three peas in a pod...

Here's a belated Easter pic of my two little beauties. I just loved how their dresses turned out!
The newest and by FAR the most popular girl at our house is Barbara Park's Junie B Jones. The spring bunny left a book for L & C to read during the break and they devoured them that Saturday on the back porch, (back when it wasn't freezing and snowy.) Between the library's collection and Grandma Maxwell's donation of easy chapter books, our house runneth over with seven year old literature. Little stacks by the couch, the bathroom counter, the backseat of the van, nightstands and inside the beds. It just makes me smile inside to see them love reading so much. I spent a lot of spring breaks and lazy afternoons lost in a good book. They're not the only ones enjoying their new found hobby. Noah is such a lucky little guy to have two big sisters who like to read to him in the chair with his "horsie blank." That's how he likes it-all curled up with a good story. Maybe it's all five of us Hansen peas in a pod, we all like a good book. So here's to laying in the afternoon sun with a good read- one of life's little pleasures.

We've had guests in and out this week. On Monday we celebrated my Dad's birthday going out to eat, so nice of them to come here to Idaho Falls! Cody's mom came and spent the afternoon on Tuesday and last night Lyle and Mike were our guests. They all survived the mayhem that sometimes accompanies our home and we love having people pop in and stay for a bit. The kids and I will probably head down to Bancroft this weekend and enjoy one last visit with everyone before school kicks off again on Monday. I must say I like the leisurely mornings with time for big, slow breakfasts and chatting around the table. No rushing out the door to appointments and school.
So I'm signing off until next week, three more days of official vacation!

dieing to dye...

Lauren and Chloe have been pestering me about dying eggs for the last couple weeks so a little egg dying was in order this afternoon with friends. Of course a dozen eggs was not enough, but it's all I had on hand last night to boil. Noah woke up in the middle of it and was quite intrigued by all the bowls of color and was a little curious as to why the eggs were colored. I have to admit that dying eggs is not something I do every year with L & C, I think mostly because the sometimes overly frugal part of my brain rationalizes, "Well, gosh, I'm going to waste a whole bunch of eggs that will sit out, get smashed, becoming anything but usable." But in keeping with my new personal motto of late, "what will be will be," I dove in and really had fun today. And yeah, half of them were smashed or otherwise mutilated, but a couple were actually eaten.

How much did I dive in? On Wednesday night in my lame attempt to be a bit Martha Stewart-ish I tried to poke holes in each end of the egg and blow out the contents, satisfying my need to actually USE the egg. After poking five eggs and crushing two of those in the blowing process, two things were really bothering me. I had a bunch of raw egg in my mouth. Now if the egg was in cookie dough, I wouldn't have any problem eating it raw, but who needs salmonella? Plus, I have a bit of a sinus infection and like blowing up a balloon, this strenuous activity was doing nothing to relieve it. So I gave up, has anybody ever attempted this? Sounded fun and easy, but was neither. (I did pierce the yolk, still had trouble.) Anyway, enough about eggs, hope you all have a beautiful Easter and hooray-it's spring break here. There will be some sleeping in here at the Hansens :)

happy easter...

I love Easter, all it symbolizes- spring, re-birth, Christ. It gives me a feeling of hope finally seeing those tiny little lilies and iris poking through my soggy flower bed. The hope of a new season and fresh beginnings. Daylight at dinnertime, strawberries and asparagus at the stores, melting snow, I could go on... My mom sent me an Easter lily in college and ever since I always like to get them. It makes me feel happy each time I go into the kitchen. In case you wondered, here's a little history...

Often called the "white-robed apostles of hope," lilies are said to have been found growing in the Garden of Gethsemane after Christ's agony. Tradition has it that the beautiful white blooms sprung up where drops of Christ's sweat fell to the ground in his final hours of sorrow and deep distress. At Easter time, churches use masses of Easter Lilies, to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and hope of life everlasting.

The pure white lily has long been associated with the Virgin Mary, too. In early paintings, the Angel Gabriel is pictured extending a branch of pure white lilies to the Virgin Mary, announcing that she is to be the mother of the Christ Child. In other paintings, saints are pictured bringing vases full of white lilies to Mary and the infant Jesus.

In yet another expression of womanhood, tradition has it that when Eve left the Garden of Eden she shed real tears of repentance, and from those remorseful tears sprung up lilies. The spiritual principle held here is that true repentance is the beginning of beauty.

A mark of purity and grace throughout the ages, the regal white lily is a fitting symbol of the greater meaning of Easter. Gracing millions of homes and churches, the flowers embody joy, hope and life.

in Noah's words "crash boom!"

Well, a bunch of photos here. L & C went to a classmate's birthday party on Saturday. It was quite the affair, they went to the museum and saw the new Eygptian exhibit which was interesting. The favorite spot was the kids room, even Noah loved it. Then we all trooped across town to Game World. The mecca of all things kid-ish. You know all the flashing, electronic games and pizza. It did have air hockey and a playground too. I even let Noah ride all the bucking, rocking, noisy coin rides. By far the best thing were the bumper cars. The girls had never been in them and LOVED it! I think I see a trip to Lagoon this summer in our future. I think they're getting to the age to really enjoy all those older sort of rides. I was so worn out that night! Just keeping track of my kids in the place was exhausting, but we all had fun.

Finally, the last two hideous pictures are of our downstairs bathroom, (gasp!) We went from a 4 bedroom 2 bath home to 4 bedroom 1 bath home in one day, yikes, I can only hope that it will come back together nearly as quickly. Yes, we are slowly going to start updating and remodeling a bit, beginning with the bathrooms. They are by far in the worst shape, both structurally and visually. Seriously, how many of you can say you have a baby blue bathtub? Or the tile that sticks to your feet when you walk across the floor-it's time. Cody tore out all the shower tile and the vanity. That's the huge mass you see in the center. The last picture is where a cabinet used to be. We (Cody-who are we kidding) tore it out since the storage will be replaced in a new longer vanity, with the hopes of making the room look bigger. I'm sure all you bloglings are so interested in all of this, but it may be a topic of frequent conversation here I'm afraid for a while. It's amazing what three demolition tools and a bit of testosterone can accomplish in one day! Show me a man who doesn't like demo work!? It's scary since we're all new at this, but I'm ready for a change and excited for the end result!

Noah stacks up buckets in the kitchen knocking them over and yelling "crash boom!" After watching Cody a little bit he came upstairs and immediately begin hitting the wall with his favorite screwdriver. Uh oh, gone is my little fix-it man. I gotta get him in on the RE-construction!

la la la...

I've seen the commercial for the MacBook Air twice and of course all I can think about is how much I love the song playing in the background, that's how I roll I suppose. So if anyone else out there has been searching, search no more and enjoy this happy little tune... Yael Naim- New Soul

hoppy easter...

When I parted the curtains this morning it was-are you kidding me- snowing!?!? I almost cried. It felt like December driving across town to the dentist, trucks fishtailing and wipers wiping like mad. It is the official start of spring in a week or so, shouldn't it be raining? Let it rain, just no more snow. But I also knew that the way my tires were crunching over this snowfall that it was excellent building material. I guess this was the snow-gods giving me one last chance to get out and enjoy it with the girls since I haven't taken the chance all season. And speaking of the season, Easter, we constructed a very handsome spring bunny in our yard. I was quite pleased, it was fun, so Happy Easter from Idaho Falls. I know you secretly wish that you were here to enjoy the feet of snow still in our yard. Don't feel too badly though, if you visit in May, we still might have some! Happy Spring!

pucker up...

I can't believe it's Easter in two weeks and I'm still wearing a scarf and buying ice melt! Ahh, this winter has dragged on...but when Chloe asked me what I like about winter-her answer by the way was "nothing." I couldn't even get her excited with sledding and hot chocolate. But I love how I can hole up inside on a cold winter's night and sew or do inside crafts when in July I'd probably be out turning my compost :) So I took three children to Joann's today to pick out fabric for Easter dresses. Not Noah, just the girls in case you were confused. Ideally I like to go to the fabric store ALONE, but sometimes it can't be helped. The girls are huge helpers now and Noah saw the whole store nearly 5 times as they pushed him around. Lauren and Chloe picked some cute fabrics and now comes the fun. I'm using the skirt pictured on the big girl and the top/jacket on the smaller girl. I remember all my homemade dresses and how much I loved them. I also clearly remember the last dress my Mom made after I told her home sewn dresses were not so cool anymore. I'm getting a little misty-eyed thinking of that day in the future, maybe it won't ever come, that would be fine with me. Better yet, maybe they'll be into sewing their own clothing by then.

Another trip down memory lane this afternoon when I let Chloe use my cell phone to call a school friend. Does that look like a peek into the future or what!?! Was it seriously 15 years ago I sat on my parents bed talking on the phone. Must be the quiet solitude of mom and dad's bedroom, especially when boys are involved. Gratefully though today the topic of conversation was how the desks were arranged at school. Oh, let these days of seven year oldness stay!

Just a quick picture of Noah and Cody. Noah loves to give huge wet, sloppy, open mouthed kisses. Luckily for Cody he had his mouth closed for this one. We just have to be sure there isn't food or boogers on his face. Who can't love that though? Happy weekend to all!

3 reasons to love my man...

1. The most important one- How he honors and uses his priesthood to give blessings to sick little ones. What a huge blessing in my life!

2. He fixed our computer, which hasn't been able to burn pictures onto CD's for about 4 months. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm a bit anal about backups, having learned the hard way. I spent several hours doing my best and even resorted to calling a Geek Squad in the Yellow Pages. And then he sits down, figures it out, and tosses out the phrase "Who's the man?" Definitely. He's THE man.

3. He just bought me this canner! Hooray, now I can do vegetables and beans. I'm most excited about the beans, we eat a lot of them and while cooking them in the pressure cooker gets great results it requires planning ahead....you know the rest of the story. So, how nice it will be to pull out a bottle of beans. And I can can them anytime of the year. Not just that crazy month in September when I'm so burned out. But this story doesn't end happy tonight. I went to Walmart at nine o'clock, just to pick up the canner and for a few odds and ends of course. I made it home with all the odds and ends plus more and forgot about the canner completely. That's what superstores do to me. I get the glazed look, just staring at everything, trying to focus on needs, not wants and getting out of there in a timely manner. Oh well, it should still be waiting for me. Any hints for canning legumes? Please share...

all is quiet...

for those two hours in the afternoon. Poor little lamb Lauren, she's been working hard trying to kick this nasty little bug. She battled a fever and headache last week and slept a lot. It seems it wasn't quite out of her system and here she is dozing again. I'm hoping she'll be up and walking tomorrow. In the meantime I've been spoiling her with breakfast, lunch and dinner in my bed or on the couch. Plus, wrapping up in the Raggedy Ann blanket I had in first grade HAS to make you feel a teeny bit better inside. I remember laying in my Mom's bed when I was sick and somehow it's more comforting than your own. Books on tape were my favorite for those long boring hours where you didn't feel like doing anything. As I was getting Lauren set up with something she grabbed at the library, I was thinking about one of my favorites, his story used to fascinate me. Apparently now it's not even available, wow, I'm old. Sounds like she's awake, more blogging later... Hope everyone is feeling well!