DEAR FUTURE MOM | March 21 - World Down Syndrome Day | #DearFutureMom

This video is so sweet! I was on the verge of tears before it even started, I knew it was going to be good. I fought them, I fought those tears!

I hope you watch this video and love it.

A happy Down Syndrome Day to my sweet Sister-In-Law, Autumn. (Friday. Because I started this Friday and am now trying to finish it.)

This is a little story about how I got to know Autumn. It's also mine and Cade's love story. 

Oooh, you are in for a treeeat! :)

I can't be too sure when I first saw Autumn and I'm not sure when I first saw Cade either. I might have seen Autumn around stake activities when I was younger. Autumn is only about a month and a half younger than me and one grade below.

And Cade I probably saw first at the church playing basketball. I was either a freshman in High School or
somewhere around 7 or 8th grade. I was at the church basketball games a lot because my Dad was the Stake Athletic Director, sometimes I would help run the scoreboards. (I had zero complaints about those Thursday nights by the way.)

But I remember one night, Cade's parents and sister came to a game and I observed Cade with his sister.
That might have been the point I decided I liked Cade a little bit. I know I definitely kept my eye on him my Freshman year in High School. He was a senior when I was a freshman--even though he graduated with my
sister, was somewhat in the same circle as my brother who was one grade older than me.....and even though I remember getting in on a conversation he was apart of with one of our mutual friends.....He to this day can't say he ever noticed that I existed in High School. Story of my sad and awkward high school life--It's okay little Breanna, life gets soo much better after high school!

Anyways, back to Autumn. When she was freshman and when I was a sophmore, I was a peer tutor in one of her classes. I was so excited about getting to know her--well, and yeah..I thought her brother was cute too.... I was only in there for two weeks and then I got a different room assignment.

Cade went on his mission and came back two years later, I graduated high school...Cade dated, I dated....(not each other)...but during this whole dating scene, he has now mentioned, this is when he noticed my existion (that is not a word).

In August of 2009, on a Sunday, at a friends mission homecoming we officially met. Met--as in, I already knew who he was and he was near me so I just started talking to him and he wasn't freaked out that I already knew his name.
No pictures in the chapel rule? Oops. Took this picture to send to my brother who was still on his mission. But, it's kind of a permanent part of our story now....so, sorry to everyone in the picture who never wanted to be apart of our love story this much. Ha.

The next Sunday Cade walked in to church (a singles ward I had been going to and one he was checking out) with one of his friends at the same time and we sat by each other.

Later in that week, Autumn came into my work. I was working at a daycare and she was in a transition program that allowed her to go to a job site and help out for a few hours. Coincidence? Seriously, the timing... It was crazy. Cade and I were dating not long after. Autumn would come in two times a week and I would steal her to be in my classroom and she would tell me cute things Cade had said to his Mom about me. It's possible he didn't actually say those things, but I ate it up.;) I got to know Autumn really well that semester and missed her when she got switched to a different job site.

Autumn is always so sweet. She teaches me lessons all of the time. 

She taught me somewhere between 1-2 years ago about being quick to forgive. That was humbling. 

And a few weeks ago she told me that she was tired and said, "It's a good
tired though". With a confused look on my face and wondering, can being
tired ever been a good thing, I asked her what she meant. She said it
was from being so busy with church stuff and family things. "It's a good
tired". She is so positive. She knows how to count her blessings and that life is not to be taken for granted, even when it's tiring. 

She is special. And anyone who is
blessed to have a spirit like hers in their family is beyond lucky! I'm
so glad she is my sister!

2010 Buddy Walk

2013 Buddy Walk

Autumn speaking at 2012 Buddy Walk

I went in to labor with Aleah just a few hours after the 2012 Buddy Walk that Autumn spoke at. We like those buddy walks. And that Autumn.

And then holding Aleah the next morning before church

Our First Home

Our first home..

September 2013

It has taken me awhile to post about our new home. I have wanted to share it here for awhile, but not until recently did we get two extra seats at our dinner table and extra sofa's to help our one sofa look a little less lonely.

Aleah's room didn't seem necessary, so I'll leave that out. Also, the extra room is always messy and it's just an extra boring-kind-of-room, so there isn't too much to show of that one.. And our bedroom is in need of some night stands and organization.
So this is what you get!

Before "New" Furniture 

Now, our extra room that we use for the tv/computer/play room has a couch in it too and we don't have to do this (blankets and pillows on the floor) to have a movie night. :) By the way, this picture is deceiving...she doesn't sit anywhere for more than two seconds. We just got the picture quick enough.

 And After "New" Furniture

Our living room with our new (to us) sofa, love seat and "over sized" chair..:)

Don't be surprised though if you come over and our sofa looks more like this though. I mean, isn't that really what these things are for? Holding laundry that is waiting to be folded.

No? Not at your house?...oh...

The night Cade, with his Dad's help, (thank you Father-In-Law!) brought home the couches, he had just rolled his ankle playing a basketball game at the church. Oh church ball....I have mixed feelings about you... 

We are breaking in the couches with plenty of dorky Hansen family pictures. 
You're welcome.

And then my sister let me take this cute little table off their hands. I love it.

I'm pretty stoked that I can now invite friends and family over and be able to offer them more than two seats in our kitchen to sit. Or one sofa to fit everyone on. 

Woohoo! This is exciting stuff.

But don't surprised if you come over and my house looks like this..... 

I can not clean a house as fast as Aleah can destroy one. :)
And well, to be honest, I'm not very organized myself.:(

In our backyard.

A year and a half old- next month? She looks so much older to me here!

Fun at the neighborhood park.

Taking a walk..

If you read my blog from a previous blog address, you know already, I didn't enjoy house hunting. I only loved two houses that we looked at and both happened to be in Nampa, this is one of those. 

I wanted a simple house in a nice neighborhood. Somewhere I could take my daughter for walks and not feel nervous. The above picture was taken while I was having one of those....."ohhh, this is exactly what I hoped for and it's happening" moments. Taking a walk in the back of our neighborhood, discovering cool spots.

We had six months on our apartment lease left when we started getting the itch (or push) to look for houses again. It's funny how things fell in to place, or didn't, and lead us here. 
And actually we did like three homes I guess. The last home that kind of brought us to this point was a town home. I fell in love with it. It was in our ward boundaries, cute, and in a safe looking neighborhood, in Boise... But we couldn't pull the trigger fast enough. We couldn't get a hold of the right people. I had a few questions on my brain that made me hesitate... And then it was sold. Thank goodness in the end though. 

I went back to zillow and searched Nampa homes. Probably just because I wanted to look at some cute houses in our price range. The homes are cheap here. And cute! Cute for cheap! But when you are looking for a home in the Boise/Meridian area, a lot of people will show their disapproval for Nampa and try to convince you that you don't want to buy there. Our realtor though, never tried to convince us to stay out of Nampa, if anything she helped me to consider it more. I still tried to avoid it. I didn't want to move here. But, after we missed the town home, I searched again and then I found two homes in a neighborhood worth just checking out. Not too far from a home we had put an offer on a year before (this was the first home I loved and was pretty bummed about being out-bid on). We drove to the neighborhood, decided we really liked one- (not this home), and another one (the home we actually ended up buying) was...at least still worth checking out. 

We went, I think, the next day with our realtor to both homes. This home, we went to first. Immediately, I LOVED it. I can't put my finger on one thing exactly, but it was perfect. I didn't need to look at the other house, I was already talking with Cade about the offer. We still went and checked out the other home that I had first thought I would like more. It was a short sale. It was bad inside. That was that. We made our offer that night on the first home and it was accepted not much later, maybe the next day or two.

Everything worked out in the right way and right timing. 

This home has been SO perfect for us. Our neighborhood is great! I love the area we are in. I can't speak for ALL of Nampa, I'm not familiar enough with the whole city, but where we are at is good. There has been some interesting crime activity near our intersection....but it really hasn't bothered me too bad.. I feel pretty safe here. Cade left for a month for work just after we bought this house and I never felt really too uneasy the whole time he was gone. A lot of people in our neighborhood are in our ward. And we are really close to shopping, restaurants and freeway access. I definitely have more positives to list about Nampa than I do negatives. I could even go on about how much I love the cashiers here. Seriously. Weird. 
Nampa is GREAT. 
Come be our neighbor, there are quite a few homes for sale or lots available!

And use our realtor.  

Sharon Walker <Link here>
She was GREAT!!!

Bullying - Stop It (+playlist)

 I really loved this video.
When it comes to being bullied, I never had that issue. But,
I know I was hurt a couple of times by some
things that people said and I know I said things that hurt others. I
still as an adult do say hurtful things about others. I said
something the other day and knew it was inappropriate and rude before
the words left my mouth; after I said what I had, I looked back at my
daughter and felt sorry that I had set such a sad example. It's only a
matter of time until my daughter picks up on those things.. That isn't
the example I want to share and definitely not the mom I want to be.

This video made me think about myself and the example my daughter has. It
made me think about my daughter and how I want her to be treated by
others. And it also made me hope that I can teach (but again, it comes
down to my own example) my daughter how to treat other people. 

This is a really good message for any person. 

And you NEED to watch it. :)

"The Merciful Obtain Mercy"
-President Uchtdorf

Bang Trims

My husband once stripped me of my "scissor rights". 

You can't blame him though.... Someone had to.

I looked in the mirror one day, pulled out some scissors and started going at my bangs. 

I didn't think it looked TOO terrible...

Obviously not terrible enough to stop me from doing it again....

This time we were in town (we lived in Utah at the time) staying at my In-Laws who live in the same neighborhood as my parents did at that time, for my sisters wedding. Morning of wedding, I discovered some scissors at my In-Laws.... I was in need again of a bang trim and went at it. But I couldn't make it look good to save my life and it was a SERIOUS hair emergency. (Can you feel the exaggeration in my words?) I mean, family and friends were going to see me that day! 
So, I got in our car and drove ten seconds (ish) to my parents house and begged the bride-to-be (who also was a cosmetologist for a few years) to stop all that she was doing and fix my bangs. Focus on me, darn it! :) 
As you can imagine, she didn't think I was very cute or funny. But I still think it's kind of funny. And even she couldn't fix it...I hair sprayed and pinned. 
After that, everytime I held my bangs and looked cross-eyed at them funny, my husband was saying, "Don't do it!"

So, when I got the idea to trim Aleah's bangs....I didn't. And I put it off. And off.... There was never a good opportunity to go see my sister to have her do it. Last night though, I watched a couple youtube videos and today I got enough courage to give it a good shot. 

Cookies are great incentives!

I did GOOD!

...I think...

 

Anyways,

who is next??

One of my Favs

“Never in our time has there been greater need for all mankind to turn their lives around and live by the teachings of Jesus Christ. 

One has only to read a newspaper, listen to news broadcasts, or engage in conversation with someone to become despondent with the state of the world, his nation, or the individual plights of his neighbor and himself. 

 
 
'Where will it all lead?'  
we ask in dismay. 
What is happening to the leaders of men and of nations that has brought us to such a condition? Where, along the way, have we failed?

 

The answers are found in an examination of the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the nonconformity in our lives to the truths found therein. It is the individual responsibility of each of us to so live that we may extend our influence for righteousness to others who, seeing our good works, will be led to glorify our Father in Heaven. As we have often heard, the way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

 
 
'Your task: to build a better world,' God said.
 
I answered, 'How? The world is such a large, vast place, so complicated now. And I so small and useless am. There’s nothing I can do.'

But God in all his wisdom said, 
'Just build a better you'"




-I don't know who wrote this. And I don't remember who gave this to me. But I LOVE it.

I DARE You

To all of my readers (all five of you...) who do not have a blog or haven't written in theirs for a while--

I DARE YOU 

to start one or to publish a post in your old one.

Why? 

becauseilikereadingblogsandiwantmoreblogstofollow...

I saw this:

How to Create Your Own LDS Blog

And it got me thinking.

- I have friends and family who have good things to share and should share those things with the world. ...Married with kids, no kids, single, LDS or not LDS, young or old....I'm telling you to start a blog--Share good somethings in the world.

-To my LDS family and friends--Two words: Member Missionary. 

Blogging CAN BE a really good way to share the Gospel.

The world needs a good example, and you are that. And you can share and do a lot of good through a blog. Even if you aren't perfect. You don't have to be. In fact, even better! Mess ups and slip ups are apart of this journey. Learning from them is beneficial for ourselves and others. Blog about it.

(I love me an open book kinda person!) 

-Blogging is an easy way to record memories and special thoughts or feelings.

 -It's fun. And mostly pretty positive....except when you choose to not be...and that's okay every once in awhile too.

*You don't have to be great at writing (duh, look at me!)

*You don't have to write in it everyday. 

*And you are allowed bad days and writing rants, but if you decide you are over it and want to delete your negative nancy post--you can. Or you can keep it up too because it's funny and hey, I'm not perfect. ;)

*When you have writers block, you can google blogging topics.

*You don't have to be the most interesting person ever--Just share something brilliant on your blog that came from the most interesting person ever instead.

*Tell us about 

Your healthy lifestyle

Your struggles

Your favorite hobbies
Your homeschooling---(I know I have family who can teach me something on this topic!!)

Your talents

Your children

What makes you happy...

Your top five reasons for whatever

Your singles activity

 What you saw that was good in the world today

Teach yourself how to create a blog 
 (or ask rachael burnham @ www.rachplusdan.blogspot.com to help you. that's what I did...haha. I'm kidding, you should probably not ask her for help unless you actually know her. But her blog is adorable right?) 
 And get after it! 

I can't wait to read it!!

5 Reasons

FIVE reasons-- You should get a dog right after you get married!

 The year is 2010. It's a warm July day (I think it was July... or June). We were blissfully, semi-newly, engaged--just hanging out at a friends home when.....we discovered the chihuahua puppy litter. We picked the CUTEST littlest puppy out and .... WE HAD TO HAVE HER. Our future landlords okayed it, we agreed to the price with our friend and just like that this little pup was going to be OURS! Right after we got back from our honeymoon. 

Yay, so exciting! 

Except, my Dad totally kept raining on my parade with things like, 

"You shouldn't have a dog in your first year of marriage"

...whatever, Dad.... ;)

These are my top five reasons why your Dad doesn't know what he's talking about

 and why you should get a dog right after you get married:

1.It's fun, not spending time with your new puppy. 

And it's even more fun staying in with a new puppy than going out with your new hubby. Duh.
 "Well, we don't want to go do that because we'll have to leave the puppy home again and we just left her home all day today while we were at work". LAME.

2.When you move to your next apartment--you'll have to put down an AWESOME pet deposit on top of the normal deposit. Our last apartments pet deposit was $300. It was so great. Who doesn't love to fork out extra money that could go towards something else more necessary?

I was never this happy

 3. When you have a newborn (especially a first) you'll still really enjoy taking your dog on a peaceful little walk around the apartment complex to go pooh. Yes, after you've told her all day, "Ok, hold on a little bit longer!", "I'm almost ready!", "Wait, wait, wait!!" Finally, you'll find the perfect time, put your dogs leash on, get some more clothes on yourself, sometimes have to bundle up the baby because they will not lay down and take a nap.....and then take that walk. Aw, fresh air.... Come inside and then...."What the heck dog, we just went out an hour ago! Whyyyyy, do you have to go out again??" (Either said in deep growl voice or long whiny voice).









4. Your dog might be as sweet as this little puppy. Or it might not and want anything to do with your child for the most part, but I'm sure our deal is just a fluke deal. I probably just got the wrong size of dog and timed my child and the dog adoption at the wrong time.

How I look keeping my daughter out of dog poop in the backyard

5. When you become a homeowner, you no longer get to walk your dog around on a leash so it can go poop. But thank goodness you still get to clean it up every time before your new little clumsy walker comes outside to play. Your neighbors probably think you look cool walking with a shovel, eyes glued down to the ground, walking row by row, cleaning up poop...

Okay, I'm being completely sarcastic. And I'm SURE that the dog lovers hate me right now. 

But, here's a little bit of why I wanted to do this post: Because I could have fun with it. AND....So you don't buy a dog and then turn around and give it up for adoption. I'm just saying, think about some things and then decide if you can still make it work or want to at this point in your life. 

My dog is not abused. We like our dog. She is actually pretty spoiled. 

Bike Ride--She's in the basket---Maybe this is a bad example of being spoiled...

Oh smoochy smooshy smoocher...poopy.

And she gets to go on fun camping trips with us!

One time she hopped out of our car and tried to go round up some buffalo. Coolest chihuahua ever moment.

 

 It isn't all bad having a baby and a dog. There is something a little bit fun about your baby having a pet to play with. I've really enjoyed watching our baby learn about our dog and our dog try to play with our baby. But, it's been a lot of work having a dog as we became new parents. And if I were to do a do-over, I would have adopted a pet AFTER I had all of my babies and probably after the last one was walking. It would have been easier to bring her into the mix and then she could have grown with our kids instead of "I was here first".
And what if one of our children comes with a dog allergy? Something I didn't think about until having children.

It just would have been easier for us to have a dog10 years after being married rather than the first 10 years of being married. 

But we like her and that is why we have kept her.

But sigh....Dad was right...Ha.