Basketball 2012

Check out our little basketball player and his cute coach!

Let me start by saying this - what a difference a year makes! We laughed so hard on the sidelines last year because the kids had no idea what they were doing. Who has five and six-year olds play 3:3 basketball? It was completely comical.

This year, it was great! The first few games were kind of rough, but after that, Matthew really got the hang of it and started to get competitive. He is getting to be a good little ball player, and his father is loving it!

It was almost as fun to watch Arik coach as it was to watch the kids play. He really has a gift for this, and I hope he continues to do it. The kids really respond to him, and he is is great about getting down at their level to talk to them and encourage them.

Way to go BLUE TEAM!!

"Date Day" 2.20.12

With all of the days that he has off from school, Matthew and I get to spend lots of quality time together. I affectionately call these days "dates" with my son.

With two kids, it is hard to get a lot of 1:1 time with either one of them. This is why release days are so much fun! Sometimes he gets to spend a day with a grandparent ... and sometimes I keep him all to myself.

Today we spent most of the day at the Zoo. It was awesome. When you go early in the day, all of the animals are awake!

When we had seen enough, we headed next door to the IMAX for "Born to be Wild" before we went to get Amy. What a great movie!

It was such a fun day. Until next time Matthew ...

Baby 'B' Comes to Play!

Yeah, we got to spend the afternoon with baby Bruno! As you can see from the photos, the kids just adore him. He is such a sweet and happy little guy. As we told Rocco and Meg - drop him off anytime!

Valentine's Day 2012

I never thought I would say this, but I am fully convinced that rolling out homemade sugar cookies is comparable to child birth. You must mentally block out how painful it is ... or you would never do it again.

Please remind me of this next time you hear me mention this task.

I took painstaking measures to find all of our little heart-shaped cookie cutters, buy the festive sprinkles, and chill the dough for a really long time in the hopes that this would be fun and easy activity.

Wrong.

The dough stuck to everything!

It was such a mess, but it didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. The final product looked good, and tasted GREAT! Happy Valentine's Day!

Haircut Girl 1.29.12

Look who got a haircut today!! Thank God for Kids Hair. I am not sure what we would do without them. To me, it is worth the extra few bucks for quick work, a sticker and that beloved sucker.

Matthew - 1st Grade Work

Can you believe we are half way through first grade already? Sheesh! Where does the time go?

I know I will never hold on to all of the physical memories from these years, so I am storing a few of them out here. Someday, I want to look back at these pages and enjoy them as much as I do today. I just crack up at the things he writes about. I love that everything is spelled phonetically, and that his view of the world is so simple and fun.

If everyone could have that, the world would be a much happier place.

Creative Kids 1.8.12

Interesting.

Look what I found in Amy's room when I went to put away some laundry! I thought it had been awfully quiet when the two of them had been playing in there earlier.

Creative little buggers!

The Baker 1.3.12

I don't know what it is about baking that I find so relaxing. I have enjoyed it since I was a kid. So, today, I took a break from all of the holiday fun and made a few of our favorite treats!

Check out that good lookin' banana bread and yummy chocolate chip cookies!

The Signature 1.2.12

Nobody is perfect at parenting. To be totally honest, I really just strive for a B average. Some days, I am really an incredible mother. I would give myself an A+. Other days ... not so much.

Today, for example, is one of those days where I am feeling less than adequate in my role. While the kids were playing, I came to realize that I completely forgot to teach my children one simple rule about misbehaving: Always cover your tracks.

When you make a stupid decision to write on something you shouldn't be writing on ... like a light switch or maybe a brick in front of the fireplace ... NEVER EVER EVER SIGN YOUR NAME!

Snow White & The Lego Truck

The problem with getting so many new toys over the holidays ... is that you are forced to play with all of them! Check out Snow White in all her Barbie glory, and her sidekick the legomaster. Matthew worked on that new semi truck for hours until it was finally the masterpiece he wanted. He was so proud. It was so cute. He is really getting good and putting together these bigger sets!

Bonello Holiday Fun - 2011

As with all family holiday celebrations, it is hard to capture it all in a single blog post. Because Rocco and Meg were off visiting my Dad over Christmas, we delayed this side of the madness until after the New Year. I should probably title this post with the year 2012, but we were still celebrating a holiday that technically fell in 2011 ... so I am going to leave it be.

This year was extra fun with our newest addition - Bruno! What a pumpkin. I don't know who loves him more - the adults, or the kids!

We started our day by baking the glorious chocolate cake you see below. I believe the recipe called it, "Too Much Chocolate Cake." Ummm ...no such thing ...

After that, it was on to family game time as we prepared the holiday feast! It is always an impossible task to get the kids to wait until dinner is over before opening gifts - but we did it!

Toys! Toys! And more toys! Where are we going to put all of this stuff?

December 31, 2011

Time for some New Years Eve fun! This year we opted to stay in and celebrate with the kids. We picked up some champagne and some sparkling cider and rang in the new year with style.

The kids were so funny. They had confetti, party hats, and more noise makers than my poor ears could handle. It was hilarious! We might have to do this every year!

Christmas Day with Grandma Jane

Rocco and Meg were out of town, so our holiday celebration with this whole side of the family didn't actually take place until New Years. However, we did stop by my Mom's house on Christmas Day to hang out with her, Lisa & Bill and Fred.

We played games and ate even more food! Not sure how many workouts I will need to do over the next few days to work off all of this! The topper of the day was my Mom taking on Matthew in a beyblade battle and WINNING! She is such a loving grandmother :)

Hanson Christmas 2011 - Part 2

Continuing on with our Hanson traditions ... after dinner comes Christmas carols around the piano! Check out the adoration on Amy's face as she looks up at Rod playing - so sweet! As expected, this part of the evening is tons of fun and always brings about some giggles.

After singing, of course, comes PRESENTS! Every year we say we are going to cut back, but that never really happens. The kids assist everyone with their gift opening, and everyone is spoiled rotten! What a wonderful day!

Hanson Christmas 2011 - Part 1

I am going to have to divide up the Hanson Christmas celebration into two parts - there are just too many cute photos to get it all into one!

After doing Christmas at our own house, we headed over to Rod and Diane's for the rest of the day. It is our tradition to spend Christmas Eve at their house, and then spend the night and have breakfast with them on Christmas morning. We started that one year when there was heavy snow, and we just continued it because it was so much fun! The kids were pretty well behaved all day. It is tough to be patient with all of those presents staring back at you from under the tree! A few beyblade battles kept us sane while we waited!

Santa's Arrival 2011!

Santa did make it to our house again this year. Whew! It was a close one. He left some special gifts by the fireplace, and a note on the table. His reindeer made quite a mess with the cookies and carrots ... but we didn't mind. We had some pretty excited kids on our hand that morning!

Letters FOR Santa

Now that we got the official receipt of letters FROM Santa ... it was time to get some notes ready FOR him. This year had a big first for us - Amy wrote her own letter! Yikes! How did she grow up so quickly? Check out those words! We helped her spell them (except her name, of course), but she wrote them all out!

Letters from Santa

There is a group of women at my office that do "Letters from Santa" every holiday season. They are pretty funny, and what kid doesn't like to get mail? Here are the kids with their official letters for Christmas 2011!

SpyGlass Holiday Party!

The folks at SpyGlass definitely did not let us down at their annual holiday bash. What a fun night! The crazy dancing booth was in full effect, and the food was fantastic! Oh ... did I mention there were llamas there? That's right ...

We had such a fun time with the Bellmont's and the Lissick's! Looking forward to whatever crazy they send our way next year!

MOA Fun

We have lots of fun at the Mall of America. Since we live so close, it is not uncommon for us to pop in on the weekend for a few rides. Check out those smiles!