2011

Standing on the edge of the River is therapy. I love this pic!
Maycee and Katie with their riding goggles on.
Everyone tucking in for the night.
Katie and Brody had some bonding time....he calls her TayTay.
Can you say Diva?? She is a sweet one though!
Laynee at her first solo dance competition. She scored really high and took second place in her division. The girls who took first place is a Toddler and Tiarra Pageant Queen.(TLC Show for young pageant girls) The important thing is she had fun and wants to do more!
This is one of the moves in her dance.
The girls performed at a local Rodeo(Queen Creek) in March.
Well, I said I was going to be better about blogging this year but every year seems to be getting busier than the year before. We are trying to figure out how to simplify but it takes time to make changes. This year has been good to us so far. Tyler is running track, Maycee and Laynee are dancing and Clay is playing baseball and Jerry is coaching. Brody starts swimming lesson tomorrow, April 25th. I.....well, I keep them all running in the right direction, make sure their clothes are clean and food is in the fridge. Occasionally, I find a night when we can all sit down together and enjoy some time around the table.

Spring break was fantastic this year. My younger brother and sister were able to come out and visit for a week. The weather was beautiful and our time together brought a lot of healing. We took family pictures and spent some time at our favorite camping spot riding quads and playing in the river. We can all hardly wait to be together again and do some more exploring and reconnecting!! I will put some of the family pics on here as soon as I get the new computer up and running. This ancient beast I am working on does not allow me to download the pics from a disc, but I will tell you they are priceless and I can hardly wait to share them with you!

Following are some pics of the highlights of the first few months of the year. Every week of our lives are jam packed with events I would love to share but I will try to keep it to the highlights. I wish I had more time to sit down and write. I was inspired to write tonight by a friend who recently moved and started a blog. I enjoyed reading about her family so much and remembered it had been a long time since I had updated our family blog.

2010 in a Nutshell

I WROTE THIS BLOG LAST MONTH AND NEVER POSTED.....I PROMISE TO DO BETTER IN 2011! MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hello Family and Friends! I have found a few minutes to look back at our blog and realize it has been over 6 months since I last posted any updates. Life has taken us by storm but we are enjoying the journey. A lot has changed in the past 6 months.

I'll start with Brody. He has turned 2 in all sense of the word. His official day was October 2nd, however this last week he realized what it means to be "two". We won't say he is terrible but he certainly has become quite a "tornado", meaning he finds all kinds of ways to cause chaos! We love him too much to say he is "terrible". He is always a little light in our home and each family member has a special relationship with him. Brody has a name for everyone except himself. Of course Jerry and I are Mom and DA DA and Tyler is Tyder, but Maycee is DA, Clay is Bubu, and Laynee is Claaa. We don't know where he has come up with these names but they are very clear when he wants to get our attention. We have recently had to remove a couple of drawers in the kitchen because he climbs up and gets the keys out of the cabinet where we keep them. He know which keys start the quads(and how to start them), the different trucks and which ones don't work for anything. It makes him mad when we give him those!

A really funny story that happened recently did not start out so fun. Brody and I were sitting out front on our bridge sending the kids off to school. He lost his balance and fell off backwards. Of course he needed stitches on his head so we headed off to the ER. When they put stitches in little one's they put them in this papoose wrap so they can not squirm all over. Well, not only did Brody not squirm.....he fell asleep while they were stitching him up. They realized it when he started snoring! Funny boy.... he brings a new level of comedy, crazy and cohesiveness to your family.

All the other kids are doing well too. Tyler just finished Cross Country season. He had a great season and finally found his inner drive at State Finals. We have been telling him he has more in him but he has not been willing to reach for it. He has a big day coming up the end of this month so we decided to bribe him a little to "encourage" him to perform. We told him if he placed first for his team(which he is totally capable of but has not done all season) then we would knock off the extra days he was going to have to wait to get his license. OHHH, he did it!! He beat his personal record by 41 seconds and the kid that usually beats him, he beat by 27 seconds. That may not sound like a lot but in running it is HUGE! He received the "Hotwheels" award at the team banquet. Now the bar of expectation has been raised. Life with a teenager is fun and challenging but we are enjoying watching him grow into a young man.

Maycee is really coming into herself also. She has found a love for baking. She is always finding something new to treat us with. She pours through all my cookbooks and finds new and fun recipes. She started learning how to bake while spending time with Pat, Jerry's Grandma, in the kitchen. Pat taught her how to make fudge and banana bread. The rest is history. Maycee is now the official birthday cake baker. Today she attempted her first two layer cake and made the cake from scratch (not a box). Uncle PJ directed her on how to put the two layers together and put a filling in the middle. It turned out really good. Who knows what her next creation will be. She wants to learn how to sew. She and I are going to take some classes on how to work the sewing machine. She wants to make purses and blankets. That girl is the peacemaker in our home! She absolutely amazes us. We are excited to see her transition into a teenager.

Clay is staying busy with all the boys in the neighborhood. He has more friends than all the other kids combined. On any given Friday evening or Saturday afternoon there will be about 6-8 boys filtering thru our house and backyard. Clay is taking a break from sports for this season but will be back in full swing when Little League starts up in the spring. He is currently working with a trainer to keep up his "skills" so he is ready for a new season. Clay and Brody have a fun relationship. Brody loves to ride on Clay's shoulders and go for quad rides in the back yard. Clay takes him "off roading" over the berms and under the orange trees. They have a ton of fun going 3 miles an hour...haha. In this picture they were playing in the irrigation. Clay was "babysitting" for me while I got some chores done.

Laynee is our little miss busy body. She was baptized last month and was so excited. Laynee loves to write in her journals (yes, more than one) and read in her new scriptures. She strives to be the best at everything she does. She is dancing several hours a week and currently rehearsing to be in the Christmas play at school. Dance keeps her busy with performances and competitions. She has taken a break from piano but still loves to play. We are hoping to find time in her schedule to allow for lessons again in the beginning of the year. Maybe with Tyler driving we'll have more taxi time for transportation services. I'm sure he will be be chomping to find places to drive to. I have not decided if I am excited or nervous about the idea. Laynee had a super fun birthday. It is one that will go down in the memory books....Ponies dressed up like My Little Pony's. What more could a little girl want than for imagination to come to life. It was a fun celebration.

Jerry and I are staying busy playing tag team as we do hand offs and run different directions to make every one's schedule work. Sheena, Jerry's mom, has stepped in quite a bit to help also. I have gone back to work two nights a week and have also started working in real estate again. Sleep is a hot commodity for both Jerry and myself. His alarm goes off around 4 am and the lights usually turn off around 11pm, if we are lucky. Sometimes my lights don't turn off until around 7am. It's a little crazy but we are making it work and occasionally finding time for a date night. We are looking forward to a quick get away to Colorado next week. We are going to attempt the slopes and then cuddle up in front of a fire. We might even catch a few extra hours of sleep.

I'm not sure we knew what we were signing up for when we started this large family idea. We are definitely learning a lot about life.....we are not in control...only facilitators of a greater plan. I find myself often on my knees in my closet looking for direction and pleading for peace. Seriously though, Jerry and I would not change a thing about our large bru. They each are discovering their gifts and talents and fine tuning them for future good. We love watching and discussing how they are growing and how special each child is to us.

Hopefully this gives you and idea of what has been happening the last several months. We have a lot coming up in the near future so I will try to do better about posting more updates.

I just found this post that I was working on at Christmas and evidently never finished. So Here it is for the pictures anyways. ..........Okay....so it has been a while. I cannot believe Christmas is already coming. We have all been super busy in all of our activities but still enjoying some good family time. The girls have been dancing and the boys playing baseball & football. Here are a few pics from the past couple of weeks in our life. The pics of Brody were taken today. I am trying to learn how to be a good picture taker. Today I was a one man show and that is not easy with a fourteen month old. Maybe I'll try again later. For now this is how this little guy is doing. He is starting to walk...taking about 10 steps at a time. He knows several signs for sign language....eat, all done, night night, more and we are working on please. Communicating with him is so fun. Hopefully I will get Christmas cards out soon. This is our favorite time of year especially because we get to here from all of our friends and family.

Happy Days!!

This has been a fun week for our family. It has been a week of celebrations and vacation. Last Friday we began our week of fun with the celebration of Laynee's 7th birthday. She was so excited to add a digit. She has blossomed this past year. First grade is very exciting for her. She is at the top of her class and leading the pack in learning her addition and subtraction facts. Jerry and I laugh constantly as she is becoming quite the comedian.

Over the weekend we loaded up the trailer for vacation. We decided to take the kids to California and try to do it on a budget. Monday morning we pulled out and headed for Newport Beach. Instead of staying in a hotel, this year we decided to "camp" on the beach and drive in two days to go to Disneyland. The kids were so excited to finally get to go to the magical kingdom. It seemed like the perfect time to take the plunge. The kids are on fall break, Laynee turned 7 and .......Brody turns !1!

YES, I said Brody turns ONE year old tomorrow, October 9th. I can not believe it has already been a year. This past year has been blessed with many great memories. We have tried to capture as many on film as we can. As we get older our minds remember less but we will always remember that we we have thouroughly enjoyed every minute of this baby boys life. He has brought so much joy to our family. The firs t name he has learned (other than DaDa) is "Tyler". Maycee is his second mommy. Clay is Brody's favorite playmate and Laynee is teaching him how to share his Mommy. The other day I had just finished changing his diaper and then she came in the room and climbed on my lap. I was snuggling with her and he turned around and gave her quite the look. He let out a little "ahhh" as if to say, hey....it's my Mommy. He then crawled over and climbed on her lap and into mine to push her out. It was very cute.
We will be celebrating his big day this next weekend and I will have more pics then.

Disneyland was a big success. We started our playing on Tuesday and enjoyed many of the oldy but goody attractions. Brody took a nap in It's a Small World and then we were hijacked by Pirates of the Caribbean. The ride broke down and we sat in the sea for about 20 minutes. Tyler and his friend Sheldon took off on their own enjoyed a little independence. On Thursday we began in California Adventure and tackled Tower of Terror. I have never laughed so hard in my life! We all decided it was the best ride of all because it was the most entertaining. That night we stayed for the parade and fireworks. Maycee and Laynee got to dance in the parade with the entertainers. We ate dinner in Downtown Disney. Overall, fun was had by eveyone and Jerry and I felt gratification when the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home. We officially wore them out! Disneyland was a very happy place for our family vacation.

Today we went to enjoy some waves of the ocean and a little sand in our toes. Brody loved the water and sand. He splashed his feet in the ocean and crawled around in the sand. He is definitely a Hahn kid! The weather was a perfect 73 degrees. The kids all enjoyed burying Clay and Laynee in the sand and then jumping the waves in the ocean. We all got a little kissed by the sun but it felt good to relax and hang out as a family.

Once again as long as we are together as a family we seem to have fun. Jerry and I are always amazed how well the kids seem to get along when we are doing these kinds of things. I actually thought for a moment that maybe those families that take off and tour the country with their kids in a motor home may be on to something. I don't think we have that kind of adventure in us but I sure think our kids would enjoy it. For now Jerry and I will just try to provide as many of these types of experiences as possible so that our family will be bonded and we can escape the distractions of day to day life long enough to take notice of how blessed we are. Raising a family is all and more than I ever dreamed it to be and I am so thankful!

8 months....already!

fgjdkj vgmk b (Brody's contribution to the blog entry)

Brody is already 8 months!!! He is growing so fast now. He scoots his little self where ever he wants to go and is rocking back and forth on his elbows and knees. He started saying "da da da da" on his 8 month birthday. We were eating dinner and all of a sudden I heard him join in the conversation. Jerry was not with us so we had to call him and he was so excited. It is a great early father's day present. (am I off the hook) Today was so cute. We have been trying to teach him sign language. He almost has milk down as a sign. Sometimes it is difficult to know if he is really doing it or just moving his fingers but today when he was saying da da da he made the sign for Dad at the same time. I had witnesses to see it! Now if I could only get a "mama" then life would be complete. I'm sure once he starts I will be hearing a lot of it! I'll want to teach him some other new words. We are having so much fun with him. He has been swimming in the pool and enjoying learning new things. We are so thankful for this little bundle of life in our family!!!

Rock Star Party

Maycee had a birthday bash before we left for Indiana. Her birthday is June 23rd and we are usually gone so we had an early party. This year she chose 5 of her closest friends (only 4 could come) and has a rock star party at a store called Justice. It is a store just for girls. The girls each got their hair done and a LITTLE make up. These girls are so much fun. Maycee has a fun group of girl friends and we had fun celebrating with them. They each put so much thought into their gifts and Maycee felt very loved. 10 is a great age! We love you Dolly and thanks for all you do for us!

Seattle

Seattle was a ton of fun. We visited all the top sights and played at all the best museums. In these pictures the kids are playing different instruments at a place called the Experience Music Project or locally called the "EMP". It was a great place that allowed the kids to experience all the different parts of a band. We even got to create our own band and play a song. Can you guess the band name?....Yep...Hahnery Bunch. Jerry was lead vocalist, Tyler on the guitar, Clay on the drums and Maycee on the keyboard. We have a picture to capture the memory but it does not scan very well. It will have to go in the scrapbook.
We also visited a place called Tillicum Village that is when this picture of Maycee, Sheena and Virgie was taken. We had to take a water taxi ride out to the island where we had a yummy authentic tribal lunch of fresh salmon and rice. Then we watched a play about the rituals of tribes. It was a fun experience.
The other fun event while we were up there was a familiy get together with Jerry's side of the family. Sheena and Grandma have a lot of family that live in the seattle area. There were some that came up from CA also. The highlight of the get together was the bagpipe player who was hired by one of the cousins. Grandma was so thrilled. The family is originally from Scotland and she loves the bagpipes. He played while we enjoyed lunch and the kids were all taken by the instrument.
All in all we had a great time in Seattle. Tyler kept in touch with his friends with his texting and by the end of the trip was glad that he came. Everyone had a different best experience: Tyler-EMP & Duck ride, Maycee-, Laynee- going out to dinner as a family and getting her giant crystal (she was VERY particular about where she spent her souvenir money), Clay-bagpipes, Jerry-family reunion, Natalee-clam chowder at Dukes!
We are so appreciative of Geeda for taking us on this family trip. We made some great memories and had fun experiences! The kids will always remember the fun places but more importantly the relationships strengthened by being in this fun town together. Thanks Geeda!