Happy Holidays

Hi All! We hope that you had a wonderful holiday with family and friends etc. etc. etc.! We had a lot of fun. Derrick and Shayli headed up to Schweitzer on Christmas Eve morning and spent a big chunk of the day there. Last year Shayli was so sure that she wanted to ski, not board. So now that she has her own ski's, boots, etc. She wants to board. "The boards look so much cooler and you can buy cute boots and stuff..." Funny girl. So maybe next weekend we'll let her rent a board to try it out.
Shayli headed to her mom's for Christmas Eve evening, night and Christmas morning. And Derrick, Rad and I headed to my Mom and Bob's. They had quite a few people up! The Elders were there, Linda Edwards was there... she is a fun lady that I'll mention again later in this post. Bob's daughter Antoinette, her husband and son were there. Bob's son Yuri, and his wife and 4 1/2 kid's were there and Bob's daughter Laura with her husband and son were there too. Of course Michael, Shane and Valeri were there as well. We just chilled, ate good food, the grandkid's acted out the nativity while Grandpa Bob read the story. Then Antoinette's son Payton opened his birthday presents and everyone else got to open one present. It was fun, as always to kick back with the family and laugh and just be silly.

Christmas morning we checked out our goods from Santa and then headed back to Mom and Bob's for more presents, then back home to open the presents under our tree with Shayli and then yet again back to Mom and Bob's to end the day. Lots of back and forth but fun all the same.

Derrick received lots of new tools, I received lots of new tools and my very OWN toolbox. That will be fun. Shayli received lots of DVD's and new stuff for her room and Diddles received a cool new dome tent that connects to a tunnel that connects to a TP. Pretty fun for him. However, while opening presents Rad just wanted to sit on one of his big wrapped gifts (a potty chair) and read books. It was cute and I've posted a picture in the post.

Last weekend Shayli and I went to visit some nursing homes around town. We went to the one that Linda Edwards lives in. Linda is someone that my mom has known since she was a child and my mom says that if her mom were still alive that Linda would be living with her. So we include her in on all of the holidays. She's a lot of fun, loves to play board games and every other weekend Shayli and I are going to stop by and play a game or two with her in her home. That'll be a good time. We visited another home that was more of a convelescent home. There was a woman there who put her arms around me and just sobbed. When I finally had to leave they actually had to restrain the poor woman. I felt so much compassion for her. In YW's on Sunday we talked about people with disabilities and how to serve them and I think that lots of elderly people fall into that category at some point toward the end of their lives here at earth. Shayli felt the same compassion so we are going to make it our goal to spread some sunshine for the folks that we do feel so much compassion for.

On the subject of service, we've decided to start a new tradition in our household and "adopt" children from the Giving Tree's around town during the Holiday Season and give them the best Christmas that we can. We did it this year and it just makes you feel so good to do something so good for others.

Derrick and I are both back at work today. Derrick will finish out this week and part of next week building here in town and then it is off to Alaska for 3 weeks to work on the airport that he helped build this summer. I'm actually on campus 4 and maybe 5 days a week starting next week. That will be a change that I wasn't so excited about at first, but I get to bring Rad and Shayli when needed and I am very blessed to have this job... so no complaints. I'll do it with a smile. ☺

I'm doing a musical number this Sunday in church. It'll be a mix of Away in the Manger and The Lord is my Shepard... something that I arranged myself. I haven't done a musical number in so long, but it's something that I need to start doing again. I just pray that the spirit will be felt. Our friend Alex is coming to church for the first time on Sunday too, AND there is a good possiblity that Derrick will join us.

Geez- this has been a long post and I'm leaving lots of stuff out. But I'll post again early next week. Until then, know that we love you all lots and miss you tons.

OH! Jared, Amy and Tavin will be here in early January and we CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM! Yay! ♥

Have a great New Year!

9 days til Christmas

Well we're another week closer to Christmas! I am really looking forward to watching Rad dive into all of his gifts!

Derrick went boarding today and LOVED it! He took an 11 year old and a 15 year old and they were tired and ready to leave hours before Derrick was done. He came home and told me how much the food there costs... holy freaking cow! I'll be packing him lunches from now on. Shayli and Derrick will be hitting up Schweitzer again on Christmas Eve. Derrick has me convinced that next year Rad will be up there with them. Maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to get my legs strong enough to support my knees better so that I can join in the family fun.

Rad just learns more and more every this week. This week he learned how to open the front door to my office building. Good thing my office window faces out to the front of the building. I'm hoping that the excitement of this something new wears off soon and that he'll keep himself inside the building! We're trying to get him off of his bottles... he starts nursery next month and I really want him drinking out of straight sippy cups by then. He's down to just water out of his bottles now. So we're off to a good start.

Shayli had her Christmas program last week. That was... well, it was neat to see her sing but there were so many people there that it wasn't the coolest thing to spend a Thursday night on. :) This last week I really saw Shayli doing so good at being honest and telling us things that were hard to tell us. She's a very brave and very strong girl and I'm sure proud of her. One of her Christmas presents is Derrick and I giving her a new room. We have a new bed, bedding set, shelves, mirrors and a whiteboard boarder(way cool) to go around the middle of her walls as a boarder. It's a project that will take a little longer the day that she is with her mom during the holiday, so we've decided to get it done tomorrow and Tuesday. Wish us luck! :)

I'm still loving my Beehives. We talked about leadership today and I am every week in awe at how strong some of these girls are. Work is still going good but my hours are about to be cut in half... hopefully temporarily. We got that news and then Derrick was offered another job in Alaska. We took it. He'll be there for 3 weeks in January for sure and then a possibility of 13 weeks total. That will be tough but a blessing all the same. He makes so much more in Alaska and it's a lot more safe and warm then what he does here, we really can't pass it up. Especially since the others guys that he works with have had to claim unemployment. There just isn't enough work here right now.

Here are some pics of Rad on the loveseat. He gets up on the furniture like a pro now and LOVES the loveseat. He gets all snuggled up and just chills. I love my family.

Let it snow!

Hi all! Hope that all is well with you and yours! This past week has been mostly same stuff different days.

Over the weekend we did attend Derrick's work Christmas party. It was nice and at a restaurant on the golf course called "Hooties". No short shorts or tight shirts there. :) We had some excellent prime rib and some SO good shrimp. We didn't stay out very late and headed home for a nice night at home. Rad stayed at Grameri's with Aunt V. so it was just Derrick and I. It was nice to be able to sleep deep. I never do when Rad and Shayli are home. It's like I keep one ear open for them or something.

We woke up Sunday morning to a call from our home teachers telling us that church was cancelled. Yes, cancelled. I have never had that happen before. We got home around 11:30 on Saturday night and had more than 14 inches of new snow by 9am on Sunday morning. It was nuts. As I was shoveling a path to the hot tub on Sunday I thought about taking a picture because it was so pretty and white but I decided to do it in a few hours... which turned into Monday and by Monday it had rained so much that all we had was inches of yucky slush. Not so pretty.

Sunday was my work Christmas party in Hayden but the roads were so horrible that we didn't feel safe enough to make the drive. So we had a relaxing dinner with some friends here in Sandpoint... relaxing that is until a pipe broke. Then Derrick and Al spent a good hour or so fixing that.

Work is getting slow for Derrick which is nice in a way because he stays home and I go to work, but a little tight on the finances. AND we just took out a loan to build a really nice shop here on our property for all of the mechanics stuff that we do. That'll be nice to have and it's something that Derrick has dreamed of for a LONG time. So it's exciting for him.

That's about it for the week. Shayli comes home tomorrow and we'll do some more Christmas wrapping. I sure love that girl and miss her so much when she's gone and LOVE when she comes home.

No new pics of the kidd-o's but here are a few of our Christmas decor.

Love to you all.

About Time!

So I decided that once a week I'll just come into work a bit early, so that I can use a faster internet connection to post. Maybe then I'll actually stay on top of it.

We had a very happy Thanksgiving. We ate a great meal at my moms house and then played games and just chilled. Heidi, Ben, Samantha and Andrew were up and it was SO fun to see Rad and Sam interact.

They were so cute with their little blabber talk. Andrew is absolutely adorable too. We sure missed Jared, Amy and Tavin and hope to see them soon!

I was asked to bring some pies, I made a couple of really yummy black bottom banana cream pies and they looked so pretty! I stuck them in the fridge to stay cold while we waited to head to my moms and when I took them out... Darnet! Our fridge broke at the wrong time! It wasn't keeping anything cold. So they weren't so pretty when I took them to my moms but still pretty tasty.

So while everyone was out shopping for fun Holiday sales, we were at the Home Depot charging up a credit card with a purchase of a new refridgerator. We bought a handleless one so Rad can't get into... I'm so glad because that boy is getting into everything now! Yesterday he learned how to push the ottoman around the house, how to climb onto the ottoman and how to use the ottoman as a step stool to get wherever the heck he wants... ugh. ☺

We decorated the house for Christmas on Friday, it makes the house so cozy. Then on Saturday we painted some of Shayli's bedroom walls PINK, it is PINK too. You walk by her room and there is a faint glow busting out of the door. She really likes it though.

On Sunday I taught all of the YW in my ward about Cultural Arts and Talents. I had Valeri do a short presentation on good book, and she did awesome, she reads some great books! One of my handouts was a little gift and inside was chapstick and a candy bar. My little thought to go along with it was, "Just as we use chapstick to keep our lips smooth, we should exercise our talents so that they continue to be smooth, which will only make life sweeter." Kind of cheesy but the girls liked it. It was a fun lesson, I love the YW.

To end this post here are a couple of pictures of the kidd-o's in their PJ's. Rad is wearing PJ's that Aunt V bought him and Shayli is wearing some footie PJ's that I just bought her. Why don't they make those in my size?

♥ ya all.

10-4-2007

Holy cow this week has gone by fast! Tomorrow Derrick and I head to Moyie Springs for the big fall mud bog! Woop Woop! That will be fun. Grameri is watching Radley for his first overnighter. He'll do fine, I wonder how I'll do?

Last Saturday we headed up to Schweitzer as a family and met up with a friend of our's who is also Derrick's employer, Mike. Mike totally hooked Shayli up. He bought her her own season pass, and gave her skis and ski boots. She is SO excited.

Derrick has been busy, busy as usual but now that the hot tub is all done he is able to do some relaxing before going to bed which is good for him.

Rad has done some fun things this week too... more fun for me I think, it's so neat to see him change. He will now tell us when he is ready for bed. He'll find his bottle, get me to fill it up, then he grabs his blanket, waves and says "nigh night" and then heads to his room and waits at his crib until I pick him up and tuck him in. It's so cute. He also said his first 3 words together this week. I was holding him one morning and he said "Mum (put his hands in the air, cocked his head sideways) where's daddy?" Also very cute.

I had an appointment yesterday with a throat specialist and left scheduled to have a tonsilectomy on October 25th. I'm using the same surgeon that took out Heidi's. I'm having some anxiety around it but know that it will be better in the long run. We don't have health insurance though so before I scheduled the surgery we sold our Kia to pay for the procedure. I'm glad that we were able to do that.

Tonight Rad and I are heading to Memorial Field to watch Shane play. Last night for mutual we learned how to play LaCrosse. Shane... he's a crazy kid but a great instructor. He actually taught me how to "cradle" my "Stick"!

All in all life is good for the Hanson's. Sorry not pictures with this post but I'll try to post some fun mudding pictures with my next one.

Missionary Opportunity

Happy Friday! Man am I glad that this week is almost over. It's been a weird one.

So we have this friend named Alex. He's 17 but and hangs out at our house all of the time. He and Vchild are really good friends too. We've talked to Alex about the church over the last few months and he asked Valeri when he can meet with the missionaries. So I'll talk to the missionaries on Sunday and hopefully they'll meet this next week! It's so great, and what's even greater is that Alex will be taught in our home. I'm excited to have him be taught there. Pray for us... pray that more than just Alex's ears hear the message. ;)

Wanda (my mother in law) and I have had some great religion conversations over the last couple of weeks too. She's a devout Jehovah Witness and it's been really to share our beliefs back and forth.

Alex teaching Rad all about car parts.

I need to pay attention too!

Sorry Rach, I didn't even know that you could get tagged... didn't know what a tag was... but now I get it and I'll keep myself in check!

1- 4 jobs that I have had:

*House keeper
*Delivery driver
*Entertainment Consultant
*Banker

2- 4 movies I can watch over and over:

*Anything Shirley Temple
*Newsies
*Remember the Titans
*Barnyard

3- 4 places I have lived:

*Boise, ID
*Sacramento, CA
*Sandy, UT
*Bonners Ferry, ID

4- 4 guilty pleasures

*Movie theatre popcorn- extra butter
*Any pastry from Yokes
*Sneaking away to watch a football game by myself
*Taking a nap

5- 4 places I have been on vacation

*Hawaii
*Disneyland
*Moab, UT
*Las Vegas

6- 4 favorite foods

*Steak
*Mashed potatoes
*Cabbage
*Seafood Pasta

7- 4 Websites I visit:

*Myspace
*Gmail
*USbank
*Ebay

8- 4 places I'd rather be right now:

*Home
*Somewhere warm
*With my family
*Shopping... with money

9- 4 books I love:

*The Book of Mormon
* Harry Potter
*Anne of Green Gables
*Work and the Glory

10- 4 things I would like to know how to do:

*Dance
*Speak many languages
*Be outgoing without going through my shy stage first
*Maneuver my way through the scriptures better

11- 4 neglected body parts

*Eyes
*Tonsils
*Belly
*Mouth

12- 4 things I worry about

*My noneternal family
*Shayli when she's not at home
*Derrick quitting his job in March
*Not having health insurnace

13- 4 happy moments

*Having Diddles
*Moving home
*Whenever all of my bro's and sis's are together
*Being in the MTC

14- 4 things I want to do this year

*Get out of debt... again
*Lose 20 more pounds
*Prepare a spot for next years garden
*Buy a sleep number bed

9-18-2007

Geez! Sorry Heidi! Thanks for kicking my rear in gear! I've been a busy, busy mom/wife/full time employee! Since my last post:

I turned 27! Derrick, Shayli and Rad spoiled me this year. They gave me a sirius radio, flowers, jewelery and a way fun PS2 game. Valeri gave me an awesome shirt and Valeri and Alex (They aren't a couple :)) pitched in together and bought me a PS2 game too. The PS2 games that I got are karaoke games called Rockstar and Popstar and Hole-E-Cow they are so fun. Shayli and I rock out all of the time now. It's really fun. Then on Saturday Derrick and I got to go out ALL BY OURSELVES. No kids, and that was awesome. I love my kids, but I loved holding Derrick's hand without trying to push a stroller at the same time.

We had a great visit with Amy, Jared, Tavin, Andrew, Samantha, Heidi and Ben. Not long enough, but so good to visit with them. I miss them already though! I have the cutest nephews and neice ever. We fed the bears with them as you will see from their respective blogs and ti was a way cool experience.

Shayli started 5th grade on September 4th and I swear that she turned super independent over night. The day before school started she was holding my hand and walking through WalMart. Now she's SO grown up and gets so embarassed about it. Ahhh, she's growing up.

Rad is such a funny boy. He loves to work outside with Derrick and he loves to talk on the phone when he is at work with mom. Only he doesn't use the phone. He uses anything he can find, and if he can't find anything, he babbles into his hand while he holds it up to his ear. Very cute.

Derrick has been hard at work rebuilding his 4runner and fixing our hot tub and building Shayli's tree house before the snow comes. It rained a lot today and we know that the snow is not far off. We had to turn our gas stove on today for heat... I am not looking forward to the winter power bills.

Derrick's parents are living with us until their house is put onto their property sometime next month. Wayne has been in Alaska moose hunting so we haven't seen him at the house yet but having Wanda here has been great. The kids love playing with her and I love coming home to a vaccuumed floor! She's a really neat lady and I have really enjoyed getting to know her better.

The highlight of the last month for me has been able to get away by myself and watch Shane's football games. Sandpoint High School football rules! Last Friday was the 10 year reunion of when my calls won state and they recognized the team at Shanes game and it was really neat to see some of the guys I graduated with. They all pretty much looked the same. Stupid thing though, my senior year I dropped my keys under the bleacher and lost them during a football game and at the reunion on Friday I did the same thing. Grrrr, I did find them eventually though, thank to Uncle Paul!

I'll start staying better on top of my blogging...

8-22-2007

Hello! Rad is 13 months today. Can you believe it?!

Shayli went back to her moms today and we miss that girl already. We had a lot of fun this last week though.

On Friday we went to a rodeo. It was long and not as exciting as we hoped. Long before it ended Derrick had sat on one of Rad's gummy candies, Shayli was pretty much asleep in Rad's stroller and Rad had successfully wet himself clear through to my belly! So we left early.

Yesterday we went to Silverwood with some friends of ours and had a blast. Shayli was bummed that we didn't get to hit up the water park portion of the park but she still succeeded in getting absolutely soaked on some of the water rides in the coaster part of the park. Rad was a trooper too. He made it until 8pm before he through a fit. Not bad for a kid without a nap all day.

Today Shayli, Rad and I hit up the fair. Shayli had a glitter tattoo put on her arm and her hair painted and we all shared a delicious elephant ear. Diddles loved all of the animals. They were all dogs to him though. :)

Tomorrow Derrick, Rad and I are going to a motocross and on Friday I'm going to my little brother Shane's 1st Varsity game. He is one of 3 sophomores to make the varsity team. Woop Woop Shane!

To this post I'm attaching a picture of Rad and Shayli playing today, a picture of Rad being a dork in his new JV jersey and a picture that Shane took of a rainbow behind the local stake center.

Love to you all!

Melenie

8-17-2007

Well I suppose that the Hanson's should do their part in keeping everyone up to date on our lives too. Thanks Kidd family and Daniel family for such a great idea! Rad and Shayli are hanging out with me at work today and tonight I think that we'll hit up the Bonner County Rodeo. That should be a fun hickish time!
We are all so very excited for so many new nephews and cousins in our family. We sure love you all lots!

A while ago an old friend of mine sent me some pictures from way back in the day. I'm adding one of them to the post. Can you tell which kid's are Kidd's?