Gobble Gobble!

The whole Hansen family (minus Amy and her family who are so far away in Hawaii) journeyed down to Cedar City, Utah to spend the holiday at my sister Carrie's house. We originally weren't planning on going, but decided to surprise everyone. Of course, they pretty much all found out before we got there (how does that always happen?) except for mom...which was worthwhile to see her so happy because mom matters most. We quickly threw our bags in the car that Wednesday and headed down to Costa Mesa to meet up with Justin and Lauren. What is normally a 2 hour drive took us 5 hours. Once I had pulled out nearly all of my hair and declared my hatred towards holiday traffic, we made it and could start the drive to Cedar. It was quite an adventure. Taylor and Justin helped a family push their out-of-gas van about a mile on the freeway to glorious Primm. They were such good Samaritans. Then after following a swervy driver through the canyon and nearly getting killed by her, we called the police. The officer excitedly informed us that we had caught a drunk driver and we were heroes for the night. We finally crawled into bed at 3:00 am after a 13 hour drive (it should have been 9...bitter bitter).
The weekend was wonderful...14 adults and 19 children all staying at the same house for 4 days. Rarely ever do we get to have that much of the family together, so it was pretty special. Delicious food for all, lots of cute babies, and fun fun fun. We spent plenty of time on the Wii, played some rounds of Settlers of Catan, went to the annual Cedar City parade, laughed while we all tried our hand at the Tim-Tam Slam, and took up 2.5 rows at the movie theater. It was just pretty great. Of course the entire trip could not be complete without getting rear-ended on the drive home. Fortunately for Taylor & I, it wasn't our car, but we all endured a few days of beloved whiplash. In the end, it was a weekend well worth it. Can't wait to do it again for Christmas!

a moment...

a moment of silence. I bet Dad is skipping for joy in the Spirit World.

Mike Tyson

Heavy-D will now go by Mike Tyson for obvious reasons (the extremely broken nose). Let's just hope he doesn't develop a taste for ears.

it's coming...

Dad only ever taught me to make four or five things. Ham-fried rice, bratwurst, oysters with mayo on saltines, rice with cocoa, and frequent visits to Burrito Baby's. You can't blame him for the oysters. He comes from a German Oma who still makes Oyster stuffing for Thanksgiving.
I decided to make the old man proud by whipping up some rice with cocoa-- perfect for a cold winter night. (well, as cold as santa barbara gets anyways.)
thanksgiving is this week... christmas is right around the corner! I was so excited I couldn't help myself. I put on christmas music and even put up the tree! Jodi is less than thrilled.There are strict rules about Holidays around here. I must be my mother's son though, as soon as Jodi's not looking I'm gonna decorate the house too.

Welcome Home!

We are so excited to finally have both of our soldiers back! Our brother-in-law Brandon is a navy chaplain and served for 7 months in Iraq (for the 4th time I think). He returned home in Hawaii in October, just in time for baby Josiah to arrive! This is the best picture we could get right now, considering we were not there at his arrival and have no others with us.Justin came home just this last Saturday with the marines (from his 2nd deployment to Iraq) and we were lucky enough to be there at his arrival at Camp Pendelton. It was very exciting to see him, and to see all the other happy families hugging, crying, showing new babies, etc. Taylor had his chance to make something inappropriate in welcoming him home.
Welcome home Justin and Brandon and thanks for your hard work and sacrifice! We love you both and are proud of your service to our country!

white pony!

So Jodi's kind aunt decided to give us a little baggie of Borax which is a toxic chemical for killing ants. As she gave it to us she told us "Now don't get pulled over or they'll probly think it's cocaine!"
So sure enough I'm hauling butt home because it's late and I'm in the middle of nowhere when all of the sudden I see the flashing red and blue lights behind me. Dang! So we pulled over and all of the sudden as the cop's walking up Jodi throws the baggie onto the car floor once she realized that it looked like cocaine. The cop was no dummy though and returned a second later with a second cop who wanted to see what was on the floor.
"ummm... borax. that's what. which we promise is not a code word for cocaine, it's just a powder used to kill ants."
So the cop decideds to sniff away at the powder to make sure that it's not cocaine. Is it safe to sniff borax powder? I don't think so.
And instead of us all having a good laugh about life and how funny it is... You know what that guy did? He gave me a speeding ticket. Man, lighten up! And I thought Jodi was too serious!

Anyways, that got me and Jodi to thinking of what we'd look like all cracked out. Here's our best attempt.

and while we're at this lemme go ahead and add pictures of our my new favorite face to pull (which jodi copies!)

Endlich!!

Ich habe endlich zum Ende des Buches Mormon auf deutscher gekommen. Seit mehr als vier Jahren, da war ich in dem Missionfeld, habe ich dies als ein Ziel. Leider, dies bedeutet dass ich habe nur einmal in vier Jahren das Buch Mormon gelesen! Aber jetzt ich kann es lesen schnell! Was ist nun? Chinesisch? Vielleicht ...

Another New Job?

That's right, I now have two jobs. I have been enjoying Girls Inc. very much, the girls are so much fun. We went all out on making a haunted house for the girls and our big Halloween party, they loved it! It is great to see so many different little personalities every day that just admire your very existence. I am also training to get my CDL so that I can drive to the schools to pick the girls up. On a scale of 1 to 10 I am about -5 excited for it, but they are really in need. We'll see if I even pass the test. And now, I'm crazy enough to start working just as a cashier for now at Home Depot. It should be a fun place to work and I will get discounts so we can get flowers for our back porch and lots of fun stuff. I will be working M-F 6 am to noon at home depot, and then from 1 to 6 at Girls Inc. Am I crazy to work 12 hours a day? Yes. Am I going to be totally hating my life after about one week? Most likely. But will I get part time health benefits and money to finish school as well as save up for a baby? Yes. Well, I wish myself luck on new adventures.

community fair

we woke up this fine morning and to our total surprise there was a magical community fair right in our front lawn!

Now no fair would be complete without exorbitant amounts of free pizza, slushies, raffles, kids games and of course the medieval knights dueling one another to the death in full suits of metal armor.




When the knights weren't chopping each other they were caring for their toddlers. I somehow feel less safe with them living in the same community as me.

We won lots free things like a free gym pass for Jodi, free movie tickets AND....
we even got a new "used" vacuum from the swap shop.

the man... the mystery...

Some days I really miss the old man more than others. today's one of those days. we love you dad.

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