Christmas Catch-up

Although it has taken me a while to post any pictures, we enjoyed many fun Christmas activities in December, including:

Gingerbread houses

Tree decorating
(Notice Maddie's range for ornament placing.
I never knew my artificial tree could hold so many
ornaments on a single bough. )

Holiday dresses

Santa surprises

A new personal shopper

Pink running shoes

Phone calls to our missionaries

and a gleeful 4-year-old,
bouncing up and down, exclaiming
"I LOVE Christmas! I LOVE Christmas!"

Why You'll No Longer Find Scissors at the Hansen Home...

On days like these, I'm grateful to have a family blog. Rather than screaming or crying at these moments, I collect myself enough to grab my camera, recognizing that one day I will be laughing at this. And by posting such entries on my blog, all of you can enjoy a good laugh. I'm not at the laughing point yet.

I should have learned my lesson last March, when Maddie gave Kennedy her first unintentional haircut with Dad's razor. I really should have learned the lesson last month when Maddie gave her sister her first intentional haircut with the scissors she retrieved from their former spot, the kitchen drawer.

I did learn that the scissors should no longer be so easily accessible, and I found a good hiding spot for them. Unfortunately, I forgot to put them away today. I left them on the bathroom counter.

Here is what I discovered when I went to check on Maddie's unreasonably long potty break:






Her beautiful dark curls scattered on the floor and in the trashcan! She chopped several inches off each side of her hair, and it looked even worse when I took out the ponytails. I discovered a little patch she cut much closer to the scalp with only two inches of hair still attached. I wanted to cry since it took us four years to get her hair so long and full. She was as bald as Kennedy when she was that age, and we didn't even know she had curly hair until she was 2 1/2 years old. In a matter of five minutes, two years worth of hair was gone.

Maddie explained that she wanted to have short hair like Kennedy. She also wants to be a "haircutter" like her Aunt Aujelle and tells me so all the time. I obviously told her she CANNOT cut hair, and she got a long, LONG timeout in her bedroom while I tried to figure out what to do. Luckily her Aunt Aujelle came to the rescue. Here's what she looks like now:


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It's a good thing she is so cute, or I don't know what I'd do with her...

Seven Years and Counting...

Happy Anniversary Aaron!
I love you!

A Hansen Halloween

We're happy to report that after many months of planning, countless hours of painting and gluing, and only a few hot-glue-gun burns and knife cuts, Aaron pulled off our family Halloween costumes with much success! Here is the result:

Maddie LOVED being Belle and looked just like her. In fact, at her ballet Halloween party, some other girls saw her and excitedly exclaimed, "Look Mom! It's BELLE!!!"

Aaron decided on our 2008 Halloween costumes back in November of 2007! (Those of you who know Aaron know that he enjoys Halloween even more than he does Chrismas.) Maddie's dress was borrowed. Aaron made his mask all by himself! My mom helped him sew the gold lapel onto a DI jacket, and his gloves were left over from his wolf costume last year.

Aaron began work on Kennedy's Chip costume over the summer when he bought a plastic flower pot and hollowed out the bottom. She wanted nothing to do with it at first, so he spent several days just getting her used to the idea. He discovered it helped to have Maddie wear the Chip costume a few times so that Ken would think it was fun.

Several months ago, Aaron found the Mrs. Potts costume for sale on craigslist for $40. He visited the owner's home to check out the costume, but was turned off because he immediately smelled cigarette smoke and pets. He told the owner such, since she had listed the costume as coming from a "smoke-free, pet-free home." He said he would have to think about it, and she ended up giving the costume to him for free since she was moving and wanted to get rid of it!

We've enjoyed the unusually warm temperatures here for the month of October. It was the warmest Halloween we ever remember, and the girls had fun trick-or-treating.


Kennedy only went to a few houses, and then stayed home to help me pass out candy. She would sneak fistfulls of suckers and go hide them in various places in the house. So far, I've found them in her diaper bag and in a kitchen drawer, and I'm wondering where I'll find them next...


Aaron's mask started out as a Chewbacca mask that he originally tried to paint to look like the beast. Here is what it looked like one week before Halloween:


He wasn't too happy with the painted mask, so he decided he needed real fur. I think he did a great job! What do you think?

Halloween at Gardner Village

On Friday, we went with some cousins to Gardner Village for their annual Halloween festivities. Apparently it is a popular place to visit this time of year, because there were hundreds of other people there that afternoon! There was plenty of fun for everyone though. Maddie especially loved all of the "Jack" music (The Nightmare Before Christmas) as well as getting her face painted.

Brandon, Blake, Maddie, & Suzy

Brandon showing his spider cheek & Madelyn showing her butterfly

We waited in a very SLOW line to get these two cute faces painted,
and I know Maddie's butterfly lasted less than two hours before it was
smeared onto the couch pillow. It was worth it though--I think...:)

For some reason, I didn't think to take any pictures of the
cute witch decorations that were all over the place. Blake was
especially fascinated with a witch on a bicycle that
appeared to be flying over a little stream.

And thanks to everyone for all of the birthday wishes! It made the day extra special!!

Happy Birthday Amanda!

On October 14th, I just want to take the opportunity to tell my sweet wife...

Sweet Sisters

Moments like this make a mom's heart melt. Of course, I had them recreate it for the video. Kennedy LOVES to be read to, and Maddie has the Brown Bear book memorized from preschool. I found a great new reader for Kennedy...

Pumpkin Picking

Here are some fun pictures from Madelyn's annual field trip to the pumpkin patch.

(Maddie is on the far left)

(Kennedy's forehead is a sad reminder of her fall on the cement the day before.)

Maddie chose a perfect little pumpkin!

Maddie & Macy

Fun on a pirate ship

Camping 101

Last weekend we took Madelyn camping for the first time. Aaron and I have been camping a few times since we've been married, but we've never dared to go since we've become parents. I figured the kiddos were hard enough to take care of at my own house--I had no desire to try to supervise them for 24 hours in the wilderness.

Somehow Aaron managed to change my mind--the temptation of dutch oven peach cobbler had something to do with it--and we planned a little overnight adventure in American Fork Canyon. Alli and Cory came with us, and we left Kennedy behind with Grandma.

Each of us learned some valuable lessons essential to wilderness survival:

Cory learned that the mountains get chilly at night,
and one should always pack long-sleeved shirts, pants, and socks.

Alli learned that she needs to help her husband pack his clothes.

Aaron learned that firewood burns faster
than you might think. Bring extra.

I learned that you need to bring
a can opener and nonstick cooking spray.

And Maddie learned that she LOVES camping!

Overall, we had a lot of fun despite several torrential downpours. Thanks to Papa's van, we didn't get too soaked, and we might have beat the world record in time it takes to pack up a campsite (which we had to do as soon as we woke up the next morning)! I think we all want to try it again next summer, and maybe we'll even take Kennedy next time...

Our Little Ballerina

Maddie loves her new ballet class! On the first day of class, she got to be the teacher's helper-- you can see her up front with the teacher. A lot of other girls from our neighborhood are taking dance lessons here too, but they are all in different classes. Maddie will enjoy meeting some more new friends. She's especially excited about a girl in her class named "Kennedy!"

Moms are only allowed to come the first class of every month, which I can now understand why. When I was there, the other moms were talking so loudly to each other that the kids could hardly hear their teacher! Maddie came home last week very excited to show me everything she is learning. I love that she is enjoying it so much!