The arrest...

Today at Molly's school there was a police car(with lights blazing) right in the middle of the Kindergarten pick up line(I assumed it was to hurry up the crazy people who disregard the ten signs that say DO NOT PARK HERE and that leave their car running and go into the school...but no...official police business). I got Molly in the car, and she told me that a lady had been arrested. Garrett then asked if it was someone's mommy. Molly told him that she thought it was a mom in the other class.(Apparently there are no felons in her class, good news huh?) Anyway, Garrett was very concerned and asked if she was going to jail. Molly told him yes. He then was almost beside himself(picturing a mommy going to jail), and said, "But when she is ready to be nice, can she come out?" I love some of the conversations I am hearing lately between these two.

Being a mom is like soccer...

So to be frank, I am good at most sports. Even if I have never tried it, if someone teaches me well, I can pick it up. There is an exception to this rule...it is soccer. I'm just not good at it. I even got put on this really good team in 9th grade with my best friends cause they thought, "we can make her good at this." Little did they know.

I've decided that being a mom is like playing in a soccer game for me. That never ends. You are in the middle of the game, so you can't ever stop to practice. There are brief times when the ball is on the other side of the field and you can enjoy a "moment" with one of the kids. There are very few goals. We score now and again, but as soccer fans know...not that often. Sometimes you make a good pass, or a good save. But mostly, you are just running around and getting tired in the middle of this game. This REALLY important game. The MOST important game of your life. I feel like I am in the middle of a game that I am not very good at, that I MUST figure out before it is over. You keep playing, and you keep playing hard cause sometimes that is all you know how to do. I've been really good at other things in my lifetime. But it doesn't seem to matter at all. I just wish I was REALLY good at soccer.

Happy First Year Hansen!

Oh how I love this boy! He melts me. We celebrated his first year today. I reflected on how fast this year has gone, and how I need to cherish every day with my little people.
I'm kind of a ghetto mom who doesn't really do decorations and party favors really well...but I do love a good excuse to make rainbow chip cake mix...in any form...with that incredible frosting. Mmmmmm. Frogs...cause this boy LOVES to jump.
In this pic we are trying to pretend he cared about his presents...he didn't care. Not one bit...but he enjoyed rustling around with the tissue paper.
Hansen's favorite foods were on the menu.(so this did NOT include peas or chicken) We(in attendance: Sam's parents, my parents, Pete and Jen's fam, Joe +1, Andi and Bryan's fam including new baby Drew, and Emily and her boys) ate sweet potato fries, butternut squash, green beans(again...NOT peas...Hansen' said NO PEAS), peaches, pears, and blueberries. Delicious, healthy, and pretty sure if we all ate like that we would all be as happy as Hansen.
This sums up how much he cared about the party. This is his, "Please give me my bottle now, put me in my pj's and kiss me goodnight...and thanks for letting me squish that whole cupcake in my fingers and play with it...you're the best mom in the whole world face."

Great Grandma's 85th, a broken toe...and "i'm never going to the olympics"

Sadly, this is the only picture I have from our trip to Boise. We were all sick the whole time, so that would explain my lack of picture taking. This is how Hansen felt the whole time there. He sucked his fingers a lot. :-) Great Grandma Meredith is 85! The party was grand, and the best part was all the cute people showing up in the sunday best to celebrate Grandma. She is one of the sweetest women alive and has lived such a faithful life. Since her husband died when he was 63, she has been a widow for a long long time. That is why I eat so unhealthy, so I can die before Sam. :-) We love her! And we are so grateful for her.
This is a pic of Garrett's toe after a few days.You can't see much, but the whole side of the foot where the pinky toe was hurt was much darker in color, and the inside of his pinky toe was black. He is a tough dude. He just limped around on the rest of our trip. Even got his shoes on by himself while gritting his teeth. We make it a point to get some kind of injury when we are in the great city of Boise.


Finally, my cute little Molly has informed me she will not be participating in the Olympics ever. She watched the women's downhill and has made up her mind. I'm pretty sure she thought I was going to make her try that at some point.(she has needed a bit of coaxing while on the mountain, and she loves it after she is "coaxed"). I told her I am fine if she doesn't want to hurl her body down a mountain at 75 MPH. Fine by me. :-)

Handsome Hansen is walking...well running

So our little dude is too good to crawl around on the ground now. He has forced himself to learn how to walk. It was a very strange way to learn...but it got the job done. He had NO caution at all, and was never discouraged. He fell at least 10,000 times, and just got right back up and kept trying. He didn't pull himself up on a couch and then "dare to take a step". He just pulled himself up in the middle of the room and tried to walk. Very unsuccessfully at first. But he's got it now. He also didn't really take "first steps," he took "first hops." I have never seen anything quite like it. He learned to jump before he learned to walk. I never had the camera handy, buy finally got some good takes of his funny hops. His record was 6 across the floor...and then didn't fall at the end. The first video is to help me remember how determined he was as a little guy. And the second is to remember the hopping. He is such a funny guy. He now doesn't really walk...he runs. He stresses my mom out because he walks with "reckless abandon"

January Survival!

We have officially survived January, and I am pretty excited about it. I thought after last year(being VERY pregnant) that January couldn't get any worse, or at least it would be a little better. Nope! It is officially the month I despise in Utah. Not just for the very cold temps...but mostly for the inversion. I could say, well at least our air isn't as bad as...but no, I can't say that, because we have the WORST air in the country. I have finally figured out that it was causing some throat, sinus issues for me, and I am doing some things to remedy that. SO...we decided to take up skiing to survive. The air is clean, it is usually a bit warmer up in the mountains, and it is SO beautiful.
I am thrilled that Molly can do the rope by herself now, so I can just focus on getting Garrett comfortable on the mountain. He is improving each time he gets up there. And they are both so cute doing it! Garrett officially let go and made it down the bunny hill by himself....very slowly...but that is better than when he got going so fast that mom had to catch up to him fast and grab him. :-) Molly is a pro, and is bored on the bunny hill. We will venture to ski free at 3 at Alta, and then maybe...just maybe next year consider paying money to do it if they are both still interested.
I posted this pic of Hansen asleep(in a shirt that used to belong to his dad when he was a baby mind you). He is such a good little guy. This may be the last time I see him asleep in his Dad's arms. He is getting TOO heavy. He is walking! Craziness! He is showing more and more personality each day. Today he couldn't get enough of Garrett. He just kept trying to interact with him and giggling at every growl and every grunt that Garrett elicited as he pretended to be many friends from the animal kingdom. Wow! We really survived January(I even saw the tulips coming up already, which is probably a bad thing...but oh well...nothing like a little hope...we all need hope) Now February will just fly by. All basketball games are so relevant...warmer days will come...then march madness will be here! Here's to survival!

New Years!

Our whole family! My brothers came into town and our family was together for New Years. It was awesome. It was renewing and cathartic, and that is all I will say about that. We had fun with cousins. Rich made a sledding hill and every time Garrett went on it, he just kept saying to himself, "This is vewy vewy good." That is his way of screaming, "Thank you Uncle Rich, this is the best thing of my life!" Jump On It was a hit. Even for Hansen, the kid was born to jump.

We got to ski...which was very nostalgic. We got to get a pic of our old cabin where many a days were spent playing pool, in the sauna, and jumping of balconies into snow forts. We had plenty of time to take the picture, because traffic going down the canyon on New Year's Eve day was incredible. Standstill is an understatement.
It was great teaching the kiddos to ski though. Very fun. Horrible at first...then very fun. :-)
Molly and Lola EZ bakin it up. Ridiculous toy. You work really hard to have three bites of dessert. Ridiculous. Molly of course, loves it and wants to do it all the time. Today was Peanut butter fudge.

Hansen loves these drums as much as anyone...and I still love that it has volume control. Good toy.
Sleepover with her cousins. It was heaven for Molly. She loved it. We had a great time, and were sad to see them leave. We got a Christmas card from Aaron's fam and Molly had to put it up in her room to "think about them." :-) Highlights: Seafood bash at Russ and Mary's. MMMM. Steelhead, huge shrimp, mussels, and yellowtail(caught by my nephew). Being at Alta skiing. Temple. Watching the kids sled on all of the uncle's crazy trails(even if it meant hitting a rock), Singing. I'm probably forgetting something, but that is what I get for waiting so long. :-) Good good times. I am and forever will be grateful for my family.