I do have other children besides Seth. From my pictures you might think I have 7 kids or something, but I only have three. When I'm taking pictures there are usually nieces & nephews around or my nieghbors kids. The picture on the title of this blog is a picture of my little Seth, the lovely Annelie & the always cool Niclaas, also my nieghbors two youngest children, Nic's adopted older brother Chance, who is also "cool" & the most imaginative child I have ever met, we fondly call her "Bean" & their dog Wilbur. I took the picture in thier back yard while working on a Joseph City Postcard project with my sister in law Julie. We used the finest models in town, you know who you are. We had great success with the project & have been dubbed by some as "larry's girls". If you have a couple of hours that you'd like to throw away, call me & I'll tell you all about that. Anyway, just thought I would introduce you to my other children who keep a much lower profile than thier little brother.
This is my Annelie, aka Dolly or Lee. She is a freshman in highschool this year, future writer & animator. One more birthday & she'll be driving & dating & it's more than I can take. The doctor told me when she was born that everyday from that point I would be letting go of her little by little. When she does leave our little "nest" the world will be getting an extraordinary young lady & I don't take any credit for it. All her qualities come from her own spirit. She makes me look good.
This is Niclaas, aka Pickle, Pic, Nic, Boy or Gus. Sixth grader, future NBA star, extreme skater, body builder & more serious than most. Sound familiar to anyone? Yes, I not only have Cory as a younger brother but I also get to raise a "slightly" more quiet version of him. He is Jansen through & through, except for the quiet part. Thanks to him, our home is handicap accessible due to the skating ramp he has installed up our back step. Niclaas is a deep thinker & a very hard worker & the best big brother I have ever seen.
This could be the motto for life in Joseph City. This is another picture we took for our postcard project. It quickly became our best seller. This picture was taken of my father-in-law, Gene & his brother Floyd out at Manila in front of the old feed truck that does actually run. We (Julie & I) had to pull them off the tractor out in the field to come pose for us. It was quite the photo shoot. Floyd was actually concerned about his shirt & had to take a minute to tuck it in right. I think they wondered why in the world we would want a picture of them & in front of the old feed truck. At one point Floyd told us we "should take the picture in front of the new tractor, we'd look more prosperous." The quote on the postcard came from Floyd. He's full of good one liners. It is a simple life we live here, but we're not sitting around on the porch swing sippin' lemonade. Well maybe on Sunday after church, but we don't sip lemonade, we prefer the hard stuff like popcorn & ice cream & occasionally a peach cobbler, another Hansen tradition. Around here we work. You could call it our recreation because we love it. We don't know what to do with ourselves if there's no work to do. My dear mother-in-law is famous for creating work out of thin air. My father-in-law (on the left of the photo above) is like a machine. I can look outside my window every morning & find him walking up to the corral heading to work & at the end of the day when the sun is about to set I see him walking down the road headed home. Working is a real way of life here. It started with our pioneer ancestors who built this town out of nothing but faith, hard work & pure stubborness. It is important to me that my children learn to appreciate hard work. I'm always reminding them of where & who they come from & that they need to work hard to be worthy of the sacrifices that were made for their future. I'm sure all they hear is "nag nag, blah, blah". So I always follow up with, "someday you'll appreciate how hard I work you." You know it's really scary when you start talking & realize you sound just like your mother. But I am ok with that now. My mother is one of the hardest workers I know. She taught me to work & through the "nag nag, blah blah" of it all I really appreciate how hard she worked me.
Ye ole' 
He's hiding his ears under that hat.
Here I am, giving out money to anyone with their hand out, pleading their worthiness. "I have two marshmallow eggs"!
Back off Mike, she's a republican!
Now that they have what they came for, they're off foolishly & without guilt, engaging in activities that are frivolous & just plain irresponsible.
Meanwhile a camera captured this photo of Grandma. Funny how she seems to be enjoying herself. Look at her in her rocker. Her feet aren't up, no blanket. She seems to be smiling. She even has her hair curled. I'm beginning to think I've just been scammed! Could Grandma be a Democrat? I can't believe this!
This little boy loves to run!
Walking with Seth today reminded me of how we lose our curiosity for the things around us as we get older. We are usually focused on the destination & pay little attention to the sights & sounds along the way. Seth looked through every door, climbed every fence & threw as many rocks as he could. 
Along the way we ran into some friends.
