Christmas 2010 & New Years 2011!

The Hansen Christmas Decorations

As with each Christmas that approaches, I think the same thing, "How can it be Christmas already!?"

This year for Christmas we made plans to travel back home to Waterloo to celebrate the holidays.

The kids getting ready for our pre-Christmas day celebrations

We traveled to Waterloo on December 23rd, staying at Gretchen's house for a few days and then on to my dad's house for a day.

Me with the girls!

After a day of shopping and lunching, after digging ourselves out of the driveway!!, we came home and did a little sledding!

Dayne enjoying a snow snack!

Kylie taking a trip down the hill!

"Sissies"

TJ opening his present from the Hansen Family: a Cubs clock

I think Graden is saying he'd like some more au jus?

After some bonding time with the Peterson Family and Nana, we headed to my dad's house to celebrate Christmas with Dad, Susan and her kids and their significant others!

Later we got all sorts of crazy playing games such as "Catch Phrase" ... One of my favorite things to do at Dad's house is to play games!

Being goofy.

Bringing in the New Year!

Our friends, Adam & Renee, had tickets to the Chiefs football game on January 2nd, so they came down for a visit and brought in the New Year with us!

The four of us before we headed out for dinner!

We enjoyed a delicious meal in a very classy restaurant, Pierpont's, which is inside the Kansas City landmark Union Station.  Below is the Christmas Tree at Union Station - - it was so beautiful and gigantic!

After dinner we went to a NYE party at a friend of a friends - the same party we had gone to the year before.  We enjoyed playing games, pool, sipping wine and meeting new friends!

Happy New Year!

Adam was so kind to volunteer to prepare and cook a New Years Day brunch for everyone!  I had to work at 6am on New Year's day so I didn't get to enjoy it with the rest of the bunch :(.

Happy Birthday to Hunter!

17 Years after the "But there's two lines?" comment ... we get to celebrate his birthday with a very nice dinner out!

We celebrated the big One-Seven at a very nice restaurant at The Plaza in Kansas City - - a Brazilian Steakhouse that offers great food and a fun environment!

Along the walk back to the truck, Dayne and I did a little modeling in front of the Armani Exchange store!

The End of the (High School) Football Season ...

... but what a way to end the season! Hunter's team played yesterday in the Edward Jones Dome (same place where the St. Louis Rams play!) for the 2010 MSHSAA Show Me Bowl! They played a team that was 1) last year's State Champs, 2) undefeated this season and 3) was ranked #23 in the nation by USA Today - pretty intimidating stats!

The Lee's Summit Titans beat Webster Groves 44-21! It was a great game, but (thankfully!) not a real nail biter. I am willing to bet my blood pressure this football season has jumped at least 10 points! I had no idea I could get so excited about football! This year has been a very exciting one!

The Titans won State in 2007 and had shirts created stating: STATE CHAMPS IN 2007; DO IT AGAIN IN 2010! ... and that they did!

In preparation for The Big Game, the team got to practice on the Kansas City Chief's practice field and play on NFL turf! What a great memory for the kids! ... and a great way to ring in Hunter's 17th birthday!

Friday Night Lights Begin!

Tonight was the first Friday Night Football Game! Lees Summit West played Ray-Pec - a team they had never beat. Well, tonight ... that ended! The Titans won 21-13. It was a good game!

Dayne and one of her besties, Lauren, joined us at the game and spent the evening running around the place and hanging out with her friends! She has a great time --- she actually looks forward to Friday night football games!

Haley wore Hunter's "away" jersey to the game tonight - too cute!

Let the Football Season Begin!

Tomorrow night is the first football game of the 2010 season! Hunter has been practicing with the Varsity Team so hopefully he will get some field time tomorrow! This season he is playing Center!

The Football Mom's decorate each boys' locker with a personalized poster (above) as a way to kick off the season with some excitement. As much as I liked mine, some of the posters were really, really impressive! I was challenged with what to add to it, yet having it remain 'manly' -- certainly couldn't doll it up too much!

Hunter's girlfriend, Haley, will be joining us at the football game tomorrow (sure she won't sit with us since there is a "student" section) but it will be nice to spend a few minutes with her.

Speaking of Haley ... we went over and met her parents tonight - Pauline and Rob. They live just two doors down (yipes!) and have only lived here a few months -- they moved from Webb City, MO (where Graden's family is from!). They seem really nice!

Aswegans Visit the Hansens!

Our good friends, Chris and Jennifer Aswegan, are the proud new owners of a Ranger Bass Boat … so it gave them a good reason to come to Kansas City – to pick up their boat!

They arrived Saturday morning about 9:00 (meaning they left just after 3am!) and the girls enjoyed homemade blueberry pancakes (chocolate chip for Dayne!) while Chris went on to Cabela’s to get the boat and get all the details settled (Graden was at Hunter’s football game that had been canceled the night before due to the rain).

After eating a nomtastic breakfast Jennifer and I chatted and watched a little bit of TV … waiting until it was late enough to go to the pool – where we planned to spend most of our afternoon!

We went to the pool a little after 10:30 and hung out until about 1:30 … chatting, swimming, chatting, snacking, chatting, reading, swimming … you get the picture! Great times! A little before 2:00 we headed home for some sandwiches … then headed back to the pool until about 3:30. Jennifer and I came home and watched a movie for a while (“Riding In Cars With Boys”) then Jennifer and Chris – who had since picked up Graden and they went to take the boat for a test drive – headed to their hotel (Chris is allergic to dogs so they can’t stay with us :) to get showered and ready for our big night on the town!

About 6:30 we all left for our night out: dinner and then to the KC Power & Light District (a very now-a-day place!) to watch a friend’s husband play in his Jazz band and then to People Watch (an official sport for us!) while enjoying adult beverages.

We went to Bass Pro Shops for dinner (yes, seriously!) and had a great dinner! After dinner we headed downtown to the Marquee Restaurant and then to the P&L!

A little after midnight we decided it was best to leave the P&L events to the ‘under 30’ crowd and headed home! It was a fun night out … sure wish the Aswegans (who are about 6 weeks pregnant!) lived closer so we could spend more time together!

Looking forward to the next time they can visit us!

Friday Night .... Not One of the Best for The Hansen Family!

Hunter had a football jamboree on Friday night in Blue Springs (about 20 minutes from our house). About 10 minutes after the game started, it started thunderstorming so the game was put on hold ... thinking that the storm would pass “soon” and the game could resume. After almost an hour of waiting in the rain (torrential at times!) we decided – after looking at the radar map – that the storm was not going anywhere anytime soon and we should head home.

As we were merging onto highway 470 (off 70, by the Independence Center for you local readers!) Graden started to accelerate to blend in with the traffic. Since we were in the middle of a monsoon the road was very slick ... which promptly caused the tires to spin which promptly caused the entire truck to spin. There was a guard rail in our path and we collided with it – taking out six of the posts. The other side of the guard rail is a rather steep hill … so we are very thankful for the well-placed guard rail!

The accident happened about 8:30 and we weren’t able to leave the scene until close to 10:00. All the while … it is raining and thundering to beat H-E-double hockey sticks!

Not sure if the tuck will be a total loss or if it will be repairable – will just have to see what the Ford service department has to say!

At the end of the day … The Hansen Family was served a good reminder of how fortunate we are and very happy that no one was injured.

A Family Visit to Joplin

Each year we go on a tubing trip down the Iowa river, but this year we decided not to go since we'd both be headed to Iowa in just a couple weeks for a different event (Graden to fish and me for a long weekend with 9 other "girls" on a houseboat rental adventure!). Rather than just sit at home though, we thought we'd take a trip to see the McGinnins' in Joplin!

Luke, their son who will be a Senior in High School this coming school year, had baseball playoffs and we'd been wanting to go down and watch him play ball. It ended up being great timing!

We arrived Friday evening, dropped by the McGinnis home for a while and then headed over to the hotel (Dayne had also brought along Lauren, one of her BFFs). The next day Luke played ball at 10:00 so we headed over to the ball fields (it was brutally hot!) and did our best to enjoy family time while enjoying a little ball! Sadly, Luke's team lost ... but we were all winners because not only did we get to spend time together but we then went on to enjoy a really good lunch at a local eatery in Joplin.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel so the girls could do a little swimming. After all, what's a hotel visit without a swim in the pool? Shortly after 6:00 we headed back over to the McGinnis' for dinner (grilled chops and yummy pototato bake!) and enjoy more time with Rocky & Mindy!

Luke had another game on Sunday afternoon that didn't go much better than the Saturday game, but ... some years that's just how it goes I guess! After the game we headed for home and got settled in and ready for another work week!

Dayne's 11th Birthday Party Celebration

It sorta freaks me out to see those words in print: Dayne is eleven years old! We celebrated her birthday with a trip to Worlds of Fun (the second year in a row we've done so) with three of her friends!

We got to WOF a little after noon on Saturday 7.17 and stayed until it closed at midnight. Looong day .. but the girls had fun! Hunter and two of his friends also joined us, but they went their seperate ways for the day!

Here are some pics of the day!

Dog Island 2010

I'd like to share my Walmart Digital Photo Center photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Help us Help A Friend!

A good friend from work has a photography business, Goodwin Photography, and does a lot of charity work, donations, etc. - most notable is their Why Pink? campaign (see picture below). Pepsi is giving $25,000 grant - but they need our votes! Please take a very quick moment to vote for Goodwin Photography!

http://www.refresheverything.com/whypink

Just the Two of Us - Dayne and I!

Well .... it's just us girls until Tuesday afternoon!

Graden left Wednesday evening for:
> fishing derby in Wisconsin ... then on to
> Chicago for work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then on to .,..
> fishing derby (St. Judes Tournament) in MN! (Still time to donate if you can help out Graden and the kids of St. Judes!)

Graden was fishing with his Fishing Wife, Chris Aswegan, for the WI tournament on the Mississippi River and they won first place! So happy for them! Let's hope Graden's success follows him to Minnesota!

Hunter joined his best friend and his family in Florida for a few days. His best friend's sister and mom are huge into Cheerleading and made national championships at Orlando and they were kind enough to invite Hunter to join them. So, right now as I type this ... Hunter is hanging out with his best friend in Florida ... along with about 10 cheerleaders. Life is rough, eh?

I didn't hear much from Hunter, so I asked him to send me a text message ... so I can be reminded just how cool and generous we are! : )

Hunter will be home Tuesday afternoon and Graden won't be home until next Sunday or Monday.

It's nice just the two girls, but Dayne was so busy this weekend that I didn't really get too much time with her! We did enjoy a nice dinner tonight .... followed by a trip to Dairy Queen!

I hope to have some pictures of Hunter's trip to Florida and will post them when I get them. And hopefully will have a great follow up report for Graden's St Jude fishing tournament!

Help Graden Help the Kids of St. Jude!

Dear Friends & Family,

I am participating in the 12^th Annual Dick Hiley/St. Jude Bass Classic to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on May 1-2 in Wabasha, MN. I am contacting you to ask for your support of my participation in this cause to raise much-needed funds for St. Jude.

St. Jude is the single largest center in the US for the research and treatment of childhood catastrophic diseases. When St. Jude first opened in 1962, a child with leukemia had virtually no chance for survival. Today, thanks to the research at St. Jude over 94% of children with the most common form of leukemia, (ALL) will survive. St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and from around the world. No child is ever turned away because of a family’s inability to pay for the lifesaving care of St. Jude, which is why fundraising efforts like the Dick Hiley/St. Jude Bass Classic are vital to the success of the hospital.

This fishing tournament is by far the most inspirational and unique event I participate in throughout the year and offers inspiration to all participating anglers. The hospital is working against the clock to save the lives of these children but need our help to make it happen.

If you would like to contribute to this great cause please visit www.mystjudeevent.org/gradenh.

Please call with any questions and thank you in advance for your support!

For the kids,

Graden Hansen

Metal Mouth: One Down .... One to Go ...

After just over a year, Dayne had her braces removed this afternoon! She will have them off (but wear a retainer at all times) for about a year, then will get braces on again. Weird as it sounds, I guess that teeth move quicker and easier when they are younger so they did some of the work now so it won't take as long next time.

She looks so much older now! Very pretty little girl!

Boys & Girls only weekend

This past weekend Graden and Hunter went to Stockton Lake for the weekend while Dayne and I had the house to ourselves! We enjoyed "Girl" time while they enjoyed "Man" time! We went to see the new Miley Cyrus movie, "The Last Song" and they caught fish!

Christmas In March!

Traditionally we celebrate Christmas with Dad & Susan in mid-January, but this year time just got away from us and before we knew it, it was March!

Dad & Susan arrived early Friday afternoon - Hunter's "new" truck in tow! - and we enjoyed the afternoon running errands trying to get the truck inspected & registered, etc. (unsuccessfully, I will add!). We made plans to "do" Christmas that evening and do some more shopping Saturday - Cabela's, The Plaza, etc. Lots of running around, but always a pleasure just to spend time with Dad & Susan!





Interesting fact about Kansas City and Fountains: Only Rome has more fountains than Kansas City! They are everywhere; and they are very pretty! There are over 250 in the area! If you are ever in the Kansas City area, check it out! Here is a lis of many of the fountains in the area: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fountains_in_the_Kansas_City_Metropolitan_Area

The fountain featured in these pictures is the Pomona Fountain.

The Loss of A Friend

Sadly, Donna's best friend, Liz, passed away this past weekend. Liz and Donna had been friends for over 30 years and went through a lot of good times, and not-so-good times together.

Liz (AKA Mimi Liz) will be missed by your many friends!

Dayne, Kylie, TJ, Hunter

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On a positive note, any time we spend in town, we like to be able to get together with our friends! I was so happy that Chris & Jen were able to drive to Waterloo to visit us and join us, and the Benhams, for dinner and beverages!

We spent a lot of time visiting Dad & Susan while in Waterloo. It was really nice to see them again, so soon! They had just been to Lee's Summit for the weekend a few weeks ago (we were a bit late having Christmas!). Susan and I even spent some time bonding while "Sweatin' to the Oldies!"

Dayne's 5th Grade Photos

Fall Picture (start of 5th grade):

Spring Picture (mid year photo):