Christmas letter 2011

Merry Christmas, friends and family! I didn't mail out a letter this year, opting instead to give people this blog address. I also didn't write a letter in 2010 so I guess I have a bit of backtracking to do...

2010 was a busy, difficult and blessed year for us. As many of you know, in 2009 I moved in with a woman named Dorothy to care for her while she battled ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Looking back, I'm sure I had no idea what I was getting myself into but the entire journey was such a learning experience for me. I was able to build incredible friendships with the people I worked with, not to mention the wonderful relationships I was able to build with Dorothy and her family.

 Dorothy and I at her 66th birthday celebration

Dorothy battled long and hard and didn't give up the fight until she was good and ready. She passed away on May 12th, 2010 and I was able to be with her. I was left with a beautiful view of what death is as she passed very peacefully in her own home.

Dorothy's family after her memorial service (including her 95 year old mother)

I continued living in Dorothy's home while they got it ready to sell and while Steve and I finished up some remodel work on the home that he owns in Albany (with the help of my sister's fiance, Cody!). I moved into that house in mid-June 2010.

The remainder of 2010 was spent getting settled into the Albany house and doing a bit of re-learning how to do things like sleep through the night. :) (To read a detailed report of what a day in the life of a caregiver is like, visit this link.)

We adopted these three cuties as well.

Shady, Tegan and Petra

Christmas Eve 2010 was probably the most exciting day of the year... when Steve proposed and we became engaged! That is a very fun story, which you can read here.

2011 threw us into the whirlwind that is wedding planning! To be honest, I don't even know what to say about 2011 because it went by so quickly! I turned 24 in April, Steve turned 37 in June and Jordan turned 10 in July. His birthday post is here. He continues to be our pride and joy and we are so thrilled to be his parents. He is extremely into Legos right now and spends hours and hours and hours (literally) on the family room floor. Sound effects can usually be heard coming from that corner of the house. He also spends quite a bit of time singing and whistling, especially while in the shower. This year he learned to ride a bike, which was very exciting for him.

Our summer was mostly uneventful as we mostly stuck around home, still preparing for our wedding! We spent lots of time playing outside and Jordan even got to go on a canoe trip with my brother, Colby, and his fiance, Caryn. The trip was a reward to Jordan for improving his reading skills over the summer during tutoring time with Caryn. He was so thrilled!

Steve started his 14th year driving city transit and continues to mostly love his job. He is a people person and enjoys the social aspect of the job, but struggles daily with back and neck pain.

I am still working at the Corvallis hospital in medical records. This year I hit a wall at my job and have started to struggle more with the feeling of being sucked in by the daily grind. Things are constantly changing in our department and if management isn't able to wisely keep up with the changes... the employees suffer. I do enjoy the fast-paced-ness of the job and the great working relationship I have with many of the physicians.

In October our big day arrived! To view some more of our favorite wedding pictures, click here.

We spent our wedding night in Albany and headed out the next day to spend 4 nights in Hood River. We stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast and enjoyed being the only guests that week.We were able to make day trips to Multnomah Falls, the Columbia Gorge Hotel and take a trip on the Mount Hood Railroad.

After our getaway we headed home for two nights to do laundry and re-pack and then loaded up the car and Jordan and took off for a week long adventure to Disneyland! We spent one day each at Disneyland, California Adventure and Universal Studios. At the end of the trip we all agreed that we didn't think we could choose a favorite park, just favorite attractions. Jordan and I are both huge fans of the roller coasters! The day we were are Universal it was 95 degrees so our favorite attractions were the ones that kept us wet.

I had thought that after the wedding and honeymoons life might slow down a little bit so we could regroup but that was wishful thinking. It seems that we plowed right into the holiday season with gusto and here were are, enjoying the heck out of it! :)

We have some big plans in the works for our family in the near future. Jordan has been struggling in school for the last several years so we are working towards me quitting my job and staying home to homeschool him next year. We aren't able to give up the income I bring in, so I am in the process of starting a home childcare business. I have started taking the required classes for this process and it's both scary and exciting! I'm thrilled at the idea of staying home with my boy (and future children, which are hopefully not too far off!) and helping him learn in fun and exciting ways. We think it may be just the ticket for him.

As we throw ourselves into new and exciting adventures, we hope you and your family find yourselves healthy and happy as well!

Wishing you a holiday season full of love and peace,

The Hanolds

That mom

We all know one of those moms. The ones you talk about among your girlfriends. The ones you think about as you parent your own children. Those moms are sometimes moms you admire and sometimes moms you hope to become nothing like. Those moms sometimes have kids you adore and you hope to raise your children similarly, and sometimes you look at their kids and wonder where they went wrong. (Come on, we all do it.)

Recently I've been thinking a lot about how I want to raise my kids. Part of it has to do with all the things we've been working with Jordan on (reading, chore lists, trying new foods, etc.). Part of it has to do with all the conversations we've been having about when to expand our family (soon). And part of it is because I want to be the best mom that I can be and it's just something I spend a lot of time thinking about. When you have a child they sort of consume your life and everything you do has either a direct or indirect effect on them. I want those effects to be positive.

In all of my thinking I decided I should make a record of said thoughts. Something for me to refer back to when the going gets tough. Something for me to add to as I continue to learn and grow as a mom. Here's a little bit of the mom I want to be (this applies to Jordan and to future children of ours):

• I want to breastfeed my babies exclusively for as long as possible. (This will be partly dependent on whether I can quit my job and stay home with our kids.)
• I want to babywear.
• I want to make my own baby food! This is actually something I've long been excited about and I have several resources lined up for when that time comes.
• I want to homeschool. This was the right answer for my family when I was in school and I think it is the right answer for Steve and I and our family, too. Logistics are just tricky.
• I want to be a non-worrier about things like messes and dirty kids. Kids learn when they explore and exploring is messy and dirty. I want to let my kids play in the mud and toss toys around on the floor and let the Cheerios fall from their trays and get peas in their hair as they learn to feed themselves. I saw a home decor sign the other day that said, "Please excuse the mess. Children are making memories." I want that to be reflected in our home.
• I want to have adventures. I want to turn day-to-day things into exciting things my kids will remember.
• I want to take MILLIONS of pictures!
• I want to scrapbook. I don't even care anymore if it's digital scrapbooking, as long as we have a record of our lives. And I want to start this with creating a baby book for Jordan.
• I want to read to my kids all. the. time.
• I want to celebrate little/big things. Learning to tie shoes. Learning to ride a bike. Learning to read. These things seem small in the grand scheme of life but when you're a child, they are huge. And they should be celebrated.
• I want to take time for my kids. I want to get down on the floor and play with them. I want to make up imaginary games with them. I want to draw with chalk and swim and wrestle and be silly with them.
• I want to have a wall in our home where we display our kids' projects and art.
• I want to have a "go-to" arsenal of activities for us to do so we always have ideas at our fingertips. (A recipe box full of crafts and games and activities comes to mind.)
• I want to really instill VALUES into my kids. My family always said, "It's not what you want to be but who you want to be that matters." Relationships are the most important thing in life and I want my children to understand that.
• I want to be the parents that show affection in front of our kids. :) I'm not afraid to love on Steve in front of Jordan and I think that's healthy for him to see. We use the phrase "I love you" more than the average family (I bet we say it dozens of times every day) and frankly, I hope we say it so much that Jordan gets tired of hearing it. :)
• I want my children to learn through experiences. Not just by learning from their own mistakes (though I hope they will) but also learning just by living life. Just by being a part of a family or a group of friends or something bigger.
• I want to teach my kids valuable things like how to cook and how to change a tire and how to balance a checkbook, at an early age. My parents did this for us (or provided the opportunities for it) and I am so thankful for that.

I will have so much more to add to this list, I know. But these are the things I could think of just off the top of my head.

Most of all, I want my children to remember their childhood as a wonderful time and when they look back on their lives, I hope they will remember all the memories we made as a family and that they will treasure those memories. You're only little once.

The view from here

Well, we've been married for a month. And we love it.

In some respects it doesn't feel all that different than before. The day to day is mostly the same, the things we worry about are the same, the bills need to be paid just the same. :) But it's also different. It feels different. It is different.

And different is awesome.



On Memorial Day evening we took a little drive up to Foster to visit the fish hatchery. The hatchery was mostly locked up and there were only two little tanks of trout that we could get to, so we fed them a little. Then we took our extra fish food and drove around the lake and found a little side road with a bridge to spit off of enjoy the view from.

(Holy cow, my baby is getting so old.)

We used the pretty backdrop to get a few nice family pictures...

And then we got a couple of actually nice ones. :)

Life is busy as always! We're gearing up for the end of the school year, which is always exciting. Jordan is getting ready to start summer camp in a couple of weeks, which is also exciting! He's thrilled to see his camp friends again, and thrilled that his birthday is coming up next month. My brother's fiance will also be watching him in the mornings, and we're hoping to get a little head-start with some homeschooling during that time. I'm hopeful that this summer will be a real take-off time for him as far as reading goes. I'm anxious to put him through one more year of public school while really, seriously considering homeschooling in the fall of 2012. Our hope is that we'll be welcoming a new baby around that time as well, and that I can become a stay at home mom. :) Of course the reality of finances weighs us down a little in that dream. But we're still talking about it!

Our little garden is doing well... aside from the cucumber plants. I cannot keep those guys alive because something VERY persistent is eating them. My pepper plants also have chew holes in the leaves, as well as the lower leaves on my raspberries. I'm new to this gardening thing so I'm not sure how to get rid of whatever it is.

This weekend calls for sunny skies and temps around 80! We're so thrilled that we're packing up our fishing poles and a picnic and heading to the lake to celebrate Steve's 37th birthday with some friends. :) I'm so thankful for that man. Because he's MY man. :)

Big News

Last week was full of exciting things for us!

First, because I had a birthday on Thursday. Birthdays are always fun, no matter how you slice it!

But the previous Sunday, on Easter, we had a seed planted in our heads and we started talking and discussing. All of our conversation led us to the decision to get married... last Saturday! So on April 30th, 2011, I married the love of my life. :)

Despite many people left wondering why we decided to do it so quickly, we feel very sure in our decision. We did it for spiritual reasons, as well as family reasons, and after praying and thinking and talking with our families, we just knew the timing was right and we were very ready.

Our good friend Pastor Dave performed the ceremony for us. He will also be doing the ceremony at our wedding in October, which is still happening! We cannot wait to celebrate with all of our friends and family in five months.

It feels incredible to be married! Sharing our news over the past week has been really fun, and there is nothing more wonderful than coming home to my HUSBAND at the end of the day! (Saying "my husband" is still something I am getting used to.)

Our family is growing and we are so excited about it!

(And despite rumors and assumptions, nobody is pregnant. ;) We hope to expand our family, possibly in 2012. Right now we are relishing our new marriage!)

The 500th post

It has been a BUSY two months since I last posted!

Let's see, I had just gotten engaged...

Since then I have been living in a whirlwind of wedding planning and life. We have booked our location and photographer, asked our wedding party to, well, be our wedding party, I chose a dress and this week we are working on cake, flowers and food. There is SO much to planning a wedding, I tell ya. It can get so overwhelming and I'm trying to pace myself and only work on a couple of tasks at a time.

We also had a parent/teacher conference yesterday. Those can be stressful for us because Jordan is on an IEP (Individualized Education Program) and visits several different groups during the day to work on different skills (math, reading, speech). His teachers keep close tabs on his progress and do a lot of different testing to determine where he's at and what his needs are.

Yesterday we decided to have them do some more testing in the next couple of weeks to get a better feel for his current needs. He is operating way below grade level and that can be very discouraging. Yesterday's meeting also made us think about some changes we can make at home and different skills to work on. The first thing we're going to try is a chore chart, in hopes that it will help Jordan keep himself on track and be able to follow multiple instructions in a row without getting off track. We talked this morning about different chores that we can put on the chart and different rewards he can earn when he follows through. He seems excited about it.

I'm also hoping to decrease cartoons and video games and limit those to a time of day AFTER he has completed some schoolwork and we've done reading together. They get so distracting for him and once he's started watching a show it's really hard to pull him away and keep his focus on another activity, especially if it's something that is difficult for him. I've been really impressed with his hard work lately on vocab and spelling and other schoolwork so I hope this is a positive change.

Another thing we have been talking about is homeschooling him when he hits 6th grade. In a perfect world, we will have at least one more child by then and I would be able to stay home with the kids and teach Jordan during the day. Financially I'm not sure this is realistic but it's kind of a dream we have and one that we haven't ruled out.

Other things we've been up to:

READING!
Anticipating a trip to the snow to go tubing
Playing with kitties
Laughing
Having consistent date nights/family nights every week
Spending lots of time with my family
Talking about goals and plans of action
Avoiding dishes
Trying to go to bed earlier! :)

The Proposal

This is my 499th post... And let me just say that it would have been super cool if it was my 500th, but I have to tell this story!

The Proposal

As some of you know, Steve and I met about 5 1/2 years ago. He is a city transit bus driver and he drove me to work every day for almost a year. :)

As a little side story, I remember the first time he talked to me and I remember thinking, "WHY is this bus driver talking to me?? Bus drivers don't just strike up random conversations with random passengers..." I found out later that he had noticed me (and the cross necklace I was wearing) the very first time I got on his bus and he had said a prayer and asked God to bring me into his life.

After riding his bus for several months, my work schedule changed and I no longer took his route every day. When I told him this, he took a used bus ticket out of his pocket, scribbled something on it and told me, "Here. In case you get bored." As I walked away, I looked at the ticket and saw that he had written his phone number.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve, 2010...

We have been together for more than 5 years and we've done things a little backwards, in that I've started some of the wedding planning already and we have a date set. Because of all that, I knew a proposal was coming and I even had a hunch that it might happen the night that it did.

But he still managed to make it a surprise!

Jordan and I were spending Christmas Eve at my parents' house while Steve had to work until the evening. We had all finished dinner and my mom had read Jordan a Christmas book and we were all sitting in the living room together, basically waiting for Steve to get off work. My phone beeped and I had a text from Steve, telling me to come out to his bus in two minutes.

I was a little confused because his route doesn't go down my parents street, but I put my shoes on and headed out to the front porch. As I was waiting, I looked over and saw my whole family sitting on the couch, watching out the window.

Steve drove around the corner and there just happened to be about 4 car lengths worth of parking on the street (this never happens on my parents' street) so he pulled over and I ran across the street to his bus. As I stepped on he told me, "Go to the back for a second."

I walked to the back of the bus and when I turned around to see why I was back there, he was right behind me and got down on one knee. That's when it hit me for sure, "He's going to propose!"

He said that he figured since we met on the bus, he thought it would be neat to bring it full circle. He said some other sweet things to me and then asked me to be his wife!

And of course I said yes!

My mom told me later that after he slipped the ring on my finger, Jordan was sitting on the couch saying, "They're kissing... Ok, MORE hugging and kissing!" He is very excited, too. :)

When I went back in the house, my sister jumped up and exclaimed, "MY SISTER IS ENGAGED!!!!" My dad told me later that evening, "Cheer up, would ya?" ;)

We have been on cloud 9 ever since and are having a wonderful time telling people our good news! Thank you all for your love and good wishes! :)

The Monthly Post

I have fans! I mean, apparently. I've had more than one person tell me this week that they really miss my posts. So here I am!

It's been crazy long since I've been here but life has calmed down considerably since mid-October and the main highlight was Thanksgiving weekend! Some favorite moments...






My brother and my cousin took a bunch of us out shooting and it was the first time I'd ever shot a gun. It was SO MUCH FUN. As you can clearly see by the look on my face, I had a total blast.


One of the other things we've been doing a lot of is hanging out with friends and their kiddos. I recently had a friend move back from Vancouver and she and her 3 munchkins and I went shopping one afternoon. Here are Jazmyn and Kylin modeling hats...

While Jackson chills out in the stroller. :)

Remember when baby Boston was born back in May? He's SEVEN months old now!

Christmas is just a couple of days away and I'm super excited about it. Jordan is going to make out like a bandit this year. I'm pretty sure this is the year he's trying to convince himself that Santa is real. He asked for a gift that he didn't think he would get from Mom and Dad (a huge, awesome, expensive Nerf dart gun) and has been asking questions like, "Wait... do we HAVE a chimney?" (We do not.) Needless to say, Santa will deliver!

I promised myself I would go to bed EARLY tonight so it's time to go feed the hedgehog and pack my lunch. Hooray for tomorrow being the last work day of the week! Again, I'm so excited for Christmas. I have two more shopping stops to make tomorrow and then I'm all ready!

I'll be back very soon with photos and stories of Christmas festivities. :)

Fall

Miss us?

Here's what we've been up to!

Starting 3rd grade...

Learning our best friend is in our class...

Attending the annual Pirate Party that Mommy's friend throws...


Snuggling babies...

Jumping in leaves...

Spending afternoons with friends...

Canning delicious applesauce...

EATING delicious applesauce...

Learning to ride a unicycle!

Trying new foods...

Looking at possible wedding venues...

Attending game nights with friends from church...

Playing with WORMS...

Making a worm farm...
Celebrating five year anniversaries!

Enjoying Mommy's favorite season... fall!