January 2011

We started off the New Year with a bang! A cousins' sleepover! Matt & Jene' celebrated their tenth anniversary so we got to party together with their three girls for the weekend while they enjoyed some alone time. We had a blast. It is so fun living by family, even though we do not get to see them as much as we would like. It is always super fun when we get together. Madeline and Gloria are such great helpers.

We had dance parties every day and our long hallway proved to be very suitable for runs and leaps and slides. Lots of energy was expended, to say the least!

(this is just to record that Elsie was present for all the crazy chaos)

These two little cuties had fun...

...maybe too much fun!
(They cut each others hair...first time for both of them)

I bought some herbs that were on sale to start my own herb garden. These babies will stay indoors for a few more weeks and then we'll plant them outside. They smell divine! Jorgen loves being my little gardening helper.

This adorable little squishy face loves to say, "ooo, ooo!" I am so glad I got it on camera. It is just so cute! She can also smack her lips together to do kisses. Yes, my heart melts every time!

Shelley is full of funny faces. I think she's trying to be a frog here or something. We love our little string bean!

Elsie is loving trying new foods. Avocados were on the menu this night and she lapped them up. They are the easiest meal to prepare. Cut. Separate. Spoon out. The shell is the perfect little bowl. I remember Shells loved these as a babe as well.

Jorgs and Shells went to an animal birthday party. Jorgs was a dino (yes, again! Probably the last time, the bottoms were total floods on him!) and Shelley was a bunny (thanks to a garage sale).

In character...

Caught, red handed...

And clapping at her new trick.
Notice the tongue - it makes it was out often. She will probably be able to touch her nose with her tongue, just like her Daddy.Elsie learned how to use a straw. Breakfast time is so quick now.

She just laps up her fruit and veggie smoothies.

Shelley loves them too and Jorgen is finally tolerating them. :)My project this month:
Lima bean wreathe, you look good on my door!

And my favorite treat for the month. I took them to a party and the next night I ate a whole plate of them for dinner. D.E.L.I.S.H!
Lox, lemony cream cheese, capers, tomatoes, and red onions all topped on a refreshing slice of cucumber. My taste buds were dancing!

Our new year is off to a great start!

December 2010...yes, i'm behind...

For some reason, I cannot seem to record our memories more than once a month lately. The result, blog vomit. Descriptive, I know. But it is what it is.

December was a fabulous month. The children and I left on the 16th and flew to Utah. Justin had to work and was planning on joining us in Hawaii on the 23rd. We had a wonderful time visiting family and a few friends. Our time there was much, much too short, only four days, but we packed in a lot.
I was able to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert, which as always was incredible. That is my absolute favorite thing to do at Christmas time.
On Saturday morning, the 18th, we went over to Rachel and Rob's home (Justin's sister) for the Hansen Christmas party. Much to our surprise, an early Christmas present arrived at the door. JUSTIN!
His team finished up work earlier than expected so he got two weeks off! It was heavenly! I totally cried when I saw him even though it had only been two days since I last saw my Justy.

I hardly took any pictures while in Utah but we did have a fantastic time the short time we were there.

Here is a bad attempt at capturing the annual Hansen Nativity reenactment.

Grandma Henderson was in town so we got to see her and Julie briefly. They are so wonderful and sweet and it was a great visit.

On Monday morning we headed to the airport with paradise as our destination; we could not wait for Hawaii. The last time we were there, Jorgen was 6 months old.
The Ute basketball team had a game in Hawaii so we shared the flight with them. They were so nice and Jorgen had fun talking with them. He was even wearing his Ute Football shirt, they took advantage of that for some good jokes.

Once we got to Hawaii it was beach, beach, beach time! We went the the beach all day, came in for a few naps and to get sustenance and then it was back to the beach.
We played and played all day.



Not sure what this is, but everyone had fun digging and building on the beach.



Attack of the Daddy/Uncle Justy
Catching waves on the tubes was a huge hit with the kids.

My parents are two little lovebirds!They love doing everything together, even catching the same wave!
Can you see who is covered in these waves?
Grandpa and Jorgen!
This little sweetheart got so covered in sand!

What a beauty!





And our other beauty, Lady Shells.


Our fun-loving guy, Jorgo!

Shanda took some family pictures of our family.
I love them!

Loves for our Shells

Loves for our Jorgs

And more loves for our Elsie

Shelley loves sleeping in Tutu's tent in our room.

Justin took Jorgen on a hike on one of our last days there. The had some good male bonding time in nature.

I got lots of video recording of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning but no pictures. My parents did an amazing job telling the story of the Nativity, complete with many items they had brought back from their recent trip to the Holy Land. It was very special and memorable. Christmas morning was nice and simple. Santa brought stockings and we did our family exchange with my siblings.
Here are most of the cousins together, minus the oldest and youngest five children.

We had a lots of family spotlights, talent shows, and dance parties during the trip.
Justin and I took the our children to PCC and then we came back at night and went to Ha: Breath of Life. It was so good!

It was so fun being together. We miss everyone and we miss the beach!