New Baby - 5th Grandchild - 2nd Grandson

On Friday, December 3rd, Owen Joseph Hanson was born.

This is Andrea right before she left for the hospital to have Owen.

Here is the happy family.

Owen Joseph Hanson, 8 lbs 2 oz, 20.5 inches long.

The happy, beautiful mother, Andrea.


Cooper holding his new baby brother for the first time.

Papa with his two grandsons.

November Activities

Most of our noteworthy activities happend at the end of the month right around Thanksgiving Day.

On Thanksgiving Day, early in the morning, the four of us participated, for the 2nd time, in the Turkey Stuffer 5k Run/Walk. Kim and Steve ran, I walked with Andrea who was expecting her baby at any moment. Steve's time was 37 minutes, Kim's time was 42 minutes and Andrea and I made it in 52 minutes! It was great - we didn't feel so guilty about eating a big dinner later in the day.

We decided to try to take a picture of the family while we were all together, except for Kevin who is on his mission. Andrea used her new camera, a gift from Chris for her birthday. She used the timer setting and it worked out pretty well. It is a challenge to get everyone to look straight ahead and smile at the right time though.

The four grandkids all ready for bed.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to a Christmas Tree farm to pick out our tree. Andrea wanted to be able to help before her baby was born. Cooper and Hannah had a great time running around together.

After looking at almost every tree available we finally found on that we all liked. Cooper helped his Papa and Daddy carry it back to the van.

October Birthdays!

We get to celebrate 4 birthdays each October, Kiera, Cooper, Andrea and Heather. We were fortunate enough to spend a little time with each of them on their special day.

Kiera turns 3!

Cooper turns 2!

Andrea turns 27!!

Heather turns 30!!!

2010 Pioneer Trek

At the end of July Steve and I participated in a Pioneer Trek with the youth (12-18 years old) in our Stake. We spent nearly a year planning and preparing. This was our second Trek, the first one we went on was in July of 1999. There were only young women on that Trek, I was a "Ma" and Steve was one of the support team. For this Trek, I was on the planning committee as one of my responsibilites as a Stake Young Women's President. Originally we were going to be in a support type of position so I could hang out with all of the young women but at the last minute one of our "Ma's" got sick and was not able to go. So we stepped in as the Ma and Pa. It was a challenge but lots of fun. I have many stories about things that happened on the Trek so I'll work on adding a few as I have time. For now, here are some pictures:

This is what the handcart looked like before we loaded it up....I know not very big, huh! We had to fit enought supplies and gear for 6 days for 12 of us.

This is our loaded handcart as our "family" is getting ready to start "trekking". We were Ma and Pa to 5 boys and 4 girls and we had an "Uncle" as part of the family. Our Uncle was a great help to all of us.

The next few pictures are of us pushing and pulling the handcart. We traveled on several different road services and most of them were like the one below.......

VERY, VERY, VERY DUSTY!

This picture was snapped of us when we stopped to rest along the way.

This was the lake we camped by the last night of the Trek. We had some special and fun experiences here. Two of the youth were baptized and later in the afternoon we had thunder, lightening and rain!

This is a picture of us all as we finished the Trek. We arrived at the parking lot of Corbett Snow Park to find family, friends and lots of good food and cold drinks.

Catching Up - June and July!

So many things have been going on in our lives this past couple of months that I have not had time to update our blog. So here is a quick recap of June and July.

I was able to attend Janae's first dance recital. She is in a dance group with six other 5 year olds. They performed two dances, "Me and My Teddy" and "Minnie Mouse". They were adorable! Janae did a great job. We were so proud of her.

Chris B. graduated from Oregon State University with a bachelors degree in Biology. It was a beautiful day as we sat in Reecer Stadium watching the graduation ceremony.

Chris H. graduated from Oregon Health and Sciences University with a degree in Dentistry.

We helped Kim, Chris and Hannah move to Bend! Chris started working at US Bank and will be starting Helicopter Pilot training in the Fall.

We helped Andrea, Chris and Cooper move. They are living with us until they can find a place of their own.

We celebrated Steve's birthday!

We celebrated Independence Day with Gary and Jill and the family.

We got some new toys for the grandkids.

We went to Bend to visit Kim, Chris and Hannah.

Finished the garage.

Had a visit from Kim and Hannah.

It has been a busy but fun couple of months!

Chris turns 30!

Chris had an interview in Eugene on his 30th birthday, so we were able to help celebrate. Andrea made the cake!

Easter at Grandma and Papa's House

Hannah and Cooper checking out their Easter Baskets.

New Easter Skirts! Janae picked out the fabric and Heather made the skirts.

Kiera and Janae with their baskets.

Group Picture......Adorable!

Next time we try to take group pictures I'm going to try to remember to have someone taking video at the same time just to document everything that goes on behind the scenes when we are trying to get all the kids to look at the camera at the same time. Just imagine (which isn't hard because you have probably experienced this before) all of the adults arranging kids, fixing clothes and then running behind the camera and making noises and clapping hands trying to get all the kids to look at them, keep their hands off of their faces and smile.....all at the same time. Janae was great, she was ready for every click of the camera. The funniest part of these pictures was when Andrea stepped in to move Cooper closer to the girls (for a more balanced picture)and as soon as she backed up Cooper started scooting away (no girl germs for him) so this was the best we could do. After every one of these "photo shoots" I tell myself I need to take a photography class so that even if the kids don't cooperate (wiggle, giggle and move) the pictures will still turn out.