Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Checking in

Hello! Lots of last minute shopping, baking and wrapping going on here. Our Children's Christmas Program is this Sunday at church. I love it, but will be very relieved when it is over.

We are celebrating with my family this Sunday also. We are looking forward to that!

We are going to see Curt's family soon. We will be spending a night at Thumper Pond, and all of us are excited about the waterpark. This is a new tradition that was started by Curt's folks for the kids. This will be our 3rd year doing the waterpark thing right before or after Christmas. Last year we were at Seven Clans* on Christmas Day. *I won't be linking them, as it is not the best place to stay. The Waterpark is fun, but customer service is non-existent.

Our Christmas letter will hit the blog and mailboxes next week sometime.

Until then. Enjoy the preparation for Christmas. We wish you a Merry one!

Here piggy-piggy-piggy!

The girls were part of a musical at church titled: "To the Castle". It was so much fun for them. The musical itself was fabulous, funny and it featured many amazingly talented people from our church. (So, I guess you know by the last sentence that Curt and I were not in it!) Megan was actually a pig led to slaughter. (G version) She turned into an angel pig! I have attached some cute pictures.

Karen and the Camel

This camel was sweet on Karen.

TEXAS!

I have spent the last two days trying to lose my new accent. I have also been filtering the ya'lls and yes maims. I had a great time visiting Karen, the weather was an amazing 72 most of the time. We ate lots of great food. It was fun to meet her extended family, and I now know why she loves it there so much. Attached are some pictures from the trip. Hello to all of the wonderful people that hosted us and fed us so well! Gran, Linda and Shelly thanks so much!

Black Friday shopping and our self portrait.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who reads this blog (which we seem to never update on a regular basis). It is a different Thanksgiving for us, as Jen is visiting her sister Karen in Longview, Texas. She flew out of Grand Forks on Tuesday, and will return next week. It is Jen's first visit to Texas, so I am sure it will be a memorable one. Paige, Megan, Grace and I traveled to my parent's house in Aldrich, Minnesota. We'll be eating about two hours from now, and will follow that with one of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions: rooting against the Dallas Cowboys! I love watching football after eating turkey, and rooting against the Cowboys makes it that much better. We might find our way over to Brainerd for a little shopping tomorrow, but I am not looking forward to having all the kids in tow, so we'll have to see about that.

Regardless of what you're doing, have a Happy Thanksgiving, and take care. God Bless.

Curt

Our North Dakota Halloween!

Can you say F-F-F-F-FREEZING? What a cold Halloween! Snow on the ground-pooey! We still had fun, and the candy was bountiful. The girls were: a damsel on a unicorn, a scientist and a kitty this year.

Veterinarians

I had to post the following conversation that JUST occurred between Megan (6) and myself.

Megan: Mom, do we have any veterinarians in the family?

Mom: Veterinarians? No.

Megan: Not the "vet" kind, the fighting kind.

Mom: What?

Megan: Not the "vet" kind of veterinarians, the fighting kind.

Mom: Do you mean veterans?

Megan: Yep, veterans.

Mom: (stifling laughter, and wishing she wouldn't grow up) Yes, both your Grandpa's are veterans.

Megan: OK, if one of them can come we can go to a special play.

I am off to check her backpack for Veteran's Day event information!

Horsin' around this weekend!

We had a fabulous time at our friends' farm on Saturday. Thanks Mary and John! They have the cutest farm, it made me want to relocate! Anyone have a farm close to GF for sale?

The girls rode a pony that is blind and had been rescued from slaughter. Her name is Ginger, and she was so gentle and sweet. Mary and John have lots of four legged friends, including three really nice dogs, numerous cats and a donkey named Zacariah. Grandpa and Grandma Wolf came too, and they enjoyed watching the girls.

After great coffee and treats, we visited another place I love: the farm of Great-Grandparents Wilson and Clara in Mentor, Minnesota.

Meet the Sioux!

Last week, Paige, Megan and I went to the annual Meet the Sioux Night at the Ralph Engelstad Arena. Both the UND men's and women's hockey teams played a free intra-squad scrimmage, and signed autographs and posed for pictures afterwards. The highlight of the evening was when Paige and Megan had their picture taken with T.J. Oshie. He has long been our family's favorite, due in all honesty to his cool name. I helped him with a reference question at the library last year, which Paige and Megan (as well as Jen for that matter) thought was pretty cool.

The other highlight of the evening was seeing some of the "Big Time" future prospects. Check out, for example, the grim determination of this future star. I'm sure the Gophers are shaking in their skates!

Fooled you!

Yesterday was Parent/Teacher conferences at our elementary school. It felt much more like April Fool's Day! Now, on a side note, I was not expecting BAD conferences, I know the girls are good at school, but this was ridiculous!

So, not much to say, the girls are well behaved, academically sound and all around good eggs. Mr. Greene, Paige's teacher, said he had never seen her be mean to anyone, ever. I told him he could come over and see how she treats her little sister. He promptly informed me that: "Sister's don't count!"

Megan was so embarrassed by all of the compliments she received (enthusiastic, always smiling, cute, good friend, a thinker...) that she buried her head in my arm at least three times.

We are very proud today. The girls are proud of themselves too.

P.S.
I have a theory that I have shared with many parents. Your kids reflect who you have raised them to be when they are outside your home. They feel comfortable enough with you, inside your home to be the way they feel like being. Simply because you love them unconditionally and you love them enough to teach them the difference between right and wrong. So the next time your child punches their sibling, slams a door, or gets mouthy, give yourself a big pat on the back! Then ask their teacher if they show any of those behaviors at school. The answer will problably be no!

2 years ago...

It was this time two years ago that we brought Grace home from the hospital (finally). In honor of this I want to share a few of our favorite photos from that time in her first few weeks of life.

Grace Lauren

TWO!

We had such a great weekend. Grace turned two on Saturday! We had Grandpas and Grandmas and Aunties over for lunch and cake. Grace really enjoyed opening presents this year. She would open one, and point to the others and say "mo" (more).

Grace entertained us all day. She has WAY too much personality for one kid!

Sunday included three year olds and Third graders receiving their Bibles, and Teacher Installations. It was a busy morning, but also one of my favorite Sundays of the year.

How old are you going to be?

That is a favorite question we ask Grace these days. Her response is "2". She's right, she will be 2 on the 23rd of September. I wanted to tell all of you about a very interesting conversation I had with my almost 2 year old today.

I handed Grace 2 M&M's
Grace: Bowl!
Mom: No, you don't need a bowl.
Grace: Why?
Mom: Because you can only have two M&M's.
Grace: Why?
Mom: Because we are going to have supper very soon.
Grace: Why?
Mom: Because we are hungry and it's time to eat.
Grace: Why?
I gave up and left the kitchen.

The picture I am sharing of Grace sums up her personality really well. She plays hard!

Camping

We went camping over the long weekend. We headed out to Turtle River State Park on Friday at 4:30 p.m. and came home Monday at noon. Our friends the O's and the N's came too. We had a blast hiking, playing games (it rained Saturday), eating great camping food, and campfires almost all day long. The kids were so funny! They were trading acorns for rocks, finding walking sticks and setting up souvenir stores in the woods.

The N's and the Hanson's had tents, the O's have a pop-up that kept us warm and dry on Saturday. Curt and Grace went back and forth from home, as she is still a little, how should we say it "out of control!". Thankfully TRSP is only about 20 minutes from Grand Forks. We are hoping next summer Grace will be more accomodating.

My Mom and Dad and sister came out on Monday morning with my Dad's FAMOUS biscuits and gravy! YUMMY!!

The worst part about he whole trip were the ferocious bees! 3 adults were stung, no kids. Surprising, as one landed by Grace and she crushed it promptly with her pointer finger.

Camping is such a blast! I can see it becoming our favorite family pastime. We are very novice at this point, but I learned a few things from the O's and N's and I think next year will go even better!

Nicknames

I have always loved nicknames. When I was in high school, most of the guys in my class called me "Rouse." (pronounced r-owe-sh) I was the manager of the football team, and Curtis Rouse was the name of a little used, but rather large, member of the offensive line for the Vikings. To this day, being called "Rouse" brings a smile to my face. My most common current nickname is "Coach Uncle Burnsie" or CUB for short, given to me by Tony "Big Time" Houdek. This name comes from the name of my fantasy football team, which I stole from an old KQRS morning show bit.

Perhaps because of my love for nicknames, I rarely call Paige, Megan, and Grace by their given names. What follows is a list of as many nicknames as I could remember for each of them. Some of these names have stuck and are still used currently, while others were only used in the past.

Paige: pager, pager wager, p, peanut, wiggle worm, dude #1, smelly, paigey, paigey pie, paigeykins, strawberry pie

Megan: moe, megs, meggers, meggies, dude #2, stinky, blueberry pie

Grace: gracer, gracer the eraser, gl, g-bomb, gb, g-wee, gunnar, baby g, lil g, el destructo

All three have been called "bug," "bugs," and "bubba" up until the present.

This is only a short list, as I know I have forgotten many names. One of my most pleasant memories with Paige is telling her all of the nicknames I had for my friends in both high school and college. She loved hearing both the names themselves, as well as the story behind the name. So consider this a shout-out to: Nack, Big Time, Leet, Swede, Johnny D, and Uncle Brent, among others!

Take care, everyone.

The Class of 1991

I attended my 15 year high school reunion on Saturday evening. It was so much fun! To think, I almost didn't go! So anyone out there thinking of skipping stuff like this, give it a try. 15 years seems to be a good amount of time for people to grow up, the social junk we went through in high school was gone. We all shared a few drinks, pictures of our kids, great stories from our early years...it was too much fun.

1st Day of School Video

As previously promised, here is the very short video of us walking to school last Wednesday.

Back to School 2006

Back to School! We were all up before 7 a.m. this morning. The girls were very excited. Outfits had been picked out for a few days so that was easy. Paige had a bowl of cereal, Megan had a scrambled egg and before we knew it they were out the door. Curt always takes an hour off of work the first day of school, so he can walk with us. Megan shyly waved to her friends, Paige was giggling, hugging and jumping with a cluster of girls outside of school. Google video is down right now, but I will post a short video sometime today of us walking to school (I know, but it is exciting to us, and Grandparents!).

Victoria Beach

Victoria Beach 2006 Short Video

Heaven on Earth, eh?

If you read our post from last week, you will know that we were on vacation this past weekend. Friday-Monday we were in Victoria Beach, Canada north of Winnepeg. This place is really beyond words. We hope that the photos will help convey the beauty and uniqueness of this beach community.


We spent many hours on the beach. The sand is like no other sand we have seen. It is more fine than sugar, it is actually most like the texture of whole wheat flour. It is very white, but tan when wet. The water has a sandy bottom, and is very comfortable to walk on. The water is very low this year. We could walk out 200-250 feet and the water was still only knee high in places.

The cottage we rented is a three bedroom home built in the 20's. It has a full modern kitchen, screened porch and modern bathroom. It is modest, but very comfortable and is the family cottage of our friends. They rent it to us at a rate that we can afford, so that's not much! One night at dinner Megan was talking about the cottage and inserted the word cabin (US version) and called it a cabbage. We thought that was a good name, and a really cute story.

The bakery that was less than 1/4 mile from our cottage was one of our favorite things. (Go carbs!) They bake fresh goods each day (except Sunday). We especially liked the french bread, banana cream pie and dream cookies.

We tried vinegar on our french fries one night at the Moonlight Inn. We went "out" (walked 1/3 mile) for burgers and fries, and we noticed a bottle of clear liquid on the table. I finally figured it out, and remembered that Canadians put white vinegar on their fries. Guess what? It is great! Grace even dunked hers in a puddle of it.

Another discovery is our love for the game of Scrabble. Who knew? We played about a half dozen games and really enjoyed it. Paige really likes to play, so we played teams. Megan would play for about three minutes, and then she found something else to do. The game that is still a mystery is show in this picture. I say I won, Curt says he won. We both had scores around 309. We will never know who TRULY won. (wink,wink)

So, we had a fabulous vacation! The kids start school in 8 days, and summer is almost over. We have had some great adventures the past three months, including camping for the first time. If you read this entire entry, good for you! Thanks for hanging in there, we appreciate your interest.

School Shopping

So, on Sunday I drove to Fargo and met my friends Amy and Becky. We went school shopping. Between the three of us we have 9.2 kids, so there was much shopping to be done! We started at Once Upon a Child, then Old Navy, then to the mall for Gap Kids, Gymboree, Limited Too, Herbergers, Marshall Fields (tired yet?), Children's Place, Scheels, Penney's and ending over at Kohl's. It was a 12 hour shopping day, and it was FUN! The bargain of the day was a pair of shoes at Gap for Paige at .97. Yep, that's right 3 cents less than a dollar, Yippee!

I was able to have the kids try on their clothes on Monday. Everything fit! Paige said "These clothes are nice, they get better every year." (Thanks?!, I think.) Interestingly enough, all of the 80's styles seem to be coming back. Leggings and long shirts are back (I am glad to say good-bye to short shirts!), along with perms!!!!! Paige's favorite outfit was a long peach/pink shirt with brown leggings. It looks so cute on her, I think I had the same outfit in 7th grade. Megan's favorite was a long underwear type top, all stripes that matches a skort and pants from the Children's Place.

School shopping is so much fun. I hope that when the girls are older, we can still have fun. I do know one thing, Mom won't be going alone.

The Hanson's are gearing up for fall!

Vacation-at last!

It seems like every year after Vacation Bible School (my biggest event at work), I just want to skip town! So Friday we leave for Victoria Beach, Canada (near Winnipeg)! http://www.communityprofiles.mb.ca/cgi-bin/csd/index.cgi?id=4601078 You can read about it there, but it is truly a unique place. We went last year and had a great time. Our good friends from church own a cottage there. We took this picture last year. The beaches are fine white sand, and huge. They also have a bakery that has the best bread, rolls, cookies...YUMMY! It's work getting ready to go, and Grace will make the drive interesting, but when we get there, it will be all fun. (That's the plan anyway!)

Hope you are all having a great summer. Take some time to enjoy it!

Surprise!

Megan turns six (insert gasp!) on Thursday, but since Grandma and Grandpa were in town this past weekend to help Auntie Lisa move in, we decided to surprise Megan with an early birthday party. I blindfolded her when we got into the van, and proceeded to take a winding trip through the streets of Grand Forks. The trip ended when we arrived at Culvers, one of our favorite restaurants. The blindfold didn’t come off until Megan was seated at the table; it was quite a sight to see me leading a giggling girl with a blindfold through a crowded restaurant. Everyone had a wonderful time, ate some great cheese curds, and enjoyed celebrating with Megan.

We are officially bloggers!

So here it is, a way for us to comunicate with family and close friends. Be sure to check in and see what we are up to! Please post and say hi once in awhile to motivate us to keep posting.