Hanson Crew

John and I got the night alone for his birthday and we rented Eagle Eye...it was a really good movie (and only $1). We highly recommend this one and better with a stuffed crust pizza too!

Here are 31 things I love about you... 1. It's amazing that you can actually read a 300 page book in a weekend! 2. You are an amazing cook 3. I love it when the kids wrestle with you even though I look terrified 4. You are a great compromiser (unlike me) 5. I love that you never hold grudges 6. You are an excellent father and husband 7. You are such a wiz at the computer, especially googling the answer to anything (and it's actually right most of the time) 8. You are an excellent leader of our house and family 9. You are very ambitious and I am proud of the business you grew from nothing 10. I love how proud you are about staying home for 2 years with Ashlyn 11. You are a great singer (even though we all give you a hard time) 12. I love that you remember everything you read and learn (unlike me) 13. I love it when you explain things to me in simple words (especially from the bible) 14. I love how when you play Nintendo 64 and your computer games you always find/use a cheat code...

We have been turning this song up alot lately in the car...it is called "While You Were Sleeping" and has a great message. It has become one of our favorite Christmas songs in the Hanson house.

1. Fresh Tree/Fake Tree? Ashlyn - Fake Joshua - Fake Caleb - Fake (they all must have noticed the tree died this year!) 2. Favorite Ornament Ashlyn - Ashlyn's baby pic ornament Joshua - Joshua's baby pic ornament Caleb - Clifford ornament 3. Favorite Christmas Song Ashlyn - Away in a Manger Joshua - Little Drummer Boy Caleb - Jingle Bells 4. Favorite Tradition Ashlyn - Looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve Joshua - Advent Christmas Candy Calendar we do each year Caleb - Baking together the week before 5. Favorite Gift Received Ashlyn - American Girl Doll [Ruthie] Joshua - Spider man Scooter Caleb - Huge Firetruck 6. Favorite Christmas Meal Ashlyn - Big Christmas morning breakfast Joshua - Egg Nog Caleb - Chicken and Dumplings on Christmas Eve 7. Favorite Christmas Cookie Ashlyn - Gingerbread Joshua - Chocolate Chip Carmel cookies Caleb - Sprinkle Sugar cookies 8. Favorite Place to be Ashlyn - Home with our family Joshua - Grandma Sue's Caleb - Grandma Sue's 9. Fa...

So I have heard many of you are also experiencing some crazy weather where you are...especially those folks in the Northwest getting 12 1/2 feet of snow in a day! Here is a summary of our wacky weather this week in Missouri... Monday - negative 15 wind chill Tues - negative 20 wind chill (so cold it takes your breathe away) Wed - 2 inches of snow just in time for a white Christmas Thurs - a mild day, not too cold, but not warm either Friday - Strangely very warm - all the snow melts in a couple hours and it feels like 50 Friday night/Sat morning - Tornado watch, hail, and really bad winds Sat forecast - freezing rain and sleet until late afternoon I am sure loving that weather radio we won this past summer!

So our real Christmas tree is dying a slow, and depressing death. The entire bottom half of the tree is dead and it is rapidly moving it's death upward. The garland, lights and ornaments are sagging to the ground and I cannot keep up the the needles landing in gift bags and on little busy socks. I have checked the water level each day, and it continues to stay pretty full. I am hoping that Christmas morning the kids don't come out of their beds to a pretty sad look display of decorated dead pine needles....I'll keep ya posted! The picture is a little deceiving - the upper portion of the tree is still has shape and its branches go outward. The bottom half is flat and very poky! Oh, and I'm wondering if this is the year we run out during the after Christmas sales for that great deal on an artificial tree for next year...

So yesterday, we took my little sister and her family to a couple famous places in Kansas City we had never been...and it was a lot of fun. First we went to Arthur Bryants BBQ which was actually REALLY good! Then we wondered over to Cabela's , which was also very neat. The kids enjoyed looking at all the neat animal displays, especially the aquarium. I forgot my camera, but we hope to go back again someday. We have been busy hanging out with family who are visiting and today plan on baking. In case it continues to stay busy here and I don't get to blog some more - We hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Clearly our favorite President...on the eve weeks of another new president, here is one with a great message about Christmas.

Translation: Some history words and the creators name...time to go to the car wash I think!

It's fun to look back and see how the kids have grown (here they are 1 year ago near Christmas)

So since John had a pretty lousy week last week, it had to be my turn this week. I went to a dermatologist on Monday moring for a consultation to look at a small cyst on my eye lid. He was pretty concerned about how quickly it grew and disappeared so he wanted to "freeze" it. That really means to spray some extremely cold stuff on it, which really feels like it is burning your skin away (I don't recommend this to anyone!) So about 10 minutes later I left with a pretty swollen eye, a migraine headache and a little assurance that this should resolve the problem and eliminate the cyst that might later need to be tested for cancer if it returns. Well the swelling continued to grow throughout the day and that night my entire eye lid was so swollen it hung down into my actual eye (it is true that your eye lid is a very sensitive area!). The migraine caused me to be sick all night so I got little sleep on top of the pain of the eye and my head. Well as I found out from the nurse...

Relax and enjoy a free Redbox movie today w/ a warm cup of hot cocoa...the promo code for a free movie (only good today until Midnight) is 47J2L8. Our crew recommends Prince Caspian if you haven't already seen it. Enjoy!

This weekend was John's sister graduation party (she graduated with a Masters in Math) and we had family come in from out of town. Since John's great-grandma came from Omaha, we are skipping our traditional Christmas trip to the Omaha cabin we usually do this week each year. She bought the kids the coolest Christmas gift this year and I had to share it. For any book lovers out there with kids or relatives who love to read. She ordered each child an adventure book from Identity Direct . They personalize these kids book with your child's info like their address, birthday, friends/relatives names, etc and then print the book with that info included in the actual story. So Joshua's book was the Cars book and it reads that Joshua is hanging out with Lightening McQueen on his birthday while Jonathan and Caleb are watching the big race. Ashlyn was sitting with Cinderella as she got ready for the ball which she has read over and over! It is the neatest thing and the kids LOVE ...

40 female employees + 5 male employees = a funny gift exchange (here is John's Christmas gift from work)

So Monday night while I was at my Ladies Bible study Christmas party, I got an interesting phone call from John. "Hun, I almost burned down the house!" Of course I asked how and if he was serious. He was. Apparently he noticed one of his favorite pans had some icky stuff on the bottom and he decided to boil some water in it to get it super clean. Well, I should say he started to boil the water and then went downstairs with the kids to play N64. Caleb came down after a while and said the water was boiling. He just said, "yes, hunny I know. We are cleaning the pan." A while longer, Caleb said, "now the water is smoking bad!" By the time John got upstairs, the house was full of smoke and the pan was black. He mistakenly, put the hot pan under some cold water in the sink and more black smoke filled the air fast. He opened every window in the house, including the garage door and had all the kids go into our room with him for the rest of the night. When I got ho...

A good friend of ours gave us some puppy chow the other night and it was a huge hit with all the kids...we really need to make some of our own soon. Anyway, Caleb ran down stairs with a big handful and asked me a silly question. "Mom, do you want some dog poop?" Somewhere in the language and conversation, he heard something about a dog or puppy!

Once upon a time there was a peaceful Gingerbread village that stood in a small town in the Midwest. There was a house, church, school and a library. Everyone who lived in the village loved to learn, read, study, and sleep. The smell from the village was sweet and calm and visitors who came by in November and December would comment how wonderful the village was built and how the 4 little construction workers did so well. Once cold and windy day, a vicious tornado came through the village and 3 of the buildings were torn apart. The books were lost and the roof became snacks for the big tornado. Some of the buildings were no longer hooked to its foundation and pieces were spread among the town. The children who lived there would have to find a new home so the demolition of the village could begin. Reconstruction to begin Nov 2009!

Ashlyn at top right for FCA's performance Ashlyn (top left), Joshua in front of her & Caleb (bottom right) Ashlyn (top middle), Joshua (right), Caleb (bottom left)

After some raking yesterday... The boys enjoyed jumping off the stacked chairs into the pile! Still more leaves around, but the bulk of it is done! (and right before we got some snow - Yeah!)

Printed my Christmas postcards and got them addressed Wrapped the rest of the presents I needed to wrap Tried to buy one of the last 2 gifts I have left, but my coupon doesn't work until Monday Took Joshua to a friend's b-day party at the new Chuck E Cheese (he loved it of course) Took some Christmas tree branches we had to trim off the tree in order to fit it into our house to the free brush place Attended Ashlyn school Christmas pageant where she sang "Go Tell it on the Mountain" with her class - and she actually sang loud enough for me to hear her! Bought a used Super Nintendo 64 with some Craigslist money we had left over from some sales and played Diddy Kong Racing with the kids Made the boys bed back into bunk beds downstairs so we had a big space for the tv and new entertainment Work on my last week of bible study before tonight's big Christmas party finale (pics to come soon- we are doing the ugliest Christmas sweater contest!!) Went to church and went to ...

Jonathan has recently learned how to give better kisses and it is so cute. When I tuck the kids in the bed he likes to come too (not sure why he isn't going to bed earlier than everyone else anymore) and says goodnight. He makes the smacking noise with his lips now and waves really big saying "nigh nigh" over and over. It is precious. And this past week I noticed when he throws something at someone (yes, it has started happening) and I say "no" Jonathan sternly. He runs over and kisses them and mumbles something. Cute, but won't be lasting too much longer! Caleb has really become more affectionate lately too. He loves to just randomly say "I love you mommy", which was not very routine before. And he is really into snuggling more all of a sudden. Jonathan and Caleb regularly fight over my lap or my my arms. What a fun battle to have - I just love it!

So it looks like Jonathan might be going into a bigger bed at the first of the year and we are trying to decide what bed he should go into. We have Caleb's old toddler bed that he could go into without any extra cost, but it's kinda ugly (the 1st option.) We also have a twin bed frame and headboard that matches his dresser and changing table we could use and purchase a new mattress set. We could upgrade his bed to a twin size and keep him in his room alone for a little while longer as the 2 nd option. I have been researching trundle beds and have thought about doing that instead of the current twin bed frame I have, but I am not sure. When he goes into a twin bed, we have thought about putting the older boys bunk bed back together for Caleb and Jonathan and then giving Joshua the single twin bed in one room together. I am wondering if the new single twin bed was a trundle bed, Jonathan could continue to have his own room for awhile with the option that the other 2 boys cou...

We were one of the last couples in our circle of friends to see the movie "Fireproof" this weekend, but man we are both glad we went before it left the theatres. Just like "Facing the Giants", we loved the movie and especially the message! Bring a box of tissue if you go (a big box too!)and plan to feel convicted.

My best friend Lisa took some pictures of our crew with John's parents, sister and niece a while back that I thought I would share. She took way too many to share them all, but these were some my favorites. She does an awesome job with them and I love her so much. I am able to use alot of these for more extended family for Christmas gifts and it is wonderful. Enjoy!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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