Introducing

It has been ages since I made a post!  I need to start doing better again.  I had intentions of doing a 2014 year in review but a new baby always changes how much you can get done.  ;)  It may still come at some point.  So here is a small update on the kiddos for now.  Hadley Annette Hansen was born on Thanksgiving morning and was 7 lbs. 13 ounces and 20 inches.  She is my smallest baby yet and we all love her so much.

Graduation

Dave graduated with his masters degree in Nurse Anesthesia!  I am so proud of him for his hard work and accomplishment!  I am not going to expound in writing here on the blog about the experience as a whole because there is no way I could do it justice.  Thanks for all the love and support.

Spring.

One of Kaia's favorite places.  The butterfly garden is now closed but we sure had our fun while it lasted!  Kaia wanted her photo taken with every butterfly she caught.  So many different kinds.  

No I did not tell her to do this! 

Love this!  Rylee had to hold a butterfly too and this is a way she can without smashing it.  ;)

Her favorites are the orange ones.  

Creatures have emerged.

MSU Small Animal Day.  

Trail biking and frog catching.  Doesn't get much better than that!  First frog catch of the season and boy was she happy!

Dad wasn't too thrilled that Mom caught a snake for Kaia.

Hints of Spring!!!!

It definitely does not look or feel like spring around here but small hints of spring bring us hope!

Meet Izzy.  During the fall our neighbor found this little woolley bear caterpillar and brought it over for Kaia.  She adopted it as her pet and played with it for days!  We decided to find out how to care for it.  I thought it would be a fun project for Kaia.  She made the caterpillar a home outside for the winter where it has been hibernating.  They produce a chemical that acts like anti freeze that keeps them from freezing during the winter months.  Just yesterday the caterpillar began to liven up again.  Kaia went out and found a few leaves to feed Izzy and is excited to see the caterpillar make it's cocoon and transform into an Isabella Tiger Moth.  Updates to come.

We always look forward to the day that the butterfly garden opens up on campus.  It's the first fun spring activity we get to do and it opened last week!  This year Kaia is big enough to use nectar to catch the butterflies on her own.  We have already walked to the garden a few times and she has loved seeing all the butterflies and gray tree frogs there.  She says that the orange butterflies are her favorites.  

This cute girl is just always happy especially if she gets to sit on a chair by herself.

A FIRST BIRTHDAY!

I can't believe it!

Never ending snow.

The snow here has seemed never ending.  Along with it comes the cold, the very cold.  But when it decides to hit the high twenties we take advantage of all that snow.  These first two pictures had potential of being great but someone forgot to check their ISO before shooting.  GRRRR

I loved the snowflakes in her eyelashes.

Some iphone shots:

Kaia loves collecting icicles. 

Wow today the temp finally got above freezing!  The top layer of snow was finally wet enough to make a snowman!  

WINTER

Before we moved here we were warned about Michigan winters.  The last two years have not been much to talk about but this year has been crazy.  MSU closed for two days due to snow and cold weather which has only happened five times in the last 130 years!  The public schools were recently closed for a week straight.  Michiganders have been saying this is the worst winter they can remember. When it gets above twenty degrees it feels warm and we bundle up and head outside so we don't go stir crazy.  Here are a few photos of the snow here.

Sometimes I get behind on blogging and wonder if it's even worth it.  Then I think of how we are away from our families and I look at pictures like this and I remember why I keep a blog.  This is a photo of Kaia shortly after we moved to Michigan.  How did she change so quickly?  And now I have Rylee who looks about the same as Kaia did when we moved here.  I promise I will try to do better.

Photos of playing in the snow coming soon.