Happy New Year from the Hansen's!

This year we brought in the New Year by celebrating at a friend of a friend's house! Gretchen arrived just in time to be able to join us! While we did make it slightly past midnight, we had to be "smart" with our choices since I had to be to work *EARLY* the next morning. (Prescription benefits start over on January 1st of each year so people want their medications right away!)

Here is to a great 2010 to all our friends and family!

Love,

The Hansen Family

Hansen Christmas 2009

For Christmas this year we celebrated Christmas at home (some years we travel to Iowa) and had Donna, Gretchen, TJ and Kylie visit for a while!


Unfortunately, I had to work so I didn't get to spend much time with everyone, but it was great for the kids to be able to spend Christmas with their cousins!


Santa brought Dayne a moon chair she'd been eyeballing (she says she will read in it!) and Santa brought Hunter money. What else would a 16 year old want? He will use the money to pay off his XBOX.


Sadly, I don't think I took any pictures of the kiddos opening presents (or if I did, I have mis placed the memory card!). No "Mother of the Year Award" in my future, I guess!

Christmas with Papa & Susan will take place in a few weeks!

Wishing Nanny & Patrick were closer so we could enjoy the season with them as well!

My Best Friend's Wedding ... Or Should I Say ...

OUR best friends' wedding?

My Best friend, Jennifer, and Graden's best friend (AKA his fishing wife!) Chris met just over two years ago and got married on December 19th! It was a gorgeous, perfect wedding and we are very happy for our friends! We sure do wish they lived closer so we could watch their marriage grow!

Dayne had a house picked out just across from ours ... she thinks they should move there, have a baby right away and Dayne can baby sit! I second that plan! .... then, if we could just get the Benham Family moved here too - life would be wonderful! Ah ... a girl can wish!

Thanksgiving 2009 @ Papa & Susan's Home

This year for Thanksgiving we traveled to Iowa to spend the long weekend with family!

We stayed at Dad & Susan's house and BOY! was it a full house! Susan's kids - Jeff, Tyler and Katie - also spent the long weekend at the house. It was great spending time with everyone and getting to know my step-brothers a bit better (I feel like I know Katie plenty well! :) )!

It was another reminder of all the things I miss about "home" - being close to my friends and family!

Also while we were "home" we went out for an evening of fun with the Benham's, Chad Mast and a few other locals! It was great to see everyone!

The kids playing on Papa's "Big" Tractor!

Hunter on the "little" tractor ... summer 1995:

Hunter on the "little tractor" ... November 2009.

Why Pink: Breast Cancer Awareness Photo Session

A colleague of mine owns his own photography business and is involved in many charity organizations. One of the most notable is his work for Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign: Why Pink?. Last year he had an auction fund raising event at work and I won an auction bid for a photograpy session. The kids and I took advantage of this to have out photo taken together. I hadn't originally planned to be in the photos, but it worked out that I was. Poor Graden wasn't in the pictures since he was off fishing!

Labor Day Weekend - 2009

This year the Hansen Family visited the Ruestman's for the holiday weekend. Donna, Gretchen and the kids weren't able to make the trip, so it was kind of a quiet, low key weekend!

Hunter had a game Friday night, so we waited until Saturday morning to drive to the lake. It is about a 3 hour drive, so not too bad! We left just after 10:00 and got to the lake just after 1:00.

Our timing was great as a storm had just passed through!

The temperature has been cooler than usual, so we didn't spend as much time in the water as we ususally do! But, we sure did enjoy the company of our host and hostess!

We spent our time fishing, playing on the jet skis, riding bikes, driving the golf cart ... and great food!

Hunter had a football game on Monday afternoon, so we headed for home Monday morning!

Looking forward to our next visit to Grand Lake!

Football Season Has Started!

Thursday night was Hunter's first football game of the season! Unfortunately, it didn't go as well as the team had hoped, but ... maybe a lesson or two was learned?

They lost 57-32. Ouch.

Hunter (#59) plays offensive guard, for those who are curious! (I didn't have a clue!)

Friday night was the Varsity Team's first game; unfortunately it was a blow out as well (the Titans lost 48-13). The team had spirit though! Here they are in the 4th quarter, showing their pride: