Look what we can do!

The girls have been getting much more adventurous the last few weeks. Lily and Maren have learned to climb the little tree in the back yard. I am scared of having more broken arms but I and not stopping their progress. Lily was very proud of herself tonight writing her name all alone. She called me in and said "Mom you're gonna love this" She must be practicing a lot when I am not around because when I ask her to write letters they look nothing like this. The last picture shows true life every day for us...Cute as can be and equally ornery.

picture update

Cousins are awesome!!

When do we get to play again?

We miss all of you!!!

Our Bird Story

Hello Bird Family.  We have started a blog for the Jackson & Rachel Bird family.  You can link to the blog site by several ways.  Either you can click on the link in the contributor column on this blog under Rachel - Arkansas or you can visit http://www.birdsatheart.blogspot.com/ and check us out.  I recently uploaded pictures from Jackson's recent elk hunt.  We want to do a better job keeping everyone updated on our lives and let you see pictures of our cute and growing family.  We love you all.

Hansen Happenings

Marie loves to smile for the camera.

She was so happy to have everyone so focused on her. She didn't like the hat much but the girls wouldn't let her take it off. So she tolerated it here.


Almost a month ago now Marie had her first birthday. What a fast year that was. The cake was delicious, of course chocolate. I love choosing everyone's treat flavors. Marie loved eating it and loved spearing it around to make the mess even more. We celebrated with friends at the Zoo and water park on her birthday and then Sunday had more friends to eat cake with us. Fun times.
We just got home from this years Stake Fall Festival. Peter felt good enough he manned our ward ball toss booth while the girls and I played for 3 hours. We played in the Scooby Dooo jumping booth, watched kids get dunked in the dunk tank, went Velcro fishing, played the cupcake walk and got faces painted. Lily was so happy to have a beautiful butterfly face. Maren liked getting her face painted but just kept wanting more so they gave her a ring and faked several other places on her face until she was satisfied. Funny girls. I am totally pooped!

33 weeks and husbandless:(

Today I am 33 weeks and next week I have an ultra sound with my specialist! I'm so excited to see my sweet little boy again but sad that Matt has to miss out. I don't know if everyone knows this yet but Matt had to go on a TDY(kind of like a mini deployment) as soon as we got back from Montana. He is in California at Edwards AFB. They keep having some set backs and are a week behind schedule. He hopes things will get better so that way he doesn't have to catch a last minute plane home to come meet his new little boy! If all goes well he should be home in the middle of Sept so keep us in your prayers!! For now I'm just trying to keep myself busy and make this baby hold off until daddy gets home! We love and miss you all very much! Hope everyone is doing much better!!

Stress Reliever

We dressed up for all of 20 minutes to celebrate Pioneer Day. But the girls thought it was fun. We took Mom to the zoo and found a new place where we could feed the Lorakeets. The girls thought it was fun and wanted to hold them like the baby chickens at Peters brothers house. The birds thought Moms hair was the perfect perch. Marie kept reaching for all the birds in the tree but never saw the ones a foot away from her. Thanks for coming to help and entertain us Mom. I love you. Peter is about the same as he was when we left Missouri. He is going to physical therapy 3 times a week and will see a neurosurgeon soon. So hopefully things will start to improve more quickly.

Easton's Blessing

Sherry found James' blessing outfit for Easton to wear.  It fits him really well, it's just funny for our fourth son to get the outfit instead of the first.  We sure are glad to pass it on though.  James, Grandpa Bird, Uncle Isaac, President Turner, and a friend Bro. Nichols were in the circle.  It was a very special blessing.
This makes me think of the song "Fathers Are So Special . . . with a very special love."

Easton is our biggest baby which is probably a good thing.  With his crazy, rowdy, older siblings he will have to hold his own.  It's neat to see how similar each baby is and yet how different.  Each spirit is so special and individual, but as far as looks, they've all got MCKAY stamped in their genes.

It is such an amazing blessing to have a family.  Knowing we are sealed for eternity makes every day more full of joy.  We love you!