Merry Christmas from the HansenFamily to all our family and friends!
2009 has been a roller coaster of a year for us and we are ready to take on 2010. Logan has one semester of school left. Yes, one semester. (we hope... boyyyy do we hope!) It has been a long hard road for him and he's made it to the home stretch. We are so proud of what he's accomplished so far and continue to pray and keep our fingers crossed for these last months coming up.
He also continues to enjoy his calling in our ward/congregation as the financial clerk. It requires him to stay after for a couple of hours every Sunday, but serving in that capacity has been something he really looks forward to and a wonderful experience.
Doing ceramics has taken a back seat to writing papers, but Logan finds a little time every so often to do a couple of things here and there.
Lisa continues to drive her family crazy with her "Lucy Ricardo-esque" tendencies. Her website, TwilightMOMS.com, is still growing and thriving thanks to all her "partners in crime." At any given time, approximately 40-50 volunteer women from all over the world help maintain the online community. (For which Lisa is eternally and ever increasingly grateful for.) Amazing opportunities continue to present themselves and the site has received media attention in 2009, like never before, including pieces featured on World News Tonight with Charlie Gibson, The New Yorker magazine, The Today Show, CNN.com and lots more. Too many to list so feel free to just google it at your leisure. ;)
Lisa was also involved in an event held in SLC called the New Moon Experience which was basically a movie premiere party on steroids. (HUGE Thanks to all the TM volunteers for all their blood, sweat and tears!) There were Twilight Moms premiere parties held all over the country and each one helped to raise funds for ALSF, a foundation to raise money for childhood cancer research and families with children battling cancer. All together we were able to raise over $20,000!!! Many thanks to NY, SLC, Dallas, Austin, Anaheim Hills/Corona, Myrtle Beach and Macon! (Bring on Eclipse!)
What's Lisa up to next??? you ask??? Well, along with some of her fellow Twilight Mom administrators she will be involved in another website set to launch Jan 01, 2010 called Eve's Fan Garden. ( evesfangarden.com ) So, stay tuned. (Life is never dull for someone with such a short attention span)
Becca is quite the young woman now. And quite the pre-teen. As always, she is ALL GIRL - pink, sparkles, makeup, Hello Kitty, ipod and attitude! She loves loves loves to shop. Her special needs class gets to go on field trips every week and her favorites are going swimming or bowling. Sometimes they get to stop at the mall and she gets to put her super shopper skills to work. Becca's teacher and all the aids and therapists are phenomenal! She's such a busybody, and they keep her learning new things and necessary skills every day. And Becca loooves doing homework, turning it in and getting lots of happy faces and smiles on every page! When there's no homework, she goes crazy doing all kinds of crafts at home. We're so extremely proud of her growth this year and we continue to brace ourselves for the impending teen years coming quickly!
As much as Becca is all girl, Caleb is all boy! Legos are everywhere throughout the house always. Burping is a prestigious sport. He would melt his brain playing video games for 24 hours straight if it wasn't for the timer and parents enforcing strict time limits and game-free days. Caleb's getting very bold on his bike, trying all kinds of tricks. He's gone through 2 sets of tires just this past summer! Let's hope next year he gets curb jumping down and cuts down the number of popped tires.
In school Caleb is a great student! He's doing an amazing job learning to spell, read and write and do basic math. We're so proud every time he brings home his spelling tests and does his homework with very little help. But learning does have it's drawbacks- you know how you get to a point as a parent when you're conflicted about your child being a good speller because he can finally figure out what you and you're spouse are talking about when you're spelling words in a conversation, trying to be secretive? Well, we're there. No more "code-talking" for us. :(
Caleb also has a buddy in his class who, if we didn't know better, we'd think they were separated at birth. Those two are quite a pair! Lots of giggles and rough housing. Caleb's teacher is one patient woman! She has been fabulous and we're so glad he's having such a fun school year and is always progressing and growing.
All in all, this has been a great year. It kept us all running constantly to the point that we can't figure out how it is already December! We've been truly challenged and truly blessed all along the way and are looking forward to what the next year has in store for us. (well, the good stuff anyway.)
To all our friends and family, we wish you the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of Holidays! We hope that the coming year is abundant with laughter, blessings and joy! We are so grateful for you in our lives!
Season's Greetings!
