Holiday fun

Who can believe that Christmas is over? We spend so much time and effort getting ready for it and then, BAM! It's over and we're left to take down all of the Christmas stuff and find places for all of the new things we've gotten. The girls really enjoyed Christmas this year. Sarah had a tough time though with an ear infection and really took of on Christmas day I think. We were at the Dr. bright and early on the 26th. Shelby had one right before my vacation started so of course Sarah would get it too. They have both had nasty colds to go with the ears so it's been lots of fun in the Hansen house. Nate and I are trying to fight it off ourselves now.

As children will always do, their favorite gifts were the littlest one that one wouldn't think would be a big deal. First, the stocking caps and mittens knitted by Great Grandma Hansen that the girls are enjoying wearing around the house. Mind you, it's never cold in our house with the woodburner going. Another favorite was a $5.00 child's broom that Santa bought for Shelby and a little set of instruments that included a recorder, tamborine, xylophone, and maracas. It was definitely a baby doll Christmas for them. Both got a set of Bitty Baby Twins from Napa and Papa Hansen and lots of other baby related items.

It's almost time to go back to work already. I'm not sure where the time went. Happy New Year's all!

Here they are

Mission accomplished! I am patting myself on the back even as I type for figuring this out.

This top one is me. Looks like I'm having lots of fun, right?

The Hansen's 2007 visiting Santa. I think getting my eyebrows waxed might be more fun than this!

Some holiday craziness

For all of the fun that the holiday season is, I have some stories to remind us all of the insanity it can bring as well. We'll start with Christmas pictures. I had been putting them off because my aunt had offered to finish the girl's holiday dresses that my Grandma had started before she passed away last month. She finished them quickly and they are beautiful! I never want the girls to outgrow them, but I know they will all too quickly. So, we got the dresses and had to take the pics. in the following couple of days to get the cards ordered.

I did not bring the girls to a portrait studio to have pictures taken because the ones in the mall drive me crazy with their 1o minute appointments to capture your child at their cutest and always running forever behind so you have crabby kids by the time they get to you. Sounds like fun, no? That's why I have avoided it since just after Sarah was born. I also usually get better pictures at home with way less stress.

So anyway, I get the girls ready (tights and all, and they both HATE tights) and Nate and I try to get some cute pictures. The top 3 pictures are our failed attempts and the fourth one is what you will be getting in the mail. It's not perfect, but it's the best these tired parents could get. Oh, and I didn't add the attempts that included Sarah screaming bloody murder because we were trying to get her to sit when she wanted to stand or we were taking away her beloved pacifier. So, when you look at the Christmas card from the Hansen's this year, know that lots of blood, sweat, and tears went into creating it.

Another story, Shelby is really into the Santa thing this year. For the first time, she gets it and asked us about going to see Santa when we told her that you can visit him to tell what you would like for Christmas. The girl was on our case all last week to go and see Santa. On Friday, we decided to bite the bullet and take the girls to the mall.

Mind you, we have never taken the girls to see Santa before. We weren't trying to deprive them somehow, but we know our girls and how they react to new people. We didn't really want to embarass ourselves in front of a mall full of people with a screaming child.

Back to the story. So we get to the mall and the line is looooonnnnngggg. The whole time we're trying to entertain the girls and pumping Shelby up for talking to Mr. Claus. She had it all planned out that she was going to ask for a big pink ball and a new baby doll. She had wanted a kitty (yikes!) but changed her mind. We get to the front of the line after about 1 hour and 15 mintues and what does Shelby do you ask? She grabs onto Nate's neck in a death grip, refuses to let go, and starts crying. Sarah was no better, refusing to leave my lap to sit on Santa's. The result, we now have a picture to commemorate this joyour occasion with Shelby hanging onto Nate and glaring at the camera and me sitting next to Santa with Sarah on my lap (complete with teary eyes). Oh the joys of Christmas. I can't figure out exactly how to scan it and get on on here or else I would. I might add that we had to buy a picture to remember this because they don't allow you to take any of your own pictures. Nate says Santa has to earn a living too, but I think not so much!

I have to add that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree because when going through pictures at my Grandpa's last week, we came across one of me at about 18 months sitting on Santa's lap (or should I say trying to crawl off) and crying hysterically. By the way, Shelby thought it was a picture or her, that's how similar we look. If I ever learn how to scan and load, I will post these pics.

A crazy week

Decorating for the holidays with Shelby and Sarah... They really enjoyed helping decorate the tree with me. They only got to help with the nonbreakable ornaments near the bottom of the tree (yep, that's how you trim a tree with kids, in my opinion, all of the important, breakable ones at the top, the indestructable ones at the bottom). I did come to understand, however why my mom always felt the need to rearrange the ornaments my brother and I put on the tree each year (at the time very annoying) as I did the same things with the girls this year. Shelby had a habit of placing them all together in a clump and it made me crazy. :-)And now...meet the newest member of our family (can you say Aimee must be crazy?!?). This is Bailey, our new chocolate lab. She is our family's Christmas gift, and we brought her home last Friday. I was not quite ready for a puppy, but Nate has really missed Alga since we had to put her to sleep last year and he's been asking me lately how long we had to wait for another dog. I had originally told him that I didn't want to potty train a puppy until both girls were potty trained. No, Sarah is not yet potty trained so I lost that battle. She really is a sweet puppy, but of course she is into everything.

To top it all off this week, Nate has been down with an ear infection. At least it started that way. After 2 trips to immediate care and 3 different kinds of medication (don't even get me started on how useless they were), it became a ruptured ear drum and sent us on a trip to the emergency room. Poor guy, he really was in a ton of pain, and I didn't know what to do for him. He is on the mend now, but still can't really hear out of that ear. We are seeing an Ear specialist next Friday to recheck him.

The end of the world and being ELFED

The world may be ending...


Last night Sarah went to the daycare at the YMCA during Shelby's swim lesson and she DIDN'T have a screaming meltdown while I tried to take off her coat and hand her to the lady.


THEN, Shelby did not scream poor Dr. Geddes out of the office today at her 3 year check. She was actually quite pleasant to him. Daddy is taking all the credit for that one since he joined us this morning, but I am crediting her maturity and the talking and role playing we did before the appointment. All of that trust may have been ruined when the nurse returned to give her the flu shot. Shelby had a serious case of hurt feelings about that one, but an extra sticker cured that quickly.

On a totally unrelated note, I just elfed the girls. My friend Jaime did it with her whole family and sent it (so funny). I, unfortunately, couldn't find pictures of Nate and I to include so I just did the little ones.

Hope everyone enjoys this Thanksgiving weekend with some loved ones.

Highs and lows

Ever feel like life has lots or irony? I sure do after the past week. For those of you that don't know, my grandma passed away last weekend. It was sudden and has been a very tough week for us all. What makes this ironic is that she passed away on Shelby's birthday, a great and happy time for us. I felt torn all of last Sunday between the joy and happiness that my little girl was turning 3 and sadness about my grandma. I told Nate that I felt I had taken for granted before that I am 31 years old and still had all of my grandparents. It hadn't even occurred to me that I might lose one anytime soon, after all, they were all fairly healthy. Then, BAM! Out of nowhere... So, that's our life in a nutshell lately, and believe me I don't want to experience anything like it again.

I don't want to bum all of you out totally, so I have included some pictures from Shelby's birthday party last weekend which we had in spite all that was going on. She didn't know the difference (ah, the innocence of childhood) and has a great time.

Shelby blowing out her candles and enjoying our singing "Happy Birthday" to her.

Sarah really wanting to help out with the present opening. Shelby did let her help, good big sis that she is.

Shelby opening a monsterous set of Play-doh from Uncle Ryan and soon-to-be Aunt Susan. Both girls are really enjoying that gift!

On a side note, I have to share a funny exchange Nate and I had the other night. He has been falling asleep lately by 7:30 or 8 at least a few nights a week (light weight), and says to me the other night "So when did having kids make you such a night owl?"

My response, "Since when is being awake at 8:08 considered being a night owl?"

He said "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Then he feel asleep.

A little bit of everything...

I know, it's been a while, but all I can say is end of the quarter, 45 progress reports to write, parent teacher conferences, a cold and lost voice, and Halloween, it goes on and on...

I have a bunch of assorted pictures here that I haven't had a chance to share yet.

These were our kitty cats (for full effect, you should know that Shelby substituted a 't' for the 'k' sound, hilarious!). Nate brought them home from a friends house and they were to live out back and catch mice for us. The girls took a huge liking to them and we were really enjoying feeding them and playing with them everyday. But then one day last week we couldn't find them. We were sad but knew they might wander away at some point. This is where the story gets interesting because a couple of days later, we're sitting at the kitchen table and Nate says, "There are the kitties." Sure enough they were next door coming out of the neighbor's house with them! I was so mad, they took our kittens! Nate was trying to calm me down and remind me that we didn't buy them and we were letting them wander outside so they were really just animals that lived here when one of the idiots next door KICKS one of them out of his way! Are you kidding me?!? I was so mad, and again Nate told me to calm down.

I guess Shelby really does watch everything I do because after I told my parents the story Wednesday night, she re-enacted it kicking motion and all for my aunt on Thursday (as she said "The boy, he kicked the kitty!"). I had to vent about this one last time before I let it go. I really am so mad though.

This is the princess pumpkin that Shelby and I created from a kit that my grandma got for her. Turned out pretty cute and she had a great time helping out.

The hat girls...just chillin' before bed

In our Halloween shirts

Shelby the princess (reusing her flower girl dress from a couple of weeks ago) and Sarah as Elmo. Happy Halloween!!

The hit treat of the night...little flashlights.

The Big Day

Go'in fishin'! There were fish in the centerpieces at the reception, and Nate and Shelby decided to torure it a bit while waiting for dinner.

Yesterday was my cousin's wedding. After months of waiting and weeks of practicing with Shelby at dropping her rose petals I am happy to report that she was a total peach all throughout the day. She threw the petals, smiled for pictures and didn't ruin the dress in the course of the day. All day long, everyone kept saying what a great job she did, and I agree! Now we are all trying to recover from shortened naps and late nights to bed. I will try to post more pics as I get them.

The princess with her Princess bride Barbie.

At the Pumpkin Patch

The girls loved these bunnies (a future pet, perhaps?) They wanted to stand and watch them for quite a long time. They especially got a kick out of watching all 6 of them chase each other.

Through the spooky maze!

Jumping around...for some reason this is a favorite of both girls. They giggled like crazy the whole time.

Shelby is, of course, in the driver's seat. Sarah will have to settle for riding shotgun for now.

Sarah really enjoyed the tractor, making vroom, vroom noises while she "drove."

The things they say...

For the first time ever, Shelby said something embarrassing in public today. I know it won't be the last, but it surprised me just the same. We were walking into Kohl's this morning (I was off to get ready for my cousin's wedding tomorrow) and a lady came walking out the door as we were going in. My Shelby says, "That lady has funny hair mommy, what happened to her hair?" She didn't say it softly either. On Shelby's behalf the lady's hair WAS pretty weird. She had it in a clip and instead of the extra hair just kind of flopping over and hanging there, she had is teased up pretty high on top of her head. I can safely say I have never seen anything quite like it. The lady either didn't hear her or acted like she didn't because there was no reaction that I saw, but I didn't hurry Shelby in the door pretty fast. Lots of fun! Oh and she also told the lady at the grocery store that the pop and beer were for her daddy. That lady probably thinks her daddy is a caffeine and alcohol addict. Typically Shelby is pretty quiet around strangers but today she was pretty lively.

Yesterday we went to the Pumpkin Patch...It was a bit chilly but not at all busy being a weekday morning so the girls got the run of the place and we enjoyed eating some pumpkin spice donuts and apple cider. Pictures to follow...

Another weekend here and gone...

Meet headband girl...She refuses to wear them on her head like a normal girl, but prefers them as not-so-see-through sunglasses. She also got my mom to model them in the same way for the sole purpose of me taking a picture, but I quickly deleted that one from my camera as I promised mom I would.

Whenever I take a picture of one sister, I have to take a picture of the other. Here Sarah is doing one of her favorite things, reading!

Busy time while Sarah sleeps with some Play-doh in the cookie oven and Nana and Papa Hansen got her. She can sit for an hour at a time with the play-doh (it's the only thing she sits that long for) and still not want to get up!

On Sunday, we had the queen of pretend play acting like she was sick. She and I took turns pretending to be sick while the other person gave medicine and made them better for about an hour Sunday morning. This one has quite the imagination lately!

Hug or Mug?

You decide. My camera (or the photographer) was a bit slow tonight so the pics aren't as cute as they could be. At one point Sarah was on Shelby's lap hugging her (so cute).

Anyway, this was Shelby in a time-out (effective I know). You see whenever Shelby is in time-out which somedays feels like alot, Sarah comes over and joins her! Ha! A voluntary time-out. She just comes over and plops down proud as a peach right next to her big sis.

Here's how it works for those of my friends either having second babies soon or who just had them. As the littlest one gets bigger, he or she will want to do all things the older sister (or brother) does. It doesn't matter if they really can, if it's safe, or a good idea -- they will want to copy every move their older sibling makes. This means you have a little one who can just walk trying to RUN and JUMP because big sis is doing it. You will have a wee one trying to climb up and down the steps just to keep up. The result...a sometimes bruised and battered toddler. We went to see Dr. Geddes a couple of weeks ago, and I felt like he was going to call DCFS as soon as we left. Sarah had a bruise on her cheek and one on her forehead both from trying to keep up with Shelby. Her body hasn't mastered running yet, but her head thinks she has. He said that it's very normal for a younger to try to keep up with an older, but I felt like a candidate for the bad mommy of the year award just the same.

Babies

I have been meaning to post a pic of Shelby's beloved babies, but I haven't yet, so here it is. I want to be able to show it to her when she is older. These rag dolls (emphasis on RAG) were actually mine! They are Holly Hobby dolls that my mom gave to her quite a while back and in the past few months they have become her most prized babies. Their names are Pink Baby and Green Baby. Original I know. There is another baby with a pink dress that she calls Other Pink Baby. It reminds me of that show Newhart from when I was little. The guy named Larry would introduce his brothers by saying "This is my brother Daryl and this is my other brother Daryl."

Here's what you might notice about the pink baby. Her face is falling apart! Really the fabric is so old that I think it is just disintigrating. What you can't see is Green baby's feet which look like she has been in terrible accident. They had holes which had stuffing falling out of them that Sarah was attempting to eat so I had my mom try to fix them, but the fabric was again falling apart so she had to sew the feet up making them different sizes and not so pretty. To be perfectly honest, I think Shelby was so excited to have her back after she spent a few days at Nana's house, she hasn't even noticed the funny looking feet.

I know these poor dolls are going to fall apart in poor Shelby's hands someday soon and I'm not sure what to do about it. I am half hoping that she will become interested in some of her other, newer babies, but I have also considered buying her new pink and green babies on e-bay. I have found them, but am afraid Shelby won't like them as much as the originals because they don't look quite the same (and they aren't falling apart).

While I was trying to take the picture of Shelby with her babies, Sarah was getting in my face yelling "cheese" so I had to snap a pic of her. She is growing and changing so much right now. Still kind of a peanut compared to her big sis, but growing just the same.

I can't decide if this face of Shelby's is completely adorable, or borderline evil.

arts and crafts

Play-doh time! And Sarah didn't even try to eat any this time. Shelby is cutting with the scissors (as she says nipping it with the scissors) and Sarah just had fun tearing it into bits and putting it back in the cup.
Shelby made us all paper bracelets and then Nate and I turned one of her drawings into a necklace that she proudly wore for the evening. Doesn't she look fancy?!?

A lazy Sunday morning

What a mess!

Oh, the joys of learning to self-feed!

This is one of those times when I truly miss Alga (our black lab who passed away last fall). She was around to clean up after all of Shelby's first self-feeding attempts.

Back into the routine....sort of

We are slowly getting back into the school routine. The girls are getting used to being woken up to go to my aunt's house and we are in a great morning routine that is quick and painless (food is involved to make it that way). I am used to getting up early and having to look presentable.

Shelby is STILL having a hard time with the drop off in the morning, however. I get lots of "Mommy I need you!" That's a good one for working mommy guilt. I also have an almost 3 year old clinging to me most mornings. I am learning that a quick exit is best, but that I can't sneak out because that makes it worse.

As for the new job... I like it so far. It couldn't be more different than being in the classroom right now. Last week I was in different schools around town testing first graders with the other reading teachers. It has been nice to get to know them. They are an interesting group, but I have found some really nice, helpful, and knowledgeable new friends in the group. This week, we will wrap that testing up and begin some second grade testing in my school. I am going to be WAY tired of testing by the end of the month but I understand that Sept. and May are just like that since our programs are funded by proving our children make progress. I am hoping to be in my routine by Sept. 17 or 24 and be working with groups by then. It is really nice to have my focus be on reading and writing only (my favorite things to teach) and not to have to work in math, science, etc. Hopefully I will continue to feel that way.

I am way excited for this 3 day weekend. The girls and I need a chance to slow down and enjoy each other. Nate is really far behind with all of the rain so he's working today and Monday, but is taking Sunday off. Shelby is just as sassy as ever and is loving her newest prized possession, a super bouncy ball that Nate bought her for a quarter. Sarah is becoming more and more adept at climbing on things like couches and chairs so I have to watch her like a hawk because she has not learned proper exiting techniques yet.

I'll try to get some new pics of them this weekend to post.

It seems that no matter how I try, never get both girls to smile for a picture. One is serious, no matter what. Oh well!
Welcome to our barber shop...Shelby is way into putting Sarah and I in the "barber chair" (really just a dining room chair) to make us look pretty! Luckily, Sarah is a pretty good sport about it as you can see.

Some words

Alright, so I posted some pics (goodness knows I haven't had time to take very many this week) and now I will write a little. Back to school is going well. I am back into the routine, but the girls have been a bit more tired that normal at night since they have to get up earlier with me in the morning now. I am liking my new job so far although it is sooooo different from being in the classroom. Thursday (the first day of school) came and no one came to MY classroom which was way weird! Also on the first day of school, a teacher rarely gets to sit down to much of a lunch, but I had plenty of time to do so. I actually spent the first 2 days preparing things and scheduling. Next week and the week after, I will be testing students at different schools in the district along with 15 other reading specialists. I think I will be reciting The Carrot Seed in my sleep and NOT liking it one little bit. I think that in about 3 weeks, I will be into a routine at school that includes working with children consistently and that will be awesome!

At home, I am feeling behind at everything right now because, of course, I am home so much less and don't have a daily nap time to catch up. Thank goodness for a cleaning person every 2 weeks to take that load off, but that still leaving plenty to keep up with. The house just feels cluttered messy and I don't know where to start with getting it in order, so what am I doing? Writing this post! :-)

The rain has FINALLY stopped here and maybe the lake at our back door can begin to dry up now. Oh yeah, and the one in our front yard too! Fortunately, we didn't have water in the basement this time.

I need to go and get something (anything) done around here before the girls wake up and Nate gets home.

They all fall down!

A little game of "Ring around the rosy" Shelby can sing the words (pretty much) and they both love the falling down best of all, of course!

Shoo, Fly!

Yes, with a spoon, but pretend play is good, right? I will have to get her a real fly swatter so she can help us out with all of our "friends."

Food!

One night last week, Nate got home late from work (okay, so that happens a few nights a week) and this is what happened when he went to eat. The girls both climbed up on the couch and started taking the food from his plate! The poor guy didn't stand a chance to the chorus of "More!" he heard after that. Let just say that after they went to bed, he raided the cupboards to finish his dinner.

I promise they ate earlier in the evening. These are not starving children!