School!

Ready to take on the world. 6th grade, 4th grade, and Kindergarten. Owen is beyond adorable. Katelyn and Whitney won't let me curl their beautiful long hair because "it's too hot" to wear it down 🙄. Someday they will care too much, I'll just try to enjoy this stage of being carefree about their looks!

Emma the cute-face.

this is not a rare event: everyone gathering around the baby!!

She found her toes!

And one week after the girls, the long-awaited day arrived- Owen started school!

 Sappy post warning! As I've been reflecting on the last 4 years of having Owen as my little buddy (since Whitney started kindergarten!), I'm grateful for a few things. I'm so grateful for 1/2 day kindergarten. And for our new 4 day school week! It will be good to still have him home all day 3 days a week. But mostly I'm grateful that I have no regrets!! This kid was patient with me through two pregnancies and two new babies. I was tired a lot! But I'm so so grateful that so many times I chose to set aside whatever I wanted to get done or postpone the nap I wanted to take so I could spend a little bit of quality time with my little boy. It was hard to do sometimes! But even if it was only for 15 or 20 minutes, we built a lot of Legos and played a lot of games together. We will never get that time back, and now that he's starting his many years of school, I'm so happy that I got to play with him so much. 😪☺️😊😍😇

Emma enjoying the "fun chair".

 Another month has flown by for the Emma girl. She's a rolling, toy loving, only laughs at Owen, 17 pounds of adorableness. (***sidenote- as I was typing this, Maris peed in the garage. Sigh. I guess instagram and potty training don't mix. 😩)

those little shoulders!!

 First day of preschool for my little social girl! No shoes because it was at our house, I found some friends to do it with me. 😄 I remembered that I ❤️teaching my kids preschool! Maris was so cute just chattering away to her new little friends. It's going to be a great year. #aisforapple

Katelyn made this temple scene to use for an i-spy game for FHE!

Emma trying rice cereal for the first time. Photo credit: Owen haha

Sweet, sweet little babe and Mom selfies.

She likes to give kisses, aka grab your face and suck on it. :)

Eclipse video

This doesn't do it justice, at all. But it does capture some of our reactions!

ECLIPSE!

We decided to go to Idaho to see the total solar eclipse.  And then as it got closer we wondered if it would really be worth it to drive all the way up there and have Owen miss his first day of kindergarten for it.  We probably would have backed out, except that we had already told Eric's grandparents we were coming to stay with them, and they were excited to see us and we didn't want to disappoint them.  

So we decided to go for it.  BEST DECISION EVER. Seriously.  We can't believe we almost didn't go. We would have missed the most amazing thing we have ever seen in our lives!!  We wish we would have known how cool it was going to be; we would have tried so hard to convince all of our family to go!

There's really no way to describe how incredible the total eclipse was.  You talk about it with people who saw 75% or even 99%, and they are like "oh it was so cool, the leaf shadows and pinhole viewer and the glasses and everything, and it just felt off, the light was so different!  It was awesome!"  And yes, all those things were really fun and cool; we experienced them in the 2 hours while we were waiting for the total eclipse.  But those things are just novelties, like party tricks compared to the majesty and awe we experienced for a minute and a half when the MOON BLOCKED OUT THE SUN.  It was life-changing.  It was almost completely dark, 360 degree twilight.  It was cold.  And the ring of light around the moon was the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen.  The light beads!  Were incredible.  It was just so powerful and inspiring, all you could do was shout in amazement, that's what everyone was doing all around us.

We are going to become chasers.  For real.  Dallas 2024 baby!!

Here are some pics from the day before in Pocatello:

 on the way:

 Good morning from Pocatello, on our way to the totality zone!!! Along with everyone else! Go humans. Go USA lol. This is awesome! #totaleclipseorbust#greatamericaneclipse #chasingthatshadow #darksideofthemoon

 Hanging out at a park in Shelley ID.

 Starting to see the eclipse with our glasses on!

 Emma did not care about the eclipse. haha

 Waiting for the total eclipse! #darksideofthemoon #intheshadow#greatamericaneclipse

 facebook post #3 haha
Okay that was just as amazing as we hoped it would be!!! ABSOLUTELY worth the drive!!The diamond ring effect, the solar flares, the darkness and cold, wow. So spectacular. What an amazing universe God has created! #totalsolareclipse

 And then sadly when we went back to pocatello for lunch before going home, Katelyn was riding a 4 wheeler, hit a tree and got this little cut that needed 5 stitches. :(

more summer fun!!

One of the times the Cravens were here, Katelyn and Whitney made up this whole carnival for all the little kids.  Katelyn came out dressed like this and it was so awesome!!  So cute of them to do that.

A couple of days before Derek and Raycelan moved we had a last hurrah hike.  We did Dripping Rock Trail and it was prefect for our group.

from facebook:

Can I post again about Derek and Raycelan?? This is them playing Motorboat and tug of war with most of their Hansen nieces and nephews today. 😭They move in a few days, we are going to have withdrawals!

The Utah siblings!  (Jonathan is one too now, but he had to work.)

#favoriteauntanduncle

group hug!  It has been so wonderful to live so close to Derek for the last 6 years.

Also we spent the 24th of July with the cousins!

One random week Whitney's Family Home Evening activity was a huge success! #familypingpong #crazypingpong #doublesplusmaris #10ballserve

Mom classes were toned down this year, because EMMA.  :)  But one we did was kitchen science. one day we played with cornstarch, this day was yeast.

Genius ideas by Whitney, Round 2: Soft Baked Pretzels for our Baking 101 class today! YUM, sooo good! The baking soda bath was magical and made them so crisp/chewy on the outside, wow. Thanks #sallysbakingaddiction for the recipe! My kitchen is now a disaster and I haven't gotten anything else done today, but, WORTH IT!! 😁 #summermomclass

from facebook:

I've been feeling so Jetsons lately: "oh I can play with Emma while this robot Eric got me for my birthday cleans my floor" or "Alexa turn on my kitchen light so I don't have to walk 10 steps to do it myself" What crazy world do I live in? What are my kids going to have?

One day I took the littles to a splash pad while Eric took the big girls to a play.

And one day I convinced Allison to come with me (it didn't take much convincing, she is always up for an adventure!) to visit the graves of some ancestors!

Facebook post:

I am proud to be a Hansen. And a Udall, a Rowley, a Schofield, a Lamb and an Edmunds. Spent the day today driving around central Utah to see the graves of 15 of my grandpa's ancestors. Immigrants from Wales, England, and Denmark in the 1850's and 60's. I love learning about my family and sharing it with my kids, and I'm glad my sister and her kids were up for the adventure as well! #smalltowncemeteries #pioneers

The Udalls in Nephi

The Hansens and Jensens in Pleasant View?  Can't remember the town name right now!

Manti temple

The Lambs in Wales- tiny desert town!

Mustaches to match their ancestor!

It was a really fun day, and we learned a lot about out ancestors= win!