First day of SPRING break?

We woke up today, the first day of spring break, to a cloudy sky. I was sad because I had planned on going kite flying this afternoon. Shane texted me from work telling me it was snowing up at his lab (a little way up the mountain). I looked outside and it was just raining here. A little while later I opened the blinds and saw SNOW!!! It was coming down pretty good. We all bundled up and headed out to enjoy it while we could because snow in Pima is a pretty rare thing. What a fun morning!

Aidan

Aidan has been working really hard lately on being good. A couple of weeks ago he somehow ended up with 2 drinks at lunch. Instead of not worrying about it, he went during his recess and got a quarter he had in his desk and took it to the lunch lady and told her it was for his extra drink. She was very impressed with Aidan's honesty and told him thank you.

On Monday Aidan volunteered to give the lesson for family home evening. He spent quite a bit of time writing down what he wanted to say. He even wrote down some things for us to act out about being good examples.

Aidan is also working hard on standing up for himself especially at school where it is scary to do that. He told me yesterday how he told some kids to quit being mean and that even though they told him he was dumb he still did it.

You never know what Aidan will come up with. He is always telling and writing stories, drawing pictures, creating things with legos and just being so creative! He loves, loves, loves video games and is doing very good at turning them off without getting mad when time is up. Then he goes and creates new ideas for video games. Someone told Aidan at school that he will be a famous artist when he grows up. He thought that was a pretty good idea, but also wants to be a writer, a car creator, a teacher and a superhero on the side with awesome ninja powers.

Diaper Changing Dude

On Monday I was rocking the baby to put him to sleep and Logan came and told me he needed a new diaper. I told him to just hold on a minute while I put down the baby and I would change his diaper. I went to lay down Torin and when i came back I found Logan changing his own diaper. He had taken off the old diaper (thank goodness it wasn't stinky!) and was laying on the floor powdering his own bum. He had baby powder all over him and the floor. He even had a new diaper and was trying to scoot it underneath him. I couldn't stop laughing it was such a funny thing to watch. When I went over to help him he told me he could do it himself. Needless to say I did help him eventually. I suppose this must mean he is ready to be potty trained if he is going to change his own diaper. I wonder if Logan would potty train himself too if I just wait long enough!

Torin

I'm starting with our newest baby, Torin. He was born on January 18, 2011, 4 weeks ahead of schedule. I had gone to the bank before my doctor's appointment and started feeling just weird, back hurting and just weird. I didn't think anything of it, I mean I was pregnant, weird stuff happens. After I got to the doctor I had to wait in the lobby for about 30 minutes. I started having contractions and they just kept coming and coming. I mentioned them to the doctor thinking "Oh, it's nothing, this happens to me all the time," but she hooked me up to the monitor just to be sure and then declared me to actually be in labor. Now the problem with this was that 1. I had never gone into labor on my own before (all my other labors were induced), 2. it was 4 weeks early and 3. I was scheduled for a C-section at 39 weeks. So I was against this labor thing. They wheeled me over to the hospital and started me on some IV fluids hoping it would make my labor stop. No luck on that one. The contractions just kept coming and coming. I laid in the bed wishing they would stop while calling first Shane to inform him he was having a baby today, my mom to catch the big kids so they didn't walk home to an empty house and Amber to beg her to keep my little boys since she was already watching them for what I thought was going to just be a doctor's appointment.


About an hour later the doctor came in and said since they weren't stopping they were going to go ahead and do the C-section and we were going to have a new baby today. I was very scared, but the doctor assured me that 4 weeks wasn't really that early and obviously this baby was ready to come or else I wouldn't be in labor. They wheeled me in for the C-section about an hour later and about 3 pm we had our 4th little boy. They let me see him just for an instant and then whisked him away to weigh him and do all that other good new baby stuff. Shane went with him and they sewed me up.


When I got to the recovery room the nurse there informed me that he had started having some trouble breathing, retracting or using extra muscles to breath and his oxygen saturations were really low so they had put him in an oxygen tent to try and help him breathe better. They told me he was fine, but of course I was very scared. I couldn't even go see him because I was still numb from the spinal block and my blood pressure was really really low. Shane went back and forth between me and the baby making sure both of us were okay. The doctor came and talked to us and let us know that if he didn't start doing better he would have to be flown to Tucson.

He didn't even have a name yet because we didn't know before he was born if he was a boy or a girl. I kept trying to wiggle my toes just so they would let me go down to the nursery. I finally got down there about 8 pm in a wheelchair so I could touch my baby finally. I knew he needed a blessing so we called my dad to come help Shane give him a blessing. He came down and we asked him what to do since the baby still didn't have a name. He told us just to call him Baby Hansen and the angels would work it all out up in Heaven. They gave him a blessing and within just a few minutes he was breathing easier. He stayed in the oxygen tent through the night and about 3 am he was finally on room air and doing well. They let him come down and be with us about 4:30 am and I finally got to hold him. We named him Torin Peter Hansen. He did well the rest of his hospital stay and went home with us a few days later.

What a testimony it was to me that Heavenly Father knows us and is aware of us at all times. Heavenly Father knew who my baby is way better than me even though he didn't have a name yet. Little did I know then that Heavenly Father would be looking out for this baby even more in a couple weeks.

back to blogging

So I have decided that I will reenter the blogging world. I miss journaling my family's adventures. So here we go again.

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school. Hooray!! Kiara is already in 2nd grade with Mrs Gonzales and Aidan is starting kindergarten with Ms. Gallegos. They were both very excited this morning. Stephanie even came over to do Kiara's hair before school. I'm glad to have them back at school but kind of sad they are growing up so fast. Things have been pretty quiet around here today.

Pictures (FINALLY) from the camping trip.

Rowan Stephanie and her hurt ankle

Shane and a "super gigante" smore

Avery and Kiara in the stick fort

Aidan in his "office"

Avery and Rowan by the fire

Logan taking a nap by the lake

Kiara and the marshmallow

Aidan and 2 marshmallows at once

The Hansen 6 in our matching Bryce Family Reunion shirts

Rowan and Grandpa fishing at Big Lake

Avery, her dolly Kiley and upside down Minnie Mouse

Rolling Over and Rice Cereal

Well it is official. My baby is growing up... He rolled over from his front to his back all by his self yesterday and then proceeded to try to scoot forward. We also started him on rice cereal this weekend. He thinks that is very fun. He has been trying to grab everyone's food lately and is very glad he has his own now. I'm not sure he thinks it tastes good, but he thinks it is fun to eat. He is such a cute boy and so fun. He likes to talk to everyone and is very generous with his smiles. He likes to be tickled and teased by his sister and brothers, but his mommy gets nervous when they aren't as soft as she thinks they need to be. The longer he is here the better it gets. Hooray for babies and especially baby Logan!

PS I keep updating this at work thus the lack of pictures. I will try to update it at home this week to put on pictures of Logan and the camping trip!

Bryce Family Reunion 2009

The week before 4th of July we spent in Hannagan Meadow with my whole family. All my brothers and sisters were there with their respective spouses and kiddos. We had lots of fun and did our best to stay out of trouble.

On Monday we drove up going through New Mexico. It was a fun drive because Shane had never been that way before so we had fun seeing a new road. The kids did pretty good, even Logan managed to fall asleep after only 15 minutes of crying. We made it to the cabins my mom and dad had rented and all piled out of the car. The kids spent the next 4 days running back and forth from our cabin to my parents.

Here are a few highlights from our big adventure:

The Office: Andrew, Kiara and Avery built a fort out of sticks on Thursday. Aidan was inside and I asked him several times if he wanted to go out and help build the fort. He said no each time. Later that afternoon we were all outside and the girls didn't want Aidan in their fort and he was getting mad and wanting to knock it down. Of course we said he couldn't do that, so instead he walked over by the fire pit and proceeded to move some logs around to make an "office." Later when we went over to check it out he showed us his office complete with rock phone, log email and pine needle staples. After roasting marshmallows that evening his office turned into a resturant that served excellent pizza and ice cream.

Spotlighting: Every night some group of us went spotlighting. On the last night Grandma, Grandpa and Stephanie took all the grandkids (minus Dallen, Josiah and Logan). They had quite the time. Rowan was sitting on Stephanie's lap with his head and torso all the way out the window. Everytime they saw an animal all the kids turned on their flashlights and pointed them towards whatever they were looking at even though their flashlights didn't even reach out of the truck. At one point as they were driving down a road Aidan screamed "I saw something!!" My dad slammed on his brakes and they asked him what he saw. He said "a real piece of wood." So being a good grandpa my dad backed up and they spotlighted this piece of wood. He was very excited about his "real" piece of wood. In addition to the "real" wood they saw elk, baby elk and even a bobcat.

An Officinal Doctor: Aidan was talking to Andrew and informed Andrew that he was an officinal doctor. Andrew asked him if he had gone to school for 8 years. Aidan told him that he had gone to school for 9 years and not only that, but he was going to kindergarten next year! Whoo hoo, my kind of doctor!

Stephanie and the bear: Stephanie, Aaron and Carrie went on an end of the road trip and Stephanie had to get out of the car to clear a piece of wood off the road. Aaron got out to help her and they heard rustling in the woods. When they looked up they saw a bear heading for them. They take off running back to the truck yelling at Carrie to get back in the car. As they are running Stephanie falls and twists her ankle. Luckily they scared the bear just as much as it scared them and everyone made it back safe with only a twisted ankle to show for it.

Super gigante marshmallows: Before leaving for camping we stopped at Bashas to get milk. In there they had "super gigante" marshmallows which were marshmallows 4 or 5 times the size of regular marshmallows. We couldn't pass them up and took some up to the cabin with us. They were a big hit with the kids, though they took a long time to roast. Shane and Andrew even made smores with them ending up with a huge ring of marshmallow all the way around their graham crackers. We also had smores with pink marshmallows and rolos. Carrie even showed us how to put a hershey kiss inside a roasted marshmallow for even more yumminess.

Fishing for "Real" fish: We went fishing at Big Lake on Wednesday. The kids had fun casting into the lake over and over even without hooks. Only Carrie and Aaron caught anything during the day but later that afternoon all the adults minus grandma and grandpa and us went to the river to try again. Everyone managed to catch something on that trip and Andrew even brought his back to the cabin to cook and eat. Aidan tried some and told Andrew it tasted like real fish. I think Andrew was glad to know he didn't catch a fake fish.

Water Fight: When we got home the reunion got to continue since Elizabeth and Andrew came down to Pima too. On Saturday Carrie and Aaron decided we needed to have a water fight. We got out our old baby pool and my mom and Elizabeth got water squirters and water bombs to facilitate this fight. The kids thought this was wonderful. They sat in the pool and squirted their aunts and uncles, grandma and grandpa and mommy! I wasn't planning on being involved, but Aaron kind of dragged me into it. After a while my dad even came out. He grabbed the hose and was "watering the grass" by spraying all of us. Then he masterminded a plan to get my mom. On the count of 3 everyone, including the grandkids, ran and sprayed grandma. Needless to say grandma was very surprised and got completely drenched. After that the chairs on the porch weren't base anymore!

All in all it was an awesome week. We had fun being able to all hang out with no one having to run off to work or other responsibilities. Shane and I were glad we could play games at night and not be the only ones who had to go home to take care of kids. We just stuck all the kids in one side, closed the door and played games on the other side. Thanks to my mom and dad for setting it all up and being such a great mom and dad that we wanted to all get together!!

Aidan's Birthday

This is a catch up post...

Aidan's birthday was also in May. He turned 5 on May 8. I think he had a great day. We put up streamers and decorations the night before and Shane had the awesome idea to put up streamers like a set of railroad tracks. He was very excited when he woke up to train tracks on the living room ceiling. We made him a regular cake because he wanted a drawing of Thomas and James (yes the trains) racing on it. He declared what we came up with "awesome" so that made me glad. During the day he had his friend Rye over to play and they had fun playing Thomas and Star Wars. We had grandmas and grandpas over for cake and ice cream and he was very excited to open his presents. So excited in fact that he just opened and opened and opened without pausing to look or let us see what he got! He was excited to get some coloring books and some more trains, of course.

I am kind of sad to see my little boy turn 5 and know it is time for him to go to kindergarten and leave me. He has been my buddy for so long. He always has wanted to be cuddled and held and wanted to be with me. Lately he has been wanting to be more with daddy and do the fun things daddys get to do like fix the car, work outside and just be manly. He even discovered the joys of peeing outside and takes any opportunity he can to try it out. My little boy is growing up. I am sure he will do great in kindergarten. He always has lots and lots of questions and really enjoyed preschool. I am excited to see where he goes from here. He is the sweetest guy. Happy Birthday Aidan!!

Things I don't want to forget about today

1. Aidan putting on 4 shirts, one on top of the other. He told me he did that so that in the morning all he had to do was take off the top one and then he had on a clean shirt. What a timesaver! Maybe I should try it.

2. Rowan telling me he is a dinosaur at lunch, a rocket ship when he woke up from his nap, a pirate when he was playing with Aidan and a car any time he needed to run somewhere really fast all in the same day. But if you ask him his name, he is Rowan.

3. Logan giggling uncontrollably when I lifted lifted him up on my bed and tickled him in the super cute way only babies can.

4. Kiara finally being the super nice girl I knew was hiding under all the meanness of first grade. I'm glad she hasn't been hanging out with her friends for a few weeks and I got my nice girl back!

The Merry Month of May

May was full of craziness and fun. Kiara had a dance recital, finished 1st grade and got to go swimming at the Safford pool. Aidan finished preschool and made a stunning return as the dancing Tball player. Rowan's finger got better, though it still needs band aids and lots of kisses from time to time. Logan has gotten lots and lots bigger with lots of smiles, giggles and plenty of attention from his big brothers and big sister. Rowan has even decided he likes Logan after all and worries greatly about him when he cries. And just in case you were worried all the crying cars at our house are also comforted by Rowan. He puts them on his shoulder and pats them to help them stop crying.

Aidan is enjoying Tball again and is doing much better at getting to all the bases. He has even joined the throng chasing and then dogpiling on the ball each time it gets hit. Thankfully he is still dancing on the bases making tball that much more enjoyable for us!! Aidan is very excited for kindergarten to start and has us counting down the days.

Kiara is already ready for 2nd grade so she can have a "brother break." As much as she loves Logan she is still convinced she needs a sister as soon as possible.

Our garden is growing humongo and hopefully we will have tomatoes, watermelons and corn galore! In other news, I started working at the hospital in admitting to try and make up for Shane's lack of hours. It is going well and I enjoy it, but I really miss my kiddos and my honey.

That is May in a few lines. Hopefully June will have a better blog, but since it is half over, I'm not holding my breath!

Little boys. . .

I have officially decided that Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he created little boys so strong. We went back to see Dr. Bryce today and he said Rowan's finger looks great, his nail should grow right back and he will more than likely have a totally normal finger after all of this!! I just can't believe it after seeing what it looked like before he sewed it back together. Rowan is doing great running around and moving his finger today after Dr. Bryce replaced his dressing with just a band aid. He said because he is so little the bone should be healed up in just a few weeks and he will be as good as new! It really is a miracle. I'm glad Heavenly Father was looking out for us and our little boy and his finger.

picture from the er

Here is our brave little boy once everything was over. He is all hooked up and his finger is all wrapped up. I'm so glad he is okay! He is so cute, he is saying cheese in this picture!

Who Needs 10 Fingers Anyways?

So on Friday night Rowan was outside with Shane working on the garden. Rowan was playing with Moly (the dog), giving her sticks to chew on. He gave her a stick and somehow his finger got stuck in her mouth as well. She bit down thinking it was just a stick and bit his finger too. The tip of his finger was hanging on by just a little bit. Shane jumped into action and got it all wrapped up and above his head to try to stop the bleeding. He then came in and informed me that we needed to go to the ER and he would probably lose his finger! Needless to say that scared me pretty good. We dropped off the big kids at Ren & Amber's and headed to the ER. The whole way there Rowan kept his hand on his head and I worked really hard to keep him from falling asleep.

At the ER they took x-rays and took us back to check things out. When they took off Shane's wrapping I was shocked to see that his finger was just barely hanging on. They looked at the x-ray and said that the bone was broken at the very tip as well so they called the orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Rex Bryce, to come in to check it out. He came in and reset the bone and sewed it all up and then wrapped his finger up really good to keep Rowan from moving it. I was surprised at how calmly he just sewed it back on like it was nothing. (He actually said he had just done a similiar procedure that morning).

Rowan was a trooper through the whole ordeal. Once Dr. Bryce told him the big light was a flashlight Rowan even smiled and helped him unwrap his finger. They gave him some medicine to make him sleepy while they sewed it up and he just did really really good! We will see on Wednesday when Dr. Bryce changes the dressing how his finger looks.

I guess with 3 boys I better get used to the ER. I was thinking how lucky we actually were that this was our first trip to the ER for an actual injury, but I have a feeling it won't be our last!!

Birthday Girl

Kiara turned 7 last Friday. I can't believe it has already been 7 years since she changed our lives completely! I think she had a pretty good day. Shane was off and so he surprised her at school by going to lunch with her. She had a good time showing off her daddy to all her friends and then showing Shane her "cool tricks" on the monkey bars. Then I went to school to bring cookies for her class. That evening we had cake and ice cream with our family. My parents and Shane's mom came along with my grandparents and Aaron and Carrie. She was excited to open presents and blow out her candles. It was a fun party. She got lots of Hannah Montana stuff including Hannah Montana boots and a new CD. We are planning on going with Rebekah and her girls to the Hannah Montana movie on Saturday. (O the excitement!!)

Rowan and Kiara and the cake.

The cake didn't get to be as fancy as I planned since I got stung by a scorpion that afternoon and had to frost it with my left hand!

Rowan & Grandpa Clarence being pirates. Rowan ran around the whole party with his "telescope" saying "argh I'm a pirate". Occasionally he would also be a tractor.

My mom and Logan. I think this is the most she has gotten to hold him since she has always been on big kid duty since he has been here. I was glad she finally got some time to hold him though I don't think she is impressed that Shane took her picture.

Kiara, Aidan, Grandma Taffie and the new CD. If you notice the cereal box that isn't one of her presents, I wrapped her CD in the cereal box so she wouldn't know what it was. She was not impressed when she unwrapped it. She didn't want cereal for her birthday.Kiara really is a great girl. She is a super reader, a great helper, a daddy's girl through and through. I'm so glad she is part of our family though she can make me crazy at times. I don't what I would do if I had all boys. She has been through so much I am just thankful everyday that she is a normal little girl without all the problems she could have had. She also makes me so thankful for the temple and forever families. I feel so blessed to know that no matter what, she will be ours forever and ever!

Blessing Day

This last Sunday was Logan's blessing day. We were super lucky to have almost all his grandparents there. Shane's dad and stepmom came up from Phoenix and Shane's mom came too. My parents and both sets of grandparents were there as well. It was really neat to have so many people come to support us. That is one of my favorite things about living here so close to family. Shane did a great job. I'm glad that is his job, I think I would be way to0 nervous. It was neat to have my dad, both my brothers and both my grandpas in the circle along with my husband. It was also nice that my uncles who live in town came too. We did miss Elizabeth and Andrew though in Utah. Afterwards we went to my parents house for dinner and a "party" according to my children. Anytime we have dinner at my parents it is a party! All in all it was a good day. I can't believe I have 4 kids and that there is enough room in my heart for all of them. It seems like Logan has always been here and we sure are glad he is here now!
Grandpa Kelly and Grandma Dar (Shane's dad & stepmom)

Logan in his prepoop outfit. (He managed to poop all over this and me just minutes before we left for church!! Ahh the joys of a newborn!)

Rowan

Kiara, Aidan & Rowan

We couldn't get one of all of them together.

Rowan wouldn't cooperate once we put Logan in the picture.

Aidan

Garden

My wonderful husband has planted a garden this year. I cannot take any credit for it at all, except I helped pick out what to plant and I planted some seeds. Other than that, it is all Shane. He built a square foot gardening box out of spare fence building boards and then we put some black stuff down to prevent weeds from coming up. After that we filled it with good soil from the store since ours is pretty worthless. We planted corn, green onions, watermelons, bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots and pumpkins. It is so exciting to see the little tiny green plants come up. Shane is so good about watering it every day and the kids love to help him. I can't wait until we have fresh veggies to eat and can! We can make fresh salsa and have corn on the cob and watermelon!! Can you tell I'm excited? We have also planted 2 apple trees. It feels so good to make this house our own in so many ways. I love having a garden, planting trees, letting the kids run in the backyard. It makes this being a grown up stuff worth it!

You can also see my pretty fence in these pictures that my dear sweet man worked so hard to put up. Hooray for gardens and sweet honeys!

1 Month Appointment

We just got back from Logan's 1 month appointment and he is doing great. He is up to 9 pounds, 14 oz. That is 2 pounds in just 3 weeks. I am excited he is growing so well and getting so big. The doctor said everything else looked really well too. He is holding up his head pretty good and looking around. It is so fun to see him really look at us and recognize us. Aidan and Kiara want him to play with his toys and laugh at their funniness. They just don't believe me that it will still be a little bit. I am just glad they love him so much.

Logan 1 month.

and a bonus picture of Aidan doing what he loves best!

4 is better than 3?

I have to say that even though lots and lots of people told me 4 was easier than 3, I was not a believer until now. After my third baby it felt like life fell apart. We were outnumbered and I was completely outnumbered when Shane was at work. Four has definitely been easier (at least so far). I have one in school all the time and one in preschool 2 days a week which has helped. It has also been a blessing that Logan eats so darn good. Even with having a C-section things have just been easier. Hooray for that.

Everyone is doing really well. Kiara and Aidan have been super helpers, getting diapers, holding Logan so I can actually go to the bathroom now and then, and trying their hardest to get a one month old to laugh. Rowan has decided that the baby just doesn't exist. He doesn't want to talk to Logan or hold him or anything. Right now I have decided that is totally fine since Rowan picked up a cough somewhere. The only time he acknowledges the baby is when I am holding Logan and Rowan wants to be held. Then he tells me quite clearly to "put the baby down." Obviously, we still have some work to do there : )

I have been feeling good. My tummy is still pretty sore, but I have been able to get back to doing everything I need to do without too much trouble. I am enjoying being able to wear pants without elastic and my bed being so much more comfortable than it was just a month or so ago.

Logan is eating and pooping and sleeping just like a good little baby should. He gets gassy if I eat anything remotely spicy or gassy, but we have managed to work it out. Mexican food and me will just have to break up for a little bit. Don't worry though, we will reunite again someday soon (at least for my birthday). Logan seems really big to me even though he is just a month old. We will see on Friday just how much he has grown.

The one downside to all of this is that now I have this nagging thought that if 4 isn't so bad, why not try for one more girl. . . .

PS I will post more pictures after his doctor's appointment on Friday.