First Day of School!

Kindergarten!

My sweet, sassy, loving, busy little girl went to Kindergarten today! What is it about walking up to that giant school holding a tiny little hand that triggers so many emotions and worries. Will she be safe? Will she have friends? Will they be good friends? Will the other kids be kind to her? Will she excel in her school work? Will she struggle? How much more should I have done to get her ready? Have I failed her by not pushing her harder? So many worries running through my mind as we got ready for that big first day.

Thank heaven she was excited about it all or I may not have been able to hold it together. Cody, although he doesn't always express what he's feeling was worried about some of the same things. And as he gave her a father's blessing, he blessed her with success in many of the same things I was worrying about. I hope and pray that I will be able to be inspired to know how best to help, encourage and guide her through this new school adventure.

Little Miss Wiggles just couldn't keep still as I forced her to take the official first day pictures.

Showing off her 'All About Me' poster. She was more opinionated about how we arranged things on her poster than I had anticipated. I tried to overlap them to make it look all artsy but that really was not her favorite. I tried to get her to put on some more things to fill up the poster but this was how she wanted it to be.  It turned out cute,  and as you can tell she was pretty proud. She shared a picture of our family, Figaro the cat. Her favorite book: Fancy Nancy. Favorite Food: Crab legs. Her favorite toys and shows: Cars and My Little Pony. She also put of picture of her going fishing with her Dad.

As I dropped her off she gave me a giant squeeze, assured me that she wasn't scared. Tears on the verge of falling I took her hand and we headed to the playground to line up and wait for her teacher. It was a bustle of other children, younger siblings and parents snapping pictures. Some with the same anxious face I'm sure I was wearing. I hugged her one more time and walked away as the bell rang.

A few hours later, when I picked her up she was still smiling. She was thrilled to report that it was 'Totally Awesome!'

Thursday Pictures - 22 Weeks

22 Weeks

Little Mister, you are the sweetest little bean! You are so happy all the time and share your smiles so freely. We had your blessing day this past Sunday and it was a wonderful day. You have been supervising the trench digging, pipe installing and all the other grunt work going on in the yard. You and the kitty hang out in the double stroller and make sure all is going according to plan. We caught you both taking a nap together one morning.

You have discovered your toes. You don't seem to be quite as enthralled by them as your sisters were. But you have grabbed onto them to check them out a couple times. You have 'grabber' toes like your mommy. One day you had a hold of a toy with one and and one foot. It was a pretty strong grip too. Daddy thinks it's pretty silly since his long toes can't do that.

You still tend to spit after you eat. So to help prevent that you have to hang out in your bouncer for a little while afterwards in an effort to keep you upright and the milk inside where it needs to be. You have started to kick your right leg back and forth to get yourself bouncing. When the momentum slows your little leg starts going again. It's always the right leg, never the left or both. Little smarty pants.

You have turned into a side and tummy sleeper. When we wrap you up and lay you in your crib you immediately roll to one side. You are a little inch worm in bed, we've found you in the morning 180 degrees from where you started.

Back to School Night

Back at the beginning of August we met with, and Mya was assessed by one of the Kindergarten teachers. Since then we have been waiting and wondering what class she would be in.  The assessment, as far as I was told, went well. Parents got to wait in the hallway. I guess that was a warm up for me as I prepared to let go a little and let my little lady do her thing. I was a little bugged that they waited until the night before school was to start to post the class lists. I am sure there is a reason for it but it was still hard not knowing am or pm or what class she was in.

We arrived that night after our last summer adventure out.  Daddy took us to see the movie Planes. We were excited to find out that Mya will be in Mrs. Brown's class and during the time we had hoped.  She has been at the school for quite some time and seems as if she's very on top of things. We got to visit Mya's classroom, find her desk and both her cubbys. We checked out the playground and where she will line up before class starts. There were lots of people there so little miss kept a tight grip on my hand. There is one little boy from our ward in her class and she says she knows him from primary. I guess that leaves lots of opportunities to make friends.

Mommy got to sign up for PTA, class helps, room mom helpers...all new experiences for her too.

Hayze's Blessing Day

 Today was this sweet little man's blessing day. I feel bad that he's almost 5 months old and we are just barely getting it done. But trying to coordinate when Cody was in town, a ward split, then a new bishop it just took us longer than we would have likes. Cody teased that we were going to wait until he could walk up there and sit in a chair. Glad we got it done a little bit before that happened.

 It was a wonderful day. We had so much support from our immediate and extended families despite the short notice. Cody gave him a very sweet blessing. I was told that during the blessing he was looking around at everyone in the circle, smiling at faces he recognized. That's my sweet boy.

 Most of these pictures are similar, sorry about that. It's just what you do I guess.

 These are our 3 Davids.

David Malin Hansen

David Cody Hansen

and Hayze David Hansen

My dad, and Grandpa with Cody and hayze. 

 Keetch Family

 Hangin' out with the grandpa's.

 Uncle Tyson had him giggling. 

She know's who has the good iphone games and lets be honest, it's an excuse to hang out with her Uncle.

Some of my fantastic family! 

There's only so much attention you can take before it wears you right out.

Thursday Picture- 21 Weeks

21 Weeks

You love to wiggle and roll but really are quite upset when you find yourself on your tummy. This has let to more interruption of sleep for you and I. You roll yourself over in your crib and then yell until we come in and flip you back over. I have been a bit paranoid about you smothering yourself. I try to tell myself that if you are strong enough to roll yourself there you are probably strong enough to at least move your head to the side. Silly mom. We have started to put rice cereal in your bottle at night. Haven't seen too much of a difference in sleeping patterns but I do think you enjoy it. You seem especially milk drunk after those night bottles.

Thursday Pictures - 20 Weeks

20 Weeks Old

Our little Mister is getting so big lately.  I don't know who gave him permission to do this, I surely did not. He had a check up with Dr. Glade this week and he weighs in at a whopping 14 lbs 1 oz and is 24 inches.  He is my chubber baby and I love it.  He endured his shots as well as could be expected but it still breaks my heart when they look at you with those 'What just happened?' eyes. He continues to roll himself to his stomach and is getting better and getting himself back to his back. This is a good accomplishment since he really dislikes it when he gets stuck there. 

Lagoon 2013

The Smith family was turned loose on Lagoon again this year and it was a wonderful adventure. The kiddo's and I headed up with Grams and Grandpa, and Tyson and Hallah met us after dinner. The girls were more adventurous and Hayze was just chill. I couldn't have asked for a better day. Mya branched out and found new adventures on some Jeeps. She called them the crazy jeeps because they went slow on the straightaways but then whipped you around the curves. That was her ride of choice. Sadie's ride of choice was the 'dragon ride'. She rode it 3 times and wanted to go again but none of us weak stomach adults could take it again. It looked like a long dragon that went in circles chasing its tail while moving up and down in a wave motion. And to top it off...it slows down and then does it all backwards. Mama came off a little tipsy.

Malori, and the ladies on the teacups.

Mya was much happier with her bumper car experience this year. It took her a bit to figure out how to make it go the way she wanted. She and Sadie giggled like crazy every time they bumped into someone.

Sadie gave me a little wave before she got going. She takes her riding very seriously. If you didn't know this about her you might think she wasn't having any fun.

Why is this pretty little lady growing up? Let's press pause right here OK?

Some of the fam.  I love 'em!

Sisters going for a cruise. Sadie was a bit disappointed that they didn't get the blue car.

I love this...Grandpa's letting me have a drink. How much can I get before someone takes it from me.

Waiting at the depot for the train. Littles were getting tired and hungry at this point.

After some dinner they were ready to go again. Now that we like carousels at our house, we had to ride it. This one had some pretty cool animals and that made it even more exciting.

Mya and Mr. Hayze chillin' while the grown ups rode on some roller coasters.

I love this boy like crazy!

Someone hit the wall.
She and grandpa were buddies. It was getting late so we let the kids ride a few last rides and then we headed for home. My back seat was silent before I even made it to the freeway. I think that was a sign of a very good day.

Smith Family 'Rebellion' 2013

Saturday morning we met up American Fork Canyon for breakfast. This was something that happened frequently when my grandparents were alive.  I have memories of trying to fish in the river with Cheetos, with all the confidence that I was going to catch a big one. It was fun be with everyone again doing something that they loved. Miss Mya loves her cousin Hadlee and claims her as her best friend. We love sweet Hadlee!

These kiddo's are pretty crazy about these two. Maybe a little too crazy, they may or may not get crawled upon every time we see them.

Tragedy struck when little Miss ended up with a skinned knee. Thankfully Grandpa was there to offer some much needed sympathy and TLC. I even happen to have a Cars band aid in our bag, which helped a wee bit.

That afternoon brought water fun across the back lawns of our 'compound'.

The slip and slide was not quite steep enough for people to get going very fast so we got creative. 2 adults and a rope sped things up a bit. Call us redneck if you must but there was lots of smiles, squealing, and laughter. Little miss Sadie was a daredevil and was right in there hanging on. She rode until her little teeth were chattering so much she was forced to take a break. 

Mya after some convincing decided to try it out. I was glad she tried it. Silly bean, she admitted it was fun but didn't want to do it again.

Cute little bathing beauties. Mya, Berklee, Greta, Hadlee

Grams got in touch with her inner 'carnie'. She rented cotton candy and shaved ice machines which were a hit. It felt very festive, a little messy but definitely fun!

I love my girls! I know, I'm their mom, of course I love them. But they were such troopers during these long days of fun. They are my little buddies and are becoming such wonderful helpers. I loved seeing them interact with their cousins, old and young. I can see them developing a love for family and that is something I pray doesn't fade as we enter their teen years when cell phones and friends call for their attention.

Mr. Hayze was a gem through this entire event! He hung out on the blankets, cruised with whomever wanted to love on him and was, as always, generous with his grins. I am a pretty lucky mama and I'm so thankful for my amazing family!