The Hanson Crew

So the past few days we have been making a few minor changes to our house to help with Jonathan's safety and primarily my sanity! We finally put a lock thing on our game/puzzle cabinet that he loves so much. I think I have organized/sorted all those games and puzzle pieces about 10 times before I actually locked the door :) Secondly, we organized our school cabinet better so our old crayon snack has been eliminated. We bought all 3 kids a carrying tub for their supplies with a lid that he cannot open. We use that same tub at school for Ashlyn's supplies and it just works great! We moved the boys TV onto a high wardrobe so he would stop pushing the buttons on the VCR (while they are watching a movie). We put this extra TV in their room when they moved downstairs so if they were scared falling asleep they could watch a movie. It turns out we use it more during school time and Jonathan's nap. This gives me a good 1 1/2 hours (Disney movies) to work with Ashlyn sibling free.

Here is the sequel from the mom song a couple days ago...watch that one first if you missed it :)

Ashlyn started school today with a new great idea from her teacher. Each worksheet and assignment she was given had a time limit on it. She used a brand new timer while she worked today...and LOVED it. She was up at 8:00 (which never happens on Tues/Thurs) and had her timer in her hand. She ran to the school room and started at number 1. She set the timer for each of the 15 items on her list and finished her work so much faster than she has ever done. And she loved it :) Her work is more independent this way too which was awesome for our morning routine. We finished school work early enough today to watch the prequel to the Little Mermaid together....very fun! Jonathan's new favorite word is "here". He hands me everything and says "here." It is very cute. Some other favorite words right now include "mama", "bowl", "ball", "done", "dance", and "more". He is doing great and it is so refreshin

A bunch of friends were talking about this song last night after a school training...pretty funny stuff! The dad song to come soon - it is hilarious!!

If there is anyone out there interested in making a homemade ice arena in your kitchen for under $3, Caleb knows how. Simply pour an entire bottle of Vegetable Oil on the kitchen floor! He tried it out today while I was printing off a coffee cake recipe downstairs. The best news, according to the kids, the slippery "ice" feeling does not go away after hours of cleaning with professional cleaning solutions...all ages continue to slide all around the room, especially with shoes off!!!

The more I learn about digital photography and wedding photography in particular, the more depressed I get about the money we spent on our wedding pictures 10 years ago. Lisa can do amazing things with her camera and has created some amazing gifts (especially digital photobooks ) for her clients. For our anniversary this year, the kids and I browsed our sad (I think $500) album we paid for. I tried to take some pictures of the album to share because it was before digital technology was popular - and our photographers were like in their 80s - but didn't have much luck! So they are better than what you see here in terms of quality, but posing and expressions are just horrible. Go ahead and click on the image to see it better. It was sure funny to hear what the kids had to say about the pictures and the whole day... "Wow, does daddy have black hair like you? That really doesn't look like daddy" (You'll have to click on the picture to see what they are talking about

and not the early morning start! (he did great and had a blast...he can't wait for Friday)

So yesterday our family (minus the baby) went to Worlds of Fun with grandma Sue and cousin Rylee ...man was it the perfect day to go (perfect weather and absolutely no lines at all!) Worlds of Fun is similar to Elitches in Colorado, and has many "Thrill rides." Many of you who know me well, know that this is not exciting for me. I was really looking forward to hanging out in Camp Snoopy with Caleb and Joshua where the little kid rides are. But that is not what happened... The boys had never been and Ashlyn has not been since she was 3. Their only experience at riding a real ride was at a Kearney Carnival this year where they rode a boat that rocked and Ashlyn rode a pretty fast teacup spinning ride. I wasn't sure what they could handle when we got there. As soon as we walked in, we rode a fast ride that circled in the air pretty high. Everyone loved it! We went on to the Octopus (one of my favorites) and now the "green scary" ride according to Caleb who was

Sorry for the bad picture, I had her face the sun for the picture, no idea why! So today we are back to 3 days with just boys...she was pretty excited for today to start. We are excited to get to know the new 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. McCullison and to see who Ashlyn's best friend is THIS year. Tomorrow we are all going to Worlds of Fun (minus Jonathan who will be here with Grandma Peggy all day) and then off to Joshua's preschool back to school night. He is a little more excited! It will sure be weird going to Speech with only 2 children now :) and Wal-mart too! We'll be sure to post some pics of Joshua on Wed. He will only go the 1/2 day on Mondays, Wed, and Fridays...so those are the new Walmart and Speech days. We are going to plan on doing Tues/Thurs school time earlier this year (before lunch) so we'll keep you posted on how that goes too. Caleb will go to another speech therapy those days at noon so we have a goal time to be done by. I am excited about t

Our baby turned 15 months yesterday and is just growing so fast. We were able to stop using our baby gate this month because he mastered going up & down stairs already without any help. He is trying to talk alot and loves to dance! He is really making some silly faces and playing well with his siblings right now too. He has become a horrible eater and really only wants to eat junk food...we are working through this now, so he is slimming down a bunch. We are talking about moving him to a toddler bed soon and have moved him to a booster at the table. I am excited to spend some one on one time with him this fall while the big kids are in school and Caleb is napping/playing. He hasn't had too many scratches yet from his new ability to run everywhere, but we'll keep you posted. He is singing parts of "Getcha head in the game" and "You are the music in me" from High School Musical which cracks us all up. We'll have to film that one day soon and

Caleb found a sharpie permanent marker this week (I think this is his 3rd time now) when no one was looking and created some interesting artwork. A small line on the kitchen wall, a few dots on my down comforter, and then some drawings on his face and legs. We tried to take off the drawings on his face yesterday for quite awhile, but he still looks like this. John pointed out this morning that the drawing is an "L" and yes, on his forehead. Poor kid, John has been singing "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me" off and on this morning and Caleb just has no clue! It sure made the two of us laugh! The kids are still clueless to why we laughed.

After seeing this on 3 different blogs, I had to share...it cracks me up everytime! Enjoy!

Here is to 10 great years John! I love you!

So we tried our first garden this summer and tried 4 kinds of plants - tomatoes, cilantro, basil, and strawberries. The cilantro was the first to not make it. Then the strawberries. I noticed the other day that the basil plant was gone because it didn't make it either. The 3 tomato plants, however, have really taken off. We probably should have bought one of those metal things to help stand it up because they are just everywhere. The first couple red tomatoes were not edible because of some holes and a little rot. But, today the kids grabbed some really good looking ones...we're waiting until John gets home to check them out to make sure we are right. They sure look good! Now we need to find some great recipe to use them since we don't enjoy them plain :)

So last night while we were watching the Olympics, Joshua noticed George W Bush in the stands a few times. We also watched an NBC interview with him at some point while we were watching. Anyway, every time he saw him, he would say, "Look mom, it's the guy on JibJab !" or "It's the JibJab man!" It was pretty funny because that is what he thought of first and not, the president of the USA. So, this is the video we used to watch a lot when JibJab was first popular that gave him this funny idea! It made us all laugh.

So John and I were just screaming at the top of lungs at the tv cheering for these guys...was the Mens 4 x 100m Freestyle relay the best thing ever on tv ???!!!!! Wow! Go USA!!! Jason Lezak just got added to my heros list (which already included Michael Phelps). Onto the next event...we are in awe of these games already and it is only day 3!

After picture edits and resizing, the pictures are in. (Click on the images to see them better) In the living room... By the entry way... In the hall... (this camera is so zoomed - sorry) Thanks again for all these fun pictures Lisa!

On 8 - 8 - 8, we can't wait!

Got it from the library & just the girls watched it while the boys went to the park Not the same without Zac Afron in it Yep, all 6 Star Wars Movies! (and the kids played it out too) Just the kids and I for this one. Kinda scared Joshua, but they really liked it! One of my all-time favorites! John and I watched it alone (it was not as good as we hoped)

The Prequel and possibly a sequel to the prequel ? Very exciting!

So before the surgery I was told many horror stories about getting your wisdom teeth pulled. Someone said they looked like a chipmunk because of swelling, someone threw up because of the pain medicine, and someone got a couple dry sockets. I knew I would have some kind of story to tell too and was hoping that it would be a little lighter and happier than the ones I had heard. So here it goes... The waiting room was freezing, and I don't mean cold like "oh, I wish I had worn short sleeves instead of a tank top" cold, I mean I had the chills. And I waited for an hour in that waiting room, listening to parents talk to their teenagers about it not being that bad and how quickly it will all happen. I was sitting there alone while John and the kids went to speech for the first half of the waiting time. I was planning on not going under to save us $250 because our insurance does not cover any part of the surgery. When I got back there it was even more cold than the waiting area.

One day, a man walks into a dentist's office and asks how much it will cost to extract wisdom teeth. "Eighty dollars," the dentist says. "That's a ridiculous amount," the man says. "Isn't there a cheaper way?" "Well," the dentist says, "if you don't use an anesthetic, I can knock the price down to $60." "That's still too expensive," the man says. "Okay," says the dentist. "If I save on anesthesia and simply rip the teeth out with a pair of pliers, I can knock the price down to $20." "Nope," moans the man, "it's still too much." "Well," says the dentist, scratching his head, "if I let one of my students do it, I suppose I can knock the price down to $10." "Marvelous," says the man, "book my wife for next Tuesday!"

Our post-anniversary destination...Marco Island, FL! We've got our tickets, car rental, babysitting, and hotel all lined up. An all-expense paid trip from the Maids for having such a great year in revenue (thanks to the in-laws for letting us go this time). We might give para sailing another try (like Maui) and might try Sailing in a sailboat. We leave the second week in September!

So yesterday was our 5th time to our Electric Co-Op Annual Meeting/Carnival here in Kearney. It was just as fun as the other 4 times... We went with Grandma Peggy again this year, while daddy worked late. They got a free ride on a golf cart from Handicap parking to the door and loved going fast on that thing! Jonathan enjoyed the unlimited free ice cream from the ice cream truck, free bottles of water, and watching the "big kids" ride the rides and jumping things. They all enjoyed their free McDonald's kid meals, free balloon sword/flower, and the rides! Here are the boys caricatures, which actually came out pretty good for a 5 minute drawing. And Ashlyn's portrait. My mom and I skipped it this year after my face was bombarded last year with "freckles" all over..more like measles! It's fun to look back over the 5 years and see them change or come into the picture in most cases! Oh, the fun news...I won one of the 30 prizes they gave away - a weathe