Merry Christmas from us...

Merry Christmas and Happy New year!!!

Hansen Tid Bits from 2008!

Dave~ He’s had a transition year! Dave became a dad to son #2 to start the year off. He traveled to Haiti for a mission trip in February, took us on a vacation to Branson, MO in April, had his last soccer season at Longfellow, started a new job at Dolly’s Tickets Inc in May, and played on 2 softball teams through out the summer. Of course Dave has found time for Vikings games this season and plenty of time to hang out with the family!

Jess~ My biggest highlight has been adding baby Austin to our little family. I’ve spent this last year adjusting to life with two children (which I love!), sending Jaxon off to preschool (which was hard, but good too), working part time for Dolly’s Tickets Inc, volunteering at Orchard Hill church still, and sneaking in some time to spend with friends! My favorite days are usually spent outside with the kids either at the pool or in the yard!

Jaxon~ He’s had a pretty big year too! Jaxon became a big brother and it is one job he does very well!! He took swimming lessons, went to two VBS’s, started preschool, and is keeping busy just being a fun four year old! He’s really into football these days, numbers and counting, talking and being with people, Peter Pan and pirates, and anything that has to do with a ball. He is our social butterfly and almost always has a big smile on his face! He will be 5 in March!

Austin~ He has mastered many things this last year. Being welcomed into the world in the middle of winter he became our snuggly cozy sleeper boy. Besides all the 1^st year things (like sitting up, crawling, walking, and eating) Austin has really started to show his own personality. He likes to cuddle, is laid back, a watcher, and has a gentle little spirit. He loves to follow big brother around the house, hang out in mom or dad’s arms, and eat cheerios. He just turned 1 on the 19^th of December!

This time of year is a reminder that our Savior, Jesus, was born to bring joy, peace, and grace to all of us! We hope you find all these things for yourself in 2009! We wish you many blessings...have a great holiday season!!!

~The Hansen's

December 19, 2008 ~ capture a day

December 19, 2008

I was thrilled to actually have a wonderful photographer capture Austin on his actual first birthday. A gal from church (Ashley Schrage) met us at UNI to spend a little time with us as we grabbed some of Austin's daily moments. I love these pictures and will always have them to remember just how beautiful my baby boy was during this time of his life. Having children has been the biggest gift life could hand me. Each of my children represent something to me from different times in my life. They each have taught me different things along the way and I know as we grow old together that they will continue to teach me, shape me, and mold me into who God wants me to be.
A day hardly goes by when I don't look down at Austin and remember the life lesson his life has taught me. What seems like so long ago now, yet really wasn't that far away, was a time in my life when I yearned for another baby. While I prayed and hoped for a child, God used my heart to teach me a lot about the meaning of life. I wanted life... a human form of life, to enter my womb and come into this world for me. God wanted me to see life as a way of loving people. BEING a life giver. Waiting for Austin showed me that I could give life to those around me and that God intended that for me, for all of us really. "Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit- you choose." Proverbs 18:21 Instead of begging for life, I started to practice giving life myself. Austin is a gift from the Lord and what waiting for him has taught me is something I will carry with me forever. It is so great to look at Austin at 1 year old and see how much he's grown, changed, and stepped into who he is going to be... and it is also great to look back at where I have been and how I've grown, changed, and become more of who God wants me to be along the way too. Thank you Austin for being our little boy and for all you've shown us!

***Thank you Ashley for capturing such beautiful pictures of my little boys!!!***

Some Birthday Fun! (at least we hope so!)

Birthday fun at our house came a bit early for Austin this year. Being that kid with a birthday so close to Christmas, we want to be sure he doesn't lose his birthday special-ness amongst all the holiday noise that is happening the same time of year. So we celebrated the weekend before his actual birthday. We had a traditional family birthday party with Austin's aunts/uncles, cousins, grandparents, and us... and that comes to about 45 people!!! Dave and I both come from big families, so our immediate family get-togethers start to feel like one big party no matter the occasion! With a full house and lots of little kids running around there was plenty of fun to be found in almost every section of our home. Jaxon loves this commotion and craziness! Austin...well we found he isn't the biggest fan of lots of action and loud noise. About half way through, we felt kind of bad for the baby... he hardly smiled the first half of the night and spent a lot of the time staring at people comfortably from his high chair or mom or dad's lap. It's so funny how different our kid's personalities are. Jaxon loves a crowd. Austin is content rarely leaving the comfort of his house or the people that reguraly sleep there :) Austin got to have some birthday cake, open some fun presents (with help from his ever so helpful cousins- thanks girls!), and enjoyed a little singing from all of us. He was happy to get into his bath that night, into pajamas, and cuddled to sleep... I don't know if he was over stimulated, overly tired, or what, but he spent about every half hour until 2am waking up and crying :( Needless to say, we may rethink how this boy wants to celebrate his big day in the future!! Of course, he may grow into loving the big party like big borther Jaxon...but we will definately pay attention to his personality next year and see what he may enjoy! Hope you had a fun birthday party baby boy! Thanks to all of you who came to celebrate with our big 1 year old!

Birthday Boy!

Cousins...Maddy, Elsie, Austin...all within 7 months of each other!

Some help from dad...

Hmmm, can I really eat this?


Our special baby boy... 1 year ago. I understand the saying "blink of an eye" so much more these days... :)

a year changes things...

The boys today...
The boys 1 year ago...


...more about the birthday boy coming soon!

what's yours???

Traditions are a big part of the Christmas season for many of us and you...

a few of ours are... getting the tree together after Thanksgiving, doing the Jesse tree (becoming much more fun since Jaxon can understand more and do it himself), making goodies together and taking them to our neighbors, Christmas morning breakfast at our house, 3 Kings giving gifts, watching The Grinch the week of Christmas (we only get this movie out during Christmas break), Christmas Eve service as a family, popcorn Christmas Eve night and a movie, and so on... as you can see we love little traditions and hope our kids look forward to them each year. Some of them have great significance and some are just fun and silly.

What about you... share your favorite holiday tradition!!!

The last 10 days with the Hansen's

And just to warn you, this picture story could get long! This is our life the last 10 days... to catch you up! It started with CF's State football game. Jaxon was excited to go and was giving his "football" face before he left. Bummer they lost, but Jaxon had fun!

Somewhere between today and 10 days ago Austin has mastered opening the cereal boxes. This is almost a daily occurrence. He loves to eat, what can I say?

For Thanksgiving we visited the Hansen side, McIntosh side, and Brody side all in one day. Thanksgiving was also my dad's 50th birthday this year...and we celebrated at a nice party back in my childhood hometown of Dunkerton. Jaxon and I baked 6 pies for the big party. He was so happy to help make pies. A little baker after his mama's heart :)

It was also Austin's 1st Thanksgiving. He spent a lot of the evening time cruising around in this thing. He loved it! Austin enjoyed sweet potatoes, carrots, mashed potatoes, corn, and green beans for his dinner. I think anyone sitting in arms reach fed him a little something off their plate. Austin was pleased! We're so thankful for our two healthy boys!!!

We have a tradition of going and getting our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving with the Reisetter family. We all headed to Kris Kringles for the hunt of our perfect tree. (or not so perfect! We usually get home with a crooked trunk or a hole somewhere in the greenery....but we love the not so perfect thing each year!)

We looked at maybe 20 trees before Jaxon chose "the one". Austin was happy to join us for the first time this year and really liked the cookie at the end that Jaxon shared with him in the "hut".

We started with 4 people, then 6 people...now we are eight. Who knows how many Reisetters/Hansens will be piled into a picture in 10 years!
(As you can see it is getting harder to get a good picture with us all looking and smiling and sitting still!!)

OKay, then we got our first real big snow the day we were leaving for Minneapolis. Jaxon had to play outside before we left. His first snowman that he made all by himself. Pretty good job!

We headed up to Minneapolis with our friends, the Hoskinsons for a short overnight trip. We swam at the hotel, the big guys went to the Vikings/Bears game (of course), us gals hit IKEA, and we ended our trip with a looong play date at the Edinbourough Park.

Swim time! Jaxon loves the pool...Addelyn did too... Austin just kind of sat there. He's our calm one, you know?

Indoor Park! it was REALLY fun for all of us! I think we all went down the slides, played in the gym, and just had a good time goofing around with the kids. Dave found this place a couple months ago... a great secret we've enjoyed a couple times now. Nice work Babe!

Whew... lots to share from our last 10 days... We also had some good friends from Texas visit during this last week and we loved the time with them. We always laugh together and can just pick up where we left when we get back together. We're so thankful for the great friends, great families, and great memories we've had from the last 10 days!!!