Hansen Family

Monstrous, Huge, Unbelievably Big Bubbles

2012-02-15T12:16:00.000-08:00

If you want some serious summer entertainment...this is it! When my sister and I were kids we had one of these bubble makers from Klutz, so when I saw it again, I knew I had to get it for the boys. Bonus...they changed the recipe so you no longer have to try and find glycerin :)

Here's the recipe...
12 cups water
1 cup liquid dish soap (best is Joy, 2nd best Dawn, 3rd choice Ivory)
1 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons baking powder
Just stir it all together in a big bucket and skim off the foam (foam is bad for bubbles)

Atomic Days 2011

2012-02-13T13:14:00.000-08:00

After visiting this place...beautiful Arizona...for the birth of this little guy...
my adorable new baby nephew...I drove straight to Arco for Atomic Days!

The day started out with volleyball...
followed by the kids playing on the slide...
jousting...riding the bull...
and playing on the basketball bouncy thingy!

Then we watched the parade and the kids, of course, got tons of candy...and probably a few cavities too!

My Boys!

2012-02-13T11:12:00.001-08:00

Last year, (yep...I'm a year behind...big shocker!) I somehow conned the boys into letting me take their pictures after I finished up another cutie's photo shoot. This is what I got...

I sure do love these boys!!!

Nothing runs like a Deere...

2011-08-15T19:34:00.000-07:00

Josh's family is starting the kids out young! This year it's driving the lawnmower, next year it will be the tractor!!!

Quinten's Preschool Graduation

2011-08-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

Quinten graduated from the Sugar Plum Preschool this year! I can't believe that his 3 years there is over...I just don't think I'm ready to have a Kindergartner yet!

Quinten's part was...
I'm a police officer with a star
I help people near and far
If you have a problem call on me
and I'll be there...one, two, three!

This is Quinten's with his teacher, Mrs. Carter. She is the most amazing teacher ever! It was definitely worth the hour and forty-five minutes of driving I did each preschool day! I love her, and I honestly think I would have had a meltdown at graduation if it weren't for the fact that Gavin starts going to her this fall :)

Gavin giving his brother big hugs after graduation :)

The boys with Grandma Teena and Grandpa MarcQuinten & Gavin with Stevie

The whole family

Thumbs up!!!

Gavin's 3rd Birthday

2011-08-15T13:23:00.001-07:00

We celebrated Gavin's 3rd birthday back in April. I still can't believe he is that old! Okay...these are just about the worst pictures ever, but I left my camera at home and had to settle for using the camera phone...which didn't turn out very well. Sorry Gav!

Face Paint & Easter

2011-08-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

While I was taking pictures at one of Josh's football games, Grandma Teena took the kids over to Idaho Falls where they got their faces painted!

The best part was that Quinten's face paint didn't come off so well, so it made for a very Gothic looking 5-year-old the next day (which just happened to be Easter)!
And of course, Gavin had to try drinking the egg dye...I swear that kid will eat anything!

Go Anarchy!!!

2011-08-09T14:12:00.001-07:00

So this is pretty much how we spent every weekend this spring...Josh played football for the Anarchy and I spent my time taking pictures from the sidelines. I learned two very important things this season...that turf is extremely hot (we're talking burning feet on fire kind of hot) and that no matter how nice the bus is that drives you to the St. George game, it will never make up for the fact that the bus is full of sweaty football players who didn't get to shower after the game! Thanks to everyone who took our kiddos for us while we went to the games. It was so nice to not have to chase the kids around and try to take pictures. (And just for the record...I amazingly made it through the season without getting laid out by any football players; however, I did get hit more than once by the chain guys...come on boys...if the players are heading out of bounds just put the pole down and get out of the way...don't throw it at the photographer and then run like a girl!) Josh didn't make it out as lucky as I did though...he ended up with a concussion at the end of the season. He got rocked on a tackle and doesn't even remember coming out of the game or the entire rest of the fourth quarter. He had some pretty bad headaches for a couple of weeks after, but luckily he's back to normal! Go #88!!!

Christmas 2010

2011-08-08T13:59:00.000-07:00

Christmas time was great this year! My favorite part of the holidays is getting to go see our families...the boys love it! I was super busy with pictures this year (I literally ate Thanksgiving dinner in front of my computer editing pictures) so it was awesome to take a break and spend some time with our family.

Uncle Jason & Uncle Jake playing Toy Story with Gavin

Gavin LOVED his trains

Uncle Shane showing off his awesome bomber hat that we got him I love this picture...Quinten was giving Grandma Joyce a thank you hug and it totally looks like she is smothering him...love it!

Uncle Jason playing Barbies :)

I got to spend some much needed time with these girls...I LOVE them :)

Can you tell this is the first time I ever used the self timer on my camera :)

We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house. We played lots of games...some of them even included flying screaming monkeys!

This is my mom's best impression of a crazy mountain man...I thought it was pretty good :)

Christmas morning...

Winter 2010

2011-08-03T11:21:00.000-07:00

This past winter we got some pretty good snow storms...and I have to admit I LOVED it! I love winter...there's nothing better than a huge snow storm! The boys loved going out and playing on the tramp with all the snow on it.

The boys were a huge help decorating our Christmas tree! And by huge help I mean I bought shatter-proof ornaments (best invention ever) and let them have at it :)

Yep...I'm just now catching up on Halloween 2010

2011-07-31T12:45:00.001-07:00

I know...I realize I'm only about 9 months late, but here are our pictures from last Halloween! I think my kids both changed their minds on what they were going to be about 400 times. I literally had about 10 different costumes for each one of them while we were going through the aisles in Target. They finally narrowed it down to Gavin being Batman and Quinten being Optimus Prime.

The outfit I have on is my Grandma Steele's from way back when...I love it...and I love her more!!!

Arizona

2011-07-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

Right after we celebrated Quinten's birthday, I left these cute boys home to head to Arizona with my mom and Sheryl to visit my sister in Flagstaff.

We went to Sedona...

We hiked Red Mountain...

And we hiked Walnut Canyon...

It was pretty awesome getting to see all the cool stuff that is down there. And even though I missed my boys like crazy, I think they had a pretty awesome time with their Grandpa :)

Holy Catching Up To Do!!!

2011-07-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

So I realized that I pretty much haven't updated my blog since about this time last year! So I apologize in advance for the overwhelming number of posts you're about to be bombarded with! Clear back in September (yes...September 2010!) we celebrated Quinten's 5th birthday! Grandma Teena make him an awesome Transformers cake (I really have had every intention of making my kids' birthday cakes every year, but by the time it rolls around either Grandma Teena or Walmart bails me out... and I still have about a half dozen awesome cake pans and an expensive piping set, I just have yet to use them)!

Quinten of course got spoiled!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Hansen got him a tramp that those boys use every day!We played Pin the Tail on the Donkey...

...or Pin the Tail on Grandma Joyce apparently!

I think Gavin thought it was his own birthday...he made sure all of Quinten's birthday toys were well broken in for him :)

The boys also played football!!!

I can't believe how old he is getting...I sure do love that boy!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T07:04:00.001-08:00

Happy Holidays

2010-12-16T16:37:00.001-08:00

I have a ton of blogging to catch up on, but I've been insanely busy and I'll have to get around to it after all the holiday craziness is over. But, I just wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday! So have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Hansen's (and Phyllis the stray cat that Gavin insisted on having in the picture! (And yes, I am now aware that I sent out all of my Christmas cards saying '!0 instead of '10. I honestly would have never even noticed except that my neighbor was kind enough to point it out to me...thanks Ky!) Don't worry, I proofed everyone else's Christmas cards I made this year, just apparently now my own :)

And the winner is...

2010-10-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

Emily Hubbard! Call me at 221-3923 or email me at echo24@hotmail.com to claim your prize and schedule your session! I can't wait for this session...I'm so excited!

And...since I got so many emails and entries, I decided to pass the love on back to you guys! So, I'm giving you all a sweet deal!

I know Christmas time is coming up quickly and we all want pictures for Christmas cards, presents for parents and grandparents, and such, so here's the deal...

*A photo session with me (of course!)
*All edited images on a disk with a copyright release
*Plus, your choice of one of the following...

3 mini accordion albums
a 10x10 double matted collage print
3 8x10 prints
or 25 custom 5x7 Christmas cards with envelopes

**All for only $75!**

Call or email me if you want to get in on the goods!!!

(Don't worry, you didn't have to enter in the giveaway to get this deal--it's open to all!)

Fall Photo Session Giveaway

2010-09-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

Time for another photo session giveaway!

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year for pictures so I'm celebrating with a giveaway!

I'm giving away a completely FREE session (family, kids, seniors, engagements, bridals, pets, whatever!) to one lucky blog reader.

This giveaway includes a free session plus all edited images on a disk with copyright release so you can print, blog, facebook, whatever you want with them.

Plus the winner gets to choose one of the following:

- 3 FREE 8x10 prints

- 1 FREE 10x10 collage double matted print (perfect for setting on an easel or shelf)

- 3 FREE mini accordion albums (little brag books that are perfect for parents and grandparents)

This giveaway is open to all! (okay...like last time you have to be within a couple hundred mile radius of Blackfoot, ID--only because Grandma & Grandpa again nixed the idea of me flying cross country while they babysit, or else I would!)

So...friends, family, friends of friends, blog stalkers, people I don't know, whoever, enter to win!!!

Leave me a comment with your name or send me an email at echo24@hotmail.com.

I will randomly choose the winner when I get back from Arizona on October 11th. Check back then to see who the winner is!

Here are some pictures I've taken over the past few months! To check out more visit my website at amandahansen.smugmug.com.

Summer Time 2010

2010-09-05T13:40:00.000-07:00

Wow, so sorry for the long post, but I'm playing some serious catch up! I can't even believe how fast this summer has gone by! We spent Atomic Days over in Arco with Josh's family. The boys had a great time on the slip n' slide in Grandma's backyard...

Then we all went floating down the canal... (minus Gavin who was perfectly content hanging out in the truck with Josh)We took the kiddos to the parade and of course they loved it! So this is kinda Gavin's MO at parades...sit around and look pathetic enough that eventually someone will bring you candy and then you don't have to put forth any effort of going to catch it!

We then went to the carnival. Josh and I took the boys on the tilt-a-whirl thinking that it wasn't really going to be that bad...we were wrong. Amazingly, the kids were little troopers through the whole thing, even Gavin, but by the time Josh and I got off I think we were both about ready to puke.

After three very long days of volleyball, softball, and running around, we were ready to head back home for some R & R. However, this is what we dealt with on the ride home...

Words of Advice-don't leave your dirty laundry in a plastic sack within the kids' reach or they'll rip it open and start throwing it at each other...nice!

We spent the next week over in Carey for another volleyball tournament. And then the week after that was the Snake River volleyball tournament...is anyone seeing a pattern here? I told Josh that ever since I married him my life revolves around a certain sequence of events...basketball season, football season, volleyball season, softball season, and then hunting & fishing season!

These pictures are kind of random but I thought this was too cute...

Quinten was feeding Halle his ice cream (and yes, Halle is totally sporting boy's clothes, but come on, she's so dang cute in them!)

I love, love, love these girls!!! So much fun!!!

Quinten started Preschool again! He was pretty excited to go back to see his teacher and friends!

First day of Preschool

(okay, so I actually took the picture about 6 hours later after we visited the pool with grandma and grandpa, hence the crazy looking hair)

Josh has been taking Quinten out to shoot the bow and arrows that my mom and dad bought him. Sorry for the crappy picture (it was with my phone) but he's actually been getting pretty good!

So I took Quinten to the dentist to get his teeth fixed the other day. They sedated him because he's kind of grabby at the equipment and we figured it would just be easier this way. Well once they got his mouth numb he couldn't feel his lip so he actually bit down really hard on it and this is what the end result looked like!

It was pretty funny because he was so goofy while the sedation was wearing off. He even swallowed the cotton gauze roll that they told him to bite down on! They told me he would go home and sleep for 3-8 hours. Well, he only slept for just over an hour! He was hyper and acting so funny! It was like having a little tiny 4 year old drunk in my house. He wouldn't sit still so I had to follow him around and make sure he didn't run into anything. What can I say, not even Versed can keep this kid down!

The boys loved this summer and I'm kind of sad to see it go, but I'm sooooo looking forward to fall--my favorite!!!

So farewell summer of 2010...you've been a good one!

Fourth of July Weekend

2010-07-09T12:35:00.001-07:00

We lucked out and got a four day weekend over the Fourth! We spent the time up in Soda and it was a pretty awesome weekend!

Waiting for the Soda Parade

However, it did start out pretty crappy...literally crappy. I'm talking raw sewage kind of crappy. We stayed at the apartment and somehow (we are all blaming this on Josh) the sewer line got completely blocked. So we spent the first couple of days trying to clear out the line. Not even the 150 foot snake clean it out. So we eventually ended up having to call in the big time people to fix it. It would not have been so bad except I'm the only girl in our family. So while the boys are out peeing in the yard, I'm driving 1.5 miles (yes, it's exact) to my mom's house. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who can't pee outside--I'm actually pretty good at it--but you see the Father of the Catholic church lives about 30 feet from the prime peeing spot, so I figured I'd spare him.

I love the look on Josh's face--nothing like playing plumber for the weekend.

Gavin was quite the helper by attempting to put all 99 pieces of Josh's tool set in his shirt.

My sister was up from Arizona, so we convinced my dad to take us fly fishing.

Josh and my dad spent some time shooting the target out behind the house. Can you tell by Josh's face that he's just slightly competitive!

We decided to take the whole crew out and shoot the archery range and roast hot dogs.

This cracks me up. She barely stuck it into the very tip of the antler and the spine! Good shooting Tex!

The parade was great as always. The boys had a pretty great time.

I love all these boys! And yes...my kid does have a plastic bag over his head. Mother of the Year...I am not!

Can you tell Quinten absolutely loves his cousins do death!

Gavin was a little more cautious with the whole parade thing. Josh kept on having to take him out there to get the candy.

He then got smart and just started stealing the candy out of other people's sacks.

One of the cars in the parade backfired and Gavin freaked and went running for safety. He pretty much spent the rest of the parade on Josh's lap with this goofy look on his face. He kept saying "Boom, scare me!"

Quinten was goofing around in the baby swing on our swing set and leaned too far forward and ended up dangling from it. I was laughing so hard because there was nothing he could do about it, so I hurried and grabbed my camera!

Josh's football team made it the the finals, so we are off the Great Falls this weekend for the championship game!

This made me laugh so hard. I stopped at Wendy's the other day to get the boys' a kid's meal and the toy that was in it was a funny face costume. I handed it to him and he holds it up to his face and says, "Look, I'm Grandma Wendy's Papa! He's a funny guy!" The funniest part is, he really does look just like my dad!

Bear Lake Half Marathon

2010-06-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

On June 12, a group of us girls headed down to Bear Lake to run the Bear Lake Half Marathon. It was a ton of fun! These girls were a riot. Jesse's mom was so sweet and made us a carb load spaghetti dinner the night before.

Then we headed to our KOA cabin. Isn't it cute!

Once we got to Bear Lake (keep in mind it has only been 2 hours since our spaghetti dinner) we found a pizza place to continue our carb load!

We finally got all snuggled into bed for a good night's rest, but that didn't happen.

I honestly think I maybe managed to get about 15 minutes of sleep, so I now know I am perfectly capable of running 13.1 miles with basically no sleep. It rained all night, but luckily it let up as we began our run. It was so stinking cold though. There was one part of the run where the pavement turned into a dirt road, so we spent the whole time slipping and trying to run in the ditch. You could totally tell who ran the half marathon because they had mud up the back of their legs. We ended up with a time of 2:14:17 which was 150th overall (including the guys) and 20th out of our age group. I would say that is quite the improvement from my last half marathon which was almost a half hour slower plus this time we didn't have to stop or walk the entire time! It's just proof that a training schedule actually works! I'm so thankful for my awesome running partner. I honestly don't think I could have done that without her...I love you Jesse!

Before the race..like I said, no sleep for us!After the race!

Thanks girls for the great time! We'll have to do it again!

Viva Las Vegas

2010-06-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

Over Memorial Weekend, Josh and I went to Las Vegas! He played in the World Series of Poker Event #3 at the Rio. It was pretty neat to see players I watch on TV all the time like Phil Hellmuth and Vanessa Rousso. I had never watched a live poker tournament and it was crazy how fast the whole thing moves. They had about 4400 people in it and Josh ended up being in I think about the top 1500.

Josh's ticket to the WSOP

This is for all you UFC fans--Randy Couture started of the tournament with the most famous words in poker, "Shuffle up and deal."

It was so hot down there that we kind of just lounged around in our hotel and didn't do too much.

We did end up going to the M&M store for the boys--nothing like paying $40 for a bag of M&Ms that would cost $8 at Costco (the things you do for your kids)!

The best part of Vegas was the Carnival Buffet at the Rio. Let's just say I got my money's worth by eating 8 plates of food (yep, that's one more than Josh had). You would think I would have been stuffed, but the sad part is, I was up eating M&Ms two hours later in our hotel room. Jesse and I have decided there is just something about Soda girls and our ability to put away the food!

We ditched Vegas for a couple of days and drove to Flagstaff, AZ to see my sister. We ended up going on a hike and eating at some really cool places.

My sister and Josh overlooking the town of Flagstaff

My brother-in-law works at Northern Arizona University and their mascot is the Lumberjacks, so they have this awesome gigantic Lumberjack on their campus, and of course, we had to go see it!

My sister was attempting to channel her inner "Lumberjack"

Our road trip back through the very long and boring Arizona desert

And can I just say that when they complete this freeway over the Hoover Dam, I will NOT be crossing it! Are you kidding me!

Missoula

2010-05-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

Josh had a game in Missoula this past weekend, so we decided to take the boys on a little Montana adventure. My awesome sister-in-law found a hotel called the Wingate that has an indoor water park. Needless to say, that's pretty much where we camped out! The boys loved the water! Gavin loved the water slide the first day but not so much after Josh dunked him under a couple times while coming off the slide. After that he was pretty much content with just wandering around and sitting on the pool steps. Quinten has turned into quite the little fish. He would go down the slide all by himself and go completely under without a problem. I think I need to get this kid enrolled in swimming lessons.

Showing of their muscles

And it begins...Gavin has already mastered the art of girl watching

Josh played his game at the Washington-Grizzly Stadium which was pretty cool. Unfortunately it rained the whole first half and they lost 13-12, but it was still really neat. Quinten actually fell asleep for half of the game which shocked me. I guess all that swimming really takes something out of ya.

I absolutely LOVE Missoula! It is so pretty up there and I told Josh we need to make a repeat trip up there just for fun! The best part is that the kids are actually pretty darn good in the car, so it makes driving not too bad. And just a little word of advice...no matter how sick you are of making pit stops along the road, never, ever, ever try to attempt peeing into a diaper. It won't end well. Just saying.

Road Trip Pictures

Talk about mood swings!

We spent a fair amount of time doing this...

When kids have to go, they have to go, NOW!!!

I thought these were too cute. Best buds!

Holy Crazy Past Few Months!

2010-04-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

So the past couple of months have been absolutely crazy! Sorry for the long post...this is what happens when you procrastinate blogging and have to play catch up.

Josh had his wisdom teeth out at the beginning of March. Everything went pretty good except that they hit the nerve on his left side and to this day he is still completely numb on that side. They said the feeling will either eventually come back, or it could be numb for the rest of his life. I'm just hoping it comes back, even if it takes a while, because watching him try to eat without having feeling on that side is almost sad!

Two weeks after his surgery he went to Pittsburgh to work out there for a couple of weeks. The boys missed him like crazy.

Josh at the Hard Rock in Pittsburgh

While he was gone, Quinten dropped a gigantic glass water pitcher on his toe and I had to take him to urgent care to get it taken care of. Luckily, it wasn't broken and they were able to close it without stitches.

On April 2nd, Josh and I celebrated our 5th anniversary! My awesome in-laws took the boys so we could go to dinner without having to battle the boys. All Gavin could talk about when they got home was Papa's cows. I swear that boy is going to be a rancher.

Gavin turned 2 on April 11th. I'm glad he was only turning 2 and probably won't remember his birthday, because I totally dropped the ball on that one. We were all kind of sick (poor Gav had an ear infection) so we just lounged around the house. I did manage to make him a cake, and I have yet to figure out how I screwed up a boxed cake...again! Somehow I can whip one up from scratch with no problems, but apparently 3 ingredients and simple printed instructions are just too much for me! Good thing Gavin will eat absolutely anything!

Quinten has been loving school. He misses the deadline for Kindergarten this year, so I lucked out and he'll be able to go back to his same teacher again next year. She is absolutely amazing and I'm so excited he gets another year with her.

On the 21st of April, I turned 25! Josh woke up that morning and asked me how it felt to be 26. I said I didn't know but would let him know next year when I actually turned 26! At least he actually remembered this time...yes, we've been there before. It was a great birthday though and I got totally spoiled!

So the week before my birthday I did something I haven't done in years...I blacked out! I got up at 2:00 in the morning and went into the bathroom and passed out. Josh came in and found me lying on the floor, white as a sheet, and just dripping in sweat. It took 50 minutes from the time I passed out until Josh could actually move me without me passing back out. I would come out of it for a second and then would just go back out. I can honestly say that was the most freaked out I have ever been. I just felt like my body wasn't going to come back from it. I used to pass out a lot in high school and my first year of college, but it hasn't happened in a long time. When I used to pass out I would know that it was coming, pass out, and then quickly come back and was fine, but this was totally different. The doctor I saw ran a bunch of different tests. They all came back fine except for the EKG which was a little bit odd. He said it could have possibly been wrong lead placement, but if it happens again he wants me to wear a king of hearts to monitor my heart for a month. Not fun, so I'm hoping this was just some stupid random thing my body decided to do, and it won't happen again. I really, really don't want to have to go through that again.

Josh plays for a semi-pro football team called the Arco Anarchy. They play teams from the Rocky Mountain Football League like Boise, Idaho Falls, Missoula and Logan. So far they have won their first 3 games.

The boys think it is pretty cool that their dad is playing football. They want to be just like him.

Gavin sits and points to all of Josh's bruises and says "Oweeee."
Gavin on his birthday (poor sick kid) and Josh the day after his football game in Boise.

I'll spare you the pictures of his bruised rear end, but here's a picture of one of the bruises almost a week after he got it.

So once a month for the past little while a group of us girls gets together and plays bunco. This group is a total riot and so much fun to be around.

This was our last hoorah at Applebees. Most of our group is moving away or graduating and moving on to bigger and better things. I'm going to miss this group like crazy! Good luck girls!

My friend Jesse and I have been training to run the half marathon in Bear Lake this year. I never thought it would actually enjoy running, but now that I'm past the point where I feel like my lungs are bleeding and I'm going to die, I love just getting out there and running. And I have to say, I LOVE my running partner! Not only is she the best friend you could ask for, but she is my motivation to get my hiney out of bed and actually show up to Jensen's Grove. I love you Jesse...you're the best!!!

This is what our yard looked like on April 6th! It was the first time all year the kids got to build a decent snowman.

These boys really are the best of friends.

I thought this was hilarious. I caught Halle and Gavin red-handed in the rice krispies! Their faces are priceless!

1 box of rice krispies + 2 kids = hours and hours of entertainment!

Congratulations to...

2010-03-31T18:05:00.000-07:00

Kayla Vranes, winner of my first photo session giveaway!!! Give me a call at 208-221-3923 or email me at echo24@hotmail.com to claim your prize. I'm so excited to do this photo shoot...this means I finally get to meet your little guy!

I've decided this was so much fun that I'm going to have to do this again, so look for more giveaways in the future! Thanks to all those who entered...love ya!

Photo Session Giveaway!!!

2010-03-10T13:13:00.000-08:00

I'm giving away a completely FREE session (family, kids, engagements, bridals, seniors, pets, whatever!) to one lucky blog reader!

This giveaway includes a free session plus all edited images on a disk with copyright release so you can print, blog, facebook, whatever you want with them.

Plus the winner gets to choose one of the following:
-3 FREE mini accordion albums (little brag books that are the perfect gift for parents, grandparents, etc.)
-3 FREE 8x10 prints
or
-1 FREE 10x10 double matted print (perfect for setting on an easel)

This is open to all! (okay...within a couple hundred mile radius of Blackfoot, ID--trust me I would love nothing more than to hop a jet and fly across the country, but my babysitter (Grandma & Grandpa) said no!)

So...blog stalkers (I'm one too, especially with free giveaways), friends, family, friends of friends, doesn't matter if I know you or not, EVERYONE enter to win!

Leave me a comment with your name or send me an email at echo24@hotmail.com.

I will leave this open until the end of March and will randomly choose a winner on April 1st. Check back then to see who the winner is!

Here are a few of the pics I've taken over the past few months.

End of 2009 Catch Up!

2010-01-10T18:17:00.000-08:00

So where do you start when you are the laziest blogger around? I guess clear back at Halloween. Quinten was a knight at preschool and then decided to be Darth Vader to trick or treat around our neighborhood. Gavin was a knight and we had quite the dual of Knight vs. Vader before we actually made it out of the house!

That night I found that Gavin had traded in his usually snugly stuffed bear for a Darth Vader mask and cape...I guess whatever makes you feel safe at night.

We spent Thanksgiving at Josh's family's house. It was great getting to hang out with everyone. While we were out there I made an attempt to get a few pictures of the boys, but I swear I have the most defiant kids in the world. I have about a 12 second window before Gavin starts bawling and Quinten won't look at me. Somehow I can take pictures of other people's kids and they are nothing but ear-to-ear grins and adorable smiles, but nope, not my kids. So this is about as good as it gets.

Attempt #2 back in Blackfoot. (Let me just mention that there was a small meltdown on my end and I think my exact words by the end were..."Why in the heck am I still taking pictures because I don't even want to remember this moment in any way, shape, or form!"

We spent Christmas morning at my family's house and then went out to Arco a couple of days later. The boys both totally loved Christmas this year. They got basically everything under the sun.

Gavin was thrilled anytime he opened anything edible.

We were all spoiled absolutely rotten this year. Josh got a spotting scope and new knife, and I got a new treadmill (love it...although I could have used it about a month sooner since the holiday food was just a little too good).

Quinten loved going to see Santa and told him he wanted something really cool (way to be specific bud) and Gavin was absolutely terrified. Maybe I should have felt a little bad about just throwing him on Santa's lap just for a picture, but what would Christmas be without a screaming kid on Santa's lap.

Here are all of us girls modeling our hats that Josh's Grandma Joyce made us.

This is kind of random but Quinten drew an awesome picture of a "Daddy Princess"

Josh shot his first bobcat this year. Sorry if anybody is disgusted by all the dead animal pictures on my blog...if you knew my husband you would understand.

While we were at my parent's house we took our first ever family picture. I now understand why...the scene mostly consisted of my father barking over and over again "Come on, let's get this over with, now!" Therefore, not the greatest pictures I've ever taken.

I was super busy over the holidays with taking pictures and scanning in both of my grandma's pictures for photo books for Christmas. I literally took every picture they owned and scanned them onto disks. It was extremely tedious work, but so worth it!

Tonight we started on the long process of finishing our basement. We definitely have our work cut out for us, but it's a good thing we have two pint size helpers! We haven't really needed the space yet, but we figured it will be great to have somewhere to send the two wild munchkins to run around until they tire themselves out!

Q's 4th Birthday

2009-10-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so I'm only like 3 weeks late posting this but Quinten turned four on September 29th! I still can't believe I have a four year old, or more surprising that I've survived four years of that kid! He was so excited for his birthday this year. At first he wanted a Star Wars cake, so I was all motivated to make my best attempt at making one, but then he decided it was more fun to go to Walmart and pick one out there. Trust me, fine by me, so he ended up choosing an Ice Age one. He was so excited that he got Star Wars presents. Yes, my kid is a Star Wars junkie.

The last couple of weeks have been busy ones. Josh has been out hunting almost every chance he gets. In fact, tonight he came home and told me that he didn't see a single deer out on the desert, but almost stepped on a rattlesnake. I told him there aren't any deer out on the desert because they have all willed themselves to die because they realized that they have wandered into the middle of nowhere and are now in hell on earth (rattlesnakes included). I told him if he got bit that he would probably die out there because no one in their right mind is going to go traipsing out through rattlesnake country to find him.

I spent the past couple of weekends at my mom's house helping her paint. Sounds easy, right? That is what I thought until I realized that almost her entire house is covered in oil paint from when the house was first built 33 years ago. So that lead to a very long weekend of priming. Not only that, but when we decided to "paint" the bathroom, what we really ended up doing was ripping off wallpaper, tearing out old caulk, recaulking, spackling the walls, putting up molding, put up crown molding, and trust me the list goes on and on. It wouldn't have been so bad if the whole process wouldn't have been one step forward and eight steps back. To make a very long story short, let's just say that non-paintable caulk is a whole lot different than paintable. And maybe, just maybe, my mom should look at the label a little bit closer before she hands me a caulking gun and says "Don't worry about getting it all over the walls because we can just paint over it." Needless to say I'm smearing this crap halfway up the wall, before we realize that she grabbed what she thought was paintable caulk. Not so much. The next day consisted of me, about 40 straight edge razors, and a metal cleaning brush. Long, long weekend.

And these pictures just go to show that boys will be boys. Gross, gross boys.

Tonsils & Preschool

2009-09-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

So I've kind of been slacking lately because I had my tonsils and adenoids out a couple of weeks ago. It honestly wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be. I'm probably the only person who has actually gained weight after getting their tonsils and adenoids removed. What can I say, not even getting my body parts ripped out will keep me from eating! The first thing I wanted when I woke up from surgery was sherbet. The only downside to the surgery was the pain medicine made me sick so I wasn't able to take very much, but other than that it went good. It was way nice having someone watch the kiddos while I recovered--thanks everyone.

Quinten started preschool again. He loved going back and now goes 3 times a week instead of 2.

The boys showing off their muscles on Q's first day of preschool

I bet you can't guess what they learned about their first day...

Johnny Appleseed!

Top of Utah Half Marathon

2009-08-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

I did it!!! My sister and I ran the Top of Utah Half Marathon this weekend. It was so awesome. The course was amazing and it couldn't have been better weather. The whole first half you run through this canyon with gorgeous views. It really made the time fly by. This is something I never in a million years thought I would (or could) do, but I can honestly say I loved every second of it. Thanks sis for the great memories (and very sore legs)!

Camping Trip

2009-08-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

So we finally got to take a camping trip this year! We went with my brothers and dad up to where they go antelope hunting. We spent the time four-wheeling, hiking around, and fishing. The boys loved it! Even when it was down pouring and we still had to four-wheel miles and miles back to camp, they had ear to ear grins. Here are some of the pictures from the trip.

My nephew found a horned toad and Quinten wasn't too sure what to think about it stuck to his jacket. (Great mom that I am, I forgot to bring baby wipes, so Josh is in the background changing Gavin on the four-wheeler using shirt sleeves as baby wipes--way to sacrifice hun!)

Josh and the boys found some pretty cool caves to hang out in.

We took the four-wheelers up to some really cool petroglyphs. I've seen pictures of these before, but seeing them in person was way awesome.

We also went up to an old mining ghost town.

I couldn't believe how far back in the mountains this ghost town was.

Part of the mining operation.

Josh and Quinten fishing.

Quinten checking out his catch!

Fish fight!!!

So Proud!

Josh reading to the boys before bed.

So this is pretty much where my kid spent most of his time when we were back at camp.

Nothing 35 baby wipes won't clean off.

These are the boys back at home--they are such little partners in crime!

I'm not 100% sure if Gavin drew on himself or if there was a reason Quinten wouldn't look at me.

Atomic Days

2009-07-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

It was a crazy, busy past weekend, but so much fun. We went to Arco for good old Atomic Days. Josh went to his 10 year (yes! 10 year) class reunion on Friday, while I drove over to Hailey to take pictures at my cousin's wedding. It was so awesome to get to see family that I haven't seen in years. The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun.

My side of the family

On Saturday morning, I ran the 5k Fun Run with Josh's cousin, Tosha. All I have to say is thank heaven she was there to push me because I had zero energy that morning. It is amazing though how much of Arco you can cover in 3.1 miles. While we finished running, Josh went and played softball. In between his softball games, we also played volleyball. We had an all family team of Josh, me, both of Josh's brothers, my sister-in-law, and Josh's cousin. We actually ended up taking 2nd place--even with me on the team! I think we ended up playing something like 7 games, and by the time we were finished my arms looked like somebody had beat them with a bat. I took a couple hard hits and had a lot of broken blood vessels and bruising. It was pretty fun though.

We also went to the parade. The kids loved it and I'm sure we have enough candy to last us for years.

The next day Josh finished playing in the softball tournament and then we went for a four-wheeler ride. I probably could have done without the rattlesnakes, but other than that, we had an awesome time. My kids are absolutely addicted to anything with a motor. I couldn't even believe how wiped out we were when we got home.

I had to throw this picture in to show exactly what it is like when Quinten gets in one of his moods and then you tell him to go get dressed.

What we've been up to...

2009-07-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

Well nothing too exciting has been happening lately. We spent the Fourth in Soda and had a great time. I had to laugh when we took the boys to the foam in the park, because they would play in the mud puddle right next to it, but hated the foam. Leave it up to my kids to be grossed out by the highly concentrated soap, but love the mud puddles.

My sister, mom, and me at the park

The parade on the other hand, they LOVED! Quinten would squat down in this goofy looking football player position and when they would throw the candy he would get so excited he didn't even know which direction to move in.

Gavin was pretty much just hanging out until he figured out they were throwing food, then he was all about it. He would just squeal and take off into the road.

Hanging out at the cabin after the parade

I lucked out this weekend and got to see some of my all time favorite girls this weekend!!! I'm glad we get to go home for the Fourth so I can see everyone.

My kids would spend every waking second outside if they could. They love to help me outside. I planted raised gardens this year and Gavin loves to sit out there with his shovel and dig it all up. Luckily my garden has survived all this crazy weather (and Gavin) and is doing awesome.

I had to put these pictures on because Gavin is absolutely obsessed with his shoes. He even wears them to bed at night over his footed pajamas. Sometimes I try to slip them off at night and he'll wake up and scream until I put them back on. He'll even collect all of my shoes and I'll find piles of shoes in different spots throughout the house.

Quinten's new loves are Star Wars and swimming. He definitely got the Sci-fi thing from Josh because I just don't get it. He loves to go swimming. He'll sit in our big old jetted tub with his goggles on and swim along the bottom like a fish. He must have got that from Josh too because I am not a huge water person. I can vividly remember Kristin trying to teach me to dive at 23 and ending up doing nothing but belly flopping the whole time and us also going off the rope with life jackets on (wow--were we dorks or what).

Josh has so far spent most of the summer playing in tournaments. We've been able to escape a few times and go four-wheeling with the kids. My dear sweet sister somehow convinced me to train for a half marathon with her, so my summer has pretty much been spent trying not to kill myself. Anybody who knows me is totally laughing right now. I know, I know, ME trying to run a half marathon. Trust me, no one thinks it is funnier than me. I told her that if we had another sister, she would be the one who gets the joy of running it with her, but there's not, so it's all me. At least I'm finally past the part where I feel like my lungs are bleeding and I'm going to pass out, stumble into Jensen's Pond and drown. I'm actually starting to enjoy it, but I have yet to actually run the full 13 miles. I don't think I'll be enjoying it on the day of. At least there's one reassuring though--the first aid station at mile 3! So wish me luck because after August 29, I may be blogging from a hospital bed.

Picture Deal

2009-05-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

I've had a couple people ask me about doing something like this so here's my new deal for the months of June and July (and probably August since we all know how crazy busy summers are).

$50 Package Deal
-This includes an indoor, outdoor, or combination of both photo session.
-I have no limit on the session time, number of poses, or outfit changes, so things are pretty flexible.
-I will edit your pictures however you want at no extra charge.
-I give you a CD with all the original pictures on it, plus the edited images. This CD is yours to use as you would like. I release my copyright to you so you can put them on your computer and print them as you would like.

$75 Package Deal
-This includes everything in the $50 package but also includes:
(2) 8x10
(4) 5x7
(8) 4x6
(12) Wallets
-All prints are professional quality. This means they are printed on a heavier paper with a lustre finish. (They look great and I always guarantee the print quality).

If anyone is interested in family pictures, give me a call at (208) 221-3923 or email me at echo24@hotmail.com. I know summers are crazy for everyone, so if people are visiting their families in Soda, I would be happy to meet up there for a session.

Here are some of the pictures I've done lately.

Random Pictures

2009-04-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

Last week was my 24th birthday. I was so excited because Josh bought me a bike with a bike trailer to pull the kids in. We have this awesome paved path here that is something like 11 miles long, and the kids love going on it with me. My mom got me a sewing machine because for some odd reason I've decided to try and be crafty. I must say though, I have improved from the good old days of sewing class with Mrs. Hogan when I sewed my sleeve to my project and had to sit in the kitchen with my shirt off while she unpicked it all. I've actually successfully made one and a half blankets (sorry Kris, I really will finish it before Krissi turns 1!). I have to say though, the biggest suprise for my birthday was when Jesse showed up on my doorstep with this...
A BUTT CAKE!!! It absolutely cracked me up (no pun intended) . The best part was when Quinten came and told me the cake was really good and I went to the kitchen to see the entire bikini part of the cake gone--such a boy!!

I had to laugh the other day when I came in the front room and saw both of my boys sprawled out in the front room surrounded by Barbies and Polly Pockets. Quinten had ransacked a bag of my niece's old toys that were going to the DI and staked claim to the Polly Pockets. I was hoping to see the softer side of Quinten, but then I realized he was lining all the dolls up and running them over with the Barbie car.

Since the weather has been on and off here, we've spent every available good weather moment outside. We've actually got quite a bit accomplished keeping in mind it snowed last week. I bet you didn't know Ninja Turtles make excellent wood workers. Oh, and Gavin's hat is one that is 3-6 months and totally makes him look like Wilson off Tool Time.

And this is what happens when your kid eats too much of the butt cake and gets stuck in the rocking chair.

Gavin's 1st Birthday

2009-04-13T19:27:00.000-07:00

My little guy turned 1 this past Saturday. It makes me sad that he's turning into such a big boy. He's walking all over the place now and can say quite a few words.

Not so sure about the cake

Playing in his cake at Grandma's House

We love you Gav!

The boys had a great Easter. Quinten had a blast finding eggs. He was such a sweetheart at the Easter egg hunt because he took his eggs around to some of the kids who didn't get any. Sometimes that kid just melts my heart.

Our friends, Wade and Katie and their little boy Bridger, came up for Gavin's birthday. The boys all played outside and had so much fun just being boys!!!

Best Buddies...

In Their Undies!!!

When it rains, it pours...

2009-04-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

I knew today was going to be a bad day. The reason I knew...it was raining when I woke up. Don't get me wrong, I love the rain, but ever since we moved to our new house 2 years ago, whenever it rains, something bad happens to our house. (Sorry for all the venting I'm about to do, but I think my dad is getting tired of me calling him every 15 minutes just to whine.)
First thing we noticed after we moved here was that every time it would rain, the window wells in our basement would fill up with water and flood our basement. Good thing is our basement is unfinished. So we dug way down below the window wells, but we've done nothing but struggle with them. So tomorrow I'm going to buy window well covers, only the kicker is, our window wells are a special design and you can't just buy the cheap ones from Lowe's. We have to buy the ones that are specifically made for these and they are a fortune.
Then last winter I was sitting in our front room and looked over in our kitchen and there was a huge bulge in our ceiling. Apparently when they put the vent in our roof, they forgot to seal around it, so it just melted all the snow from the roof and it dripped onto our kitchen ceiling. So between gallons of water in our basement and kitchen ceiling, I'm beginning to hate the rain.
So today I went downstairs to make sure our window wells weren't filling up with water. They all looked great, but then I noticed this little puddle by one of them. I pulled back the insulation and there is a crack in our foundation! Now what came out of my mouth next is not quite appropriate for blogging, but anyone who knows my father knows that I learned a whole new breed of swearing growing up. So me being my father's daughter, sprayed quite the colorful array of new words. I swear my house has it out for me, because of course this has to happen after the 1 year warranty is up. Good thing is, the rain has stopped and the crack is no longer leaking. I'm just glad Josh has the know how to fix the stupid thing, because heaven knows I don't.
I can still remember back in my junior high days when my parent's basement got a crack by the garage steps and started flooding. Kristin, Hailey and I had the brilliant idea to try and fix it. We were all decked out in my dad's hip waders and proceeded to pour cat litter in front of the hole to plug it up. It was like trying to dam up the Snake River using granulated sugar. The water just pushed the kitty litter into the rest of the basement and we spent the next couple of hours with brooms trying to clean up the soggy litter.
So being the nice wife that I am ;) I went to Cal Ranch this afternoon and bought Josh his very own, brand new, shiny shovel so he can start digging up our yard so we can seal the crack. So even though I love all the moisture we've been getting, I would love it even more if it would stay where it is supposed to (i.e. NOT MY BASEMENT).

4 Year Anniversary!!!

2009-04-02T20:12:00.001-07:00

Today was our four year anniversary. It seems weird that it has only been four years--it feels like we've been married a lot longer than that (I mean that in a good way). I can't believe everything that has happened in such a short time. It has been an amazing past four years. Josh's mom (thank you) watched the boys while we went to Texas Roadhouse and had dinner. Josh said he was proud to have a wife that can totally out-eat him :) We then went to Lowe's to get the lumber we needed to put together the shed that we bought for our anniversary. Yes, we bought a shed for our anniversary--aren't we practical. Now the big job is putting the thing together, so wish us luck.

Pretty Boring Lately

2009-03-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

So the reason I haven't updated my blog for so long isn't because we've been super busy or just lazy, but because not too much has been going on lately. Just the same old, same old.

Wrestling with the Boys

Driving the shopping cart at Lowe's

My niece Bailey, Quinten, and Josh built some pretty redneck snowmen in front of the house

Quinten is doing great in preschool and we're on spring break this week. I'm probably crazy for signing him up for next year too (it's a 20 mile drive up to Shelley) and he will go 3 days instead of 2, but he absolutely loves his teacher and she is incredible. Quinten's new thing is wanting to dress himself for preschool. I used to be the mother who actually cared if the socks matched the outfit, but now...not so much. I told him to go get dressed the other day and this is how he comes out.

The sweater he has on is one my sister knitted for Gavin when he was a baby. And the other day he decided to wear some blue 80's sweatband into preschool the other day. Not joking...the poor kid looked like Richard Simmons.

Gavin is now jabbering all the time. He says a few words like mom, dad, bubba, and ball. Every once in a while he'll throw something else out there, but it's probably something only a mom understands. He can stand up all by himself in the middle of a room without holding on to anything...yet he absolutely will NOT take a step. He'll stand up and then I'll sit right by him and put my arms out and tell him to walk to me, and he'll gently lower himself down to the floor and crawl the whole 6 inches over to me and stand back up again. I can't tell if he's just lazy or cautious. His new favorite thing is to play This Little Piggy...

This little piggy went to market...

And this little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home!

This is what happens when Gavin meets grape juiceGavin playing in the tub with dad

Tagged, tagged, and tagged some more!

2009-02-02T09:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I've been tagged about a million times and it seems like I never get around to them. So today is the day I'm catching up. So I'm sorry if this is really long, boring, and too much information and no one could care less, but I especially love the one about babies because I can honestly say that sometimes I have a hard time remembering which baby was which. So while it is still fresh in my mind - here goes.

BABY TAG
(Since I had two babies I'm doing two separate tags - one for each)

Baby #1
1- Where were you when you found out? I was in the upstairs bathroom of our townhouse when I took the test. The one I had taken two weeks earlier was negative, so it was quite a surprise that this one was positive.
2- Who did you first tell? I walked out of the bathroom and Josh was just walking up the stairs and I just blurted out I was pregnant. Kristin was next on my list to tell.
3- Did you find out the sex of the baby? Yes - a boy.
4- Did you have morning sickness? No.
5- How much weight did you gain? 39 pounds.
6- Did you get any stretch marks? Let's just say my butt looked like a zebra.
7- Did you have any cravings? I really liked sour patch kids. I really craved Chinese food in the very beginning, but once I ate it, it took me almost a year until I could eat it again. Oh, and Belgian Waffles on the day I had him, but I threw them up once I got to the hospital.
8- Were there any complications? Nope.
9- When and where did you go into labor? I was at our house and had just gotten out of the bathtub and I immediately knew I needed to go into the hospital. I hadn't felt any painful contractions before that but as soon as they hit, they hit hard. When I got to the hospital I was almost fully dilated.
10- Did your water break? No.
11- Who drove to the hospital? Josh.
12- Who was in the room for the birth? Josh, my mom, sister, mom-in-law, Lynzi and both my midwives were there. It was all by pure luck that everyone was at my house when I went into labor or else they would have missed it. I loved having a bunch of people in there because I think it distracted me and made me take my mind off the fact that I was having a baby. I just talked and smiled through the whole thing.
13- Was the baby born early or late? He was 3 days overdue.
14- How long were you in labor for? I felt my first contraction at 7 p.m., got to the hospital at 8:00 and he was born before 10:00, so less than 3 hours - lucky I know.
15- Did you have any drugs for the pain? No.
16- Natural or C-Section? Natural.
17- What was your first reaction after birth? I was on an adrenaline high. I couldn't stop smiling and didn't sleep that entire night.
18- How big was the baby? 9 lbs 3 oz and 21 inches long.
19- Date and time of birth? Sept. 29, 2005 at 9:48 p.m.
20- Baby's name? Quinten Joshua Hansen.
21- Does the name have any significant meaning? Quinton was the name of Josh's friend from high school and Joshua is his daddy's name.
22- Did the baby have any complications? No.
23- How old is the baby today? 3 years old.
24- What kind of temperament has the baby had so far? He is the kid that doesn't sleep. Even from day 1 he wouldn't sleep at night, and would only take a couple of tiny cat naps. He still has only slept through the night a handful of times. And he used to be obsessed with balls. One time I didn't have any balls for him to hold while he fell asleep, so I have a picture of him holding two potatoes while we wheeled him around in the stroller.
25- Would you change anything about it? Not at all. I have to say that it honestly couldn't have gone any better. It was the kind of pregnancy and delivery that people dream about.

Baby #2
1- Where were you when you found out? Josh and I had taken Quinten to the fair and I came home and took a test just for the fun of it (that's what you do when you buy the bulk pack of pregnancy tests at Costco) and SURPRISE - pregnant.
2- Who did you first tell? I was going to wait and think of some really fun way to tell Josh, but that lasted for a whole 20 minutes and I broke down and told him. I then called Kristin and Lynzi. It was funny because Lynzi had just found out she was pregnant a week before and told me I needed to get pregnant so we could have babies at the same time and guess what, I already was.
3- Did you find out the sex of the baby? Yep, a boy.
4- Did you have morning sickness? No.
5- How much weight did you gain? 30 pounds. I actually exercised every single day, even on the day I delivered him, because my midwife told me I had to so I didn't have a baby bigger than Quinten.
6- Did you get any stretch marks? A couple on my belly.
7- Did you have any cravings? Not really.
8- Were there any complications? No.
9- When and where did you go into labor? I was at our house and got ready to go to bed and as soon as I laid down I felt a really strong contraction and woke Josh up and said I thought we had better go to the hospital so they could start the IV and then maybe just send me home again. Good thing we left when we did because by the time we made it to Poky I knew we were staying there for good.
10- Did your water break? No - he was actually born in sac.
11- Who drove to the hospital? Josh.
12- Who was in the room for the birth? It was actually just Josh this time because nobody else had time to make it there.
13- Was the baby born early or late? 4 days overdue.
14- How long were you in labor for? I felt my first really good contraction about 11:30 p.m. and he was born 2 hours later.
15- Did you have any drugs for the pain? No.
16- Natural or C-Section? Natural
17- What was your first reaction after birth? I was kind of in shock. The birth story will explain why. When I got to the hospital I was only a 4, but I was pretty uncomfortable, so my midwife suggested getting in the shower to help me relax. After a while in there I asked her to check me again and she said I was at a 6. She no sooner took her hand away and ungloved and I told her I felt like I needed to push. So within seconds I pushed once and out he came. It was so unexpected and crazy! I love my midwife because she's the only person I know who would be catching my ewwy gooey slimy baby bare handed while wearing a tank top and heels. It was so fast she didn't even have time to gown and glove. So I still had to carry my baby back from the bathroom to the bed while he's still attached. So I was kind of in shock that it had really just happened like that.
18- How big was the baby? 8 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long.
19- Date and time of birth? April 11, 2008 at 1:38 a.m.
20- Baby's name? Gavin Marq Hansen.
21- Does the name have any significant meaning? I just liked the name Gavin and Josh's dad is named Marc and my dad's name is Mark, so Josh thought it would be fun to name him Marq - so I decided to give him this one.
22- Did the baby have any complications? Because he was born so fast, he was super blue because he was basically suction cupped on the way out. He also hit my pelvis which caused him to have a hematoma on his head. As the blood reabsorbed into his system, it caused him to have bad jaundice so he was in the Bilibed for the first few nights home.
23- How old is the baby today? Almost 10 months.
24- What kind of temperament has the baby had so far? He was a pretty good baby. He was so much more mellow than Quinten was. He doesn't sleep worth a darn now though. I guess my genetics just make babies that require no sleep.
25- Would you change anything about it? It was quite the adventurous delivery, and the only thing I would change is I wish that whoever would have wanted to be there could have been.

I tag Kristin, Jesse, Hope & Hayley

SIX AND SIX

Here's the game:
1) Go to your picture folder, or wherever you store your photos on your computer
2) Go to the sixth folder and pick the sixth picture
3) Post it on your blog and tell the story that goes along with the picture
4) Tag four friends to do the same

I took this picture this past fall. I was trying to get some cute pictures of the two boys together, but Quinten wouldn't hold still and Gavin hated the feel of the leaves so he just cried if I ever set him down. So I just ended up getting a few of Quinten playing around in the leaves - good times.

I now tag Lynzi, Michelle, Andrea & Sarah

This last tag is actually one that I got tagged with on facebook. Since I have absolutely no idea how to make anything work on facebook, I decided I'd just put it up on my blog.

25 RANDOM THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF

1- I can't sleep with a top sheet. Somehow I end up all twisted and tied up my morning, so I now just have a comforter with a duvet cover.
2- I've been to more countries than states.
3- I HATE snakes.
4- I am such a backseat driver when Josh is behind the wheel. I know it drives him crazy, but I figure two sets of eyes paying attention is better than just one ;)
5- I drink almost a whole gallon of milk in a day - I'm thinking I should invest in a cow.
6- I am extremely indecisive when someone asks me where I want to eat. It's not that I'm picky, I just don't really care because I like everything, so I want the other person to decide what they want.
7- I tend to over-exaggerate everything.
8- I could live off cereal and be a happy about it.
9- I love anything sweet - cookies, cakes, brownies, chocolate.
10- I have every intention of decorating my house, but the indecisiveness in me needs someone to tell me where to put things--any volunteers!
11- When I was in high school, doctors told me I had a vasovagal response (syncope) where I would just pass out in certain situations. It happened a lot my senior year and also in my freshman year of college. If I was tired, stressed, hungry, didn't want to be in a certain situation, or just at random, my body would just shut off and I would faint. Wimpy, I know. Luckily it has gotten better because it hasn't happened to me since my freshman year at ISU, so at least I feel like my body isn't going to bail on me when I need it the most :)
12- I have to give props to all you dental hygienists out there because for some reason about the only thing that grosses me out is when people spit out their toothpaste after brushing their teeth. Don't ask me why, but for some reason I just can't watch it. But I am getting better and I don't have to leave the room anymore when Josh is brushing his teeth.
13- I am very sarcastic. Sorry if I ever offend anyone - I swear it is genetic.
14- I cook in massive quantities. We always have leftovers. I would feel bad if there wasn't enough food for everyone to have seconds, thirds, fourths and fifths.
15- I get my energy kick late at night, which really stinks when your kids decide to wake up at 5:00. I'm really trying to change to be a morning person, but I just like night time.
16- I constantly wish I was better at staying in contact with my friends. There is nothing in the world like an old friend.
17- I don't particularly like water. I can swim and all, but I just don't like feeling out of my element.
18- I love taking pictures. My camera is always glued to my hip.
19- I should have been a dermatologist because I have a picking obsession. Poor Josh probably feels like he married a monkey.
20- I cannot sing to save my life. Quinten used to cry as a baby when I would sing to him and now he just covers his ears and yells at me to stop singing (sometimes I do it just to terrorize him).
21- I can never say no to people who come to my door selling things. I now own cleaners, magazines and even a vacuum.
22- I am a procrastinator. For some reason I just work better under pressure.
23- I can easily out-eat my husband. Trust me, it's no easy task, but I like to think of it as one of my better talents.

24- I live in my sweat pants. The first thing I do when I walk through the door is throw on a pair of old sweat pants (usually the ones that have holes and paint all over them that I stole from my mom back in junior high).
25- I LOVE winter. I could live in the Arctic if it was up to me. I guess Idaho was the right place for me to live.

Since I can't think of anyone to tag right off the top of my head, whoever wants to do this - do it. I love learning new things about all of my friends, so give me 25 random facts.

Husband Tag

2009-01-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

1. Where did you meet your husband? At ISU - Mitch Sorensen was his roommate and hooked us up.
2. How long did you date before you got married? 7 months.
3. How long have you been married? Almost 4 years.
4. What does he do to surprise you? Even though on day shift he has to be to work by 5:30 in the morning, I'll wake up to find all the dishes done.
5. What is your favorite feature of his? His blue eyes - Kristin always threatened that if I didn't marry a blue-eyed boy, she'd break up my wedding (she said my kids had to have blue eyes).
6.What is your favorite quality? Besides the fact that he is so good to me and my boys, I would have to say that life is never boring when he is around. The other morning he poured cold water on me while I was in the shower, so even after almost 4 years of marriage, he still knows how to have fun.
7. Does he have a nickname for you? I guess maybe Hun.
8. What is his favorite food? Either my stir-fry or meatloaf-the funny thing is he hated both until I made them from my mom's recipe.
9. What is his favorite sport? Either basketball or football.
10. When and where did you first kiss? At his apartment after our first date.
11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Go camping.
12.Do you have children? 2 little boys, Quinten & Gavin.
13. Does he have any hidden talents? He can juggle.
14. How old is he? 28.
15. Who said I love you first? He did.
16. What is his favorite music? Anything, even the really old music that only old men listen to on their way to the coffee shop.
17. What do you admire most about him? He really is the most generous guy I know. Whether it is donating to those in need or helping out his family and friends, he is always thinking of others.
18. What is his favorite color? Blue.
19. Will he read this? Not unless I tell him to.
20. Person I tag. Kristin.

My Kind of Santa

2008-12-09T08:43:00.000-08:00

So I had to post this mainly because one day I want to be able to remember this and tell Quinten all those funny things he used to say when he was a kid. The boys and I went to my mom's house this weekend while Josh worked overtime. My mom has this old-fashioned Santa that has been around since I can remember. Anyway, Santa has this big brown sack full of presents on his back. Well Quinten is playing with the Santa and yells at the top of his lungs from the other room, "Mom, Santa has garbage." It takes me a minute to figure out what he means, but my dear sweet kid thinks that Santa carries around a big old sack of trash, not presents. So I figure this Christmas is going to be one of the easiest ever. All I have to do is throw a big sack of garbage under our tree and tell him Santa came by. Now that's my kind of Santa! I just hope that at preschool today he doesn't learn that Santa really brings presents and not garbage. I'd hate to have to be a good mom ;)
Oh yeah, so today Gavin got his 2nd tooth and finally learned how to crawl. For the past little while he's just been rolling around and then sitting himself back up. He was able to get to whatever he wanted this way, so crawling really wasn't that big of a deal to him. Well he finally got frustrated with face planting it all the time, because this morning I was watching him play with his toys and he started crawling around to all of them. I guess it's finally time to put the gates up because I have a feeling that this moose is on the loose!

Thanksgiving & BSU

2008-12-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Day!!!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving this year! We spent the day at Josh's mom and dad's house. It was so much fun to get to hang out with everybody. I love this time of year!!! I know it can be pretty chaotic, but I love the hustle and bustle of the holidays. We had a great dinner (thanks Teena) and I only managed to spill half the pan of sweet potatoes in the back of my car while transporting them from my house to theirs :) After dinner we all just got to hang out. Quinten and Josh had a blast playing the Wii. It was pretty funny to watch them duke it out.

Quinten and Josh boxing on the Wii

The next day Marc and Teena watched the boys while Josh and I went with his friends from high school and their wives to the Boise State game against Fresno. His friend Quinton (yes this is who my little guy is named after) helped build the sky suites above the stadium, so he got us tickets on the 2nd row (thanks Quint and Steph). We drove up with his other friend Trever and his wife Barb. Awesome news by the way, Barb finally gets to use the big "R" word - yes she's in remission!!! I couldn't be more happy for you guys right now. All those prayers really were heard!! Quinton also got all access passes at the game so we could go up and see the sky suites. It was pretty awesome to see the game from up there! Oh yeah, so Josh got his fifteen minutes of fame on ESPN. I guess he saw the camera filming the fans and started hollering and stuff, and all of us girls are looking at him like he's crazy because it is like 2nd down and nothing very exciting is happening. So then about 10 seconds later his boss calls and says he saw him on ESPN. It was pretty funny because I think Josh's boss is the only person we even know that saw it because everyone else missed the first of the game. We also got to eat dinner at this awesome place called Baja Fresh. It was awesome Mexican food and highly recommended. It was the longest that I've left Gavin since he was born, and he wouldn't let me out of his sight when I got home. Sometimes it's nice to know you're missed :) It was such a fun day - thanks everybody!!

The Girls - Steph, Barb & Me

The Boys - Josh, Trever & Quinton

I know this is really blurry,
but that blur at the very top of
the suites is Josh & Quinton.

Catch Up!

2008-11-05T19:04:00.000-08:00

So I've been really bad at updating my blog lately. I really haven't been all that busy, but for some reason I just never seem to get around to it. Not too much has been going on, but I'll try to catch up on what has. Halloween was pretty crazy. I woke up sick as a dog and then had to pack up the boys take Quinten to preschool. All the kids got to wear their costumes to school that day and it was absolutely precious to see every single one of the girls in his class dressed up as a princess! Quinten, of course, was a ninja turtle.

Last year on Halloween, we had a billion kids come trick-or-treating at our house and we ended up running out of candy within the first hour. I even scrounged around our pantry and gave out fruit snacks and microwaveable popcorn. Josh finally told me to just turn off the lights before I ended up giving out cans of soup. So this year I was prepared. I bought a literal ton of candy along with all sorts of other little things like Halloween pencils. Well go figure, we barely got any kids this year. Josh ended up pretty much dumping armfuls of candy into all the kids sacks just to get rid of it all. I was a total slacker mom this year because I had absolutely no idea on what Gavin's costume should be, and anyone who knows me knows that I am one of the biggest procrastinators you will ever meet - but in my defense I have to say that it gets done, it just gets done at the last minute ;) So I ended up just wrapping him up in tin foil just long enough to get a picture and I guess in the future when he asks me what he was for his first Halloween, I'll just tell him he was a baked potato. I figure it was very Idaho of me.

Josh and I have this joke about Mr. Potato Head that is kind of dumb so I won't bore you with the story, but for his costume I taped little pieces of Mr. Potato Head onto the back of his shaved head so he could be Mr. Potato Head.

I was a party pooper and didn't dress up. I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I ended up crashing on the couch after the kids passed out from an extreme sugar high. I think Josh felt pretty bad for me because he carried me into bed-which I'm sure was no easy task.

Gavin has accomplished a few baby milestones over the past few weeks. He started by sitting up all by himself. It's so nice to be able to just set him down and not have to worry about him flopping over when he gets excited. He went to his six month checkup back in October and he weighed almost 20 pounds. He absolutely LOVES food! Quinten never seemed to enjoy eating all that much, but Gavin will eat anything you put in front of him. He squeals anytime you don't get the spoon to him fast enough. I also discovered his first tooth on November 2nd while I was eating at Red Lobster with my mom. I'd say overall he is a pretty happy little guy (much more content than Quinten was) even though he's decided that he wants to be a morning person, which I am not. The other morning he woke up at 3:00 and never even took a nap until almost noon. I guess I'm just blessed with two boys who require no sleep to function. He's now working on crawling which mostly ends up with him face planting, but he's getting there.

Quinten has been loving preschool. So far the teacher has only lost him once. Apparently he decided to be independent and go outside to wait for mom and left all the other kids and teacher inside. Sometimes I miss those days when he couldn't walk. Quinten's new found loves are pistachios and spinach. He'll sit and shell pistachios all day and then says he wants salad. This is a whole new Quinten since his past loves were chocolate and burritos. I had to laugh the other day because Quinten has finally started to like kid shows. In the past he's picked some of the oddest shows to watch. His first favorite was Sports Center. He wasn't even a year yet and all we had to do was turn on Sports Center and he would stop crying. Then he loved America's Funniest Home Videos, followed by Wipeout, MXC, and Ninja Warrior, and now he's into Tom and Jerry.

Josh got his deer out on the desert between Arco and Blackfoot. He shot it out in the middle of the lavas and then had to pack it out 3 miles in the dark while it was snowing. I kind of thought it was funny even though I know he didn't. I thought Quinten would be grossed out seeing the deer and all, but he was right there in the middle of it. A true boy I guess.

I'll have to post some pictures later of what I've been up to lately. Josh was awesome this summer and bought me all the stuff I needed to start doing photography. I hated missing all these great pictures of my kids because my little tiny camera would take too long to focus and take the picture. So he bought me a really nice camera and I've had so much fun blinding my kids to death. I think they both just want to turn and run when they see me reach for my camera. Luckily for me Gavin can't crawl yet, so I have a few more weeks to torture him - sorry son.

TAG: Have you done...?

2008-10-06T17:26:00.001-07:00

I saw this on Krystal's blog and thought it would be fun. Copy this list and bold the things YOU have done. Then post it on your blog!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill.
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

The Big 3!!!

2008-10-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

Quinten turned 3 this week. I know every parent says this, but I can't believe how fast he has grown up. My mom-in-law made him the cutest ninja turtle cake and I have to say it was pretty creative.

Quinten is absolutely obsessed with ninja turtles. He makes Gavin and me put on hair bands and then all three of us play ninja turtles all day.

Quinten also started preschool. It's so funny to see him walk in with his backpack on his back that is bigger than he is. It's kind of crazy how quickly little kids learn to do new things. Quinten amazes me every day on all the new things he has learned. The other day I bought him all of these new puzzles that were about 40 pieces each. Well little did I know that they were double sided. I didn't think there was even a chance that he would be able to do them, but pretty soon Josh and I looked over and he had them all put together. I can honestly say that later that night when I was playing puzzles with him, I even had a hard time. And then to shock me even more, my mom-in-law took him to the Challis hot pools and she told me that he would hold his breath and swim underneath this bar that separated the deep end from the shallow end. He definately doesn't get that from me. Yes, I can swim, but I can't go under the water without plugging my nose. I'm just hoping that the days of the terrible twos are over with. Let's just say that he finished off those terrible twos with a bang after he threw a handful of gravel in Josh's new four-wheeler's gas tank, pooped in the back of my dad's truck, and then peed in my mom's fridge. I think we're banned from going back to my parent's house anytime soon. So I also spent one day this week bailing our dog out of the pound. He some how managed to chew his way through our fence and went galavanting around town. I guess some lady picked him up on his way to Shelley and took him to the animal shelter. So now he's safely home and microchipped ;)

Gavin's new thing is sticking his tongue out all the time

Spending the day out at Josh's family's farm in Arco

End of Summer

2008-08-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

Well I've been a major slacker lately when it comes to blogging. Mainly because we have yet to spend a weekend home this entire summer. We've spent almost every single weekend out camping. It's been great getting to hang out with our families.

All of my mom and dad's grandkids

We spent a lot of time out 8-mile. Quinten ended up throwing his Crocs in the stream, so we had to drive in to Alco to get him new shoes. Well, the selection was pretty slim and the only shoe that was even in his size was a pretty pair of pink girl's shoes. I figured who really cares what he looks like out camping so I bought them. It was pretty funny though because he sure thought they were pretty cool. He kept showing them off to everybody saying "Look at my new pink shoes." Then my nephew Caden went wading in the stream with Josh's hip waders to see if he could find Quinten's old shoes. So he stuck this huge stick under the bank and lifted it up and out pops Quinten's shoes, two balls, and a Frisbee. It was pretty funny to see what all the other past campers have lost down the same stream.

Quinten and his pretty pink shoes

Earlier this summer Josh surprised me and bought me a really nice new camera, so with hunting season coming up I decided to surprise him and get him a four-wheeler. Quinten was so excited he could barely handle it. Anything with a motor and wheels on it is the coolest to him. Josh was way excited, especially about the power steering part, and he put 100 miles on it the first weekend we took it out.

Quinten on Josh's new four-wheeler

My family took a trip up to Birch Creek so the guys could all go antelope hunting. It's the first time I've been camping with my brothers, sister, and dad in a long, long time. It had to be one of the funniest family camping trips I've ever experienced. Anybody who knows my dad would know why. First off, I'm in charge of cooking, which was totally fine by me. The only problem was, my dad said he would get half of the stuff on the grocery list. I should have left him with easy things like cookies, because when I asked for chicken breasts to make Dutch oven chicken, I ended up with two bags of fully cooked chicken patties and chicken nuggets (yes, the microwaveable kind). Josh and I were the first to get up there, and after waiting and waiting we could finally hear the old diesel truck. About 5 minutes later it finally arrives pulling the old hunting trailer behind it. My dad and two brothers are so wedged in the front of that truck that I'm sure there would have been no need for seatbelts if they would have wrecked because none of them would have budged. Both of my brothers are complaining about how the huge oversized semis hauling wind turbines for the wind power projects were passing them as they were going 35 mph up Fish Creek. We hiked up to this awesome cave that had petroglyphs of an antelope on the rock. It was pretty cool to see. It was a pretty fun trip. My dad's version of the whole escapade is in this week's edition of the Caribou County Sun. Let's just say at least the women in the family were smart enough to bring the camper with AC and heating.

Gavin and me after our hike up to the petroglyph

Dad "roughing it" by being the only one to sleep outside

Gavin has been growing like a weed. It's kind of sad to think that my little guy is no longer so little. Over the summer he has mastered the art of rolling all over the place and he's recently started sitting up.

Always such a happy boy

Not so sure what he thinks about the sweet potatoes

Quinten starts preschool on September 9th. He's so excited to get to go, so we've been working on the potty training thing. I'll say we're about 90% there. It's that dear sweet 10% that's about ready to push me over the edge. I swear he just wants to see my face when I discover the present he has left for me on the floor.

Getting a drink at the fountain

Gavin just absolutely loves his older brother. I can't believe how hard he laughs at him as he's getting rolled on. I'm glad Gavin is one tough little guy.

Quinten bouncing Gavin in his bungee bouncer

I'm sad to see summer go, mainly because this means I actually have to clean my house since I've completely abandoned it for the whole summer. My laundry pile actually tipped over and buried Quinten underneath. All in all, I can say it has been a pretty great summer for our family.

Me and the boys

Memories

2008-07-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

Here are the directions:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! I guess good or bad, but be nice!!!!!!!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

July Happenings

2008-07-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

I've been so bad about updating my blog, but it has been a pretty crazy month. We've been gone every weekend, so I spend the rest of the week trying to recover from the weekend. We had a pretty fun 4th of July. We went to Soda and watched the parade with my family. Then Josh played in the 3 on 3 basketball tournament. We then watched the fireworks at my Grandma's house, but Quinten seemed to be more interested with the fireflies flying around her yard. I didn't even know Soda had fireflies, but they were pretty cool to see.

Quinten catching candy for daddy at the parade

The next day was my nephew Caden's birthday. I can't believe he is going to be in high school this year. Josh took all the kids on the four-wheeler then we went over to my sister-in-law's parent's house and hung out. We got to ride around in her dad's model A car which was so fun and Quinten thought it was a total blast. It was "just my size" as my niece Bailey would say.

Quinten and me cruisin' town

Josh and all the cousins riding around

The next weekend we went up to Coeur d'Alene for Josh's aunt's birthday. The whole family went up there so it was a fun get together. The kids got to run around and play together while we just got to hang out outside. I love it up there. They live in the coolest place right by the lake.

Quinten and Josh in Tosha's backyard

Gavin and his cousin MaKena

We've also been camping a lot in the last little while. I would camp every day if it was up to me. Camping is definately one of my all time favorite things to do.

Camping at 8-Mile

We spent the last weekend in Arco where Josh played horseshoes, volleyball, and baseball in the Atomic Days tournament. Poor Gavin was pretty miserable cause it was so hot. It's been a pretty fun summer for us so far.

Gavin with his Aunt Julie watching Josh play baseball

I love getting to hang out with my boys and eat "pine cones" - Quinten thinks ice cream cones are called pine cones and it's one of those things that is too cute to correct.

Quinten hanging out in his playhouse eating "pine cones"

Busy Week

2008-06-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

It has been kinda a busy week for us. Last week Lynzi, Carson, and Barrett Hobbs came to visit us. Quinten absolutely loves Carson to death. It is so funny to watch them play together and it makes me so thankful to have a friend around who has two little guys the same age as Quinten and Gavin.

Carson & Quinten playing baseball

Then on Friday I had to take Gavin to his doctor's appointment for his 2 month checkup. He's growing great - 85th percentile for his weight and 100th for his height. He got his shots too, so I had a pretty sad boy for the next couple of days. His temperature got pretty high and to top it off he also got Quinten's cold.

My Growing Boy

He sure loves his daddy

Porkchop also got his shots on Friday. The vet told me he is some kind of a pug cross with probably a terrier or a beagle.

Porkchop running off with Gavin's binky

On Saturday, my sister Andrea got married. She married Jared Gardner (he's from here in Blackfoot). They had their ceremony out at my mom's cabin. I was an idiot though and took all the pictures with her camera and forgot mine, so I'll have to post pictures of her wedding later. Then Sunday was Father's Day. My little guys are lucky to have such a great daddy. He is such a good dad, and he loves just hanging out with his boys.

Dad and the boys

Monday was Josh's birthday. We bought him one of those big Craftsman tool chest things (with a lock) so he could finally keep Quinten from stealing all of his hammers and trying to break down any locked doors - true story. My niece Bailey came and stayed with us for a few days. It's so nice to have someone for Quinten to play with. They had so much fun together and really kept each other entertained. We went to Jensen's Grove and played in the water. It was so cute when all three kids crashed for the night.

On a sadder note, we just learned that one of our friends was just diagnosed with stage III cancer. Her name is Barbara and both she and her husband were friends with Josh in high school. Josh now works with her husband Trever out at the site, and they have a little boy who is 2 1/2 and just had a little girl a few months ago. They have always been such good friends to us over the years. We would love it if anyone reading this could send up a prayer for her and her family, along with all the other people and their families who are battling cancer.

Barbara with her little guy, Boston, playing "phone" with Quinten. We spent a few days in Boise shopping and swimming while Trever and Josh went hunting in Salmon.

Boston and Quinten after we visited Build-a-Bear and took in a full day's worth of shopping.

Potty Training

2008-06-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, I had heard that potty training boys was hard, but nobody ever told me how hard. I honestly can't even tell you how many failed attempts we have had at potty training Quinten. It seems like every time something big happens in our lives, he responds by completly reverting back to the diaper. Our first attempt was when he turned 2. He did so good, but then Josh and I went to Hawaii, and as soon as we got back, he decided to punish us for leaving him by no longer using the toilet. After that, it's been interesting. One of my most interesting mommy moments came when I was first pregnant with Gavin. I was really worn out and was laying down on the couch. I had given Quinten some chocolate to tide him over while I tried to get some much needed down time. Well Quinten at the time had this obsession with not wanting his hands to be dirty. So as I'm laying on the couch, Quinten comes over and is just whining to me and holding his chocolate covered hands up to me. Well being pregnant and all, I was too lazy to get up and wash them in the sink, so I just did the thing that most mothers do at some point in their lives - I licked it off. It was then that I realized that I must have given him dark chocolate, because what I was licking off wasn't sweet. Only after I had dutifully licked off all the dark chocolate, did Quinten turn around and I saw the brown handprint smear running from the back of his diaper to the middle of his thigh. It was then that I realized that what I though was dark chocolate was in fact, yes, poop. Of course being pregnant and all, the gag reflex kicks in and I'm thinking to myself that this might just be the first time during both of my pregnancies that I might actually throw up. Fortunately, I held it down and changed what was left of the poopy diaper. So I figured that this was my one bad potty training experience and it would be smooth sailing from here on out, but no. Bad experience number two occured just a few weeks ago. I was nursing Gavin when I heard Quinten go into the other room and rip off his diaper. I was hoping that he was just going to hop on the potty and all would be well, but no. Pretty soon he comes walking in with a gigantic pile of mushed poo in his hand and says "Mommy, I pooped". I'm not sure exactly what to do at that point because he's looking at me with these eyes like I should be so proud of him for bringing it to me, but I'm not so sure I want to accept his thoughful gift. I then think about what he'll do with it if I don't accept it and visions of finger painting on the windows and cupboards with brown feces motivates me to just smile and let it move from his hand to mine. So I'm sitting on my couch with Gavin nursing in one arm and a pile of poo in the other and I'm trying to remember if any of those parenting magazines I read while waiting in the doctor's office had any advice for this situation. I figure that I'm on my own with this one, so I set the poor nursing kid down and tell him I'll be back momentarily. So I clean up the mess, get Quinten changed and go back to Gavin to explain why being the number two baby stinks sometimes. So as you can tell, my potty training experiences are getting the best of me. I'm holding onto that advice that everyone with a boy keeps telling me - don't expect too much from them before they are three and that there aren't any 10 year olds still wearing around Costco diapers.

2008-05-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

Gavin Marq Hansen

Quinten Joshua Hansen

Gavin in the Bilibed

Our Newest Addition

2008-05-21T17:24:00.000-07:00

Gavin Marq Hansen, the newest addition to our family, was born April 11, 2008. He was born 4 days overdue. He was quite the story to tell because he was born while I was standing up in the shower at the hospital. My midwife (who by the way is one of the coolest people I know) had to catch Gavin while I stood there because he came out in only 2 pushes. He weighed 8lbs 5 oz and was 21 inches long (a huge relief from Quinten who was 9 lbs 3 oz). Because Gavin was born so fast, he was extremely blue when he was born and he had a cephalohematoma (a collection of blood under the skin on his head) from hitting my pelvis--poor kid. The hematoma caused him to have really bad jaundice because of the blood reabsorbing. He was in the Bilibed for two nights after we got home. Those weren't the best two nights of my life, but we survived. His hematoma has completely gone away now. Quinten is adjusting to life as a big brother. At first he was really rough with him, but like Lynzi told me (she's who I call when I need questions answered) he got better. Life has been an adventure with all the boys in my life--even our dog is a boy. I'm starting to feel way outnumbered, but I wouldn't trade my life for the world.