Steve 1 - Blue Crayon 0

After getting back from Christmas I tried to tackle laundry, putting toys away etc. agressively. I didn't want to, but I tried.... I washed a load of jeans and put in the dryer. Thursday morning I got up, went to pull out a pair and noticed some bright blue one them. Got to looking and every single pair had it on them. I look down and there is a bright blue crayon wrapper that is on the floor. ERRRRRR..... My two decent pairs of jeans (including one I just bought), most of P and E's and also Steve's good jeans all had the good fortune to be in there. I attempted to get off with no luck. Friday Steve didn't have to work and when I came home the jeans were pretty again. It had to have been a labor of love, but I'm glad I wasn't the one doing the labor! I figured that's what I'd have to do this weekend. I'm not very "housewifey" so I guess I'll keep Steve around since I've learned he can now tackle stains in addition to cooking and cleaning!

I bit the bullet and picked up my scrap room a little last night since I haven't been able to get in there for awhile due to the chaos and some recent purchases.... Hey HL had papermache stuff half off, I couldn't resist! Today P and E were best buds and played together a lot so I made some Christmas stuff for a call. I'm actually pleased with everything so far. I'm now burnt out on the holiday so if I do stuff tomorrow I'm moving onto something else! Now I have the exciting task of photographing and submitting. Two of my resolutions for 2008 are to have a better submitting system and to figure out how to run my camera!

Little Pets, Robots and Pokemon Oh My!

As usual we came home with the van loaded down with Christmas loot. It's amazing how fast Christmas comes and goes! With so many Christmases and late nights the kids did great. Most of the stuff is now sitting by the door and I'm trying to muster up the energy to put some of it away. P is showing E how to play her Game Girl and she's catching right on. On the way home I stopped at Archiver's while Steve ran to work for an hour and picked up some cool goodies. In my defense I had a gift card!

The trip to Vegas in February for Judi's 60th bday is a go. I can't wait. I've never been and it'll be 4 girls loose on the town! The other big news is that Judy 2 (Scott's Judy aka as Uncle Judy by P and E) got a diamond ring for Christmas - cool!

Not much else to report. Back to work tomorrow. Year end is crazy at work. Steve only has to work tomorrow poor guy.

Santa - So Much To Do, So Little Time

In the Hansen house, Santa comes a day early. Last year he wrote a letter to the kids explaining that he makes a special trip a day early for all the kids who won't be home on Christmas morning. He'll then make another trip to where they will be on Christmas (grandma and grandpas). If I was still a kid, this sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Two nights in a row of excitement and waiting for Santa to leave presents. We had to come up with something since we knew they would start putting two and two together otherwise. We did over hear him tell Grandma Blue House the other day on the phone say that Santa comes a day early to our house. Isn't that a little weird?

There is also another Santa that makes a trip tomorrow night at G and G Blue House...Silly Santa (as Emma's calls him) aka as Krusty Klaus aka Robert. Emma had Santa visit at school on Friday during their school party and Parker asked her if it was the real Santa or the Silly Santa? She said it was definitely the real one! This is the first year we have left cookies, carrots for the reindeer and milk. Emma also made Santa a snowflake, wrapped the whole thing herself and wrote on the package for him. When "Santa" opens it, I'll have to be sure not to rip up her writing. The backwards N is super cute! I'm feeling a scrap page coming on!

Busy today wrapping presents (I hope I hadn't stashed some somewhere and have forgotten) and making grub for the Christmas dinners. Once I can confirm the munchkins are asleep I will tackle theirs. Half of them have been riding around in the back of the van for awhile in a box. Friday night after work I looked for one last thing for P. The crowds were actually comical. I could not believe how wiped out the toy section at Target was. I then stopped at southside WM (hate that store) because I knew the Indy one had what I wanted but I figured while I was in the area I'd stop there instead. People where probably 20 deep at each register. They didn't have what I wanted so I could have just went to Inday and skipped T and WM and saved tons of time. Although I got a ton of cute $1 stuff at Target..it's a secret! This included little metal mailboxes I can alter. I'm about a 90 percent cardmaker/papercrafter, 10 percent scrapbooker anymore.

Last night Steve attempted Abelskeivers in his new pan. I'm pretty sure I have never had one before. Being Danish and all it's probably not something I should admit..although we did eat a lot of frickadillers growing up. They are basically a pancake that is shaped like a small muffin. Parker ate 8 of them and probably would have had more but we had to cut him off. I think E had 6...so they were a definite hit!

Well better check to make sure the Game Girl is charged up. Every day she's been telling people that's what she wants for Xmas. Santa did good!

Third Time Is NOT The Charm

Well...once again the same tire has gone flat today. 3 different times in less than 3 months. And 3 different holes in the tire...sigh... I actually stayed in a pretty good mood today and luckily it happened on the day that Steve is coming back from KC. None of the times has it happened on my way home and I've been stalled by the road so that's good. This time the tire went down fast. Steve came downtown and put on the spare so I could get home. He's playing tonight so I had to be able to get the kids picked up and P had TKD tonight.

While he was at TKD, E and I ran to WM so she could spend some bday money. I thought I'd seen every toy out there, but I guess not. She bought a Barbie that comes with a dog that poops. You even have a stick to pick it up with...eeeww..... You can also get a Barbie with a cat that poops so of course that's on her wish list now. She's so funny sometimes and such a thinker. Tonight as we were dropping P off she could see some of the guys in their robes. She said, "Mom - I know why they called it TaKwenDo. It's because they "tie" their belts." Tomorrow is her holiday party at school. They are making gingerbread houses and exchanging gifts from the sounds of it. They got their present from Lauri today and they were huge hits. Emma was squealing all the way home.

Where are all of these new Christmas toys going to go in our house? They are only beginning!

Boys Can Scrapbook Too!

Tonight was Parker's den meeting...this is of course after I remembered at the last minute and we rushed to get there. Christmas is severely sucking the few remaining smart cells I have left I swear. I did remember last week though that I needed to get pics printed for his scrapbook, so I did save face a little anyway. We were in such a hurry that Emma went exactly the way you see her in the picture. I am so embarassed! I probably should have taken an extra minute and changed her clothes, but she's such a dawdler it'd take 10 instead. They made a pinata today at school and she is covered in flour glue. Including her hair...so even if I'd changed her clothes her hair was trashed. She had just eaten some ice cream so she also had a messy face. Man I wish I still kept wet wipes in the van.... Luckily there were only a few parents there and I didn't know any of them.

Their craft for this time was a scrapbook about family, friends, pets, Scouts etc. He did a really good job and wrote some cute things without even being asked. He was excited because he said now he's getting older since he can do things that mommy does. Emma will be wanting to do one too I'm sure. She did really good at the meeting just coloring in her Pets book. No fits about the fact that she wasn't making a scrapbook. I also included a picture of the dreamcatcher he made at the last meeting.

Question of the Day: How can one 7 year old boy with no hips, butt, or an inch of fat on him eat a grilled cheese sandwhich, six fish sticks, a big granola bar, carrots, an ice cream cone and a piece of pizza and then come home from the meeting and say can I have some popcorn? He probably would have eaten more, but we had to leave for Scouts. One day he ate 15 fish sticks. In my defense though on that one...that was Steve's doings!

All Dressed Up With Places To Go!

Here is Emma in her new Christmas dress. You can't see in the picture, but it even comes with snowflake tights. (Of course the full shot of her is blurry. I'm the worst picture taker ever!) I know E thought she was pretty darn cute in it. Mom thinks so too! She's already giving daddy a heart attack when he thinks of her as a teenager....I didn't get any pics of P dressed up since they were at his Cub Scout Christmas party at the time. I also included pics from her Winter recital that was yesterday afternoon too. She's standing in the middle. I wish I could have gotten a close up pic of her in the antlers :-( But I had to get in there and jockey for a seat in the gym. The recital went well and so did the Christmas program at church. I'll see if Steve got any Cub Scout pics and if he did I'll post some another time. Parker was excited to have a day to veg and play his game boy today. Emma is learning about all the different holidays. Today it was Kwanza and Friday she came home with a dreidel made from a milk carton.

I ran to WM during P's TKD tonight and got a few more Christmas gifts crossed off my list. The freaks are really starting to come out in full force! Steve is going to KC until Thursday and has his first band gig Thursday night. Luckily this weekend we don't have a thing going on so we can finalize all the Christmas wrapping, buying, food making etc. I'm off on Weds and home with Parker so I'm planning to get Xmas cards done that day. I will post some outtakes from those another time.

Got a pleasant email surprise tonight. Something I had sent to Paper Crafts last May was also selected for the kids magazine that I'll have a headband in too. Now I just need to remember where I put it?

PSA: Do not make Peppermint cookies if it involves smashing candy canes. I was covered in chunks from head to toe last night. And in the end I didn't have enough for my cookie exchange and they were crumbling apart anyway, so I ended having to make even more cookies. The recipe was thrown away!

I'll Admit it...I fly by the seat of pants sometimes....

Long story short, the Hansens are busy!

Last night I went to a girls game night with all the people from my department. Very fun. Played Apples to Apples (love that game) and played Mad Gab for the first time. That one is pretty funny. Especially after some of the people had a few drinks! I had to be good though since I had to drive home and had a ton to do today.

This morning there were haircuts, cooking and cleaning and then we had the final practice for the SS program tomorrow. Steve even has a part. No one every asks me to perform..wonder why...lol. I helped to fill the 100 goodie bags for the kids and finished up stamping them this morning. In my defense though I got about 75 percent of them done earlier this week and so only had to hurry up to finish the last few. Robert, Judi and Brad then stopped by for supper and we also made a quick trip to winery near our house. Steve made all the food...yeah! I'm in the process of making my cookies for tomorrow. I am pooped...so they aren't fancy!

Speaking of waiting till the last minute, I realized that I had the date wrong on a Paper Crafts call earlier this week and it expired that night, not next week. I quickly made a couple things and had one of them get picked up. It's for a Kids issue coming out in June. Also quickly made some things for another call due yesterday, but haven't heard back on those yet. Another call ends tonight so I might zip upstairs and crank out a card or two, we'll see.

Oops this blog has pretty much been about me lately. I need to get back to talking about the kidlets! Mainly the kids are just counting down the days till Christmas. P doesn't have school this week since year round gets an extra week off at xmas. E goes thru Friday.

Happy Holidays!

Ice Ice Baby

As most of you know the big news around here this week is the ice. The kids didn't have school today and Daddy didn't have to go to work (lucky duck). I actually didn't think the roads were very bad this morning or the afternoon. I could have stayed home, but there was a lunch at work today I had already paid for and I didn't want to use up anymore more PTO. Very slushy though! Our gravel road was slippery but we don't have to travel very far on it. I left work a little early to beat the rush and the best news is we've never lost our electricity at home! Nothing worse than losing electricity with little kids around. They just can't grasp the concept...plus we all get bored fast! As I was getting ready today the deciding factor for me was if I'm able to dry my hair before the electricty went out I was going in. That'll probably be my deciding factor tomorrow too! Parker's school is already 2 hours late tomorrow and I'm sure E's won't be far behind.

Lots of stuff happening around here later this week...involves a lot of baking on my part!

A Bit Ripe....

Thankfully we had no expected visitors today since we smell and the house is trashed. Since it's a yucky day outside...no need to shower right? Steve left last night to go hunting and today we didn't have much on the agenda. P's Scout pack had swimming this afternoon, but I would have needed to take E and I don't think she'd been too happy to not be able to get in the pool. Plus it's more for the older kids since they can test for badge stuff. There were free movies in town, but it was getting sleety out by then and with my luck I'd get the van stuck in our drive again and he wouldn't be around to get me out this time. The kids will get a bath tonight and I'll have a shower in the morning so I promise we won't be smelly for Drake and Rylan's bday parties tomorrow!

I'm pretty sure that if family did not live in Iowa, I still wouldn't live here. It's been snowing this week and I hate it! I don't mind how pretty the snow looks, but then you have to drive in it and it's cold out. Thursday night P's last TKD class of the session was cancelled. Testing was today, but we didn't go since I don't think he's ready. Although he was showing me all these moves the other night and maybe he would have been after all? Last night I stopped at FW for food rations. The had hamburger for $1.59/lb...so 20 lbs later we should be set on that for awhile. We were also out of milk, mac and cheese, hot dogs and pizza...the essentials in our diet when Steve is gone!

I haven't scrapped since the middle of November and there are a million calls coming up in the next 10 days that I'd like to make some stuff for. My room is once again trashed so then I dont even want to scrap, since I need to pick up first. I did get Oceans 13 on Netflix so maybe I could watch that while I clean. Plus next weekend is jampacked and I'll need to do things during the week to get ready for that. I'm sure I'll be making the 100 treat bags for the SS program at the last minute as usual....

Well that's about all. I need to remember to wrap the presents tonight unstead of waiting till the last minute in the morning. At least I finally bought some tape. The last 3 presents I wrapped involved a glue stick.

Back When the Dinosaurs Roamed....

Right now P and E are watching Rudolph that I DVR'd last night. When I was your age.... we had to wait all year to watch it once! And we couldn't forward thru the commercials. I do remember that around 4th grade we got a VCR which was pretty fancy for the time. Then we watched the same 3 things over and over. A pretty quiet week for the kids - just the usual TKD and baton. Steve has a lot going on in the evening so the kids love that it's "Fun time" when dad's gone. Weather permitting Steve is hunting this weekend. Last weekend he was supposed to go to the KC game, but couldn't because of the weather. Instead he battled the huge leak that happened in the walkway to the garage. Usually that kind of stuff waits to happen till after he leaves.

Sunday was busy with church and Sunday School, Christmas program practice and the Advent workshop in the afternoon. Each year at church they have a bunch of crafts for the kids and cookies to decorate. The kids are getting old enough, I actually wasn't the one making crafts this year. E is pretty creative and was stamping her cards way better than I can. Maybe I should have her start submitting? One craft involved button wreaths and Steph and I were drooling over all the buttons. I finally convinced Emma to make one and she picked pink and blue buttons...sweet!

It sounds like snow is coming. Hopefully not too much since I'm about out of PTO days! But if all goes well I'll probably take the kids to a movie Saturday. They have some free ones on the weekends here in December and I think it's Happy Feet this weekend. Sunday is Drake and Rylan's combo bday party.

One of these days I should try to finish up the Christmas shopping!