Happy (late) Birthday Mom!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday and we had a great day! We had a delicious birthday lunch at my aunt's courtesy of my sister. Thanks Nat! And then we had a scrumptious birthday dinner at one of our families favorite places- Fredrico's. While at Freddy's we learned that my sister-in-law Chelsea got accepted into the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at USU. We are so happy for her and ourselves that her and Brett will be around for at least 2 more years!

The birthday girl

My cute mom and me wore the same sweater

Getting ready to blow out the candles

Not to get all sappy- but I really love my mom!! I don't know how I got so blessed to have her as my mom. She is such a great example to all of us. She is a very hard worker and has been her whole life. My sister mentioned on her blog about what a big sacrifice my mom has made for us. And she really has. She is such a hard worker that she is the teacher of the year at Wellsville Elementary. (She loves that we keep bringing this up :)) She is such a great grandma to my kids. Gracie just adores her and would rather have her over me. Brooklyn loves her too and loves spending time with her. Happy Late Birthday Mom! We love you so much and appreciate all you do for us!

My first quilt

About 5 years ago when I graduated from college my parents gave me a sewing machine- which has been sitting in the box this whole time until last week. My sister has been doing quite a bit a sewing and making some way cute stuff so I decided it was time I put my machine to use. My friend is having a baby and so I decided that instead of buying an outfit I would make her a rag quilt. Nat helped me learn how to use my sewing machine, cut the squares, layout the design, and sew some of the x's. I have got to say I became hooked. I did this whole thing- my first project in 1 day. The cutting took some more time and I washed it last night and it looks great. I am excited to give this to her. I am excited to have a new hobby!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun Times and Random Pictures

For every holiday there is that one special treat that you look forward to. For me at Valentine's I LOVE JuJu hearts. (The red chewy ones that aren't hot) A couple years ago they started making them covered in chocolate! To die for! I had bought some this week and Brooklyn, Sean, and I had been enjoying them. Apparently, Gracie wanted in on the action. I was at the table blogging and Sean and Brooklyn were playing Rock Band and Sean yells out, "Um, Em come here." So I come running in and here Gracie going, "YUMMM YUMMM!" Her mouth was full I think she had 2 in each hand and you can see the chocolate dripping down her face. She was pretty ticked when we took them away from her and cleaned her up. (On the second picture down you will notice on Gracie birdie finger the burn she got when she touched my curling iron. The tough girl didn't even bawl. And yes I felt like such a great mom!)

The other night Brooklyn found a bunch of hats and put them all on and wanted her picture taken with them on. Silly girl!

Today Brooklyn wanted to go outsie with Sean and let Sandy (our dog) out and play in the snow. The past couple of years Sean has tied the sled to Sandy and had him pull Brooklyn. She wanted to try it again today. (Pay attention to Sean's laugh in the background)

*disclaimer- Brooklyn was not injured in these fall- she got up laughing

I just love my sweet family- I am sure glad I have them to keep me entertained!

St. George

Last weekend we headed down to warm, sunny St. George. Me and the gals hopped in with my parents and met Nat, Greg, and Garrett down there and the Andies and Pauline also joined us. One of the highlights of the trip besides seeing MaryAnn and her family, the WARM weather, and being crammed into a hotel room was the night Brooklyn lost Blacky. (Let me preface this story. When Brooklyn has a bath and little floaties like lint are in the tub she gathers them and sets them on the side of the tub and they become her friends.) So she was having a bath and found a "friend" and named him Blacky. She set him on the nightstand while she was getting her jammies on and somehow he got lost. This is where the meltdown begins. Ric is searching everywhere for him- I am on my hands and knees with a flashlight trying to find him- Paula is searching- everyone else is trying to find a black piece of lint that could pass off as "Blacky" but she wouldn't fall for. In the process we find all these other "friends" and put them is a cup so they won't get lost. We cannot find Blacky anywhere so we come up with the story that he must have run away to be with his family. Yes- we are talking about a piece of lint. She finally falls for it and decides that he is with his family. All day she had kinda complained that her ear was bothering her, but she had been outside so I thought it was from that. Well she just starts bawling that her ear hurts and she is thrashing all over the place obviously in pain. So she finally gets to sleep and wakes up awhile later and is just screaming saying her ear hurts- it is about midnight by now and Paula and Marlee decide they will go to Walgreen's to get some Tylenol and ear drops. I am dying because we are in a hotel and I am just waiting to get the call that we need to quiet down. The good thing is we had 2 rooms that were shared and one of them was on the end so that is were we had her. Anyways she finally fell asleep. At 3 am she wakes up again bawling and all loud and manages to wake up Gracie and Garrett. Garrett went back to sleep but Gracie thought it was playtime and was as hyper and happy as could be. I think she was up for about 2 hours and finally fell asleep- needless-to-say it was not the best night of sleep I have every gotten. On Tuesday Brooklyn had an appointment with the Allergist and when he looked in her ear he was like, "Wow! That is really red- does she have a history of ear infections?" So she really did have something wrong with her and is on an antibiotic.

The meltdown begins

Me looking for "Blacky"

Total devastation

It was 60 degrees and warm. I called Sean one night and he said to enjoy it because Cache Valley was inverted and it had been 12 degrees that day.

Gracie and Garrett sat there and emptied out Jan's bag. The 2 of them together is trouble.

One of Brooklyn's favorite things to do in St. George is to go to the Temple and Visitor's Center. We went 2 different times and spent a couple hours there and she was thrilled. This temple really is gorgeous.

Getting ready to come home. The sad thing is is that all of this luggage is just me and Nat's.

Grace just chillin in the rocking chair.

I am so blessed and lucky to have such a great support system in my life. I don't know what I would do without Paula and her family to help with the gals. My gals adore and love all of them. Thank you for your help and love Andies. And Nat- I don't know how I got so lucky to have Nat as my sister. She is not only my sister but my bestfriend. She loves my gals like they are her own and they love her that much back. Thanks sisto for all your help. And my parents- I don't even know what to say. They spent the whole weekend driving back and forth from Mary Ann's to the hotel to drive me and the gals around and trying to make us all happy. Thank you so much for all you do for us- it doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated. We love you!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve day we went to Sean's grandparents house in Stone, Idaho. It was SUPER fun. All of Sean's family was there, his grandparents, an aunt and uncle and their boys from California, and an aunt and uncle and their boys from Las Vegas. Brooklyn LOVES playing with these boys and they love playing with her too. Brooklyn loved playing outside and riding on the 4-Wheeler. We had so much fun up there that I only took 3 picutres. We came home and caught the tail-end of the Maughan-Wright party it was fun to see family there that I hadn't seen in awhile. We came and the girls opened their Christmas jammies and Santa visited us that night. We had a fun Christmas morning at our house and the gals enjoyed opening their presents. We had a spectacular breakfast at Ric and Paula's and then headed to Sean's parents house. We got to open more presents there (and again I didn't take a single picture) Sean's mom made the girls a pillow using a square from a quilt her grandma had given her. They are really neat and I am going to get a picture with her and the girls with the pillows. We then went and visited Sean's grandma at Legacy House. Then it was time for our final destination, my parents house. It was all my siblings year at the in-laws for Christmas Eve so my parents had prepared a lovely dinner and all my siblings and their spouses and the Anderson's were there. It started snowing at about 4:00 and by 9:00 there was a foot of snow. It was fun a bunch of people got geared up and went to play and shovel in the snow. Brooklyn was complaining of her stomach hurting and just kinda laying around- finally she puked and didn't stop until 2 in the morning. The nasty flu also hit Sean, my dad, and me. It was snowing so bad and Sean and Brooklyn were sick that we ended up staying at my parents house that night. And me and the gals also stayed Friday night and my parents took care of Gracie and Brooklyn for me while I was sick. Thanks mom and dad- you are the best!! It is Sunday and I am still trying to get over it. It was a lousy way to spend Christmas night- but other than that we had a great Christmas!! (Looking through my pictures i realized that I didn't hardly take any at any event we went to. I will have to do better! :)

The drive to Stone was Gracie's first time sitting forward. She loved it!

Our family

Brooklyn and Uncle Kerry (he took her for a ride and even let her drive- she thought it was great! They make such a fuss over Brooklyn- she loves them a ton!)

Christmas Jammies (pretty sad this is the best picture I got of both of them- They were not cooperating with me taking a picture.)

Christmas morning- Brooklyn got a Leapster (Santa had a hard time with her this year because whenever she was asked what she wanted she said, "everything!" and meant it. Grace is in zombie mode- we woke her up and she was still pretty tired.)

This was what we saw when we opened my parents front door

Chels and Brooklyn look so cute as do Brian and Brett.

When they were looking for snow gear for everyone they ran across these old snowmobiling helmets- that are at least 30 years old if not older.

Merry Christmas!

I love the holiday season! I love everything about it. I have loved this year more so than years that have past- I have not allowed myself to get worked up and we decided to scale things down this year. What I especially love about this time of year is that we tend to reflect more on our Savior Jesus Christ. Last year being 9 months pregnant around Christmastime- put things into perspective. I don't know how Mary mustered the faith she needed to get on a donkey when she was having contractions. And then as I was getting my epidural and enjoying the nice hospital suite. I couldn't help but think of how devastated Mary and Joseph must have felt when they knew that the Savior of the World was going to be born in a stable. Jesus was born in the humblest conditions. I am so grateful for His life and example. I am also so grateful for the Atonement so that I can use it in my life. I am grateful for His death and resurrection and knowing that we will live with Him and our family again some day. I hope to try and reflect on Christ all year this coming year and not just at Christmastime! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!