July's Everyday Moments

July has been a whirlwind.

Lots of packing. ahem, or lack thereof.  

Lots of time with the boys. Play dates with friends, park time, outside time, swimming time, baby time, snuggle time, not a lot of sleeping time (for me!). It was full and it was good.

Well, you'll see a lot of Callen in these everyday moments. What can I say..he has stolen our hearts.  

We are so in love with this gentle soul:

Lots of days I wish I could be the one doing this:

But these crazy boys are worth every bit of exhaustion!  

I adore those cheeks:

and that grin:

 and the way our crazy Ryder has turned into a sweet older brother over night:

Everyone gets in their Callen-love as soon as they wake up. So cute!

The boys begged to go play in the rain, and I realized, WHY NOT?!  It's like sprinklers that come from the sky:

We also got a new play area. Heaven-sent I tell ya!  It helped me get some packing done since our closest family member (my bro) moved to CA and Jeff was back in classes summer term. Packing + 4 boys + hubby in school = some kind of torture on a mama!

I am pretty darn lucky.

Look at this goodness that I get to call mine:

Happy July, friends. :)

Our Home!

While I was away in MO, we moved.

It was cRaZy!!!  But we had people moving in to rent our townhome in a few days and the closing kept getting put off a week, 2 weeks, 3, 4, etc. So Jeff jumped on it the minute we could.  

People say I got off lucky by being gone, but packing an entire family/household up and packing for a trip, lining up sitters for while I was gone, then having to cancel when kids are sick, re-line up sitters for different days, etc etc, was such a stress! I cannot thank everyone enough who helped us out. Truly you were heaven-sent and we feel so blessed to have such good friends.

As for our home, 

we feel so incredibly blessed to have been able to buy this house. We love it and love turning it into a home. 

We have a wonderful neighborhood and live so close to our church and school. 

 We hope that all our friends and family will know how welcome they are.  

We have an open door. ANY time. 

Welcome to our home. Today you'll get to see the downstairs...I have a little work to do upstairs for it to be picture ready!

looking from the front door into the house. 

to the right is the living room, just past that the stairs, and straight ahead is the family room. The door you see goes down to the (unfinished) basement.

Living room:

 Looking at the front door/entry from the family room:

Stairs off the entry:

Right across from the stairs is the mudroom and powder room. (halfbath)  This room is the first project we've started! We put in shelves/cubbies and will add hooks for backpacks. I wanted this room functional asap!  

 Family Room (looking from mudroom door)

Family room (looking from the kitchen)

If you walk straight through the mudroom you'll run into the laundry room.  It's not the most organized place yet, but it's spacious and I love it:

Pretty much I love my entire house. But I have a special spot in my heart for my pantry:

Dining room & Kitchen (looking from the family room)

To the right of the kitchen is the sliding door going into the backyard.

Pics of backyard, garage, and upstairs in the works. :)

Thanks for taking a peek!!  I'll also try to share more as I get things decorated. I'm going to start some of DIY projects...so we'll see how they turn out!

We hope you'll come visit us soon!!

Hansen Family Reunion

As soon as I had Callen and knew he was healthy and fine, I bought my tickets for the Hansen Family Reunion in MO.  I was really sad that Jeff and the boys couldn't come with me, but we felt strongly that I should go. 

I am so very glad I did!!

Shar & I and Mom & Dad all had a connecting flight in Denver. So we got to ride the second flight together to MO. It was so awesome to travel together...oh I loved it!!!

Callen was just a little angel baby and slept the entire time.  This trip was going to be the best!!!

I didn't take a lot of pictures. SO I NEED THE CD, SHAR!!!  But here is what I took the first day we were there:

Callen got to meet Gigi Nila & Grandpa Gene:

He got to meet Nonny Kare:

And lots of cousins:

And I was able to see cousins/aunts/uncles/grandparents/new cousins/babies/etc.

Here's Shar with adorable Tierren:

This was a bittersweet trip for me.  I loved getting to see my grandparents and spend quality time with them.  And I LOVED getting to see my cousins who I hadn't seen in YEARS.  It was awesome. I got to meet my cousins amazing spouses. Oh my gosh, I fell in love with all of them. Seriously, I so wish I lived by these amazing people. SO MUCH.  

Game nights, chatting, hanging out, reminiscing, eating good food, walmart shopping ;) ;)  we got it all in and it was amazing!

That was the sweet.

Now the bitter...

I was so excited to get to go with my sweet, calm, happy Callen. 

Except he wasn't.

Someone, must be the travel fairy, took my sweet Callen & replaced him with an unhappy, grumpy, very sad baby who didn't feel good and cried and cried and cried. It was so sad. And so hard.  And there were lots of tears shed on my part and I was one highly emotional mama the entire trip. Additionally, I left behind 3 sick kiddos for Jeff to take care of AND our house we had been building was FINALLY done (after many delays) so Jeff was moving while Callen & I were gone. CRAZY!!!  To any and all of my friends who helped him out, THANK YOU!

My family was so good to me.  They helped so much. Let me sleep in after my long nights, took him on walks, held him while he fussed, and my awesome dad took him during his late night cry-sessions.  As crazy as it was for me, it would have been so much worse without their help. Thank you THANK YOU Mom & Dad & Shar.  & everyone. :)

My sweet boy in a moment of sleep:

I learned a lot of things that weekend:

I can do hard things.

I have a wonderful, amazing family.

Sometimes I just need to ask for help and it is there.

I cry when people are nice to me. (sorry Nate!)

I have amazing friends who help out when needed.

I am so blessed.

And I miss my family (immediate and extended) more than ever!

I will post more of what we did when I get the photos!

Pioneer Day Parade

We love our city and it's Pioneer Day Parade! We can walk to the parade from our home and have gone the last two years with our sweet friends Caitie & David and their kids.

Here were a couple favorites:

The boys enjoying the parade. They scored big time with candy this go-round. Which, of course, is their very favorite part of the parade:

Callen's first time at a parade. He slept through it, but it still should be documented. ;)

The highlight of the day was on our walk home.  We left before the parade finished but walking home we ran into someone who hadn't gone yet. He graciously stopped to take a photo, the kids were SO thrilled:

Ryder: 2 years

Well, this post is long over due! Here is a little about Ryder at TWO years old (July 20th)

Ryder's Stats

Height: 34 inches 

Weight: 23 lbs

Sleeps through the night. Takes 1 nap/day usually 2-3 hours.

Personality:  This little guy is a fire-cracker! He definitely keeps us on our toes with his crazy antics. He is very full of life and energy and loves to be GOING and DOING.  He runs all over the place and doesn't sit still for much of anything!  He is daring, adventurous, sweet, and loving.  Such a perfect mix of crazy, fun!  Oh we love our Ryder!!
Talents/Abilities:  He really excels at anything physical.  And one of his greatest abilities is knowing how to get what he wants. He just has to smile at us and say 'please' in his adorable voice and we pretty much melt! When we do say no, however, he is so good at accepting that and moving on.  He gets over things quickly (whether emotionally or physically hurt).  He also loves to help and is such a sweet big brother to our baby Cal!
Has started talking and saying so many things. It is so fun to hear him communicate his wants/needs.
Favorites:  Pizza, ice cream, strawberries, watermelon, apples, peas, bread, balls, trucks, trains, & cars, bike, drawing with chalk, playing outside, Deigo (tv show), running, running, running, little guy figures with hats, dress up, binkie & blanket, daddy and brothers.

Dear Ryder,

You have grown so much in this past year and become such a sweet, wonderful little boy. I was so worried how you would do with becoming a big brother but you have completely surprised me! You are so sweet with our baby Cal and absolutely love to hold him.  You are my busy, busy boy! You love to run and jump and try anything and everything your brothers do.  You love wrestling with them and are such a tough little guy! On the other hand, you are still so sweet and kind and love to help out whenever I ask. You give the best hugs and snuggles and make us laugh constantly with the funny things you do and say!  You sure love your daddy and are so excited to see him when he gets home. You are great at making all of us feel like we are your favorite person!  

I sure love you, my sweet, wonderful Ryder. You make our family better by being a part of it! 

Love, 

Mommy

Happy Happy Birthday Ryder!

 We had a fun and simple birthday celebration for Ryder's big day!! 

It was a little strange not having ANY family around for it, but we had so much fun.

We did things Ryder liked all day long:  played outside, watched his favorite show, wrestled, Mcdonalds for lunch, and had so much fun together!  

Then we had fun little party once Daddy got home from work. 

It was just perfect for our little guy, he loved every minute!

 Lunch with the bros:

Ryder LOVES holding Callen, so I had to make sure he got to for as long as he wanted:

I found these awesome figures at the Dollar store and knew they HAD to be for Ryder's cake. He doesn't have a lot of action figures of his own and he LOVES super heroes so it was perfect!

I adore his expressions in the next two:

Jeff and I spent the night before his b-day setting up his gift. I was like a kid at christmas...I just COULDN'T wait to give it to him!!!

He LOOOOOVED it!!! and didn't want to get out to open the rest!

Cute Callen slept through it all:

Of course we had to bring him outside for a ride in his new truck:

Happy Happy Birthday cute boy!  We sure LOVE you!