The Hanson Crew

This is our weekend plans...driving up to Minneapolis with Nate, Lisa and Issac. The kids are going to have a blast with grandma Peggy and grandma Sue all weekend. We'll see how Jonathan does with us at the conference...

Well it is that time again...the mail starts coming each day. Birthday Club offers we signed up for throughout the year and forgot all about. Birthday advertisements and discount tickets/certificates to help plan your "big day." We are lucky enough to have two children's birthday's one week apart, so it is especially noticeable right now. Joshua will be 4 in Oct and is still very easy to plan for. It is all about the cake. He picks the character and I do the shopping or planning to try to make the cake. Ashlyn though is in her 3rd year of "friend parties". You know where you have to invite everyone she knows and have all the crafts, games, and planning. We are just in the beginning stages of trying to keep this is a minimum. We are thinking of doing a Rainbow theme this year at Grandma Sue's house (to enable a bigger guest list). We are thinking of having each girl wear their favorite bright color for a fun photo, playing an m&m scaven

So on Friday night, the crew grabbed a $5 Little Caesars Pizza and headed out to find another Letterbox. The box was hidden in Maple Woods park, which is nestled in a nice neighborhood north of the river. We were unsuccessful finding the box, but really enjoyed the hunt! Missouri isn't as flat as people think. The trail reminded me of Colorado Mountains in a way (once you got high up on the trail of course and were covered by trees and roots). The kids loved it (minus Jonathan who was being pushed through a very bumpy trail in the stroller while trying to nap) and we got very close to finding the box. It was the same placer who hid the other box we had to look for twice, so we plan on coming back again sometime for another try. The folks here in KC who are reading this should go give this trail a try with your kids. It's nothing to fancy, but would be really fun evening walk. It is off Hwy 1/Antioch up past 72 nd street. I can email you directions if you are interested... A

I am sorry it has taken a while to give an update on the little baby boy we know who was born a few months early (see original post ). We got a recent update and wanted to share with you a couple pictures as well as some info. He is doing very well... He is 4 pounds 15 ounces and is 16 inches long. The best news is he is off the ventilator and the c-pap and is now on a nasalcanula (probably not spelling that one right either). This is the last step before he breathes on his own. He will also being nursing in a couple days. We are planning a baby shower for him the first week of October and it looks like he will be going home around that same time. His parents are going to take a class for dismissal next week. Needless to say, everyone is excited. Thanks for your prayers.

Well I am not sure if it was the wonderful women's fellowship breakfast Saturday morning or the 99 Balloons video that has me a little emotional this morning. I praise God for the all the blessings I have in my life today. Someone at church yesterday said that many of us have conquered big trials in our past, some are going through hardships now, and some will face suffering in the future. Many of the women who shared with us yesterday have gone through a lot or are going through tremendous suffering today. I fear my family will face great hardship in the future since we have not had many trials together yet. Please pray for us and praise the Lord for the blessings he has given us. Here are a few that quickly come to my mind: Our church family at Faith Community Church Our extended family, especially John's mother and all she does for us This week, medicine and God's provision for our family The ability for Deanna to stay at home all day with the kids God's Wor

I got this video link in an email from my friend Missi today and it made me cry. I had to share how God has blessed this family (and me) through their suffering. http://www.ignitermedia.com/products/iv/singles/570/99-Balloons

Jonathan is starting to lose his hair, both on top and in the back (John is only losing it on top and front!) I am excited to see if it will grow back as dark as the hair falling out. The other kids' hair is more like John's where Jonathan has my dark color. His infant car seat is proof that it really started to come out more this past week. Unlike John, he will be wearing cute hats for a few weeks I think :0)

"Oh, no here comes Caleb again!"

Here is what the kids are looking like these days. In October, Ashlyn will be turning 7, Joshua 4, Caleb 2 1/2, and Jonathan 5 months. They continue to amaze us each day and are each so different from one another. As we begin a new chapter in our life (the one where you watch your kids grow and stop having them!), we are so blessed to have the crew we do!!

We finally decided to take the time to upgrade our blog a bit and customize it. We hope to continue to update this blog pretty regularly, especially for those who are out of town and often miss our crazy Hanson happenings. Things continue to stay busy for our family and it seems each day there is at least one moment or funny thing that happens that is "blog worthy". I hope to be adding a poll soon as well, I just have to think of some question/answers for it. I am really enjoying blogging as a hobby - not just writing on this one, but reading others'. It is so neat to even read those posts from our church friends that we might see more often than most of our daily readers out of town - everyone has such a unique thing to post about and are all equally interesting! Thanks for making this blog a part of our week and yours. Happy reading!

This made us laugh so we had to pass it on...I'll have to give this a try with some pictures of our kids too! Lisa, this kind of reminded me of you and all the crazy things you could do to our family pictures (after all the heads are moved, moles removed and teeth corrected of course!)

While John was at a Men's Retreat this weekend for church, the kids and I decided to plan a little camp out to help pass the time. We got out all our sleeping bags, flashlights, and ice cream and were really excited for a fun night on the deck. So dad left about a half hour after getting home from work on Friday and we began. We set up the tent, ate BBQ dinner, rented a Mickey Mouse movie and had mint chocolate ice cream for dessert. We put Jonathan to bed in his crib and out we went. It was freezing and dark. Each time a semi-truck went across the bridge close to our subdivision, the baby monitor squeaked. We waited until Joshua and Caleb were asleep and after many interesting conversations with Ashlyn about misc things, we packed up the stuff and moved to the living room! It was great, we even left the door unzipped so my legs could stretch out... We made it about 3 hours this way and my back was killing me...so Caleb and I retreated to the master bedroom where we finishe

We moved to Kearney, Missouri about 4 years ago and have grown to love it's little town charm this past year. This small town is about 30 minutes north of downtown Kansas City and about 10 minutes north of Liberty, MO, where we used to live and still do all our shopping. Kearney is most known for being the birth place for the rebel Jesse James. We actually live off Jesse Street (yes, named after Jesse James) and on Frank Street (Jesse James' brother). Kearney is finishing up a couple weeks of celebration for his birthday on Sept 5 th with the Jesse James Festival. We haven't participated much in the BBQ cook off , dances, or carnivals quite yet. We are planning on going to the parade tomorrow and maybe the carnival after that. It is pretty funny to see how excited everyone here gets around this time of the year. Here is a website that explains a little more about the festival and it's history. Brad Pitt is also in a new movie called " The assassination of Jesse

My kids love bathtime or at least they love to get in the bath tub and make a big mess. Ashlyn used to be deathly afraid of water because she got water in her eyes way too many times as a child. Since a new love for showers and her swimming lessons this past summer that fear has finally subsided. Some smart mother has come up with a great invention that will help me decrease this same fear in Joshua, Caleb and Jonathan (actually just Jonathan, Caleb LOVES water especially in his face). We found it at Wal-mart for about $3 and it actually works. It is a pitcher that has a soft front to hold up against the child's head to prevent the water from going down his/her face when you wash their head. I recommend it for any child who gasps for air when the hair time comes around at bath time!

Halloween costumes for the 2 without ( Ashlyn has a hand me down Cinderella costume and Caleb a new Thomas the Train outfit from last year that we got after Halloween for like $2 at Kohl's 80% clearance) A brand new (with tags) pumpkin costume for $2.99 (hard to believe it is 6-9 months, which is what he just started to wear) Spiderman - one of Joshua's favorites for $4.99 Always wanted to try one of these - not bad for $5.99 brand new (retails for $16.99 normally...I see a future craigslist sale already!) It has duel roles - shopping cart or tummy play mat (he liked the toys on it and pillow the best)

"Why am I sitting in this chair and where is my Bumbo seat?" "What in the world are you people doing to me? Turn that camera off!" "Okay Ashlyn , please protect me and get me away from this chair. I'll think about trying this again tomorrow if we can add some flavor to that mess."

We were little surprised Friday night while we were enjoying our taco dinner...a frog on our dining room door (on the outside of the door). The kids were excited to watch it eat a few bugs on the screen door when we finished our meal. We thought about catching it for show-n-tell on Monday, but knew it wouldn't live that long so we watched him a while and let him hop away. This is our second frog visit this month, another one jumped into our pool and drowned about 3 weeks ago. Had to share this one since he was smaller and kinda cute!

The crew looking for the first box (notice Caleb's cute bag handling, reminded me of the mailman) Our first box - An Elmo stamp - and the location of our hitchhiker stamp we are taking to another box soon... Our second box was a little passed this bench and had a sheep stamp in it. Above is the box itself and everyone putting the stamp in the journals. John finding the third box way into the woods - it contained a kite stamp (This is the box we couldn't find without him on Thurs)

Wahoo ! We did it! Our first successful day of letterboxing 9-8-7! John is a natural! We found the two new boxes we set out to find as well as the one from Thursday we couldn't (yes, I was under the wrong tree!) The kids had a blast and we got tons of exercise in a beautiful state park. Even Jonathan got excited on our hike and Caleb looked adorable carrying the " letterboxing bag" with all our stuff in it (journals, ink pad, stamps). We were so excited to find a hitchhiker bag in one of the boxes today too. This log was started in 2004 on the East Coast and many families have carried it to other locations in different boxes. Our job is to sign the log and put it into a different location for the next person to take. We will post some photos of our day soon and can't wait to do this again, maybe in NE or CO too! Rebers - it is a lot like geocaching , except easier and free (no equipment necessary). The kids love it because they can do the stamps and love to follow

Ashlyn had a fun optional assignment this week called Letterboxing . We go to this website and find a set of clues that lead us to a "box" kinda like a treasure hunt. The idea is to follow the directions given by the box placer to help the students with their compass homework, following step instructions, and right/left directions. We were so pumped to find there was a "box" in Kearney. So we made a letterboxing journal to keep track of all our new adventures. This one said it had a stamp in the box so once we found it we could stamp our journal and then put the stamp back in the box. John was working late on Thursday so we all climbed in our van and were so excited to give it a try... So, we found the state park, found the parking lot, walked the trail, crossed two bridges, found the two evergreen trees, and looked under the second tree to the right 6 steps (yep, the one with the low branches that the placer said would contain the "box") ... BUT we wer

Ashlyn's is memorizing this poem for school this week. Thought it might be fun for our readers to give it a shot too -- John always knew this one growing up! There is another version that I believe is a little easier and dates back to the 16th century...we love classical education! 30 days hath September, April, June and November, All the rest have 31, Excepting February alone. Which only has but 28 days clear And 29 in each leap year

1. More sleep for everyone! 2. Yummy bacon at Grandma Sue's Labor Day breakfast 3. Great fellowship with friends at the Dulls 4. Mastitis - Deanna will never forget that pain and praises the Lord for antibiotics! 5. Laundry money from daddy for helping with some work on Saturday 6. Some trampoline time with Dad 7. Scrapbooking time for Deanna - finally finished Ashlyn's birthday book and started Joshua's (2 more to go!) 8. Chronicles of Narnia experience for the kids - saw the " Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe " movie and began reading the " Magician's Nephew " for our family reading time 9. Our Desiring God Books finally arrived! (Yep, the $5 ones from months ago - we must have ordered too many) 10. Fun sleeping arrangements - Daddy and Caleb slept in the guestroom and mommy and Josh slept in our bedroom for a night (since the moaning was keeping John awake the first night from the mastitis!) We're all back in our own beds now, and the boys LOVED t