Christmas 2008

Love, The Anderson Family

Andie's Christmas Dress

She is trying to tell me that she is ready for her presents...

FINALLY facing forward, although not quite 20 lbs? Any ideas for this skinny minnie?

Happy Holidays!

a great gran get together...

We love getting the little cousins together. The older they get the more fun it is too! Pictures are always a must, thanks Gram-we love LOVE you!

Brecklynn, Tyson, "Great" Gran, Andie and Jackson

Brecklynn and Andie already having drama.


Favorite Cousins. They hit, they kiss, they find joy when they see each other. They "vroom, vroom" together and growl well together. We LOVE Jackson's elephant noise. Happy Birthday to you, Jackson, this week!

Saturday is a SPECIAL day...

A pep talk for the parties ahead! Our new purchase today, a must have so that daddy will spend time with us on Saturdays. He figures if I don't have plans made then he'd rather work, golf or ride dirt bikes sooo....see you on the trails!!! We will put this to good use.

Halloween...not too spooky

Springville Main Street
Shayla and I thought we'd get some treats for ourselves, or so it appeared...

The night before Halloween, I was reading Andie our favorite book Fancy Nancy. PERFECT!! So, the pics of her tinkerbell, not so great. BUT Fancy Andie is where it was at! I just whipped together some things from around the house and waalaaa! Super silly. Steve and I were her parents that she tried to make "fancy".

Sooo super cute.

Ward Halloween Party

Steve was such a great doughnut eater. He won. The cake walk, Steve's number was first, then mine was called second. It wasn't just a cupcake we won, it was a plate of cupcakes, each.

So really, I think this was mostly for Steve's mom. She is fancy and I love her for it. She got a kick out of it and we didn't even have to tell her who we were dressed as. I would say our outfits were a little thrown together. It was fun.

A great party thrown by Kevin and Natalie. The lights were off when we pulled up so we were a little confused but oh it was staged, not to worry. She decorated her house so well! It was spooky! The music, strobe lights, wet goobers hanging from the ceiling, candles, spider webs...she nailed it! Good times with good friends, and as always, thanks to the fabulous babysitters. Much appreciated.

A little of Steve...

Man-A-Thon

A weekend when the boys try to prove themselves to be men.

Shooting, Mountain Dew Chugs, Boulder Toss...you know, manly stuff?!

Steve reluctantly handing over last year's first place award to the new man of the year, Kevin Stewart.


Andie helping her daddy get ready for the sand dunes! The best part is that when this happens, I get a day off!
A little warm up before his trip. This is Steve's parents backyard and the boys love it. You wonder about teenage boys and how undeveloped their little brains are. I call this stupid, on Steve's part (aka "man of the year 2007"), but especially rediculous of the boys who risked their lives and were crazy enough to trust Steve.

Finding Meaning...

Fall Enrichment- Journal Entry

( I am so grateful for journaling! If I hadn't done this a couple weeks ago, I would have completely forgotten about this great night and just continued on in my "martha" (aka BUSY) life)

October 17, 2008

"An Inspiring Event"

I was so lucky last night! We had our fall enrichment which turned out so lovely and Jenet Jacob, our guest speaker, was just amazing. The topic was "finding meaning in the mundane". Yes, this motherhood/womanhood roll that I live. A few points that really stuck out to me-

1. Being a mom is a SHORT speckle of time compared to the premortal, mortal and eternal time I have to be creative, talented and work on my hobbies (for example- sewing, cooking, excercising, callings, scrapbooking, blogging..blah..etc.). My children will be here for 18 years each and thats all I will have to really teach, love, nourish, play and all that is longed for in being a mother. I need to put all of those other cares aside and really "focus" on this glimpse I call being a mom. Each day might be forever long but shortly I will look back and just wish, wish all that time didn't sneak away so quickly.

Story: Jenet's sister has 6 children. Picture this. Get the older ones up to the breakfast table and rush the others to the bathtub. Loud screams errupt from the kitchen so mom runs to find spilled milk everywhere, she rushes to grab towels and hears bloody screaming from the bathroom...oh, not to mention, she is 9 months prego-ready to POP...she heads back to the bathroom realizing that the LITTLE ones were left in the bath. Right then, a sweet toddler comes toddling towards her with poop coming from the mouth. She races the child back to the bathtub and come to find out the other is smearing the stuff all over the bathtub...PLUS...more milk spills. She raises her arms in the air and shouts, "I have a Masters Degree!"

We all had a great laugh. I plan on 6 children myself (I think) and oh, that scares me a little!

2. Being on the same level as a family. When we work together-dishes, cleaning, yard work, laundry, etc. the levels of hierarchy disappear. Walls come down and the simple mundane tasks are so easy to accomplish because they take little to no brain power. That is prime opportunity to really open up and communicate with one another.

Story: Jake wants a sleepover with Lily, both age 7. At the dinner table he announces his plans and is quickly turned down by his parents, "We don't do that in our family." His feelings were instantly hurt and he didn't talk much after that. It wasn't until his mother saw a great opportunity that she pulled up a chair along side her at the sink and invited him to help her do the dishes. His one on one time with his mom let him find the confidence to ask her why. It was a perfect time for this mom to teach with love and compassion as they found themselves on the same level serving one another!

3. Being a mom is so special! Picture strings attached between a mother and child's hearts and as I care for and love, nourish, teach, etc. the strength that those bands (bonds) will have. I need to focus on really letting Andie (and the rest) "know who there mommy is". My strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, actions...they want nothing more than to know their mom. (and DADs, they are not off the hook!) The bedtime stories they will want to hear will be about my childhood-now if I could only remember! I am so grateful!

What an inspiring night. I am glad I could hear her again. I had the priveledge last spring to hear her speak at our stake RS enrichment and was the only one from my ward in her class. I knew that others would love to hear her so I invited her to speak at this fall enrichment. I posted this just hoping that there were more out there that this could touch. Finding the real meaning of the craziness that we all take part in each day. My comment about being a "Martha" earlier was in regards to the story of Mary and Martha in Luke. Just a note on that. Mary knelt at Christ's feet and Martha was so busy hurrying about with her daily woes that even in her mundane she found frustration with Mary's "lack of" and complained to Christ. All he could say was "Martha, Martha". What Martha was doing was okay, as she had a lot on her plate, but what Mary was doing was not necessarily the better part but hath chosen the "good part". Priorities are so important in our lives. If we will just always make the "good part" be a top priority, things will all take their right places and we will find order and peace in our lives. Especially this season, I hope that as we take on the craziness we will first remember who has made this all possible and put him first on our daily tasks (whether it be studying, praying, serving), then our children to be taken care of and they will be if we keep it all in line.

I know what I do each day has meaning, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Blankets for Sale??

I am trying to decide, should I do it or not? These are some that I have made so far...

Season Ender...

It is probably a good thing that the season is over because it got a little chilly for this little one...PS...forgot to note before that she is walking and has been for a week now! Sooo fun!

Quiet Book, Continued.

Zip the tent! The end.

If anyone decides to take this on... I am happy to answer any questions. One suggestion- make it BEFORE you have a child.

Quiet Book

Oh, how I can't wait for church next Sunday!

I hope this works! As promised before, I am sharing my talents with anyone who wants to see... I got alot of the ideas off of other blogs, so I did copy, this is not original! It was ALOT of work but I know it will be well worth every minute. Happy birthday present Andie, I love you.

Noah's Ark has finger puppets in a pocket, I also have memory animal cards to put in there for older children as a quiet game.

Weave felt strips together and add a ribbon for a handle to make this picnic basket. Includes a placemat, plate, fork, spoon and knife for children to become familiar with how to set a table. Button and bow for added detail to close.

Flower vase has felt flowers with button holes sewn in center of each flower. Same colored button is attached to page for matching to make a bouquet.

A few of the self explanatory pages:

Rain jacket. Help button coat to go out in the rain.

I added a few pages with zipper pockets for different items, pipe cleaners are great for little imaginations, a mirror and beads for a little princess- I will also add a comb, lipstick, etc. I have the numbers for matching in one of the pockets.

Stop light has felt circles to create a street light and the road is for driving a matchbox car on.

Little miss will LOVE braiding these pigtails! I just sewed some embroidery floss under a beanie.

A piggy bank to practice tithing and saving.

The BIG #1

Happy Birthday to Andie!

What a day it was...and her party was ALOT of fun! She got a lot of great presents, did the cake thing and sported her super cute bib from Grandma Anderson. It was beautiful weather and the food turned out. These are a few of the details that were a part of

her big day:

Good Morning Birthday Girl!!

Invitation

The added bow on her crown was a "quick fix" due to her ripping it a little while before the party was to start. Some tape, a clippy and some ribbon will always do the job. The favors were caramel apples or vanilla popcorn with m&m candies. You wonder...no cake?? Oh, there was! It was a 2 layer, chocolate, chocolate...but you guessed it, on the first turn of transport, it went down! Luckily, I made 1 1/2 cakes so we just switched out the top layer and "wa laa!" I guess I will add a pic just to show that it was there.

Her presents were all so fun! She got clothes, shoes, jackets, books, a piano, puzzles, a 4 wheeler, toys, some $ and the best was a one dollar coin for her first birthday (from Great Grandma). Clever, I thought...we'll scrapbook it.

Andie and Sarah, so super cute!

Jackson cheering Andie on..

Andie having her cake, and eating it too!

She started off with just picking at it with her 2 fingers, "testing" is what we call it. It passed.

Hooray for a great day, it was as much a celebration for Steve and I making it through the first year as it was for the birthday girl, what an exciting time!