The Fun life of a Stay-at-home Mom

Those who know me, know that I do not sew. Something I have only tried when at young womens activities and I was so awful at it that I didn't even give sewing a second thought for years. Until a few months ago when I decided to take home my mom's old sewing machine. It hadn't been used in many many years and so she was glad to give it up. Then my young women decided they wanted to all sew skirts. So we brought in a pro to help teach us the basics, and my confidence began to grow. I went to Michaels and bought several patterns, they were on sale for $1 each. Then instead of buying skirt material, I chickened out and decided I best start with something simpler, something smaller...some pajama pants for Little Man. Were they a success?...well you can take a look yourself.

Little Man modeling his mommy-made pjs

 Ok so maybe they kind of look more like a skirt then pants, and they're a little long. But he loves them! They have little fire-engines and dalmatian puppies on them.

umm...when did my baby get to be such a big boy?

After being such a good boy and modeling for me he insisted on taking a few pics of me, and this was the result:

 I've decided that I really like my hair color, I think I finally found the right shade of blond :) thanks mom for taking me to get my hair done, you're the best!

So sometimes being a stay-at-home you are asked "what do you do all day?" Well now you know. You do home-makey things like sew your child pjs and bake & decorate a cake just because your husband tells you he's in the mood for cake.

I realize I'm no pro when it comes to these kind of home-makey activities. I would like to take a cake decorating class someday. These decorations were done using a ziploc bagey with a hole cut in one end, ya not even close to a pro, but that's ok. And hopefully I will be able to improve my sewing skills over time.

But some things I am pretty dang good at include:

• making forts with my son in the basement
• building houses out of jenga blocks
• growling like a monster
• talking in funny voices
• reading children books
• counting when a little boy says "Mommy Count!"
• singing primary songs to help my baby fall asleep
• spinning around and around until I fall over
• finger painting
• making my son laugh :)

Ok so truth be told, I do spend most of my day playing. I've even mastered the art of speed cleaning to allow even more time playing. It's a pretty great life I must admit. Thanks go to my wonderful husband who works his tail off so that I can be the Mommy I always dreamed of. Now if I can just get my body to cooperate so that I can add to this little family of mine! Its kind of crazy to think that this time last year I was 2 months pregnant. Oh well, I'm sure all work out for the best...whatever that may be. For now I'll continue to spend my days playing and loving every second I get to be with my little man!

The Month of July

Last month was July and month full of fun festivities. Filled to the brim with traditional Summer activities. We live a pretty fun life! What follows of course is just a glimpse into the fun, because everyone knows how the camera is forgotten when having too much fun.

The Fourth of July!

This year we spent the 4th with our good friends the Sessions. We did all your typical fourth activities, we had a cook-out, swam in a pool and had our own little fireworks show. The big boys bought several fun little fireworks for us to enjoy. We had a blast to say the least.

Landon loved every minute of it, especially the sparklers!

Here he is holding a special ginormous sparkler.

I love the Fourth of July! I love everything about it! I am so proud to be an American and grateful to live in a land of Freedom!! Yay for the USA!!!

Birthday Party!

Little man doesn't like to get messy, so Mommy had help with the cupcake.

Landon had the opportunity to go to a really fun Birthday party at the Little Gym. They had lots of fun activities and fun things to play on. It was great! Sorry for the blurr (camera phone). He loved the zip line they had!

Time in Plano! I don't have pictures of this special week, but still wanted to make a quick note of it. Landon and I flew to Plano in the middle of July to spend time with my parents while Ethan was going to be gone on business. I can't tell you how much fun we had! Of course we missed Ethan. But we made sure jam pack each day with lots and lots of...well, shopping of course! Anyone who has been to Dallas knows how great the shopping is there! Love it, loved it! My Dad took Landon to see his first movie on the big screen, Cars 2 and bought him a real Woody doll! My mom and I rented movies every night and stayed up late watching them, it was a blast! I feel so grateful to be so close to my Mom, she truly is my best friend!!! Thanks Mom for such a great week! I'll never forget it!

 Hanson Family Reunion in Kentucky

Ok so I know we didn't really call it a reunion, but that's only because we were the only ones to have to travel to see everybody. But the whole Hanson family was together for a week, so a reunion is exactly what it was! And like most family reunions it was jam packed full of fun! Ethan's parents hosted and organized lots of great activities! Which included, family dinners, family temple night, day at the lake with wave runners and boat, day at an amusement park (Holiday World) and family pictures, of course. Needless to say it was extreme amounts of fun all week. And since we used to live in Kentucky, we were able to see lots of old friends, which was great!  Nate and Jayme also live there and so we were able to spend some time with them as well. It was such a great week! We can't wait to do it all over again next year!

Spending time at the local pool

Amdon, Landon, Ayson, Brayland and Brilee all sitting on the side waiting for adult swim to be done.

After church nap. Landon and Amdon were so cute together. They are such good little buddies they even nap together!

At church we had the opportunity to see little Elom (Kellan's son) be blessed. They scheduled it so that Ethan could be present in the blessing circle, it was so special to be there!

Ok sad, but true this is the only picture I have from the day on the lake, you can't even tell, but that is Ethan and Landon out on the jet ski! Landon loved it! :) I'm so glad he is such a water baby!

Short story time: I unfortunately was unable to enjoy all the fun water festivities at the lake and water park. I got a staff infection (at least that is the guess, we still aren't a 100% sure what it was) on my leg. Needless to say it had to be cut open and drained and left open to allow to drain. Actually its still draining two weeks later. Anyways because it was an open wound I was forbidden from letting it get wet. Pretty sad news for me, since I LOVE the water and since it was record humidity and heat. But surprisingly enough I still had a really great time. Just watching everyone have so much fun, especially Landon made me happy!

Ok here are the good pictures! I think they turned out great! I love them!

The Hanson Family

Scott, Kellan, Elom, Dad & Mom Hanson, Amdon, Brian, Ayson, Brilee, Amy, Brayland, Landon, Katie and Ethan

Mimi & Bapa with their grandchildren, I just love this pic!

So Cute!

And again a Big Thank you to them for the wonderful time we had in Kentucky! Ethan has some great parents and we feel very blessed to have them! They are such adoring and loving grandparents. And I'm grateful they taught Ethan the truths of the Gospel! They are very good examples in so many ways, but especially of how to have a long lasting, successful relationship!

Mimi with Landon, Brayland and Ayson.

Us!

Amdon and Landon, best buddies!

Aren't they just the cutest!?! I just love watching Landon with his cousins!

Brian and Pam's wedding

We also had the opportunity to go to Brian Peers' wedding in Louisville which was a fun experience.

It was on the roof of the Glass Factory down town, it was a really neat site for the wedding.

Yay, I'm all caught up! :)

The Month of June

On to the month of June, which was another fun-filled month!

Summers really are so great!

Gonda Family Reunion

The first weekend in June we spent in Plano, Texas at my parents house with my family. Nate & Jayme flew in from Louisville, KY and John, Ann & Annabel flew in Reno, NV. It was a lot of fun!

 Here Landon is being read bedtime stories by his Grandma. :)

Such sweet moments!

The family waiting to go to church together. It was great being able to go to a Fast and testimony meeting together as a whole family. I really enjoyed hearing  my older brother and Father bare testimony of the beautiful blessing of eternal families. I am so grateful to be sealed to my family for eternity!

While we were all together we took family pictures!

Back row: Jayme, Nathan, Landon, Ethan, Katie, Ann, John

Front row: Nick, Mom (Annabel, John's daughter on lap of Mom) and Dad

The Men! :)

I am so grateful to have such wonderful men in my life!

I just love them all too pieces!

 The Parents

Quick tribute to my parents, I just think they are the greatest! My life has been wonderful since day one and I know most of it is due to wonderfulness of my parents! Who are also pretty awesome Grandparents. I'm so grateful they taught me the truths of the Gospel and love me unconditionally!

Us!

Overall the Gonda Reunion was great! We didn't take many pictures with our own camera, hence the lack of photos from the trip. It was a short visit, but so fun. One of the days we spent at the Fort Worth Zoo, which was pretty incredible!

Thanks to Mom and Dad for hosting and organizing!

Girls Camp

Me and my co-leader, she was great!

We had a blast together I felt like a young woman all over again and had a blast!

Here is a pic of most of the group leaders.

As some of you know I have the awesome opportunity to work with the youth at my church. I love spending time with the young women and absolutely love my calling! I had a great time getting know the girls better at camp and watching their testimonies grow. What an amazing group of girls we have in this church!

I have to pay special tribute to my mother-in-law for being so kind as to come and watch my little man for me while I was away. I was gone for 5 days, which was the longest I had ever been away from him. I was so grateful to have Karen take care of him (and my husband). She even surprised me with a few gifts for my home and vehicles. What an immense help she was for me!

Ethan's mom flew into Kansas City and on their way to drop her off at the airport they stopped at the construction site of the Kansas City Temple. It's not a great picture, as it was taken by a phone, but you can get the gist of how big and beautiful it is already! I can not wait to see the finish project! We are all very excited! To learn more about temples click: Mormon temples

 Brian Peers makes a Pit Stop

here is Brian's blog of his adventures click: sea2jax

Brian is a friend from Ethan's LG&E days in Kentucky. He took on the incredible adventure of bicycling across the USA, starting in Seattle, WA and finishing in Jacksonville,FL. We were lucky enough to be right on his route and be able to allow him a couple of days of rest at our place. It was a lot of fun talking to him about all his adventures and our trip to England to visit him ;).

My little Picasso

Ok so many he's no prodigy when it comes to painting, but he loves it and I love watching him love it!He painted all the pictures drying on the table. He asks to paint a lot, which is oh so fun!

The Month of May

Ok so I know that it is currently the month of August, but I've been too busy having tons of fun this summer to keep up to date posts. So this is my attempt at catching everyone up on our adventures this glorious summer of 2011!

To start off this post I would like to give proof to all those who wonder about the eating habits of Little Man...

 Here it is, proof that he eats something normal, a peanut butter sandwich! :) For those out there that may be unaware of my son's eating habits he is the extreme in picky. We rejoice in our house when he eats something considered normal, which includes cereal w/ milk, pancakes and pb sandwiches (that is an all inclusive list) other things he eats on a normal basis include, crackers (of any shape or form) and parmesan cheese. Lucky for me he's a big drinker of milk and v8 Fusion and takes a daily vitamin, how else this boy manages to Never get sick and stay so active and healthy is a mystery to me. I'm just grateful he is so healthy and pray everyday that he will decide to try something new!

The Father-Son Priesthood CampOut, Landon's First!

 During the first weekend in May, Dad (as shown above, pic taken by Landon himself) and Landon went on their own camping adventure with the other men from our Stake (church). Landon did great and loved every moment with his Daddy!

 Happy little man with his twizzler!

WSU Baseball Game!

 We had a lot of fun at the game! Landon loves to go to live sporting events, so anytime Ethan comes across free tickets we always take advantage! It was our first Wichita State University baseball game. Go Shockers!

Happy Mother's Day!

My specially-requested, made-by husband meal!

 Landon's parmesan cheese mess, he loves the stuff, eats it by the spoonful!

The chef himself (pic taken by little man).

 CUTE FACE

Landon's nap in the front room.

He very carefully arranged all the item you see in this picture and then as sweet as can be asked me if he could sleep in his "house" instead of his bed. I of course agreed and thought it was the cutest thing I'd ever seen! I just love watching his little creative mind at work. He is constantly building and creating, its simply wonderful!

 Memorial Day Weekend!

Landon pushing Bapa on his new Lighting McQueen bike. Too much fun!

Ethan's parents came for a visit Memorial Day weekend!

We had a lot of fun! Especially little man and all the spoils he received!

Little Man with his Mimi and Bapa!

And that pretty much sums up the highlights from May!