Hanson Crew

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...

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...

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...

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!

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 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! Anyw...

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!

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 i...

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...

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...

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 o...

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!