*Sniff* My Little girl is growing up!

Brenna graduated from kindergarten on Friday, which happened to be her birthday too!

This was a bittersweet day for me.  She turned 6 years old, and she's ready for 1st grade.  Where has the time gone!!  I can't believe she is already 6!  Where is the pause button, or at least a slowdown button so she'll stop growing so fast. 

 I love this girl to death!  She is a smarty pants and a sweetheart.  She has learned so much at school this past year.  She comes home and tells me all about the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Mona Lisa, etc.  When did they start teaching kindergartners this stuff?!  She is also reading very well now.  She reads anything she can get her hands on and is loving Junie B. Jones.  she reads a page or two at a time and is working her way through it.  I know I wasn't reading stuff like that at her age.  I hope she inherited my love of reading and keeps it up.  She is also doing good at writing, but unfortunately she inherited my sloppy handwriting.  Poor girl!

She is such a great big sister to Ian.  As soon as she gets home from school, they take off together and go play.  She loves to play school with him and she has helped me teach him to count.  Sometimes he gets up to 17, but for some reason he skips 3 every time he counts.  What a nerd.  Brenna is such a big helper too.  She is responsible for cleaning her own room, helping with the downstairs bathroom, and the downstairs playroom/family room.  She never complains about cleaning....as long as it's not her room.  She would rather clean the bathroom than clean her room.  Crazy girl!  she loves to be outside, especially when it involves the trampoline, otter pops, and friends. 

She can be such a drama queen though!  She is stubborn, sassy, spirited, and a stinker!  She has an attitude, and definitely knows how to use it.  She lets us know when we do something wrong, or if we forget to do something we had promised to do.  her and her dad are constantly butting heads because she is so sassy.  She is definitely a mommy's girl. 

I love my sweet girl!  I wouldn't have her any other way.  I have been so blessed to be able to have this special girl as my daughter.  I guess I must have done something right to deserve her.  We hear in church that people living today were reserved for this time and I think the reason I am here is so that I could be the mom to this valiant girl (and of course her brother =)  )  She already has such a strong testimony  of the gospel and  loves to share it.  She stands up for what she knows is right and tries to teach others about Jesus, both through her actions and by telling them.  I know she is going to a great missionary in this gospel and pray that she never wavers.  She provides such a great example to me of what it truly means to "become like a little child."  I hope that as she grows up we can stay close and become more than just mother and daughter.  She knows how to cheer me up.  She gives the best hugs and kisses around! I love you Brenna Kay Hansen!!! 

This is Brenna and her teacher, Mrs. Mikkelson.  She is such a great teacher!!  I was worried about Brenna adjusting when we moved in the middle of the school year, but since she had such a wonderful teacher, there were very few issues.  She is always telling me how bright Brenna is and how glad she is to have her in her class.   At Brenna's old school, I felt like they weren't challenging her and that she wasn't really learning anything new.  Once we moved and she got into her new class, I was amazed at how fast she was learning and how much.  Mrs. Mikkelson said Brenna was in her top reading group and already doing stuff at a 1st grade level.  she also reassured me that just because Brenna had already accomplished the stuff they need to learn in kindergarten that she wasn't going to let her stop, she would keep finding things for her to do.  She loves school and learning.  I hope she keeps that love because it will take her far and she will be able to accomplish so much in her life.  I just asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and she said she wanted to be a mom and a teacher at school. 

All-in-all, I'm a pretty lucky mom to have such a great daughter.  so I have to rub it in your faces.....My daughter is better than yours =)  (I'm  her mom so of course I have bragging rights)

Easter Fun

(you might need to grab a snack, and sit back and relax, there's alot of pictures =)

We took a vacation this and it so happened it was Easter weekend that we were gone.  Luckily, we got to spend it with Jason's parents and some of our bestest friends, the Wilson.  The kids got to wake up Saturday morning and see what the Easter Bunny brought.  Kanani and I hid around 150 eggs (holy cow!) the night before.  But in our defense it was for 5 kids.  Early in the morning, I hear giggling and feet scampering.  I opened the door and Brenna, Jamison, and Tyson were already getting the good.  I told them they had to wait for Kanani to wake up before getting all the eggs.  It was an excruciating 15 minutes and finally Jamison gave up and went and woke his mom up.  Then the kids were able to go crazy and find the eggs.  Now the hard part began.....keeping Ian out of the candy so that he would eat breakfast, which was at McDonald's (I know, so healthy).  Then it was off to another Easter Egg hunt.  Jason's parent's neighbor was doing one.

Ian was so excited to find the eggs.  They limited all the kids to 12 eggs, which I think is a fabulous idea so that all the kids got some.  I think Ian would have been one of the egg hogs. 

I love the look on her face.  She was ready to go!!  She was so excited that I think she ran right past a bunch of eggs so I had to go help her.

She was searching =)  I think she would have been one of the ones with too little eggs if they hadn't regulated it.  she spends so much time running around, dancing, being excited, and jumping around that most the eggs are already found by the time she starts.  Funny girl!

Yes, that is bacon hanging out of his mouth.  He was running out like that and now he has become obsessed with bacon.

She is such a little poser!  Love that girl to death!!!

This is Tyson, Brenna, Jamison, and the little one is Kona.  The boys argue over who is going to grow up and marry her.  Either way, I will be happy since I love those kids to death and I know she'll have some great in-laws (Alan and Kanani).

He was having fun playing on the rock =)

Later that afternoon, we went over to Jason's parents and played and dyed some Easter eggs.  I think I ended up doing most of it and having more fun then the kids.  Peggy, Jason's mom, got these cool rub on tattoos for the eggs that I hogged.

I think this was the only picture I got with her the whole trip.

Forgive the goofy picture, but once again, one of the only pictures with me in it with one of the kids.

Sunday morning we went over to Jason's parents before church and discovered that the Easter Bunny had forgotten to leave some stuff Saturday so it asked if it could leave some at grandma and grandpas house =)  That sneaky rabbit also hid all the eggs that we(I) dyed the day before.  So the kids got have yet another hunt.  They had 3 egg hunts!!

Ian was so proud of himself when he found the eggs.

Brenna was excited too =)

He was showing me the shovel he got...that's the green blur.

Showing off her gloves =)

The kids got these cute little gardening bags that had shovels, rakes,  and gloves.  Plus lots of candy and a few little toys.  They were so excited to be able to "garden" now.  Where they got the idea that we are going to, is beyond me.  My version of gardening was I pulled the grass out of the patch in front of our house, sprinkled some wildflower seeds and then hoped they would grow (which a few are, yay!)

After church we had a special FHE that talked about the true meaning of Easter.

So, all in all, the kids had a good Easter.  We had fun hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa =)  It was also so nice to hang out with Alan and Kanani and their boys.  They are some of our best friends and our kids are all the same age.  Kona and Ian were actually due on the same day.  They live in St. George, which is where Jason wants to move eventually so in a few years we'll be able to hang out with them lots more!!!

The next round of vacation pics will come soon =)

3 hours and 8 stitches later...

While we were on vacation (I'll get those pictures posted soon), Ian decided to have a tussle with a dog. Not our dog, or else Sasha would have been in major trouble. We're not exactly sure what happened but we think he pull on the unmentionable parts of the dog and the dog didn't like that. This was a dog that was used to rough housing boys so that's the only thing we could of that would cause it to nip at him.

Since the cut was so close to his eye, we didn't want to take any chances.  I think one tooth got the bridge of his nose and the other got by his eye and tore when Ian jerked away.  He was a tough kid and didn't even cry when it happened.  Brenna was freaking out and crying more. 

How do you keep a 2 year old busy while waiting in and ER room for 2 hours to see a doctor?  We gave him the controller to the tv.  He thought it was cool to turn it on and off and switch channels.

When the sedative started to kick in he would kick out his legs and try and reach for things in the air.  He was pretty out of it =)

This was him all stitched up.  He was still out of it.  Poor little guy.  while we were there, he was more upset about having the blood pressure cuff on him and the thing on his finger than anything else.  It didn't even seem like the bothered him at all.  One thing that irked me while we were there was that it seemed like the staff was more worried about getting information on the dog than getting Ian stitched.  As soon as we said it was a dog bite, they were calling the police, trying to get the name and address, vet's name, whatever they could.  We didn't want to give it to them because it was our friend's dog and it was an accident and not a big deal.  Every time someone came to see us the first thing they would say was something about getting the dog's info, not how is your little boy doing.  The only one that seemed more concerned for Ian, was the nurse.  She was the nurse in the er room.  Believe me, if it had been a vicious attack, I would be all for calling the police and what not, but it was an accident.  After everything was done, I told Jason we should have just said it was our dog that did it, that way we could avoid all the hassle, even though our dog is twice as big as our friend's and the marks would have been different. 

What a great part of vacation huh?  At least we had fun with the rest of it.  I will post pics later of that.