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.