Kemah Boardwalk

We took a day trip down to the kemah boardwalk and it was SUPER cool1 The weather was perfect, there were hardly any people there. We started early in the day and stayed late in the evening.

                                            

The boardwalk is right on the gulf of mexico and there are some awesome pelicans to see.  Also the yachts were fun to watch and drool over!!

There was a ride that you took way high up in the air and could look around the area.  It was so beautiful.  Did I mention how AWESOME the weather was!!!

Sawyer had a ball on the litlle drop ride.  There were many little kids crying on the ride because it was too scary, but not Sawyer, he was the little kid with his arms up in the air!  What a goon!

I think that I would have to say this was Dennis's most favorite ride, from the picture he is having a blast!

It is a rare opportunity that Dennis and I have a picture together,  It is not my favorite picture, but at least we have one.  This was taken at the restuarant that we ate at that day.  Laundry's, it is my absolute favorite place to eat!  The salmon is to die for!  A funny story, Dennis got his dinner late because his first one was attacked by the birds while the waitress was delivering the food to the rest of us.  The funny part, she gave Dennis the option to get another plate, like he was going to eat the one the birds attacked!!!

The kids, especially Sawyer, loved playing in this splash pad.  I thought it was a little cool to be playing in the water, but they loved it!

That day we rode the rides, took a tour on a train of the boardwalk, walked along the boardwalk, went to the aquarium, shopped, watched a magic show, and enjoyed the live music.  At the aquarrium we were able to feed the stingrays, not an enjoyed activity.  To slimy and eager!

When it got dark there was a courtyard were the splash pad was and there was a live band.  So we sat an enjoyed treats and listened to the music and then when the kids got bored they played in the splash pad.  Just writing about this day makes me want to go back soon.

Thanksgiving decor

Here are the rest of the decorations that Julia pick out on our decoration shopping spree. I love that the weather is so nice here in November, we can decorate the outside of the house and it will not get ruin. Julia loved these little scarecrows, she thought they were so cute in the flowerbeds! I have to agree!!

                                       
 
 

choice living

I love living in a culdesac.  The kids are always out in the street playing and it is safe.  Riding their bikes is so much fun now that they do not have to get off and walk up hill everywhere they go.  Sawyer has finally learned how to pedal his bike, so now he can have fun with the kids!

Julia picked up this bike at a yard sale, it looked brand new.  It is pink, her request and it is bigger so she can go faster now!!

And Ryan, he loves to ride his bike,  his favorite thing to do is "hump a wheely!', no matter how many times we tell him it is pop a wheely, he always says hump a wheely.  Kids are funny!

Williams Tower

One thing that I really like to do is visit Dennis at work. We did that alot in Green River! He works a lot farther from home here in Houston, so we have not been able to visit him as much, but we have. He works in the Williams tower, which is connected to a huge mall, the galleria, so I should go more often, but the drive there is not very fun!! When we turn off the freeway We see this view and Sawyer gets really excited because we are at Daddy's work.  His building is the tall blue one.

                                         

There is this awesome waterfall tower in the little green walkway right outside Dennis's building.  Taking a picture of it does nothing for how cool it is.  It is worth a trip to Houston to see.  I have never seen anything like it.

The waterfall is on both side!  Sawyer thought that it was so neat, he just kept looking up at it!  The waterfall it very tall!!

Halloween!!

I love Halloween on a Saturday. You can play all day, and we did. We started with our Saturday tradition, and went out for donuts. We played all day and we even slipped a nap in, which made staying up all night easier on the adults. Happy kids make happy parents!

                                                           Julia was a BEAUTIFUL fairy!

Ryan was snake eyes from GI Joe!

Sawyer was Diego.  When asked who he was, he would say, "I am go Diego go!"

As always we participated in our ward trunk or treat!  Sawyer was more happy giving the candy then going and getting candy!  Dennis is always VERY happy to hand out the candy.  Notice the hand in the face pose.  It means, no pictures mommy!!

WE have some great friends here, the Svedins.  The kids spent a lot of time in their pickup playing, since I would not let Ryan make the rounds more the three times!! 

After the trunk or treat, we went trick-or-treating in our neighbor hood.  It was beautiful out side.  So warm.  Julia even went trick-or-treating bare footed, true fairy style!! 

I walked the kids around the neighborhood and again Dennis volunteered to be the candy passer outer! WE live in a great neighborhood, all the nieghbors set up camp in one driveway and they all got together and chit chatted while they handed out the candy.

I loved that the kids could do this all together by themsleves and that it was warm enough to enjoy walking door to door!  See how beautiful and green it is!!  LOVE IT!!!

Playgroup party

I have always loved playgroup,and taking Sawyer is still just as fun as my other children. WE had a halloween party at our friends house and Sawyer dressed up and participated in the fun. He played memory and did better then I thought he could! Nice suprise. It was fun!

And as always with every party, good food!

School Halloween/Reading night

For the "Halloween" party at the school, they had a reading night. The kids could dress up as a story book character, which in reality could be anything right? It was a really fun night. We started with dinner from chik-fil-a, played a book/cake walk, made bookmarks, and saw the class themed pumpkins that they had a drawing for.

Sawyer loves to see dressed up characters.  He really is my only child that has.  Everytime we see one he wants his picture with them.

Each class choose a story and decorated their pumpkin as one of the characters.  Also each child in the class wrote a story about the character.  Here is Ryan and the frankenstien.

During reading night you collected tickets from each activity that you participated in and then you could put in for a drawing for your favorite pumpkin.  If your name was choosen you were able to take the pumpkin and the stories home.  Of course the moms wanted the kids to pick their own class pumpkin, to get the stories, but the kids wanted the pumpkin they thought was the coolest.  Here is Julia with her mouse character pumpkin.

 

Halloween Decor-outside

When Ryan was gone hunting in Wyoming, I asked Julia what she wanted to do.  Her reply, decorate the outside of our house for Halloween.  So we went shopping for decorations, she picked most everything out.  It was fun putting it up and it turned out pretty cute.  We also purchased some Thanksgiving decor, so check for that post later.

I really need to learn how to use my camera, so I can get good pictures.  I have troubles with lights at night and motion pictures.  Any suggestions?

Which one do you think is a better picture?

Pumpkin Carving

This year for our pumpkin carving, I bought fake pumpkins.  It was so great, no seeds to pull out and it was so easy to cut.  It took a lot less time and the kids could do it by themselves, well except Sawyer.  As a added bonus we can keep the pumpkins for next year decorations, not to mention that not one pumpkin got moldy!!!

Julia went traditional and picked a cute jack-o-lantern face for her pumpkin.

Ryan chose a skeleton face, and he did it all by himslef, it was awesome.  Also don't you love the pose he chose for the picture?!?

As for Sawyer, he just chose the first one the he saw, this is his normal routine for choosing!!

Dennis helped him with the pumpkin and I thought it was very cute!!

Committment

I have made a committment to get all caught up this week!  I know I have promised this before and not followed through, but I am committed this time.  So take a look each day this week and see if I keep my committment.
To leave you with my a "mommy moment" from my thought a day calendar
"Holly patiently said to her five-year-old daughter Maureen, "Please pick up your toys and dolls,"  After a few minutes, Holly again reminded her.  When the little girl still hadn't complied, Holly asked in frustration, ""Why aren't you picking your things up?"  Maurenn answered, "I'm playing house and I'm the Dad, so I don't know where anything goes."
Isn't it true!  I love it!!(the story not the factualness of it!!  hahaha!!!)

Playschool, playing cars

Saywer loves his little school and his new friends that he has made.  As everyone knows, little kids have a hard time playing together, learning to share and be nice at all times.  The first couple of times that I had these little boys at my home, Sawyer had a hard time sharing his toys, the other boys did too, but not as hard of a time as Sawyer did.  I was not sure if this was going to work out for me.  I do not try to do anything that is more work to do then not, so I was wondering if I should keeo it up.  I decided to give it one more chance.  I pulled out the beloved hotwheels track and the boys loved it.  They were all so good about taking turns and sharing the "best" cars!  I guess that I just had to find the right activity!!! 

PALS, playing so well together.

Julia and Sawyer play so well together.  Julia is the little mother hen and Sawyer, laps up all the attention like crazy!  When it is just these two together they will play together forever doing anything.  This fine day, the spend a very long time building a castle and they were so proud of their final product!

This is the awesome castle that they spent many hours working on together!

I love this picture! 

DRIVE IN

One of the greatest things about living in a warm weather area, is drive in theaters.  We have had the opportunity to go a few times, and we love it,  First of all it is cheaper then going to the regular theater and you get to see two movies instead of only one.  The trick is finding a night that shows two movies that the kids can see and the adults don't mind watching.  This night we saw wild things and meatball movie.  I did not like wild things, but I think that meatballs was cute!!

We met out good friends the Svedins there this night.  We really love this family and they have a 8 year old boy Ryan gets along with so well, a 6 year old girl Julia gets along with and a 5 years girl that plays well with Sawyer and Julia.  What a fun family!

Pumpkin Patch

In October, Dennis and Ryan made a trip to Wyoming to go elk hunting.  The little kids and myself stayed home.  We had a lot of fun, one day I let Julia play hooky from school and we took a trip to a local pumpkin patch here in Houston.  There were a ton of fun things for the kids to do, it was a long day.  We went with some good friends and had a great time.

One of the activities we took a wagon ride out to the cows and had little cow biscuits to feed to the cows.  We were suppose to hold the biscuit in our hands and let the cow take it out of our hand.  Well after seeing the cow's long long tongue, Sawyer just dropped his on the ground.  He did not want to be attacked by the cows.  Julia was so nervous to do it, but if I could do it, then so could she, so after some major pumping her up, she did it. FUN DAY!!

Rain Rain Rain!!

Well we went to the zoo and it was on and off drizzle rain the first few hours that we were there, but then it started to pour, it shorted our stay, but two of the three kids, the boys, had a lot of fun playing in the rain.  It was so warm.  Julia did not want to get wet and would not share the ONE umbrella that we brought!  Needless to say, we now have an umbrella for each person in the family and also a pair of rain boots.  I guess this takes the place of gloves, hats and snow boots!!

Here is Julia being Julia, not sharign the umbrella! 

Sawyer thought it was a lot of fun to play in the rain.  Not much different than a splash park, because it was soooo warm!!

Houston Zoo

For Columbus Day, it was free day at the zoo, so the kids and I headed downtown to see the zoo.  We stopped and had lunch with Dennis at his work and a lady at his work, loaded the kids up with freebies.  The greatest freebie was a backpack, so that they could carry all thier own stuff at the zoo.  Here they are standing in front of a eagle with vines growing all over it.  It was way cool, things grow like crazy here in Houston. 

This was so beautiful!  I wanted the kids to sit on this branch for a picture, but there is a big sign on the brach that says to keep off!  These huge trees, where the branches grow down to the ground and then back up again are my favorite!!  Aren't the kids so cute in thier halloween shirts!!  Thank you Grandma Updike!

This was way toooo cool.  In the aquarium area, there was a tube right through the middle of the water that the kids could crawl through, of course, I had to take a picture!! Ryan thought it was the coolest thing ever!

This picture was taken toward the end of the day.  It ws not very hot, but it was raining a little and it was SUPER humid, so we were really moist.  The zoo was a lot of fun, we did not get to see everything, but we are for sure going to go bcak again and again!

New Baby Alex and big sister Gabby

Alex Lee Hansen  August 28, 2009

I was able to fly out to Utah the beginning of October to see my new nephew, Alex.  This is my sister, Mandy's baby boy.  I had a lot of fun hanging out with the Hansens and my mom.  It was a great weekend.  We ate some great food, (always a favorite of mine) enjoyed each other's company, took a ride in the mountains to see the coming of autumn and giggled.  Gabby is sure turning into a cute little girl and the thiings she says are so cute!! Alex is a darling little boy and looks just like his daddy!(anyhow, that is what I think)  It was a good weekend and I hope to do it again soon!