Seven month update!

I am still trying to decide whether or not I want to keep blogging. I love checking blogs of friends and family and so I guess I'll give it one more shot. Any one who knows me well, knows that I hate scrapbooking and keeping a journal so I guess that is why blogging is hard for me. Oh well, Hadlie keeps asking me to post her pictures on the blog so here we go again. I will try to summarize quickly what we have been up to lately. We have celebrated all three kids birthdays. We recently celebrated Mav's first birthday and Bronco's 5th birthday with two parties in one day. I can't believe my baby is one. He is so much fun and I can't imagine our lives without him. He is the best baby and has definitely convinced me I want more little ones running around here. I will probably jinx myself and number four will be very hard. This isn't an announcement yet. We have had two major weddings in the past couple of months. John (Judd's youngest brother) got married in May. Lena (who we consider our daughter, sister, and friend) got married last month. We are sooooo excited she and Mark found each other. They seem perfect together and we are looking forward to getting to know Mark better when we travel to Russia together next summer. SCARY. Judd says that I am in for the shock of my life. We kept busy in the spring and beginning part of the summer with numerous baseball games, soccer games, dance practices and recitals, and preschool graduation. My kids start kindergarten in less than a month. Most recently we have spent some time at the condo in Bear Lake. We just returned from a trip with all of Judd's family and a few weeks before that we went up there with all of Judd's friends from high school. We had 16 adults and 20 kids under the age of 8. We had a great time and it wasn't as crazy or chaotic as I thought it would be. We sure missed Stu and Lanea and hope all is going well with Brooklyn. I will try to post a few pictures everyday so as not to overwhelm my very few followers.

A few pictures from our friend trip to Bear Lake.

Spencer playing bingo with the kids.

The boys entertaining themselves on the stairs.

Gatorball

We sure had fun with everyone. I am still recovering two weeks later from our late nights. I am too old to go to bed at 3, 1, 3 three nights in a row. Next trip we will have to ban Spencer from starting the conversation. j/k

Lazy summer evening

Mav loving the pool when it is getting emptied. Check out that diaper.

We took the kids to the Temple open house. Bronco's favorite thing about the temple were the 'bucking bulls' aka baptismal font and Hadlie's favorite thing was the chandelier.

Hanks Family Trip to Bear Lake

Bronco finally getting comfortable with his four wheeler.

Sadie, Hadlie, Ellie, Bronco

These kids love to pose. Check out those tans. Sadie and Ellie are sooo dark. We are just proud Bronco has a little color.

Mav - with his new haircut, the curls are gone

John & Sarah

I had some more pics from our trip but I didn't think the pics from the 'booty shakin'' contest and upper thigh comparison were blog appropriate. Judd and his brothers know how to have a good time.

12 inches of snow + Grandpa's four wheeler = afternoon of fun

Maverick is getting so big!!

I don't know how we got so lucky but Maverick is the best baby. He is so happy all the time. His latest accomplishments include sitting up, rolling all over the floor, and increasing his diet from milk to rice cereal, applesauce, bananas, peaches, pears, squash, and sweet potatoes. He follows suit with the other Hanks boys -- he hasn't tried a food he doesn't like.

Recent happenings in the Hanks Household

We had Sadie and Ellie over for an afternoon and they decided to put on swimsuits and put on a concert. Hadlie and Bronco are so lucky to live close to all of their cousins.

Bromo Kids
I am amazed at the number of kids that have come along in the last nine years. If everyone were in town we would have at least sixteen more including the all the new ones . Wow!!!

Hadlie & Elle
The kids all love playing musical chairs to Spencer's great Christmas renditions on the violin.
We are so grateful to Spencer and Christy. They are great hosts all the time. The karaoke was definitely a hit this year.

Temple Square
Bronco loves lambs!!

Halloween!

For Halloween, we decided to be the Incredibles. We had a lot of fun dressing up for parties and Judd and I even wore the costumes trick-or-treating with the kids. (I know a little embarassing but we had to get our money's worth.) My parents also had a party and since they resemble Bob & Helen we convinced them to wear the costumes to their party.

I think they look great.

My parents
Baby Jack Jack a.k.a. Maverick

My parents and the kids winning the contest award.

Our "Incredible" family

Judd Hunting + Mom in the shower = OUCH!!

The kids snuck outside while I was in the shower getting ready for church. Hadlie took a bad fall on her bike. I hope they learned their lesson about going outside while mom is in the shower.
Since Hadlie is always taking pictures, Bronco wanted his turn. He wanted us to make sad faces because of the accident. I was trying hard not to laugh at his cute photography skills.

Because her teeth didn't bite clear through the tongue, we just had to keep it clean with antibiotic mouthwash.

Hanks Happenings!

Hadlie learned to ride a bike without training wheels on her first try. Judd took her outside to practice and within seconds they were yelling at me to come and see. Bronco got on and rode all by himself but as soon as he realized Judd wasn't holding on, he stopped riding. However, he decided to try again a week later and now we are training wheel free.
Bronco has had a hard time adjusting to a new baby, bed time has been especially rough. The last week these are the positions he has ended up falling asleep.

I don't know how you can fall asleep in this position; I am guessing sheer exhaustion.
Maverick is such a happy little baby. We can't kiss him enough.