James Fredrick

James Fredrick Olsen was born Friday, May 14th to Liz and Preston (Krista's older brother). He weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz. and measured 20.5" long.

James is Ava and Christian's eighth cousin on the Olsen side of the family, their ninth cousin overall. Between Zach, Abby, Zoe, Kat, and James, Christian now has five cousins that are all within a year of his age.

Speaking of Kat, we recently attended her baby blessing while she and her family were visiting from Denver.

We were so glad to have shared this beautiful event with them.

Christian's Baby Blessing

Christian was blessed during our 9 a.m. church service the day after Danny & Patricia's wedding.

We were all still pretty tired from the reception the night before (plus Christian was up until four in the morning). He nonetheless seemed to sense it was a special day, as he was full of smiles.

Ava was very excited for Christian's big day and wanted to get her picture taken with him...

...Christian, however, was ready to head out.

Krista decided to give Christian a faux-hawk, which he thought made him look tough.

He's a total chick magnet.

Here's his blessing outfit complete with the hat (Christian kept kicking the little knit booties off of his feet).

Thanks to Granny O for buying Christian such a lovely outfit to be blessed in.

Abigail's Baby Blessing

We flew out to Raleigh, North Carolina the end of February to visit Larry's brother Ryan, his wife Kelly, and their newborn baby girl Abigail.

The following Sunday (March 1st) was Abby's blessing. We had hoped to take some pictures in front of the Raleigh North Carolina Temple (which is right next to the chapel where Ryan and Kelly attend church), but it was pouring rain and so we had to settle for indoor pictures. Here are the proud grandparents holding their second grandchild.

The dress which Abby wore is her great-great-great-grandfather's christening dress from 1882. Abby looked gorgeous in it, as you can see in this picture of her with her Uncle Danny.

The youngest two Furr brothers were unable to make the trip (Jamie is away at college and Jordan had to stay home for his high school musical rehearsal), which resulted in the Furr women outnumbering the Furr men for the first time ever.

We are so happy that we were able to share such a special day with our adorable little niece.

Sophia's Blessing

Last Sunday, we attended the blessing of Ava's cousin, Sophia Elizabeth. She looked absolutely beautiful in her blessing dress.

Following the blessing, we went to a luncheon at Preston and Liz's house. The food was delicious and we were able to visit with lots of family and friends.

Ava was very excited to see baby Sophia and we know that Ava, Annissa, and Sophia will be great friends.

In other news, Elder Danny Furr was recently transfered to Grand Falls on the island of Newfoundland. From what we hear, they get 15-20 feet of snow there each year, so send Elder Furr warm thoughts.

Annissa's Baby Blessing

We attended Annissa's baby blessing today, which was followed by a luncheon at Elissa's parent's house. Here is Jordan (Krista's brother) with his wife Elissa and Grandma Olsen.

Annissa was absolutely delightful throughout the day and looked quite lovely in her blessing dress and bonnet. Check out those big blue eyes.

Here's Aunt Maddie doing what she does best—rocking babies to sleep. (Note to self: Why have we still not taken advantage of this yet?) Our two nephews Lucas and Seth joined in as well. Ava would have gotten in the picture as well, but was fast asleep at the time.

A four generations picture of Jordan with his daughter, his father Fred, and Fred's mother.

In other news...Larry got his car stuck in this gravel last week. It may look misleadingly harmless, but the gravel is like two feet deep. Luckily, Ryan (and several other neighborhood men) were there to help get him unstuck. Now when we hit bumps on the freeway we hear gravel spiraling out from underneath the car.

Also, we received an email from Elder Danny Furr who arrived in the mission field last Tuesday. His first area is in Kingston, Nova Scotia, which boasts the world's best steer barbeque. Yum.

Post-Blessing Family Photos

Ava was blessed during our church meeting last Sunday, after which we had a little family get-together at our house. Below are the men who participated in the blessing ordinance (Grandpa Furr was unable to make it out to Utah due to work conflicts).

Larry's brother Danny was sure to get in some quality time with his new niece before leaving on his two-year mission to Canada.

Aunt Maddie (Krista's youngest sister) demonstrated her skills at rocking babies to sleep. (Note to self: we really need to take advantage of this.)

These two strangers posed for the camera as well. Ava seems to have taken a real liking to them and has agreed to keeping them around.

Sneak Preview

Tomorrow is Ava's baby blessing, but for those looking for a sneak preview we thought we would post a few pictures of Ava in her dress.

Unfortunately, her face will likely not be as clear tomorrow as it was when these pictures were taken. As predicted by Granny O, Ava's face has broken out with the infamous "blessing rash" (i.e. baby acne).

Hopefully she'll be this happy during the actual blessing.

As you can see from the number of pictures, we had a hard time narrowing down which ones to post.