Merry Christmas to all!

What a wonderful Christmas it has been! We finally got to bring Donna home with us (for about a month!). We are very happy to have her here with us!

We stayed in Waterloo for an extra day and headed home on Monday instead of Sunday - getting home a little after 9pm. As we were unloading the truck we heard Santa's sleigh bells! Dayne got sooooooo excited! She was running around like a mad woman trying to get the truck unloaded so we could all go to bed! She kept telling me that she KNOWS I am Santa, so this was"proof" that I am NOT Santa Claus. It was perfect timing on Santa's part! Here is a video clip of her trying to hurry up and unpack!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBzf78ycJeI

After we got the truck unpacked and things put away we followed the family tradition and let them open one present early.
Dayne opened her Baby Alive (she's been a wee bit obsessed with it!) and Hunter got an iPod Classic. Finally, about 11pm we headed to bed .... and anxiously anticipated what Santa would bring by morning!

Dayne woke up in the middle of the night and saw that Santa had already been there and brought her a Hannah Montana outfit and High School Musical pop up hamper! She came into our room to tell us! The next morning she woke up about 9:30 and excitedly told me that she heard Santa! She heard his bells and she heard him eating his cookies!

Here are some videos of the kids opening a present:

Dayne: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL87-dMAt7k

Hunter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRiwiahKnoU

After we were done opening presents we had cinnamon buns and scrambled eggs for breakfast and the kids played with their new toys and gadgets! The rest of the day was spent just lounging around ... poor Graden has the flu, so he hasn't been too perky!

Dayne as Santa's helper!

Graden as Santa's helper!

Hunter as Santa's helper!

Tiffany as Santa's helper!

A Sledding We Will Go!

What a weekend it's been! We headed for Waterloo on Thursday night after work and arrived at Donna's house about 11:15pm. Friday morning the kids and I headed to Cedar Rapids to pick up my brother, Brian, and his wife, Jen, from the airport. Their plane was scheduled to arrive at 2:44pm so we left kind of early (at least by Hansen standards!) so we could do some Christmas shopping. About noon Brian called me to let me know that their flight from Cincinnatti was canceled due to the fog and they'd be able to get on a plane the next morning. Disappointed, the kids and I finished our shopping and headed back to the 'Loo.

Saturday morning we waited to hear from Brian to see when (for sure!) their plane would be arriving. Plans changed entirely and they were now going to fly into Des Moines. Once again the kids and I - and dad this time - loaded in the van and headed toward Des Moines. About 15 minutes before arriving in Des Moines Brian calls to let us know that once they were up in the air, they received clearance to fly into Cedar Rapids after all, so there they were. We flipped a U Turn (literally) on the highway and headed toward Cedar Rapids. FINALLY about 1:15 we were able connect! Unfortunately, their luggage was MIA.

We got back to Dad's house about 3:30 and had a very nice dinner followed by the kids enjoying sledding and snow boarding and four wheeling in the snow!

Me with my dad and brother. It's been quite a few years since we've all been togehter on Christmas so this was a really nice visit!

KC Chiefs Game

Dad visited us this weekend so he could attend a KC Chiefs game. He arrived on Saturday afternoon!

Too bad the "chumps" lost ... again.

Girls Day Shopping

I was brave this afternoon and took Dayne and her BFF Lauren shopping at the mall. They had a blast at Limited Too, Build A Bear and riding the carousel in the mall!

What primadonnas they are!

... at build a bear workshop. Not sure how it happened, but I somehow got roped into this. Successful con artists in the making. :)

What a weekend!

This weekend Graden and I - along with my friends from work - went to a Bed & Breakfast in Hermann, MO. Hermann is known for it's wineries and beautiful scenery. We stayed at a very quaint B&B called the Wine Valley Inn. It was very nice! I had never been to a B&B so it made a very nice impression for me!

We left Saturday morning about 9:45 and started toward Hermann (about 20 miles SW of St. Louis). The weather was really crappy, in fact we were under a winter weather advisory due to the freezing rain! Maybe not the best decision we could all make together, but we did it anyway!

We arrived safely in Hermann about 2 o'clock and made our first stop at the Hermannhof Winery for some wine sampling and lunch. We had cheese, wine, grapes and sausage ... and some more wine! We left that winery and headed to the next one, Adam Puchta Winery, about 3:45. At the Adam Puchta winery we received a mini history lesson on how the wine is processed and how each wine differs from the others.

Next we went to Stone Hill winery, where we had dinner reservations. We did more wine sampling, followed by a very nice dinner ... with wine, of course! We arrived back at the B&B about 8:30, where we were all pretty much wiped out!

I refused to call it a night so early, so we headed across the street to a local bar, the Sharp Corner Tavern. This decision proved to be an interesting one. The decor of the bar consisted of wasp nests and a childs 4X4 ATV toy hanging from the ceiling. Oh, and a patron (we guessed to be a regular) dressed in a sleeveless Jack Daniels t-shirt ripped from armpit to belly button. The best part was that he "oops .... cut a hole" in his shirt right where his huge belt buckle could be seen. He proceeded to get Shawn to promise to dance during the next dance Shawn knew. Luckily, the lad was too drunk to hold Shawn to that. We called it quits about 10:30 and headed back over to the B&B and called it a night.

That's me and Barb!

The next morning we all met downstairs at 9:00 for breakfast and departed about 10:10. The roads were worse than they had been the day before, but as we headed west toward home they were much better.

We arrived home about 2 o'clock ... just in time for Graden to watch the Chiefs game!

Need a laugh?

Jen sent this to me and it is one of the funnier things I have seen in quite a while. I can see her doing this at her wedding!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Hansen House

Hunter and I went out this afternoon for some Christmas shopping and to pick out a Christmas tree!

Oz even offered to help Graden set up the tree! Truth be told, he wasn't much help ...

The kiddos helped decorate the Family room and the tree ... they even made sure they had a tree lit up and decorated for their bedrooms!

My little elves!

Game 2 - Ouch.

Hunter's 2nd basketball game of the season was this afternoon ... and I think he can still feel the sting from the beating. They lost 69-20 (eek!).

"But there's two lines!?!?" ... 14 years later

Today my baby boy turns 14! So hard to beleive it's been 14 years since my life was forever changed! Today seems like a good day to reminisce about how we found out about our little, unexpected surprise ...

A friend of mine suspected she might be pregnant so I went with her to Birth Right to take a pregnancy test. I thought I'd take one, too ... "Since I was there." So we get to talking with the little old lady running the place and she is explaining how to read the pregnancy test. She explains one line means you're not pregnant, and two lines means you are. As I look at the test I say out loud, "But .... there's two lines?". Her reply was simple: "Yep." I went to Donna's house immediately afterwards, where Graden was at. When I walked in I just said, "Hi ... Dad." He was speechless for quite a while. Not typical for Graden.

Then came the fear of telling my parents ... but it turned out to be a very easy thing to do. I was leaving for school one morning and stopped in to tell my mom goodbye. It had been about a week since we found out and I knew I'd have to tell her sooner or later, so I went for it. I reminded her that Dad had had a dream a few weeks prior about me being pregnant ... and that it was true. Her reaction was priceless and is one that makes me proud to call her mom: "Congratulations!" That moment went on to epitomize the support we had from all our friends and family. I still feel very fortunate and blessed to have fallen in love with such an honorable man, have such a great support system by our parents and Gretchen and our friends.

Although Hunter may not have been planned, I wouldn't change one thing about it all. He has made us who and what we are.

I will close this sappy posting with the lyrics to my song for Hunter. He should expect to dance with me to this song at his wedding ...



Baby mine, don't you cry
Baby mine, dry your eyes
Rest your head close to my heart
Never to part, baby of mine

Little one when you play
Don't you mind what they say
Let those eyes sparkle and shine
Never a tear, baby of mine

If they knew sweet little you
They'd end up loving you too
All those same people who scold you
What they'd give just for
The right to hold you

From your head to your toes
You're not much, goodness knows
But you're so precious to me
Cute as can be, baby of mine

Thanksgiving Happenings

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in Iowa. We arrived on Wednesday evening about 7:30 - after driving through some pretty "exciting" weather. We stayed at Donna's house during our visit! We even had Oz with us!
Thursday morning Graden got up early and went hunting with Thompson (and Oz!) while the girls prepared dinner.
We enjoyed ham, smoked turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, corn bread casseole, fresh green beans, rolls and of course ... pumpkin pie! Hunter was sweet enough to eat with the "babies" (TJ and Dayne will always be dubbed the "babies" - no matter how old they are!).


For the first time EVER I got up early and shopped on Black Friday with Gretchen (probably the last time I do it, too). We hit the stores about 4:20 am and shopped until about 11:00, then we had a great "girls only" lunch at Olive Garden! It was nice spending time with Gretchen and Erica! We even ordered a delicious dessert! : ) Mmmm .... might have to consider shopping next year, if only for the fun company!

One of the bargains I got on Black Friday was Guitar Hero III for Hunter's 14th birthday present. Here is a pic of him jammin' out!

Poor Kylie had a very rough day on Saturday! First, she fell off the bed and hit her face on an dresser drawer that was open (it hit her across the nose and eye socket), then the wicker stand over Donna's toilet fell on her, then she was sliding down the stairs and ended up going head over feet down the stairs .... Good thing she's a tough cookie!

The rest of the weekend was spent just hanging out with family and friends. Saturday night we met the Benhams, Chris and Jen, Chad and Adam for dinner and drinks at the OP. Graden, Adam, Hunter and Chad went to the UNI playoff game earlier that night so Hunter got to hang out with the old people ... not sure he should have been subject to everything he heard at a bar on a Saturday night ...

Sunday we went to my dad and Susan's house to have a mini-party for Hunter's birthday. TJ and Gretchen weren't feeling well, so Donna brought Kylie with her and we enjoyed Donna's home made chicken noodle soup (Hunter's favorite) and a Dairy Queen Blizzard cake!

We headed home Sunday about 6pm and got home about 11pm ... long night, long weekend .... it was good to get home!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We traveled to Waterloo for the long holiday weekend! Wishing happy memomies, good food and tight pants for all our loved ones!

Hugs to all!
~ Tiffany

Fishing update

Graden placed 23rd overall! He started his journey home late yesterday afternoon and should be home sometime this afternoon!

We are very proud of him!

Hunter's First Basketball Game

Today was Hunter's first basketball game of the season. He played the entire game and made some good shots, good blocks and lots of rebounds! He scored 14 points in today's game.

As good as all that sounds, the team didn't have what it took to win the game though. The team they were playing had quite a few big kids - 9th graders I suspect. Hunter said they had to be since they were "ripped and had beards"!

The team has next week off due to the holidays so I guess we will have to wait and see what the next game will bring.

Hunter is the biggest kid on the team so I am sure he will be the team member used for the tip off for each game.Hunter made two of two free throws here! During a team time out.

Final score Game 1: 26-42

Graden made the Day 3 cut! Yeah!

Graden finished day three in 17th (of 222) place so he gets to fish Saturday. This puts him in the position to fish for big bucks (first place is $100K!) and to be able to fish in the Bass Master Classic.

I am so proud of him ... I swear he does everything he sets out to do. There is nothing he can't do!

Final weigh in is today, I will be sure to post the final results!

What's the haps?

Hunter started basketball this week. He practices every Wednesday and Friday night from 8:30 -9:30pm. Kind of late, I think especially on a school night. And good thing we don't have an exciting life so this won't have too much of an impact on our social Friday Night Life!


Graden is in Georgia fishing his big tournament. He left last Friday afternoon and will be home this Sunday ... a looooong time away for fishing, but this particular tourney has a lot to offer! The tournament started on Wednesday and is four days long - hopefully. If he places in the top 25 he gets to fish the last two days. As of the end of today (day one!) Graden was in 29th .... sooo close! I am certain he can place well enough to fish days three and four. Here is the site on the tourney details: http://www.abaproam.com/.


Hmmm ... what else has been happening so far this week.


I was sick from Saturday last weekend until just today ... just some sore throat/body aches/headaches but I survived. Other than that, same ol' same ol' ...

Dayne cheering

Dayne is full of spunk and sass - check for yourself!

Basketball Draft Day

Hunter starts basketball next week so today we had to go for drafting. We were there about two hours while he ran drills and played 5 on 5. I thought Hunter did a decent job, but he said he didn't feel he did. What do I know, I guess ...

Here are some pics and video clips.

Music Concerto!

Tonight Dayne had a music concert at school! Here are some pictures and video!

Girls Only Weekend in Des Moines

I took Friday off and traveled to West Des Moines for a long weekend away - no kids!

I met Trista, Jen and Kim in WDM about 1:00 (I was an hour late ... imagine that!) and the weekend got started! First we went for Mexican food at El Aguila Real then shopped at a nearby Goodwill. I think Kim had never been to one and wanted to buy a swim suit since she forgot hers. Kidding, she didn't want a swimsuit from GW! : )

After lunch we went back to the hotel to figure out what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. We decided to go to a nearby mall for some exercise and shopping and for dinner and evening entertainment to go to the Grand Piano Bistro, where Dualing Pianos were scheduled for an 8:30 performance.

We enjoyed prime rib canapé for an appetizer and a wonderful pasta with a creamy pesto sauce, pine nuts, sausage, zucchini for dinner ... and we sampled quite a few new drinks - my favorite was the Orange Julius! It tasted like the real thing ... with a kick, of course!

After dinner we stayed for a couple hours to watch the Dualing Piano show. I had never been to one so I didn't know what to expect. For those who don't know what it is ... I will do my best to explain. There are two (thus, "dual"ing) piano players who take requests to play songs - ANY song! - and play it on their piano, as well as sing the song. They played Journey, Beastie Boys, Steve Miller Band ... everything! By far, the biggest hit of the evening was Jen's request, Sweet Caroline. Here is some video of her singing along with the rest of the bar:

We left GPB about 11 and headed to meet a friend of mine who lives in WDM - he and I worked together at Affina. Here is a pic of LaVerne and I! He brought along a friend who was uber creepy. He kept saying how hot we all were and couldn't belive we graduated high school in 1994. It was nice to hear all those things, but it'd be better coming from someone who wasn't a) drunk and b) creepy. We went to the Legends which is three bars in one - a sports bar on the first level, a dancing bar on the middle level and a open floor karioke-ish bar on the top level. It was a neat set up! I'd like to go back there if I am ever in W Des Moines.

After all the activites, we wanted Taco Bell (which later proved to be a bad choice for Jen and I!). We got back to the hotel and settled in for the night.

Saturday we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and went shopping at the Jordan Creek Mall for a few hours. I got some of my Christmas shopping started anyway! : ) Considering I don't usually start until December 20th, this is progress for this procrastinator!

After shopping we were pooped so we went back to the hotel and watched TV a while and Jen and I took a nap while Kim and Trista checked out the hotel bar. About 7:30 we left and had dinner at Charlie's and then headed over to the comedy club, The Funny Bone to see Roz G. I hadn't heard of her, but she was on Last Comic Standing 4th season and had some impressive credintials - and proved to be well deserved. She had two openers and they were also very funny! We were in the immediate front row - our table was touching the stage - so we were easy prey. Jen fell only slightly into it when one of the comedians started talking about internet dating ... but it wasn't bad.

After the show I asked Roz if we could have our photo taken with her and she replied, "Abso-f'ing-lutely!" So here we are with Roz G. She dubbed us the "pee-pee crew" since we all got up to pee during her performance. : )

After the comedy club we had another hankerin' for Taco Bell so we stopped by for a few tacos and went back to the hotel for night-night.

Sunday morning we lounged around, took our time getting ready and then headed out for one last hoo-rah for the trip - to Village Inn for breakfast. We all left about 11:15 and I got home about 2:15 this afternoon. I can't wait for our next visit .... we are planning for the gang to come visit me in KC!

~*~*~*~*~*

What did the family do while I was gone? Dayne spent all weekend with Lauren and Hunter spent all day Saturday at a Hunter Safety Course, so he can now legally kill animals I guess. Graden just pittered around the house I think ... and watched the Chiefs lose this afternoon. He leaves on Friday for his big fishing tournament in GA all next week. We are pretty excited to see how this will turn out for him ... I love seeing him involved in fishing again. It reminds me of how dedicated and driven he is to succeed.

Nothing too exciting planned for this week but I will try to post something for my readers!

Hugs,
Tiffany

Here is a video slideshow of all the pics from the trip!

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Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween!

Dayne was a High School Musical Cheerleader and Hunter was a ... pimp. I know, what a great mother I am to allow such a thing. I think I am way past any chances of winning "Mother of the Year" award, so what the hell!

Dayne and her BFF Lauren trick or treated in our neighborhood while Alberta and I walked along.

Hunter and his BFF TJ went to a friends house to play football and a little bit of Trick or Treating. He tells me they behaved ... I can only hope that was the case.

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