More Christmas pictures

Mallory opening her doll. She loves dolls and that is all she would ask for. When we reminded her that she already had five dolls, she replied, "but, I'm six...so I need six dolls." Her other dolls are baby dolls, so we got her one of these "Our Generation" dolls like Courtney has. We like to get similar toys for our children so they have fun playing together with them.

This is the gift Zach gave me. The top part is the wrapping & note, and the snowflake is what was inside. He was so, so excited to give me a present for Christmas. He went and made this himself, and Bob told me that he put his heart & soul into making this, and wrapping it for me. I love it.

Aliysa sculpts all sorts of character bears. She made this bear nativity set for me for Christmas.

Aliysa on Christmas - with her new BYU pajama bottoms, blanket, and a good book (wrinkle in time series.) She was in heaven (pajamas, reading, & being cuddly are all her favorite things!)

Abby tasting her first candy cane (FYI-it was organic, and with no artificial ingredients, and sweetened with evaporated cane juice. The lady at the health food store informed me that these were much less toxic than real candy canes. I think she may have just been trying to help me justify spending more on them :))

Spencer gave Bob a purple turtleneck sweater. Spencer had been joking about doing this for quite some time. Purple is Bob's favorite color, but of course, he doesn't buy purple clothes, and he never wears sweaters or turtlenecks. Spencer was pretty proud of this great joke. I'd post the picture of Bob actually wearing this, but Bob won't let me. He asked me to delete it.

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

I decided that I really didn't have enough to do today, so I got on and took this quiz that my friend Jen told me about. She took it and found out that she is an exclamation point, which I have to say, fits pretty well for her. I usually never spend the time to do these things, but it only took a second.

I found out that I am a "colon" : : : : :

Here's what they had to say about colons:

You are very orderly and fact driven. I think I am

You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue. Yes, I would have to say that "truth" is my passion.

You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. I do like to research things.

You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. Bob, would you say this is true about me? (Laughing because my favorite hobby in the world is making lists)

You aren't subject to whim or emotions. Oh, I wish this were true

Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. I really don't know. I hope I share the things I know

(But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) Yeah, Jen, I think you're right that they add one or two things just to be mean. I'm really only right about 99% of the time. Just kidding! I'm wrong lots of times.

You excel in: Leadership positions. No, I don't think this is too true

You get along best with: The Semi-Colon (I'll have to have Bob take the quiz! Because I get along best with him, whatever sort of punctuation he is. But I doubt he'll agree with the results of the quiz. He doesn't care for personality tests)

You can take the quiz here: http://www.blogthings.com/whatpunctuationmarkareyouquiz/
I know, you just needed something to waste time today. Comment and tell me what punctuation you are!

Vacation to Utah

I'm finally updating my blog. Because I set lots of New Year's resolutions, and I have been working hard to try to accomplish them, I haven't had lots of room for computer time.

We went to Utah the week before Christmas because my family was going to be all together! This doesn't happen too often since Christian and Tara live in Boston and Ahren and Aaron are in Washington. So, here are some of the fun times we had:

It was so fun to see the Teerlink cousins again!

Cousin bonding time

I got to see Dad's new printer, and spend some time talking with him:

I introduced Ahren to the joys of a spiral curling iron. Isn't she cute? I loved getting to be around her again. Whenever I'm around my siblings (and their families) I always feel like they help me a better person.

Here's a picture of Lisa & Preston, what a cute couple!

Grandma & Grandpa Hahn let the grandchildren decorate the tree.

We went out to eat for my Birthday at Won Won Wok! It was a lot of fun, we ate tons of sushi and other delicious dishes. We took home lots of leftovers, too. What a wonderful time with family.

When we came home, Tara had each person write a birthday wish for me on a balloon, and then we went outside and let them float up to the sky. Then we enjoyed yummy birthday cake she had also made. What a sweetheart. My whole family made the day so great.

Later that evening we went to "Coyote Creek" where Lisa's boyfriend, Preston works. There were lots of horses to see, and he let them brush one of his horses. We saw some baby goats, and we got to watch the BYU/Arizona bowl game on a big screen TV in his lobby


There was a game of pool going on also:

When we arrived in Utah, Dad had just had a new toilet installed in the basement, in preparation for the numerous grandchildren. But, there were no walls, so he found the biggest cardboard box he could find and put it around the toilet.



When I was younger, we had a toilet in our basement surrounded by a much bigger refrigerator box, that we fondly called the "Hahn John." Well, when we noticed that this newer Hahn John already had graffiti on the walls ("For a good time, call Lisa" [!]) Bob and Dad went to work to make a nicer bathroom. They framed it, and put up some temporary drywall.




Tara was as energetic and fun as ever. She went outside and had snowball fights and played in the snow with all the kiddos.

And, whenever boredom even seemed slightly emminent, Grandma always had fun activities ready, as usual. I'm sure my kids enjoyed this activity since play-dough has been banned at our home for two years and counting.


We went to Cabela's while in Utah. The kids loved the fish tank, and all the taxidermy specimens.



Here's the hottest husband around, with two of his adorable sons



Aaron made a good catch!

Then the children disappeared!...

Here was a quick group photo after church. Daniel was not amused, nor was Ashlie. She did agree to sit near the group (just not too close to those crazy cousins.)

Well, I must admit that I didn't take many pictures while we were in Utah. All of the above pictures have been stolen from my sibling's blogs. I'm sure glad they were on the ball! As a result, I don't have any pictures of the last evening & day we spent in Utah, when we were at Bob's family's home. We arrived on Sunday evening, and I crashed on the couch for a short nap to make up for all my sleep deprivation. Then we had fun visiting with everyone and admiring the construction paper train track and village that covered the entire living room ceiling. Pretty impressive! The kids all had fun with cousins and all the relatives there. We headed home the next day amidst snowstorms, and made it back a couple of days before Christmas. Now we miss everyone more, but we are so thankful for all the wonderful memories!

Merry Christmas

A busy couple of weeks!

I've been so busy, I haven't taken the time to update our blog.

Here are some misc. pictures of what we've been doing.

Mallory dressing up as a bride. Courtney dressed her up.

The kids have been making some fun block creations.

One night the kids were seeing how high they could hold
the broom & still jump over it. Good effort Courtney!


Spencer had a birthday party!

A picture with his friends at his party

And here's a silly one

We had a great Thanksgiving, all together with family.
We had so much delicious food & it was so fun to be together!
Spencer & Jess even made me a pecan pie that had no sugar! How nice is that?
The next morning I dragged Aliysa and Nan out of bed at 3:30, and made them
go shopping on Black Friday! We were at JCPenney by 4:00 am.
Here is Bob's sister Nan, Aliysa, & I. We had a lot of fun.
Then we went over to WalMart, walked in, and turned around and walked out.
It was pure chaos. Then we went back to JCPenney & shopped some more.
Even Aliysa, who hates shopping put up with it.
She almost collapsed a few times with fatigue,
but after getting a breakfast burrito she revived.
We'll see if I can talk her into it next year.
Later that day, a lot of the adults in Bob's family went target shooting.
Bob has been wanting me to go shooting for a long time with him.
I had a lot of fun, and even hit the target a few times!
Then we got back together at Anne & Dan's for more good food,
playing the Wii, and just having fun together.





We've been making gingerbread cookies.

Typical one-track mind.

Bob has been reading "A Christmas Carol" to us in the evenings. We all love it!

Abby learned to crawl on 12/4/08. It is so exciting to see these little milestones.

It never grows old. The whole family was so excited for her!

Spencer was baptized on December 6th

It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining through

the clouds as we drove to the Stake Center.

Do you like the cracks in our windshield?

Thank goodness Idaho doesn't have vehicle inspections!

We are so happy that Spencer made this decision,

and I'm so glad that I have a wonderful

husband who is worthy to perform this ordinance.

Here are the men who were in the circle

for his confirmation. Gumby, The Spencer,

Bob, Dan, Brother French (in our bishopric),

Dave, and little Spencer.

It just is amazing to me that he is already eight years old. Wow.

Sarah making Abby laugh

Abby all bundled up

We took a few family pictures recently.

It was quite an ordeal to get everyone looking at the camera,

plus we're still using our crummy camera,

so the pictures are a bit grainy. At least

we got a few shots recorded for history.

Here is one of the kids while Bob was getting them posed.

He had Aliysa read out loud so they'd all hold still.

Oh, I sure love these kiddos!

Zach & Andrew were getting tired of smiling, I guess

We wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Spencer is 8!

Spencer turned 8 this last week! He will be starting cub scouts on Wednesday, and getting baptized this Saturday! I'll post his birthday pictures later, but I wanted to at least post something today. We love you Spencer!