"In the wee small hours of the morning..."

Is anyone familiar with that song? I only am because of "Sleepless in Seattle". Anyway, this song perfectly describes me tonight. Well, not exactly I suppose because I think that song is about thinking of some boy and therefore not being able to sleep or something, and I'm just awake for no reason. Regardless of the reasons, here I am, posting this marvelous post.

So, our most recent news is that Hallie is now "fbour" (that's Hallie code for four)! Thanks to everyone who made Hallie feel so special on, and around, her birthday. She had special visitors from near and far (or at least a little bit further than usual). Here are a few pictures from her special day.

Bree, Star, and Marmee came up on Sunday night especially to wish Hallie a happy birthday!

Hallie had been planning on having just a family party at Chuck-E-Cheese's, but then when she woke up on her birthday, she decided that she wanted to have a party. That's all well and good, but we didn't have enough time to invite anyone. Thank goodness for the Snarr's and their willingness to attend birthday parties on short notice. I think this is the 2nd year running that we've given them about 5 hours notice for Hallie's party.

In honor of Hallie's special day I thought I should include some Hallieisms.
Actually, it would seem that they are escaping me just now -- one of the hazards of blogging in the middle of the night I would expect. Anyway, we went and got Hallie's yearly pictures yesterday and they turned out so cute. The photographer just captured her adorable personality and I am so glad because it can be hard to get her at her best.
Just one last thing. Here are some pictures of our three fantastic kids. I had to show more than one picture because of course having all three look great at the same time is asking too much.

What's been happening with the Hansen's? Here's a picture update.

Snow Time!

Thanksgiving

Kale's new church clothes. A tie just like dad!

And lastly, the Christmas elves just paid our family a visit.

"This is Halloween, this is Halloween..."

It's that magical time of year again when you get to dress up in a costume and be something, or someone, completely different for a few hours (or in our case, a few nights). There is just something so fun about Halloween to me. I don't like any of the scary stuff, but it is so fun to think up costumes and get everyone ready -- somehow it's just cool to wear stuff that you wouldn't normally wear. For one night of the year this rule follower gets to do things, or at least wear things, that she normally wouldn't be caught dead in -- and it seems fun instead of embarrassing.
We started off the celebrating with a party on Friday night with my family. Everyone who still lives in Utah came (except Rob -- he had some kind of study group or something). I of course included a million pictures because I'm sure everyone wanted to be involved in every detail of our parties.

These are the costumes that we wore. Jon was Wolverine, and of course I was Storm. Rachel was a sorceress, Kale a cowboy, and Hallie was the most adorable Dorothy ever! And sweet little Sky was a lamb (thanks Mom for the great costume idea).

The guests -- obviously all the Snarr's came (like Alyssa & Peter) and also Mom, but I didn't have any pictures of those guys, so this is what you get. Pretty awesome costumes! The big headed man is obviously Ryan.

The kids (with some help from Jamie and Jon) mummified Grandma & Grandpa. They absolutely loved it (thanks for the great idea Heidi)!


On Saturday night we went to the Hansen's church for some serious trunk-or-treating. There is a serious lack of pictures because I wasn't in charge of the camera, but know that the Hansen's were in costume and they looked totally awesome. Almost every classroom around the whole building had someone passing out candy. The kids had so much fun. Kale was definitely into it. As soon as he saw the next candy post he would start running, yelling as he went "Candy, candy, candy! Over there, over there! More candy!" That kid definitely loves candy -- luckily (at least for Kale) candy is something that flows like water at Marmee's house.
After trunk-or-treating ended we went to the Hansen's just to be with everyone. Ruth and Matt and Nick & Heidi (and of course all the kids) came over to be together. And of course, any time you're at the Hansen's you can expect to be fed royally, and yesterday was no exception. There were sloppy joes, wassail (is that spelled right -- you know that drink?), donuts, caramel apples, and candy galore. For a girl who's been trying to not eat treats (what?! I had to wear spandex for my costume) it was like a dream come true!
Now Halloween is at an end, but the magic is only just beginning. Halloween is just the starting point for family holiday time festivities, and I can hardly wait for the fun to continue!

Halloween is coming up!

Here are the Halloween costume choices we have for the kids. Okay, actually Kale's the only one with any choices -- the pictures of Sky are of her in her costume, but mostly just to show you how ridiculously adorable she is. Notice how Kale's pirate hat barely stays perched on his head? Pretty hilarious!

Future Lunchroom Workers

For some strange reason my kids love to wear this weird little net as a hat. Perhaps they have future aspirations to become lunchroom workers (I would say lunch ladies, but obviously the term doesn't apply to Kale). That is definitely what they look like to me.

Sky's Blessing

Today was Sky's baby blessing and it was such a wonderful day. The blessing was beautiful, and it was just so nice to be able to sit through church and listen to what people were saying -- so thanks family for all the help with the kids. After the meeting we came to our house for some taco salad. It was fun having everyone over -- I love family get-togethers. Anyway, I just thought I should post the picture of Sky in her blessing dress. Anita surprised us with this beautiful little dress a few weeks ago. It was perfect -- exactly what I would have chosen.

Just thought you should see the picture in color. On the right we have the 3 new Castleton grandkids -- Joshua, Max, and Sky. Isn't that a kind of funny picture?!

Also, Rachel started school this past week and she absolutely loves it!

News Update...

It's obviously been a while since I wrote, so thought I would give just a quick update. Here is a recap of this past month in picture form (plus a few words).

As most of you know, Hallie had a run-in with the side of the tub. She was the bravest little person I have ever seen get stitches. The doctor said don't move, and she took him at his word -- she didn't so much as flinch the whole time she was getting stuck with numbing shots and the stitching needle.

Sky is continuing to grow and getting more beautiful by the day. I realize the middle picture is not showing her to full advantage, but it was just such a hilarious face I had to let everyone see it.

Well, that's all the time I have now, and frankly I've taken longer than Sky really wanted to allow.

Sky Janay Hansen

Here she is, our beautiful little Sky. Sometimes it seems totally normal to have another baby, and at other times, I can't even believe that we have 4 kids! Pretty crazy.

Sky's brother and sisters certainly love her. They can't get enough of holding her and cry if they feel like they were shortchanged on time during their turn. They do a great job helping to take care of her. Kale always tells us that he "wants to hold that" (meaning the baby) -- we're working on it.

Lots of hospital visitors

I love the picture of the 2 grandpas. I don't think they've ever looked so proud.

The house visitors. Nick's family and Becky's family saved their visit until we were home -- our kids loved it because then they got to play with their cousins instead of just having to sit around. Awesome!

The proud parents -- We are so excited to have little Sky in our family!

The End Is In Sight

That's right folks, the end is definitely coming. My doctor has set up a date to induce the baby. By this time in 2 weeks, I will have a new baby! I'll be going in on the 19th to be induced, if I don't have my baby before then. Which is code for, I'll be delivering on the 19th since I never go into labor on my own. Wahoo!! There is something so great about just knowing that by this time in 2 weeks it will all be over. I just thought I would post one last farewell to pregnancy picture of myself so we can all remember how huge I truly am.
In other news, Rachel went in last Thursday to have a lump removed from her arm. The doctor thought that it was probably just a cyst (spelling?), but it kept getting darker like a bruise (which I guess is worrisome) and it really hurt if it was bumped. So, we decided to have it removed. Since Rachel was so young the doctor decided to put her to sleep before removing the lump so that she wouldn't be too scared.
Well, we took her to the hospital bright and early Thursday morning. We only got to spend a few minutes talking to her with the nurses, then helped her into her little robe so they could take her into the operating room. We weren't even there when they gave her the gas to put her to sleep. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done just watching her get wheeled away on the hospital bed. I cried as I walked back into the waiting room to wait the short hour until we could see her again. After it was finished, we went back to sit with Rachel as she woke up. It just broke my heart to see her attached to the IV while she slept all curled up on the bed. I have never felt so grateful that my kids are healthy and don't have to spend time in the hospital. That would be so heartbreaking.
Rachel of course is doing great and you can't even tell that she has a big cut on her arm. She's looking forward to this weekend because that's when she can start getting the cut wet -- she's really been missing swimming and playing in the sprinklers. The pictures of this event are on Jon's phone, so I'll have to figure out how to get those at another time.

The Long Wait

Have you ever noticed that the pregnancy time table is slightly skewed? The nine months as a whole haven't seemed too long, but there's something about the last few weeks that seem to take an eternity. It's like, as soon as you pass that 37 week mark and you know your baby could be born without complications, it just seems like your baby should be born right then.
This is the stage we're in right now -- the never ending waiting. I'm trying to have things to do so it doesn't seem so long -- you know, thinking in terms of events rather than actual days. So, this week the events are: Jon's birthday, Rachel's surgery (possibly), and then 4th of July festivities on Saturday. I don't have anything planned for the following week, but then Rachel starts swim lessons on the 12th, so that will keep us busy for the week leading up to my due date. I just know that if I think about it this way, time will somehow speed up. Ah, the power of positive thinking!

Wise Words from Jon

Isn't it ironic that one of the things I am truly scared of is bees, and that is the background that I chose for my blog...interesting.

So, the purpose of this blog is to share Jon's great epiphany with everyone. So, we were noticing that long hair should be reserved for men who are more husky, broader through the shoulders or strong (in short, for the bigger men). Example: on "Lost", Sawyer has long hair and looks pretty good (he has broad shoulders), whereas Daniel (you know that skinny, piano playing guy) just looks kind of sickly and homeless.
Sawyer is on the left, Daniel on the right -- he looks worse in the last season, but I couldn't find those pictures.

As we were reflecting on this epic discovery, Jon made yet another -- the same rule seems to apply with the style of shaved heads. You shave a strong mans head, and they just look pretty cool, but put that same style on a skinny man, and they look like they have undergone some sort of sickness that resulted in hair loss.

Well, there are the words of wisdom from Jon. Enjoy.

What a Great Dad!

The Snarr kids got to go to sleep at our house last night -- not an actual sleepover as Becky came and picked them up at 10 -- and the girls were so excited! Jon did most of the bedtime routine as my mouth is still pretty sore from the tooth extraction. I just wanted you to see this super cute picture. This was not posed in the least. I just came upstairs to see how bedtime was progressing and this is what I happened upon. What a picture perfect opportunity!

"Disneyland Here Us Come"

Last month our family decided to take a trip to Disneyland. The kids were so excited they could hardly stand it (and, so were we for that matter). So, rather than making plans for a long time, we decided to go, and then left 6 days later. The kids did extra chores around the house without being asked in order to earn some spending money, plus they were allowed to bring whatever money they already had (thanks to Marmee who in large part provided the money in their piggy banks). It was so much fun, so I thought I would put some pictures of our adventure. Oh yeah, that quote at the top is from Hallie -- she kept saying that over and over during our ridiculously long car drive to California (made even longer by the storms in Southern Utah).

This was at Rainforest Cafe. The kids totally loved it, especially Kale. Hallie still gets nervous every time one of those pretend thunderstorms starts up, but other than that she thought it was cool too.

Our first day in the park was way fun. Most of the pictures only have Rachel because by 1:00 Kale and Hallie were sleeping in the stroller. Good thing because it was super hot -- at least they had the constant shade.

Character dining is totally the way to go if you don't want to be waiting in long, super hot lines. We went to Goofy's Kitchen one day and all the kids were so excited, but none so much as Kale. He loved seeing all the characters walking around and couldn't stop looking at them, but as soon as they came close enough to touch him or just talk to him, he immediately felt a little more wary.

We had the girls wear their bright yellow shirts a couple of the days we were in Disneyland. It's funny how people thought it was such a genius idea to put them in those bright shirts. Quite a switch from when there were 20 bright yellow shirts wandering around -- 2 yellow shirts = genius, 20 yellow shirts = crazy!

Half way through one of the days we decided it was just too hot, so we took off and went to the beach. Rachel absolutely loved it. She couldn't wait to get in the water and loved jumping over the waves with Jon. Hallie didn't mind getting her toes wet, and even let the water go over her ankles on one occasion. Kale on the other hand only liked the sand. He didn't even like the water to touch my feet while I was holding him. So, he and I sat a safe distance from the water and built sand towers.

Well, that was about it. The kids loved it and so did we. It was so fun to just have the experience of a vacation with just our family (something I don't think we've ever done). We loved being able to just spend every day together with no distractions (work, errands, cleaning, etc.). So, definitely worth the craziness of the 11 hour drive. Wahoo for Disneyland, the happiest place on earth (at least when you're with your family)!