Our tubing adventure!

Summer is in full swing in the Hansen house. We are keeping very busy with swimming lessons, t-ball, playing with friends and time in our pool when the weather allows for it. I can't believe we are already 3 weeks into summer and know that before I know it , August will be here and it will be back to school time.

A couple of weekends ago, the girls went tubing with Nate on Uncle Brandon and Aunt Deanna's boat. We were a little nervous that they would freak out on the tube and not like it, but boy were we wrong! Both girls had a blast and didn't want to get off of the tube. They didn't love when Nate flipped them off the tube on purpose so they knew how that felt, but they still did pretty well with that. We sure do have some adventuresome little girls!

Sarah holding on tight!

A long time...again!

Can I just say that blogging while working seems not to work so well for me??? Now that summer vacation is here, I feel like I can give some time to this, so here are some pics to show you what we've been up to...
On Memorial Day weekend, we took our first family camping trip to Lake Shabbona near DeKalb, IL. We camped, fished, and rode our bikes. It was a great time. A neighboring camper was nice enough to take the picture above so that the whole family could be included. :)

Yes, this is Shelby the fisherwoman holding onto some of the fish we caught in the boat. Sarah was not quite so brave about holding the fish, but did help reel them in.

The weekend before Memorial Day, we visited Nate's Aunt, Uncle and cousins in Cashton, WI. We always have such a nice time there and the girls love to ride their "mini" horse. They get better at it each time we visit!

On May 15, my little Sarah celebrated her 4th birthday. Where have the last 4 years gone? I'm not quite sure, but she had a great time at her party.

opening presents...

sister snuggling time...

getting ready to blow out candles!

Sorry my pictures are so totally out of order. I am a bit rusty at uploading them, it's getting late and I don't feel like starting over. Next time, I'll try to remember to upload them in reverse order so they aren't so difficult to follow. Hopefully, I'll have more to share soon.

Some Christmas pics

The girls on Christmas day getting ready for all of our outings for the day!

Shelby checking out out Santa's gift tags (I had to be extra sneaky and stamp them this year to fool Shelby - she would have recognized my handwriting.

Sarah's dollhouse with ALL of that furniture. It's been a big hit with both girls even though Nate still doesn't think it looks like a dollhouse.

The girls were both opening books so we sat them back-to-back like Nate and his brother did when they were little and getting the same gift.

Gingerbread cookie making! Sarah is decorating and Shelby is sampling! :)

I hope all of you had a great Christmas and have a wonderful 2010!!

A long break

Well, to say that I have taken a break from blogging is an extreme understatement! I feel like I haven't had time to breathe, let alone blog lately. I knew that returning to the classroom would take up more of my time, but it seems to have taken up ALOT more time. I love my new position and I have a nice class with, of course, a couple of exceptions, but overall I am so, so glad to be back in the classroom. From the first day back, it just felt like I had come home again.

Below is a hodge-podge of pictures from the last month or so. Shelby turned 5 on November 11. That was difficult for me. Somehow, she just seems to big and grown up all of a sudden. She rarely comes up and snuggles with me anymore (she's too busy moving) so when she does I cerish it all the more. Sarah is still very, very snuggly. She has such a unique personality about her. She is very dramatic and easily flies off the handle at the smallest thing. On the other hand, she knows what she wants and expects to get it. This is a blessing and a curse! :)

We are all very excited to have 2 weeks off for Christmas vacation and the girls are very eagerly awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus this year. Shelby very happily realized that there is only 1 row left on our Advent calendar today. Exciting stuff!

I hope to get some Christmas pics up next week!

We took the girls to build candy houses this year. It was a great time, but daddy proved to be the master builder

We went to Breakfast with Santa at Timber Pointe golf club again this year. I say it is the only way to go visit Santa! No long lines and over priced photos.

The girls built a snowman with daddy after our big December snow. Luckily for him, the weather has stayed cold and he is still standing in the front yard.

The girl's new swing set. We were lucky enough to get this for FREE from a house near Nate's parents that had been abandoned. The real estate agent wanted it out, and we were happy to help. The girls love it! We even had to use it on the day of our first big snow.

Sarah's birthday party and updates

Here are some pics from Sarah's party which was last night. It was a "Dora" party which isn't a surprise knowing Sarah. She is Dora obsessed!! She had a great time and got so many cute things. Her real birthday isn't until Friday so hopefully, I'll have some other pictures to post after that. And maybe it won't take me over a month to do it! :)

Life is as busy here as ever. Nate's starting to get busy with work again which we are always grateful for, but it's always a little hard to get used to seeing much less of daddy than we did all winter!

I've only got about a month left of school before summer vacation which should be busy with Shelby playing teeball and both girls taking swimming lessons plus some fishing trips that I know Nate is planning for us. The end of the school year will also find me packing up my teaching things once again to move to a new school and back into a first grade classroom for next fall. Nate swears I can't stay in one place more than 3 years without getting the itch to move, and he may be right. I am very excited to be returning to the classroom, but I know that it will be a big readjustment for me.

Anyway, enjoy this pictures of my all too grown up, almost three year old. Where does the time go???

Today, you get lots of pictures and not so many words...yesterday we went to a birthday party for the girl's friend Lucas. The girls had a blast and there were too many cute pics not to share. The "Balloon Guy" from Perkins was there and made balloon animals (you would not believe some of the creations he comes up with) and played games with the kids. Here are a few of the girls holding puppets, playing games and finally Sarah helping make some magic. The last one is my favorite. Enjoy!

a long time

Finally, we're getting outside a bit. This one struck me as funny with little Sarah pushing her big sis around.

Sarah the bag lady!

Shelby and Daddy!

Hi. I know that I haven't posted in a long time, but I haven't had much to say. Life has been busy. I have been dealing with some potential changes at work. I have 2 and 4 year old girls. I have a bit of the winter blahs. I get them every year, and now finally spring appears to be making it's way into northern Illinois.

I added the pictures I had taken of the girls today to the sidebar of the blog. They are better than I could have hoped for. I have lived in fear of what happens when I take the girls to have portraits taken for 4 1/2 years and finally have hope that it won't be like that forever. They were absolute gems for me today. And they wanted to have pictures taken. They told me after that it was fun even.

This week is spring break for me and we have lots of little things to do, but it has been easy and relaxing so far which is great.

Sarah does have a new one-liner that I have to share while I'm thinking of it. Her new thing is "I'm tired of dis (this)!" She says this whenever she doesn't like something I ask her to do. Going potty it's "I'm tired of dis potty stuff!" At clean-up time "I'm tired of dis clean-up stuff!" It would be hilarious if it weren't so infuriating. :)

Shelby is all about letters, sounds and writing these days which makes this teacher/mommy's heart proud. She has come to it in her own time, but she is learning quickly! She is also all about bike riding when the weather permits. We have taken 2 - 2 mile rides up and down our road recently and she loves doing it. No complaints about being tired even!