2008 Newsletter

Better late than never I say, and this letter is usually late. 2008 has been a year of changes in the Carlsen household. We started the year with a bang with a new job in a new state and a new house. The move halfway across the nation went very smoothly and we are definitely enjoying life in the mile-high city of Denver, or more officially Aurora. With the move we came closer to family so that’s where our vacations were. In May we drove out to Utah and saw all the Carlsen clan to bid Brian bon voyage for a 2-year mission in the Philippines. In July, the Bartholomew clan joined us here in Colorado for a week filled with camping, hiking, and hanging out. Another exciting adventure came in September when we added yet a 3rd little girl to our estrogen-filled home—Evelyn Rose born September 21, 2008.

Eric now works at Innovative Signal Analysis, a small company based in Texas with a whopping 10 employees at this office. He is currently “on loan” working at a Northrup Grumman facility. He is still enjoying bike riding and has been able to bike commute to work a lot. Eric also enjoys playing basketball weekly at the church and hiking when the season is right. He even hiked two 14,000 ft mountains this year.

As for me, I stay busy with all 3 girls. I coached Elizabeth in soccer in the spring but we’ll try it again this upcoming year since she didn’t quite get it. I got involved at church in book clubs and playgroups and have really found that I like reading. Another thing I found I enjoy is sewing although my repertoire is still limited—rag quilts, pajama pants, and aprons. I also joined a MOMS club out here like the one in Ohio and have made many friends through that. My stab at being a personal shopper for Shade Clothing ended in December when they closed down the PS program but I did enjoy selling the shirts (and wearing them) while it lasted.

Elizabeth, now a big 5 years old or a “whole hand” as she says, is our resident drawer. She can literally sit down at the table and color for hours if you let her. She also enjoys preschool with Miss Jen and can now write all her letters, her name, and can even “read” a little bit. Elizabeth enjoys watching Disney movies, making crafts, singing songs (but I can’t get her to sit at the piano and sing with me), and playing with her sister.

Rachel (3) is a fun girl. She loves playing with her sister but can also sit for a long time “reading” books to herself. She’s fearless with climbing things and loves to ride her bike, another hand-me-down from her sister. Rachel loves Dora, Magic Schoolbus, and dressing up like a princess but still talks about how she was a giraffe for Halloween.

Evelyn (3 months) is our little sweetheart of a baby. She’s an excellent sleeper (I got really lucky in that department) and her smile will melt your heart. She will let anyone hold her and at church that’s what happens.

We have truly been blessed this year as a family and wish you and your families a great 2009.

Love,

The Carlsens

Otto Reed

For Elizabeth's birthday, we got a new addition to our family-a goldfish Elizabeth named Otto Reed. Otto comes from the fishes name in the book "Fish out of Water" and I don't know exactly where Reed came from. How long did we last as pet owners? Drum roll please, six days. I just checked the fish bowl and he was belly up (or side up). I don't know if it was the kids putting their hands or other objects in the bowl (Elizabeth said Rachel pulled his tail) or just the normal life span of a goldfish but RIP Otto Reed.

Just a Flesh Wound

I'll let Alicia post on the Birthday/Christmas happenings, but I thought I'd catch up on some old stuff. On the evening of the 23rd, the night before Elizabeth's birthday, she decided to spin around in the family room. She kept spinning and spinning and spinning until finally she sprawled out across half the room and smashed her head into the entertainment center. She started crying and I knew she'd have a goose egg, I told her to come to me for hugs. Then the blood started gushing.

Head wounds bleed a lot. That's a scary moment as a parent. It was dripping all down her face. Luckily I applied pressure and we rushed to the bathroom, so it didn't get to the floor or even her clothes much yet. It was a small but deep gash. It bled for a good 15 minutes, but we had gauze pressed up to it. I thought we'd have to rush to the Urgent Care but I wanted to stop the bleeding first. Eventually it mostly stopped and we put a band-aid on and I thought we may not have to go after all. Then she touched it or something and blood started gushing out again.

I made the mistake of commenting to Alicia that Elizabeth would freak out if she needed stitches. Did I mention that was a mistake? She kept saying "I don't want stitches, I don't want stitches." Eventually she calmed down though and we decided to go see the doctor and see what they recommended. In her words, "we'll see if you're right and I need stitches or if I'm right and I don't need them. I hope the doctor says I don't need stitches."

Luckily they decided to glue her head together :-) Yep, they have skin glue, awesome huh? Honestly I don't think it worked that well because the cut was so deep that the doctor couldn't keep the skin together enough for the glue to set. But at least it hasn't re-opened since then.

The best part was watching Elizabeth at the Urgent Care. I now have no concern about her inheriting my timidity and shyness. She was the life of the party, she just didn't stop talking. Telling them all about our family and that she was getting a fish and necklace for her birthday and that this was the last day she was going to be four years old. She also kept saying she would only spin three times in the future and count it out. She was very brave as they worked on her head.

You can kind of see the cut with the glue and steri stripe just at her hairline in the photo above.

Our Fearless Leader

This is an old video but we took it when hiking El Dorado State Park in November. Rachel is fearless. I kept trying to get her to hold my hand but she didn't want to. She's the same way with climbing, she loves to climb. There's no playground she won't attack with complete abandon.

Look Ma...It's a Personality!

I hope nobody takes offense, but I (Eric) find newborns incredibly boring. They start becoming more fun when they do things like this.

A Woman Scorned

Today I was watching the kids while Alicia ran some errands. I was trying to read to Elizabeth, but Evelyn was getting tired and fussy and I had to stop reading quite frequently to take care of Evelyn. After a while I noticed a banging sound coming from downstairs. I went down and Elizabeth was stomping her foot. I tried to talk to her but she kept turning her back on me. This was a new type of tantrum, my little girl is becoming a woman! (I know that sounds sexist, I said it for comedic value only :-)

Finally she decided to stop giving me the silent treatment and told me what was wrong, "Daddy, I feel like you don't love me anymore. You keep giving Evelyn all of the attention." Well, that sort of broke my heart so I told her how much I loved her and explained (using one of our Berenstain Bears books) how baby's just require more attention. That doesn't mean we love them more. I think we're good now, but it was definitely a new experience and just reminded me that she's growing up.

Look Mom, My Thumb!

A first in the Carlsen household, we have a thumb sucker. Evelyn will now fall asleep sucking her thumb and it's pretty cute. Hopefully this doesn't mean a bad habit that will result in major dental work (how bad am I to even think about that!).

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I love Christmas time even though it seemed to sneak up on me this year. I know a lot of people get stressed around this time but I love it! I love the parties, baking (I baked goodies most of Saturday), decorating, and even shopping to some extent (the Internet is fabulous!). Here are some things we did this week that makes it feel like Christmas.

We bought a gingerbread house kit and made it on Tuesday.

We went to Home Depot and bought a real live Christmas tree. We may have to break down and buy a fake one for next year because it's so dry here but we love the live tree smell.Our Stockings are also hanging nicely over the fireplace.

I don't have pictures of either of these events but we did have two Christmas parties this weekend. The one at church was huge and they hired a videoke group where people could lipsynch with costumes. Needless to say we didn't participate but it was fun to watch others. Santa came and the girls got to sit on his lap. We told Elizabeth it was one of Santa's helpers dressed up as him so he could be at the North Pole preparing presents. Our second party was Eric's work party on Saturday. Lisa graciously watched the kids so Eric and I could go on a date which was nice. The party was at a co-workers house and they had hired a chef to cook for us. The food was good but it was two hours late.

It's also beginning to look like Christmas with snow and negative temperatures. Last night it got down to -13 degrees. It's cold! Here's a picture from our front door (I didn't venture outside) of the snow. Not too much but it did make for some slippery roads yesterday.

She's back!

Thanks so much for all of your support with Rachel. It looks like she's doing much better, she's gone over 24 hours without losing her food and her appetite and energy are back. We greatly appreciate everyone's comments and prayers and may the Lord bless you for your thoughtfulness. Have a Merry Christmas!

Poor Rachel

As Alicia mentioned in the last post, Rachel has not been doing too well. We thought she was over it, but we were wrong. She hasn't been able to keep hardly any food down for 10 days and has been totally fatigued and lethargic. She's got a little bit more energy now, but last week she didn't hardly move or talk. The most worrisome is her not being able to eat at all. It's gone on long enough the doctors are about to move to the next step of tests and I'm imagining all the worst case scenarios. For those of our readers who believe in God if you could keep her in your prayers we'd appreciate it. Thank you.

Train Ride

This past week we were pretty much bums while Rachel was sick. Poor girl, she didn't eat practically all week because she felt nauseous so now she's skin and bones (more so than before) and all she wanted to do was sleep and watch movies. She's feeling much better now so we'll try and fatten her up with all the holiday goodies I shouldn't eat.

Saturday we went to downtown Denver for the parade of lights. I think the girls had more fun on the train (light-rail) than they did at the parade. The weather wasn't too cold, pretty warm for December actually but it was really crowded. We watched the parade for about 10 minutes before it stopped for no apparent reason and then both girls were whining to go home. One good thing about not staying for the whole parade is that we beat the crowd. I don't want to know what the line for the train ride back would have been like; probably worse than Black Friday lines at Walmart.

Elizabeth excited to be on the train

The one float we saw before leaving.

Eric must have snapped this one yesterday. A fun science experiment on static electricity in the making!

Christmas Lights

Here's the latest modification to my commuting bike. I bought some battery powered Christmas lights from Walmart and I've had the chance to ride it a few times so far. Most of the comments have come from kids:

"Look at the Christmas bike!"
"Aw ****, your bike is da bomb" (from a kid about 8 years old, of course he didn't say da bomb, he used some more modern slang that I'm not familiar with)
"You're bike is awesome!"