Thanksgiving

During the holiday rush of packing, driving, cooking, eating, shopping, hanging out and wrapping gifts my sister-in-law graciously squeezed in a quick family photo shoot.  Since the school pictures didn't turn out well I promised the girls we would have Erica take their pictures and buy some of those (I didn't buy any of the school ones even though Kaylee's is awesome but I do have the sheet they sent home so I do have it...how could I not get a copy of that one!)  Erica did an awesome job and we will actually put these up around our house!  Erica is working on the pictures and sending them to me through email.  I've probably checked my email like ten times this morning and it's only 9:30.  I can't wait to see them all!

This one was just funny because Blake wanted to walk around and started kicking Ben where it counts.  The girls couldn't stop laughing and that only encouraged Blake to kick harder.  But I LOVE Blake's face with his tongue sticking out.  He is so much fun!

 I love having nice pictures where Kaylee cooperates, Heidi showed her teeth and they are just overall cute!  I especially like the one of Heidi and Kaylee together.  They may get frustrated and annoyed at each other a lot now but when they are older they will great friends and love this little picture of them when they were younger.

 Kayle was really excited to have this picture taken with me.  She is such a cute girl when she wants to be.  Erica had a hard time getting her to smile all the way.  She would half smile but not give us a full-blown happy smile until we started tickling her.  Thanks to Erica for doing this.  I love family pictures.

Why I love my life

I love my life.  It's pretty awesome.  To begin with I was born into the church.  And even though my family life was not as spiritual as other church families like the Papas it was enough to provide me with a testimony that the church is true.  I recently invited a friend to take the discussions-big step for me because I'm not the best at missionary work.  She didn't totally reject me but one big beef she has is that she doesn't believe that Jesus Christ showed himself to the people of South America at the time of His resurrection.  The crowning event in the Book of Mormon is when Jesus Christ comes down and ministers to the people in the America, just as he ministered to those in Jerusalem.  As she explained that she didn't believe it I kept thinking "But why not?"  If Jesus Christ was resurrected, had power over death, and also had the ability to show himself to his disciples in Jerusalem when or wherever He wanted then why couldn't he also show himself to his disciples in the Americas?  It seems so easy to make that connection.  I am so glad that I have the gospel.  It is so simple, so complete and honestly the best part of my life.  It is thanks to the gospel that my life has gone the direction it has and all the blessings I have now are because of following the gospel.  

 The next thing I love about my life is Ben.  I love being married to Ben.  He is wonderful.  Thanks to Ben I get to be a mom.  I get to stay home everyday and just be a mom.  That is all I've ever wanted to be.  Today while running a new girl joined us.  She asked what I did, "I'm a mom."  And both running partners began to explain that they knew being a mom was a busy job and didn't mean to offend or didn't mean it in that way...to tell you the truth I didn't get what that way really even meant.  I did however tell them I wasn't offended.  I was a mom and I love it.  I could care less about any other way to define me.  I have a degree but I don't ever want to use it.  I've told Ben I never want to work again-even when the kids are out of the house.  When they are gone I want to be at home and on call.  If my kids ever need me, for a baby or whatever other reason, I want to be able to say "I'm getting in the car now.  I'll be there soon."  I don't want to have to wait until work is over.  I want to be there whenever.  And thanks to my wonderful husband I can.  I took the above pictures one day to remember how much I love my everyday nothing I do.  Each morning I run, wake up the kids, get them on the bus and then from 7:15 and on it is just Daisy and Blake.  This particular morning we made eggs and moved the piano bench out for them to watch their new movie while they ate (and while I showered).  I love this life.  We just hang out until lunch time, then it's naps, then Kaylee comes home.  Heidi makes it home 90 mins after that and then we hang out until dinner time.  I love it.  Thank you Ben for making my life exactly how I've always wanted it to be.

 After Ben my next blessing is my kids.  They truly fill my life with joy.  Being a mom has times that drive you crazy and you want to rip your hair out.  Potty training is work, whining is annoying and there is the endless cycle of feeding, cleaning, and crying that you have to put up with.  But there are so many more moments when they just make you laugh and you just love seeing them become wonderful people.  Plus I would much rather put up with annoying habits from my kids than deal with the annoying habits of coworkers.  My kids love me so much more than a coworker ever would.  Daisy sat at the table today pouring apple juice from cup to cup.  She loved it and I love seeing her grow.  Heidi had to complete the phrase 'If I was a millionaire I would...' her answer 'buy people houses.  Then I would make more money and then give it to people who want to travel and go to their families.'  Is she not the nicest kid?  Blake just brought me a bunch of bananas because he wanted one.  How cute.  And Kaylee is super excited to have a lunch party with her friends this next week.  With all her craziness she makes us laugh the most.  Having a family is the best.  Each one is wonderful and though I know I would be happy all my life the kids I have I also know that having more just means more fun as well.  I love it.

I really love my life.  There is nothing lacking that could ever make me happier than I already am.  Not only do I have a wonderful family but they are even super cute kids!  Look how cute Blake is in his winter coat and Jesse doll.  I have such a blessed life.

Nothing to show for it

It has been a long time since I've posted and the funny thing is that I have nothing new to post about.  I've been busy.  This last week I went down to my mom's spur of the moment to help my sister completely makeover their house.  She had painted everything and I came down to do what I do best-cleaning it.  We were up until 2 or 3 each night then getting up again to continue working and also being parents to our kids who were pretty good despite me giving them no attention whatsoever.  I always have mixed feelings about cleaning my mom's house.  I enjoy it because I love taking a room apart, going through everything, and then putting it all back together in a cuter, cleaner way.  I love seeing the bags and bags of stuff that we are just getting rid of because it is never used or not needed.  I love seeing the closet which was packed to begin with to then be organized, and for the most part be completely empty.  It's amazing how much they accumulate without even realizing they have it.  There were so many things that we either got rid of, or found, that they did not even know about.  So I love going down and doing that.  It's fun for me.  What I don't like though is the part where I have to be mean and say 'this is not going back in your house', 'you don't have to keep everything that is given to you', 'this is ugly' or, what I repeat constantly while I am there, "that is not decoration".  When I go I have to be blunt, bossy, and even rude to get all the work done and get it done quickly.  So while the week of cleaning and organizing gives me a feeling of accomplishment it also leaves me completely tense, grouchy and thanks to the late nights, exhausted, both emotionally and physically.  And in the end I come home to my own house and find that I have piles of laundry to do, grocery shopping and dinner to fix, and then I feel the need to spend lots of time with my kids to make up for the previous week of neglect.  So sorry to my mom for being mean about her house but it's good to know that she will take the bossy part of me along with good part of me.

The best part of the trip was going to Erica's house.  They live about 6 hours away from us so it is a long drive but I love when the cousins all get together.  They will play together all day without a single problem.  And that isn't even an exaggeration.  There is seriously no problems.  The only time anyone was upset was when it came time for sleeping and Kaylee, who always feels second best to Heidi, felt like none of the cousins likes her because they all wanted to sleep with Heidi.  I get how she feels but once the sleeping arrangements were made she was content.  Then later on Penny, the dog, came and slept by Kaylee all night long.  On the way home when asked what was their favorite part of the trip Kaylee said it was sleeping with Penny.  Thank you to Penny who made her feel so special for sleeping with her.  So the cousins are the best.  They get along so well and we adults get to just enjoy being together.  I also have to say that we Hancocks are so lucky to have Erica in the family.  She just goes along with whatever is happening and loves it.  She doesn't bat an eye at having three adults and seven extra kids come to her house when her husband isn't home to help out.  In fact I think she would have been mad if we hadn't come.  She is so welcoming and honestly believes the more the merrier.  And for those of you who don't know Erica, or didn't attend Las Plumas High School, you probably don't know that my freshman year we were in the same math class.  She was a year ahead of me so I already felt in the inferiority of a freshman compared to a sophomore.  I knew how popular and cool she was and I knew how lame I was.  All year she there was something about her where I knew she was way too cool and pretty much out of my league of friends.  And then one night I had a basketball game against the rival school, Oroville High.  We played the game and I had scored two 3 pointers (that was a slight miracle in itself since I  suck at basketball and said a prayer each time I threw the ball towards the hoop).  After the game Erica was in the stands and called out 'Good game Shauna' or something like that as I walked by.  I mumbled some response but all I thought in my head was 'Erica Pace knows my NAME!?!?!'  It was a pretty big night for me.  And now 15 years later she is a speed dial on my phone, an aunt to my kids, and a very close friend.  Crazy how life works out.  I don't know if this all means I'm in the cool club now or she has just really let her friendship standards slip but either way she has really blessed my life and the whole Hancock family.