The Hanks Home

Derrick's Blessing Day

2010-11-16T11:52:00.009-05:00

Derrick's blessing day was really nice. I was little sad about two things though. One that my dad couldn't be there since his middle name is my dad's and also that I wasn't able to hear the blessing because Aaron was trying to convince me that we needed to go back to the van and get his car for the quiet book. After church we had some two families from the ward come over for dinner. That filled our little house with lots of noisy kids and great people to talk to so if felt like a blessing day party.

The last two months with Derrick have been busy and of course required a lot of adjustments but I sat in testimony meeting feeling so grateful for him. He is such a sweet smiley baby. He still loves to snuggle up to me and go to sleep. I love the breaks in the day when I sit down and feed him. It is the first time I haven't been completely stressed breast feeding. With this fourth child I've let myself take the time each day to enjoy him even though there is so much to do. In so many ways I feel the happiest I've ever felt and I think it's because I've finally stopped worrying so much about a lot of things that really don't matter. I'm grateful to be married to a wonderful man who I will celebrate nine years of marriage with tomarrow. He is such a great blessing to me and truly loves me unconditionally. He puts up with all my funny quirks. I still love being around him and love when he gets home each night. I am so grateful that he is the father to our four children.

Halloween Fun

2010-11-15T21:02:00.017-05:00

For the last three years now I have taken the kids to a fall festival at one of our favorite parks here, HOmestead Park. They pick out pumpkins and then they have a table where they get to decorate them. They also have a bunch of other fun activities that we like to do.
The kids had lots of Halloween activites to go to this year, three parties a friends house, the ward trick-or-treat and of course Hilliard trick-or-treat. None of which were actually on Halloween. On Halloween we went to church like we always do. Trick or Treat night is always during the week and never actually on Halloween. I've been told it is because there are lots of drunk drivers out on Halloween. They also both got to wear their costumes to school which was fun for them. Growing up we never were allowed too. I don't imagine much learning happens when everyone is in costume.

If that doesn't scare you I don't know what will? Steven decided to be a dragon this year and just wore his How to Train you dragon pajamas. He had a spider man costume but he had different ideas I guess.
We had a lot of fun carving pumkins this year. It just gets more fun every year as the kids get older. Aaron carved the owl, Steven the bat, Chris the spider, and Laura the haunted house. I stayed busy keeping the baby happy and helping with tough corners. For the most part Laura and Steven did most of theirs on there own.
It may seem crazy that Aaron doesn't have a shirt on but it really wasn't cold that night and pumkin guts are really messy especially when your two.
We broke out the face paint for Trick-or-treat night.
Being the third child Aaron had a wide variety of Halloween costumes to choose from and decided he wanted to a monkey instead of batman on trick-or-treat night.
Derrick was also a monkey.
The monkey and the mouse.

More Derrick

2010-11-08T21:03:00.010-05:00

Derrick update

2010-11-07T20:35:00.008-05:00

Derrick started smiling right around four or five weeks. He is such a smiley guy and smiles all the time for us. He is also very snuggley

This picture was taken at an Arboretum.

First Day of school

2010-11-04T12:21:00.010-04:00

Welcome Derrick

2010-11-04T10:26:00.016-04:00

Derrick Kent Hanks was born August 30 at 8:40 a.m. He was 6lb 8oz and 19inches long.

Trip to Utah in May

2010-07-05T06:49:00.014-04:00

In May we had a great in Utah. This trip I was able to meet up with a great friend from High school. She has a daughter the same age as Laura as well as two other very cute kids. We had a great time catching up.We love spending time with Aunts, Uncle's and cousin's.

We love playing with cousins, at a park.

We love our Buckeye fan cousins! We also love our great friends we got to have a campfire with but sadly I must not have taken any pictures. We had such a great time and wish that it wasn't just once a year at best that we got together.

We love mother's Day with Nana.

We love Rock climbing at City of Rocks.
Chris loves rock climbing two pitch climbs at City of Rocks.

WE love our Uncle that helps the little climb too.

We love our rock climbing Grandma.

We love playing on rocks at our hotel with cousins

We love watching Chris climb. No climbing for me this year since I was six months pregnant.

We love exploring the rocks with Aunt Johanna.We love hanging from the ropeWe love Aunt Emma for pulling us back down.
We love our wonderful family and friends and friends. We are so glad we got to meet up with so many of you and create such great memories.

2010-06-09T14:02:00.001-04:00

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March party time

2010-04-09T20:24:00.026-04:00

March was a fun filled month for us. Chris's parents and sister came to visit us for a few days. We were able to visit Kirtland and also celebrate Chris's 31st birthday. At the end of the month we celebrated Steven's 5th birthday with a bang. We had a big Bakugan birthday bash that was a big success.
The weather didn't really cooperate so I didn't take very many pictures but this picture is in front of the Kirtland Temple. We took the tour and were able to see the inside. It was really incredible. I was just amazed that they built such and incredible structure with their own hands and then had to up and leave it not long after they had finished it.
Their was a visitors center inside the Kirtland temple that is owned by the reorganized church. Laura Aaron and I had fun dressing up.

We stayed one night in a hotel with a swimming pool. The temple and the visitor center was my favorite part of the trip but I think the pool was probably Laura and Steven's favorite.

Laura and Steven had swimming lessons in March so that made swimming even more fun. They had a great time showing us what they were learning.
Aaron on a little path by the Kirtland temple. He stopped and said "Cheese Mommy" I needed no further prompting to whip out the camera.
Chris's parents gave him new hiking boots for his birthday he is anxious to break them in.
Here Chris is unwrapping a present from Steven. He made him a lego rocket and for a special effect wrapped it, in his favorite blanket.

Nothing like a new shirt to wear to work to make a man happy. Thanks for working hard for us honey, we love you!
The next and final birthday celebration of the year is Steven! This is his Bakugan costume(Actually "How to Train Your Dragon" PJ's purchased at Walmart.)
The day started with the ritual opening of many many presents.
I tried and tried to get this to load the right direction. I'm not sure why the blog keeps flipping it but here is the Bakugan birthday cake in all it's sidways glory.

Steven and Laura were active participants in the decorating of the cake. They took over decorating the edible truffle Bakugan balls, which is just as well I think they did as good a job as I was doing.

I found this Chinese New Years puppet on line and thought it would go great with our theme. I know that Bakugan's are not always dragons but I think most of the time they are. We aren't experts here at our house we are just fans. The puppets were a huge hit at the party and all the kids loved making them. I am only sad I didn't get a picture with all the kids and their puppets. The trouble was that I had 13 kids at the party and had split them up into two groups. One group with me for games and one group with Chris for the puppet making. Getting them all together would have been maybe impossible.
They did all come together when we said cake and ice cream time but by then we were just about out of time.

The present casious. I didn't have good organized way of doing that. Let me know if any one has any good ideas.
Most of the party went smoothly. We played Duck Duck Goose, had a candy walk, played keep the balloon in the air and some freeze dancing. I even tried Button Button but that really didn't work despite that the website where I was looking for game ideas said it was great for 3 year olds. I think all the kids had a great time and Steven was one very happy birthday boy. I can now breath easy knowing I have a full year until I have to throw another friend birthday party for Laura. Next year will be Steven's turn to have a family one.

Laura and Aaron's birthday's

2010-04-08T20:26:00.015-04:00

February brought more Then just a lot of snow this year. It also brought my mom from Utah. She stayed for about 10 days and helped us celebrate Laura and Aaron's birthdays. Laura's birthday was is on the 29th but we celebrated it on the 25th since that was the day that worked best for Chris's schedule. Aaron's birthday is on the 27th and we actually celebrated it on that day which is unusual for us. We are always changing birthdays and holidays to fit our schedule. IT was wonderful having my mom here she has boundless kid energy. This picture shows what she was busy doing from early in the morning when they went down and woke her up until bedtime.
Laura chose crapes for her birthday breakfast, and of course she wanted to make them herself.

With a little persuading she agreed to let Steven help with the crepe making.
Laura's birthday breakfast. I am actually in the picture since my mom was there.
Laura picked this rainbow cake for her birthday because she thought she could make it herself. My mom and I both tried to give pointers but were quickly reminded that this was her cake and she was going to decorate it how she wanted too.
Laura's cake decorated completely by herself.
Last year Laura got to have a friend party so this year she had to have a family party. For her family party she chose to go to ChuckE Cheese. Thanks to clips about Chuck E Cheese that are always being played on PBS my kids have been asking about it for a long time now. This was our first time at ChuckE Cheese except for Chris who went a few times as a kid. We all had a great time and I'm sure ChuckE Cheese is in our birthday celebrating future.

I had to post this picture because I actually won.

Here we are enjoying our high quality very greasy pizza. Laura said that it was the best birthday ever because everything was so fun and because Nanna was there for it.

Steven was a big fan of this guy but Laura and Aaron were not fans.
Since we celebrated Aaron's birthday two days later I could not bear to have more yucky birthday cake sitting on the counter. So I made Aaron this razzleberry pie which we ate long before the cake was all gone. I figured since he was only two I could get away with it.
He showed no signs of disappointment at the pie so I think I pulled it off this year. We will see if I'm as lucky next year.
It doesn't get much better then a new ball.

Aaron also got this new race car track as well as a few new shake and Go cars from Grandma.
A bubble blowing machine is probably a close second. Sadly it broke not long after its first use. So I guess good old fashioned blowing is probably the best way to go as far as bubbles are concerned.

Winter Highlights

2010-04-01T20:51:00.014-04:00

Even though we are well into Spring for which I am very grateful I still wanted to post some of the winter fun we managed to have. We had so much snow this year, we were able to go sledding four times and Chris and I even got out on our skis twice. It was the first time we were able to ski since we moved here to Ohio. Winter is not quite so bad if you have some snow to play in. My mom was here for 10 days at the end of February and that also helped to brighten the long winter.

When my mom got here we had about two feet of snow. By the time she left more then half had melted. We went sledding the first Saturday she was here.
Chris and I went x-country skiing at Prairie Oaks Metro Park. It is only about 15 minutes from our house and it's really pretty.

Chris built this big guy with the kids on one of the many snow days we had. We didn't get dumped on like the east Coast but we did have 4 snow days where Laura stayed home from school.

Christmas

2010-01-08T09:01:00.009-05:00

Cookies With Santa
Earlier in the month Santa came to Laura's school. The kids got to see Santa run around the gym and eat cookies. Aaron wasn't really interested in sitting on this weird guys lap.
We had a really great Christmas this year. It seems each year is more fun as the kids get old. This year they were bursting with excitement which makes it that much more fun for us the parents. Chris had Christmas Eve through the weekend off and that was really awesome.
Our avid Buckeye Fans finally got shirts. Laura has been asking me all fall if she could get a Buckeye shirt. She really wanted to wear it on Fridays during football season.(That is what eveyone does). So we finally gave in. When in Ohio do as the Ohioans do I guess. She missed football season this year but she will be ready for next season and so will Steven. The shirts are the first thing they wear as soon as they are clean again, so hopefully they aren't worn out by next fall.

I got a new down coat from Chris. I guess I had been really good this year. The coat is awesome. I got to try it out the next week when i had to rescue Chris off the freeway when his car broke down. It was freezing but my down coat kept we warm through it all. I just wish it was longer because my tush froze.
There are a lot of things we should have taken pictures of but I guess we were to busy playing to take pictures.

Trip to Lexington

2010-01-07T07:14:00.010-05:00

December The above photo is a Christmas tree inside the Horse park museum. I'm having trouble figuring out how to type above my first picture. I don't usually have this problem so I don't know what the deal is. Fee free to share if you know the answer.

December was a great month for us. Chris had a light schedule and a vacation week in addition to four days around Christmas. For his week off we mostly just filled the days with appointments and spent time with the kids. I volunteered in Laura's class two of the days. She loves it when I come and I love it too. On Thursday after Laura's school party we went to Lexington Kentucky to visit friends there. They lived in Hershey when we did and now they are doing a residency in Ophthalmology there. It turns out the Lexington is the horse capital of the world. Chris and I questioned that when we saw it on their website but we learned that they don't mess around when it comes to Horse racing. To get our Lexington experience we went and saw the Lexington Horse Park. We had a lot of fun and we brought along our friends daughter which kept the kids entertained much longer then they would have had she not been there.

This is Steven petting a really tall retired race horse.
Aaron loved the horses but what he really loved the most was the cat that was running around the barn. He chased all around and growled at it, poor cat.
You can't tell very well from this picture but this is steven kissing the pony. He even convinced Londyn to kiss the pony too unfortunately the camera missed that moment. There was no convincing Laura that that was good idea.
Couldn't miss a photo shoot on this ginormous chairs.
The kids are enjoying a snow storm in the kitchen created by stuffing.

The snow storm wasn't all Bryn had up her sleeve to entertain these kids. She had them make puppets and then they put on a puppet show. After the kids were in bed we played a few games of Settlers. It was overall a great trip, great fun, great food and great company.

Thanksgiving

2010-01-07T06:20:00.011-05:00

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This year for Thanksgiving Chris was on call. That means that he worked all day, all night and half of the next day. After he gets home he obviously needs to crash for the rest of the day. So he was pretty much gone for Thanksgiving. So I decided that I would to my cousin's house in New Jersey for Thanksgiving. That is were we went when we lived in Hershey because then it was only a three hour drive. From Columbus it was about nine. I had been wanting to go and visit Hershey so this was the perfect opportunity. We stayed with some friends in Hershey and had a really great time visiting with them. The first thing we did when we rolled in was go Chocolate World. The kids remembered Chocolate world and were so excited to go. After the ride they said. "Okay now we got get ice cream." We also got a few other things we wouldn't normally get. I would have to say that is the most fun we ever had at Chocolate World because the kids were sooo excited to be there.

This is the bench we always sit on to eat our candy we just got from the ride. Laura took us right to it.

They had a lot of new and different things going on that I hadn't seen before. This Reese's race car was one of them.

After Hershey we drove North to stay at my Uncle's house in Tannersville PA. We had a great time there. Then on Thanksgiving day we drove over to New Jersey. From my Uncle's house it is only a 1 hour drive.

Thanksgiving at my cousin's house is about as good as it gets. There is fancy cheese and crackers, fruit and ships to snack on all day. They have a huge basement full of toys, and awesome kids.

This year's activities even included a pinata. At the end of the day we drove back to my Uncle's house. The next morning I got up from there and drove home. I think it was about 8 hours from there. It was really a lot of driving but my kids did awesome. We only stopped twice. Even Aaron didn't give me any problems. The drive was very scenic until of course I got into Ohio. The whole trip made me miss Pennsylvania for a lot of reason but I was happy to be home and finally have a few days to spend with Chris. He really missed us even though he was at work. It was a bummer of Thanksgiving for him but there wasn't any thing I could do about it except make a great one for the kids and I.

Pumkin Carving and Trick-or-Treat

2010-01-04T07:36:00.011-05:00

Better late then never. Here is this last October's Halloween fun.

Steven surprised me this year when he picked out this parrot costume. I couldn't believe he turned down Spiderman for the parrot. This is coming from the kid who tells me when he grows up he will be the first real super hero since all of the superheros now are just for pretend. Honestly i think it was the tail that sold him on it. Once he saw that there was no tuning back. it was a fun and original costume. He was the only parrot I saw trick-or-treating.

Laura chose the flower costume not because she liked it but because she thought it looked comfortable and warm and she really didn't want a dress of any kind. That is our Laura always thinking practically. It turned out somewhat of a dissapointment because she said it was itchy.

Lead's Farm

2010-01-04T07:07:00.006-05:00

As always it has been months since I've gotten around to blogging. I wanted to post some of our fall fun before I posted Christmas since this is also the family scrapbook. In October we went to Lead's Farm. It was really cold but we bundled up and had a great time. Our friends met us there so it was double the fun.

The corn box is always a big hit. Aaron thought he had died and gone to heaven. They also play in the barn with all the hay and slides for a long time.
Can't get enough of the Banana Bus. We rode about 4 times before we were all done.

Last year Laura and Steven's legs were too short to peddle these but this year they both could do it and if other people weren't waiting for a turn they would have rode them a lot longer. When I asked them what their favorite thing was at the end of the day they both said the zip line.

Homestead park fall festival

2009-10-12T17:23:00.012-04:00

This last Saturday we went to one of our Hilliard parks to a festival. I left Aaron sleeping at home with Chris and I took the kids. He was willing to sacrifice having fun this time so Aaron could get a good nap in and so he could make sure the Buckeyes had enough people cheering for them. His sacrifice paid off because Aaron slept three hours and the Buckeyes won. It was amazing to me all the fun stuff they had. The only thing we paid for was the pumpkins to decorate.

The hayride was was really fun, and before that they got to jump in one of those big blow things for as long as they wanted.
The Big Wheel track was a big hit. Steven is always borrowing our neighbors big wheel so this was especially fun for him. He is hoping Santa brings one to him, well actually he asks me all the time if he can just have one now but that is just not an option.

This is a scarecrow making contest. We didn't make one but we had fun analyzing everyone elses.

Steven was enthralled by the Turtle Ladies Turtle. One look was enough for Laura but Steven got in there and had the turtle eating out of his hand much to the Turtle Ladies dismay.
Steven and his pumpkin head. Laura wouldn't cooperate for her pumpkin head photo. I still need to work on acquiring it.

Fall Fun

2009-10-11T20:56:00.006-04:00

One of my friends decided to have a little mini soccer league this summer and we got to be part of it. Steven had a lot of fun learning soccer and we couldn't beat the price, free. She did and awesome job.
One of the perks of living in a city is all the festivals. We went to our own town of Hilliards fall festival and had a great time. This is Laura trying out the local police officers bike.

this clown was awesome and made Steven a sword and Laura a flower. Laura's flower had an untimely demise sadly.

We started the day at the kids race in Hilliard. It was their first race and it was a lot of fun as of course all races are.

A week before the Hilliard fest we went to the Native American fest. I liked it but no one else did so that was probably a one time thing. It was too hot and I guess dancing Native Americans only entertain 4, 5, and 30 year olds for short amounts of time.
This guy was awesome and did some very impressive hoop dancing.

My Grandpa Young's Funeral

2009-08-13T21:43:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to write down some of my thoughts about my Grandpa's recent funeral. He passed away July 25 sometime in the morning. He had had a rough year and he went peacefully so we were all happy he finally got to go. When I intially heard about it I didn't thing I would be able to go to the funeral but my husband looked at his schedule and figured with a little help from our friends I could fly to the funeral. Yeah Emergency medicine month! So thanks to my wonderful willing loving husband and three wonderful friends Jocelyn Heidi and Kristy I hopped on a plane and went. The funeral was a beautiful culmination of his life. He was such a sweet and gentle man.

One thing that stood out to me the most was actually my parents. I watched my dad teary eyed as they dedicated and closed the casket and I thought about all the service he and my mom had given to grandpa these past years. My Grandpa had been in a nursing home in Logan and my mom went and saw him every day. Every sunday and any family gathering my dad went and got him in the van. I never heard either of them complain and they never skipped out on him. Even when things were crazy and lots of family was in town my mom would slip out and say I have to go see dad. When I went to see Grandpa he would always talk about how special my mom was. My parents were such a perfect example of service and love. I am so proud of them and proud to be their daughter.

After the funeral in Logan we loaded Grandpa up in my parents van for one last drive to Blanding Utah where he was buried by my Grandma. We had a memorial service in Blanding as well and that was such a neat service. People from Blanding and Colorado came and shared memories. My other Grandparents ( my dad's parents) were also at the memorial service and Grandma Roper even shared a memory she had of Grandpa. I learned a lot about Grandpa and I thought it was too bad I learned so many neat things now that he is gone. One of the best parts of the service was the burial. He had a military burial because he served in world war two. They played taps and then they folded the flag that was drapped over his coffin. Then one soldier marched over to the row of chairs where my mom and her sisters were sitting and handed the flag to my mom and said " I present this flag to you in honor of your loved ones service to his country." I wondered if my uncle had told him to to give the flag to my mom or if it was just chance that the soldier had handed it to her but it was perfect how it all went. I am so grateful for the summer I lived in Blanding and had the opportunity to spend so much time with my Grandpa and Grandma Young. I cherish those memories and consider them a special gift.

The whole time in Blanding with my parents was so fun for me. I was the only one of my four siblings who could go and I truly enjoyed the time to just be with my parents. I never enjoyed the seven hour drive to and from Blanding more then I did this time. In fact this was probably the first time I even enjoyed it at all. But after living in Ohio and being away from it for so long it is really amazing scenery and I just had a lot to think about. On Sunday we walked around temple square before my flight left and once again I just loved the laid back time with my mom and dad. The whole trip was really wonderful for me in so many ways. I learned a lot about my family, about myself, and my testimony of the gospel was truly strengthened.

When I got home the kids informed me they had a great time playing at friends houses and they had a really fun time with Dad. Aaron cried and cried when Chris left for work on Monday and It took me at least 15 mintues to distract him enough to calm down. I am so grateful for a wonderful husband who can work insane hours but can also hold down the fort while I'm gone and so willingly made a way for me to go.

Johanna's wedding

2009-07-27T20:33:00.009-04:00

Here is the reason we went to Utah. This is Chris's little sister Johanna and her new husband Jared! It was such a fun day.

My Niece Elen and all her charm

mini Hershey Reunion

2009-07-24T10:45:00.007-04:00

While I was in Utah I had the chance to meet up with these fellow Hershey alumni. It was so fun to walk back to Caraline's backyard and see everyone. Those were some great times that we had in Hershey. I have many great memories of all three of them but I will never forget Girls Camp with Caroline(staying up later then the girls laughing and talking.) Going to get ice cream after work at the sleep lab with Melanie.(forgetting to tell our husbands so they wouldn't worry oops.) Many nights of playing settlers with Megan and laughing so hard I cried. (you and Nick are so funny!) and being pregnant the same time and sharing pregnancy woes. This is what you get when you to try and take a picture of seven kids 5 and under.

These three had many play dates back in Hershey. They had a great time again this night.

Niece Ellen

2009-07-24T10:08:00.001-04:00

Ideally this collage would be under the family work day post I haven't figured out how to post two Picasa collages in one post so I will have to work on that. This collage is only a few of a handful of very cute pictures that I have of her. As far as I could tell she almost always this happy.

Family work day

2009-07-24T09:58:00.001-04:00

to get ready for Johanna's wedding we all worked together the Saturday before. We had a great time painting the fence planting flowers and finishing center pieces. Mostly it was just fun doing these things with family. Amy and new little Max

This is the newest member of the Hanks family Max. He is such a sweet baby.

I love this picture because of how he is looking up at his mommy and because it shows how little his head his.

It was a tough job but someone had to watch all those babies while we painted the fence. For Amy three babies is no sweat.

Family work day was more like family fun day. The kids thought painting the fence was awesome!

Father's Day Weekend

2009-07-23T20:51:00.001-04:00

For Father's Day Laura made Chris a book called " The You and Me Book". Here is the story

I like coloring. You like biking.
I like playing dolls. You like playing cars.
I like building puzzles. You like climbing mountains.
I like swimming. You like playing baseball.
My favorite animal is a bear. Your favorite animal is a lion.
I like baked Oatmeal. You like pot pie
I like playing lit brite. You like reading.

Some of those favorites were news to Chris but most of them she got right on. She has always been a daddy's girl and most of the time when she was little she would prefer him over me. Chris got up at nights with her and I think that helped them bond. So I would suggest to all mothers out there to bag breast feeding and have your husbands get up at nights with the baby. It works wonders for their relationship and the good night of sleep worked wonders for me. He really is a great father. We have missed him a lot some months this year which just makes me realize how much we love him and need him. My mom was also a nice gift for us on Father's Day she came out to help me fly back to Utah for my sister-in-laws wedding. Since she was here we thought we would go to the Hilliard community pool since we had one adult per child. The pool is expensive but awesome. It has a lazy river and a really fun kiddy play area as well as a few pools. We made a day of it, got our money's worth, and had a great time.

A Rainy Day in June

2009-07-22T10:12:00.008-04:00

This is what Laura and Steven got dressed in to go play in the rain. Laura didn't last long but Steven stayed out there jumping in puddles for a long time. We had planned to go to the park with our friends the Jones but the rain changed our plans so we went to Cosi.

At Cosi they have a big play area called Kid Space. It was really cute watching these two babies play together. Savanah has been walking for a long time but Aaron just barely started walking at 16 months. She used her great walking skills to give Aaron a ride. They both thought it was pretty great!

A climbing day in May

2009-07-22T09:59:00.002-04:00

The last few days in May we camped out on Friday and then we climbed Saturday morning. We went climbing once last year and let the kids climb then. This year they both did a little better. After a few tries Laura climbed to the top of the climb. It took a lot of help and cheering but she did it and she was excited. Steven had fun climbing as well but still needs a year or two to develop some more coordination. I seem to have lost all climbing ability but I had fun just being there. Chris is still awesome at climbing though he claims he is rusty.

Kelley's Island camping trip

2009-07-20T10:50:00.009-04:00

In May Chris had a week off so we decided to go on our first camping trip of the season. We went to Kelly's Island off of Lake Erie. Taking the ferry across was one of the highlights of the trip. It was a beautiful little Island and we had a great time. The last day we got rained on and when we woke up in the morning our tent was in a puddle. At 5:00 in the morning all the kids were awake because of the lighting thunder, rain and wind. It blew over after a few hours but that was a long few hours. After that we packed up our soggy camp site and went home. Over all an awesome trip and a great place to camp even with the wet finale. One of the great things about moving every four years is all the new places we get to explore. Here is your classic cookies for breakfast while dad starts the fire.

Chris brought all our bikes on this trip and taught Laura to ride without training wheels. We also hooked up the bike trailor and rode our bikes around the Island. The bike ride was incredible and one of my favorite parts of our trip.

On the first morning we were there we went on two hikes. This wasn't much of a hike but it was cool. These are glacial grooves that are of course more impressive if you are actually there looking at them.

This picture was taken at the end of our boardwalk trail to get to the beach.

Despite the not so hot weather we still got plenty of beach time in.

I had fun sorting and orgainzing the shells we found with the kids. i think we counted them too but I don't remember how many we had. I know it was at least 200.

One thing I really like about camping here in the wimpy east is the lawn campsites and the fun kids playgrounds. At first I thought it was lame but the more kids I have and the longer I live our here the more I have become a big fan. Despite what I intially thought it is still a great camping experience without all the dirt. Somehow they still manage to get dirty even without it.

Steven's great find on the last soggy rainy morning. It kept him entertained while we were packing up.

Last but not least the Ferry Ride back to the main land. I wish I took pictures on the way over because it was a beautiful sunny day unlike this day which was not.

Table Time

2009-07-20T10:45:00.003-04:00

Aaron loves to be on the table! At home that was a problem but while we were camping it seemed like a great alternative to crawling all over the dirty ground. This did cause some problems(like when we actually wanted to eat on the table.) but for the most part Aaron's table time worked well for everyone

My parents visit in May

2009-07-11T19:58:00.016-04:00

so I realized after posting all these pictures of when my parents were here that I really should have titled it Ode to my Parents. They worked so hard and helped us out so much. We were able to do a lot of fun things but not all that we wanted to of course. My parents are the best and I am so so so so grateful for them! We had a lot of fun checking out the Air Force museum that nearby. It is one of the largest in the nation. Needless to say we breezed by everything pretty quick with Three little ones. We lots my Dad a few times because he really got engrossed into all the planes. This plane that the kids could climb in was of course their favorite thing about the whole activity.

while my parents were here Chris and my dad tiled our dinning room and kitchen floor. It was white carpet that was getting more and more stained everyday. Who puts whitel carpet in a dining room? Anyway it is wonderful and not a day goes by that I am not so grateful to them for their long hours and late nights of work.

Steven likes to pretend he is a bear and crawl into all the little caves at the end of one the hikes at Hocking hills.

Nothing like a mom to carry you when you get tired. My mom still does that!

My dad successfully taught Laura and Steven to skip rocks once we got to the waterfall at Hocking Hills. I love how you can almost stand on your head with a kid backpack on and the baby doesn't fall out. My Dad demonstrated this feature quite well while skipping rocks on Laura and Steve's level. What a great multi-tasker!

Since Hocking Hills is the coolest thing we have seen in Ohio we had to take my parents there. They were as impressed as we were.

For a second year in a row my parents helped us plant our garden.

Aaron is daddy's boy. He gets so excited the minute Chris gets home and he often follows him around the house hoping to get a little more of this kind of action.

This picture pretty much sums up my Dad and Aaron's relationship.

Not only does Aaron climb rocks but he eats them too.

Last February the neighbors across the street house burned down. One of the consequences of that was a very neglected law which my kids loved. It was literally a field of dandylions and once they turned into seed they made awesome magic wands. The first day they went over to play with the dandylions they stayed over there for over and hour. My mom captured their fun with the dandylions while she was here in May.

The first weekend of May I ran a half the Columbus city half marathon. I wasn't able to trian a lot because of Chris's schedule but I was happy with my time and It was fun to do a race. It was my first race since before I was pregnant with Aaron so it had been 2 years. It was the biggest race I've ever been in. It was kind of fun and annoying. It was fun because I was always passing someone and it was annoying because I was always bumping elbows with someone. It was incredible to look ahead and see this huge mass of runners. That was kind of inspiring to be in the middle of. My friend Jocyln also ran this race and did awesome.

Chris's Du-athlon

2009-05-23T21:10:00.009-04:00

Chris has gotten into biking in the last few years and he decided to do this race with some of our friends. It was a run 2 miles and then bike 13 and then run 3 miles. He did really well and finished about 1:18. I was very impressed. I often wonder what it would be like to be such an natural athlete. Here we all are the athlete and his cheering squad.

Here are the kids killing time, playing jungle in some tall grass, waiting for the bikers to come in.

There are a lot of monkeys in the jungle.

Here is Chis with our friends that also did the race. My friend Jocelyn was mad that she didn't quite catch the guys. The funny thing is that she was really close and on some other day she really could. Once again I'm wondering what would it be like?

Run honey run. I love seeing that man run and believe me it does not happen very often.

Cute kids

2009-05-18T20:51:00.005-04:00

My mom is into photography and took many pictures of the kids while she was here. This is just a few of my favorites.

Laura looses teeth and rides a bike

2009-05-18T20:28:00.003-04:00

While on vacation last week Chris taught Laura to ride her bike without training wheels. We just bought her a bigger bike at a garage sale and she was eager to learn to ride it. She still needs work getting on and off but she will have it down this summer I'm sure.

A week ago laura lost her first tooth. Yesterday she lost another one. They were both loose for quite awhile now and they finally fell out. I was a little surprised how early she lost her first teeth. I had someone ask me if her teeth came in early and that is the funny thing her teeth came in really late. She was 12 months before her teeth started coming in. The tooth fairy has come twice now and that has been really exciting. She keeps checking to make sure she doesn't have any more loose. It is amazing how fast they grow up and it is also amazing how fun it is to watch. Laura gets all the excitment being the oldest. All her fist moments our our first moments as parents. We still appreciate the others sucesses and celebrate but I'm sure i won't be quite so amazed when Aaron's fist tooth falls out.

Easter Weekend

2009-04-23T22:11:00.011-04:00

Easter Weekend was especially fun this year because we had Chris's mom and sister here with us. It was so fun having them here. Chris's sister Kathryn and his mom played and played with the kids. Family is wondeful! Chris also had the weekend off so thing couldn't get much better. This month he is on night float so the weeks are really long but I know I have a the weekend to look forward too. On Saturday of Easter weekend we went to Hawking Hill State park. It had a fun cave we hiked to and a waterfall. They were both kid friendly hikes which was also nice. We do miss a good long hike these days now that we are past the back pack stage but it is still fun to go even if it is really short hiking.

Coloring Easter eggs gets more fun each year as the kids get older. We had a great time decorating them this year we bought a sparkly egg kit and that was a big hit.

Our ward had an egg hunt that we went too. It was cold and wet but that is a typical egg hunt so I would say it was a success.

This is inside the cave at Hawking Hills. The kids had a lot of fun climbing around inside.

Laura and her Aunt Kathryn who she misses very much!(and so do I)

I am sucker for waterfalls. This is a really nice one.

They could have stayed and thrown rocks all day if we had let them.

Steven's 4th Birthday

2009-04-15T20:00:00.010-04:00

Steven had a great 4th birthday. He picked a race cake and we had a fun time decorating it. I used to work hard at making them really cute but now that the kids are older it has become one of their favorite things to help with the decorating. So now the birthday cakes are still cute with but with the kids magic touch.

Steven wasn't content with just two cars on his cake he went downstairs and got as many cars as would fit on the cake

Let the race begin! It looks more like a bumper car ride now then a race track but the birthday boys is happy.

About a 25 minute drive from our house there is a playground inside a huge church that is free to the public. We went there and the kids played on the playground and also got to play air hockey and go on the little car ride.

Aaron also get to play at this playground. They have a room just for babies.

Aaron's 1st birthday

2009-03-14T12:31:00.005-04:00

Chris's birthday and other thoughts

2009-03-12T20:30:00.002-04:00

I recently have read the book The Kite Runner followed by A thousand Spendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini . These two books especially A Thousand Spendid Suns have really changed my perspective on my own life. I have been amazed at how cruel the Taliban really is. I often listen to NPR while I am fixing dinner and tonight it was a report about how they are gaining power in Pakistan. My heart hurt hearing about it. Now that I have read these books it was easier for me to imagine the constant fear people are currently living with. The other thing that I have been pondering on was how blessed I am to be a women born in America in the church. When I think of all the people that are born in the world it is astounding really how blessed I am. Which leads me to Chris. I always appreciate that I have a really good man but recently I have felt overwhelmed by how blessed I am to have a husband that I not only love but that is my good friend. I miss him when he is gone but I am comforted by the knowledge that it is important work that he does and that he is helping people. He is such a great father and husband. He had the last week off in February and we went to Milwaukee to see my brother. I had such a great time with him. I love him so much and I hope he has a great 30th birthday.

The Big Number 5

2009-03-05T21:20:00.003-05:00

This year for the first time Laura got to invite friends over for her birthday party. She had a lot of fun planning the party and in the end it was a big success.

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A great Day at the Zoo

2009-02-19T21:36:00.007-05:00

On one of Chris's days off we went over to the zoo. We have really loved the zoo and we loved a little break in the frigid cold weather to be outside for awhile. Sadly it is freezing again. The zoo is so big that we only see a few sections each time we go. This day we had a great time watching the Gorilla's. They put on a great show.

Steven the budding photographer pauses to take this one of Laura

Almost birthday time

2009-02-12T20:56:00.010-05:00

This is our almost five year old. She has been such a wonderful blessing to our family. She is very good to her two younger brothers. Our Steven will be 4 years old next month. He is a mass of constant happy energy. He keeps us safe from bad guys daily. I don't know how we would survive without him?

The house that laura built. She has had a good time building forts all by her self.

We recently discovered an indoor playground that is inside a church and free to the community. It was awesome!

This little guy is about to turn 1 this month. What a year it's been. I'm sure glad he came along for the ride.

January Update

2009-01-26T20:32:00.011-05:00

We have been enjoying a lighter month with Chris around a lot more. It has been really nice to have dinner together and be able to spend time together with the kids. He still has occasional late nights and he is on call every sixth night and we miss him then but mostly this month is great. I have Laura and Steven enrolled in a sports class at the rec center. It is basically a preschool p.e. class. They have loved it and really look forward to it every week. Laura is also in a ballet class at the rec center and she is loving that. For Christmas Laura got a calendar and I wrote for her on the calendar when her classes are and when pre-school is. She is very aware of what day it is and what she has going on. Now when I am not sure what the date is I just ask Laura. "What is the date Laura?" "Its the number 26 mom." She loves to know what is going on and has a strong desire to understand things. She is learning to read some and when she wants to she does really well. When it's my idea she is a little resistant, so I don't really push her. The other day on our way to COSI the children's science museum we were stopped at a light and something was really stinky. Laura says to me " Mom are your shoes old?" I said "yeah they are relatively old why?" "I think it's your feet that is making it so stinky."

Steven is also ever entertaining. He is the creator of most of the games that he and Laura play. Recently he came up with the game Noah's Ark. They take all the cushions off the coach and then fill it up with animals. Once the ark is full they then jump on the coach when the rain starts. The downstairs coach is free game for any abuses they think of. He still wears his batman or superman much of the time. He also is often running around with his knight costume on. That was a knew addtion from Christmas. He is about as happy a kid as I've ever come across and he makes me laugh every day. This past month has been a rough one for him. He has been sick for most of it. He is so tired of being sick. He is currently on antibiotics for an ear infection and now he has what we call the puking cough. The laundy has been running constantly and we all gear up when we hear he is hacking again.

Aaron, well he is just so darn cute and we love him. He is also a really happy guy execept when teething. I especially love that he is sleeping through the night after I finally got tough enough to let him cry it out. I should have done that a long time ago but we are grateful he is doing so well now. Look what my hair can do. This kids hair is tragically not curly but it has it's own style.

We had some fun on Sunday with face paint.

Chris was post call on Saturday so we went to COSI while he was sleeping. it was really crowded but we managed to see a weather show where they made a cloud out of liquad nitrogen. I think kid space was still the favorite of the day for everyone else.

Aaron especially had a great time at COSI. He cried when I took him from the water table. He had fun squirming around exploring things. (He still doesn't crawl at 11 months.)

Christmas at the Hanks house

2009-01-18T20:26:00.013-05:00

We had a really great Christmas this year. We worked around Chris's busy schedule and managed to have a great week. We had Christmas the Tuesday after Christmas. The kids had no problem waiting even Laura didn't mind and she understood that everyone else had already celebrated. She was just glad like I was that her Daddy was there the whole time. He had six days off and we had lots of fun family time. After we opened our presents we went to the zoo to see the lights. We went early while it was still light so we could also get some fun animal time in. We really love our zoo here and there is so much to see. I discover something knew everytime.

We make great Praire Dogs.

The lights at the zoo were really impressive. It seemed that not a single bush tree or post was without a heavy coat of lights. They also had a light show over the pond that was quite impressive.

This is a little playground inside the Habitat House.

This was probably one of the favorite gifts. Our Steven loves to dress up and he now likes to sleep with his sword. so much for teddy.

Aaron was ready for a nap at this time but he really enjoyed all the paper. This year we just pulled out Laura and Steven's old toys to give to Aaron. It was funny because most of them they didn't remember. Even a few that we just hadn't gotten out since we moved. I still saved a few more for his birthday. The Busy Ball Popper was as big of a hit as it was the first time it was given as a gift.

Nana made the kids new blankets that have been a big hit. They are so soft and cuddly the kids love to sleep with them and cuddle with them on the coach.

Steven tells eveyone this was his favorite gift. I think he will get a little more use out of it when it warms up. It has been so cold here. We finally warmed up today to twenty degrees. The last few nights have dropped below zero. BRRRR.

Fun bags that Aunt Amy made. Thank you Amy we love them!

Before Christmas we had a great time making gingerbread housed the graham cracker way.

We made buckeye chocolates a Columbus specialty.

A Happy Thanksgiving

2008-12-03T16:37:00.003-05:00

We had such a great time at Thanksgiving. My sister and her boyfriend flew out form Washington and My brother and his wife drove down from Milwaukee.

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Aspiring superhero/firefighter/docter.

2008-11-15T21:24:00.004-05:00

Inspired by Chris's post I thought I would share a conversation I had with Steven this moring. We were eating breakfast and Steven randomly asks
" Mom when I"m a daddy will I get a diploma?"
I say " Well you will if you go to school. Daddy got one because he finished going to school to learn how to be a docter. You don't have to be a daddy to get a diploma.
Steven says " Well I think I will have a few babies before I get my diploma."
I say " So do you think you will learn how to be a docter too?"
Steven says " Oh yeah I think I will but first I want to be a superhero and then a firefighter."
I say "That should keep you pretty busy but it will look good on your application."
Steven says. "Do you think it will be okay if I go to the same school as daddy?"
I say " Yes that would be fine"
Steven say " Would it be okay it I worked at the same building as Daddy?"
I say " yes that would be okay as well."
Steven say. "would it be okay if I always live in the same house as daddy?"
I say " hmmm well that one might not work out."
Steven then asks " Mommy can I be done now?" He then flies off the table, because he is currently wearing his superman costume. He wears it to bed every night lately except when it is dirty, then he wears his batman costume.

I've been meaning to do this for months...

2008-11-11T21:10:00.002-05:00

So, ever since I got this blog started for Natalie, I've been meaning to show my face on it, but never got around to it. Tonight, Natalie is sick and went to bed early and instead of reading on one of the innumerable topics I need to know more about, I thought I would write a few thing for all to read...

Well, I guess I've been a "doctor" now for a few months, and I've learned it is not a job for the light of heart. The hours are long, but that's not what I'm talking about. As the intern, I get paged somewhere between 40-100 times in a given day. Each of those pages involves me making a decision about the care of a patient which could affect their health. On top of that, I make many other decision on a daily basis for patient that could alter whether they look better or worse the next day when I see them. I'm not trying to sound like a hero, far from it. Many of these decisions are very minor things, but even the small things come back to haunt you some times.

Life is tenuous at times. 2 months ago I was in the NICU. Newborn babies are normally a joyous occaision, but when things go wrong, the tragedy is great. During my time there, one of my patients was a baby born at 22 weeks gestation. I had never heard of even trying to resucitate a baby at that age--I thought they were not viable and we let them die due to the futility of the situation, but that was not the decision that was made in this case. The baby did well for about 1 day, but then one organ system after another started to fail. For the 7 days that baby was alive, I practically lived at its bedside. I would leave for 10 or 15 minutes when I had to take care of something else, but always found myself next to her isolette as soon as I completed my task. I learned immeasurable amounts about the care of very sick neonates, but despite that, felt completely inadequate to answer the parent's questioning faces each time they visited. The baby's mom was an 18 year old girl who was overwhelmed by the weight of the decisions she had to make. There were differing oppinions among those involved in the baby's care about how aggressive to be in therapy. By day 4 of life, the situation seemed clearly hopeless to me, but we supported her life for several more days, advancing our care. Finally, on day 7 of life, the family requested withdrawl of care, and I stood in the background as the mother held her child for the first time as we turned off the medications and ventilator that were keeping her alive. When the monitors showed no heart beat, it fell upon me to place a stethscope on her chest and declare her dead. That moment will be with me as long as I live. I briefly spoke with the parents, but had nothing to say--what could I say? I didn't know how to deal with it either. Ultimately, I excused myself, filled out the necessary paperwork, then went to my call room where I dictated her death summary. At the time, I was confused because I didn't feel grief, but looking back, I realize I wasn't allowing myself to--I had distanced myself so as not to be hurt when she died. That night, sleep did not come easily.

Death is not the only thing that weighs heavily upon me. Sometimes things go wrong with patients, and you are never sure if it was something you did, or if it would have happened anyway. When we do procedures on patients, we always warn them of the risks of the procedure. A few weeks ago, I performed a thoracentesis (putting a needle into the chest cavity to collect fluid that has collected around the lung) on an elderly woman with many medical problems. It was the right thing to do for her, I had explained the procedure, why we were doing it, and the risks involved, and she had agreed to the procedure. The procedure itself went very smoothly, a "textbook" case. She seemed to respond well to it initially, but by the next day she was doing poorly, and ultimately she ended up in the ICU. It turned out she had bled into the chest cavity on the side I did the procedure. I have walked through the procedure I did to her in my head many times over, and I am confident I did it right, but there is a distinct possibilty what I did was the cause of her worsening status. The fact that I had warned her that she might bleed after the procedure did not comfort me in the least.

I am getting pretty long-winded. I don't want people to think I don't like my job. I love what I do, but am reminded daily of what I lack. I have also seen patients recover and benefit from my care and efforts. Those moments bring joy, but do not provoke thought and introspection the way the difficult cases do. I could continue for hours with stories of patients I have learned from. As a medical student, I saw similar cases, and I did learn from them and recognize how difficult they were, but as a medical student you are sheltered to some extent from this. Now, the prescriptions, the hospital orders, the daily notes, the discharge summaries, and so much of my patient's care proceeds with my name attached to it. I have spent many late night reading to try and bridge the many gaps I have in my knowledge base (something I should be doing now).

Anyway, overall I am enjoying residency. Not a day passes that I don't learn something (usually many things) new. I am inspired and impressed by my many colleagues who help me learn and develop the skills I need. I only wish I didn't need to learn and develop skills, I wish I had the complete package now.

On a closing note, I am so greatful for my wife and children. What a blessing it is to come home to them. I know it has been hard on all of them. Laura asks me every night if she will see me tomorrow, and sometimes the answer is "no", often it is "I hope so", rarely is it a confident "yes". Natalie is so supportive. By the time I get home, she is as exhausted from her 14 hour day of work as I am from mine, but she listens to me as I release my daily frustrations, and supports me in so many ways. I am certain that having a family to remind me of where my priorities need to be has been an essential part of my education. I only wish my kids didn't have to wonder when they would see thier dad again.

Back to Blogging

2008-10-26T20:25:00.018-04:00

I have a variety of reasons as to why I have stopped updating my blog. The first one is that in August we went to Utah and while we were there we lost our camera in the Tetons. I'm sure the camera has a very good home now up in those beatutiful mountains but sadly I believe that it has taken it's last pictures because from what Chris said it is not likely anyone will find it. It has taken me awhile to decide on a new camera. I am very happy with the one we got it has been a lot of fun. The other reason I haven't updated the blog is that after we got back reality hit and Chris was really busy! He is gone all the time it seems. I was warned of this by many resident's wives back in Hershey and now I am gettin my turn. It has made me wish I had offered to help with kids or just drop dinner by once in awhile. So I also have been really busy trying to keep up with everything by myself. I go to bed a lot earlier these days and I find that I often just want to curl up and read a book instead of get on the computer. I have severly neglected my email as well. I am however really excited about what we have been doing lately and my pictures from my new camera. Really I can't complain to much because I feel I have been blessed in so many ways during this hard time. One of those many great blessings was my friend Caroline who came out with her son Owen and stayed with us. Caroline used to live in Hershey when we did. Caroline Heidi and I had such a great reunion. It felt like we were right back in Hershey together. To celebrate we spent the day at a place called Leed's farm and it's like no other farm I've ever seen. Caroline had some great pictures i wanted to post but I couldn't get my computer to work for some reason. Anyway here is what we did.

Own wanted to drive the Banana Bus so he chose the very front seat.

The Hamster wheel

The Banana Bus

Pumpkin Pillow

Heidi was really thinking ahead and she took out the back bench in her mini van so we could have a nice warm picnic. It was brilliant!

Heidi's Savanah snuggled up in the stoller. This little doll hardly made a peep all day.

Heidi's Maddie cruising around on the trike course
The corn box, a big hit with everyone

Maddie and laura in the Banana Bus

Heidi and Maddie emerging from the big tube slide. This was one of Steven's very favorite things.

More corn box fun

Weekend fun at Alum Creek State Park.

2008-08-03T18:22:00.010-04:00

I got to enjoy another great weekend with Chris home. He has started his residency with some relatively light months. So for me true reality doesn't hit until September. I am not looking forward to that but I am enjoying all the time I have with him now. He has been on call two sundays but so far no Saturdays. Here is our little beach baby loving life in the Bumbo. For the first three months or so of Aaron's life he spent a lot of time strapped to me in a baby wrap, but alas I can no longer pack this 16lb monkey around for long periods of time. I came across the Bumbo at a consignment store a few weeks ago and it has totally been worth every penny. In the Bumbo he doesn't have to be laying on the floor acting as Steven's favorite jumping obstacle. He really loved it at the beach and sat happy for a long time. I only moved him because I was concerned about him being in the sun to long.

The kids could have stayed here all day. They were so sad when it was time to go. Chris and I just wore out long before they did.

This was really a nice place to play. We have been pleasantly surpised by the fun things to do in the flat tornado ridden plains of Ohio.

And one more of Aaron just because I think he is so cute.

Great Things Keep Happening!

2008-07-27T22:19:00.004-04:00

Tonight as the day ends I am feeling so blessed.
Great thing 1- Yesterday morning Chris met with a group of guys from the ward and they went and biked 39 miles. He had such a great time and it was the farthest he has yet biked.

Great thing 2 -Then later that day we got to go on a date because my new companion called me and wanted to watch our kids while we went on a date. I am still in shock about that one. We had such a fun time. We went to COSI and watched a movie called "In To the Alps". It was a documentary about a man who climbed the Eiger, on a huge imax screen and it was incredible. We both are ready to go on a trip to Switzerland.

Great thing 3-We came home and I made hamburgers and we ate squash, lettuce, and cucumbers from our garden. I had our awesome new babysitting friends eat dinner with us, and then we went out to ice cream. It rained and the wind was blowing so hard that it broke our umbrella while Chris waited in line for our ice cream. (Very funny to watch from my dry spot with the kids.) It was so fun and we were happy to have made some great new friends.

Great thing 4-Today was Chris's second sunday that he was on call. I can't say that I love going to church with out him but I had a really great day. I made it to church on time this week.(i was five minutes last time I went by my self.) The kids were really good and I only had to leave sacrament once for a potty break. Then Laura went to Sunbeams and I went to nursery with STeven because I had been asked to sub. I took Aaron with me and hoped that he would sit happy in his car seat. I wasn't so lucky and he got fussy. It was of course really noisy and he was tired. I took him into sunday school while the kids were having snack time in hopes that I could find someone to pawn him off on. I spotted the couple who had volunteered to watch our kids the day before. I quietly handed him off and ran back to the nursery. I had left one lady to fend for herself in there, so I was trying to hurry. I had a really fun time being in nursery I brought lots of songs and activities and since it was the older nursery they loved it. It was a good reminder to me that I belong in primary. Later when the kids were occupied I snuck back into sunday school to make sure Aaron wasn't causing to much trouble. The brother who had taken him for me had him sound asleep in his arms. He kept him all through priesthood as well and I guess he stayed asleep the whole time.

Great thing 5- I spent most of Sunday playing games with my kids
Some funny things that the kids have done lately. Laura comes up stairs with a bloody nose. I ask her what happened she says "Steven stuck his finger up it and made it bleed."

Steven was asked what he wanted to be when he grows up he says " A superhero" Practical Laura says "Steven aren't you going to be a dad?" She is very literal about most things, not a lot of make believe in her.

Today Steven annouces to Laura with his pants already completely off "Laura I'm going potty now by myself and I want some privacy." Then he marches off to the bathroom. uh yeah I guess I need to work on that privacy concept a little more.

Camping at John Bryan State Park

2008-07-27T21:22:00.015-04:00

One of the great things about Colombus is our new friends. We have made friends with a family that has kids the same ages as ours and that like the same things we do. July 18th we went camping with them. Saturday we went and ate breakfast at an actual flour mill.

The mill is famous for their pancakes and from the photo I think you can see why.

This is Laura and Chris in front of the water wheel. It is sadly not great for pictures because they keep Christmas lights on it. At Christmas time they have a light show that we will have to go back and see. I think then I will appreciate all the lights on the Mill.
Rock climbing is the reason we chose to camp here. It was the first time we have gone since Laura was a baby and we lived in Logan. So a first in over four years. It was so fun.

I have this same picture of all of my kids now about the same age in this pack. It has come in handy many times and this was one of them. Thank you Chris's parents! The big red mark on his forhead is a misquito bite. We all have had more misquito bites this summer then all the rest of them combined.

Here we are starting our kids young. Chris made a harness for the kids out of some webing. They thought it was great!

Reaching for that hold. Laura loved rock climbing.

Steven had some very interesting technique. We will have to work on his form some.

Here is Chris truly in his element. I like rock climbing but Chris LOVES rock climbing so this was an especially great trip for him. He was a bit rusty but still scrambled up to the top.

Here he is, his favorite place to be, on top of a rock. His favorite rocks to be on top of are of course much higher but this was still fun.

And last and also least is me trying to remember how to rock climb. Lets just say I didn't really remember but I had a wonderful time trying.

This gives a new meaning to "CHEESE". Our last picnic on a moss covered table. mmm.

So now for a little bit of history. Posting these pictures brought back memories. A good six and a half years ago Chris had me climb up this rock pinacle up Logan canyon. He climbed up first then he belayed me from the top while I climbed up after him. When I finally made it to the top he had sparkling cider and our song playing (John Denver's Annie's song). He also had flowers (some ended up blowing off but I was sitll impresssed). He then told me he loved me and asked me to marry him. I wish I could remember what he said exactly. I know I wrote it down but I'm not going to look it up right now. Anyway it was a special day that I will always remember and makes me fall in love with him all over just thinking about it.

A Happy 4th of July

2008-07-06T22:32:00.004-04:00

We really had a fun 4th of July this year. We started the day with a rainy parade but we had a great time anyway. Steven and Laura enjoyed walking to the car splashing in the puddles. Then Chris got home and we went to a bbq. WE both met a few more new people. Then we went to a park and watched the fireworks. Someone there was playing music over a speaker and that provided for some good fun dancing. I spent some time reflecting about what a great blessing it is to live in America. When I was in Russia everything there was so uncertain. The best anyone did there was buy a two bedroom apartment and only a few people owned a car. The people that I knew in Perm would never be able to live in a house like I have and it is very small for American standard of living. Even though we live in a economically uncertain time I'm not worried about wether I will have enough food to feed my children. I have so many wonderful things because I live in America.

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Exploring Colombus

2008-06-22T21:12:00.012-04:00

When we first found out that we were for sure moving to Colombus there were a few people in our ward who had lived there before and they told us we would love it. They were right! We are having a great time. I can't believe all the fun things that there are to do. This picture was taken at a park with fountains that squirt up and waterfalls. The ladies in the ward call it the Bunny fountain park because there are huge bunny statue's on top of this hill that the water park is by. It is free you just come with your toys and swimming suit and play.

We got zoo passes and we have gone a few times now. They really have a wonderful zoo here. The kangaroo's were especially fun to watch this particular day.

Lots of statues all over the zoo to climb on. And of course we had to stop and climb on all of them!

So much for looking at animals. Once the kids discovered this amazing playground it was hard to get them excited about anything else. Oh well it's great exercise for them and Chris and I just need to remember to bring a book.

Here is a picture of only half of what is there. It is quite the playground.
This little clip was taken at Fancyburg park in Upper Arlington. We went with our good friends from Hershey who also moved to Colombus for residency. It has been so fun having them here. It was a really nice park with an awesome playground. This clip doesn't really show it but I thought it was cute of mykids interacting. In this clip Steven says he is going to a music festival. We went to a jazz and blues music festival the night before with some new friends and had a great time dancing to the music with helium balloons. So that is what inspired his imaginative play.

Here is a video clip of the kids playing at the bunny fountain park. I'm not sure what the real name of the park is. I am sure we will be making lots of visits to this park this summer. We are having so much fun exploring and we also are having fun making new friends. Everyone here has been so friendly to us. We have been invited to lots of things and we feel very welcomed. There are so many young families like us in this ward and someone is always planning something. So if I get bored or lonely here it is my own falt!

Steven told us to!

2008-06-22T20:25:00.012-04:00

I don't know which was funnier, finding these two cuties covered in stickers or their quick response when I walked in the room that Steven told them to do it.

These kids had so much fun playing together. These are our good friends in Hershey. laura and Steven went to pre-school at their house all last year and we also got together and let the kids play alot. For a long time almost everyday Laura would ask if her friend could come over. Steven also loved having them come over. My favorite was when they would all play hide and seek together. It was so funny to watch. This picture was taken while we were at their house waiting for our truck to be loaded the day we left to Colombus. We really miss them!

Our New Backyard Paradise

2008-06-12T21:51:00.007-04:00

It all seems too good to be true. I can't believe I have this wonderful back yard. We were even able to put in a nice big garden. I bought the slip and slide and the kiddie pool for the kids to play in while we put in the garden. We planted the next day and the kids enjoyed helping put in the seeds. We put in cantalupe corn, beans pumpkins butternut squash, zuchinni, summer squash, potatoes, onions, green peppers, broccoli and some zinnia and sunflowers line the edges. Everything has already sprouted except the carrots. I hope they come up. Since we got here we have been working hard on the yard and also painting. We are done painting the rooms we are going to paint and now we are working on finishing up unpacking. I am hoping to be all done before Chris starts oriantation next week. We were so grateful for my parents who came and helped us for a week. Thank you mom and dad! The kids are absolutely loving the backyard as well as having stairs that is one of their favorite places to play. I am feeling very blessed!

The house has a really nice patio. We weren't eating on it though because it was too hot!

The only way to play in 90 degree weather!

Aaron loves our new backyard too!

Good -Bye Hershey

2008-05-26T19:05:00.003-04:00

Today I went running on my favorite trail here in Hershey for the last time. It is so pretty here and I am really going to miss it. I have run this trail so many times running past the duck pond, and up through the nature trail past Shank park. This is my time to think and also to pray. It is running on this trail where my best ideas come. Running has always been an outlet for me and the pretty scenery was an added bonus. Yesterday was my last day at church. It was a really sad day for me. I did really well until relief society. I was standing in the back of the room holding Aaron and I looked around at all the women sitting in the room and I thought about how each of them had taught me, inspired me, helped me, and been my friend. Some of them I have come to love very much. I was grateful for the many hugs I recieved and for all the sweet sisters who cried with me as I said my good-byes. It is so hard to leave knowing that many of these people I won't see again. Yesterday I also spent a lot of time reflecting on the last four years here. So much has happend and we have changed and grown in so many different ways. When we moved here Laura was four months old. She is now four years old and Steven and Aaron were both born while we lived here. It has been a wonderful, difficult, trying, and fun four years. Hershey PA we will miss you.

Chris's graduation

2008-05-20T15:19:00.002-04:00

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Yes it is another long slide show posted by me but I am having so much fun making them. We had a such a fun weekend with Chris's parents this weekend. They spoiled us as always. We really loved having them here.

Vacation in the Poconos

2008-05-14T18:40:00.002-04:00

This last week we rented a house on a lake with some of our friends in Chris's class. Before we went to the house we stoped at my Uncle and Aunt's house in the Poconos. We had fun visiting them and my cousins family who also stopped by. While we were at their house we went on a short hike to see some waterfalls in the Delaware Water Gap. The falls were really impressive and the hike was just the right length for our kids about one mile round trip. Then we went to the house on the lake and spent a few days there. We went on a hike, played at the beach, went mini golfing, went out on a boat, ate lots of good food, played games late into the night and enjoyed awesome company with some of our friends. It was great trip!

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Blessing Day

2008-05-12T20:55:00.010-04:00

Aaron's blessing day was a special one for me. Chris gave him a wonderful blessing and we both had the opportunity to share our testimonies. I am feeling so blessed to have three wondeful children. They have taught me so much and brought so much joy in my life. I am especially enjoying our little Aaron right now. He is such a good baby he always seems to have a smile for his mama. There is nothing like having a sweet baby to cuddle and hold. He is an espcially cuddly baby and I really love that. I find I have a hard time getting things done because I sit and hold him to much. I am also so grateful for Chris. He has been home the last month and a half and I have loved every minute of it. It's nice to know that after six and half years we still enjoy being around each other. He is more then just my lover he is my best friend and a wondeful daddy to his three kids.

My ever amazing mother was the creator of this darling blessing suit. She even knited the sweater! I don't think I will live long enough to aspire to her creative level. We love and appreciate all that she does for us and wish she could have seen him in person on his blessing day.

A Party for Aaron

2008-05-12T20:40:00.004-04:00

When Laura was born we lived in Utah and we had lots of family come for her blessing day. We weren't able to have any family come so I decided to invite friends to a campfire at a park. We had such a wonderful time with our friends. We will miss them so much when we move. They truly have been our family. There was always someone to help us whether it was moving furniture, rides to the airport, watching our kids, inviting us over for games or giving us blessings when we were sick someone was always there when we were in need. I feel so blessed and so grateful for all the wonderful people who have enriched our lives while we lived here. The day we drive away will be an emotional one for me.

We have always enjoyed Shank park but it isn't until just recently that I found out about the fire pit there. I'm glad we got to enjoy it at least a few times before we had to move.

The last 2 months

2008-04-27T21:40:00.012-04:00

In the last 2 months we have had a lot of visitors come to meet little Aaron. It has been so fun and we have loved every minute of our wonderful family. We felt so blessed that they would spend their time and money to come and help us out. First Chris's sister saved the day and came the day after I got home from the hospital. She was a huge help we don't know what we would have done without her. Then my sister and her boyfriend came. They were also a great help. They played a lot with our kids and they cleaned alot as well. They got to experience chocolate world for the first time and our favorite Korean resertaunt. It was so fun spending that time with my sister. We hadn't spent that much time together since I moved to Hershey, so almost four years. Then my mom came and stayed for two weeks. It was none stop play time for my kids and they suffered serious withdrawls the one week we had to wait for Chris's mom to come. While she was here we were busy running around to all sorts of things it seems like. We also went and found and bought a house while she was here. She was a huge help as well since we didn't have to take the whole mini-van full of kids to house hunt. We feel so blessed and want to thank all of them for coming. I just wanted to share some of the many pictures we have of all the fun we had with our visitors.

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We bought a house!

2008-04-19T13:58:00.006-04:00

We are so excited to have our own house. I am especially excited to plant a garden this year. Another one of our projects will be to finish fencing in the back yard so the kids can go outside and play and we don't need to worry about them. We are moving in on May 30th.

Lovin that Hershey wind

2008-04-04T20:45:00.005-04:00

Here we are making good use of the very cold wind.

Steven had Chris get his kite up in the air and then after awhile bring it back down again so he could watch it fly back up into the sky. When it was time to go Steven was very sad he couldn't get enough of kit flying. It this wind keeps up I'm sure we will be able to go again.

Last week we had a lot of cold windy days in Hershey. Saturday was no exception so bundled up in our warmest winter clothes we braved the wind and tried out the kids kites. It was a huge success, the minute we let go of the kite it took off into the air, no sprints across the field in hopes a gust of wind finally takes over.

Welcome Aaron Christopher Hanks

2008-03-23T18:41:00.008-04:00

Aaron was born on Wednesday February 27th at 12:23 a.m. He weighed in at 7lbs 7oz and he was 20 inches long. I went into labor early Tuesday morning. By early afternoon we were ready to go to the hospital. Laura and Steven got to go over to our friends the Thompson for the rest of the day. Then they got to sleep over at our friends the Bowman's. They had a lot of fun and it was such a relief for us to know that they were well taken care of. We feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends. After laboring all day at 11:30 p.m. they decided it was time for a c-section. I was really disappointed but happy to have a healthy baby. I am doing really well and I have recovered really quickly. Little Aaron is growing and doing well and we all love him very much and are so happy he has come to our family.

Here we all are at 3 in the morning. We were very happy with the results of our long ordeal.

Here is Aaron checking out the world in his first day of life.Laura loved holding her new baby brother. She held him for a long time. She was very excited when we finally got to bring him home.
Steven also loved holding his baby brother. He didn't have quite the attention span for baby holding as Laura did but he was very happy to be an older brother.

Angelic Aaron 1 week old.

Aaron 3 weeks old

Match Day!

2008-03-22T16:27:00.003-04:00

Columbus Ohio here we come! March 20th was match day and we found out we will be moving to Columbus Ohio. Chris is really excited about their program there and we have heard a lot of great things about Columbus. We are excited about moving to a new place and exploring. We are especially excited about camping in some of Ohio's state parks. In the last few years we have created a lot of great memories as we've hiked and camped in seven different parks. Some of our very favorites were Rickets Glen, and Black Moshannon. We have loved exploring all these new and beautiful places.

We are also very excited about the prospect of finding and buying a new house. We are trying to quickly learn all the ins and outs of the process. We hope to go look at houses soon.