The Hanson Crew

"I Love my new Elmo Beach Ball!" Peek a Boo behind his big boy Cars blanket Throwing the Elmo ball AGAIN...can I just play for present time? "Cheeeeeese" "I blew the candle out - Yah!"

From the side.. and the front!

Wow! What a great last month. I was so worried about my weight gain since my 12 pound gain a month ago and just knew that this baby was going to be huge, as well as me! But things are looking optimistic now. I am measuring 34 weeks, I am actually 31 1/2 weeks along, and the baby weighs about 4 pounds. This is very good since I have a little extra fluid than normal, which is causing my tummy to get bigger, but not Jonathan. He is still a little big for 31 weeks, but nothing too crazy. The best part - I have only gained 30 pounds so far in this pregnancy! I just knew I would get to the 60 or 70 mark this time, but it doesn't look like it for now. With my past 3 pregnancies, I have usually gained about 35 pounds by now, and about 50 altogether :) So we will keep you posted on weight and baby's size as it gets closer. They are monitoring my contractions, size, and weight until I get about 35 weeks. We'll let ya know if anything changes.

I used to work in IT before I stayed home and loved my two jobs as a web designer a lot. Since I have been home, I created a family website to help keep in touch with family out of the state. I recently updated that site a little. I also began helping friends at church with small businesses or family websites to keep up my skills and minister to them. I am currently starting a new one for a heating and cooling business for someone at church this month. I thought I would share the few sites I have worked on so far. I created/designed them and then try to keep them updated as things change. I am working on re-designing/updating L and B Expressions this week so those changes will be available next week. Enjoy! http://home.kc.rr.com/thehanson5/ (Our family website) http://www.landbexpressions.com/index.html (Lisa Knorr's photography website) http://www.pleasantpasturefarms.com/ (Mike and Mindy's farm website) http://www.eversdental.com/ (Brent Ever's dental practic

Watch as all 3 kids reveal the baby's name!

The TV Show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition , was in KC again this past week, so we went there on Friday as our last Spring Break outing. We all went to the first house 2 years ago when I was 9 months pregnant with Caleb and tried to start labor. I remember walking about 8 blocks from our car to the house and timing the contractions all the way! Fortunately, we had him the next day or two and I was able to watch the house reveal from my hospital bed on the news. This time, they had shuttle parking, which I think was the kids favorite part. They loved the big bus! We saw one TV star, Paige, and met a mayor candidate, Alvin Brooks. Here are some pictures from our adventure on Friday. The house will be on the actual TV show in May, so maybe I can watch that one from the hospital too! Caleb's first Extreme Makeover adventure out of the womb Waiting for the Shuttle to pick us up The kids watching the volunteers working away while Mr. Brooks comes by

The kids were extra excited this year to dye eggs for some reason. So I bought the dye kits while Ashlyn was on Spring Break and we did it early. They had a blast and have been eating the eggs like crazy. I am surprised to say it didn't get too messy and only took about 2 hours to dye about 5 dozen.

When Caleb gets tired he usually crawls into mommy's lap, lays on the couch, or will go get into his bed and go right to sleep. Well not this time! We came up from downstairs to find Caleb standing at the couch, sleeping. He didn't even lay down, it was so funny. We had to take pics and share.

So I guess we are done with one "big" bath now. The kids take up the whole tub and can barely move. Ashlyn is excited about our new bath schedule and yep, she gets the tub alone for her time. Then we will do the boys together and eventually the baby alone. Wow, 3 separate baths!!! This could become a workout and less 24 time!

"Here Caleb try this cotton candy." (He didn't like it as much as Joshua) Joshua's reward after walking 10 blocks to the parade "I love to clap when everyone else does..not sure why though?" "Cheese!"

This has become one of my favorite songs! Enjoy!

Caleb is looking more like John everyday. We are not sure if Jonathan will resemble John and Caleb or Joshua. Maybe this child, might even resemble his mother??? We are excited to find out soon - about 10 weeks and counting!

We love having Potica bread the morning of Christmas and have made it a family tradition since we were married. We usually order it in CO and freeze it until Christmas if someone is out visiting in the summer. When my sister and I were planning her trip here a few weeks ago, we decided to try to make it. The recipe said it would take 4 hours to make and it looked very difficult. I am SO proud that we finished it and it actually looks just like the ones we order - just tastes a little different - a little too much spice of orange or cloves! So here are some pics of the bread before the oven and right after...

So I have another funny story to tell you all about Ashlyn. I was in the shower this morning when Allison called and left a message on my machine. Ashlyn was listening to her message record. She said that she was not going to make it to Bible Study this morning because her sister's water broke and they were going up to St. Jo to be there when the baby arrives. When I got out of the shower, Ashlyn ran over and said, "Josie's mom isn't coming today because she has a broken faucet!" I couldn't stop laughing.

Yeh , I got my test results from the 1 hour glucose test and it was negative! So now I can avoid the 3 hour miserable one. Now that I know I don't have gestational diabetes, they will continue to monitor the baby's weight and size by sonogram as I get farther along. The good news is that by having this macrosomia or whatever it is called, I don't feel as scared about going early. We'll keep you posted on the induction date and the size of baby "Jonathan/ Karsten " as he grows and grows. Thanks for all your words of encouragement!

I had to share a funny story with you all about Ashlyn . We were at Target the other day and we walked past the girls clothes departments, when Ashlyn stopped me with a huge smile on her face. She said "Look mom, they have girl maternity clothes I can wear now. We can match!" I walked over to the clothes rack she was at and saw a bunch of short jean skirts with about 4 inches of fabric on the waistline and then some jean material and ruffle on the bottom half. It was the funniest thing because it really did kind of look like maternity jeans, but was the "hip" new design out there for young girls. I couldn't stop laughing. My poor daughter can't wait to be a mommy someday, just is really nervous about being pregnant. Not sure why!!!!

So two weeks ago I went to the ob after an unexpected hospital visit with pre -term contractions. They did a sonogram to check for funneling and to verify that my cervix was still closed. The sonogram showed the baby was measuring about 2 weeks ahead of schedule. I told them I tend to have big babies and they sent me home on limited activity (to help slow down the contractions) and didn't seem too worried about the size, said we would keep the due date as is. Well, I went back this week and found that in 2 weeks, my contractions have really improved (very exciting!), I have gained about 12 pounds, and now the baby is 3 1/2 weeks too big! It was crazy. They are worried that baby is growing too fast and too big now and are already talking about another sonogram and inducing me early! Crazy how they were just wanting to keep it in to get it bigger, and now talking about inducing. I did do the glucose test that day and they said if that result is positive and I have gestational diabete