"Fall"ing into fun!

This past Saturday we headed up to Spokane for a little shopping trip and family time! Our first stop of course was Cabela's....While we were driving there in the car, Carter informed us that she was going to see two snakes and that there were going to be deer, elk and Care Bears! Hahaha! It was a good thing that there was actually two snakes, I don't know if we could have faced her dissapointment otherwise (yes she still loves them that much!) Some of my cousins met up with us there, and then we all went to my aunt and uncles for pizza and visiting! We hadn't all seen eachother and been together in 4 years, so it was fun to chat, and meet eachother's kids and let them play!
After we had our lunch, the kids decided that going outside to play in the leaves would be a great activity, so everyone got bundled up and headed out! Conveniently there were a bunch of strapping young lads around to help Uncle Randy get his leaves raked up ta-boot!

They rakes such a big pile of leaves! When the little kiddies jumped in they all but dissapeared!

We tried getting the little cousins to pose for a picture, but 3 two year olds and baby just aren't a good mix for success in that department!

Cousin Katelyn....just too darn cute! She reminds me a lot of Carter, very reserved and cautious around people....Cousin Carson on the other hand is a busy boy, ready to make friends and play!

My cousin Travis was SO nice, and took Carter on MANY pool rides around the yard, and helped her ride the tricycle too....I felt like such a lazy parent, BUT had SOOO much fun just watching her get comfortable with family that were virtual stranger to her just hours before!

Of course, by the time we had to leave Carter was ready to stay! She really likes to look at books with Uncle Randy, and really loves Aunt Dianne too (although she was more shy this visit because so many other new people were there too!)

After playing in the leaves, we headed to the mall for a few purchases, had dinner at Panda Express (Our FAVE!) and on a last minute decision decided to go visit my grandma and another aunt, I'm SO glad we did becuase it made their day! We left with full tummys, and overflowing hearts! What a WONDERFUL day we had filled with family, and new memories! On the way home I couldn't resist blasting christmas music...we sang along, and drove full speed ahead, we got home at 9:30 and fell fast a sleep....what a great day, and a fabulous reminder of how important it is to be family!

Introducing.....

INTRODUCING THE NEWEST MEMBER OF OUR FAMILY.... "FISH" the fish!!!

We are SO proud of our Carter girl who is completely pee pee potty trained, and FINALLY without drama, went poo poo on the potty!!!!! Her incentive/prize was to get to buy a fish to live at our house....she chose a blue beta and affectionately calls him "Fish"! (We tried to help her think of a more original name, but nothing fits him as well as "Fish")!Fish sits on the table in our living room, where Carter can gaze upon Fish, and talk to him....she also finds time to show Fish pictures; she sets them up just so he can look at them while she's away playing, i'm sure Fish finds this to be great entertainment!We love Fish so much that he even sits to watch "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman" with us in the lazy afternoon! He also enjoy's listening to Carter read him books (shoul've gotten a picture of that one!)We love our Fish, he makes us SOOO happy and keeps us well entertained!!!

We LOVE you Carter girl, and are so proud of your accomplishment!

Potty trained today, college tomorrow....oh how time flies!

The End of the Lazy Parents

Let me bring you up to speed on this posts title "The End of the Lazy Parents"....So the other night we couldn't find a binky for Carter, (for the last year or so she's only had them at bed and nap time) WELL....convenient for me that I couldn't find one because my goal once we got settled here in Moscow was to say bye bye to binky!!! HOWEVER Carter didn't think this was so great, she always goes to bed like a champ, it's never been a fight even when she started sleeping in her twin bed, BUT going to bed without her "bientsy" was an in bed, out of bed, mom standing guard in the hallway putting 2 yr old back in bed Super Nanny style event!!! Eventually she calmed down, and now I'm proud to say we are binky free at our house...(Owen not included!)

It was during this nightime hulabaloo that John asked, "Should we just go find one and give it to her????"

My reply, after seriously considering going out to the car to get one I knew I had stashed away... "Well, we have to stop being lazy parents some time or another".....I love a good challenge, and since basically that's all parenting is, we decided to turn over a new leaf and face some new challenges head on!!! LIKE....POTTY TRAINING OUR 2 1/2 yr old!!! You know, sometimes you get into a lull with your kids, things are just hunky dory, and then you start "feeling" that it's time for a change or something new, or that you're getting ready to enter a new phase of "Parental Unknowns" well this is it for us!!!!

There are so many different approaches to potty training, and just as many different kid personalities, so how do you pair the right approach with your kids unique personality....well in the Hansen handbook of parenting you just roll with whatever pops into your head, and try it on for size for a few days...so now we find ourselves with a very enthused daughter.....a bowl full of candy corn.....and a mom with a few minutes to blog because Carter and Daddy are on a "Cream stop" date...that's Carter talk for ice cream.... because she went "pee pee on the potty" a very common phrase around our house these days!!!

Carter is learning that sometimes we have to sit for a while on the potty, sometimes it helps to do a little Sudoku (where she learned that I don't know...?!!!) sometimes it's nice to read a book about going pee pee on the potty, and sometimes we have to give a little push to help the process along....BE ware we've learned that unexpected effects come from the last! (at least it gives us a good little chuckle!) Carter is very excited to earn her fish, after she learns to use the potty and wear panties without accidents she gets to buy a fish to have at our house, yea...we scoped them out at the store today so she could have it fresh in her mind as she "practices"!!!

Our bathroom is upstairs, and Carter's little legs can only go up so fast, so we've brought the little potty downstairs, and just today bought a princess potty insert for the upstairs, thankfully she likes them both! I never thought that John and I would look at each other over our daughters head as she sits on the potty, and with our eyes say " I love you so much, I love our daughter so much, I can't believe she's ours, that she's growing so fast and becoming such a big girl, what a fun ride it's been can't wait to see what's next!"

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!