May Mayhem

First, let me start by saying we are THRILLED to be beyond busy and in somewhat of a crazy state these days. Why? Well, we found out last Tuesday that the house we put an offer in on and then found out is a short sale IS going to be ours. So in just a few short 3 weeks, we will be closing and moving into a new house. So what have we been up to lately? - Aunt Stephie and Uncle Jon came to visit last weekend, along with Mammie and Papa. What a great time we all had. When Lauren saw Aunt Stephie at the airport she went running down the hallway to give her a huge hug. It was so cute Steph and I both had tears in our eyes. The only thing I regret is we didn't get a photo of Aunt Stephie and Uncle Jon with the girls. Aunt Stephie was the co-coordinator of an event sponsored by The Junior League of Chicago, called A Family Affair. It was a fundraiser and carnival of sorts for young children. The girls had a blast! Great work, Aunt Stephie. Annie really enjoyed dancing to Jeannie B and Lauren was able to take part in so many art activities she didn't know what to do next.

In the evening we went over to Mammie and Papa's hotel room and Geoff, Mammie and the girls enjoyed the swimming pool. The ham inspired dinner buffet provided by Mammie was delicious and enjoyed by all.

- When I was at the doctor's office for my 26 week check up last week, I had my glucose test for gestational diabetes and quickly found out the following day, I failed. Probably didn't help that Wednesday happened to be teacher appreciation day, so I enjoyed plenty of cookies and bagels before taking that test later in the day. I have to take another test coming Wednesday, which means another day off from work. - I realized today I have just over three more weeks to my current teaching career. The current 8th grade class graduates on May 30th and then school is out for the remaining students and teachers June 5th. With so many other events happening in my life right now, I haven't even really had a chance to reflect on how I feel about this "end". - Today I had the opportunity to help host a baby shower for my friend Laura. We have been friends since working on a Science Olympiad project in 8th grade. I bet neither one of us thought we would still be friends 20 years later and both pregnant and expecting pretty much around the same time. Laura is due 3 week ahead of me. How exciting for all of us! The shower was just perfect and it seemed like everyone really enjoyed themselves. Kelly hosted at her house and had everything decorated so beautifully. Sara found the most delicious and colorfully decorated cupcakes and did a great job of averting a possible soup disaster. Lisa created such cute, little owl ornaments as favors for all the guests and Clara and Kim, as well as Kelly, Lisa, and Sara helped prepare some of the scrumptious food. Great work ladies! - Lauren took a swim test last Friday and was moved up to the next level. She is now a Little 2. Her new classes start Monday. Can't wait to see what skills she will learn now.

- Annie's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. She is still very interested in Elmo, or Ello as she says. She also figured out how to nod her head yes and usually does it appropriately. No is one of her current favorite words and she insists upon walking down the stairs now by herself. After her somersault incident on our outside steps a few weeks ago, I make sure she holds my hand when walking down those steps even though she really doesn't want to.

- Geoff and I just determined we will only be together 6 of the next 14 days. He has plenty of travel and a little golf weekend planned and I will be traveling back to Michigan with the girls for a bridal shower for my cousin-to-be. Even though we are looking forward to all these events, being a part and not together as a family will be tricky. Not to mention, we have an entire house to box up and move very, very soon. What can we say, the Hansons love staying busy! - Thank goodness for Geoff taking care of all the mortgage and house logistics the past few weeks. He did a great job of working with our lawyer, realtors, and mortgage broker to coordinate everything. Thanks Geoff for taking care of all the business aspects! While we wait for the appraisal to come through, I will work on coordinating movers, cleaners, and a lock smith. - Thanks to all our friends who have not only offered to help us in so many ways during the next few weeks, but have already given us so much emotional support! Susan came up, let us borrow some of her boxes and helped me pack boxes while the kids played last week. We wouldn't be able to do any of this without your help. - As you can see, we are in the middle of May Mayhem and are loving every moment of it! Wish us luck on all our new adventures. - Here's a little shout out to my friend, Stef who encouraged me to figure out the photos on this new computer and get a new post up! It was great seeing you Saturday.

PInkalicious Perfection

Last weekend Lauren and I had the opportunity to see Pinkalicious the Musical AGAIN! Thanks, Mammie. This time we were able to see the show at the Grand Rapids Civic Theater with Mammie and our friends Sara, Kaitlynn, Addyson, and Alyse. The show was fabulous and I must say, much better than the show in Chicago last fall. Maybe just because it was a bit more child friendly, but I even found myself laughing out loud numerous times. I'm pretty sure the musical closes this weekend, but if you are in Grand Rapids and have a chance, I highly recommend this show. Watch out for the delicious pink cupcakes they sell at intermission though. Although they were very tasty, I've never seen Lauren on such a sugar high in my life.

Saturday morning before we left for the show, Papa and Mammie surprised Lauren with a Pinkalicious bike! Check out her face as she looks at the bike, shocked that it's for her.

Even Annie was excited to show everyone Lauren's new bike.

After a bit of bike riding, we took the girls to the neighbor's "park" (Lauren's name for it) next door. Annie sure loved the tire swing.

Mammie, Lauren, Mommy, Pinkalicious, and the new bike ready to leave for the show. Pinkalicious did come with us to dinner and the show, but the bike stayed in the garage. Annie stayed with Papa and kept him company while watching the Tigers.

The girls were so excited to see the show together.

Lauren and Mommy

Back Up and Running!

Thank goodness for a very helpful computer technician at my school, our computer is back up and running!

Here's a little Hanson update...


Grandma Hanson taught Lauren this song for Easter. The whole family was singing it for a few weeks!

Annie's vocabulary has been increasing like crazy! She loves the phrases, "Ut oh" and "thank you." She is trying to master saying Elmo too, but it sounds more like "Melmo."

We did find out yesterday that Annie is allergic to nuts, eggs, and dogs. I'm really glad we figured that out, but now we will have to be extra careful when preparing her meals. I guess if we stick to hot dogs and watermelon, her favorites, we are all set!

She also LOVES having books read to her. It doesn't matter if it's Lauren, Geoff, or me that is reading to her, if she can find a lap to sit on, she will bring a book over, turn around, take a few steps backward, back right up, sit on one of our laps and wait patiently until we read to her.

That's all for now, but hopefully I will be able to update more often now.

California Trip

We had such a fabulous time visiting with Steph and Jon in Cali last week. We did everything from walking along the beach, to eating delicious meals, biking, having an enjoyable fire on the beach, shopping, and we even had a chance to see The Hunger Games. Not only were all our activities perfect, but it was just wonderful spending time together again. They live in such a beautiful area and really seem to know their way around and the best places to eat!


Geoff and I at the end of the Newport Beach Penisula. Such a beautiful view with the harbor in the background.


Steph and I with a perfect view of the ocean and cliffs. While we were enjoying our drinks and appetizers I just couldn't stop talking about the beautiful cliffs, so we had to get a photo.


On our last day Geoff and I took a trip to The Nixon Presidental Museum and of course Geoff had to recreate that famous pose!

A HUGE thanks goes out to Steph and Jon for hosting us for several days and just giving us a break from reality. And of course none of this would have been possible without such supportive and helpful parents. Thanks Mammie and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa Hanson for watching our girls and showing them such a special time too!

Two Lessons Learned

Lesson #1 - Back up all computer data at least once a week! We have not been doing this and it came back to bite us BIG time last week when our hard drive crashed. Not sure how/if we can get all our documents, photos, music, videos back but we're working on it. BACK UP ALL YOUR FILES REGULARLY!

Lesson #2 - Three year olds are much more observant than I realized. A few weeks ago we were walking up the steps to go to bed and Lauren said, "Mommy it looks like you have a baby in your belly." At the time I wasn't ready to sit her down and tell her I really do have a baby in my belly, but I couldn't believe she would notice and comprehend something like that. That got us thinking though, we really should let her in on this development. We were going to wait until we found out the sex of the baby, but then we decided we are NOT going to find out, so there went that idea. One night last week Annie was in a bed a bit early so that left Geoff, Lauren, and myself playing a game of Memory. We decided this was the time to tell Lauren. Needless to say she was very excited and wanted to touch my belly right away. And now she has one of two babies in her belly also - either Thomas or Sally depending upon the day. Sometimes they come in and out of her belly, but she usually has one of them in there. Oh and if my baby is a boy she wants to name him Thomas, but if it's a girl she wants to name her Lauren.

March Madness

We are ready for March Madness at our house. Not only does Lauren enjoy watching Michigan basketball with us, she now wants to know when the games are. The other day she woke up and asked me if Michigan is playing today. She insists on wearing her cheerleader outfit and cheering with poms poms too.



I brought the girls to a local nature museum last Friday. They loved watching the butterflies, especially when they were so close to them like this little black one in this photo. Lauren was trying to use the chart to teach Annie which butterfly it was. All Annie wanted to do was touch the poor little guy.



Even though Annie does not like it when men wear hats, she LOVES wearing them herself. She tries so hard to put them on her head herself, but when that doesn't work she will walk over to us with the hats and stand holding the hats up until we put them on her head.

Before we leave for the week, a little bit of "Hail" as Lauren calls it...

Munchkin Update

Lauren started swimming lessons about a month ago. As you can tell she LOVES them.



Getting ready with her goggles. She is doing much better holding her breath when going under water and loves all they games they play during class.



Annie is currently very interested in talking on the phone. Since her first birthday she has enjoyed pretend talking on her toy phones, but recently really started taking and talking on the real phone. Annie's current words are ut oh, duck, Mama, Dada, Lala, and down. She loves making animal noises and is pretty good at pointing out her head, eyes, ears, and nose. Communication at eating times is much easier now too because Annie is able to do the baby signs for eat, all done, please, and more.



Lauren still loves reading books and Annie is becoming more and more interested too. I love that both girls enjoy reading to each other! We have started touring all the libraries in our area on some of my days off.



We finally had some snow last week so I got the girls dressed and Geoff took them outside for a bit. Watching Annie walk around in her snow pants and boots was very entertaining.



Annie did not like the sled at all in the beginning.



Hey, I guess this sled isn't so bad after all.



Lauren and Geoff were so proud of Frosty. He stuck around for about 5 days before melting away.



Annie started using her own spoon this week. She sure enjoys it and this helps meal time last longer, but it's also a bit more messy. :) It's crazy how many things Annie picks up on now. She gets upset if I brush Lauren's hair, but not hers and even goes to get her coat and boots when she realizes we are leaving to go some place.

Even though they don't know it yet, Lauren and Annie are excited to announce there will be another little munchkin joining the Hanson family in early August! Geoff and I are very excited too and have been busy trying to find a new house and a new set of mini van wheels!