The Hanson Crew

A few of you know that I will be going on a mini-mom adventure this weekend! I am very excited to hang out on the beach with some close friends and just relax a little before our crazy Spring begins. Of course, the lack of mom being around causes the need for Mr. mom to step in and take everything over. I think John is excited and nervous at the same time about his role the next five days, so I have come upon with a little game plan for him... He told me when this trip first got planned, not too worry about anything. Not to plan who was picking up who and when from school, speech, etc. It would all work itself out. After a few anxious day for this organized soul, I started planning a few things out. He is a teacher at Ashlyn's school (the high school portion) and teaches 2 classes on both Friday and Monday. He hadn't said much about getting a sub or if he was going to try to teach the classes with our 3 toddler boys' participation. So I talked to my mother-in-law and she ag

THE BEFORE: (stripes and family fun) THE AFTER: (neutral and a little more "contemporary")

Jonathan went right down last night in his big boy bed! I must admit that it was a little of an abnormal night though. The two older boys were at Grandma Sues having a sleep over and John and Ashlyn had a date night to see Pink Panther 2. So mom got to snuggle with him a little alone, which made him pretty sleepy when I laid him down. I heard he woke up very happy (I was at a baby shower and missed it). Tonight, he fell asleep with dad reading, so he just went into the bed asleep. We'll see how the first really awake night goes. So far this has been cake! (oh, I did manage to finish painting the kitchen last night once he went to sleep and I had the house to myself. I even found a huge steal at Gordman's today for some new Art work on the wall. We are going from family black and white collage pictures to an oil painting of an Italian street. I'll take some pics and post them on Monday)

1. Your clothes now have the mark of "T" on them vs the infant "mths" tag. 2. You can wrestle with your bigger brothers (and actually win some of the time!) 3. You have a vocal opinion about eating time, menu, and location of meal. 4. You choose to nap later in the day and only when there isn't much fun going on. 5. The #1 way Jonathan is showing his "big boyness" today... Moving into his big boy toddler bed. Wish us well this next week because we remember how exciting and trying this time can be at the same time. He seems to really be looking forward to it, but we'll let ya know in the morning!

As I mentioned before, the old grey roof got replaced this week with a new tan roof. We hope to paint the house in March to a khaki or sage green color once the siding work is done so it will all match better. For now, we are very happy with the new non-matching one, especially since the hail/wind storms we had this past year helped pay for most of it :) Windows are up next week and the siding work starts the week after that...

So you can probably guess from the lack of blog posts lately that I was next crew member to get the really icky Valentines sickness. It hit me hard and I am reminded again and again from friends that our family really is ALWAYS sick! I am actually feeling a little better today (at least I made it downstairs to the office to blog and email) and think Mucinex might be the next best over the counter remedy invented! John is still fighting it all and is going to the Dr. today. We think he might have influenza or pneumonia, but we'll keep you posted. We did get our roof done yesterday which was a great way to be woken up with the sinus headache I had - pounding and pitter patter on the roof above my bed! It is really nice, but stands out quite a bit. It is a tan color and we have a grey house. The old roof matched the paint and was grey too. We plan on painting the house a different color in a month so it will eventually match the new roof, but until then, it really stands out..

So we have checked off Thanksgiving, Christmas, and now Valentines Day for holidays where at least half of the crew is sick. This time, Jonathan, Caleb and Dad. I am actually a little nervous about Easter and flu season....we'll keep you posted! Happy Valentine's Day by the way! We enjoyed the holiday with 4 fun parties (2 school parties, 1 church party, and 1 couples dinner b-day party). Now we need to pray for all those sweet healthy people we were around the past couple days!

So our small renovation on our house in preparation to sell is well underway. We hired a roofer today who is going to put a new roof on when we have another nice day out (it is snowing right now). We also ordered 6 new windows (all on the front of the house), which will be installed in the next 2 weeks. I have taken down a couple big photo collages in the kitchen and hall and have re-painted the hall. My goal to have the stripes in my kitchen primed over this weekend. Then I hope to paint the kitchen walls a khaki color (paint donated from a good friend) and the cabinets another coat of black paint. Our siding guy is going to start work on the house the first week in March. Once he is done with that big project, we are going to have a "pizza paint" party with friends. And I think we will be ready for the sign :) We'll keep you posted on progress and hopefully some before and after shots. The more we look at the houses on the market, the more excited I get about a differen

"Who says that you have to do it that way? Rachel Ray doesn't use a recipe!" "So who's going to clean this mess up?" "Can I have a big plate too?" "I'm not hungry anymore" "Can we go to New York to see Rachel Ray. She lives there you know" "I'll broom after dinner for you mommy" "Who wants to pray?" "Grandma Sue and grandpa Gary love Alton Brown, but now we like Rachel Ray!" "When is daddy going to cook?" "done!" "Not right now, I'm trying to make some dinner. Aren't you hungry?" "When are we going to have breakfast for dinner again?" "Can someone set the table please?" "I think this needs a lot more salt!" "What's for dessert this time?" It seems these days everyone is in the kitchen during dinner prep. We try to have mini-jobs for everyone and it seems lately there has been a lot of interesting conversations

For those of you who can't see the writing on these 2 signs - they say "No Boys Allowed". These signs have found their way all over our house, but especially in Ashlyn's room. None of the boys can read yet, but they all know what the signs say. Caleb walks right up to them and says "Look Wawa , lets go in. haha " She might be asking for a lock soon for her bedroom door I think. As funny as it is for me to all watch afar, I can remember similar signs when I was her age and I had only sisters. She is very fortunate to have her own room, unlike her mother at her age. Did you all have territorial issues at age 8 too? Or were you like the boys and just love to touch everything you were not supposed to touch!

BORING, I would say!

Our 2nd annual girls trip will take place in 17 days and the countdown has begun! 7 hard working mommies will be going down to Naples, Florida for 4 days in the sun. Our plan: relaxation, outlet malls, a nice sunset dinner and lots of kid-free conversation! The kids' Spring Break will be a couple weeks after we get back. The weather here is getting colder again this week, but in Florida it is 80! Here's to great friendship, relaxation, and SUN!

The wound before the hospital + uncertain if he needed stitches (I took the pic and sent it to my ER nurse friend right away) The sweet thing in the ER bed (I still need to take a pic of him after)

We have made it to our 700th post today!

It's true what they say about little boys - they are busy, busy busy. After we had Caleb, my mother-in-law in particular would always say, "oh Deanna, you are going to be in the ER alot with this one!" I laughed because as busy as Caleb is he doesn't mind pain like the other little boys. So about 2 years ago, Joshua was our first son to head to the ER. He had a small one inch cut in his forehead and had to get 3 or 4 stitches. We were so surprised he went before Caleb, but so thankful to live so close to a hospital. Today in Kearney it was beautiful and we spent the morning outside (mainly working on our curb appeal and mulch while the boys played. I got nervous multiple times watching all 3 boys climb, play swords, and run around with so much energy. Ashlyn had a sleep over with Grandma Sue last night so she missed out on the boy adventures this time. When we came in for lunch and were ordering a pizza, we heard a loud bang and then a really loud cry after. Jonatha

My friend Lori tagged me with this photo tag. It looked quick and different from all the others, so I am giving it a try. The rules: Go to the fifth photo folder on your computer and then pick the fifth picture you find. After you post the picture, you tag five friends to do the same and blog about it. This picture was found in my 2007 folder (it's following folders 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 - I am a little organized with my pictures these days). It is a picture of Caleb holding his favorite puppy dog back in Jan of 2007. It was back when the dog still had stuffing and was only missing his eyes I think! It doesn't look Caleb was feeling too good or at least not to excited about the camera pointing his way. I am going to tag the following 5 people to play along...I look forward to seeing your picture discovery too! Allison , Adrienne , Jamie , Jennie , and Nancy

Tomorrow will mark the 100 th day of school at NHCA so Joshua's "homework" was to find 100 things around the house and glue them to this green poster board. It helped him with his counting, gluing , and organizing skills. Here is the final poster with 68 Cheerios , 25 stickers, 6 letter stickers, and 1 picture. They are also going to make some kind of snack with 100 ingredients...should be interesting for 10 little 4 and 5 year olds !

1/2 full bottle of strawberry syrup + 2 busy little boys + mom on the phone in another room = a new colorful area rug + a calm mommy + a great conversation

This pro-life commerical was rejected by NBC to be played during the superbowl today. It was originally in today's lineup and then taken out. A great message in 41 seconds that will not be seen by the world..so you my blogging friends get to see it. What if your mother chose abortion? Our crew chooses life!