getting trees

I think it is safe to say the Day After Thanksgiving is one of very MOST favorite days of the year. The second it is over I am already looking forward to the next year. This year I talked Grace, Larissa and Jennifer into staying up all night with me before shopping! Katie and Kellie also decided to join us. We sat around Graces and then headed over to Toys R US. We decided that wasn't worth it and ended up going to Walmart, then Target, the mall, Smiths Market Place, Shopko, and etc, etc

I don't know what it is but I LOVE it! Great deals, people watching, excitement and company...

Of course afterwards we headed up the mountain to get our Christmas Trees with the Peterson Family. What an experience this year! There was so much snow. As we all drove in a long train to get to the parking spot I was reminded of my childhood. How many times had we driven in this "train" of trucks, truck by truck, pushing their way through snow (mud), bouncing around? Some of my fondest memories are of doing this exact thing on our way to the hunts. Here we were and my husband and kids were able to experience it too!

Once we were "there" we all hiked out to find the perfect tree... Luckily for me I have a wonderful Katie who watched my kids so Kevin and I could hunt. The snow was so deep, up to my waist in some places. The kids had a blast playing in the snow. Afterwards we ate lunch and drank hot chocolate, mmmm.

So we all packed up to go and realized it wouldn't be that easy. It had been a relatively warm day and the trucks were getting stuck. So for two - three hours we spent getting each truck unstuck and moving a bit down the mountain. Really for me it was not a big deal, but I was in the nice warm truck, not out with the boys digging!

I love spending time with my family and this tradition is no exception.

baby tag

So I did a baby tag on Cole after he was born and decided to do it again for Hallie

1. Where were you when you found out you were pregnant?
Home. It was the 4th of July and the first day I was back from my cruise to Mexico for Katie's senior trip.

2. Who was with you?
Kevin and Cole were home, but not "with me"

3. What was your first reaction?
Extremely excited, I thought it would be negative like it had been for the past 6 months.

4. What was your husbands reaction?
I put a "big brother" shirt on Cole, when Kevin noticed he said something like "O is that how you are going to tell everyone when we DO get pregnant?" It took a second to sink in that I was telling him... Then he was super happy.

5. Who was the first person you told?
Cole

6. Was it planned?
YES

7. Was everyone happy for you?
I think so

8. What was the sex?
girl

9. What was the nursery theme/colors?
She gets to share a room with her brother so choc. brown and cream walls, blue curtains. Her bedding does have pink and green though.

10. Did anyone throw a shower for you?
Nope, it was my second baby

11. Did you get any outfits you wouldn't use?
Not that I remember

12. How much weight did you gain?
I think 29 total

13. Did you get stretch marks?
Of course, but not as many as with Cole

14. Did you crave anything crazy?
Cereal, Trix to be exact. Hot fudge.

15. Who or what got on your nerves the most?
Don't remember

16. Where were you when you went into labor?
I was lucky and induced again! I loved it...

17. Did you have any complications?
I was put on oxygen because she was having "lates" (her hb dropped AFTER contractions) and they had to use forceps because my tail bone is curved too much.

18. Did your water Break?
My Dr. broke it

19. Who drove you to the hospital.
Kevin

20. Did you go early or late?
I was induced at 39 weeks exactly

21. Who was in the room?
Just Kevin and I all day this time until after she was born

22. Did you video tape it?
After she was born

23. Did you have any pain medication?
In Brandies words "Hells Yeah!"

24. Did you have a C-section or natural?
I think the correct term is Vaginal. lol

25. What was your reaction to the birth?
It was great, this time around I wasn't so nervous because I knew what to expect. It is such a miracle.

26. How big was the baby?
7 lbs 9 oz, 19 1/2"

27. What is the baby's full name?
Hallie Dawn Hansen (chosen all by her daddy)

28. Did your husband cry?
He was "teary eyed"

29. When is the next one coming?
we will see

30. If you could, would you do it again?
Of course.

ephraim with grace

In November we had a wonderful getaway to Ephraim! Grace came with us this time which was great. The day we got there we dropped the kids off to Katie and headed to the Manti temple to do a session. While there we got to take a look at the amazing spiral stair case! I can not believe those people were able to build such a beautiful place with such limited resources. It truly is so amazing.

We all had a great time eating out, playing cards, shooting guns and Kevin even took us wheeling up the mountain in Grace's truck. He took us to the area where Keith shot his elk and showed us everything.

Thanks Grace for coming with us and for providing us all a great place to get away!

Cole thought it was great there was snow up there, and snuck up on Kevin to throw it at him. Cole was laughing so hard.

hawaii

Hawaii....

Um, I wish. Jamie and Mark are the lucky ones who went, not us.

But we got to go stay at their house with the kids for a whole week while Jamie and Mark were gone. Now I will be honest, I was really nervous how hard it was going to be watching 6 kids (including mine) and not being home.

Once again though I was wrong, it was so easy and fun! Jamie's kids are great, do what you ask and honestly Cole had so much fun playing with them all the time. I will say Jamie must spend many hours in the car driving her kids where they need to be. Boy is it busy!

We rarely saw the boys cause they were either at school, scouts or hunting with my parents.
I am sad to say I didn't get one picture of them.

I did however get quite a few of the girls when we went to Kangaroo Zoo. It is a huge warehouse filled with blow up slides. Cole and the girls had so much fun, so did Kevin and I!

We decided to go home for a few nights when the girls were out of school so Kevin didn't have to drive so far to work. We watched movies and had popcorn. Macie was the winner, she stayed up watching movies until 1:30 AM!

More shockingly, I let a dog sleep in my house! Yup. I just couldn't make poor shivering Boston stay out in garage, it was so cold.

Cole and Macie making ice cream with their play dough

ChRisTmAs cArDS

Merry Glee Christmas 5x7 folded card

Personalize your Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

h2

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ChRisTmAs cArDS

I am trying to figure out what Christmas Card to do this year...

I can't wait to get my kids pictures back so I can start putting them together.

I am going to use Shutterfly this year to make our Christmas cards. They have awesome quality prints and a great turn around time. My only propblem is I hate choosing because they have SO many options to choose from. Also they offer different kinds of cards besides just the flat post card option.

These are my top three christmas photo card choices for now, what do you think?


I Love Shutterfly! They do an amazing job with all their products, have numerous options, lots of promotions (including this one; if you have a blog of your own check it out by Dec. 10th for 50, yes 50, FREE photo cards!) and items for Christmas gifts to make that you'd never think of. I am thinking once I get the kids pictures back I may end up making a few more gifts with the pictures through Shutterfly. I really like the mouse pads, playing cards and puzzles.

I made a few photo books for presents this year and also I finally finished and just received (within 7 days) Hallie's birth book! I think it turned out great. You can check it out below to see what you think... (K sorry for some reason the one below isn't working so now its above)

(The words Shutterfly, cards, gifts and photo books will link you directly to their site so you can see how to make these items too!)

Click here to view this photo book larger