out! I think all of this should count for some reduction here. I mean, Christmas is coming! Where's the love?

There were other more positive events that happened this week but they don't make up for very entertaining reading so I will just leave it at that. I hope that you can all get a good laugh out of this. I am still trying to find the laughter inside myself, but I am sure it will come. I love to laugh!

*Sorry I have no photos for any of this. I will try to make my next post more visually stimulating!

Room Makeover

2008-09-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

I wish that I had thought about this post before. I just redid our old office into my own little sanctuary (i.e. craft room--or as we say, Mommy's Office). However, I never took any before pictures. So unless you were one who saw it before you will not be wowed by the transformation. I am proud of it so I thought I would post pictures since that is all I was able to focus on last week.

This week I am redoing my old craft/storage/trashed room into a new bedroom for my oldest son. Maybe I will take some pictures of its bareness before I decorate it up and then someday when I have finally got all the bedding, curtains and pictures made and put up I will post another blog of a transformed room.

Farming 2008

2008-09-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

This is my husband "driving" the tractor in the field behind our house. In case you can't tell what is going on in the picture, he is reading while driving. This tractor is hooked to a GPS device so that all my husband needs to do is turn it around at one end of the field and line it up to head down to the other end of the field and then the GPS takes over until he reaches the end of the field again. He has read a couple books this way. Not that my husband doesn't have other, more difficult and even unpleasant jobs at other times. But when it is his time to drive this tractor around for the day or a few hours I don't really feel sorry for him and his long day away from home (and the mess and the fights and the stresses, etc.) He is happy that at the time of this picture he was reading his scriptures and so was doing something worthwhile and productive. : )

Thanks Ashley for giving me the idea from this post. It never crossed my mind until you mentioned it. I guess I have gotten used to seeing it over the last year or so when they first got it and didn't see anything unusual about it. It took a fresh perspective for me to see the blogging opportunities. : )

Terrible Two's

2008-09-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

The photo is kind of blurry and has nothing to do with this post, but it is a favorite of mine. He is doing "Chubby"

Joshua has really settled into being two this week. One day this week, I was in my room reading my scriptures, and it dawned on me that there was water running somewhere. I went into the kitchen and there was Joshua at the edge of the kitchen sink (that is when I discovered that he can now climb on my kitchen counters) and was running water everywhere! Our faucet pulls out from the stand and he was having a great time. I got him down and went to work soaking up all the water. As soon as that was done I turned around and discovered that he had pulled the butter down from the other counter and dumped some on the kitchen rug and was spreading it on his legs. I got that mess cleaned up and he decided to give me a break for the rest of the day. The next day I am again reading my scriptures and he comes in with his hands covered in syrup! I am thinking, "Oh great." However, I go in the kitchen and there isn't any syrup there. I check where the syrup is stored (hoping that it is there and he only just got a little on his hands). No syrup. I go to the family room and there it is. Empty. Sitting in many puddles of syrup! All over the recliner, in the girl's laundry basket (luckily it was empty!), and all over the floor!!!!!!!! I was able to clean up the chair, the laundry basket, and his car garage (forgot to mention that one) and tried to get it out of the floor. We need some major carpet cleaning over here! Yesterday he managed to spill the brown sugar and white sugar all over the kitchen floor while I was trying to get ready to go to town. I am going to have to tie him up or something whenever I need to let him out of my sight! On Saturday when we were doing the chores I got some Windex from under the sink for Emma and the dish soap fell out. I thought I would come back and pick it up when I finished spraying the mirror for Emma, but when I got back Joshua had squeezed a large puddle on the floor. When I took it away he screamed, grabbed the spray bottle we use for hair and started spraying that as fast and frantically as he could knowing I would be taking that away as well. I wish now that I had taken some pictures but at the time I didn't think of it. Just as I was writing this he crawled into the tub, turned on the water and then turned on the shower (much to his surprise). I rescued him and tried to take some pictures of that one, but you can't really tell what is going on in it since I saved him before he was really soaked. Hope you all get a laugh out of this and keep me in your prayers that I will be able to keep my sanity through my son's Mr. Curious phase! I look forward to the adventures of this week!

Summer Days

2008-09-05T17:01:00.000-07:00

Far too much has happened this summer to be able to do a reasonable size blog so I thought I would just write a few lists to give a brief recap of summer and maybe add a few favorite pictures. I am burnt out and extremely brain dead right now and so apologize for my lack of creativity. I will try to improve in future blogs! (Key word: try)

Favorite events/things from summer 2008:

The Hansen Family Reunion
The Garner Family Reunion
The Jensen Family Reunion (as you can see, we were pretty busy with family this summer and it was so good to see relatives we only see every 2-3 years.)
Our little overnight vacation to Leavenworth, Wa with the kids
taking each of the kids on a special before school/school shopping date (though we were both a little sick of Chuck E. Cheese!)
watching my youngest just get in and LOVE the water
watching my other children work on and improve their swimming skills
Baby showers, card parties and other times with family and friends
Hyrum enjoying learning how to cook and Hannah enjoying being his assistant--they made me a yummy scrambled egg and orange juice breakfast in bed one day.

Some of my least favorite things/events of summer 2008:

Trying to get through the insane scheduling for dental appointments (here in Mattawa there aren't a lot of options in town for dental work--one place--and the way they have you set up appointments is often beyond frustrating!)
Having to do the aforementioned scheduling most weeks out of the summer (either because we couldn't get in or because there were numerous cavities to fill)
Having to try to get work done with 4 children underfoot and trying to get the older 3 of those children to help clean up the messes they are constantly making! Anyone with children knows what I am talking about and the frustration levels that can be reached when working with children
Cleaning up the messes that Hyrum made while learning how to cook.
Becoming pregnant as planned and then miscarrying (this was not something that I was going to post but I think I have healed from that time and it is something that added stress to my summer days. So, there it is. I don't want anyone worrying about me. I am completely healed and just waiting a few months before trying again. If you have a new baby and live by me make sure you give me some time to hold them. It really helps me!)
Having a two year old with almost no fear of the water.
Children who can't seem to get along and were fond of telling me how bored they were as if it was my responsibility to entertain them constantly and falling down on the job!
Finding baby-sitters since my youngest sister finally grew up and left home for Arizona and is no longer here to help us out in this capacity.
Having to do Sharing Time for the month of August which is a busy month anyway and also a very long one (5 Sundays) and one in which we had our Stake Primary Presidency come visit our ward!

So that is our summer in a nutshell. I am hoping to find a little breathing room again to accomplish more projects now that two of the kids are in school. I just need to take a small breather first and get up some motivation!

Here are a few favorite photos from our summer:

My little toga trucker--he would live outside with his trucks and dirt if we let him!

My fearless swimmer

My sweetie

My handsome husband and me in, I think, the only picture taken of me this summer--luckily it looks good!

My oldest. He is actually mad at his parents in the first photo (for being "unfair" or something) but isn't he cute?

Playing in a mud puddle. His shirt was actually a white onsie to start with. It took a lot of rinsing and scrubbing to get that mud out of his hair and quite a time to get all that dirt down the drain!

Miss Photogenic. She seems to look cute in almost every picture we take of her! That is the watermelon that she grew from a seed, started in her Kindergarten class.

My two year old clapping and cheering on his birthday. : )

There are too many favorites! I better stop now so I can go get the kids in bed. Enjoy this post!

Girl in a Whirl

2008-06-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

My mom just handed this poem to me when I picked up my kids. Some of you may have read this before but I thought it was very funny so decided to share.

"The Girl In A Whirl"
by "Dr. Sues" (a.k.a. Vickie Gunther)

"Look at me, look at me, look at me now!
You could do what I do if you only knew how.
I study the scriptures one hour each day;
I bake,
I upholster,
I scrub, and I pray.
I always keep all the commandments completely;
I speak to my little ones gently and sweetly.
I help in their classrooms!
I sew all they wear!
I drive them to practice!
I cut all their hair!
I memorize names of the General Authorities;
I focus on things to be done by priorities.
I play the piano!
I bless with my talents!
My toilets all sparkle!
My checkbooks all balance!
Each week every child gets a one-on-one date;
I attend all my meetings (on time! Never late!)
I'm taking a class on the teachings of Paul,
But that is not all! Oh, no. That is not all!
I track my bad habits 'til each is abolished;
Our t-shirts are ironed!
My toenails are polished!
Our family home evenings are always delightful;
The lessons I give are both fun and insightful.
I do genealogy faithfully, too.
It's easy to do all the things that I do!
I rise each day early, refreshed and awake;
I know all the names of each youth in my stake!
I read to my children!
I help all my neighbors!
I bless the community, too, with my labors.
I exercise and I cook menus gourmet;
My visiting teaching is done the first day!
(I also go do it for someone who missed hers.
It's the least I can do for my cherished ward sisters.)
I chart resolutions and check off each goal;
I seek each "lost lamb" on my Primary roll.
I can home-grown produce each summer and fall.
But that is not all! Oh, no. That is not all!
I write in my journal! I sing in the choir!
Each day, I write "thank yous" to those I admire.
My sons were all Eagles when they were fourteen!
My kids get straight A's! And their bedrooms are clean!
I have a home business to help make some money;
I always look beautifully groomed for my honey.
I go to the temple at least once a week;
I change the car's tires!
I fix the sink's leaks!
I grind my own wheat and I bake all our bread;
I have all our meals planned out six months ahead.
I make sure I rotate our two-year supply;
My shopping for Christmas is done by July!
These things are not hard; 'tis good if you do them;
You can if you try!
Just set goals and pursue them!
It's easy to do all the things that I do!
If you plan and work smart, you can do them all, too!
It's easy!" she said
and then she dropped dead.

This was very funny to me. All of us do some of these things (some seem capable of doing more than others--that is not me.) However, most women really do think we need to be just like the woman in that poem (I am guilty as charged--three times over!) I want to remember to read this when I start bewailing my incompetence and ineffectiveness as a wife, mother and homemaker and start comparing myself to others to a degree that I begin to judge myself worthless. This adds the right touch of lightness to bring my spirits up and remind me that I cannot be all things and that there is a time and season to do things. Maybe it will help you too. Happy chuckling!

Since Me Last Post . . . .

2008-06-15T20:27:00.000-07:00

I have played a small part in our high school musical, Oliver!

I worked at making Valentines Day a special day.

I attended Time Out For Women in Spokane with my mom and two sisters.

I went to NYC for 4 days!!!

My oldest started Cub Scouts and we had our first Pinewood Derby.

My husband and his brother started up a new business together (though Paul is still also working for my dad). They are now trying to get into the composting business.

I dyed Easter eggs (which I hate) so my kids would love Easter.

I got through Easter (I had to sing a solo in the program and almost died!)

(The Easter Day finery)

I have done 2 months of Sharing Time.

I helped to put on an Easter Activity Day and an amazingly fun Activity Day about countries around the world.

I went on a long vacation to Seaside, OR with Paul to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary in July.

(Paul and I at the seashore in Seaside. We weren't brave enough to ask someone to take a picture of us together.)

I did daycare a couple of days a week for a friend of mine who teaches.

I volunteered once a week in my kids' classrooms.

Was part of an Elder's Quorum Progressive Dinner.

Went to two school choir music nights and various other school related activities.

(Hannah's Dino Concert. We forgot to take the camera to Hyrum's concert. Many tears and exclamations of "It's not fair!" ensued.)

Helped out at my son's 2nd Grade Sleepout at the school (and, no, I did not stay up all night. I have a demanding almost-two-year-old to deal with. But I was there until 1 or 2 am).

(Hyrum with some classmates getting ready to play hide and seek throughout the school)

Was trying to lose weight. I only succeeded in losing and gaining the same 4 or 5 pounds on a rotating basis, but I did try.

I had the stomach flu during one of my busiest weeks in April (but this got me out of doing a few things and therefore lightening my load.)

Got through Spring Break!

Took kids to or attended various birthday parties, card making parties, luncheons, meetings and church parties.

Was an almost 100% Visiting Teacher :)

Attended numerous dance recitals and performances.

(Hannah's Farmyard and Cruella DeVille dances)

Helped with the end of year activities such as: Arts In the Park, Kindergarten Park Day, Kindergarten Graduation and my youngest sister's High School Graduation.

(Hannah with her teacher, Miss Zirker--also our Primary President--and with her cousin Holly, who was in the same class.)

Took two of my children to the dentist for the first time and found out that at least half of their teeth are rotting out of their heads!

Spent many hours in the dentist office to get the teeth fixed (with more hours to come) and spent (or at least, will have spent) thousands of dollars on dental bills since we have absolutely zero dental insurance unless one of us needs dental surgery following an accident or something (which is why this is the first time we have taken our kids to the dentist--a bad mistake, I know).

My husband and several different relatives spent many hours finally fencing in my backyard (a dream that started before we first moved into our house 5 1/2 years ago!)

So that is my life in a nutshell over the last 5 months (in no particular order). I hope to get better at this. If any of you are interested to learn more about something that I have done (as listed here) let me know and maybe I will do another post on just that thing and fill in any blanks. I was avoiding writing because their was just so much to say so I decided to cut it short and let you decide if you want to hear more. I hope that this post was somewhat enjoyable and not just tedious to get through.

(I didn't really have pictures of Emma and Joshua in this post so I added a few that I liked. Joshua is listening to my iPod and Emma is practicing her Princess curtsy in her Easter dress.)

It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To!

2008-01-25T11:08:00.000-08:00

I missed my blogging time on Sunday this week but I feel justified in the fact that I was suffering from some kind of strange illness. I finally was feeling better yesterday except for exhaustion so I have been trying to get a little caught up on things now. The one thing that I thought would be interesting to blog about last week was my husband's awesome birthday party.

Last Thursday my hubbie turned 31. I thought that I would throw him a friend party rather than the traditional family party. Not that 31 is one of those milestone birthdays or anything. I just felt too overwhelmed last year to handle throwing a large party but I felt better about it this year (even though we are busier now--go figure?).

Now, I am not very good at inviting people to come over. I always worry that maybe they won't want to and will feel pressured to say yes or just outright reject me! : ) Or I worry that I won't be able to make the evening enjoyable enough and they will feel that they wasted their time. But I called people up (another phobia of mine is calling people on the phone--go me!) and invited 6 other couples to join us in celebrating Paul's birth on Thursday evening.

On Wednesday I started cleaning and baking like a crazy woman. I made up lists of everything that might possibly need to be cleaned or cooked by Thursday evening and went at it. I made cake, I made his birthday dinner in advance so we could eat early and get the kids in bed before everyone arrived, I picked up/dusted/vacuumed/scrubbed/mopped everything except the kids rooms and our offices. The next day I did more of the same. By the time we were having our little family birthday dinner celebration before the kids' bedtime I was exhausted and getting very nervous about the evening.

After dinner we moved the table into the family room and set up the chocolate fountain, the cakes, the cheese and crackers, the fruit and dip and the water. We got the kids in jammies with family prayer and scriptures said and tucked in bed and now we needed to await our guests.

The sad part is that no one came.

My husband's brother showed up 20 min. late with their dad. Their dad left about a quarter to eight. By now I am fighting to keep a brave face for my husband and one guest but it was hard not to cry. My brother-in-law's wife showed up about 8 and I called my family to please come over and help us eat all the food that I had made. They did and we were able to have a nice evening together, but I have sworn to forgo any more large parties until he is 40! It is too stressful for me and so extremely depressing to have no one come.

Now, so you don't think that we have no friends, they did all have excuses. And two of the couples did call to inform us early that they wouldn't be able to make it. Of the others, one couple had sickness in the house, one couldn't find baby-sitting, and one couldn't get away from a scouting meeting that they were in. It would have been nice to have phone calls to know ahead of time but such is life sometimes. But overall, I feel safer with family parties. Family at least pretends they want to be with you ! : ).

The next night we were able to go out with Paul's brother and his wife and Paul's parents to a movie and had fun that way. All in all it wasn't a bad birthday. At least I didn't have to mess up my gorgeously clean home with a party! And seeing as how I got sick two days later it really helped to have things nice and clean before it started to fall apart rather than the other way around.

So, that is my adventure of the awesome birthday party and the lessons learned therefrom. Have a great week.

GSA (a.k.a. Gluttony Sufferers Anonymous)

2008-01-13T20:22:00.000-08:00

Hello. My name is Kristin Hansen and I suffer from gluttony.

This week I have been striving to overcome this huge desire to stuff my face all day long. The more unhealthy it is the more my mouth seems to want to have it. Before Thanksgiving I was doing pretty good with Weight Watchers (keeping in my POINTS range most of the time and exercising 3-4 days a week for an hour). However, I have gone back to my gluttonous ways and I am struggling to return from the abyss!

I was blaming this on my children, saying that they were the ones that made me get so fat and so tired that I don't have the energy or brain power to resist those cakes and cookies or get off my rear end (not to their faces of course--what kind of mother do you think I am!?). However, I remember now that it started back with the Freshman 15 (or 25 or whatever it was)!!! In high school I seemed to have a lot more restraint. I was never the skinny girl but I had will power to eat one candy bar over several days or eat only a slice of bread or two rather than half a loaf! : ) Then I left home, bought my own groceries with no one telling me what to eat or when to eat or how much to eat and not having to share the food with a house full of people. My slumbering gluttony awoke and reared its ugly head and I seem to be able only to knock it out for short periods of time, never eradicate it!

I have been trying, for over a year, to lose 50 lbs. so that the next time I was pregnant I would not just continue to add another 10 lbs. to my bulk. I have managed to lose 30-35 lbs. which I should be proud of, but I can't seem to get passed the fact that I still have 20 to go. Does anyone have any magic will power pills to sell?! My good friend has started a 6 month BiggestLoser competition and I think that will help, but I am not a very competitive person so the thought of it hasn't been enough so far to get me to stop wanting (and usually giving in) to eating everything in sight. However, I do not want to report a weight gain so I have been limiting my portions (somewhat) and chewing a lot of gum to make me stop and think before I stuff. Maybe slowly but surely my once emerging better health habits will return.

Does anybody out there suffer like me and have suggestions for conquering the gluttony monster? HELP!!!

Time Flies

2008-01-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

I am not sure that anyone cares that I haven't written here since October, but I figure that there is no point in creating a blog if I am not going to use it. (And sorry about having no pictures. I'll get on the ball next time.) So, for one of my New Year's Resolutions I have decided to try and write at least once a week about some "adventure" that has taken place in my little family. Maybe I will then catch the blogging bug and be more consistent. I don't think anyone really reads this but it will be a good way for me to keep a small record of my family's lives through the years. However, I have resolved to do better in my journaling most every year and have yet to really make it happen. It is all about enduring and continuing to try though, right? So here goes my first blog for January of 2008.

I thought that this time I would just jot down the major happenings of our week this time.

Monday: New Year's Eve! Paul and I usually celebrate the New Year alone at home since it is hard to get a babysitter for that time and then we usually do not stay up until midnight even. This year our ward had a 9pm-1am party at the church and I was in charge of doing some things for the young Primary kids who might come. I was just going to go alone while Paul watched the kids and come home around 11 when we were done with the activities. My mom and dad, however, said that they would have the kids sleep over at their house that night and Paul and I could go to the party! I thought, "Yea!!! Our first date in about a month (maybe more). " However, I spent 2 hours helping kids make Fruit Loop necklaces and when we were finally done Paul was involved in a Risk game. Good-bye to an evening spent together. I spent another hour watching others dance and then asked Paul if he wanted to come celebrate the New Year with me and his reply was only, "I still have 5 minutes." So I left upset and went to watch the fireworks and twirl my noisemaker alone. He did come out and watched with me for a while and then gave me a dance before returning to his game. I spent the rest of the evening visiting with some friends and being drug out on the dance floor with all the girls to dance to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" (not really my thing). He did come and dance the last dance with me, but overall, not the best New Year I ever spent.

Tuesday: Laid around and did nothing!

Wednesday: Laid around and did almost nothing. : ) In my defense, I was feeling rather queasy.

Thursday: Still queasy but spent the day in town shopping with the kids and spouse and then spent several late hours scrapbooking and visiting with good friends.

Friday: Tried to act like I was helping Paul get the house in order but really struggling to do anything due to the late hours kept the night before : ). We spent the afternoon and evening at my mom's and dad's visiting with my sister and her fiancee and playing games with some friends.

Saturday: A big and special day. My first child was baptized. It was a stress in my life for most of the week. I hadn't been able to focus on it before due to Christmas and all the family partying going on so I was feeling a little unprepared. However, when the day came I didn't feel very stressed at all. The spirit was helping me to not sweat the small stuff and really enjoy the experience, I think. We kept it very simple and the spirit filled in any blanks. It was a wonderful experience to watch my own child take this first step. He is such a sweet, gentle boy who loves to learn and plan things out. He loves animals and drawing, reading and music. He gets very nervous about new experiences and he was a little anxious about this (especially since he is rather scared to put his face in the water!) I am so proud of him for not making a fuss and just doing everything with poise and quietness. He had his Grandpa Hansen and his Uncle Art Hansen give the talks and his dad performed the baptism and confirmation. I was a little sad that all our family had come to visit last week for Christmas and so there wouldn't be very many for his baptism but the small group was very nice. It was just grandparents and great-grandparents and a few aunts and great aunts and uncles. He had a couple friends come with their families and you could really appreciate each person as they came to show their love and friendship for Hyrum. It was a great feeling. My bother, Danny, is serving a mission and was sad that he couldn't be there but he wrote us a letter to read to Hyrum as a surprise at his baptism. It was a surprise for everyone and brought a very special spirit into the room. Afterwards we had dessert at my parents house and had so much fun visiting and eating. It was a fantastic day!

Now today is Sunday and tomorrow I have to start living real life again and I am almost sure that I am ready. I will miss not having my husband around as much to help and support me and I am not looking forward to having most of the free time that I have enjoyed lately taken away or my opportunity to sleep in diminished. However, there is a great deal to be said for routine and orderliness and I am ready to get back to that. December has been a month of craziness and complete change from the normal. But I now have a new back door, a broken window replaced, a new dishwasher, a painted family room and master bath and was able to visit with so many family members on both sides (there were about 50 people gathered in my in-laws double wide after the holidays! That's what you get for having 9 children, I guess, and teaching them about multiplying and replenishing the earth ; ) ). Let normal life begin!

Birthdays, Birthdays and more Birthdays!!!!

2007-10-10T08:28:00.001-07:00

You might think, from the title, that this will be about the birthdays of my daughter Hannah, my brother Danny and myself which are all within 1 week, however, this is not so. I am speaking of the numerous birthday parties I have had to plan for one small girl turning six.

Because her birthday was on a Saturday and she is now a schoolgirl we needed to celebrate with her class on Friday. This seemed very stressful to me as I made 5 dozen cookies the night before and worked on getting all the gear in the car the next day, but it all turned out great and I left that class a glowing success. I read the kids a short story called the Birthday Zoo and then gave them all Ginger Crinkles (one of Hannah's favorites--she isn't big on chocolate) and apple juice. The kids enjoyed the story and everyone adored the cookies so I could relax and enjoy Hannah's happiness--I did forget to have the teacher take our picture, though.

Then to add to the confusion, her birthday was General Conference weekend. And not just any Conference weekend, but the weekend my sister's fiancee and in-laws-to-be were coming so they could finalize all their plans and parents could get to know one another. Mom really helped with this one so it wasn't extremely stressful in the planning stage, but fitting in pizza and a couple presents in between the first two sessions and cake and pie and the rest of the presents between the afternoon and priesthood sessions (add in extra people, wedding planning, Paul's 5th and 6th grade football game and an overly excited little birthday girl and it is amazing that we made it through!)

Now, owing to the fact that her birthday was during conference I am now obligated (as she sees it) to plan a final party for her and a few friends this coming Friday after school. I almost made it for Thursday after school but remembered that that is MY birthday and didn't think that I needed to ruin my day with that stress (Funny how I can't hardly remember my own birthday anymore). I can't wait until we can finally just be glad she is six and stop celebrating!

TGIF

2007-09-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here is just a quick thought that I had today. I used to love Fridays. It meant fun and relaxation were on the way. Then I became a mother and all days seemed to be pretty much like any other yet Fridays were still pretty good because it meant that Paul would be spending more time at home for two days. However, now that I have four children and two of them attend school I find that I now dread Fridays. Weekends now mean two whole days of trying to get kids to do chores and get along with one another and feed all of them instead of just a few and watch them make bigger and even more messes and an even bigger dread of Monday when I have to make my sorry, exhausted self get the house back in order (and depending on the week that could take up until the next Friday when we start all over again!) I guess I really have been spoiled having my quiet Emma and my two-nap baby be the only ones with me the majority of the time. I need to learn to adjust to this new way of life. Don't get me wrong. I love my kids and I love to have them home (when they are being nice!), but I am not the best homemaker around and it is hard enough on normal days to conquer the chaos that seems to repeatedly swamp our home so it only gets worse when we are all there!!! I just think it is kind of sad that I no longer get that feeling of TGIF and I feel guilty that the causes of my stress are two little people that I deeply love. Hopefully it is mostly because school has just started and I am not used to the routine and am feeling extra tired these days since I am getting up an hour or two earlier now so I can get the kids on the bus. It is all about adjustment--I just wish I adjusted more quickly!

My Top 10 Reasons for Not Blogging in a Month!

2007-09-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

I really don't have time to be doing this right now (we are leaving for a family reunion in a couple hours and I still have housework and a sharing time to prepare), but I have been feeling the pressure to write something so I will give a short list of the things that I have been doing that have kept me from really thinking about blogging.

1. Right after my last blog we had a family reunion for my mom's side of the family and my brother brought his family from Utah so they could bless their baby that weekend with lots of family around. The above is a picture of my youngest being held by his favorite person--my handsome husband!

2. I was in the middle of doing all those before school doctor appointments, haircuts and taking Hyrum and Hannah on special dates to get all their school gear.

3. I was swamped with housework and painting our family room (which is still only half done, by the way).

4. I had four children running around me, making messes, demanding attention, fighting, wanting to go places, eating everything in sight, etc. Above is a picture of one of the aforementioned mess-making-demanding-eating kiddos.

5. My sister came home to visit.

6. We had to celebrate my youngest daughter's 4th birthday party early so that she wouldn't feel deprived of anything since we were going to be traveling on her birthday.

7. I had to prepare my home and family for our trip to Montana this last weekend.

8. We were attending school open houses, kindergarten orientation, and getting kids to school.

9. I went on the above mentioned vacation to Montana.

10. When you live an hour away from any good shopping places running those errands and going on those dates are no small task.

Now I know that these might seem flimsy excuses to some, but they seem very rational to me. They at least have kept me busy enough and exhausted enough to have little energy left for writing something. I hope that now that we have two kids in school and one of the kids left at home plays so well by herself and the other takes two naps a day I might find a little more time to do some of the things I enjoy and finish up a few more projects.

100 Random Things About Me At 29!

2007-08-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

This is something I have thought about doing for a long time for a scrapbook layout I was doing, but I never actually did it. Then my friend Ilene got this same idea for another friend and did it for a blog and I decided to stop procrastinating and just do it. I mean the scrapbook layout is already all made up and just waiting for my list of things and if I don't hurry I won't be 29 anymore and will have to redo the layout to read 30 (Yikes! I am getting old!). So here it goes.

I love to eat brownies. I just have a hard time stopping once I start.
I have been losing weight all year and am finally only 15 lbs. away from my goal--which is still 15-20 lbs. more than high school but I have given up on that dream (Thank goodness I am tall!)
I am still very in love with the first love of my life--together 15 years, married 9 years.
I love to reread old favorites. (Jane Austen, Anne of Green Gables, Mitford, and Harry Potter to name a few).
New books make me a little nervous because I worry about the cleanliness of the content and whether it will be emotionally demanding--I greatly prefer happy books.
Same goes for movies.
I love the color yellow.
I love spring and fall. I love it when the weather is cooler and the seasons are changing. Winter and Summer are more extreme, I like the moderate.
I like to play the piano, but am only moderate at it. I plan to improve, but that will probably not happen until my kids are older.
I have 4 beautiful and intelligent children.
I love the sound of children playing together happily and using their imaginations, creativity and talents--I just wish that that happened more around my house! : )
I do not like calling people on the phone. I get nervous. I am doing better at this but it is still a sort of phobia that I am working on!
I am rather a reserved person until I get to know someone and then I am very open and warm and rather too chatty sometimes. : )
I love to sing, but have low confidence in my abilities (except in my own imagination).
I used to think I was an intelligent person but since having children my mind seems to have shut down. This actually bothers me quite a bit. I guess that means I was a little proud or vain about my brain before, doesn't it?
I loved school and getting the new books at the beginning of each semester and learning.
I hated writing papers and tests made me so nervous. I would study for hours and hours in order to get A's.
I thought I would be good at homemaking and mothering until I became one.
I do not enjoy housework. I love the FlyLady!
I enjoy knitting, crocheting, embroidery, scrapbooking, etc. I guess this is why I am perfectly content to stay at home with all my quiet, solitary (and, sadly, sedentary interests).
I do not enjoy solitary exercise. I need a movie or a book or a friend to help me get moving.
I love to eat.
I do not love to cook
I love baking.
I like to be in the water, but putting on a bathing suit is embarrassing.
I can't fall asleep at night unless I read a little something.
I tend to rub my feet together or on something when relaxing--I guess it is soothing to me.
I love good photography. I would love to learn how to do it myself but don't want to spend the money on all the equipment so probably will have to just keep enjoying others work.
I am not a decisive person usually.
I don't like contention. It makes me anxious.
I don't usually contradict people. That doesn't mean that I agree with them, but I just keep my opinions to myself.
I love the smell of fresh baked homemade bread.
I love the smell of bookstores with all those new books.
Libraries and book stores are two of my favorite places to go.
I have a strong testimony of the gospel of Christ.
I spend large sums of money very carefully and thoughtfully. If I could just extend that carefulness to small purchases as well we would never have to struggle financially!
I can come up with great ideas for furniture placement and how to paint and paper walls in an effort to decorate my home. I am not good at deciding what pictures, curtains, knick-knacks, shelves, mirrors, etc. should go on those walls. So my home (after almost 5 years here) still looks like a work in progress.
I enjoy making homemade cards.
I want to learn how to be proficient at sewing.
I want to be able to get a college degree before I die.
I love history, but my retention of all the facts is iffy. : )
I only like to work outside in the spring and fall when the temperature is more bearable.
I love to dream up home improvement projects and get all the stuff to do these projects, but then I seem to struggle to start and completely finish said projects before jumping to another one.
Some of my favorite music is LDS (religious) artists, broadway, show tunes, oldies, and Primary songs.
I enjoy watching old movies and old TV shows.
I love my parents and siblings and think they are amazing and intelligent people who I look up to as examples.
I worry about things too much.
I am usually pretty good at giving people the benefit of the doubt.
I have a hard time saying no to people.
I have a big curiosity about people and their lives.
I like learning something new, but I am not really great about trying new things in a group of people (especially when all eyes are on me) Call it pride or vanity, but so it is.
I love the feeling of intense love I feel sometimes when looking at, listening to or being with my children or husband.
I love all of my in-laws. I do not have struggles with any of them which is a great feeling.
I love carbohydrates more that fruits and vegetables which makes it hard in trying to change my eating so that I can be healthier and set a good example for my children. : )
I am a good driver but I do not like driving much.
I have a hard time giving gifts because I always want to give the perfect, most useful, or most beautiful or most loved thing. I am still trying to learn the concept, "It's the thought that counts".
I think that I am more similar to my mom in looks and gestures and how I carry myself, but I think I am a pretty good mix of my mom's and dad's personalities--maybe even leaning a little more towards my dad.
I think my parents are some of the greatest people in the world and want to be like them.
I have not worn jewelry much and have a hard time choosing something out to accessorize with because it looks strange to me when I put it on (at least with necklaces that is) and earrings tend to hurt my ears.
I love video taping family life. I am a definite amateur at it but I enjoy it.
I love flowers. All sorts. They make me happy.
I love to get together and chat with my friends.
I tend to avoid housework and other stresses in life by escaping to another world or time reading a book. I have to fight this tendency all the time.
I love family get togethers.
I love living out in the country except for the fact that a hospital is 45 min. away. (Especially when thinking about my son with his extreme peanut allergy and asthma and when contemplating having another baby.)
I am not ready to have another baby quite yet. : )
I tend to get most angry with my husband when he is not spending much time with me. Though I also don't enjoy it when he is relaxing while I am still working--but that could go along with not spending time with me, right? : )
It is almost the exclusive ability of Paul and my children to make me really angry. Why is that?
I look back on my two years at BYU with nostalgia. Those two years meant a lot to me.
I love reading marriage books. Not because my marriage is in trouble. I guess I just figure it can't hurt and will probably help and they help to remind us of what we should be doing in our marriages to keep them strong.
I like the smell of paint and stain and finish and sanded wood and all that.
I love to sit around a campfire and smell the smoke and watch the flames.
On dates I probably most look forward to the meal because I don't have to cook it or clean it up--and I love to eat!
I am sentimental.
I love romance but, like my friend Ilene, I am usually too practical.
I am a private person, but am pretty open to close friends--as mentioned earlier.
I tend to be a little bit of a control freak about some things.
I love order, lists, planning, etc.
However, in the matter of housework my motivation is low and so the above love gets overlooked and, therefore, causes me some pain and stress.
I have a loving and helpful husband who helps out a lot. He should probably be the one at home since he tends to face the work more instead of avoiding it. : )
I am rather a perfectionist I am discovering and not sure that I like that.
I am looking forward to buying some new clothes in October for my birthday when, hopefully, I have reached my goal weight, or at least am very close.
At this time in my life I feel my best physical features are my eyes and my mouth and skin.
I love to look at organizational tools and products. There are so many great things out there to help improve the organization and efficiency of our homes. However, I don't usually buy any because I can't decide if it will work for me or don't want to spend the money. (Refer to #'s 29 and 36!)
I hate asking people to babysit my kids.
I have a great sense of humor and like to think that I am witty, but I am afraid that it usually happens by accident! I admire those who can witty and think creatively in a quick, spur of the moment way. I am a bit more slow--though I like to think that part of that is the death of so many brain cells due to pregnancy and child-rearing. : )
I am a patient person and I think that I am a kind and thoughtful person. However, I am not perfect in these areas because at home, where patience, kindness and thoughtfulness are very necessary I often fall short! : )
My favorite time of the day is when the kids are in bed. Isn't that awful!
My least favorite time of day is about 4 or 5 pm to 7 pm. By that time I have had it, I am cooking dinner (not one of my favorite things), the kids are tired and things are pretty rough.
When Paul is unhappy everything seems worse. Maybe that is because he always seems happy, laid back and not worried so when he is then all my worries kick into overdrive. : )
I struggle with the bad habit of nail biting. Sometimes I am doing well and have beautiful nails and then worry or boredom or something happens and I chew them all off. My Grandma D. says that nail biting is a sign of perfectionism.
I am a little embarrassed about being overly talkative, but can't seem to stop myself! Look at the length of some of these entries! : )
I love to hold newborn babies. There is just such a special feeling about them.
I am amazed at the fact that this year my son will be turning 8 years old and getting baptized and my oldest daughter will be starting Kindergarten. Where has the time gone.
I get so excited for my kids when they go back to school because I can still remember my own excitement in and love of going to school when I was there age and I want that experience for them.
I do not do well at impromptu speaking.
I love the Willow Tree statues and Precious Moments figurines.
I love Christmas. The decorations, the food, the family get togethers, the excitement in the air, the feelings of goodwill. Everything except trying to buy those gifts for everyone (see #56)!
Having parties at my house seems to stress me out. I guess I need to practice more so I can become a better hostess.
I do not like shopping. I guess it is because of my indecisiveness, not knowing if I should spend the money, crowds, etc. I am sometimes better at it than others but I can never honestly say I like it.

Well, that is me in a nutshell. I will probably think of other things that I'll wish I had written instead of others later (since my creativity is a little slow), but I have children who need attention and I still need to do my hair (it's noon!) so I will leave it how it is. Sorry if there seems to be some repeats. My mind is a little obsessed with food and weightloss and improving my homemaking and mothering skills so I kept coming back to those topics. I hope that you enjoy reading and learning (or remembering) these things about me.

Nine Years and Still Crazy About Each Other

2007-07-12T10:38:00.000-07:00

My sweetheart and I just celebrated our 9th year of marriage together! It is amazing how fast the time has gone. I used to think that couples married for 10 years were getting so old and mature and either knowing everything about how to have a great marriage or their marriage is falling apart. Neither of those is happening to us which is maybe not so good with the former half of the sentence but great in regards to the latter half. We can't believe that we have been married that long until we count up our four children! Then we realize how much time and how many experiences of life we have gone through together. The great thing is that we are grateful for everything we have been able to go through together and that we still want to go through an eternity of experience together. Not to mention the fact that we are still so much in love after all this time (I mean, in reality we have been a couple for 15 years!) I am so glad that my first choice turned out to be such a great choice!

For our anniversary this year we spent a couple days together (alone!) in Seattle. We were married in the Seattle Temple so it was romantic to attend that temple together again. It was so nice not to have the stress of dealing with kids for a couple days and to not have the burdens of daily living to think about. To just get away from it all and focus on each other for two whole days was heavenly. It was great to realize that we are still crazy about each other and enjoy each other's company. It isn't like we never remember those things but it seems to come in a lot clearer on these anniversary trips that we take. It is so relaxing to just be the husband/wife/best friend and leave off the father/mother/provider/nurturer/homemaker/church worker/teacher, etc. It allows you to remember why you fell in love in the first place. Here are some of those reasons for me:

1. He is a kind person.

2. We can laugh together and don't take ourselves too seriously all the time.

3. He loves the gospel.

4. He loves family.

5. He is very appreciative of my strengths and verbalizes his
admiration. : )

6. He is also very forgiving of my weaknesses and is rarely critical of me. (Something I do not do so well at myself) : (

7. He is a gentleman and a gentle man.

8. He is an affectionate person.

9. He seriously finds me a beautiful and attractive person even after 4 children and definite changes in body sizes and shapes!

10. And finally, he is a very handsome man. : )

There have been many more reasons to add to the list since marriage and children but they have nothing to do with why I fell in love in the first place so we will leave it at that. He is a great man and father and I am very grateful to have found him and hopefully get to spend an eternity with him.

One sad thing is that I have hardly any pictures of him and me together since we were married. And most of that is simply because I have hated how I looked and found myself unphotographable. I am going to try hard to rectify this in the future--not that I now think I look good in pictures but it is sad to not have any pictures to record our years together. I was going to get some pictures on our anniversary trip but forgot the camera in rushing out the door. That is the reason that there is no picture of us for this blog. Maybe in the future I can post a picture of the two of us. Until then I will just post a picture of Paul since this blog is about him and his greatness! : )

Summertime Blues

2007-06-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I last wrote. I could blame it on the fact that it is now summer and I have all four children home with me and spend a great deal of time caring for and spending time with them (which really is partly to blame). But the truth of the matter is that I just can't think of anything worth taking the time to write about (or that someone would want to take the time to read!). I do not have the talent of making seemingly small things still amusing and witty (like Ilene!) so I just keep putting it off. However, my husband and oldest son are at the ward Fathers and Sons outing and everyone else is in bed so I decided to stop procrastinating and try to compose some of the small happenings going on here in the Hansen Household. Hopefully, then, the guilty feeling I get every time I read Ilene's blog will cease for a short while.

I decided to try out an idea I found on-line for keeping the kids excited and happy about helping around the house during the summer. It is sort of like a camp, but we don't really run it like that. Basically we plan certain fun activities to do each day when the kids finish their routines and chores in the morning and give rewards for their help so that they can earn small prizes and things. The only thing that we have done to make it sort of campy is to have a way for the kids to earn a sleep out in the family room. We did it once already and the kids loved it so that now I just have to remind them that they are trying to earn another fun night of games, stories, treats and movies in the family room and they shape right up and pitch in. This last week we were really busy spending time with family so things started to fall apart with all of our running around and Hannah said that we needed to get the house picked up so we could get it back to feeling like it did last week. It was nice to know that they could tell the difference and wanted to have the other type of home. I mean, it is hard to tell that your kids don't like living like pigs when they throw their garbage on the ground as nonchalantly as we throw ours in the garbage can, refuse to change out of their favorite clothes even when they are filthy, regularly trash their rooms (in a short amount of time) so that you can barely glimpse the floor, etc. You get the idea. It was just nice to know that they could feel a difference in the atmosphere of our home when things were more orderly and we were spending more time together. I found the time spent together helped me to appreciate the great kids I have rather than viewing them as mess makers and loud voices full of whining and demands. I am actually enjoying my kids more now. That was not something I was expecting from spending MORE time together. Before I always found that I needed to get away from them for a couple hours in order to enjoy that feeling!

However, talking about the camp out in the family room reminds me of the utter chaos we had that night. I had decided that we would just roast hot dogs and marshmallows over the grill to keep with the whole camp theme and was looking forward to this easy to prepare and clean-up meal. Well, I realized that we didn't have any hot dogs and so needed to go and get some. Paul was busy re-roofing our house that week and ran out of materials and so needed to run into Tri-Cities (45 or so min. away) and get more supplies, but he would be late getting home. Well, I thought that eating later would be okay since we were letting the kids stay up late and party anyway so I asked him to just get the few things we needed while he was in town so that I wouldn't have to load everyone up and go into Mattawa (where you pay an arm and a leg to get anything). He called up when he was at the store to get a refresher of what he was supposed to get so everything I felt that everything was going well . . . until he came home without the hot dogs! Luckily we had three ratty old hot dogs that I figured wouldn't kill anyone to eat so the kids could roast those and I could cook a few hamburgers to make up the difference. I turn on the grill and throw on the hamburgers and then I leave to go round up the crew who were all very busy and seemed as though they couldn't care less about food. I go back to flip the hamburgers and find that our grill had run out of propane! So now I drag everything back into the house to cook it. I throw the burgers on a frying pan and turn it on high so that I can cook everything fast (I mean Paul didn't get home until after 6 and I was trying to hurry here.) I run out to tell Paul that everything should be ready soon and to please bring in the kids. I get distracted, however, because Paul had just crashed his remote control airplane into the corn field by our house and wanted to tell me about it. We are talking for a while and then I remember the hamburgers and realize the noise that I have been hearing in the distance is the fire alarms going off in our house! I tell Paul to round up the kids and dash into the house to find charcoal burgers and a kitchen thick with smoke. So now I am rushing around opening windows and trying to get the alarms to turn off! I tell you, this simple meal just wore me out! Everything went pretty smoothly after that but I had no energy to present the meal in a nice or attractive way and I couldn't really get into a campy spirit cooking hot dogs and marshmallows over the stove in our kitchen so the meal was much more low key than originally planned. However, the rest of the night went smoothly and was lots of fun except for story time which took almost an hour to read 3 stories because each kid seemed to want to comment or ask a question after what seemed like every sentence! Needless to say, the kids didn't get into their sleeping bags with a movie playing until 10 o'clock. Next time I am not mixing dinner and camping out. It is too stressful to have such simple fun!

Other than that there really hasn't been anything happening and all my thoughts seem to be focused on the house and kids activities which leaves me feeling pretty low on the blogging ideas. I feel kind of in a whirl some days. Yesterday and last night provided some excitement in the form of a near drowning of my baby and an attack of croup in my oldest daughter, but I think I will save those stories for another blog. This one is already long and boring enough. It is only ten but my brain feels like it shut off around 2 or 3 this afternoon so I apologize for the non-creativity of it. Maybe I can make the drowning sound really dramatic when I blog about it. Don't hold your breath though. I never think that it is going to be long between blogs and then I realize that weeks have gone by and I haven't done a thing. But due to having all four kids at home I definitely make no promises for better behavior in the future!

This has nothing to do with any of the things I just wrote about but it is one of my new favorite pictures and I just wanted to share. My little Mozart-in-the-Making!

Wal-Mart trip from *@!?

2007-06-05T18:03:00.000-07:00

Today I took my baby to the doctor and found out that he is wasting away! At 10 months he weighs only 25 lbs. 9 oz.! He has now gone down from the 97th percentile for weight and is now matching his height in the 90th percentile. : ) But this blog is not about Joshua. I want to rant a little about the time spent at Wal-Mart after the doctor. Living an hour away from any good shopping we take what we can get. In Othello, where our doctor is, there is just a Wal-Mart so that is of course where we headed to run our errands. However, this trip to Wal-Mart was one of the worst that I can remember.

I had the girls and Joshua with me and Emma spent half the time whining and crying, Hannah spent half the time telling me all the things she wanted to buy and sulking because I wouldn't let her (and complaining about how it wasn't fair that Daddy and I got to buy whatever we wanted but they never got what they wanted! If she only knew!!!), and Joshua had had it and needed a nap and bottle. I went into the store before feeding him because I wanted to get him a new nipple for his bottle first and I was only going to be in there for 1/2 an hour. I should learn by now that when you add children into the mix you are never going to get in and out of anywhere in the time you normally would. We did not leave Wal-Mart for an hour and a half and half an hour of that was spent in checking out.

Shopping of course takes longer when you have everyone constantly fighting over who gets to push the cart and who gets to ride where in the cart (and there are never enough spaces for all my children). And then of course I have so many helpful little shoppers that I have to keep curbing and replacing all of there "purchases". And of course Joshua does not want to be anywhere except in my arms and in case you didn't catch this earlier, he is 25 lbs.! I cannot do a lot of carrying and cart pushing and supervising without becoming quite stressed. However, with a lot of maneuvering of children and keeping a strong curb on my temper we make it to the checkout stand and the real torture began.

My first problem was that I got in an extremely slow line (not that there were many choices). My second problem was that when I finally got everything unloaded I found that we had lost the tag for the fabric we were buying. The register would not accept a typed in price so when we finally got everything rung up and paid for (try writing a check and holding a fussy 10 month old at the same time--NOT FUN) I had to go back to the craft section of the store and get a new price tag and then go back and pay for that. Imagine to yourself the great time I am having. I saw one Self-Check register empty so I thought I would just go there since I only had one item and was paying with cash. This turned into a big mistake. Hannah wanted to help and accidentally rang it up twice so then we had to wait for someone to come and help us and, of course, there was no one around to do that! I finally caught someone's attention after 5 min. and could pay but found that I was short just one penny in cash so had to dig out my debit card to pay and then the receipt wouldn't print!

All of this is frustrating enough but keep in mind that I had a crying baby who didn't want to be put down and a 3 year old who kept up a running whine/cry of wanting to be in the cart (which was full!) and wanting to leave and being tired of standing, etc.; and you can see why I was wound up like a tight spring. I still have not really come completely unwound and we have been home for many hours.

To make the perfect end to my horrible day in town we went to the KFC drive-thru for lunch. I thought everything would be good since I was able to avoid having another lunch at McDonald's (my children's food of choice). However, as we are driving down the road I reach for the mashed potatoes and gravy, which was all that I ordered and realized that they neglected to give us any spoons!!!!!!!!! I thought I would have to continue starving until I got home, but I decided to be creative. I dug around in our diaper bag (of course we were pulled over, what do you think!) and found a tube of Baby Orajel. I used the bottom edge of this as a scoop to shovel those potatoes in. Of course I spilled a bit on myself but I didn't care since we were just going home and I could change (or not!), but I just couldn't help thinking that this just put the icing on my terrible day cake!

I need bedtime so I can stop dealing with kids and messes and just relax. Hopefully then I will be okay! Sorry for this unloading but I really just needed to vent and Paul only now walked in the door. Life really is not that bad around here, it has just been a rather stressful day. I will write again when I feel better so that you will not worry about my sanity! : )

Fishing Tradition

2007-05-26T19:59:00.001-07:00

I cannot tell you how much I love these pictures. They were taken on our yearly fishing trip with my Grandma Jean and Grandpa Ted. It was Joshua's first time and I didn't think that he would like the wind blowing in his face when we were driving the boat to our fishing spot, but he loved it! And when we moved him up to help Grandpa Ted "drive" the boat it was the cutest thing. Doesn't he look like a competent little boat driver in the first one and a crazy baby driver in the second? Just had to share these photos.

I love this tradition of going fishing and my children do to. Not that I actually fish anymore. I am the historian. I need to man the cameras and take a ton of still shots and video footage so we can always remember these fun times. I don't mind doing this since it isn't the fishing that makes me love these little trips. The fun of visiting and relaxing as a family and having this time with my grandparents is so wonderful. And I must admit that all the snacks and candy and drinks that my grandma provides for us on the boat doesn't hurt any either! : )

Funny Face

2007-05-23T13:20:00.001-07:00

(Taken when we were fishing with my grandparents. He loved the feel of the wind in his hair as we took the boat to the fishing spot. None of my other kids were too thrilled with the windy boat rides until they were older. He is such a happy baby)

I love this face that my youngest does--all the time. I think he is going to turn into a little clown. He shows all eight of his little teeth and wrinkles up his nose and heavily breathes in and out. He loves it when people laugh at him when he does it or mimic him. It is ugly and cute all at the same time. It makes me think of that song "My Funny Valentine" :

My funny valentine.
Sweet, comic valentine.
You make me smile with my heart.
Your looks are laughable,
Un-photograph-able.
But you're my favorite work of art.

I am amazed so often when I look at him and see this pale little blue-eyed, blond haired baby. With Paul's and my darker coloring and all of the other kids being brown-eyed and darker haired it really looks like he was switched in the hospital. However, there were no other boys born that day so we know that that didn't happen. Paul calls him our recessive gene baby. I call him our miracle. Not because there was anything miraculous about his birth or anything but because I never expected to get that coloring. I love it!

He is now just shy of 10 months old and is only army crawling. However, knowing that it is not a bed of roses to have a mobile child we are not complaining. But I can see that he is frustrated in not being able to move around. My girls were both almost a year before they crawled and they have turned out normal and intelligent so I am not concerned. He is such a nice squishy baby. He is going to have to build up enough muscle to haul that body of his around before he can get too much more mobile.

Some nicknames that we have for him are Joshie, Blue Eyes, Fatty-Fatty Fatterson (compliments of Aunt Erin!), Chubs, Angel Boy, and Joshie-Poo. We are all crazy about him and are so glad he is ours.

Riding around in the girls' doll stroller. He almost didn't even fit in it, but he had a great time.

Imagination

2007-05-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

I love to watch and listen to my kids when they are using their imaginations. Sometimes you get to hear fun little romantic dramas from the girls' Polly Pockets, barbies and princess dolls as they discuss love and marriage. Or you get to hear about the grave peril other toys are in (such as when Hyrum plays with his animals. They are always running away from something so they won't get eaten and falling off of cliffs and things.) And I love it when they are "reading" books. They look at the pictures and make up their own stories if it is a new book or they try to retell it through memory if it is one that I have read to them. It is the sweetest thing.

I am not so sure I enjoy listening to them playing "house", however, because the mom and dad always sound so demanding and downright mean. I can pretend that it is all learned from the TV shows and movies they watch, which might be true to some extent, but I know that a lot of the phrases they use come out of my own mouth. Of course, they don't seem that awful when I am saying them (and we do have to allow for artistic license and all that), but it sure makes you think about how your kids are interpreting everything you say and do!

I didn't really mean to go off on a tangent like that. I was mainly writing this so I could share some pictures of my girls in some of their "imaginations". SO . . . drum roll please . . . here they are!

This is Hannah and Emma playing "At the Ball". Hannah wanted to be a princess dancing with a prince at a ball. There is nothing like a willing little sister to supply the want of the real thing. They came up with the "prince's" costume on their own. She is wearing her big brother's sunday pants (rolled up) and shirt with her own Sunday shoes and a cape (every prince needs a cape!). To top it all off she is wearing one of the girls' knitted caps with a crown on top. It was too adorable! They even had the correct dance position, but as the dance continued it turned into more of a headlock! It was one of those, "I love being a mother!", moments.

This is Emma in another of her get-ups! She is playing with her Polly Pockets which she LOVES. She and Hannah had created a whole house outside with tons of dolls, books, flowers, baskets, toys, etc. They had a great time and the house was quiet so Joshua had a great nap so I had a great time. Bringing it all in and cleaning it up was not so much fun, but that is the price we must pay sometimes.

Hannah loves having a brother who will dress up with her again. Not that Joshua had much of a say in the whole process, but looking at his face I think it is obvious that he didn't have any objections. He really was just too cute!

I wish that I had a picture of Hyrum using his imagination but now that he is a big school boy we don't have as many photo opportunities. Plus, now that he is older he is more into organizing and list making and managing made up parties, dinners and activities. He is not your typical boy in some ways (not big on super heroes and sports), but he is very loveable with his seriousness, love for animals and his love for reading (especially anything about animals!)

I LOVE MY KIDS!!!!!

Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde!

2007-05-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

Our house is a little more peaceful than it was this morning. You may not believe it but our sweet boy, Hyrum, was putting up a big stink all morning. I know, it is strange. It all started with his scooter. He wants to keep it in the house (when he remembers to bring it in). I want it outside. Today I decided to make it a rule that it should stay outside. I didn't think it would be a big issue because we were dealing with Hryum and not Hannah and he already left it outside a lot of the time. But since I decided that it now HAD to stay outside he was not going to let that happen. I told him that he could choose to leave it right up next to the house by the 4-wheeler or he could put it in either side of the shed. If he still wanted to fight about it I would lock it up until tomorrow. I gave him 15-20 min. to get over the sulk and make a wise choice but he refused. So I had to take it away and lock it up. However, I first had to take him outside and lock him out of the house because he was putting up such a fight! After that I let him back in and told them all that it was time to pick up the family room. He refused and just sat there on the couch. I talked the girls into cleaning without him by talking up the whole service bit. You know, we are going to serve our family by cleaning this room and especially Hyrum by cleaning up his stuff for him even when he was acting like this. I was surprised that it worked, but Hannah was in a very giving and righteous mood so it did. However, Hyrum tried to make things harder for us by throwing the stuff on the couch onto our cleaned off floor and pulling out everything under the couch. This was not in the attitude of helping us to do a good job, however, but just to make us work harder. Paul told me to tell him that we would lock him in his room if he was going to continue to hinder us in our efforts or be disrespectful. For a while he left us alone, but when we went to clean the girls room he shut the door on us and held it closed so the girls couldn't get out to put things away! So, he was locked up. After banging on walls to get attention he decided to beat on his door. After a few loud crashes and such from things being thrown or banged on the door I went in there and there were some holes in his door and pieces of the molding around the door and frame were laying on the ground along with the vent that is over his door! I therefore told him that he would now have to stay in there until his dad came home (about 1/2 an hour). Actually the vent fell off after I told him this in one of his other fits. I kept telling the girls to ignore him, but their way of ignoring him was to tell him that "mom said to ignore you!" Or "we can't talk to you right now" They just had to say something! Hannah is a little mother and trying to point out just where he was wrong and repeating all the things I had told him and also to point out the ways that she had made the right choice ( i.e. that she left her bike outside or in the shed when we told her to without making a fuss.) You can imagine how this was appreciated by her brother. Paul came home finally and spanked him and locked him in the room again! But before you turn us over to Social Services or whatever, we told him he could come out when he stopped making a fuss and could be good for five minutes. So about 7-10 min. later he was finally a free man again. Anyway, I am glad that he seems to have recovered and that he is now playing nicely with everyone. His dad told him to come and ask me if there was anything that he could do to help me and he did it in the nicest way. My sweet boy was back! I don't know if I am tough enough for this mothering gig!

Random Thoughts

2007-05-01T20:08:00.000-07:00

I have been avoiding writing ever since I started this blog since I feel paralyzed by not having the perfect thing to expound about and the perfect way to express it. I am a much better reader than writer, but I figure that there is no point of having a blog if you never use it. So, I am going to just ramble a little bit this time and see if after a few more blogs my perfectionism will die down and this will get easier!

I was thinking as I washed the dishes this evening that I love my kids. Not that I have never come to this realization before, but today I was able to enjoy them a little bit more and the fights were minimal so I could really feel a lot of happiness when contemplating them and some of their cute, sweet ways. I think I will record a few of these now so that I can remember them.

First I thought about my youngest daughter. She is 3 and we are still trying to get the whole using the toilet thing into her head. Well, this Sunday at church she decided that she wanted to use the toilet so my husband took her to the bathroom. She came back all proud for having accomplished this and pleasing mom and dad. At the end of Primary she was at the front waiting to give the closing prayer and the Primary President was talking to the kids about not getting up and down so much to use the bathroom and get drinks. Well, Emma went around the podium up to our Primary President and informed the whole primary that "I went to the bathroom." She was so proud. I hope that she didn't realize all the chuckling was from what she said.

Also, that same day, my oldest son told the whole primary that as a way that he would follow the Savior's example would be to "not hide when he was supposed to be cleaning" Now I thought that was so cute, but it would be even better if I believed that it was actually going to happen. At least I can now always bring that up when he hides and maybe his better nature will exert itself!

My daughter Hannah was in her Primary class and they were learning about the Word of Wisdom. Her teacher explained that candy wasn't that good for us but that we could eat a little bit each day and it wouldn't hurt us. Hannah gave the closing prayer in her class and told Heavenly Father that they would try to eat one piece of candy every day! She is also getting ready to go to Kindergarten next year and I took her to get her Kindergarten shots yesterday. My mom had promised to give her a dollar for every time she got a shot and didn't cry. It was great! I never had a kid so excited to get shots before. The doctor was running late and she kept asking me when it was going to be her turn. In the examining room she would keep looking over at me and whispering or mouthing "I am being so brave." It was too cute. She figured that 4 shots would be perfect because combined with the finger prick that she had earlier that would be five dollars! Well, she got her wish. 4 shots! And she was very brave. She had a little break down just before her fourth shot--said she was too hot and that made her too uncomfortable--but she quickly pulled herself together and got that last shot with no more fuss.

And there are so many other great stories that I prize, but I won't bore any one with more right now. I know that mothers find their children a lot more entertaining and sweet than anyone else can.

This last week we went to Utah for the week to go to my brother's graduation. That is a big part of the reason that I haven't written before now. Trying to pack a small minivan with the stuff that would be needed for 6 people to stay away from home for one week and all the necessary snacking and entertaining things we would need for such a long trip was a little overwhelming at first, but we managed to do it and even made it there and back without wanting to lock ourselves in our rooms and pretend to be alone when we got back. I think that it really helped to break the journey up into two stages and have a halfway point. Thanks again to Stephen and Jen if you ever read this! It was a great vacation and we got to see so many family members and friends that we haven't seen in a while. We were so glad that we went. A side note: Paul and I read the Five Love Languages on the way there and absolutely loved it. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it.

Friends are marvelous creatures. I was able to see one of my old roomies from BYU days while in Utah and it was still so easy to talk to her and be with her. That is what I think makes good friends--the ones that are going to be your friends your whole lives. And then when I got back I saw my friend Ashley and she told me she had missed me when I was gone! It feels so good to have friends. I would go and list all those that I count as true friends but I would be sure to overlook someone so I won't attempt it. I don't know what I would do without friends. To be able to get together and visit or chat on the phone or receive an e-mail or letter can just brighten the whole day for you, especially if your day consists of cooking food that no one seems to like and cleaning up messes that will never stay clean and trying to solve problems and fights for rather irrational small children and dealing with a fussy baby and not really be able to have a lot of adult conversation because your husband is gone or when he is home he doesn't really want to talk about everything and . . . you get the idea. We need friends.

Well I think that is enough random (and possibly very boring) thoughts for now. In summary: My kids are ADORABLE (don't you forget it!), Long trips with your family don't necessarily have to turn out badly, and Friends help keep the smiles on our faces. Tune in next time for more amazingly boring thoughts from Amazing Mommy! : )

The Adventures Begin!

2007-04-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

O. K. Ilene. I am now the official owner of my own blog site and had the great fun in creating my name and profile and template and all that. Now I am faced with the awful fact that I have nothing to say. I am afraid that this blogging will not only be full of my "dumb thoughts" but will be extremely boring!

It is, however, almost my bedtime so that may account for my writer's block--it does not help with the fact that I have a hard time writing entertainingly, but I figured that any friends who choose to read this will be kind enough to keep their yawns to themselves! I will probably mostly just be recording the cute and frustrating things that my family does with maybe a glimmer of original and sparkling thought now and then. I guess I would relax about the whole thing if I just wrote for myself and didn't worry about who else will read it and what they may think of me as a result, right? So let the "adventures" begin.

I don't have much to say at this point. I did a great job of getting the house presentable by 11 am and was able to enjoy a nice long visit with a friend, but somehow between then and bedtime (actually it was more like between 5 pm and 7 pm) something happened. I think the three older kids let a tornado have free reign in our house while I dealt with a fussy baby. I sent them all off to bed with a lot of cranky words in their ears. Needless to say I am not feeling much like Amazing Mommy this evening! Thank goodness there is always a new day "with no mistakes in it--yet."

I need to go sweep up the cheerios scattered all over my kitchen floor and straighten up the kitchen at least before bed. I will be scouting around in my brain really hard for a good idea for a blog, but don't get too excited. My brain hasn't been functioning at top level for many years now!