So much to catch you up on

Sooo much to catch up on what has gone down the last month so let me start from way back in Mid-December (warning, you may want to grab your favorite blanket and hot chocolate and snuggle in for a loooong read.)

Well, the Thursday before Christmas we all flew to Montana for 10 days where we flew on one plane from Denver to Montana that Cory jokes that it is the only plane where you can enjoy both the window seat and the isle seat at the same time. Can you picture it? It was so small that Cory and I had to laugh as we walked to the back of the plane and had to step up a hump in the middle of the isle and duck our head at the same time to avoid hitting our head. I hope you’re your visual is as good as it really was. It was sure a first for us.

We had a great time in Billings. We enjoyed lots of family and family parties, Grandpa’s wonderful chocolates, Christmas and Santa, and the craziness that comes along with getting ready for a wedding reception being held in my parents home. . . somehow I thought it would be easier . . . not so, but it was beautiful! It wasn’t the most stress-free “vacation” we have ever been on but it was really nice to be with everyone. In fact it was the first time that all of my siblings were together for Christmas in about 6 years so that was really nice. Thanks Dad and Mom for making Christmas so wonderful for us and our kids.

I received the most thoughtful gift from Cory this Christmas. He was so proud of himself the whole month before, that I had NO idea what he was doing for my gift, and he was right. He gave me the first gift to open, which looked like a digital photography text book. The next gift was a well put-together binder stating that he had successfully enrolled me in school at Columbus State Community College in a photography class and that I would be starting January 12th; I was really surprised and really moved by his thoughtfulness. I had been telling him for a long time that I would like to go back to school and I was so excited!! (I actually had my first class yesterday and I can tell that I am going to love it!! It is just like anything, the more you learn about a subject the more interesting it can become; it was such a great gift for me, and as he puts it, it is the “gift that keeps on giving.”)

After The crazyiness of kids and Christmas we got ready for my sister Crystal’s wedding. We had a great girl’s night the night before her wedding and we stayed up and just talked until late late, or was it real early!?!?!? The Temple ceremony was great; she looked just beautiful. We couldn’t be happier for her and Gabe! The reception that evening was wonderful. (When I get photos from my sister-in-law I will post a few.) After the reception they opened their gifts and were out of the house by 10 pm as they had to be at the airport early the next morning as they headed to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on their honeymoon. How fun for them!!

The next day Cory, the boys and I headed to Bozeman Montana to meet Cory’s parents there. We were so lucky, with all the bad weather, to be able to spend 4/5 hours with them before we headed back to Billings and they headed back to Idaho. Although our time was short it was worth the trip for us. Briggs loved showing off his football uniform to his grandparents, playing on the McDonalds play gym, and opening presents from Grandpa and Grandma!! Ethan loved playing ball with a little dwarf boy who was his age; he was really cute.

Two days later, New Years Eve, we headed back to Kansas City. We had an interesting plane ride home as Briggs threw up during take-off. I rarely pack extra clothes for him but was glad I put in that extra white shirt so all went well. That was our trip in a nutshell and really it is such old news by now; but that is what we were up to over the holidays.

We got home on Monday and finished preparing our house to sell: ie. Staging it, touch-up painting, filling in nicks in the wood and meeting with our realtor. We got all ready and took off for Ohio on Saturday. We have now been in Columbus for 1 week and so far so good.

The Monday after we got here we were at a department store getting some items for Cory work attire. I had earlier that day told Cory that I didn’t think I was quite ready to get rid of Ethan’s bottle. Consequently that night I let Ethan take it with us on our walk and while he was playing at the store he must have dropped it. It wasn’t until we were half-way home that we realized that we didn’t have it. Cory looked at me and said, “I guess tonight’s the night.” We did a bedtime routine, and he cried for a half hour the first night, but has gone down many times without a word since; he has done really well. I guess it is always scarier for us parents to get rid of our safety blanket than it is for the child at times. Next is potty-training here in next few weeks. . . I’m scared! But I think he is ready and we are hoping it goes pretty seamlessly.

It is definitely different living in an apartment again, but we live across the street from a wonderful outdoor/indoor shopping center. From my computer I can see the “Cheesecake Factory,” “Barns and Noble,” “PF Changs” etc. so it is great for the boys and me during the day to be able to get out of the house and go walk around. They also have this great outdoor train that the boys love to go visit and they enjoy story time and the play area at Barns and Noble. It always seems like it takes a few months to feel comfortable with the area and it starts feeling like home.

Yesterday we checked the church website to see when church started for us and it said 1 p.m., so this morning we were just all lounging around and about 9:15 we were about to head out the door to go on a Sunday drive when we get a text message from a friend saying that the ward we are in is actually at 9 . . . so our house was a whirlwind as we were trying to get everyone ready as quickly as possible. During the midst of this I was trying to get Briggs to put his church sweater on and he kept going out of the room saying that he didn’t want to wear his sweater. Finally, after asking several times, I calmly, but sternly gave him a warning to come put his sweater on or he would be heading to time-out. So he comes around the corner and he puts his palms up and tilts his head and says, “you’re just freaking on me mommy, you’re just freaking on me.” Apparently I didn’t realize that sometimes when the boys are out of control I will say something like “you boys need to stop freaking out.” I had a good laugh about that. Cory kept asking Briggs what “mommy was doing this morning” and Briggs would tell him the same thing, “mommy was just freaking on me.” Kids . . . they say the darndest things; who knew they got so much of it from us parents, it just sounds cuter when they say it.

We met our ward today and I don’t think I have ever had more people come up and welcome us to the ward; it was very refreshing; there are a lot of young families like ours which is nice. When we told people that we are in an apartment and are looking for a home it is amazing how everyone has an opinion about where we should live, and what schools are the best; one lady came up and told me that she wants to sell her house and that we “should come look at it.” I guess word spreads fast. But I guess it is nice to take a poll and we’ve narrowed it down to a few areas that we got the most response of “good schools” and I guess we’ll start looking there J. People are funny!

It was Briggs’ first day in Primary and he was reluctant at first but when asked to come to the front and introduce himself, instead of standing by the primary president, he boldly went and stood on the stand like the boy who gave the scripture. He told them his name, and when they asked him to say it one more time for everyone he said, “I’m 3” then he went and sat down by a little girl in his class; how cute.

Well, that about covers the Hansen family happenings until now. Shorter Blogs in the future.