a Jaxon post

Okay, I've been waiting to write about this...not sure if I wanted to share yet or keep this wonderful moment to ourselves. I've decided it is too precious not to share... A few weeks ago (October 26th to be exact) was a pretty big day at our house! It was a typical Sunday and as I was preparing our Sunday evening popcorn and fruit smoothies Jaxon walked into the kitchen and said he had a secret to tell me. I told him to go ahead and tell me, but he insisted I bend down where he could whisper to me in my ear. He was acting a bit shy, unlike him, and it was kind of sweet. When I got down to his level he whispered..."God is my best friend". I looked him in the eyes and said "I'm so glad, He is my best frined too and the bestest friend we could ever have." Jaxon then said "I want God to be in my heart". It took me a second to embrace what he just told me and then I had to fight back the tears. I hugged him and asked him if he wanted to pray together to ask Jesus into his heart. He smiled back huge and said "Yes!". We called for dad, who was watching football in the living room, and had him come join us. Together on the kitchen floor we all sat down and prayed for Jaxon and with Jaxon. It was a serious moment (which is rare from my two big boys in the house) and so beautiful. Jaxon was sincere and so proud to ask God into his heart. He told us he knew God loved him the best and made him special and he wanted to have God as his best friend. We confirmed that for him and for a few minutes it felt like the world stopped and the 3 of us and Jesus were sitting on our kitchen floor. It was such a great moment... As we got up I wiped a few tears away and Dave said to me... "Pretty cool, but he'll probably ask Jesus into his heart like 14 more times during his childhood!!." Well, I'm so thankful we got to be a part of the first time!!

I went to bed that night so thankful for all the people who have shed Light into our children's hearts. We are really very blessed with such amazing friends and family and our church family. Suddenly everything we've done up to that point to teach him about Jesus came to a full circle. That circle wouldn't have been complete without the people that love our kids outside of our home. So...to those of you that take time to love our kids and be Jesus hands and feet in their lives...THANK YOU! Our biggest prayer for our children is that they will know Jesus as young ones and all the way through their adulthood. I will always remember that moment when Jaxon first asked Jesus into his heart... It is moments like that that make being parents the BEST privlage ever on this side of heaven!!!

11 months today!

And, what do you do at 11 months old??? Play with remotes of course! I had put all 4 of these remotes in "hiding places"... behind cushions, behind DVD player, etc. I came into the living room and he was smiling so BIG! He had found and laid all four of the remotes out right in front of him and was basking in the joy of remote play time! Smarty pants!

Remember Austin in the green dump truck back in February...

Here he is in November! He pushes this thing around the house these days...

Austin loves to play ball... he will hand it to you and then you hand it back and he just smiles or laughs. He loves this game with mommy... Jaxon doesn't quite give it back fast enough and he gets a little mad sometimes!


Austin is busy busy these days! He is almost walking and can be caught catching himself in between furniture pieces! He climbs up on the stool to "help" me with laundry, brush my teeth, and watch me cook. He just started laughing when we are all laughing... he will watch our faces and then do the most acted out laugh...it's pretty funny :) He is eating some more finger food and has mastered drinking from a straw (self-taught, thanks to dad's Casey's cups!). He's back into a nice nap schedule after a little window of uncertainty and all in all he is a happy baby! He battled the flu a couple weeks ago, has a cold now, and is keeping us all on our toes and smiling. What a boy! 1 year old days... here he comes!!!

the giving season

Each year as Christmas starts to settle in I take a look at who and where we will be giving for the Christmas season. I love this time of year and I love giving... yet the joy in giving sometimes gets misled when we try to give without the heart of Jesus. Adding children to our little family has really made us look at how and what and when we give. We hope our children grow up with a true understanding of Christmas, yet we want them to find fun, tradition, and pure joy as they celebrate the holiday season through the eyes of a young child all the way into adulthood. Christmas can be just that... so much fun! It also is a great learning time in one's faith as they grow closer to Jesus. So, as we once again dive into the game of picking out gifts I of course tweak a bit each year... I've actually come to a halt the last couple years within our little family of four. A dear friend of mine gave me this wonderful idea and it has worked very well for us the last couple years. We will be doing it this year too! I hope it is one of our traditions that will stay for years to come...

3 gifts were brought to Jesus when he was born...gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold is something precious, worth a lot. Frankincense was used in the temple. Myrrh covers the whole body. Thus, the idea of 3 Kings Gifts! Each year we buy 3 gifts for each other for Christmas. That's it. (how much do you really need anyways!?!?) Each person gets a gift that resembles gold (something they really want), frankincense (something to draw their heart to God or help them grow spiritually), and myrrh (something that covers the body, like clothing).

Our gift giving amongst our own family is simple, fun, and I think reasonable. Jaxon is getting old enough that he's starting to grasp the idea and hopefully Austin will be catching on to the idea soon too. I know there are many ways to celebrate Christmas and each family is different. This is working great for us for now! Speaking of many different ways... I'd love to hear other ways you celebrate Christmnas, a favorite tradition, or special things you do to make Christmas special at your house. We have a few other traditions at our house, but I love new ideas as we continue to make our holiday season special as we grow as a family! I'm looking forward to the holiday season!

halloween fun

What a beautiful week we had for Halloween fun this year! We don't really get into the scary side of Halloween, but we have a good time doing pumpkin stuff, dressing up, and making cookies! We made some Halloween cookies with some little friends. The kids had a great time decorating them! We carved a pumpkin, which Austin loved to simply stick his hand into and just feel around. Every time we went outside he squirmed to get down and crawl over to the jack-o-lantern...take the lid off and just stand with his hand in that thing!
We don't really do the whole trick or treating thing, but we do stop at a few friends houses and then usually end our evening at some friends of ours around a little campfire. Jaxon was really looking forward to the campfire...but as you can see below, he barely made it! He was asleep in our van by 7:15pm. Preschool just wipes him out by the end of the week and he is often found sleeping on the couch by at least 7:30pm!! I knew Friday night Halloween was going to be pushing it. He was begging to go home and take a bath for bed time at 7pm!! Prior to heading out to some friends we had a few visitors at our house. It is so fun to see the kids all dressed up. They are so cute! It was such a great day weather wise and we enjoyed the Halloween fun with our two little critters :)

Yummy! Cookie fun!!

Our tiger with his hand in the pumpkin!!

Our two "wild animals". The tiger is mad we took the pumpkin away :)

One worn out giraffe...

Austin and his buddy, Addelyn, two peas in a pod.

Happy Pumpkin Day from the Hansen boys!!!