BIG NEWS!!!!

MJ won FIRST place in the Mesa MLK, Jr. Art Contest.

She will be honored at an awards assembly on Saturday, January 16th, 6pm at Westwood High School.

The theme was "Many people, one community". She drew a beautiful picture of a whole bunch of people standing in a circle. She got the Hansen artistic talent!

This is NM and Daddy putting together her new bike she got for Christmas. I don't know WHY it had to be done on the kitchen table, BUT whatever!

Santa was good to us this year. We have been so very, very blessed! The girls had a great time opening presents and seemed very happy with what they recieved. They also had a great time surprising each other with what they had gotten each other. We had a great Christmas, and D and I both think we gained AT LEAST 15 pounds each from Grandma's WONDERFUL cooking! We just couldn't stop eating!

This is Christmas Eve in their new Christmas PJs in front of Grandma and Grandpa's tree in Shumway.

We had breakfast with the Hansen family on Christmas Eve. Dave fixed a wonderful breakfast of biscuits and gravy that were delicious. We had a nice visit and were grateful to be together during this season.

The girls had their "Winter Sing" on Dec. 17th. They each sang three songs and did a fantastic job. We were so glad that the A. Family made it back in time to join us. The girls are so excited to have their cousin back in town.

When we got home from Thanksgiving, it was time to put up our tree and Christmas decorations. We had lots of help and had tons of fun.

We went to Taylor for Thanksgiving. All the kids had to help Gpa put together the train and Gma put the Christmas tree/stuff up. They played so good all weekend and were exhausted by the time we got home.

We were painting out by Cabella's, so we decided to take a break and look around. It's like going to the zoo were all the animals stand still, so you can see them all the time. It was fun.

On our second Saturday of painting, MN and I were in charge of babysitting D while everyone else helped paint. I think we had the best job. Every time we paint, MJ is getting better at doing trees. D says it started out as "chicken scratching" but it's getting better.

Another fun thing we were able to do this weekend was to help Grandma and Grandpa H. with their Christmas painting. MJ was in charge of putting the green on the trees, NM helped everyone, and MN put the snow on the ground. They were so sad when it was time to stop, and can't wait to go out again.

This weekend was the "Fall Festival" fundraiser for the girls' school.

There was lots of games to play and food to eat.

The girls had a fun time.

Veteran's Day.

We went to the parade.

It was HOT!

Did not feel like fall at all!

Our neighbors had a visitor last week. They let the girls have a ride, and they were so excited.

Happy Halloween!

MJ was Cinderella, NM was a witch, and MN was a spider.

D's pumpkins turned out

FABULOUS as usual.

Way to much candy was eaten and not enough sleep was had......

MJ and NM had their primary program today. They both did AWESOME! They sang the 3rd verse of "I lived in Heaven", NM gave a talk on prophets, MJ sang a baptism song with her class, they both had their speaking parts plus all the songs. They both did such a great job, but I think we're all glad it's done. I've been drilling them for weeks on parts and songs.

The MJ and NM loved the zipline. They both went down twice.

Our last adventure for fall break was the ward campout. It was beautiful with the leaves all changing colors and the nice cool weather. We had a fun time. The girls thought they needed walking sticks like dad, so they all had knives (scareeeeeyyyyy!!!) and worked on them for a while. Then they set the sticks down somewhere and couldn't find them again....

THANK YOU GRANDPA!

Grandpa had a terrific pumpkin patch for us this year. All the kids got to pick out their favorite pumpkin. Mine are having a hard time waiting to carve them.

One of the favorite things to do at Grandma and Grandpa's house is to walk to the creek and throw rocks. We had a big group this time. The boys won the race up the hill, while Aunt M barely made it and thought she was going to DIE!

All the cousins were on fall break at the same time, so everybody was abel to get together. The kids played and played and had a great time. The moms talked and talked and had a TERRIFIC time. It was so good to be all together.....

Wednesday we tried out a new park. It had a lot of toys (and people) but was covered which got us out of the sun. I can't believe it's still so warm. I told D we may have to turn on the air conditioning again this year.

Jade was so excited to try the rock climbing. She did really great (about kicked the helper guy in the stomach) but was not quite tall enough and couldn't reach the next steps very easily. She was ready to do it again though.

The free craft was to decorate a yo-yo. They started the project there, but it is still being worked on here at home.

MJ and NM were able to practice a little archery. They thought it was great. MJ was able to hit the wall they were aiming for but NM couldn't quite pull back far enough.

Next, we got to shoot at their laser arcade. Even Dad got in on that one.