Halloween Festivities

Considering that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, it was great to have it extend over the whole weekend.  I thoroughly enjoyed our Halloween festivities this year.  Instead of just one day to enjoy we had the entire weekend to celebrate.  Allie had a school party on Friday morning, we had a ward party on Saturday night, and we celebrated on Halloween by carving pumpkins, having dinner in a pumpkin, and enjoying the trick or treaters.  The only thing that we didn't do was have a baby.  Hopefully that comes soon!

Allie trying out the part of Captain Hook 

Cute Tink ready for the night

At the request of Tinkerbell we all followed through with our assigned parts.  She requested that Blake be Peter Pan, I was Wendy, and Papa was Captain Hook.  It was a fun night!

Tinkerbell and Captain Hook heading off to trick or treat.  

Peter Pan and Wendy back at the car handing out candy to the kids

Tired Tink crashed out in bed after a night filled with fun and sugar

Halloween day we carved out a pumpkin to cook dinner in

Allie was not going to touch the pumpkin guts at first.  She worked awhile carving out the pumpkin with her spoon.  She finally decided to dive in after observing me have some fun with the guts

She told me not to worry because she was going to "take care of the dirty work for me"  

Allie loves everything raw....literally.  When we make chicken nuggets for lunch Allie will sneak one before it goes into the oven and eat it frozen.  When I am cutting up vegetable for dinner she grabs potatoes, squash, anything and eats them uncooked.  So, what was different than a chuck of pumpkin going into her mouth.  Well as you can tell she was not to fond of the raw pumpkin

A Halloween day storm brought us a beautiful rainbow.  You can barely tell from the picture, but there was actually a double rainbow that appeared.  There was another one right on top of the one seen in the picture

It wouldn't be dinner without the famous "dinner in a pumpkin."  Here's to another great Halloween had by the Hansen household!

BIG SISTER Class

In preparation for our little miss to arrive I signed Allie up for a sibling preparation class at the hospital.  Allie got to learn a little bit about newborns; how they sleep, eat, and poop a lot.  They taught each of the kids how to change the babies diaper and how to swaddle the baby.  For part of the class they took us on a tour over at the hospital.  We went to visit the Labor and Delivery rooms (Allie hopefully won't visit this room) and we went up to the newborn nursery and the woman's recover unit on the 8th floor.  It was very surreal for me to be at the hospital looking at these newborns, knowing I was 38 weeks, and imagining that could be us any day.  It got me very excited! 

Allie practicing her swaddling skills.  When Allie has told people about her class she actually tells them that she learned to swaddle the baby, not wrap the baby.  I was surprised that she remembered this.

All wrapped up nice and tight

Each kid got a certificate and a Big Kid pin when we were done with the class.  Allie got really excited after taking this class.  I know that she is going to be a great big sister and a great helper to me

Camping to the Middle Fork

We headed up the Middle Fork of the Boise River for our 1st and last family camping trip of of the season.  I was a little disappointed that we hadn't made it out during our crazy summer and wanted to have a last family excursion before our little miss arrives.  We ended have a great time and were blessed with some great weather.  We ended up getting up and setting up camp Friday afternoon.  Blake enjoyed some fishing while Allie and I enjoyed hanging out by the river with dad and getting dinner cooked up.  The funnest thing about camping in the fall is crawling into your tent at 7:30 when it's pitch black out and hanging out in your confined space till morning.  We ended up having the laptop with us and popped in a movie to watch.  Blake and I passed out early while Allie stayed up to watch Willy Wonka.  Allie informed us in the morning that we both missed the best part of the movie, "Violet turning into a blueberry!"  The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and took down camp.  We then enjoyed a scenic fall drive, made our way to Atlanta, ID and found ourselves a hot springs to dip into.

Allie enjoying the best part of camping.....the yummy snacks

The fisherman getting ready

Learning the ropes of fly fishing from Dad

Not quite sure what this reaction was to, but love that I caught this face on camera

Our camp spot was on a beautiful bend of the river.   I love how no one else is camping in late October; we picked out the best spot that we could find.

Blake and Allie getting cozy on the rocks in the hot springs that we finally found.  It was like a treasure hunt to find a hot springs.  Our map showed the hot springs but we would head up trails that would lead to nowhere,  we stopped at spots where we weren't able to find trails into the hot springs, we found hot springs across the freezing cold river and just weren't having any luck.  We finally found one that was right along the river and had multiple pools that we all enjoyed.

A family picture to prove that we were all there



Blake and Allie proving we made it to Atlanta, ID

It snowed on us during our drive home so we had to stop and take a picture of our "first" snow of the season.  

I just love fall and the changing colors of the leaves on the trees.  My favorite thing to do is to go on drives up in the mountains to view how beautiful this time of year is.

We sure enjoyed all the beauty that was surrounding us during our trip up to the mountains.  Here's to the memories of our 2010 camping trip!

Field Trip to Farmstead

Allie had her first preschool field trip this year and I tagged along with about every other mom.  We visited the Farmstead Pumpkin Patch and had a great time.  I was very impressed with their "preschool program" that they put on for the kids.  We started out by going to the animal farm and singing "Bingo", "Old McDonald," and a few other favorite farm songs.  We got to ride out on the hay ride to pick a pumpkin, jump on the jumping pillow, play in the corn box, ride on the cow train, and explore the kid maze.  The one thing I was very disappointed about was me forgetting the memory card for the camera.  I thought the entire time that I had been capturing all of these great moments along the way.  One more thing to blame on this pregnant brain of mine.  At least I ended up finding my little point and shoot at the end of the trip and captured a few photos.

The preschool class riding on the cow train

Brynn and Allie riding on "Sweet Pea"

Allie making her way through the kid maze

A picture of me and my little girl to prove that I did in fact attend the field trip-37 weeks prego and all

We found this cute baby goat on our way out; it was ready to take a ride in the wagon.  

Hansen Cousin Party

The Hansen cousins came into town from Utah this weekend.  We got to spend some time with them and like always it was a crazy time with all the little ones running around.  

Rub a dub dub-5 Little ones don't all fit in the tub.  Allie and Lucy waiting their turn

Lucy found a way into the crowded tub of cousins

Saturday we headed out to Linder Farms Pumpkin Patch.  The kids enjoyed their time riding on the swings, the cow train, and visiting the petting zoo. Allie was the only cousin who didn't want to ride on the swings; I was shocked by that one considering that's all she wants to do when we go to the park.  The petty zoo ended up being a bunch of over fed animals....they wouldn't eat any of the pellets the kids were feeding them.  It was a little crazy being at the crowded farm with a large group.  We ended up not even making it out to the pumpkin patch because we had kids melting by the time we were done with all of the other activities.

The Hansen Cousins best attempt at a group photo

Tractor Man Cam and his slew of pumpkins....Allie, Lucy and Brynn

Allie and Jane riding the caboose on the cow train

A few more cousins riding along at the tail end

The cow train was really long and we had cousins spread out all along the way

The Hansen Family attempting to string all the little ones through the Boise State corn maze

Enjoying some time in the corn box before heading home.  It was a great weekend with the cousins.  The mom's had their first, and not last, girl's night. We ditched the dad's who stayed home and got put in charge of watching the kids as well as the BSU Game that was on.  It's probably hard to imagine what got more tended too.  At least most of the kids are independent enough, no one was hurt, and the mom's enjoyed a night out shopping.

Preschool Zoo Class

Allie and I signed up for a 4 week preschool zoo class and finally got in.  I have heard a lot of good things about the class and I have seen in the past how the class fills up immediately upon opening.  It worked out to be perfect timing for the class and a fun little activity that Allie and I could do together before the baby arrives.  I was very impressed by the structure of the class and the activities that they had lined up for us.  We first started out by talking about a specific animal species; today was reptiles.  We then read a book about this animal group and then had a few hands on experiences.  Our first hands on experience was sitting in a big circle while we were introduced to EVE-the live Boa who slithered around in the middle of our circle.  The kids each got to get up and go and touch EVE, the enormous 8 foot long snake.  I was very impressed with this hands on experience.  We then trekked through the zoo finding all the rest of the reptiles that they had.  For our final activity we came back and were able to make a craft.  It wasn't a chintzy cheap craft that I come home and throw in my trash; it was a very fun cute snake made out of fabric that we braided.  Let's just say week 1 of Preschool Zoo Class didn't disappoint; let's hope there is more fun to follow.

Eve making her appearance in the circle

I was shocked by Allie's reaction to the snake.  When they told us to move to the other room because we were going to be meeting a large snake,  Allie was the first one up from the table. She RAN into the other room where the snake was and YES she went right over to pet the snake.  I was not expecting this reaction from my little girl, but glad she enjoyed her experience.  I on the other hand had to hide my reaction for "fear of snakes" and pretend that I was really excited sitting on the floor with this large Boa slithering next to me

Eve coming by me for another close encounter

After our fun zoo class, we were in the zoo, which meant we could spend all the time that we wanted there.  We went to check out our new baby giraffe.  Our zoo has a bad track record for giraffes dying for some reason so hopefully we can keep this cute little one

Allie enjoyed climbing on the animals

Mama and Moments with my Girls

One of Allie's favorite things to do at bedtime is to have me lay down by her so she can feel the baby moving.  It's fun to have Allie at an age where she just loves to lay there and gets what is going on. She loves to lay there and talk to her sister and tell her stories and how much she loves her.  Another one of Allie's favorite things to do that I just love is to lay down on my chest.  She loves laying on my chest snuggled into everything that is enlarged (belly and boobs:))  She also loves to tuck up her legs so they are snuggled into my belly too.



 I just love these moments that I have with my little girls already; I called Blake into get a snapshot of us so I could remember these moments