Valentines Day skiing

Oh the joy they bring!

The other day we were talking about our lives together.  We asked ourselves a few times what we did before we had kids.  They keep me busy and can drive me crazy, but I don’t know what I would do without them.  They bring so much joy to our lives!  I would love to freeze time right now, but they seem to get more and more fun everyday, so I look forward to their progression, too.

Look closely in the first picture.  Lucy found an AWESOME hide and seek spot!

When Dillon comes home, if he isn’t running to something for YM (he is the YM president) he plays with the kids.  They love their Daddy!  This seems to be a common occurrence:  The Anderson Acrobats

We have had a few fun snowy days.  We borrowed my dad’s four wheeler and spent a while pulling a tube.  We also just pulled the kids around on the snow shovel after shoveling one night.  It was a beautiful night and we had a blast!  Sam loves to get all bundled up.  He even gets bundled inside once in a while.  He loves to wear his coat, gloves and hat. 

I wanted to surprise Dillon with a night away for his birthday and my parents kindly “kidnapped” our kids so we could go.  They came in all dressed up and were shooting us with Nerf guns.  It was SO SO SO funny!  Even funnier was when we got to our hotel and the one across the street advertised color TV.  Really?

A few things about Sam:

At his 18 month doctor appointment, which was 2 months ago now, he was 24lbs (27%), 32 3/4 inches tall (68%).  The doctor was happy that he was up to the 27th percentile, as it means his growth finally picked up and stabilized.

He is a very good sleeper.  He goes to bed easily and usually sleeps 12 hours and takes a 3 hour nap during the day.  However, if he does wake up in the night there is no going back to bed unless he sleeps in our bed.  Luckily, it is rare for him to wake up in the night unless he is sick.  He is still a binky boy and it is going to be a killer to get rid of it!  He is a pretty good eater now and will usually fold his arms (he really clasps his hands together) for the prayer, he has even reminded us a few times to pray as we were out to eat or having a snack.  The other night as he sat down and started to eat he took a bite and said “Mmmm, good!”

He is a pretty happy boy, as long as Dillon or I are around.  He does not like to be left and nursery is out of the question right now unless one of us stays with him.  Hopefully that will change soon. 

He loves his sister and they play very well together, usually.  He can hold his own in a fight, unfortunately ending with someone getting their hair pulled.

Sam is really starting to talk.  He says many things, though we don’t always understand.  He says the names of everyone that he has regular dealings with.  He has a special bond with Grandpa John, but really loves all of his grandparents.  We can be driving a block away from my parent’s house and he starts yelling “Grandpa, Grandma, Grandpa, Grandma!”.  He’ll even add Jordin in there sometimes.  We got close to Jordan and Nicole’s house and started yelling “Hunter”.  It is fun to see him getting so aware of his surroundings. 

A few things about Lucy:

Lucy is a great helper in whatever we are doing.  Her assigned chore is the garbages and is very adept at dumping and replacing the bags. I’ve said several times that everyone should have a four year old before they have a baby!  She always wants to be left in charge and likes to make sure everyone knows when she is!  She likes being a big sister, and is a VERY good one. 

She is learning more and more everyday.  I saw a thing that said 4 year olds should be learning 3 to 4 new words every day and told that fact to Dillon.  We decided we’d have to get a dictionary because she knows every word that we do, pretty much anyway.  She has started sounding out words to spell them and does quite well.  She can read most words that are phonetic, but doesn’t like to be pushed to read, so we haven’t done much with it yet.  She loves to play “sister” which is basically a make believe game where we start as sisters and it develops into a full fledged soap opera from there.  Our parents die or then she is my aunt or we aren’t friends or we are best friends or she is the mom and the sister, etc.  She will entertain herself for hours doing that and I just have to say “uh huh” every once in a while. 

Lucy loves going to Preschool and playing with Kash and Kannon when we are watching them or is dying to have Grace (our neighbor girl) come play.  She does very well with manners, saying please and thank you are second nature to her, it seems.  One of my proudest moments so far as a parent came when we were visitng JD and Ashlynn.  A member of the primary presidency called Ashlynn after church to let her know how impressed she was with Lucy.  She was so well behaved and told the entire primary the first and second Articles of Faith.  We had worked on them in FHE and she really picked up those two quickly.  She always wants to take her scriptures to church and loves primary.  She remembers scripture stories very well and can tell you all about Lehi and the Liahona. 

The family as a whole:

I am kept busy watching Kannon, Kash, and Kyler three days a week plus teaching an online section of Social Psychology for ISU.  I love being a stay at home mom, most of the time anyway. 

Dillon stays busy with work and being the YM President.  He likes his job at On Semiconductor and really excels in his position there.

We just started playing on a Co-ed volleyball team.  It is so fun to do something together (besides watch tv).

All in all, it is great to be us right now.  We love our home, our family, and each other.  We have been so blessed in so many ways!  To copy my little sister (I had to, it is just too fitting),

We are blessed and we know it!

I’ll be home for Christmas

This was the first year that we’ve stayed home for Christmas since we’ve been married.  My faraway siblings didn’t come for Christmas, we weren’t in school at all, and I got my shopping done early so it was a very calm season as compared to previous years.  Cliff and Kay stayed the night Christmas Eve to Christmas morning at our house, which was fun.  We had a Christmas Eve dinner at our house (made by Nicole) and then we had Danish Pancakes Christmas morning.  Dillon was called in to work about 9am Christmas morning, which was a bummer, so it was extra nice to have company here with us. 

We started the season with the Light Parade.  They asked everyone to wear Santa hats, so we joined in. 

Grandma Terri gave the kids a Little People Nativity.  She gave it to them early so we could have it up before Christmas and the kids LOVED playing with it!

We, as usual, cut down our Christmas tree.  This year we intentionally got a big one.  It was 11 1/2 feet tall!  We loved it!  It wasn’t the easiest to decorate though. . . Dillon had to stand on the top of the ladder to be able to reach.  It was great fun!

This is a really funny progression of pictures with Hunter and Sam:  Discussing the box, in the box, wanting out of the box. 

After Dillon went to work, Grandpa Anderson and Uncle Jordan set to putting together Sam’s Christmas present.  This tiger, which was one of Lucy’s first Christmas presents from Jordan and Nicole, went back to their house as a gift for Hunter and Jaxson, then came back to live with us on Christmas Eve. 

This was a “vroom” year for Sam.  He got lots of cars/trucks and LOVES every one of them.  Lucy is showing off her yo-yo skills, which was her gift from Sam.

All in all it was a very Merry Christmas.  And here’s to many more!