The Deck from Heck

So if you haven't heard our deck story here is the shortened version. In March we got some bids to have a deck built. Casey & I hired this guy whose bid was very detailed, and who seemed very professional. He required 50% down and came to our home to start the project. He basically jack hammered our top step, took the 50% down and half our lumber and never came back. We totally got $@*^&. So Casey advertises on good old KSL.com that we were looking for someone to come and help finish the deck. We already had the materials and this really nice kid who said he had framing and deck building experience was hired to help Casey finish the deck. When that deck was finished 3 months later it was a Monet. Looked good from far away, but up close it was a mess! There were so many carpentry errors and nothing was square. Casey (who is a bit of a perfectionist) couldn't stand looking at it, and I kept saying, "well maybe if we put some patio furniture on it it won't be so bad. Yaddy Yaddy Yada we tore it down and started with a new deck company called Definitive Construction and they did a heck of a job and were professional, fast, and had great ideas. So, here is the end results.

Pretty sweet!I went out to start cleaning out the hot tub and the kids all came out..... barefoot! There was still nails and wood that hadn't been removed and so I said, "you all need to go in a put some shoes on right now!" (in the stern mom voice). As Cy starts coming in, he screams and says, "Ow, my foot!" I look over to see blood streaming and I rush him in to see that he had stepped on a rusty nail and it had gone all the way through his foot. So I took him to the instacare to make sure he had received the shots he needed, and he had thank goodness, so now he just has a super sore foot. Poor kid, he kept saying, "I sorry mom, i need shoes on, i sorry mom." It was so sweet, i felt so bad for him. Here is the pictures.

Tagged

Karen tagged me & my mom tagged Ryllie

4 Places I go over & over
Hollie: the kitchen, the bathroom, the car, the laundry room
Ryllie: the kitchen, the bathroom, the car, the garage to get my bike.

4 people who email me regularly
Hollie: waynsh, dads forwards, the relief society, junk mail
Ryllie: i don't have an email.

4 places i'd rather be
Hollie: in bed, in bed, in bed, in bed (its 1 am for crying outloud, & i've been glued to everyones blog updates)
Ryllie: not in bed, not in bed, not in bed, eating icecream.

4 people i talk to daily
Hollie: Casey, Ryllie, Maddux, Cy, & Hadlie
Ryllie: Mom, dad, Maddux, Cy, & Hadlie

4 favorite food places
Hollie: Mexican restaurants, Prime in Vegas, anyones home who offers to cook for me, i like food so much it is too hard to narrow down.
Ryllie: David's Kitchen (chinese), Rib City, Wendy's for chicken nuggets, Costco hotdogs

Back to School

Ryllie has officially begun her first year of full day school, and Maddux started preschool today. So, I've been reading some of my friends blogs about how they have teared up as they watch their babies grow up and go to school. Hmmm, not me so much, I take Ryllie to her first day of school and take her to her class, and then I'm like "seeya, have a great day". Then the rest of my day at home happens with the 3 that are still not in school. First couple of days go by, okay, I can handle this, then the 4th day Hadlie decides to cry all day as I am trying to get ready for the family to go to Bear Lake. Thats when I tear up about my cute first grader going to school. Now I have no one old enough at home to put on Hadlie duty! (tear drops decending). Seriously, what kind of mom am I? But, I am very proud of Ryllie because she is such a smarty, and totally rocks the house! I took Maddux to preschool today (the same preschool she went to last year) and she just jumped out of the car and ran in like usual, like she was thinking "oh yeah, i haven't been to preschool in awhile, well, see ya mom". First day of school, you also want to put your kids in some cute new clothes, and doll them up a little, but not Max, she wanted her denim skirt she wears at least 3 times a week, and her Hannah Montana shirt. Whatever.

Bear Lake 2008

Yes, another camping trip. This one wasn't really a camping trip, I mean we stayed at a KOA at nights, but during the day we were at a Trendwest Condo having meals made for us, and a TV, and swimming pool. Casey's dad Mike and his wife Lori invited the Hansen's for an all expense paid for weekend in Bear Lake. This was extremely generous of them picking up the tab for 4 families and their children. My family is the largest though, the rest each only have 1 kid, so an extra thank you for taking our family, we had a blast. The highlights of the weekend were raspberry shakes, swimming pools, reading Breaking Dawn, having grandparents to pawn kids off on, and aunts too, driving all the way to Minnetonka cave to find out they had a 3 hour wait time, and then driving back, hanging out at the Lake and watching Hadlie eat sand, riding waverunners and having Noelle spray me pretty good, seeing schools of carp, eating BBQ burger & hotdogs made by dad, razzing Brady & Allison to quit smoking, intellectual evening conversations with Brady (after he had a few too many), Summer peeing her pants, Jordyn and Max playing in the sand, Casey teaching Cy how to swim and Lori yelling at Casey saying he's being too hard on him, people next to us at the KOA revving their four wheelers from 7am to 9am (stupids), baby Jarrett in his life jacket, Tylor playing FREEZE with the kids at the playground, watching the olympics, and lastly coming home and hearing Maddux say, "Oh my freaking hel_!" (taught courtesy of Jordyn). This weekend was AWESOME! Thanks for the good times Hansen clan.

Yellerstone! Yeehaw!

I knew postin' about this here trip would take a bit so I've been puttin' it off fer a few days. So here goes the good ol' trip of the west with the Hansen's & Whitaker's.We packed up our wagon and hit the road.
First stop was Montpelier, Idaho. We were fixin to stay at the KOA, and the kids decided they needed to bathe, so here is Max takin her bath.

In Montpelier, we toured the Oregon Trail museum, and was sure surprised at how little things have changed since the pioneer days. I mean, we were roughin it in the trailer with little cell service, and no TV. Isn't is crazy?

Here is Hadlie relaxin' after catchin' our supper in the river behind her. She done good, caught 2 good sized trout with a stick and some string.

Casey had his eye set on this here moose.

The scenery in Teton National Park aint too bad.

We had pushed our oxen up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and found ourselves at Gros Ventre, a primitive campground. No, no, no this would not do for Casey & Adam so we hauled our mules, and oxen, and children to the Snake River KOA. We roamed around town for a bit, and my children hit the jackpot at this candy store.

That first night the tent sites were full at the KOA so the Whitaker's piled in the trailer with us. We were actually all quite comfortable, except for the smell coming from all the feet.

Cy, Maddux, & Dallin on the Snake River while the older kids and parents were river rafting.

The kids dancin at the Bar J's. I reckon they are the funniest durn cowboys I ever met.

My cute family at Hidden Falls, at Teton National Park

How cute is this picture, and you should have seen the way Cy sucked on his sucker after the squirrel sucked on it. Just kidding!
The men in my life, aren't they tough. Cy hiked all the way to Inspiration Point and back without one whine, he would've been a good pioneer.
Them cocktail waitresses are real hussies.
I told Casey his buttocks looked like bigfoots.
Finally in Yellerstone. And of course, we HAD to go to the Playmill Theatre. We saw "Oklahoma" one night, and "See How they Run" the next night. We had so much fun, and I found the secret to keeping Hadlie quiet is to give her a piece of red rope licorice. We loved all the treat and icecream shops in West Yellowstone. The Huckleberry everything was great, and Casey even found a place that sold his favorite Cinnamon Italian Sodas.

Bambi!
Old Faithful.
On the way back we stopped to see my old roommate Jan in Rexburg. We have kept in touch but had not actually seen eachother in 12 years! She now has 5 kids and is still as beautiful as ever. I had so much fun visiting her and meeting her kids. It felt like no time had passed at all! When we left Maddux cried for 10 minutes about how she wanted Lizzy to come with us. We had to offer her a candy at the gas station to get her to stop crying. Jan, I love you! Let's not let another 12 pass before seeing you again! Rexburg had changed a lot, and the new temple was magnificent!


We went to Bear World since we didn't see any bears or wolves in Yellowstone, but Casey wouldn't let me take any pictures of the bears, not even the one that put its paws on my window. He said we were cheating and these aren't real wild bears. What a dork! But the place was pretty fun, they had kids rides and a fun petting zoo, and the kids thought it was pretty cool to pet a deer.
Last stop was Lava Hot Springs. We love this little town. We all had fun at the Hot, and I mean Hot! Springs. Maddux found a little platform that she made her stage and was singing and dancing for all the people in the pool, it was hilarious. Well, that wraps up this trip. I kindof tired out of trying to talk in the old west lingo but this is my largest post EVER and has taken way to long, but it is done, and i will go now. Buh bye.

Wednesday Funday at Hogle Zoo

Cute little HooHoo.


Momma & Baby Giraffe

Look at the size of that Boa behind Ryllie

Only 2 1/2 years old and almost the size of a gorilla.

That is a black bear behind them.

Maddux and the white alligator.

This week was our last Wednesday funday for the summer. We went with my neighbor Kristin and her kids to Hogle Zoo. I have really enjoyed having these little field trips with my kids this summer. Sometimes as a mom I feel like all my kids hear from me is "clean up your messes", "practice your piano", "play nice", "no you can't have icecream for breakfast", "because i said so", " I am gonna spank your butt!", "1...2...3..", "put some clothes on!", "no you can't wear your pajamas to school or church", "hurry, get in the car, you are going to make us late!", etc... Taking these breaks with my kids helped me to be their friend and also enjoy them. They are growing up so fast and I love, love, love watching them and listening to them. They are my joy! Hogle Zoo was fun, and I liked hearing what animals my kids like best. Ryllie liked the snakes and lizards, my little Tomboy. Hadlie liked the loud birds, they sounded just like her. Maddux liked the monkeys and playing on the playground. Cy liked the Rhinos. They had this little touch & smell kiosk and it said to press this button and then smell. When you pushed the button it smelled like Rhino. I about passed out it was so disgusting. Who does this to kids? Poor cruel joke! I glanced around to see if there was a hidden camera getting peoples reactions to smelling this fart, sweaty, grassy poop smell. Just in case I announced very loudly, "you couldn't pay ME to smell that again, but I'll give a quarter to whoever wants to smell it." Of course Ryllie jumps at the chance to get a quarter and goes and smells it again. Gross. The baby giraffe, and the gorillas were my favorite. Something about those gorillas... reminds me of someone... can't quite put my finger on it. They are large and hairy, with dark eyes, big teeth, big hands & feet...hmmm who could it be?

Haircuts!

I took my kids to get haircuts this week over at the hair college. I always ask for the advance students, but maybe that does not necessarily matter, they are still beginners. Ryllie has been begging to get her hair cut short, but dad loves her hair long. While we were at the salon Ryllie repeatedly asked, "can I get it cut short, can I get it cut short". After being beyond annoyed I finally told the lady she could cut it to about her shoulders. Guess I wasn't very clear now was I!

Maddux on the other hand had given herself bangs in the spring, so her haircut had to work around the bangs. She had to add a few bangs to even them out, so here is Maddux's haircut.

Casey says I need to stop being so cheap and pay for them to have a real haircut from now on. Yeah right! You all know I'll still go back to Evan's. I can't get the cheap skate syndrome out of me!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Allen

It is my late grandpa's birthday today. I often think of him and his influence in my life. I could go on & on & on about him, but I think the expression on my face in this picture tells it all. I have always loved him, and I always will. I miss you grandpa!

Breaking Dawn!

Last Friday I went out with a bunch of the neighborhood moms to party it up at Barnes and Nobles anticipating the new Stephanie Meyers book. Remember when it wasn't that cool to read, and it was cooler to go flirt at the boys apartments, or go dancing, or play Dr. Mario? Yeah, those days are gone and now "for fun" we go to Barnes & Nobles. No really, it was fun just hanging out with the girlz. My neighbors all wore their custom made "obsession, team Edward" shirts. We went for dessert at TGIF's and then got real excited at Barnes & Nobles when a werewolf drove up on his motorcycle. Any other fans out there?