First Days

The first days of school have now officially come and gone. Kiara's first day was actually 2 weeks ago, but those 2 weeks have been spent trying to fix our computer and then trying to fix our internet. Fun, let me tell you!

Kiara is in first grade now, in Mrs. Kempton's class. Mrs. Kempton's class is Kempton's Kingdom and she even has a castle in her classroom that the kids can play in and work on the computer in and read on. It is very fun. Kiara has been walking to and from school and feels very grown up. It makes things much easier for me. It is nice living so close to the school that I don't have to worry about her doing that. She has homework every night but Fridays and is actually loving it. We will see how long that lasts! Here is a picture of her on her first day in the outfit she picked out herself. Elizabeth made the headband for her while we were in Utah.

Aidan started preschool today with Mrs. Bryce and Mrs. Thygerson. I am very excited for him to go and be able to socialize with other kids his age. I thought he would be nervous but he just jumped out of the car and ran right in. Of course I then promptly started tearing up and had to call Shane to cry to him. Rowan was very sad his last buddy was gone too. Here is a picture of Aidan after he got done with his first day. You can see just how happy he is. What you can't see is his sad mommy taking the picture.

Rowan is very distressed that everyone keeps leaving him. He cries almost every morning when Kiara leaves for school and today he cried almost the whole way home after we dropped off Aidan. Apparently I just don't cut it as a play buddy. I am not nearly as cool as his brother and sister. I am glad that they are all so close though. I thought they were driving each other crazy all summer, but I guess they liked it more than I thought.

In other Hansen news, Shane is gone for 2 weeks back to Salt Lake to run more test work up there. He has only been gone a few days and we are all already feeling it. Aidan ended up in my bed last night and the night before Rowan cried most of the night. I have a feeling I am going to be very sleep deprived by the time he gets back. We are close to finishing our fence. If Shane ever gets a free weekend it will be done and I can let the kids free to run and run! Whoo hoo!!

Pictures

Some Utah pictures and other pictures. I finally got off my lazy bum and uploaded them. Apparently the lazy days of summer have captured me in their grasp. I am the laziest bum I know these past few weeks. School starts in a week and a half and I will be back to not so lazy, hopefully, for my family's sake!

Rowan driving the car. He got in with the big kids and went straight for the driver's seat!

Josiah, Elizabeth's baby. A very smiley boy.

Cousins at the picnic. Front: Audrey's Shay and Wade, Kiara, Elizabeth's Avery. Back: Daphne's Brad, Audrey's Dane and Aidan.

Aidan doing a dinosaur dance in front of the triceratops head.

Shane and Rowan with the triceratops skull. You can see just how big it really is.

Rowan just being cute at the picnic.

Utah

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Things got a little crazy really fast. Shane came home about the middle of June and said that his work might send him to Utah for some training/testwork in Salt Lake for about a month. Then he came home and said they were going to send him for 2 weeks, but probably not until August. Then he came home about a week later and said they wanted him for 2 weeks and could he be there on June 30? So we made the quick decision for all of us to go so the kids and I could visit my sister Elizabeth who lives in Provo. He managed to convince Freeport to give him a rental car even though he drove up there and off we went. We stopped in Phoenix for a Hazmat refresher class he already had scheduled the Friday before and headed to Utah on Saturday. We made it up there without incident (except a few crying kids) and got Shane settled in his hotel room/studio apartment. Because it was an extended stay place it had a full size fridge, a stove, microwave and dishwasher. (I don't even have a dishwasher at home!!)

Sunday the kids and I went to Provo and went to church with Elizabeth and Andrew. We had a fun week with Elizabeth and her kids, Avery and Josiah. I hadn't got to see her baby, Josiah, yet so it was fun to see him. He is already 4 months old and thinks he is way bigger. He liked to put his little bum in the air like an inchworm and push himself forward.

For the 4th of July their neighborhood has a big shindig on the 3rd. They rope off a street and have a real block party. It was a lot of fun with a BBQ, music, dancing, fireworks and the "Rocket Chick," a crazy lady who dresses in a fireproof suit and rides her bike up and down the street with fireworks taped to her back and to her helmet. The kids really got a kick out of that. It would have been a great night except for my runaway son. Aidan rode off on his bike to the other end of the street looking for Elizabeth, but didn't find her and kept going. We found him about 20 minutes later 6 blocks away. It was the worst feeling I have ever had in my life. Thank goodness we found him safe and sound. In retrospect, I cannot believe that he would be the one to get lost. He is such a momma's boy and I never thought he would cross the street by himself. I won't make that mistake again! I didn't let go of him for the rest of the night and he was rather content to just stay on my lap.

Because we were in Utah we got to buy and set off our own fireworks. Shane came down from Salt Lake for the 4th and we had fun with the fireworks. We went to Pleasant Grove, where my aunt Audrey lives, to see their show and got to be pretty close. None of the kids, even Josiah, were scared of the booms and they all had fun.

While we were there we got to go see the triceratops (yep the dinosaur) that Andrew is working on putting together from fossils found in Montana. They had the whole skull together and it was really neat to be able to see actual fossils so close up. He gets to put them together and create bones that may be missing. We also went to dinosaur museum at BYU and the Bean Museum at BYU which has lots of dead stuffed animals that kids love. We spent lots of time at the park and at Target (of course!!) We also went on picnics, to the duck pond and to puppet shows at the library.

It was a great trip! It was so fun to see Elizabeth and actually get to hang out without having to worry about leaving so soon. I think Shane had a good time in Salt Lake. He got to walk around downtown by the temple every night and go out to eat with his corporate card. Freeport is even going to pay for our miles to and from Salt Lake. It was a really good deal for us. We only had to pay for food for me and the kids, which we would have had to pay for at home in Pima.

I will post pictures once I find my camera which is lost in some random bag. School will start in just a few weeks so now we need to get ready for that, whoo hoo, first grade and preschool here we come!

T-ball dance, lost teeth, swim lessons and macaroni

That about sums up our last week in a few words. Aidan has been enjoying T-ball very much. The rest of us are also enjoying it because he is really hilarious. His dance when he gets to each base is the funniest thing on the field. Today we even had the other team talking about number 8 and his dance. Here is a video I took on my camera of his dance. I hope it works. It really is just hilarious. He is just so excited to be there on the base and so he just has to dance.


We started swim lessons this week. Aidan is very excited to get to be in the big pool. I think the lifeguards like him. Both days we have gone, he has had the lifeguard working with him laughing the entire time. He does a dance after he puts his head under the water, after he swims to the rope, just any time he can. I think he is telling her funny things too because he told me that he was making her laugh. Kiara is doing well in swim lessons too. She was floating on her back all by herself yesterday.

Kiara lost 2 teeth this last week. She was putting something away in the fridge and came to tell me that she had lost a tooth. I was checking it out and she had lost 2! The other one was still in the fridge when we went to look for it. The tooth fairy was slow on the job, but she finally made it and even left a tooth fairy note. Of course, Shane has decided that she is a bit rednecky because of her new smile. He has been calling her all sorts of lovely names like snaggle tooth and redneck princess. Rowan decided that he would find a new place for the leftover macaroni on his tray yesterday morning. He thought the best place for it would be in his nose. All of the sudden I look over and he is grabbing at his nose and making weird noises. I looked at his tray and saw another macaroni and I realized right away that he must have a macaroni up his nose. I jumped up and was trying to figure out what to do when he started sneezing. After about 4 or 5 sneezes it came shooting out. Thank goodness!! No more leftover macaroni for Rowan! It seems like my kids are getting progressively better at getting into trouble. I don't remember either of the other ones doing crazy things like him. I think he just wants to make sure I stay on my toes and never think I have this mom thing figured out.

First T-Ball Game

So, I'm supposed to be working, but there are no jobs, so I thought I would quickly put on a post about Aidan's first T ball game. It was hilarious, to say the very least. We got there and had to change into his neon green shirt and put on his hat. He refused to let me put his hat on straight, he had to have it pushed a little sideways. Then when he got up to bat, he did really good hitting the ball, but then got "lost" on his way to first base. (That is what he told me afterwards). It looked like he decided halfway there that he needed to go get the ball instead. He successfully got there, eventually. Then as he ran the rest of the bases he had to skip every few steps. While on the base waiting for the next hit, he danced and spun his hat around on his head. He also entertained with various dances while in the field. I'm not even sure he knew the other team was batting. He definitely had fun and we had fun watching him. Aaron decided he couldn't claim him, but I thought he was great and totally Aidan, having fun and being happy no matter what!

Sorry for no pictures, I just got a job. Better go make some money. I will post pictures soon!

Dance Recital

Kiara had her spring dance recital this past Saturday. She did really well. They danced to a song from Lilo and Stitch and then to Jukebox Boogie. She had a lot of fun. I can't believe she has been dancing for 3 years now. It was fun to see her in a bigger class and not the littlest class anymore. She did really well and was one that everyone was looking at to see what to do. She is so funny though because she is concentrating so hard that she forgets to smile.
Kiara is on the far right and the girl next to her is her friend, Cheyenne.

I keep feeling really old the bigger Kiara gets and the more things she does (It probably doesn't help that Shane feels it is his personal duty to point out how close to 30 I am getting). Today she is going on a field trip to the Safford Pool and was so excited. She had her kindergarten program on Monday where they talked about all the things that they had learned. She really has learned so much this year in kindergarten. She can now draw pictures and then write a whole sentence telling what the picture is about. She can read simple books and tells me all the time what things say that I can't believe she knows. She was really blessed to have a great teacher, Mrs. Thygerson who was so patient with her socialness. She was also lucky to have found some good friends. One of her friends, Cheyenne's mom took over as the kindergarten aide in January and she has been wonderful too. Cheyenne and Kiara have had fun going to each other's houses after school and having tea parties and the other day they were even skateboarding. They are even in the same dance class. I'm glad she has found such a good friend.

In other Pima news, Aidan started T-ball. He has to work on running the bases without holding hands, but otherwise is doing well. He can hit the ball really well and was even catching the ball at his last practice. Rowan is doing well too. I can't seem to keep him out of anything. He climbs on the table, on the top of the couch and anything else he can. It is hard to believe that he isn't even 18 months old yet. 2 more weeks and nursery here we come!!

I have been working hard on a little yearbook for Kiara's class. Her teacher gave me copies of all their pictures from the year and I put together some scrapbook-like pages on the computer to make a book. It turned out really good. I hope all the kids will like it. Shane has been working evenings for the past few weeks trying to get a project done. The equipment he needs is only available in the afternoons/evenings so he has to go in then. It has been a nice change to have him home in the mornings for a little bit. I think he likes the lunches I send with him better than the ones he throws together when he leaves at 5:30 in the morning.

Happy Birthday to Aidan McQueen the Car

Aidan's 4th birthday was last week on Thursday. I think he had a good day. We had grandmas and grandpas over and had cake and more importantly presents. He was very excited to get a Thomas the train hat, Thomas toys, Cars sheets and some dollars. I made him a Thomas cake as requested and it turned out pretty good. Lucky for me that cupcakes make perfect wheels seeing as how I keep having to make things that go for Aidan's birthday cakes.

Some thoughts about Aidan: He is my little buddy. We have gotten to hang out together a lot since Kiara has started going to school and various other things. It has been fun to go to the store with him and watch Thomas movies and play Thomas or Lightning McQueen in the window. He is completely a boy. He loves trains, cars, tractors and anything that is big and can knock stuff over. He has decided that his name is not just Aidan Shane, but Aidan McQueen the Car Shane Hansen. In fact if you ask him his name that is what he will tell you. I can't wait for him to learn to write all of that name! He has been the quiet one in our house for a long time. He also is wonderful in Primary. His teacher always is impressed with how reverent he can be. At home he may be quiet, but he is the one who is going to get into something. He doesn't ask me to get him something, especially if he thinks I will say no, he just gets a stool or a box or both and gets whatever he has his little heart set on. I always get nervous if I haven't seen him for a little while. He is getting ready to start teeball and swimming lessons and will start preschool in the fall. What a guy!