Christmas at Tuacahn

While Sherrie was here visiting we went to Tuacahn to see the live nativity, Santa, and all the pretty lights.

Happy Fourth Anniversary!!!

Carter & Ellie at the Petting Zoo

We went to the petting zoo at Parnell Park over Thanksgiving. These kids are funny.

THANKFUL FOR GIVING BUT NOT FOR FALLING

We went to California this year for Thanksgiving, it was really nice even though it's still difficult to travel with our little ones. We got to see everybody in Whittier and it was so good to see Grandpa Jay. The dinner and dessert were wonderful. Jessy did a great job organizing everybody. Thanks Billy & Jess for hosting us. We were only gone for two days but when we got back home, every single leaf was off our tree. We hadn't lost that many before we had left so we were very suprised. I guess it froze one of the nights and the next morning all the leaves were gone in about 15 minutes. The kids are having a blast but now all the work begins.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween was a blast this year. It's fun to see our kids getting older and able to do more and be more excited about everything. Ellie was Tinkerbell and I wanted Carter to be Captain Hook and MJ Peter Pan but when Carter saw his costume he was too scared of it and wouldn't wear it and kept saying, "scary, scary" so I ended up making a Peter Pan costume for him and MJ Captain Hook which was really just a pirate. I had a great time making their costumes and I hope I can do that each year. We met up with Tiffany and kids and Charity and kids and wandered through their mom's neighborhood. Carter was running as fast as he could everywhere with a sucker in one hand and his halloween bag in the other. Their great aunt Jolleen made all the kids these adorable halloween bags that they will get to use year after year.
Carter would get to the door and say, "trick treat" take the piece of candy and gently put it in his bag, then he would politely say "thank you" and then half way down the driveway turn around and say "bye" it was adorable and everyone loved him. Ellie was pretty exhausted and was just happy to sit in the stroller and ride around. MJ was smiley and cute until he was getting a little hungry and started "talking" loudly which was perfect for a Halloween night. We had a really good time and were thrilled that the kids wanted to share their candy with us.

OCTOBER 15th 2010

This date will go down in Anderson history as the first night ALL three kids slept through the night. YEAH!! Little Michael finally got off his 4:30 wake up call and not a sound from Carter and Ellie until 7:00 this morning. It was beautiful. The only downer was I spent ALL night dreaming that kids were in bed with us, that they were outside and hurt, that they needed something, the usual mom dreams and I had to get up at 3 am for some ibuprofen. We are crossing our fingers for many many many more sleepful nights to come.

One Smart Kid

I haven't had much time to play with the kids after MJ was born and it has been so hot but the other day I was outside with them getting Carter to ride his tricycle, well he finally got the hang of it and was having so much fun riding around but then he stopped and said, "Mom, mom, hat, hat" so I went inside and got him a hat. He had never asked for a hat before and hardly wears them but I didn't think much about it. Later that day Pa came by to say hi so I told Carter to show Pa how he rides his bike and he said, "Mom, mom, hat" so I had to get his hat before he would ride his bike. The only thing I can think of is that he is always pointing out motorcycles whenever we're riding around and he must think of a hat as a helmet. What a smart and safe kid.

OUR SUMMER PROJECT

This was the BIGGEST project next to tiling our entry and hall. When we moved in there was an old wooden tool shed in the back. Michael wanted to burn it to the ground but I wanted to make a playhouse out of it. The first major problem was getting it from one side of the yard to the other over dirt and sand. For my birthday Michael and his friend Scot took on the task. They did it Egyptian style with a bunch of steel pipes as wheels, instead of logs. It took them all day but wow it got done and it was go time. I started painting the outside yellow and the trim white. Michael put in the window and was in charge of drywall which took a lot of time and man power. Once the drywall was in I taped up the seams, textured it, primered and painted it. And today we put in the hardwood floor, baseboards, and chair rail. It looks so beautiful we are seriously considering keeping it for ourselves as our time out/office room or as a guest room.

When will it end?????

I really need to write about how cute my children are and how much I love them and how sweet Carter is to his sister Ellie. I gave Carter some fruit snacks and he gave the first one to Ellie, what a good brother he is. If Carter goes to get himself a drink of water first he'll get Ellie one. He's really great to her and she loves him and follows him everywhere and copies everything he does. And they love their little brother and are so concerned when he cries. There! Maybe now when I read through these later I won't only remember all the messes they created but also how much I adore them. On this particular day my kids were in the bath three different times, that takes up a good portion of your day plus all the laundry that you're creating. At least they had fun right?? So here's the story. We are working so hard putting this playhouse together for them, remember the first time I didn't put the paint high enough away and now this time I didn't put the lid on the mud tight enough. So of course I came home to this . . . I'm pretty sure Ellie didn't put that much mud all over herself, remember Carter gives everything to Ellie first :) And notice I always say, "this is what I came home to" okay so it's always me not putting something away properly but it always happens when I'm gone, hmmmmmmm.

Salvaged after a terrible two moment!

On Studio 5 last week this girl from brassyapple.com was doing this great idea of using heat and bond for applying fabric to walls. So I went and picked out some fabric and walla this is what I came up with for Ellie's room. It took me a while to figure out the flowers and stems but I was so proud of it and before I had even taken a picture my little terrors had torn it all down off the wall. I did get a little upset and had to take a time out in my room, even had a few tears come to my eyes but after a couple of days I decided to try again and realized I could re-iron most of it back on the wall. The kids definitely know now to stay away,"no no no".

. . . and it happened again!

I new it wouldn't be the last time a big mess was made but sometimes they are easier than the thousands of little messes made each day. I have been painting an old shed out back to turn it into a playhouse. You think you put the paint away high enough but alas kids are very good at figuring out solutions. So this is what I came home to two kids covered in paint and a yellow playhouse now with some nice white splotches.

Sugar and Spice and everything Nice!

sometimes tough but worth every minute . . .

MJ - TWO MONTHS

Baby MJ is already two months old. He weighs 12'11 and is 27 inches long - 75th percentile. Growing like a weed. He's been a good baby but we are looking forward to a good nights sleep as soon as possible. He is smiling a lot and loves watching Carter and Ellie steal his bottle and binkies. They are cute with him (a little too cute) always smothering him with kisses.

MJ's BLESSING

On Sunday, August 1st we had the opportunity to bless baby MJ. Our church starts at 8:30 a.m. so we decided to do it after church at my parents. It was really nice lots of family and friends were able to attend and Michael did a beautiful job. Caroline my sis in law had made a cool blessing outfit for Carter and MJ got to wear it too. We are so blessed to have these special children in our home.

Probably won't be the last time...

Yesterday I wanted to surprise Michael with a night out, we deserved a quiet night out. So I started getting ready at 1:00 to make it happen, I did laundry, made dinner, cleaned up dinner, got the kids bathed and ready and about 4:30 I was thinking I was making good time so I sat down to watch a little Oprah. A couple of minutes later I went to check on the kids and this is what I walked into. Carter had the baby's binki in his mouth was emptying out my hairspray bottle and had covered him and Ellie in my eye shadow. I just started laughing, how can you get mad at that???

Summer 2010 update

We took a family vacation to Phoenix for an Anderson cousin's reunion. We all rented a huge house with a pool, pool table, big screen tv, and a tv in every room. It was really fun. It was hot so we hung out at the house swimming a lot but it was neat to see everyone.












The Fourth of July was really fun. Michael's folks were in town so we had pizza and swimming Friday night and then an all day swimming party on Saturday followed by Fireworks and ice cream. It was great having them here. They brought a whole kitchen for the kids's playhouse, I can't wait to get that going.







Summer has been going by so fast, we've been swimming lots at Grandma and Grandpa's pool and dad is always so great to watch little Michael MJ.