Brandon Hansen

It is amazing how fast the time goes by. I can’t believe the Koby had his 6th birthday today. It seems like we just brought him home from the hospital yesterday and now he turned 6 years old. I remember when he came home from the hospital and Cami and I put him down in his car seat and looked at him and said, okay, now what do we do? We didn’t really know, so I went and got a couple slushies from Sonic and we just sat at home.

Now that he has grown up and we have a couple other kids, life doesn’t slow down and the kids just are growing up way to fast.

We had a lot of fun today with Koby. He woke up this morning and he wanted to open his presents right away. It was like 6:30 and he would have been done within a few minutes. So we told him that he needed to wait for a little while until Clay woke up and we ate breakfast.

So when Clay woke up, he walked the house and looked for his presents that we had hidden and tore into them. He was really excited about his gifts. We got him a CD player with the Alvin & the Chipmunks CD, a tennis racket, the first 4 Books in the “Magic Treehouse Series”, a pogo ball, and a Pokemon DVD (from Spencer). Grandma JuJu got him the Alvin & the Chipmunks DVD. My mom and dad got him a few things that he opened at his party with Cami last week at their house.

I had to go to work fr a couple hours. He has really been into tennis lately so Cami took the three boys to the courts to play while I went into the office. I came home at about 12:30 and we hung out at the house for a few hours and decided to have cake and ice cream then instead of after dinner. Cami made this awesome cake of a pirate ship on the ocean. It had cannon’s and a pirate flag. It was really neat, and of course he loved it.

We then left because he wanted to go bowling, to Red Robin and then to play Tennis. It was a fun afternoon and we had a good time together. At Red Robin, he was so excited that they came and sang to him and had a huge smile on his face the whole time. It was really funny to see.

Like I said before, he has really gotten into tennis, so we went and played after dinner. Unfortunately it started to rain really hard so we had to abandon the court after only about a half hour. It then rained really hard for about an hour, so that was cool.

It was a fun day and a blast hanging out with Koby (and the rest f the family). We love him and his personality and spirit. It is an honor to be his dad.

Today is Cami’s 30th birthday and we get to celebrate with her.

For her birthday, the boys and I took her to a pizza place here in town called MiMi’s Pizza where they had Peanut Butter and Honey pizza for Koby, free teddy graham’s for Clay and hot dogs and potato chips for Spencer. They also had a little area that the kids could sit at their own chair and watch movies (they were showing Disney’s Aladdin). We ordered a Hawaiian Pizza for us and with the boys’ help, made a complete disaster of the place. It was great. Plus we ordered a large pizza and have cold leftovers now for breakfast, which is totally awesome.

After the movie, we went to see Pixar’s Wall e. It was a pretty good story line and the animation is amazing (obviously).

She has been getting into tennis lately with some sisters from Relief Society and every Saturday morning they go to a court and play for a couple hours. So this year, I got her a tennis racket, some tennis balls and a tennis bag – all of which she will probably return. I just get her something for an idea and then we can go together and get what she wants. I always give her a hard time about that, but it really doesn’t bother me. I am excited for her to find things that she enjoys. It is good for her to get out and do things for herself.

We have (she has) been researching some cameras lately. She wanted one for her birthday and after looking at many different kinds, she decided to get the new Casio Exilim so we are going to pick that up this afternoon. I think she is excited.

Here are some things I love about Cami:

1. She is very organized
2. She loves her boys
3. She takes care of herself
4. She takes her calling at church very seriously
5. She is patient with me and the boys, even when we get on her nerves (which is probably often)
6. She loves the scriptures
7. She loves Christmas (something she gets from her mom)
8. She cuts hair – this used to matter to me more then now, but still…
9. She likes to research things before she buys them
10. She keeps a very careful budget
11. She likes a fast internet connection (who doesn’t?)
12. She likes ice cream
13. She is a beach bum
14. She cleans the house religiously every week
15. She would go golfing with me if I really wanted to
16. She enjoys staying home with our boys and not working
17. She loves mexican food
18. She gets a great tan
19. She comes from a great family and also loves my family
20. She is a good cook

Today we are going to my mom and dad’s house to celebrate hers and Koby’s birthday (is he really 6 already? Weird!)

I love her very much and am honored to have her as my companion.

Here are some more photos of Cami:

And this is what life is like for us now…

We love you!

This last weekend Cami’s parents came to town and spent a few days with us. It was fun to have them (and Austin) here. Koby and Spencer were both excited to hear that Austin was coming and they were great together.

One of the projects that we had on our agenda was to fix our floor where it got burned a couple weeks ago.

What seemed like a major problem and inconvenience turned into something nice and beneficial for our house.

We got insurance money that paid for everything and this is the end result. It took us from about 8:00 am Monday morning to about 9:30 pm Monday evening. Not bad for a few hours work.

Mid way through

The rest of the photo set is here.

Thanks a ton Jonn and Judy for helping with this project. It was more helpful then you can imagine!

We had a pretty fun weekend and enjoyed celebrating our country’s independence day. Here is what we did.

On the morning of the 4th, we went to a breakfast for our ward and had awesome breakfast burritos and fruit. It was awesome. The scouts raised the flag and we had a spiritual thought about independence.

After that, we went and dropped mom and clay off at the house so they could get a couple things done and give Clay a nap. Koby and Spencer and I went to the Greeley Independence Day Parade and battled traffic, parking and the crowds to watch a little of the parade. It was pretty good, but very hot. We were not in the shade at all, but there was a church that we were by that were giving out free cups of ice, so we took advantage of that.

The parade was typical Greeley, with the toilet cars to the hordes of cowboys and horses. I took a few pictures and then realized that as soon as I got home, I would probably wonder what I took all of them for and end up deleting them. They were all pretty lame, but here is one that was okay.

They were puling it down because we were near an electrical wire that they had to go under. Like I said, nothing special, but the boys had a good time and enjoyed certain parts of the event.

After the parade, we went home and got mom and Clay and got ready to go swimming at the first pool. Our friends, the Gollhofers, live in a neighborhood that has a pool and it happens to be right outside their back door. They invited us over and we were excited. The boys had tons of fun and got plenty of sun. Here are a few pictures from the pool.

Koby on the slide.

Taylor and Koby

Spencer through the tube

Koby the fish

Clay and I

Spencer on the slide

We had a lot of fun at the pool.

After that pool, we headed down to my parents house and had a bbq with them and some other friends. They have an above the ground pool that the kids swam in and spent the rest of the afternoon. They had plenty of sun that day.

Later, when it was time for fireworks, we went to Loveland to watch them from over Lake Loveland. We usually watch them from the church lawn, but this year we went with friends (the Hopwoods) and watched them from Anna’s brother’s house. It was a lot of fun and we avoided the headache of traffic (for the most part).

After that, we went home. We have a lot of projects going on so the rest of the weekend we spent getting those things done. We also had Cami’s parents and Koby & Spencer’s cousin come to town for a few days. They are still here until Tuesday and are having fun. One of the projects I am working on is getting a new floor in our kitchen and we have pergo that we are laying, so we are going to start that, hopefully, tomorrow.

For more pictures of the weekend, visit my flickr set here.

This morning I took the two older boys and met up with some of my family at the Greeley Stampede for a “scratch rodeo”. I am not sure what the status of the contestants, but it was free and called a “scratch.” Based on their performance and the lack of excitement from everyone in attendance, I can only assume that they did not qualify for the “good” rodeo.

The boys had fun running around the stands and watching a few of the cowboys jump off their horse and tackle the calves.

My parents came up to see it with us and also to see the kids a bit. That is always fun and we love it when they come up for any reason. The boys get really excited and have fun, especially because the visits usually end in a trip to get ice cream or something like that.  Well, today it was just to a stand in the Stampede where they sell cinnamon rolls and chocolate milk.

We always look forward to this time of the year because we get to spend time celebrating Independence day. I will post pictures and more info about the weekend as it happens.