Becca's 8th Birthday Party at Skate City

December 12, 2009 - It's really kind of fun to celebrate your daughter's birthday where you once had a birthday party as a kid. Becca decided she really wanted to have a party at skate city this year, and she had a lot of fun. She got her own pair of skates and enjoyed racing around the rink with her friends and family.

Somtimes being a lazy mother leads to a really great picture!

December 10, 2009 - Here is my sweet little Reese, who never is super-excited for nap-time, but obviously still needs it. Nap time has always been a sacred time in my house - when else can you get anything done?? But occasionally, very stubborn little girls get their way and stay up to watch t.v. with their big sister, and end up falling asleep, exhausted on a Capri Sun wrapper! Priceless!

Gingerbread men

December 7, 2009 - How much fun is it to make little Gingerbread men?! A lot! Here are the kids with their creations - Thanks Grandma for supplying the cookie mix!

Attempting the Christmas letter picture

December 6, 2009 - This I had to share because it made me laugh to look through these pictures again! We tried, in vain, after church one day to take a nice family picture with all our nice church clothes on to send out to friends and family with our Christmas letter - here are the results:

squinting....

Tristan's head cut off...

Squinting and Tristan's head cut off! Perfect!

Trimming the tree '09

November 30, 2009 - It is our family tradition to put up the Christmas tree and break out all the other Christmas decorations the Monday night after Thanksgiving for Family Home Evening. The kids are always so excited when we get out the ornaments. Some are things they've made at school in years past, some are hand-me-downs from my mom and grandma, and some of the fanciest are beautiful hand-made ones from my step-mom, Leona. I'll have to remember to get some close-ups of the ornaments next year. Anway, the kids all have their favorites, and by the time we are done, our poor little tree is leaning to one side from all of their loving donations to its limbs! (I usually take a moment to rearrange somewhat afterwards!) I love that our tree has these special ornaments, though. It doesn't look a thing like a Christmas tree you'd see in a Martha Stewart magazine - all color coordinated with a special theme. It is very mis-matched, and hodge-podge, but full of wonderful memories. I love that each ornament is special for one reason or another and they add up to make our own very unique Christmas tree.

Here we go!

Becca is my garland assistant - she knows how to get it wrapped around the tree just right!

Cameron is still young enough that I don't think he remembered much about Christmases past. He acted like all of this was new and exciting - which made it all very fun!

Trister, carefully placing an ornament on the tree.

The finished project!

The down side of fall

November 27, 2009 - I love fall. I have probably mentioned that before. I love the beautiful colors and the peacefully falling leaves. That is probably mostly due to the fact that I just look at and enjoy them, and leave them there for my husband to clean up! =) Our backyard trees are HUMONGOUS and are always the last to lose their leaves. So after cleaning up the front yard and waiting and waiting - the trees in the back finally decided to drop their huge load of leaves into our yard.

I did actually help out this year - a little! But Tristan did most of the work, with his side-kick, Becca!

Becca made me come out just to take this picture of her in her little leaf cave!

Well, we're all cleaned up for now, until the beautiful - and time-consuming process starts again next fall!

Thanksgiving at the Hanson's

November 26, 2009 - Whew, I still am only to Thanksgiving! I need to get my rear in gear! Anyway, we celebrated Thanksgiving at my parents' house this year, and had a lovely time. We decided to take this lovely shot BEFORE the kids could spill all over themselves:

Tristan being silly - pretending to drink out of my Mom's new fountain!

The "after" turkey relaxing

And a whole bunch of cute kids on a swing!


I have to say, one of the highlights of this Thanksgiving I unfortunately did not capture on film. My parent's dog Charlie is very fond of people food, and has little to no self control. So as soon as everyone started clearing out of the dining room and kitchen, he was on the prowl. The little kids had a smaller, more easily accesible table they sat at that was left unattended. So Charlie decided to check it out - just as I was walking back into the kitchen. He had one leg up on a chair and was "going in" - I surprised him when I told him to get down, and his paw got stuck in the lacey tablecloth. So as he tried to get out of there before he got in trouble, he took the table cloth, and all the contents of the little kid table with him (including a full can of soda). I was so shocked at what had actually just happened, that it took me a minute to process before I realized how very funny it all was. It was truly one of those moments you wish you just happened to have caught on video - I would have won one of those Home video shows for sure! (Are those even on anymore?)

Anyway, Thanks Charlie for the memory!