You say it's your birthday...

Yesterday was Drew's first birthday, and we had a fun Halloween/Birthday party last night. I can't believe a year has gone by...so much has changed! It's amazing to see how fast he's growing and learning and changing every day! On Wednesday night we were invited over to our friends' house for some fun Halloween games and treats and Drew just took off walking! I think he really likes walking on carpet...and since we have laminate wood floor, he hasn't been very interested. However, now that he had so much fun walking over at their house, he's been walking non-stop here! I can't believe I now have a baby who not only babbles and climbs on things, but now toddles everywhere too! Pretty soon he's gonna be running after Jakob and Joshy...wow. I just love him to death...he's so sweet and I love how he scrunches up his nose and for the last month he's had a really scratchy voice - we're not sure why, but it's so darn cute! I made a little slide-show for you all to see how he's grown over the last year...enjoy!

Daily Family Gem

Husbands Direct Righteous Living in the Home

Posted: 31 Oct 2008 02:00 AM CDT

“ ‘Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it’ (Eph. 5:25). With that kind of love, brethren, we will be better husbands and fathers, more loving and spiritual leaders. Happiness at home is most likely to be achieved when practices there are founded upon the teachings of Jesus Christ (see Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102). Ours is the responsibility to ensure that we have family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. Ours is the responsibility to prepare our children to receive the ordinances of salvation and exaltation and the blessings promised to tithe payers. Ours is the privilege to bestow priesthood blessings of healing, comfort, and direction.”

Russell M. Nelson, “Our Sacred Duty to Honor Women,” Ensign, May 1999, 39-40

I am in no way posting this as a nudge to my husband...but because I am so thankful that he tries so hard to do all of these things.

He helps me with whatever needs to be done around the house or with the kids and only makes a few sarcastic remarks here and there along the way. :)

I am so lucky to have him and even more lucky to have him around as much as I do...I know in a couple of months things will be different b/c of tax season...so believe me, I take full advantage of this more flexible time of year with him.

This song says "I'm lucky to be in love with my best friend..." and I feel the same way. I trust him completely and I love how he encourages and inspires me to be better.

Mmmmmmmmwaaaahhh! Love ya babe!

Yeah, I know this is a cheesy engagement picture, but I love it! Look how young we are!! And we honestly haven't had any recent pics together...I think it's about time we did!!!

Twilight Movie Tickets

Just an FYI - tickets are already on sale for Twilight! If you are planning on coming to the midnight movie with us after the premiere party, then get your ticket soon before it sells out! We're going to Bella Terra - and you can use Costco tickets to save money - so it's $7.50 rather than $10.75!!! Brad surprised me with 10 tickets the other day...and so far 4 of them are spoken for, but the other 6 are up for grabs!!! (He bought tix from Costco first, then went to the box office to pick up the movie tix!!) SO let me know if you want one!!

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

Fun costumes + free candy??? How can anyone not love Halloween??

I have always looked forward to this time of year - and even as a child dressed up and tried to trick-or-treat when it wasn't even Halloween! Some of my neighbors were obliging...others just laughed and tried to send me home.

I dressed up and went trick-or-treating through my senior year of high school...I just LOVE it! I loved the anticipation of revealing my costume to my friends at school parties and ward parties...it was so much fun! Now as an adult I think it's so much fun to help my kids dress up and pick out costumes.

I've tried to get Brad to join in the festivities and he has refused every year -- except for this year. He said if I actually used my sewing machine to make him a costume, then he'd wear it. Well, I always thought he'd make the perfect Fred Flintstone, so it finally happened! I was Wilma of course, but our kids' costumes were totally unrelated! Drew wore our old Tigger costume that both Jakob and Joshy wore for their first Halloween costumes, Joshy recycled Jakob's skeleton costume from last year, and Jakob's rock star costume was inspired by Guitar Hero!

We had so much fun at the trunk-or-treat and are looking forward to Halloween this friday! Here are a few pics...

Roy's "Recipe for Life"

My cousin Jessie recently posted something that her dad (my uncle) came across in my Grampa's notes. I thought it was definitely worth re-posting on my own blog for the benefit of others. All of these things pretty much sum up who my Grampa was...so it was really cool to read it...and I hope you enjoy reading it too, whether you knew him or not.

Work hard and stay close to the Lord and you will be surprised how blessed you will be.
Don’t believe that it can’t be done, just because somebody tells you it can’t be done.
Hoe to the end of the row.
You have to learn how to follow before you can learn how to lead.
Don’t ask another person to do something that you’re not willing to do yourself.
Find someone you can marry in the temple.
Always make your word good, no matter what it costs.
Spend less than you make and invest wisely.
Always pay a full tithing.
Plan ahead; it’s later than you think.
Make yourself self-reliant and teach your children self-reliance.
Budget your time for family, work, church, community, and play.
Budget your money to achieve your goals.
Avoid fatigue. Early to bed and early to rise.
Become more spiritual. Read and study scriptures, attend classes.
Plan for missions and serve them.
Develop charity in your soul.
Above all, pray often and endure to the end.

My almost 1-yr-old

It's hard to believe that my little Drew is almost 1!!! At first I felt like time was moving along at a nice slow pace, but then in the blink of an eye it was already October and I was left thinking, "What happened!!??!!??" He is such a sweet, mellow kid...I just absolutely adore him and all of his funny scrunched-nose faces...he's definitely got character...just maybe a bit more reserved than Jakob and Joshy. Well, we'll see if he stays that way!


He officially took his first steps on September 28th, over at my cousin Kay's house. We were very excited...but he hasn't been too interested in walking here at home. He will walk if you hold his hands, and he walks around furniture, holding onto the wall, etc...and he goes pretty fast with his little walker too! So far I think he just realizes he can go much faster crawling...so that's what he does!


If you say "Hello!" he will put his hand up to his ear and make a talking noise (like he's on the phone), and if you say "Bye-bye" he waves to you. We've been trying to teach him to cover his eyes to play peek-a-boo, but we haven't gotten there just yet. He does however love to put his head on the ground and look up at you under his legs, like this:

When there is a nice breeze, I like to leave our front door open, but I put a gate across the steps to keep Drew from escaping...this is what he was doing yesterday afternoon while I was in and out doing laundry:

And he eventually figured out how to slide open the screen in the kitchen to escape...

Oh, I almost forgot...Drew is really quick to grab things from you, so one day while I was buckling him into his carseat, he grabbed my sunglasses off my face and I said something about him being a "quick draw." Since then, Jakob likes to call him Andrew James "Quick-grabber" Hanson. :) Gotta love nick names from big brothers!

Excellent commercial...

The following commercial is from www.catholicvote.com, and even though I am not catholic, I thought the message in this video was expressed very well. Check it out:

FYI: It's ALREADY Happening!

First Graders Taken To San Francisco City Hall For Gay Wedding

October 11, 2008
Contact: Chip White/Sonja Eddings Brown, 916-215-4392

SAN FRANCISCO, October 11 – In the same week that the No on 8 campaign launched an ad that labeled as “lies” claims that same-sex marriage would be taught in schools to young children, a first grade class took a school-sponsored trip to a gay wedding...(read more here)

OME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Translation: OH MY EDWARD!

Remember to breathe...and ENJOY!


Twilight HD Exclusive Trailer

Why not??

Do you love free stuff??? I DO!!! Check it out!!!

"Handbag Planet is almost here. To celebrate the October 15, 2008 launch, we are giving away a free handbag every hour for 24 hours on the day of the launch. Our high fashion, trendy handbags are inspired by popular designer brands and priced between $30 and $80.

After signing-up in one easy step below, you can select the handbag you would like to win. There's absolutely no catch - this means no shipping/handling fees or credit card required. Yes, it's really that simple!"

Sign up to win a FREE handbag at: www.handbagplanet.com

Good luck!

The Lord's Peace Brings Comfort

"Life often feels like a great pile of obligations, frustrations, and disappointments. But the Lord is there, always the same, His arms still outstretched. When we feel overwhelmed, we have to remember the peace He has spoken to us on previous occasions. His peace brings comfort and strength; the world cannot give that to us."

Kathleen H. Hughes, "Remembering the Lord's Love, Ensign," Nov. 2006, 111-12

New Twilight Movie Poster and...

In case you haven't heard yet, there will be a new, final trailer for TWILIGHT coming soon! It will be debuting in theatres on Friday, October 10th in front of certain movies (it is at the discretion of the individual theatres). There will also be a sneak peak of the new trailer on Entertainment Tonight on Thursday, October 9th. Immediately following the sneak peak, Summit is letting the fans be the first to see the trailer online in its entirety and share it.

What you need to know:

• You can see the trailer first online before it's officially released, via the Twilight widget. If you don't have the widget, you can grab it from the official film site at TwilightTheMovie.com.
  
• The trailer will be available exclusively via the widget starting at 8:00 PM PST on October 9th for one hour, before launching in HD on MySpace at 9:00 PM PST.
  
• A countdown clock will be added to the widget shortly, counting down to this highly anticipated event.

ALSO...The official track-list for the Twilight soundtrack has been released! The CD will be in stores November 4th.


Muse — Supermassive Black Hole
Paramore — Decode
The Black Ghosts — Full Moon
Linkin Park — Leave Out All The Rest
MuteMath — Spotlight (Twilight Mix)
Perry Farrell — Going All The Way (Into The Twilight)
Collective Soul — Tremble For My Beloved
Paramore — I Caught Myself
Blue Foundation — Eyes On Fire
Rob Pattinson — Never Think
Iron & Wine — Flightless Bird, American Mouth
Carter Burwell — Bella's Lullaby

Click here for more info on pre-ordering the CD and a message from Stephenie's publicist.

So, any and all of you Twilight fans out there who want to come to my Twilight Movie Premiere Party, please let me know soon so I can start making my invitation list!!!

Blog-stalking is not...

...always a waste of time! Here's proof:

(don't forget to scroll down and pause my playlist before you watch the video!)

After watching this, I wiped my eyes, took a deep breath, and felt really proud to be a mama!