What a weekend!

Yay! It's time for a walk and mom is taking me to the fish park!
What a day!
(I should mention that all of the parks in town have been named by A.)

The fish slide is always so much fun!

Look at me! I'm driving!

All of the dinosaurs are named and he remembers which one is daddy, etc. every time we go there.

This weekend was beautiful and we had such a nice time hanging out at home. Everyday we went for a walk and had to visit a local park too. Anthony is in such a fun stage right now. The whole time we walk he's talking or singing up a storm. He now points out everything he sees and uses such great description --- there's a boat with a tire on the top or people go camping in that camper or there's a white Jeep with five tires. Seeing motorcycles zoom by loudly or having a train pass by is always a favorite and now we have to touch every red fire hydrant that firefighters use too. Singing is always a highlight as well and makes other walkers smile. His favorite songs are ABC's; Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star; Old McDonald and Happy Birthday. He's sings these constantly as well as other songs he makes up off the top of his head. It definitely makes our walks more enjoyable; it's so much fun to be having a constant conversation with him.

On another note, this weekend he officially knows his colors. He's been saying all of the colors for weeks now, but had been unable to connect them correctly to the actual color. Now, undoubtedly, he's got it. Also, while we were playing today with letters and numbers he shocked me once again by pointing out nine letters correctly. At one point he holds up an "E" and tells me that it stands for Uncle Erik. Once again I'm amazed by his young, absorbent mind and how it is able to grasp so much information, take it all in and make incredible sense of everything. It is so wonderful to watch him grow and learn and be there every step of the way.

Lastly, he shocked me while we were eating lunch on Saturday. He turns to me and says...
A: Knock, knock, momma
M: Who's there? (It took me awhile to actually figure out he was sharing a joke)
A: Monster
M: Monster who?
A: Monster butt (This was followed by wild, crazy laughter. I know it makes no sense, but it made Mark and I laugh regardless.)

I have a feeling that when he truly understands and gets jokes that he's going to love trading them with Auntie Manda and Uncle Erik! (However, Erik you might need to clean yours up a bit!)

After a weekend like this I'm really looking forward to summer and being able to spend lots of time outdoors and enjoying all of our time together as a family.

In the neighborhood...

Mom and Dad surprised us by making a spontaneous six hour round trip down to Becker last Sunday. (I really shouldn't have been surprised after posting the "Hey Papa Willie" post and talking to mom on the phone that morning. They definitely were missing him.) Clearly it made Anthony's day to wake up and see Grandma Kathy and Papa Willie here at his house and ready to play. He had a great time at the park and we enjoyed the supper they brought along too.
Thanks for taking the time to visit! It was great to see you and spend time together.

Hey Papa Willie!

Anthony got dressed this morning thinking of YOU! He wanted to wear his Carhartt pants, basketball shirt and, to top the look off, his rubber boots. He had a whole story on how he was going to go visit Papa Willie today as he picked out his clothes and I got him dressed. Too cute!

Yep. You can tell by the photos that he's still stuck in a band-aid phase on his forehead. He has now had one on constantly since Thursday night. ???

I need a band-aid!

Band-aids have become a recent must have for Anthony. This particular Snoopy band-aid on his forehead has almost past the 24 hour mark. Daddy put it on him right after supper last night. He went to bed with it on and wouldn't take it off for me this morning or for Renae at day care. I wonder how long this fascination will last?

Our Superhero

It's amazing how popular a pair of nine dollar pajamas has become for our little two year old! Ever since Mark purchased a Batman figure for him and the two of them watch Batman on TV he's been hooked. Since bringing home the awesome jams with a full-fledged awesome cape Anthony has slipped into Batman mode every night, which is super cute.
I thought it would be too early to love superheroes at such a young age, but apparently this mom is wrong.

Cam and Ry

If you ask Anthony who his friends are he automatically says Cam and Ry. Luckily for A there has been lots of best friend time in the past couple of weeks. He's definitely a fortunate little guy to have two wonderful boys to hang out with and play.
Getting a picture of the three of them together proves impossible with my slow shutter speed camera mixed with their need to be moving around constantly. Perhaps one of these days I'll get a decent shot of the boys together.

Thanks, Great Aunt Barb!

Mark's Aunt Barb got Anthony a pair of roller blades awhile back. On a beautiful Saturday Mark and Anthony tried them out, which was quite funny to watch. Of course he thinks he's a hockey player and he LOVED skating. However, he needed daddy there constantly to help him through the whole hockey star workout. After trying them out for awhile we took them off and Anthony bawled. Hopefully with some more practice he'll get better and have lots of fun.
On a side note, THANK YOU Manda and Damon for the bug helmet. It's come in handy so many times. Plus Anthony loves wearing his helmet when he does random things like go to the park, play around the house or anytime we take a wagon ride around the block. I'm sure our neighbors think we are being a little overprotective/just plain crazy; however, he loves it and that's what matters.

Celebrating Jenn

At the end of April, Super Luke (this new name definitely fits him!) threw a large 30th birthday bash for Jenn at their house. It was a great day of meeting her high school/college friends, hanging out with other friends/their family members and, most importantly, celebrating Jenn. We had a great time eating, chatting and being together throughout the day. Way to pull it off, SL!

Finally a photo of Miss Gracelynn! She's now twelve pounds and such a cutie. Here she's posing with her mommy, April, and Laura. (By the way, if you want an AMAZING cut and color I highly recommend calling April up. She's clearly gifted at what she does. Now if only I could style my hair as cute as she did...)

Look at how big Emerson is getting! In a month's time he'll be celebrating his birthday too! I can't wait to see the photos from that party. His mommy Tracy certainly knows how to make everything fabulous.

Happy birthday, Jenn! I hope you enjoy your thirties just as much as you did your twenties!

Yes, The Hanson Hat Trick is still here...

Whew! It's been awhile.
May is finally here! We're excited to see the grass turning back to it's beautiful shade of green and the trees budding everywhere around town. The school year is slowly winding down and before we know it summer will be here! I'm very excited for all that is to come in the next few weeks; however, right now I feel a bit in survival mode. (Some students have already checked out while others are starting to think the last few weeks don't really matter. THEY DO! Ugh.) I promise when the school year comes to a close I'll do a better job of updating at least weekly and sharing the stories of our lives.
Until then, I'll try to catch everyone up on the happenings of the last few weeks...