Halloween Party!

Thomas was invited to another Halloween party today-- this time with some of the kids in our ward. They had a blast! It was so fun to see all of the kids in their cute costumes. Tom wasn't the only Superman, but he was the only Superman with muscles. Pretty funny.





Thomas and Halle


Look at all the cute costumes!

Costume Cuteness

 
 
Are these the cutest Tigger and Superman in the world or what?! We went to a great Halloween party for the kids on Friday and they were so excited to dress up. I love the way Tom's costume has muscles and his slicked-back hair. He was thrilled! It's going to be a fun Halloween! 

Licking the beaters

On Sunday, I made a chocolate cake and let the boys lick the cake batter off the beaters. I loved helping when I was a little kid and this is why! They just looked so please, I had to capture the moment.

Stickers!

A few weeks ago, Tom participated in a sticker chain letter thing-- he sent a pack of stickers to one person, the letter to some more... anyway, this week he received two packs of stickers in the mail. When we got the letters, he recognized his name on the envelopes and we had to sing the song from Blue's Clues, "You've just got a letter," which just thrilled him. The stickers were even more exciting. He shared with Chris, Gordon, and me, and put a bunch on himself as well. Now, as I walk through the house, I'm finding little "evidences" everywhere-- walls, doors, the bathroom-- cute little stickers all over. It's kind of cute-- nothing like Spider Man to make you smile when you round the corner!

I'm dreaming of a white...Halloween?

Last night, while watching the news from my trusty recliner, a live story from Logan alerted me to an occurance-- SNOW! Sure enough, I went outside and huge, gorgeous white flakes were falling from the night sky. Wait a minute-- it's October!! I guess that's Utah for you. Brrr...

Jack-o-Lanterns

Earlier today, Chris and Thomas carved our Halloween pumpkins! Well, it was actually just Chris who did the carving-- and cleaning up-- but Thomas did draw the face on his own pumpkin. Gordon sat in his high chair nearby and watched the action. He didn't care as much as Thomas did, but I still think he enjoyed seeing the faces appear on our pumpkins.

Not only did Thomas draw his own pumpkin face, he also demonstrated the face himself. I think it's such a cute jack-o-lantern and of course, he's an even cuter little guy!


We have four pumpkins in all. In addition to Tom's cute pumpkin, Chris did his traditional huge-mouthed pumpkin and I drew a ghost and a goblin on my two funky colored ones. Chris carved them for me-- what a great guy!

I took a couple of pictures tonight while the candles were lit-- it's just not the same in two dimensions, but you get the idea.

Gordon Stayin' Alive

At the Pumpkin Walk, one of the displays was a Saturday Night Fever themed scene, complete with John Travolta. Since we always love to watch Gordon dancing, I thought I'd post this funny video of him jamming to "Stayin' Alive."

North Logan Pumpkin Walk

After the pumpkin patch, Todd and Ann-Michelle took the girls back to Idaho Falls because Ann-Michelle wasn't feeling well. We were sad that they left, but happy that at least we got to enjoy the pumpkin patch with them.

The rest of us decided to head to North Logan to the "Pumpkin Walk"-- a really cool display of different scenes made with pumpkins. We'd heard about the pumpkin walk but we were amazed at how great it really is. The scenes are very creative and the art on some of the pumpkins was quite professional looking. The boys had a fun time on the walk, but especially enjoyed posing with in the different painted scenes.


Nothing says Halloween like "The Nightmare Before Christmas"! This was one of our favorite displays-- it was so well done! Good ol' Jack Skelington... gets me in the mood for some trick or' treatin'!

Caitlan and I got a kick out of the "Aztec Games" scene-- they had pumpkin heads on spears-- classic.




We were really impressed with the all of the creativity. We had a really great time and better yet, it was free! Definitely a new Halloween tradition for the Hansen fam!

Happy Fall Y'all!

We had a great fall weekend! On Saturday, my parents and my sister, Caitlan, and the Freed Family visited us in Logan. We drove up to Franklin, Idaho to a great little pumpkin patch. The cousins had a blast running through the pumpkins. We found some great ones-- Chris got his traditional huge orange pumpkin and Tom picked out a perfectly round one. I got two pumpkins-- a green and a white one. We couldn't believe how cheap they were, especially compared to the ones we got in Seattle last year!

Here's Gord among the gourds! He was really excited about the little pumpkins and kept trying to sneak off with them. I think he liked that he could actually pick them up!

While we were browsing through the pumpkins, several cows in a pasture next to the patch kept us company by mooing the whole time. The kids thought it was so cool to be so close to the cows. It seemed like the admiration was mutual!



Aren't these the cutest cousins?


Thanks to our favorite camera timer, we were able to get a great shot of everyone. Top from left: Dad, Mom, Ann-Michelle, Todd, Chris, Elise, Caitlan holding Brynn
Bottom: Dallis, Hadley, Gordon, Tom

Wedding Video!

When Chris and I were married eight years ago, we didn't make a wedding video. Truth be told, we didn't even think about doing it, though I've always been a little jealous when I see them at other weddings. Well, a few weeks ago, I found a site that lets you put together a photo montage along with music-- just like a wedding video! So, I've spent the past few days going through and scanning our old photos to make a long overdue wedding video for us. It's been great fun digging through our old stuff-- we were just such cute little things! :) I decided to only include pre-marriage pictures and pictures from our wedding day, so it's as authentic as it would have been had we made it in 1998. Here it is, the Chris and Elise Hansen wedding video!

Make an online slide show at onetruemedia.com

Quick Background Tutorial

I certainly don't consider myself an expert in html writing, but I do have a handle on a few things. A couple of people have commented on the Halloween background, so I thought I'd post a short tutorial on how to change a background.

First, you'll need a picture. I found some good ones on Hellas Multi Media-- but beware, this site has a billion very annoying pop-ups. Once you find a background image that you like, right click on it and save it somewhere you can find it.

Next, you need to upload to blogger. I do this by creating a post and uploading a picture, but instead of publishing the post, I select "Save as Draft." That way you don't have a post with a weird background picture. Now that your picture has been uploaded, you'll want to select and copy the http:// on to get the picture's address on blogger.

Now, open your Blog template. In the first few lines, you should see a tag for the background. It will say something like Background: or background=. If the tag says background with a colon after it, you'll want it to look like this:

background:url(http://paste the picture's address here)

If the tag has an equal sign, it should look like this:

body background="http://paste the picture's address here"

Once you've done this, you can select "Preview" to see if it worked. If so, save your changes and re-publish. If not, you can clear the edits without messing up your current blog.

Hope this helps-- Good luck!

Threes!

Jill tagged me, so I had to... ah, you know you want to know anyway! :)

3 smells I like:
vanilla bean
newborn babies' heads
Chris :)

3 smells I hate:
garbage
old lady perfume
gasoline

3 Jobs I have had:
Waitress
Receptionist
Bill collector :(

3 Movies I Can Watch Over & Over:
Sliding Doors
Drowning Mona
The Sting

3 TV Shows I Watch: (I added this one because I'm addicted to these shows)
Studio 60
Grey's Anatomy
6 Degrees

3 of my Fondest Memories:
Going to Mexico with Chris
Dropping Jake off at the MTC
My boys' births

3 Jobs I'd Like to Have:
Novelist
Interior designer (and the talent that comes with!)
Someone who gets paid a lot but doesn't have to do anything

3 places I have lived:
Lake Stevens, WA
Sacramento, CA
Provo, UT

3 Things I like to do:
Scrapbook
Read
Shop

3 of my Favorite Foods:
Créme Bruleé
Fajitas
Salmon

3 Places I Would Rather Be:
On Carricklee, my grandparents' boat, currently in Ecuador
Hawaii
A spa

3 Websites I visit Daily:
Blogs
My Bank
Work Stuff

3 Things the Make Me Cry:
Sad news stories
Sappy movies (and commercials...)
Onions

I deleted the tag one, so whoever else wants to do this-- it's pretty fun. :)

Math Lesson

Last night we had a fun time watching my friend Karin's little boy, Everett, for the evening. My boys were especially taken with the cute 3 month old-- particularly Thomas. While I was giving Gordon his bath, Thomas kept Everett happy by practicing his math problems on his magna-doodle. How cute are these numbers?!?

Somehow this reminds me of a funny thing that happened on Sunday-- Gordon and I went into the primary room after the big kids went to their classes. (By the way, Gordon goes to nursery in November! YIPEEEEEE!!!) Anyway, our primary doesn't have a closing exercises, so the room was empty except for the presidency and a couple of moms with Gordon-aged children. The conversation was on a "kids say the darndest things" subject and when I came in, everyone got these sheepish smiles on their faces. Apparently, the kids were having a lesson about families and the president was explaining that there are many different kinds of families: one child, lots of children, one parent, two parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, etc. Different children were raising their hands to tell about their families, "I have two sisters," or "I live with my mom," or "We have a dog," and I guess Thomas raised his hand and said, "I might be getting a sister!" So, of course, now rumors are circulating and I had to set the record straight: I am not pregnant! I told them that I think Thomas meant that he might be getting a sister-in-law, as in when Gordon gets married!

Fun Mail Day

I really love days like today when the mail is all fun stuff. No bills, no work stuff, just the new Everday Food magazine (with recipes for "The Easiest Holiday Ever"-- yummy!), my latest book club book, Tom's Halloween costume (Superman-- complete with muscles), and this cute hat as a late birthday present from my sister, Kristie! Getting the mail totally made my afternoon happy! I totally love my new hat-- and just in time, it's getting COLD in Logan! Thanks Kristie!!
  

Let us gather in a circle...

 
As part of the bedtime routine, we sing a little song called "Let us gather in a circle" before we have our family prayer. Usually, Gordon just runs around during this part of the evening, but the past few nights, he has been watching Thomas and is starting to fold his arms. It's really sweet. Here's my attempt at capturing the moment, though I think the camera's presence takes away the spontaneity. Oh well, at least they're smiling, right? :) 

Ahoy there, me harties!

When I downloaded our pictures tonight-- what a great surprise-- adorable pictures of our favorite wee pirate! Chris must have taken them earlier today and I realized that I must learn his secrets for capturing Gordon's real smile. He's such a mischeivous little kid-- and his extra cuteness lets him get away with way too much!

Cutie Ahoy!
 
  

Twin Tiggers!

Okay, so they're not twins at all-- but look at these pictures! Since it's almost Halloween, we pulled out Tom's old Tigger costume and tried it on Gordon. Talk about flashbacks-- they look so similar in this absolutely adorable costume! Gordon loves to wear it around and I love that it's fuzzy enough to be worn outside on Halloween night without a coat. Too dang cute if you ask me!

 Here's Gordy Roo a couple of days ago.

 This is a photo of a photo-- taken from Tommer's scrapbook dated 10-31-02! 

Isn't she cute?

I just had to post this cute picture of my 17 yr old sister at Homecoming a couple of weeks ago. Isn't she darling?

Hmmm... So I'm 35?....

While I was finishing up my lunch today, I was surfing random blogs and found this funny quiz. I answered the questions as honestly as possible and here is the result: I'm 35. Is that weird? Will I revert someday? Anyway, it's kind of a fun quiz-- I'm curious to know what age my friends are! Okay, back to work...

You Are 35 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Ute Victory! and Congrats to the Aggies!

Last Thursday, Chris went to the Utah vs. TCU game at Rice Eccles Stadium to cheer the Utes to victory! The win wasn't huge (20-7), but it was enough to help fans forget their terrible loss to the Boise State Broncos the week before. Chris was a happy man!


I have to say, though, that the most fun sports news of the last week was the incredible upset of Fresno State by our own little Utah State Aggies on Saturday Night! I was in Salt Lake visiting my dear friend Sherrie (who really needs to start a blog!) when Chris called to tell me that freshman quarterback Riley Nelson (in his first collegiate start) threw the winning touchdown with only 55 seconds left in the game! This is USU's first victory of the season-- coming after some very devastating and scoreless losses. Chris and Tom got to enjoy watching the fireworks display from Tom's bedroom window.

Some interesting back info-- Riley Nelson was a heavily recruited quarterback from Logan High School who chose (crazily, it seemed) to head to USU over BYU or Utah for his freshman year. He is a cute little LDS kid who told the Talkin' Sports hosts that he went to bed early Saturday night after the game so he could get up for church the next morning and that absolutely nothing would keep him from going on his mission. Aw...

10-4 Kind of funny stuff...

 
When we got out of the car at the Grand Canyon, we noticed this deer just sitting there right next to the parking lot. She didn't even flinch when we took this picture-- and look how close Chris and Tom got! I guess that's domestication for you!

We got a kick out of these two signs on our way back to the condo. The first is an adopt-a-highway sign from Arizona, the second is a sign just outside Panguitch, UT. Well, we got a laugh out of them!
 
 

So, that's it for my blog coverage of our Family Vacation 2006! We really had a great time and are excited to get back to Southern Utah again soon! 

10-4 The Grand Canyon!

We debated whether or not to drive the three and a half hours down to the Grand Canyon, then decided we really had to do it since we were so close. Even though it was incredibly windy, I was so glad that we made the trip. This was my first visit to the Grand Canyon and it was amazing! We had a fun time hiking around-- Gordon strapped to Chris's back, of course, and me squeezing Tom's hand as we meandered the trails on the edge of the cliff. I was very surprised at all of the trees on the way and on the North side of the canyon. For some reason, I had always pictured a very desert-like setting. The canyon itself was quite beautiful and we were glad we made the trip!

 
 
 
Nice mane, eh? I don't know why I wore my hair down that day, but what can you do?