The Hanson Crew

Today was a little cooler than usual so we did our schoolwork upstairs in the dining room instead of our basement school room. We typically stay in our pjs on cold school days especially when we don't have to go anywhere. Here are the kids working on their homework. Notice our 3rd student got a little cozy with some books under the table while we were working so hard above and snoozed for an hour or so...

Jonathan: "When are we going to go to karate kid?" Mom: "Do you mean, when are we going to watch the karate kid?" Jonathan: "Nope, I mean GO there." Mom: "You can't go to the karate kid, but you could go to karate class or watch the movie." Jonathan: "I want to go to karate kid where you get to kick people in the butt and the winner gets the big key! Oooaahh (kicking the air in front of him)" Mom: "Hmmm." This is our 1,200 blog post! Thanks for reading it and staying in touch with our crew!

We woke up to snow flurries today! Caleb and I talked all about the snow adventures we are excited about this year as we drove to school. When I drove back, they disappeared. But the others looked out the window before then and saw them too....My meteorologist friend Gary is predicting a light winter, with some ice storms instead of alot of snow. We are praying for a little more snow on MWF than last year....seemed like it always snowed on Tues and Thurs when we were home from school anyway. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Today Ashlyn, Jonathan and I went to a few stores while the other boys stayed home and played Wii. Each group of 3 did their own thing for lunch. When I called home to see what they were doing, Joshua said they had KFC and John ate at the penny place. I asked him what the penny place was. He said, "You know the really cheap place he likes." I still had no idea. Then he said, "The sandwich place with pennies on it." I realized he meant, Mr. Goodcents! It made me laugh.

We played the ABC Thankful game just as our chapel speaker suggested last week - thanks Mr. Greco ! Each person thinks of something they are thankful for that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Here are the kids responses from oldest to youngest....( Ashlyn , Joshua, Caleb & Jonathan) A - (apples, airplanes, alot of apples, America) B - (bees, babies, bananas, binoculars) C - (cats, cane, cake, cars) D - (dogs, duffle bags, dogs, dogs ) E - (elephants, epics, eating - Jonathan doesn't want to play anymore) F - (fangs, fame, four) G - (giraffes, girls, goat) H - ( Hansons , hands, Hannah Montana) I - (incline, inspiring, igloo ) J - (judge, Jonah, Joshua) K - (king, kangaroo, Kindergarten) L - (love, locusts, lollipop ) M - (mop, mommy, mom) N - (nice, nector , nickles) O - (obstacle courses, on & off, oxygen) P - (pollination, pencils, park) Q - (questions, quilts, queens) R - (righteousness, rain, red) S - (stars, steaks, stores) T - (truthfulness, teeth, trees)

Yesterday in 1st grade, the kids all dressed up like pilgrims. They also did some cute crafts, played a really messy popcorn game and had snacks. I stayed in Ashlyn's party most of the time, but went to Joshua's party a few times to see the fun. Here are a few pics of his party...

This year for FCA's Harvest party, I decided to try a new family fun recipe. In the past, I have made the Turkey Cupcakes and the Pilgrim Hats , both of which were huge hits. This year, I tried the Sweet Scarecrows even though fall is pretty much done around here. I think the kids appreciated the hard work it took to make them. These ones were a little less messy to eat too, minus the frosting. We really wanted to make the Corny Cookies , but we had a hard time finding green fruit roll-ups at any of the grocery stores around here. If we find those by next year, I think we will try that one for 5 th grade! If you haven't checked out Family Fun lately, you should. They have added some more really fun desserts and they are so easy to make. Our kids really enjoy helping out too.

We are looking forward to THREE exciting movies the next few months. First, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader comes out Dec 10 th . We are going to see that one in 3D together (our first time seeing one in 3D). We are also looking forward to the Cars II movie that comes out next summer. Well last night on our date night, John and I learned of another Pirates of the Caribbean movie coming out in May. We are all very excited for that too. Here is the only trailer I could find...do you know of any other good ones coming out? Uploaded by teasertrailer . - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

I wish today that our blog had scratch and sniff capability. That way you could scratch the picture above and smell what this bottle smells like. It is a bottle of gun cleaner. It's primary ingredient is kerosene, and it is very strong. I bet you are wondering why I would want you to smell this horrible smell. You see, I was kinda hoping to share with you what we have been smelling the past couple days....it is burned into my nose. This bottle above is actually empty. It's empty because I dropped it from the top of our master closet a couple days ago and watched it spray all over our closet. Since then, John and I have been seen smelling all of our clothes and shoes before we put them on. We have already done a few loads of laundry and have lit numerous scented candles in our closet and room. We keep thinking we have gotten all of the culprits out of the closet, but then we find another one! We fear this smell might be engraved on our noses, clothes, and bedroom for

Both Ashlyn and Joshua performed today at FCA's chapel service. Ashlyn played her recorded and Joshua's 1st grade class performed "All Things Bright and Beautiful." They both did a great job! Joshua is on the top row, the 3rd from the right. He is usually very animated in class (not so much on the stage though)

Jonathan has really been making me laugh lately. He will say such funny things! I need to start sharing them more often. Today he slept in until almost 10 so I was able to get alot done this morning after Caleb left for school at 8:15. I usually have the Maids change my sheets on my bed when they come, but I decided to do it with some of my extra time. I suppose Jonathan is not used to seeing all the covers off my bed. Because this morning when he came out of his bedroom door and looked into my room the first thing he said was, "Mommy, did you wet in your bed last night?"

Once again, we are so excited for Caleb to be in the public school district we are in! This morning when we were getting him ready for school, I noticed he was lacking some long sleeve shirts and pants. Joshua hands down most of his clothes to Caleb (while he is still a little bigger than him) which has been wonderful being so close in age. But they are in different seasons. So sometimes I overlook that Caleb is missing something because his closet is so full - full of summer stuff right now. So after I left the school today, I noticed there was an email about the Park Hill clothes closet. The entire school district has a donation center where families can donate old clothes. Then a huge amount of volunteer organizes them by size, category, etc and twice a month open the doors of the "clothing center". Any student enrolled in the district can take advantage of the center - it doesn't matter your income, age, etc. So this morning, I stopped by to see what they had

The day after Halloween this year, I decorated for Christmas. I was hosting a holiday party that week and we thought Christmas decor would help our friends think Christmas gifts....I think it worked for the most part (or maybe it was the amazing gifts they were selling!) Anyway, it has been a relief to have it all done already. And Andrea helped me make some of my older decoration nicer with some hot glue and a few creative ideas. I was very pleased with how it all came out. This past weekend, the kids and I decorated the tree with their homemade ornaments too. Grandma Sue is letting us borrow her huge Christmas tree this year while she is gone for the months of December and January in the Philippines. We hope to buy a new tree this year similar to it after Christmas when they are on sale. All we need to do now is wrap some gifts we have bought for out of town family :) Here are a few favorite spots...

Today in the Philippines (Tues, November 16 th ), it is Uncle Chris' birthday! We all wanted to wish you a Happy, happy birthday and wanted you to know how excited we are to have you in our family! We love and miss you very much!

We went to the pediatrician last week for well-visits and flu mists. Our Dr. did a great job talking to the boys about how important vegetables, fruits, bike helmets, and obedience are in their life. You gotta love how those visits have sure changed since we were little. Half of the appointment is a bunch of questions for both the parent and the child. Either way, Jonathan actually really learned something from those conversations this time.....and no, it wasn't the obedience part! Instead, he is convinced that he is growing by the second. Each time he takes a drink or bites into something, he puts his hand out and yells, "It's growing! I'm growing!" He even said today that I need to drink more so I can grow big like daddy. He reminded me that one day, he too will be big like daddy. But first he has to eat and drink ALOT! I'm not sure how many more days he will continue to mention his monumental growth with each meal, but it's awfully funny and

While working on some digital Christmas gifts today, I came across some funny pictures we took in Colorado. Had to share them, Caleb's is the best...

Saturday afternoon and evening was a fun girls day. We began by going to a nursery shower for our church. There were delicious gourmet cupcakes awaiting us when we got there. We also watched a neat video about our nursery ministry and prayed for the ministry together as women. After that, Grandma Sue, Ashlyn and I all drove down to the new American Girl store in Kansas City. We spent about an hour and a half there. Ruthie went to the doll salon, we did a yearbook craft for Ruthie, played a scavenger hunt they had there for a free poster, created a fun tee for Ruthie by picking the shirt and design, and then browsed all the cute outfits. We had a snack and came home in time for dinner with the boys. Here are a few pictures from our fun day... Ruthie at the salon getting her original style back Ruthie sporting her new hairdo with Ashlyn Watching her shirt design become a reality (a Beach Girl shirt to match Ashlyn's room)

Last night was a lot of fun! I opened my house up to about 30 guests as they shopped for homemade Christmas gifts. I really enjoyed preparing my house for the party. I think I needed the motivation from the party to do a few small projects I was putting off that finally got done. I am also all set for Christmas decorating, minus the ornaments on the tree. That is somewhat of a relief and makes me more excited for this busy part of the year somehow. The girls that sold their products here, are AMAZINGLY GIFTED. They can sew, paint, decorate, make earnings, makeup, knit, and just about anything else you can think of. They were very generous and gave me a portion of their sales towards my missions trip too, which was an enormous blessing. They also donated 2 baskets of goodies for a raffle for my trip. I managed to get a few pictures of the items they were selling...like I said, they are amazing....you can still purchase anything you see in the photo you like...they make great gift

This Friday evening, some good friends of mine are having a holiday open house at my house. They are selling homemade purses, diaper bags, headbands, hair bows, homemade mineral makeup, jewelery, cute toddler clothes, cloth diapers, duct tape bags, hand soaps, hand painted dishes, and more things I can't think of right now. They are doing a raffle for my mission trip to win 3 big baskets of their stuff too. The tickets are $1 each and all those proceeds go toward my trip. I am very excited. Try to stop by if you're in the area - All are welcome! My house is completely decorated for Christmas this morning! And it's only the beginning of November (this is a first for me, but we thought the holiday decorations might help the mood for Christmas shopping at the open house). We decorated yesterday and it was is so neat to have Christmas lights on everywhere this morning as the sun rose :) I'll post pics soon of some favorite new Christmas areas in my house...my friend

This weekend flew by. Friday evening we babysat for some good friends and enjoyed our last evening with Ella. Saturday morning we made a dessert and ran to the store for some chips for our annual Fall Fellowship at church. We were there most of the afternoon and the weather was great. John even played football! When that was done, a few of the kids and I went to Kearney for a couple hours. We visited some favorite thrift stores, drove by our old house, and played at our old favorite park. Josh was excited that a thrift store we went to had $1 costumes. So he got a Wolverine costume for Halloween. He originally was going to be Spiderman again or a different power ranger than last year. We have about 10 or 12 costumes in the boys room that we got on clearance over the years for dress up and he didn't want me to buy another one for just one night (he is very sweet). Anyway, he was so excited to find that one. Halloween morning we went to church, Sam's club, ate lunch,