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)!

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY STAR!!

This past week was sweet little Star's birthday! She turned the big 16. I had intended to post this on her actual birthday, but our hotel in California didn't have free internet. But, better late than never.
I've known Star (or Wanky/Spanky as Jon affectionately calls her) since she was 4 years old and have loved watching her grow up into such a beautiful and spiritual young woman. It seems crazy to think that she is just a little older than I was when I met Jon (not that I'm encouraging anything similar, it's just a fact).
So, as a tribute to Star, I have put together the above -- I like to call it "Star through the years" -- actually that's the first time I've called it that, but it has a nice ring to it. (Sorry there are only 7 pictures even though I've known Star for 12 years, but digital cameras weren't a part of our life until a few years ago. The younger pictures were scanned into the computer before they were scrapbooked.) Well, there you have it -- Happy Birthday Star! We love you.

Might I quickly add that I feel that little shamrock girl on the side of my blog is slightly eerie, but somehow I felt inclined to include her for her festive March spirit. Strange, but true.

So, this entry gets no heading because I couldn't think of anything clever enough. The date will just have to suffice. Jon and I got home from our London adventure last Saturday. We weren't scheduled to leave London until Sunday morning, but by Friday we had felt that we'd seen enough for the trip and we were really missing the kids (especially Jon, since he hadn't seen Kale in 2 full weeks). So, we rescheduled our flights and made it home by late Saturday morning.
I've included just a few pictures of the highlights of our trip.
These pictures are at Westminster Abby. The first day we got to London, we tried to go on the tour of this beautiful building, but we were too late (which was actually okay, since we found out later that it would have cost us 15 pounds (each) to go through -- that's like $25!). So, instead of going on an official tour we just went under this little tunnel thing that brought us around the back. Little did we know that we were sneakily taking ourselves on part of the tour anyway (and parts that weren't on the tour). We got to see the outer burial places (you know, like where the Sound of Music was filmed). Anyway, it was way cool, and we were glad that we inadvertently snuck into the Abby.

The same night, we went to see the Houses of Parliament (Houses? weird), Big Ben, and the Eye of London.

Our second day in London was spent going to 3 different museums, and seeing everything in between (the museums are free). We went to Buckingham palace hoping to see the changing of the guard, but unfortunately they only change every other day (weather permitting) in the winter, so we missed out on that. But it was funny to see the guards that were already on duty just marching back and forth in front of the building with their arms swinging hugely.
What Jon and I loved about being in London was that everything just has history. We loved thinking about our ancestors that came from England and realizing that they would have seen some of those same things we were seeing. Even a lot of the old housing has been there for such a long time. Jon especially loved all the old stonework on the buildings.

So, I don't know what kind of food "The Anchor" has because we didn't eat there. But I made Jon take a picture in front of it because it was just a cool old building and it was representative of all the old buildings around the area by the Globe Theater. As part of our grand adventure, Jon took me to see Les Miserables (it was my first time). I loved it! There is surprisingly very little talking in that show, so I felt like I'd already seen it (compliments of Les Miserables in concert that Jon used to watch every weekend).
And so our magical vacation ended. It really was so nice to have time to relax while Jon worked, and to just be in London and get to see some fantastic, historic sites. I loved having the time with just Jon -- so, thank you so, so much to the 4 families who willingly took on 3 extra kids so we could do this. We love you guys so much!!

In other news, Hallie has just recently gotten a hair cut. She started talking about cutting her hair from the moment we got back from her trip, and I thought that we should get her to the salon before she decided to take matters into her own hands.

I'd say the end results were pretty great. And she loves it because now we don't have to put her hair into ponies (that's code for pigtails) every single day.

Kale seems like he grew up so much while we were gone. Not only did he look bigger when we got home, but he was suddenly talking like crazy (though it's not all intelligible), saying "please" and "thank you", and he even learned to fold his arms during the prayers while we were gone. It's amazing how much they can change in just 8 days!
These pictures were included for obvious reasons -- Kale is just so adorable!! He is such a little mischief maker, but he is so funny and cute while he's doing it. How can you get upset about Kale stealing the muffins when he looks so pleased with himself just for figuring out where they were hiding (they were under the towel that he's holding in his hand).
Lately, he's been wearing this little backpack of the girls. He will bring it over to me and say "help please", and then he'll continue to wear it for the rest of the day. Yesterday he even made me change his diaper while he was wearing the backpack. Yep, he is pretty cool and he knows it.

Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully this will jumpstart me back into the blogging world after my little 2 month break, but we'll see.

Our Big News!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Actually, I think most of my family is already aware of this, but for those of you in the Hansen household who read this, it's really true. Jon and I were both kind of surprised when the doctor told us we were having a girl, as we both suspected that our baby was a boy. But, they seemed pretty confident about what they were seeing -- and so we continue to add to our ranks of girls in the family. We are both super excited (of course), but the girls were even more excited. When I told them they were going to have a little sister, Rachel said, "Mom, we were right all along!" Rachel has had her heart set on a new sister, because after all "we've already got a brother" (that's a direct quote from Rachel).

As February draws ever nearer, I'm beginning to dread Jon's extended leave of absence from home. He'll be gone the whole month (except weekends). At least this year I've got something to look forward to. I'll be joining him in London the last week of the month (thanks to all who are helping to make that possible)! We are super excited for our little vacation. Hopefully the anticipation won't make the rest of the month drag by. But, I have a plan to help make his absence go by faster. I've got all kinds of plans for redecorating the kids rooms (and Kale's prospective room) while Jon is gone. He's even given me the okay to do some painting. It's going to be pretty exciting, and kind of scary as I've never done anything like this by myself before, but I'm sure it will go well.

December Joys!

Oh the many joys of December. As you all know, I have been in the Christmas spirit for the last month (or longer), and now everyone else has caught up with me, so it's twice as fun. We went to temple square as a family the first Monday the lights were on and our kids loved it. It was so fun to hear Kale (who's never seen Temple Square) saying "Woah!" over and over at all the lights and manger scenes.

Secondly, (and most important) our sweet Hallie is now 3 years old! While she acts the exact same as she did a week ago, I'm sure this is a monumental occasion. Now that Hallie's 3 I have high hopes of potty-training, less water all over the house, and the eating of less sugar (all of which are Hallie's favorite pastimes). Although there are some things that Hallie does that are pretty crazy, we love her so much and love how adventurous and hilarious she is.
She was so sweet and so excited to open all her great presents from Grandma & Marmee (and the families). And just so you know, she loves the toys and gifts that were given even though you couldn't tell it during the frenzy of opening. She plays with them all the time. So, thanks to all who came and made her day so special.

This is just the beginning of the December fun. We can hardly wait for all the Christmas parties to get started next week. We do our countdown every day, and Rachel is so excited for the 23rd, as she knows that's the real start of the Christmas festivities. Wahoo!!