3 months old today Austin...

Austin is 3 months old today, already! He has been a good baby from day 1... he's a pretty content serious little guy, as you can see in the pictures. He does smile, but he prefers to just look at you with a straight face most the time :) A deep thinker, right? His favorite things to smile at our...mommy (of course :), his monkey hanging over his changing area, Jaxon when he talks softly to him, and when you first put him in his car seat he's all of a sudden very talkative and smiley! Austin is a good sleeper and is taking 2 big naps everyday and in bed by 7:30-8:00 each night. He wakes to eat once during the night and sleeps soundly the rest of it. I'm SO thankful for that! Austin is around 15 pounds I'm guessing...so he's surely eating just fine! Ha! I love the baby stages and have really enjoyed having this beautiful baby boy in our family. Enjoy the 3 month old pictures and have a great Holy week!

Jaxon's 4 years old

Jaxon turned 4 years old yesterday, March 12...and boy did he soak it up! He really wanted a football party this year where everyone wore their football outfits...I talked him into having everyone wear their favorite football team shirts, since I was guessing most of our family members did not own football uniforms complete in their sizes. So, for his family birthday party most of us gathered in our football team attire of different sorts and celebrated with the big boy by enjoying "concessions" and cake & ice cream. 1 hot dog, handful of nachos, some football cake and "white" ice cream (as Jaxon calls it), an assortment of gifts, and some fun play with cousins & aunts & uncles & grandparents made for a pretty awesome 4th birthday party! He fell asleep this night in his tent (from Aunt Heidi & uncle Aaron) already set up in his room, thanks to grandma Pat.

On his actual birthday he wanted to have some friends over to play and make pizza together. So, being the brave mom I am some days...I invited 4 children over to indulge my now 4 year old and we partied it up! Let me tell you... I have taught, cared for, baby-sat, and watched over many children... I was not trained for the energy that 5- 3 & 4 year old children could make during a birthday party! I am so glad I invited (okay, begged) my good pal, Jen, to come and help!!! We laughed SO much during this time and the kids had a blast! They played pirates, hide & seek, piano game, wrestled, baseball, hid under bed & in tent, yelled, screamed, made pizza, ate pizza, ate cake & ice cream, did sidewalk chalk, sledding in our backyard, had snow ball fights, drew in the snow, stomped in water puddles, threw things down my laundry shoot, played with our race track, and climbed all over 3 guys that made a surprise visit (I work w/ these 3 fun guys and they showed up just in time to wind the kids up a notch or two!). Yes, take a breath now...I was reminding myself of that about 2 hours in. I have to say...it was a successful birthday celebration! I had so much fun getting ready and enjoying all of it with my first baby boy, family, and friends.

We ended Jaxon's 4th birthday by eating more pizza at Family Time at church (Wed night family meal) and snuggeling on the couch to watch the Bee Movie, as Jaxon requested, before bed. My wonderful blessing of a son fell into bed that night sighing "I love being four". It was a good year to turn 4! Happy Birthday my son :)

Jaxon and his friends who came for the pizza party... Eli Mickey, Mason Reisetter, Gabe Middleton, and Joelle Wessels.

Enjoying the home-made pizza and kool-aid bottle drinks (a treat in our house :)

Jaxon and his cousin Kyler at football party. Jaxon and Kyler are such good buddies!

Dad, Mom, Jaxon, & Austin... football cake, birthday song, and blowing out candles..whoo-hoo!

Jaxon and his football field cake! We had a good time making it together.

Jaxon and baby brother all ready for the football party fun! Dad is so proud...Go Vikings!

The Hansen Boys

Just a few pics of the Hansen boys from the last week or so... these boys (and mom) were happy to have dad home today!

Dave's almost home from Haiti...

Below is an email from one of the leader's on the Haiti trip. Dave gets home on late Friday/Early Saturday! Yeah! Thank you for your prayers while he's been gone serving and for your extra help at the Hansen home :-) We really appreciate it and are humbled by all of it... Thank you.


Report on Tuesday:

Flexible & Patient, that's our motto. Instead of a second work day,

as we originally planned, we started the morning by driving out to La

Belle Mer (Beautiful View) to deliver 10 goats to the Salt & Light

School. A wonderful drive... all 18 of us, plus a driver and

translator, jammed into a short bed compact truck. The saying goes

that there's always room for one more in a Haitian taxi. The School

is one of the newest schools, but in a fairly remote, poor part of the

country. At least a 30 minute drive, maybe 45 since we had to walk up

and down a few steep hills. The school is simply unfinished homemade

cement blocks, unfinished floors, the kids use cement blocks for

chairs, no desks. The 10 children that received goats were very

excited. After each child received their goats, Darrell Lindaman

offered a prayer.

The rest of the morning we put together gift bags for the 380 kids at

the Rocky School. Lunch was tuna surprise.

In the afternoon the guys headed down to Beadle's rice shop to pick up

our order. There was the typical mix up with amounts and prices, but

we expect that. Doug, Marla & Randy renegotiated while the rest of

the guys loaded the 180 bags of rice and 30 boxes of oil. We came

close to not picking up the beans we had ordered because the owner

wanted more money. We held firm and he caved at the end. Somehow, I

still think he's turning a profit. We did feel good about the big

pile of rice, beans and oil that we left in the hospital storeroom.

We're also leaving some money with the hospital to buy other supplies

that they need to prepare the meals for patients.

The ladies finished up the painting project while the guys moved the

rice & beans. After that we handed out sponsor packets to school

kids. That was a real highlight for us. Judy was able to meet the

little boy they have sponsored for the past 4 years.

Then it started to rain... hard... for a long time. Most made it back

to our houses before the dam burst. Randy, Marla, Doug, Deb L., Lisa

and Judy didn't. The water in the street was at least ankle deep.

But it was a warm rain. A few in our group decided to shower outside.

We have pictures.

Because of the rain it was a shorter night. We had dinner in the

guys' house. A little crammed and warm and humid, but we've become

good friends.

Report on Wednesday:

Lots of driving today. We took 2 trucks to the Rocky Mountain School

this morning to deliver gift bags and share the salvation message.

This trip is always a highlight.

Then we finished the morning at the Campbell's orphanage... observing

the mother's milk programs, baby vaccinations and playing with the

kids. We also had lunch with Bill & Jennifer and their son, Jesse.

Terrific people. We hope to continue our relationship with them.

After lunch we drove out to the Sonshine School to see how they were

coming with the school addition. The cement floors were finished, and

the girls were impressed with the hard work the guys did.

The group split... Half went to the hospital's farm program. The

other half to Anne's orphanage near the airport.

Tonight we are going to Dr. Guy's house for dinner. It'll be our last

night in Pignon. Hard to believe. We usually finish the night on the

roof of the Iowa House under the stars.

Please continue praying for us. Although we're still smiling, I can

tell the group is getting tired. It's been a powerful week. We've

all been deeply touched and challenged by what we've done and seen.

The level of poverty and incredible need is staggering. It's hard to

know how to respond in a way that honors and pleases God.

We love you all. See you soon. Thanks for your prayers.

For the team... Doug

Snow Time!

We had some fun in the snow this weekend! Uncle August and Aunt Katie came to stay at our place while Dad is in Haiti. We had lots of fun and mom had lots of help ;-) Here are some fun pictures of our snow-man and snow fort! Those snow balls sure get heavy!! Hopefully we'll be playing in our backyard full of green grass soon, instead of so much snow! Is spring ever coming???

2 months old and counting...

My goodness...is it 2 months already since Austin arrived? What a blessing he's been to our family! He has plumped up just fine, weighing in at 14 pounds and 5 ounces at his 2 month visit!! Ha! He was 23 inches long and on growth charts in the 95% for weight and 50% for height. I'm sure he'll stretch out, right? :) He's finally fallen into a bit of a normal routine each day, which I'm grateful for. His head is still full of DARK hair and seems to be growing in the back. Jaxon had his first haircut at 10 months old...Austin may be close to that if not before! Austin was so serious for the first 6 weeks and now we are seeing lots of smiles and cooing action. Jaxon still enjoys hugging him and cuddling with him...for about 10 seconds and then moving onto his next thing for the moment. Austin is a bit of a mama's boy these days, which I have to really eat up since I know my first boy quickly became a daddy's boy once he realized who could really dunk a basketball, run fast down the 1st base line, and call out real football plays :) It's just been a joy to have Austin in our home and we look forward to the next little milestones as we watch him grow!

Just hanging around...

First of all... Happy Valentine's Day to you all!!! Hope today is filled with love
and happiness today...

I can't believe it's been a month already since I blogged last. Time flies when... well, when lots is going on... we may spend most of our time at home, but we rarely have dull moments with an almost 4 year old boy in the house and a 2 month old! Lately we've spent our time doing things like games, puzzles, reading books, making up games because we're bored with the old ones, running laps around the middle wall of the house, trains, pirate play, movies, basketball (in the living room), hockey (my dining room table is the goal), tents (blankets and tables), sledding in the yard when warm enough (warm enough being 25 degrees and no wind), baking goodies, getting Austin to smile or coo at us, holding Austin, switching laundry (Jaxon loves this, seriously), practicing counting and learning letters, singing and dancing (air guitar & drum band), and anything else Jaxon can dream up for the day! I must say some nights we fall into bed, but our days are fun and active and busy! While I am floating through the challenge of having a very active little boy, I'm finding lots of chances to love him for who he is and how God made him. I'm also getting to experience a new love for a new little creation again. I must say I love these days at home filled with "stuff" and my two boys :)
Here are some pictures capturing some of our time at home these days...enjoy and keep warm!

Some of Austin's first smiles...

Jaxon enjoying one of our "warmer" days for snow play!

Austin just "talking" it up in the morning...

Austin eying his big brother...hmmm, what's he up to?

Jaxon and buddy Mason making cookies. Very serious about it!

Austin getting some tummy time :)

Jaxon and Austin...one of many hugs shared! :-)