Hanson Dirty Laundry

So Sam loves the hamper. A couple of months ago I took this video to show his grandparents how he climbs in and out to watch television. (More after video)

It is something that he continues to do. For some reason, this is one of his favorite hangouts in our home. This morning I've been preparing for our impending trip to Utah when I realized he was being VERY quiet. If you know two yr olds, you know that this is never a good thing.

Today it actually was.

I went into the bedroom and found this.

Such a sweet boy.

And in case you were wondering, he's watching the British version of Wonder Pets. It is much less annoying with British accents.

The Organ

They've asked me to play the organ in church.

I haven't played the organ consistently for 10 years.

My piano is in Utah.

This could be interesting.

Yikes.

Sam and the slide. (Holy posting!)

I took Sam to Inflatable Wonderland last week. Of course he decided he needed to go down . . . .

THE BIGGEST SLIDE THEY HAVE!!!!

Sam's TX Dance

This morning we went to breakfast and had to wait outside for our table. There was some rad old cowboy dude playing the guitar. He was so awesome that Sam did a little dance for us.

His little skinny jeans crack me up.

Happy Halloweenie!

This was our first year of trick or treating. We actually just went to a party at our church and Trunk or Treated. It did the job. Plus, I didn't have to worry about crazy people giving my kid strange candy.

Putting Sam in a costume is a bit of a challenge. He won't wear anything on his head. He won't wear anything around his waist (you should have seen the reaction to the dinosaur that had suspenders so it looked like he was riding it) and he definitely won't wear capes. Even cute one's lovingly sewn by his mother.

About a month ago we bought Sam some little black converse shoes. Based on this we decided he would be a Greaser. His jeans from last year are still the right length but now they look like skinny jeans. So all we needed was a white t-shirt and a comb.

Then we went to Target and found this beauty . . .

We even gave him little sideburns. So funny.

The costume parade.

Someone embracing his inner bad boy.

Love this boy.

He had such a fun time and got a good haul of candy. Luckily for Ben and I, he doesn't like candy. Score.

Cooking with Z

My little cousin Zaylee is the biggest crack up. She told me that she lives in Sandy & Tony (aka San Antonio)

Anywho . . .While I was there we put together a couple of meals for her family while her mom was in the hospital. She REALLY likes to help in the kitchen and begged to help me cook. After pouring milk on my phone, I realized that we had to come up with something suitable for her to do. She became Enchilada Girl.

First, she would get out the tortilla. It was essential that she patted every single one.

Next, I would add the chicken and "soup" as Zaylee called it.

Third, Zaylee would add the cheese. The amount wasn't too consistent. And she may or may not have licked her fingers a couple of time. I figured it was her parents eating them so it wasn't that big of a deal.

I would then roll them and stick them in the pan.

When we were done filling all of the enchiladas, she poured (dumped) the rest of the cheese on top. She was one good little helper.

In other news, she and Sam got in a fight over the iPod. In a rather uncharacteristic move by Sam, he bit her arm. She didn't even cry. Sam got a massive time out.

Later I said, "Hey Z, let me see your arm.."

After looking at it, she said, "Oh. OWWWW!" I wasn't so convinced.

Granted, it does look like a tiny shark bit her. Such a naughty boy.

Baby Jack

Last night I got a phone call at 3:00 am from my Aunt Nicole telling me that her baby had decided to it was time to come and that I was on 3 yr old duty. Her sweet neighbor Sara took Zaylee in the middle of the night and kept her until morning when I could get here. She's a saint. :)

We made it to San Antonio at about 8:30 just in time to head over to the hospital to see Jack and Nicole with Alex and Zaylee. As soon, as Zaylee saw him she rubbed her hands together and said, "He is SOOOO cute!" She's right, he really is. He is to tiny with tons of dark hair. You have never seen a sweeter baby. He just sleeps quietly with his little mouth open. Sigh . . . so cute. I might try to sneak him out with me when Sam and I go back to Austin tomorrow. :)

I know none of you actually care about my ramblings so we'll get to the good part - THE PHOTOS!!! (There is one photo of Nicole but I think she might kill me if I post it.)

Sam was not as impressed as his mother.

Sam's blankets . . . with an S

Sam has two blankets that he loves. We call them Brown and Blue.

He LOVES them.

They are minky on one side and silky on the other. He loves to rub them on his face and carry them around by their tags.

Recently he has decided that he needs to take them with him everywhere he goes. Super annoying because then I end up needing to wash his blankets CONSTANTLY.

So I thought, "Hey, he's a little boy. Little boys LOVE capes. I'll just make him a cape with a silky side and tags at the bottom."

Brilliant, eh?

So I researched how to make capes online, went on Illustrator, designed him a little "logo", cut out a template with my silhouette and went to the store to buy fabric.

Let me tell you sewing isn't something I'm super great at. I can do it, but not real well.

I appliquéd his logo out of felt. Cute. . . I'm on a roll.

Then I put together the cape. Not so cute, but I learned some valuable cape lessons.

This morning Sam and I went to the store again for more fabric. I had a better plan.

This time the logo looked even better. The cape looked pretty good. The sewing machine cooperated. By the end I was feeling pretty proud of myself. I even took pictures to send to Ben and our moms.

See? Cute.

Then came the moment of truth. Will Sam like/wear the cape?

I put it on him.

He ripped it off and threw it on the floor.

Guess Mommy has a new cape.

Happy Grandparent's Day

In honor of Grandparent's day (and my very favorite commercial on TV) we made a little video for the Grandparents. Granny (Ben's mom) feels that Sam may have been shown in an unfavorable light. :) We'll let you decide.

Singing Sammy

Granny just called and requested I send this to her (she is having major Sammy withdrawal) but I think it is so cute the rest of you might like it too.

Happy Birthday Sammy!

Sam is officially two!

We obviously are not having a party due to the fact that we know a total of maybe 10 people in the entire state of Texas. But we did celebrate Sammy style.

Chick-fil-A potatoes for breakfast (he ate an entire order and half of Ben's)

Buzz Lightyear from Grandma and Grandpa Dannelly

Train and Train Table from Granny and Grandpa Hanson

Cars Gear from Mom and Dad

Grilled Cheese at Red Robing (his other favorite)

Here are some fun things about Sam

He ALWAYS gives open mouth kisses

His run is hilarious (think Phoebe from Friends)

He sings songs in the car.

He always snuggles during Buzz

He is nearly always perfectly behaved in the car and in restaurants

He has sneaky grins

He has the most mechanical mind I have ever seen in a toddler

He has crazy problem solving abilities

He has conversations he with us. With his mouth closed.

He still won't use his words but he definitely communicates what he wants

He wrestles with his best friend - Dad

He loves Poptarts

When it is time to leave he tries to put his shoes on

He LOVES water parks and goes down the big slides at 7 Peaks

He can work an iPod but therefore thinks the TV should be touchscreen

He's super smiley for everyone

I can leave him in nursery or with a babysitter and he could care less.

He watches Football with Dad. (They are watching Preseason right now)

Happy Birthday Turkey! We love you!

MOVED

We are officially in Texas. So far, so good. We were lucky enough to have my parents move us. They were lucky enough to get to try 20 hours to Texas and then turn around around and drive home. Let me tell you, it is one exciting drive. (By exciting, I mean BORING)

Granted they did get to drive this:

I managed to snap a few pictures (as Ben drove by at 80 mph) of the highlights of the drive. Specifically, the "Welcome to ____ signs" Let me tell you, Utah's is one of the best. Let me show you . . .

Utah

Colorado. My friend's son says it looks like an Eagle Scout Project. I'm going to agree.

New Mexico. Saved by scenery.

And my favorite . . . Texas.

Really?! That's it? Just a green sign through our dirty windshield?!

Maybe they don't have as many Eagle Scouts here . . .

On the road again ...

Ben and I are on our way home from a week of traveling. We spent the first part of the week in Austin looking for a place to live. We signed papers on our place about two hours before we flew out of Austin.

We arrived in Utah at four in the afternoon, then met our little guy at Ben's parents' so we could wait for my parents to stop pick us up and drive us to Nebraska.

I can hardly wait for our 1300 mile drive to Austin next month ...

Move Update

Ben starts September 1st. I think we are going to try to leave Utah on August 19th.

Our Alphabetical Move

That's right people. The Hansons are moving from Utah to Texas.

Austin to be specific.

Ben was offered a position at the University of Texas on Friday! We are super excited! We don't know what our move date is just yet, we hope to hammer out that information next week. I'm guessing that it will be the sometime in the middle of August. Over the next month we have plenty of other things going on.

**Events are subject to change based on move date**

A trip to Omaha for a baby blessing

A trip to Southern Utah to see family and friends

A trip to Austin to find a place to live

Friends visiting from New Hampshire

Family visiting from Wisconsin

A trip to Jackson Hole

Oh, and a move.

I looked at the calendar and I think I have something like 14 days before the move that do not overlap with the events above.

YIKES! Time to find some boxes . . .

My Buddy

UT to MD to NH to VT to NY to VT to NY to UT

Holy traveling Batman!

After a week of being away, Sam and I have safely returned home! We had such a fun time with all of our East Coast friends! We returned with lots of photos, bug bites and fun memories.

Over the weekend we headed to my friend Shannon's (some of you know her as Sister Harmon) house on Lake Champlain. Within an hour of arriving Sam was in the water. As you can see, I barely got his shorts off. Eventually we got him stripped to a swim diaper. He must have been in the water for an hour and a half. I think we have lots of swimming ahead of us this year. :)

Lovin' the Ladies

Sam likes girls.

Yesterday I took photos of our friends and Sam was flirting with little Miss C.

Apparently we need to work on his skills with the ladies. His big move to get her attention was to sit on her lap.

Seriously dude? Be a gentleman.

Why I Love Extra Buttermilk

Every once in awhile extra buttermilk pops up at our house. My mom or I will make something that called for buttermilk and we end up with a ton left. Apparently I was brainwashed at an early age by my mom, grandmas, and great-grandmas because the only thing you can POSSIBLY do with extra buttermilk is make Texas Sheet Cake.

I love me some Texas Sheet Cake. So does my husband, my mom, my dad, and my siblings. My bosses love it now because I made them Texas Sheet Cake cupcakes. It is DELICIOUS! It literally disappears when I make it. Tonight my mom brought me some buttermilk she had leftover from making ranch dressing. She knew what was going to happen. I think she's hoping that some will make it to her house.

Because I'm feeling especially nice and because I'm on a sugar high resulting from eating the frosting (its like fudge on a cake), I'm going to give you the recipe that my mom uses. WONDERFUL!!!

Texas Sheet Cake

Ingredients

1 cup butter (2 cubes)

4 tablespoons baking cocoa

1 cup water

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs 

½ cup buttermilk

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Bring butter, cocoa, and water to a boil. In a separate bowl, mix, flour sugar, and salt together. Pour hot mixture over the dry ingredients while beaters are going. Add eggs, buttermilk, soda, and vanilla. Batter will be very wet. Pour into a greased and floured cookie sheet and bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes. Make frosting just before cake is done.

Frosting

Ingredients

½ cup of butter (1 cube)

6 tablespoons milk.

4 tablespoons cocoa

Dash of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 (1 lb) box of powdered sugar

½ cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

Bring butter, milk, cocoa, salt, and vanilla to a boil. Pour over the powdered sugar, and beat until smooth. Add nuts if you want. Pour over cake 10 minutes after removing from the oven. Cool completely.

Note: If you don't have any buttermilk, you can substitute milk. Simply add 1 TBSP of vinegar to 1 cup of milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes.

We have a climber

Today Sam climbed our dresser to get a building block. He didn't pull out the drawers though. He climbed it only utilizing the drawer knobs. They are 2 inch circular knobs. It was ridiculous. I didn't think he could do it but sure enough, he put one foot on the knob of the bottom drawer and the other on the second and proceeded to hoist himself up.

Over the last month he has also decided that his favorite place to hang out is on our bed. But only if I have made it. He likes to watch TV there. First he turns on the TV and then the DVD player containing Little Einsteins. It has the "Fast Play" option so he has time to get on the bed and settled before the movie starts. The only challenge is that our bed is pretty tall. He has found that he can't climb up from the foot of the bed unless there is a laundry basket full of clothes. (Not uncommon) However, if he goes to my side of the bed and pulls out the drawer to my bedside table he can use the drawer as a step to get up. This is typically a good time for me to take a shower and get ready for the day. I simply lock the bedroom door so he is confined to the bedroom and bathroom. At least he was confined until yesterday . . . when he learned how to lock and unlock doors.

Not good. Not good at all.

Please?

Will someone please buy me this Steve Madden Rose Ruffles Satchel? I want a bag that isn't for babies, crafts, cameras or laptops. Just a bag for me. Please?

I would prefer the fuschia one. Thanks.

Blog pollution

I have finally started an actual photo blog to stop polluting ours with pictures of irrelevant things (Ok, things that are even more irrelevant than my normal posts). There is a link on the right. :)

Mustache Vacation

Sam and I are spending a week in California on vacation. Ben was with us the first half. We spent this time with our friends Sam and Anya and their three kids. We love vacationing with them. Sam especially loves it. As you know their daughter Kaia is Sam's girlfriend. Each of them is very good at giving kisses, it wasn't too long before they were kissing each other. Their mother's may have helped encourage the behavior.

Ben and Big Sam did lots of bonding too. They had matching mustaches and Hogle Zoo T-shirts.

They also had matching churros or cheerios as the kids call them.

Little Sam loved lots of the rides. He really liked the Tiki Room and Haunted Mansion. He LOVED the Carousel . . .

The Tea Cups

and most of all . . .

Small World.

Sam's Item of the Day

The item that Sam HAD to take with him today.

Where's Waldo? (Sam's style)

Please don't judge my pantry. Sam likes to take things out of it and I've given up on keeping it organized. As you can see below he also likes to put things in the pantry.

Things that belong in the fridge.

Today I found a bottle in the bathtub. Thanks Buddy.

Boys and their stuff

Sam likes the most random objects. He finds things and just carries them around all day. He especially likes watches, hairbrushes and my personal favorite . . . whisks. According to my dad, boys have to have "stuff" and they always have to have things to take with them.

Point proven.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

I love Thanksgiving Point. I love it so much that we had our wedding reception there. Ben and I were married in May and we hoped to take advantage of the gardens in our wedding photos.

And then the wind started blowing. Hard.

And then it got cloudy. Really cloudy.

And our photographer . . . we'll that leave that rant for another day.

Anyway, I am shooting there this week and so we took the opportunity to go check out the annual tulip festival and scout for some spots. Here are the things that I learned during out trip.

1. The gardens are gorgeous in the Spring.

2. Boys like sticks.

2. Boys like wheels.

3. Boys and sticks are inseparable. This was the result of several attempts to get one picture that contained Sam looking at a flower. Holding a stick.

4. Boys like to run and Dad's like to watch.

5. Ben has a lot of disdain for close-up pictures of flowers. He thinks they're dumb. I took this one just for him. I don't really care either way.

The Mo Tab and Sam

Sam loves TV.

Sam loves music.

Sam loves music on TV.

And apparently, Sam loves the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Halfway through the following video (about 11 seconds) is a demonstration of this love. Imagine this every time there was a musical number. He always does the hand thing. I have no idea what it means. So crazy. So funny.

April 1st

I love snow . . . in December.

Not April.

Imagine my delight when I looked outside today and saw this.

I was delighted to see this though. I love our view.