Lately....

Not much has changed around the Hansen house, we've gotten settled here in Moscow, have found some friends old and new, and now are nestling in for a nice cool and breezy fall!

I thought maybe our lives as of late would be best summed up by sharing a few photo updates!

LATELY....we've been learning that we have to share our toys with younger brothers, even our little puppy dogs....this is very upsetting as you can see.....

LATELY.....we've been trying all sorts of sad pouty faces to get our way, especially when having an issue over little brother... the "MOM he's touching me" type comments have begun!

LATELY.....we've done a head count of how many toy snakes we have, even with 6 different snakes of various shapes and sizes to chose from....it's still a traumatic event when little brother finds one to chew on.....LATELY....Little Brother seems to have a mischievious gleem in his eye, as if he knows what he's doing to his sister's sanity!!!LATELY....we've visited family in Spokane....Carter and Owen warmed up quickly and LOVED playing with Cousins Rochelle, Devin, and Aunt Diane and Uncle Randy...we will definitely be making a return trip soon!LATELY...Carter and Owen sometimes find nice quiet little moments to act like loving adorable siblings, who love each other and play so nice!LATELY...Mommy has been sewing like crazy to keep her sanity after sleepless nights with a sick baby!!! Voila, my most proud project as of late...a rag baby quilt for my Cousin Rochelle's baby shower in Spokane...Now I have to make something equally adorable for my sister Brook who's having a boy in February!LATELY....I've been LOVING my babies, their sweet little faces, comments and coos, and quiet moments in late afternoons!!!

Oregon Overview

Since we've been in Oregon, we've had so much fun! AND we've been able to relax!!!! This is the first time in a long time that i've been home, and not felt like i'm being pulled in a MILLION different directions, it's been so nice to spend my time with family, even just doing every day things...I especially have loved all of the time we've spent with my nieces and nephew, I can't believe how much they've all grown, I especially LOVE how well they are all playing together, and how well they do with Carter and Owen!!!

I love my missy Autumn, we were living with them when she was a newborn, I've had SOOO much time with her I feel like we have an extra little bond!

Carter is such my girl! She loves to be outside at Nana's and loves to wear one os the many pairs of garden boots available at Nana's house, i'm pretty sure that there's a pair to fit every grandkids foot!

We've also been blessed to spen alot of time with my grandma and grandpa...Carter loves to help grandma "D" fill up the bird feeders and explore her backyard, that is true in grandma fashion and form with TONS of yard ornaments, fake animals, and flowers!

It takes a while to warm up, but she thinks Grandpa "D" is pretty swell!

Exploring bugs in the backyard! One of Carter's favorite things to do

Grandma has SO many fun toys many of which I played with when I was little!! IT's fun to walk down memory lane, I used to sit in that same spot at grandma's playing with the same toys!

Owen and grandpa having time together!!!

I love being outdoors, so twice this last week I took the kids to my favorite park in town, it's along the river and it's part forest, part meadow, part walk bike paths, part ALL FUN!!! I grew up exploring this park, one of the best things is that there are blackberry patches en MASS! so we were able to get our fill!

Carter was such a helper, she kept saying "I pick a berry with momma" "i's helpin momma" Clearly I need to work with her on learning the difference between green and black! We had a little sorting to do before we could do much with them!

Carter SO proud of being a helper! We were going to help grandma "D" make blackberry jam, but she's such an industrious lady, that she had it all done before we got to her house, at least she decided to share a few jars with us! the flat we picked made a dozen jars of jelly!

As you can see my little girl has been playing SO hard! She just all but pooped out while swimming in Nana's pool!

Owen really loves being outside too, whenever he gets fussy we just sit on the porch swing for a while and enjoy the fresh air!

I've really loved getting so spend more time with my nieces Brenna and Kayla, my mom watches them full time, so because we're staying at my mom's we get to play with them alot! They play SOOO good with Carter, and are very atentive to Owen, always talking to him, tickling him, and trying to help him be happy!

More Family Fun

As I'm writing this the kids and I have been in Oregon for 1 1/2 weeks, this makes our time away from John totaling almost 5 weeks...this seems like an eternity....so to fill my time and occupy my mind i've now resorted to updating the blog, that i'm thinking I might as well delete because I already put the same pictures on FB, and anyone who reads this talks to me regularly, is a friend with me on FB, or hears what i'm up to through the grapevine.... BUT in moments like these when I just need to occupy my mind and time, I find it quite soothing to blllaaaaahhhhggg everything off my mind!!!

Well the kids and I arrived in Oregon in fine form, again the traveling went great! We arrived in time for my sister and brother inlaw's super slip n slide bbq!!! Young and old had a grand time, the "seniors" visited and loved watching the grandkids play hard, and their children play even harder!

My Dad, and Brother in law Patrick's father, watching the fracas unfold!

Patrick and his friends used to do this every summer, so by now he's a champ at setting it all up, both of my brother inlaws are tall fellas, and big kids at heart, so of course they had to test it all out before the kids could really get going! The hills was quite steep and at the end as you can see there was a rather rocky creek!

My brother in law Randall just about took a dip in the creek, but managed to put the breaks on in time! My brother in law Patrick landed in it a few times, but that was after they whipped out the innertubes, he's skilled enough to know to pull up on the tube to land comfortably in the water!

My niece Abrianna is a brave soul, and jumped at the chance to go down with her dad...unfortunately the water had been running long enough that there was a lovely patch of mud waiting at the end!

My brother in law Patrick showing the kids how it's done!

Owen Boy and his Papa Powell! I think they look alike, actually I think Owen is a nice mix of both of his Papa's!

Owen and his Mama! Oh, how my heart melts over that sweet little face!

Nana, Papa and Owen having a quiet moment at the bbq!

Owen is such a happy little guy!

Cousins Abrianna and Carter, having fun! They just marched up and down the hill all afternoon!

Brook and Autumn posing for my novice photography shoot

Owen with his Auntie Brook (+cousin #6) and Auntie Kimmy (+cousin #7)...can't wait to find out if Owen and Parker will have any more boys in the mix!

Carter and Abrianna going down the kiddie slide together...Carter only went once, half forced by her horrible mother, but she was laughing by the time they got to the bottom!

As you can see this was quite the event...i've never seen a slip n slide that huge...and to have 2 lanes going, plus a little kid one too! I wish I could have gone down one, but I wasn't willing to risk my back getting re-injured and being miserable for the next few weeks!

Some Friends are just Family

After spending two weeks in Burley/Rupert, the kids and I shoved off for yet another adventure....our ultimate goal was to reach Oregon to stay with my family, but we enjoyed our week long side trip to visit the Randall Family!!! It's funny how you meet some people and you know right away that as Anne of Green Gables would say you're "Kindred Spirits"...well, that's how it is for me and my bestie Heather...

Home Sweet Idaho

I was so relieved to land in Idaho on familiar ground with family and friends!!! We enjoyed our time traveling about, but as they say "There's No Place Like Home"! While in Texas I almost started having a panicked feeling because it seemed we were just too far from "home" or rather our families, we've always lived close to one side of our family or the other, so it was frustrating to know that we couldn't just "make it happen" meaning to go visit like we've always been able to do in the past if we were just missing our family. We spent two full weeks in Burley/Rupert and did a few fun things! One Saturday we spent adventuring with John's Dad and Step Mom, we went to the Shoshone fair, Carter had fun visiting the animals and sharing a root beer with her Papa!!!! Thank you for the fun we shared that day Papa Dave and Grandma Debbie!

While staying with John's Uncle Mike and Aunt Debbie (for the second week we were there), I decided to stop being a lazy mother and start working with Owen on eating from a spoon...this is one of his "firsts" I think the look suits him, and completes his "old man" look that he has about him...not quite Santa Clause...it's more of a Colonel Sanders....KFC anyone?
I have to give a BIG thank you to Mike and Debbie for letting us stay with them, and truly making us feel welcome and at home!

The first week we were in Idaho we stayed with John's cousins on the Hansen side. Duane and Cortney were so kind to share their home with us, and best of all their little Zach plays SOOO good with Carter!!! They had such fun running about, playing outside and they even earned a slumber party one night, they both thought it was pretty neat to sleep in the same room!

Carter and Zach...AKA Harry Potter!

We had some wonderful R&R at John's sisters house. Heidi and Brooks have always opened their home to us, and let us join the crowd and fun! It was such a joy to watch Carter with her cousins, I really enjoyed spending time with our niece Brynlie....I've had so much one on one time with her older sister's since they were toddlers, but Bryn got jipped because I was so tired from having my own kid + pregnancy+ life stress + everything else by the time she came along...She's such a funny girl, and i'm so happy that I was able to snuggle and play with her, it's sad to me that she won't have as many memories with her Aunt Joy as Riley and McKenzie will, especially now that we will be living 8 hrs away for quite a few years.

Brynlie and Owen having some one on one cousin time!

Carter had SO much fun playing at Aunt Heidi's house! Riley and McKenzie do such a good job of being big helpers for me, the love Carter and she loves them, they had fun jumping on the trampoline, playing legos, painting and watching movies together! Thanks Heidi for letting us de-stress and find normal again at your house!!!

All of the girl cousins on John's side of the family!

Our last stop before we moved on was in Twin Falls. The kids and I spent some time with John's Mom and Step Dad. It was SOOO nice to kick back and relax some more!!! Carter loves her Nana Pattie : they color together, bake together, watch movies together, sort beeds together, draw with chalk together and anything else that can be done "together" they do! Carter is very hesitant around men, even those she knows and sees often (with the exception of her father of course)! So she's a little slower in warming up to Mark, but it doesn't take too long...or too much bribing for her to come around! It was sooo NICE to feel like I could really just ignore my chidlren and the fact that I was a mom for about an hour while I took a nice long soaking bath...A HUGE shout out to Nana and Mark for taking such good care of us while we visited!!!

Life as a Nomad

Well as most of you already know, the kids and I have left Texas, but have continued our nomadic existence! We weren't planning to leave as soon as we did but had a chance to tag along behind some friends for part of the drive to Idaho, so we left rather abruptly, quite sad I must say...but it was kind of liking taking a band aid off...just rip it quick and be done with it, so it all worked out in the end!

The kids and I drove 6 hrs the first day from Midland Texas to Albuquerque New Mexico, I was feeling great and wanted to go further but that was the only town close by that we could use our Marriott rewards in for a free night...so we pulled in early, got some dinner and went swimming and had TONS of fun...we're used to it being just the three amigos...Mami, Hija and Hijo!

The kids did AMAZING! We only had one cerifiable melt down from Owen, but we got him fed and stretched out, and back to new within no time! We saw alot of long lonely open road, especially when driving through the Navaho reservation in northeastern Arizona...I had the distinct feeling when the kids and I stopped to go to the bathroom and get a snack that we were not welcome there, kind of an eerie feeling, HOWEVER it totally makes me understand the flip side of the coin for other races, being the minority. The second day we traveled for 10 hours from Albuquerque to Provo, we arrived at midnight but I was so glad I pushed through, leaving us with only 3 1/2 hours on our third day of traveling!!!

I must note that I most thouroughly enjoyed the three hours from Chinley AZ, to Moab UT- My friend Kari (who we were caravaning with) road with the kids and I , it was so lovely to have an adult conversation, and to not feel so ALONE!!! Traveling with my kids was truly a breeze, I give all credit to the good Lord, who i'm sure had a pretty strong hand in our safety, and easy travels!

We truly were blessed to have this experience this summer... we enjoyed our time as a family, traveling, exploring new places, different ways of life and climate and meeting new people whom we now call our friends!!! This truly so far has been the ultimate Hansen family adventure! One we will always remember and maybe even semi-repeat in summers to come!