Hanson Crew

Ella, Audrey, Joshua (future fireman) and Caleb with their fun "stuff" Library time yesterday included firemen, Sparky the dog, 2 fire trucks and about 100 kids! We had a fun time with some friends and then went to the park after to play. It doesn't feel like fall here quite yet during the day (a little in the evenings)!

Here is what the kids are looking like these days. In October, Ashlyn will be turning 7, Joshua 4, Caleb 2 1/2, and Jonathan 5 months. They continue to amaze us each day and are each so different from one another. As we begin a new chapter in our life (the one where you watch your kids grow and stop having them!), we are so blessed to have the crew we do!!

While John was at a Men's Retreat this weekend for church, the kids and I decided to plan a little camp out to help pass the time. We got out all our sleeping bags, flashlights, and ice cream and were really excited for a fun night on the deck. So dad left about a half hour after getting home from work on Friday and we began. We set up the tent, ate BBQ dinner, rented a Mickey Mouse movie and had mint chocolate ice cream for dessert. We put Jonathan to bed in his crib and out we went. It was freezing and dark. Each time a semi-truck went across the bridge close to our subdivision, the baby monitor squeaked. We waited until Joshua and Caleb were asleep and after many interesting conversations with Ashlyn about misc things, we packed up the stuff and moved to the living room! It was great, we even left the door unzipped so my legs could stretch out... We made it about 3 hours this way and my back was killing me...so Caleb and I retreated to the master bedroom where we finishe...

Caleb was our first child to have a real "favorite" toy. Ashlyn was really close to a small doll named Molly for a few months, but it never stuck like this puppy. His official name is "ba ba" ever since Caleb was about 1. We have lost the puppy before and spent hours looking for him. Caleb just LOVES this puppy and sleeps with him, chews on him, and just wants to take it everywhere. Well, he has survived the past 4 days without him. We noticed he was missing about 3 days ago, but wanted to see how he would react. He never brought it up! Yesterday, we spent a vast majority of our morning looking for it and decided he is hidden a little too good this time in our house. We know it wasn't taken anywhere this week so it is here somewhere. John and I have decided to utilize this opportunity :) We told him the puppy has gone bye-bye and to start sleeping with a couple other animals (the ones with no real attachment). He is okay with it so far. We do hope t...

Platte-Clay Electric every year has this huge annual meeting up in Kearney for all of it's co-op members. We have gone the past 3 years and really enjoyed it. The first year I tackled it on my own (John works late on Thursdays). Caleb was only a few months old and slept most of the time so it wasn't too bad. The next year was a little harder, but I had my mom go too so that Ashlyn and Joshua could do more rides while I took care of Caleb. This year was a little more challenging even with my mom there. When you first get there, we register for a bunch of prizes and get our annual check ($17). Then we get a free meal, even kid's meal from McD's. Then we enjoyed some free ice cream from the ice cream truck (we did that a few times!) and went to get our free caricatures done. Then we tried multiple rides and blow up toys - the lines weren't too bad, and Caleb managed to finish them all but one (he got stuck climbing a big wall). Lastly, there is a meeting you go to a...

and not too sure about it!

"Joshua being Joshua"

We decided to paint the boys' room this past weekend to make it look a little bigger now that there are 3 in it. The room was a bright yellow and red w/ a car border in the middle before. So we took down the border and I had the kids help prime it white before I painted it a light blue grey color. Here are the kids helping out...I'll post pictures of the new room tomorrow . They did a great job!

"Don't mess with us cause we'll come and get ya!" (Caleb's already coming...)

One of John's favorite hobbies is Cigar smoking. He enjoys sitting on the deck in the late evening on a cool summer night reading and smoking a great smelling cigar (not good smelling to the rest of us though). Well, last night we were at a friends house and it was the perfect night. Unfortunately, he forget to bring his usual cigar friends that we are all used to seeing at home. So John and his friend Nate enjoyed one of Nate's favorite things...an old fashioned pipe. Lisa and I were inside taking some pictures of the babies and Ashlyn came in. She said "Dad is still smoking his tuba and won't play with me right now!" Lisa and I couldn't stop laughing. A pipe really does resemble a small tuba, especially to a 6 year old!

Joshua had his first official eye exam today at Children's Mercy to make sure he does not see double like John did at 3. He was starting to close one eye when he pointed to things and we were a little nervous. John did that at 3 to focus on things because he saw double. It was so cute to hear him name all the pictures on the monitor (instead of letters since he is so young) and we were so proud of him...20/20 vision. The Dr . said he probably has picked up a new habit (maybe he'll be a great target shooter someday!) and can see great! Now if only Caleb and Jonathan don't inherit this bad gene, we might have no pediatric glasses after all :)

Ashlyn's proud platefull Joshua enjoying his piece of art The two working together side by side Caleb's favorite part...the frosting!

After many, many hours of watching 6 seasons of 24, we have discovered our children's newest activity has become playing 24. Ashlyn loves to be Nina Myers or Michelle Dessler , while Joshua and Caleb fight over being Jack Bauer. Here is an excellent shot of Caleb playing Jack. Notice how he is shooting his pregnant mother (yep, I'm usually the bad guy) with an awfully cute grin on his face! I don't remember Jack looking that silly on TV or wearing safety goggles during his long day....

As Jonathan gets older, it is fun to look back at the other children's baby photos to see who he is looking more like. I ran across these pictures today that a friend sent recently from her wedding. This is when Ashlyn was 2 1/2 and got really scared as a flower girl. She is still very shy in front of a lot of people, and I think she really looks a lot like Caleb here! He will be 2 1/2 in October. Maybe Jonathan will take after these 2 -- who knows??