Happy Birthday, IAN!!!

I am a little late in posting this......

My handsome little guy turned 4 this year!!  I can't believe how big he has gotten.  It seems like yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital.  He is definitely a momma's boy and a big sweetheart.  He always comes up to me and gives me a hug and kiss and says "I like you!"  He is definitely all boy too!!  He won't wear any clothes that have "girl" colors and if you call him cute....watch out!!  He gets so mad!  He says he is not cute, he is cool! =)  He loves to box, wrestle, pretend he's "IronThor" (he wears his iron man costume with a cape) and run around crazy!  But he still loves to sit and cuddle me when he gets the chance. His favorite things are Avengers right now.  You can convince him to do anything if you can connect it to one of them....except Black Widow because she's a girl.  I am so grateful to have this little man as my son.  I love him more than I could ever hope to express.  He is a true blessing in our lives.  I know he is one of our Father in Heavens strong spritual warriors and I can't wait to see him grow into that.  I don't always have the patience I should with him....especially when he is supposed to be taking a nap but is instead playing with robots....but I am eternally grateful he is my little stinker.  He is such a special little guy and is so full of life (aka mischief!). I wouldn't change a thing about him!! I love you, IAN!!!

His new favorite things are silly monsters.  We redecorated his room with them and he wanted to have his birthday party with monsters.  Now, when you go to the party store, there aren't exactly very many silly monster decorations so I had to make my own.  Thankfully I already had some ideas and then was able to get a few from Pinterest.  This party was alot of fun to put together because there were lots of colors and pretty much anything goes with monsters =)

Before decorating for the party I had to figure out the cake.  So I just browsed the internet for some ideas.  I usually make the cake and frosting from scratch but I was lazy this year and used box cake mixes and canned frosting.  Taking care of a newborn that sleeps all day actually takes more time then I remembered....but then again having 2 other kids adds to it =)

Here is my cake.  I wanted to do it green since that is my little guy's favorite color.  After I decorated it I realized it looked like mike Wysowski from Monsters, Inc.  That was totally unintentional!!!

I then wanted to do cupcakes for all the kids (I wanted to save the cake for our family birthday party that night)  So of course the cupcakes had to have monsters.  I am not the most artistic but I think you get the idea of it. 

Here's how I did the eyes in case you are wondering:  I just melted some white chocolate and squirted it into circles on wax paper and put M&M's for the eyeball. 

I saw a cute idea here for some party favors.  I loved having something the kids could take. I had lots of fleece and felt scraps so I just cut them in various shapes and faces.  it was a pain to hand sew them together since for some reason my sewing machine wasn't wanting to sew....it kept knotting up.

I also made these cute little monsters for decoration and then my monster got to keep them to play with after the party.

I can't take credit for this fun centerpiece.  My sister made it.  She got some plastic plant holders and painted them, and then a plastic dish for the top.  She then decorated it like a monster.  She filled the plastic dish with gummy worms (my little boy's favorite treat and perfect monster food =)  )

These decorated the goodie bag table.  I made these awhile ago as decorations in his room.

I scored with these!  I went to the Dollar Tree and found them.  They were perfect for the party!!  I wanted a game that 4-year old kids could do.  this bingo game was great for them.  And the green and blue bubble containers in the background were also from the Dollar Tree.  They made the perfect prizes for the games.

Here is another game I did.  It was "Pin the Eye on the Monster"  I had to draw the poster but you could probably use a Monsters, Inc poster if you can find one. (the little guy in the white shirt with the monster on it is my little monster =)

Another game I did, but I forgot to get pictures before, was I put pieces of paper in balloons with prizes on it and told the kids to pop them for their prize. Because we all know that as soon as a kid sees a balloon the first thing in their mind is "Can I pop it?"  And this saves me from dealing with all the balloons after.  The catch was, I had some balloons with a monster face (you can see the blue and yellow one in the picture above).  The kids had to find a monster balloon to pop.  This was a hit with the kids.  Just make sure you have something on hand to help pop balloons with for those who aren't heavy enough to pop it by jumping on them =)

Before the Party started, to keep the kids distracted while guests were still arriving, I printed off a bunch of monster pictures and let them color them.  

I then decked out the room with streamers in all sorts of colors: red, yellow, blue, and green.  I also used all the extra balloons as decorations.  This was a very colorful party.  All of the kids had lots of fun and I think some of the parents that stayed had a good time too =)

Here are a few party pics:

Ian loved playing Monster Bingo.  

He patiently waited for each monster to be called and got excited when he had it on his card.

When he opened his presents he gave each person a hug to say thank you.  What a sweetie!

He got to blow out his candles...shush...don't tell anyone I lit candles in the church.

He loved his silly monster cake.  He is such a terd when it comes to pictures.  He will smile and then move his eyes away from the camera.  

Happy Birthday buddy!!!

The past few weeks....

I have been a slacker at updating the blog.  It has been a bit busy around here with the baby, Christmas, the Christmas break, and then trying to get back in the swing of things with Brenna in school.  so this will be more just a bunch of pictures (which that's all anyone really wants is to see baby pictures =)  )

Our new arrival!!

Sophie Marie Hansen was born December 4th, 2012 @ 9:44am.  She was 5 lbs. 12 oz. 19 inches. We are so happy to have her in our family. Her brother and sister adore her. The first few days were tough because the hospital has their winter visiting restrictions so they weren't able to come see her. Jason found a window in a hallway that they were able to look in so he brought her to that so they could at least look at her. I had to have a c-section. But luckily everything went smoothly. I was even able to go home a day early. We had a bit of a concern with Sophie one night. When they weighed her for her daily assessment they said ah had lost 9 oz. Now that may not seem like much bit since she was so small that's a lot. They told me.to supplement with formula that night and they would reweigh her in the morning. So we side. She didn't really eat much burner jn the morning she had somehow gained 5 oz. So I think there was something up with the Wales the night before and her doctor agreed. He said since she was so active and alert that there was no concern, especially since my other kids were about the same size. She is such a sweetie and a good baby so far. The first day she was home, Ian wouldn't let anyone else hold her. Both kids argue over whose turn it is. So I have a great bargaining tool.....if they want to hold the baby, they have to be good and do what I say. I can't wait to see the personality that she has. She is a.definite blessing in our lives. Welcome to our family, Sophie!!!

Halloween.....a little late

The kids had a fun Halloween. Ian was super excited to be iron man and Brenna loved being a twilight fairy. We went trick or treating by Jason's brother's house. The kids got 6 lbs of candy in their bags!!

Pumpkin painting =)

I have been a slacker with posting lately.   Don't worry, I won't be such a slacker when the baby comes so you can all see cute pictures =)  

My favorite time of year of year is fall.  I think it's because I get to wear hoodies =)  One thing that goes along with fall is of course pumpkins.  I got some small pumpkins for the kiddos to decorate.  They had lots of fun and were super proud of their masterpieces =)  We will be carving pumpkins soon so I will get some pictures posted of that as well.

Monster Blanket

I have been trying to a little better at sewing and making my own things lately so here is one of my latest endeavors.   I figured since there aren't very many things that you can do to boys rooms that I would share my ideas and hopefully it will help someone else with getting their little boy some cute cool decorations. (I am not allowed to call anything of my little boy's cute....he gets very mad because he is cool and awesome, not cute! =)  )
 As I was contemplating how I wanted to decorate my little guy's room I wanted either dinosaurs or monsters.  I decided on monsters =)  So I then tried to find some cute bedding.  He would be moving from a toddler bed to a twin sized bed so he needed a new bed set.  All of the monster themed bedding was not exactly very cute...and I didn't want Monsters, Inc stuff either.  Then I thought "How hard could it be to just make a blanket?"  I had made several receiving blankets so I figured it wouldn't be much harder to just do a big version.  It turned out that the sewing part wasn't much harder, but it involved a bit more math....yuck!  So here is what I did, and I hope I can make it clear as mud for you =)

First of all, I had to order my monster fabric online.....and it was $10 a yard!  and I couldn't use a coupon =(  So I just got a yard and a half, but if you want to use a bigger piece, it doesn't really change how to make the blanket so go for it =).  Then I had to find my matching fabrics.  I was just going to sew my monster piece onto a plain piece of fabric.  If you are really good at sewing you could probably just piece some pieces around as a border....but that would have taken me using my brain and I wasn't feeling it....so I just slapped it on a big piece of fabric.

For my big fabric, I got 5 yards of fabric.  I wanted it to be about 68 inches wide, and the fabric was 44 inches so i was going to have to sew 2 pieces together.  My original plan was to  cut the 5 yards in half, then sew those halves together and then trim the sides to 68 inches, but leaving a few inches for the hemming.

Then I realized if I cut the fabric into thirds, measured 68 (actually around 68 1.2 for the hem/seams) inches, and then cut. and then just sew the tops and bottoms together, It would look better having horizontal seams rather than a vertical seam.

So them I just had to trim my length, which I wanted it to be around 90 inches.  If you do it that way, you can probably get away with about 4 yards of fabric.

Once I had the big fabric sewn together I need to place my pattern piece on it.  I measured the sides and tops and centered my piece on, and then pinned it tightly in place.

I then sewed it on.  I just did a regular ol' zig zag stitch.  When you want to mark your spots, I just used some chalk to mark my places since it wipes off really easily.

The next step was doing my bottom piece.  I had to sew the fabric like I did the top piece.  Once I had it sewn together and trimmed to the size I wanted, I then put the rights sides together with my top piece and pinned the edges together.

Use lots of needles so you can get it flat and not bunched up.


I'm not sure the exact measurement of the seam I did, but it was to the 2nd line on my sewing machine (I'm still new to the sewing world so I don't know all the terms and whatnot).

I sewed 3 sides, leaving the top open.  I then turned it right sight out.  I got my quilt batting and put it inside.  They had the stuff that was already measured out to fit a twin sized comforter so that make it nice and easy =)  It was also iron on so once I got it in place, I ironed it so It would move around while I was sewing the rest.

 I then folded the top and ironed the hem and then was able to sew it.  I then did a zigzag stitch around the whole thing just give it a bit of a design on the edges.

I knew the batting wouldn't stay in place when we had to wash it (and since this was for a 3 year old boy, I knew we would be washing it).  Then I got some yarn, and just tied it like a regular ol' quilt.  It was super easy.  I just did them in random places because I didn't want to measure.

I know this isn't the greatest of tutorials, but I just wanted to show that even a beginner can make a big blanket.  Now just a warning....if you are wanting to make a comforter hoping to make it cheaper than buying one....it probably won't happen.  Even though I used coupons on everything but the monster piece, it was still a little bit more than buying a comforter.  I think it was about $50 total.  But it was worth it to me because I got exactly what I wanted and this will be a blanket that will be special to my little guy =)

It was hard to get the full blanket in the picture, but you get the idea.  I would have liked to have had the monster piece bigger, but at $10 a yard I was lucky to do what I did.

Ian is pleased with his blanket.  He slept with it before I even had his room done to put it in.  His sister even thought it was nice and warm.  I will be doing a similar blanket for her to match her new sister's.....but that will probably be around March......