one of my favorites...

not only is this song so beautiful, but my baby girl {ivy} is in it! 

 She is the baby in her blessing dress and you can see her a couple of times.
 This is the official video for this song, so how awesome that she will have this forever.

Click here to download it for free. 

~also on a side note, my darling little family spoke today in church.  we were the whole meeting!
can i just say, that i feel like the happiest person alive! I feel so blessed to have such an awesome husband, fabulous kids, & an understanding of the gospel plan!!

Life is good, really good!

Enjoy 

{press pause on my music at the bottom}

Tony Hawk

Boston's 5th grade class did their biography book reports last week.

most of the kids were doing reports on 'Abraham Lincoln', 'George Washington' Sacagawea' etc... 

not my boy, nope he chose
 "Tony Hawk"

{pro skateboarder}

They also had to do a wax museum of the person that they did their report on.  Where you make your own button and you talk when someone presses a button otherwise you stand like a statue.
His button was a Tech deck skateboard. 

What a cool story behind that guy.  He turned pro at 14 yrs old.  Boston thought that was so cool so he is now trying to do the '900' ~wink

 

 

classic skating...

 is under construction right now, but don't let that fool you.

we had the whole place to ourselves!!

it was a blast!

they played red light/green light and all sorts of awesome games with just us! haha
 it was like our own private party.

they are making it a "fun center" this winter with bowling, bounce houses, space stations,
party rooms and more.  It's going to be fabulous.  when you go to their website you can
see what their daily specials are.
$1 thursdays... awesome!

Since it has been raining all week long {i'm not complaining, i love love love the rain}

  i decided to take my kids and some friends for a playdate! We totally missed out on miss sela's birthday party, so we planned a fun day with her!

but when you have summer and me together... then your playdate turns into a party!

we picked up kids right after school and went to the yummy "chocolate" bakery right off

statestreet and ate sugar cookies & cupcakes then right when classic skate opened we were off to

rollerskate/ride scooters/wiggles and blades and eat pizza!

it was a good day!

these 3 cuties tried rollerskating {insert major sigh} 

and then realized it was more fun to ride scooters instead! 

 KJ

 Sela & livi

ivy & mckelle are little besties who love to twirl in their dresses. 

{we promise we didn't even mean to match them} ~  we just love Matilda Jane! ha

 jake/boston/luke

these guys are little tricksters, they can't just ride a scooter or rollerblade like regular people. they need action at all times.  but my camera wasn't cooperating for those pics.

lunch with my besties...

at their school.  

seriously this 5th grader of mine has some awesome friends at his school and they all seem to

 think he is 'da bomb'... and so do we!

sometimes he acts like he is too old to have his mom and siblings come and eat with him and then sometimes he totally redeems himself and loves it. 

hayes & livi don't eat lunch at school yet they're just in kindergarten, but they 

went to class right after our lunchdate with Boston.

then little miss ivy and i went with some besties to our new favorite lunch spot ever...

"Malawi's Pizza"

at the riverwoods in Provo {where magelby's restaurant used to be} and it is 

to. die. for!

for every meal they serve they donate a nutritious meal to orphans in Malawi Africa.

it's healthy, fresh and served on whole wheat crust!

and then their dessert pizzas... oh my! 

amazing.

{pictures don't do justice, these are from my phone}

"5th" grade ski passports...

If you are a local here in Utah and have 5th and 6th graders. then you won't want to miss this deal...

ski utah has these awesome programs for only $25 where 5th graders can ski 3 times for free 

& 6th graders 1 time at all the ski resorts! How awesome is that? 

{I think that if you live in utah, you should be a good skier! ~wink}

 another fabulous reason why i love utah... and my 5th grader is pretty excited too!

click here for 5th grade passports.

click here for 6th grade passports.

and of course, don't forget to get your ski & snowboard rentals @ Canyon Sports for this coming ski season.  Great prices!
 You'll want to do it pretty quick, so your size doesn't sell out!   

also don't forget to get your iphone app here to check ski and snow totals. 

after "ghoul" treats...

yep, i've been gaining some weight this fall. 

  Cooking all sorts of yummy "fall treats" for my kiddos.

i saw these darling "mummy dogs" in family fun magazine and gave them a try.   

The kids loved these after school with ketchup and mustard to dip.

another night we made 'caramel apples' that were 

to. die. for.

we melted dark chocolate and white chocolate and drizzled them over the apples. 

 mostly they liked to dip their rice krispy treat in the assorted chocolates, while

 cory and i devoured ourselves in the apples. 

also not pictured, we made delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.  from the

 kitchen of my friend kelli.  

so delicious.  I will give the recipe soon.

until then, i need to hit the gym! wink

happy cooking!

another favorite is artichokes. 

 we love artichokes in this house.

our daddy makes a special sauce to go with it, and also with any sort of vegetable.

  It is a must have with our vegetables. 

~boil the artichoke in a steamer for about an hour.

sauce;

half of cube of butter & some lemon juice

melt in microwave and add garlic salt

YUM!

Happy October!

It was very hard to decorate for halloween when it is 100 degrees outside. But i am not

 going to complain, i am loving this "Indian summer" we are having!

I love fall and of course Halloween! I am so excited to go and help in hayes & livis's class this 

year {their first real school party}  and do the "witches brew!" 

 it was October 1st and we had waited long enough.  I've been surprising my kids for the last few years with all of

 their halloween goodies & jammies right when they get home from school.

they love this!

the house is all decorated. 

halloween music in the background, halloween dvd's out and ready to watch.

my friend summer gave me the cutest halloween pancake cutters from Williams Sonoma so we made pancakes for our after school treat!  It was perfect.

we love Halloween.

i never know what setting to use on my camera, but we were trying to show the 'glow in the dark' jammies outside! haha

cheering at halftime...

for american fork??

it was the Lonepeak vs. American Fork football game, and we were sitting on AF side.

we switched sides for the night. haha 

most of the Hansen cousins were dancing with the AF cheerleaders during the halftime show.  Olivia had a blast going to practice 3 days in a row with her cousins and being spoiled by all the cheerleaders, especially her cousin Esdee.   

it was pretty much the cutest thing, watching her dance & cheer in front of everyone!  She and Colee were front and center the whole time.  I loved it!

They did a dance routine to "Dynamite"  and it was soooo adorable!!

Colee/Esdee/Livi

she's front and center... on the right of the cheerleader.

So cute!

We have the most supportive family at ball games!   Chase is the Quarterback for Lonepeak & Esdee was cheering for AF so Nana came and grandpa and grandma Hansen were there along with lots of aunts uncles and cousins.  

Hayes, Carson & Cade were busy throwing popcorn up in the air and hitting people.  oops.

"a birthday luau"

for our spunky little "two" year old...

Ivy was not really interested in her party {she took a late nap, due to brother's football game} 

until it was time to open presents... which was at the last 30 minutes of her party. haha

Livi is in most of my pictures because she is the only one in my family who will smile for the camera.  I have officially overdosed my family with taking Pictures ;)

We had such a fun time celebrating her birthday "luau style"

I made yummy Macaroni Salad, Kaluha pork, sticky rice, pineapple/fruit skewers 

and polynesian chicken!

we played "hot coconut" did "hoola hoop contests" and of course the "Limbo." 

One of my niece's friends is from Samoa and she came and taught the kids how to "hula dance" it was soooo darling!  I loved watching the kids learn a little hula routine!

everything was great once Ivy ate her cupcakes and opened presents.  She became our little spunky child once her clothes came off!  Hey it's her birthday she can do whatever she wants, right?!

we love that girl to pieces, even when she is naughty... she pulls at our 'heart strings'

Happy birthday love...

  I made these darling "lei's" for the kids to take home, My friend Jenn who lives in hawaii made one for Ivy for her birthday and sent me all the netting to make the "party favors" 

 they were so darling!

there she is, my happy baby girl playing with all her presents!