December 2016

From my 2016 Mason Jar Journal:

• Noah and I went to Great to Be Eight for primary
• I went to the David Archuleta concert with Kayli
• 12.5.16-12.15.16 - Jake traveled to Columbus, Ohio for work

Noah, Dad, and Abbi home to celebrate Christmas.

Dad and Mom (Larry and Melanie)

Our backyard view on Christmas morning. We couldn't even see how big and close the mountain is.

Noah built this snowman all by himself.

Grandpa wearing Abbi's new Christmas hat.

Baymax wearing the harness Abbi asked for for Christmas. He hated it. He just rolled around while he had it on.

We played Noah's new card game on Christmas, Oregon Trail.

Kids' Christmas letters and lists.

Dad slaughtering the kids at Monopoly.

Abbi and Noah playing the long, long round of Monopoly.

Joey and Jessica Saari at work at DI.

When the kids thought shoveling was fun.

Joey left alone for the night so I took my treats to bed.

Kayli Robinson Pena and Joey at the Nathan Pacheco & David Archuleta Christmas Concert.

Love Month - Angry Birds

Until recently, I have never understood the "Angry Bird" craze.  I tried to play it a couple times on my sisters iPhone, and I still didn't get it and not just because I had no idea how to play.  But, I will admit that I do love Angry Birds now.  The other day, I downloaded the Rio one too, because I got as many stars as I can on the original Angry Birds.

Let me tell you what really amuses me about the game ....

When I play it, I get angry.  It makes me so mad when the stupid pigs smile with their teeth and laugh when I don't kill them.  I HATE their laughing and smiles.

When a brick or something knocks over on a pig's head, sometimes it doesn't kill them.  I think if I proportionally buried a pig in bricks and logs, it wouldn't live.  But in this game, they do!  I hate the pigs!

In the Rio version I have to kill monkeys now.  I feel worse about killing them.  Why would a bird want to kill a monkey?

Maybe I'm missing something about the story of the game, or why pineapples and flowers are worth so many points.  Whatever the case may be, I appreciate the Angry Birds keeping me company.  I also loathe them ... and their pig (or monkey, respectively) companions.

Love Month - FMC

Grandma's picture was voted "favorite" of this round.

Grandma picked her picture as favorite for her round.  Everyone screwed up guessing playground when obviously, this is a yard sale.

I took a load of pictures that turned out blurry.  I think my mom needs a new camera and the great room needs less lights.  FMC was so, so fun.  The pile of food grows every time we get together.  My favorites were the pretzel stick things and the cake batter rice crispy treats.

We went around the room to see what everyone does to keep themselves from getting the "Winter Blues."  There were lots of good ideas, but Grandma brought us an object lesson.  She makes loads of dish clothes and gives them away but she has never used the multi-colored yarn because she always has thought it was so ugly.  Just recently, she used some that was in the yarn box at the senior center, and learned that it made a beautiful pattern on her dish clothes.  She feels bad that she has always thought how ugly that spool would be.  Then, she told us about a woman she worked with.  Everyday, this woman would wear beautiful, fancy clothes to work.  Grandma sort of judged her never wearing the same outfit twice, and thought the woman must be kind of shallow.  Then, they were assigned to sit next to each other and Grandma said that woman turned out to be one of the nicest ladies she knows and that she regretted having negative thoughts about her.

After all of the "Winter Blues" ideas, we played a couple rounds of Telestrations.  Funnest game ever!  Our favorite round was when the Secret Service Man turned into a transvestite!  Hilarious!

I was so happy about how many FMC members were there.  We had so much fun and even though it's hard to get everyone together, it's worth it.  I really love each member of my family and FMC is a great way to have fun together without all the distractions of kids and other chaos.  We can make enough chaos by ourselves :)
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This evening is the bi-monthly (is that right?) Hansen FMC.  It's a secret club for members only.  Tonight's theme is Beat the Winter Blues.  I'm looking forward to a slide show of Anne and Wendy's trip to Hawaii.  I wonder what I'll share ... hmmmm ..... Check back for photos and commentary later!

Love Month - Valentine's Day

This would have been a good post for me to learn how people do slideshows or collages of pictures on their blog posts.  But, learning is hard for me so we're gonna have to deal with scrolling through all of these crazy pictures.  Furthermore, as I have recently commandeered Jake's computer, I don't know how to fix red eye anymore so we're also going to have to deal with alien children this round.

 Abbi and Noah enjoying macaroni and cheese hamburger helper.  I don't know why they like it.

 Mr. Cupid, who obviously despises Valentine's Day, came into our house and stole all of our party treats and Valentine's while we were waiting for the cousins to come over.  We went on a hunt for more heart-shaped hints.

 I thought of this about 10 minutes before the party was supposed to start.  Apparently, my skills don't improve whether or not I have time to spend on a project so the kids didn't know how quickly I threw this all together.  Besides, I obviously wasn't involved because I had an alibi.  The kids loved the mystery and went wild, literally, quite wild.

 Grandma and Grandpa were no help to the children.  They too, were quite surprised with our party predicament.

 When we found a clue upstairs in Noah's room, we heard the front door SLAM and Grandma started yelling about a fast little diaper wearing thing that ran in and left all our treats back on the kitchen table.  We ran down to see if we could catch Mr. Cupid.

 We didn't catch him.  And Grandma and Grandpa didn't give us a very good description or direction to go after him.  Luckily, this did free Toby the Cat from all of the insinuations and accusations that he was actually our culprit.  Marlie thought that Toby was so guilty he may even begin to speak to us this very night.  I would have liked that.

 We partied hardy, ate the giant M&M cookies, ice cream, other treats, exchanged Valentine's and played and played.  Like I said, the children were, quite literally, wild.  Uncle Cody didn't help keep the place calm as he was teaching Ju Jit Su moves step-by-step to whatever child stopped to listen, or even watch the YouTube how-to videos.

What a fun night!  Abbi and Noah were so glad to have their cousins over to help them solve our mystery.  I understand that Valentine's Day is for people in love, but I LOVED this Valentine's Day more than any other.  It would have been over the top if Jake had been at home instead of at work tonight.  He did bring me roses at our 30-second exchange of vehicles and children.  And....he ordered me a Vintage Pearl necklace.  I can't wait to see it!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

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Post and pictures are coming.....we're looking forward to our little party at home tonight!!  I wish I could see Abbi's face this morning.  I put up a bunch of decorations and tied Valentine balloons to all the kitchen chairs after the kids went to sleep last night.