Mariah's 4th Birthday

Well, as you all know, we start birthday's with making the cake together. Mariah was very kind and wanted Aubrey to help make the cake with us. They both put on aprons and were very good helpers--even if we did have an egg drop on the floor.

Here they are holding up the box mixes--yes we made two, we usually need that much to create whatever we are going to make. They are both getting very good at understanding the back of the box--I didn't even have to tell them how many eggs to get out and that we needed butter and water. It is really fun to see them starting to understand things.

And for their favorite part--licking off the beaters and the bowl.
The following morning we were having a princess birthday tea party--meaning we eat the food on little dishes and we have miniature food. Mariah helped me decorate the cake. This was one of my favorite cakes that I have made because not only did it turn out adorable, it was quite simple and Mariah was able to help me do a lot of the decorating. Here she is putting on sprinkles. She would also put the candy in the middle of the flowers. It was really fun to do it together and she looked adorable sitting on the counter helping me in her pincess dress!

What Mariah wanted for her cake was Snow White on top holding a basket of flowers and flowers all over the cake. She also wanted strawberries on the cake--which I bought and then I totally forgot and we did have a toy basket for Snow White to hold, but Mariah didn't want frosting to get on it. I think it turned out adorable and Mariah loved it anyway!

The previous night, Jon helped me get ready for the party--we wanted it to be extra special for Mariah. You can't really see the whole room, but Jon hung up ribbons all over with flowers on the end of each ribbon--it looked adorable. I made little red tulle bags/purses for each child and we put a bracelet and candy in each bag. Mariah handed them out to each person as they came. The little girls were dressed up and it was really fun to see so many little princesses!

We started with making "princess hats"--a little more complex than I thought it would be, but fun anyway.

Then we made little wands with Stars on the end and headed back to the kitchen for the main event--the tea party! We had lots of miniature food and adorable little dishes and silverware. The kids always have a fun time eating the food. Their favorite part is always drinking out of the little cups.

For dessert we served the cake. Mariah was so excited and had such a wonderful time!
Here is Mariah on the night of her birthday--I think she had a wonderful birthday--We had the party the day previous because several friends could not attend on her actual birthday. On her birthday, she and Aubrey had a primary activity and then we went to a park for a fun picnic dinner and had a lot of fun playing. Then we went home and opened presents. She loved everything she got--of course--Mariah is the type that will love anything and anyone--she says she wants things certain ways, but then is happy with pretty much how ever things turn out.
We had saved the top of her birthday cake from the party to have on the night of her birthday. We sang one final time, had cake, and then watched Finding Nemo and had popcorn. Then we put everyone else to bed and Mariah and I played with her new playdough set and had cookies and milk together. Wow! What a special birthday she had! She was beaming and so pleased to have turned 4 years old!

Toddler Pillows I Made

Well, I am not sure what got into me--I get these ideas and kind of challenge myself. And then I create something and when it turns out good--I am really pleased. I made toddler pillows for 2 of my nephew's birthdays this past week. They both turned out really cute.
The first one I used the party invitation as my guide and this is what I came up with. I think my nephew will really like it--though he was too excited about his birthday to really take any notice. His parents (both lawyers) commented on how it was copyright infringement and that I could be sued. Though they did thank me fo the pillows as well.
Well, I thought it turned out really cute and plan to make another one for Jonathan. He will LOVE it! The first picture is just the pillow-case and the second picture is the pillowcase on the toddler pillow (half of a reguar pillow).The second pillow-case I made is for one of my very favorite nephews and my daughters best friend. I wanted to do something really nice for him because he is just such a good kid and I knew he would love it! I found a picture on-line for his--the funny thing is, I didn't know that the black things on his legs were tires until I got to the birthday party and saw the actual toy!! Funny! When he opened it, he was very excited and exclaimed that it was even his favorite color. All of the little friends around him were petting the pillow oohhhing and aahhhing. It was really adorable and made the work very worth it. I love to create things and do things for people when they really like it. It makes it really fun to do and makes all the time and effort well worth it. The first picture is the pillow-case and the second picture is the pillow-case on the pillow.

7 years!

Wow, tomorrow I will have been married to Jon for 7 years. I would have to say that at this point in my life I am pretty much exactly where I want to be. We have three wonderful kids, a nice home, a nice yard, and Jon is a better husband and father than ever! Since it is our anniversary tomorrow, I want to brag a little about my amazing husband, companion, and best friend, Jon. These are not in any special order, just as I think of things. I warn you, this is probably a little sappy, so don't read it if you don't want to--I won't be offended.
Jon--the amazing man!
1. He is always extremely kind and tender to me. He NEVER yells at me or gets mad at me--sometimes he gets frustrated with me, but then feels badly--and I usually deserve for him to be really mad at me at those times!
2. He is amazing with our kids! I love it!! He plays with them and he loves it! He brought many toys into our marriage and he and the kids build legos, play He-Man, play Star Wars, play Star Trek, and make up lots of fun adventures! I am not good at doing this, I feel too silly, so I really appreciate his talent in this area. I enjoy doing other things with the kids--things that don't require too much imagination. He is amazing at coming up with crazy fun stories that the kids just love!!
3. He is a good employee--I know this may sound funny, but it is because of his diligence, good people skills, and love for life that has gotten him into his jobs--along with his qualifications, but he really has done well and been a good employee and I appreciate that. I know that he will do all that he can to support our family and make it so that I can stay at home with the children.
4. He has a strong testimony and is very good at teaching our children and being a good example. He helps the kids read a verse of scripture every night at family scripture study, he helps teach them how to say prayers and be reverent and he teaches excellent family home evening lessons.
5. He keeps romance alive. Although we rarely go on dates because of cost, we have so much fun as a couple and we just love being together. We have "dates" at our home after putting kids to bed. We own a ton of DVD's because of this--we wait for a movie to come out and get it for $14 at WalMart rather than going to a theater and paying for tickets and paying a babysitter. He always compliments me, sends me nice emails of how much he misses and loves me, buys me little treats here and there and always holds and kisses me like he truly loves me.
6. He supports me in whatever I want to do. He doesn't boss me or get upset with me--he lets me do things I want to do and supports me in it. He would let me do anything and he would never get after me for spending money (though I am pretty good at not spending money).
7. He helps me immensly with the kids--he bathes them, gets them ready for bed, and for church, he plays with them in the evening when I am tired and often tired of kids. He lets me sleep in at least one of the days on the weekend and takes care of the kids--it is really wonderful.
8. He helps immensly with chores and housework and yardwork. He helps me to get things straightened up each evening, he vacuums and dumps the garbages. He helps with any chore that I don't get done or am falling behind on. He is amazing with the laundry--he checks tags and never dries things that don't go in the dryer. He loves to do the yardwork--he loves our yard. He and I really enjoyed working in the yard togethe last summer--making and planting our garden. We are even making it bigger this year!
9. He takes wonderful care of me when I don't feel good--brings me whatever I want, goes shopping and anything else he can do for me--besides taking care of the kids (he has had to do a lot of this lately with the pregnancy/miscarriage).
10. He is very concerned and aware of my needs and our childrens needs and really tries to address them. He tries to teach/play/guide/discipline the kids according to their needs and tries to really be sensitive to their individuality.
11. And one of my favorite things about Jon is his love and excitement for life. He gets so excited about things and he tries to always see the good side of things. He has a wonderful smile and a wonderful attitude! I just love it!
Okay, I could go on and on, but probably nobody is going to want to read this--I really will have to send it to Jon because he probably won't be reading it anytime soon and he is the one that should read it!
One last thing--
We recently watched "The Holiday"--yes it had some not so good material, but I really enjoyed that movie--such a fun and sweet romance that did my spirits a lot of good.
Anyway, after watching it I just realized how blessed I am to have Jon because he is like the romantic, fun guy in romance movies. Graham was so cute with his kids, totally romantic and tender in that movie and it just reminded me so much of Jon. It was fun to watch a romantic movie and rather than wish for such a romance to happen upon me (as I used to in my young single years) realizing that I had such a romance--I just need to see it more and enjoy it more!

So that is the first 7 years of our life together!

Jonathan's 2nd Birthday

I have a tradition with the kids' birthdays to let them help me make the cake batter--and then they get to lick out the bowl. This has been a fun thing to do with them and we usually make it a day or two ahead so that it is cool and ready for decorating the following day.

Here we are putting the cake mix into the bowl.

And then cracking the eggs.

And tasting the finished product! Yeah!

I think our cake making was a success--see how happy he is!

The following day I had to come up with what was going to go on the cake--I usually do a character or something they love. Well right now, Jonathan loves He-Man--yes that outdated show from the early 1980's. We have several He-Man toys as well that he just loves to play with--I think much inspired by a very fun father, who also loves to play with the toys with the kids. So we got on-line and looked up some images for He-Man. Well, I did the best I could at making it similar to the image--definitely not perfect, but not too shabby, and especially for a 2 year old. He loved it!!Jonathan is watching and playing with He-man as he watches the cake being decorated--and Aubrey is also there by him pointing out the things on the cake that really aren't like He-Man--his hair is more orange, his skin is more brown, the wrist bands are too big, etc.

For those of you who don't know, when He-Man pulls out his sword and then holds it like this, there is white light all around him as he gains his He-Man powers.

Jonathan, what can I say--adorable! We actually took the cake to our family Sunday fast dinner so that cousins and family could all enjoy it rather than coming out to our house the following day--making it easier on people. Well, Jonathan didn't really understand that it wasn't his birthday yet, but we were doing the cake and we would do presents the following day. Infact that night he was quite sober and we said, "tomorrow is your real birthday and you will get balloons and presents". His face lit right up and he was VERY excited. Poor kid, I think he thought he just didn't get any presents.

He blew out his candles very well! He loved hearing everyone singing to him!

Another tradition I have is to let the birthday child pick whatever part of the cake they want--Jonathan got the whole sword! Some of the other kids were quite jealous about this, but hey, it's his cake!

We have another tradition that the birthday child gets to open one or two things in the morning that they can play with throughout the day, then we open the rest that evening after dinner. Jonathan is opening his morning gift. We also put candy or small toys inside of balloons and they get to pop the balloons to get the prize. The girls have always been too scared to pop the balloons. Jonathan was another story! He loved trying to pop the balloons and after his many attempts of jumping on and hitting and sitting on balloons with no success, Aubrey gave him a tack. With delight, he popped those balloons, not even flinching--Mariah stood far away and covered her ears!
Later that day, Jonathan was sitting up at the counter looking at the remnants of his He-man birthday cake. He looked up at me very sadly and asked, "where's He-man?" I reminded him that we sang to him and we all ate the cake. I asked him, "did you eat He-man's sword?". He sadly nodded his head and said, "yes." It was adorable!! I told him that it was alright to eat the He-man cake.
Here is Jonathan playing with one of his presents.

Here is Jonathan wanting to see the camera rather than posing for it--he got the foam sword for his birthday and tring to be like He-man, he tucked it in his sweater on his back--what a funny boy!

And finally, since we already did his cake and candles, we made some brownies and sang and blew out candles again! He had a blast! Especially with his birthday extended so much!

Ahhh-the quiet moments, but they just don't last

Well here I am, looking at people's blogs while I eat breakfast. I try to do something when I eat because otherwise I think too much about what I am eating and the mouthfeel and all I can say is that this pregnancy, food doesn't do well with me, especially in the mornings.
The kids are in the tub, playing nicely together--a sound every mother loves to hear. But, why are they in the tub, besides the fact that kids get stinky and sticky in a matter of minutes and need baths on a regular basis.
Well, I woke up to Jonathan trying to climb into my bed, fortunately I have an innate sense of smell that instinctly kicks in whether or not my brain is fully functioning. This instinct told me to not allow him into my bed or to sit or lean against anything and to change his diaper immediately. Yes, he had a major blow-out diaper. So much so that I spent quite a while rinsing the onsie in the toilet to get all the grossness out. Jon would have just thrown the onsie away. This called for a bath, but Jonathan hadn't eaten or I should say, engrossed himself in, breakfast yet--which is usually quite the event in and of itself. He loves to make himelf into an art form with whichever cereal he is having. For this reason I generally don't dress him until after he is finished. So today, I fed him in the tub. It brought back memories of feeding babies and teaching them how to eat, so it was kind of fun, and he didn't get all messy. Aubrey and Mariah could use a bath too, so as soon as they were done eating, I had them get into the tub. Then it was off to start the yucky laundry, clean up the girls breakfast and ahhh, sit and read some blogs. Well, now I have taken too long-- Aubrey is calling for me to come and bath them and Jonathan is getting out of the tub. Off to finish a task in a day of a mother!

And you thought we only had 3 kids!

Well, it all comes from giving the girls dolls I guess. But to the girls, their dolls are real and a part of our family. This is a birthday party Aubrey and Mariah put on for one of their dolls: Sally, Malie, Sophie, Emily, Doke-n-dokie (yes, my favorite of the doll names), He-man (that is a new name of an old doll that used to be a girl doll that is now a boy doll), Annie, Wanda Joe, Bumpy Bear, and of course--the ultimate favorite doll at the present--Cutie. I have surely left some names out, but I can't keep track of them all. This birthday party was for Bumpy Bear which is a teddy bear that was actually borrowed(?) from Grandma Robertson--I guess the girls are trying to convince him of where he wants to live. They set out plates for everyone, toy food, cups and dishes. Then they proceded to eat and celebrate. It was actually quite cute--they spent several hours doing this--I love when the play nice and are really into something. My favorite of the food items was the fish from the fishing pole game. Anyway, it was quite adorable and fun to listen to, though I was pretending not to listen so that they didn't get embarrassed.

And here is another luncheon on another day that Aubrey was putting on. She is very symetrical--notice how she lays everything out on each side to balance out. I love the random things she has used as "food" and what not.

The Jon & Amy Hansen Family in 2008--What do you know about us--what is True and what is False?

This is the answers to our "Christmas Letter" we sent out--wait to read this entry until you recieve your Christmas Letter/Email.

Note--When we say Jon, we are referring to Jon, my husband and the father of our children. When we say Jonathan, we are referring to our youngest son.

The Jon & Amy Hansen Family in 2008
What do you know about us—what is True and what is False?

1. Jon got a new job in Murray, Idaho.

Answer: False--Jon's new job is in Murray, Utah--this is a small picture of where his office is.

2. Jon and Amy sold their townhouse and bought a home
in Riverton, Utah.

Answer: True--We love our house! Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures in the summer when it looks a lot nicer outside, but here it is in the snowy winter!

3. Amy ran a race in a Hooters shirt.
Answer: True--refer to Blog entry in the Blog Archive (right hand side of page) click the arrow next to 2008 and then click the arrow next to June and then click on "5k Run Against Pornography"

4. Amy ran a half marathon.

Answer: True--it was all because of her sister, Emily who actually ran a full marathon earlier in the summer and got several of her siblings to run a half marathon with her in August 2008. It was actually really neat to do and not as hard as I thought it would be--I plan to run more half marathons--I am not sure about a full marathon though.

In order of appearance: Emily Morrise, Ben Morrise, Jeremy Robertson, Jay Robertson, Amy Hansen, Emily Robertson, Rebecca Clary

5. Aubrey and Jon designed and made a Star Trek Enterprise ship out of Lincoln Logs.
Answer: False--It was actually made out of Legos. Jon and Aubrey drew out plans and worked on it for a couple of weeks. They really came up with something neat!

6. Mariah wore hot-pads for shoes.
Answer: True--it was really quite funny, though she wasn't trying to be funny, she was just "dressing up".

7. Jonathan hates playing with Star Wars toys.

Answer: False--all of our kids love getting out the special Star Wars toys--it is one of their favorite things to do with Jon. Jonathan very much loves Dad's special toys--he loves He-Man, Star Wars, Star Trek, and legos--just like his dad. He is just the sweetest and most delightful little boy--most of the time.

8. Our cat had two “6 toed” kittens.

Answer: False--she had five "6-toed" kittens--pretty spooky! We actually did get rid of all of them except for one.
9. We loved taking care of our yard and planting a garden this summer —Jon even loved mowing the lawn.

Answer: True--refer to December 2008 blog on our yard (in the Blog Archive, click on the arrow next to 2008, then click on the arrow next to December and click on "Our New Yard, YEAH!")

10. We canned peaches, pears, grape juice, dill pickles, tomatoes, tomato soup, apples, pumpkin, chicken, green beans, corn, pinto beans, black beans, kidney beans, and potatoes.

Answer: False--we canned all of those except for corn, kidney beans, and potatoes--refer to December 2008 blog on our Garden (in the Blog Archive, click on the arrow next to 2008, then click on the arrow next to December and click on "Our new House--and the garden Summer 2008")

11. Jon was almost arrested on Legacy Parkway.

Answer: True--Amy ran the Legacy Parkway 10K race--this was a race that happened in the morning before they opened the parkway to the public. Jon dropped Amy off for the race an hour before it started and was going back home to get the kids and his parents (we had spent the night at his parents home). Well, the security on the parkway was very tight and they only had traffic coming one way--to the starting line. They weren't letting cars out. So Jon asked several volunteers and cops how to get back out and was told several different answers, with a, "well, I am not really sure". Finally a cop told him to go a certain way. Several cop cars suddenly went speeding in the direction Jon had gone. They were after Jon and determined that Jon was up to something--like destroying the parkway--and that he was lying about dropping Amy off and having to go back home to pick up the kids and his parents since we didn't want to wake the kids too early and have them just waiting for the race to start in the cold. Finally they let him go, but made him go another way. It was a fun adventure!

12. Amy finished the infamous t-shirt quilt—it’s only taken 2 years!

Answer: False--it took 6 six years! It's not pretty by any means, but it has a lot of history--if that counts for anything! Jon and I started making it when we were first married. It is our t-shirts from our childhood up to when we first got married. Each year I have pulled it out in the winter-time and worked on it for a while and finally this winter, I finished it!

13. Aubrey made a life-size puzzle of herself.

Answer: True--Aubrey drew and cut out this "puzzle" as a Christmas present for her cousin, James (Emily's little boy). It was really cute and she worked really hard on it! She also had cut out boots to cover the feet, but had left them at home (this picture is at Grandma Robertson's house when she gave James the gift.

14. Mariah dressed up Skeletor (He-man villain) in her doll clothes.

Answer: True--our kids love He-Man--they are going to sadly discover when they go to school that nobody else plays with, watches, or even knows who He-Man is!

15. Jonathan has super powers—he’s still trying to learn how to use them.

Answer: True--Jonathan tried flying off of the stage at the Ward Christmas party--he almost convinced us that his practice flight only looked like a fall.

16. Aubrey is very good at writing and drawing—she used pretzels to spell out Mariah’s name.
Answer: True--she spends a great deal of time drawing and writing. This was a lunch-time activity that she and Mariah came up with.

17. We got to be in “The Days of 47” Parade in Salt Lake City.

Answer: False--we were in "The Days of 47 Children's" Parade--it was still pretty cool and they had a free children's fair afterward (bounce houses, blow-up slides, and other fun activities).

18. The kids milked a real cow at the Utah State Fair.

Answer: False, they milked a fake cow at the Utah State Fair--it was really quite a cute set-up done by FFA for kids to do farm chores.

So those are several of the events that took place this past year--of course many more fun and adventurous things have also happened! Our kids really are adorable and we enjoy them--most of the time! Jon is the most wonderful father and husband ever and I am very blessed and grateful for that! We love our home and yard and have had a wonderful year filled with many blessings!