Chicago

You go to one of the biggest cities in the US and you party it up right?! Like hanging out with the Kia Hamster. Over the weekend, we (meaning our posse of 3 brothers, 1 little sister, 2 children, 2 pregnant ladies and the sister-in-law who had to deal with all of us) went to Chicago and took in the world's largest car show. This was an exhilarating event for Mike's little brother who we had to drag out the door, but for the little sister (pictured above) the pregnant ladies and the children, it got old before too long.
Never Fear- we found things to do. They had this great big whiteboard that anyone could draw on- so the kids drew and we were all pleasantly occupied.
This is a closeup of what Colton drew. It is a picture of Mike and then Colton wrote his name next to it all by himself. I'm amazed at how much he can already do.
The night before we headed up to Chicago, the posse stayed at our house. Adding 5 extra adults to our apartment meant that our sleeping arrangements were crowded. We had bodies in every room. We expected someone to sleep on the couch and I teasingly said to Mike before everyone got here that we should let Uncle Mat sleep on the couch because the leg of the couch was starting to break and I wanted it to get fixed. Mat, weighing in around 350 pounds would be the perfect candidate to break and then fix our couch. He was big enough to do the breaking and handy enough to do the fixing. As fate would have it, Mat didn't even have to sleep on our couch. All he had to do was try to stand up after sitting on it and the leg broke off. Yay! I've never been so excited to have something break! The 3 brother's put their heads together and by 8:30 the next morning (After the boys went to the hardware store at 6:30 AM) my couch was fixed and sturdier than ever!
What would a hotel trip be without some bed jumping!
While Mike and I have been downtown before, we have never taken the children. Mike's little sister wanted to do some shopping, so we all went to Michigan Ave. where Colton and Lydia worked these hats.

Our little familia outside The Disney Store in downtown. This was by far the best part for the kids. I don't know that they have ever been in a Toys-R-Us or really any store devoted entirely to children. Colton ran from Lighting McQueen hat, to Buzz figurine to Spiderman jammies in a frenzy. Lydia took my hand and purposefully took in all the princess's she could ooohh and awww at. We let them each pick one thing. Lydia chose a princess stamp set and Colton picked out a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal. They were so excited. "I can keep it?!" Colton and Mickey have been best pals ever since- except when Colton put Mickey in time out because he was standing on the table.
This photo is out of order, but it's late. Mike really liked this little car. A Fiat. Go figure. He has traditionally really liked the Porches.

Snow Days

Yay! We finally had snow to go sledding! There is a small drainage pit in our apartment complex and the little slope is perfect for the kids- because they can walk back up it without Mom and Dad carrying them!
What a great family day. Mike mentored the kiddo's on how to make an awesome fort.
By request, it kept getting larger and larger.
Lydia liked this peep hole for the spying opportunities. Colton liked it to shoot his stick guns out of.
The fun fort that kept us occupied for a whole day. They even slept the night together in it- one kid on each end. That was fun until Colton wet the bed. Then it was not so much fun.
Ole'!

Baby Hansen

There are not too many photos of me and there aren't many of me with the kiddo's. Reading is something we do every night, so I figured it would be good to actually capture the moment in the evening I love when the kids cuddle up and I get to read to them.
My birthday! Mike and the kiddo's got me an ice cream cake. Yumm-o! I also got a gift certificate to the craft store so I can start making those pillows and that blanket and on and on. .
My funny man climbed on top of the food storage and found an excellent hiding place behind the coats. It also proved to be a great place to munch on his apple.
Colton and his best buds. These three are hilarious together. The nice thing is they all have older sisters who are 5, so we get together with their families a lot. It doesn't hurt that we all live in the same apartments either.
And the exciting part of today . . . Meet my daughter. She's so photogenic she is already smiling.
Doc. says she is healthy. Yay!

Childish Thoughs

Have you ever tried to remember back as far as you can? To your earliest memory? These memories are usually random snippets, vague and sometimes seemingly unrelated. But as you look back, there comes a point where you remember things well. You remember the emotion, the event, the importance of things and these things are all very clear to you. As search my memories, it seems that between 5 and 6 years old is when this clarity was achieved. I remember Jaxon Higgs kicking me outside in kindergarten and I dropped all of the feathers I had been collecting and they blew away in the wind. I remember my dress blowing up in the wind while I was waiting to go into the classroom and Jacob Briggs saw my underwear! I was mad rather than embarrassed. (Darn all that wind in Idaho! That, along with the boys, seemed to cause me a fair amount of frustration at 5.)
What has brought this sudden awareness of these memories has been due to Lydia. Lydia is 5 and it seems that things keep coming up in her life that remind me of my own time when I anxiously awaited teeth to fall out and concentrated so hard on tying my shoes.
For example: Lydia has sight words she learns in Kindergarten One of her new sight words is 'of'. When I saw that word on her little slip of paper, I went right back to Mrs. Kurshal's room, standing beside her desk. She had a long skinny sheet of paper with several words on it we needed to read to her. One of those words was 'of' and I read it as 'off'. That word was SO hard! I was so frustrated that I got it wrong! That's all it took though- for my teacher to tell me I was wrong. From then on, I never struggled with reading 'of'.
Silly story I know, but that is just one of several in the last week or so that has been pulled out of the deep recesses of my mind, due to the sweet goings on of my little girl.
I guess I now understand why people always say, "I remember when I was your age . . . "

Dear Manufacturer

Dear Manufacturer,
Do you have any idea the anxiety that the little stick you supply produces for millions of women? 3 minutes anxiously awaiting . . . Sitting there on the bathroom counter, ever so slowly developing and all the while, thoughts run through the ignorant woman's brain- What if I'm pregnant? Will insurance cover it? I can't be sick for the next 3 months! When would the baby be due? Or- who is the Dad? (Though this thought has never run through my mind personally, I know that more than one woman has thought it.) Or- What if I'm not pregnant? Women cry as they hope and pray that two little lines will appear. So much hangs on those two little lines.

I commend you manufacturer, that your results seem quite accurate. You don't mess with the pregnant woman- making her think she isn't pregnant and then she is. Or visa-versa. Well, you have probably learned by now, that you don't want to mess with a woman who is hormonal like that. I know women get false results all the time, but that is because we are anxious to know when we will start throwing up. That's understandable right?

Manufacturer, thank you for the reassurance that you offer. A woman starts smelling the sink drain from the family room and she can take your pregnancy test and be reassured. She dozes off before Curious George gets himself out of trouble and she turns to you. She feels the urge to really slug her husband, and you have the answer to the question of 'Is it just PMS, or something far greater?'

In conclusion Manufacturer, I am grateful for the product you provide, and I am grateful that this time around, there were two little lines.