Prego

So I have two weeks and five days to go. In a way I like going through the last stretch over the Holidays. It is a great distraction and time has been flying quickly.

Four Sundays ago, Dec. 12th, I went into false labor. My contractions where growing closer together. They where about 2 and a half minutes apart at one point. We started to do last minute preparations to go to the hospital. Then they started to grow further and further apart. They kept happening about fifteen minutes apart the day after. I asked my doctor about it and she said that it was common for someone who had premies their first pregnancy. Their body goes into labor around the same time they went into labor before and then their body corrects itself. She said it might happen once or twice again.

I experience something similar about a week ago. Nothing since, just regular good ol' fashion Braxton Hicks.

My doctor thinks that she might be sitting side to side. She says that is likely that she'll turn head down. I have been praying that she will. I have an ultrasound this week.

I feel pretty calm and good about whatever happens.

Christmas

So I made it through Christmas without going into labor. Yay! We spent Christmas with Talmage's family in Globe. It was fun chatting with the family, going to the park, quadding (safe and slow of course), taking care of the kiddos, opening presents, reading a book, eating delicious food, and just relaxing. I felt like I relaxed and snacked the whole time. Pregnant woman interpretation: Wonderful.

How to Write a Children's Book

Step One: Think of a Child and occasion to write it for: Heber and Hannah's Christmas present.

Step Two: Have an amazing spouse who can think up the idea with you and write all the words.

Step Three: Order some blank baby books

Step Four: Take about ten hours or so and draw some pictures to put in the book.

Step Five: Scan them into the computer, add words, graphics, etc.

Step Six:Have someone with a good eye for words edit. Thank you Jana.

Step Seven: Print on sticky paper that comes with blank books. Stick into book.

Step Eight: Bask in the joy of finishing

Step Nine: Wrap and hope that they will like it

Step Ten: Give one to them to read and keep the other one on the tallest shelf in the house as a keep sake. Save a digital version, just in case.

Christmas Card

When Heber and Hannah where born I had this great idea of combining our Christmas card with their baby announcements.

What! You don't remember that?!? Well, that is because I dropped the ball. I went through all the effort of making them but fell flat on my face when it came to printing them out and sending them. Blame it on sleep deprivation and taking care of new born baby's.

Last year I didn't even attempt a Christmas card.

I am proud to say that I did one this year though. I just sent it out to our siblings, parents and grandparents. Start off small.

We hope you are having a Merry Christmas this year!

From the Hansen Family

Graduations

Talmage and I graduated together this last Friday with our degrees in General Engineering.

My primary emphasis was in Electrical Engineering and a secondary focus in Art.

Talmage's primary emphasis was in Civil Engineering and certificate in GIS (Geographic Information Science).

I thought it was going to be anticlamatic because I finished my last class this summer. In the end it was an amazing experience to graduate together. We went through it all together and it felt so good to be rewarded together.

Thank you to all those who came to support us and who have encourage and supported us through the years.

Yesterday's Adventure

Yesterday as I was getting things ready for a bridal shower that I was throwing for my sister, Amanda, I had to run to the grocery store to get some things for it. I strapped Heber in his car seat and Hannah crawled to the back row of seats. I thought "No biggy, I'll run inside and get what ever it was and then come back and strap her in." I came back and tried to open the door, but it was locked. They where all locked. Hannah had locked the doors and the keys were in the car!

I panicked, horror stories of children locked in cars probably were in the back of my mind. I called Talmage and told him what was going on. I tried to coax Hannah into unlocking the door. She would put her finger on the button but not push it. I told her to open the door and she pulled on the handle, but not hard enough. When I would point to something she would just point to my finger on the window. All the while she wasn't too terrible interested.

After 15 minutes or so of trying to work with her I said a prayer. A lecture Talmage had in school on dealing with stress came to my mind. Basically if someone is under stressed or over stress their productivity weakens. I just knew that I had to wait for the right time where she was a little worried but not overwhelmed. I went back inside and started deep cleaning, something I needed to do for that night anyways.

I went and checked on them a couple times, trying to see if she would cooperate. She was more interested in

• a permanent marker (how does she always find those!)
• gum, she ate one and a half packets of gum
• crackers, which she also feed to Heber
• dumping my purse and wallet and stringing the contents all over the van

Heber was a good sport about all of it. I could tell he didn't want to be in his car seat and he whined when he saw me, but he handled it well.

Finally, after an hour and a half I got her to push the unlock button! I opened the door so fast and caught her as she was falling out of the van. I hugged her and told her that she did a good job.

Moral of the story, patience goes a long ways with kids. Or just have a spare key around, it will come in handy.

One Year Older...

Hannah and Heber turned 2! We took them to one of their favorite places, the park.

They ate cake. Yeah, a lot of cake.They didn't really understand the whole openning presents concept but they loved banging on them.

We thought Heber would love his big truck for sure but were hesitant if Hannah would love her doll. Hannah ended up liking her doll and Heber ended up liking her doll too.

We took them to a live Nativity Pageant. They loved the animals there but once the opening prayer was started they started screaming and crying like no other. We took them home, needless to say lots of cake does not make for calm toddlers.