Having Fun!!

Finally, the last parade of the year (thank goodness)! Peach days was actually a lot of fun this year. We first hit the parade and then the kids all got their faces painted. After the parade we ate lunch at the golf course and then hit the horse races for some intense betting! Kade won quite a few quarters....he is a lucky little fella! After the horse races it was the derby which is always fun.

We also took an interesting ride out to Mussentuchit Sand Dunes. Once we finally made it out there it was worth the chaos. The kids could have played out there all day and I loved just hanging out and visiting while eating yummy treats!

Elmo will never be the same

This past week has been such a hard week for my family. My Grandpa Hansen passed away on Sept. 20th up at Utah Valley hospital. My Grandpa had not felt the best for a few days and so when grandpa went to take his blood pressure there wasn't one. She got him over to the hospital and they too could not get a blood pressure so they sent him by ambulance to Utah Valley. It didn't take long once he got there to leave this earth holding my Grandma's hand.

My grandpa was supposed to live forever. He was one of the greatest men that I knew and he loved us kids so much! He knew exactly what was going on in our lives at all times and he was always involved. A few days before my grandpa passed away my grandpa had headed down the street to visit with a bunch of his friends and when he got back to said "You should see all them old sons a bitches.....they're gonna die any day"!

Grandpa was such a story teller. He would sit on his front porch all day and visit with everyone that passed telling all of them quite the stories. He had the best laugh and boy did he love his life.
I don't think I knew two people who were more in love than my grandma and grandpa. When he passed my grandma was so sad and said "he's never been anywhere without me" and it was true. They did everything together for the past 58 years and they enjoyed every minute of it.

The graveside was so fitting for my grandpa. A little while back he had my mom sign a notarized paper that she would not have him a funeral so we had him a little graveyard service. It was the BEST "funeral I have ever been too and I will never forget the wonderful things that people said about him.

I will miss him so much and so will my kids. During the family prayer Kade just started sobbing...it broke my heart. He loved my grandpa and it was so hard for him to say goodbye.

It is going to be so hard to pull up to his house and not see him sitting in his chair.

Grandpa, I promise to think of you whenever I tear into a Hershey's chocolate bar and I promise to head to mesquite any chance I get to look for that quarter you lost 50 years ago in that damn slot machine. I love you and I will miss you so much!

My Grandpa served in the Korean War...What a Handsome Danish Man!
Here is a pic of him and my grandpa. Rough bunch huh!

My grandpa and his best bud/brother Aron. They are back together in heaven enjoying a nice warm cup of coffee!

Back to School

I am not sure who was more excited for Kade to start Kindergarten me or Kade. I couldn't wait for him to go because he was SO ready. This year he is in Mrs. Norton's class (we hear she's pretty special) with both his cousins Kelsey and Chase. I told Kade that he had to call Jasa Mrs. Norton and so far she said that he has done pretty good.

Here are Kade and Kelsey the morning of their first day of Kindergarten

Tyce also started school this year. This is his first year of preschool and he too was really excited. He has been waiting his turn for school for such a long time and was pumped when it was time to go. He was acting like such a nerd for his first day picture, but he was still cute!

Here he is at Ms. Sandra's after his little open house. He such a silly boy!

For Labor Day weekend we took off to Fish Lake for the day. The weather was perfect and it was nice to just go our for a drive. There were a ton of people there so the fishing wasn't that great....but the hamburger for lunch was awesome.

Here are a few of the kids playing on the docks

Kade and his best pal fishing

Jess was just glad to be outside.

Tyce can't sit still for two seconds so he spent most of his time splashing through the water with Chase.

One of the most fun things we have done this summer is our little horse shows. Kade and Tyce have done so well on their horses this year and I couldn't be more proud. Kade is riding all by himself and is fearless.

Here he is at the arena practicing before the show

Jess LOVES the horses! He calls them moo cows but he gets so excited everyday when we go and feed them. He is a pretty cute cowboy!

Happy Birthday Jess....gotta love spending it in the hospital!

I know....how could a baby this adorable have anything wrong with him! Well after months and months we finally figured out the the continuous pneumonia and coughing is because he aspirates almost everything he eats...crazy huh! This past Thursday Jess had a swallow study done and they feed him super thick pudding and watched as it went down on x-ray. Well lets just say not very much of the pudding went to his stomach, most of it went straight to his lungs. Primary Children's immediately admitted us and placed a feeding tube. Yesterday we took him back to Primary Children's for a bronchi scope, a laryngeal scope, and a gelfoam injection. He is doing pretty well today if he would just stop pulling the feeding tube out. The tube has to stay in for the next two weeks and then we will do another swallow study to see if the gelfoam injection helped. Staying at Primary Children's makes you feel so blessed to have such a healthy and happy baby.

Jess was admitted to Primary Children's on his birthday (which I was afraid of) so we made sure to celebrate a few days earlier. We had Jess a swimming party in our backyard and it was so fun. Here is the big 1 year old with his octopus cake.

Kade on the racing slip and slide
and the water slide

Jess preferred the kiddy pool

Tyce liked the treats

Opening presents

Best of all.....aspirating his birthday cake!

While we were at the hospital with Jess, my awesome mom and sisters took Kade and Tyce camping with them. After Jess was discharged, we were able to go and spend the day as well. Here are the kids coming back from a hike up Horse Canyon.

Shooting their bow's

Jess was glad to be out of the hospital and enjoying the fresh air

Kade has been really working on "beefiing" up his muscles. He does his exercises everyday to get them strong...it is pretty hilarious. Anyway, he decided it was time to show them off to everyone so Tyce joined in.

The kids also had fun shooting BB guns. I am not too sure about that.

A few weeks ago was the Emery County Fair. I wasn't super impressed this year, but here were a few highlights.

The bungee jump was pretty cool

Scales and Tails came and did a little show. The reptiles were awesome!

Kade loved the snakes...and yes that is a HUGE anaconda in the background.

This summer has been super hard with Jess being sick. I am just so thankful for my mom and sisters for all of their help with my kids. I don't know what I would have done without them.

Joes Valley,Rodeo, Grandpa's B-day, Riding Bikes

My Grandpa Hansen is seriously one of the greatest people I know and I just love him to death. He is so much fun to be around and he adores my boys. For my grandpa's 83rd birthday we had a little get together at my moms and it turned out great. Almost everyone was there so we all got together for a big family photo. Here are all of my Grandpa Hansen's grandkids. Pretty fun crowd!

While us adults enjoyed a yummy dinner, the kids had a ball swimming in the pool and racing on the slip and slide. Jess didn't love the water, but loved the attention he was getting. Isn't he so dang cute?

Kade and Tyce having a little race

My boys are quite the little bike riders. Kade rides his bike EVERYWHERE. He is so good on it and he impresses me everyday. There other day we went up to the bike jumps for a little fun.

About 3 months ago Tyce decided on his own to ditch the training wheels. He got on his bike and took off without any help. May I remind you that he is 3 and now rides the bike tracks and does tricks at the elementary on his bike. He is so awesome!

Going to the rodeo means so much more to me than just a few hours of entertainment. The rodeo is magical to me. It brings back so many memories of my dad up in that announcers stand or imagining him riding one of those crazy mean bulls.... it makes me smile. My dad was home at the rodeo and that is kind of the way I feel.

Here are me and my cowboys at the Desertview Pro Rodeo

Playing in the water is a must for my boys. Today we drove by this river and had to go and jump in. We didn't have much time so are are so going back tomorrow for a full on dip.

This is a cute picture of Kade, Abby, and Tyce when we went to Joes Valley to play around. It was such a cool little tree...and it made a cute pic.