Blessing day

We blessed Sophie today at our house at 9:30 this morning. Today was such a special day; it was so special to have both Drew and I's families together, Drew gave Sophie such a special blessing, and it was so special that both Marlee and Sophie wore the dress that I was blessed in for their blessings.

I was nervous for some reason before everyone got there. I think I was nervous about entertaining everyone, and about everything going okay. But when Drew started to give Sophie her blessing, a calm and peaceful feeling came upon me. I love that feeling, and am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost to calm our nerves even when it is something small and simple.

Voice recording and pictures of Hansen Family to come soon

Sophie and Devri. 3 weeks apart!

Mischievous Mar Mar

Here are a few stories about mischievous Marlee. I want to write them down because I know someday I'll read these and just laugh. And I know I'll miss this little mischievious stage Marlee is going through. Some of these actually make me laugh right now.

• Mar Mar has been so sneaky with bedtime lately. Drew or I will lay down with her before she falls asleep. If we don't fall asleep ourselves (we have been so exhausted lately), we will kiss her goodnight and leave her room while she is still awake because she takes so dang long to fall asleep. Lately after we leave, she gets out of bed, climbs up on the computer, across the table, and turns on the light. It is hard to see if her light is on at night, so a couple of nights ago I thought (after multiple times of trying to get her to bed) that she had fallen asleep for sure this time. About 20 minutes later I heard two little sneezes by the door of her room. I opened the door and Marlee had the light on and way playing with her toys. The funny thing is that 1. she is beyond exhausted herself, but is a lover of toys more than sleep, and 2. she always has the sweetest, most excited voice when she knows she's been caught. She'll always say "Hi Mommy" over and over again with the biggest grin spread across her face.         

• Lately she has been watching us as we lay down with her. She'll wait till she thinks we're asleep, and then start sneaking off the bed to go play again. Tonight I was almost asleep when I heard her little bum cheeks sliding off her bed. I woke up so confused because I thought she was in a deep sleep right next to me. I looked at her and she started to run towards her princess castle to seek refuge from me. I caught her by the arm before she disappeared into her tent and laid her on my chest to get her to fall asleep. She was out in like 3 minutes. 

She is so funny. She has been on a nap/sleep strike for the last couple of weeks. She literally will be so exhausted with big black circles under her eyes, and will refuse to sleep. She just wants to play and explore all hours of the day. Lately it has been so exhausting after trying multiple times to get her to take a nap while trying to distract Sophie, so she has been missing quite a few naps. But when I can actually get her to sit still and lay on my chest she literally falls asleep in minutes, sometimes seconds. I think she gets it from me. I hate taking naps. Well I actually love them, but when it comes down to it, I always find something else I need to do besides sleep.

• Marlee loves to copy the things that we do. The other day I was folding laundry and turned my back on Mar and Smoofy for one minute, when a smothered cry came from Sophie. I whipped around and saw little helper Marlee vigorously brushing poor Sophie's gums. Marlee kept repeating "brush Ophie's teef."

• Yesterday I was talking to Drew's mom and sister when again I heard cries of help coming from my bedroom. I remembered I had left Sophie on my bed, and Marlee was no where to be found. I ran to my bedroom and what I saw sent panic through my body. Sophie's eyes were bright red and there was a puddle of water surrounding them, and Marlee was leaning over her with my eye drops in her hand saying Ophie's eyes. I have seen Marlee take the lid off before and try to put my eye drops in her own eyes. So being the sharing and helpful sister she is, decided to give Ophie some eye drops too. I have no idea if the water around Sophie's eyes was from Marlee poking her eyes with the bottle (the lid was on) or if she had actually squirted my eye drops in her eyes, because the liquid was above her eye too. 

• After we were brushing Marlee's teeth one night, she decided Drew's tongue needed to be brushed in addition to hers. It was so funny to watch her try to pry Drew's mouth open and shove the toothbrush down his throat. 
• Marlee also like to color. She loves to color her legs, body, the walls, and today I caught her trying to color Sophie's blessing dress. Ha!

This is how I found her this morning. I'm not sure if she snuck out of bed last night, played with toys, and fell asleep on the ground, or if she rolled of her bed, fell on the floor, and kept on sleeping.

This is how her tubs go after washing her hair..

The first time I ever painted the bubber's toes. She was very concerned when I first put the polish on her little toesies. But when I painted mine too, she was so excited and kept showing me her toes and fingers and giggling.

my awesome paint job

I taught Marlee how to stretch in the dance classes I teach her

Sophie Ophie - 2 months

Sophie Ophie is 2 months old! I really can't believe it! Her birth seemed like a decade ago. She has the sweetest little spirit. I will always cherish the way she stares and smiles at me as I rock her and sing to her before bedtime.

• Sophie is the smiliest little thing! You can always get her to smile. She has the happiest smile that spreads from ear to ear. She has the cutest dimple on her left cheek. When she is really happy she scrunches her nose which instantly melts my heart. 
• She has started cooing. 
• She is still in the little weight league. She is 22.1 inches tall (29%) and weighs 10 lbs 3 oz (19%). Her head circumference is 15.2 inches (59%) 
• she has been sleeping 9 to 10 hours at night. I remember thinking a couple of weeks ago that this would never happen. She was only sleeping around 4-5 hours straight and then one night it switched to 7, and then to 9! The first morning that I realized she slept 7 hours in a row was a glorious day!
• is in increasing danger of Mar Mar. Poor baby probably has nightmares of Marlee's big fingers poking her eyes out. 

Snoozin' Drewzin

Drew can fall asleep anywhere. In college if he sat down to do homework, within an hour he was sound asleep, snoring study time right away. I remember one time specifically telling Amy just how sleepy he is. We were at my parents house and Drew was having so-called study time up in my parents office. I told Amy, "watch, I bet you ten bucks drew is snoring upstairs as we speak." We went upstairs, and sure enough Drew was passed out on my parents arm chair with the book face down on his belly, head tipped back, and nose in the air snoring happily.

The big joke now is when Drew puts Marlee to sleep. We put Marlee in a big girl bed (my old full size bed that I had growing up) a week before Ophie came. After we do our night time routine with Mar, we lay down with her, snuggle, and sing songs with her with the lights off. I left to go lay Ophie in her crib, and I came back to check on those two snuggle bugs about an half hour later. I opened the door and heard a happy little voice say, "Hi Mommy, Daddy seeping." It was such a funny sight. Marlee was laying on her back, legs crossed man style, her fingers twirling her hair. Then I looked over at Drew and of course he was out for the count.

Our computer is in Marlee's room for lack of space. This same thing happened about a week ago, except it was loud crashes, and a beeping from the computer that brought me back to Mar's room. I opened the door and again Drew was passed out on the bed, and Marlee was up playing toys and plinking around on the computer. Ha! I love how Marlee puts Drew to sleep instead of the other way around.

Marlee has some pretty stylin' pj's.

Halloween

I love the Holidays. And I love any excuse to do a million activities. I don't know if all my holiday celebrations are more for the little kid inside me, or my actual kids. Or maybe it's both.

I love watching Mar Mar's eyes light up when she sees something she loves or her little lips pucker up and make an 'o' shape when she's really excited. So this Halloween I tried to cram in as many activities as I possibly could. We made Halloween pumpkins at my mom's house, went to Gardner village, Jaker's pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, went trick-or-treating, went to Cornbelly's, Barnyard boo at Thanksgiving point, listened to Halloween music, (I know there was more but my pregnancy brain has extended it's stay and is failing me at the moment). Anyway I am currently trying to make the most out of Christmas since Thanksgiving celebrations are kind of limited. The Christmas playlist has been blasting throughout our house since November 1st and I am so so so excited to start my 24 days of Christmas activities!!!!

Here is what we dressed up like for Halloween.

Here is a little peek into how getting ready went. Definitely no smiles here. Mar actually liked the makeup part. She kept saying "tickles" when I was putting her green eye shadow on. But the hair spray paint was a different story. I was chasing her around the house with the spray in my hand while she looked like the picture above. I know your thinking what a mean mom, but I had already started her hair and just had to finish! The car ride to Ama's house (Grandma Egbert) was pretty emotional too... that is why her white face makeup ended up black by the time we got to my mom's house. She kept rubbing and smearing her thick black brows I painted all over her nose and cheeks. Ha I'm not sure what I was thinking when I first planned her outfit. 

Had to post these too, because this is what our picture taking really looks like before we capture those rare happy smiling pics....

Family Pictures

We got our family pictures taken when Sophie was a week old. I LOVE love how they turned out!