The Carlsens

Sunday, November 27, 2016

New Years Day

With my father leaving to go back to Saudi we wanted to make the most of the time we had left. We traveled to Mike and Em’s house and let the kids play for awhile and then went to a fun trampoline place. The place requires you wear THEIR socks so my mom bought all the kids their special socks. I still think that it so dumb but whatever. Anyway, the kids had a blast playing for awhile. We offically wore them out!

Andrew and Jeff fighting with the Max and Madi’s lightsabers!

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I got some pretty great videos of the kids jumping into this pit. They were attempting all kids of tricks. They loved it! I think this is Andrew jumping while holding his pants. Haha! I guess they were falling down.

This must have been a somersault or roll…

Andrew was spinning in circles…

After playing for awhile everyone was hungry! We tried to go to The Brick Oven but it was closed for the holiday so we went to the Cracker Barrel instead. While we waited for our table the kids played around in the toy section and Jeffrey was loving this pink kitchen and rocking chair!

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I remember Hannah blew out of her diaper and all over her clothes. I thought I had a spare change of clothes or pjs for her in the diaper bag. I didn’t. So I figured it was in the van. Nope. Mom had to go buy her a pair of pjs at the gift shop. They were super cute at least!

Hannah’s Blessing Day

Hannah’s Blessing Day was beautiful and lovely. This is what I wrote on Instagram about the day.

“It was a beautiful and special day for this little princess. Hannah was blessed today and I cried through the entire thing. The spirit was strong as she was blessed by her father and I could feel God’s love completely surround me. Hannah looked like an angle in her dress that was made from my wedding dress. It meant so much to me to have that done and see her in it. Thank you to al the family and friends that came. My heart was bursting with so much joy to see how loved our little family is.”

I remeber the day not being very stressful at all. Everyone got ready for church early so we weren’t rushing with that. My mother and father came over to help us finalize everything at home and take pictures and help save seats at the church. Since we gave extra ourselves lots of extra time we were able to take some family pictures. I remember not letting Hannah wear the dress in the car (didn’t want spit up on it!) and I changed her in the mother’s lounge and Emily came with me. There were 3 other babies that were also blessed that day and they all seemed to be in the small room as well. We had plenty of seating and everyone still made it on time despite a few friends going to the wrong building. (You pass/see 3 other churches before coming to our current building). I remember Andrew saying he had to go to the bathroom as Sacrament meeting was starting. I told my mom to hurry and take him. They then annouced the order of the blessings and we were second up. We had to stall a bit (maybe like 45 seconds) for my son and mother to come back. Whew!

Hannah was given a blessing by Brian. The men in the circle were: Steve Murray, Ray Carlsen, Michael Murray, Leny Grill, Weston Grill, Dave Carlsen, Aaron Carlsen, John Carlsen, Joseph Hansen, Stephen Burton, Dave Finalyson, and Scott McCage. I remember Brian blessed her to be an example and inspiration to everyone. He blessed her to find a worth man one day and told her how she is surrounded by thosue who love her and to always remember that. It was wonderful. After the blessing I was so happy and felt my love increase for all my boys as well.

Everyone brought something to share for food after the blessing and it was wonderful to have everyone be so willing to step in and help set up, set out the food, etc. I honestly didn’t even have to lift my finger. Once most of the family left, I insisted on taking even more pictures of Hannah. I couldn’t resist. She just looked SO beautiful!

We are so blessed to have this sweet little girl in our family and we are truly grateful for her. She has completed this family, no doubt.

(use photo 11.52.47, 11.52.32, 2793-5799)