Hansen Headlines

We are here, we are here, we are here!

2011-12-06T13:31:00.000-07:00

We have been watching a lot of "Horton Hears a Who" at our house lately which, for those of you that have seen it, explains the post title. Those of you that have not seen it will just think I'm very enthusisastic about where we are. ;)

I've missed so many blogging opportunities and they keep piling on top of one another to the point that I get too overwhelmed just trying to think about blogging all I've missed.
So here's what I've decided to do:
I will blog what I can, when I can, about past events but for the meantime, until I get caught up, I'm determined to not fall behind any more. Wish me luck. (We all know how my Top Ten Tuesdays went, which, by the way, are hereby canceled until I feel like it again, in which case they will, most likely, be as irregular as everything else in my life.)

The latest of our family, in a nutshell:
Gracie is enjoying school (most days) and is learning so much! She goes to dance every week and the rest of the time is imagining up some great game to play or singing at the top of her lungs about all the drama that goes on in a 5 year old's life.
Ezra is huge! 75th percentile for height and 25th for weight although it wasn't too long ago he was 75th across the board. I think one of these days my arm is going to snap off from carrying him. He is all smiles, giggles, wiggles and reaching for EVERYTHING. I'm currently training for the upcoming marathon that is called "Chasing After Ezra Once He Learns To Crawl" Any donations for new arms and legs will be gratefully accepted. I'm pretty sure I'll blow through mine quicker than I'm ready for.
Gus is working hard and just got a long overdue promotion. We are so proud of him! He's also the organist for our church and he is amazing at it! Especially since he's never played the organ before. I think one of his favorite things about the calling is all the opportunities he has for jokes. If you know Gus you will need no explanation about what I mean. ;)
I'm at home and currently trying to fight the temptation to curl up on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate, a cozy blanket and a fantastic book or my favorite talk radio program.

We are well here in Alabama and though we are enjoying our time and especially the people here, we are anxious to get back to our home in Denver. We'll see if we can.

Well it turns out I'm not strong enough to resist the temptation of the hot cocoa, warm blanket and Glenn Beck so... I'm giving in.

I will be posting pictures soon.
Wish me luck with my renewed blogging endeavors.

Top Ten (or Top Five) Tuesdays

2011-08-30T19:09:00.000-06:00

Today is a Top 8 because it was from Gracie and she only had 8 things. :)

8 Ways To Be Fashionable
by Kindergartner Gracie

1-Be Modest (yay, I didn't prompt her on that one, we've just been talking about it a lot lately)
2-Make sure it [clothes] covers you privates. (imperative)
3-Wear pretty clothes.
4-It needs to be pink. (of course!)
5-It needs to have ruffles.
6-It would have stripes, but they would have dots. (yes, don't forget patterns)
7-It would look like a princess dress.
8-It would have sparkles all over it.

And there you have it. For the latest in high fashion just follow these 8 tips and you'll be the talk of the town! Thank you Gracie for your insight. :)

Ezra's Antics

2011-08-23T19:46:00.003-06:00

Ezra is not a fan of green beans. And yet he is still so pleasant!

Top Ten (or Top Five) Tuesdays

2011-08-23T19:44:00.000-06:00

Top Five Things I Love About The South:

1-The southern accent and how everyone says "yes sir" or "yes ma'am" even little kids. SO cute! On several occasions I've heard mothers correcting their children to say sir or ma'am. I think I'd love to take that habit home with me, but first I have to teach Gracie to say "yes" first. ;)

2-The way everyone holds doors for each other and offers to help. There have been several times when I'm in a store with my arms full of baby and I drop something (way too typical) and I start to bend down to pick it up and someone near comes and says "I've got it" and picks it up for me. So nice.

3-The fireflies.

4-The birds.

5-How everything is so green. It's lovely.

Top Ten (or Top Five) Tuesdays

2011-08-16T19:54:00.000-06:00

The Top Five Things I Want A Million Dollars For: ;)

So this may seem a little shallow to you, however, I was trying to think of a list that would be meaningful to me right now and all I could think of was how tired I am and I don't have the energy to do anything. And that's when I daydreamed that if I only had a million dollars I could pay someone to do the things that need to be done plus maybe a little extra for fun. ;)
So shallow as I may be, this is a very meaningful list for me. ;)

1)To pay someone to get up with my sweet Ezra until he is through with the eating in the middle of the night stage. (ahhhh, just the thought of weeks of uninterrupted sleep makes me want to sell everything I have to pay for it.;) )

2)To pay someone to clean my house on a regular basis.

3)To pay someone to cook our meals.

4)To pay for WEEKLY spa days that would include massages, facials, pedicures, manicures and anything else that struck my fancy.

5)To pay for a lovely, luxurious week to myself and my favorite books on a private, bug and humidity free, mango smoothie abundant, tropical island. (of course I'd have to hire a cook and maid there too though:) )

Do you think a million would cover it??? ;)

That was some lovely day dreaming. Now back to reality.......

Top Ten (or Top Five) Tuesdays

2011-07-26T20:35:00.000-06:00

Wow I've already missed a week and almost missed this one. I stink at this so far! :)

Ten Random Things I've Learned as a Mother:

1- Band aids are often used more for comfort than an actual need.
2-There is no such thing as "finished" laundry.
3-It's amazing how long you can make a couple drops of dish soap last just to save a trip to the store.
4-The sooner you get used to having your child as an extra appendage the better.
5-A properly functioning brain is a distant memory.
6-EVERYTHING needs a clapper on it.
7- A favorite stuffed animal is somehow much more valuable than your most expensive electronic.
8-Mothers have selective hearing. I can sleep through Dora and Phineas and Ferb and not remember a thing and I can somehow hear the whimperings of a sad child through my ear plugs in the middle of the night.
9-Mama is my favorite thing to be called.
10- Nothing brings as much joy and satisfaction to my life as being a wife and mother!

My Little (Big) Girl

2011-07-12T16:40:00.000-06:00

Well...as hard as I've tried to keep my adorable little girl from growing up it hasn't worked and now she has lost her first tooth!!

On Independence Day her tooth broke free from the confines of a little mouth and is now enjoying it's freedom with the other teeth that are kept in the magical land of Toothdom or where ever it is that the Tooth Fairy takes them.

Gracie was anxiously waiting for this loose tooth of hers to come out and we were met with squeals and jumps of delight when she found it in her hand after a good tug.

So of course we took pictures of the momentous occasion.

She may be growing up but she's still adorable!

Top Ten (or Top Five) Tuesdays

2011-07-12T16:22:00.000-06:00

Some of you may have noticed that I have a little sidebar thingy (that is the actual technical term) that is entitled "Laurie's Latest List" and you may have also noticed that I haven't updated it since Thanksgiving, (though it is still applicable everyday).
I decided rather than put my latest list on my sidebar I would do it as a regular blog entry so as not to lose it every time I update it. So that bring us to "Top Ten (or Top Five) Tuesdays". I also hope it will help motivate me to blog regularly.So here's hopin'.

Today is a Top Five.

Laurie's Top Five Favorite Things About Newborns
(aside from the obvious things like hands, feet, tonails, noses,etc. These are in no particular order.)

1.Their hair.
It is the softest, silkiest thing I've ever felt and for about the first month I rub my face all over their head every chance I get. That sounds a bit weird I know.

2.The funny little faces they make when they are asleep.
This actually goes for kids in general, cause while I was checking on Gracie the other night she made the exact same face that Ezra had the minute before. So cute!

3. The fact that they can sleep with their arms straight up in the air. It's so funny.

4. That they will try to suck on anything that even brushes by their little mouths. And along those lines when they suck on nothing, their mouths just go through the motions.

5. The little creases they have under their eyes because of their deliciously chubby cheeks.

Ahh...I think I could go on for days but I will spare you and stop it the list there.

Our little Ezra...

2011-07-04T14:28:00.000-06:00

Ezra is sucha sweet happy baby. So patient and so content. So here are a couple recent videos of this sweet little man!

Isn't he so squishable and kissable? He's just starting to laugh a little and if you pay attention you can hear him laugh at the end of patty cake.

Alabama Safari??

2011-07-04T13:31:00.000-06:00

Hi Friends
I'm still trying to gather my thoughts for the tornado post and gathering my thoughts is posing a real challenge these days, so it'll have to wait a little longer.
For now I will share a different, slightly less dangerous, adventure we had in May.
We found this fun little place called Harmony Park Safari in Huntsville. I've always wanted to go on a safari, I never thought that would happen in Alabama.
Harmony Park is this little drive through safari. They have deer, some sort of African antelope thingys, ducks, a camel, some monkeys, big horn sheep, some funky foreign cows, a Zebra, ducks and I'm sure some other stuff that I don't remember. At the beginning you can buy a cup or a bucket of pellet food (we got a bucket, I'm so glad) and then you can feed the animals along the way. Too cool and perfect for me since it wasn't that long after I had Ezra and so I didn't have to walk. We LOVED this place! The animals were hilarious and we were cracking up at how much they loved the funny little pellet food. They reminded me of our dogs when ever they think they hear a treat bag opening they come running! It's pretty hilarious to see a Zebra and an Ostrich act like a dog.
Here are the pics:
Disclaimer: I was the one taking the pictures and so you'll have to forgive my lack of expertise as well as my excitement to get the animals. It may have resulted in some funky pictures. :)

This guy put his nose right up to the camera. Nope, not food.

You may wonder why I have this picture posted but you have to look at the trail of deer behind us. They discovered their friends were getting food and came following. So funny!

They are starting to run now that they see we really have food!

The camel sticking his head in the window of the car ahead of us. We were warned about that. That's why they want you to keep your windows no more than half way down.

I was too afraid of him spitting at us and so we didn't really hang out with this guy too long. I hear Camel spit is disgusting.

Cute ponies out on the range.

They heard the pellets shaking in the cups.

"Another spitting animal, hurry go, go!"

Here comes the Zebra

He was a friendly chap. I think he was our favorite, he followed us almost the entire time.

And as you can see we had wild animal slobber all over our windows.

We were unaware that Tina Turner was a resident of this safari.

The pony did not appreciate the comparison. Sorry Tina...I mean pretty little pony.

Gus loved feeding the animals straight from the cup. Here's a good shot of the Zebra eating staight from the cup.

The animals are peacfully grazing in the feild until......

they hear the glorious sound of pellets shaking in a cup!!! Here they come.

We were all distracted looking at something on the drivers side of the car when we hear Gracie scream. We turn to see this stern face polking his head through Gracie's window trying to get the food out of her cup. We immediately rolled her window up a little more and all started laughing. Gee whiz, Ostrich, lighten up a little!

We had such a fun time at this place. So be warned that if you are ever visiting us in Alabama we WILL be taking you on "safari".

Pictures

2011-06-07T20:57:00.000-06:00

My sister is an angel and came out a few days after I got home with Ezra from the hospital. She brought half of her little brood with her so I wouldn't be in want of helpers. It was great to have them here. It's always so great to visit with her. We really wish we didn't live so far away from each other. My sis is a great photographer and offered to take some pics of baby Ezra while she was here so of course I said "yes please".
And of course we had to take pictures of our adorable girls too.
So here are some of my favorites: (to see the rest click here)

Thanks for these Kathy, they are priceless.

Introducing........

2011-05-10T16:24:00.001-06:00

EZRA DAVIS HANSEN!

Born on 4-11-11 @ 1:12 pm. 8lbs 2oz 20 inches long!
Sorry, friends, for the delay in posting pictures and stuff. I know we promised to do it soon and we didn't. Boo us! We lost our camera card reader and after searching and searching for it we gave up and finally bought a new one. So now of course we should find our old one soon. ;)

I just want to warn you that there will be a LOT of photos for the next couple posts. Just a heads up.

Everything went smoothly the c-section was scheduled for 12:30pm. I had time to shower, do my hair and make-up and saunter in to the hospital. It was kind of surreal.
There were no complications except for vomiting on myself during surgery. Ha! That was fun. I remember the final tugging and then the emptiness in my belly and the wonderful sound of my little boy letting out his his signature squawks. I felt my mom and dads presence again very strongly. It was a wonderful day!

The last month in pictures:

A good shot of my big ol' belly.

The Saturday before Ezra arrived we went to the park for a little kite flying. The last outing as a family of three.

Belly shots on our way out the door for a c-section.

Sassy belly shots.

Gracie is shouting baby brother! She's all ready for her day and night of fun with friends.

Daddy loves.

My first glimpse of our long awaited second child.

He's so sweet and soft.

A picture of perfection.

Big Sis meets Ezra.

She's so proud and excited.

So sweet.

Thinking about possible ramifications of having a baby brother.

So squishy!

Gracie's present of a rattle to Ezra.

The next day's visit to Ezra...oh and mommy too...at the hospital.

Posing for the camera as always.

She loooooves her brother!

He fell asleep deep in thought.

Again...so squishy!!!

My position as head baby bather was quickly commandeered by two enthusiastic participants. Gracie and daddy assigned me to the camera instead.

More love from Big Sis.

On of our nights without power. (more about that to come soon)

Notice the propane lantern. That put out quite a bit of light (and heat).

Gracie enjoying the fruits of her labor after helping mommy make brownies.

Two cute kids! We are so blessed!

Countdown!!

2011-04-06T09:28:00.000-06:00

April 11th is the big day, friends!!! That is only 5 more days. YAY....... AGGH! We are so totally excited to welcome this new little (still nameless BTW) Hansen to our family. We've waited a long time for him, however, we almost feel less prepared for this one than we did for Gracie. I think it's just as a result of the move. We don't know where everything is, his room isn't completely set up and we feel like we are forgetting so many things. So these last few days until he comes it will be like we are cramming for a test. :)
Wish us luck that we make it!

A picture is still coming, I promise. For those of you that haven't seen me in a couple months, you will be in shock at the growth. It's crazy. I will be glad when the "OH.MY.GOSH." looks are over with. I'm starting to feel a little like a freak. ;)
Let's just hope that the docs aren't missing another child in my belly. We're not even prepared for one, let alone two. HA.

Alabama Update

2011-03-21T15:28:00.000-06:00

Hey all,
Nothing new is happening really, I just made a promise to many of you that I would be better about blogging so here I am.
We are still doing well, I am getting bigger and slower by the minute, which makes getting everything unpacked and put away in a timely manner impossible.
When I find our camera in in this moving mess I will post a picture of my "blossomed" belly. It's huge and all the major growth seemed to happen here in AL. My doctor said she wouldn't be a bit suprised if this was a nine pound baby. Feels like twenty!

Alabama is already hot! Well for me anyway. For normal people it's a lovely 75-80 degrees. There are trees EVERYWHERE which is so pretty. I have yet to find out what kind of trees they were, but a ton of them just got finished blossoming beautiful white blossoms. And because of all the trees there are always birds singing which always puts a smile on my face. Where we were in CO we didn't have many developed trees around the neighborhood so I didn't hear as many different birds singing as often, so it's a real treat to hear them.

We are enjoying our house, but realizing we have waaaay too much stuff for it. So we are trying to downsize a bit which is good but hard to know where to start.The neighborhood is nice and close to many things including lots of ward members.

All is well for now and no more tornado sirens which is a plus. And once we get a little more settled we'll be able to head out on some adventures so our blog can be a little more interesting. :)

Baby Update..

2011-03-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends
Most of you already know but just in case you didn't, the ultrasound we had 14 weeks ago showed a very proud little boy.
We are very excited and Gracie is escpecially excited to be a big sister in a few more weeks. Gracie had initially wanted another girl to come join our little family but she said "if it's a boy, I'll love him too." :)
Aside from the regular pregnancy discomforts all has gone so well with the pregnancy. The little guy thinks he's a kickboxer which makes me laugh and squirm in discomfort at the same time.
After some thought and prayer and some counseling from the docs we've decided that we need to do another C-section. I'm sad about the opportunity to have a child "naturally" being gone, but feel at peace with the decision.
So April 11th or 12th is when we will welcome the little man to our little brood. We'll keep you posted!

Sweet Home Alabama

2011-03-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

This post is about 2 1/2 months late but it has been a crazy couple months! In the fall Gus applied and was accepted into a Leadership Program with Lockheed Martin. As part of the program Gus had to find 3 stretch assignments where he could learn new skills and hone his leadership skills and Alabama was the winner for the first assignment. Christmas came and went and as soon as we got back we made a mad dash to get ready to move by the 4th of Feb. It was CRAZY! Thankfully the company was packing and moving us. So here we are in Huntsville which is northern Alabama. We've been here just over a month which we spent in temporary housing until the 4th of March when we moved into a cute little rental home with a yard and a fence. We have been warmly welcomed into a great ward and look forward to the new adventures we are going to have over the next year.

There is a little bit to get used to down here such as accents, sense of humor, slightly slower pace of life, drivers, weather. So far we've experienced 2 tornado sirens and lots of wind and rain. It makes me miss Denver weather.:) We'll be sure to keep you posted on our upcoming Alabama Adventures.

Christmas and other adventures

2011-02-25T00:20:00.000-07:00

So many pictures as usual. Since pictures are worth a thousand words that means I can write much less. :) I'm very behind as usual but I hope to be somewhat caught up on the blog at least by the time this next little Hansen comes along in April. Wish me luck!

So Christmas was spent with Gus' family. Before heading down to Willcox to hang at his parents house we stopped in lovely Flagstaff to stay with his sister and take a ride on the Polar Express. Who knew that the Polar Express left from Arizona. Flagstaff was beautiful as always and apparently we had to go to Arizona in order to get some real snow for the holidays. It dumped on us while we were there and it was beautiful.

The Polar Express is a something that they offer at the Grand Canyon railway during Christmas and the kids were so excited. Here is our ride to the North Pole documented with pictures.

Gracie can't wait to get going.

Raysha, Scottie and Korbin also ready to go.

Daddy sat with Kassidy in front of us.

Heres the rest of the Black family. Levi, Suzi, Kaybree and Colter. And Mom and Dad Hansen behind them.

Here they are, Mom and Dad Hansen.

Yay, we are on our way and reading the story. They showed us the pictures and everything!

Grandpa and Grandma showing how excited they really were. ;)

Blurry pictures of the North Pole and Santa waving.

Here's a non-blurry picture but Santa had dissapeared already. I wonder where he went?

Wait! Gracie sees Santa at the back of the train. How'd he do that?

Kassidy sees him too!

There's the man of the hour!

And everyone gets a jingle bell.

He's getting closer!

Santa's the best! What a bunch of cute kids! They really loved ringing those special jingle bells from Santa. I think I was hearing them in my sleep.

The Polar Express was so fun for the kids. They served hot chocolate and read the book to everyone and then after the North Pole we sang Christmas songs and waited for Santa to get to our car.

They loved it.

We only mananged to take 3 pictures of Christmas morning. We were lazy.

Santa managed to find a Dolphin Pillow Pet for Gracie. Just what she wanted!

Gus, feigning excitement for the awesome tripod flashlight that Santa brought for him.

Gracie had her first sprained anke while we were at Grandma and Grandpa's. They have a fun little jungle gym outside and Gracie loved to play on it. Syndey heard Gracie outside crying and went out to rescue her. Gracie had fallen from the jungle gym onto her little foot. She came in carrying her and her sad little twisted ankle. This was the first day and so it actually didn't look as bad as it did the next couple days after that. There's nothing sadder than a 4 year old with a limp. It was so cute though. It only took about a week or so for her to be good as new. It's amazing how fast kids heal.

She thought her ankle looked pretty funny.

It was pretty cool to have it all wrapped up. Dr. Daddy did a great job wrapping it. He's had some messed up ankle experience in his day. :)

Gracie's Dance Recital

2010-12-16T15:21:00.001-07:00

I need to warn you that there are a lot of pictures and videos. We had only our camera to take the video and so they are kinda broken down into parts.

We were so very proud of our little dancer. She did fantastic. Thanks Miss Muffie for all your hard work and love for these girls.

Some of these videos are sideways and as soon as I figure out how to make them right side up then I will fix them. For now though just be careful of a kinked neck. :)

So I'm having a hard time uploading the other videos. So this is it for now.

camping

2010-12-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

So this post is way over due as are all the others that I posted today but I'm trying to get a little caught up. So bear with me. I think it was July or August but we decided last minute to go camping with the Mack's. It was just a one nighter but we all had fun and had our camping fix.

Gracie was enjoying taking Molly for a walk around the campsite. :)

Banjo was a champ while camping and in the car!

Me enjoying some down time and a little guilty pleasure reading (aka celebrity gossip)

The Mack brothers, Eric and Adam, I'm not sure what they were shooting at but you know fellas, they just like to shoot.

Molly was in heaven when she found some bacon grease that had been dumped.

Gracie and Diesel got in an altercation and like a good mother I grabbed the camera. She was so dejected!

Brightening up a little for the camera!

Here's Diesel hiding behind his truck!

Don't you just love his boots!

I think Diesel may have won this one. ;)

Fun little, very dusty, camping trip.

Fall Festival with Friends

2010-12-09T11:22:00.001-07:00

Our good friends the Mack's invited us to go the the Fall Festival at the Littleton Historical Museum with them. We were happy to oblige. The kids really enjoyed the very friendly cow. I'm not sure what this funny face was about though.

Left to right: some kid we don't know, Brynley,Sadie,Gracie and Diesel.

What a fat pig! So CUTE!

One of the old farm houses on the farm. I'm so grateful for running water.

This is such a cool place. It is a actual working farm and everyone that works there is dressed in period time. They don't use any modern conviences (as far as I know) to do anything there. Pretty awesome. The best part is that it's FREE to go!

Just waiting for the wagon ride. Don't know why wagon rides are so exciting but they always draw a crowd, me included.

This was in the schoolhouse. Guess Gracie got in trouble or something cause she was doing clean up duty. ;) So funny that she thinks sweeping is fun now. Just wait a few years, little lovie, when mommy is begging you to sweep.

In the big field they had all kinds of old fashioned games that we thought were pretty fun. We decided no more modern toys for us! HA Ha!

Gus made the stilts look easy.

They weren't. Notice Adam helping me balance.

No luck for me. Probably not the safest thing for little miss prego to be doing anyway. Tsk, tsk.

Adam also made it look easy.

Look who we ran into: Uncle Malcolm! We also met up with our other good friends, the Reynolds! Left to right: Uncle Malcolm, Katelee Reynolds, Gracie and Gerald Reynolds! Some of Uncle Malcolm's other family members were there we just didn't manange to get pictures of them.

We had such a fun festive time. And the weather turned out to be really nice. Thanks, Mack's, for thinking of us.

Halloween....BOO!

2010-12-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

The Halloween parade at Miss Michelle's Little Farmer Preschool. Such cute kids. Gracie wanted to be a Duck this year.

The Costume Parade at our ward trunk or treat! So Fun!

Spending time with Grandma and Grandpa

2010-12-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit in September. Sadly these are the only pictures we got of their visit. We went to the Aquarium in Denver. One of my favorite places to take people. It is a really cool place.

This is one of my favorite parts. At the end after the awesome shark tank they have the sting ray pool where you can touch them and feed them. Gracie wanted to feed them which actually means that mommy gets to feed them because quite honestly it's a little unnerving since they basically put their entire mouths over your hand to get the food. She did manage to feed one though. I was really proud of her.

We always enjoy the Aquarium. And I think Grandma and Grandpa thought it was pretty cool too. Thanks for coming to visit Grandma and Grandpa!

Autumn

2010-10-22T10:00:00.002-06:00

It's taken me a long time to decide. I always go back and forth. I adore every season, and during the change of season I think "this is definitely my favorite season" and then the next one comes.
It's taken me 32 years to finally make my decision, but I'm proud to say that I have finally come to a final one.
Fall is my very favorite season and here's why:

I love the weather, cool enough for adorable sweaters and scarves, but not too cold that you have to put on 15 layers so that you can barely move and cover up your carefully coordinated sweater and scarf. It's not too hot that you can't enjoy the many lovely things there are to do outside. I love to be outside in the fall.
The fragrances of fall are to die for. Cinnamon, apples, pumpkins, caramel, crisp fresh air, and the smell of smoke from the first lit fireplaces of the season. Mmmm.
It's the start of the holiday season.
The colors. I mean look at the picture above. This is actually in Colorado. It's in a place called Dallas Divide, I don't know where that is but I think I might have to find it. :)
Pumpkin patches and apple orchards.
Apple cider and hot choclate.

These are just a few reasons that Autumn is officially my favorite season. And I am thouroughly enjoying my favorite season.
I hope you are enjoying it as well.

Just a "little" announcement...

2010-10-19T13:41:00.000-06:00

Well friends it time I spill the beans. It's been long enough now that I'm feeling comfortable enough to share that....
WE ARE EXPECTING!!!
We are still a few weeks away from finding out the gender but I'm 14 weeks in and has gone normal. All the ultra sounds have been normal, all the symptoms are normal (blech!), and the little thing is growing well.
Due date is April 19th.
We are thinking it's a boy because I haven't felt as sick with this one as I was with Gracie plus the chinese calendar says it's a boy. ;)
We were certain that Gracie would be a boy though so you never know.
Gus would love a boy, but the thought makes me nervous. I'm quite comfortable with girls and all things frilly.
Gracie's beyond herself with excitement and loves to pat and kiss "her" baby (my belly). She will be an amazing big sister.
Either way, as I'm sure you can tell, we are thrilled!
I am starting to not feel so disgusting which is fantastic cuz I was sick with Gracie for 6 months. And I am starting to reemerge in the land of the living.
As the dear friends that you all are, we thank you for your prayers and thoughts on our behalf, and we know that they were vital in getting us to this happy point. It's been a long, rough journey and while it's not over we are encouraged. We still ask for your continued prayers though that all will continue to go well.
We love you all and will keep you posted!

4th of July

2010-10-01T15:46:00.000-06:00

So what is it now...October!?!? And I am just getting around to posting our Fourth of July pics. Pathetic.

We had our own little firework display on Saturday the 3rd . It was our first time lighting our own fireworks. Gracie loved the sparklers! These, sadly, are the only 4th pictures we have, but other festivities included our annual 4th of July breakfast at our house. I love, love, love breakfast food! A sad, wet rainedout Fourth of July fireworks show on Sunday, not to mention cold. And a wonderful sunny warm perfect "let's try again" Monday night firework show. This time complete with our tradition of KFC and juicy watermelon. It was a lovely Indepence day weekend!

The Adventures of Gus and Laurie...

2010-07-19T16:57:00.001-06:00

Every year some friends of ours organize a river rafting trip. I have always wanted to do a hard core river rafting trip like this but this year was the first year I was able to go. Gus was able to go last year but I had to back out due to being prego.

So this year I was totally excited to be able to go.

All in all we had 19 people on 4 rafts who went. It was so ridiculously fun!

On our raft was Gus and I, of course, our good friends, The Macks, and Rob who was bachin it for the day, we missed you Jenni.

And we can't forget our fearless guide Prestor.

I'm pretty sure our raft was the awesomest, no offense other rafts.

When we weren't battling the raging rapids we were stealthily paddling up to the other rafts and splashing them mercilessly with our oars. Awesome, right?

All right enough of this let's get to the rest of the pictures.

There are a lot by the way. Just a warning

The picture above you may wonder why I put in here. On first glance it doesn't look like anyone is in the picture. But on closer inspection you can see a couple blue blurs of helmets and one lone hand sticking out from the rapids.

There was one rapid when we nearly lost Gus over the edge and this may have been it. When you look at this picture though it almost looks like our entire raft was swallowed. It pretty much was, however we emerged from the river triumphant! Go Us!

I think it's a hilarious picture!

We loved the experience, we loved our group, we loved our guide and we especially loved that he told us we were "paddling like sissy's" at one point. We were. But for the most part we were River Raft Paddling Monsters.
Thanks Broc and Kelle for organizing this every year. We are totally in next year. It was amazing!

I need your help please...

2010-06-17T15:29:00.001-06:00

ok friends
I am going to start selling some of the hair things that I make, i.e., crochet flower headbands, ric rac flowers and other fun accessories.
I need help figuring out a name for the blog though and this is where you come in. So if you could be so kind to vote on your favorite I would be greatly appreciative.

You can find the poll on the sidebar of this blog.

And though it doesn't have a name yet feel free to check out my site.
More fun things will be coming soon.

In The Merry Merry Month Of May

2010-06-17T14:24:00.000-06:00

Banjo's Puppy School graduation. The look on his face seems to be telling us he thinks he's too good for his graduation hat. I say "live it up Banjo, that's the most dressed up you'll ever be."

Yes folks this IS Arizona. These are the parts of Arizona that you rarely hear about. The green, foresty, lush parts. It was soooo beautiful. This was in Alpine, AZ. Elevation aprox. 8000ft.

Grandpa, Gracie, Daddy, Uncle Levi, Kassidy and Bear Dog taking a lovely walk to the pond.

Gracie fishing her little heart out.

Gracie posing and fishing her little heart out.

Campfire grilling. YUM!

What we saw outside our door every morning and evening. Gus was really wishing it was hunting season.

Gus' parents have the awesome calling of being the LDS Girls Camp caretakers for the summer months and we loooove to go visit them. 2years ago we went but weren't so lucky in the weather department as you can see here. But this year was glorious.

Fishing on Luna Lake. It was so beautiful.

Grandpa running the boat and being soooo patient with lines in the motor, potty stops, and lines tangled up with his. Thanks Grandpa

Gracie is super excited to try her brilliant idea of a gummy worm on the hook. So was I....it didn't work so well.

My Big Man Gus, putting his worm on the hook. He made me put a real live worm on the hook too. Poor worm. I was much less manly about it. :)

The highlight of this particular fishing excursion, for me was the incredible bald eagle we saw soaring above us only to, minutes later, swoop down and snatch a fish up with his claws (or to quote Napoleon Dynamite, talons). He made it look so easy!

I was cursing myself for forgetting my camera. I had to settle for the lesser quality of my phone camera.

All in all it was a fantastic Memorial Day weekend.

My Mother

2010-05-13T17:48:00.001-06:00

So I meant to have this post done on time, but this is literally how my entire life has been lately, totally behind!!!

But I can't let another year go by without some mention of the wonderful woman that taught me to strive to be the woman that I want to be.

Pictures are worth a thousand words so I am posting a lot of them.

This was for some Family Home Evening or something or maybe Father's Day since most of the pictures seem to be of my dad. Either way my mom rarely did things half way. She'd go all out.

I just love this picture. I believe this was Easter. That's my big sis and my beautiful mom. I LOVE the dress!

My mom always had a project going on usually several at the same time. I believe this was the first check she received for her Birthday Calendars. A project that turned profitable.

My mom and big bro.

This picture is representative of the many, MANY, outings my mom initiated. My dad was more of a home body and my mom loved to be on the go. Needless to say, my go-with-the-flow dad traveled a lot around the country.

We had a lot of great road trip memories.

My mom and big sis.

I'm sure these are some relatives my mom took us to meet.

My mom with two of her daughters-in-law, all pregnant at the same time. I was the one she was expecting at 45!!! She rocks that shirt!!!

Only part of the Yours, Mine, and Ours family that my parents put together. I'm going to say around 1979.

My mom loved family pictures.

No matter how we were doing financially, family pictures were a yearly thing.

My mom was someone who loved her family and did her very best to show it. Even more than that she loved her Savior and was an incredible example of how to live the

Gospel.

I remember her getting up early every morning before the crack of dawn so she could have some peaceful time to study the scriptures alone.

I remember watching her as she would reverently and gently care for her temple clothes.

I remember my mom and dad coming home from the temple every Saturday morning in such a good mood.

And I remember what an incredible missionary she was. She would share the Gospel with nearly everyone she came in contact with. My desire to serve a mission came from seeing the excitement and joy it brought my mother and father to share it with others.

I could literally go on for pages about just her spirituality and faith. Her example of living it are seared into my memory because I saw it every day.

She taught us so many lessons of life as well. If ever we were feeling discouraged or ugly or unpopular she would take us to the nearest mirror and tell us to give ourselves the biggest smile we could muster and tell ourselves we were beautiful or make a funny face.

She taught us to wash windows and scrub baseboards. Always with a "little extra elbow grease". Ugh. ;) She awoke us early, what seemed like every morning, to go exercise. She taught me to play racquetball. I'm pretty sure I only beat her once or twice, if that.

She was also one of the best cheerleaders I've ever known.

No one could get excited about something like my mom. I don't know that she EVER missed one of my shows or performances. I have flashbacks, whenever I'm singing, of my mom in the audience putting her fingers up to each cheek and flashing a massive grin. That was my signal to smile more. Or the hand behind the ear to tell me to sing louder. I'm pretty sure that she thought that each of her children were the best at whatever they did. That's how she made us feel anyway.

My mom passed away 4 days before Gracie was born in 2006. It was a devastating day. I know she is near though. Cheering for us as usual and probably shaking her head at us as well. But I know she is near and I know I will see her again. That knowledge soothes the gaping hole that she left in our lives.

I have so much to live up to and aspire to. I hope I can teach Gracie the way she taught me.

Happy Belated Mothers Day Mom!!

I love you!

Easter

2010-04-20T21:10:00.002-06:00

Ok Folks
We've actually been really bad at taking pictures lately. The worst actually. I don't know what our problem is, but hopefully we'll get over it soon.
So we missed the pictures of the Easter Bunny's visit and the awesome Easter Egg Hunt that we had and the fun Mediterranean Dinner we had on Good Friday. Major bummer.
Easter was lovely though. We got to enjoy listening to General Conference and remember what Easter is really about.
I did manage to get some pictures of Gracie in her Easter dress.
She came up with all the poses on her own. Funny girl.

So I know there are a lot of pictures, can I help it if she's my favorite subject?

The newest member of the Hansen Family.....

2010-04-05T12:32:00.000-06:00

......and the newest member of Gus' hunting club.
PRESENTING BANJO!

(A tuckered out puppy found a comfy spot in a cookie box.)
We got him on March 5th snd he was just about 12 weeks at the time. Gus wanted a lab for hunting. He's an adorable, hyper, sweet, mischeivous,clumsy lab. And while we love him and see the potential of the dog he will become, 97% of the time he drives me crazy. ;)
He learns fast though and we hope the day will soon come when everything in site will stop being chewed and he will no longer be confined to (and as a result destroying) my kitchen.
Wish us luck folks.

Christmas (yea I know it's April)

2010-04-05T11:35:00.000-06:00

Just before leaving to Arizona for Christmas Gracie had her last ballet class. She's the one in the purple tutu against the wall.

One thing I love about Christmas in AZ. The gorgeous trampoline weather. ;)

Uncle Gus being the awesome fun uncle that he is. I think he might be having fun. I love the looks on all their faces.

Before Santa came.

Sleepy excited kids on a Christmas morning. What a houseful!

After Santa came.

So exausted!!!

It was such a fun Christmas at Kathy's house with her family and Richard's family that came down from Utah. We had a great time and plenty of room in her new house for all us crazies.

A couple days after Christmas we headed down to Willcox to spend some time with Gus' family. We ran out of room on our camera card though and didn't take any more pics of the trip. I was just glad it lasted long enough to get Christmas day.

Birthdays and Balls....

2010-02-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

Wednesday the 3rd was Gracie's 4th birthday. I can't believe how fast my baby is growing up. Wednesdays are a preschool day so she was excited to go to school ON her birthday. She was so glad to be able to bring cupcakes and choose something from the birthday bag. When daddy got home Gracie got to pick where she wanted to go eat, Red Robin won the honor and after that Gracie opened her family presents.
Saturday was her friend party. She had requested a princess party but she also wanted some of her boy friends to come. They were very understanding. ;)

Here are some pictures to recap the party:

This was actually on her birthday before she went to school.

This is a pose she came up with all by herself.

Gracie's princess birthday cake.

I have a good friend who is a professional cake decorator who said she would come and teach me how to make fondant and help me with Gracie's cake as well. It was sooooo fun and I learned soooo much. This was the finished product.

Another shot of the cake.

Playing pin the kiss on the Frog Prince.

One well loved Frog Prince.

Getting ready to play musical pillows.

Cake and ice cream!!

Presents!

Too Fun!

The Sweetheart Ball:

Every year our Home Owners Association puts on a Daddy/Daughter Sweetheart Ball and Gus and Gracie went Saturday evening after the party . Last year Gus took Gracie and she still always talks about it. She loved going to the ball to dance with her "prince".

She thinks that she and Gus got married there. It's really cute. So this year they put on their fancy clothes and dancing shoes and Gus whisked Gracie away for a night of daddy/daughter togetherness.

Here are the pics for that:

Cutting a rug with her favorite guy!

The princess arriving at the ball.

Not the best shot of the Highlands Ranch Mansion. It's a pretty old building and pretty cool from what I hear.

Waiting for the Valet. Apparently Gracie got down on her knees and proposed to Gus while they were waiting. Pretty much the cutest thing I've ever heard. She sure loves her Daddy.

The gorgeous carriage that they rode on. How awesome is that! What a sweet date!

So Saturday was a busy day and we were all quite exhausted after all was said and done. But it was so fun and some wonderful memories were made. We are so grateful for our little Gracie and she and I are both so grateful she has a daddy that takes the time to make his little girl feel like a princess.

A bit about my baby....

2010-02-08T11:45:00.000-07:00

Four years and 5 days ago a funny little girl came to live with our family. Since that day our lives have been filled with interupted sleep, messes, worry, more messes, frusteration, helplessness and yet more messes.
But before you get the wrong idea, neither Gus nor I would change a second of it. Because while being a parent of Grace Elizabeth Hansen has it's challenging moments they all melt away as soon as we look into the big, blue, curious eyes of this beautiful little girl.
More than any challenge this little girl has been a blessing and a joy and I feel like her name explains perfectly what kind of a gift she is to us.

Here's a little summary about our little Gracie:

She loves people and loves to take care of others. She has a very big heart and loves to help people feel better when they are sad.

She can be very silly and loves to make people laugh.

She loves music and loves singing and dancing. She has an incredible imagination and makes up fantastic songs and situations. She's always pretending.

She loves her Heavenly Father and Jesus and loves to learn about them. She loves to pray!

She is a very snuggley little girl. She is always ready with hugs and kisses for all her loved ones. (That includes Molly, our dog, books, pictures, mannequins, and anything else that may tug at her heart.)

She loves anything fast and exciting and anything she can jump on or from. She loves swimming, running, camping, fishing and hanging with her friends.

She desperately looks forward to being a big sister and is well practiced in her big sister voice (a.k.a bossy voice), but she will be a very tender, caring and protective big sister.

She's very good at entertaining herself and can play with ANYTHING. Give her a piece of cardboard and a wisk and she's a happy girl.

She loves preschool and her new primary class and loves to learn new things. She's very quick at grasping new concepts.

She finds joy and excitement in the simplest things and it's so fun to watch her discover new things. She loves to speak "spanish", she's very sure of her bilingual abilities.

She's has a very sweet disposition but somehow at the same time is very stubborn and independent and can really hold her own. She has to do things her way.

We love this little girl more than words could ever express and can't believe it's already been four years since she came to our family.

We love you Gracie!

Here are lots pics of the past four years:

Homemade Headboard

2010-01-23T15:05:00.000-07:00

Ok folks so I was inspired to do this from a shutter headboard that I saw on Shanty2Chic and I've been wanting a headboard for our king size bed. I had a hard time finding shutters and when I get a project into my head it's nearly impossible for me to be patient.
There were closet doors in abundance though and they were just the right length. So I dove in hoping they would turn out.

Gracie doing her best pose in front of the doors.

There they are in all their glory. I filled in the holes for the knobs with spackling, next time I would totally use wood putty though.

I spray painted them black, sanded them down for a bit of distressing and stuck an adorable little girl in front to dress them up and...voila!

On a side note. While Gus was gone hunting I wanted to paint the bedroom and suprise him. I chose blue and green because I wanted it to be peaceful and relaxing and while I love these colors and even love them together I don't like them in our room. I'm not sure why and they totally don't go with the curtains. I'm still a novice painter you know. So hopefully sooner than later I will be repainting our bedroom a pretty dark tan color. Wish me luck.

As for the headboard, I'm pleased with my beginners efforts. (First time using a drill without my husbands supervision) However if I come across a plethera of shutters I may do that again too. We'll see. For now I'm happy with it though.

Arizona in October

2010-01-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

The first part of October Gus' brother, Ted, flew in to Arizona with his fiance, Andra, and his son Jannik. Ted lives in Germany and we only get to see him every few years so we really make an effort to see him and his fam whenever we get the chance.
It was so great to see Ted and Jannik and meet Andra. We had a lot of fun with everyone.
Here are some pics that document the visit to Wilcox.

This was the night before we left. I think she was hoping to take all these guys with her. ;)

Somewhere in the pile of loveys is a cute little girl.

Uncle Ted showing Gracie how to shoot. She thought it was pretty cool.

Grandpa taking the kids for the traditional 4 wheeler ride in the trailer. They loooove this.

Gracie's introduction to roller skating.

My little Make-Up Artist

2010-01-18T13:41:00.001-07:00

So I'm seriously so behind in all I have to blog. I'm still trying to catch up though. Here's one I've been meaning to blog about since....well....September. So at this rate I might blog about Christmas in May. As long as it's recorded right.
I'm sorta cheating here since I'm just posting the link to my sister's blog, it's just that she captured it so perfectly.
http://realmomreallife.blogspot.com/2009/09/its-important-to-look-your-very-best.html

And not to be out done, my little niece following the example of her cousin.
http://realmomreallife.blogspot.com/2009/09/nap-time.html

No wonder these funny little girls get along so well. They're kindred spirits.

At the zoo....

2009-11-13T07:03:00.004-07:00

Last Friday was a gorgeous day so our good friends invited us to go to the zoo with them. It was a perfect day for the zoo.

Fun in the October Snow....

2009-11-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

We had a ridiculous amount of snowfall a couple days before Halloween. Gracie was so anxious to get out in the snow. She was even more delighted when daddy came out to play with her.

Here she goes!!

The snow was so deep they couldn't get very far with out it eating them up!

Halloween...

2009-11-11T10:13:00.002-07:00

I'm totally behind in all I have to post. So here is my attempt to catch up.

Gracie insisted she wanted to be a Very (Fairy) this year. She was very clear that she wanted pink wings and a pink skirt.

This was at her preschool Halloween Party. I was grateful her teacher got some good pictures. All mine were blurry, she wouldn't stop trying to "flap" her wings.

Trick or Treating! She was loving it. We got together with some neighborhood friends.

The "after-party" at our house. We came back for Hot Chocolate and treats, the kids decided the stairs were way more fun. Who knew? They would climb up and slide down, sometimes all at once, on their bellies. Too funny.

They were literally climbing over each other.

This was no more than 10 minutes after we got home from church. A tuckered out little Halloween Partyer.

Still holding on to some Halloween spoils even in her slumber.

I think daddy's about to join her in sleep. He's tuckered out too, the day after a long vigorous deer hunt.

C-C-C-Cold!!!

2009-10-29T09:15:00.000-06:00

Second snow day in a row. Who wants to come for a visit?

Catching Up With Gracie

2009-10-11T20:31:00.001-06:00

Gracie is getting to be such a big girl and while it is so fun and exciting to watch and be a part of, I dread the days that I won't be able to just scoop her up and smother her squishy cheeks with kisses (pretty sure that won't go over well when she's 16).

She's been a busy big girl since September. She started preschool at Little Farmer Preschool (we are really loving Miss Michelle) and ballet about the same time.
I am so proud of my little, big girl. She's been doing so well at both, but then maybe I'm a little biased. ;)

So here are some pictures of her first day of both ballet and preschool.

Gracie showing us a turn. Beautiful! Grandma and Grandpa Hansen happend to be here for her first day of ballet and Grandma suprised Gracie with a purple tutu and a ballerina bear she quickly named "Bearina".

Let me just say there is nothing cuter and funnier than a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds trying to passe and jete!

On our way to school.

Gracie posing in every picture. I think she loves the camera.

Here are some of Gracie learning to ride. This bike was one of my freecycle finds. Yeah...you can say it. I'm awesome!

She worked so hard trying to ride and she would get herself going pretty fast. There is one pic of her cruising pretty good and the look on her face is one of pure glee.

And last but not least, Gracie loves to help me cook and she starting to get pretty good (as good as a 3 year old gets). We were making enchilada sauce.

Thrift Store Finds

2009-10-07T14:10:00.001-06:00

Some of you might know my obsession with free things. I loooooove Craigslist free section and Freecycle. I've gotten some real goodies and when they didn't start out as "goodies" I made them into goodies (which is more fun anyway). I've also gotten some real junk. The problem being I didn't make sure there was a picture of the item. This is beside the point though.
I was in Arvada picking up some awesome free wooden posts, (I'll post a picture when I figure out what I want to do with them, cuz I know you are all dying to see a picture of wooden posts!)
and I still had some time before I had to pick Gracie up from preschool (which, by the way, I'm way behind in blogging about), so I decided to check out a thrift store I'd looked up in Denver.

I walked into this massive place, looked around, and realized I'd died and gone to heaven. Oh how I love you, Mile High Thrift Store!
I started to feel the giggles rising up in my throat as I saw the wonderland of projects waiting to come home with me.
Due my time limit however, I passed up this great wicker trunk and an adorable little kitchen chair. I think I might be sorry. :(
However, I did find a stash of mostly vintage patterns that with the right fabric and some creative liberties here and there, will turn out adorable. 45 cents a piece people!!!!
( I apologize for the crotch shot of Gracie and the shot of my toes. I was too excited to care.)

And the next thing that begged me to take it home was a bag of plastic fruit. Sounds super exciting I know, but just you wait to see what I'm going to do with this fruit.

I'm thinking beads or gold leafing (thanks Kari) or painted or topiaries. Four bucks isn't too bad for this right?

And lest you be worried that you will never see the finished product then let me calm your fears. I will post pictures when I'm finished with them.

Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Flu?

2009-10-05T14:16:00.001-06:00

Not me!
Dr Laurie is in the house! Ok kidding. I don't really think that much of myself.

However, having worked in the vitamin store industry for 4+ years, I do think I learned a thing or two.

Being hestitant to get this new flu shot they have for the swine flu, I have been thinking of other ways to arm my family's immune systems.

So here's what I've come up with:

Oscillococcinum

Looks intimidating I know. It's pronounced Ah-sil-o-cox-i-num. Lovingly called Oscillo for short.

It is a homeopathic remedy and while I was never that well versed in Homeopathy (or a big fan, honestly) I do know that this stuff FLEW off the shelves. People could not tell us enough good things about it. I finally tried it an I was pleased to have the same results as everyone else. Awesome.

And it comes in childrens versions too.

A couple things about Homeopathy I do know.

-Avoid touching the little pills. (They come in handy dandy little tubes that you can just pour into your mouth)

-Let them dislove under your tongue

-They taste good. ;)

Acidophilus

(aka probioics, aka good bacteria, aka live active cultures)

This is my favorite supplement ever!

Though most of you proabably know this, it's the stuff in yogurt that makes it so good for you. (well at least it's supposed to be in yogurt)

It fights off the bad bacteria in your digestive system and replenishes the good.

It's incredible for your immune system, digestive system (of course), an a myriad of other things. It's highly underated if you ask me.

I know that when I take it regularly my skin clears up, I don't ge sick nearly as much and my digestive system...well...you know.

Vitamin C

Pretty sure I don't need to say too much about this one. It strengthens the immune system like nobody's business.

I plan on taking 1500-3000 mgs a day (no it's not too much).

I plan on giving Gracie about 1000-1500 a day during flu season.

Preaching is waaaay easier than practicing but assuming I do practice I think it will be much harder for me to get sick.

Some other things I'll probably throw in there from time to time.

Herb Teas

Echinacea

Garlic (capsules for the non stincky factor)

Let's hope my plan works for me and my family.
We'll keep you posted.

Syndey and Susannah

2009-08-21T08:10:00.000-06:00

I am late in posting this as these girls have been gone for 2 weeks now, but better late than never right? :)
The fourth week in July we had the pleasure of having Gus' sister's girls come to stay with us for a couple weeks.
His sister Jodi and her hubby made the long trip out here to let us have their girls for a bit and we are so grateful they did.

Sydney is 11, almost 12 and Susannah just turned 9.
These girls are some of the sweetest girls I've known. And it was such a privilege to have them here. They were so willing to help and never hesitated to watch Gracie so I could have a nap.

They were so thoughtful and polite and so loving and patient with Gracie. We really miss them.

We didn't end up doing nearly all the fun things we wanted to, but I still had fun and we hope they did too.

Here are a few pics of our adventures.

SUCH A CUTE PIC OF SUSANNAH AT THE ZOO.

SYDNEY SPENT THIS ENTIRE POOL TRIP HANGING WITH GRACIE. GRACIE LOVED IT,THANKS SO MUCH, SYDNEY.

WE HAD A SPA DAY, WELL SPA AFTERNOON, REALLY. WE WERE SOAKING OUR FEET IN THIS PICTURE.

SWEET SUSANNAH CLEANED ONE OF THE UPSTAIRS BATHROOMS AND CONSEQUENTLY COVERED HERSELF IN COMET. SO CUTE!

AT THE DOC WITH GRACIE TO TAKE CARE OF HER LITTLE MISHAP AT THE POOL (she slipped on the tile and hit her eye with her goggles. All was fine though)

AT THE PARK

Blender Brilliance...

2009-08-12T12:44:00.000-06:00

I'm surrounded by brilliant people. As a result I have picked up a couple of things that I think are just genius.

Here is the latest brilliance:

Sassy Mama Smoothie
1 handful of frozen bluberries
3-4 ounces pure pomegranate juice (can substitute other juice)
1 handful raw baby spinach
1 banana
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
protein powder (about 10 gms)
ice to texture

Mix it all up in a blender for some serious antioxidants and taste.
(You can add a little honey if you want, if you like things a little sweeter as I do.:))

And yes, you read right, there is actually spinach in it. However, you can not taste it, smell it, or see it. That is why it's brilliant!
The blueberries completely mask it. So if you have some non-spinach lovers in your house as I do, they will still reap the benefits without even knowing it!

I recently read the book called THE BEAUTY DIET and 3/4 of these ingredients were listed in the book. So talk about some great looking skin too.

And to whom do I owe the credit of this brilliant Smoothie?
Jenn Walton, you are my hero!
Thanks so much for sharing this.

Pure GENIUS!!!

Enough please....

2009-08-12T12:20:00.000-06:00

Is anyone else completely sick of hearing about Michael Jackson??
I truly think I might barf.

Don't get me wrong...I was a true Michael Jackson fan back in the day. (you were only a true fan if you had the M.J. Doll and of course and even truer fan if you had a belt with his picture on it. ;))

I appreciate his talent. I really love a lot of his songs and I escpecially love his dancing. He was one talented dude.

But he was one messed up dude.
I understand that his life was screwed up....if I didn't before, I certainly do now.

I have Yahoo as my homepage and EVERY time I log in, without fail, there is some little blurb about something Michael Jackson on the news reel. NO JOKE, every day since his death there has been something.
How long has it been now? One month, two months? It seems like years. Here's some news: It's no longer news! As Glenn Beck likes to say, "He's still dead."

I don't think I can take it anymore.

The latest "news" I read is there is going to be yet ANOTHER tribute!!!!
Ok folks here's the deal, whether or not he actually molested little boys (I happen to think he did) he still had sleep overs with them (highly innappropriate) and did a number of other "not ok" things with them.

So why all the tributes?
Have we forgotten all about that stuff?
I can understand one maybe even two (if you catch me on a good day) tributes to him strictly for the talent that he shared. But really people, I think we are going a bit overboard here, especially for someone who was so severely lacking in moral judgement as he.

Really, I'm so over it.

No longer MIA...

2009-07-31T10:00:00.000-06:00

Hello blogging world. I've missed you.
Some significant things have happened since I blogged last. I've thought about writing about them many times but the thought of actually doing it was too overwhelming. Sad I know. :)
So I'm finally making myself sit down and fill in the gap of the past few months.

Many of you know that Gus and I have been unsuccessful in our attempts to have a second child. We've been trying for about 2 years now and we've had 3 pregnancies since being in Colorado, but no baby.

In May we were excited to find out that I was pregnant. We both felt really good about this one.
I called my doc immediately and they had me go in for blood tests to see if my hormones were rising properly. The nurse called to say they were looking great and by all accounts I was feeling quite pregnant.

A week or so later some things happened that alarmed me and I was off to the doc. We did an ultrasound hoping to find out a little about what was going on.
It was still pretty early to tell but what we could see was something that looked like and ectopic pregnancy.
All we could do was have more blood tests done and wait a few days.
My doc called back a couple days later to tell me that my blood levels were rising but not to where they needed to be. So he asked me to come in and they would give me the shot that dissolves the pregnancy. He was very adamant that he wanted to be sure that the pregnancy was an ectopic one before he gave me the shot so we did another ultrasound and using the higher tech machines of the perinatologist we were able to find a sac in the uterus where it was supposed to be.
It was really touching that my doctor was as elated as I was to have some hope. And for the first time since the wondering began I felt like crying.
He told me "we're back in the game". :) I was really so grateful for him doing all he could to make sure before he gave me that shot.
He did want to let me know that we weren't in the clear yet but we did know for sure that it wasn't an ectopic pregnancy. YAY. Those can be so damaging.
So we'd watch my blood levels and do some more ultrasounds.
I was concerned about a couple things, however, the thing that had initially alarmed me in the first place was still going on and my pregnancy symptoms had decreased.
After doing more blood tests we finally came to the realization that my pregnancy was not going to continue. So my doc told me that the best thing to do would be to let it go on its own. This would be miscarriage #5.

Sounds a bit like a roller coaster ride huh.

Gus was going to be out of town for work the following week and my insightful sister thought it would be a good idea if I came and spent the week with her. So she hooked me and Gracie up with some buddy passes and flew us to AZ.
Shortly after, the whole miscarriage process started and it was really such a blessing to be there. I don't know how I would have been able to take care of myself and Gracie alone and my big sis took care of us both. I got a wonderful blessing while I was there and my sister gave me her appointment with her Massage Therapist. I was really pampered.
Let me repeat it was a huge blessing to be able to be there.

It was so good to see Gus again when we got home. The following Saturday some of my Beehives and some of the other Young Women leaders from church came and cleaned my house.
I was initially H.O.R.R.I.F.I.E.D.!!!
But after not feeling well for a while it was desperately needed and it felt so good to have it clean. I was able to get over my pride and I just felt soooo grateful to have such great friends and people in my life. I don't think I realized how much I needed the help until it was done. So thank you ladies, you have no idea how much that helped me emotionally, not just physically.
I really feel like that was a huge turn around point for me.

So now it is almost August and I'm starting to feel like myself again, however, as many can attest, I am still missing a severe amount of brain cells. I truly hope they will return. ;)

I do want to share some if the things I've learned from this miscarriage.

Even though this was the hardest one for us, I still feel positive about it. That initial good feeling we had about the pregnancy hasn't left and I know that Heavenly Father has a purpose. Something good will come of this, whatever that may be.

It's great to try to be tough and do things for yourself, but it is great to accept help, and I often don't realize how much I needed it until the help has been given.

We have wonderful friends and family. We are soooo blessed.

Let me state again, I know Heavenly Father has a purpose for all of this. I don't fully understand what it is at the moment and maybe I will never fully understand, but I trust Him explicitly.

Max and Ruby

2009-04-29T13:00:00.000-06:00

Max and Ruby is one of my favorite shows that Gracie watches, however I have a couple concerns about it. I'd like to air them now.

Concern # 1:
Max is sooooo disobedient and mischeivous. Granted he's only disobedient to his big sister and we all know how well we listen to our big sisters (right Kathy?), but it appears that his big sister is the main authority figure in his life. Which leads me to my second concern....

Concern # 2:
WHERE ARE MAX AND RUBY'S PARENTS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Is it just me or do any of you find it slightly disturbing that these two juveniles are basically raising themselves with some occasional help from their grandmother?
I have never seen the slightest hint of a parent anywhere and Ruby has to take Max everywhere she goes. It really is starting to make me sad.

So it leaves me no alternative but to make my own assumptions. Either Max and Ruby live alone, which I'm pretty sure is illegal or their mother is there but not "there", if you catch my drift.

This is what I think she may be up to:

Gus has even gone so far to suggest that maybe none of them are bunnies at all. That maybe we are watching the story through her eyes and due to some unknown substances that mother bunny may be using maybe she's imagining the whole bunny thing.
Heck! Maybe she doesn't have any kids at all and everything is just a hallucination. Although... that sounds more like Yo Gabba Gabba.....

Easter Princess..

2009-04-13T09:00:00.001-06:00

Just a few photos of Gracie in her Easter dress...

Environmentally Aware...

2009-04-13T09:00:00.000-06:00

In case some of you were wondering. I just want you to know that I do my part to protect our environment and conserve our resources.

Proof:
WATER CONSERVATION

Eat your heart out Al Gore....

A Beautiful Message...

2009-04-12T20:08:00.000-06:00

I just don't know where she gets it.....

2009-03-30T11:27:00.000-06:00

Some of you are aware of the growing mischievousness that is now inhabiting Gracie.
Some of you are not. I, myself am still getting used to it.
Let me inform you.

We now have to make sure that any room that has lotion, shampoo or anything that can be smeared on her self or her dolls is locked, especially when she's supposed to be going to sleep.
Last night, for instance, I forgot to lock our bedroom door, and for a little girl that can be so VERY loud, she snuck into our room with ninja stealth and got into our lotion. She was careful to take it back to her bed though so she wouldn't be caught out of bed.
She smeared our expensive lotion all over her hair and her Cinderella Barbie's hair. This was probably about the 4th time she's done this just with the lotion. One time she used the entire rest of the bottle with was about 2/3 full.

She has been known to sneak into the bathroom and do the same with soap and shampoo.

She has also been known to take scissors to her cousin's Cinderella dress and her mommy's shirt. When I noticed the silence I panicked and called to her asking what she was doing. "Oh, I'm just cuttin". Her truthfulness shining through.

Let's see, there's the permanent marker on our hardwood floors, the stuffing that was pulled out of the couch cushions, the marker on some friends leather couch, the rice dumped all over the floor, numerous chap stick massacres, water dumped on he floor (although that is comparatively minuscule), a missing box of brand new Popsicles (strange how I've been finding Popsicle wrappers everywhere), the cups of sand in her and her cousins hair (although I knew about this-you have to pick your battle though) and numerous other things I simply can't keep up with. All of the above within a 2 week period.

Ahhhh, my sweet little girl.
She's no less sweet, only I am quickly learning that I can't leave her alone for more than 2 minutes without checking on her. Sometimes that's too long.

I just don't know where she gets all this mischievousness from.

It is starting to dawn on me a little though. This is me.

At least it's not ALL over her face.

bag of truth...

2009-03-29T20:15:00.000-06:00

Now, I wish I had something deep and profound to say about the bag of truth, however it is not my idea to claim. It is Gracie's.
What is a bag of truth, you ask? (Here's where I wish I had something deep to insert) It is her Strawberry Shortcake blanket wrapped into a ball.
I asked her what was in her bag of truth, thinking that my brilliant daughter was going to answer with something like "my heart" or..."love" or "Jesus". She states that her bag only has one thing in it...."a ball".

Folks, the bag of truth carries a ball. Truly profound!

On a side note however, Gracie has a wonderful quality of truthfulness. 99% of the time she will tell the truth even if it means she's going to get in trouble. It makes me very proud. So apparently she's had this "bag of truth" for a long time.
Hopefully she will never lose her "bag of truth"

Out of the mouths of babes...

2009-03-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

Things your 3 year old says that seriously challenge your self-confidence:

* "Mom, I just saw your biiiiig bum!"
* "Mom, you're the witch and I'm the princess."
* Gracie-"I don't like you." Me-"why don't you like me?" Gracie- "cause I can smell you!" (in my defense, we'd just eaten hot dogs with relish)

Today will be spent trying to pry myself from the fetal position...tomorrow...a shrink.

Disneyland for girls.....

2009-02-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

****LOTS OF PICTURES ALERT****
My sister organized a girls princess trip to Disneyland. She booked us (and paid for) a big ol' suite at the California Grand hotel which has a private entrance into California Adventure and Downtown Disney. And also made reservations (and paid for)for breakfast with the Princesses.
We were soooo excited for this trip!!! My sister-in-law Shelly and her 5 adorable girls were able to make it as well and we had a blast! So Sunday afternoon Gracie and I flew out to Phoenix to meet up with my sis. (It was cheaper to fly to Phoenix than to L.A.)
Monday we drove to Anaheim and checked into our AWESOME hotel. Tuesday and Wednesday we spent at the parks and Thursday headed back to Mesa. And Friday evening we flew home.

Highlights for Gracie:
Meeting the Princesses, playing with cousins, going to Build-A-Bear Workshop in Downtown Disney, riding Peter Pan, Small World, and "the elephants"(DUMBO), and driving the cars.

Highlights for me:
Hanging out with all the girls, the thrill of staying at the Grand, the concierge service, building a bear with Gracie, switching off with my sis-in-law to go on the Tower of Terror (AWESOME!!!!), meeting the princesses (yes I admit it, I think I loved it almost as much as Gracie)

The sad part:
We missed Daddy sooooo much! Saying goodbye to the my sis's and nieces. Saying goodbye to Disneyland.

Thank you so much Kathy for an incredible, memorable trip!!

PARTAAAAAY!!

2009-02-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

We had a little birthday party for Gracie on Saturday to celebrate her upcoming 3rd birthday. I am posting mostly pictures because Gus wants to blog about specifics. She has been asking for a Dora party almost since her last birthday. So we had a treasure hunt complete with very clever maps, courtesy of Gus, a Dora pinata, and a Dora cake. We had a great time!

Laughs...courtesy of Gracie......

2009-01-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

Gus was putting Gracie in her car seat the other night after we had been hanging out with friends. Well, Gus, being grateful to be out in the open air, as opposed to inside our friends home, took advantage of the opportunity and, for lack of a less offensive way to say this....broke wind.
I was sitting in the front seat oblivious to what was going on until I heard my daughter so sweetly chastise Gus saying, "Daddy, the stinky is gettin' in!"

As you can imagine I figured what was going on pretty quickly and Gus and I both busted up laughing.

(Lest you think I'm a horrible wife for posting these delicate or not-so-delicate things about my hubby, he has been telling his friends about it and has given me permission to do the same.)

Seasons....

2009-01-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

So today as I was trying to fall asleep for a lovely Sunday nap I was distracted by the sounds of kids playing outside and the feel of the pleasantly cool breeze coming through our screen door (yes...the door was open....in January....in Colorado....60 degrees, baby. AWESOME!) I suddenly became so excited for Spring to be here.
I love seasons and as much as I miss Arizona and California I love having 4 distinct seasons. And I love when the seasons are about to change.
Don't worry, I'm not getting my hopes up for Spring to come yet, I know we have plenty of Winter weather left ahead of us, but it's days like today that I remember how I'm so grateful for seasons.
I love Spring with it's blossoming flowers and green, new grass and the kite flying and rain and picnics and gardening and the sound of people and things coming out of their Winter "hibernation".

Summer makes me feel like playing all day. Swimming, camping, BBQs, fireworks, watermelon and tan lines and the smell of sunscreen.

And then comes Fall, when I'm so ready for it to cool down a little and put a jacket on, the leaves turn, and the air starts to get that crisp, "someone's got a fire going" smell to it and when all I want to do is bake pumpkin bread and burn cinnamon candles and go to pumpkin patches.

Winter comes bringing my favorite holiday, Christmas, it gets even colder and I am officially "allowed" to listen to Christmas music openly. And there's the perfect stillness of a thick snow falling and lights and bells everywhere. There's sledding and snowball throwing and snowman making and hot chocolate and crackling fires and family and baking.

And then when I'm ready for the snow to go away, it (the changing seasons) starts all over again. Everytime bringing the same traditions with new experiences and memories. It really is wonderful and always leaves something to look forward to.

What are some of your favorite yearly traditions or favorite things you do? I'd love to add to my list. :)

I finally posted the recipes!

2008-12-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

For those of you that were interested in my favorite fall recipes I finally posted them. You just need to scroll down. It's on my sidebar.
Hope you enjoy them.

My Fella...

2008-12-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

SAPPY NOVEL ALERT!!!

On November 29th Gus and I celebrated our 6th Anniversary. Ah. 6 years, we are old fogies now. ;)
It's been a wonderful 6 years with Gus. We've had ups and downs, lots of laughter and a little bickering. :) I couldn't be happier with the man I chose to spend my life with and I'm so happy he wanted to spend his life with me too.

There are so many things I love about him and so many things I'm grateful for about him. I love how practical and logical he is. I've always needed that in my life. I love how he can fix pretty much anything, which I also need since I have a tendency to be a bit of a klutz and break things (he says I'm a baby deer).

I love his sense of humor and the funny million and two sayings he has for things. I love that he loves music and is so talented at playing instruments and singing. I love it when he plays his guitar and the piano and even the drums. I love constantly having that music in our home. I

love what a good person he is and how he's always willing to help others out, He is such a gentleman. I love that he's so responsible. I love that his heart is so easily melted by his little Gracie. He's such a good dad. I love that he's brilliant. He is really quite a genius. I love that he is my very best friend, I would rather spend time with him than anyone else on earth. And I love that he loves ME .

So it's easy to see why I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this man. I often think about when we first met and all the fun/funny things that happen when you first start dating someone.

My dear cousin introduced us at a Christmas fireside. I'd seen him around our ward and thought he was handsome but didn't really pay a whole lot of attention. I was working at Anasazi at the time and was gone 16 days out of the month so I was sort of out of the loop anyway. Not too long after we met at the fireside he came up to talk to me and told me I looked like Cameron Diaz, I jokingly asked him if he wanted to marry me.

Later that month we went Christmas caroling with our ward and let's just say Gus couldn't stop flirting with me, HA HA. I'm teasing, Gus, we shared equal responsibility in the flirting. ;) I was cold, as usual, and he, being the fantastic gentleman that he is, offered me his coat. It swallowed me and I loved it.

That night after caroling we all ended up at our bishops for hot chocolate and he sat down by me. There happened to be a guitar close by so he picked it up and started playing a song he'd written, well lets just say that I was a goner. (I've always had a weakness for fellas that play the guitar) Here's the song that won my heart: (I made him record it for me)

Clever eh? He's a pretty good song writer! The day after Christmas was our first date. We went to Applebee's (I think he was horrified that I ordered a spinach artichoke pizza, HA) and then he played the guitar for me some more and then we went to see Majestic.
It was just so fun and natural to be with him. He ended giving me his coat again that night. (Apparently I have a problem)
By the end of January we were an official couple and 2 years and 1 day after I got home from my mission and 11 months after we met we were married. November 29th 2002 was the best day EVER!! So thank you Gus, for the fun times and for the wonderful husband that you are. I love you!

Why I Like Commercials...

2008-12-03T08:13:00.000-07:00

HA HA... I don't really like commercials...in fact I hate them. Who doesn't right?
But I have decided there are some benefits to them.
Here's why:
We live in such a fast paced, hurried society. I have found myself getting increasingly worse at waiting for things. I hate waiting in traffic, I don't like waiting in lines, if I order something online it's almost torture to wait 3 or 4 days until I get it. I am losing my patience and as a result I may be missing things, things that could enrich my life, things that I could learn from, people I could meet.

One of my FAVORITE inventions is DVR!! Oooo, I love it! We almost NEVER watch live TV anymore. It's great because we can get the things done that we need to do without missing our favorite shows and one of the best things is that we don't have to watch the commercials. YAY!

However, I have noticed that Gracie is also having a hard time waiting for things. It's hard for it not to happen. Everything is faster and faster and more convenient.
Now don't get me wrong I'm not complaining. But I do think there is value in knowing how to wait for things and I want Gracie to learn that.
So, when Gracie is watching one of her recorded shows I don't fast forward through the commercials anymore. She has to wait for her show to come back on.
Silly, you say? Maybe so, but one step at a time and every step counts, right?

Pre-Thanksgiving Musings.....

2008-11-26T19:09:00.000-07:00

So I have been thinking about why humans have the tendency to focus on the negative. Why is it that the news is full of bad news and why does it take 5 positive experiences to replace 1 negative?
Why is it that all the negative things that people say stick in our heads more than the positive things?
I'm just curious why our brains work this way?
Anyone have some insights??
My thoughts are we are sent to this earth to be tested and that is just one of the many tests that we face. We have to make a conscience choice to be grateful and positive, it doesn't seem to just come naturally. How grateful would we really be if it wasn't a struggle for us?
HMMMMM...just wondering.
What are your thoughts? Do tell.

And on another note, Gracie is grateful for many things:
We asked her to tell us some of the things she is grateful for and this is what she came up with: (in her words)
*I got a haircut
*I go to story time
*I'm thankyou for prophets
*I'm thankyou for Jesus
*I'm thankyou for forks
*I'm thankyou for turkey
*I'm thankyou for dragons
*I'm thankyou for...um....um....um...um...the PRINCE!
*I'm thankyou for the...the....the...colors!

And last but not least: Gracie's weekly Family Home Evening improvisational performance. The subject: Turkey (please pay special attention to her turkey impression)

My Angel Post

2008-11-10T07:49:00.000-07:00

So I'm posting this for my sister's blog carnival, Please Check it out if you haven't already. Real Angels, Real Life.

Today I may be breaking the rules a little bit by not posting a specific occasion that happened this week, but I just have to tell you of an angel in my life that I am lucky enough to be related to. It's my big sis. And I am sure she is going to be slighty embarrassed to see this so I will just call her my big sis. ;)
I could go on and on about the many talents of this big sis of mine and how she has such a way with words and storytelling and how creative she is and what an incredible seamstress and what a wonderful mother she is, but today I will just tell you what a great sister she is.

When we were younger I copied everything she did. I wanted to be just like her and I know it would annoy her quite a bit sometimes. If she had a favorite color, it was my favorite color, if she had a favorite actor, it was my favorite actor. The same was true with clothes, songs, and more.
Even more importantly she was such a spiritual, faithful person with such a strong testimony and love of Jesus Christ.
And because I wanted to be just like her I tried to follow her awesome example. I was very blessed to be trying to copy this great person.

I am grateful to say that my sister is my best friend. She is a person that I can share anything with and she will give me her sisterly opinion without judgment. I can call her with the most trite of things to say or with my deepest thoughts and I don't have to try to be strong for her.

She will call me to check on me on a regular basis. We were together when my dad died and it was heart wrenching to not be together when my mom passed away.
I truly don't know what I'd do without her in my life and while I know I could write something specific about what she does weekly I just want you to get a feel for this wonderful constant angel in my life.
Hope you're not too emabarrassed, big sis!

And so it begins.......

2008-11-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I can't believe I had and actual conversation about modesty already with my 2YEAR OLD!!!!
I guess it's better too soon than too late, right?
I am always suprised at how much she notices.
Well, a clip of a Beyonce music video came on the news this morning and as usual she was wearing very little.
To my shock and horror I hear my sweet little girl say "when I get older I can wear that". Picture me, jaw dropped and screaming "NO!!!!!!" inside my head.
The first thing I could get out of my mouth was "oh I hope not". I then had to explain that we keep our bodies covered to show respect for them and it's not good to dress that way.
Yikes. I was not prepared for that. I better get prepared, eh? Hopefully in the future I will be ready.
So, a speacial thanks to you, Beyonce (and all those that share your philosophy of
"less is more"), for making this conversation with my TWO YEAR OLD possible.

A FANTASTIC book...

2008-11-07T21:09:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post about this book for some time now and I'm finally getting to it.
Some of you know that I LOVE talk radio and I listen to it whenever I get a chance. Well one of the talk shows I was listening to was Dennis Prager and his guest for the hour was a woman named Alison Armstrong.
She was talking about how women so often completely misunderstand men and how we so often expect them to think and talk and respond like a woman does.
Well as someone who was brought up by my mother on Fascinating Womanhood this peaked my interest.
I then proceeded to check out the only book of hers I could find at the library, Keys to the Kingdom, and read it. I won't spoil it, but let me just say that it makes sooo much sense!
I feel like men often get a bad rap and in today's society they are viewed as a "necessary evil".
This book helped me have such an appreciation and understanding for men that, even with my moms example and teaching, I just didn't get before.

Read it!:)
Yea, I'm starting to feel like I'm on Reading Rainbow. ;)

Real Angels, Real Life...

2008-11-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

This is a fantastic idea that my sister just started up. It is called a blog carnival (which I'd never heard of until now). This particular blog carnival is one that I know I need in my life right now and that is to focus on other people and their goodness.
Please check it out http://realangelsreallife.blogspot.com/and if you're so inclined, please post on your blog about the good in other people.

"Four" Real.....

2008-11-05T09:00:00.001-07:00

4 Random things I love about hubby:

*He's so big and tall and strong
*I swear he can fix ANYTHING
*He gets this mischievous/smug/pleased with himself look on his face when he's about to say something funny
*His musical talents

4 Jobs I've had:

*Corn Dog Factory Worker
*Telemarketer (yeah, I know, sorry all yous)
*Anasazi Trail Walker
*Waitress

4 Movies I have seen more than once:

*Never Been Kissed
*Ever After
*Harry Potter (the 1st four)
*Wait Until Dark

4 TV Shows I watch:

*The Office
*Big Bang Theory
*Amazing Race
*So You Think You Can Dance

4 Places I've Been:

*Romania
*Mexico
*Catalina Island
*Montana

4 places I've lived:

*Arizona
*Utah
*California
*Texas

4 Favorite Foods:

*Chips and/or homeade tortillas with salsa
*Red Robin's Guacamole Bacon Burger
*Frozen Custard
*Horchata

4 Places I'd Like to Visit:

Hawaii/Fiji/Tahiti (someplace tropical, you get the drift)
Italy
New York
South America

4 People I tag:

Angie B.
Connie M.
Angie R.
Gus H. (of course you'll have to write about you wonderful,loving, nearly perfect and oh so humble wife as opposed to your husband, you know, since you're a man and all.)

Halloween

2008-11-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

Halloween was great! We had a fantastic church Halloween party and then Gus' parents got to be here for a couple days, so they were here over Halloween and Gracie was soooo excited to be able to show them her costume!
We went to Chatfeild Reservoir for a picnic. The day was GORGEOUS!!!! In fact I was able to get a slight tan. Gracie took off her pants and waded around in the water to her hearts content.
Gus caught a trout and we fed the geese and just relished the unseasonably warm weather.
I love fall weather like this cause it reminds me of fall in Arizona when after a very hearty Thanksgiving meal we'd go out and jump on our tramp in the perfect sunny but only slightly warm weather. I'd be fine just having snow for December and having 70 degree weather the rest of the time. Fantastic!

When trick or treat time came around we met up with Tyson and his mommy and headed from their house down to ours and only kept to one side of the street and by the time we got to our house both kiddos had a boatload of candy.
They had so much fun.
It really is so much fun to be out with the whole neighborhood.

So that,in a nutshell, is our fun Halloween!
Here are the pics:

I might be a little biased but I think she was the cutest cowgirl/horsy ever!

So excited to see her buddy, Tyson in his Bob the Builder costume.

The Cake Walk!

YAY! We won!

One of Gracie's favorite things to do....fishing with daddy!

Me, with my 2nd place ribbon for the chili cook off! I was pretty excited. Thanks, Julie for the FANTASTIC Taco Soup recipe!

All ready for next Halloween!
(you gotta love that sweet dorito face!)

I'm IT!

2008-10-29T08:17:00.000-06:00

1.The dimple on my cheek is not a real dimple. It is a result of falling on a stick when I was 2 or 3.
2.I like sauerkraut.
3.I don't like Andes mints.
4.I have been to Romania.
5.I sang in a swing band.
6.I have eaten menudo (cow stomach soup).
7.I talk in my sleep.

I tag:
Kathy, Megan, Jodi, Jamie, Koe, Kari, Courtni, you're it ladies!

A day at the farm....

2008-10-21T15:19:00.000-06:00

There is a working farm from the late 1800's in Littleton that they have made into a museum. Why I don't frequent it more I don't know, but it's so fun and the best part is, it's FREE!
Here are some pictures of our fun day with Angie, Tyson and Porter at the Littleton Historical Museum.

Here comes the storytime snob again....

2008-10-10T14:40:00.000-06:00

Ok so I've thought about posting this for awhile now and after a particularly frusterating storytime on Thursday I've decided to let the gripes fly.

My gripes about storytime:
*People that will come late and sit down right in front of you, resulting in your little one being unable to see.
*People that will talk to their friends at FULL volume during storytime.
*People that let their little kids run all over the place, over other people and their stuff.
*People that wear really short, loose shorts and then sit cross-legged towards everyone.
*People that don't take their screaming kids out.
*The absolute biggest annoyance is when all of the above is combined into one person.

Now I know that sounds pretty harsh and judgmental, but you all know how I feel about my story....I mean Gracie's storytime.
So why do I keep going, you ask?
Because, the positives outweigh the negatives.

So here are the positives/What I love about storytime:
*Watching a bunch of toddlers jumping and singing and doing actions all at different times.
*Miss Jo
*Gracie and mommy fun, bonding time.
*Teaching Gracie reading skills.
*Getting out of the house.
*Despite the annoyance I feel sometimes, I love to people watch.

So there you have it folks. You're welcome to come to storytime with us......if you dare! ;)

Reasons I like Cinderella...

2008-10-09T07:25:00.000-06:00

It is official now....Gracie has discovered princesses!

What is it with little girls and princesses, or big girls and princesses, for that matter? I'll be the first to admit (and Gus will enthusiastically agree) that I'm a sucker for a fairy-tale story, ESPECIALLY a Cinderella story or anything that resembles Cinderella.
It doesn't matter how poorly made, how ridiculously cheesy, how horrible the acting, I will gladly and enthusiastically watch it.
Gus is often appalled at the quality (or lack thereof) of acting or storyline, etc. that I will let slide simply because it's Cinderella.
What can I say? I nurture that little girl in me (maybe a little too much :).

So I've thought about it and I have come up with reasons I love Cinderella.
Here goes:
* She always has a positive attitude despite her less than desirable circumstances.
* She is kind and cheerful and patient, even to people that mistreat her.
* She is an animal lover.
* She is feminine and graceful.
* She is a domestic goddess.
* She sings beautifully.
* She is beautiful enough to attract the attention of a Prince. ;)
* And last but not least you've got to love the rags to riches story.

So it's no wonder I like her and it's no wonder all little girls want to be like her. Honestly she is something good to aspire to.

So even at 30, I still want to be like Cinderella. :)

Gracie's Prayers

2008-10-07T20:01:00.000-06:00

Just a few of Gracie's sincere prayers:

Dear Heavenly Father,
We thank thee for my octopus that can swim, we thank thee for my doggie, we thank thee for my reindeer, we thank thee that I can brush my teeth, we thank thee for mommy, we thank thee for daddy, we thank thee for mommy's glasses and we thank thee for daddy's glasses that they work so hard. In the name Jesus Christ Amen!

Dear Heavenly Father, ("Father" is yelled at the top of her lungs)
We thank thee for great day, ("great day" also yelled at the top of her lungs)
we thank thee for great birthday party,
We thank thee for Tyson's house
In the name Jesus Christ Amen

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for this great day. Thank you for this bear, thank you for the bear roar....

So..I am tired.

2008-10-02T21:48:00.000-06:00

Some of you, I think, are wondering where I have gone.
Well.... I have fallen off the face of the Earth and I apologize. I know you are just dying to know what interesting things are going on in my life (wink wink) and so I will tell you.

This past month has been a rough one for me. Why, you ask? Well, honestly I'm not sure...ok well, some things I know why, but others.....?

Many of you know that I do not function well without my 10 hours a day of sleep. You think I'm joking??? I'm not.
And you also know that Gracie was trying to get used to a "big girl bed". Well my need for sleep and Gracie and her new bed are meshing about as well as oil and water.
So, I'm tired.

This month, after practically begging my doc for thyroid medicine, I was finally started on the lowest dosage.
Yes, thyroid medicine. Last year I was told I had an enlarged thyroid and to me the way I'd been feeling for so long finally made sense, only I was also told that my thyroid levels were "normal". So, despite having symptom after symptom of an under active thyroid, I forgot about it and just went on.
Well, recently I've gotten a "bee in my bonnet" and decided that the nagging feeling that something is being missed with my thyroid needs to be addressed.
So I've been trying to learn all I can, and the more I learn the more I am convinced that there is a problem.
Wish me luck on my quest to get my health back.
It's sort of consumed me and it turns out it's a bit draining.
So, I'm tired.

Many of you also know that we have been trying to have another little one since Feb-March-ish of 2007.
My body isn't co-operating. So as a result I have had 3 miscarriages since then with the last one being as recent as this last week.
It turns out that's a bit draining as well.
So...I'm tired.

So all this tiredness along with my lack of energy :) and well...you have an absent blogger.;)

Today, however, was a good day.
Gracie has been doing soooo much better the past week and today I actually felt like I want to rejoin life.

I would still like to get away, all by myself, for a little while, to a little secluded island waiting for me with a luscious bed tucked cozily away in a little hut and sleep for days in the warm sun and cool breeze....aaaahhhh...but I think I can get back to the simple things that I enjoy (i.e. blogging) and some things that I don't enjoy so much, but that desperatley need to be done (i.e. dishes).

I'm pretty sure that there isn't one of you out there that wouldn't like to tuck yourself away on a little island somewhere for a few days as well, Eh?

The alphabet according to Gracie....

2008-09-13T13:30:00.000-06:00

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Curious George T U V W X Y and Z