A New School Year!

Here we are with all 3 Hanks boys in school! Happy Day! Today was Tanner's first day of kindergarten. He was so excited.

He is lucky to know so many kids from our ward in the two afternoon classes! And of the 3 girls that were in his preschool class - all 3 are in his kindergarten class! Fun!

Mommy getting a kiss as he is walking in! He had a wonderful time. And I got a big almost knock me over hug when he came out of class at the end of the day! Go Tanner!

Here we are with these older mature boys! Josh is in 5th grade and Dawson is in 3rd grade! That first day of school they were up at 6:45am and couldn't eat my special breakfast I made (too nervous and excited), and were just about to drive me nuts with their excitement. I couldn't wait to get them out the door! They are LOVING their teachers!

Just take a look at Dawson's face - that just says it all about the morning and how crazy excited they were! He looks like he's had a few too many doughnuts and caffiene. Funny!

And finally - Mr. Hanks! The hottest math teacher around! Starting his 10th year of teaching. He is such a stud. And I am going to brag about my good husband for a minute (I don't do that too often so I hope you can all handle it). So he is teaching Alegbra 2 Honors, Pre Calc, and Calculus. He teaches 3 classes on A days and has one prep. On B days he has no prep so he teaches 4 classes straight. Of all his classes the smallest has 35 students in it and the biggest has 37. Now there is a reason for that - he is the BEST! He really is a great teacher - one who cares and takes the time to do his best. I am so proud of him! He is making a difference in the world and doing something that he loves. We may not make a lot of money but we are happy and blessed. I love you JD! Thanks for working hard and allowing me to be able to stay home and take care of our family! The sacrifices are worth it!

Joshua's 10th Birthday!!!

My little boy is a decade! It's pretty hard to believe. He is growing up so fast and is such a joy to our family!

Josh is funny, kind, sensitive, athletic, peacemaker, musical, a great student, and just an all around awesome kid. I am so happy to have Josh in our family! He has been a pretty easy kid to raise and I am so thankful for him and the spirit he brings to our home!

We got to have a late night movie in the backyard with his friends for his party. It was fun. I think the kids had more fun playing a game of football with JD while they waited for it to get dark than anything - but it was great. Fun times!

Here he is in all his glory after bowling a strike on our last hurrah before school started! Go JOSH!

"Waiting for something good to happen!"

Tonight as we were talking about 3 good things that happened to each of us today, we started with Josh and he said "First, mom saved the day." I love when I hear that. So I will explain my heroics to you all! As I was leaving for my primary meeting this afternoon, I walked by Josh who was just pacing the front lawn. I said "what are you doing, waiting for the mail?" He sulkingly said "No I'm waiting for something good to happen." I just chuckled because we had just been in the house trying to get him to call a few friends to see if they could play. Well, I got to my meeting and said to his friend Miles (we were meeting at his house), "Miles are you bored", "Yes", "Can you play?", "Yes", "Can you go over to my house and play with Josh?", "Yes"!
I AM THE HERO MOM! This to all of you moms out there who are tired of being the bad guy. Just do what I did and you save the day! I love it! And to make things even better. Miles and Josh had a lemonade stand and made $4. Wow! What a great day, huh!

February 22, 2010!

Number 5 will be here around then! We are all very excited!

We love Bear Lake

So Bear Lake this year with the Farrells was a blast. We had so much fun on the beach. All my pictures are at the beach because my camera broke after. So we will only have memories in our heads of the fun rides on the four wheelers. Josh and Dawson even went solo on the 4 wheelers this year. Scary but they did great and were cautious. We had good food, good company, and lots of fun times to remember forever. This is really a fun time for our kids. On the first morning there - Dawson comes up to me and hugs me saying "Thanks mom for bringing us to Bear Lake - I love it here"!
The boys and their cousins! They love digging rivers in the sand.

Rissy on the jet ski before her fun ride with Daddy.

Marissa and Ian eating lunch!

My 90 year old Grandma not a second thought on the matter of whether or not she would go on a ride with her son!

My Grandma rocks. Can you really believe she is on here? I was shocked when she said she'd go. I thought I'd have to do a little coaxing but she is all for adventure. I hope I am too when I'm 90!

We also got a 9 month pregnant Krista on the jet skis for a ride. Way to go Tah!

Daddy and his little sweetie swimming in Bear Lake.

It's the Bear Lake sand monster! Yuck. But she loved it!

Fun in the sand!!

More of the sand monster!

This is on the second day at the beach. It started to get windy and rainy and Marissa and Fudge went and hid in the van! I loved this picture of them checking out the happenings from the back seat!

I LOVE Camping!

Even though it is TONS of work and it took me like 2 days to recover, I really love to go camping. I love being in the outdoors and enjoying the beauty that Heavenly Father has blessed us with. It's funny because JD and I love camping for very different reasons but it's really nice that we both love to do it. I think it is GREAT for the kids. They love it too! So here was our recent trip to American Fork Canyon with JD's sisters and their families and Aunt Nancy! We hope next year (we are making this an annual thing - that JD's brother and wife and JD's parents will join us). Nothing like roughing it!




Marissa loved getting her head wet under the spicket before our hike!










Rock World. The kids found this fun place and spent a lot of time there. Lots of rocks to climb up on and hiding places!

Here are all the cousins! They had so much fun together!

Random Fun and Pictures from the last week!

We got to go with our friends to their cabin last week. They loved the pool and the big slide! They keep saying let's go back!

On our way home from the cabin, Tanner was asleep within in minutes - even on the bumpy dirt road. He slept most of the way (by the way that is highly unusual). My kids never sleep in the car - only Marissa! I guess staying up till 11pm and waking up at 6am and then swimming will do that to you!


Daddy's dream - a family rock band. That's Tanner on the invisible drums, Josh on the invisible keyboard, Dawson on vocals, and Marisssa on guitar. They like to do this once in awhile and this was the first Marissa wanted to be in on it!


Rissy and her favorite puppy - Fudge!

Josh and Abby waiting for the fireworks!

Bobby and the kids playing football waiting for the fireworks.

Still waiting for the fireworks!

Finally Fireworks! Marissa loved them. She was totally mesmerized by the noise and lights!


Tanner reading books to his sister!

This is how I found Tanner at like 10:30 the other night. He must have fallen asleep with the shades on. I don't know how he did it. I laughed pretty hard! Funny boy!