End of Summer

Well I've been a major slacker lately when it comes to blogging. Mainly because we have yet to spend a weekend home this entire summer. We've spent almost every single weekend out camping. It's been great getting to hang out with our families.

All of my mom and dad's grandkids

We spent a lot of time out 8-mile. Quinten ended up throwing his Crocs in the stream, so we had to drive in to Alco to get him new shoes. Well, the selection was pretty slim and the only shoe that was even in his size was a pretty pair of pink girl's shoes. I figured who really cares what he looks like out camping so I bought them. It was pretty funny though because he sure thought they were pretty cool. He kept showing them off to everybody saying "Look at my new pink shoes." Then my nephew Caden went wading in the stream with Josh's hip waders to see if he could find Quinten's old shoes. So he stuck this huge stick under the bank and lifted it up and out pops Quinten's shoes, two balls, and a Frisbee. It was pretty funny to see what all the other past campers have lost down the same stream.

Quinten and his pretty pink shoes

Earlier this summer Josh surprised me and bought me a really nice new camera, so with hunting season coming up I decided to surprise him and get him a four-wheeler. Quinten was so excited he could barely handle it. Anything with a motor and wheels on it is the coolest to him. Josh was way excited, especially about the power steering part, and he put 100 miles on it the first weekend we took it out.

Quinten on Josh's new four-wheeler

My family took a trip up to Birch Creek so the guys could all go antelope hunting. It's the first time I've been camping with my brothers, sister, and dad in a long, long time. It had to be one of the funniest family camping trips I've ever experienced. Anybody who knows my dad would know why. First off, I'm in charge of cooking, which was totally fine by me. The only problem was, my dad said he would get half of the stuff on the grocery list. I should have left him with easy things like cookies, because when I asked for chicken breasts to make Dutch oven chicken, I ended up with two bags of fully cooked chicken patties and chicken nuggets (yes, the microwaveable kind). Josh and I were the first to get up there, and after waiting and waiting we could finally hear the old diesel truck. About 5 minutes later it finally arrives pulling the old hunting trailer behind it. My dad and two brothers are so wedged in the front of that truck that I'm sure there would have been no need for seatbelts if they would have wrecked because none of them would have budged. Both of my brothers are complaining about how the huge oversized semis hauling wind turbines for the wind power projects were passing them as they were going 35 mph up Fish Creek. We hiked up to this awesome cave that had petroglyphs of an antelope on the rock. It was pretty cool to see. It was a pretty fun trip. My dad's version of the whole escapade is in this week's edition of the Caribou County Sun. Let's just say at least the women in the family were smart enough to bring the camper with AC and heating.

Gavin and me after our hike up to the petroglyph

Dad "roughing it" by being the only one to sleep outside

Gavin has been growing like a weed. It's kind of sad to think that my little guy is no longer so little. Over the summer he has mastered the art of rolling all over the place and he's recently started sitting up.

Always such a happy boy

Not so sure what he thinks about the sweet potatoes

Quinten starts preschool on September 9th. He's so excited to get to go, so we've been working on the potty training thing. I'll say we're about 90% there. It's that dear sweet 10% that's about ready to push me over the edge. I swear he just wants to see my face when I discover the present he has left for me on the floor.

Getting a drink at the fountain

Gavin just absolutely loves his older brother. I can't believe how hard he laughs at him as he's getting rolled on. I'm glad Gavin is one tough little guy.

Quinten bouncing Gavin in his bungee bouncer

I'm sad to see summer go, mainly because this means I actually have to clean my house since I've completely abandoned it for the whole summer. My laundry pile actually tipped over and buried Quinten underneath. All in all, I can say it has been a pretty great summer for our family.

Me and the boys

Memories

Here are the directions:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! I guess good or bad, but be nice!!!!!!!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

July Happenings

I've been so bad about updating my blog, but it has been a pretty crazy month. We've been gone every weekend, so I spend the rest of the week trying to recover from the weekend. We had a pretty fun 4th of July. We went to Soda and watched the parade with my family. Then Josh played in the 3 on 3 basketball tournament. We then watched the fireworks at my Grandma's house, but Quinten seemed to be more interested with the fireflies flying around her yard. I didn't even know Soda had fireflies, but they were pretty cool to see.

Quinten catching candy for daddy at the parade

The next day was my nephew Caden's birthday. I can't believe he is going to be in high school this year. Josh took all the kids on the four-wheeler then we went over to my sister-in-law's parent's house and hung out. We got to ride around in her dad's model A car which was so fun and Quinten thought it was a total blast. It was "just my size" as my niece Bailey would say.

Quinten and me cruisin' town

Josh and all the cousins riding around

The next weekend we went up to Coeur d'Alene for Josh's aunt's birthday. The whole family went up there so it was a fun get together. The kids got to run around and play together while we just got to hang out outside. I love it up there. They live in the coolest place right by the lake.

Quinten and Josh in Tosha's backyard

Gavin and his cousin MaKena

We've also been camping a lot in the last little while. I would camp every day if it was up to me. Camping is definately one of my all time favorite things to do.

Camping at 8-Mile

We spent the last weekend in Arco where Josh played horseshoes, volleyball, and baseball in the Atomic Days tournament. Poor Gavin was pretty miserable cause it was so hot. It's been a pretty fun summer for us so far.

Gavin with his Aunt Julie watching Josh play baseball

I love getting to hang out with my boys and eat "pine cones" - Quinten thinks ice cream cones are called pine cones and it's one of those things that is too cute to correct.

Quinten hanging out in his playhouse eating "pine cones"

Busy Week

It has been kinda a busy week for us. Last week Lynzi, Carson, and Barrett Hobbs came to visit us. Quinten absolutely loves Carson to death. It is so funny to watch them play together and it makes me so thankful to have a friend around who has two little guys the same age as Quinten and Gavin.

Carson & Quinten playing baseball

Then on Friday I had to take Gavin to his doctor's appointment for his 2 month checkup. He's growing great - 85th percentile for his weight and 100th for his height. He got his shots too, so I had a pretty sad boy for the next couple of days. His temperature got pretty high and to top it off he also got Quinten's cold.

My Growing Boy

He sure loves his daddy

Porkchop also got his shots on Friday. The vet told me he is some kind of a pug cross with probably a terrier or a beagle.

Porkchop running off with Gavin's binky

On Saturday, my sister Andrea got married. She married Jared Gardner (he's from here in Blackfoot). They had their ceremony out at my mom's cabin. I was an idiot though and took all the pictures with her camera and forgot mine, so I'll have to post pictures of her wedding later. Then Sunday was Father's Day. My little guys are lucky to have such a great daddy. He is such a good dad, and he loves just hanging out with his boys.

Dad and the boys

Monday was Josh's birthday. We bought him one of those big Craftsman tool chest things (with a lock) so he could finally keep Quinten from stealing all of his hammers and trying to break down any locked doors - true story. My niece Bailey came and stayed with us for a few days. It's so nice to have someone for Quinten to play with. They had so much fun together and really kept each other entertained. We went to Jensen's Grove and played in the water. It was so cute when all three kids crashed for the night.

On a sadder note, we just learned that one of our friends was just diagnosed with stage III cancer. Her name is Barbara and both she and her husband were friends with Josh in high school. Josh now works with her husband Trever out at the site, and they have a little boy who is 2 1/2 and just had a little girl a few months ago. They have always been such good friends to us over the years. We would love it if anyone reading this could send up a prayer for her and her family, along with all the other people and their families who are battling cancer.

Barbara with her little guy, Boston, playing "phone" with Quinten. We spent a few days in Boise shopping and swimming while Trever and Josh went hunting in Salmon.

Boston and Quinten after we visited Build-a-Bear and took in a full day's worth of shopping.

Potty Training

Okay, I had heard that potty training boys was hard, but nobody ever told me how hard. I honestly can't even tell you how many failed attempts we have had at potty training Quinten. It seems like every time something big happens in our lives, he responds by completly reverting back to the diaper. Our first attempt was when he turned 2. He did so good, but then Josh and I went to Hawaii, and as soon as we got back, he decided to punish us for leaving him by no longer using the toilet. After that, it's been interesting. One of my most interesting mommy moments came when I was first pregnant with Gavin. I was really worn out and was laying down on the couch. I had given Quinten some chocolate to tide him over while I tried to get some much needed down time. Well Quinten at the time had this obsession with not wanting his hands to be dirty. So as I'm laying on the couch, Quinten comes over and is just whining to me and holding his chocolate covered hands up to me. Well being pregnant and all, I was too lazy to get up and wash them in the sink, so I just did the thing that most mothers do at some point in their lives - I licked it off. It was then that I realized that I must have given him dark chocolate, because what I was licking off wasn't sweet. Only after I had dutifully licked off all the dark chocolate, did Quinten turn around and I saw the brown handprint smear running from the back of his diaper to the middle of his thigh. It was then that I realized that what I though was dark chocolate was in fact, yes, poop. Of course being pregnant and all, the gag reflex kicks in and I'm thinking to myself that this might just be the first time during both of my pregnancies that I might actually throw up. Fortunately, I held it down and changed what was left of the poopy diaper. So I figured that this was my one bad potty training experience and it would be smooth sailing from here on out, but no. Bad experience number two occured just a few weeks ago. I was nursing Gavin when I heard Quinten go into the other room and rip off his diaper. I was hoping that he was just going to hop on the potty and all would be well, but no. Pretty soon he comes walking in with a gigantic pile of mushed poo in his hand and says "Mommy, I pooped". I'm not sure exactly what to do at that point because he's looking at me with these eyes like I should be so proud of him for bringing it to me, but I'm not so sure I want to accept his thoughful gift. I then think about what he'll do with it if I don't accept it and visions of finger painting on the windows and cupboards with brown feces motivates me to just smile and let it move from his hand to mine. So I'm sitting on my couch with Gavin nursing in one arm and a pile of poo in the other and I'm trying to remember if any of those parenting magazines I read while waiting in the doctor's office had any advice for this situation. I figure that I'm on my own with this one, so I set the poor nursing kid down and tell him I'll be back momentarily. So I clean up the mess, get Quinten changed and go back to Gavin to explain why being the number two baby stinks sometimes. So as you can tell, my potty training experiences are getting the best of me. I'm holding onto that advice that everyone with a boy keeps telling me - don't expect too much from them before they are three and that there aren't any 10 year olds still wearing around Costco diapers.

Gavin Marq Hansen

Quinten Joshua Hansen

Gavin in the Bilibed

Our Newest Addition

Gavin Marq Hansen, the newest addition to our family, was born April 11, 2008. He was born 4 days overdue. He was quite the story to tell because he was born while I was standing up in the shower at the hospital. My midwife (who by the way is one of the coolest people I know) had to catch Gavin while I stood there because he came out in only 2 pushes. He weighed 8lbs 5 oz and was 21 inches long (a huge relief from Quinten who was 9 lbs 3 oz). Because Gavin was born so fast, he was extremely blue when he was born and he had a cephalohematoma (a collection of blood under the skin on his head) from hitting my pelvis--poor kid. The hematoma caused him to have really bad jaundice because of the blood reabsorbing. He was in the Bilibed for two nights after we got home. Those weren't the best two nights of my life, but we survived. His hematoma has completely gone away now. Quinten is adjusting to life as a big brother. At first he was really rough with him, but like Lynzi told me (she's who I call when I need questions answered) he got better. Life has been an adventure with all the boys in my life--even our dog is a boy. I'm starting to feel way outnumbered, but I wouldn't trade my life for the world.