The Hanson Crew

Last night around 11:30, Ashlyn woke us up. She said Ella was growling and barking. She tried to call her back into her bed, but she was really upset. I thought she just wanted to sleep with me, so I tried to take her in my bed. She eventually calmed down and went back to sleep. She got up again around 4:30 this morning doing the same thing. This time I took her outside in the backyard and sure enough, she had to go to the bathroom. I thought to myself that she was probably upset earlier because she had to go out too. Then we went to leave for church. This is what we found... We now wish we would have looked out the window when she was barking. John could have ran out and freaked them out. We aren't sure if John's 10th grade students read this blog or not, but just in case, John has one word....REVENGE :) It was a little funny to talk about with the kids as we drove to church. I used to toilet paper all the time in high school. All the kids could say when we got home

Yesterday was Caleb's parent/teacher conference at Line Creek Elementary. He is doing wonderfully! It's always interesting to hear how your child acts away from you. Once again, our child acts differently. He is the quiet, obedient child in the class. One of the few boys who does as he is told and is always respectful. He is also very social, which is a huge praise since we were worried about kids making fun of his speech. He is starting to read and has gone through all his single and 2-letter phonograms . His handwriting is slowly improving, which Mr. Richards says is right on track for his grade level, and the one area I miss at FCA's kindergarten. After his kindergarten conference we were able to meet with his speech teacher for an hour. That was even more exciting! Mrs. Michelle evaluated him with an official speech evaluation last week and we went over his results. His last evaluation was done by Mrs. Catherine when he was almost 4. He is still in the 1 pe

Caleb was home from school because of parent teacher conferences this week, so we took advantage of having all 4 kids home today for carving pumpkins. These huge pumpkins were on sale for $1.99 last week at ALDI'S....we were excited for that price! We are going to make seeds tonight and put the pumpkins out on Sunday night. I might invest next year in the carving knife set - it seemed harder this year to carve them. Ashlyn gave it a try for the first time this year too, which was fun for her.

We are dogsitting for Sue and Gary while they are visiting friends in TN for five days. So far, Ella has been very easy. We have decided to nickname her Moocher because she can't stand when we are eating anything, especially a big meal like dinner. We offer her the cute green bowl of dog food that she is supposed to eat, but instead of digging in, she stares, licks her lips, growls a little, and follows us around the table. I feel bad for her. I have snuck one or two things her direction, which probably doesn't help. She still refuses her food most of the time. Caleb is hand feeding her 1/4 cup of her food after we finish eating because she thinks we are treating her that way. That's the amount Sue said she should eat twice a day. Other than bad eating habits, she is great. She loves to sit on our laps while watching movies, doing homework, even driving in the car. She slept with Ashlyn for most of the night last night and part of the morning with Joshua. She love

Jack Sparrow, Miss Tiger, Spiderman , and Batman all went on a Fairytale Adventure last night. They saw the Wizard of Oz, Bell's Enchanted Castle, The 3 Little Pigs' homes, Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs, and many, many other fun lands while they were there. They played games, got tons of candy, and even got a few neat prizes. We are going to venture out Sunday evening again on our neighborhood hayride for more goodies...

As you can probably tell, I finally got around to taking my fall blog header picture this weekend. We have really enjoyed our street lined with really bright fall leaves and had decided a while back to take a fall family picture under them. I bought a red couch cover last spring for $1 and knew it would come in handy for this picture. We drug our downstairs couch outside, covered it, raked some leaves around the couch and tried to take one good family shot. This, unfortunately, was the best one we got. John is hidden by Jonathan, Joshua is not looking, and I had just ran down the street to hop in the picture and wasn't not quite ready for it. There were some better ones of John and I closer together, but none of the kids were looking forward, smiling, etc. That is why the kids are the only ones on the blog header now....it was the only one we all liked (except Joshua who says Jonathan looks silly and we shouldn't use this one). I thought I would share our best family sh

To my 2 square friends, Well, it's that time again. The leaves have turned, the evenings are cooler and the morning strolls require layers. Cooler weather tends to remind me of you. All the layers (6 people times many layers = tons of layers) and all the decisions about what to wear keep our floors and beds full of unused outfits that didn't make the cut. These in turn get tossed in wrong places when asked to pickup. Messy mealtimes in the fall remind me of you. Carmel apple dip and warm homemade soups. All that dripping, gooey deliciousness that drips on all those layers of clothes. Yep, this weeks marks the beginning of seeing you more times a week. Our every other day dates are turning into more regular appearances. In fact, I might just get to see you at least 3 times a day this week, including at least one day on the weekend. I once thought our relationship was heading down the road to 'caught up', but this past week has proved me wrong again. Yes, all m

Ashlyn had her 10th birthday yesterday with school friends. It all was a great party and interesting to get to know Ashlyn's friends better. We started the party with some trampoline time until everyone got here. Then we roasted hot dogs and smores and hung out in a tent in the backyard. After we ate, we went into the dark garage with some cute battery operated lanterns I bought at the dollar store. I setup a camp in the garage and hid 100 pretend dollar bills around the garage. They "hunted" for the money in the dark using their lantern light. The winner got a cool water bottle w/ a spout and handle. Then we headed upstairs to do a camping word search. The first one done won an umbrella. We made some personalized water canteens with their names on them and headed back to the tent for presents. Then we enjoyed cake and ice cream, and parents started to arrive. It was perfect timing and a fun time everyone said. It's no wonder Ashlyn doesn't talk much at

Happy 10th Birthday Ashlyn!

Caleb's school is having their Halloween party this afternoon. The kindergartner's get to have a parade through the school halls while the other grades line up....Caleb is excited for this I think. Halloween parades are some of my earliest memories of elementary school (John too). Next week they have a short week of school because of Parent Teacher conferences, so they are celebrating early. Here are a couple of pictures from this morning... Caleb entering his Batmobile Defending his home from the evil scarecrow

John was able to fill in for our pastor last night at church. He preached on Galatians 3:15-29. It is about 40 minutes long. Here is a link to listen to it if you get a chance. We are very proud of all the work he put into his message and how well he did.

We love our new neighborhood, but especially in the fall. The streets are lines with tall, big trees and about this time, they all start to turn. It sometimes happens in about one week. Well, this is the week....they are just beautiful. By next week, we will be able to drive down our streets under red and orange bright trees. Then the next week, the streets will be covered and the trees bare. Here are a few pictures I took in front of our house today...

Vicks Menthol, cough drops, and chicken noodle soup brewing on the stove. Caleb is joining the others at home today since he is sick. Jonathan and I are right behind him with some of the same symptoms. So in between school subjects, we are taking it easy this cold fall day :)

We celebrated Joshua's 7th birthday and Ashlyn's 10th birthday with a joint family party yesterday. My mom and John's parents both came for Sunday dinner, cake and presents. It was like an early Christmas for them. Ashlyn will have her friend party on Saturday - a backyard campout party (not an actual sleepover, but some fun in a tent and roasting fire, etc. Here are a few pictures from the party. Maybe when you get to the double digits, opening presents aren't as exciting as when you are 7! You'll see what I mean when you see Joshua's expressions in all the pictures...

Happy Birthday Josh!

Yesterday was Joshua's 7 th birthday party with school and church friends. He wanted a LEGO party. We all tried to be creative and come up with some LEGO games and decorations this past week - these kids are pretty creative! We came up with a LEGO scavenger hunt, pin the circle on the LEGO, and LEGO Drop as games. We also had some trampoline, pizza and Wii Lego time too. Here is some of the fun captured on camera...the last picture has a few of his new creations from this morning...