Catch up, Ketchup, Catchup, Really...I'm just behind again.

Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer were in town a few weekends ago and Nate had tickets. He's a well rounded boy when it comes to the "arts". So, true to form, he and his friends went D.I. shopping and came up with some "Fly" outfits for the concert. In Nates opinion anyway. 

This is just another Proud Mom Moment. 

If his Bio Mom saw this she'd never talk to him again! It's a fake (he found it in a car he was detailing) My favorite thing about this shot is the Eagle Scout picture in the background!

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This is how Morgan generally looks, no lie. Her tongue is out a lot! Sometimes it's up her nose...cause she can. Long tongues...her dad and I both have them. 

Anyway, her hair is the topic not her tongue. It's greasy, It's flaky, It's back in a ponytail all the time! So Mike took it upon himself to tell her we'd let her color her hair if she'd take care of it better. 

WHAT??? My head is spinning at this point...my 12 year old is NOT getting her hair colored and how dare he (her STEP Father) make that proposal with out talking to ME first! Well, he made all the right points when we discussed it later AND Morgan was willing to put in 20 bucks of her hard earned cash. 

SO... 

Before

During

After

I'm ok now. She looks cute and it matches her blossoming personality. She didn't want it black...that's a plus, because it wouldn't have happened and then she'd still be unhappy with her greasy ponytail.

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Many Sundays we sit behind that DeGraws. Matt and Deanne have two super cute daughters, Payton 8 and Macy 6. Payton likes to keep herself busy with a loom, making Hotpads. This last Sunday I was watching her and thought, "I should ask her to make me one and pay her for it." A few minutes later she was showing me the creation she was in the middle of and pointed to me. I smiled and looked at her mother who said, Payton's telling you it's for you." 

ME? really? 

I was getting a 

Payton DeGraw Original! SWWEEEET!   

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Gorgoza Park with the Girls Scouts was fun! Julie Schwartz (GS Leader) and I took the girls up for a few hours of cold. yea cold. But the girls loved it and Julie and I had a nice time chatting and getting to know each other better.

While we were there I thought I'd give my Brother Matt a call for his Birthday. It's the thing to do in our family to call and sing Happy Birthday to the b~day boy or girl so, true to form that's what Matt got...from everyone standing in line for the tow rope!!! At least 30 or more strangers singin' to my brother on the slopes! I sooooooo win the birthday song deal!

 Top that Mom!

I wanted to get a shot of the girls coming down the hill before we headed back down the mountain...

Nope, not them...

or them...

There they are! 

Is there a reason 12 year olds can't keep a straight face?

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Beth's boyfriend Brian asked her to Prom on Valentines day. The only way I think it could have been better is if he had cleaned her room while he was layin' out all those petals! 

Valentine's Day. The kids were gone, I picked up Cheesecake Factory to eat in the comfort of our own home ...we over ate. So this is about as romantic as the evening got; which was still fun! 

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Raise your hand if you know Nate...this Nate....the dork that can't play Basketball but wants to play so he dresses like this to make it fun. he does this thing called a jelly roll...I don't know. If I ever get a shot of that I'll let you know, I hear it's hilarious! 

No...he's not "downs" he just kinda looks like he is. 

So there ya go; all "kitched up" Don't you feel all better now? I do! Wheeew.

The Name Game

I did this on Facebook and thought it was fun! so i'm blogging it!

Copy and paste into your notes, then tag others to pass along:

1.YOUR REAL NAME: Shelly Rae Hanson

2.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother and fathers middle names) Adelaide William

3.NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad) Harry George 

4.STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name) Hansh

5.DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Green Horse 

6.SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, town where you were born) Rae Montebello

7.SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning) The Blue Water

8.FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name) Shon

9.STREET NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie) Mint Snickerdoodle

10. PORN NAME: (1st pet's name, street you grew up on) Pepper Groveside (I've done this one before and LOVED my porn name!)

11.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of last name plus izzle) Hanizzle

12.YOUR IRAQI.. NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, first two letters of your middle name, last two letters of your first name then last three letters of your last name): Hnralyson

13.YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets) Black Lucy-Fur (no lie!)

14. STRIPPER NAME: (name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav candy) Cool water Chocolate

ok now I'm picking

John Hammond

Amanda Smith

Emily Short

Erin Duitzman

Sharla Allen

Sariah The wife of Lehi and Emma Smith

Julie Hammond and I had the great pleasure of being a part of the Cottonwood Heights Stake Women's Conference today. It was beautiful! The women who put this program together did an amazing job. If you missed it (my friends in the neighborhood)  you really missed out. 

Julie and I played Emma and Sariah. Emma is reading a letter she wrote to her husband Joseph telling him of her gratitude for the Book of Mormon and how she feels that her trials are similar to those of Sariah, having a good husband, a visionary man, a prophet. In between her letter Sariah speaks of the trials of leaving her comfortable home to live in the wilderness for the rest of their days because her husband Lehi felt prompted by the Lord to do so. 

Emma feels that reading about Sariah going through the struggles and doubts, the mummering and finally the faith that Sariah gained through her trials, have helped her (Emma) to understand her own trails and concerns. 

Then we sang a duet, that I was so grateful to have been able to sing. A week ago I had no voice. Up until Thursday night I didn't know if I'd be able to do it. Literally.... NO SPEAKING OR SINGING VOICE. I felt the prayers of the sisters who wanted me there this morning and I was blessed. 

It was a good morning. 

Batman: "How did you know that Robin and I might be in trouble at this glue factory?"

Batgirl: "Through the one thing you couldn't possibly have in your utility belt, Batman. A woman's intuition."

Teenagers are awesome! At least the ones I know. Nate and Emma went to a theme dance with a bunch of friends who dressed up as Batman bad guys, or in other-words, Nate went to a dance with a bunch of girls! How does he do it? 

In this picture, that I stole off of Jordan Stirlings FB page (sorry hun, don't hate me) are a few girls from the neighborhood that I love! Jordan Stirling as Catwoman, Marina Astin as Penguin, Katie Larsen as Poison Ivy, 

and Lauren Allison as Robin...where would Batman be without Robin?  

Two face, the Riddler,  and the Joker I don't recognize but they looked great!

Quick! to the Batmobile Batgirl!

Showing off with feats of strength and agility, Batman finds a way to impress Batgirl... oh baby!

And the world can sleep well...knowing that Nate, I mean Batman is 

on the job! Oh my...

On another note

Nate got a haircut the other day. As you look at this "pose" do you think it's possible that he has been looking at to many Kmart, Walmart, and Shopko ad models? 

maybe

December Wrap up

I'll make this as simple as possible since there are a ton of pictures!

December 1st.

Just a beautiful morning out my front door.

Morgan entered the schools Reflections contest and won Grand Prize in the 4-6th grade section for a piece of artwork she drew. I'd show it here but it's gone to the district to compete against others who also won in her category. Her shirt says it all. She acted so unimpressed when she found out that she won. I could have just flicked her!

Another shot out my front door on the 4th of December. 

The snow's a comin' folks!

Mike and I got free tickets to the Glenn Beck show "The Christmas Sweater". We got to meet him before the show and had our picture taken with him but I made the mistake trusting some guy Mike knew to actually send us the picture. it's on the KNRS radio website but it's so pixelated that it wasn't worth getting. Whatever...it was a good night. saw a lot of friends while we were there. 

FHE with the Taylors and Sanders at Temple Square. Another cold yet beautiful night. 

Morgan made these Hot Chocolate bags for her friends gifts, they turned out so cute!

how to:

buy cone shaped bags...somewhere. I ran across them by accident at a gift store near my home.

Each bag gets 1/2 C. Cocoa 1/2 C. Mini Marshmallows and 1/4 C. Chocolate Chips, then tie it up with some pretty ribbon. Makes 2 Cups of Cocoa. Super easy!

Carolers Marcus Renlund and Nick Bentz

Every year the YMYW leaders take the kids to a Christmas Broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I cried like a baby this year. I don't know why. I guess I had a really hard time feeling the Christmas Spirit till that morning. It just touched my heart so amazingly.

Christmas Eve

I let Morgan decorate the tree this year and she did a great job! 

It turned out so beautifully.

Christmas Day

At 10 am we called our Missionary! It was so great to talk to him. He sounds so happy to be in Spain. He has a great companion and Brett's feeling so much more comfortable with the language. To read his letters go to www.elderbretthanson.blogspot.com 

We didn't have mistletoe so Nate kissed the cat under the Christmas tree instead.

It was a good day

The next day was Nate's 18th Birthday and the Lord saw fit to DUMP snow everywhere! So while Mike was plowing the driveway I warmed up Nate's car and cleaned off the 8+ inches of snow from it so he could get to work...then he ended up sleeping in. Turkey! Later we had dinner and a few gifts and he and the two Andy's went to a movie.   

I went to Macy's to return a few things and noticed that this door had a sign on it that said ENTRANCE CLOSED...which is good, considering where the door was placed...

Morgan and Emily had a hard time waking up one day. 

Nothing a nice Snow Angel can't fix!

I had been holding on to $150.00 worth of gift cards to the Market Street Grill, a really expensive seafood restaurant  for like...3 or 4 years, so this year we decided to take the OTHER completely broke couple we know besides ourselves, Jim and Jen Andrus and treat them to yummy food! It was such a fun evening. We always have such a good time with the Andrus'. 

And I got to wear the pretty earrings and necklace that Bethany gave me. BONUS!

New Years Eve at Jason and Jill Taylors.

Jaclyn and Morgan playing Rock Band on the Wii

Austin cookin' up something deeeeeelicious in his new kitchen!

This isn't the most flattering picture of you guys I'm sorry, but it was the only one with both of you in it.  

Jason's Parents Keith and Cheryl are stinkin' hilarious to play Taboo with!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

I'll end here. With Mike showing off his Sleeping Beauty Band-aid that Jaclyn so graciously gave up to cover the giant gouge he gave himself with a pretty hefty wrench the day before.  

Let the new year begin!