The Hansens: June 2015

Monday, June 29, 2015

Ivy is 2!

Ivy turned 2 on Friday, June 26th! I cannot believe it has been 2 years since she was born! We love her SOOOOO much and are so grateful she is a part of our family. She is such a ray of sunshine. She eminates happiness everywhere she goes. She is such a happy, sweet, smiley girl and makes everyone around her happy as well. She loves to share with Jenna, she is very good at talking, a great sleeper at night and nap time, and has recently started to want to do things herself. After she buckles a buckle or puts on a shoe or something she excitedly exclaims "I did it!" And she has the heartiest, cutest laugh of all time! She is so fun to have around! We had pancakes for breakfast followed by a dance party. Then we played outside in the kiddie pool and ate popsicles. She normally naps great but she never fell asleep for her nap on her birthday. I heard her talking and singing so I listened by her door and she was singing "Happy Boday to Bamma" (Happy Brithday to Grandma) And then she yelled "Happy Boday Bamma!" She was so excited for her birthday and for Grandma to come over that she just couldn't fall asleep. Soon after I got her out of her crib, Grandma and Grandpa came over to help us move our playroom downstairs and see the girls. We went to a car show in the neighborhood and danced and played. Andrew was out of town so we didn't have cake or open presents. On Sunday, we had the Hughes family over for dinner, ate cupcakes, and Ivy opened presents. It was a fun weekend Birthday celebration!

This picture perfectly captures their relationship. Jenna and Ivy are so silly together and make each other laugh so much!

Pool play and popsicles

Our adorable, sweet, beautiful Ivy Pearl

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Baking

Yesterday, we did a lot of baking. We baked banana bread for us because Jenna has been requesting it for a while and 3 different kinds of cookies that Andrew needed to bring to work. Jenna and I have been baking together for a long time, but yesterday, Ivy helped too! It was so fun to bake with both of my girls! We had a lot of fun.

Mashing bananas

Jenna's turn to stir

Enjoying the finished product

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Father's Day Weekend 2015

We had a great Father's Day weekend! On Friday night, Andrew and I were able to go to the temple while my parents watched the girls and took them to a fun wedding reception. We spent the night at the Hughes house on Friday night. And on Saturday, we got free donuts from Krispy Kreme in the morning, then went to Payson lakes in the afternoon for lunch and had a picnic with my parents. It was fun to spend time in nature and we had fun getting our feet wet and throwing/skipping rocks in the lake. Saturday afternoon, Jenna lost her 1st tooth! It had been loose for quite a while. It was really exciting for her to finally lose it! Saturday night, our next door neighbor babysitter babysat the girls and Andrew and I went to Wing Nutz (a restaurant he had been wanting to go to for quite a while. Then we went to JCPenney and bought Andrew some nice clothes for work. When we got home Andrew opened his presents that the girls helped me pick out and wrap. He got a jerky gun for making elk jerky, basketball shorts from the girls, a gift certificate for a massage, and the game "Monopoly Deal" from me. On Sunday, we went to church, then back to my parents house for a Father's Day bbq where we enjoyed steak, corn on the cob, pasta salad, watermelon, and ice cream drumsticks. My siblings went in with us on The Complete Star Wars Saga on bluray for my Dad. We had a really fun weekend! I am sooooo grateful for Andrew. He is such a wonderful husband and Father. I am so happy and thankful that my girls are blessed to have such a sweet and silly Daddy, who makes them laugh and takes wonderful care of us. I am thankful that he honors his priesthood and is such a strong spiritual leader in our home. I am also thankful for my and Andrew's incredible Dad's. We are very, very, VERY blessed to have such wonderful men in our lives.

We were dancing and then we would say "freeze!" And freeze in whatever position we were in.

Jenna's adorable letter to the tooth fairy

Showing her space where the tooth used to be!

Some of our favorite pics of cute, daddy Andrew

Friday, June 19, 2015

April and May 2015

Life just keeps getting more and more fun! Jenna started swim lessons in April, and got ear tubes in May, which has improved her hearing and responsiveness a great deal. We have had a rainy spring but have still found enough sun to go out and play. We were able to play with Grandma a few times during her Spring Break, we even got to go with her and Miriam to the zoo! Jenna had a dance recital in May and did great! Ivy has been emerging more and more into toddler-hood as she gets closer to turning 2! The girls have been playing with each other more and more and being really cute with each other.Oh, and we found out in April that we are having a boy!!! So exciting!

Ivy getting ready to swim during Jenna's swim lessons

At the zoo The girls in cute outfits from Grandma

Playing with jewelry

We did a point system with Jenna to help her be more responsive and friendly with others (her preschool teacher, relatives, etc) and we went to Leatherbys as a reward!

She pulls this face when she is mad. Andrew scooted the ice cream away for a second to get a picture and she got mad. ;)

Morning cuddles, sweet sisters

Model baby

Jenna loves her dog, Rose.

Jenna drawing. She likes to read, and sometimes draw between bedtime, and lights out. :) She is making a lot of progress and doing great with her reading!

Jenna is practicing riding her bike a lot. She's doing great! Ivy and I like to come along on walks.

Doing makeovers. These girls are so fun!

It's a boy!

Trying on fun shoes and accessories while Mother's Day shopping

Selfie with Ivy!

Preparing for surgery. She did great!

Making brownies, coloring, and listening to the Ipod. It was a fun afternoon.

Taking care of their baby dolls

Playing outside!

Fancily dressed in their Sunday best

Cutie

Jenna's long hair a couple of days before she cut it. She got 6 1/2 inches cut off because she wanted to grow it out all over again.

Jenna had one dance in her Christmas recital outfit and one dance in this silver outfit. She did great and it such a cutie!

Cousins came to play for Memorial Day!

Monday, June 8, 2015

January, February and March 2015

Ivy started walking just a couple of days after she turned 18 months at the end of December. And by the beginning of January she was already walking around while carrying purses and pushing strollers! We spent a lot of time at home in January, February and March because we were packing and moving! We found out mid January that I was pregnant! We were so excited! To tell everyone our news, Jenna made a valentine card and drew a picture of our family with a baby in my tummy and a heart around it. :) Very cute. The girls really enjoyed Valentine's Day this year. We gave them 2 little gifts and they each got each other 1 gift as well. We spent the day together as a family and Andrew and I went on a date on a weeknight. During all of the packing, moving and some of the unpacking the girls were very mischievous! They actually handled everything really well, but they did get into stuff more than usual. Part of that I'm sure was Ivy emerging from babyhood into toddler hood, but Jenna would join in too! She was never a very mischievous toddler so I think when she saw Ivy go through the phase, she wanted to join in. And we were pretty busy with packing and moving so, of course that didn't help. Ha ha Things have mellowed out now though, and they sure did have fun enjoying our couple months of moving distractions.
When it was finally moving day, it was snowing outside! We had a very dry and warm winter so we were very surprised by the snow! Thankfully, it stopped snowing within like 1 hour of when our friends came to help us load the truck. And, even though the forecast was a very snowy weekend, it didn't start snowing again until the morning after we moved all of our stuff into the new house! We felt like that was a very sweet and obvious tender mercy from the Lord. On Monday, I was all set to start unpacking the kitchen and stuff but the snow looked very enticing to the girls! I decided that they had been such good sports with everything involved with moving and even though I was anxious to unpack, they deserved a good snow day. So we ditched unpacking and played outside in the snow! It was Ivy's first time really playing in the snow. We all had a lot of fun!
Our friends, the Fowlers, moved into our new house 3 days after us and lived in our basement for about 7 weeks. They are in the process of building a house and needed somewhere to live for a little bit. The lived in our basement and stayed down there each day until about 4 pm. Then, they would come upstairs and the kids would play and Collette or I would make dinner. Bryan helped Andrew with the yard quite a bit too. I think it was nice for Jenna to have friends to play with every afternoon. I think it helped with the adjustment of living in a new house. The kids played really well together. Andrew and I got to see a new side of Jenna, she was quite the jokester with the other kids and was often making them laugh. It was fun to see her be the little comedian among her friends. :) They have since moved, but things are still going really well, and we are loving our new home!

Baby #3!!!

Amelia, Braxton, Jenna and Ivy playing ring around the rosie

Snow day!

Our tiny snowman!

The girls loved to play in the master bathroom, and kept getting into stuff they shouldn't, so I redirected them to the master closet and they sure had fun in there! And it was much less nerve racking than them playing in the bathroom!

Mommy & Jenna date to see Cinderella

Ivy stealing the show at a 1 year old's birthday. She definitely know how to be entertaining while eating a cupcake!

Jenna posing with all of her and Ivy's babies. I don't think the Indian and Bolivian ones have names yet but Jenna has named many of her babies! From left to right is Millie, Lydie, Curious, Betty, Abby, Zoey, Beautiful (the blonde one with pigtails) Noelle, Maggie, Lilly, Ruby Jade, Violet, Rapunzel, Jane and Polka Dot!