The Hanson Crew Family Blog

Male Bonding

2012-01-26T18:30:00.000-06:00

John was able to go on a fun Sat adventure with 6 other guys from church this past weekend. They drove 6 hours to Arkansas, then hiked 11 miles on the Buffalo Ridge Trail, and then drove 6 hours back to KC. He was a little sore when he got home, mainly because of a bad blister on the back of his heel. He is excited to go again sometime and to start taking the boys on (shorter) hikes more often. I am thinking the wives of those fellas might need to take a girls hike sometime soon one Sat all day. You know, where we drive 6 hours to Mall of America, walk around for about 6 hours shopping, and then drive 6 hours back. We'll see if that plan works out soon!

Army Room Complete

2012-01-25T08:36:00.000-06:00

We got our $1 poster in the mail yesterday for the boy's door....

We also hung the wood letters in the stars that Caleb painted black above their beds...

I am moving on to Joshua's mural...

More places to sit...

2012-01-24T19:55:00.000-06:00

around our crews house. We are trying to be more hospitable in 2012 and planning a weekly dinner/fellowship time at our house with couples/families we don't know well at our church. We bought some "new" Craigslist furniture with some of our Craigslist money we have saved from selling things on Craigslist this past year. We moved our old loveseat and oversized chair from our front living room into our family room. Now we have a couch, loveseat, and chair in that room for company. Before, we only had a couch and large chair...

Since we took the furniture from the front living room for the family room, we used the money we got for the old oversized chair in the family room to buy a new loveseat for this room ($50). Then I found some awesome gold and red chairs to finish the sitting area off Craigslist. I think I spent a month looking on Craigslist for various couches, chairs, and loveseats to finish off these 2 rooms along with our basement where our other new couch went! I was a little glad to take back my in-laws truck and be done moving furniture for the rest of the year (along with John). So here is the new front living room...

The chairs go so well with the red accent I have tried to incorpoate in there. My next project for this area is replacing some pictures in a new frame Lisa got me and recovering my dining room chairs again (I think I do this once a year since the kids destroy them about every other month - the fabric I got was $5 for 2 yards this weekend and is a gold, red, and sage plaid :)

Go Army

2012-01-21T22:48:00.000-06:00

Caleb and I worked on his Army room today. I painted some camo stars above each bed...

And he painted some paper mache letters for under his shelves...

The finished project...

Tomorrow we hope to buy a white wooden "J" letter for the star above Jonathan's bed and a "C" letter for Caleb's star. After their camo pillow cases, I think I can move back into Joshua's room to finish his city mural :)

Favorite's Movies of 2011

2012-01-19T21:16:00.000-06:00

Jonathan: Alvin & the Chipmunks 3
Caleb: Cars 2 & Captain America
Joshua: Captain America & Thor
Ashlyn: Harry Potter 7, part 2 & Sherlock Holmes 2
Deanna: Mission Impossible 4 & Courageous
John: Courageous

Great Craigslist Find...

2012-01-17T19:45:00.001-06:00

I was able to do a few website projects since Thanksgiving and have been putting aside that money for something our family could use that would not normally be in our budget. I realized around Christmas when we got an awesome TV from my dad that a new sofa for downstairs would be perfect. We had bought the set that was down there from my friend Jennie back when we were pregnant in 2003. It lasted a long time, but was at the end of it's life. After playing Wii or watching a family movie night, someone was sitting on the floor or complaining about the spring in their back. So the Craigslist for a new set began at the beginning of December...

You would think that finding a new living room set for under $400 about 20 miles from your home would be an easy task, but let me tell you it is not. I spent hours refreshing my list, calling and emailing for the "perfect" deal, noticing most of them were an hour away or from a smoke filled house. Until I found this gem....

It is a microfiber sectional couch (sofa with chaise) and a matching chair bought in May from Nebraska Furniture Mart. It looks brand new! We have to move the chair over in front of our storage door when all 6 of us watch a movie, but we all fit comfortably now :) It makes the downstairs look a lot nicer too.

I did some re-arranging upstairs too in both the living room and the family room when trying to move this set around. Pics of those rooms soon along with a couple new additions up there...

The progression of the Superhero wall...

2012-01-16T22:40:00.000-06:00

Windows and doors coming up next...

Enjoying our first Martin Luther Kings Day...

2012-01-16T22:30:00.000-06:00

Our classical school does not normally take Martin Luther King Jr. Day off from school. Today was our first time in the 6 years we have been there. We are excited for the change even though we go a day longer in the Spring. The weather was beautiful today! We spent the time re-arranging some new living room furniture we bought, playing at the park, working on some invoices at the Maids, and then rock climbing and pizza. We managed to sneak in about an hour of school work too in the middle. Caleb was fortunate to not have any homework tomorrow, which is normally a home day. Joshua got his normal amount for Tues and Ashlyn got enough for the weekend, Mon, and Tues. She will be very busy tomorrow. Here are a few pics from the park...

Rock Climbin

2012-01-16T22:22:00.001-06:00

In December, John and I joined a community center down by his work since we get a business discount that was only $15 more than his individual membership he had somewhere else. We were able to get a family membership this way. The kids and I have enjoyed the pool and I have officially started working out some :) Although I do hope to be more consistent once our school routine gets back in full swing from our winter break, I have started going twice a week (I speed walk the other school day each week with a friend). One benefit of the membership besides the pool, fitness classes, and the workout area, is a cool rock climbing wall. You have to be 8 to participate. So I took Ashlyn and Joshua today. They LOVED it! We hope to go back again soon. Here are a couple pics of their first climb...

Ashlyn's new curtains

2012-01-16T22:17:00.000-06:00

Ashlyn and I came up with these fun pink and orange curtains to go with her new room. We hope to replace the windows in the summer to bigger ones she can crawl out of in case of a fire. For now, the small ones are much brighter and cuter :)

Army room progress

2012-01-12T20:05:00.001-06:00

So we have painted the room, touched up the navy bunk bed paint and made camo curtains for the room. We also build a 40" square table to go behind the "L" shape bed idea (we took apart the bunk beds for 2 twin beds instead). That table will be covered in camo material and then hold a army lamp or lantern, reading books for bed, and some army decor we find at thrift stores. There will be two white shelves and the letters "ARMY" above this table too. Here is a couple shots of the beginning...

Ashlynism

2012-01-12T19:58:00.002-06:00

Ashlyn doesn't say too many things that make me laugh anymore. So this one needed to go on record.

While shopping at Joanne's for fabric:
me: "Hmm, why can't find anyone who works here to help me?"
ashlyn: "Um, because this is not Hy-vee where there is a smile in every isle!"

It's kinda funny that she would know that AND say it in normal conversation...

Our first dusting of snow this winter...

2012-01-12T15:26:00.001-06:00

came on January 11, 2012....not quite an inch, but the streets were covered and it froze to a nice think layer of ice just in time for rush hour the next morning. We are still praying for more snow so we can go sledding and build a snowman...

Avengers Room Additions...

2012-01-12T15:23:00.001-06:00

We sewed a new pillow case today after school work

This year's Avengers Halloween pic below a pic of the First Avengers

Framed comics on his closet door

First Snow

2012-01-11T16:23:00.002-06:00

We are supposed to get about 2" of snow this evening and more possible tomorrow...we haven't seen any snow all winter so we are all a little excited! I'll post a pic tomorrow if it really happens!

Talking about Trips

2012-01-07T10:11:00.002-06:00

This past week, the kids and I have been discussing 2012 trips we hope to take. John is going on a short term mission trip over Spring Break to El Salvidor in March, which we are all very excited about! While he is gone and the kids are out of school, we are planning a 2-day trip to St. Louis with Grandma Peggy. We are going to see the Arch, visit the zoo, and go to the Children's Science Museum.

This summer, instead of doing our traditional boys canoe trip and girls American Girl trip, we are combining them this year. We are going to take a family canoe trip! We hope to setup our tent and camp when we first arrive this time and canoe down the river for two days, without all of our supplies/clothes/tent/etc in them. Ashlyn and I will man a boat, while the boys are in another. We have been talking about this trip all week!

We also are excited to plan a trip to AZ this summer. This will be a road trip through CO and down to the Grand Canyon. We will then spend a few days with our family down in Phoenix.

And John and I plan to take our annual couple trip to MN again this fall for the Piper conference. I think a few couples from church are talking about going too, which will make for another fun year up there!

We have thrown out the idea of Christmas in Seattle possibly this year too?? We aren't sure if this will work out yet depending on airplane tickets, but are at least thinking about Christmas with some of my family this year :)

These are a few trips we are mulling over for now. Are you taking any fun trips in 2012?

Joshua's new room...

2012-01-06T18:17:00.000-06:00

I was able to move Joshua's furniture in his new room today and am about to start the mural on the accent wall. He bought some Avengers comic books the other day too that we are going to frame for the other walls. Here is a sneak peek at the room before the pictures and wall are done...

This last picture is the wall that I will paint building on as well as some kind of vinyl stacker phrase. Joshua wants "Avengers Assemble" in the sky. I said we would look around before we special ordered that one. The little boys are anxious to start their room now. I told them after the mural, I may need a week's vacation. We'll see what happens...

Painting trend continues...

2012-01-06T08:48:00.000-06:00

We are making good progress in Joshua's new room this week. We painted 3 of the wall and nice blue and are working on the accent wall today. I found this great picture that I am using for inspiration. I am actually going to paint the building/city scene free hand this weekend. Right now, that wall is a lighter blue on top and a darker blue on bottom. I am going to move his bed in tonight since the other 3 walls are already decorated with his furniture and wall decor. I will post pics as soon as the accent wall is done (or close)...

Next up, Caleb and Jonathan's army room. I think winter might very well fulfill all of my decorating ideas/wants and can take the rest of the year off :)

Our winter break project

2012-01-02T22:59:00.001-06:00

Welcome to Ashlyn's new beach room downstairs....it includes awesome green walls, an orange and pink plaid accent wall, and a great new orange school desk. We are most excited about an upcoming remodeling project where this amazing bedroom becomes a bedroom/bathroom suite. Enjoy the pics...

This last picture shows you where the bathroom door will go. Right where the American Girl doll bed it. It will be only accessible from her bedroom and we have decided no boys are allowed to use it :)

Christmas Fun

2012-01-02T22:46:00.002-06:00

Here are a few pictures of the kids from Christmas....

Sneak Peak

2011-12-30T18:40:00.000-06:00

Here is the pretty green Ashlyn picked for her room downstairs. We are going to paint an accent wall tonight and then move her furniture down tomorrow...more pics of the final room soon.

Room switch a roo

2011-12-28T12:12:00.001-06:00

So this week we will be making some big bedroom changes we are excited about :) We moved most of our school room stuff out to our sunroom this past month. And we have weeded out a lot of toys that were downstairs in our school room/play room. Today, we are prepping the room to be painted for Ashlyn's new bedroom suite. She is very excited! We are building her a bathroom that will be only for her room (no boys allowed) and moving her downstairs. Her new room may be as big as our master! She is starting to babysit occasionally for some date nights and gaining a little more responsibility around our house. I know she will love the quiet new area she will be getting. And I love having a new decorating project too! We are getting her beach theme, but painting the room a different color and buying some new bedding. When visitors come stay with us, they will use your bedroom suite and she will sleep in Joshua's new bedroom upstairs on a blow up mattress (her old room). Josh is very excited for his first room alone. He is keeping most of the furniture from the boys current room and already picking out his paint colors too. I am most excited about the closet space he will inherit. No more clothes storage downstairs for the boys! The 2 little boys will take apart their bunk beds and gain the dresser and toy buckets from downstairs. Their room will become the "play room" when we have little guests over. We'll post pics as we paint, change, and move....

Cold's on Christmas

2011-12-28T12:07:00.000-06:00

We pray you all had a Merry Christmas! Our plans changed a little when we woke up on Christmas morning with some kind of cold in a few eyes. We weren't sure if it was pink eye, so we warned Grandma Sue and the rest of the family over there. They agreed with us that we should stay home instead of Christmas dinner at Sue's. So we enjoyed just our crew for the 3rd year in a row (the others were in the Philippines the last 2 years together). It was great! We slept in, opened presents, made a big breakfast brunch and played all day in our pjs. We hope to celebrate with John's family tomorrow for John's birthday and Christmas the day before Grandma Sue and Grandpa Gary leave for AZ. They are retired and moving there for a few months each winter. I'll post pics of Christmas Eve with Grandma Peggy and Christmas morning soon...

New Christmas Eve Tradition...

2011-12-24T14:25:00.003-06:00

A matinee movie! Today the 3 boys and I saw the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. Ashlyn and John saw the new Sherlock Holmes. We hope to try it again next year too. It's great when your kids are old enough to enjoy things like going to the movies! We go so rarely that this may be a tradition they look forward to and love! Hoping next year there is a movie that everyone wants to see...worked out great this year though.

Enjoying our winter break...

2011-12-24T00:13:00.000-06:00

From our Crew this Christmas

2011-12-21T07:27:00.001-06:00

May the celebration of Christ's birth bring you love and hope this Christmas! With Love from our crew.

Homemade banners

2011-12-19T18:05:00.000-06:00

Ashlyn and I made some fun Christmas banners for gifts this year. She made one for Grandma Sue and Mrs. White. I made one for our fireplace and 2 for a couple of good friends who share the same name. A special thanks to Andrea for giving us the idea from her hand painted banners she sold at our holiday open house in Nov. We used scrapbook paper instead of painting the background and only painted the letters. We also chose "Rejoice" to help with less letters (she made "Joy to the World" and "Merry Christmas" banners). Here is how one turned out...

Mahoney State Park 2011

2011-12-18T20:13:00.001-06:00

Dessert Recipes

2011-12-15T08:34:00.000-06:00

Best Evers
1 stick of butter or margarine
1 package of graham crackers
1 bag of chocolate chips (or half butterscotch chips/half choc chips)
1 cup of nuts (we use walnuts)
1 cup coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Warm butter in pan and mix in crushed crackers. Press that mixture in a 13x9 jellyroll pan for the crust. Layer chips, coconut, nuts, and drape milk over the top. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Cut into small squares when cool.

Soda Cracker Toffee
1 package soda crackers
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups of chocolate chips
1 cup of finely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Line a jelly roll pan with foil and grease with butter. Line pan with soda crackers. Bring 1 cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar to a boil on stove, stirring constantly for 3 minutes until thick. Pour over crackers and spread around. Bake 5 minutes and remove. Sprinkle with ch. chips and nuts. Cool in fridge, peel off foil and break apart.

Baking begins

2011-12-13T22:33:00.000-06:00

We started last week with our Soda Cracker Toffee and finally got to some Best Evers today. We hope to get to our Almond Bark Pretzels tomorrow or Thursday. Our little cook, Joshua, has made a list of items we hope to have done by Christmas. I'll keep you posted...

Caleb sees the Nutcracker

2011-12-11T15:32:00.000-06:00

Caleb was invited to see the Nutcracker in KC's new Kaufman Performing Arts Center this weekend with his good friend Charlie. He had a great time! His family took him for most of the day. They played at his house, went to the ballet, and then to a very nice dinner. We are very thankful for the friends and families we have gotten to know at FCA. What a great experience for him.

FCA Christmas Program

2011-12-08T08:15:00.000-06:00

Faith Christian Academy enjoyed their annual Christmas Program this past Monday night and all 3 kids participated. I think it was one of our favorite programs. Grandma Peggy, Grandma Sue, and Grandpa Gary all came to watch them perform. Here are a few pictures from the night...

The new hansoncrew.com

2011-12-03T09:55:00.002-06:00

Got around to updating our family website today so I can email out our Christmas postcards soon. I am still working on our Christmas letter though. After January, I am excited to replace the "our Christmas Letter" button with a new button, "Hanson Crew Design". I am working on that site too right now. That is my new small business where I will be offering web site design and hosting, blog designs, marketing projects, and graphic design work at a great price. Stay tuned...

O' Christmas Tree

2011-12-03T08:44:00.005-06:00

We bought a used Christmas tree this year off Craigslist for $50. It's NINE feet tall! Which is much taller than I thought. When Ashlyn and I went to buy it, the tree was right around the corner from my in-laws house, which was kinda funny. The owner knows Sue and Gary and was a Maids customer of ours. Here it is all decorated for Christmas...
It takes up a lot of room in our family room...

But the fireplace is still my favorite part of the room...

Grandkids photoshoot

2011-12-01T21:56:00.003-06:00

I took some pictures today for Sue's Christmas card at our lake. This one was my favorite one of everyone even though the sun was behind them...notice we are letting Jonathan's hair grow out and it is in the awkward stage between short and long so he is wearing his new $1 hat from Dollar Tree. Ashlyn keeps saying she thinks he should not have worn it because it stands out...they are all growing too fast!

Christmas Traditions

2011-12-01T10:42:00.002-06:00

So today is December 1st. We are about 80% done with Christmas shopping, which is very exciting for me. We have received our Christmas postcards to mail out and I have begun working on the re-design of our family website and Christmas letter. We were able to start watching favorite Christmas movies yesterday and are talking about out baking goals.

I was thinking this morning about Christmas and how important some family traditions are this month. We don't have a lot of them, but can see how the few we have are really exciting for our kids. Ashlyn got out the hot cocoa and played Christmas Worship CDs while we decorated our tree this year without being asked. We started our tradition of our Chocolate Advent Calendars this morning and plan to put out our felt advent calendar tonight. We started talking about our Christmas schedule this year since it will be different than the last 2 years without Carol, Chris, Rylee, and Sue for Christmas. We plan to spend Christmas Eve with Grandma Peggy and her boyfriend. Then we are hoping to do our own family Christmas morning tradition we have done the past 2 years - a big breakfast and a few presents. We plan on going to Grandma Sue's and Grandpa Gary's later in the afternoon, but are not sure if Carol, Chris, or Rylee will be there at the same time. We will see if our "plan" all works out for everyone as it gets closer.

What are some family traditions you have? Besides a big breakfast Christmas morning, we always have potica bread and oj while we open presents. That tradition started in CO where potica bread is so popular. It is hard to find out here in MO. We also wake up to filled stockings, which the kids all know we fill and LOVE to go through first thing in the morning. We usually go to a Christmas Eve service if there is one offered and if not always read through Luke 2 that night with the kids. I am certain our kids love Christmas, but know now that they love being part of our family during the Christmas season more. And they understand why we celebrate Christmas as a family with our church family. That warms more heart to think about as they grow older. I will try to upload some pictures soon of some Christmas decorations we have put up this year too...

How the radio works

2011-11-29T08:58:00.003-06:00

While driving to the store the other day, Caleb asked a funny question. He said, "Do you think this lady ever gets tired of singing the same song over and over again every day? She must be tired of it!" I then went on to explain what the difference between LIVE radio and RECORDED music is...

FROG's new home

2011-11-26T16:44:00.002-06:00

Ashlyn's baby tadpole in first grade has become quite the large water frog today. Because we are not consistent with cleaning his tank and feeding him, we thought it might be best for him to live in our pond on our street. Today was his big moving day! We took this picture right before we released him. We told the kids that we would visit him often and that we would never know how big/old he gets. He swam right down in the water when we let him go. It's official, we are PET less :) And hope to keep it that way for at least 5 more years...

Lego Creations Book

2011-11-19T23:11:00.003-06:00

Because Joshua has a really hard time when his LEGO creations gets destroyed by a sibling or friend, we have decided to create a LEGO. This will not only help when things get taken apart by accident (or purpose), but also when he wants to use the pieces for a new creation. I told him he can be in charge of the pictures and then I would help him make a digital scrapbook for him with all of his pictures. He seemed excited and started this weekend with some pictures. We'll see if it continues and if he is a little more willing to take them apart after they have been displayed for awhile and photographed. I will keep you posted...

Holiday Open House, Round 2

2011-11-17T23:23:00.005-06:00

Tomorrow (from 6-9 pm) and Saturday (from 2-5 pm), I will be hosting a Holiday Open House at my house again, but this time to raise money for our church Orphan Ministry. Last year we did this for my first mission trip. Three good friends will be selling homemade gifts for Christmas and will also be raffling off a couple nice gift baskets. All the raffle tickets go to the Orphan Ministry and a percentage of their sales. Please stop by if you are in KC, looking for fun fellowship and a great way to contribute to National Adopotion Month! Thanks!

11-11-11

2011-11-12T06:08:00.003-06:00

We all enjoyed 11-11-11 yesterday and even though I was bombarded on Facebook with comments about how my entry at 11:11 AM was wrong (I said is is 11:11 on 11-11-11, won't happen again for 1,000 years), I know that I won't be around for the next 11-11-11. In my defense, 11:11 pm is really 23:11, but oh, well! And we have too many friends in other time zones to the west of us, who chimed in. But anyway, most of us are recovering from a cold that is going around and enjoyed Captain America together on 11-11-11. We are looking forward to our Drop n' Date tonight at church where families can drop their children off (for free) and enjoy one another. We are doubling with some good friends who are leaving for the mission field soon. We are excited for it! What about you...did you do anything historic on 11-11-11.

Caleb's Speech Progress Meeting

2011-11-10T22:20:00.003-06:00

Caleb and I were able to meet this afternoon with the NKC Special Education Director and his speech pathologist. We were meeting to discuss his progress this school year and discuss how he had met his planned goals for the year (all of his 6 year old sounds met). We usually get speech therapy 2 days a week (30 minutes each) through the NKC school district and knew going into the program that they could only work on age appropriate sounds in these sessions. What that means is that even though Caleb does not have his blend sounds (bl, th, sl), his r sound, and a couple other 7 year old sounds, they would not be able to work on those sounds while he is still 6. He was not saying 6 year old sounds and 1 5 year old sound when we began this year and the therapist has continuously commented to me this year that he is fine. I was worried, because I still hear so many sounds missing and so much mumbling, but I am a paranoid mother who has been going to speech since he was 2 years old!

Anyway, the director was very impressed with the sounds we were worked on today, but worried some about his language skills. He has a hard time with pronouns, plurals, and other small sentence structure problems. She also noticed he is missing the l sound sometimes. Because she thinks he could be mildly Apraxic from what I have described to her and what she saw, she thankfully decided not to cancel our speech altogether. Instead, we are re-writing his goals to include the l sound and some language stuff. We will begin meeting only once a week now instead of 2 times a week too. She wants to come in and listen to him more to get a better idea of what he might be doing with his tongue or what might be causing the muttering. He was kinda shy today and didn't talk much like she hoped. She knows that he will definately qualify for more time when he is 7 and thinks keeping him on as a student for now is in his best interest. I am really pleased with how the meeting went. So we will now be home on Thursdays all day and only go out for Speech on Tues afternoons. I will keep you posted on how he continues to do with that...

PS - Catherine, I would love to have dinner with you again soon so I could get your opinion too since the last time we met. Out treat! Let us know when you are free one evening and we can meet you in Liberty for dinner.

First Sleepover

2011-11-09T15:54:00.002-06:00

The kids had some friends sleep over this past Sat night and they made this funny video. We thought we would share it with you!

Event[full] week

2011-11-06T21:03:00.003-06:00

Kansas City felt some aftershocks from the OK earthquake this weekend (our crew missed the shaking fun, but most of our friends felt it!)
We finalized our will and trusts with our lawyer (we pray we live another 14 years so the McKinzies are relieved of raising our 4 kiddos, but are so happy that it is all in writing and setup legally now)
John went to the ER with some heart problems. Thankfully, there was no serious concern, but a need to follow up with a cardiologist soon (along with an MD to check out a few other concerns)
The kids had friends sleepover for the first time I think (everything went well and I think everyone had fun). We are so thankful for both Owen and Olivia and their friendships with our kids
We bought a Christmas Tree! We had borrowed one last year from grandma Sue while she was in the Philippines, and had been watching Craigslist for a while for one. This one popped up and I called within 5 minutes of the post. Later we found out that the family we bought it from are friends with Sue and Gary and old customers of ours. The tree looks great and was an awesome deal. I get to start decorating next week because I host a big holiday open house on Nov 18th and have promised to have it Christmas ready by then.
Caleb's speech therapist has a scheduled a meeting for this Thurs to discuss discontinuing speech for the year. It seems he has all of his 6 year old sounds now and is only missing those 7 and 8 year old sounds. I'll keep you posted on that meeting on Thur night.

Flag football comes to an end

2011-11-06T20:42:00.004-06:00

Caleb finished his first season of flag football this weekend! And we had to endure one cold game (the only one all season). We wished we brought ear muffs and gloves, but we survived. Caleb's coach said their team was the only team in the league where every player scored a touchdown all season. They were all excited about that! He also got a participation medal, which he was so proud of! Here are a couple pics of the morning...

Preschool Parade

2011-11-03T08:21:00.003-05:00

Jonathan's preschool had a Halloween party and parade on Monday. He dressed as Thor and really enjoyed his first school party! After the kids paraded around the sanctuary, they performed 5 or 6 songs in the front. He did great. He LOVED the hand motions the best. Grandma Sue and I were both able to make it to his grand performance. Here are a couple pictures from the day...

The Kansas City Zoo

2011-11-02T14:54:00.006-05:00

Caleb's concern for the Flamingo

2011-11-01T22:36:00.006-05:00

Today after the kids finished schoolwork, we were able to join some school friends at the Kansas City Zoo. Today was 75 degrees, which is unheard of for November weather! And residents who live in KC limits, which we do, are able to get in the zoo for free for the months of Oct and Nov. That saved us $50 :) So we headed off to the zoo with our proof of residency, water, and camera. We hadn't been to the zoo for 5 years and we were happy to see some of the changes we saw. It was much better. They had added a sky lift, children's area, and cool kangaroo area that the kids loved. So off the funny story of the day...

When we got to the flamingos, we hung out there for a little while so our friends could get some good pictures of the flamingos for their 1st grade animal research project. While we were standing there, Caleb really was observing them. After about 5 minutes, he said, "Mom, I feel so bad for some of the flamingos" in a very sincere voice. "Some of the birds are missing a leg! That must be so hard for them." I noticed right away what he had seen. Some of the flamingos were sleeping and were balanced on only one leg. He thought that their other leg was missing. We all laughed and then watched them a while longer to see just how flexible their legs are. He laughed the most when he realized that they were just tucked up there. It was funny enough to share. I hope to post some zoo pics in the morning...

Homemade Scarecrow

2011-11-01T22:27:00.003-05:00

The kids decided to make a scarecrow for our yard this year and then told me to come out and see the final masterpiece. When I got outside, I had to giggle. I told them we could name him Humpty Dumpty. You'll understand why when you see him...
Unfortunately, his hat had blown off when I took the picture. I was tempted to replace the hat with an egg!

Trunk R Treat

2011-10-30T22:08:00.009-05:00

Our crew tried out a trunk-r-treat this afternoon and enjoyed the nice weather. We have a Hermione Granger (from Harry Potter) along with the First 3 Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor) this year all anxious to fill back up their candy stash. Because it was so nice today, I got a few good shots of their costumes too...

Courageous letterbox

2011-10-28T17:46:00.006-05:00

We finally created and hid our first family letterbox this month. In case you are new to our blog, letterboxing is a family hobby we were first introduced to when Ashlyn was in first grade. The idea is that there are clues online that you print off to find each box. Then we all go and find the hidden box, usually at a park or trail, which has a stamp and log book in. We sign the book with our family stamp and the date we found it and then stamp our own journals with the stamp from the letterbox. We are getting quite the collection! So here is the info for our first letterbox we hid:

The box is called "Courageous" and is found online here.

Here are a few pictures from the day we hid it...

Family Birthday Party

2011-10-28T17:30:00.008-05:00

So on Sunday we celebrated both Ashlyn and Joshua's birthdays with extended family. We decided to make homemade soup (chicken noodle and Minestrone) and salad for the meal and setup the sunroom for the theme. The kids chose to have a Harry Potter birthday since Ashlyn is reading the books and we have been watching the movies again. The kids got way too many presents like they do every year, and I think managed to both feel a little special. Here are a few favorites from the day...

Caleb's exciting moment...

2011-10-25T20:44:00.001-05:00

He lost his first tooth today...and his new tooth is already growing in. He is very excited and can't wait to see what tooth comes out next!

Ashlyn turns Eleven tomorrow...

2011-10-22T19:24:00.005-05:00

So we celebrated with a few friends last night. This was Ashlyn's first birthday where she didn't have an official themed party at home with friends. Instead, we took a few of her good friends to play mini-golf. Then we walked the Oak Park Mall together. That was interesting and fun! We looked at Justice and the American Girl store mainly. We also ate at the food court for dinner. All 3 girls are very sweet and it is so neat to see them treat Ashlyn so well. Here are a few pics from the evening...

Tomorrow is our family birthday party for both her and Joshua....

4 accomplishments today...

2011-10-20T21:20:00.008-05:00

We finally worked on Halloween costumes today. Ashlyn is going to be Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. She has read most of that series in about a month. We cut and sewed this black cape thing we got at a thrift store. Then we printed the Gryffindor patch off the internet, colored it, glued it to felt, and sewed it on too. We finished everything off with some red duck taped stripes on a gold thrift store tie. She is glad it is all ready...(the halo is not part of her costume, it is the boys basketball goal on the door!)
Then the kids worked on making Caleb a Captain America shield out of $1 foam board. They did a great job and he is already to go since we bought his costume this year at Target...
Joshua and I made some more pumpkin spice cookies for this wonderful fall day. They were a great dessert to our homemade chili we made for our chili cheese dogs dinner...
And of course, we d5th grade, 2nd grade, and 1st grade homework - and finished a little earlier than normal :) Overall, it was a great a Thursday! Next up, Jonathan's red Thor cape and Ashlyn's birthday party with a few friends at an indoor mini-golf course.

Flu mist vs. flu shot

2011-10-20T16:34:00.003-05:00

This past week, I finally made the change from pediatrician to family doctor for 2 of our kids. We hope to move the other two over this Dec when they are due for their next well visit. I am so excited to have one doctor for all of the kids and me. John will eventually move over to this same practice, which happens to be 3 minutes from our house and right next door to a hospital! It's wonderful.

Anyway, with the switch, both Ashlyn and Joshua got a well visit along with the flu shot. We typically get the flu mist, which has been so nice according to all the kids so far. This family practice office only offers the shot. We didn't know that until we were ready to go back to see the doctor. I had to drag Joshua from the waiting room to the scale. Then the whole visit, was torture for him. After Ashlyn got hers, we began to coach Joshua through it. I thought he was one all over again! Man, it was horrible. He basically said he refused to get it and tried to leave the room. I had to ask all the other kids to leave the room so he could get it...poor guy. He says he would rather have the flu next year so we'll see what we decide then. The doctor tried to explain to him that the mist is the actual virus where the shot was not and that he would be more protected this year. I don't think it mattered. Both of the little boys got the mist a few weeks ago and were so excited to have to skip it here this year. I don't think Joshua will ever forget this office now or the experience he had....I told him that I don't remember any of the shots I got when I was his age to see if that helped him at all and I don't think it did. I know I am comforted knowing we might all have a bunch of colds all season, and not the flu!

Happy Birthday Joshua Paul!

2011-10-16T15:39:00.003-05:00

We are both so proud of the young man you are becoming. We praise God for you everyday and pray that He will draw you to Himself. Happy 8th Birthday Joshua! It has been an honor being your parents these past 8 years. Love, mom and dad.

Fall pictures

2011-10-16T14:18:00.006-05:00

Joshua's celebrates turning 8...

2011-10-15T21:42:00.010-05:00

it was simple. 4 boys. fun run. pizza. wii. cupcakes. presents. thinking of going this route again...

The sickness spreads near birthday fun

2011-10-14T07:49:00.003-05:00

So I think I spoke to soon the other day about how sick I was and so glad no one else in our crew had gotten it. The next day, Jonathan woke in the middle of the night unable to breathe he was so congested. Then he moved to a very croup like cough for 4 days, followed by losing his voice. He finally seems to be better today, which marks his full week of being sick. Joshua, Ashlyn and Caleb all left for school this morning with running noses and the look of what could be the next few victims. I'll keep you posted...

Today is Joshua's birthday celebration at school, which includes sharing cookie pops. You can buy these in a box now at the store by Pillsbury which include the mix, sticks, icing, and sprinkles for under $3. Joshua and I made two boxes last night because there are 2 second grade classes and all we kept saying the entire time was how wonderful Sam's cupcakes will be next year! What a project. We are hoping they are a big hit today after lunch! Then, after school, he and 3 of his closest friends are joining me at Fun Run (big inflatables and slides), pizza, and cupcakes to celebrate. We will have our family celebration, next Sunday on Ashlyn's birthday for the two of them....October is sure a busy month!

A Wonderful Report

2011-10-11T22:05:00.003-05:00

So we finally heard today about our house appraisal and it was wonderful news! It appraised for $3,000 more than what we needed it to. And that was $9,000 more than what it appraised for when we bought it 2 years ago :) SO even with the market now doing so well, all of our hard work the past 2 years, really did pay off. Now we can begin saving some money each month while we continue to make more improvements...

World's of Fun

2011-10-10T11:37:00.010-05:00

Flag Football

2011-10-10T11:20:00.005-05:00

Our AZ family joined us at Caleb's flag football game on Sat morning. This was his 2nd game, but John and I missed his first one (we were in MN) so we were really excited to see him play this time. He is #5 and got to carry the ball a couple times. Here are a few pics from the morning...

Where did the week go?

2011-10-08T08:04:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates this past week. I was sick for a better part of this past week and was trying hard to just get the day to day things accomplished. Thankfully, no one else in our crew has gotten it. We had a big school carnival last night and I was working on a few last minute projects for that too. John's aunt and uncle (and two cousins) are visiting from AZ this week and we are enjoying time with them now. We are excited to go to Worlds of Fun again with them on Sunday. The kids are still enjoying school and are talking alot about birthdays this week. Joshua will turn 8 next Sunday and Ashlyn will turn 11 the next Sunday! Where has that time gone? So I promise much more pictures this next week of fun carnival, World's of Fun pics, as well as some birthday fun. Hope you are all having a great fall week...

Productive Week Outside

2011-10-01T15:41:00.005-05:00

This week we have been working in the yard because of the beautiful weather. I was able to trim alot of tree branches today (3 truck loads) and offload some of the brown banana things I have been raking this past week too. Ashlyn and Joshua help stain the fence today and almost finished one exterior side. We ran out of stain or we would have kept going.

I also finished my mailbox area that I started last year. I ended up tilling the whole area and then putting sod down around a box I made with some mums in it. I like the way it turned out. I don't have a before picture for you, but let me tell you it is noticeably better. Caleb loves watering the new grass two time a day. He understands that the grass has to be wet enough to soak your feet on. He's doing a great job with that chore! Here are a few pictures from our progress. We hope to finish more this week before the colder temps come back as well as rain (especially the fence). I'll keep you posted...

A Refinance in the Future

2011-09-28T21:46:00.002-05:00

So with interest rates at the lowest in history, we have decided to refinance our house. This will be our first time ever doing this, but can save a more than $100 each month on our house payment. We are a little nervous about the appraisal since the market is still bad and houses aren't appraising for what they are worth...but, we are going to give it a try. If it does not appraise for what we are hoping for, we will have to pay a small fee upfront. Otherwise, we don't pay anything, which is our hope. So in the preparation for the proposal, I am working on a few small house projects this week and weekend. I will post pictures soon...and I am still working on staining the fence I told you about earlier.

A Weekend with the Grandparents

2011-09-26T21:49:00.005-05:00

While John and I were in Minneapolis, MN this weekend at the Desiring God National Conference, the kids soaked up some fun grandparents time. Once again, Sue handled all of our crew's busy schedule, including preschool drop off and pick up, FCA pick up, first flag football game, birthday party, wedding, fire pit fun, church, and a pumpkin patch. That makes me tired just typing it all! The kids all said they enjoyed their time as much as we did (I will post a separate post about our trip). I grabbed a couple of Sue's Facebook pics from her weekend to share...the first is everyone roasting hot dogs and the second is at Caleb's first football game...

Mom, you look like...

2011-09-22T09:08:00.008-05:00

These are great examples of proof that my children watch a little too much TV/movies...

Joshua: Stephanie from Lazy Town (if you died your hair bright pink)
Jonathan: Velma from Scooby-Doo (if you wore your glasses)
Ashlyn: The mean lady from Indian Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Caleb: Yeah {laughing} all of those, especially Stephanie!

Here is why they all said that after school:

I cut about 3 inches of my hair and got a whole new look while everyone was in school. I think they like it, but were in shock. It is still a little hard to look in the mirror and not recognize myself!

A fall project

2011-09-19T22:29:00.002-05:00

This fall when the weather is nice enough for us to be outside, we are working on staining our fence. Today, I put 2 coats on the front side of this portion. The kids are going to help work on the other side of the house sometime this week. I am excited for the color and the price of this first gallon - $8. The next few gallons will be $18, but so far we have about 1/8 of our fence looking pretty good for under ten bucks!! I'll try to post pictures of our progress as it happens...

Homemaking Together

2011-09-18T13:36:00.005-05:00

Ashlyn and I have finally found a hobby we are both really excited about. Sewing. I used some of my free lance money on a new sewing machine this past month and we figured out how to use it last night. We sewed a curtain together for her book nook in the school room. She helped pick out the material, helped pin it together and helped sew it. She is a natural! Our next project, sewing some curtains together upstairs and then making some new ones for the sunroom. Here is our first project, hung up...

While Great-grandma Shirley was here from AZ last week, she taught Ashlyn how to use a pattern. Grandma Shirley, Grandma Sue, and Ashlyn all worked together to sew this fun fall dress. They did a great job! The material is a brown corduroy with lime green and bright orange owls, flowers, and dots. This one was very expensive though, so we might try a different pattern idea next time...
I just love having a daughter! God blessed me with just one and the one he gave me is so much like me it is hilarious. We are really taking advantage of being the only sane people here and are going to work on doing more "girl" things together this fall and winter.

Our family at the Circus

2011-09-17T12:27:00.004-05:00

Photo courtesy of Mingle: Kansas City

Cooler weather hits Kansas City

2011-09-15T22:30:00.002-05:00

This week has been much cooler, especially in the evenings/nights. John is gets hot very easily and usually turns our AC on in April. Yes, that is about the time most people open their windows and enjoy the fresh Spring air. Not our crew. We enjoy 69-71 degrees of blowing cold air through the house, until the start of fall. Well, today was that day! We turned the AC off and wore pants and sweatshirts all day while we did homework. Man it was cold. It was so tempting to turn the heater on, but we stuck it out. As I lay in bed and type this post, it is tempting to turn it on, just like it is tempting for John to turn back on the AC. I wonder how long our electricity bill will appreciate this moment of difference. We will keep you posted....

Avengers Unite

2011-09-13T22:36:00.002-05:00

The boys have always been fascinated with super heroes, especially the Marvel ones. Well ever since Captain America this year and some of the new trailers for upcoming Avengers movies, they have been talking more about them. So it was no surprise this week when we were talking about costumes for Halloween what they decided to be...

Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America.

Ashlyn refuses to participate in the fun, but hopes to help me sew some kind of costume for Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. She is enjoying those books right now.

Our crew goes to the circus

2011-09-09T22:59:00.010-05:00

John was able to get free tickets to the circus this week from the radio station that he advertises on. It was a lot of fun! Jonathan sat there in shock most of the time and Caleb yelled out quite a bit. There were a few acts that made John and I nervous (or at least made us say, "that's impossible!") Here are a few favorite shots of some favorite acts. The first one is my crew, who of course, belong in the circus most days...

Pre-K the fourth (and last) time around

2011-09-07T22:07:00.003-05:00

Jonathan went to preschool today and had a wonderful time. He sure grew those 2 1/2 hours because when I picked him up and he told me about his day, he sounded so much older! He said his favorite thing about his first day was his friend Chase in the orange shirt. I heard later that Chase brought cupcakes today for his birthday. I wonder how Friday will go when Chase is not wearing orange and not giving him his favorite snack?

Caleb's first day of NKC speech

2011-09-06T21:13:00.003-05:00

Today Caleb started his speech therapy in a new school district. He seemed to have liked it alot. He will go Tues and Thurs afternoons for the rest of the school year. We are so thankful that even though he is attending a private school, he will still get free therapy through a public school district. His therapist seems nice and excited to work with Caleb. We will keep you updated on his progress as he continues along...

Our baby starts Pre-K on Wednesday

2011-09-05T10:54:00.003-05:00

Jonathan got to visit his preschool this past Wed to meet his teacher, some of his new friends and see where his desk was. He was pretty excited and is getting so big. We know one other family in his class from our church as well as a friend of mine from bible study. He will have Mrs. Taylor, who Caleb had 2 years ago. So starting this Wed, all four kids will be in school MWF for 2 1/2 hours. Sue and I are going to try working out together - at least that is the plan for now....

Great-granparents visit

2011-09-05T10:50:00.002-05:00

Wow, another week has flown by and I have not been blogging. We have some special visitors here and have been hanging out at Grandma Sue's every day this week. Great-grandma Shirley and Great-grandpa Pat are here from AZ. They really enjoy playing cards so we have got to play a few games with them while they are here. We also went to a movie yesterday and Ashlyn has got to learn how to sew using a pattern with both grandma's. It has been a lot of fun. I will try to post pictures with them tomorrow...

First full week

2011-08-27T12:55:00.002-05:00

This was our first full week of school for our crew. Homework was very light on Tues and Thurs when they are home with me so it is hard to know what next week will hold...

Caleb LOVES his new school and has made some new friends already. We should start speech next week at NKC too.

John is sick today and yesterday with a really bad sinus thing. He is teaching 10th grade Worldview and 8th grade Geography/Church History this year at FCA. I think he is liking both classes, but can't believe he is already sick. We're just hoping the rest of us stay clear of it.

I am starting to have a little more website work requests. I have been doing this as a ministry for 5 years and only had a couple paying customers. This year, I have started a new client base that is spreading the word quickly. So I am excited to begin a new small business venture finally this year - Hanson Crew Design. I am currently working on a website and new business cards for it in between other projects. I will keep you posted once that is up and running. I have also been planning a couple big women's events for my church which actually keeps me a little busier than I hoped. But I enjoy that work too.

Sorry for the lack in blog posts again this week. Getting into the swing of our new schedule took priority again this week.

Back to School....

2011-08-22T09:49:00.006-05:00

Today was our first day back at FCA. We now have one in 5th, 2nd, and 1st grade. They were all up early, excited for breakfast and out the door right on schedule. We'll see if that happens again on Wed morning! Jonathan doesn't start preschool for a couple weeks, so we enjoyed our first day alone running errands together in the rain. I am curious how much homework we will have tomorrow at home...

Here are a few pictures from our morning. When I asked Ashlyn if she would like me to take a picture of her at her desk like I have done each year, she politely answered no this year. She is getting so big and ready to be a part of the oldest class in the elementary...oh, and really excited for her locker!

Caleb, Ashlyn, and Joshua before we left

We are so proud of Caleb, especially his best buddy Jonathan

All ready for first grade with Mrs. Denny

Joshua ready for second grade with Mrs. McCullison

Final days of summer

2011-08-22T09:45:00.004-05:00

Here are a few highlights of the end of our crew's summer:

Enjoyed some free Redbox and .49 cent Blockbuster family movie nights
Played lots of Lego's
Setup too many forts to count
Enjoyed the outdoors some (bikes, walks, and trampoline)
Puzzles
Worked in the yard together (clean up from a couple bad storms)
Enjoyed the "name game" (Everyone writes a name on a paper and someone reads them all out loud. Then we have to guess who wrote which name). Our kids love this game and pick the funniest names (TV shows, movies, friends, etc)
Enjoyed some grandma time (one on one with Grandma Sue and group time with Grandma Peggy)
Ashlyn got to sew
Some fun play dates with FCA friends and FCC families
Organized closets and school room together
And of course, we swam alot!!!

More hours in our day...

2011-08-17T16:24:00.003-05:00

We buckled down this week and started waking up at 7 a.m. each day in preparation for school next week. I did this so our kids might be grumpy that first week at home instead of at school. The plan is working. By around 3, everyone is pretty crabby. But I can see them getting up easier each day. Caleb has enjoyed watching the bus pull up in front of our house while he is eating breakfast in his pjs. I think he will miss the bus the most, but loves the idea of John or I driving him each day with his brother and sister. I think Jonathan is starting to realize it will just be him and I again too! His spoiled self is re-appearing more each day. His preschool does not begin until after Labor Day so he will get me for a couple weeks all day on MWF before that. We have another back to school party tomorrow and then our back to school night on Friday. I will be most excited to bring what feels like half of Office Max to the school instead of seeing it all piled all around my school room. The kids are excited to see their friends again. We are waiting to hear back from Caleb's new speech pathologist (NKC school district) on when that will begin. We have our last Children's Mercy session on Monday. Just in time for his first flag football practice on the following Monday. We are all very excited for the new sport and for Caleb's first time in a sport. More to come on that....

Our famous little lemonade lovers...

2011-08-15T15:49:00.003-05:00

While Sue was watching our kids on Friday/Saturday for our anniversary date, they stopped by a lemonade stand at Sue's neighborhood park. Here they are drinking their favorite drink for a good cause...

Meeting Captain America

2011-08-13T21:19:00.002-05:00

The boys have been watching the Avengers cartoons on Netflix this summer and are really into super heroes. Today at Hy-Vee, we were able to meet him! He stood like a statue until we got right under his nose. Joshua kept saying, that isn't really him, it's just a statue. And then, he moved his eyes right down at Joshua. He jumped back and started laughing. They thought that was pretty funny. We were able to get a good picture with him too that we had to share. John and I saw the movie on Friday for our Anniversary, and John is hoping to take Joshua to see it soon.

Drawing in the lines....

2011-08-13T21:10:00.005-05:00

Jonathan is becoming quite the artist. He is really staying in the lines and using a lot of different colors now. We are still working on handwriting, but it's been neat to see our first boy taking after Ashlyn some. She used to love to color pictures like this when she was little. Joshua and Caleb never really did. He is also getting excited for preschool to start after Labor Day. When we drive by Mrs. Taylor's house (his teacher), he waves hi.

Back and forth to school...

2011-08-09T18:48:00.008-05:00

We have had our school supplies all set for a few weeks, minus the backpacks. We weren't sure what type to buy. Ashlyn carries a huge amount of books, folders, and binders back and forth because of all the homework she does on Tues and Thurs. Last year, we bought a pink suitcase on Target for $20 and it barely made it through the school year. We had decided to spend a little more this year, hoping that the quality of the more expensive bag would last longer. Well, this year we decided to try something new - a rolling cooler. It's the red one in the middle above and was $30. It seems to be very sturdy as well as just the right size for all her 5th grade books.

Caleb went with a nice black rolling backpack (the one on the left) from JCPenney's during the tax free weekend while it was 60% off. I think this one will definitely last 2 years. He loves that it becomes a regular backpack too, which he says he will use sometimes. It was the most expensive of all 3 backpacks at about $50.

Joshua was able to replace his old Target suitcase with a new one (the one on the right). Because the zipper broke in May right when school was ending (we bought it in April), we took it in this summer with our receipt and got a new one for free ($20 savings). We are not sure how long this one will last, but at least we will get some more use out of it since we bought it at the end of the school year last year hoping to use it this coming year.

So we have 3 different types of backpacks for school...I wonder which one will last the longest and which will be the best decision...the suitcase, cooler, or backpack...we will keep you posted...

Build-a-Bear Movie Night

2011-08-09T18:44:00.004-05:00

After playing school with the Build-a-Bears all afternoon, the kids settled them all down in the living room for a family movie night! Here they all are settled in, ready to pop some popcorn!

Girl's stores

2011-08-06T21:52:00.001-05:00

It's official. Joshua has hit the anti-girls stage. Today while entering Justice with Ashlyn, he yelled out "I think I am going to throw up!" Then he continued to complain the whole time we were in there, kind of hiding in the corner. It was too pink and too girly for him. Too funny!

Keeping busy...

2011-08-06T21:44:00.002-05:00

Hard to believe our school will start back up in about 2 weeks (August 22nd). The past week was really busy playing with friends. Today I was able to scrapbook with a couple friends for 5 hours and catch up on their birthday books! That was a very exciting accomplishment done before school starts. This summer has flown by since July 1st. I think I got most of my summer projects completed I wanted to get done, minus staining my backyard fence, which was postponed because of our really high heat indexes the past couple weeks.

I have really been enjoying our family more this month. Even though it is only August 6th, I feel like we have been sitting with one another more this month. Interacting, laughing, and just being with one another. It has been really nice. The problem we haven't begun to address is our sleep schedule. We need to work on that starting Monday. I wonder how difficult that will be. Oh, and I stopped doing Insanity. It was really hard and I was really sweaty. I knew there was a reason why I didn't take a before picture (I figured I would quit mid way!)...so I hope to start that over when school starts, but we'll see. John is still doing pretty good and has noticed a difference. I will post some pictures soon of what we have been up to instead...

Second annual girls trip

2011-08-02T07:06:00.007-05:00

Ashlyn and I got back Sunday from our girls trip to MN. We went to Minneapolis, MN with Aunt Carol and Rylee. The trip was very memorable. We got there Thurs evening and checked into the hotel in time for some swimming and hot tubing before dinner. Then we grabbed dinner and header to a $2 theatre. We then went on a GPS adventure trying to find an IHOP for a late breakfast snack!

Friday we spent the day at the Mall of America Nickelodeon Theme Park. That was alot of FUN! The park is indoor, which is wonderful in this hot summer. We rode tons of rides while we were there and took a few breaks for meals and shopping. We also did this really cool climbing structure where we could walk across tight ropes and wood boards 3 stories high. We wore harnesses and it kinda reminded me of rock climbing/zip lining put together. We did that for about an hour and a half. We managed to make it back to the hotel for another hot tub party.

Saturday we went to the MN IKEA, which was tons of fun. We found some great deals and got some good decorating ideas. Then we went to the American Girl Store at Mall of America. The girls have now been to two stores on these Girls Trips (last year we went to Chicago). We ended the adventure with a couple more stores, including the new renovated LEGO store for the boys. We picked them out a few buckets of some LEGO favorites you can't buy at normal stores for Christmas, which was fun for Ashlyn and I. Here are a couple pics from the trip. I did more driving, shopping and eating on this trip and less picture taking. Ashlyn did bring her own camera, but I haven't taken those off yet. Maybe we will do a slide show of her pics soon. Enjoy!

Sunday Lunch Prayer

2011-07-31T22:52:00.002-05:00

Spoken in a soft, cute and innocent four year voice before lunch today...

"Thank you Fadder for church today. And thanks for Grandpa Gary being the birthday boy. And for Jesus dying on the cross. Amen."

Additions to the kitchen

2011-07-27T10:57:00.006-05:00

I am excited to share about a couple changes we made to our kitchen this month. Yesterday, I finally got around to hanging some Christmas lights above the cabinets. We don't have a lot of light in there and because our cabinets have drywall above them instead of an area to display fun decor, I decided to decorate them with lights right above molding that is there. I still hope to apply some black stenciling on the walls across there too one day to finish it off. Here is an attempt at showing you what the lights look like on using my camera phone. The image is not that great...
A second project I completed was moving our desktop computer into our kitchen. I had to make a hole in the desk and buy a gadget to help hide the cords so the computer case could go under the desk, and reorganize some of my kitchen stuff for the project. We had been wanting to move it into the kitchen ever since we bought the flat screen for it. The kids will use this computer for school, webkinz, and sometimes Netflix movies. After I moved it into the kitchen, I wiped everything off the hard drive and reformatted the computer so it is like new again. That has been just as nice as it's new location. Here it is...
The exciting news about moving the desktop into the kitchen was all the room that we gained in our family room by getting rid of our computer desk. I am on the hunt for another oversized chair or parson's chair for that sitting area now. But here is the new corner where the desk used to be - replaced by our sofa table and some fun decor...

Adding to the collection...

2011-07-25T15:11:00.002-05:00

It's funny how Caleb's speech therapist collection has sure grown the past 4 years. We began with Miss Catherine, who has since become Mrs. Catherine and still our favorite. He was able to see Miss Catherine for 2 years at Clay County and where we saw the most improvement. While he was seeing her his second year, he began school district therapy with Mrs. Angela too. We really liked her too, but the relationship ended when we move from Kearney. Once in our Coves home, Caleb saw Mrs. Angela (another therapists with the same name) at the early education center and Miss Jessica at Children's Mercy. Because of schedule conflicts, we switched therapists half way through the school year at the early education center and started seeing Mrs. Diane. She reminded us more of Miss Catherine and we really liked her alot for those 5 months we saw her. Well, when Caleb started Kindergarten this past fall, he began speech at his new elementary school. We were very impressed with Mrs. Michelle from the beginning. She gave us an extra day of speech and was very good at sending homework and working with some needs at home too. We will miss her very much next year. This summer, Caleb has been receiving speech again at Children's Mercy, but this time with Mrs. Stacey. She is really fun and Caleb has enjoyed his sessions every Monday with her. We have not yet set an end date with her, but know because of his significant improvement, it will be coming before the end of the year.

So that brings us to our news we received today, seven therapists later. Because of some new district policies in MO, all private schooled children needing Special Education services starting next fall, will need to get them through the school district that the private school is in. The main reason behind this new policy change is because of transportation. By law, they have to offer buses to and from the public school for the services and the buses could not drive outside of the school district they were in. Our school, FCA, is located in the North Kansas City school district (not Park Hill where we have been going) so we will now need to receive speech through them, even though we will drive Caleb to speech and not use their bus. Our school district was trying to decide if we would qualify as a home schooled family because Caleb will be home on Tues and Thurs and those are the speech days we are requesting, but we found out today that we will not be able to continue with Park Hill School District because he is registered at a private school.

So we have been talking to NKC Special Ed this past week in preparation. We are hoping that his IEP can just transfer over and we will not need to re-evaluate him this next school year. We will still pay our taxes and vote in this school district, but will be driving the 30 minutes to the next school district for his Spec Ed stuff. We just love government! We are still praying they are able to work with us on our Tues/Thur need so he will not miss FCA school time for speech therapy. I will keep you posted on what we hear back next week. Please be praying for the therapist he will get to work with and his continuous improvement. We are praying another new therapist in another new building will not delay what we are seeing and less frustration for Caleb. Be praying that while FCA is looking for a new building for the 2012-13 school year, they consider NKC school district buildings. We may need to transfer all of this again the next year if FCA is in another district! Caleb will have a lot of new changes this August. He is getting more and more excited about FCA and being with his brother and sister for school. We signed him up for flag football today too, which will be his first sport activity. He can't wait for that!

Cooking together

2011-07-24T21:43:00.011-05:00

Ashlyn and I enjoyed a Homemaking class together this past week that we hosted in our home. We learned how to make macaroni pizza, teddy bear beach cakes, and watermelon whales. We hope to make them again for future parties. Here are a few pictures decorating the cake, carving out the watermelon, and the finished macaroni pizza. Our wonderful teacher Tenderrlee is in the last photo with the finished products. These classes have been such a wonderful blessing to our family this summer...

Night at the K

2011-07-23T12:11:00.010-05:00

Last night our crew went to our first KC Royals baseball game together. John was given some free tickets from the radio station he advertises on. They were really good seats and included free parking. So we paid for $20 worth of hot dogs, pops, and peanuts. We also go a free Hy-vee Fireworks show at the end. It was a great (hot) night! Here are a few pics...

School room/craft room/play room/book nook

2011-07-22T15:36:00.007-05:00

We are slowly preparing for the 2011-12 school year this past week. This means we have ordered our curriculum, bought some supplies, and organized our school room. We are still working on unfinished worksheets, reading, and buying more school necessities the rest of the summer. I am excited for the room. We have 4 divided corners of the room. A play corner, mainly for Jonathan and Caleb, a school corner where we will spend Tues and Thurs mornings, a craft/game corner where we all enjoy playing, and a book nook, specially created for and by Ashlyn...

The play corner (more room without the train table now)

The school corner

The organized school closet (stocked with new books and supplies)

The craft/game corner
(along with school supplies on the table)

Ashlyn's Book Nook
(with an organized book shelf w/books by subject/author/category)

Fun, free field trip Fridays

2011-07-21T20:48:00.003-05:00

My good friend Svea, fellow FCA 2nd grade mom, has organized Friday field trips for the summer. They are free and fun things to do and see around Kansas City. Last week, we went to the Kansas City Museum (pic above), which we had never been to yet. Tomorrow, we are going on a tour of Hy-Vee, a local grocery store similar to King Soopers in Colorado. We are excited because it is a newer store and we have been promised some free samples and tours of the "back room." We'll let you know how it goes tomorrow night. Following the tour, our crew is going to the Hy-Vee game night at Kaufman Stadium for a KC Royals game. The kids are excited for the game and fireworks and John and I are most excited about buck night hotdogs, peanuts, and drinks...

FREE Summer bowling

2011-07-21T20:43:00.003-05:00

At the beginning of summer, I signed the kids up for "free" summer bowling at two local bowling alleys. We had hoped to find some garage sale bowling shoes for at least two of the kids, but never found any their sizes. So we finally got around to trying our free bowling coupons this past week. The shoe rental was $17 for all 3 kids, which was a little more than I hoped for. We bowled two games for free. I think the kids enjoyed it, but we probably won't go back again this summer (without John and a $17 gift card!) Caleb won the first game and Ashlyn won the second game. Here are a couple of pictures for the summer memory book...

Divide & Conquer/surf

2011-07-18T09:46:00.003-05:00

Yesterday afternoon while Caleb was enjoying the day with Grandma Sue, the rest of our crew went to the $2 movie theatre. I had been trying to convince my children to go see Soul Surfer with me all month, and only Joshua seemed slightly interested. Well when we found out that Thor was the same time, Joshua quickly joined the father/daughter pair who was going to see it. So that left my little buddy to go to Soul Surfer with me. A big bag of M&Ms and the bribe was complete. Jonathan and I saw Soul Surfer while the other 3 saw Thor. We LOVED our movie and the kids liked Thor. Not too bad for a $10 afternoon (oh, $11 counting the dollar store M&Ms)!

The end of our family movie marathon

2011-07-16T17:15:00.003-05:00

A little while back, our family started watching all of the Harry Potter movies from the beginning. We enjoyed most of them. The younger two missed alot it because we were watching them near bedtime, but everyone will say they have seen them all. Today we used some gift cards to go see the finale in the theatres. We don't all go to the movies often at all. Especially, all 6 of us! So it was pretty exciting. The movie was really good too. We have never read the books so we didn't know the ending before we went. Now we want to start them all over again. We recommend this one too if you like the series. I wonder what series we will begin next...