Father's Day Review and a little Bachelorette talk

I really am wanting to catch up on this so-called documentation of our life, but I'm so behind!  Now that The Bachelorette (*SIGH*) season is over however, maybe MY reality will start getting some attention!:) Alright so I can't bring it up and just ignore it....Can I just say, was that not the greatest season ever? (or is it just because we're coming off of Ben's season -- the absolute WORST ever?! Agghh. Ben.)
 I. LOVED. it!
I used to kind of apologize for being hooked on this show, but I'm so over that! I love every minute of this guilty pleasure of mine. :)

My quick thoughts....I thought the final 3 were all awesome guys. I was shocked when she sent Shawn home however and even moreso when she picked JEF! But once I forgive him for his skinny jeans and skateboard entrance (and cartoon-swish hair), he really is a genuine guy and it might just really work! (Okay so who am  I kidding...?) And he's a Salt Laker! What is it with this show and it's love for Utah people? Anyways, I was surprised by the ending (I kind of was thinking she was going to weasel out on both of them), but loved it too! I even have to admit that with him being a local, for a minute there I was having visions of Emily and Jef moving in down the street and Emily's daughter racing bikes with Parker and Emmie....

Yeah, I might need some help... :)

Anyhow, happy for them, and am hoping that Shawn is the next Bachelor. For sure. :)

Whattya think?

Okay, on with my reality show....FATHER'S DAY!

Mmmhmm, it's almost August... I'm late for everything these days. ;)

My cute husband had to work on Father's Day.

Sad!

But he was sent off to work with one of HIS favorite addictions and a message from the kiddos....

I know, I know. Mt Dew and The Bachelor. In Happy Valley too.

Real sinners around here. ;)

Emmie's card! She wrote/drew it all herself. ;) A big deal for her because unlike her brother, she has a hard time sitting and focusing on practicing her letters.

The trio who call my husband Dad.

We love them so much!

 

 After church and Chris' work, my Dad and Grandma and fam came over for dinner and gifts for a true Father's Day celebration.
 The Hansens were in TX this Father's Day so we missed them. In all honestly I can't recall much of the day... my brain has about a 5 minute memory retention since this 3rd baby came along. :)
 (Exactly the reason I should blog or I'll never remember anything!)
 But I do remember that it was nice to see everyone and I'm so lucky to have an awesome Dad for my kids, a great Dad for myself, great Stepdad and Father in Law!
XOXO to them all!

Princess Festival

Emmie loves princesses.

Like most little girls.

 She also loves playing in the dirt, soccer, playing with dinosaurs, and racing fearlessly around on her bike. She claims to love football as well, although I'm not exactly sure she's clear as to what sport that actually is.

 So no worries --she hasn't exactly BECOME a princess. Yet. :)

My brother called one day in June and told me that a neighbor had some extra tickets to the Princess Festival at Thanksgiving Point and wondered if we could use them. I wasn't planning on going, but since these were FREE I told him yes. Needless to say after telling Emmie, it was all she could talk about for the next few days. She couldn't wait. Well, ended up, the friend never followed through on giving up the tickets, but Emmie was so looking forward to the event that I didn't have the heart to tell her we weren't going. So, as any good mom would, I bought tickets and we were set to go.

At 2:30 a.m. the morning of the festival, I woke up to her cute little face in mine urgently saying, "MOM! Hurry and get up! We need to pick out what I'm going to wear to the Princess Festiball today!".

Seriously?!

 Somehow I coaxed her back to bed and  the next morning she picked out one of her only princess dresses that isn't shredded (those things don't hold up so well), we put some princess curls in, a little lip gloss at her request, and we were off to the antcipated Festival.

 

 It was a bit (a lot) corny, but hey it was for charity, Emmie had fun, and it was so fun to have a date just her and me!

We watched several little shows, ate lunch, took some pictures with some "princesses" and

even watched a performance by the "Osmond Girls". (Alan Osmond's granddaughters)

They were such cute girls, I have to say.

 

We had a fun time and she keeps asking when we are going again, so I'd call that a success!

Soccer Party and Camp, 2012

Parker had such a fun soccer year. He has been lucky to be on the same team as so many friends and great kids this last 2 years. We didn't make it to his last few games as we were out of town so I didn't get any team pictures of them on the field, but I did snap this one at his post-season soccer swim party in June.

 Lucky for Emmie, siblings got to come too!
Combine my kids with 2 of their favorite things - swimming and friends - and they were loving life!

Emmie marched right over to the slide as soon as we got to the party. She is one fearless 3 year old!
Parker can't wait to play again next year!
 I don't know that it's because he's so in love with soccer yet, but more just the fun time that comes along with it!

 A few weeks later (the last week of June) he began a one week soccer camp from 8-10 each morning. It was 90+ degrees that early in the morning that week so it was a scorcher.
 But no worries, he loved it nonetheless!

The coaches were pro (or semi-pro??) players from Ireland. Some had played on the National Championship Team (or something like that, haha.). Parker loved Coach Tony (to the right) and also loved that he could go to camp with one of his very best buddies, Owen.
 Are they cute little toe-heads or what? :)
Parker also made "Camper of the Day" and they posted that picture of him and his coaches on their Facebook page. Pretty exciting!
P did another soccer camp this week put on by some teenage players in our neighborhood.
 He absolutely loved it and learned a lot!
He's all geared up, trained and ready to play this Fall!
...which will be here before we know it!

Bikers

A big milestone that I failed to write about took place a few months back...
 Parker started riding a 2-wheeler! (That's what he calls it anyway)
I know he could have done this last year, but I wasn't about to have him attempt this last summer after his head injury the previous fall. Plus he was perfectly content with his training wheels, so why mess up a good thing? 
But this spring I knew the time had come to take off those wheels and have him give it a try!
He was a little nervous and a bit embarrassed to try it at home - he wanted to go try it elsewhere so his friends wouldn't see him learning. (I thought that was kind of sweet!) But we went out and not another soul was outside so he went ahead and tried in front of our house and he did great! A little shaky at first. It took him about 25 minutes to get the hang of it and now it's all he wants to do! So far we've had no major injuries to report. Just a skinned up stomach and skinned knee. Let's hope those are the worst of the incidents this summer!

 

He is growing up so fast. I get a little teary-eyed when I think of sending him to Kindergarten this year. He is such a confident little boy though and I know that he'll love school.

Back to the bikes...at any given time during the day you can look out the window and see a tiny army of kiddos 7 and under racing bikes up and down the street. We love our neighborhood! Our kids have so many great little friends here! 

And as for the little sis... out of the blue, Chris came home with this little bike for Emmie a few months back. It was a fun surprise! For all of us!
 She loves this little bike that Daddy picked out for her and you can bet she's out there racing with the boys, and keeping up with them. Honestly, we could probably take off her training wheels this summer too... but maybe we'll wait another year for her.
Just  a funny sidenote... I remember loving to ride my bike as a kid too. In fact, one memory ingrained in my mind is dressing in one of my sweet leotards (probably neon), totally awesome leg warmers, wrist bands and exercise headband, strapping my "ghetto blaster" to my bike basket (probably blasting Duran Duran or Kylie Minogue's "Locomotion"), and riding around like I was preeeettttty awesome.
And I'm sure I was!
It WAS the 80's afterall! :)
All this bike riding makes me want to get a bike myself again!

Lexi- 8 months!

 I'm pretty sure no reads this blog anymore... I kind of dropped off for a while there. With all that we've had go on for this last six months, combined with the juggling act of three kids, I just haven't been able to keep up! Not only has my once perfect vision gone completely blurry post this 3rd baby, but so has my brain! My head is so fuzzy these days I just can't think straight, let alone come up with anything somewhat interesting to document about our life. I'm determined to get back on track however! With the documenting part at least. It will likely put any attempted reader to sleep (including myself) because I'm coming to terms with the fact that I may have complete writers block until 2019, but hey, at least it will be journaled before I forget it all completely.

Here goes!
SOOO, here is cute Lexi.
And a plethora of pictures that I couldn't decide between, so I decided on them all! :)
 Thought I'd better post about her 8th month before she hits the 9 month mark this week!

 This little sweetheart is the BEST BABY!
 The BEST!
 She is by far my smiliest baby. She is so easy-going and has such a gentle nature about her.

 At 8 1/2 months she still has NO TEETH! She is still nursing at least 3 x a day, is a bit of a maniac for rice cereal (weird, I know), loves yogurt, smoothies, and baby food squeezies. I also give her water in a bottle. She is my first baby to drink from a bottle! (Like I said, it's just water...once in a while apple juice) She also loves the dissolvable puff cereal. With no teeth still, we are sticking to smooth/dissolvable foods, like our pediatrician advises.

 She says the words Mama, Dada, and Doggy. She also waves "Hi", and has been signing "more" when she wants more food. She's been sitting up well for quite some time now, and can get herself into a sitting position from laying down without any help. She is getting close to crawling - rocking on her knees, then taking a head dive. She twirls herself around on her stomach and rolls/scoots to get where she wants to go. She doesn't stand at all, in fact she just bends her legs when I try to put her feet down on the ground. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this age! Life gets 10x crazier when a baby turns mobile if you ask me, so I'm just enjoying my last few weeks/months of her inability to crawl and walk.

I love this look she gives right before she's about to tell you something... her eyes get big, her chin goes down, she looks to see whose watching, and starts a jabbering...it's the cutest thing! One of my favorite things she does right now is clap! She will sit and clap for 30 minutes straight sometimes. And it's not just any clap...she is super graceful and lady like in the way that she moves her hands together. It's the cutest thing.

She loves to suck her thumb - just like her big sis!

Parker and Emmie just adore her and are a huge help with her. I have thoroughly enjoyed having a baby this time around... I can't believe she's already 9 months!

We are so lucky to have her in our family.

 We enjoy every minute of her!!!

Memorial Day

 On Memorial Day, we went to visit Michael and my Grandpa's graves, which are side by side.
What a beautiful sunny day it was!
 I can't believe that it's coming up on 5 years since my brother's death.  It's the first time that I haven't been so sad to visit. Still sad, but not on the verge of tears at the mention of his name like I have been for the last four years. I am just grateful and at peace to know that he is happy, that he lives on, and that we'll see him again. I'm glad to finally fully feel at peace with what happened. It seems like it's been a long road getting here.

Emmie told me out of the blue the other day that her uncle was standing over Lexi's crib. I know that sounds a little creepy and weird, but I honestly feel that the veil is really thin for her. She is always telling me "interesting" things, and whether or not all of it is true, I still believe that Michael is closeby. I try and listen closely when she tells me things...she does have a wild imagination but I don't know how she could make up some of what she says on her own.

The cemetery was so crowded - there were lines of cars waiting to get in. It was heartwarming to see so many families meeting there to leave flowers as a token of their love for their lost loved ones. I've never seen so many flowers! It was beautiful. There was even a gentleman walking around playing the bagpipes, which was very touching!

Spur of the moment we decided to call Kylie and Steven to see if they wanted to come and meet us over there, since they live closeby. My cute sis in law was just 4 days away from her due date in this picture! Sweet baby Jack didn't end up making his debut until over a week later.
I'm grateful that we went and for the unique and special feeling that was there.

Parker's school year

Parker finished out (another) great year of preschool. He loved every minute of it! His favorite days were the ones where he got to be the "Special Helper". In fact, he made sure we came home a day early from St. George so that he wouldn't miss one of his big day as "Special Helper".  One funny thing that his teacher noted during PTC was that he had to make sure every student's crayons were put away in their correct trays each day... what?! I wish he were that anal with his things at home!

Here he is with Mrs. Van Ausdal and his cute buddies and neighbors whom we carpooled with each day (they only went Tuesdays and Thursdays). Rest assured those were some lively car rides with those three bouncing off the walls. Parker had so much fun with these friends and loved his
after-school playdates with them!

Parker passed off each and every book he brought home to read each week. Here are some of the ones he learned to read! He did such a great job and we are so proud of him. Learning comes easy to Parker. He absorbs everything we teach him pretty much the first time around and seems to comprehend most concepts. His little brain is always turning! His in depth questions are endless, literally from the moment he wakes up (at the crack of dawn) to bed time. He is such a sweetheart (minus a few tantrums he still seems to give) and we just adore him!

Unfortunately, more is taught in preschool these days than public school Kindergarten...hopefully he won't mind re-learning letters again next year! Aghh!

Dancey

I know I haven't mentioned it, but Emmie took a ballet/tap/jazz class this last year, starting last September. She loved it!
Around our house, her class was better known as "dancey".

My little dreamer girl....
her attention span lasted about 8 minutes total of the 60 minute class, but she loved her "dancey" nonetheless! At home she'd practice her moves and show me how she'd use her plies to fend off any "bad guys".
Maybe I should have signed her up for karate? ;)
Despite her attention span (or lack thereof) and interesting use of her learned moves, she really enjoyed the class. The dance studio was great and super close to our house.
 We will definitely be signing up again next year.

 
Snow White even came to visit the class in February. Don't you just love her (Emmie's) princess pose?



Yep, that's my Emmie, the only one without a princess dress on! Yikes, I felt so bad! Mother of the Year Award for that one. We had a lot going on and had missed the previous week, so I forgot her princess attire that morning. Awesome. But aren't these girls the cutest?! And their moms were just as 'cute'! I loved getting to know some of them during our one day a week chat sessions while our girls danced. :) Even Parker made a friend there and is excited to be in the same Kindergarten class with him next year.

Her "professional" dance pic taken just in May, wearing one of her recital costumes.

This was such a cute little baseball dance! We were in Texas on June 1st -the night of the recital, so we actually ended up missing it. But that's okay!

 

 I love watching my kids develop their talents and find out what they like and what they don't. Next year she's also going to take gymnastics... which was my "sport" when I was a kid.
We'll see how she likes it!

Families are Forever

The Hansen clan just 9 months ago.

Adorable Atticus sitting proudly on Grandpa's lap...

 

8 months later in TX...

It's crazy how life can change in the blink of an eye.

Isn't that the truth. 

I received this lesson a few years back when my brother died.

It was brutal. I couldn't breathe. I was devastated. And shocked. For a long, long, time.

It still hurts. It always will.

I retook this dreaded lesson on another level most recently with the loss of our sweet nephew Atticus. The premature loss of a loved one is definitely not a course anyone anticipates or expects that they will be forced into.

 It's an agonizing one.

 An absolute life changing one.

 A nightmare.

 When we heard of Atti's diagnosis this last January, we were floored.

SHOCKED and incredibly heartbroken do not begin to sum it up.

I'd never seen Chris so upset before in my life.

But then, it's not everyday that your nephew is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

We were pretty depressed and had a hard time functioning. We just couldn't begin to believe that this was happening. Our hearts just ached for what we knew was coming. What we saw happening. I braced myself knowing the horror that I went through in losing my brother would soon be Eric and Cindy's reality but unimaginably even worse, in losing their SON.

 The thought truly left me in panic attacks. 

We felt so helpless.

 And were.

Especially by the fact that this was all taking place in Texas, while we sat in Utah.

Over the last 5 months, amidst the heartbreak and devastation there were miracles that were witnessed. Beautiful moments and memories were made. Quality time was given and some amazing things happened.

We were so thankful for the opportunity to go back to visit Atti in Texas about a month ago. We cherished our time with our sweet nephew.

 {I have many pictures to post from that trip but it's just too much to revisit right now.}

 We got back from Texas on a Monday, and received the dreaded news that Atti passed away the following Sunday, the day before Memorial Day.

With broken hearts, we packed up and headed back to Texas for the funeral.

 I took a few pictures at the graveside service, but out of respect for Cindy and Eric I don't think I'll share but just these few and several things I want to remember from that day...

Atticus had been declared an honorary deputy sheriff a few weeks prior. The department had a uniform made for him and everything. It was absolutely adorable. They had a big ceremony for him which made the local news.
Clearly, the entire police force fell in love with him that day.
So rather than Atti's casket being transported in a traditional hearse, (sp?) he went in a police Tahoe, and the entire funeral procession had a police escort to the cemetery! That whole line of cars in the left picture is part of the procession - and that was just a small part of it! They had all the intersections police-barricaded for us. Bystanders were coming out and staring, wondering what in the world was going on.
And it wasn't just a short drive from the church to the cemetery.
 It was AMAZING.
 I'm sure Atticus thought it was the coolest thing.

Atticus' adorable little brother, Isaac, aka Chunk.
 I truly feel that the veil is thin for these little ones and I am certain he knows his big brother is watching over him. I love this picture of he and Emmie, with his hand on the band just above "Atticus".

As the graveside service came to an end, I was super touched when these darling little friends of Atti's and Isaac's suddenly encircled Isaac. In the reverent manner in which they did this I could feel of their love for Chunk and for his brother, and had a strong impression of Atticus being there and loving and appreciating these precious friendships. It just seemed a symbol that Isaac was going to be well taken care of and watched out for. These cute little girl's mom has been a tremendous blessing to Eric and Cindy throughout this journey. We've been so grateful for all the amazing Texas friends and ward members who have taken such good care of them throughout all of this.

The "Angels for Atticus" wristbands were blue and orange, so in celebration of Atticus that day much of the family and friends attending wore those colors.

 If you can call a funeral beautiful, it was. Every last detail that was planned out was amazing. Very touching. Cindy shared the most amazing poem. It can be read HERE. And Eric gave the most heartfelt, beautiful talk I have EVER heard. You can read it HERE. Take a kleenex. He spoke directly to Atticus and WOW was it incredible. Truly!
 I was so proud of both of them. Talk about a hard thing to speak at your child's funeral.
 But they did it and they did it beautifully and with grace.

 It was the most heart wrenching thing I have ever witnessed to stand by helpless as Cindy and Eric grieved over their sweet son.
Our hearts just ache for them.
I am so grateful for the knowledge that we will se Atticus again. I know that we will. I am so grateful  for his life and all that we have learned from his amazing little spirit.  We have been tremendously blessed by him and all that he has taught us.
We love you Buddy!