The NEW Cricut and more projects

Here's the new machine... I LOVE IT!!! I am still learning new things about it, and will be until I get rid of it in like 10 years. Now I can make images up to 23 inches tall instead of the measly 5 1/2 that I could with my other machine. This card was made for one of Kaitlyn's friends. She helped me design it.I wish this one wasn't so fuzzy, but it's for Julianne who just left for her misison. It says Cebu or Bust! The little sign on the fence says Joseph City. It really looks better in real life, but oh well.

Clarissa played volleyvall on the freshman team this year. This is for her coach that helped them so much. Coach Brennan is awesome.

And last but not least, this is for Julie. I took way too long on this one, but I guess it turned out ok. She loved it and I enjoyed making it for her.

Now time to clean the craft room so I can find the floor again.

How dirty can a girl be?

Karly loves her baths. So much that she thinks she needs to take several a day. Most times she is undressed, but sometimes she looks like this:

I love this girl!!!!

I also love that her hair is long enough to put in pony tails.

She may be naughty sometimes, but really, how can you stay mad at a face like this?

The Hansen Calication

A couple of weeks ago we got a call from JT inviting us to the baby blessing of Maddex in California. Clarence thought it would be nice and asked me about it. As soon as he did he wished he never did! I was all for going, the kids were excited, and Clarence... well, Clarence was not excited about the whole thing AT ALL!!! Nontheless, we went.

On Friday afternoon we headed out. We traveled with Clarence's parents along with Julie and Justin. Kalry was good as gold until about we hit the border of Cali. After that it was pretty rough. We stopped at Barstow to get some dinner and then headed 45 more minutes to Tom and Cheryl's house. They have a beautiful house in Hisperia. Lilian and Brad and their family were already there and before the night was over so was Kimmy. It was a full house, so much that our family slept in the travel trailer in the garage. The beauty of Tom and Cheryl's house though, was there were a lot of people running around but it really never felt like it.

On Saturday we headed out in the morning for a day of shopping. The boys went to Bass Pro Shop and the rest of us went to a big mall across the street. The girls took off with Lil and Kimmy, and even though they won't admit it, they had a blast shopping! After a couple of hours we went to one more mall that had a big candy shop. My kids only wanted rock candy as a souvenier, so that's what we did. It was rather pricy, but at least they were happy.
When we got back the kids all put on their suits and went for a swim in the pool and the jacuzzi. Justin's dad and theri family cam over for a but and They pretty much stayed there the rest of the day. The weather was a little chilly, and I had to keep putting my jacket on. But the colder weather didn't stop these kids!








I love this next picture. Rub a dub dub, how many kids can fit in the jacuzzi tub?


While the kids played all afternoon in the water, the adults kinda just sat around watching and cathing up on the lastest gossip. Oh yeah, and eating OF COURSE!! Cheryl had so much food for us. Every time we turned around there was another meal or treat made. She had enough to feed more than our small army, that's for sure.

Karly loves Daisy. This is Kimmy's dog.

Sunday morning we all got up ealry and headed out to Rancho Cucomonga where Leslie and JT live. I love the name of this town. The baby blessing was beautiful and we were well represented in their little chapel. After sacrament meeting we went to JT and Leslie's tiny townhouse for lunch. Theit house is SO cute! I wish I would have taken pictures. Leslie really has a great eye for stuff and even though they jsut moved in the place looked like it had been lived in for years!
Soon after we knew we had to get on the road and head home. After saying our good byes and packing up, we ALL headed home to JC. About 7 hours later we pulled into the driveway and were grateful for the safe trip home. When I asked the family what they liked most about our vacation, they replied the candy, the swimming, and the food. Clarence said his favorite part of the trip was when we pulled into the driveway. Ha Ha, very funny. I was glad we got to visit with Tom and Cheryl and JT and Leslie, and just enjoy a weekend doing something out of the ordinary. All in all I would say it was a success.

My projects

Here are a few of my projects I have been working on. I have never made a card before, but I'm learning. These were all done on the cricut machine.
This first one is for a friend who recently got married.
A little blurry, but this is the inside of the card. Today I got a package in the mail from my realtor and good friend in Colorado. I had mentioned to her that I wanted to learn about the berries we found in Co. and she sent me a book all about them! I was very surprised and grateful for the guesture, so I made her this card. I hope she likes it.This last one I made for the newest addition to the big Hansen family. JT and Leslie had a cute little boy and are going to bless him this weekend, so I decided to make this for him.

Again, a little blurry, but you can get the picture. This was the funnest to make. I had Cari help me with the inside, and this is what we came up with. I loveit!
Now hopefully I can keep motivated and make more of these. I get my NEW cricut next week! It'll be able to cut fabric, so we'll have fun making projects for quilts this year. Wish me luck!

Labor Day Weekend at Groundhog

I am not a fan of school starting in the middle of August. I LOVE the summer with the kids and the trips we get to take. So when Labor Day rolls around and school has been in session for 3 weeks already, I am ready to take them out of school and enjoy our LAST big vacation of the summer. It still is summer, right?
This year Clarence went hunting in Colorado with his buddy Todd and his brother Derron. Clarence was fortunate enough to kill his elk the beginning of the week, and ended up being the only one that trip to kill one.

On Thursday I pulled the kids from school about noon and we headed to Colorado to see Clarence and stay for the extended weekend. I really had fun with on the way up there listening to "Chickens in the Headlights." It's a book on tape, and I would highly recommend it. My kids loved it. 5 1/2 hours later we made it to the trailer. Not bad, considering I had 4 kids to deal with by myself!

The next morning Kaitlyn was having a ard time adjust to the altitude and so we decided to go on a rive to a little lake and have a picnic. We thought we could just drive straight to the lake, but as it turned out, we had to walk a little ways to get into it. We would walk a little ways and then stop and rest for Kalitlyn. At one pont Derron had stayed behind with me to help Kalitlyn and the rest of the group was ahead alittle ways off when a bog ol' bull stood up in the meadow and started walking around. Ethan was too excited and had to tell Derron, who had brought his bow "just in case." Ethan ran back as fast as he could and yelled, "Derron, there's a bog ol bull up there!!!!!" Well you could only guess what happened next and that bull took off before Derron could even get a good look at it.

We made it to the little lake and had our lunch. It started to rain a little bit, so we headed back. On the way back we started to notice these tiny strawberries litter the forest floor aroind us. Here a couple, there a couple. We would stop and eat up these tiny morsels that were SO sweet and juicy. We wanted to save a bunch, but they were so tiny and juicy, and didn't really keep well in the bags. So we went on our merry way wishing we had some kind of berrieds to eat later. Almost to the truck I spotted a rasperry bush. After looking around more closely I noticed there were SEVERAL raspberry bushes. In no time we were picking raspberries. Soon though we notices a peculliar thing start to happen. Our hands started tingling when we touched certain parts of the plant. The mystery was solved when this part of the plant went into my pantleg and started stining LIKE CRAZY!!!! It felt like someone had just burnt me. I had come in contact with some poison sumac. We decided then that it was time to head back.

The next day Clarence and Derron went hiking/hunting aournd Lone Cone to see if Derron could fill his tag. I decided to take the kids on a ride to the top of Flat top. There is a pond up there that has salamanders in it. 2 of the kids visited it the day before and were eager to show Kalitlyn and I what they discovered. They did manage to find their salamanders, along with this little fella. Isnt' he cute?

Sunday we went to church in Dolores. This was a new experience for my kids, and they really had fun with it. they are used to big wards with lots of youth, and the ward we went to was very little, with 4 young women and a tiny primary. It was good for them to see what other places are like and they do appreciate our ward a little more now.

After church we had a picnic by the Dolores River. We did try our luck at fishing the stream, but we soon realized we were not prepared for stream fishing. We decided it would be best to head back and fish at the lake where we knew what we were doing. Once back at the trailer the older kids went exploring and found a fort on the property. We don't know who built it, but I was grateful for the hours of entertainment it provided for the kids as they worked fervently on improvements to the fort.Clarence had the tough time of supervising.

That night we made a cobbler with the wild berries we gathered.

I love this man. He is the cobbler king!Needless to say, it was a big hit.
The next day was Monday. Clarence took the kids out fishing and they caught about 8 fish. The kids had fun and I had fun watching them. After a fun filled morning we cleaned the trailer, packed the bags and headed home. It was the end of another successful trip. Every time I get to spend time with my kids and watch them play together and help eachother it is a successful trip to me. I am grateful to be blessed with such a terrific family. I have a wonderful husband and 4 terrific kids. Yes, I indeed do have much to be grateful for.

Need I say more?

The Grand Canyon

Last Friday I was talking to Clarence about his upcoming trip to the Grand Canyon. He was taking 11 boys and two other leaders on a 17 mile hike in and back out of the canyon in one day. I thought it would fun, so I asked him if I could tag along. I think he hesitated for just a second before telling me it would be fine. I'm sure he had his reservations, and probably with good cause. I quickly made arrangements for the kids the following day and packed my bag before he could change his mind. I was going to hike the grand canyon.
I actaully have always wanted to do this. I have hiked Havasupi when I was 12, but that was what, like 17 years ago? :) Ha ha. I don't remember a lot about that trip, except for the fact that Clarence went with us and my dad would tease me about always wanting to hike with Clarence and his friend. I thought boys were still gross, and come on, Clarence was 17! That was forbidden! The last day we hiked a total of 28 miles. My mom says the last 5 or so miles I just held on to her pack and she drug me out of the canyon. When we got to the van in the middle of the night I fell asleep on the floor and my dad drove us home..... I STILL don't know how he did that after such a long hike.
So Saturday morning at 3 am we left the church and headed to the Grand Canyon. After a few stops along the way and a quick trip to drop off the other vehicle, we were ready to hike the canyon. It was about 6:30. We started our adventure on South Kiabab trail, and we would end up on the Bright Angel trail.

See the crew I hiked with? Aren't they a handsome bunch?

We ran most of the way down the canyon, but I made sure we had plenty of photos along the way. This is one of my fav. places to stop.And yes, I made them say "Ooh, Ahh! " as I snapped the pitcure. I even managed to snag a couple of pictures with this handsome fella.

3 1/2 hours and 4600 feet in elevation later we reached the bottom of the canyon.

We ate lunch and had a little time to chill at the creek near Phantom Ranch

before heading back up.

The boys had a blast playing in the creek......

while the rest of us took it easy.


After about 2 hours we headed back out. We had to coss this cool bridge to get back to the trail.



We started the hike out ok, but then the switchbacks came. They first set was hard, but the view from the top was pretty cool!



We stopped at Indian Garden for about 45 mintutes to rest up and refil our water. I love these boys. They were an awesome group of boys. This is their pondering pose.



There was a lot of water on the trail on the way up. We found some really pretty waterfalls along the way.



After Indian Gardens te trail got HARDER. We were getting pretty tired (or at least I was) and we let the boys split up a little bit and take the trail at their own pace. We had the jackrabbit crew up front that seemed to never run out of energy . Next was the grasshopper group followed by the turtle club. I was with the middle group for pretty much the rest of the hike. The further up we got the harder the trail was. There were LOTS of switchbacks that seemed to go on forever.

Clarence took the camera for the rest of the trip and ran ahead to catch the boys as they came out of the canyon. I don't know how he found the extra energy to run, I barely had enough strenght to just put one foot in front of the other! I'm glad that he took the camera. He did get some pretty awesome shots along the way.

I can't believe we were all the way down there only earlier that day.

FINALLY 11 hours after we started this hike and 4300 feet in elevation later, I made my way out of the canyon. I was very tired and sore. I wasn't sure if the end was ever going to come! The last mile took about an hour to climb. My back was sore and my legs felt like jelly, but I had done it. I hiked the grand canyon!

I came, I saw, and I conquered.

About 45 minutes later the last group came out of the canyon. All the boys had done it. I was so proud of these young men. We really have some of the greatest youth around. Here is one last picture of our motley crew after our long hike.

See the two boys on the right? This was their 3rd trip to the canyon and they ran most of the way. Their time: 6 hours and 15 minutes. Way to go Whopper and Kyler!

We finally made it home from our adventure about 10 that night. I have gained a greater appreciation for Clarence and for what he does for these scouts. He is so patient and kind, which happen to be 2 attributes I strive to have. I am grateful I had this opportunity to go on this grand adventure with such wonderful youth and their faithful leaders. They were all great examples to me. I am humbled by their sweet spirits and their willingness to help out when called upon.

I may be one sore puppy now, but I will be forever grateful for this trip. I learned a lot and witnessed some amazing sites. My testimony was strengthened as hopefully my backside was too!