2010 In Review

Okay, I've learned my lesson.  Catching up on an entire year in one blog post is too hard, but I'm going to do it.  I put my blog address on the back of our Christmas cards and sent it to 60 people, so that's really good motivation.  So if you are one of those people, this is for you!  If not, welcome anyway.
(Click on photos to view larger.)

JANUARY
I'm starting at the very beginning, New Year's Eve.  We spent it with the Moon family at my Brother's home, where we have had some great parties the past few years.  The night started out with food, of course, then we started our Pinewood Derby!  Some cars were new for the night, some were previously made.  David brought his two motorized cars that he has made for our adult class Cub Scout Pinewood derbies for the past few years.

David raced his two motorized cars against each other and the new one won.  Then he raced them UP the track!

Evan was disappointed that his car kept losing until he won the award for the slowest car!  His is the little gray one in the photo above.  He made it himself from a scrap he found in the garage.

Afterward we had a board game party, but you can read about that on my other blog.  Once again, spending time with family was a great way to ring in the new year.

On New Year's day we headed to David's brother's home for more partying, food and cousins.  Living at a higher elevation they are always blessed with enough snow for fun winter activities, not to mention a great sledding hill just outside their door.  We all had a blast on sleds, tubes, snowmobiles, snowshoes, and Evan tried a little skiing and loved it.

Stauney got whitewashed by her cousin Mikayla.

FEBRUARY
Apparently this was a pretty calm month for us since I really didn't have many photos from it.  So I thought I would share this photo from Logan's egg collecting.  Logan sells eggs from our chickens to neighbors, relatives and David's fellow employees for $2/doz.  Since we started out the year with around 21 chickens, it has been great for keeping some spending money in Logan's pockets.  However, we only sell the ones that will fit in the cartons.  The egg on the right would be considered extra large in a grocery store.

We got two this size on the same day.  No, there's not a goose or an ostrich out there - we checked!

MARCH
We finally talked Logan into getting his learner's permit.  He's just starting to see the benefits of having a driver's license.  I think Mom and Dad spoil him too much by driving him everywhere he wants to go.  His uncle was willing to give him a car, but unfortunately Logan's legs wouldn't fit into it.  Maybe if we would have removed the front seat and he drove from the back it would have worked.

Logan's first time driving - it still scares me!

APRIL

David and I had enjoyed working in the Cub Scouts together as Noah's Wolf den leaders, until April.  I was made our Ward's Relief Society president, and a very busy year has followed.  I really enjoy it though and have great people to work with and a wonderful Ward.

Noah turned 9 years old in April and went into the Bear den.  He had a fun Spy birthday party with his friends that I'll post on BB soon.

Noah is always smiling, but it seems a little bigger with gifts.

 The day after Noah's birthday we got a big surprise when we found a newborn baby goat running around the back yard after school.  Stauney's goat had given birth to two kids and our dog helped one escape the fence.  As soon as we got them cleaned up, Logan's goat went into labor!  Two more kids were born (one with some help from our neighbor) and we had a very busy, rainy evening getting babies settled and fed and mommas milked.

Three boys and one girl, just like our kids.

 Many busy days and nights followed, and I had a really fun time trying to feed 4 bottles at a time while the kids went back to school.

That weekend, David  headed to Moab with his buddies from work for their annual 4-wheeler/motorcycle trip.  He always has a great time, eats really well, and didn't come home with any injuries this year!

Good thing he was there to hold this up!

A week after the goats were born, Logan had an ambulance ride and was admitted to the hospital for a ruptured appendix. Luckily they were able to do his surgery laproscopically, and he only spent three days in the hospital.  He has recovered well, and in December has finally gained back the weight he lost while in there. With the amount of food he eats, you'd think it wouldn't take that long.

Most minors who have to stay in the pediatric wing aren't 6'4" tall and can actually fit in the beds.

We were grateful we all survived April!

MAY
I had been helping at Stauney's new Jr. High school with their musical review.  I signed up to do props, but ended up doing a little directing and choreography also.  It was a lot of fun and I got to work with a lot of great kids.
Stauney LOVES theater and was willing to be the lead in every song.  She wasn't, but she was on stage most of the time.  They did songs from major Broadway shows like Grease and Wicked, and of course some High School Musical 1-3, but 'Super Trooper' from Mamma Mia was her favorite.

I painted the boots and made the microphones, but Stauney totally pulled off the look with the boa.

At the end of May Evan had his 7th birthday.  Apparently we should have practiced how to blow before we lit the candles.  We thought we would share the video of him sucking out his candles instead.

JUNE
We finally have proof that our Beagle Chloe doesn't ALWAYS look sad and depressed.

She especially looks happy and obedient when we give her baby carrots.

  After school got out we had a fun time going to stay in Duchesne with my extended Moon family.  We had fun visiting, reminiscing, and going to Nine Mile Canyon to see the Indian petroglyphs.

The kids had fun climbing on, around, over and even in rocks all day.

 We also had fun with the extended family on David's side at a family reunion on his cousin's huge dairy farm in Eureka.

Noah and Evan especially loved the biggest slip-and-slide they've ever seen.

JULY
Another whirlwind of activities started at the beginning of July when David's parents treated the entire Hansen family to a trip to Nauvoo, Illinois and the church historic sites for 5 days.  We all showed up bright and early at the SLC airport and 38 of us flew to St. Louis where we boarded our private tour bus and met our driver and guide for the week.  We had so much fun with everyone.

Yeah!  A green bus to match our green shirts.  (Grandma let a 12 year-old pick the color.)  Noah and Evan in Carthage.

The whole family, and ours in front of the Nauvoo Temple.

David and I were so happy we got to do a session in the temple while Logan and Stauney got to do baptisms.  Grandma and Grandpa took the younger kids to play pioneer games while we were there and everyone had a wonderful day.

David got me a new camera for my birthday and with it, took this photo of the temple at night.

Some photos from Hannibal and St. Louis, Missouri.

We also got to spend a fun day in Hannibal and take a river boat ride.  Due to recent flooding, Tom Sawyer's Island was completely under water.  The trees had very wet feet.

Then our last day we spent in St. Louis seeing the sights and going to the top of the Gateway Arch!

Us from the top of the arch - 630 ft!  Evan got a little squashed preparing to go back down.

We really stood out in our green shirts, but it sure made it easy to round up the kids!


AUGUST
Apparently our lives weren't busy enough. At the end of July we welcomed a 14 year-old exchange student from Japan to live with us for a month.  Rin became the sister that Stauney never got.  We had a few language difficulties and some homesickness issues, but we had a great month showing her how we live.  Instead of the kids spending their summer as couch potatoes, we decided we had better do something more exciting, so we had a busy month of sight-seeing and playing.

The kids and their new sister.

We had a busy month.  We went to a drive-in movie, which she had never done before, bowling, Museum of Ancient Life, Antelope Island, hikes, swimming, family reunions, BBQ's and lots of shopping.  She even went with Stauney to Girls' camp.

After visiting David's brother we went to the Castle Valley Pageant and Evan helped make butter like the pioneers did.

Rin taught us all how to do our names in Japanese with a brush and ink.

The biggest challenge for me was that Rin is a vegetarian.  I had to learn to cook differently for a month, and I really didn't mind it.  Rin's favorite thing to do was to cook dinner with me every night.  She even made us some yummy Japanese food.

The morning before we took her back.  We miss her and it was a great experience for our family.

August also brought around the Davis County Fair.  Noah was old enough to be in 4-H this year and was so excited to show goats.  They all did a great job and Logan and Stauney both earned two belt buckles each.  Evan got to show goats in the Pee Wee goat show again also.  It was a very busy week for us with David and I both helping to run the show and the kids also showing our neighbor's goats.  I think we took around 21 goats in all!  Exhausting, but fun.  The kids also entered many exhibits and crafts and several got best of show ribbons and were sent to the State Fair.

So proud of these kids and all of their hard work.

We ended up selling all of the goats except one little doe of Logan's.  It was too much.

At the end of August school started up, and I think I finally got to breath again!

If shoe size indicate height, then all of our kids will be tall!

Logan, and his size 14's just started 10th grade.  Stauney and her size 10's are now in 8th grade.  I don't know Noah or Evan's shoe sizes, but I can just about wear Noah's, and Evan isn't far behind.  Noah is in 4th grade and Evan is in 2nd.  David is the parent organization president at their charter school this year and it keeps him VERY busy.  I volunteer to help in classrooms weekly.

SEPTEMBER
After having approval for his Eagle project for over a year, Logan finally completed it.  It was a huge project and I think something like 70 hours was spent on doing an inventory of every headstones condition at the city cemetery.  It was a great project and he's glad to have it done.  He just got approved for his Eagle and we will have his ceremony after the holidays.  Yeah!

Although we had fun hanging out in the cemetery, we are glad it's done.

Noah and Evan were thrilled to get cast as Merlin and Mini Merlin in their school play of King Arthur's Quest.  All of the bigger actors had a mini to make the villians look bigger and the actors look further away.  It was so cute!  So Evan got to be Noah's mini, and they both were awesome.

There is some resemblance!

We celebrated Logan's 16th birthday and Stauney's 14th the end of September.  They've grown up so fast, but we couldn't ask for better teenagers.

Much to Stauney's dismay, Logan got a cell phone and she didn't.

David was released from Cub Scouts and is now serving as First Assistant in the High Priest's leadership.
 
OCTOBER
Yep, Stauney is back on the stage again as the lead in our Ward's musical for the Stake Roadshow.  She even sang a solo.  She is an amazing actress and impressed everyone.

Stauney is one of many talented kids in our Ward.  Logan was happy helping with props behind the scenes.

We had an unexpected opportunity come up when a co-worker of David's offered our family a free condo for a week in Anaheim, California.  We decided that if people wanted to keep giving us free vacations, we would keep taking them.  So we headed to DISNEYLAND!!!  We drove clear to the border of California before Noah and Evan figured out where we were going.

We spent 7 days at Disneyland and California Adventure.  It was a great bonding time for our family.  We even got to go trick-or-treating with Mickey in the park.  It was a great evening with fast lines on rides, characters, tons of candy, and a special parade and fireworks.

Flynn was really jealous of Logan's height.

Yes, that's the kitchen table covered with candy (not including all that the kids ate and one other bag full!)
 We had this idea for a Christmas card while we were there, but it didn't quite work:

There's no 'E' in California.

NOVEMBER
A busy month, but not for family photos.  I spent two weeks sick in bed and missed Noah and Evan performing in their school choir.  I just got the video of it and can't wait to finally see them perform.

I did stay busy taking photos of my niece's wedding and reception in November and I'll post some of those another time.

DECEMBER
Stauney has been enjoying taking musical theater classes and has just finished performances.  She's so fun to watch because she loves it so much.  Her whole class was so cute!

She even got to wear a feather boa again.

Logan, Stauney and Noah just had their piano recital.  They are all getting really good, but do not want me to post videos of them playing because they weren't perfect.  I thought they were awesome.  Their teacher says that Noah has natural talent and may pass by the older kids if he keeps working hard.  Logan needs to learn a few more hymns and then he will start taking organ lessons.  We plan to start Evan in piano this summer.

Thanks for hanging in through this very long post for our very busy year.  I hope to post more often from now on, so feel free to check in again sometime.  We hope you have a very Merry Christmas, and send you our best wishes for your new year.

Merry Christmas!  Love, The Hansens

 Please leave a comment so we know you've been here!

When Cupids Go Bad

My six year old son Evan loves to draw. He has been drawing a holiday scene (or two) every month on his much beloved IKEA easel whiteboard.  I do my best to capture the images with my camera before someone comes along with another idea and erases them.  I get a real kick out of his perception of things and his creativity.  Here are some recent favorites:

 

I thought the castle scene with the bats and dragons was nice, until I noticed my name (and the rest of the family's) on headstones along the grassy hillside.  It's good to know we're all buried together though.

Then the alien invasion picture was interesting.  I personally would have a hard time walking with that many legs (upper right corner).

A family favorite was the mad scientist for Halloween.  The skeleton was a nice touch, as were the skulls on his shirt, and even Spiderman dropped in.  But I loved the fact that he had a remote to fly in the airplane that dropped little mice by parachute all through the scene.

But when I asked him to draw me a nice Valentines picture and I got this, I wonder if I should start to worry?

Yes, those are cupids.  Shooting each other.  And due to the quadruple weaponed yellow cupid in the upper left and the "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh" in the bottom right corner, I don't think they had love in mind.  But, at least I know Evan's interpretation.

A New Year to Celebrate

Yeah, I know I'm behind. But now that I'm up and running with this blog again, I am determined to get caught up.

On New Year's Eve, our friends the Gravens, came over to hang out with us. Nothing fancy, we just ate, played on the Wii, and watched the kids play games. Leonard had to work :( but kept calling regularly, so we felt like he was part of the party. We had a fun night especially since we don't see them very often.

And I have a recipe to share!
SPINACH ARTICHOKE DIP
I'm sorry this is already half eaten, but I only make it for parties so I don't eat the entire thing myself. I figured I had better take a photo of it anyway since I may not be making it again for a while. It is SO good! I love this dip. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com.

Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip II

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Romano cheese
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix everything together then gently stir in spinach and artichokes (I usually use a whole pkg. of spinach). I mix in the mozzarella instead of putting it on top because I read in the comments that it makes a crusty cheese shell on top. I couldn't find Romano cheese, so I just added extra mozzarella. I have also used an Italian blend of cheeses before, but I prefer freshly grated cheese over pre-grated because it melts better. Transfer to a baking dish and bake for 25 minutes or until hot and bubbly and slightly browned.

On New Years day we slept in, then packed to head to David's brother Scott and his wife Heidi's house. Noah and Evan went to a sledding birthday party with friends while we got everything cooked and ready to go.

As we showed up at their house, they had old home videos playing on the TV and we got a good laugh over our 1991 wedding, and Brent and Karen's. Wow, what hair we had! Logan made a very wise comment to me the next day. He said, "Adults are always talking about how they wish they could look like they did when they were younger, and as soon as they see themselves, they laugh at how funny they looked." Very true.

Stauney with Grandma Hansen and cousins.

Soon, almost the entire Hansen family had made their way there for the party. Scott and Heidi were brave souls to invite all 41 of the family to sleep over at their house - 34 came! After everyone showed up and some returned from skiing, we had dinner, then a talent show. The kids were asked to do a talent, and the adults were supposed to do highlights of their year. Here's the poem that David and I compiled together (I read the 1st line and he read the 2nd):

We can't believe that now another year's gone by,
Our kids have grown, we've gotten older, boy, how time does fly.

In March David went to Moab on a motorcycle trip,
I came home with cuts and bruises on my legs and arms and hip.

In May Noah and Evan played baseball in their cleats,
They had a lot of fun as long as there were treats.

Then Evan graduated from good old Kiddie Kollege,
He went on trips, had fun and got lots of preschool knowledge.

In July we joined the Hansen's for our annual camping fun,
But we deserve the most cookies since I'm the favorite son. (family joke)

Our thanks to Grandma & Grandpa for watching over our clan,
While we flew off to Hawaii to work upon our tan.

In August all our kids were in the Davis County Fair,
They got belt buckles, ribbons, and lots of money there.

Then September took them to the fair for Utah State,
Their goats looked really awesome and the kids did really great.

Then off to school the kids did go for knowledge there to gain,
They're learning much and doing well, but carpooling's a pain.

Now in band and choir and acting, our kids really do shine,
But with all these performances, Mom and Dad have little time.

Two cows, two goats, four chickens, our little farm does make,
But now the cows are gone, so soon we'll have great steak.

Another year gone by, another year to start,
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and now we will depart!

Yeah, I know it's cheesey, but we were the only ones with a poem! I think we raised the bar for next year.

Logan told me he was going to play one of his hard songs on his trumpet. It was nice, but lasted about 30 seconds. He doesn't understand why I was upset. After all the money we pay for piano lessons and trumpet payments, you'd think he could allow me a little more proud mother time than 30 seconds! I barely had time to take this photo. This is the second time he has done this to me, so I told him next time I get to pick the song.

Stauney and Noah played a duet of 'Jolly Old St. Nicolas'. Then Stauney played Fur Elise and Noah played 'Silent Night' while Evan sang to it (no photo, I was helping).

Then after enjoying everyone's talents (except Brian's family who weren't there), we divided everyone up according to where they were going to sleep, and stayed up WAY too late for the second night in a row, talking, laughing and playing games.

Breakfast the next morning was so yummy. We made omlettes in a bag. In case you haven't had them here's the, uh, recipe?

OMLETTES IN A BAG

Break 2 eggs into a sandwich baggie.
Add some mix-ins: peppers, browned sausage, grated cheese, diced ham, olives, onions, salsa, tomatoes, salt and pepper, etc.
Close bag and squish to mix. Let out extra air. Write your name on it with a Sharpie pen and drop into a pot of boiling water. They take about 15 min. to cook completely. Squish to make sure the egg is all set.
They are great, and fun to make.

Then I headed outside to take photos of the kids sledding on the hill next to their house. Here are a few of my favorite photos:

David and Noah on the snowmobile.

Great shot of Kylie in mid-air. She is so fearless, she took more hard landings than most of the big kids.

I love Noah's expression as he flies off his sled.

Taylor's awesome snowboard jump off the ramp that Cory and Parker took so much time creating.

Stauney and Brooke. In almost every photo I had of Stauney she was screaming like this.

Logan and Evan enjoying the ride. It was actually raining on us for a while, so it was a little warmer than usual January weather. It turned to heavy snow later that night on our way home though.

And now my favorite. Every year for Christmas I give all the Hansen family a CD of all the photos I've taken of family outings for the year. This is sure to be a favorite of the whole family soon.

My SIL Sonja's awesome crash! One of my best action photos ever.

David and Brett donned showshoes and hiked up quite a way onto the mountain that you can see behind him. They had fun, but were very tired after.

Here's a photo David took on their hike looking back toward Scott and Heidi's house. It's such a beautiful place with an amazing view of Ben Lomond peak out their back windows.

They were so gracious to host us all and we had a fabulous time.

Catching Up with Friends

We still haven't forgiven the Simmons family for moving away over 5 years ago. They lived next door to us, and we've known each other since we each only had 2 kids. Scott was David's home-teaching partner, and then his 1st Counselor in the Bishopric. Their kids are all the same gender and ages as our kids, and best friends. Our kids would pretty much decide which Mom's meal they preferred and they ate at each others houses often. We shared plants, tools, movies, food, pools, swingsets, and trampolines. We celebrated many birthdays together, carpooling, sleepovers, barbecues and campouts. We had somewhere to leave our kids when we had to go somewhere (or sometimes just left the baby monitors with each other while a child slept).

It was perfect.

Then Scott got a job transfer and they moved away. It left a big hole in our lives that hasn't been filled since. We've tried to keep in touch, but it's just not the same. Two years ago we went to Disneyland together on vacation and had a blast. But since then we've only seen each other about once a year, so we haven't been doing very good at keeping in touch. So we were determined to get together for the Christmas break.

On December 29th we met Kim and the kids at Discovery Gateway in SLC. We had never been there before. It was so sad at first to see the kids all so shy with each other because they hadn't seen each other very often, but it didn't take long for them to get reacquainted. Kim, David and I stayed with the 4 younger boys while Logan and Tyler, and Stauney and Kierra went off on their own.

This is Evan on the rock wall. This was a great place for the boys.

Ryan (on horse) with Travis and Noah waiting for their turns to pose for me.


We found the 'big boys' building upstairs. They were really good sports for being there -the place was packed with tons of little kids. I do think they found enough to have fun with though. I know they spent a lot of time in the water area after this.

After a while we all retired to the craft room to play with Play-doh while we waited for Scott to get off work.

Then we all headed for the food court to eat. We didn't realize that a Jazz game was going on that night also, so everywhere was packed. We thought we hit the jackpot when we found a big table where all 12 of us could all sit together to eat. Thank you to the guy who pointed out that someone had just thrown up under it. I guess we weren't so lucky, but we managed to maneuver around it.

Then we walked over to Temple Square to see the lights. The kids were cursing me for making them dress so warm. It was a really warm night and Logan carried his coat most of the time. That really was lucky. I don't remember ever seeing the lights on Temple Square before and being warm.

The blue-eyed brunette and the brown-eyed blonde. Kierra and Stauney are both getting so grown-up! They started their friendship at age 4 and their birthdays are just a couple of weeks apart. Even though they don't see each other often, Stauney still calls Kierra her best friend.

All the mirrored lights were beautiful in the reflection pond.



Our families.

The lights were beautiful, as always. While we were listening to the nativity, Evan was on David's shoulders and yelled out very loudly, "Guys, we already know this story!"

I felt very lucky to get this picture of the Christus without any people in it. It was SO crowded there that we didn't stay for the presentation because we could hardly move.

We sat to rest for a while around the paintings area. I had a nice chat with some sister missionaries, one from Canada and one from an island I had never heard of so I don't remember where it was. The second also has three brothers and is the only girl like Stauney and Kierra.

And of course, the beautiful temple. I love the colors that showed on it from the reflection pool.

We hopped on Trax for one stop while we headed back to our cars at the Gateway. It was also the first time we had ridden Trax. The kids loved it so I'm sad it was such a short ride. Just as we got into the car we heard that the Jazz game was ending and saw people start pouring out of Energy Solutions arena. I yelled to David, "Get out of town quick!" We beat the traffic.

It was great to spend time with the Simmons' and we vowed that every two months this year we would take turns meeting at each other's houses where we would leave the kids and the adults would head to dinner. Plus there needs to be a campout in there somewhere. They are great friends and we feel blessed to know them. Travis has started calling us their cousins, and that's how we feel - like family.

Stauney and Kierra were trying to do some serious newscasts, but their brothers weren't helping any. Here's my attempt at posting a video. I was standing at a distant TV screen so they didn't know that I was recording them, that's why there's no sound except for background noise and me laughing.