Life has really been interesting in the 10 months since I last posted.  Yep, 10 months.  For the few of you who actually read this blog, sorry I've slacked with the family updates.  Here is what we have been up to:

Jordan played T-ball and Maddie played softball last summer.  Both had tons of fun and are looking forward to playing again this summer.

Fun family hike up the canyon to a waterfall.  

Father/Sons camp-out last summer.

Justin took the 3 older kids to see an Ogden Raptors game.

This summer we moved to Lehi and Justin started a new job at PMI.

At the dinosaur museum.

Climbing trees with Dad.

Taking a ride on the Heber Valley Railroad with Granny and Grandpa.  So much fun!

Hanging out at the Thanksgiving Point farm.

Halloween - our Smurf family!

I got to make the cake for my adorable grandma's 90th birthday party!  Isn't she a cutie?

Sitting on Santa's lap at our ward's Christmas party and at Mamah & Popi's house!

Maddie got to sing a solo with the Lehi Children's Choir for their Christmas concert.  She was amazing and we are so proud of her!


Maddie recently got an expander and braces on her top teeth.  So much fun!

Jordan's 7th birthday party.


Justin is currently practicing several nights a week for a bi-stake performance of The Savior of the World in a couple of weeks.  If you would like tickets, go here.

Jordan lost his first tooth this morning!  He has been wiggling it for weeks and was so excited when it fell out while brushing his teeth.  Hopefully the tooth fairy will remember to come tonight - she has a history of forgetting to come to our house.

Madison sung at her 3rd grade talent show and then was chosen to sing at the school Spring Luau in front of all the students and their parents.  The video is of the 3rd grade talent show.  She was super, super nervous and it shows.  The video from the Luau accidentally got erased, but she wasn't as nervous and she did a fabulous job!  She loves singing and has worked so hard this year practicing and improving her voice.

Josh had his tonsils out a few weeks ago.  He was having problems with sleep apnea, snoring, gagging, talking clearly and sore throats.  It was no wonder - his tonsils were so big they were touching his uvula, even when he wasn't sick!  The surgery went great and he has healed quickly, but we did have a rough few days after the surgery.  He definitely wrung every last drop of sympathy he could out of it.  Even now, weeks later, he still will sometimes say, "I swallowed and my throat didn't hurt at all!"  He is now talking more clearly and his sleep apnea, snoring and gagging have disappeared.  Yay!!

Madison and Jordan are playing softball and t-ball and having a lot of fun!  Madison's team won their first game last week and she played fabulously!  Jordan's first game is next week.

Mikey is 18 months now and starting into the terrible twos.  He has started talking a lot more lately and his favorite words are 'NO', 'DON'T' and 'MINE'!

I finished up my classes a few weeks ago and received my new valid teaching license in the mail yesterday.  I have been applying for all the teaching jobs I can find. I have also been busy substitute teaching a few days a week.

Justin started working for Deals That Matter in April and is enjoying it.  It is a fairly new company and Justin is loving being a part of building and expanding it.  The only downside to his new job is that it is down in Sandy, so he has a long commute again.  We are planning on moving closer to his job sometime this summer.  It will be nice to cut his commute and have him around more. 

January in Review

January was a busy month.  I started back to school, taking six credits so I can renew my teaching license.  I am taking a Children's Literature class and a Reading Assessment and Intervention class.  It is fun, but definitely crazy trying to find enough quiet time to do schoolwork while taking care of 4 kids! 

Jordan turned 6 in January.  

 He invited his friend Aubryn over to play and decorate cupcakes.  

 Then we had a build-your-own cupcake bar for the family party on Sunday.  He picked out all the flavors for the cupcakes, fillings, frosting and toppings.  Everyone had a lot of fun mixing and matching the flavors to create their own cupcakes.  

Happy Birthday Jordan!

We also got confirmation that Josh is severely allergic to peanuts, as well as trees, grasses, pollen, dust mites, cats, dogs, molds...the list goes on and on.  He now has a couple of epi-pens just in case he eats anything with peanuts in it.  He goes back to the allergist in about 6 weeks to deal with his seasonal allergies. 

Christmas Adventures

 Riding the Front Runner down to Salt Lake City to see the lights on Temple Square.

 Bowling & dinner, being shepherds, visiting Granny, Grandpa, and the cousins in Panaca, and our gingerbread houses.  This year our gingerbread village included a cell tower, a castle, a barn, a Christmas tree, an igloo, a playground, an Ecuador orphanage, several amazing architectural creations and a few little houses.

Christmas Day!!

All my siblings (except for Megan, our Missionary, and Rachelle, who is in Ecuador) plus spouses, kids, my Mom & Mike, and even a roommate were here for at least part of the day.  It was so much fun, not to mention loud and crazy, spending Christmas with the whole family!  We were so blessed by some Christmas Angels who helped make Christmas wonderful for our kids this year - thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Happy 1st Birthday Mikey!

*Adorable pictures all taken by my amazing sister Arianne!*

 

Mmmm, cake.

Lots of fun presents!

 I think the kids had more fun with the balloons from Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Pippin than they did with all the new toys..

Cousin Boston - priceless!

Halloween!

Justin was a pirate, Mikey was a lion, Joshua was a pumpkin, Maren was a blue fairy, Madison was the Little Mermaid, Jordan was a black dragon (with a long, stuffed tail), and I was a spider (sorry, I didn't get a picture of myself).  Madison insisted that she needed red hair in order to be Ariel, so we dyed her hair.  She absolutely loves it and is so sad that it will wash out within a week or two.

It rained for a while during trick-or-treating and we got soaked, but we still had lots of fun and the kids got tons of candy. 

Happy Halloween!

Well, we are finally moved and settled.  It has been a crazy, busy month! 

In the middle of packing up I made a wedding cake:

 

 It was lots of fun to make, even though the timing made it somewhat stressful.

A week after the wedding cake we moved!  It was crazy trying to decide what to take, what to store and what to get rid of.  It is amazing how much stuff we had accumulated, even though we had moved less than a year ago.  We ended up getting rid of a lot more stuff than we had originally intended because the truck we rented wasn't big enough.  Thank goodness the guys from our ward who helped us pack the truck were great at Tetris!  Jordan and Josh took turns riding in the truck with Justin - they thought it was a great adventure! 

The week after we moved was Boston's birthday.  Happy birthday Boston!!  He loves construction vehicles and had a construction themed party.  I got to make his cake!  It was so much fun being close enough to make his cake and attend his party.  We are looking forward to being able to attend all the family events this year!

Madison and Jordan are loving school!  They think it is great fun to attend the school where Mamah works.

Mikey got his first real haircut recently.  He didn't even look like the same kid when I was finished!

Before

 After

Madison got baptized last Saturday.  We are so proud of her decision to be baptized!  She looked so pretty in the gorgeous white dress from Mamah and Popi!  Almost all of my family was here, along with her Granny and Papa and Justin's sister, Michelle, who came all the way from the Denver area.  Granny and Papa gave her scriptures.  Madison kept saying, "Scriptures are so precious.  They are the best gift I've ever gotten."

Month in Review & BIG Changes

So, once again it's been a while since I have posted.  Lots has happened in the past month.  The biggest news is that Justin found a new job!  Yeah!  We are so excited (mostly)!  However, the job is in Salt Lake City, which means we will be moving to Utah in 2 1/2 weeks.  We will be living with my mom in Pleasant View for at least a few months while we get back on our feet.  We have mixed feelings about the move.  We are sad that we have to leave our friends here in Henderson, our amazing ward and our new home that we love.  But, we are excited for a promising new job, being closer (much, much closer...) to my family, and the opportunity for me to sell cakes.  Justin left on Sunday, started his job yesterday and will be back in 2 weeks to move us.  So here I am again, sorting through stuff and packing boxes and being a single mom of 4 for a few weeks (Luckily, Renea and Larry will be taking Josh and Jordan up to Panaca on Friday for a week or so, so that I can get more stuff done.  Thank you so much Renea!!).  And to top it all off, I agreed to make a 4-tier wedding cake next weekend.  Life is definitely crazy here!

Madison's 8th birthday is today.  Happy Birthday Mad!!  We went to the Shark Reef with Stacie and her kids to celebrate and then came home for pizza, cake (to see more pictures of her cake go here) and ice cream and presents.  The kids had a ton of fun!  It's hard to believe she is 8 years old already - it's amazing how fast kids grow up!  She is so excited to be baptized in a month.  She told me today now that she is 8 she is much more responsible and grown up.  She cracks me up!  She also wrote herself a birthday poem:  

My Birthday

by Madison Hansen

Today is my b-day,

I love my b-day.

Mom made a tinkerbell cake

but the tinkerbell on top is fake.

We bought ice cream.

It will make me scream!

Happy B-day!

 

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My 30th birthday was on Sunday.  Justin has been teasing me a lot lately that I am going to be old now.  But honestly it doesn't bother me (I'm pretty sure it bothers my mom though - love ya mom!).

We (the kids and I) spent most of July up visiting my mom and keeping an eye on Chris and Maren while my mom was at school everyday and Popi was at work.  We had a lot of fun going to the trout farm, going to parades, watching fireworks, going swimming, playing the wii, going to the movies and hanging out with the family.  The last week we were there we went up to Lava Hot Springs for a big family reunion.  Justin flew up to interview for a few jobs and then came with us.  We had a blast staying at the old schoolhouse inn, going swimming, tubing the river, roasting marshmallows, playing games and hanging out.  Thanks Mike and Mom for a fabulous trip!!

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While we were at Lava we celebrated Josh's 3rd birthday with a pinata (Thanks Arianne!), cake (with chocolate chips, a helicopter and a rainbow per the birthday boys request), ice cream and lots of presents.

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I am working on creating a new blog for my cakes: iceddelights.blogspot.com. Let me know what you think!

Michael is getting so big.  He will be 9 months old this weekend.  He is crawling everywhere, including up the stairs, pulling up and walking along everything, babbling constantly and eating everything in sight.  He thinks everything around him is hilarious and that sleeping through the night is optional.  He also doesn't have any teeth yet, although that doesn't stop him from eating!  This is a picture from the stake 24th of July activity - he LOVES watermelon!