Christmas Date

Last year Nana took Jackson on his very own Christmas date. They went to dinner and then made a gingerbread train. Well Nana has officially started a tradition doing it 2 years in a row now. A few days before Christmas Nana picked up Jackson and they spent hours together. They started by going to Chuck 'E Cheese for dinner and games and then drove passed Christmas Street to see all the pretty lights. Jackson loved dinner but supposedly kept telling Nana just to go home so they could build their gingerbread house. I think Nana ended up doing more building while Jackson took the job of eating. Either way I think their house turned out great and I don't know who had more fun that night. I think Jackson didn't get home until after 10:00 so they both must have been having fun!

Sweet Moment...

 

Last Christmas Jackson got really into Nana's Christmas train she puts around her tree. This year Jackson was even more excited! One night while we were there I heard the boys playing with the train. The noise level went quiet and the only thing I could hear was the sound of the train. When I went to check on them, this is what I found! Isn't that so sweet? Now that Andersen is getting older, more mobile, more involved in toys and his surroundings, I don't get to see the two boys being this sweet to each other very often. More times than not they are usually fighting over toys so this is definitely a moment I was happy to see. It is nice to see that they do love each other even if they don't show it very often.

The REASON we celebrate the SEASON

A couple weeks before Christmas we went as a family with some friends down to Temple Square. What a beautiful place to get you into the Christmas spirit and remember why we celebrate this day in the first place. My favorite view is of the simple Nativity of baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph.

Jackson loved seeing the lights last year and was excited to go again this year. Andersen on the other hand had no idea what we were doing since last year he was bundled to the max as a newborn in the stroller but he definitely enjoyed all the fun colors and lights this year.

I asked Jackson what his favorite part about Temple Square was and his response was the horses. If you have ever been down to Temple Square you know there are NO horses on Temple Square. The only horses we saw were the horses pulling the carriages as we walked across the cross walks to and from Temple Square. Good thing we walked through all the chaos to see all the lights! Note to self next year, all we need to see is the horses from the sidewalk. Forget dealing with the craziness of finding a parking spot or fighting the many people and their strollers, we can satisfy Jackson just by driving around the block.

Here are some more of my favorite views of Temple Square.

 With our busy schedules lately it was nice to take a night out as a family and the Christensen's and enjoy the spirit that is felt around Temple Square. As parents we tried our best to show Jackson and Landon the reason to the Christmas season. Lets just hope it went in one ear and didn't come out the other during all their silliness that night. They were having so much fun goofing off together that it was hard not to let them play around together. That is until we went to dinner at Crown Burger and the worker yelled at us for letting the boys play on something they shouldn't have. OOPS! That was a moment us parents looked at each other and said "Man, who's kids are those?".  Good thing they are both so cute!

God gave His greatest gift to us on that first Christmas Day. "There is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for all of us to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus the Christ."—President Thomas S. Monson

Andersen's 1st Haircut

The first haircut is always a bittersweet moment for me. With Andersen being 14 months and never having his hair cut, it was definitely time to say good bye to his mullet. I was anxious to see how Andersen was going to react because Jackson hated his first haircut, but when Andersen stayed put after us sitting him on Hollie's stool I knew it was going to be a less traumatizing experience than his brother.  He did shed some tears though! Jackson still to this day hates wearing the cape, but Andersen didn't think twice about it. 

All Andersen did was look at me and Nate like we were the meanest parents around. Check out all those curls in the back.

A few sprays from the water bottle and operation haircut from baby to little boy began and the party of curls in back was the first thing to go.

Andersen cried for the first few minutes until Daddy gave him his sippy cup and he was distracted enough to calm down.

 After the sippy cup was gone, the tears came rolling down his cheeks again. Thank goodness the tears didn't last too long though and he finally calmed down again as Hollie was finishing up.

Here he is all finished! It was hard to see him without all his baby hair but he definitely looks handsome either way.

A Visit with Santa..

 Last year was the first year Jackson really got into Santa and I was bummed that I never took him to see him, so this year I wasn't going to make that same mistake twice. Being friends with "Santa" made it easy to plan a special visit to our house. Jackson had no idea Santa would be visiting this night. All he knew was that his friends were coming over for dinner. When I knew Santa was close we gathered all the kids into our family room to calm them down a bit and not a minute later he came walking right through the front door. Jackson was so excited as you can tell by him being the first one off the floor and running over to greet Santa. I am surprised Jackson even let him past the front door he was so mesmerized by Santa being at our house.

 Once Santa made it past the front entry way, he sat on the couch and called up each individual child to sit on his lap. To make this a more memorable and real Santa experience I had all the moms give me a short sentence about their child for the year that Santa could memorize it and know exactly what to say to get the kids attention (Example: Jackson played his first season of soccer, he started preschool and is loving it but he needs to listen to his parents and be nice to his brother if he wants Santa to come with presents) I am sure the kids didn't think twice about it, but it was cute to see them all answer Santa's questions and watch how excited they were that Santa knew them. Look at little Andersen sitting so patiently on the floor too!

 I think Andersen's attention span only last a few minutes. Jackson on the other hand sat in the same spot the entire time listening and responding to every thing Santa would say, even if it was for another kid.

 Then finally it was his turn! He hopped right up on his leg

 and listening so intently to every word Santa had to say.

 I hope this was a night Jackson won't forget anytime soon and hopefully we can make it a tradition for our kids. As parents we definitely enjoyed every  minute of it, Andersen on the other hand was just fine looking at Santa from afar. What a fun night to start off the Christmas season. Too bad Santa can't stay around forever so I have constant leverage over my children to do what I ask!

 After Santa had left the adults continued to talk while the kids played. All of parents didn't even realize they were gone until it suddenly got quiet in the family room. As we searched for the trouble makers we found them in our bed watching a movie they had turned on all by themselves. They looked so cute that it was hard to be upset over the sugary pieces of gum drops they took from the candy bowl and left in our sheets.

A family talent...

 As a child I remember my Dad always flipping his eyelids inside out to tease us kids. I always wanted to learn how to do it just like my Dad, so one day I tried, and tried, and tried until I taught myself and finally did it. I was so excited! Well I just had that same excitement for Jackson because he just figured it out. I don't remember how old I was when I learned, but I am pretty sure Jackson is a lot younger than I was. I was so proud that we sent Grandpa Dave a picture to share the moment with him... only us eyelid flippers can appreciate this weird talent, I am sure! Good work Jacks, way to carry on the Hansen family talent!

Meet Mr. T

 We officially have our first pet! A few weeks ago Jackson brought this little fishy home from preschool (obviously with permission given in advance to the teacher). Maria, his teacher that week, told us he named him "Table" and he has stuck to that name ever since... I wonder what he was looking at when his teacher asked what he wanted to name his fish? Table came home in this little mason jar so later that day we went to Walmart and got Table a bigger home. Jackson was so cute, he made sure he had the perfect new home for Table. The first thing Jackson said to Table when we got home from the store was "Table, we got you a new home!... Do you like your new home?" A month later, Table is still alive and Jackson for the most part is just as excited as he was the first day he brought him home. We tried to re-name him to Mr. T... but Jackson refuses to call him that. It will forever be Table and that is just fine with us. We love having Table be apart of our family and it has been a good lesson in responsibility for Jackson since he has to feed him every day and help me change his water every week.

Jackson's latest funnies...

 It seems like every time Jackson starts getting silly the only camera I have is the one on my phone so the following are a bunch of random pictures from my phone over the last month or so. This first picture doesn't give justice to the moment but imagine with me this situation. Try to picture Jackson singing "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells.... oh what fun it is to ride, in a one horse open sleigh... HEY!" Well while he was singing he was also eating a gogurt and right as he said "Hey!" he jumped up and down and his yogurt went all the way up the wall. If you look close you can see the light pink yogurt drops on the floor and up the wall. It was so funny that it was hard to be mad at him. I think Jackson was just as shocked that this happened as I was. Hilarious... I still laugh just looking at this picture!

 This wasn't a funny moment, but I just loved his cute smile. He was so excited that we had finally gotten snow that he dressed himself in his snow clothes to go outside and help Dad shovel the driveway. He even put on his Yamaha beanie in honor of Grandpa Dave.

 This picture is right before we were about to go to Nana's house one Sunday night. Look closely to his outfit and keep in mind there is a foot of snow outside. Jackson put shorts on, but wore a sweatshirt to keep warm, then he put on his "basketball shoes", grabbed his "smarshmellow gun" and blankey and topped off the outfit with our neighbors hat that Nate wore to the mystery dinner. If you've been in our bedroom you'd know Jackson is looking at himself in my full length mirror. He was making faces and checking himself out. He was so proud of his outfit!

One of Jackson's recent favorite things is super heroes. The only thing he has asked for for Christmas is a "Hulk suit".  Last year Jackson got this candy bucket from Nana for Halloween and he just realized that it can open up and decided to put it on his head as his new Spiderman costume. The Spiderman glove is also a necessity to his homemade outfit.

Man, I love you Jacks! You always keep me laughing. Thanks for being my little buddy. The older you get the more you have become such a good little helper (that is when you want to be!) You are always wanting to help me with whatever I am doing even if it is my boring mom jobs such as laundry, cooking, or cleaning. My favorite though is how much you love to cuddle with Mommy and Daddy. Every night you pick who is going to put you in bed and who gets to cuddle with you. The funny part to that is your reasoning behind who gets to do it and when. (Example: Since Daddy has been home with me all night he gets to cuddle with me... Its different every night!) Sometimes you ask me out of the blue to come cuddle with you. I'm sure that won't carry on into your teenage years, so I will soak it up as long as I can. Another thing you are learning to do is negotiate. You negotiate everything... more minutes to play, to leave, to go to bed, more treats, etc. You are also learning the concept of time. You ask us all day long what time it is. Even though you don't fully understand what it means when we tell you the time, you are still understanding that our days revolve around time and a schedule. You are loving school and doing so well with your sounds to your letters and you can't wait until you have homework. You are even figuring out how to sound out and spell some words with our help. I wish you would stop growing up so fast but every time I tell you to stop you tell me you have to so you can do homework.

Andersen's latest...

 Man, just when I think this kid can't get any cuter he learns something new! Andersen has gone from learning to walk, now to running... especially when he is trying to get away from me. His favorite thing to do lately is take his books or toys and walk them over to our stairs, throw them, and laugh as they hit every stair on the way down. This entertains him for hours some days! Another thing he has learned is to flip on and of his bedroom light when he wakes up in the mornings or from naps. We think its so funny, because Jackson would do the exact same thing! He sometimes will cry when he wakes up, but more times than not the first sign of Andersen waking up is the flip of the switch. Andersen is wanting to talk so bad. He jabbers all day long with some of the craziest noises, but has definitely learned how to communicate with his finger. He points at whatever food, drink, toy, etc he wants. Even though he can't talk yet, he can for sure understand us when we tell him to go get a diaper, binky, blanket, etc. I can't believe how smart this little munchkin is! In between all our laughs these past few months, Andersen got some yucky GI tract bug. We had diarrhea and throw up for almost 2 weeks! I changed and washed every bedding and car seat you could imagine but it wasn't until the morning Nate got Andersen out of his crib and was welcomed with poop that I finally decided to take him into the Doctor. This just wasn't a typical poopy diaper, Andersen had managed to have the worst blow out ever. When Nate was about to change his diaper, he unzipped Andersen's PJ's only to find poop all the way up to his collar bone. This was the longest 2 weeks, because not only did I do triple the laundry, Andersen would scream every time he was hungry and every time he ate. And it wasn't just a normal scream... I like to call it the angry bird. It sounds like a bird squawking at me and it doesn't stop unless you attend to his need. I felt terrible for the little guy because I knew he was hungry so I would give him some food. Less than 30 minutes later he was squawking at me because you could tell he was in miserable pain. Give him another 12 hours and it was coming out either the top or bottom. Thanks to Dr. Boud (again) and the miracle drug Septra Andersen was healed 3 days later and he was back to being the piglet that we know so well. If only the medicine took away the squawking, but unfortunately through all this we created a bad habit. He has learned how to get what he wants just by making that angry bird noise and so now I get it all day unless he is sleeping!

Good thing he is so stinking cute and he constantly gives me these cute smiles because it makes the "angry bird" not so bad after all.

The Four Deuces

 A couple weeks after Halloween we were invited to "The four Deuces" murder mystery. The following are the characters that were present:

Don Wannabe & Madam MeMe

Carrie Crooner-Ravioli & Al Capone

Don “Big Jim” Ravioli (He got killed) and then he was Rhett Bumbler & Donna Wannabe

 U.S. Congressman Darrin Toosteal & Vicky Ravioli

Capo “Toto” Tequila & Rebecca Ravioli (I was the murderer)

 Baroness Ravioli & The Inspector 

We've only done a murder mystery dinner one other time than this and we had so much fun, so we decided to do it again once the invitation was extended. It was a group of friends Nate went to school with so some of the people I didn't know. I still wouldn't be able to tell you their real names because we played in our character the whole night and never used any name other than our character names.  We shared a yummy dinner while all the details and facts were sifted through. The gist of this mystery was, my Dad "Big Jim" wanted me to marry "Toto" and had planned to announce our wedding plans at this grand opening of the Four Deuces. With the exception of only a few people, no one knew I had secretly already married someone else and I really didn't want to marry "Toto". At the opening of "The Four Deuces" I gave my Dad "Big Jim" one last chance to not do this. Of course he didn't agree, and before he could share any announcement the man I had set up to murder my "Dad" fulfilled his duties. In there lies the mystery everyone was trying to figure out. Who and Why would someone kill "Big Jim"? By the end of the night everyone seemed to be stumped as to who the "Murderer" really was, but after we all guessed, Nate was the only one that guessed right. I still think he cheated and read my Character background, but if he didn't he made one lucky guess!

Thanks Hollie and Katie for a fun night of food and entertainment!