Vacation in the Poconos

This last week we rented a house on a lake with some of our friends in Chris's class. Before we went to the house we stoped at my Uncle and Aunt's house in the Poconos. We had fun visiting them and my cousins family who also stopped by. While we were at their house we went on a short hike to see some waterfalls in the Delaware Water Gap. The falls were really impressive and the hike was just the right length for our kids about one mile round trip. Then we went to the house on the lake and spent a few days there. We went on a hike, played at the beach, went mini golfing, went out on a boat, ate lots of good food, played games late into the night and enjoyed awesome company with some of our friends. It was great trip!

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Blessing Day

Aaron's blessing day was a special one for me. Chris gave him a wonderful blessing and we both had the opportunity to share our testimonies. I am feeling so blessed to have three wondeful children. They have taught me so much and brought so much joy in my life. I am especially enjoying our little Aaron right now. He is such a good baby he always seems to have a smile for his mama. There is nothing like having a sweet baby to cuddle and hold. He is an espcially cuddly baby and I really love that. I find I have a hard time getting things done because I sit and hold him to much. I am also so grateful for Chris. He has been home the last month and a half and I have loved every minute of it. It's nice to know that after six and half years we still enjoy being around each other. He is more then just my lover he is my best friend and a wondeful daddy to his three kids.

My ever amazing mother was the creator of this darling blessing suit. She even knited the sweater! I don't think I will live long enough to aspire to her creative level. We love and appreciate all that she does for us and wish she could have seen him in person on his blessing day.

A Party for Aaron

When Laura was born we lived in Utah and we had lots of family come for her blessing day. We weren't able to have any family come so I decided to invite friends to a campfire at a park. We had such a wonderful time with our friends. We will miss them so much when we move. They truly have been our family. There was always someone to help us whether it was moving furniture, rides to the airport, watching our kids, inviting us over for games or giving us blessings when we were sick someone was always there when we were in need. I feel so blessed and so grateful for all the wonderful people who have enriched our lives while we lived here. The day we drive away will be an emotional one for me.

We have always enjoyed Shank park but it isn't until just recently that I found out about the fire pit there. I'm glad we got to enjoy it at least a few times before we had to move.

The last 2 months

In the last 2 months we have had a lot of visitors come to meet little Aaron. It has been so fun and we have loved every minute of our wonderful family. We felt so blessed that they would spend their time and money to come and help us out. First Chris's sister saved the day and came the day after I got home from the hospital. She was a huge help we don't know what we would have done without her. Then my sister and her boyfriend came. They were also a great help. They played a lot with our kids and they cleaned alot as well. They got to experience chocolate world for the first time and our favorite Korean resertaunt. It was so fun spending that time with my sister. We hadn't spent that much time together since I moved to Hershey, so almost four years. Then my mom came and stayed for two weeks. It was none stop play time for my kids and they suffered serious withdrawls the one week we had to wait for Chris's mom to come. While she was here we were busy running around to all sorts of things it seems like. We also went and found and bought a house while she was here. She was a huge help as well since we didn't have to take the whole mini-van full of kids to house hunt. We feel so blessed and want to thank all of them for coming. I just wanted to share some of the many pictures we have of all the fun we had with our visitors.

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We bought a house!

We are so excited to have our own house. I am especially excited to plant a garden this year. Another one of our projects will be to finish fencing in the back yard so the kids can go outside and play and we don't need to worry about them. We are moving in on May 30th.

Lovin that Hershey wind

Here we are making good use of the very cold wind.

Steven had Chris get his kite up in the air and then after awhile bring it back down again so he could watch it fly back up into the sky. When it was time to go Steven was very sad he couldn't get enough of kit flying. It this wind keeps up I'm sure we will be able to go again.

Last week we had a lot of cold windy days in Hershey. Saturday was no exception so bundled up in our warmest winter clothes we braved the wind and tried out the kids kites. It was a huge success, the minute we let go of the kite it took off into the air, no sprints across the field in hopes a gust of wind finally takes over.

Welcome Aaron Christopher Hanks

Aaron was born on Wednesday February 27th at 12:23 a.m. He weighed in at 7lbs 7oz and he was 20 inches long. I went into labor early Tuesday morning. By early afternoon we were ready to go to the hospital. Laura and Steven got to go over to our friends the Thompson for the rest of the day. Then they got to sleep over at our friends the Bowman's. They had a lot of fun and it was such a relief for us to know that they were well taken care of. We feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends. After laboring all day at 11:30 p.m. they decided it was time for a c-section. I was really disappointed but happy to have a healthy baby. I am doing really well and I have recovered really quickly. Little Aaron is growing and doing well and we all love him very much and are so happy he has come to our family.

Here we all are at 3 in the morning. We were very happy with the results of our long ordeal.

Here is Aaron checking out the world in his first day of life.Laura loved holding her new baby brother. She held him for a long time. She was very excited when we finally got to bring him home.
Steven also loved holding his baby brother. He didn't have quite the attention span for baby holding as Laura did but he was very happy to be an older brother.

Angelic Aaron 1 week old.

Aaron 3 weeks old