Saying goodbye to our dear friend Peggy Snow

Today our RS presidency had lunch at Panera.  Peggy Snow the second counselor is moving to Idaho.  Her husband is a counselor in the Stake Presidency so there will be some changes in our Stake coming up in a few weeks.  She told us today that President Uchtdorf called them and extended the call to them as mission presidents of the Las Vegas, Nevada mission.  So now in July they will be moving to Las Vegas.  I am so excited for them, they are the most wonderful people!! They are going to be awesome!!!

Me (1st counselor), Diane Wingate (secretary), Johanna Lopez (president) and sitting is Peggy Snow (2nd counselor)

Starting in January we are going to be very busy.  Instead of doing pre-conference visits to the Wards prior to Ward conferences, we will be visiting families in each Ward.  The Bishopric will be deciding which families need the visits, usually the less active families.  I will be going on my visit with the 1st counselor in RS in each Ward. I will bring a message to share that will benefit the family and I will give them a challenge. Then on the day of Ward conference, at the Ward council we will report about our visit and the progress made by the family. This will be done for each unit in our Stake so we are going to be busy until June. In January we also have our Leadership training meeting and Stake Conference. Then on February 1st we will have a special training meeting with Elder Perry!!!  It is going to be busy but I am looking forward to it.

Happy Birthday Ashley!!!!

Today is Ashley's birthday!! It is so hard to believe that we have a 28 year old daughter!! We don't feel old enough to have child that is 28 years old!  These pictures were taken in 1990. Ashley was 4 years old and Brittany was 1 years old.  We had gone to my brother's wedding in Atlanta, GA and rented a car and drove down to Orlando.  We went to Disney World. Little did we know that we would move to Orlando 7 years later!! We are so thankful for Ashley and for her wonderful little family.  Now she has Ronan and Nora. Ashley is just one year older in these pictures than Ronan is now. I think he looks just like her!  We love you Ashley!! Happy Birthday!!

Our Christmas card and letter for 2013

Every year I forget to post my Christmas card.  This year I decided I would not do that.  So here it is the card and the letter.

One of the blessings of this time of year is the chance it gives us to connect with you, our family and friends.  We have had a happy, busy year here in the Hanson household.

                Our daughter Ashley and her husband James, live in Lehi, Utah.  James is busy working for a company called 97^th floor and Ashley is busy taking care of their two children, Ronan (3 years old) and Nora (16 months old).  Ashley also enjoys making hair bows and bow ties for children, which she sells in her etsy shop, Nora’s bows.

                Our daughter Brittany and her husband Bronson live in Rexburg, Idaho.  Bronson is busy working as a sales rep for Vivint and travels to El Paso, Texas.  Brittany is busy taking care of her two daughters, Brinley (3 years old) and Reagan (21 months old). Brittany is also a pre-dental student and excelling in all of her classes.

                Our daughter Alison is serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She is serving in the Milan, Italy mission.  She has been serving her mission for 15 months and will be finished in February. She recently shared this with us, “One thing I love is watching the change that the gospel makes in everyone. I love watching and seeing as people come to know the truth. It is absolutely amazing.” She loves her mission.

                Our son Parker is a senior in High School. He enjoys playing the guitar and has been taking lessons for about 7 years now. He got his Eagle Scout in March of this year.  He has applied to Brigham Young University.  He will be 18 in April. He plans to put in his mission papers in March.  We are very excited for him and can’t wait to see where he will be called to serve his mission.

                Our son Conner is 9 years old and in fourth grade.  He enjoys being a Cub Scout.  He loves taking piano lessons and tennis lessons.  He loves playing video games, doing puzzles and drawing.  He loves going to school but his favorite thing to do is spend time with his family.

                Brent and Maria are staying busy with church, work and family.  We have so much to be thankful for.  This year has been absolutely wonderful and amazing for our family.  We are so thankful for our wonderful children and grandchildren we have been blessed with.  We are thankful for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are thankful for his infinite love and sacrifice for us.  Because of His atonement we can be made clean and return to live with our Heavenly Father again!

Christmas Blessings

Here are some blessings I ask for you

At this Christmas time and the year anew…

Eyes to see beauties all around,

Ears to hear each joyful sound.

A mouth to always speak the right.

Strength to work with all your might.

Hands to heal and bless the ill;

Feet to do the Father’s will.

Hearts desire to learn and share

With those less fortunate who need your care.

God bless and keep you all I pray

In His kind care through every day. 

By: Grandma Isabelle Hanson (1991)

Parker's started his mission forms

Parker started to fill out his forms for his mission on line today!!! I also started a blog for him!  I hope I can keep track of three blogs!!!! We are excited for him and can't wait to hear where he will go!

Learning to love myself

Yesterday Brent and I were sitting at the computer when I looked at him and caught him staring at me! He gave me a kiss, said "I love you" and told me that I was the most beautiful woman in the world! Well, that just melted my heart.  I have come a long ways!  I think back when I was a kid and I used to dislike very much the way I looked.  I was made fun of because of my mop of a hair.  Unfortunately growing up in a very hot and humid climate with crazy and curly hair was a bad combination. I always looked messy!! I could not control my hair, so what did I do? I wore it in a ponytail all the time.  Wearing a ponytail was a problem because kids were cruel and made fun of my big ears!!

I remember when this picture was taken.  I am the one on the left. My parents had picked up my friend on the right, Eileen and me, from primary on this particular Saturday and took us to Sears, which was down the street from church. As we walked in the store, the sales person was standing there trying out these new cameras, Polaroids!! He took our picture and gave it to my dad so he could see how cool it was that the picture developed right in front of his eyes!! So cool back then. When my friends saw this picture the next day at church, they commented on how big my ears were and how big Eileen forehead was! They said, and this is true, that we were like a movie theater, her forehead was the picture screen and my ears were the speakers!!! I was traumatized!!! I hated my ears and so I never wanted to wear a ponytail again!!!! It seems like people have always liked to put me down and make fun of me, maybe because I am quiet and don't defend myself.  In middle school there was a girl that always made fun of my curly hair, at church also people made fun of it, one time someone at church said a very rude comment in front of almost all the youth that really hurt and I was embarrassed!

If you look closely you will see my droopy eye

It has taken me a long time to accept my hair the way it is.  I have also been self conscious of my left eye lid because  it droops more than the right and as I am getting older it also seems to be getting worse.  One time someone mentioned it to me and I felt horrible! In the past my belly always bothered me because I have horrible stretch marks!!

Why do I say all these negative things about me? Well, I no longer let those things bother me too much. I have spent way TOO much time being mean to myself and putting myself down and listening to all those people telling me that I am not good enough or pretty enough.  It has been a very long time since I have felt horrible about myself. 

I have learned to love myself by loving the good in me and accepting my flaws and the fact that I am not perfect, while working on those imperfections and trying to be better everyday. It is being gentle and kind to myself despite my flaws. I have learned to stop judging myself and stop self criticism. It is good to think good thoughts about yourself and to praise yourself.  There is nothing wrong with that. Growing spiritually is a BIG deal. When you read your scriptures and pray and get close to our Heavenly Father it truly helps your love grow, love for God, others and yourself. Another thing that has helped me is that I have been exercising for over 20 years. It really has been a great help for me. I did not change the way I felt about myself overnight but it took time. Hey it took time for me to be negative about myself so naturally it took time for me to be positive about myself.

I am thankful that I decided to stop being mean to myself. I am thankful to have a husband that loves me and doesn't look at those superficial things.  I truly was not kind to myself. I felt ugly all the time! But I don't anymore. I know that there are many women out there that either feel ugly or have felt ugly.  It is so sad! I did not like feeling that way. It is depressing and it is so damaging to yourself.  How wonderful to have a husband that loves me and thinks I am beautiful. But most importantly to know that I am Heavenly Father's daughter and that He loves me!

Christmas 2013

Conner tracking Santa Claus

Ready for bed

Having a hard time falling asleep

With only two kids at home our tree looks empty! It used to have a lot more presents under when all the kids were home!

Conner got us gifts at the school Christmas shop.  Here he is with dad's gift from him.

His gift to me.

Ashley made me this beautiful scarf.

My present from Brent.  A much needed watch!!!

I love my new phone!!

We got to Skype with Alison!!!! She is so happy on her mission and just loves Italy!!!!  She is having a hard time with the fact that she only has a few weeks left on her mission and is trying not to think about it and is focusing on the work!!! She told us that the Ward that she is in, the Navigli Ward, has a lot of members from South America.  She said that they talk to her in Spanish and she talks to them in Italian and they understand each other just fine.  

With her companion Sorella Heupel.

December 2013

Last day of school before the Christmas vacation. Conner was very excited to have a break and for Christmas to arrive.

Sunday before Christmas at church, Parker was sick and was not at church.

Christmas in the Shire is a house that is decorated inside and out with about 300 christmas trees, over 100 crates of lights and over 1,000 of the lighted figures!!! The electric bill is about $1,000 more than the normal season. They start setting up with the outside in mid October.  They don't charge a fee to see it, only a donation. I loved it!