It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Always the hurdles before the holidays... Now Alayna is coughing up a storm. YUCK! Saturday she started with green crud in her eyes, Sunday it was a temp of 104.3 and a ear infection, and then Monday she didn't eat or drink anything. Today is a much better day though, and in the midst of it all she learned to go potty on the big girl chair. Wow! Not even two years old and she is so smart!

She must be wanting to show off for her little cousin Vivi, because we get to see her on Thursday. As long as we can get out of this snow storm, we'll be flying to Florida. We can't wait! Cade wrote Santa a note on Saturday letting him know that we wouldn't be in Iowa on Christmas morning, so he was sweet enough to visit our house early this year! The kids were spoiled by St. Nick!

Cade

Outside of his vibrant, funny little personality, Cade has had an ongoing cough now for nearly 8 weeks. (Poor guy!!) He’s been on one steroid and two antibiotics and finally last Thursday they did chest x-rays. Nothing was found on those x-rays and the medicine hasn’t been helping. But we haven't seen any other symptoms either, which is good. His behavior is good, his energy level is fairly high, and there are no fevers.

Since the pediatric docs that he sees here in the Quad Cities aren't sure what else it could be, they have now referred him to the Children's Hospital in Iowa City for further testing. The appointment has been made for Jan 6th and we'll be going to visit with the pediatric pulmonary and allergy docs there.
http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/med/pediatrics/divisions/allergy.html

While this is hard to swallow (for me at least!!), we know that the referral has been made so that we can hopefully find some answers. They will be working to determine what has been causing this persistent cough and hopefully run a couple more tests. We will do our best to keep you all posted, but in the meantime help us pray for good news in January!!!

Off with his friend...

Caden was invited to go to a hockey game with a buddy of his and his family today ... oh, my goodness! When I gave permission to go, I didn't really think that it would affect me, but as I got him ready, gave him money to take with, and talked to him about using his manners, I realized that he is such a big boy!!

Below is a picture of Cade and Hunter at the game with their cow bells on their heads.

Thanks Jena, Nick, and Hunter for taking Cade! He had a great time!

Alayna, the nut!

Sunday morning Jarin and I were pretty lazy, but little miss sassy pants was ready to get up. She came skipping into our room at about 6:15 and when we wouldn't play in bed, she wanted down to find toys. A couple minutes later, Cade got up and started playing with Layna. She said she needed a kleenex and ran off to the bathroom. She wasn't coming back, so I sent Cade in after her...

Pretty soon, he's yelling, "mom come here!!"

I walked into the bathroom to find Alayna unwound the ENTIRE roll of toilet paper and has shoved it all in to the toilet! There was toilet paper coming out everywhere!!!

Oh, that stinker! I wish I would have had a camera!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

The kids are loving the winter weather! Caden wants to be outside all the time and he thinks it's hilarious to be in a snowball fight!. Alayna on the other hand, she likes eating it! We are under a blizzard watch now, and spent last night playing in the 6" we already had. More to come soon!

Can we say adorable?

What is this weather?

So we go from mowing the grass one final time to cutting down our Christmas tree this weekend! Can you believe the beautiful, sunny mid-50-degree-weather we are having? The kids are loving it outside!

... Okay, so I understand, it looks like I dressed them for 30 degree weather, but hey, the breeze was chilly!

 

And finally, it's all decorated and looking very seasonal. Cade demanded the tree be right by the fireplace so that Santa could find it easily!

Unfortunately, we'll only be enjoying this for a couple weeks as we are lucky enough to be heading to Florida in about three weeks! Happy shopping while you prepare for the holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was the second year that we made the turkey at our house. It was quiet this year -- Jarin's parents and Meg and Blake were out of town, so it was just the Skala's and our family of four. We still seem to make the same amount of food though -- goodness, we have a lot to be thankful for. I was definitely very proud of this bird!

Here are some photos from our board games, puzzles, and Legos. Don't Spill the Beans was a favorite and even when Caden refused to play one more round, the adults kept going. Then Cade pointed out that the ages were 3-6! (Stinker!)

We also had fun with Alayna dancing/singing and of course hide-and-go-seek! I bet no one can find the naked girl! 

Dad and Jarin also started a much bigger project in the basement. I must say that I do pretty good putting everyone to work during our days off. Maybe that is why no one wants to come any more! :)

Family Pictures

Attached is a link to family pictures that we had taken recently. Megan and Blake also had the photographer capture some of the two of them for engagement pictures. They are a striking couple, and we look forward to their wedding in summer 2010.

As my sister said, it's been 14 years since our parents and us had photos taken together -- quite a bit has changed! I hope you can enjoy the dimples, smiles, and love seen in the pictures. We sure have!

Portraits by Jeanna

A month of catch up!

I've been checked out for a while, but thankfully not because we've been sick. Actually, everyone in the Hansen household has a clean bill of health right now -- lucky us!

But, we've been busy! Halloween was a hit. The kids loved trick-or-treating (even through the blustering winds) and the costumes were hysterical. They both were bumble bees... okay, well, Cade was the Bumble Bee Transformer... but you get the point! I try to forget that he is growing up and now thinks that SCARY costumes are cool!

We've also been doing a lot of tailgating and cheering on those Hawkeyes. Below is a picture of us from a recent game... can you believe t-shirt weather in November?

Finally, I wanted to pass on our sincerest sympathies and prayers to the Martinson family, who lost their beloved Val on November 10th. She was a centerpiece for their family, and now an angel in their hearts. All of our love goes to Tara, Leah and Dan. Your mother and wife will be dearly missed.

(On a happy note, below is a picture of Alayna eating her cookie after the visitation!)

We have our hands full!

Yesterday I pick up the kids from daycare, they come running up the stairs, and .... whoa! What in the world is going on??? Alayna has her clothes on backwards! Apparently Jeanette (daycare provider) had an issue with Alayna keeping her clothes on -- she kept stripping! As a solution, Jeanette said "I'll show you!" and she turned Alayna's shirt backwards so she couldn't get undressed. I laughed hysterically and had to snap a photo. ENJOY!

They're carved!

Jarin left out of town on Sunday afternoon and that night the kids and I dug into the pumpkins! It was so fun and I was totally surprised by their behaviors... Caden my rough-n-tough boy, thought it was icky and gross. Alayna, my sweet princess, thought it was so fun to get dirty and even tried eating the raw pumpkin guts!

After about 10 minutes, both lost interest, and there I was carving two pumpkins all by myself!

Once it was completed though, they both loved theirs and found it pretty neat that their pumpkins "have hats" and light up! Hoping you all have a safe Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch

We finally had a decent, sunny day so we made our annual trek to Pride of the Wapsi Pumpkin Patch with the kids on Sunday. Apparently every other family in the Quad Cities had the same thoughts because it was busy!

The kids had their faces painted, rode on the wobble-tractor-pull, fed the ponies, went through a hay maze, experienced a haunted house (which Cade said was very scary!!), and then ventured out to the field to pick their pumpkin of choice.

  

Homecoming Celebrations

This weekend was homecoming for Iowa and St. Ambrose, but you would have never guessed that it was beginning of OCTOBER! Saturday morning we bundled up for the SAU Killer Bee. Along with snacks, this year the hats and mittens were extra important. Jarin and I ran the 5K while pushing the kids in the double jogger -- WHOO HOO! Okay, so he pushed for 70% of the time, but he should... his muscles are slightly larger than mine!

Then we warmed up the kids with more snacks and funny-dancing-exercises before Caden headed out for his big race! This is the second year he's participated, and he always has so much fun running the 1/2 K with the other little ones.  Here's his before and after!

Once the SAU festivities ended, we headed home for quick showers and were off to IOWA CITY for a close win over Michigan! Here we are re-visiting the campus. I can't believe it's been seven years since we became U of I alum!

Manipulating Much?

I swear we haven't had dinner as a four-person-family since the beginning of September! For some, you may be thinking "that is the routine at our house", but for us, evenings are special. It's that time when we sit around a table talking about work, preschool, daycare, weekend plans, and actually have those teaching moments with our children about using their manners.

But in the last month Jarin returns and then works his butt off to prepare for a vacation, we both head out leaving the kids behind, he returns separately, and then when I get home he heads out. Today is our day! We will all be home for dinner tonight together. But it's only one day until Jarin heads out early tomorrow morning again.

The thing is, it never affected the kids before. Their spontaneous personalities always have gone with the flow, not noticing the time frame that one of us is home or away. Until now. When did kids at three become so smart? Manipulation is coming out of the walls at the Hansen household! And sooner than later, the 1 year old will be picking up on it too.

Everything from how many books one gets before bed, the pieces of candy handed out when they go potty, how long we are allowed to play outside, if they have to finish their milk, to what they get to take to daycare each day....

Quote of the week: "Daddy let me do it."

The Romantic Riverwalk

Jarin and I took some time to ourselves last week, celebrating our five year anniversary that we reached in June. We had the most perfect hotel overlooking the Riverwalk, and spent four days walking, sitting, eating, drinking, talking... Seems like it's been a while since enjoying each others company like that. We did get lots of great photos (many were the double-chinned-self-portrait-attempts), but one of my favorites was taken with my phone!

Alayna is growing up too!

My little monkey is becoming more and more of a daredevil. Everytime that I turn around she has climbed on top of something and is screaming like Tarzan, ready to jump! So, we've decided to transition her into a toddler bed. Her and Cade had a blast playing in the new bed all afternoon and he even wanted to sleep with her!!


She napped in it Sunday with no problem....


And then the night came... I was afraid she'd be sneaking out to play with her babies, but nope, she did great! About 11 p.m. she fell out of bed, but I put her right back in and she was fine the remainder of the night. I guess this is proof... at 20 months old, she is a big girl!

Preschool Begins

Caden started preschool today -- what a big day! He woke up totally stoked to go and then he stood on the deck all morning waiting for the school bus to come get him (like it does for the neighbor girl) ... I had to break it to him that I'd be taking him to school each day. Nothing like not wanting mommy around ALREADY!!!


I picked up him and two friends (Hunter and Ella) from daycare and transported the three to Chatterbox Preschool where they will go every Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9 - 11:30 a.m. Miss Mary and Miss Robin were waiting outside to welcome them, and before I could get out of the van, all three were already out of the car and into the school. I yelled, "Cade, wait! I want a picture!!!" ... but, they were off! Luckily the teachers round them back up so I could get a snapshot of them before the start of their big day.


After school, Ella's mom picked them up and got a few more pictures to share. Caden talked all about his new bag that he made: "blue with green frogs that say, ribbit, ribbit!!"


He is definitely the shortest in his class, and he told me that "all the other boys and girls went potty at school, but I didn't want to!" Hmmm... well, then!

Totally Wild 70's Night

Kati and Shawn hosted a 70's night on Saturday for her sister's 30th. We had a totally groovy time dressing the part, trying on the real-deal (vintage clothing from Kati's mom), and pulling in some drinking games.

Jarin even got a tat of a "special herb" from a guy at the tailgate earlier that day -- he was very excited to show it off! ~~ (geek) ~~ He made me go into he gas station to pick up beer, and of course everyone stared at me and commented!

From the hair (ewww!) to the makeup, we had an awesome time. Thanks to our great hosts!!