summer of '08

i know, i know. you are all so excited that i am finally back to blogging!! yeah. we had a great summer with tons of playing and swimming and all sorts of stuff!! here are the highlights.

we bought a new van!! for anyone who knows us, this was a very hard decision for us because- truly we really don't like minivans, but we needed to think of the future and this chevy venture gets MUCH better milage than the durango we were in love with. the girls LOVE the van. livy gets to open the sliding door EVERYTIME we get out. she loves it and she never gets tired of it. it has TONS more room and we are liking it.

this is a cute picure of the girls and brett on father's day. aren't they so cute??
this is the fourth of july. we got to go to wendy and kenny's and have good food with them and greg. we played in their pool forever. brett and i even got to play since mallory slept and wonderful cousins took care of olivia for awhile. then went home to go to a ward party and watch the fireworks. liv was in HEAVEN. she ran around with all the other kids and had so much fun. she is even flushed in this picture because of the running around.
both girls LOVED the fireworks and brett and i even had a fun time!! we really like our ward.
here is another great picture of our van and my cute girls!! isn't mallory so cute.
we went swimming atleast once a week. either at a cute little tot-lot, at a friends or at one of the lakes around here. the girls loved it.

i take care of a friends kids once a week, adam is above with olivia. adam is a year older than liv but they are the best of friends and play really well together.

this is adam sister, emily. mallory and her are only 2 weeks apart and they love eachother as much as 1 and 1/2 year old can.

the girls having dinner one night. mallory loves to do everything by herself and this is usually the result!

we got to go to the primary pioneer celebration since brett and i are both primary teachers. the girls had alot of fun. don't they look adorable in their cute pioneer hats?

this picture has a story. liv is running after some birds, as you can see. whenever liv sees some birds she always says, "mom, birds! i want to catch one". so this is her running to catch a bird!! she is so cute. livy still hasn't caught one yet!well, there is more. so keep looking.

the minnesota state fair

wow! i have been to a couple state fairs and some in canada, but i have never been to one like the great minnesota get together!! we were there for over 3 hours and we didn't even start to see everything!! i could not believe how big it was. really. it is about 5 times as big as the utah or idaho one. yikes. we didn't get to see that much because olivia LOVED the rides. she went on lots. here are several pics of her and the fun rides. this is how mallory ended up after only one ride on the merry-o-round!! she was to scared!! she is so silly. mally loved watching liv so she was happy.
i thought this was the cutest ride i have ever seen. it was a tiny ferris wheel for olivia. she loved it and even got to ride it all by herself!

i don't know who liked the bumper boats more, brett or olivia!! the funny thing was that you had to steer them and olivia didn't get that. so, by the end she was going in a circle for so long she started to feel sick and cried. it was so sad but so cute. brett went and rescued her.
here is mallory on the sidelines. isn't she so cute. really!!

we got some famous food on a stick and had a great time. brett's only regret is that he didn't find a pork chop on a stick. maybe next year!

MOVING, AGAIN!

so, i feel like i haven't posted in forever. well, that is the truth. i have a really good excuse though. we have been getting ready to move yet again. i guess brett and me just can seem to stay in one place very long. we are just moving upstairs in the same apartment complex, but to a 3 bedroom!! we are so excited. it also faces a nature/park area so we can open our windows and not hear the street/parking lot. we are really excited. so, i will post again once the computer is back and running.

i have been tagged: the husband post

What is his name?:
Brett Joseph Hansen

How long have you been together?:
almost 6 years

How long did you date?:
5 months of dating, 5 months of engagement, 5 years of marriage!

How old is he?:
ALMOST 30! (in dec.)

Who eats more?:
brett, for sure.

Who said I love you first?:
brett said it first and then i said it right after. i think we had been dating 21 days!

Who is taller?:
ahh, brett. by almost a foot! high heels and platforms for me!!

Who can sing better?:
i think i have a better voice but we both love to sing.

Who is smarter?:
what kind of a question is this? it's like those couple games where you go home mad at eachother for answering stupid questions like: which one of your wifes friends do you think is the hottest? what??

Who does the laundry?:
i do. he brings home the bacon and i wash, dry and fold it.

Who pays the bills?:
i do. but i keep brett informed through alot of nagging.

Who sleeps on the right side?:
if you're in the bed, brett does.

Who mows the lawn?:
sadly, we don't have a lawn. but if we did i think we would fight over the mowing job. i love to mow lawns. i know-weird. i think brett likes to do it too.

Who cooks dinner?:
i do most days, but now that brett is home by 5PM he is suppose to be cooking every tues. and thurs. when he does cook, it is WAY tastier.

Who drives?:
we each drive the car that is ours, if that makes sense.


Who is more stubborn?:
i think i win in this catagory

Who kissed who first?:
brett. the best, sweetest little peck! i knew he liked me, not just my assests.

Who asked who out first?:
i guess i sort-of asked him out. i wanted to shave his head.

Who proposed?:
brett. on a carriage ride around temple square! so romantic**

Who has more friends?:
i would say brett.

Who is more sensitive?:
i think this goes to me again, but brett is getting to be quite the cry baby.

Who has more siblings:
I have 5, brett has 3.

Who wears the pants?:
we share them too.

i tag:
janelle, kristina and amy (so you have to start a blog!)

FIVE years! (may 31st)

can you believe it? we have been married for 5 years ALREADY!

it seems like we have always been together but how could it be five years!

we had a GREAT day. we took the girls to the coon rapids damn. the girls LOVE it there. we walk the whole damn and then livy's favorite, throw rocks in the water. livy didn't want to leave and asked in her "parents can't say no to her" voice if we could have a picnic. so, we did! we went and got arby's and watched some people fish. it was really fun.




after the damn, our picnic and afternoon naps, brett and i got to go on a date. we went out to dinner at PEI WEI> it was AWESOME. i love P.F.Changs and PEI WEI is a cheap changs! it is even owned by changs so it has the LETTUCE WRAPS!!
it was really nice to have dinner together. then, we decided to go to the new indiana jones movie. we liked the movie and had a great night.

princess olivia

this is princess olivia at 7:30 in the morning having just woken up. brett says she must get the "happy in the morning" thing from me because brett needs a couple minutes to "wake up" in the morning.

her first thought is to get on her princess dress

AND princess shoes,

then she wants to watch "the dancing princess movie."

the sleeves you see coming through the dress are her pj's. i really think this girl is going to become a dancer. she has some pretty good moves aready. liv even sucked the babysitter to let her wear this dress to bed one night. it was so funny to go in to get her in the morning and see her wearing it. i laughed out loud!
she looks like she is a pageant girl here. I LOVE IT>
THE princess shoes. it HAS TO BE THIS pair. these shoes mean she is a princess!

things livy loves:
SHOES, dresses, ANY TYPE OF LIQUID SHE CAN DRINK (the girl can drink 9 oz of water/milk/juice in about 30 second flat), barney,
coloring, her daddy, brushing her teeth, broccoli
nursey, playdates, the park, outside, cleaning and most of all pink princess dancing.

things livy doesn't love:
loud noises, sharing (actually, most of the time she is really good), bugs,
me telling her no,
the naughty corner, chocolate (i know WEIRD, is she really MY daughter), the doctor.

she is such a great girl and we are so grateful to have her in our family.

winterpeg

we got to go up to winnepeg, maitoba, canada two weekends ago.for all of you asking, winnepeg is about a 7 hour drive from the twin cities.

amy and barry were are fabulous hosts, AND nana and papa postponed their trip to come the weekend we were there. we did alot of relaxing, eating and PLAYING. here are LOTS of pictures livy watching a movie on the way there.
mally and her blankie

amy and barry have a swingset AND this little play cube. my girls were in heaven. the kids were outside all the time and never wanted to come in.

the street and hansen additions to the sandberg clan.

WOW! when did all that happen!


nana and papa holding #11

COUSIN BATH!

sweet maddie girl
silly livy
crazy jacob!

this was livy's bed. they loved to play in it together.
aren't they soooo cute. they all played REALLY well together. jacob and mallory seemed to get along best with olivia and madelyn having a couple of disagreements over who was going to play with the doll house or kitchen. but, no blood was drawn and all is well.
this is the best of about 10 trys of me wanting to get a picture after they had been going crazy together in the big downstairs. maddie is mid-jump and i can't get mallory to look at me for nothing! they had so much fun together.
sweet baby girls!

we would like to thank the streets for their hospitality and nana and papa for coming to see us. we had a great time just being together and relaxing. now that the kids have all played together, when me and amy are on the phone (which is pretty much everyday) the kids DIE to talk to eachother. it is so fun they know eachother and can remember things they have done together as cousins!! we are definitely planning a trip to dallas (where amy and barry are moving in 2 weeks) sometime soon because we had so much fun! thanks streets.

the northtown mall

so we have a kind of trashy, but really awesome mall RIGHT by us. it is only about 2 minutes away. it is so awesome becuase of the fun thing it has for kids to do.

first...

the fountain.

i think the girls could hang out here and throw money in ALL DAY! it is so cute. mallory even throws money in. yesterday all she really wanted to do was hold it in her hand. but she is getting the hang of it. big sis, olivia helps her and shows how the pros toss money. i think we probably put in a whole dollar worth of pennies yesterday!

livy really wanted to have some money in her pocket, so i gave her some pennies. then she couldn't get them out of her little pocket. if you look in the picture below you can see her trying to get the money out. she was so excited to have her own money.
yes, we are friends with tina faye.
second cool feature of the mall...

the pet store.

this is one of the puppy breeding stores that you saw the oprah about. just kidding. actually it could be? anyway, they always have the cutest puppies there. all different kinds and they are sooooo cute. they also have fish, birds, mice, bunnies, rats, cats, frogs and more dogs. the girls LOVE this place and livyy always wants to go see the puppies.

third...

the breakfast food play place.
well, i meant to get a picture of this but, brett met up with us here and we were all so excited to see him that posing for pictures went out the window! i don't think i can do this play place justice without pictures. he goes, it has bacon slides (no higher than your knee), waffles you can climb on, eggs you jump on and a bowl of cerel (shredded wheat to be exact) to get IN. it is really different, but gets the job done. livy will usually find someone to play tag with and runs around like crazy. mallory loves to get in and out of the cereal bowl. this is where me and the girls spent MANY below 0'F days this winter and the rainy ones now. i am so glad we live near such a great, free place for the girls to see stuff and play!

life with pinky!

well, this cast thing has been interesting.

picture below is mallory ready to go to the park. poor girl, i make her wear pants and i triple wrap her cast with a sock (we have found that my socks fit PERFECTLY over the whole thing), a ziploc baggy and then tape. i know, i'm crazy, but i am worried about sand and wood chips getting in it!! that would just be gross. her little toes already stink and it would just be gross if there was sand in there!! yuck!

sand and wood chip PROOF!!
this kid gets DIRTY. i have never noticed the bath water being "dirty" or "brown", maybe it is because there is so much of it when you are in the tub. but now since mallory has her bath in the sink, i have realized how dirty she is. the water actually turns a gray/brown color. thank goodness she is still so little and fits in the sink or i don't know what i would do! she did not like these baths it first, but now she is getting use to them. she is such a good girl.


mallory really is being a champ. she doesn't seem to bugged by the cast anymore and has begun to walk with it now. she still bangs everything with it, especially shopping carts. in the morning though, when she first gets up, while i am changing her diaper she will look at me and grab her cast. she seems to still be asking "please mom, can you take this thing off!"
only 3 weeks left!!

anything can be cute if it's tiny and pink!

yes, that's right, it is the cutest little cast you have ever seen!!

mallory broke her leg at the park on friday. we just got the cast on today. she was such a good girl while they were putting it on. her bigger bone in the lower leg is broken right above the ankle. they call it the "toddler brake" so that makes me feel alittle better. the only problem is that mallory doesn't even like to wear socks the whole day much less a cast for 4 weeks. yikes. she was so cute, when the nurses got done putting it on, she started shaking her leg trying to get it off. we went to target right after and she kept on banging everything with it, especially her sister!! the nurses were great. they were very gentle and told me before they started if she cried it wasn't because they were hurting her!! lol. the nurses let olivia help and gave her some gloves to wear. olivia LOVED it and wanted to help with everything

i feel much better now that we know it is broken and she has the cast on. so, moral of the story...make sure all legs and arms are tucked in BEFORE you go down the big, big slide (as livy calls it). brett can't wait to get home to sign it!

happy mother's day!

what a great mother's day. brett made the day really fun. he got me a little package from sara ehlert (fundrasier for camp). it had 10 chocolate covered strawberries, a card, a bottle of sparkling grape juice AND a rose. it was really cute. the strawberries were sooo good. the girls loved them too! brett had to work lunch at the olive garden so us girls went to church. liv and mally were surprisingly well-behaved and as you can see from the picture, we all looked quite cute (it is so fun to have girls to dress up! i love sundays). the best part of the day was yet to come...we got home from church and my fabulous husband had cleaned (i mean really cleaned, vacuumed, dishes done, everything picked up) the whole house and dinner was almost ready!! i didn't have to clean up the whole day or make any food. all you mom's reading this know how nice that is. our little family just hung out and played the rest of the day. it was a great mother's day. i hope each of you had a great day. what did you do on your mother's day??

astronauts, curly hair and shoes

this is mallory's newest look. she loves to have this bucket on her head! it is so cute. the first time she came out of her room with it on i about died. we are really starting to see her little personality come out. she is quite a jokester.

we LOVE her!

olivia has all-of-a-sudden gotten curly hair. isn't it cute! sally, i knew you would love that! what should i do with it? how can i make it more curly?
what a sweet girl. olivia is such a great big sister and loves to help mom with everything. her and brett make dinner together every tuesday and thursday (whoo hoo!). it is so fun to see them together.
these are the two pair of shoes i got for $2.48 each!! i bought the next size up for mallory too. i almost bought one pair of shoes for MORE than these four pairs i found!! yes!!