Christmas Concert and School Plays

This past week has been filled with the band Christmas concert and three school plays.  The band concert was much improved from last year except for most of the pictures I took were blurry.  Camille plays clarinet in the beginning 5th grade band, Brandon is on percussion in the Jr. High Band, and Jeffrey plays the trumphet in the High School Band.  Jeffrey also was in the drumline, which performed that evening also.  Grandma Porter, Grandpa Hansen, Aunt Karen, and Uncle John were able to make it that evening.

Drew had his school program the day before the band concert. 

Mary was not too happy for pictures so I had to wait until she was asleep.

Alexa had her program earlier in the day of the band concert.  Grandma Porter was able to make it to this one.

Camille had her program today.

 I am sure glad I did not have to take time off to make it to all of the programs.  Nothing like having 5 kids in 5 different schools.  All of the kids did a great job. 

Mary's 4th Birthday

We celebrated Mary's 4th birthday.  She has a lot of books to read.

One of the gifts she got was gum.  Of course one piece in the mouth will never do.  I am not sure how many she had in her mouth in this picture.

After church, Karen invited us to come down to their house for dinner and a visit.  We had cake later in the day.  Thank you Karen, Kirk, and family for the fun time.

Snake River Community Orchestra and Christmas Trees

Jeffrey and Brandon had their Christmas concert for the Snake River Community Orchestra this past Wednesday evening.  All involved did a great job.  They also performed at the community Christmas concert in Blackfoot on Friday night.

We also put up our main Christmas tree last Wednesday, December 1st after Camille and Alexa informed me that we were the only people out of their friends who did not have their tree up.  So we did just get the tree up on Wednesday but nothing else.  Over the next few days we did decorate the rest of the house.

Last night we went and picked out a real tree to decorate with those ornaments that were made for or by the kids.  We started that tradition last year and the kids wanted to still do it this year.  Hopefully the tree won't be too dried out by the time we take it down.



Mary's Hair Cut

Sunday evening Mary thought she had something in her hair so she decided to cut it out.  I had trimmed her bangs a little after the funeral so that the hair was out of her eyes.  I guess she thought she could do the same thing to get the sticky thing out of her hair. 

This is what she looked like with longer hair at the funeral.

This is what she looked like afterwards.  She also complained that it was itchy.   (I wonder why)

I could not get it cut until Monday evening.  This is what she looks like on Wednesday morning.

  I guess Mary saved us many tears of trying to get her hair fixed with the shorter hair.  I am sure that Katie is smiling at her daughter.

Katie's viewing and funeral

If Katie wanted to pick a day to have a viewing and funeral it would not have been last Tuesday and Wednesday.  We had a major winter storm come through Monday and Tuesday with blowing and drifting snow.  Wednesday followed with a high of about 5 degrees.  It was a beautiful, sunny day despite the cold.  I know many wanted to come to the viewing and funeral, but were not able to because of the weather.  Please know that we missed you and that if you could have been here you would have.  I will not take the time now to tell you about the funeral, but here are a few pictures.  Thank you to John, Christy, and Mandy and any others who took these pictures.

From Dennis

Dear Friends,

The love of our lives has returned home to our Heavenly Father.  Katie passed away quietly early Tuesday morning, November 16th.  She has had a profound impact on each of our lives and we greatly miss her.  Thank you to each of you for your thoughts, prayers, comments, and love.  It will take some time, but we will continue Katie's and the kids' blogs.

Love,

Dennis, Jeffrey, Brandon, Camille, Alexa, Drew, and Mary

A Letter From My Friend:

My name is Shannon Williams and I am a friend of Katie’s. As you and I both know, Katie is an amazing individual. She and her family have inspired us all over the past several years. I want all of Katie’s children to grow up knowing what an incredible mother they have - her attributes, sense of humor, fun personality, etc.


We are in the process of putting together a book of memories from all of her friends and family. We will compile them together, and then make a copy for Dennis, her parents, and each of her six children. We would especially like Katie to have an opportunity to read it. If you would like to participate, you may do the following:

1. Write a letter (perhaps you could address it to the Hansen Family), and share your memories of Katie - childhood, teenage years, young adulthood, adulthood - anything you’d like to share - the touching moments as well as the humorous ones. Ideally you would write it in Word Perfect or Microsoft Word and then email it as an attachment. (You can also just write it in an email and I’d be happy to retype it.) It can be three sentences or three pages - it doesn’t matter.

2. Email your letter to me at williamsbytheriver@gmail.com. I need to receive all letters by Sunday, November 21st since I will take it to the printer on Monday, November 22nd. You could also mail it to me (Shannon Williams) at 925 West 275 South Blackfoot, Idaho 83221. Again, just send it in time for me to receive it by Sunday.

I know this will mean a lot to Katie and her family. If you have any questions, just send me an email. Thanks! Shannon

Sunny California!

We had something wonderful happen in our lives.

It was probably 4 weeks ago I got a call from Mary Jane Gebs McCay, a lady who was from Preston. I went to school with her kids, (I am the same age as Dwayne Gebs and was really good friends with her oldest daughter, Linda Gebs.) I haven’t spoken with them for many years but Linda has been following my blog (Hi Linda!!!) and she was feeling pretty bad about my situation and mentioned it to her mom. One day Mary Jane had a distict impression from the Holy Ghost that they should have our family come to Disneyland. Mary Jane’s husband died 4 years ago on November 1. She and her family do something to help someone every year at that time to help take away their sadness. Mary Jane is now married to Frank McCay and they live near Disneyland and Frank works for Disneyland.  So out of the blue one day 4 weeks or so ago I received a phone call from Mary Jane asking if we would like to come down. (She had actually called my mom first.) Plans evolved a little because my parents wanted to help. My uncle also wanted to fly us down so we did not have to drive (a huge blessing). Other people also sent money and we were able to do the entire trip with no out of pocket to us. Can you imagine? It has all been an amazing blessing. We were able to go forget all our cares for 5 blissful days. Heavenly Father is truly mindful of us.

We flew out of Idaho Falls directly to Long Beach.  It was perfect.  The kids were so cute on the flight--especially the girls with their little squeals of delight.  It was so fun.

Here we are by our rental vehicle.  (This was actually our 2nd day in California but I forgot my camera in the motel the first day when we went to San Diego Zoo.  I did take some with our cell phone--does anyone know how to get them onto your computer?--I'm still mad I forgot it!)

We went to Disneyland and California Adventure Wednesday and Thursday.  We started off in Califirnia Adventure.

This is our bad parenting moment when we took Mary on Tower of Terror.  It was awful.  Drew did not like it either.

Thursday Mary Jane went with us and spent the whole day with us.  It was wonderful to have her with us. The big kids went off and did their thing and us 3 adults did kiddie things with Mary and Drew.  Drew learned how to be a Jedi and even fought with Darth Vader (but the camera was in video mode so I did not get photos.)

We ate at the Blue Bayou.  That is Mary Jane with us on the right.  She was an angel to us.  I just love her so much!

Friday we went to the New Port Beach temple and took a picture.  It was beautiful.

We also went to Hunington Beach.

Our flight was delayed about 1 1/2 hours.  We were all loaded in the plane but had to get off while they fixed something.

Mary fell asleep in the airport while we were waiting for the plane to get fixed and she slept the whole way home.

We all had a very fun time.  Thank you to all who made it possible (until you are more formally thanked.)