flashback friday

This post was originally written in February of 2009 after my nephew, Haddon's, dedication service. Having his little brother's dedicated recently reminded me of it. So, here's a flashback from my thoughts a couple years ago!

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Yesterday my sweet nephew, Haddon, was dedicated (in case you aren't up on baby dedication it's kind of in the same spirit as infant baptism in many churches . . . just without the water. The parents dedicate their child to the Lord and dedicated themselves to raising him (or her) to know and love the Lord and do their best to be godly parents.) I had never been to my brother and sister-in-law's church so it was great to see where they worship and be able to better picture them at church and with their congregation! It was a great service and we were so glad to be there! Haddon had quite the fan club there cheering him on and encouraging and supporting his great parents . . . 9 members of the Carlson family ( since there's 7 of us it's adds up fast, plus my parents were there . . . they wouldn't miss it for the world!), 7 members of the Erickson family (Jenn's family) and 8 of Jenn & Luke's closest friends. Afterward we had a celebration at a nearby restaurant. Good food and great times together. Haddon, we love you so much and are thrilled to know that you will be raised in a godly home!

Here are a couple pictures of the cute family and some of the thoughts behind dedication that I appreciated! (note: the pictures aren't great! The lighting wasn't the best . . . they meet in an elementary school gym . . . and we were far away. Plus, Joe spilled apple juice on my camera the other day and it's acting a little funny!)



The sermon brought up some things that had been stirring in my mind already for a little while. We were taught from I Corinthians 13 and although I didn't hear all of the sermon (I was on Joe patrol since the nursery was only for kids under 3, and he's not used to sitting with us in church) I did catch part of it that stuck with me. "Love is patient." The word used in this passage for patient is a word that means patience with people as opposed to patience with circumstances. I think I'd heard this before, but it struck me yesterday because it hit close to home due to some things I had been thinking about lately. I completely understand how patience with people and patience with circumstances are very different things . . . if only our language had different words for them too!

So, this is where it resonated with me: one of our kiddos (who will remain nameless!) usually wakes up pretty grumpy. She (that narrows it down for you) stomps around, slams doors, grunts, screams, cries and generally carries on for quite a while each morning . . . she wants to sleep longer, her clothes don't fit right, she doesn't want to finish her homework, her hair is too poofy (that may have given it away . . . oops!), the jeans she does want to wear are dirty, she doesn't want to practice her piano, her sister didn't pick up her crap in their shared room, she ran out of time and didn't get any breakfast and on and on it goes. It drives me crazy!!!! I talk to her constantly about changing her attitude, trying to not be so grumpy, etc. It's like I'm stuck in movie "Groundhog Day." Literally, we go through the same stuff almost every morning! Almost always, later in the day she will come up to me (sometimes as soon as before she goes to school, but often in the evening sometime or right before bed) and say, in complete sincerity, "Mom, I'm sorry for the way I acted." Every time I tell her that I forgive her and give her a hug . . . but sometimes I also continue the "better attitude" lecture from the morning and get a little grumpy myself trying to get through to her that if she really is sorry she should change her behavior. WOW! So much like my relationship with God. I do the same gross stuff over and over and sincerely am sorry about it later. But, his love is patient . . . patient with people . . . and he loves and forgives me each time without the lecture. I try to learn from that and follow His example, but it's tough!! I feel like if she really was sorry for being a grump that she would do better next time. But she's a child . . . and she really is sorry; I can tell. That's how God thinks of me, I imagine. I am thankful for his boundless love and forgiveness. So, I will keep trying to work on forgiving and wiping the slate clean each and every time . . . and pray for more peaceful mornings!


I designed this fun layout of I Corinthians 13 a few years back when we were challenged to memorize this whole chapter during a Bible Study I was part of. I handed out copies to all the girls in my group, because it's always more fun to work on something if it's cute and colorful, right? {Click on it to make it big enough to actually read.}

multitude monday

Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here.

"One Thousand Gifts":

747. planning underway for next June's big family vacation
748. more than 24 consecutive hours spent with wonderful, wonderful friends
749. nice ER doctors {who remind the injured child of their favorite teacher} who staple your head closed again . . . and the dads who go along so the moms don't have to endure the emotional pain of watching staples go into skulls. YUCK!
750. tummy x-rays showing no more coins in Anna's tummy {we must have missed it on its exit during our week-long, thorough poop checks somehow . . . glad we went to much of that super fun work unnecessarily!}
751. surviving my nearly 9-hour long 8-kid day last week {9 kids if you're counting the one I'm carting around in front of me}
752. Schaeffer Christian Carlson
753. the hours at the front-end of the day, before I start waddling {by the end of the day, I can't do anything to stop the waddle . . . believe me, I've tried}
754. more than 32 weeks down, 8-ish left to go
755. life-long friends
756. sleepovers
757. birthday parties {happy 2nd birthday, sweet Ava!}
758. the anticipation of family camp
759. 3 days until the fair starts!
760. seeing the Elliott's {the circumstances under which we saw them boggle my mind quite a big, but we're thrilled to see them nonetheless!}
761. the laughter of kiddos
762. a trip to the zoo
763. a couple more things to check off on our summer list . . . and a few more extra fun ones to come in the week ahead
764. a safe 400K bike ride for my no-longer-in-his-30's {or even 40's or 50's} father . . . way to go, Dad. You're one of a kind!!
765. the little hint of fall in the air {but only for one day} we had last week
766. contentment
767. a big week for my brother's family::1 new baby, 30 years of life for Jenn, 6 years of marriage for Mr. & Mrs. Carlson {and before next week, 2 years of life for Haddon!}
768. the excitement of kids when given their very own cameras! {thanks, Elliotts!}
769. my grandma {it's her 84th birthday today!}

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

flashback friday

Almost exactly 2 years ago today {8.28.08} we welcomed Mr. Haddon Christian Carlson to the world. We love you, big brother, Haddon, my how you've grown!

thankful thursday

Today I'm so very thankful for the safe arrival of our newest nephew. The little man belongs to my brother {Luke} and his wife, Jenn, and is the same little guy whoe gave us a little 33-week scare at the beginning of July, thinking he might make an earlier-than-we'd-like entrance into the world.

Anyway, without further blabbing, I'm excited to introduce you to:

Schaeffer Christian Carlson
{named after Francis Schaeffer}
born on 8.18.10 at 12:02 in the afternoon
{punctual little bugger: born right smack dab in the very center of his due date}
8 pounds 2 ounces
22 inches tall

meeting cousins Anna & Lydia::

yikes! one overly excited aunt::

"meeting" his younger cousin while resting on my belly::

Uncle Kirby & Joe::

Mom, Dad and big brother, Haddon are all doing great and 2 of those 3 are especially grateful that Schaeffer didn't make his debut on the shoulder of I-94 . . . he wiggled his way into the world about 5 minutes after Luke and Jenn arrived at the hospital! Yikes! Luke admitted to speeding on the way there {good choice "little" brother!}

the proud dad and his little guy::

We made a trip out to the hospital to see him {and his parents} last night. He's an adorable little guy, and his parents looked fabulous too {check out Jenn, all dressed -- necklace and all -- looking cute as can be so shortly after having a baby. Honestly!! . . . so rude of her to show up the rest of the female, child-bearing population like that!!}

Dad, Mom & baby::

So, welcome little guy. We're so glad you're here!!

answered prayer!

My brother, Luke, and his wife, Jenn, are expecting their 2nd little kiddo in August {very close to Haddon's 2nd birthday . . . I'm wondering if history will repeat itself and their 2 oldest might share the same birthday like ours do. Only time will tell!}. We found out the good news at Christmas and have been thrilled and excited ever since. A couple weeks ago Jenn had an ultrasound with some vague, slightly abnormal {and thus, worrisome} findings. First of all, they found out that they are having another boy, but that quickly became not the main focus of the ultrasound. It seems the little guy had more room than would seem normal inside his skull and they wanted her to have a level 2 ultrasound at the hospital to get a better view and find out what was going on. Needless to say, the wait time in between ultrasounds was an anxious time, filled with lots of prayer, some worry and tears and eventually peace. We prayed often for peace and calm for them during the waiting and also for normal results for the little man at the next ultrasound. Well, their 2nd ultrasound was yesterday and it looks like he is a healthy, normal {if that's possible considering the genetics he comes from!} little man! Praise God!

Here's a picture of the handsome fella::

If you want to see another handful of ultrasound pictures, or read more of the story, you can visit their blog here. We are praising God that the anxiousness and lack of answers of the last couple weeks is at an end and that little man Carlson II is doing well and developing on track. I just wanted to share our joy with you guys too. We can't wait to meet this little guy this summer {and his slightly younger cousin a couple months later!!}. I can hardly wait. Babies . . . oh how I love 'em!

Flashback Friday

cousins::

anna & haddon::

september 2008::

Boo!

Halloween 2009::

Batman and all his bat toys:

Ben {Franklin, that is}:

A ballerina and a chicken {really, they were. You just can't tell from this picture. Most of LJ's costume was not visible and Haddon had taken off his super-hot hooded chicken suit}:

Grumpy bat:

The whole spooky gang::
{uncooperative} Batman, Nancy Drew {after LOTS of time with a flat iron on that hair!}, monkey {or "monk monk" as we call her}, ballerina, $100 bill:

Momma & her little monkey:

The week in review

Well, Easter has been here and is history already for 2009. Time flies so fast! Yikes, I can hardly keep up. This week seems extra busy for our family. We really enjoyed the 2 days that the kids were off school last week {well, except for the fact that Kirbs was pretty sick for a decent portion of it}. Lots of fun {and not-quite-as-fun-as-we'd-hoped} family time. Here goes a quick re-cap on the past week {mostly in picture form}:

THURSDAY:

Thursday we ventured downtown Minneapolis to take in the Macy's flower show. We thought the kids would be really excited. We've been before and they loved it. Maybe they were expecting something more exciting, but there were lots of grumbles and complaints when we got there . . . except Rebekah, she loved it! We didn't get any nice shots at the flower show, this is the best I could do:

I don't know what to say to try and explain how my 3rd & 4th children think those are appropriate ways to "pose" for a picture:

And, again . . . Joe, over here please!

After checking out all the flowers we took a little walk through the skyways and saw the new Twins stadium construction site. We also had some yummy treats. Unfortunately we met with some absurd amount of traffic on the way home {the Twins game had just gotten done} and it took us 1 hour and 20 {very unpleasant!} minutes to get home! Kind of a bummer of a way to end an outing we had intended to be fun!

Kirb had a {pretty big} role in the Maunday Thursday service at church Thursday night, so we dropped him off at church a little after 5 {the service was at 7} and grabbed a bite to eat with my parents and then headed over to wish "Grandma" Alice a VERY happy birthday. She claims to have liked our singing . . . although at 93 her hearing might not be quite 100%! We loved seeing her!

Happy Birthday Alice, we love you!

FRIDAY:

Good Friday we have a tradition of attending the children's Good Friday service at Roseville Lutheran Church {just down the block from us}. It is a WONDERFUL service, geared for kids and always ends with a project/craft for you to take home to be reminded of Christ's sacrifice for us. This is what we made this year, they turned out great! {Rebekah and Lydia both made one. Joe & Anna stayed home with Kirbs, who was sick . . . Jacob wasn't too excited about making a craft and thought he could benefit from the meaning just as well by looking at his sister's project.}

After the service was done and we'd had a little lunch we ventured off to the zoo in hopes of seeing some super cute little animals at the farm . . . you know, they have "Farm Babies" each spring. Well, I guess the combination of relatively nice weather and lots of people having the day off gave everyone and their neighbor that same idea. It looked more like the state fair than the zoo. Honestly, I hardly saw an animal. You couldn't get close enough. I did, however, see lots of interesting people {and quite a few friends! . . . what did I tell ya? Just like the fair!} It was fun anyhow! We were extra thankful for our zoo membership since the line at the entrance, I heard, took an hour! Thank goodness for the "Members" line . . . only about 10 minutes, I think. That along with the fact that one trip to the zoo for our brood would cost $65 and the annual membership {13 months actually, since I always renew before our old membership expires and then they give you an extra month!} is only $85. That's pretty much a no-brainer. Even if you aren't really a math person!

SATURDAY:

Saturday morning found us in a time warp. I felt like it was 1985! We met some good friends {who we haven't seen in a very long time and don't get to see nearly often enough} at the roller rink. Honestly, it's like stepping foot back in the 80's . . . or as my "more mature" friends thought, the 70's . . . I guess that just goes to prove my point, that roller rinks really are a time warp. I said to Phil "this looks exactly like the roller rink I went to most every Saturday morning in 1986", to which he replied, "I was gonna say 1979, but whatever!". Our friends, the Behrens, had been there {I'm not sure why!} and BOTH of their boys had won the Limbo contest entitling them each to a all-expense paid roller skating party for 20! So Palm Sunday weekend they invited a bunch of friends from school to go skating with them and last weekend they invited some family friends. What fun! The kids all had a blast and even though none of them had ever been on roller skates before they did quite well . . . apart from some sore tailbones and bruised knees!

Rebekah the roller skating girl!

Lydia . . . who made it through the Limbo contest, round 1 {not surprising really if you've ever seen how "bendy" that kid is!} but alas, no party for 20 in our future!

Mom and Joe on the rink:

Nathan and Joe takin' a break . . . check out those skates: now that's what we call vintage!

The whole gang {minus Jill who is taking the picture}. Notice, again, how cooperative Joe is!

SUNDAY:
Easter morning. The 4 big kids all ready for church:

"Christ the Lord is ris'n today. A-a-a-a-a-le-lu-u-ia!"
They look a tad grumpy to be singing about something so wonderful! Oh well, what can you do?
I wish the mother of that kid in the front would have had the sense to not let him wear a Twins hat and suck, it would seem, on BOTH of his thumbs . . . honestly! Some people!

This just strikes me as classic first Easter. Whattaya think?

Ready to hunt for eggs in the yard:

Checking out their loot:

Lots of sibling love while hunting eggs at GG's house {GG is Great Grandma . . . my grandma . . . my mom's mom}. We had a great Easter dinner at GG and Lavonne's {GG's sister} who live nearby.

Our brood:

Haddon's super cute little choppers
What a beautiful handsome little guy:

We hope you had a wonderful Easter!
He is risen!
He is risen, indeed!

MONDAY:

Oh, and then on Monday morning I took Anna to the doctor because she'd been getting up 5 or 6 times a night just miserable for what seemed like forever {in actuality, I think it was 4 nights} and was not at all herself during the day either. Last week Wednesday was her last day on antibiotics for her ear infection. I noticed her acting like she felt crummy on Thursday. This didn't click with me for nearly 4 days . . . I blame the lack of sleep! But, you guessed it . . . her ears are still infected, so we are giving antibiotic #2 a try to see if that can take care of it. I think maybe this girl has some teeny little tubes in her future. We'll see!

Silly kids

THIS is how Joe looked going to church on Sunday:

• Palm Sunday . . .
  
• where he had to walk up the aisle waving a palm branch . . .
  
• and then stand on the steps in front of the sanctuary, with the other kiddos, singing "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna".

Nice outfit, don'tcha say?

Actually before stepping boot foot inside the sanctuary he decided to take off the hat . . . and his boots. Yup, he did the whole thing barefoot! {He refuses to wear socks . . . in case you didn't know that fun Joe-fact!} Sorry, there aren't pictures of that. I was up on stage with them helping "coach" the preschoolers.

Here's the best I could do during my attempt to get a picture of Haddon and Anna together.
{I have 4 or 5 that aren't quite as good as this one . . . how cute it might have been!}

"Anna, where are you going? Come back here!"

A family celebration & some deep thoughts

Yesterday my sweet nephew, Haddon, was dedicated (in case you aren't up on baby dedication it's kind of in the same spirit as infant baptism in many churches . . . just without the water. The parents dedicate their child to the Lord and dedicated themselves to raising him (or her) to know and love the Lord and do their best to be godly parents.) I had never been to my brother and sister-in-law's church so it was great to see where they worship and be able to better picture them at church and with their congregation! It was a great service and we were so glad to be there! Haddon had quite the fan club there cheering him on and encouraging and supporting his great parents . . . 9 members of the Carlson family ( since there's 7 of us it's adds up fast, plus my parents were there . . . they wouldn't miss it for the world!), 7 members of the Erickson family (Jenn's family) and 8 of Jenn & Luke's closest friends. Afterward we had a celebration at a nearby restaurant. Good food and great times together. Haddon, we love you so much and are thrilled to know that you will be raised in a godly home!

Here are a couple pictures of the cute family and some of the thoughts behind dedication that I appreciated! (note: the pictures aren't great! The lighting wasn't the best . . . they meet in an elementary school gym . . . and we were far away. Plus, Joe spilled apple juice on my camera the other day and it's acting a little funny!)



The sermon brought up some things that had been stirring in my mind already for a little while. We were taught from I Corinthians 13 and although I didn't hear all of the sermon (I was on Joe patrol since the nursery was only for kids under 3, and he's not used to sitting with us in church) I did catch part of it that stuck with me. "Love is patient." The word used in this passage for patient is a word that means patience with people as opposed to patience with circumstances. I think I'd heard this before, but it struck me yesterday because it hit close to home due to some things I had been thinking about lately. I completely understand how patience with people and patience with circumstances are very different things . . . if only our language had different words for them too!

So, this is where it resonated with me: one of our kiddos (who will remain nameless!) usually wakes up pretty grumpy. She (that narrows it down for you) stomps around, slams doors, grunts, screams, cries and generally carries on for quite a while each morning . . . she wants to sleep longer, her clothes don't fit right, she doesn't want to finish her homework, her hair is too poofy (that may have given it away . . . oops!), the jeans she does want to wear are dirty, she doesn't want to practice her piano, her sister didn't pick up her crap in their shared room, she ran out of time and didn't get any breakfast and on and on it goes. It drives me crazy!!!! I talk to her constantly about changing her attitude, trying to not be so grumpy, etc. It's like I'm stuck in movie "Groundhog Day." Literally, we go through the same stuff almost every morning! Almost always, later in the day she will come up to me (sometimes as soon as before she goes to school, but often in the evening sometime or right before bed) and say, in complete sincerity, "Mom, I'm sorry for the way I acted." Every time I tell her that I forgive her and give her a hug . . . but sometimes I also continue the "better attitude" lecture from the morning and get a little grumpy myself trying to get through to her that if she really is sorry she should change her behavior. WOW! So much like my relationship with God. I do the same gross stuff over and over and sincerely am sorry about it later. But, his love is patient . . . patient with people . . . and he loves and forgives me each time without the lecture. I try to learn from that and follow His example, but it's tough!! I feel like if she really was sorry for being a grump that she would do better next time. But she's a child . . . and she really is sorry; I can tell. That's how God thinks of me, I imagine. I am thankful for his boundless love and forgiveness. So, I will keep trying to work on forgiving and wiping the slate clean each and every time . . . and pray for more peaceful mornings!