It's that time of year again!

I guess I'm supposed to make some kind of New Year's Resolutions...

There's always the typical ones:
1. Get Organized
2. Read more, watch less TV
3. Get in shape
4. Eat healthier foods


Those are all good things, but I think I want to focus more on the kiddos. Let's talk about Andrew watching less TV. He doesn't actually watch that much when you compare him to other kids, but he watches more than I would like. SO...we will be limiting his TV time and working more on other activities. We'll work on him learning some of his letters and more numbers in the next few months--he's got a few figured out, but I guess I'm hoping to get him in it a little more. He'll be starting preschool in the fall which we are WAY excited about. Can't wait for all those little projects to come home and all those little friends to come over and play! Such fun!

Tori? We'll just work on getting her to sleep through the night! SHEESH! As soon as we get something figured out, something else comes along. First she was constipated and then she was teething and then she got an ear infection and the meds they put her on made her constipated again and now she's got more teeth (SIX!!) coming in. *sigh* I swear this kid won't be sleeping through the night before her first birthday.

For myself? Organization and better house keeping. I guess. For now, anyway. We'll see what other stuff comes up between now and tomorrow morning.

In the mean time, I hope everyone has a great new years! Be safe!

All Christmas'ed out!

They had a good time but were ready for their beds.

Ready for my first Christmas!

Bring on the presents!



Ready to eat that paper!

Merry Christmas!!

Here are a few Christmas pictures...not all of them, but some! The kiddos are sure having a good time! We'll be posting a few more soon!!

Hello?? Hello??

Yes, we're still alive! This whole no internet at home thing is killin' me, though!!! I guess we better get right on that. Kiddos are doing great--Andrew is talking all the time and Tori has turned into the crazy attack baby. She's always crawling all over things and climbing over anything in her way.

Mark is (finally) on winter break so we can now do some serious Christmas shopping and spend some time getting over all our colds. I think Andrew is the only "healthy" one right now (knock on wood).

Okay--better go get some rest. In the mean time, I do promise to post more pictures soon!!

Go Beavs!!!

Sock Of The Day Part II

Those of you that have known Andrew his entire life know that his first "security object" was a sock. Every morning after Mark left for classes or work, I would pull a load of laundry out of the dryer to fold on the couch. Andrew would come over, pilfer through it and pull a single sock out for the day. That single sock would go EVERYWHERE with us. I actually tried (only once!) to take it from him before heading into the grocery store. He, eventually, grew out of that phase and Tori has grown into it. Every day this week I have pulled laundry out to fold and she has chosen a sock for herself to cuddle with. Here are Monday's pictures...

Tori's Lump of Coal...

The other day we were having a hectic morning and I was doing my best to get both kids ready to go, get myself put together and make time for Mark to run by the school before heading to an off-site conference for the day. I was in the front bathroom doing my make-up when Andrew starts saying, "Mommy! Tori yucky!" So I walk out and look all over for her. Andrew was too preoccupied watching Curious George to even point me in the right direction. I FINALLY see her IN the fireplace (relax! we haven't a fire in there for weeks!). She is BLACK--and its running down her chin and then she gave me this big grin. A big BLACK grin. YUM! I haul her out, clean her up and do my best not to scream when Mark walks in the door and says, "It's pretty funny...."

HA!!! Yes, NOW it's funny...not so much at the time! And, sadly, the camera's batteries were dead so I didn't get a picture. But that's okay--it's not a picture I'm ever going to forget.

No internet at home is such a pain!

Okay--still no internet at home so here I am at the library filling you all in. I'll do my best to make it fast. :)

1. Andrew had his first dentist appointment and he did AWESOME. They were so impressed because they were even able to get x-rays! WAHOO! He came home with lots of prizes and stickers because they liked him so much!

2. We got our tree and the kiddos love it! Tori isn't scared of it the way Andrew was his first Christmas. And Andrew has transitioned into the tree being his best friend. Every time we leave or he goes to bed, he waves at the tree and says, "Bye, Kiss-mush Tee!"

3. Tori was having rough nights because she was teething. She now has one in and one on the way. UGH.

Here are some pictures!!!!

OY!!!!

My girl is on the move! Crawling, rolling and STANDING! EESH! Here we go!!!!

I am six months old!

Tori turned six months yesterday and had her well-child appointment--all is well! She's a happy, healthy, chubby baby girl! WAHOO!



Giggles!



Big Girl!



Big Blue Eyes!

Lovin' the Leaves!

We recently spent some time at Mark's brother & sister-in-law's house where Andrew got to play in a pile of leaves. He and Cousin Sophie had a great time! What a great way to burn some energy!

Happy Halloween!

We took Andrew trick-or-treating for the first time tonight and he had such a great time! He only backed out of one house and that was because there was a scary lookin' statue by the door. He was great, though! Everyone was so impressed with his little costume and his manners (I was quite the proud momma--he said please & thank you without my prompting!).

I think next year will be even better when he can help Tori! Such Fun!

*deep breath* *count to ten* *deep breath* *more counting*

Today was an exciting day in the Hanson household. I was folding laundry, Andrew was napping and Tori was crawling on the floor chasing toys. I took a pile of clothes back to my dresser and heard running water in our bathroom. SPLASHING running water...I was totally confused. I walked in and a waterfall from our toilet greeted me. I gasped (okay, screamed but WHATEVER!) grabbed a pile of towels to barricade the water and grabbed my cell phone to call the manager. She immediately sent Gustavo, our maintenance guy to my door. He ran down the hall and into the bathroom to shut the water off. He then busted out a plumbing snake and went after his shop-vac. He worked and worked and worked for over an hour. Fortunately, Andrew slept through it all and Tori was content to watch the action from her exersaucer while I helped mop up the sea before us. What did we find? One of Tori's plastic toys...

SO...my conclusion: It wasn't Mark (he has denied it and I have no reason to doubt him) and it wasn't me (I prefer NOT to entertain myself this way). Tori isn't QUITE that tall yet. She crawls, but....yeah. SO...that leaves one little two year old boy who squeals with delight when the toilet flushes. However, he had been napping so *when* did he do this? By the amount of water in my bathroom, I would say sometime between lunch & nap.

*deep breaths*...

*i love my kids* *i love my kids* *i love my kids*

A parade and the park!

Andrew put together a "parade" of toys and then went to the park with his dad-doo. What a fun day!

Today with Tori:

We introduced her to one of Andrew's favorite toys when he was her age. Based on the following photographs, I would assume she likes it. :)

I scream! You scream! We all scream for ice cream!

Today, I decided my son is a genius (of course!). I looked at Mark after dinner and said, "How 'bout we have a little i-c-e c-r-e-a-m?"

Andrew yells out, "ICE CREAM!!!"

Nothin' gets past this kid!

Noah and the...bus?

Apparently Andrew was learning about Noah's Ark at church recently because he's very interested in one of his Noah's Ark sets and knows who Noah is. But today, rather than taking the boat, Andrew loaded everybody on his little people bus and "drove" them all over the house. He stopped in the kitchen and said, "Look, Mommy! Noah's Bus!" I smiled and couldn't help but laugh a little bit. I asked him what happens if it rains. He said, "Then they take the boat. Right now, bus! Rain? Boat!"

Hey--works for me!

Someday I'll sleep all night.

I swear, at least once a week, my kid decides to get up for at least two hours in the middle of the night. I try everything to get her back to sleep but, eventually, we end up making our way out to the living room where she gets to wear herself out in her exersaucer while I sit here and complain to all of you about how she's not sleeping. Here we are again--it's 1 AM and I've been up for over an hour with her. I've folded laundry, balanced the checkbook (I'm off by $8 which is making me insane!), sorted the kids' basket of toys out here, read, crocheted and cross stitched. I've also asked God why...WHY...doesn't my child sleep? Andrew slept just fine starting at 4 weeks. Is Tori making up for our good fortune with him? Is she really thinking she's just taking naps? How can THAT be when, other nights, she'll go to sleep at 8 PM and I won't hear from her until well after 3 AM and that's just for a quick "snack" and she goes right back to sleep until after 6 AM. But not tonight. Tonight, I fear, I may be up for the long haul...

Let me teach you about these tractors...

Andrew was "reading" to Tori. He chose the book, which means she was learning about tractors. Hey--she's getting an early start.

Picture time!

Barn Party Fun!

Whew! What a fun night! Well, mostly. Andrew had a fantabulous time at the barn party--he got to see his Abu, Papa Marv, Auntie Stacy and he ran around like a spazzy little boy completely out of control. The best part? He was dressed up like a little cowboy and was running around in his wrangler jeans, flannel shirt and cowboy boots. He was doing so much running he decided he couldn't wear his hat or vest anymore--they were just getting in the way!

Tori, on the other hand, didn't enjoy the "festivities" quite as much--she spent the entire evening either crying or being walked by Mark. *sigh* Silly girl! She's normally so happy and fun, but tonight she just couldn't handle it.

My chili for the chili cook-off was popular, but didn't win because I didn't enter it. It would have won, right? :) I'd like to think so. I tried four different kinds of chili and it was all yummy! But I have to admit, the sweet & spicy was my fave. A little hint of sweet with a kick of spice to make it interesting. Mmmm....it was yummy!

I took some great pictures of my boy running around like a wild child but wouldn't ya know it, I forgot the cord to upload the pictures. Grrrr!!! Will have to wait until the end of the weekend to finish this post...

"EW!" said the young girl...

I went to the post office this afternoon and watched a young girl (10-ish?) put some coins in the machine and take the stamp. She tried, three times, to get it to stick to her envelope before looking at her mom and saying, "It won't stick! What's wrong with this stamp?!" Her mom told her she had to lick it to make it stick. "EW!" she said and handed the stamp & envelope to her mom. I remember the days when ALL stamps were the lick 'em stick 'em kind. She's spoiled!

That just made me laugh. I'll post more later tonight--maybe even a picture or two.

Keep wishing...

I wish for a few things, just like everyone else. Right now, I simply wish for a full nights sleep. I wish for going to bed at 9-ish and not waking up until I want to wake up the next morning. I am tired! When I get to heaven, I'm asking God why babies just don't sleep through the night.

Tori's on the move...

Yep, she started crawling today! YIKES! I was hoping to get a little more time out of her, but no such luck. The little stinker isn't even five months old yet and she's already tryin' to keep up with Andrew. *sigh* And people wonder why I don't want anymore! SHEESH!

Pictures SOON!

Hide & Seek!

Today Tori & I had some "playtime"...I was cleaning in the kitchen and looked out the living room where she was happily playing on her blanky:



And then I looked again and she was gone:



Where did she go??? She was hiding under a chair:



So we went back to our blanket:



But then she went missing again:



I had to work a little harder to find her this time, but I managed. Sneaky little thing!



What was she after? Andrew's bus! ATTACK OF THE BABY!




*Sorry all the pictures are sideways...I wasn't paying attention when I was editing them. OOPS!*