Those Kids!

Man, these 5th graders sure keep me busy. I feel like I am just trying to stay one step ahead of them all day and by the end of the day I am just exhausted. But it is sure fun!

Just for an update for what has been happening in the life of Mrs. Hansen...

 

-One day I told the kids that I was going on a date with my husband that night and one kid piped up, "Are you gonna kiss him!" He said it all suggestively like that was the grossest thing we could do. I said, "I sure hope so!" and he turned the brightest shade of red. It killed me.

 

-Every Monday I have them share with the class what they did over the weekend and one kid always tells the biggest stories. He climbs on the roof and his mom starts the kitchen on fire and his sister falls down the stairs and just all sorts of crazy stuff. One day Brevan said to me, "Do you think any of ________ stories are really true?" Very few, I answered. But it still cracks me up and I always brace myself when it's his turn to share.

 

-We are having a read-a-thon tomorrow and I am really excited about it! We are also going to celebrate all the kids who have summer birthdays and I just think it's going to be so awesome.

 

-We had parent teacher conference and did a student led conference and it was AWESOME! The kids had portfolios and we practiced and practiced and practiced what they were going to say and it was just so fun to see them seated at the table with their parents and explaining everything they have been learning. It was so neat, even though the kids claimed we were trying to torture them.

 

-We were learning about writing letters and where to put the commas in the greeting and so forth so we wrote a letter as a class. I had the kids vote on who they wanted to write to and they decided on Kolton! I have no idea why but they sure think he's the coolest! They wrote him this letter:

Dear Kolton,

         We enjoyed your potato gun. What is your job? How are you? How did you hurt your knee? What kind of motorbike do you have? Kolton, have you shot your 223 gun?  We would like to see your potato gun, your puppy,  your knee, and your awesome dog house. Write back to us.

                        Sincerely Yours,

                      Your Wife’s Best Class 5A

 

He replied with this letter:

Dear My Wife's Best Class 5A,

    It was very good to hear from you! I was definitely not expecting a letter from you, but it was a pleasant surprise. I am glad that you enjoyed helping me shoot off my potato gun. It was fun for me too, and if I hadn't shot it with you, I probably wouldn't have shot it this year. It will probably be collecting dust in the garage until the next time I have someone to show it to.

     I am doing really good, and thanks for asking. For my job, I farm with my dad. We grow hay, barley, wheat, and raise a few cows. Right now we are doing some mechanic work and getting ready to start planting in the spring.

     My knee is doing better. Almost all of the soreness is out of it, and I will probably take the last of the stitches out tomorrow night. I will do it myself because I am super tough and have crazy medical skills. I have a 2010 Honda CRF 450 which I obviously can't ride because that is how I hurt my knee. It bucked me off and a rock jammed into my knee clear to the bone.

     I have attached a few pictures that I will let my lovely wife show you. It was good to hear from you, and I hope that you are good kids for Mrs. Hansen or you will be hearing from me again!

Sincerely,

Kolton

 

I thought it was just the cutest and funniest thing ever.

 

-The other class decided to write to Mr. Mackay. I had the letter pulled up on the projector and had just typed Dear Mr. when the door opened and all the kids freaked out! When I saw it was Mr. Mackay I freaked out a little bit too! So we were all just spazzing out and all the kids were pointing at him and gasping and I said "Oh!" about a million times and he just looked at us like we were crazy. It was so funny.

-I had to film myself teaching today for an evaluation and I set up the camera and was nervous about how the kids would behave with that tiny little distraction in the room so I told them that the principal had asked me to film them to see how they were behaving and they were complete angels! We might have to do that more often!

-Anyway! Things are going good! I just really love these kids even though I get frustrated and maybe even grumpy some days they really are the greatest. They are so fun and definitely keep me on my toes. The other day I missed half the day but came back in the afternoon and when I walked in all the kids said hi and were so glad to see me and it just really made my day! Goll, teaching is great!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Baby Emmeline and Birthdays!

December-January is a busy month with the Hansen's. It's just birthday after birthday after birthday.

December 20th-Teagan

December 30th- Sandra

December 31st-Emmeline

January 11th-Kirt

January 15-Shannon

It's just crazy and and the birthday madness reaches clear into March. So we usually try to do a bunch of birthdays at the same time rather than doing it about every other day. Last Sunday we got together for the birthday thing and we also got to meet Baby Emmeline for the first time. She was so tiny and sweet!

We had to do a size comparison picture with tiny baby and gigantaur baby. Daegon is a monster! And even has chub on his fingers!

Then Kolton told me to get on the floor so we could do a real size comparsion. 

Madi is 6!

There's always lots of help when it comes to unwrapping the presents...

A Very Merry Christmas

Holy cow. 

December was so packed with parties, food, gifts, and I hardly took any pictures. 

But here's the rundown. 

1. We had a ward Christmas party with Santa and all. My dad was chosen to sit on Santa's lap and did a rendition of Buddy the Elf when he found out Santa was coming to Gimbles. He yelled "SANTA!" and hopped all the way up to the stage from the audience. And a month later I still haven't quit laughing about it. 

2. There was an ambulance Christmas party that we attended. I made yummy potatoes that turned out to be not so yummy after all and it was embarrassing. 

The month was pretty calm (as calm as December gets anyway amid the shopping, school, and everything else) until the 21st. And then we were really busy.

21st- Our anniversary! We celebrated by being apart from each other all day. I made chocolates with my mom and Kolton went to a family party. That night we finally got together and had our annual (two years in a row!) couple's Christmas party at the Simmons'. It was full of good friends and food and hilarious and inappropriate white elephant gifts. So of course it was a good time. Kolton and I got this little gem:

Also we agreed a long time ago...about two years ago in fact, on our first anniversary, that we were not going to give gifts to each other. And Kolton broke the rule! I was mad at him but not really. He gave me a book I've been wanting and a beautiful little bowl from Anthropologie. That stinker! 

22nd- After church we headed up to Island Park for the Newman family party. We stayed overnight and enjoyed spending time together, snowmobiling, and just relaxing at our favorite place on earth. Kolton went on a big manly snowmobile ride and fell in love with it...oh boy. 

23rd-We came home from the cabin, showered, cleaned the house, and had visiting teachers come all within a matter of about two hours. Then we headed over to Hansens' because Ethan was calling from Guam! We talked to him for a good hour and got a kick out of the delayed internet. We would say something and five seconds later he would laugh. It was quite funny and really good to see and talk to him! Then we had a big dinner and I took charge of the yummy potatoes and they were actually yummy! It was a good day. When we got home that night Kolton had the brilliant idea to bring our bed into the front room so we could watch a movie out there and sleep by the Christmas tree. And it was so fun! I just really loved it.

24th-I put together our neighbor gifts while Kolton went to wash his pickup. In the middle of all that he got an ambulance call and had to take off so I was in charge of delivering. Luckily Addi came along with me and we were able to get it all done. That night we went over to Hansen's and spent Christmas Eve with them. We had different kinds of soups and breadsticks and watched a movie and opened pajamas and it was nice! Then we came home and stuffed stockings for each other and opened them and slept by the tree again. And Kolton had warned me ALL month about how lame his stocking stuffers were going to be and they totally were NOT. He did good! I was lame, however. But he did get an airsoft gun so I figured that made up for the rest of the lameness.

Christmas!-We started out at the Hansen's and opened all our gifts and couldn't even all fit in the front room because we're all so dang spoiled and got so much! Then we headed to my parents where the kids had to wait until we got there to open their presents. They were a little anxious to say the least. We did all that and then my Grandpa and Quenalee came out and we feasted on leftover shrimp and twice baked potatoes and cheeseballs and whatever else we could find. It was delicious. Then we all honestly laid down and took a couple hours nap. I couldn't believe it, but it was so nice! The sleeping by the tree idea was fantastic in theory, but in actuality we didn't sleep all that great so a nap was needed. Then we were in the middle of waking up when Tylee called! We got to skpe with her also which was so fun. It was just like she was there with us. We talked for about two hours which was probably too long, but how can you just hang up on them!? That was one of the best parts of Christmas. After that we snacked a little more and then went to the cemetery. And that was Christmas Day!

After Christmas we went to Island Park for a few days. (My favorite place on Earth) We snowmobiled, cross country skiied, and mostly just relaxed. And ate. And I finished a couple books. Kolton went on a big manly snowmobile ride and promptly fell in love with the sport. It was quite an expensive ride as a couple days later when we were in town returning some Christmas stuff and doing other business he and his dad bought themselves some snowmobiles!

After that little expensive venture we went up to Kilgore to the new Hansen cabin. We spent a couple days there snowmobiling, reading, and sledding with the kids. Baby Emmeline decided that New Year's Eve would be a great time to make her appearance so Shannon and Bear were not at the cabin even though their kids were.
Kolton even went all out and he and Teagan built themselves a little snow cave. It was an all day kind of project but it was sure neat when it was done. They even slept in it...for half the night. :)

We went home New Year's Day and then started up school the next day! It was quite the busy little break, but we had such a good time with family and friends.