The Hanson Crew

John be on local news again this Sunday morning promoting our business, The Maids. This will be his third TV appearance! He will be on around 7:45 am on Fox 4. If you are in KC, feel free to turn it on while you get ready in the morning. Here is the last time he was on...

Hard to believe, but we have really enjoyed the location, having people over, and all the improvements we have made. God is good!

Yesterday was a busy, but fun way to start the week. Caleb and Joshua went to school from 9:30 to noon while Ashlyn and Jonathan and I ran some errands. We signed Ashlyn and Joshua up for Fall Soccer. We also did our weekly grocery shopping before we picked up the boys. After lunch, we went to the neighborhood pool for an hour. John came home for dinner and we headed to the drive-in with some friends from church. We saw The Sorcerer's Apprentic e and then watched Inception while the kids slept. They were both pretty good. The second way kinda made my head hurt and made me think too much though! Today we skipped our Summer Tuesday Movie ($1 or free tickets) and went to the dollar theatre to see Iron Man 2. The kids really like it alot! We have spent most of the rest of the day reading so we can finish up our summer reading program at the library. It only has 4 days left. Ashlyn finished last week, but the boys still have 200 hours to go...here are some pics from swimmi

Here is a glimpse of our fun in St. Louis and Chicago. The girls road trip this year included Rylee, Ashlyn, Jonathan and me. Jonathan will join us next year again before he makes the big adventure with the big boys down the river... Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Today Caleb and I got to go to lunch with our favorite speech therapist. We got to catch up and talk about Caleb's speech problems we have encountered this past year. It was very helpful and great to see her. While we were talking about speech, I shared with her about Jonathan's lisp problem that he now has. She told me that with her younger clients she explains that the tongue is like a lion and their teeth are like a cage. When they practice words (especially those with "s" sounds) they need to keep the cage closed so the lion doesn't get out. It sounds simple and a great kid-friendly thing to do so I told John when I picked up the other kids after the lunch. When we were getting ready to leave work, I over heard John talking with Jonathan about the lion and cage idea. John really was excited about the whole thing and I think he thought he was really making progress at first. Jonathan practiced 3 or 4 works with him and I heard John say "oh, no the l

The boys got back yesterday from their first Boys Canoe Trip. It sounds like they had a great time. Here is a short video of some of their fun! Our Girls' Trip video will be coming soon (we took quite a bit more pics on our trip!) Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The morning will mark the beginning of a new family tradition. The boys annual canoe trip (this year down the Current river) will include John, Josh, Caleb, Uncle Chris and Grandpa Gary this year. They are all pretty excited and have bought all the necessary gear for the first trip. The girls trip (which has to include Jonathan for a couple years) will also begin bright and early in the morning. Our mission includes the St. Louis Science Center, Zoo, Arch, Chicago Navy Pier, and the American Girl Store. We are bringing Rylee along for the first trip too before they move to the Philippines for another year. We are not sure they will be returning to KC after that so we thought we would have fun with her before they move. We will post pics when we get back....

BEFORE: AFTER:

I spared you the horrible before pictures this time...but here are the after pictures of a much needed clean frog tank. He has been moved once again (the first time from Ashlyn's room to then the boy's room) and now to the school room. He seems happier down there and can be as loud as he would like there! He is growing SO big...measuring about 7 inches now when stretched out.

Both bottom front teeth have fallen out and we are excited to say the two top ones aren't loose yet. Something to look forward to in first grade :)

Outside the wedding reception we went up to attend. It was a tropical reception since they were married on a beach in Mexico a few weeks ago :) They got these fun hats as we left. Getting ready at the hotel where we were able to watch some Disney channel and swim later that night. Jonathan dancing at the reception. He is becoming such a ham for the camera. Caleb snuggling with B before the reception. He is really getting taller this summer. After the reception, John drove us by his old house where he grew up (the one on the left with the new fence). We played at his neighborhood park and drove around familiar spots. Ashlyn enjoying the playground in her dress. She enjoyed swimming later in the hotel much more. Jonathan going down the slide that John said replaced a great set back when he was a kid. Caleb doing the climbing wall, which he found was difficult with flip flops on...

into the next stage of life. The one involving no babies. Therefore, no more DIAPERS! We are pretty excited to be here. It took Jonathan a few good weeks to finally realize that he could feel it about to happen and just go in on his own. We are so glad! We are still working on knowing when he has to go #2....so far he has figured that out only twice and both times he dropped his pants and went outside. But not in the potty yet. So this stage involves a little more trash and laundry, but we are still very excited! We are even going to sell the rest of our "baby" items next month in a garage sale....some car seats, kitchen boosters, and maybe the pack and play....we have held on to some of these items for visitors, but are thinking to exit the stage completely. Way to go Jonathan!

Yesterday Kansas City was hot! The kind of hot where the Midwest does not seem to be the place for me to live. But we managed to still enjoy the day. My mom came up and went to the Legends with us for the free summer Tues movie, Aliens in the Attic . It was funny enough for Jonathan to laugh out loud a few different times. After the movie, we went walked around Legends, went out to lunch, walked around in Cabella's and then looked for some new bookshelves at Nebraska Furniture Mart. We ended the day with $1 sundaes from McD's and headed home. It was a relaxing day with Grandma Peggy! John had his Franchise of the Year banquet at Argosy's Casino last night so the kids and I ate dinner and were headed to the pool when John called. He said that the Omaha franchise leaders that came down for the award banquet had got hotel suites because they thought it would go late and since it ended around 7, they gave John his unused room. So Grandma Sue came over to stay with the

So we are in the works of a few fun days next week. John has been talking about taking the boys on a canoe trip for almost a year now ( I think the planning started when his adult friends canceled their trip with him back in the fall) and we have a date! John, Uncle Chris, Grandpa Gary, Joshua and Caleb are going to go on their first annual boys adventure next Tues-Thurs. They are going to camp, fish, canoe, and swim and and are very excited. Since Jonathan isn't quite at the adventure age yet, he is going to join our girls road trip. Rylee is joining the fun this year while she is here too! We are going to drive to St. Louis to visit the arch, Science center and zoo. Then we are driving to Chicago to see the Navy Pier and visit the American Girl store. They are all excited too. I'll bring the camera and will post pics of the girls trip. John hopes to take a waterproof camera for a few shots....I have already begun to pray for their trip - Picture Caleb and Joshua in

John filled in for our pastor this past Wed evening while he was in California working on his masters. This was his first time preaching in front of the church. Much preparation, prayer, and hard work went into his sermon. If you would like to listen to it while you read more blogs or Facebook, we recommend you give it a listen below :) The Only Way to Satisfy Your Desires

It's early. And I am up, sweaty, and already for a nice cold shower. Today is my speed walking day with a good neighbor friend. We walk on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and it is amazing how fast I am seeing improvement on my fat content! When we first started, it really got me excited to get in shape on a regular basis. Which means, running on my treadmill again on MWF or even working on my Wii Fit again for a couple days a week. I have great intentions. But it is hard. Discipline I mean. Not the kind where my disobedient child and I have to have a heart to heart in my bedroom (although the consistency of that is hard too), but the kind of discipline to get into a scheduled routine of something new. I have some great goals I would like to achieve by Dec. Not unrealistic goals, because I have done these same things pre -children days and not had any problems doing them. So why is it so hard? I have struggled with this from about the birth of Caleb. I am not sure if t

Tuesdays are our relaxation day. I say that because Monday and Thurs mornings are spent at "school" with Mrs. McKinzie, Wed mornings at Speech therapy at Children's Mercy, and Fridays are spent running errands, playdates, or shopping. Tuesday is the day we get to meet friends at the $1 summer movies near our house, usually eat out for lunch and kinda veg in front of movies. So this Tuesday, was a great day! After seeing Madagascar, Lisa and I took the kids over to Target to kind of browse together. Yes, it is always a little challenging to push two big red carts around with 6 cackling children oooing and awwwing over every end cap, and still have a conversation about fashion or clearance, but we some how managed to do it all. I usually only buy clothes at department stores on clearance so it is usually a hit and miss thing. And I hit the jackpot! They had a nice dress suit (for church most likely) in my size, for a really good deal. How good...The jacket is norma

So I loved having the bare wood in my hall bathroom and not smelling the horrible carpet that lingered in there the past 20 years, but it finally got to me. The lack of money and patience won out and so my helper and I went to Lowe's to buy some vinyl flooring. It is so easy, fast, and inexpensive. We finished the floor over the holiday weekend and we really like it. In the future, we hope to tear it up and put tile down, but not this year...here are a few pics of the finished product. My very helpful helper who does not ever complain and who really pushed to get it all done quickly :) The floor from the hall. Again, this lens is not the best for shots where you want to include a bigger space. A close up of the color....it was .88 a square I think :) and a huge improvement over what was there to begin with.

We celebrated the 4th yesterday (actually the 3rd) in a familiar way - the Kearney Fireworks show! We drove the 40 minutes back over to see them up close and kept with tradition. We enjoyed free watermelon, music, and good conversation while we waited. Tonight we are going to see the Smithville show with our good friends, the Knorrs. It might rain, so we are hoping they do not cancel. We will keep you posted...here are a few pics from the Kearney show.

Last night we decided at the last minute to go see Toy Story 3 at the drive-in. We love summer drive-ins! Everyone really liked Toy Story - the kids fell asleep not too long after it ended. The second movie was a movie was Knight and Day, which was actually pretty funny and good. It reminded me alittle of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which I really liked. I haven't seen it much in the news with Toy Story 3 and Eclipse out, so I thought I would share the preview....