Happy New Year ( 4 months late...)

Here are our new years ever pictures and some of Caleb just cause he's so cute!

Pretty Tee

I got addicted to all of these t-shirt refashioning posts a while ago and have them all saved on my computer and even taught my mom, sisters and my ward how to make them but have only actually gotten around to making a few, not that I don't have big plans for doing many more but I though I'd show you the ones I've finished so far. I think they turned out pretty cute in spite of my procrastination!  

 This one is stamped

The dark spots you can see are water I ironed flat after washing. But the "flowers" are layers of knit and tulle and the white is the back of one of Paige's shirts that I cut apart since the front was stained.

 This is ribbon folded and sewn down then beads hand sewn on around it.

 This one is has corsage look to it made up of a bunch of circles stacked and gathered together.

  

 This one I did for Mike and Caleb has one to match for Easter, I used the cricut to cut out the letters and the chicks I printed off the internet and traced onto freezer paper and ironed on as a stencil.

This one is Paige's and I did the same saying for Rory too again freezer paper made it happen. And my friend Sara for wanting to do it to so it got me a little more motivated to actually get it done!

Making up for lost time!

I know it has been forever since my last real post and I'm trying to catch up so here are a few pictures from Christmas ( I know... I said it's been forever!!) and yes we went swimming on Dec 28th thanks to a heated pool!

Shelf Reliance House Party!

Hey Guys - I'm hosting a Shelf Reliance House party and want to invite you! Come and enjoy a fun and tasty cooking demonstration using Shelf Reliance food storage products and see how delicious freeze dried food really is! Seriously my kids just eat it right out of the can! Plus if you bring a friend you will get a yummy treat homemade by yours truly! Whether you are just starting out, adding to or finishing off your year supply, you will learn tips and tricks on how to make it happen! It will be at my house on Thursday May 5th at 7:30pm. Let me know if you can come, I hope to see you all there!   

Creative Kids Preschool! Now Enrolling for Fall 2011!

It's only February 3rd, is it really time to be thinking about a fall preschool class...YES!

I have started pre-enrollment for my classes starting in the fall. 

Class size is limited so reserve your spot today!

Now offering 2 classes!!!  

  Classes are  2 days a week for 2 1/2 hours each.

 3-4 year olds T/Th from 9-11:30 

4-5 year olds T/Th from 12-2:30

 Tuition will be $65 a month if paid by the 10th. There will be a $20 registration fee. There will be a discount for families enrolling multiple children. 

I am a certified elementary education teacher and taught for 3 years before starting a family and becoming a stay at home mom. During those 3 years I covered kindergarten, a 1st/2nd grade combo class and a 4th/5th grade combo class where we taught at around a second to third grade level, so basically I've covered a lot of ground in those few years. This is my second year teaching preschool in my home. I also participated in a co-op preschool with some friends  a couple of years ago with my oldest was preschool age. In addition to my professional teaching experience I have plenty of experience with young children as I am the mother of three children ranging in age from 16 months to 6 years.

I am very excited about this new adventure and hope you will join me! 

If you are interested please contact me at 480-250-0157 or rachelhanchett@gmail.com
http://creativekidspreschoolaz.blogspot.com/
Don't forget to tell your friends!

Report Card Rewards -- Companies That Give Your Child Free Stuff for Good Grades

I know report cards just came home in our house so I thought I'd pass this along to reward your kiddo's for all their hard work too!

Report Card Rewards -- Companies That Give Your Child Free Stuff for Good Grades

Report card rewards are frequently given out by schools or by parents, but did you know that there aremajor companies that give rewards for good grades? These are usually free items, and can be claimed by your child showing the manager or an employee his/her report card with A’s or B’s.

Below is a list of national and well-known companies that give report card rewards: 

1. Krispy Kreme Donuts. In most areas, Krispy Kreme (the retail donut stores only) will give your child a free donut for an “A”. 

2. Limited Too. On their website, Limited Too (a clothing store for “tween” girls) states that they want to “congratulate girls on receiving outstanding grades.” Report cards with passing grades must be brought to a girl’s local Limited Too store within 30 days of when she receives it. The girl will receive $5.00 off her purchase that day.

3. Blockbuster Blockbuster will give one free movie rental for A’s. The movie must be from the “kids” or “families” category. 

4. Chuck E. Cheese Chuck E. Cheese locations give away free tokens for good grades. They accept all types of grading systems, and will give away a maximum of 15 tokens. Currently, an “A” or equivalent is worth 3 tokens, a “B” is worth 2 tokens, and a “C” is worth 1 token. Note: You must make a food purchase for this offer.

5. Family Video They give out a free rental in the summer for A’s on a report card. The child must bring their final report into his/her local Family Video store. 

Remember, that the above list is subject to change at any time, and may vary depending upon where you live. There may be local businesses in your area that reward good grades. Check with your child’s teacher, school, or PTA. Some schools give out rewards at report card time such as free meals to local restaurants.

Report card rewards are a great free way to motivate your child to get good grades, or improve his or her school performance. 

Visiting Santa...Not so Merry

Tonight we went to Bass Pro Shop to let the kids see Santa. We went with all of my family and in so doing we got there later then planned so there was a line but the guys took the kids around to look at everything while the girls stood in line. It went by pretty quickly and right as it was our turn to talk to the man himself Caleb decided to throw up all over the place! It got all over me, Mike, Caleb and splattered in Paige's hair and on Rory's shirt as well as on the floor obviously. Well I immediately took him into the bathroom where I tried to clean him off but Rory, Paige and my mom followed me so I sent my mom back with the girls because we didn't wait in line all this time not to get a picture! I stripped Caleb down and wiped myself off the best I could and went back out to meet the rest of our group. Needless to say we decided to forgo the temple lights and straight went home after that. My poor little guy, I was really hoping to get a picture of him with Santa this year, well maybe next year!

Christmas Card

I got Photoshop for Christmas a couple years ago and have been trying to learn how to use it since but I am happy to say that this is a custom Christmas card, thank you very much! The pictures are courtesy of Liz Farnsworth of Red Bucket Photography, she is amazing! Thank you again and again Liz! We may have to road trip it to TX for next years photo shoot! On here is may be hard to see but the arrows nest to Santa's list say naughty and nice, Mike's only request was to put something funny like that he has been naughty since 1978, he did make the naughty list but just with out the year, love you babe!

Preparing for CHRISTmas

With the holiday season upon us I am reminded of how easy it is to get caught up in it all and forget the true meaning of Christmas, CHRIST! In effort to keep my focus on my Savior I've been searching for different ideas we could do as a family. On another blog I follow she is doing a week long series on this very thing and is calling it The Seven Days of CHRISTmas. You should totally check it out, she has so many wonderful ideas! This video was also posted by a guest blogger and I got all choked up watching it, so I wanted to share that with you too. So if you have any great ideas on how to keep CHRIST in Christmas please pass them along. I hope it helps all of us remember the real reason for the season!!

What Shall We Give?

Mostly Treats!

I hope you all had a fabulous time trick or treating! We did out annual pumpkin carving with my Heaton cousins and they had some games as well for the kids to do.

These are pictures of Rory and Paige trying to eat a doughnut off a string. Paige was so cute because she was being super patient (which is rare for her) with her hands behind her back and just kept on trying and trying! We finally just held the string so she could eat it, it was priceless to watch!

Then Saturday we had our ward Halloween party and they did a chili cook-off for dinner then had all the classrooms decorated and had the kids go around trick or treating to the rooms. We were asked to decorate one too and didn't have much in the way of decorations so we just hung up some black plastic garbage bags and made a "maze". Apparently out last minute idea was a hit people seemed to think the maze was really cool! Then of course our costumes.

This summer I ordered them online because everything was on clearance and we got buy one get one free so we decided to be race car drivers and even had a little jumpsuit for Caleb to wear that Mike's mom made for his older brother when he was a baby. My mom and dad helped make the race car to go on the stroller so he was all decked out!

We actually got the angel costume for Paige but she wanted to be a pirate again so Rory got to be the angel, which worked out be cause that seems more fitting for their personalities anyway.

I got lots of surprised looks at the party when I walked in, I guess people weren't expecting it. I also had a few people ask if I had gone on a crash diet or something and I told them no just invested in some spanks! It was fun to wear even if some might have thought it was a little racy (no pun intended) I liked feeling like I looked good, so next year go for the Hot Mama look to you won't be disappointed! Happy Halloween!

Twice Blessed!

Introducing Logan and Jaxson Brimhall !!! My sister Joanna just had her 1st & 2nd baby on Thursday afternoon! In fact when I was writing my Disneyland post and saying Joanna was in the hospital trying to keep them in it was about that time that they were taking them out! They were born at 30 weeks and are doing great and so is Joanna!! They are both 3 pounds 14 ounces. Logan is 17 in and Jaxson is 16 in. These pictures are right after birth so they have on the c-pap masks but now they are both breathing on their own. They have quite a bit of dark fuzzy hair and are super cute I can't wait to hold them! Welcome to the family Logan & Jaxson ... Caleb is excited to have some new boy cousins to play with! 

Caleb's Birthday

  
Caleb's birthday was on October 20th which happened to be on a Wednesday and I had a board meeting for RS that night and the next night Rory's school's fall festival so we celebrated his birthday on Friday night with the rest of Mike's family.

 It was pretty standard, we had pizza, opened presents and then had cake and ice cream, it was fun and crazy but poor little Caleb wasn't feeling his best (in fact he had a fever the next morning) so when it was time for the ceremonial first birthday cake he wasn't really into it. 

I think there was just too much going on and too many people trying to get him to look, smile, laugh, clap or do whatever besides it was past his bedtime so he was totally done after about 2 min. as you can see by the look on his face in the pictures!

 He did like opening his presents and we officially have boy stuff in the toy closet instead of just girl stuff! He is such a boy look at that already crashing his cars!

We also had his 1 year check up at the doctor and I was surprised that he only weighs 21.6 lbs which drops him down into the 25% for weight is 28.75 in long which puts him at about the 50%  and is still in the 95% for his head at 19.25 in circumference. 

 He is such a sweet little boy I can't believe he has been apart of our little family for a whole year now! Love you Caleb! 

p.s. the great pic's of Caleb (1st & last) are courtesy of  Liz  Farnsworth of Red Bucket Photography, so if you live in the San Antonio area you just gained an amazing photographer! Miss you Liz!

Disney Vacation

Way back in January my family signed up for Disney's program Give a Day Get a Day, the service project we did was making blankets for project Linus. Rory got all excited about picking out her fabric and even helped with the sewing machine and learned to tie a quilt, but then both girls asked everyday when we were going to Disneyland.

We planned to go the first weekend in November but then my sister Joanna found out she was expecting twins and her doctor told her she wouldn't be able to travel then so we moved it up to the second weekend in October but she still ended up not being able to go and is actually in the hospital right now trying to keep those little boys in there a few more weeks! Anyway we packed up and drove over Friday morning and my parents and two of my sisters and their families got there later that night. We spent all day Saturday at Disneyland and had a wonderful time!

The girls we so excited and Caleb did amazing! My parents stayed with us most of the day to help with Caleb so that was nice to be able to experience it with them.

 Rory and Paige did awesome they even went on the big rides like the Matterhorn, Splash and Space mountain! Well Rory did those last two because Paige wasn't tall enough but they did great!

We went back to the hotel around 5pm for a nap and then ate dinner and headed back over about 7pm and stayed there till the park closed at 1am!  My camera broke before lunchtime so we only got a few picture which was a totally bummer we gotta  few and my mom has some better luck next time I guess. We drove home on Sunday so it was a quick trip but we had fun!

Caleb Michael Hanchett is 1 year old!

I haven't done a real post in such a long time and since this is such a big milestone I thought I would do a quick recap of the last 6 months, which was the last time I gave a Caleb update. So since then at 7 months Caleb learned to sit up all on his own!

    At 8 months Caleb took his first plane ride and we visited my sister that moved to Seattle 5 days after he was born!

At 9 months we were still in Seattle having a wonderful time! When we did get home and went in for his check up though his stats were... 20 lbs 14 oz ... 29.5 inches ... 19 inches for his head!

At 10 months he was still content to be stationary and didn't seem to have any plans to do otherwise! Toward the end of that month he did start moving around a little more but never in a consistent fashion, he would roll, army crawl, flip over on his back and inch worm on his head etc. but could go up the stairs so out came the baby gate! And then he started pulling himself up on the furniture and walking back and fourth on that a little but still no conventional crawling, silly boy!

At 11 months he decided he could walk around the whole house holding on the couch, table, wall etc. and then started doing the army crawl on a regular basis.

It wasn't until about a week or so ago that he actually got up on his knees and crawls conventionally. He also stands unsupported for a few seconds at a time now and has actually taken a couple steps between things unknowingly. So we think he maybe walking before we know it!

And then of course 12 months...I can't believe it has been a year already! Where has the time gone. I am so thankful to have this sweet little boy in my home and in my heart, I just can't get enough of his smiles and giggles and he gives the best hugs I have ever had, hands down, seriously! I love you Caleb!