I Love To Laugh

Well Kyle and I made a stride, and a little backstep in buying a house.  On Thursday we went and talked with a mortgage loan person, and got prequalified!  We even got prequalified enough for the one house I loved.  It was a bit long, and Dexter was not happy by the end of the meeting.  Ours was mixed feelings.  Why?  Because although we could qualify for that amount...it was a ridiculous amount of mortgage to pay each month if we did it.  Twice what our current rent is. Gasp.  In a strange way Heavenly Father also blessed us because on that same day the house we liked got removed from the listings.  Kind of took away the temptation. The plan for now is to save like crazy for a down payment, but we can still look cautiously.  It's a play by the ear thing, with lots of talking.

Watching Dad play some DDR

 Kyle also started school last week.  Last semester of his Masters and then he'll graduate!  Beginnings of semesters are my favorite....nice and calm.  We even see him lots since his classes are in the middle of the day.

Bustin' some moves

This weekend and week have been pretty chill.  Dexter's been in the most fun moods.  Giggles and screams happily at almost everything.  If you chuckle, he does his chuckle.  He's also trying to help out, but those aren't always good ones.  Like trying to take a plate off the table and put it in the sink...which he isn't close to reaching.  Luckily I caught him before he dropped it.  Or as many moms know there is not really any privacy, even when going to the bathroom.  If you don't close that door when using the toilet, then expect a pat on the leg and given some toilet paper.

Smiley guy

Kyle and I also talk about how Dak is such a boy.  His favorite toys are cars and balls.  When outside he loves pointing and watching all the different planes.  The SLC airport flights go right overhead, along with the Hill AFB jets and planes so there's always something to watch.  But he has a softer side and loves dogs and stuffed animals.  But he's always a moving, always talking, and loves to eat snacks.

The "open your mouth" skill....ahhhh

I love spending the evenings outside.  So beautiful.  Kyle's more of an indoor person I'm noticing, but Dak takes after me.  He even brings me his shoes or my shoes throughout the day to signal he wants to go out.  I wish it could be a warm fall for most the year.  Short winters, medium summers would make a great year.

1 Week

Warning: lots of pictures

Waiting for this week was torture.  Everyone was so excited to go.  It finally came...BEACH TIME!!!

We drove down Friday afternoon to Vegas.  It was not one of the best drives.  Dexter threw up three times.  Poor guy gets carsick, and I get to have my hands covered in it.  We've since turned his carseat around to forward facing and he only gets water to drink.  This helped him on the rest of our car trips.

One awesome thing about Vegas is that swimming pools are very warm by August.  We took a midnight swim in water that was warmer than outside.  It was wonderful and I loved just floating around, unwinding from the long drive.

He loved the dogs and would bark at them.  Even at us, to let us know he wanted to play with them.

He even was able to control Onyx, and pet them nicely

Saturday we skeedaddled to my family's.  We played games, grabbed camping gear, and I even helped do my sister's hair 20's style for a murder mystery party.

He liked riding on the pilates machine

Yam Slam in the back, and Aunt Melynn giving Dex a belated birthday present (puzzle)

Then Audrey was super awesome and gave us some free tickets to a play at Spring Mountain Ranch, Trevor and Danielle came too!  Audrey had done the vocal directing for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  It was awesome, and they did it rock themed.  A different twist and I liked it a lot.  We even got rained on a bunch, but most people just pulled the quilts over their heads and waited it out.  As Pharoah said, "Hey, don't leave cause of a little rain.  It could be worse.  It could rain frogs!"

A date without Dexter!

The others joining us.

Our friend Chris Yi playing guitar in the rock band

Sunday was church and then driving to Aunt Suzie's in California.  This put us 1 hour away from the beach, instead of having to do the whole 5 hour drive in the morning.  She had some amazing food that us "vultures" just wolfed down.  Her salsa was amazing!  And all home-grown products in it too.

Hansen pile up with Dex in the middle...I think they were deflating the air mattress

Finally it came time to check-in.  Well we were a little early so we actually got some lunch, grocery shopped...then finally got to check in to our awesome site.  It was perfect.  We thought we had right next to the bathrooms...but we were actually 1 away, and close to other things too.  But the best part was our ocean view.

Our campsite...beautiful

It was super hot and long unpacking and setting up camp.  I had hoped to do family pictures then before sunburns came, but by the end of everyone sweating we packed it up and headed down to hop in the ocean.

Dexter doesn't like water too much.  He tolerates it until he's splashed in the face.  So how did he do in the ocean?  At first tolerated it, but then hated it.

First wave!

Nope didn't like it

Dad and Audrey trying to coax him to like it

Doing okay, but would turn worse later.

Lots of sun, sand, and water.  We played long until the water covered all the sand and we had to sit on the rocks.

The next morning I got Tyler to take some pictures of our little family.

Once it was sunny on the beach we all went down to swim.  Aunt Suzy and Leah also joined us.  I tried to catch some waves on the boogie board, and after a LONG time I caught one great one.  I was yelling so loud with glee the whole way in.  People probably thought I was crazy.  Since we'd stay there from morning til evening Dexter learned to take naps down there.  The waves were the best white noise ever too.  Even at night.

Napping

Well since Dak now hated the water we taught him to play in the sand.  He loved this until he got something in his mouth.  Then he'd try and pull it out with his hand.  His hand covered in mud/sand.  So then he'd have even more sand, and the process would keep building until he was so mad at having a mouth of sand.

Digging with Mom and Uncle Tyler

We loved playing with him on the beach.

Tuesday night was our night to cook dinner.  We did dutch oven pizzas.  The first two were good, but a little crispy.  The third one though, and the first one I got to eat, was delicious.  It was such a good way to have them.

Excited about my awesome pizzas

By Tuesday night (if you can tell in the pictures above), I got nicely crisped by that sun.  I did put on sunscreen and regularly.  However, I guess SPF30 isn't enough for my skin.  I got to use lots of lotion and aloe vera.  Face, chest, back, arms, shoulder, legs.  Fun.  Dexter the whole trip didn't get burnt, and Kyle did a good job too.  Yay for them.

Intense games of Phase 10

Wednesday Dexter was acting a little off.  He was falling asleep after only being up for an hour maybe two at max.  Later we checked his forehead...super hot.  Poor guy got a fever.  We took the entire family pictures, but then I stayed up at camp all day with him.

Hansen Family picture...you might see this come Christmas time.

Spark of energy...

...10 minutes later crashed.

The little guy slept in his play pen, and I read a book next to him.  The whole day.  It was a little boring, and sad not to go play in the water....I was a little jealous if I looked over.  But I was glad I could be there for my sickie, and it was nice chilling in the shade soothing my sunburns.

Group shot!

Dak was burning pretty hot and just looked so pitifully sick.  He took a lot for him to eat or drink anything.  We even got smoothies and snow cones to see if that would help his sore throat.

Trevor and Tyler on the raft

Wipeout!

His fever had broke in the night, but by morning it had come back.  We hauled him to the beach where he just slept on someone the entire day.  This day Kyle's cousin Anne and her 3 cute kids drove a long ways to come see us.  Kyle's Aunt Lorraine (Anne's mom) drove from San Diego to come see us too.  Anne didn't stay long, but she left her boys with their grandma.  I had fun digging with them in the sand and running in the waves.

Aunt Audrey kite flying.

Dad, Nub Nub, and sickie...err Dexter.

Kite flying with Nub Nub

A sunny afternoon.

Dexter was still burning super super hot.  So we gave him a priesthood blessing, and tried a new medicine.  

How he was the entire 2 days...poor guy.

Finally by morning it had broke again, and he didn't look so pitiful.  But this was also the end of our trip.  We had to pack up and wave goodbye to that ocean.

Goodbye beautiful ocean.

Driving back wasn't fun.  We had beat the large rush of Californians driving to Vegas, but something else made the 5 hour trip into 6 or more hours.  A huge accident that shut down the freeway in Yermo.  Not fun at all.  Cramped back seat and only moving 2 feet ever 10 minutes or so.  SO LONG.

We enjoyed a huge rainstorm in Vegas Friday night.  Flooding streets, lightning and thunder overhead.  I loved it.

Saturday we visited my family again, and also spent the night.  Dexter was still exhausted and crabby from being sick.  Not fun for them to play with, but this made a great traveler back up to home on Sunday.

We came home and crashed.  And that's what the house still looks like.  I also caught Dexter's whatever it was...no fever but a bunch of sickness.  Nothing has pretty much gotten done.  Just resting for me to get over it faster.  Dexter each day gets a bit more of his spunk back.  But him being calm (which is highly abnormal) is nice for me so I'm not getting too exhausted chasing him.

A House Is Not A Home

Our weekend passed so wonderfully.  It was filled with doing lots of things.  Going here and there.  Running errands.  Etc.  I forgot to use my camera though.  So no gazillion pictures of Dak.

The one thing I can't get off my mind though is a house.  I love window shopping for houses.  It's fun to look at the many different types out there.  No one house is the same.  However, the problem comes when you actually find one you like.

And I found an awesome one!  For us that is.  Everyone has different qualifications for their house.  Problem is...it's slightly out of what the online calculators say we can get at this time and we aren't planning on actually buying for 6 more months or more.  So sad, cause it'll probably be gone by then.  Even Kyle likes it, and he's always been like "Eh it's nice" whenever I show him houses.  It has a huge backyard and deck.  It's a rambler with a basement.  And the inside looks awesome.  Oh man, I dream about it.

Now though, just like looking at clothes online, it may not be as awesome in real life.  Just like clothes with the coloring being off, and the fit just not working for your shape, the same could be with the house.  The actual fit and style of the house may not be what we like.  There may be some issues that they don't show in pictures.  It may just be "Eh it's nice" if we were to ever go check it out.

Buying a house is the next huge step, and I'm so excited to get my own place.  Ahhh...and the construction/architect nerd in me loves to examine all the different houses and things, and compare.  When I was a bunch younger my mom would take me to model homes all the time, and I loved that.  So it'll be fun to go see houses when the time comes that we might actually buy.  I'm just a little overwhelmed at all the processes and things you have to go through in order to get a house.  Not looking forward to that part.

Looking forward to making the house into an awesome home.

This Is A Pen

Everyday Dexter grows taller and smarter.  This week the taller affected that he can now reach countertop stuff.  This was our haven to put things, but if they're near the edge he can grab them.  Smarter is him finding out how to use all pens.  He can click on and off pens, uncap them, and whatever else there is now.  He hasn't figured out to draw on furniture or walls...he just usually ends up getting it all on himself.  We have to make sure all pens are out of reach, otherwise 2 hours before church you might find him like this:

Dak and I have been watching the olympics during the day and evenings.  Sometimes dad even joins us.  When the crowd starts going crazy or there's lots of clapping during the even, Dak imitates them and gets very into it by hooping and hollering, and clapping.

He was being a very dad's boy when I took this picture.  Climbing all over him, and snuggling up to him.  It was nice to have my personal space back for a bit.

Dak has also been carrying around a blanket lately.  He's not attached to it, but if he sees it he'll carry it around with him.  I think he likes it as his instant pee-a-boo machine.  A lot of times he'll put it over his head and walk around carefully with it.  Then suddenly pull it off, do his version of "boo!" and just giggle/smile at us.

Dex and the blanket

Each evening I've been chilling in the backyard while Dex runs amok.  He's also being more daring on his climbing.  Turning into a monkey I guess.  He loves it out there and so do I.  Pulling Kyle out is the only trouble, but he does tend to join us often.

We also got to watch one of our ward members/neighbor's kid for an hour or so.  Dak and him played pretty well together.  He's about 9 -12 months older then Dexter.  Balls were the main thing they struggled to share.  Little boys.

This Is My Party

Saturday was my birthday!  I turned the milestone of a quarter of a century. Yep, 25.  It was one of the best birthdays too. It started off with Dexter sleeping in.  Then Kyle went on some errands with Dexter for about a 2 hours.  We all went out to lunch together at Five Guys, followed by another great nap from Dex.  Do you notice how much Dex gave me.  Lots of me and quiet time.  So what did I do with all this?  I kept working on Kyle's quilt.  It was nice to work on it, kind of relaxing.  His quilt has a bunch to go...it might end up being his Christmas gift.

Laying it out on a queen sized sheet.

Oh anyways.  We then had a family game night at Mariah's.  It was a combination of my birthday, and Mariah's which is only a couple days later.  Besides Mariah, and us, Danielle and Trevor, and my cousin Sara were there.  There was some cake and ice cream eating, along with lots of chatting.  We did eventually play a game.  Scotland Yard, which Kyle got me for my b-day.

This week's new trick: If he gets his play phone, our telephone, or our cell phone he now puts it to his ear and talks a bunch to it.

Tuesday we had a friend come over to play in the pool.  They had fun, and I got a sunburnt.  Ever since I really horrible experience 5 years ago, I'm pretty good at sunblocking up when playing outside for a while.  I think I got interrupted while putting it on and couldn't remember if I had or hadn't.  Turns out I hadn't, and my back's been a bit tender.  Next time if I can't remember...put it on again.

Today after eating one of his meals Dexter had all these red rashes all over his front and back, and even a bit around his mouth.  I think he had an allergic reaction to one of the foods.  He had eggs...maybe that was it?