Where to begin?

It has been 4 months since I blogged last. For those of you who read my blog you know that is extremely unusual. But let me tell you why and then a *short* recap of what we have been up to.

Why such a long time between posting? Well, we moved into my Grandmas basement about 3 months ago to take care of her and man has it kept me busy. Between Bennett getting older, Aaron commuting down to BYU during the week for school and taking care of my Grandma and her memory loss, we are a tad busy over here.

All the way back in June is where we left off:

We LOVE the Shops at the Riverwoods, like seriously! We try and attend all the fun events they have going on. This one was a carnival/circus themed party. It had face painting, animals, games and so much more.

After that was the"wedding week" for my sister Carlie and her (soon to be) husband Aaron. This week included last minute dessert making, decorating, dinner with the Bush family and then Carlie going through the temple. Aaron and I were lucky enough to be the witness couple and I got to sit next to Carlie as she went through. It was awesome. We drove down Thursday night to stay at my Grandmas in Bountiful so we could be ready for our early morning to Salt Lake. They had a beautiful ceremony and then we all quickly got dressed in our wedding attire and waited for the happy couple to come out.

The boys were all in matching navy gingham shirts and the little boys in the same print ties.

The girls were in beautiful creme lace skirts and mint peter pan collar tops. 

Officially Mr. and Mrs. Bush!

For being a super warm summer day Bennett did pretty well.

Bennett was definitely the star of the wedding (sorry Carlie). Everyone wanted to hold him and get a picture with him and I don't blame them. Here is a little Bennett collage with some of his favorite people.

I was lucky to get some good pictures on my phone of the bride and groom with the fam. Here are some of my favorites from outside the temple.

Our Hansen family is growing so big!

Our cute little family! We are still working on getting Bennett to pose.

After we attended their luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was gorgeous and filled with such talent. Aaron Bush's nieces and nephews sang a cute version of "kiss the girl", Aaron Bush and his brothers sang "Man on the moon is smiling cause he is in love", my Aaron sang "L-O-V-E" and did a great job! Carlie and Aaron Bush sang so this is love together which was also beautiful. I'm hoping the videos will upload sometime soon.
And for some reasons these are the only pictures I have from the luncheon.

Between the luncheon and reception we went to Aunt Jan's home and did some last minute prep on the desserts and then headed over to the reception to help set up a little and to take family pictures (which I will post later because they turned out great.)

Here are some pics of the beautiful reception which my mom did all the desserts for! Yum!

They had the cake cutting (one of my favorite pictures. my dad's face says, "don't you dare put that cake in her face!")

Throwing of the bouquet.

And the dance with the bride and groom. The best part was the dance Carlie and my dad did together. Once she makes it public I will too. It was an amazing choreographed dance to JB!

Overall it was a beautiful day and I am so happy there is another Aaron in the family ;)

Right after that we got set to pack and move from Springville (our home of 2 years) to Bountiful to live with my Grandma and help take care of her.

We gave Carlie and Aaron all of our big furniture since my Grandma's place is furnished and we just had boxes of the rest of our stuff. We loaded up our cars and the truck from the farm and we were set!

I won't go into how Aaron and I cleaned ALL day for our cleaning check, I moved the fridge and tore the linoleum, failed the cleaning check, had to come back and then were fined for the tear in the floor. But we were sad to say goodbye to this place and ward. We absolutely loved living here.

When we first moved in as newlyweds Aaron and I took a picture our empty apartment on the floor and so we did it again as we said goodbye to our apartment.

We were a little younger, had a little more energy...and were a little thinner back then but we are still just as in love.

2011

2013

After we moved our stuff into my Grandmas home, we headed up to our family reunion in Wallsburg, UT. It was a fun family history themed reunion and here are some things we did.

The boys golfed.

The kids played in a bounce house.

Bennett and I explored the play-set.

We shared the tons of leftover desserts from Carlies wedding. Bennett in particular liked the heart shaped rice krispy treats with frosting.

We found some awesome family history names such as...LORD NICHOLAS D'EVEREUX....Princess Diaries 2 anyone? I could not have been more excited to be related to Chris Pine!

And this might explain a few things on Aaron's side of the family...we are related to Charles III "the Bald". That is not a good sign.

We also had the annual lip sync/talent show and got a special appearance from Donny and Marie.

We traveled through the storm and rain to see the John Wrays preform at a cool outdoor theater for a big band night. We huddled close under umbrellas and blankets and had a great time.

We left the Sunday of the reunion to head down to AZ for the week. At the time Bennett was the worst baby in the car, hated his carseat and so we basically got screams the whole way down. Thankfully we packed our secret weapon...THE BEACH BOYS. Bennett loves them, especially the song California Girls and usually it calms him or puts him to sleep. Thankfully we made it down and we played with both sets of Grandparents, made preperations for Carlie's reception down in AZ and played in the sun.

We had to visit our all time favorite Bahama Bucks and introduced Bennett to its deliciousness. 

Grandma and Grandpa Hansen got Bennett a fun pool toy to play in and we had a blast swimming and pushing him around in it.

Bennett tried fruits and veggies for the first time while we were there and he loved them. Especially carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, apples and pears....and the camera.

Carlie's reception was at a beautiful place that a family in our ward owns. Pictures can't do it justice. It was a beautiful night with lots of friends and ward family. Delicious food and desserts and Italian sodas made by a brigade of ladies in our ward. 

Aaron and I then left on Sunday for a little vacation for the week to Palm Desert. This is actually where we went for our honeymoon 2 years earlier and we found another fabulous deal and couldn't pass it up...and the free babysitting :) I was in charge of this trip. Aaron and I are switching off each year who is in charge of planning the anniversary so I planned all the days, restaurants, activities and everything in between. When we left it was weird as we were driving without Bennett. Aaron turned up some music and I told him to turn it down because the baby was sleeping in the back...but then I realized it was just us. Crazy!

Our room was great and the resort had so many onsite amenities. 

We explored the site and all the fun games, movie theater and pools the place had.

Thankfully for Christmas, birthday and even wedding presents we had saved giftcards to different restaurants and went out to eat most of the nights.

Red Robin

We also went and explored the JW Marriott hotel that was adjacent from our hotel. We went over and explored their beautiful hotel lobby. We then took a cool short boat ride tour from inside their lobby to the outside and exploring the grounds of their resort.

Stopped on our way home at another restaurant, Applebees.

While we were there there was a huge fire on the mountain so we spent a day inside shopping at the mall and when we came out later that day we found a lot of ash on our car.

We stopped at delicious chipotle after a day at the mall.

On Tuesday we attended the resorts "dive in movie" which was so fun! The pool was crowded so we hung out at a table, played a game and got in the hot tub. It was so fun!

Wednesday (and basically everyday) we spent sleeping in and at the pool. We could see a pool from our room and then there were other pools throughout the resort that we tried and hopped around from. We planned on Thursday to go into Anaheim area, visit our friend Frank outside of Disneyland for a minute and then head to the beach at Newport. Late that night Frank invited us to come play with him at Disneyland the next morning. We were not planning on going because it was not in our budget but with an invite like that, how could we resist. I called Carlie and told her and she literally teared up on the phone and asked which ride I was going to go on first. 

We got up early, took pictures of the windmills for Dad Butler on the way and made our way through all the traffic and picked up Frank at his apartment only a couple blocks from the park.

Parked and then got on one of the most anticipated rides of the day...the tram.

We hung out with Frank for the first half of the day and headed to California Adventure to get tickets for the World of Color because we had never seen that before.

We made a stop in Cars Land and took some pictures. It was so neat looking! It was way crowded though so we didn't stop to ride any of the rides. We headed to the Tower of Terror, where Frank works as a manager.

I don't remember the Tower of Terror being this scary. I hated/kind of liked it, but not really. Frank who had been on the ride a million times was all relaxed and through up the peace sign while I kicked my legs, screamed and held on to Aaron for dear life. Needless to say I don't know if I will ever ride it again.

We then headed over to Disneyland and went on Indiana Jones, Pirates and laughed as Frank just sat there because he had been on them so many times nothing scared him or anything anymore.

We met up with Aaron and Franks old teacher from Mesa High Sandy Stones who was there with the drama and choir program. Frank and her hung out while we went to eat and explore the rest of the parks. THANKS SO MUCH FRANK!!!

We spent the rest of the day hopping between the parks and enjoying every minute. We saw characters, rode rides and I screamed on every single ride.

I was the rebel spy on the Star Tours ride which was hilarious. They had taken a picture of me without me knowing and so I had my glasses under my chin and I was staring off randomly. It was hilarious. 

We also got to hear the Dapper Dans on Main Street and it was so fun! I was even chosen to be serenaded to and then when I went to leave they called out to me asking where I was going.

Up close and personal (well...kind of) with some of the favorite characters. 

We headed back over to California Adventure where we rode our favorite ride, Toy Story Midway Mania. We got ice cream, rode California Screamin' and the ride that I find the scariest at Disney...Soarin' Over California.

We then did our favorite new thing! We went to the Disney Animations Studio and took two classes on how to draw some of the disney characters. It was awesome and for someone who is not an artist they worked their Disney magic and my drawing actually turned out good!

Capped off the night at Disney where we sat and listened to the All American Band, headed back to California Adventure for World of Color which was amazing!! and then back to Disneyland for some hot chocolate on Main Street before we headed home. What a perfect day with my love!

We headed back to our hotel that night, slept in the next morning and played at the JW Marriott resort and hotel pools. We then left the next morning for home. It was exciting to come home to Bennett and watch him recognize us and to see if my parents had survived the week. We left Sunday morning to drive to St. George. Bennett did ok in the car as long as I hid from him in the back seat.

We got all settled into Grandma's house the weeks she was gone. We got Bennett's crib set up in his own room. It was hard the first night without him in our room. I kept telling Aaron, "he is lonely, he misses me!" but it has actually has worked out really well.

Carlie and Aaron and me and my Aaron all met up that week for our mutual friend Caitie Graves reception. It was beautiful. Bennett dressed up for the occasion and so did the rest of us....in the same clothes! The boys in gray pants and red/blue gingham tops. The girls in lace skirts and flowy tops and we both wore our tan wedding shoes too!

I realized basically the rest of the pictures are of Bennett outside or in a stroller. Bennett LOVES the outdoors. He is the busiest little boy I have ever met who loves to be held, he loves to jump, he loves for you to help him walk, he is always moving but always wants you to be holding him or moving with him. It is a lot of work and so we spend hours a day outside on walks because that is the one time he is still and just looks at his surroundings. We are loving Bountiful (though lots of hills) and exploring parks, yards, dogs and trees.

Before Grandma got back (the week we moved in) Lauren and Matt invited us to a Bee's game. We were really excited to go. Bennett and Aaron wore their baseball hats and brought their mitts and we loved it.

Well...except for the posing for the picture part...

And...a lot more outdoor pictures. Aaron worked at the farm in Wallsburg again this summer and so he would go work up during the week for a couple long days at a time and then come home later in the week since it is such a long drive. Bennett and I would get up early and go on walks, in his pajamas many times, before my Grandma got up on these days.

We have also spent a lot of time in the backyard while dad fixes the sprinklers, mows or while we pick apples. Bennett loves the grass and just being outdoors.

This is Grandma Wray, who we are currently living with. I think living here has been a blessing but a hard experience at the same time. Her memory is not what is used to be and every morning she asks where I live. I explain that we live in the basement and she gets upset because she says, "this is the first I have ever heard about this." She has a lot of worries of money, people taking and using her stuff and has made living here a little hard. She even also almost called the cops on us because she didn't know who was in the basement. A lot of the time I don't think she knows that I am her granddaughter or that my mom is her daughter. We are grateful to live here though and that I can stay home with Bennett during this time. We are planning on living here until April and then we will move back to Provo.

Other random things: 

Bennett loves Elmo, but only Elmo's World and we watch it all the time. His favorite are the ones about animals.

We just recently got Grandmas upstairs bathtub working so Bennett has been taking baths in his little bathtub in our shower. Its pretty funny because he is way too big for it.

Bennett loves his mom, though he currently only says Dada...all the time!!!