Abigail's Blessing

Abigail Hope Hansen was given a name and a blessing on Aug. 1, 2010. It was a beautiful sunny day, and lots of family and friends to celebrate with us. We had lucked out that the day before we had a family reunion on the Hansen side, and so lots of our family that lived far away were in town, and were able to be apart of our special day.
Before Abigail was born, I felt very strongly that Hope should be a part of her name. We had toyed with making Hope the first name, but in the end we all liked Abigail, and thus Abigail Hope. After naming her we had a sunday school lesson on Abigail of the Old Testament, and we learned the significance of her, and how she represented the Savior. I never even new that an Abigail was in the Bible. After hearing this story, I realized how fitting her name really was. The Savior is truly my ultimate HOPE. His atonement is the key to everything in this life, without it there would be no hope. I have felt how special this little spirit is, and I am so proud of her beautiful name.

Here are those that stood in the circle to give her a blessing.

Back row: Doug Hayes, Bishop Aston, Thad Linderman, Chris Curtis, Steve Hansen
Front row: Grandpa Ryan, Del Tanner, Abigail & Matt, Grandpa Hansen


Here is all our family and friends that came for our special day.
Steve and Heidi & family

Marnie, Meg & family

Scott, Cheryl & family

Chris & Natalie (she took all the photos by the way. Thank you very much!)

Our good friend Christine. One of Matt's co-workers

The grandparents

Some family shots!

As you can see the kids absolutely adore her. Mckayla can't wait for her to get big enough to play dress up with, unfortunately by the time Abigail gets that age, Mckalya will probably be out of the dress up stage. She is very excited to have a little sister.

Seth had just woken up from a nap, and was not about to be photogenic. He cried and put up a stink in almost every picture, this one just happens to be an ok one.

We were just finishing up with the pictures and Isaiah began crying with frustration, when I asked what was wrong, he wanted to have his own pictures with Abigail of him kissing her. He loves her so much. He is such a good big brother. I look at these pictures, and he has such a tenderness with her. We are so blessed!!

Hansen Family Reunion

This summer we were able to have a Hansen family reunion. Bob and Susan put together this reunion. It was so much fun. Matt's family is really big, 5 bro. & sis., 5 step bro. & sis. and 2 half sisters accounts for a really big group. So they had this held at a spray ground, with a play park and safety town. It was a perfect place with lots of fun things for the kids to do. We all brought food to share, and visited with everyone. Grandma Hansen was also there. We all got family shots with her. She also paints and brought alot of her artwork, and each family got to pick some of her paintings to take home. It will be a great keepsake. It was really nice to have my mom and dad there as well. They had come in for the blessing of Abigail, that we were doing the next day. Here are a bunch of pics of all the fun that we had.

Eaton Eels Swim team!!

Mckayla has worked really hard on her swimming skills, and has proven herself good enough to join a swimming team. Eaton Eels swim team. They started on June 21st practicing Mon.-Thurs @ 8:30 in the morning. At first this was a little challenging for mom, because she had Abigail just the day before. Thank goodness for Matt, and taking McKayla as often as he could. It was also super helpful that Grandma Ryan came out for a month to help. This made it possible to at least get Mckayla to practice. She did really well, and with each meet she competed freestyle, breast and back. She enjoyed it, and improved much. In fact she was one of the most improved swimmers at the end of the season, and was given a gold fish for all of her improved efforts. Mckayla was ecstatic, she was now an official pet owner. Mom wasn't so ecstatic, but was very proud of McKayla.

This is McKayla receiving her most improved swimmer award from her coaches.

This is Isaiah with the help of McKayla and James Hayes. At some of the meets they had a guppy race for all those little brother and sisters that couldn't swim without floaties. This is Isaiah getting ready to race.

It was a super fun summer, and we can't wait til next summer to do swim team again!

4th of July 2010

The 4th of July we spent it with our good friends the Hayes family. We have become really close with them. They have been so helpful to us, especially when we have needed a babysitter for having Abigail, and when we have had to take some trips. The kids love being together, and
we love spending time with Beth and Doug. They are such a good family, and my kids look up to their kids in a big way. We had pizza and ice cream in celebration of the 4th, and when it started to get dark we lit sparklers and watched a few smoke fireworks. In Ohio we are not allowed to do the real fireworks, so the smoke ones would have to do. Thank you Hayes for making our 4th so much fun!