The Hansen Family

At what age did you leave your kids home alone? When you were a child, how old were you when you stayed home alone? I am an only child, so I either went to a friends house or had a babysitter.  My parents worked and I remember coming home alone after school when I was in third grade. In Iowa, there isn't a state law requiring a specific age when children can be home alone. It is up to the parents to determine if their child is responsible or not.   I found some great information on this specific topic here . And I thought this information was important: Tips for Parents Once you have determined that your child is ready to stay home alone, the following suggestions may help you to prepare your child and to feel more comfortable about leaving him or her home alone: Have a trial period. Leave the child home alone for a short time while staying close to home. This is a good way to see how he or she will manage. Role play. Act out possible situations to help ...

Our whole family has been so busy lately with work, school, kids activities, volunteer opportunities, daily household chores and basic life in general. This week, I witnessed an extreme act of KINDNESS that will not be forgotten. Josh co-coaches our daughters basketball team with another dad. The families of the team put together a season photo book for both coaches. Although it sounds like another digital book, it was so much more. Josh and I are part of a group of families that have been put together by chance. By the chance that all of these families have girls, by the chance these girls are all the same age, by the chance they like sports, by the chance they have a competitive nature, by the chance they attend the same school. These families fill my heart with goodness. Nine families that I am so blessed to know and nine families who make me a better person. What acts of kindness have you witnessed recently?

At long last, here is the living room, room reveal.  I know you've all been waiting for it. We have crossed off most of our list in this room. We have three things left, curtains, colorful accent pillows and purchasing a live plant. Curtains are going to be the tough one. You can read more about what I am thinking for curtains here . We have the new rug , purchased lamps, accessorized the bookshelves, wallpapered the bookshelves and added art to the mantle.  We're on a roll! Here is how I did the bookcases.  I measured each bookcase by width and height.  You would think that I could've just done this with one cut. However, the wallpaper we purchased was 29" wide, not wide enough for the bookcase which was 30.5". Therefore, I had to cut the wallpaper for each shelf. After cutting the wallpaper, I pasted the it with wallpaper boarder paste purchased from Sherwin Williams. Slowly the bookcase started taking on a different look. #wallp...

This past weekend Josh and I and another couple hosted a Gift Gathering Party. If you don't know what a Gift Gathering Party is, it is a party before a large event to help gather donation packages that will be on silent or live auction. We were excited to open our home and give back to the cause, the Mary Greeley Medical Center William R. Bliss Cancer Center . It was a fun party with great attendance and lots of gifts gathered! Sincere thanks to all of the people to attended and made a donation. The theme of the MGMC Annual Benefit this year is the Kentucky Derby. The above invite is what we sent out via email. As hosts we decided to keep it simple and offer beer, wine and sangaria. I completely forgot to take a picture of all the food because Katie, our friends who hosted with us, made these amazing cupcakes. They were so cute and pretty! Below is the donation table. See those pretty hearts? We are going to do a really big WOW factor with those hearts at the ev...

I love personalized invitations, and when they fit your theme, your whole party comes together.  You have to check out Kiyomi Designs on Etsy. She has the cutest ideas and designs. The greatest thing – she makes it easy for YOU!  She even has printable birthday signs you can hang for party decorations. Here is a quick sample: Invite Printable party decorations Thank You Card Kiyomi Designs offers so much more than just invitation designs. She designs custom invitations (printed or DIY printables), thank you cards, greeting cards, party decor & party printables for birthdays and baby showers and always welcome custom requests for new themes that she doesn't currently have designed. Plus, with every printable item in her shop, she sends a tutorial with directions on how to print and use that item, even the printable invitations to help customers at every experience level with DIY printables. #thatwaseasy If you are a blogger looking for a "n...

If you all remember the post about getting a new rug , here is what it looks like in the room. This photo is prior to doing the bookcases.  Full room reveal soon #whenihavetime #ineverhavetime This rug is totally us! We LOVE it, love it, love it! We have even added more accessories from our room board . Here are two before pictures, notice we added artwork? And After: Ahhh it's so refreshing and brighter. Hello geometric rug and pillows. I got the pillow covers at Hobby Lobby on clearance for a steal! I already had the red pillows and covered them up with this fresh look. #ilovechevron And we added more accessories. From another view... Full room reveal with bookcases soon. What have you updated lately?

It has been a busy weekend here at the Hansen home. Stay tuned for a great update on our living room bookshelves. Some of you may have seen it over on my personal Facebook page. Here is a sneak peek: Follow on Bloglovin so you don't miss out! Now it's time to hop on over and link up your blog.

I have been asked to co-host another Blog Hop. Woot, woot!   Stay posted for some amazing updates with our living room. I'm so excited to share our progress! And now for a little hopping...Thank you Tiffany for inviting me!                                                                                                             It is time for the Let's Be Friends Blog Hop #8. I am so excited to see how many people I have connected with out there. I have discovered some amazing blogs from this hop and am so grateful I started it! Thanks everyone for making this such a great hop!     Ok, the rules are simple: 1. Follow your host (either GFC or Bloglovin'- or any way you fancy!)....

**This contest i s now closed** FREE N ECKLA CE GIVEAWAY! I love JB Knacker, a cute vintage store located in Gilbert, IA. They have, what I would call, the Potterybarn look for a much better price.  And guess what? They are giving this awesome necklace below away! Follow the directions below to enter. I love the popular vintage look that decorators are incorporating in home decorating. You see this not only in decorating, but in jewelry too! Last June I attend Junkin' in June , a fun event throughout central Iowa that takes you on a wild vintage shopping spree. I found some awesome barn wood from JB Knacker where I created some wall art. View original post here .  Now I get to pass the vintage goodness on to you! Whoo hoo!  Enter to win this adorable vintage necklace below. How to get your FREE swag: PRIZE:  JB Knacker vintage necklace NUMBER OF WINNERS: (1) One TO ENTER: Leave a comment on this blog post saying "VINTAGE ME!" (comme...

It seems that everything is personalized these days. Monogrammed bags , monogrammed boards , personalized gift bags , monograms seem to be all around us, letters are everywhere! The most recent personalized items I have seen floating around Pinterest are "Kids Art Through the Years." Specifically this: (Cannot find original source) and this: Original source I had a friend contact me and asked how she can create the above "Conversations with Tristian" image and asked for a tutorial. I thought I could do a tutorial that could be quick and easy created in Microsoft Word, but no luck. It was getting too tricky. Too many steps. Sorry! The easiest way to create the above images are in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. (see another photo editing tutorial here ). Yes, Photoshop or Photoshop Elements require training, but I know you can do it! This tutorial looks like many steps, but I'm really detailed, it's really only 3-4 steps. Here is a l...

Mommy Monday Link Up #2 It's Spring! Spring has finally sprung in Iowa! The weather was nice enough for us to get outside and work, work, work. It was so nice we even broke out the flip flops. We were able to do all of our spring landscaping and start planning what other landscaping we want to plant later this spring. We even put the kiddos to work, they were great helpers. I'm getting excited for a fun event coming up, our local hospital benefit featuring the Kentucky Derby. We received our invite in the mail this weekend. You may remember the decorations and event from last year . Stay tuned for updated posts for this years event which benefits our local Cancer Center. Oh - and link up your blog below: