Kristine's Birthday

Kristine's second birthday cake. I love the bunt cake pan drying in the background.

She does get excited about her presents


The girls at the mall getting Kristine some make-up.

What a Beautiful face!

Sunday Pics-by Nichole

Grandma and Grandpa Hansen and Drewe

Kristine's B-day Dinner

Kristine's second cake.

The girls get to choose thier birthday dinner and Kristine loves my ribs and dutch oven potatos.

For Christmas my brother in law got me a chef outfit. Here is Kristine helping get the ribs done. We invited the Mumford's over for dinner in addition to Carl, Judy and Drewe being here to celebrate the special day.

The guests got to enjoy their choice of three different sauces and three different rubs. It was hard work and I think that I have narrowed it down - so that next time it is not so difficult. That day I had been sick so I woke up and went to urgent care, came home and sleep. Then got up to make the ribs. It was all worth it - Kristine was really happy.

Zoe Christmas Program - Penni go to next post

WARNING - Penni just please go to my next post and skip this one. You are not going to like it. I am going to be a little sarcastic.

I love going to the girls Christmas singing programs each year. They keep getting better and better. Nothing sets off the Christmas season like kids singing Jingle Bells - nope, I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – nope, Frosty the Snowman – nope, Silent Night - nope, but I remember hearing a great rendition of Light the Menorah. Bonus – every picture I have of my daughter, she is wearing that great menorah hat. I wonder if I went to North Scottsdale and went to the public school program - I would see a kid wearing a red Santa hat – probably not.

She is still the cutest thing around. Not sure about the ears of corn, that my have something to do with Kwanzaa.

***Penni I know that you didn't listen to me - don't get mad and call me. I warned you!! Sometimes I am proud to not be politically correct.***

Ward Christmas Party

Zoe sitting on Santa's lap



Zoe as the donkey in the Christmas program

The manger scene


We had a really good ward Christmas party this year. The food was great and the program was short and sweet.

Thanksgiving - Turkey Trot

Kristine ran the Turkey Trot with my dad. They had been practicing for a couple of week.

Here they are coming in for the home stretch.

Just so you don't think that i got out of exercising - Penni, Zoe, Nichole and myself ran in a 2 mile neighborhood turkey trot. Sorry no pictures.

Golf Outing with G-Pa

I got these photos in reverse order. This is a picture of the girls watching two young Asian sisters practice on the range after we finished. They were all decked out - the bag, the clubs and the outfits.

G-PA offering instruction

Kristine taking a swing and Nichole running after her Mulligan.

Look at the form

Christmas Prep

Shondelle and Jason remodeled their house and lost their vaulted ceilings. They asked us if we wanted their 12 foot Christmas tree (feels like a 20 foot tree). Penni immediately jumped on it. This is Carl and I putting it up. Jason later told me how grateful he was to get rid of that tree.

Our Supervisor

I have to admit that it did look nice after it was up.

Phone Penni

We joke about it in our family – but I know to a certain extent it goes on in all families – we call it “Phone Penni”. Let me set the stage – the kids are not listening, they are fighting with one another, one decides to talk back, another one decides to pick a fight with another sibling, you find one sitting in front of the TV not doing their homework and so on. As a parent you get upset – you may even raise your voice to get your children in gear. But wait – then the phone rings – you answer it - and with a pleasant voice say “Hello – oh no you didn’t catch me at a bad time ……” we call this “Phone Penni”. So when Penni is not in a good mood or the kids have gotten to her and it is my time to be with her – I lean over and say I want “Phone Penni”.

We went out with some friends this past weekend and were enjoying some good conversation. I mentioned that Penni had given me some limits as to what I could talk about – they immediately wanted to know what those limits were. Mind you Penni needs to do this – should do this - because I normally get myself into trouble. So I am trying to be good – we are at a Pub so I work in the stories about Penni and alcohol. Always a great story – then the Phone Penni reference works into the conversation. I explain the term Phone Penni to the other couple and the wife immediately says oh we call that “Church Chris”.

All I want for Thanksgiving is ..... Turducken!!!!

Isn't that a thing of beauty. A Turducken is a dish consisting of a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The thoracic cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are filled with, at the very least, a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird.

For an inside shot -

Do you think Penni will go for it?????????

Time Out for Mothers and Daugthers

Penni called me up a couple of weeks ago and said that she had heard of this thing called Time Out for Mothers and Daughters and she wanted to take Nichole and Kristine. I told her that it was a great idea. Well they went on Saturday and had a great time. It was a win for me too - Zoe and I hung out all day - I asked her what she wanted to do - Do you want to go play basketball, baseball or football and she said "yes" so we played all three. Then she said that she wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse for lunch. Funny girl.

Here are some of the girls thoughts from Saturday:

Nichole - I really enjoyed getting to spend time with my mom and Kristine. I really enjoyed all the singers, (Jenny Frogley and Hillary Weeks, they were my favorite, and then my most favorite was Laurel Christensen -she is a talker NOT a singer) and I really liked listening to their music and their stories.

Kristine - I really enjoyed going to Time out for Woman and Girls. I loved it. When this singer started singing she said " All Beehives stand up and DANCE!!!!",then she said " All Mothers stand up and dance!!!!. My mom got up and started doing all these moves and I just slouched in my chair and pretended she wasn't my mom. But the rest of the time I loved every minute of it with my mom. I love that woman!

I was reading someone else's blog that went to a meeting the night before called Time Out for Couples - this was taken from "her" notes

Richard and Kathleen Walker spoke on 3 main points:

1. Men and Women were purposely created differently. We see and hear things differently. UTILIZE OUR DIFFERENCES AND APPLY THEM TO MAKE ONE WHOLE UNIT!

2. MAKE YOUR SPOUSES HAPPINESS HAPPIER THAN YOUR OWN. Is this really possible? It's the natural man to take care of yourself first. Kathleen said she asked her mom (Marjery Hinckley) one time how to maintain such happiness in a marriage. Her response was: LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS.

3. Do we REALLY understand and apply to RECEIVE one another? Receive each other as best friends. Receive each other unconditionally, just as we are. Receive each other as #1.

I told Penni about number 2 and lowering her expectations - and she said "No way - I am not going to" - that is why I love her.

Reflection on the election - a la JJ

Thankful:

For a daughter that became very passionate about the elections and really passionate about who she thought should be the next President. She formed her owe opinion and when I pressed her on why she believed the way that she did – she actually had answers to my questions and was well thought-out for a sixth grader.

Prop 102 in Arizona and Prop 8 in California passed. It was not a political issue – it was a moral issue.

That I live in the country that gives me and my family the opportunity to have a voice.

For feeling patriotic as I stood in line to cast my vote at 6am with a few hundred other patriotic citizens.

That the Republican Party secured at least 40 seats in the Senate so that the Democrats can’t have complete control.

That our first black President doesn’t rhyme in his speeches. I came up with this one after hearing Jesse Jackson say that Obama was chosen for his direction, not his complexion.

Disappointed:

Friend and neighbors that had their property damaged because they put signs in their lawn showing their support for Prop 102 – defining marriage as between one man and one women. One couple had a car placed in front of their house for 72 hours with the words Begot written on it with an arrow to their house. The police couldn't have the car moved until it had been abandon for 72 hours. Laws even protect the stupid.

Seeing the sore losers that supported a “no” vote to prop 8 in California demonstrate at the LA Temple – the poor temple workers having to deal with all that hatred.


Final thought:

As a sat on the couch next to Penni on election night, watching our new President-Elect give his victory speech I was surprised that I started to feel a burning in my heart, yes it surprised me too. Especially, since I have found it hard to find anything in his politics that I agree with. It may have been that I began to notice the faces of the black people as the camera panned the crowd in Chicago. I was happy for them, I could see the pride on their face - because race is still a big issue in this country. The fact that America has elected a black president is a big hurdle in this country. I heard on a radio program that black people had something great to be proud of as a people, that they finally had a seat at the table of national power. They mentioned that they haven’t seen this much pride and unity in black people since celebrating the acquittal of OJ Simpson. I thought that was a interesting parallel.

My hope is that President Obama can do some good for this country. I am willing to hold judgment and give him a chance to make a different. My hope is that he will be able to keep the liberal democrats at bay.

Another - story of my life

One of the things that was on my list to do this weekend was to replace the key pad on the outside of our garage for the garage door opener because the other one was hard to use. So I replaced it and it is a little different than the old one so I was going to have to show everyone how to use it. As I am driving to work I remember that I didn't train everyone on how to use the new key pad. Then I remember that Penni is home so they can get in through the front door, no one is going to need the key pad. I thought that it would be a great FHE lesson - how to get in the house.

So I am at work it's 9:00am - I am meeting with someone and my phone rings. My phone has a "special" ring for the number that I gave Penni to call me on - so I know when it's her calling. Back to the story - I am in a meeting, the phone rings, I know it is Penni but I need to finish the meeting. Fifteen seconds later the phone is ringing again - this time the people I have in my office say - do you need to get that? No, it is my wife she just probably wants to tell me that she misses me. I am not sure that they got the sarcastic tone of my voice. But this time she did leave me a message - Todd, I need you to call me back as soon as you get this. So I called her back a couple of minutes later when my meeting was over. Now for the story of my life - Penni got locked out of the garage and needed to know the new code to the key pad. I bet Penni has used that key pad five times in the three and a half years that we have lived in that house and today was one of those days. Of course. You may ask how she got locked out of the garage because she's a smart cookie. Seems that our washing machine was spinning so hard (and according to Penni it is out of balance because I have never balanced it) that the bottom drawer of the washer opened enough so that it makes it that you can't open the back door that leads you into the garage. Honestly I don't make this stuff up - it's my life. One of the girls in the office asks me - dead battery - nope - out of gas - nope - water heater - nope - a/c - nope - Roscoe - nope - then I said - she got locked out of the garage - you're fault - yep. Then she says - you think that you would learn by now - nope!!

How the Girls spend their Sabbith Day.

They send emails to their Grandparents like this one -




Grandma,
Kristine and I thought this was quite funny!!! Can so you see a face of a soldier but what else do you see??

Did you see the man bending over on the top??Have a good day!! -Nichole and Kristine

I am surprised that they were able to type because they were laughing so hard.

The Beach - and the crash!!!!

So we spent one day at the beach. We hauled all the beach stuff done to the shore. I secured the umberlla and set up the chairs and spread out the banket. I was looking forward to sitting in my chair and just relaxing. Nichole and Kristine grabbed the boggie boards and handed out to ride the waves. Zoe spent some time playing in the sand and getting used to the waves. Soon after I sat down Penni says to me why don't you go out and help your daugthers boogie board. I think for a second and then head out.


Rewind two days - we have lifevests for all the girls and myself. Penni insists on the girls wearing their lifevests any time they go in the water - at the lake, in the ocean. So as I am packing Penni starts to hand me the lifevests. I don't share Penni's worrying attitude but I respect it and it is not a battle that I am going to pick. How can I argue against safety, until she says this gem "What about your vest". Oh hell no. Needless to say, my lifevest never made it out of the garage.

Back to the story -so I head out into the surf and I first spent some time with Zoe helping her get use to the waves. Then I went out in the water and hung out with Nichole, Kristine had headed to the shore. Nichole actually didn't need my help she was doing great. So I just hung out there in the water and would tell her when to go so that she could improve her timing the waves. I started to notice that about every 10th wave or so was particularly large. The first time I noticed this was when the wave started to come and I dove into the wave as it passed by me. Most of the time you come out the other side. But with this wave sucked me in, riped off my shorts and dragged me to the shore line. Pretty massive wave I thought. So I head back to "help" Nichole. Then about three guys come out, and join me out where the waves start to break, Nichole is a little bit ahead of us. I here the guys talking and they try to boogie board but they are not that good at it. They couldn't catch a wave. So after a while I say to myself someone has to ride these big waves, I guess if you want something done you have to do it yourself. So I go over to Nichole and ask to use her board for a minute. Then I head out to catch a big wave. As I am almost to my spot I see that a big wave is forming. So I whip around to catch it. I start kicking and the wave comes - I catch it just as I start to move on the wave - the wave comes crashing done and throws me head first into the ocean - my head hits the bottom of the ocean and smacks the sand. I hear the cartilege in my neck and nose crack. Then the wave takes me and flips me over and sucks me toward the shore. I go to stand up and stumble - I look at my stomach and notice that I am covered in blood. I can walk so I didn't break my neck and then I touch my nose to see if it is broken. The nose seems fine minus the handfull of blood. Nichole cames running up to me and says Dad are you OK - That looked bad. I tried wiping off the blood and asked her if she could tell I had been in a crash and she looks at me and says yes - it looks bad - So mom is going to notice? Yes. Just then the Oceanside Police come driving down the shore line in brand new Rangers. I am standing there blood pouring out my nose and they just drive by, I think to myself I am glad nothing bad happened. After talking to Penni I headed up to the showers to clean up and stop the bleeding - I had a couple of people ask me "Do you know that you are bleeding? My reply - that's what everyone keeps telling me. So that is the story from the beach. I can't see how I didn't break my neck based on the angle I hit the sand. Someone was watching over me. And lastly, Penni a lifevest would not have saved me.
(about the picture at the top - that is me riding the wave - just before the crash - I found it on the camera later that night)

Penni made me wipe my face before she took this picture.

Nichole riding the waves

Zoe

Kristine and Zoe

Nichole cames running up to me and says Dad are you OK - That looked bad. I tried wiping off the blood and asked her if she could tell I had been in a crash and she looks at me and says yes - it looks bad - So mom is going to notice? Yes. Just then the Oceanside Police come driving down the shore line in brand new Rangers. I am standing there blood pouring out my nose and they just drive by, I think to myself I am glad nothing bad happened. After talking to Penni I headed up to the showers to clean up and stop the bleeding - I had a couple of people ask me "Do you know that you are bleeding? My reply - that's what everyone keeps telling me. So that is the story from the beach.

Camping in San Diego

Sunset from our camp spot looking at the Pacific Ocean

The girls had fall break this past week and so we decided to go camping on the beach in San Diego. One of our friends offered to us the use of their tent trailer so we took them up on it. We had a really good time. We have heard some of our friends talk about going camping at the beach and they were able to give us a couple of good hints that made the trip even better. It was a great time to be together as a family. The girls did a really good job of helping out.

Penni sweeping the indoor/outdoor carpet

Cooking breakfast at the beach

Zoe reading a magazine before breakfast

Nichole taking in the ocean.

"Cold" Water

One of my "jobs" is to replace the five gallon water bottle on the water coller when it is empty and it seems to be always empty.

This morning it was empty "again" and I told the girls not to drink out of the water cooler any more because I was tired of changing the bottles. Of course I got a couple of confused looks. Well Zoe was at me to change the water, so I did. Then as soon as it is changed it she got a cup and filled the cup all the way to the rim. She then sticks her finger in it and then goes to the sink and pours it out. Mind you I was doing other things, then I see her walk over to the cooler again and she fills up the cup again. This time she has my full attention (because now I know why I have to replace these bottles all the time) and she sticks her fingers into the glass again and lets out a big sigh - then I say "What are you doing?" her reply was "waiting for the water to get cold." After I explained that it takes a couple of hours to cool warm water I had a big laugh, so I thought that I would share.

Two dates in one day - not since college

I have been feeling guilty - too much time in front of the TV and not enough time in front of the three greatest daughters that a guy could ask for. In my attempt to remedy that I have been to re-institute daddy daughter dates. So on Friday it was Zoe time. Then Friday morning Penni called to let me know that she hadn't been taken out - but before she got the words out I asked her for a lunch date. So I get credit for that one honey.





So for lunch Penni and I hit California Pizza Kitchen and had some good pizza and salad.





Then when I got home I expected Zoe all ready to go but I had to stand down stairs and wait for her to get an outfit on with a stain and some shoes on. As much as possible I love to let them do whenever they want to do. Where we are going to eat is always a big decision - when I first asked Zoe she said that she was to go to Texas Roadhouse. We later settled on Rubio's because of the time factor. So we go to Rubio's and she gets her normal chicken and cheese taco. She says that she wants to sit outside - are you sure cause it is still hot - nope she wants to sit outside. Then after dinner we head over to Wal-Mart to get her some new shoelaces that fit. Then for the main attraction of the evening. Zoe has been bugging me to go play basketball. I have been holding off because I can't find a hoop short enough for her - but I took her with Kristine and I the other night and she was able to do fine. So we went to the park and played basketball.





Now let me get to what we talked about - where should I start??? She talked a lot about boys - Nichole and Kristine have not been that interested in boys so Penni and I have been lucky so far. Zoe is not going to let us off the hook. She was talking about cute boys - and I had to ask what is a cute boy? You know when the boy get his long hair wet and then shakes it head like this. What??? Are you kidding me?? Where in the world have we been look at boys with wet hair shaking their heads. We are in trouble.

Kristine Babysitting Zoe

This post is for me to remember when I am old and looking back on life. Tonight Penni and I went to Standards Night or Progress Night or Goal Night - something with the Young Women. Anyway it was a great night to be with Nichole. We left Kristine home to babysit Zoe. As we left, Kristine said that she was going to write down everything thing that Zoe did wrong. Not a good sign - because Zoe, I am sure overheard Kristine say this so Zoe was going to give her lots to write about.


We came home to find this on our message board:




Number 2 was pretty funny. Zoe said that she wished the list was longer. Love at Home!!

Egg Babies

I am not sure that I really get the educational value here but the girl's school gives the sixth graders egg babies to take care of for a couple of days. I came home the other night and was making myself some dinner when I opened the fridge and noticed this on the top shelf. I told Kristine - don't you think that it would be comfortable in the egg carton.

Like I said a lot of effort was put into this activity. I guess one of the girls in Kristine's class upset her little brother, so he went and got her egg baby and threw it on the ground and broke it. The mother called the school and told them the sad tale; then requested that her poor little daughter be able to get a new egg baby. The lesson here - don't upset your little brother.

More Gems on My Camera