Random Pictures

Last week was my 24th birthday. I was so excited because Josh bought me a bike with a bike trailer to pull the kids in. We have this awesome paved path here that is something like 11 miles long, and the kids love going on it with me. My mom got me a sewing machine because for some odd reason I've decided to try and be crafty. I must say though, I have improved from the good old days of sewing class with Mrs. Hogan when I sewed my sleeve to my project and had to sit in the kitchen with my shirt off while she unpicked it all. I've actually successfully made one and a half blankets (sorry Kris, I really will finish it before Krissi turns 1!). I have to say though, the biggest suprise for my birthday was when Jesse showed up on my doorstep with this...
A BUTT CAKE!!! It absolutely cracked me up (no pun intended) . The best part was when Quinten came and told me the cake was really good and I went to the kitchen to see the entire bikini part of the cake gone--such a boy!!

I had to laugh the other day when I came in the front room and saw both of my boys sprawled out in the front room surrounded by Barbies and Polly Pockets. Quinten had ransacked a bag of my niece's old toys that were going to the DI and staked claim to the Polly Pockets. I was hoping to see the softer side of Quinten, but then I realized he was lining all the dolls up and running them over with the Barbie car.

Since the weather has been on and off here, we've spent every available good weather moment outside. We've actually got quite a bit accomplished keeping in mind it snowed last week. I bet you didn't know Ninja Turtles make excellent wood workers. Oh, and Gavin's hat is one that is 3-6 months and totally makes him look like Wilson off Tool Time.

And this is what happens when your kid eats too much of the butt cake and gets stuck in the rocking chair.

Gavin's 1st Birthday

My little guy turned 1 this past Saturday. It makes me sad that he's turning into such a big boy. He's walking all over the place now and can say quite a few words.

Not so sure about the cake

Playing in his cake at Grandma's House

We love you Gav!

The boys had a great Easter. Quinten had a blast finding eggs. He was such a sweetheart at the Easter egg hunt because he took his eggs around to some of the kids who didn't get any. Sometimes that kid just melts my heart.







Our friends, Wade and Katie and their little boy Bridger, came up for Gavin's birthday. The boys all played outside and had so much fun just being boys!!!

Best Buddies...

In Their Undies!!!

When it rains, it pours...

I knew today was going to be a bad day. The reason I knew...it was raining when I woke up. Don't get me wrong, I love the rain, but ever since we moved to our new house 2 years ago, whenever it rains, something bad happens to our house. (Sorry for all the venting I'm about to do, but I think my dad is getting tired of me calling him every 15 minutes just to whine.)
First thing we noticed after we moved here was that every time it would rain, the window wells in our basement would fill up with water and flood our basement. Good thing is our basement is unfinished. So we dug way down below the window wells, but we've done nothing but struggle with them. So tomorrow I'm going to buy window well covers, only the kicker is, our window wells are a special design and you can't just buy the cheap ones from Lowe's. We have to buy the ones that are specifically made for these and they are a fortune.
Then last winter I was sitting in our front room and looked over in our kitchen and there was a huge bulge in our ceiling. Apparently when they put the vent in our roof, they forgot to seal around it, so it just melted all the snow from the roof and it dripped onto our kitchen ceiling. So between gallons of water in our basement and kitchen ceiling, I'm beginning to hate the rain.
So today I went downstairs to make sure our window wells weren't filling up with water. They all looked great, but then I noticed this little puddle by one of them. I pulled back the insulation and there is a crack in our foundation! Now what came out of my mouth next is not quite appropriate for blogging, but anyone who knows my father knows that I learned a whole new breed of swearing growing up. So me being my father's daughter, sprayed quite the colorful array of new words. I swear my house has it out for me, because of course this has to happen after the 1 year warranty is up. Good thing is, the rain has stopped and the crack is no longer leaking. I'm just glad Josh has the know how to fix the stupid thing, because heaven knows I don't.
I can still remember back in my junior high days when my parent's basement got a crack by the garage steps and started flooding. Kristin, Hailey and I had the brilliant idea to try and fix it. We were all decked out in my dad's hip waders and proceeded to pour cat litter in front of the hole to plug it up. It was like trying to dam up the Snake River using granulated sugar. The water just pushed the kitty litter into the rest of the basement and we spent the next couple of hours with brooms trying to clean up the soggy litter.
So being the nice wife that I am ;) I went to Cal Ranch this afternoon and bought Josh his very own, brand new, shiny shovel so he can start digging up our yard so we can seal the crack. So even though I love all the moisture we've been getting, I would love it even more if it would stay where it is supposed to (i.e. NOT MY BASEMENT).

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.