June Catch-Up: Sean and Preschool

Time for some major catching up! This summer has been so wild and crazy I've just barely taken a breath from it all. And I am completely overwhelmed at the thought of catching up. I'd much rather just skip to the present - but I know in the future I will wonder why I didn't take the time to do it right. So here goes.

Can't believe these pictures were from just a few months ago. It now seems like a lifetime ago. Sean has already grown so much over the summer and now he will be a big second year preschooler in just a couple more weeks.

Sean's preschool program at Ferris. The theme this year was, "Little Patriots." As you can see he is pretty proud to show off his American flag.

I was so worried about him being a pickle up on stage - but he actually did rather well. He even sang the songs (much better than his previous siblings did). He was happy to walk to center stage and receive his certificate.

So far it has worked out that Chris and been able to leave his classroom and see the program. It is great having them both at Ferris.

My mum makes several visits to Spokane each year, but this was her first time to attend a preschool program. Sean loves his nanny!!!

I always go to the last couple of days of preschool to watch them have their play days. Sean had been waiting all year for me to come to his classroom. He knew that I went to Chad's and Halle's classrooms to help all during the school year and just couldn't wait for his turn.

Playing a game of human tic-tac-toe. Sean is being an "X."

Now he gets to be an, "O."

A serious game of red light/green light. (And don't you just love the cleavage? I'm glad this picture will remind me of what young ladies wore to high school in 2008. Will it get better or worse I wonder.)

Ring jumping.

My absolute favorite picture of Sean.

I tried to get some pictures of some of Sean's friends too.

Bouncing frogs on a parachute.

Taking a breather after all the hard work of being an energetic preschooler.

Kyle takes a run at the long jump.

A great landing for a first timer.

Sean just does a run through.

Trying to sit patiently while waiting for snack time.

My mouth is open. Feed me!!!!!!!

Ah, that hits the spot. Nothing like a refill of sugar to keep a preschooler going.

Last year it was hit and miss with Sean and school. Some days he wanted to go and some days he didn't. It was always a struggle to leave without him attached to my leg in some way. This year he keeps asking when he gets to go back to school and has mentioned several times that he needs to go back to school because Mrs. Crater must be missing him. He can even point out the day on the calendar of when he gets to go back.

I hope he really enjoys this year! And that I can just drop him off and leave.

He also doesn't understand why I don't come help out at preschool everytime. Hmmm, have an hour and a half all alone with no kids, or spend an hour and a half with 25 preschoolers and high school kids? What a decision. Hope he understands how it is when he is older!

How Many Kids Do I Have?!

I may only have three kids but sometimes it certainly seems like a lot more. Surely it takes more than three kids to make the daily messes around the house that take me forever to clean up. And surely it takes more than three to sound like a herd of elephants running throughout the house. Every night I go to bed feeling like I have watched at least a dozen kids that day.

After our whirlwind trip to Utah and Ohio, it was back to home and running full speed ahead. The very next morning after we had arrived home Sean had a doctor's appointment. Chris had a dentist appointment at the same time, (how does he always do that to me?) so I got to take all three kids to the doctor's.

While in Utah Sean had developed pink eye and Halle caught a cold. (Much better than last year after I left my kids with my mom - three sick kids and Halle ended up in the hospital.) So before entering the doctor's office I warned my kids that they were not to touch the toys or be in the kid's area. They had to sit down in a chair by me and play with something from the diaper bag.

It was probably from being confined in the car for 12 hours the day before, but they were completely bonkers and out of control. They were up and down, skipping, jumping, and being loud. (But I do have to give them credit for not touching the toys.) Sean found some long lost candy in my bag. He ripped the bag open and it spilled all over the floor. Immediately I had a couple of other little kids running towards us - eyes on the candy. I quickly yelled out to their mothers that my little guy had pink eye. Then the mothers immediately took action and grabbed their kids away from my kids.

After trying to settle down my kids one more time we were finally called back into the doctor's office. As we entered the office the nurse looked around and asked, "Is this all your children? I thought you had a couple more! "

"Nope, just these three." Believe me, three are all I need.

Come to the Ohio

Chris and I just got back from visiting the Ohio. Wow, what an experience.

I expected it to be wonderful. Traveling without kids, seeing a historic church site, seeing my in-laws again, being adventurous - all things to make the journey marvelous. But all my expectations were exceeded. It is funny how a trip down to Utah to light fireworks and a quick visit to the small town of Kirtland changed into a remarkable spiritual journey where I feel more connected with my ancestors and with the early saints and how that has totally strengthened and given more depth to my testimony.

All I can say is everyone needs to do it!!!! This was the right time for me in my life to be able to take all these things in and relate it to my own experiences in life.

Ohio was amazing. As I tell everyone - I am a visual learner. If I can't see it or touch it - it just doesn't make sense to me. All those stories from Sunday School and Seminary finally came together and became solidly real to me. To walk down the street where the prophet Joseph Smith and his sweet wife, Emma, walked. To see how the early pioneers of America lived. To see the sacrifice of so many to further the gospel along - it is so amazing.

Most magnificent of all was the Kirtland Temple. It may not be a dedicated house of worship at the moment (still owned by the Community of Christ Church and rented out for what ever occasions) it is still a house of God. You can feel the dedication of every saint who sweated and labored and cared for the temple. As one of the quotes says (somewhere on the tour) that it stands as a silent witness of the dedication and testimony of the saints - who knew the gospel of Jesus Christ had once again been restored to the earth and knew that Joseph Smith was called of God to be a prophet.

A Visit to Temple Square

We usually make it down to Utah at least once a year to visit with my parents. But we have never taken our kids to Salt Lake before. So we thought this year should be the year to do it.

We watched the movie about Joseph Smith at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and then took a tour of the Salt Lake Temple and visitor centers. The kids did fairly well at first and then crashed. They were either whining or running around like crazy. I wanted it to be such a great experience for them but all I felt was frustration.

I guess I just need a lot more patience and also need to let them grow up a little more before we try to do that again.

Chris and I are off to Ohio tomorrow. I can hardly believe it!!!!! I'm so excited and nervous at the same time. I'm so excited to see a new church site and visit with my in-laws. And after today I am also so excited to be traveling without kids - just Chris!!!! But I also get nervous because I really hate to fly and I really hate to leave my kids. So hopefully it will all balance out and I will be able to enjoy myself with out too much worry on my mind.

Memorial Day in July

Having lived most of my pre-married life in Utah, I grew up with the word, "Pioneer." I instinctively knew what pioneers were as the term was used quite frequently and in everyday conversations. In fact, sometimes I grew tired of so much focus on pioneers. I may have understood the definition, but it hasn't been until later in my life, with some maturation in thought and experience, that I have truly come to understand what the Mormon Pioneers have done for my life.

My children know nothing about pioneers. A few weeks ago we had a FHE lesson on pioneers. I was shocked to find out that this was their first known exposure to the definition. There is a whole new world for them to discover. This made me so grateful that our plans had allowed us to be in Utah for Pioneer Days. My whole goal for this trip is to help expose the importance and understanding of pioneers to my children (that and have a lot of fun).

As written in my last post, we had a lot of fun on Pioneer Day. The kids now know that it is something to celebrate and can be a lot of fun. We also drilled them on the definition. (Halle always answers with a verbatim answer).

Another goal I had for our trip to Utah was to go to the Provo cemetery with my grandparents. My grandparents are now 87 and starting to fail in health. I don't know how much longer they have. My grandpa is a great story teller. We used to travel with them quite a bit when I was younger. He was always telling and showing us stuff - like a walking encyclopedia.

So we took the kids to see the headstones of their ancestors and tell them stories about who they were. They found out that their great, great, great grandmas and grandpas were pioneers and were told the stories about where they came from and how they joined the church. They are still young, but I hope they remember their great-grandpa telling them stories and that our ancestors are important. They will remember searching for headstones with pioneer plaques attached to them - that they really enjoyed.

They learned about Christen Valdimir Hansen, who sailed on a ship from Denmark and then walked to Utah when his family joined the church. They learned that they are related (by marriage) to Philo Taylor Farnsworth, the guy who invented television. They also learned they are related to the famous BYU football coach, LaVell Edwards (one of my selling points to get Chris to marry me).

A new story for me was about my great, great grandparents from my grandma's side. I learned that they had been in Nauvoo with Brigham Young. They had closed the temple down and were getting ready to move out of Nauvoo. My grandparents refused to move from the temple steps until they had received their endowments, as they hadn't had the chance to do that yet. Brigham Young finally reopened the temple and many more saints along with my grandparents were able to receive their endowments from the Nauvoo temple.

I wished I could have stayed longer and heard more stories and written down more facts. But, that was as much as my children could handle, and it started to be closing time for the cemetery. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to do this! I am so thankful for my dedicated and determined ancestors that were full of faith. I hope I can make them all proud and never take the gospel and its many blessing for granted.

Pioneer Days

We are now down in Utah for our annual summer trip to Springville. We spent Wednesday (July 23) driving down and made it in a record 12 1/2 hours. I packed all the kids a huge snack bag to munch on all day. That way we only made quick potty stops and only one stop for dinner. The kids were so excited to arrive at Nanny and Grandpa Hansen's house and hit all their favorite spots right away. Sean dove into the toy box. Chad ran out to the back yard to catch bugs and jump on the trampoline and Halle played with the barbies and all the new outfits my mother had knitted for them.

Thursday was Pioneer Day here in Utah. I was excited to be down for Pioneer Days with my kids as they really don't know what that is all about yet. We started off with a great parade in Spanish Fork for their Fiesta Days and parked our car on the road leading into our old neighborhood where Chris and I started off our married life. Chad was into the different cars, clowns, and military equipment. Halle waved to every princess. Sean kept rolling himself into a burrito with our blanket. And even though it was 97 degrees outside we had plenty of cloud cover to make being outside enjoyable.

After the parade my dad spoiled the kids by taking them on the carnival rides. Sean and Halle stuck to the little kids rides. Chad got adventurous and went on a ride with his dad that was pretty wild. You were strapped into a seat and then sent twirling around and upside down and all over the place. It was hilarious to see both Chad and Chris's faces as they flip flopped from terror to delight every couple of seconds.

The next adventure was to get everyone down for naps! After a long drive and an early morning we grownups were exhausted!

We then ventured over to the Spanish Fork swimming pool. It is the greatest pool in the world! A deep end with two diving boards. A huge swimming area. Three different kids' areas and a big slide to go down. And what was the price? Only $3 per person!!!! Why can't Spokane have better and more affordable pools?!!!!

Finally we had a BBQ with my grandparents and then lit fireworks. My dad gets excited to spoil the grand kids! And after hearing me whine that fireworks are illegal in Spokane, my dad set out to make amends. He bought a box of fireworks as tall as he is! The kids were ecstatic to pick their firework out and then have dad or grandpa light it for them. As soon as it was lit they would run as fast as they could away from the firework and yell, "Run for your life!" It was so funny.

It was a great Pioneer Day! Although, I don't think my kids still understand what pioneers are. But they had a lot of fun.

Today we got to go boating at Yuba Lake. My brother, David, joined us. It again was perfect weather (under the shade)! Hot enough to make the cool water feel refreshing and a slight breeze to help cool things down. Just to make things interesting, by dad build a fire to cook hot dogs. That's right. A fire in 100 degree weather!!!! What we should have brought was a solar cooker - it would have worked great!

The kids spent the day catching bugs, swimming in the water, tubing behind the boat and riding in the boat. We almost got Chad to water ski. He got all the way in the water but then quit as soon as Grandpa tried to get the skies on him. Oh, well. There is always next year.

Chris and I skied only once - that is all we had enough energy for! As we were getting ready to leave a huge storm came in and tried to blow all our stuff away. Sand was blowing everywhere!!! It was really crazy. I was glad we were not out on the water any more.

After a great dinner of KFC (my absolute favorite fast food!) we again had my grandparents over and did more fireworks! Yes, there were still plenty left from the night before. It took about an hour and a half to finish them off tonight.

The kids are now tucked into their beds. They are sun kissed and so happy to be having so much fun. And this exhauseted mommy is going to bed! Goodnight.

I'm a Cub Scout Now

Yes, I have a new calling. One of those you always dreaded and figured you would never be called to. I am now the new Wolf Leader for the cub scouts in our ward and in the 6th ward.

As usual, I had a feeling the calling was coming. So, when my dear husband brought it up it was no surprise. I said yes, because I knew the calling was from our Heavenly Father and I also figured I would be getting into scouting soon enough anyway with an almost 8 year boy myself.

So far I have been having a blast. I think this is the first calling I would say as being really fun. There have been a lot of callings that I enjoy, or were easy to survive. But this one I really like.

It might be totally fun because I work with such an awesome person, Carolyn!!!! And it might be fun because all the ideas are given to you to use. And it might be fun because you get to play like a kid again. Or maybe I just haven't had this calling long enough. We'll see how I feel after day camp next week.

I forgot my camera last meeting and I'll be gone for the rest of the meetings this month - but some day I'll post a picture of Carolyn and I wearing our fabulous scouting uniforms. Now that will be something for posterity!