Goodbye 2013

In case you haven't noticed, all my promises to get back to regular blogging have sort of vanished. Apologies! Still, I want to do a little recap as we end 2013 and ring in the new year.

The truth (and the real reason behind my lack of blogging) is that the last half of 2013 was hard. Really hard. And I hate to admit that because I was so looking forward to it! New adventures in Boston sounds so promising! Turns out it's not so fun when our new life across the country requires some extreme adjustments for all of us.

Needless to say, we have learned a lot. We've had wonderful experiences and made some amazing new friends. We have also witnessed the hand of the Lord in our lives in very real ways, which has been quite reassuring when we have sometimes questioned our sanity.

I guess the biggest lesson of the year (for me) is this: I believe that God has a plan for me and my family. Brad and I have done our best to figure out what that plan is and we've tried to include the Lord in our decision making. The spiritual promptings we have received have led us here: to Boston, to Tufts Medical Center, to this house, with 3 kids. So, really, I can't get too down about everything because I know it is where we are supposed to be.

I guess 2013 wasn't all bad. Afterall, it did give me one of the biggest blessings of my life, our little Samuel Bradley.

Goodbye 2013! Here's hoping 2014 is a little easier on us!

Samwise

...and the evolution of some pretty impressive and incredibly kissable baby cheeks

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

This boy, I tell you, is the best baby ever. I have the facts to prove it, not to mention a proud daddy and two adoring sisters to back it up. Plus he is adorable. Oh, my heart...he has it. Him and those chubby cheeks.

Stats at 6 months: 19lbs 8oz (the exact weight Lainy weighed at her 12 month checkup)

Back to School

A week before the first day of school, Lainy's elementary school invited us (as a new family in the area) to take a tour of the school. There we learned that schools in Massachusetts are different. Different in the way that the government invests a lot of time and money into education, so the schools have some really great programs and curriculum that have been cut in other states. Lainy's school has a full time gym teacher, music teacher, computer teacher, and art teacher, a school psychologist, behavioral specialist, and occupational therapist, plus reading and math specialists for each grade. And the school itself is cute with lots of windows, murals, and bright colors all throughout. It's really quite impressive! And a little easier for me to send my little daughter to a bright, happy place like that.

The night before the first day of school found me packing a little school lunch in my kitchen at 10 pm and marveling over how fast six years can fly by.

Alaina was so excited for the first day of school that she woke up at 6 am. She came in my room, shook me awake and informed me that it was time to go!

A couple of hours later it was really time to go. Lainy was bouncing off the walls. Leah was sad. I was nervous. Sam was oblivious.

Then my little girls did this on the way to school, and oh, my heart!


Soon we found where Lainy's class was meeting outside, and met her teacher. By then she was starting to get nervous.

When in was time to say goodbye, we gave her big hugs and wished her luck. Then she squared her shoulders and marched inside.

Just like that she was gone. Leah and I looked at each other and walked slowly back to the car. (I only cried a little.)

Six long hours later, we had our girl back. She chattered excitedly about her "nice, pretty teacher" and recess and lunch. It was a success!

Now, two months later, Lainy is still liking school. The curriculum is quite intense for a first grader (in my opinion). She has homework every night. But Lainy really enjoys doing it. I try to make sure she has time to be a kid every day. The major hiccup has been kids at school. They've all been going to school together since they were three years old (that's how mom's do it here) and Lainy is the only new kid. So she's had a little bit of a hard time breaking into the little circles of friends. I've had to tame the mama bear in me after Lainy has come home a couple of times saying: "No one would play with me at recess so I just played with my teacher". It makes my heart hurt a little bit. I tell her she's so lucky that her best friend is her sister. Now things are getting better and she's making friends. It was only a matter of time before they realized what a cool kid she is!

{Side note: Does parenting get easier the older kids get? So far, it hasn't.}

We're proud of our little first grader! We love you Lainy!

"I'm Not Going Down There"

A couple of weeks ago, I went down to the basement to do some laundry. Usually two little girls follow me wherever I go, but for some reason Leah was missing. After loading the wash I went to investigate. I found her at the top of the stairs looking nervous.

"I'm not going down there" she declared.

"Why not?"

"Because there's a fire down there."

"What?!" I yelped. "Did you see a fire?"

"Yes. And I'm not going down there," she repeated.

Lainy snorted, skeptically so I turned to her for clarification.

"Okay, I'll show you" Lainy said, and marched down the stairs. I followed but Leah stayed where she was.

Lainy led me to the closet under the stairs. The one that houses the hot water heater. She opened the door and pointed at this:

"We were playing in here and Leah saw this picture and now she thinks there's a fire and she will be like that guy," Lainy said all in one breath.

I was baffled. Then I studied the warning label and the depiction of a little stick figure man on fire and everything clicked.

But all my attempts at convincing Leah that it is safe to go in the basement and that there is no fire, failed. She didn't set foot in the basement for at least a week, mumbling things about "fire" and "that guy".

Currently, Leah has started venturing down into the basement again. But never alone. And always taking a good look at the closet first.

Kids are kind of hilarious.

On Boston

First time on the T (subway)

I'm finally caught up on blogging, sort of. So now we're in real time. In Boston.

I'll be honest: the first two months here were really hard. The move was a bit of a nightmare. And as much as I try to tell myself that this is a great adventure, it doesn't change the fact that we have landed ourselves FAR away from everything we know and love. Add to that an extremely busy husband in a high stress/high expectation job, a crazy expensive place to live, and a mom juggling three kids, and you can probably imagine that it hasn't all been fun and adventure out here.

But things are getting better.

First impressions of Boston:
It is super old. Some of it is cool old (like the cemetery near us with graves dating back to the early 1600's). But a lot of it is just dirty, run-down old. Way different than the West.

People are very...blunt. And loud. They don't have a problem telling you exactly what they think (in a Boston accent), even if it's a little rude. The lady that yelled at me for walking in front of her in the grocery store parking lot is the same one who fawned over my "beautiful babies" in the checkout line. Though I was on the verge of tears, apparently she had no hard feelings. And once I knew that, everything was okay. Now that I've gotten used to it, I kind of love the braziness. It's refreshing after the passive-aggressive culture of Seattle.

Drivers are CRAZY. Seriously nuts. It's every man for himself on the road. Traffic laws are rarely heeded. They are replaced by horn honking and hand waving. Defensive driving is a must. And yes, I was a bit terrified the first time I got on the interstate.

I love New England towns. Every little neighborhood is a township with it's own "common" (green space in the middle of town) and old church. It's so cute and fun. Case in point, our town common with old white church:

Boston is a cool city. Every time we venture downtown, we find something really cool: Boston Common, the Old North Church, Paul Revere's grave, Fenway Park, Chinatown... this is a cool place with tons of history and we love exploring it.

Church wards are amazing. Our ward is what has helped us adjust the most. They have welcomed us into the fold and treat us like family. Even though the boundaries are huge and there aren't many members near our house, the people in the ward have been so kind. Isn't it amazing that you can go anywhere in the world and find a family through the Church? I don't know what I'd do without it.

So we are adjusting to life here. And, like I said, it is getting better. We love our house and yard (even though it makes me sick to pay our rent). We're making friends. We're figuring things out. And I am optimistic that with time, we'll really grow to love it.

So there's an update from our corner of the world: moving is hard but we're hanging in there!

***I've got a lot to catch you up on: first days of school, growing baby boys, visitors, and more. Stay tuned! I'll try to update weekly (at least)***

To Alaina on her Birthday

Dear Alaina,

Today you are six years old! I can't believe it (I know, I say that every year). You are growing so fast. I think you become more smart and more beautiful every day. You are my super special girl.

We have spent the past few months turning your world upside down and slowly building a new one. It has been hard on all of us, but you, my Lainy girl, have made it easier. Especially for Mommy and Leah. You play with Leah all day long. You read books to her and Sam. You make up fun games. You help Leah when Mom is busy with the baby. Your excitement about things, big and small, helps our cautious Leah get excited too. In many ways, you are a saving grace in our family.

Next week you start First Grade. Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do without you. Forget about how much you help me, I am having a hard time with the fact that you will be spending most of the day away from me. For the past six years you have been my little buddy at home. It's a little bit scary to send you out all on your own! I wish I could be a little angel on your shoulder and follow you around all day. I wish I could see you make friends and impress your teachers. It makes my heart ache a little bit. I will miss you terribly. But I know that you are anxious to go. I think you will love it.

And I will always be here, ready to chat about everything you do and learn. I'll give you hugs when you need them. You can count on me to always tell you how smart, and beautiful, and talented, and wonderful, and amazing, and special you are. Because you really, really are.

I love you, sweet girl. I am so blessed to be your mother.

Happy Birthday!

Love,
Mom

Blessing Day

The highlight of our time in Idaho was blessing baby Samuel.

I had a difficult time finding a blessing outfit for a boy that didn't look like Little Lord Fauntleroy. I finally settled on this:

5 minutes before we were supposed to be at the church, Sam had a massive blowout. Brad and his mom hurriedly scrubbed his blessing outfit clean and we put him back in it, damp and all. Why does that always happen? Maybe to remind us that outfits are not that important.

It was a beautiful blessing. Brad said Samuel smiled at him the whole time. I was left feeling humbled and blessed to be his mom, and wondering what my little baby boy is going to do in his life. He's a special one.

I'm so glad we were able to be in Rexburg and be surrounded by family. Baby Sam has a lot of amazing and talented men in his life to look up to.

We love you, Samuel Bradley Hansen.

Interim in Idaho

We had 5 days between vacating our apartment in Spokane and flying to Boston, so we went to Idaho. We sent the girls ahead of us with Grandpa Smith (who had driven up to help with the move). Brad, Sam, and I left later.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: our families are so awesome. It would definitely be easier to move far, far away from them if they were dorks. Nevertheless, we had a bunch of fun with them before our exodus.

We went fishing and frog-catching with my family, played Bang (a seriously fun game), and ate some great food together. Brad's parents planned a mini reunion while we were there which included swimming at Rexburg Rapids, having a big party for all the June birthdays, and also eating good food together.

Please come and visit, family! We miss you!

Good Bye Spokane

Our last few weeks in Spokane were spent packing, selling our furniture, and playing with our great friends.

We had a few mini miracles as we sold our furniture. One of them was a crazy Facebook group in Spokane that is like a virtual garage sale. People sit on that site all day trolling for a deal. I sold a broken dresser, a 5-year-old fan, and a bunch of other random stuff that would probably have gone to Goodwill if I didn't use that group. We sold our nicer things on Craigslist. It was a lot of work, but we ended up making a pretty decent amount of money. Huge blessing!

One day I overheard Leah playing with her dollhouse. She was pretending that her toys were knocking on the door and buying all the doll furniture. Bless her heart.

Our most bittersweet sale was our Subaru. We debated back and forth about keeping it. In the end we decided to put it on Craigslist way overpriced (according to Kelly Blue Book) just to see what would happen. By the next day we had 10 people set up to test drive it and one of them promising to come with cash. So we sold it. To the first guy to drive it: a mechanic who loves Subarus and owns 4 of them. I might have shed a tear or two. We've loved that car. Funny how we get so attached to things, isn't it?

Our last week in Spokane I went out to dinner with these women:

They are the other resident wives with whom we've spent the last year. We've had a ton of play groups, family get-togethers, book clubs, and Power of Mom nights. They are all really awesome, amazing women and mom's. I wish we could go through all of residency together, but the week after this was taken we'd all spread out to different programs all over the country. I'm really going to miss them!

We left Spokane car-less and free of a bunch of our stuff. But we'd added a baby boy, a few life-long friends, and a bunch of great memories. We left very grateful for the year we had and excited for the next adventure!

Lainy Plays Soccer

This Spring Lainy played soccer. She loved it. She was on a team with 6 other little girls. They played with no goalies and no positions, so they all basically just ran around for 45 minutes. It was kind of hilarious. And darling.

Lainy had some great plays throughout the season. I'm pretty sure she scored at least one goal in each game. She's fast, so if she could get her feet on the ball she could usually break away from the pack for an easy goal. It was fun to see her get into the game.

We had so much fun watching her every Saturday! It was just the excuse we all needed to get outside with a new baby in the house.

 Cute girl.

Coach Shannon, Emily, Emma, Sara, Jenna, Lainy, Sofia, Kristy

Leavenworth

The first week of May we took a little vacation to Leavenworth, Washington. It was somewhere we wanted to go when we lived in Seattle, but just never found the time. So, when Brad had a week of vacation and we found a hotel for the right price, we decided to go.

On the way we stopped at Grand Coulee Dam. That place is amazing! We took a tour of the dam, went inside and underneath it, and learned a whole lot of interesting facts about it. Did you know it's the largest hydro-power producer in the US? And one of the largest concrete structures in the world? Kind of weird that it's literally stuck in the middle of nowhere...

Leavenworth is a cute little Bavarian destination town in central Washington. Besides the cute themed town (even the McDonald's is Bavarian-style) it has absolutely amazing views of the Cascade mountain range.

We spent a lot of time hanging out in the cute village browsing through shops.

 We found a beautiful park along the river:

A cute little deer in the park

We ate Brats and toured a candy factory that makes Turkish Delight (a la Chronicles of Narnia):

even baby Sam  had to wear a hair net at the candy factory

And we swam in the hotel pool. A lot.

The weather was warm and perfect, and the kids were angels. Sam was only about 5 weeks old and he did great! That boy... he's a blessing for sure.

Our last morning there Brad discovered that Leavenworth is a destination for world class rock climbing and white water rafting. So, in search of some rock climbing we decided to venture out on a little hike. It was probably not very smart. The hike was super steep and dusty and it was super hot, yet there we were with our two little girls and our newborn. Oops. Leah was a disaster. She screamed and cried nearly the whole way. We stuck with it long enough to get a good view, praised the girls for doing something so hard, and went back to the pool to swim.

All in all, it was a great little vacation. Our first venture out as a family of five! I wish we could go again: I hear it's really amazing at Christmas time. We'll put it on our bucket list!

 Das ist gut ja?