Grandma Sorenson

Bob's Grandma, Darle Sorenson, passed away on March 2. She was 92 years old. She was very loved by all of us. She found out she had cancer only two weeks before she passed away. Although we miss her, we are so happy that she did not suffer long, and that Bob's parents were able to attend her funeral before they left on their mission to Romania.

She was buried in the cemetary near the Manti, Utah temple.

Bob was one of the pallbearers

Katelyn Ebright

Courtney & Amber were cleaning the headstone

Our kids inherited their fanatic BYU attitude from many Grandparents.

Notice the BYU flowers?

Here's Zach trying to stay warm. It was freezing cold.

We enjoyed being in Utah. It was wonderful to visit with so many family members. Almost all of Bob's siblings were in Utah, you can imagine the entertaining chaos. We all enjoyed it. The funeral was Friday, and then Bob's parents spoke in church on Sunday. Unfortunately, all my kids and I were super sick on Sunday, so we had to stay home from church.

Hail the conquering fisherman!

A little bit of water has been flowing in the river behind our home. Jace went down and saw some fish swimming in it. He caught them both with his bare hands! We cooked one and ate it, it was delish!

A whitefishMeasured like a true fisherman. (Doesn't 14 1/4 round up to 15?)

A rainbow trout. 19", weighing 2 lbs.

Mallory's Journal

Mallory (age 6) wrote this in her journal. I think it is adorable!

Happy Birthday Andrew!

On March 2, Andrew turned 3. We were excited to celebrate his birthday, because he always finds bits of wrapping paper and miscellaneous objects that he wraps up, brings them to someone, sings "happy birthday" to them at the top of his lungs, and then has them open their "present". For his birthday, he got more tracks and another train for his and Zach's "GeoTrax" train set, and a train book. I love this little guy so much. His blue eyes melt my heart at least once a day.
On his birthday, Jace was helping him say a prayer. Jace: "and we're thankful for my birthday..." Andrew: "...we're thankful for Jace's birthday..."

Here's a few cute pictures of him from the last few months.

We love you Andrewshek!

Jace's 12th Birthday

Jace turned 12 on February 15th. I can't believe how quickly this moment has come!

I know people always say that about their children growing up, but it is becoming more & more true for us every day.

We had such nice discussions with Jace about the responsibilities and duties of the priesthood before he turned 12. He really has grown up and he takes these things very seriously.

It seems like just a little while ago since this is how Jace looked.

Or this cute CHUBBY little guy.

Here was his birthday dinner: lemon-garlic shrimp, baked potatoes, creamy tomato soup, and salad. Yum! Afterwards we headed off to a youth fireside with our two oldest. Thanks to Lisa for supervising Courtney as she babysat the younger kiddos.

Jace made his own whole wheat, honey-sweetened Devil's food cake, with cream cheese frosting. (Served with Breyer's sugary-as-can-be, but-all-natural, ice cream)

Since his birthday was on a Sunday, he was able to be ordained a Deacon in the Aaronic priesthood after church. What a neat experience. He has been enjoying being able to pass the sacrament and going to Young Men activities.

I'm so thankful for our church that assists us in the awesome responsibility of raising righteous sons. I'm so grateful I'm able to be at home with Jace & my other children each day, having the gospel truths to answer all their questions.

We love you Jace!

Scouting in our family

Spencer has looked forward to being a Cub Scout for a long, long time. At the beginning of 2008, he memorized everything he needed to pass off for his Bobcat badge, even though I told him he'd need to do it again when he turned 8 in 11 more months! So, when his birthday rolled around, he was ready. He passed off all the Bobcat requirements the day after he turned 8. This picture is at his first pack meeting when he was awarded his badge. He's now working hard on his Wolf requirements.

I am enjoying being the Cubmaster in our ward, its fun to get to be there with Spencer, and Jace who is our Boy Scout Den Chief, meaning he comes each week to Cub Scouts & helps out. The boys really respect him, and he helps keep them behaving well.

This is Jace & Abby at our recent Blue & Gold Banquet. The theme was American ABC's. We had sloppy joes, veggie plates, chips, and strawberry daquiris with whipped cream & blue sprinkles on top (made by a super-nice man in our ward!) For dessert we had apple crisp & ice cream. I'm sure glad that it is all done, and that it went well. Next month is the Pinewood Derby which is always a ton of fun.

I had just started taking my kids to a weekly jumprope class in Rexburg when we realized our schedule was over-filled, and we were just running around all week. So, we sat down and tried to decide what we could cut out. We found some websites that showed different jumprope skills just like they were learning in the class, so we decided that the jumproping class could go, even though it was a lot of fun.

The next day was a confirmation to me that we were doing the right thing by simplfying the schedule. Chris & Kathryn came over, and the kids were jumproping. Bob & Chris got into the act, and in the course of an hour or so, our kids learned more jumproping techniques than they would have learned in weeks at their class. Here's some footage (sorry for the bad lighting):

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!