Thursday, December 3, 2015

Hansen life: November

I know this is predictable, but November flew by. I blinked and it was over. I think part of that happens when you are anticipating a holiday that falls toward the end of the month; the whole month leads up to that holiday and then the holiday happens and the month is over and it feels like it all happened with the span of a week.

Our month was smattered the usual variety of life with small children: doctor appointments, play dates, grocery shopping trips, visiting family, etc. Really the best part of the month was Thanksgiving weekend because we get to spend so much time together as a family!

Enjoying some garage/outside play while the weather still allowed for it. We've been having fun with boxes lately! 
Pretend airplane box
I took Drew on a mama + son day date to the Everett Children's Museum. Paid and arm and a leg to get in, and he wanted to spend the entire time at the train table which is just a larger version of what we have at home. Toddlers - ugh!

Finally pulled him away from the train table long enough to watch the motorized miniature train
The water room was fun!
These two are best buddies. Drew's new thing is dictating to papa what to draw and then he sits and watches.

I got to volunteer at the Night of Rest gala. Last year Kyle and I attended as guests, but this year I wanted to give my time and help out. They raised over $300K that night! Sadly, my night got cut short when I got a call from Kyle that Drew's arm was hurting and I needed to come home to take him to the ER (per the on-call doctor's orders).

Turns out Drew's elbow was partially dislocated from some roughhousing with papa earlier in the night. The ER doctor just popped it back into place and Drew was good as new!

The next weekend Kyle and I got to attend a fundraising gala for Hope for Life Ministries with some of Kyle's cousins. It was a fun night raising money with some really great people!

This month I started a new tradition of us making our own pizza on Saturday nights. Drew gets to help with the sauce and toppings and so far it's been a fun thing to do together as a family.

My view when I'm nursing sweet Mary.
Drew holding still and smiling for the camera - a rare sight!
Parenting hack - Mary transitioned perfectly from the car to inside the house in her car seat with her hat over her eyes. This was an accident, but it worked great!

This year we packed a shoe box for Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan's Purse. I hope to do this every year moving forward, and involve the kids in the process as they get older.

Mary's first pony tail!

I offered to watch my girlfriend's kiddos so she and her husband could have a date night. Our other friend came over with her own two kids to help me watch all the kids. We had four boys and two girls ages 3 years to 4 months. It was a chaotic but really fun night with all the kids! This is me reading all the boys some stories while my friend cleaned up some of the chaos.

We spent one Saturday up at Warm Beach visiting my grandparents. They love our kiddos and are so sweet with them. My gram is such a hostess, always having yummy food and desserts for everyone. We got to sit and listen to my grandparents reflect on some of the details of their lives, and it was really precious. My grandpa has served his God, his country, and his family well. My grandma is selfless on a level that is hard to match. They are really wonderful people and I cherish them both.

Drew likes scrumming around the property!

Drew's starting to get into playing dress up. First order of business is of course influencing him to pretend to be a cowboy!

Found Drew "playing" brushing his teeth. I love that his idea of "play" is good dental hygiene.

Mary at Thanksgiving with cousin Addie and Auntie Julie
Kyle and I stole away for a day date at the Apple Cup game!

The sun was shinning!

Hansen sibling crew!

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Edmonds does a great little tree lighting ceremony. We went down early and rode the Holiday Trolley around town.

Family pic!

Then we had a quick donut at the Edmonds Bakery.

Next we stopped by the bookstore.

Then we gathered to sing carols before the lighting of the tree.

Santa shows up on a real firetruck, so we didn't get to see the tree lighting because once the firetruck showed up that was all Drew cared about. Which was fine by me! His smile was so huge when he saw the firetruck! They leave the truck out and let the kids climb all over it. So fun!

Then we grabbed dinner at El Puerto and Mary kept us entertained with her cuteness.

And Drew...well, it's really hard for toddlers to sit still at restaurants so he did a lot of sitting on dad's lap!
Trying to get a good family photo for our Christmas card

Mary was not having it!

Classic siblings already - they love each other, really!
The afternoon we spent down in Edmonds is one of my favorite times of the year. I love our little town and my little family. There was a time in my life when I was worried I would never get married, let alone have children. Then there were more times in my life when I was married and we were struggling to get and stay pregnant. So these afternoons spent together as a family are really, really meaningful to me. I thank God for these people he has blessed me with every day!

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