People Give Me Coins

Tonight Bennett and I had a night out together. It was super fun!

We went to Borders Bookstore where I ran into my dear friend, Peggy Wintch. As we were gabbing away about how much we missed each other...Bennett was standing at the inner door to Borders holding it open for people. People thought he was so charming. One man laughed when we came through the door and commented on what a big helper Bennett was... which made Bennett stand a little taller. Then, on his way out of the store the same man was surprised to see Bennett still standing there holding it. (We were still gabbing...I just love Peggy.) Well, the man chuckled and them reached into his pocket and gave Bennett a quarter. You would have thought Bennett had received a new car. He was SO excited and wanted to show it to everybody. And, it was even a little hard to get him to stop holding the door when it was time to leave.

Tonight as he was saying his prayer he included "Please bless that lots of people will give me coins."

Awww........maybe I need to take him to Borders more.

Summer Chp. 5- Hansen Family Hike

Can you believe I am still trying to catch up from summer pictures?! 

This summer when Melanie and her kids were visiting we took a family hike together for family home evening.

It was super fun to be all together and enjoy the outdoors! 

Here are the little boy cousins - Christian, Bennett, and Carson.  (With Danny trying to hijack the shot.)

 

Off we go....

My husband and his brother, Martin, tried some football-catch cliff jumping style. 

Some of the boys....showing off their muscles.

Olivia...following in her daddy's footsteps.  Literally.

Morgan too....she was a little nervous at first but took the plunge before long.

Christian preferred sticking to the rocks.  That's my kind of man. 

Mr. Parker...again, with the muscles.

Me and my niece, Baby D, whom I held most of the hike.

Home again.  Home again.  Jiggety Jig. 

Merry Christmas from the Hansen Family

Lowden (11 years old): "My favorite part of the year? Um. Woo. That’s a toughie. (Big Breath) It’s probably when we went to the California State Fair because I scared myself out of my wits by going upside-down, high up, screaming my head off on “The Hammer.” I also went to Six Flags Marine World …well, Discovery Kingdom. And rode “The Medusa”. It was awesome!!! The Shamu show was exciting and interesting. Before they started they were asking these questions about orcas and one of them was “What was the leading cause of dying orcas?” And it was “A. Habitat loss, B. Sickness, or C. Slipping in the Bathroom.” That was funny. I have been working really hard at reading because of the adventurous opportunities from books. I mean that it interests you SO much that you can barely put down the book. I’ve read 14,000 pages this summer and in my lifetime I’ve read A LOT. I’ve been working hard at school to prepare myself for middle school because in middle school you need to be pretty smart to be able to do well. And I’m just being prepared… as boy scouts do. When I grow up I wish to be a marine biologist because I have a great interest in aquatic animals. I have an aquarium that has three fish, two snails, one tiny snail, one frog, and three frey. It’s spelled “F-R-Y” mom. I had bought a fish for my aquarium that apparently was pregnant but died of stress after having four babies. One of the babies were eaten. My mom got an aquarium divider to separate the fry from the other fish and the frog. …..Is that enough? Goodbye! (Walks Away).”


Parker (9 years old): “My favorite part of this year was when we went to all the Duck football games because it was totally rockin’ dudes. I liked it when I got the new football and when I go on the turf field and get autographs from the other duck players. I liked it when I play football in my backyard because you get to run and to make touchdowns and tackle people. I also ate and slept. I also went to school. It’s going good. I like lunch and recess. I am going onto the turf field and playing soccer. It is totally rockin’ dudes. I’ve been working really hard at my football skills so I can do better in football because if I don’t then I will get hurt a lot when I play flag football next spring. And I wouldn’t be able to play much because I wasn’t very good. When I grow up, I was to be an athlete and earn 6 billion dollars. If that did not work out, then I would want to be a guy who plays video games for money. Someday I want to go to China because China’s cool and they have really good athletes there and I want to meet them.”


Lauren (8 years old): “My favorite part was when we went to California because we got to see Grandma Lynda and Mindy and Grandpa Bob and Doak and Champ (Grandpa’s dog) and the horses, Ed, Classic, Diamond, Glory and Edie. I liked swimming, playing with Champ, feeding the horses, and riding two of the horses. I love horses. I heart horses! A special thing of my year was getting baptized and receiving the Holy Ghost because I am now a true member of the Jesus Christ of Heavenly Father’s church. I felt good inside and happy. Change that to “very happy” mom. I’m in second grade now and it’s a lot of fun. My teacher is very nice. I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, a whole bunch of friends. I like to play with them. We play Chipmunks which is a game where you collect stuff and make soup out of leaves, woodchips, and grass. In the week, I have dance, activity days at church, piano, dance again, and then a day off. I do ballet and musical theater and jazz. Last month, I did a performance called “Beyond the Yellow Brick Road” which was mix of Wicked and The Wizard of Oz. I played the Barrister (lawyer) of Munchkin City in the County of the Land of Oz. I also played a munchkin and a jitterbug. I wasn’t really nervous when I said my lines or went on stage or when a million people were out there. I want to work at an aquarium when I grow up. I want to feed fish or be a tour person. Someday I want to go to France because the Eiffel Tower is there and a famous painting…the Mona Lisa. I want to get married there in the France temple. Is there any France temple? If there is one, I will get married in it. My husband or fiancé….what’s a fiancé? He will bring me flowers and bring me over to my marriage place. ”


Bennett (4 years old): "I know my favorite it was the one when we made Christmas trees. Remember we painted them at school. I play with my friends and what I want to play with my friends is soccer. Yeah. I try to kick very very very hard to get into the goal. Yeah. I used to go very fast and charge and kick it. Charging is the best. When you charge the ball goes very fast and gets into the goal. I am going to tell you the next thing I can do the best…football. And when I can do fast throw and very very very fast throws. And I like to go bowling. You know when you go to the bowling stadium to play bowling. And the last thing I like to play is catch. Catch is when you try to catch the ball and get it into the bowl. I want to be a baseball player when I get older because when I get older I wanted to play baseball and go very fast. I like to go to the baseball stadium and every place that my mom lets me to go.”


Greg and Margaret: “Children are far more interesting than adults; everyone knows this. So we allocate column space in our annual newsletter accordingly. 2008 was another fairy-tale year for Margaret and me, complete with castles, exotic locales and the kind of love that makes you feel a bit unsteady on your feet. Whenever we think life can’t possibly get better, it does – blessing counting is nearly a full time job (visit our family blog to see what I mean). We are grateful above all for the gentle love of our Savior Jesus Christ – may you feel that in abundance this Christmas!”

Wishing you and your family a happy Christmas season,

Greg, Margaret, Lowden, Parker, Lauren, and Bennett Hansen

Lauren's Special Day

December 6th, 2008 was Lauren's baptism day.

We are SO proud of her for making this choice to be baptized and for the little lady she is becoming.

Here we are, proud parents, with our little girl before her father baptized her.

Many friends came to support her including...

Her babysitter, Ariel.

Her Uncle Martin, Aunt Rachel, and cousins Olivia, Christian, Morgan, and Baby D.

We all LOVE Baby D!

Her friend, Lily, who is in her church class and her class at school.

(Aly was there too but slipped out before I could get a picture of her.)

On Sunday, December 7th, she was confirmed with The Holy Ghost during our sacrament meeting by her father. We were excited our dear friend, Jessie, was there.

Her grandparents, Kent and Ludene, were there to hug and congratulate her.

We love her SO much and are very grateful to have her in our family.

Congratulations Lauren!!!

Lowden's Aspiration

Lowden: When I get into high school I want to be in band.

Mom: Really?

Lowden: Yeah. That's the only way I can be on the field without getting smashed to pieces and shredded into ribbons. I could be a VIP but that takes up a lot of money and being all famous and such like Bill Gates.

Buy One Fish, Get Four Free

Normally, these are a few of the aquatic friends Lowden sees in his aquarium. But a few weeks ago, we went to the pet store and got a Balloon Belly Molly which looked something like this except fatter.

A few days later Parker noticed little flashes swimming around in the tank. Sure enough the mom must have been pregnant because she had four babies. One was eaten by another creature in Lowden's tank (not sure whether it was the frog, the other molly, the danios, or the long shot- one of the snails?) before I was able to figure out how to separate them. I bought a screen insert for the tank and now three of the babies are happily swimming around and getting bigger everyday. The sad news is the mom died from stress...we think. They weren't easy to photograph but here is one of them.

Snow Day

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Look what we woke up to today!

Those Scary Christmas Movies

The other night we let the kids watch the TV classic "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."  As you can see, Bennett was scared by this holiday classic and watched most of it from behind our bookcase.

Today when I picked him up from preschool, his teacher said they watched the other TV holiday classic "Frosty the Snowman".  The teacher said he was so nervous that she held him in her lap and he seemed a little shaken.  She offered to let him do something else but he insisted he DID want to watch even though it seemed to make him uncomfortable.

When I talked to him in the car about it, he said:

Bennett:  "It made me a little scary.  Please don't buy it for me."

Me:  "Ok"

Bennett:  "Thanks!  It makes me shiver.  And you know what that means!"

Me:  "What does that mean?"

Bennett:  "It means I'm scared in some parts."

So watch out for those spooky holiday TV specials or at least don't buy any for Bennett.

Bennett's Letter

Bennett insisted that Greg write down the words that he was saying the other day.  Bennett wanted it sent in the mail with postage but unaddressed. 

Here is his letter which comes straight out of his cute little mind:

"I don't know you, but you look like a true friend but who's friend are you?
I'm glad you're here, but what's your name? 
Then, that's all then. 
That's good. 
But...I wonder who you are! 
And how old are you? 
If you work or not? 
Just say 'yes' or 'no'. 
I'm wonder what your house looks like. 
I don't need any more thing else. 
Then, 'From Bennett'."

Too Bad...

...we can't get frequent flier miles for going to the library!

Munchkins, Jitterbugs, and Ozians - Oh MY!

Last weekend, Lauren was in her first musical production. It was a mixture of "The Wizard of Oz" and "Wicked" and was named "Beyond the Yellow Brick Road".

Spending time backstage with the other girls is always a lot of fun! Lauren has a great group of girls in her peer group at the dance studio. They played games, listened to music, rehearsed their lines, and did a conga line while waiting for their turn. I had a great time helping her and the other girls backstage it brought back a flood of memories from when I used to dance and act. This blue costume is what she wore as a munchkin.

She was also one of the jitterbugs. Aren't their costumes cute?

Here she is wearing her costume for her main role which was the Barrister (Lawyer) of Munchkin City. The mayor, coroner, and her tried to decide if the Wicked Witch of the East was morally, physically, ethically, spiritually, undeniably and reliably dead.

Here are the munchkins on stage with Glinda the Good Witch of the West. Lauren is in the black suit fifth from the right side of the picture.

Here are all those who came to watch and support her. It meant so much to her that they all came!

(Avery, Our family, Grandma Ludene, Grandma Lynda, Olivia, and Morgan.)

She felt really special when Grandma Lynda and Greg gave her these flowers.

We're SO proud of our little girl!

Happy Turkey Day!

From: Us

To: You

We're So Glad When Grandma Comes To Town...

Glad as we can BE!