The day we got home from St Louis Houston started running a pretty high fever. The next day he started getting bumps on his hands and feet. He had Hand Foot & Mouth Disease.

 Then on Wednesday Heath started with the super high fever too.

 They both slept really well that first day with the fever, but then hardly slept at all for a few days following.

Houston went 3 days with only one 30 min nap, and woke up at least every hour at night just crying and crying. He had some pretty nasty blisters on the back of his throat that I think was the main culprit. 

Heath had the throat a little eaiser, but had a lot more blisters on his hands and feet, he also got them around his mouth and shins and thighs. He kept saying, "Mommy, Heath sick" "I got owies" I guess the blisters must be pretty painful. Poor little guys.

We learned a few things during this ordeal. Ibuprofen works much better for this pain than Tylenol. Make sure you have lots of "popci-colds" on hand. (or a way to make them)

 Really the only "health concern" with this illness is dehydration, so make sure you have a lot of juice or milk to bribe the kiddo's into drinking something. Sleep while they sleep. You will be exhausted!  They are contagious until all the blisters are gone, so try get used to staying home for a while. 

While we were home we made houses out of our many packing boxes, coloured lots of pictures,

 Watched movies, played horsies, rolled balls around,

Played Dr, sang songs, took naps, danced,

 And took a walk almost every night they were up for it.

Yesterday we went to the grocery store. It was our first time out of the house in 11 days! It was marvelous!
(speaking of marvelous, thanks so much for letting us borrow your stroller!)

So everything's squared away!

Last weekend we went back up to St Louis to house hunt again. We went to 7 more places and wouldn't you know the first we looked at that day was the one we decided on. It is a 1400sqft 2 bedroom apartment with a 2 car garage and normal front door (so I guess kinda more like a town house? I don't know exactly what you'd call it.) All the utilities are included in the rent, and it's right across the street from the metro link so Matt can just walk over there every day & ride the metro to school. : ) And it's right along a super nice biking trail so we can get just about anywhere we'd need to go that way if we'd like. : ) If it's as sweet as we think it will be, things are going to be wonderful!

The boys were super while we were looking and slept pretty much the whole way home. : ) There was one point where Mattt hit the rumble strip (he wasn't sleepy, just talking a little too animated) and Heath put his head up in the back and still sleeping started going "whoooooooo whooooooo" imitating the rumble sound, then laid his head right back down. It was so funny! 

When we got home Matt turned off the car and the Music was still playing. (If I remember right it was some sweet classic rock song) Heath started head banging to the music with his eyes closed still asleep. : ) 

We're super excited to have a place lined out to live, it makes planning so much easier!

We were going to make something really cute with one of these pictures, but just didn't have time. So we made Daddy a collage instead... which he loved just as well.

Happy Fathers Day Daddy!

I especially love this one. When Houston's feeling extra silly he bounces his chin on his chest saying "aha aha aha" while holding his hands in the manner shown. It just kills us every time. : )

This is the one we gave to Grandpa's for their Fathers Day gift.

“Please, let them be little,
‘Cause they’re only that way for a while.
Give them hope, give them praise,
Give them love every day.
Let ‘em cry, let ‘em giggle,
Let ‘em sleep in the middle,
Oh, but let them be little.”
― Billy Dean

They must have Hansen blood.  : )

They came to combine our wheat.

 Heath was in little boy heaven running around the yard to get the best views.

 He decided he needed to hop on his bike to "cop-ine" too.

 It was pretty neat to see and feel it. The straw was a'flying through the air. 

These farming machines really are pretty magnificent.

 Heath loved it, but then realized his beloved wheat was no more.

 Houston wasn't too sure about the whole thing. 

He didn't hardly take his eyes off that big loud intruding machine.

The Prophet said to plant a garden

 so that's what we'll do.

 For God has given rich brown soil

 the rain and sunshine too.

 And if we plant the seeds just right and tend them carefully

 before we know good things will grow to feed our family!

 We have sure been enjoying the fruit of our springtime labors!

I just love fresh veggies! (and sweet little boys!)

Heath has become quite the little artist. He loves to color and usually will sit and do it as long as it takes me to make dinner! Just recently he has started actually drawing forms that resemble what he is drawing. He used to just make huge scribbles all over the page and say it was this or that.

 

This is a picture of a "horsie" from about a week ago.

 This is a recent picture of  "a daddy horsie, a mommy horsie, a baby horsie"

It's pretty amazing to me just how quickly he is growing and changing.

 

 As I was leaving the other evening to go to genealogy class this was in the sky.

 You could see flashes down in the bottom half and hear thunder rumbling. It was so violent sounding, but at the same time so beautiful.

 Heath climbed up on the fence and said, "Heath fly like dumbo mommy?" Thankfully he didn't try.

 

We went to St Louis to try and find housing. We weren't successful at actually getting a place,  but we did get a much better idea of what we want. We know now what area we are hoping for, and we made some wonderful friends. We are SO grateful to them for housing, feeding, babysitting, and entertaining us! We had such a wonderful time. So much so that when we got home ...

 they were exhausted! It was great! I got so much done :)

 I know these are kinda blurry, but he's just so cute! 

He has really started getting his own little personality lately.

 He's such a sweet boy, and loves to have fun. He is so much better at keeping himself entertained than Heath was at this age. If Heath swipes a toy he's been playing with he usually will just go find another one.

 He especially loves his daddy and just wants to snuggle with him and squeal when he comes home from work. He loves to laugh at anything Heath thinks is funny especially when Heath "tickles" his face. (We're not quite sure why, but when Heath tickles someone he always tickles their face, probably the least tickliest place on a person)

 We sure love our little Hu-ten!