Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful!  We spent it here in Rexburg with Doug's family.  I just love getting ready for the 'big dinner', when everyone is in the kitchen helping, and making delicious food.  True the food is delicious but its more than that.  Its about the fact that family is all gathered together.  That you can feel the love that is being shared as everyone is happy to help and contribute.  Thats what I love about the tradition of a 'big dinner' on thanksgiving day.

My other favorite thing, something that is a tradition in the Hansen Family, is going around the table and saying what you are thankful for.  It is a wonderful opportunity to share your feelings with your family that you don't often share.  I always come away feeling uplifted and having my testimony strengthened!  Thanks family for all of your wonderful examples!

The Hansen Family (minus a few truly missed members)

September/Halloween Catch-Up

Septemeber brought us to my birthday and of course a fantastic birthday present: Burley!  The cutest little fuzzball on this planet : )!

       

We went to visit Becca & Craig in Twin Falls over Labor Day weekend and stopped to pick him up in Burley (no its not a coincidence that this happens to be our pups name) on the way home.  He was so tiny and cute I just can't believe how he has grown up so fast!

He was not too bad to potty train.  He actually caught on rather quickly and only had one accident every couple days.  It was kind of funny because he never would whine at the door or scratch when he needed to go.  Instead he would just come up to you,  sit, and stare at you, willing you to read his mind and the fact that he needed to go outside.  Needless to say potty training only took about 3 weeks and now he never has a problem with it.

I have really enjoyed teaching him tricks and taking pictures of him.  For those of you who know him, you know that these pictures don't do him justice.  He is just way too cute.

His first time digging.  He loved it! He had such a messy

face afterwards though : ).

     

Playing outside at Doug's parent's house.

    

Just being adorable.  He climbed up onto this shelf we have in the kitchen and just sat there watching us do whatever.  It was too cute not to take a picture.

Ok moving on : ) I will have many more posts about Burley with lots more pictures.

Halloween was a lot of fun!  I just love to see little kids dress up and enjoy all of the colors that come with fall!  I'm not a fan of the scary stuff.  We had fun doing another murder mystery dinner with Doug's family.  We even got to have Becca and Craig come do it with us.  Here are the great pictures : )

        

I don't know how we missed Mom & Dad Hansen but they looked fabulous as well.  We enjoyed lunch together and a good mystery.

Dutch-Oven Dessert Cook Off

We also had the Quick family reunion about a week later.  We had a lot of fun playing games, seeing family, and of course eating.  My parents decided that the dessert cook off was so much fun at my Dad's reunion that we should do it at the Quick one too!  I decided I might as well compete.

I soon found out that almost everyone was going to cook something and they were practicing to make sure it would be just right.  So of course the competitiveness in me began to come out.  We practiced making and apple pie in the dutch oven and it surprisingly turned out so well!  So I was set for the competition, thinking I had done it before and shouldn't make any mistakes.

I love to watch competitions on Food Network and I sometimes wonder how when they cook and practice everyday they can ever forget something or mess something up.  Well I now know : ).  We were given a time limit and it didn't seem like enough time at all!  I was hurrying so fast I totally forgot to put the sugar in the pie crust, which I didn't notice till after the whole pie was made and the lattice top put on. It went a little something like this:

Me: Mom, does this pie crust taste salty to you?

Mom: Woah! Yeah did you put too much salt?  Its WAY salty!

Me: No I swear I know I put the right.....(I was looking at the recipe).....Awww I forgot to put the sugar in!

Mom:  How much sugar did it call for?

Me: ummm....a 1/3 of a cup (cringing).

Mom: Thats a lot of sugar....we'll just have to see.

I was sure that I had ruined the whole thing and gave up all hope of winning.  The good thing about the pie that I chose is that the filling is extremely sweet and right under the top crust is a whole ton of sugar.  You sprinkle a mixture of brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and pecans on top of the apples before you put the top crust on.  So when the pie was done and I tried the first bite I was pleasantly surprised to find it was even better without all that sugar in the crust.  It helped to balance the sweetness of the filling!

Everyone had to sample the different desserts and then on a silent, private ballot cast their votes.  They announced the third and then the second.  My name wasn't in either and I knew I had won!  We got a 12" lodge dutch oven which is great because we only had one 10" one!!  (my Dad was in charge of the prizes and of course went all out on the dutch oven stuff : ).   I felt like I was in a food network competition for a couple of hours.  The only thing missing was the $10,000 check at the end : ).

August Catch-Up

We started August with the Boyer Reunion.  It was so much fun as always.  We got to see a lot of Doug's cousins, which was great!  Some of the high lights of the Reunion were boating, rock climbing, and of course skits/talent night.  I got a lot of pictures during the rock climbing but seemed to have forgotten my camera for the other activities.

The Great Climbers...

     

We also took the kids to the Splash Park and Carousel.  It was so much fun to watch them play! Here's me and a couple of my adorable nephews.

  

Later on in August Mom and Dad Hansen drove us, Rachel and Bryant to meet Becca and Craig in SunValley and go to the Symphony.  We enjoyed the drive and were able to stop and say hi to Grandma Boyer for a couple of minutes!  It was so good to see her again.

We listened to wonderful music while the weather got pretty rainy. Luckily we were under the tent during the concert.  We got some blankets to walk under while Doug and his family reminisced about their days while Dad played in the Sun Valley Symphony.  It was fun and we had a great time!

      

The Waite family reunion was in Island Park this year!  So we only had to drive a couple hours to get there.  We got to stay in a fun cabin, play games, sing songs, buy fun things at a bazaar, and bid on items in an auction.  It was so beautiful up in the mountains and we loved spending time outside playing horse shoes and darts.

I think one of my favorite things about reunions is most definitely the food.  We always eat so well! We got to do dutch oven cooking one night and got to sample delicious desserts from the dessert cook off.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera and I have no pictures : (

July Catch-Up

July was a pretty crazy time for us!  I graduated with my Associates in Piano Pedagogy, so my parents came up to see me.  I also was lucky (or should I say unlucky?) enough to be asked to play a musical selection at convocation.  Of course I had to say yes although I really hate the pressure of performing, especially in front of all of the music majors graduating.  Here are some pictures from that extremely terrifying and yet still relieving experience.

         

  

Of course everyone was there to support me from Doug's family and for that I was very grateful.

So after that was over my Mom stayed for a week while my Dad went home and worked.  We had a reunion up in Idaho so he would return the following week for that and they could both go home together.

My Mom was such a sport!  She got thrown in the middle of Becca's wedding, helping me quilt and the Boyer Reunion!  It would be so overwhelming and yet she loved every minute of it and made herself at home like she was just part of the family.  I was so glad to have her here for a whole week it was wonderful!

As I said she helped me finish the quilt I made for Becca.  It was crazy because I put the quilt top together while I was going to school and got the quilt up on the frames right before finals week.  Well I didn't get too much quilting done because of finals so we had a whole lot to accomplish in 5 days so we could have it ready to display at the reception.

           

   

Luckily we had the help of the whole family!  Yep those are the Quilting Hansen Brothers!  They were great sports to come and put a few stitches in.  Dad Hansen and Bryce did put ONE stitch in and wanted to be sure everyone knew it, I just didn't catch them on camera with the evidence.  Needless to say I think they all came away with a new understanding of how hard quilting can be : ).  They really were awesome at it and their stitches were so neat and straight!

So then that brings me to the wedding.  We were so excited to witness Becca and Craig being sealed!  It was a special experience to have see so much family together in the temple to lend their love and support.

                 

Becca was such a beautiful bride and Craig looked rather dashing in his tux : ).  We enjoyed a beautiful reception with a wonderful program and of course wonderful food!  We are definitely looking forward to having Becca and Craig back from Twin Falls!

Well that wraps up July.  Stay tuned for catch-up from August....

June Catch-Up

June was a pretty fun month for us!  We had Dad & Mom Hansen's birthdays, June 2nd and 13th.  It was great to get together have dinner and ice cream cake yumm!!


Then we went for a drive up around Palisades Reservoir.  It was a beautiful trip!  We stopped for tinfoil dinners, s'mores, and some campfire songs.  It was great to have Becca and Craig with us although I think we truly opened his eyes to the Hansen family when we started singing, "Once an Austrian went yodeling..."

   Doug & I by the reservoir


                              Enjoying S'mores!!

             

It was a great trip and we enjoyed the outdoors, even if we didn't camp over night!  The one disappointment was that I didn't get to try the famous Square Ice Cream.  We will have to go back for sure since I am assured that it tastes way different that regular scooped ice cream.

Oh where as the time gone....

Ok so I realize I haven't blogged in like 6 months! A lot has been going on! Things have been just plain busy, but I figured when is it not busy? So I will try my best to keep up on blogging.

I will start with playing catch-up for the next few posts. I need to get a cable for my camera so that I can post some pictures with what has been going on. Then most definitely I will be posting! Ok until then...: )

Schools out!!......Or so I thought.

I'm finally done, with the exception of one online class, with my Associates in Piano Pedagogy!!!  Yay!  This past week was so wonderful with no school.  I only had piano teaching to worry about and helping Becca plan her wedding.  But by the end of the week I must admit, I got a little bored.  I think its because I've been so busy since I started college, so when I get some freedom it seems like I have so much time with so little to do.

So this brings me to my big announcement.......*drum roll*.......

I'm going back to school : ).  Tomorrow actually : ).  What am I thinking???  Well you see.....I had to take this one class this summer so I can graduate.  Its a 3 credit class and so it was going to cost me about $400.  Thats quite a bit for one silly class but I had to do it so I got online and registered for it.  A couple days later(last friday actually) I received an e-mail telling me that my scholarship information was updated.  "What scholarship info?" I asked myself, "I'm off track this semester.  hmmmmm."  So I got into my account and found that I had been awarded full tuition scholarship this summer if I took a full load of classes!  

My first thought was, "Too bad I only need one class.  I'll have to pay for it anyways."  Then the little thought that had been in the back of my head for the past two semesters crept up.  "We'll I did want to try to get an Associates in Professional Preschool Education.  Although last time I talked to the academic office they pretty much acted like that wouldn't be possible." And with that little thought I became very determined.  I decided that I would have to really find out.  So I jumped back online, registered for the classes I needed to get started (its amazing they weren't all full), and headed up to the college to see if it was possible.

After about an hour of talking to "someone else"  I finally nailed it down.  As long as I fill out a paper graduation form and then petition to change my major it should all work out.  Now the catch is that I have to petition, which means that they can tell me no, but they acted like it wouldn't be a problem to switch my major.  And the beautiful thing about it is I can be done by the end of next summer!! I could have just continued in music and gotten a bachelors in piano performance but I don't really like to perform, and I've already got the teaching degree. Now I get to gain new skills and do another degree that is similar to what I was leaning towards when I first started college (early childhood special ed)!  

Needless to say I'm excited and no longer bored : )...........  Just don't ask me in a month if I'm glad I'm in school.

Yay! Our computer has returned to us!

Finally our computer is home and working!  No more slow laptop that never shuts down when you want it to, is so slow it's not worth using, and can't handle running more than one program at a time.  Yes our wonderful Mac is back!  Just thought I'd let you all know how happy we are about it :).

My sister is moving far, far, away

I couldn't believe my ears as my dad told me where my brother-in-law, Gary, was thinking about going to medical school. I had only called to talk to him about my brother getting married and our travel plans to attend the wedding. the conversation went something like this... Me: "Well we want to fly but will probably end up driving because it is less expensive. Oh and I'm going to stay about a week. Its right after school gets out and I haven't been home in a while." Dad: "Ok that will be fun. Logan will be the only one around besides me and mom. So that will be great for you to spend time with him before he goes on his mission. With Britt and Gary moving, and Tyler working you won't get to see much of them." Me: "Moving? What? Where?" Dad: "Oh you haven't talked to them. He got accepted to Ross University in the Carribbean somewhere." Me: "What!! The Carribbean! You're just joking....no your serious?!" Yep, school starts at the in May and they are probably leaving right after the wedding on April 25th. I can't believe my sister will be living in tropical paradise for 16 months. Thats a long time to be gone! She said that the island is not really developed its considered more of a country, so there aren't tons of tourists or anything. She posted a picture of the island and its absolutely beautiful so I've decided we need to plan a family vacation to Dominica, thats the island they are goint to. Perrfect I've always wanted to go to the Carribbean! But.....seriously......I will miss them so much. I still can't believe they are going.

Our poor computer.

A couple of weeks ago our computer died. We woke up one morning to a computer that had turned off by itself in the middle of the night (it never does that!). Alarmed we tried to turn it back on. Nothing happened. We thought maybe the outlet was having a problem we moved it across the room. Nothing happened. Oh its just got to be the power cord we thought. So we got a new power cord. Nothing happened.....We finally came to the conclusion that it was just dead. Its an IMac(which means its intel-based and everything is built into the monitor) and the closest apple store is in Salt Lake, and the people at the computer repair shop in town.....well lets just say we aren't so confident they always know what they are doing. Doug dropped it off to them on Saturday and talked to them about how much it would cost. It went something like this. Doug: So what do you think the problem is? Guy1: Well we'd have to get in there to really see but its probably something with the internal power supply. Doug: Ok, so how much would it cost just for you to diagnose what is really wrong with it? Guy1: Theres a $59 testing and diagnosis fee. But if thats what's wrong with it the part is about $200 and all together the labor would be around $200. Doug: Well....lets just have to do the test and diagnose right now because if thats not what is wrong with it I don't want you to order anything yet. Guy1 (as he begins unscrewing the back of the computer).: Ok. No problem. Now let me tell you about a conversation I had yesterday with these people after Doug called down there to find out when his computer would be done. The people down there said, "Oh, this is your computer? We were trying to figure out what its doing here. Theres no note or anything with it and its just been sitting here on our counter for a couple days." Doug proceeded (in calm tones that may not have been coming out of my mouth had I answered) to explain what the problem was and then asked him to work on it. The phone rang a couple minutes later and I picked it up. Me: Hello? Guy2: Hi. We have some more information on your computer. Me: Oh ok, what is it. Guy2: Well, we haven't done anything to it yet but we are pretty sure its an internal power supply problem. So the cost of it will be $250 for labor and $200 for the part. Me: Well have you done the testing and diagnosis yet? We kind of just wanted you to do that. Guy2: Oh ok, that will be $150. Me: $150?! Wait a minute. When we came in on Saturday we were told that the fee was $59 how can it go from that to a 150? Guy2: Well I don't have anything written down about what your order was. That must have been Jason and he doesn't understand what exactly our prices were. Me (beginning to be very frustrated).: Well its not our fault you don't have anything written down and that was the price quoted to us. We don't want to pay you a $150 just to tell us whats wrong with it.... And on the conversation went with the guy telling me that it would take a lot of labor just to get into the computer and that it doesn't matter what we were told but it would cost us $150 to just open the darn thing up. So I finally told him I'd talk to my husband and call back. Needless to say we decided that if the person we dropped the computer off to doesn't seem to know the prices and obviously didn't touch the computer after we dropped it off a few days ago(even though he appeared to unscrew the back and start working on it right away) and can't even write our order down....well maybe we didn't want them working on our computer anyway. So we are going to take it to Salt Lake to the Apple Care Center and people who work on them everyday. Sorry that took so long to explain : ).....I just vented some very built up frustrations about the whole situation....So yeah......Thanks.

Ummm....Yeah its been a while....

Ok so I would say I'm sorry for not blogging for whats been 4 months but I'm not really. I have been so busy I don't know how I've had time to get enough sleep! I am in my last semester before I can graduate, teaching piano to 11 sometimes wonderful (when they practice) kids, serving as assistant to the secretary in Primary (where we have 5 soon to be 6 nurserys), and all the while trying to be a good wife who makes dinner and cleans the house (yeah I could do better). We have both been cruzin through this school year and it I can't believe midterms are next week. I am taking only music classes this semester and it is so nice not to have to worry about that 5 page english paper or math exam when I sit down to practice. I am working on some fun music this semester! I love learning new songs I just wish they didn't have to be performed and then given a grade. I'll be so excited when I can learn them without that pressure. Doug has been having fun teaching his middle school kids. He is trying to plan a trip down to Lagoon in the near future that should be really fun. We just have to wait and hear whether it gets approved. We have done some fun things since the new year has started. I'll list a few of the recent ones: - I started a quilt for someone (I won't say cause its a surprise). It's my first real piece quilt and I'm super excited about it! Its so cool. I'll post a picture and explain how it works later. - Doug got asked to play with the Rexburg Tabernacle Orchestra in a year or two? (cant remember when). So he's started to learn Saint Seans 3rd(?) Violin Concerto. - We went and rented a little cabin up in Island Park for Valentines day and it was so much fun. We went cross country skiing and saw tons of beautiful swans on the river. It was perfect because it snowed the night before and the sky was clear and sunny. (we had to do this a weekent before valentines because of whats coming next). - We went to Arizona last weekend to hear Doug's brother play his last recital for his doctorate program. He did awesome and we enjoyed the warmer weather, sun, and their two great kids. We had to drive to Salt Lake then get on a plane so it was a lot of travelling but it sure was fun. I got pretty sick on monday when we were supposed to travel back and thank goodness I have wonderful priesthood holders in my family who could give me a blessing. I started feeling better on the airplane and was able to travel. Well thats it. I'll get on more often now that this semester is winding down. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time in the near future! Yay for graduation!