Christmas 2012

Let me start this post off by saying, we always wondered where Nicolas got his crazies, but this pictures prove it--he definitely got it from his father!

 

 

 

 These are the pictures we took after church the Sunday before Christmas. 

 There are a few things I love way too much about this photo.  One, the attempt on Sarah's life.  I knew Brynlee was jealous of her!  Two, Elise was attempting her mad face, and it was lost behind Brynlee's head.  And the third thing was I couldn't get Nicolas or Haley to make a crazy face at all, they just kept acting like themselves!! :)

I had to add this photo just to show that Sarah was smiling for every single picture we took, sadly the smile came after the flash though, so this is the only one we actually captured on tape.  I also really love the peeking from Kaden and Brynlee.  If you could see them, this would have been the best smile from everyone!

 

 

Ok, onto Christmas.  We had so many fun things this year.  One was our annual Gingerbread houses and caroling.

Working on some houses.

Our friends Beverly and Rosetta with their finished products.

 The kids had lots of fun together.

 The pictures turned out fuzzy, but here's some of the group.

 

Next came breakfast with Santa

 Sarah was very excited to meet him!

 He surprised Kaden and said, "You'd better watch out, you never know who may sneak up behind you."  Kaden was so surprised he jumped, but was very happy to see Santa.

 Nels had to go to work that morning, but it was probably a good thing because the whole restraunt was filled and we barely fit around the table.

We got to see Santa again on our way out. 

Sarah's first real encounter with Santa was great.  She didn't look quite so scared in person.  But she was definitely very inquisitive of who this bearded fellow was.

Christmas morning!!!

It all began on a quiet winter morning, with the dear little ones asleep in their beds...

 Then the chaos ensued!!

The kids opened their stockings, then waited patiently for the real fun to begin.

 

 Molly got an elf shirt (I couldn't help myself),

 Haley got a laptop,

Kaden got all the webkinz he wanted,

 Nicolas got an awesome nerf gun,

Shaylin got an American girl doll,

Brynlee got an American girl doll,

 
(notice the matching outfits)

Elise got a leapster,

and Sarah got a cool noise maker!

Christmas 2012 was a success!!!!!!

 



Sarah's 1st birthday!!!!!

 Of course she had to have her own cake

 

 Of course she didn't like it :(

Once she touched it with her hand and the frostnig bit her, she no longer wanted the cake.

 

 I fed her one bite to make sure she didn't want any, and she most definitely did not.

 

 However, her mood changed dramtically when it came time for presents!

 

 Yeah, she got a baby!!  She absolutely loves babies!!!

 She got 2, one little and one big.

 She hugs them like this all the time, and I have to carry her and the baby around, so Sean, Nicolette and Claire got her a little one for us to take in the diaper bag.  Very thoughtful!

 

Sarah's friend Claire, and her mom Nicolette.

Elise

     Elise has always had a fun style of her own.  Her favorite thing to wear has long been a button-up shirt tucked into her pants with a belt.  I believe the love for this style started with a crush that she had on a little boy named Diego, in preschool.  She saw him with his slicked back hair and tucked in shirts, and knew that is what it took to look good! 

 

 She has also proven to have an amazing ablity to fix hair at a young age. She was the first of our children to be able to do her own ponytail. That began in preschool, and now, in kindergarten, she has begun doing some pretty fun things. Here is a picture of her two weeks ago after she went into the bathroom and did her hair completely on her own. I was pretty impressed. She has since come up with many more, all very good, and imaginative.

 

The last thing that I have to share about Elise is that she has been talking about getting her ears pierced for awhile, and we finally did it.  But did I take her to the store to do both ears at once, nope, not me!!  I am not that kind of mom!  I am the kind that goes and buys an ear piercing gun and does it herself.  Everything went great, until we had to do the second ear.  The first one caused a scream and some tears, but how can you convince a child to do it again? 

I attempted waiting until she told me I could do again, but I soon realized, she was never going to say, "Shoot me again, Mom."  So I asked her if I could do it real quick when she didn't even know.  She kind of agreed, and I took that as a yes, so I had her begin counting the freckles on her nose.  She began telling me she idn't know how when, yes you guessed it, another scream and more tears were heard from my bathroom. 

She did it though, her ears are now peirced :)

Oh, I fogot to mention, my ear piercing gun only lets you use ugly earings, so then I had to switch it out with the pretty hearts, which took me pulling out the ugly one, and basically re-piercing through the back of the ears with the pretty heart earings, since the hole had closed up within a second of the earing being taken out.  We got it though, and she didn't even cry through that part (I think because I hid the fact that it was bleeding).

I'm a good mom, right?  :)

   

2012 School year

Well, last month we had our Parent Teacher Conferences.  This is always a time I fret, since we've had a few rough ones in our past. 

I was very pleased that, even though there are some struggles, the teachers recognize their potential, and are truly enjoying having them as a part of their day.  Go Hansen kids! 

I never posted the pics of their first day of school, so here I am, getting on the ball.  We have a pretty crazy morning, with three different times of people leaving. 

 

 Haley goes first, down to the bus stop.

 

 Then Kaden, Nicolas, and Brynlee about 45 min. later.

 

 And after they leave, Shaylin, Elise, Paul (the neighbor boy) and Sarah and I head down to the bus stop for one last goodbye to school. 

We have always had some pretty crazy mornings, but I have to say, this year, I don't hate anything.  Last year, I hated lunches--with a passion!  The year before that I hated the rush, and I was so stressed at it, that I was having continual hot flashes!  This year, it may be early; but so far, so good.  No, the kids have not been getting their piano practice in perfect, and no, all of their chores are not getting done; but, they are getting out of the house on time, there is very little screaming, and everyone leaves fed, and with a lunch in hand.  Go Hansen mom!!!

Nicolas

We all know that Nicolas loves to learn fun facts, and has a creative mind, but this year, I learned that there it nothing he won't think of! He was wondering what would happen with different things in the freezer, so he put in a cup of water with an apricot pit to watch how it could freeze.

 

Then, he wanted to see what would happen to a flip flop if placed in the freezer, so of course he couldn't put it in the door, he had to put it in the ice despenser (of which we used for lunch, and no, it was not a clean flip flop!).

 

Then, as we were eating our lunch, with our refreshing ice water, Kaden complained of his tasting like soap, which he has done before and there was none, so I ignored him. He said, "No mom, it really does taste like it this time." Being the wonderful mother that I am, I continued to think he was being his picky self, and nothing was wrong. Then Brynlee said she tasted soap too, and I looked and realized there were some bubbles in her water. I thought, how wierd, the dishwasher really did leave soap in their cups. As I proceeded to give them refills of delicious ice water, I noticed more bubbles as the water fell onto the ice. I opened the freezer, and that is when I found not only a flip flop, but a little purple corner of something, sticking up underneath it. I pulled it all the way out, and it was a container of bubbles (of couse without it's lid) had been lain down inside the ice to see what would happen if it too, was frozen. 

(If you look at the top of the ice in my cup, you can see the film of small soapy bubbles all along it!)

 

Nicolas' scientific find was that mom is not happy when she has to clean out the entire soap dispenser, or when non-food substances are placed in the freezer.  Good find Nicolas, good find!

Jamestown and heading home

We had to use our last day to check out the historical towns of Yorktown and Jamestown.  With this, Kaden found out that because of his handicap, he gets to get him, his family, and a few friends into national parks for free for the rest of his life!  He was pretty excited about his special card. 

The towns were amazing, with cannons, and just so much rich historical information and sights.  We loved it!

 

 

 Since it was a Sunday, we packed a lunch and ate at a picnic spot in Yorktown.

 

 We had a friend come visit us, and he ran up the tree and turned around tio eat up-side-down.  We thought this was pretty cool!

 

 Me aiming the cannon, ready for fire!

 

Silly Nels, he got on the wrong side of the cannon.

 

 At Jamestown they had all the state flags and plaques that stated when it was founded, etc.  We can never pass up an opportunity to pose in front of Texas, where the craziness of our family began!

 

 This was the front of the flags and state museum.

 

This was the back end of the flags, symbolizing the boat that brought explorers across to this magnificent land!

 

 

We drove back to Mannases, VA where we stayed with some friends, the Atkinsons (I knew the wife growing up in Modesto, CA, and then we met them again when they moved into our ward in Texas).  Nels and I have never met a family so like our own in daily routines, and behaviors,  It was so fun to see the kids get along as well as they did--better than they ever have with anyone!!  We're so glad we got to see them!

 

What a fun trip!!!!