Visiting an old Friend

Isn't it the best to visit your friends who knew you "when." I met Priscilla at the bus stop on the first day of 9th grade. She asked me if I knew a guy named Travis King because he lived on her street and she thought he was really cute. Of course I knew who Travis King is, he is a basketball legend in Ephrata, Washington and probably in the state of Washington. I never dared talk to him though so I was no help to her on that subject.

Priscilla and I were inseparable in the band and tennis for the next four years. We laughed about the weirdest things and now when I read our year book entries I have no idea what most of it means. I could tell you crazy stories.

We had a really great visit with our friends Jenn and Madonna at our 10 year reunion and we hadn't seen each other for 4 years until today. Since then she has had a little girl and a boy and I have had my last two boys. The kids ran around the front yard together and had a fun time.

I can't wait until next Saturday when we will watch our childhood friend Jenn get married.

Tyler of course hates pictures because I make him take them all the time. We had two cameras going so it was difficult to get everyone to look at one at a time :)

"What was your WIN today?"

A little while ago I started living day by day with the saying in my head, "what was your win today?" Trent came home from a seminar he had attended for his job and he was so excited about the speaker that he talked all night about him. This guy was in a water skiing accident (crashed into the shore I think) when he was in high school and became a quadriplegic. While he was in the rehabilitation facility his football coach came to visit him every day. When he would come he would be hanging upside down (I am not sure why, something to do with his recovery) and his coach would come in and ask him, "what was your win today?" Here he was a paralyzed teenager, sad and depressed about the situation and without fail every single day coach would come and ask him this. Finally one day he got really mad and said, "well, I didn't wet my pants today." The coach got excited and shouted down the hall, "he didn't wet his pants today!!!" And congratulated him on the win. From then on he lived his life around what was his win for the day and didn't let his situation get him down. So I have been thinking about this lately. As a mom of 3 boys under 6 you don't often feel like you have had a "win" today. When you look around at all the messy rooms and all the things left undone it doesn't really feel like you are winning. So I think about it at the end of the night, "what was my win today." Sometimes it is just getting all the laundry done that day or one bathroom cleaned. But, every night I realize, my kids are bathed, fed and safe so I have those wins every day. The days that I get extra wins are even better.

Two weeks ago was a huge win. I was in charge of Activity Days and I wanted to do something big. So I decided that I was going to make each of the girls journal jars and they were going to cover and decorate journals. So that Wednesday I got 12 of these jars done in one afternoon. This was HUGE. I don't usually get this big of a project done in one day. Then on Thursday I went all excited to Activity Days and...I only had 5 girls :( But, they had a lot of fun and loved covering the journals. We had a little pow wow in the bathroom the other day at church and they told me that they had written in their journals every day since they got them. Yay, another WIN!! I am planning on a make-up day in July so that the other girls can all get their jars.

9 Months Old

My baby is 9 months old. I can't believe it. I love this age for so many reasons. For selfish reasons he is sleeping through the night, holding his own bottle and I stop nursing at 9 months. I love my babies, but unfortunately I do not love nursing them. I do it because I know it's the healthy thing to do. For me it is so extremely painful and uncomfortable for the first 6-8 weeks that I just tell myself over and over again that it's for the health of my baby to get through it. There is a lot of crying on both parts and bleeding involved. Months 3-6 are relatively easy and uneventful and then they start pulling off to look around every 5 seconds and biting. So...when it comes to the day that it is time to stop, I am READY and very happy :) Other reasons I love 9 months is because they start to move around and pull themselves up. I love and hate this part of it because they start getting hurt. Bumps and bruises on the tile and against the fireplace. Cael has been army crawling since he turned 7 months. If we put him on the tile with no pants on he figures out that it is cold and lifts his knees to crawl or gets on his hands and toes to bear crawl. I love the bear crawl stage. All three of my boys have done it. We have never had stairs so I worry a little. Our posts on the stairs are rounded and our gate is not tight enough to be safe if he were to stand against it. So upstairs I have just had to either put him in the jumper or shut the door to the room I am working in. It is working so far, but I still worry. He is starting to chatter da-da and ma-ma. Starting to belly laugh when you tickle thighs and neck.

"Saved for a Rainy Day"

I, like many other moms I know, am not a fan of Play-Doh. Those little balls of clay everywhere when they are done, colors mixed together until it is ruined. I know, I know, I am wound too tight when it comes to cleanliness. So, today we literally "saved it for a rainy day." We don't have to many of those around here and it is pretty bad out there today. Many, many LOUD claps of thunder. Lightning all morning. Just to tell you how few we have I noticed about a year ago while driving that our windshield wipers pretty much just move the water around on our van. Well, today was the same story because we haven't noticed since then and I was driving to and from Riverside. It was scary. I am not nervous driving in the rain, but I just couldn't see a darn thing. So, my boys are at the kitchen table happily rolling Play-Doh. Tyler just called to me, "Mom, I think you are going to have to mop the floor." It's pretty bad when he knows what I am thinking. I know, I know loosen up.

March Rewind

March 4

Went to my friend Jennifer's house to pick up some candle items and was able to visit with her for awhile. She pulled out this chair for Cael and he sat in it the entire time I was there!

March 5

My friend Laura came out to visit. We had lunch and the boys were able to play together. I love it when she tells me that they can't wait to see Tyler. They play with Nathan, but they are always asking when Tyler is going to come home. We had playgroup at my house the other day and they were trying to follow me out the door to get him at school. They were so excited.

March 11

This is the day I officially became the "crazy coupon lady." It's all my sister in law Jessica's fault for telling me about the Huggies diaper deal. Thank you Jessica. After that I started learning how to get things for free and it's really FUN! It is starting to save me a lot of money!! My other blog http://www.menifeethriftymomsclub.blogspot.com/ is shared with ladies in my ward at church.

March 14

This day was SO packed!! My day started at 4:00 a.m. when I got up to get ready for CUW. (California Utah Women, where I sell my premade scrapbook pages.) I have to leave my house at 5:30 a.m. to get there and go through security and then be set up by 7:30. My mother in law Shelly had come over to watch the boys for the concert so she went with me to Anaheim. Bless her for getting up this early and going with me. I found the greatest little book there for Tyler called "This is Me." I am so excited to pull it out over the Summer Break and work on it with him. It is a journal for little kids with questions about themselves. http://www.thisismyjournal.com/. I think it was $18.00. Could I have put this together for him? Absolutely. Would I have done it? No. I also got my dip. That is what we all go for, to get the dip from the dip lady. And then I hold on to it until it's almost time to go again so that I will always have some :) Last night (April 25) I had some gals over and we pulled out the Parmasaan Bacon. I have never had it before and I think it's my new favorite!! It is from the lady with the little tent type things over her booth for any of you that go.
So home from CUW and directly to Tyler's first baseball game. We got there right as the game was starting. He looked so cute in his baseball uniform. Trent was right on the field with him so he got some great pictures and video.
After the game we headed back out to Irvine for the concert. I cannot remember the last time we went to a concert. It might have been when we saw Rascall Flatts in Spokane 8 years ago. Have we really not seen anyone in that long? I used to love going to concerts.
It was so fun and I can't wait to go back next year. I am wishing that we were at Stage Coach this weekend. Every time this weekend comes around I just hate hearing who all is here because it's just to hard to go to things like that when you have little kids at home. I have a to do list of things when my kids are older. Stage Coach ranks right up there at the top!!

May 17

Happy St. Patricks Day. My brother Timothy and his wife Melissa flew in for a visit. They were here for the next 8 days. He goes by Tim now, but I just cannot call him that. I am sure it annoyed him, but hopefully it was ok. Nathan called him "Timmmmmmy" the whole time. He would just go around the house yelling "Timmmmmmy," if he couldn't find him. It was hilarious. They just wanted to come and get away from the everyday grind of their jobs. I remember what it was like working jobs like they have. We all have had to do it, but I don't want to go back! Timothy is working at Best Buy and Melissa works in an office as a secretary by day and a Sales Associate at Vanity in the mall by night. Oh how I don't miss my Lady Footlocker days!! I did love lifeguarding though. Getting paid to get a tan is not bad!

While they were here we went out to the Lake Elsinore outlet mall. It is not much to talk about. Of course it was dead because of the economy, but it wasn't that great. They were able to go to Sea World with us and Disneyland by themselves. They never got a honeymoon so hopefully their overnighter to Anaheim was fun for them.

March 21

Sea World with Timothy and Melissa. A fun day together. Since we went Nathan is always yelling "Yamu, Yamu!!" (Shamu, Shamu)

March 25
Timmmmmmy and Melissa went home on an "a-pane"

as Nathan likes to remind us EVERY DAY!

March 31

First Thrify Mom's Club Meeting

http://www.menifeethriftymomsclub.blogspot.com/

Guns drawn

Well, there was a little excitement at the Hansen home tonight. At about 6:40 p.m. tonight there was a knock on the front door. I went to open it a little annoyed because we were not expecting anyone and we were eating a late dinner. I looked out the peep hole and there was no one there. So I watched for a minute and a police officer came back up the walkway. I opened the door hesitantly because I have heard on the news of people dressing up like officers and then coming in and robbing homes. I opened the door a little way and he asked me if everything was alright here because they had been dispatched out on an alarm call. I turned to face the kitchen to ask Trent if he had turned off the alarm when it had gone off earlier and he was outside the back door with his arms up being searched by another officer!! Apparantly when I had gone to the front door to answer, the partner had gone around back and was looking in our windows with his gun drawn!! He had motioned Trent outside and told him hands up and I don't know what else he said. Oh, he asked Trent if anyone else was here and he said no. Then when the officer saw Tyler he said I thought you said there wasn't anyone else here. Trent said well yeah, my family is here. The officer told him, that would have been nice to know. So I let the officer at the front door in and his partner came in with Trent and apologized. They said that our silent alarm had been going off for the last 40 minutes. They checked my ID and gave the kids stickers and left. Trent was angry at this point because the guy had drawn his gun on him. I told him that he had to protect himself because they never know what they are walking into. Trent said I was sitting here with my kids eating a taco, it was just some rookie cop. He then said, "Did the guy at the front door draw his gun on you?" I said, well no, I'm just a little girl.

After they left we called the alarm company and they said that they had called at 6:01 p.m. to check on us and when we didn't answer they disbatched police. So we think what happened was that when Trent opened the garage door he had the key fab in his hand. He was carrying a door that he was bringing in for the little space he opened up under the stairs. (More on that later.) He had turned it off and went about his business. He did not enter in our code and turn it off which in turn must have continued to send a distress signal to the company. So 40 minutes later the police showed up. We are glad that they came, but I told Trent, we could have been dead by then!! My ever sensitive husband turned to me and said, "No, they usually would tie you up and ransack the house, you probably wouldn't be dead that fast."

Photos of Cael

We finally made it to Leanne's studio for Cael's "baby" session. Leanne takes photos of the new babies in the ward when they are born. We were a little late since he is now 8 months old, but I am SO glad. I wanted photos of him at this age so it worked out perfect. My favorite is the one with the hat. I am so glad too because I was so worried about keeping him on the sheet and props that I didn't even realize his hair was crazy. I am so frustrated with myself because that's the first thing I usually check. But, for the most part his hair is ok in the ones I love. He was so good, but such a little bugger at the same time. He was so intrigued with the camera that all he would give is this serious look. There were only two smiles during the whole session I think. I just can't get over this one in the crate with the hat. Fabulous job Leanne, we just love your work and your patience!

For more photos of Cael go HERE.