My How Time Flies!

It has been less than two weeks since I posted last, and yet it seems, as always, that there are a thousand things I want to say and record in this here little blog of mine! We have had several fun family days at the park, Trevor's and Ellie's birthday parties, some amazing swim lessons for Abby, a fun open swim day with both girls and several friends, a play date/lunch at Becky's house, a Zoo day with "cousins," some colds, and a flu! Oh, and an amazing LOST episode last night! Oh, and a major SUNS trade, Marion for Shaq. Jason and I got to go to Shag's first game here! And against the Lakers too. We tried to give the tickets back to my Dad, seeing as though they really are his, but he refused. Not such a surprise, since he is like the greatest Dad ever! I totally forgot my camera, but we had a great time. The whole arena was charged. With a couple of fights and several ejections, you could feel the energy in the arena. Let's see... what else happened this past week and a half? Katie learned to clap and dance. Sooo cute! She is also starting to pick up on the sign language a lot more. She definitely understands "all done" and is picking up on "please" and "more." So many happenings and so many changes in our little home life. I just love it! How blessed we truly are as mothers! I am thankful for things like this blog because it helps me stop and remember that! Well, this blog post is certainly going to be the definition of random and jumbled. I just don't have the time to write a post about each thing. So, I am just going to make a list of things I want to remember.

Katie and Abby both got the flu this week. Poor things! The only thing that I want to remember about this is when Abby looked at me and said, "Mommy, my tummy feels squiggly!" So sad, and still cute!

Katie waves and softly says "aaaahhhh" like she is saying "Hiiiiiii!" Jason and I served in the Guest Reception room on Sunday and when I introduced myself to someone she would do this. She must be gifted in greeting already!

Trevor had a great birthday party at the park a couple of weeks ago. Abby looks so cute with all of her little boy friends. Happy Birthday Trevor!


Ellie had an adorable birthday party also. A little ladybug theme! I am so bummed I didn't get any pictures! Maybe I can snag some from Lory. Happy Birthday Ellie!

With the weather warming up, it seems like the park has been our hot spot. Jason had President's Day off and we went to Kiwanis Park, flew our kite, and played on the playground. Today I took the girls to the park and it was actually a little warm. So sad! We have so many great park pictures, but here a few of my favorites.
Jason teaching Abby how to swing by herself





Me and my girls!


Swimming, Play, Lunch: We had the best time last Thursday at an open swim day at Abby's swim school! Becky, Tara, Erin, Haley, and all the kids went swimming for an hour and a half and we had so much fun! Then we crashed Becky's for lunch and had a little play date. Abby and Drew were too cute!




Becky french-braided Abby's hair for the first time and it was adorable!



Well, naptime is over and Katie is screaming, so I will have to finish these random memories another day!

Abby's Favorite Things

As I think about it, Abby has three things that she absolutely loves to do to no end: watch TV, read books, and ride swings.

Abby loves TV, movies, and video games! She certainly is her father's child! Although Jason has definitely led to limit and structure these times for her. Currently her favorite TV shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sesame Street, and My Friends Tigger and Pooh. She definitely doesn't like the Doodlebops! Frankly, I think they are pretty scary too! Her favorite movies currently (this area changes frequently) are Cinderella and The Sword and the Stone. Her favorite video game that she plays with her Daddy is the Star Wars Legos for the Wii.  The other day, Jason put a movie on for her and she looked at him with big eyes and a big smile and asked, "Daddy, will you watch with me?"  Who could resist!  So of course he agreed and she was so excited!  She repeated over and over again, "Oh this will be FUN!  So FUN Daddy!"  Then she cuddled up next to him and watched her movie.  I walked into our room where they were watching the movie, Jason was fast asleep, and Abby looked up at me with this big grin and whispered, "Daddy is sleeping.  He watch movie with me!"  Too precious! 

If she has got to love TV as much as she does, than I am certainly thankful for how much she loves books! This girl can read you into the ground. I swear she never tires of it! Book after book after book. She could read for hours. Thankfully, she also loves to read by herself. Every morning she gets "books and milk." When we hear her wake up we have the routine of giving her a stack of books and a cup of milk and she reads to herself for 30 -45 minutes each morning. It is funny now because when she gets tired during the day she will give us this sad fussy look and ask for "books and milk." My favorite is when she asks to read to me, pulls out a book, and reads it to me from memory. She is pretty cute!

And then there is the swing set at the park. What kid doesn't love the swings!  Once she gets on, it is hard to get her off!  She is like the energizer bunny, she just keeps going!  Isn't life at this age so sweet!  It is the simplest of pleasures!  

I love LOST!

Have I mentioned how much I love the television show LOST? I totally think that it is the best show ever written! Well, at least that I have seen, which may not cover too expansive of a timeline. Jason is actually more into it than I am and we already own the first three seasons on DVD. I just love the fact that the story line gets more and more complex and you just can't figure it out. Who really are the others? What is their work? Who in the world is Jacob? And, I still can't determine if Ben is good or bad! It is like a great novel that you don't want to put down! You just gotta love it!

A Great Book!

I just finished reading a great book titled, The God I Love, by Joni Eareckson Tada. Some good friends of ours purchased this book for me when I told them that I had never read anything by her nor heard her speak. Wow, what an amazing woman! So real, so much like each of us, and yet God has done such an amazing work in and through her. I was really drawn into her life story and found myself not wanting to put it down. For those who don't know, she became a quadriplegic from a diving accident as a teenager. Her God-given perspectives on suffering and how God "gifted" her with her wheelchair are so helpful and so glorifying to her Savior. I definitely recommend it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! My precious little ones have kept me busy lately and I have found the blogging time a little hard to come by! Hence the reason I haven't blogged in over a week and have much more to say than I have the time for. But... it is Valentine's Day and I must make the time to tell the world how much I love my gorgeous husband! There are countless reasons I love my hubby, but there are two in particular that I have recently been struck by. Last night we had our church small group over and as I was watching him lead the group and care for their souls, I was reminded of how thankful I am for his love and enjoyment of God's word. Jason has led and taught me so much about knowing, enjoying, and loving God through His word. His love for the Scriptures has not only built his faith, but mine also. I so cherish the date nights where we delve into conversations about what we are reading and it quickly turns into remembering who God is, what He has done, and how that builds faith in our hearts. I love listening to him tell me bible stories about what God did through David, Elijah, Paul, or Peter.
Recently, I have also been amazed by God's sanctifying grace in our lives. How true God's promises to complete and perfect us really are. And these promises are certainly evident in Jason's life. My love, you have grown so much in learning to lead me and our little family. Your desire for true heart change for the glory of God has built faith in my heart that God can and will change me too! For me, this builds a faith and an excitement for our future. I not only love you for who you are but who you will continue to become through God's sanctifying grace!
Happy Valentine's Day My Love!

We Did It!

My friend Tiffany and I have been talking about maintaining a workout plan to run consistently on our own and then pick races and charity events to participate in every so often to keep us motivated. Well, so far so good. I have gotten very used to the square mile around our house these days! I TRY to get up about 3 mornings a week to run this four mile route. So, Tiffany and I decided to try our first event. I am proud to announce that this morning we successfully completed our first 10K, which is about 6.2 miles. We ran the whole way and finished in 60 minutes. We both are excited to keep it up and hope to try a half-marathon one day. It was also a meaningful event for me because it was a charity event for Phoenix Children's Hospital. It is called Londons' Run and this year it sponsored two boys who are fighting Leukemia. My friend Amy recently passed away from Leukemia and it was great to run in memory of her! Thanks Tiff! It was great fun!

Memories Part 2

My Mom was the camp photographer in Maui and I just got all of her photos! So... memories part 2 from Hawaii!
Pool Time! This is what Abby did every day in the pool with Papa. She counted to cinco (Grandma taught her) and jumped in. She did this over and over again until she totally wore out her Papa! It was really cute!

The Hansen family in the pool.

I loved this part! After she went swimming with Papa, she would curl up in a towel in my lap until she got warm. She is to active these days to really cuddle with me so I treasured this time! How sweet she is!

Because of a small cold front, it was a few degrees colder than normal the first few days we were there. This weather also produced HUGE waves. The waves would just crash one right after the other. My mom took this picture right before the lady in the chair got soaked by a wave that crashed all the way up the beach and almost to the sidewalk! Although it put a little damper on the ocean swimming time the first few days, it was really neat to watch.

Sand Castles! How do you go to the beach without building a sand castle! Ours was more like a sand pit, but Jason was building the same thing my Dad built with me when I was little. How cute!

After our castle building, we went for a swim in the ocean. Well... it was Abby's first and last time for the ocean on this trip! She really didn't like it!

Don't you just love her chubby cheeks and cute pink bow!

A cute picture of Daddy and Katie.

The humid climate did wonders for Abby's hair! Her whole head of hair fell into beautiful ringlets! I loved it! I should have taken a picture of just the back of her head to remember it. But these are some cute pictures of her nonetheless!