Outnumbered

Kiara and I are officially outnumbered. We are having another boy. That makes it 4 boys to 2 girls, a clear majority. O well, we are still prettier than them! I am getting even more thankful for our big backyard since now we will have 3 boys running and climbing and jumping and tumbling all over the place.

We were actually very surprised since I haven't been sick and seem to be carrying lower than the other boys. But I guess this baby just needed to be different and I don't miss the throwing up that I had all 9 months with the other two boys! The ultrasound was good. The tech was very thorough and checked everything out. Our little boy wasn't very cooperative moving all around, but he looks healthy and is obviously strong as he ran from the ultrasound over and over again.

Kiara is very disappointed. She was in tears for a while when we told her, but I'm glad we told her now as opposed to her finding out in a couple of months. We will have to work on doing special girl things since it doesn't look like she is going to get a sister. I'm glad Stephanie, my sister, is close by and likes to do girly things with her too. Shane says we can try again for another girl, but that also opens up the chance for another boy so I think I'm okay with being done at least for the moment.

And... my due date didn't change. HOORAY!!! I am officially due on February 18, 2009 which means I made it to 20 weeks!! Only 20 more to go. Luckily those weeks will be filled with holidays to keep me busy. Now we just have to figure out a boy name. Good thing we still have 20 weeks, it just might take us that long to agree on a boy's name.

A new baby, but when?

We are expecting baby #4!! The only problem is we aren't sure when this baby is going to come. At my first appointment I was due December 27, then February 8 and now they tell me I'm due February 18. I seem to be stuck at about 17 weeks and can't seem to get any further. My frustrations are growing with each appointment since every time I go they tell me I am 17 or 18 weeks and expect me to be all excited that I'm almost halfway. Funnily enough, I'm not excited about still being 18 weeks after my third appointment.

Regardless of this frustration, the baby seems to be growing well. They have been able to hear the heartbeat without any problems at all my appointments and it is always strong. I am scheduled for an ultrasound on Wednesday to hopefully clear up the date issue and find out if we are having a girl or a boy. Let's just hope I'm not suddenly due in March now!

The kids are excited too, but divided on whether they want a girl or a boy. Kiara is all for a baby sister, but Aidan wants another brother. He says he already has enough sisters. Kiara, of course, is done with brothers and has vowed to stay in her room "FOREVER" if it is a boy. I would love to have a girl to even things up and Shane wants a girl too. Plus, we have absolutely no idea what to name the baby if it is a boy!!

I keep telling myself 4 can't be any more crazy than 3. Let's just hope I'm right!

Cheerleader!!

Kiara is officially a mini Pima cheerleader now. The PHS cheerleaders had a mini cheer camp over a couple of Saturdays and last Thursday they got to perform at the Varsity football game. It was so dang cute. Kiara was really excited to go. The best part was that they were selling their old uniforms. Kiara looked so cute that I just had to give in any buy it. (at least now I already have Halloween taken care of for her) The pictures turned out pretty stinky, but trust me she was cute!

I don't think my brother was too thrilled about her cheering for Pima after he played football for Thatcher for 3 years, but o well. I guess my loyalities to Thatcher have faded as well because I am all for blue and gold now (NAU is blue and gold too)!

Hooray for husbands!!

Shane just got back from spending 2 weeks in Utah for work. After 2 weeks of being a single parent and having to take out my own trash and feed the animals and put the kids to bed and about a million other things he usually does, it was wonderful to have him home.

We drove down to Tucson to pick him up from the airport and when we drove up and he was there my heart did a little flip-flop just like it used to when we first started dating. I guess even after 7+ years of being together he can still make my heart skip a beat. I threw the car into park and leaped out of the car to get my first kiss in 2 weeks. And then another one. It was wonderful just to hold his hand as we drove home.

The kids were also excited to see him. Aidan had gotten in big trouble just before Shane left and had told Shane he didn't like him anymore. When Shane called Aidan started telling him that he liked him again and when we picked up Shane, Aidan had to tell him over and over again that he liked his daddy again. All weekend Shane hasn't been able to sit by himself for longer than 5 minutes without a kid coming to sit on his lap or his wife needing a hug. I hope he got the message that we missed him because we really did!!

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!