Ivy's 1st Birthday!

Ivy is one!  Time has gone by SO fast!  We had an Elmo themed birthday party for Ivy at our house on her Birthday and just invited family.  It was raining, so he had it inside.  Jenna colored some pictures of Elmo and taped them to the walls as decorations.  We made Elmo masks with red paper plates at the party, and played pin the smile on Elmo. We also had Elmo cupcakes! Ivy loves Elmo!  She had to have a couple rounds of breathing treatments during her first year.  Once for Pneumonia, and once for RSV.  She sat through the breathing treatments the most easily when we turned on Elmo videos for her to watch.  Jenna loved Elmo when she was younger too.  And still does actually. :)  Our favorite Elmo video is 'Elmo's Ducks'.  Ivy had fun opening presents, Jenna and the Utah cousins helped too.  Ivy also loved her cupcake!  She started out by picking pieces off of it, and then decided to pick up the whole thing and try to put it in her mouth.  She also kept offering her guests part of her cupcake with her other hand. :)
Some things we love about 1 year old Ivy:
-She snickers a lot.  When she is excited or happy about something, she will snicker, and she snickers in a lower tone than her regular voice, it's so cute. :)
-She loves to share.  She often offers pieces of her food to us.
-She is very snuggly.  When I take her to her room for nap time, turn off the light, turn on the fan, and put her binkie in her mouth, she will then lay her head and my shoulder and totally relax.  I love it.
-She is still very smiley!
-When she gets really excited she tenses up her whole body, even her hands and feet and stretches out her toes.
-She is a great sleeper, both at night and during her naps during the day.
-She makes us all SOOOOO happy!
We sure love this girl!

Some pre-party pictures

 

 Pin the smile on Elmo

Presents

The guests

Cupcakes

We got creative :)

About to blow out the candle (Mommy helped)

                      YUM!

Easter

I love Easter. It is definitely one of my favorite Holidays.  This year we has an Easter egg hunt/bbq with Katie's family, Jackie's family, Mindy and our friends Jared and Brody. Good times. :)  We also had a little Preschool Easter party.  Easter morning the girls came into the living room, they had their Easter baskets filled with little presents and their beautiful new Easter dresses laying next to the baskets.  We had Empty Tomb rolls for breakfast and talked about the Savior's resurrection.  We had a nice time at church and then went to my parent's house for a nice family Easter dinner.  :) The Savior lives.

Spring 2014

I cannot believe Spring is already coming to an end and summer is almost here! Time flies by so fast!  We have had a lot of fun this Spring.  We got chickens.  We introduced Ivy to the swing set which she very much enjoys.  Jenna can totally swing on her own by pumping her legs.  Jenna LOVES to be on the swings.  She always has, ever since she was a baby.  It is really fun to play outside with the girls.  We have had a lot of lunch time picnics, lots of yard work, played on the swings, ran around with the chickens (Andrew is their mother hen) :). We have been drawing with sidewalk chalk, etc.  It has also been really fun to watch Ivy discover new things all the time.  We have had a fun family Springtime. :) And are excited for Summer as well!

My Darling Girls

I sure love my darling little girls! I LOVE being a stay-at-home mom and spending all day with them.  Jenna is so good at playing pretend.  She is so imaginative.  She likes me and Ivy to play along.  The other day, while I was sorting laundry and making dinner, she was playing ship.  I was the captain, she was a 5 year old on the ship and Ivy was a 3 year old.  She kept coming up with different scenarios and our game lasted about 2 hours.  I am lucky and grateful that she plays around what I am doing so I can still get things done around the house and play at the same time!  Ivy is happy, spunky, fun and smart!  It is so fun to watch her play with things and figure things out.  She thinks Jenna is hilarious and she makes the CUTEST facial expressions. They are so much fun!
Today, I was going downstairs to put the laundry that was in the washer in the dryer.  Ivy wanted to be held, so I was bringing her with me, and Jenna wanted to come too.  Jenna likes taking the clothes out of the washer and putting them into the dryer so I was letting her do it while Ivy and I helped a little.  Jenna wanted to do it in speed motion so she was going really fast and breathing really fast to be funny.  Ivy was laughing so hard! Which of course made Jenna and I laugh as well.  As we were doing laundry together, and I was watching and listening to my girls making each other laugh, I just felt so much joy.  They are SO precious.  This stage in our lives is so precious.  And everything we get to do together is precious.  I LOVE being their mom, and I LOVE staying at home with them.  I am so blessed. I am grateful to recognize the preciousness of these moments as often as I do, rather than letting them pass by and not realizing all of these sweet moments and opportunities until they are far in the past.  I love right now and have been loving 'right now' since I was pregnant with Jenna.  Raising children starts out amazing, and just seems to somehow get even better and better. Don't get me wrong, we have rough moments too.  But overall, so much joy comes with having children.  I am so grateful to the Lord for the Plan of Salvation and the role of families in that plan.  I am so grateful for my forever family!

Love them!

Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day was so much fun this year!  Jenna had her first Valentine's Day party.  At preschool, they made Valentine's Day bags, played games, decorated and ate heart shaped cookies and exchanged Valentine's they had prepared for each other.  Jenna also made a Valentine's Day picture for Andrew and I with Wendy.  And we had heart shaped eggs in toast for breakfast on Valentine's Day, and heart shaped pancakes for dinner. :)  Andrew and I went on a Valentine's date the day before Valentine's Day.  We went to Pei Wei, Jamba Juice, and then to See's Candies.  I got to pick all of the chocolates I wanted in my 1/2 lb box. Yum! It was so fun! Jenna and Andrew also got me flowers and popcorn. Jenna and I gave Andrew a Costco sized jar of Jelly Bellies, an air plant, and a card.  And we gave Jenna a card and her own mini box of chocolates.  :) And we gave Ivy lots of kisses. :) We love each other and are so grateful for each other!

Jenna wrote her own name and drew the pic of our family

Christmas in San Diego 2013

     Andrew's parents have been called to serve as mission presidents in the Cochabamba, Bolivia mission.  They are selling their house and plan to live in Utah when they come back.  So, we all went down to San Diego for one last Christmas in the house Andrew an his siblings grew up in.  It was a bitter sweet experience.  We had a lot of fun though.  It was a good last Christmas in San Diego.  Sara wasn't there because she is on her mission in Guatemala, we sure missed her!  But we all got to talk to her on the phone on Christmas morning, yay!
     During our grand Christmas vacation, Grandpa Hansen told the kids Magic Teddy Bear stories.  He uses the magic teddy bear stuffed animals and tells stories about him.  The grandkids of all ages love these stories. We got to go to Sea World again.  We went to the beach a couple of times, enjoyed Ruby's diner at the end of the Pier in Oceanside.  The adults played fun board games after the kids went to bed.  Jenna got acquainted with the tree house and loved it!  Christmas eve was a blast as usual with the family Talent show with all of the Willardsons.  Jenna performed her dance from her recital all by herself in front of about 50 people!  She really wanted to do it and was so brave! She did great!  Then, all of the kids of age participated in the Nativity.  Jenna was a sheep. :) And Christmas day was a lot of fun as well!  Ivy slept in my arms a lot because we were always on the go.  And I somehow got to take a nap everyday! All in all, it was a great trip!  We are grateful for Grandma and Grandpa Hansen's wonderful examples, the family they have created, and the moments and memories we enjoy because of them.  They will be wonderful Missionaries, and will bless the lives of many! We will miss the house full of so many memories, but we know that the fun we will have as the Mark & Kathy Hansen family will continue. :)

Sadie, Griffin, Jenna & Makaylee
giving Grandpa hugs

 

Magic teddy bear story, Jenna is the one with wet hair

Model baby

Smiley girl

Andrew and Roxy

On the Pier after the beach and swimming

Jenna climbing the tree house

The famous house

Grandma and Grandpa totally int their elementI love the face Jenna is making

Stockings from Santa

Christmas Eve jammies

Christmas Eve Nativity