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