The Hanson Crew

So they are saying that we might see our first dusting of snow today or tommorow here in KC. This will sure make my kids excited since all they kept saying yesterday while we were decorating for Christmas was "I can't believe Christmas is almost here and it isn't snowing!" We ended up making a paper chain to count down the days until Christmas because it was a little more difficult than I thought to explain exactly when Christmas morning will be. Plus, it will give them something to do each day as they wait until we put get out our Advent calendar next week. I am a little tempted to buy some of that spray snow for the windows because I always love doing that with my sisters when I was younger and I know they would enjoy it...it might feel a little more like December should feel too! Very exciting news...I caught Ashlyn reading the Christmas story in her bible yesterday on her own. The rest of us were baking some cookies in the kitchen and there she was sitting o

Original Plan: 1. Wake up and make homemade dinner rolls and macaroni & cheese 2. Look through the Black Friday Ads 3. Go to Grandma Sue's around 1:00 for Thanksgiving Day dinner with my in-laws and Grandma Peggy 4. Come home and take a nap 5. Plan our Black Friday "plan" with Sue and Carol Our Revised Plan: 1. Woke up feeling miserable, w/o much voice and the need for a couple boxes of tissue 2. 3 of the kids looked like an allergy bug bit their face (watery eyes, noses, red cheeks) 3. Called Sue and Grandma Peggy to explain why the 5 contagious people in our house were unable to come for Thanksgiving dinner 3. Ran to the Country Mart store in Kearney to buy a huge real tree ($19) - our new, cheaper family tradition when it comes to picking the tree! 4. Cut the tree down to fit in our living room and put it in the stand 5. Made homemade mac & cheese 6. John (the only well person) went to pick some Turkey and fixings up at Grandma Sues 7. Finished the pilgrim hat

At Ashlyn's party yesterday the kids did a craft similar to Valentines Day. They each were given leaves for each classmate and they had to say on the leaf why they are thankful for each person. Then at the party they put the leaves in cute bags for each person to take home. I created a Wordle of the leaves Ashlyn got back so you could see what they said and she could put it in her room. I have to agree with them all (mius the one where a girl said she is good at shs, which apparently means telling people to be quiet - she just yells "BE QUIET" around here!)...

Almond Bark Pretzels - very kid-friendly, fun, not too messy, and John's favorite thing during the holidays! We spent the day blowing our noses, going to Speech with Miss Catherine, making these pretzels , we gave our car some attention with an oil change and clean, and then rested with Shrek 3 on the TV. Don't ya just love school vacation?

The kids and I made those fun Famly Fun TOM Thanksgiving Day cupcakes again this year for Ashlyn's party at school. We modified the recipe a little to make it a little more cost effective and was pretty happy with them. Instead of using the Sandie's Shortbread Right Bite cookies (which run about $3.00 for a box and you usually need 2 boxes), I used one vanilla wafer cookie for the head (about $2 a box and tons of extra left). I also skipped the fruit roll up or licorice idea for the red part and used red icing I had left over from Oct birthdays. The nose is the top portion of the candy corn I had left over ($1 for the bag) and the cake mix and frosting were on sale for .88. It was a huge hit and much cheaper than last year. We are excited to try the pilgrim hats tomorrow to bring to my in-laws on Thursday. They seem cheap and easy too. We'll take pics and let you know how those go. We are enjoying our week long break from school work and trying to bake a lot while I fini

Want to get a free new release tonight :) Visit a Red Box today and use the promo code 2 MNC 92 . Offer expires tonight at midnight. Enjoy!

So after one great 2 hour 24 movie "Redemption", we are all pumped for Season 7 in January! There is a woman president, Tony's back, and lots of action for what looks like another great season. Welcome aboard Allison! Everyone should mark their calendars for January 11th - preview to be posted soon. After some prayer and financial analysis, we have decided to not buy the St. Louis Maids Franchise for now. Thanks for praying with us on this decision. We are sure excited about what God is doing with the KC franchise and look forward to what is to come.

After a few requests, I thought I should share the way Tobey started at the Hanson house. My best friend Lisa has a nephew who has called her Dobey ever since she can remember. She is not sure why he started calling her that because it doesn't sound like Aunt Lisa, but it stuck. He is now almost 4 and still calls her Dobey. So last week when we hung out all day with that nephew, Caleb picked it up and knew Lisa's name so he thought Dobey was a fun name to call everyone. At dinner that night, he was talking under his breath a lot and calling everyone Dobey. "Dobey, its okay it fell" or "No no Dobey, not that way." It was funny. So John came home from work and we were all laughing. He heard Caleb calling Jonathan Tobey and asked where the name came from. I explained about Lisa's nephew and how Caleb really likes the name Dobey. John said that he really liked the name Tobey and said he was going to start calling him that. Jonathan would really giggle when h

Our new site is up and running at it's new location. I am still working on the pictures, fonts, and music - but feel like I have a good start before our Christmas cards go out with the web address on it :) Click on the homepage above to take a peek and update your links accordingly!

When we named our youngest we had nicknames in mind. We really knew which names we did not want our son to be called that is. We loved Jonathan James together, but didn't like the nickname JJ. So we threw our favorite name out and went with Jonathan Luke knowing that very few would ever call him JL. John really is against calling him John or John Jr or John 2 - we knew that from the start too and are still hoping his friends will rule those out when he is older. Well, recently we have noticed that each of us in the house have began calling him something different. Without telling you who calls him which one, here they are in no particular order: 1. Johnny 2. Baby 3. J 4. Tobey 5. Jonathan (no nickname) Which one do you prefer? I think consistency is important here to help him with confusion and because he is being called so many things each day. Feel free to comment and let us know your vote. If you have a better idea to throw in the mix, feel free too!

I actually paid $1.59 per gallon today at the gas station and am still shocked! Is gas this cheap everywhere? I am really going to love the great deal I got on this great SUV when gas prices were high now! I am still looking forward to the 4 wheel drive in winter and now can fill it up for under $30! Yeah!

So yesterday my friend Heather came over to teach Lisa and I how to bake various things. We made 5 loafs of homemade bread, an apple and pumpkin pie each, and about 2 dozen oat dinner rolls each. Man was it fun. The pie crusts were a lot easier than I thought it sounded. And the dinner rolls are amazing (and almost gone already!)- I think I am going to make more soon. We managed to have some great fellowship and spiritual discussion in between dough rising and 7 little toddlers...I think we are going to try it again sometime soon. I feel pretty motivated to start holiday baking now too, even though I am still busy shopping, making photo gifts, website work and other misc holiday stuff. What a blessing good friends are during this busy season! (Sorry for forgetting to post the movie code yesterday - it was a very busy day, and I will try to do it next Monday!)

Since we have yet to get a gun, one of John's wish list items, and actually go hunting this season, we still had fun filling our freezer today. John went today and bought 1/4 th of a cow from a butcher at a great price. This is a first for us and we are excited to have various meats on hand for winter!

We have officially became a Disney family I think and love to watch them over and over. These are two the kids are excited to see in the future. I also just saw on a commercial that you can register at Disney.com for a free birthday pass to a theme park. I think when the kids get a little older we might just have to plan a Disney field trip from Oct 16 to the 23rd for a couple free passes....

There once was 3 little boys who were busy, busy, busy! The warm sun and activities in the backyard help that energy come out and help keep those indoors safe and clean. Bonus about backyard fun: a better naptime! These busy boys play outside almost everyday and love to climb trees, clubhouses, and jungle gyms (and of course drive there fun course in the green car too). Sadly, those days have come to an end. Frost has taken over our fun yard these days and we have put away fun outside toys for the winter....hibernation has begun in the Hanson household this week. Our next adventures include baking, crafts, hot chocolate and movies.

I was so inspired last month after I made an October to do list on my blog. I think the thought process of realizing all I had to do helped me just get them all done! So I am going to give it another try for November. As you can see from the picture on the left, I have begun plastering in my laundry room, or I should say that John and I are working on this part of the room (the only project left from Oct). I am kinda hoping he just takes charge and tells me when I can prime and paint :) We'll keep you posted on that project throughout the month... And this month, my main goal is Christmas. I would love to be all ready for it by the end of the month - including shopping, wrapping, Christmas letter and website, and cards. I have already started shopping and have 6 people done already. I am hoping to mail out my AZ, WA, and CO packages right after Thanksgiving this year. As long as the weather and children remain well, I think we can pack in some time for all these goals. I

So every Monday Redbox sends me a coupon code that is valid that day for one free rental. I have started e-mailing the code to friends/family since Redbox has said it is free to share. So instead of doing that each week, my hope is to post every Monday morning the free code....our family really has enjoyed getting one every Monday and it works so well for our schedule - the boys watch it Tuesday morning while Ashlyn and I do some schoolwork alone, unless it is a flick we all really want to see :) Redbox will also send sporadic text msgs for free movies other days so if you are interested in signing up at redbox.com for more codes, feel free. When you use the free code, click on the "Rent a DVD" button first, find the movie (add it to the cart) and then push the "Enter a PROMO code" button at the checkout portion. They will still have you swipe your credit card for late fees, but if you return it on time, it is free!!! I think there is another option of pushing &quo

...in the boys room this weekend! An wonderful aquarium for Princess Leia (we found this on the curb of someones house a few weeks ago during the Kearney big fall throwout where you can throw away big items twice a year...it is quite the event here where cars line up searching through each others trash! Ashlyn and I participated and got a free patio set, turtle sandbox, some lawn chairs, a really nice tractor set for Caleb, a paper shredder and this aquarium - we finally got it cleaned up to use this weekend! It replaced the small bowl we had before and the boys love that it lights up!) We found this 19" TV with VCR on Craigslist to replace the old 13" we had before for $15 - and it works great! We broke it in this weekend and watched Peter Pan on it. A ceiling fan we got on clearance a long time ago that has been in the garage waiting to come in! John hung it in their room this weekend while the kids and I sang our States and Capitals song for him! It looks much better h

I was tagged today by my good friend Allison to give 7 random facts about myself. Since this is our family blog, I am going to try to think of 7 random family facts. Here it goes... 1. 5 of us have brown eyes ( Ashlyn has green) 2. We are all addicted to trilogies (our favorites include High School Musicals, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Home Alones ) 3. We are a dancing family...and usually have music blaring at least once a day loud enough for the neighborhood to hear 4. Cleaning is a group effort here...we try to do it 3 times throughout the day (especially if we are home all day) and yes, we still have professional help every Monday too 5. Our office has become our family school room, game room, craft room and computer room this past year (we really enjoy it a lot!) 6. We all have horrible teeth or gum problems - they say it is hereditary? 7. On long road trips, our car typically looks like a filled uhaul with a few living heads in between stuff - it takes a couple days to cl

So after 3 well visits and 3 flu mists, we officially have 3 tall (90% - Ashlyn , 75% for Josh and Caleb) and skinny (50% for Ashlyn and Josh, 40% for Caleb) kids. We have also always thought Caleb is our mini-John and we found yesterday he might be looking even more like him after we go see a pediatric optometrist. It seems Caleb might be farsighted and may need glasses...we'll keep ya posted. John actually started wearing glasses at 3 so we were worried about that with Ashlyn and Joshua. Now that it has left my mind of worry, it seems Caleb might be the child who takes after his cousin Rylee and dad. Either way, I am very glad we do well checks for this very reason...I would have never thought he might have a problem and it will be good to double check with the specialist...most vision correction problems in children are better if caught by age 7 (as in Rylee's problem where she wore a patch for a couple years to correct a lazy eye caught at age 3). We'll keep y

Joshua must have coached Jonathan on taking pics recently (he yelled "cheeeeeese" when I pointed the camera his way)

Go vote, go vote, go vote, go vote, go vote, go vote, go vote, go vote, go vote, go vote! If I haven't said it enough yet, GOOOOOOOOOO VOTE!!! (oh, and if you are still just unsure who to vote for - vote anyway, preferably for the pro-life ticket ) Even our kids are excited to rush to the polls tomorrow with us to "change" history (since that is what both tickets are all about - change!) Should be interesting to watch all night as it unfolds...

John trying on the Princess Leia wig Joshua copying his daddy The gang we hung out with all dressed up An adorable Jonathan who really enjoyed Halloween this year

We had heard from The Pipers that Chipotle (one of John's favorite places to go) gives free burritos and burrito bowls from 6-8 on Halloween if you come in some form of foil attire....so we took advantage of the free dinner before going to Grandma Sues. It was fun and a new tradition I think we will have going forward!