Barnyard Party

~Parker, Emmie, Atticus~

Hooray for cousins!!!

A few weeks ago P & E's little cousin Atticus & Aunt Cindy (Chris' brother - Eric's wife) were in town from Texas so clever Grandma Hansen put on a cute "Cousin's Barnyard Party" for the reunion.

Activities consisted of hunting for hidden little animals around the house, singing 'Old MacDonald with props made by Gma H, an animal toss into the barnyard (notice flying green bear in front of carefully aimed Atticus), playdough animals, & even peanut butter sandwiches in animal shapes. They also got to take home cute barnyard sacks full of fun prizes!

Thanks Grandma H for such a cute party.

The kiddos loved it & loved hanging out with their cousin A!

Best scent ever

I LOVE Bath & Body Works!

But then - what girl doesn't, right?

I am obsessed with their hand soaps...I feel like a bad home exec (help me out -sounds better than homemaker, right...maybe? Maybe not.)

if I don't have one at every sink in our house.

I am currently IN LOVE with this scent:

(pull out all the stops - this is definitely deserving of a drumroll and maybe some spectacular fireworks...)

*ISLAND NECTAR*

Seriously - AmAzInG...probably my favorite ever -- & there are some pretty good ones out there.
I recently stocked up with 6 of them myself...
The only thing wrong with it is that they don't carry this scent in lotions...(what are they thinking).... just soap and home fragrance.
I'm okay with it though. I just feel blessed to be associated with it as
my beloved foamy soap.
It makes me inhale with delight everytime I wash my hands.
Which tends to be alot since I'm a bit of a germaphobe...

Seriously... TRY IT!!! It's so worthy of a trip to the store. You won't regret it.
& in case you were thinking of getting me a gift sometime...a box of these would be a welcomed treasure, for sure... :)

Spring trip to the desert

On Sunday we got back from spending 8 days in sunny St. George, visiting my Mom & Reed. We had a great time and were so happy that Chris could join us for half the trip!

{The good old doggy door always provides some pretty rad entertainment... the two munchkins were chasing each other round and round...}

We had a great time at this popular splash park over by the Tabernacle.

E & P both had a blast, but H20-obsessed-Emmie was especially in heaven!

The cute but cautious one above got a little wet....

But Emmie was FEARLESS and needless to say ended up SOAKED!

She was so funny not only trying to drink the water, but she also got a kick out of sticking her bum in the waterfalls over and over again!

We did not come ready to get so wet and the poor girl was shivering but she loved it so much she didn't whine once with the cool breeze hitting her wet clothes...braver girl than me - for sure! :)


On our last day there, my Mom and I took the kids to a Kite Festival.

It stinks when hundereds (thousands? A LOT!) of people show up to such an event armed with their souped up kites and the wind doesn't show.

No wind meant no flying kites but tons of bouncy houses and yummy snowcones kept my two monkeys occupied and thoroughly entertained!

I was completely entertained watching them bouncing, sliding, climbing and laughing.

If my kids have fun - I have fun!

Emmie once again was fearless and wanted to do everything her big brother was doing. And she pretty much did!

My poor Mom has had problems with her arm/shoulder for the last few years... so much so that she hasn't been able to work out or put her makeup on with her right hand for the last 6 months. She is finally having surgery today to have the rotator cuff in her shoulder replaced and will be out of commission for the next several months.

Not fun! :(

Good luck Mom - we love ya and we'll be praying for you!
Thanks for a fun trip to the desert!

Just helpin' out

Emmie gets sick of me asking her big brother to do simple tasks over and over again with no follow through on his part. One example he struggles with each day is getting dressed into his clean clothes that are freshly laid out for him each morning.

Something that has become evident in our home lately is that:

P is a procrastinator & E is a 'get-it-done' kinda girl.

So much so, that sometimes she just goes ahead and does his little tasks for him.... Like the other day when she helped him out by putting on his (clean) undies - all by herself - that had been laying on the floor for P to wear all morning. She'd heard me tell him a million times to put these on so she took the initiative and did it herself.

She was so proud! And so was I. They were even the right way. :)

Such a nice, helpful little sis!

While I'm at it, her efficiency doesn't stop there.

This little 19 month old do-it-herselfer drops her dishes into the sink following a meal, (plastic of course!) makes sure to wash her hands before eating, puts her own socks on (P is just barely doing this himself!), tries to dress herself, and puts her dirty laundry in the hamper each night after her bath. (To give Parker some credit, he does that one, too.) She will also assist Parker in cleaning his plate when he takes too long to eat by stealing bites. And as you can see in the bottom right pic, she is always toddling around trying to help me clean.

Don't get me wrong, Parker is a great helper as well in a lot of ways.

But Em is thorough and to the point while Parker gets extremely distracted from the task at hand.

SUCH A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BOYS & GIRLS I tell ya!

Well, between my boy & girl that is. :)

But I love them both the same. Even when P ignores me and E walks around in her big brother's Toy Story undies while spraying down my fridge with a water bottle....

Ready, Set, Easter!

Let the egg hunts begin!!!(Mr. Easter Bunny that is :))



We love Easter at our house and we weren't going to let some icky germs that had long overstayed their welcome ruin our holiday. So coughing, goop, and all --we celebrated our day!




Parker and Emmie were so cute hunting for their eggs. I was worried that Em wouldn't quite get what to do since we hadn't 'practiced' due to being sick, but she dove right in and filled her basket like a pro. Parker was so excited that the Easter Bunny had come and especially excited that he had left them a special note on his chalk board.
(We are LOVING our new basement by the way. Chris finished it just before Christmas and I keep meaning to do a post on it and show off his handy work but I have totally slacked... I can't even tell you how nice the extra room has been though! WE LOVE IT!!! It was so fun to have Easter down there.)




This kind of sums up how they were feeling that day. Parker was still a pretty sick little guy but Em just excited to be leaps and bounds better than she was earlier in the week.

I went ahead and dressed them up even though they were sick and despite having no church due to General Conference... but hey I figured they may as well get use out of their Easter outfits on Easter. You'll be sick of yellow and blue by the end of this post... :)


REALLY?! Snow? On Easter???


I of course took a million pics trying for just one great one. I failed...but some of them are still pretty cute.... sorry for the picture overload but trust me this is just a small fraction of what I'd like to post.... ;)

After our morning festivities mixed with some good conference, we headed over to Grandpa Todd's for yet another egg hunt and a yummy lunch. Parker hit the jackpot finding the 'bonus' egg which contained a ten dollar bill! Wahoo! Emmie hammed it up in a cute hat and sunglasses that came in her basket from Gpa Todd and Parker was of course enthralled with my cousin's new IPad computer thingy. It WAS pretty amazing! (Seriously!) Then we went and visited my cute Grandma who has been in the hospital and now in a rehab facility for the last month or so. This is the first year EVER that we haven't had our big Easter Egg hunt at her home!
We missed you, Mimi and hope you get better soon!

Then we were off to Chris' parents to close the day. We had a delicious dinner, another egg hunt, played 'Easter Jeopardy' and the Easter Bunny himself (aka Gpa Hansen) even called and talked to Parker on the phone mid-hunt. (Sooo funny!) Chris' cute Grandpa in the picture above just turned 95 on April 1st! And Grandma Lonczyna isn't far behind him.
Aren't they adorable??? I just love them.


It was great day!!! :)

The saga continues....

This little guy....

Well.

His face pretty much sums it up.

MISERABLE.

Oh the sad, sad, face.

You guessed it...poor Parker fell Victim #2....

Good news is that it didn't quite get to his lungs so they ruled out pneumonia for this one. Thank you! But he has surely been one SICKLY little guy.

I will spare all of the lovely details except to say (okay I'm not sparing you all the details) that on top of all the nasty symptoms that Em had, that he also is having lovely vomit episodes that began right in the doctors office yesterday morning, carried through last night where I didn't have to think twice about disposing his chucked on pillow (seriously how do you salvage a pillow soaked in throw up? You don't.), to having my precious three year old take the time to tell me with his head in the toilet in between hurling this morning, "Bye Mom, I'll miss you!" as I was leaving to go to a Dr. appointment myself (yeah I'm sick too).

Always such a thoughtful Little P, even mid-vomit. Oh, how I love my little guy.

The night before last as he was burning up with fever and his little body had chills so bad he was shaking uncontrollably, I sadly told him how sorry I was that he was sick.

He looked up at me with those baby blues which were overridden at the time by redness due to illness, and told me in his sickly, scratchy voice, (while shaking),

"It's okay, Mom. Don't worry, I will get better soon so that you and Daddy can play with me!".

?!?!?! Seriously! How does he have empathy like that? He's three! And he's reassuring ME that he'll be better soon so that Chris and I will have a playmate again?? All I can say is that this little three year old melts my heart.

Yes, somedays he also makes me want to rip my hair out, but in moments like this the charm and wisdom that accompanies his tiny body, but big spirit -- FAR cancels out and overrides his naughtiness.

(I realize that I can say that at the moment because he's laying quiet in bed...:))

The GREAT news is that THIS little cutie-

even though still sick herself, is bouncing back and seems to be on the upswing!

(Fingers crossed!)

YAY!!!

Thanks for all of your concern! :)

SO, our week that was supposed to be filled with practice Easter egg hunts, sugar cookie decorating, yummy treat making, egg dying and decorating, & fun festive Easter crafts hasn't quite turned out like I envisioned.

But that is life.

And it's okay. I am just grateful for health insurance and the blessing of modern medicine that have come to our aid this week & are helping my kids overcome illnesses that in some places around the world (even right here in the U.S.) can be deadly.

(1 in 5 patients with pneumonia don't make it - so said the doctor I saw this a.m.!)

So this Easter weekend, even with all the coughing, fevers, goopiness, aches, sore throats, and even vomit in our home & with 3 of us on antibiotics, & minus all the exciting Easter festivities, my little fam has much to be grateful for! And we are!

(Here's to still hoping P will get better quick - he hasn't made much progress so far & I'm still praying for a miracle so that he can hunt for eggs this weekend...!)

HAPPY EASTER!!!