4 Year Anniversary!!!

Today was our four year anniversary. It seems weird that it has only been four years--it feels like we've been married a lot longer than that (I mean that in a good way). I can't believe everything that has happened in such a short time. It has been an amazing past four years. Josh's mom (thank you) watched the boys while we went to Texas Roadhouse and had dinner. Josh said he was proud to have a wife that can totally out-eat him :) We then went to Lowe's to get the lumber we needed to put together the shed that we bought for our anniversary. Yes, we bought a shed for our anniversary--aren't we practical. Now the big job is putting the thing together, so wish us luck.

Pretty Boring Lately

So the reason I haven't updated my blog for so long isn't because we've been super busy or just lazy, but because not too much has been going on lately. Just the same old, same old.

Wrestling with the Boys

Driving the shopping cart at Lowe's

My niece Bailey, Quinten, and Josh built some pretty redneck snowmen in front of the house

Quinten is doing great in preschool and we're on spring break this week. I'm probably crazy for signing him up for next year too (it's a 20 mile drive up to Shelley) and he will go 3 days instead of 2, but he absolutely loves his teacher and she is incredible. Quinten's new thing is wanting to dress himself for preschool. I used to be the mother who actually cared if the socks matched the outfit, but now...not so much. I told him to go get dressed the other day and this is how he comes out.

The sweater he has on is one my sister knitted for Gavin when he was a baby. And the other day he decided to wear some blue 80's sweatband into preschool the other day. Not joking...the poor kid looked like Richard Simmons.

Gavin is now jabbering all the time. He says a few words like mom, dad, bubba, and ball. Every once in a while he'll throw something else out there, but it's probably something only a mom understands. He can stand up all by himself in the middle of a room without holding on to anything...yet he absolutely will NOT take a step. He'll stand up and then I'll sit right by him and put my arms out and tell him to walk to me, and he'll gently lower himself down to the floor and crawl the whole 6 inches over to me and stand back up again. I can't tell if he's just lazy or cautious. His new favorite thing is to play This Little Piggy...

This little piggy went to market...

And this little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home!

This is what happens when Gavin meets grape juiceGavin playing in the tub with dad

Tagged, tagged, and tagged some more!

Okay, so I've been tagged about a million times and it seems like I never get around to them. So today is the day I'm catching up. So I'm sorry if this is really long, boring, and too much information and no one could care less, but I especially love the one about babies because I can honestly say that sometimes I have a hard time remembering which baby was which. So while it is still fresh in my mind - here goes.



BABY TAG
(Since I had two babies I'm doing two separate tags - one for each)


Baby #1
1- Where were you when you found out? I was in the upstairs bathroom of our townhouse when I took the test. The one I had taken two weeks earlier was negative, so it was quite a surprise that this one was positive.
2- Who did you first tell? I walked out of the bathroom and Josh was just walking up the stairs and I just blurted out I was pregnant. Kristin was next on my list to tell.
3- Did you find out the sex of the baby? Yes - a boy.
4- Did you have morning sickness? No.
5- How much weight did you gain? 39 pounds.
6- Did you get any stretch marks? Let's just say my butt looked like a zebra.
7- Did you have any cravings? I really liked sour patch kids. I really craved Chinese food in the very beginning, but once I ate it, it took me almost a year until I could eat it again. Oh, and Belgian Waffles on the day I had him, but I threw them up once I got to the hospital.
8- Were there any complications? Nope.
9- When and where did you go into labor? I was at our house and had just gotten out of the bathtub and I immediately knew I needed to go into the hospital. I hadn't felt any painful contractions before that but as soon as they hit, they hit hard. When I got to the hospital I was almost fully dilated.
10- Did your water break? No.
11- Who drove to the hospital? Josh.
12- Who was in the room for the birth? Josh, my mom, sister, mom-in-law, Lynzi and both my midwives were there. It was all by pure luck that everyone was at my house when I went into labor or else they would have missed it. I loved having a bunch of people in there because I think it distracted me and made me take my mind off the fact that I was having a baby. I just talked and smiled through the whole thing.
13- Was the baby born early or late? He was 3 days overdue.
14- How long were you in labor for? I felt my first contraction at 7 p.m., got to the hospital at 8:00 and he was born before 10:00, so less than 3 hours - lucky I know.
15- Did you have any drugs for the pain? No.
16- Natural or C-Section? Natural.
17- What was your first reaction after birth? I was on an adrenaline high. I couldn't stop smiling and didn't sleep that entire night.
18- How big was the baby? 9 lbs 3 oz and 21 inches long.
19- Date and time of birth? Sept. 29, 2005 at 9:48 p.m.
20- Baby's name? Quinten Joshua Hansen.
21- Does the name have any significant meaning? Quinton was the name of Josh's friend from high school and Joshua is his daddy's name.
22- Did the baby have any complications? No.
23- How old is the baby today? 3 years old.
24- What kind of temperament has the baby had so far? He is the kid that doesn't sleep. Even from day 1 he wouldn't sleep at night, and would only take a couple of tiny cat naps. He still has only slept through the night a handful of times. And he used to be obsessed with balls. One time I didn't have any balls for him to hold while he fell asleep, so I have a picture of him holding two potatoes while we wheeled him around in the stroller.
25- Would you change anything about it? Not at all. I have to say that it honestly couldn't have gone any better. It was the kind of pregnancy and delivery that people dream about.




Baby #2
1- Where were you when you found out? Josh and I had taken Quinten to the fair and I came home and took a test just for the fun of it (that's what you do when you buy the bulk pack of pregnancy tests at Costco) and SURPRISE - pregnant.
2- Who did you first tell? I was going to wait and think of some really fun way to tell Josh, but that lasted for a whole 20 minutes and I broke down and told him. I then called Kristin and Lynzi. It was funny because Lynzi had just found out she was pregnant a week before and told me I needed to get pregnant so we could have babies at the same time and guess what, I already was.
3- Did you find out the sex of the baby? Yep, a boy.
4- Did you have morning sickness? No.
5- How much weight did you gain? 30 pounds. I actually exercised every single day, even on the day I delivered him, because my midwife told me I had to so I didn't have a baby bigger than Quinten.
6- Did you get any stretch marks? A couple on my belly.
7- Did you have any cravings? Not really.
8- Were there any complications? No.
9- When and where did you go into labor? I was at our house and got ready to go to bed and as soon as I laid down I felt a really strong contraction and woke Josh up and said I thought we had better go to the hospital so they could start the IV and then maybe just send me home again. Good thing we left when we did because by the time we made it to Poky I knew we were staying there for good.
10- Did your water break? No - he was actually born in sac.
11- Who drove to the hospital? Josh.
12- Who was in the room for the birth? It was actually just Josh this time because nobody else had time to make it there.
13- Was the baby born early or late? 4 days overdue.
14- How long were you in labor for? I felt my first really good contraction about 11:30 p.m. and he was born 2 hours later.
15- Did you have any drugs for the pain? No.
16- Natural or C-Section? Natural
17- What was your first reaction after birth? I was kind of in shock. The birth story will explain why. When I got to the hospital I was only a 4, but I was pretty uncomfortable, so my midwife suggested getting in the shower to help me relax. After a while in there I asked her to check me again and she said I was at a 6. She no sooner took her hand away and ungloved and I told her I felt like I needed to push. So within seconds I pushed once and out he came. It was so unexpected and crazy! I love my midwife because she's the only person I know who would be catching my ewwy gooey slimy baby bare handed while wearing a tank top and heels. It was so fast she didn't even have time to gown and glove. So I still had to carry my baby back from the bathroom to the bed while he's still attached. So I was kind of in shock that it had really just happened like that.
18- How big was the baby? 8 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long.
19- Date and time of birth? April 11, 2008 at 1:38 a.m.
20- Baby's name? Gavin Marq Hansen.
21- Does the name have any significant meaning? I just liked the name Gavin and Josh's dad is named Marc and my dad's name is Mark, so Josh thought it would be fun to name him Marq - so I decided to give him this one.
22- Did the baby have any complications? Because he was born so fast, he was super blue because he was basically suction cupped on the way out. He also hit my pelvis which caused him to have a hematoma on his head. As the blood reabsorbed into his system, it caused him to have bad jaundice so he was in the Bilibed for the first few nights home.
23- How old is the baby today? Almost 10 months.
24- What kind of temperament has the baby had so far? He was a pretty good baby. He was so much more mellow than Quinten was. He doesn't sleep worth a darn now though. I guess my genetics just make babies that require no sleep.
25- Would you change anything about it? It was quite the adventurous delivery, and the only thing I would change is I wish that whoever would have wanted to be there could have been.

I tag Kristin, Jesse, Hope & Hayley

SIX AND SIX

Here's the game:
1) Go to your picture folder, or wherever you store your photos on your computer
2) Go to the sixth folder and pick the sixth picture
3) Post it on your blog and tell the story that goes along with the picture
4) Tag four friends to do the same

I took this picture this past fall. I was trying to get some cute pictures of the two boys together, but Quinten wouldn't hold still and Gavin hated the feel of the leaves so he just cried if I ever set him down. So I just ended up getting a few of Quinten playing around in the leaves - good times.

I now tag Lynzi, Michelle, Andrea & Sarah






This last tag is actually one that I got tagged with on facebook. Since I have absolutely no idea how to make anything work on facebook, I decided I'd just put it up on my blog.


25 RANDOM THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF

1- I can't sleep with a top sheet. Somehow I end up all twisted and tied up my morning, so I now just have a comforter with a duvet cover.
2- I've been to more countries than states.
3- I HATE snakes.
4- I am such a backseat driver when Josh is behind the wheel. I know it drives him crazy, but I figure two sets of eyes paying attention is better than just one ;)
5- I drink almost a whole gallon of milk in a day - I'm thinking I should invest in a cow.
6- I am extremely indecisive when someone asks me where I want to eat. It's not that I'm picky, I just don't really care because I like everything, so I want the other person to decide what they want.
7- I tend to over-exaggerate everything.
8- I could live off cereal and be a happy about it.
9- I love anything sweet - cookies, cakes, brownies, chocolate.
10- I have every intention of decorating my house, but the indecisiveness in me needs someone to tell me where to put things--any volunteers!
11- When I was in high school, doctors told me I had a vasovagal response (syncope) where I would just pass out in certain situations. It happened a lot my senior year and also in my freshman year of college. If I was tired, stressed, hungry, didn't want to be in a certain situation, or just at random, my body would just shut off and I would faint. Wimpy, I know. Luckily it has gotten better because it hasn't happened to me since my freshman year at ISU, so at least I feel like my body isn't going to bail on me when I need it the most :)
12- I have to give props to all you dental hygienists out there because for some reason about the only thing that grosses me out is when people spit out their toothpaste after brushing their teeth. Don't ask me why, but for some reason I just can't watch it. But I am getting better and I don't have to leave the room anymore when Josh is brushing his teeth.
13- I am very sarcastic. Sorry if I ever offend anyone - I swear it is genetic.
14- I cook in massive quantities. We always have leftovers. I would feel bad if there wasn't enough food for everyone to have seconds, thirds, fourths and fifths.
15- I get my energy kick late at night, which really stinks when your kids decide to wake up at 5:00. I'm really trying to change to be a morning person, but I just like night time.
16- I constantly wish I was better at staying in contact with my friends. There is nothing in the world like an old friend.
17- I don't particularly like water. I can swim and all, but I just don't like feeling out of my element.
18- I love taking pictures. My camera is always glued to my hip.
19- I should have been a dermatologist because I have a picking obsession. Poor Josh probably feels like he married a monkey.
20- I cannot sing to save my life. Quinten used to cry as a baby when I would sing to him and now he just covers his ears and yells at me to stop singing (sometimes I do it just to terrorize him).
21- I can never say no to people who come to my door selling things. I now own cleaners, magazines and even a vacuum.
22- I am a procrastinator. For some reason I just work better under pressure.
23- I can easily out-eat my husband. Trust me, it's no easy task, but I like to think of it as one of my better talents.

24- I live in my sweat pants. The first thing I do when I walk through the door is throw on a pair of old sweat pants (usually the ones that have holes and paint all over them that I stole from my mom back in junior high).
25- I LOVE winter. I could live in the Arctic if it was up to me. I guess Idaho was the right place for me to live.

Since I can't think of anyone to tag right off the top of my head, whoever wants to do this - do it. I love learning new things about all of my friends, so give me 25 random facts.

Husband Tag

1. Where did you meet your husband? At ISU - Mitch Sorensen was his roommate and hooked us up.
2. How long did you date before you got married? 7 months.
3. How long have you been married? Almost 4 years.
4. What does he do to surprise you? Even though on day shift he has to be to work by 5:30 in the morning, I'll wake up to find all the dishes done.
5. What is your favorite feature of his? His blue eyes - Kristin always threatened that if I didn't marry a blue-eyed boy, she'd break up my wedding (she said my kids had to have blue eyes).
6.What is your favorite quality? Besides the fact that he is so good to me and my boys, I would have to say that life is never boring when he is around. The other morning he poured cold water on me while I was in the shower, so even after almost 4 years of marriage, he still knows how to have fun.
7. Does he have a nickname for you? I guess maybe Hun.
8. What is his favorite food? Either my stir-fry or meatloaf-the funny thing is he hated both until I made them from my mom's recipe.
9. What is his favorite sport? Either basketball or football.
10. When and where did you first kiss? At his apartment after our first date.
11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Go camping.
12.Do you have children? 2 little boys, Quinten & Gavin.
13. Does he have any hidden talents? He can juggle.
14. How old is he? 28.
15. Who said I love you first? He did.
16. What is his favorite music? Anything, even the really old music that only old men listen to on their way to the coffee shop.
17. What do you admire most about him? He really is the most generous guy I know. Whether it is donating to those in need or helping out his family and friends, he is always thinking of others.
18. What is his favorite color? Blue.
19. Will he read this? Not unless I tell him to.
20. Person I tag. Kristin.

My Kind of Santa

So I had to post this mainly because one day I want to be able to remember this and tell Quinten all those funny things he used to say when he was a kid. The boys and I went to my mom's house this weekend while Josh worked overtime. My mom has this old-fashioned Santa that has been around since I can remember. Anyway, Santa has this big brown sack full of presents on his back. Well Quinten is playing with the Santa and yells at the top of his lungs from the other room, "Mom, Santa has garbage." It takes me a minute to figure out what he means, but my dear sweet kid thinks that Santa carries around a big old sack of trash, not presents. So I figure this Christmas is going to be one of the easiest ever. All I have to do is throw a big sack of garbage under our tree and tell him Santa came by. Now that's my kind of Santa! I just hope that at preschool today he doesn't learn that Santa really brings presents and not garbage. I'd hate to have to be a good mom ;)
Oh yeah, so today Gavin got his 2nd tooth and finally learned how to crawl. For the past little while he's just been rolling around and then sitting himself back up. He was able to get to whatever he wanted this way, so crawling really wasn't that big of a deal to him. Well he finally got frustrated with face planting it all the time, because this morning I was watching him play with his toys and he started crawling around to all of them. I guess it's finally time to put the gates up because I have a feeling that this moose is on the loose!

Thanksgiving & BSU

Thanksgiving Day!!!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving this year! We spent the day at Josh's mom and dad's house. It was so much fun to get to hang out with everybody. I love this time of year!!! I know it can be pretty chaotic, but I love the hustle and bustle of the holidays. We had a great dinner (thanks Teena) and I only managed to spill half the pan of sweet potatoes in the back of my car while transporting them from my house to theirs :) After dinner we all just got to hang out. Quinten and Josh had a blast playing the Wii. It was pretty funny to watch them duke it out.

Quinten and Josh boxing on the Wii

The next day Marc and Teena watched the boys while Josh and I went with his friends from high school and their wives to the Boise State game against Fresno. His friend Quinton (yes this is who my little guy is named after) helped build the sky suites above the stadium, so he got us tickets on the 2nd row (thanks Quint and Steph). We drove up with his other friend Trever and his wife Barb. Awesome news by the way, Barb finally gets to use the big "R" word - yes she's in remission!!! I couldn't be more happy for you guys right now. All those prayers really were heard!! Quinton also got all access passes at the game so we could go up and see the sky suites. It was pretty awesome to see the game from up there! Oh yeah, so Josh got his fifteen minutes of fame on ESPN. I guess he saw the camera filming the fans and started hollering and stuff, and all of us girls are looking at him like he's crazy because it is like 2nd down and nothing very exciting is happening. So then about 10 seconds later his boss calls and says he saw him on ESPN. It was pretty funny because I think Josh's boss is the only person we even know that saw it because everyone else missed the first of the game. We also got to eat dinner at this awesome place called Baja Fresh. It was awesome Mexican food and highly recommended. It was the longest that I've left Gavin since he was born, and he wouldn't let me out of his sight when I got home. Sometimes it's nice to know you're missed :) It was such a fun day - thanks everybody!!

The Girls - Steph, Barb & Me


The Boys - Josh, Trever & Quinton


I know this is really blurry,
but that blur at the very top of
the suites is Josh & Quinton.

Catch Up!

So I've been really bad at updating my blog lately. I really haven't been all that busy, but for some reason I just never seem to get around to it. Not too much has been going on, but I'll try to catch up on what has. Halloween was pretty crazy. I woke up sick as a dog and then had to pack up the boys take Quinten to preschool. All the kids got to wear their costumes to school that day and it was absolutely precious to see every single one of the girls in his class dressed up as a princess! Quinten, of course, was a ninja turtle.

Last year on Halloween, we had a billion kids come trick-or-treating at our house and we ended up running out of candy within the first hour. I even scrounged around our pantry and gave out fruit snacks and microwaveable popcorn. Josh finally told me to just turn off the lights before I ended up giving out cans of soup. So this year I was prepared. I bought a literal ton of candy along with all sorts of other little things like Halloween pencils. Well go figure, we barely got any kids this year. Josh ended up pretty much dumping armfuls of candy into all the kids sacks just to get rid of it all. I was a total slacker mom this year because I had absolutely no idea on what Gavin's costume should be, and anyone who knows me knows that I am one of the biggest procrastinators you will ever meet - but in my defense I have to say that it gets done, it just gets done at the last minute ;) So I ended up just wrapping him up in tin foil just long enough to get a picture and I guess in the future when he asks me what he was for his first Halloween, I'll just tell him he was a baked potato. I figure it was very Idaho of me.

Josh and I have this joke about Mr. Potato Head that is kind of dumb so I won't bore you with the story, but for his costume I taped little pieces of Mr. Potato Head onto the back of his shaved head so he could be Mr. Potato Head.

I was a party pooper and didn't dress up. I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I ended up crashing on the couch after the kids passed out from an extreme sugar high. I think Josh felt pretty bad for me because he carried me into bed-which I'm sure was no easy task.

Gavin has accomplished a few baby milestones over the past few weeks. He started by sitting up all by himself. It's so nice to be able to just set him down and not have to worry about him flopping over when he gets excited. He went to his six month checkup back in October and he weighed almost 20 pounds. He absolutely LOVES food! Quinten never seemed to enjoy eating all that much, but Gavin will eat anything you put in front of him. He squeals anytime you don't get the spoon to him fast enough. I also discovered his first tooth on November 2nd while I was eating at Red Lobster with my mom. I'd say overall he is a pretty happy little guy (much more content than Quinten was) even though he's decided that he wants to be a morning person, which I am not. The other morning he woke up at 3:00 and never even took a nap until almost noon. I guess I'm just blessed with two boys who require no sleep to function. He's now working on crawling which mostly ends up with him face planting, but he's getting there.

Quinten has been loving preschool. So far the teacher has only lost him once. Apparently he decided to be independent and go outside to wait for mom and left all the other kids and teacher inside. Sometimes I miss those days when he couldn't walk. Quinten's new found loves are pistachios and spinach. He'll sit and shell pistachios all day and then says he wants salad. This is a whole new Quinten since his past loves were chocolate and burritos. I had to laugh the other day because Quinten has finally started to like kid shows. In the past he's picked some of the oddest shows to watch. His first favorite was Sports Center. He wasn't even a year yet and all we had to do was turn on Sports Center and he would stop crying. Then he loved America's Funniest Home Videos, followed by Wipeout, MXC, and Ninja Warrior, and now he's into Tom and Jerry.

Josh got his deer out on the desert between Arco and Blackfoot. He shot it out in the middle of the lavas and then had to pack it out 3 miles in the dark while it was snowing. I kind of thought it was funny even though I know he didn't. I thought Quinten would be grossed out seeing the deer and all, but he was right there in the middle of it. A true boy I guess.

I'll have to post some pictures later of what I've been up to lately. Josh was awesome this summer and bought me all the stuff I needed to start doing photography. I hated missing all these great pictures of my kids because my little tiny camera would take too long to focus and take the picture. So he bought me a really nice camera and I've had so much fun blinding my kids to death. I think they both just want to turn and run when they see me reach for my camera. Luckily for me Gavin can't crawl yet, so I have a few more weeks to torture him - sorry son.