Snowy football

This crazy month is coming to an end and I'm trying to get all of the pictures off of my camera and on to the computer.  A few weeks ago, Will had his last football game on a snowy, wet Saturday morning.  The temperature wasn't too bad but the field was really wet.  Reina didn't mind. She cheered on Will's team in the company of her previously shunned Cabbage Patch doll.  This is the doll that she took one look at on Christmas morning and informed me that I could have it - after I said "Oh wow!  I had one of those when I was a little girl."  Poor Cabbage Patch had been exiled to the high shelf in her room and Reina tried to get me to sell it at this summer's garage sale.  For some reason (probably because 4-yr olds are weird), the Cabbage Patch is back in her good graces and is now played with and shoeless and in a happy pile of 'stuff' in the middle of Reina's room. 

Not many people are this happy to be up early-ish on a Saturday morning and sitting in the snow. 

The wet field.  Will's shoes were soaked after the game and while I had snacks and a blanket and chairs, I didn't bring dry socks or shoes.  Lesson learned. 

Will had a great football season.  He seems to genuinely like football and learned a lot this year.  He scored several touchdowns, pulled a few flags, tried hard and smiled a lot.  We are really proud of him. 

Will and his coach and his football medal. 

After the football game, we drove a few miles south and met the Pauley grandparents at a pumpkin patch.  The only picture I managed to get was one of the kids and the little playground on the farm.  No pictures of pumpkin searching and hay bale climbing or chicken feeding or sitting with grandparents, just a little teeter-totter and a happy brother and sister. 

One of the reasons for my blog absence this week

My first handshake with baby cousin.  Look at those long fingers - basketball here we come!

Baby Cousin is here!  She made her arrival on Sunday and we couldn't be anymore excited.  That morning I woke up to find a text from Vicky saying that her water broke in the middle of the night.  Excitedly I told the kids, only to have to spend the better part of the day explaining to Will what "her water broke" means and probably failing miserably at it.  (Attn fellow First Grade Parents - I'm really sorry.)  Ainsley was born Sunday evening and she couldn't be any cuter.  She has lots of curly dark hair and the prettiest little face.  I've had to travel for work and Glenn was hunting most of the week, so the kids met her on Thursday.  It was really neat to see their respective reactions.  Will was quiet but stood and watched her for a long time.  Reina climbed up next to Uncle Matt and immediately began patting Baby Cousin's head (I barked from across the room, "Be GENTLE Reina, super super GENTLE!") and talking to her.  Reina was eventually distracted by the cat but Will stayed by the sofa and watched his newest family member.  Today both kids have sniffles and Will sounds like his throat is a little swollen (insert ominous music here.... who needs to be at the office, right?) so visit #2 will have to wait for a few more days.  Welcome to the world Baby Cousin.  We've been waiting for you for a long time. 

Scenes from October and an example of why I'm not a world famous wildlife photographer

This is a great-horned owl who has been spotted on our neighbor's roof a few times this summer.  I have a few other pictures of him (her?) but my camera isn't cooperating tonight.  My kingdom for a zoom lens.  Anyway, he's pretty neat and we all go racing out of the house when there's a sighting of him.  Reina's enthusiasm for Mr. Owl was slightly tempered when she asked what he ate and Glenn replied, "cats."   I'm curious to know where he spends the winter or even the daytime because our only sightings of him have been at dusk but sadly I don't speak owl and he's not interested in even making eye contact at this point. 

 

Lego Boy strikes again.  Some of my aunts came to Vicky's baby shower last weekend as a surprise. I couldn't even tell the kids until the night before their arrival because I couldn't guarantee that Reina wouldn't blurt it out, but when I did tell them, they were both excited and Will said "maybe I'll get some new Legos!"  The aunts know the quickest way to his heart. 

The night of the owl sighting, Glenn and the kids were outside trying to enjoy the last few weeks of friendly weather.  The night after I took these pictures, Will and I were at football practice and the wind was howling and the temperature was about 20 degrees lower that it was in this picture.  Brrrrrr.

Glenn and I take turns reading to the kids at night and when I came in to put laundry away, I found this scene.  I thought to myself, "this is my whole life's happiness wrapped up in one spot."  I'm pretty sure I'm borrowing that phrase from a movie (but I can't remember which one), but it's true. 

Today, Reina and I took the dogs to a field near our house for a bit of exercise for everyone involved.  I'm not sure who needed it more.  Reina was bummed that Tootsie was faster than her, but it wasn't for lack of trying. 

 Little girl on the prairie.  With a bucket full of Halloween crafts.  True story. 

And a homemade 'laser gun' that she insisted on toting but I carried after the first 30 seconds there.  She's getting so big.  I took her to a Halloween craft class this morning under the guise of having a few minutes to myself to buy her Halloween costume supplies.  The nice older lady leading the group of kids asked me what grade Reina was in.  When I said she was only 4, the lady replied, "Well my!  She's very precocious."  I laughed and told her she had no idea. 

Speaking of precocious, check out this very serious Statue of Liberty. 

 Here's the forced-smile-but-I'd-rather-be-serious Statue of Liberty.  Reina's class has been studied all things America in the last few weeks and she proudly points out all of the American flags we see while we are driving around town and 'that one with the buffalo.' She told me today that she knows the Legends of Legions and it took me a few minutes to figure out The Pledge of Allegiance.  Future DAR girl, right here. 

The 400th post

According to Blogger, this appears to be my 400th post.  So for 400 times, I've logged on, uploaded a grainy picture, written something hopefully funny/charming/sweet/bittersweet/sad (only a few times) and hit 'publish.'  Crazy.

What's also crazy is that the last few weeks have been so crazy that I haven't been able to sit down and write about all of the craziness. 

And I still don't have time.  I'm really busy at work, both Glenn and I have travel this month, we are right smack dab in the middle of hunting season and all the hectic-ness that entails, football for Will is still going strong (when we aren't snowed out), there are a million things to do at home and there's also football to (yell at) and watch on tv.  There's also first grade homework to complete, dogs to exercise and Halloween costumes to figure out (in the last three weeks, Reina has decided she's going to be a cowgirl, a fairy princess with wings, a princess, a cheerleader, a ninja girl, and today, an angel.)  I'm giving her until next week to decide.  Will's idea today was to be 'spinach.'  So basically, blogging has taken a back seat while I keep my head above water.  But everyone is staying healthy and the sun came out today and it's a new week so here we go! 

However, since this is the 400th post, and I have permission, it's time to add another little chapter to this story.  Our very own Aunt Vicky and Uncle Matt are expecting a baby girl and she should be born sometime this month. We are all beyond excited and can't wait to meet this new little person.  Reina woke up this morning and told me that she'd had a dream about her baby cousin.   Baby Cousin was sleeping in Reina's bed and was walking around already.  Reina talks a lot about Baby Cousin and all of the things she wants to show the baby.  She also picks out toys and books that she's too big for (her words) and makes a pile for Baby Cousin.  She even found a dusty old chupee under the sofa (again) and wants to save it for Baby Cousin.  Lucky Baby Cousin huh?  While Will was hoping for a BOY baby cousin, he's on board now and pretty excited and finds a thousand things in Target that we should buy. 

So bring it on October.  We're ready when you are, Baby Cousin! 

Random tidbits from September

Here's a collection of mostly goofy and one sweet conversation that I've been wanting to write down. 

First the sweet.  On September 10, I was driving the kids home from school and Will was telling Reina that the next day was a special day.  I asked him if something special was happening at school (thinking ice cream party, etc.,) and he said no.  He said "Well, 11 years ago something really sad happened and some bad guys crashed some planes into a building and a lot of people died."  I was surprised that he knew about 9-11 and came so close to even getting the year right.  Sometimes I dread having to talk about things like that with the kids, but we had a nice conversation about such a sad occasion.  

Okay, so here's the goofy stuff. 

Will brought home a Scholastic book order form and I told both kids they could each pick out three books to order.  Will's were predictably Legos, football and Pete the Cat.   Reina's were a bit more, how shall we say it, eclectic?  We had the regulars:  Barbie Princess Mariposa pink something something, Doc McStuffins saves the day, something involving Jake and Never Land Pirates, Hello Kitty, and then we started to veer off into other places like Bats! (actual title), some cartoon fly who goes into space (huh?), baby animals (naturally), baby animals at night, life size baby animals, another space book, back to Disney with Brave and the gang and then a giant alphabet puzzle to wrap it all up.  I giggled while I was looking through the book order but I realized that is really how her brain works right now.  She loves all of the 'typical girl stuff' and she's usually carrying a purse or a backpack full of pink fluffy things, but she also picks out books about mummies and Egypt when we are at the library and she wants to know about bones and stuff we find outside.  She's a complicated little ball of fire. 

Last week, Reina's class did a taste test with apples and everyone tried a piece and voted on which one they liked best.  While telling me this later that night, she says that she didn't like the green apple but she liked the Rice Krispie one.  Well, I would certainly like a ball of rice krispies shaped as an apple too. I thought maybe she was thinking of red delicious until I asked her teacher about it later in the week - Honey Crisp.  Bingo! 

Her favorite game right now is to sit at our computer and pretend that I'm the boss and she's the worker. I'm supposed to bark out commands like "Get back to work!"  "No more breaks!"  "Don't ask me any questions."  She calls me 'boss' and diligently types away.  It would be a great game except for her constantly bossing me around to be her boss.  "Mom, now you say ....."

Finally, last Sunday I was watching the Broncos game and Will walks in and announces that his new favorite team is the Raiders.  (The Broncos weren't even playing the Raiders that day or I would have kicked him out of the house.  Just kidding.  Sort of.)   The Hansen sense of humor is alive and well in that kid. 

Football, again

Last weekend, we headed over to Laramie to watch the Cowboy football team battle Idaho.  It was one of those typical Wyoming days where we were sweating in the sun at the kickoff, freezing in the rain by halftime and then warm again on the ride home.  This week, we've seen record-breaking rain - we've measured almost five inches at our house.  Wyoming weather is predictably unpredictable.  But back to last weekend. 

 

Reina and the "Cowboy Tough" statue.  I think she's Cowgirl Tough.  The football team runs on to the field at this spot and many players touch the statue for good luck.  It worked last Saturday as they rolled to a big victory. 

Mr. Football.  While he'll never be as obsessed, umm impassioned as I am, I think Glenn has finally turned into a giant football fan.  Between Will's little league games, nail-biting Cowboy finishes and a Broncos team that is off to a good start, Glenn is following all of them.  It won't keep him home during hunting season, but he'll probably at least ask for the scores when he gets home.  Works for me! 

 

Reina and a cool flower planting in the shape of a bucking horse.  The game had a 30-minute lightning delay before halftime, followed by one of those quick but cold thunderstorms roll through.  So by halftime, 1/2 of the Pauleys were done with the game.  We headed home and listened to it on the radio.  One of these days we'll make it through all four quarters. 

Earlier that Saturday, we had Will's football game.  He's a Dolphin this year but he got those nifty Broncos under-eye things (what is the official football term?) at the game he and I went to in August.  Unfortunately, his Dolphins were actually playing the Broncos last Saturday so we had to take those off at the risk of jinxing everything.  Hey - it's only weird if it doesn't work. 

 

All about Will

Alright, file this under 'worst blog pictures,' 'can't you figure out technology, lady?!' and Lazy Blogging but here's today's post.  Will brought home his "All About Me" book from the first few weeks of First Grade and it has to be memorialized here.  And it will probably be one of those items that I pull out in twenty years and think about my crazy 6-yr old and weep loudly.  So here goes.  

 

Seriously I'm not quitting my day job for professional photography.  Can't figure out how to get the shadow out of there.  Can't get the picture to rotate.  Giant blog fail. 

I am 6 yrs old.  And apparently I want a blood red and black birthday cake.  Which his mom can definitely do. 

 

I am good at math.  (He actually really is.)

 

My family has 6 people.  (Huh?  Apparently we need to have a quick biology lesson on what is people and what is not people.  Trigger and Tootsie?  Not people but it's sweet that he counts them as part of the family).  Also Will and Reina have swords.  Naturally.  And check out my hair.  Nailed it! 

I feel happy about Sports.  And so does his momma!! 

 

 

I get scared when 'bullies.'  (Awwwww......)

 

When he brought the book home, he told me that he wanted his picture to be funny.  I think he accomplished that.  I also think he's ready for the zombie apocalypse.  And if he shows this picture to the bullies, I think that will take care of that problem.