Hanson Crew

The kids and I ran into our favorite thrift store today after my haircut and found shirts for a dollar for each of us! We were so excited to rush home and put them on. Mine is maternity so I thought I would show ya all a side profile shot as I begin to "grow". I cut about 5 inches of my hair off today after months of letting it grow out. I am sure my mind will change about other decisions as our sonogram approaches quickly too. Just kidding! An adorable Childrens Place sweater for Josh - $1 Liz Lange Maternity shirt - $1 Ashlyn's "Winter Angel" shirt - $1

Happy 29th Birthday John!

Once again the kids got way too many presents and had a blast opening them all It took us about 4 hours to open them all! (We have one person open a present at a time while everyone else watches) Ashlyn's favorites were her guitar, drumset, and Easy Bake oven. Joshua loved his Cars movie, thomas pillowcase, purple care bear, and of course all his new trains! Caleb wasn't all the interested in opening for 4 hours quite yet, so I helped him in the end. He loved a huge Thomas the train tent, animal farm magnet game, and a old cordless phone from Rylee. His favorite thing still right now is that smelly puppy. We tried buying him a look alike in case it ever gets lost and he didn't like that so much. At least we'll have a backup if we ever need it! I am not sure how that will go if he ever does lose it. John and I got way too many gift cards to spend along with some movies (for me) and Ipod stuff (for John). He got a new Ipod for his Christmas bonus this year so he is on cl...

For Christmas this year, my mother-in-law spent her weekly "paychecks" on a trip to Mahoney State Park in Ashland, NE. This park is between Lincoln and Omaha, and is a place John and his family used to go to when they were little. The kids had a blast and it was fun to relax a little before Christmas. We went up the weekend before Christmas so we could celebrate Christmas with Sue's family in Omaha. The park has cabins, a lodge, a craft center, outdoor ice arena, huge ball/tunnel play area, restaurant, and a huge water park. This would be a fun place to go in the summer too! Here are some of our favorite pictures from that trip on Dec 16th! We especially likes the play area, John and Sue got in the tubes, slides, and balls with the kids. My stomach is getting to big to climb in some of them so I watched from the bottom. It was pretty fun! Sue with the kids getting ready for the slide A very fun spot with huge balls! Sue with the kids again up really high - John is taki...

John and the kids in front of a huge space shuttle Joshua prepares to land the plane These tires are just about their size! Ashlyn in the cockpit A very excited John at the museum

Today we went to a friends house to work on a newsletter and had a lot fun. The little girl in the picture with the kids is a few months older than Caleb and is really "liking" him right now. We were excited to go and play with her. Her name is Josie. Her mom took this picture of them having lunch. Enjoy!

With our decision to not find out the sex of this baby, comes many different guesses of which it is. Here are some myths we found while guessing to share. Do you think they are true? They have not all been true with our last 3 but some have... You will have a boy if: baby’s heart rate is under 140 beats per minute. you are carrying low and in front your urine is bright yellow your right breast is bigger than your left you don’t experience any morning sickness in the first trimester You will have a girl if: baby’s heart rate is faster than 140 beats per minute you are carrying high and all over your urine is clear your left breast is bigger than your right you sleep on your right side

After a long week, we thought we would enjoy a day of play. Here are a couple fun pics. The jury is still out on the Christmas card pictures. We are cropping a couple and will ask again once that is done...

The marvelous work of my friend Lisa (before any editing or cropping) - now I need to pick one for the cards so we can fix it and print it. Any votes??? I will probably frame the individual ones in my living room (after we zoom in on the boys I think) in their10x13 frames we update each couple months to fit with my living room Christmas decor.

Isn't it funny how none of my kids look like me - only John??? Maybe this next one will...

Good morning! Sorry it has been forever since I updated this blog. We have all been sick at my house with a cold or something. I don't have any new pictures to post today, but I wanted to share this neat website I heard about this week. I am always look in our paper online for misc furniture or stuff for sale (because I enjoy a great deal!) not because I need more stuff of course. Anyway, this website called Craig's List allows you to search for things in your city, but includes the whole US and is free to post on. So I was thinking of selling a couple really cheap things out there and see if they sell since it is free to post on. I was searching last night for a mattress for our guest room and found some great deals!! I might end up using this site for all my shopping needs going forward. Anyway, here is the link: http://kansascity.craigslist.org/about/cities.html

Hey all. Just wanted to update you on the little one growing inside of me. The sickness is MUCH better. I usually wake up running to the bathroom and then enjoy the rest of my day in other rooms of the house. Not sure why this time it ended much earlier, but no complaints here. The last couple days I am fighting a bad cold that the kids had and unable to take much medicine so that has been miserable. But it still beats the toliet! Remember to go out and vote today. I am excited to see the results tonight. I'll probably have something to say tomorrow based on the results too.

Hello Kitty, Tigger, and Darth Vader

Ashlyn officially turned 6 on Monday! She is getting so big and so smart. We are going to have some school friends over on Friday night to celebrate more. I asked Ashlyn what she loved about being 6 and she said "being bigger and I can learn how to do stuff - like ride my bike alone!" I guess when you're six that's all that matters. Here is a recent pic of her taken by our wonderful and talented photographer Lisa at the lake! We keep telling her to leave her hair down more often like this because she looks so much older. I guess when you're six, being comfortable is more important too! Happy Birthday Ashlyn!

Josh officially turned 3 on Monday! He has really grown up this past year and it has been a blast to be home with him each day. We are proud to say we have made it 2 days in underwear with NO accidents and believe we are on the path to being potty trained! He is going by himself now and not having to be reminded all the time. Josh had a fun birthday party on Sunday with family and loves all his new stuff. Among the top few is a thomas train mat with trains and a box of tools. He really loved everything though! Here is a photo taken a few days before his party. It kinda looks like he is praying for a great birthday. Happy Birthday Josh and we love you!!!

So I woke up today with a shooting pain in my right side, which keeps coming and going this pregnancy and decided to call my ob. Even though my first appointment is on Monday, they wanted me to come in and get a scan. So the office did blood work and an ultrasound in the office to rule out a tubular pregnancy or appendicitis. Thankfully it was neither :) They did find two cysts on my ovaries, which are normal in the first trimester to keep the hormones for the baby alive. I had no idea - they should go away in a few weeks. Sometimes these cysts cause pain so they are guessing that is it. But they did a second ultrasound (the nicer one on the stomach!) to make sure later this afternoon. So long story short, I still have a pain (which could be normal), got two ultrasounds, will still go back on Monday, and most importantly there is only ONE baby with a great heartbeat in the uterus (where it should be!) Yah!!!

Josh loves to share with his brother, oh as long as he can have something in return (no really, he is our best sharer!) Caleb has picked that habit up and would only share his sucker with Josh if he could have a drink of his drink. Both boys wouldn't let go of his own "thing" while taking advantage of the other. So here is Caleb drinking some juice without letting go of his sucker stick just as Josh taught him.

At the Weston AppleFest this weekend, the kids enjoyed getting their face painted. Unfortunately, they made the parents and kids paint the faces. So here are a few good pics of the kids doing that. Lisa and I sure tried hard to make them look like what they wanted... Josh was a cat Ashlyn said "Boo" and had a a ghost, bat and pumpkin Eli got a star Rylee drew a cat and posed with Ashlyn (again campaining for Talent)

Here are the 3 kids with the pumpkins they picked from the patch on Sat (yep, we went to a different patch on Friday with Ashlyn's kindergarten class too). We had a really busy day with our friends Eli and Lisa. My niece Rylee joined us after a sleepover at our house Friday night too. We started the day with a parade in Weston, then the AppleFest, an apple orchard, and then a pumpkin patch! It was busy and fun! We have tons of pictures from the whole day so I will be using those pictures for more blogs this week. Enjoy! Caleb discovering his pumpkin is attached to vines. Ashlyn campaigning for Talent with her pumpkin Joshua Paul finally standing with his pumpkin (he had a hard time walking through the vines!)