Happy New Year?

So sometimes we get our poem out on time. Sometimes we don't. We had this written by New Years, which isn't really on time, but better than say....the end of January! In any event....here's our "Christmas Card" for 2011...

An example and witness of Christ

Last week was my cousin, Lauren's Missionary Homecoming talk. She had prepared her talk based on a quote from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Imagine her surprise when he walked in, 5 minutes before the meeting was supposed to start. I was out in the foyer with the baby and heard them announce Elder Holland, but I wasn't 100% sure I'd heard right until I made it in a few minutes later. During the meeting I watched him off and on and was so impressed by his example. He remained focused and intent. He didn't pan the crowd. He didn't flip through books or check notes. He watched the speakers. He listened to and cried during the musical number. As I watched him, I was reminded that perhaps I should do more as I saw him doing. And so I tried to do that. And it was amazing the spirit that I felt. I couldn't help but think over and over of that quote by Brigham Young that most of us live "far beneath our privileges" with respect to the Holy Ghost and his guiding power in our lives. I try to do the things I should, but even when I'm sitting in church like I'm supposed to, it's so easy to get caught up in things that don't matter. So I was grateful for simple example of one of the Lord's special witnesses to me.

After Sacrament meeting I asked Kelley if she'd like to go up and meet him. She and I went up and he talked to her so kindly for just a minute. I got to shake his hand also, which was cool and gave me something to Facebook about for the day ;). But really in all seriousness I am so grateful for living prophets and apostles on the earth today. I am grateful for their words and counsel from God. I am grateful that I have such easy access to it. One of my favorite "apps" on my iPhone is my Mormon Channel App. I can open it up and pull up several years worth of General Conferences. I've been systematically going through these and listening to the most recent, and then older General Conference talks every chance I get. I listen to them when I'm doing housework or cooking. As I listen to these I am changed. I am improved. It's interesting because lately I have been seeking help in some specific areas of my life and so I've been listening to more and more talks. And when I'm in the car I find I don't want to turn on music or NPR like I normally do. I want to either listen to more talks, or to nothing at all and leave room for the still small voice. For me, this symbolizes a change of heart. I'm becoming less concerned and content with the things of the world I hope and more concerned with seeking out the things of a better. And this change makes me hopeful and happy.

Living Life on Purpose

I'm sitting here at 8 AM. I've been up for a while. Baby TJ was awake early. He didn't sleep very well last night. The AMAZING thing is that my house is actually still quiet. Almost always all kids are up and things are bustling by now. And I'm relishing just a little this few minutes of quiet time I have to myself. So I'm blogging. I know. It's been a while.

I've been thinking a lot lately about living life on purpose. I follow Money Saving Mom's blog and she did a post this week on how she sets her yearly goals. One thing that stuck with me is that in order to lead the life you want, it has to be intentional. On purpose. I know that might sound silly, of course we lead life on purpose. But do we? Do I? Sometimes, but all too often I think I just get caught in the current of whatever tide or wave is washing through my life and home at the moment. As I'm sure you all well know, there's always a crisis or life is always a mess. There's always something urgent to take us away from the long term goals and priorities.

I want to lead life on purpose. I have a lot left to do in the time I have left, however long that may be. But if I continue to live day to day without a written, well thought out plan, it's hard to say if I will accomplish the things I really want to. So I've started on my list of priorities. And even though it's cliche, I'm going to write down my goals for the year. And we'll see how it goes. Read on quote on Pinterest this morning: I would rather live a life full of "oh-wells" than "what ifs". Even though it's lofty, I might as well try right? Shoot for the stars :)

How did I EVER have time to post as much as I did?

That's all for now. Back to my Workman's Comp Audit. Bet ya all are jealous.

Oh, it's time for an update isn't it :S

I shall title this one the "Kid/Family Version". Might get to posting some info about the new house, since we've been here for a good 8 months, but that will be a different post. I HAVE actually updated the daycare blog if you have any interest in the goings on there...

Alrighty...on to the monster task of filling you all in on our fabulous lives. And they are fabulous! Life is always busy and stressful. There's never enough time or money, but I have moment after moment where I just fall in love with life over and over again. We are really happy with where we are at right now.

This was taken at our latest Anderson Family Reunion over Memorial Day Weekend. We got some more family pictures of the whole clan and maybe will post those another time, but this is one of my favorite shots we've captured in a while. Not sure why I love it so much, but there ya go!

Joey and I met ten years ago last month. Our 10th anniversary is coming up in September. Oh we had big plans for a cruise, or all inclusive resort or something, but then there was the money issue (we had the unexpected opportunity come up with the house :), and I wasn't super excited about hanging out on a beach at 6 plus months pregnant. So the big trip went by the wayside for now. BUT, we did have a little hotel stay we had purchased last year to Vegas. So we took our trip early and spent a few days in the "big city". This shot was taken at Red Rock National Conservation Area. We went biking there, spent some time window shopping, went disc golfing and slept a lot more than we normally are allowed too! It was nice to get away.
The above photo was also taken with my Instagram App on my iPhone. If you are a friend on facebook, you'll know I'm only a little obsessed with it. "Fun and Quirky" I think is the description in the app store...

Also this month was Joe's 35th birthday. We had a get together with all the family that is here in town. It's really fun to have everyone so close.

Another shot from our Vegas trip. He was really excited about our trip to Hot Dog on a Stick. Sometimes I wonder where Tyler gets his goofiness from....but I don't have to look far for the answer. :D
OK, so Maren is now 18 months old. I think I blogged that she finally started walking between 15 and 16 months I think. She is still a super cute sweetie. She talks like crazy and will repeat almost anything you say. She loves to go outside (oust or owside), spend time with Kelsha (shasha), eat snacks (cra cra), look at pictures of family (bampa and Ty-Ty are her favorites), see the kitty (di de), and play with/love/smother babies (real or dollies). She is kind of obsessed with good hygiene: she loves to wash her hands, take baths (3 times a day if we would let her), brush her teeth, and throw her diaper in the "shrash". She is also very good about closing the closet doors when she gets something out. She is very hard to say no to a lot of the time because she is so dang sweet about asking for stuff. Although when she doesn't get her way she has this scream that has been labeled "the pterodactyl". She still does sign quite a bit. And she's in nursery now....wahoo!
Maren also has a little sweet tooth. But she is the only baby I know that will eat hummus by the bowlful and asks for more salad at dinner. Go figure. She also has some of the funniest facial expressions. This is kind of a glimpse of the mischievous face. You know...the one that says "I'm makin a mess and I know it and I like it....he he he...."
Alright, on to Kells Bells....Tyler calls her Kell more than anything else, which I think is cute. She will be going into 3rd grade this fall. She loved 2nd grade and made a LOT of progress throughout the year, especially on her reading. She really enjoys reading to her little brother and sometimes we have to get after her when she does it after we've sent her to bed ;) She likes computer games and has found some friends across the street that she can't hardly pull herself away from lately. She is so much fun to talk to and spend time with. She is still a great little helper and listens well most of the time. She is attending the Shakepeare Festival Playmakers camp next week and I think will do great! She has a little bit of a "flair for the dramatic" and I think could really have fun with this type of thing.
Tyler is still Tyler. He goes goes goes all the time. Occasionally if he we can get him to relax this happens:
I have another picture of him sitting behind Kelley in the same chair. He had sat down to watch her play computer games, but it was just all too much. Oh and funny story about those jeans. I got them out for some family pictures. All of his other jeans are really faded and have holes in the knees. He was quite skeptical when I showed them to him, saying they were "girl pants". I had to convince him they weren't because they didn't have any hearts on the pockets....

Tyler graduated preschool in April and will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. He is really excited. I hope he likes it. He really liked preschool, but would throw a fit a lot of the time because he didn't like "circle time". I don't know if he realizes that they have circle time in Kindergarten too. Not sure if I should break it to him ahead of time or not....

He loves to ride his bike and LOVES to play with friends. He is working so hard on appropriate expressing his feelings and will tell me sometimes things like "I'm just frustrated mom. Frustrated isn't mad. I still love you even when I'm frustrated or mad."
Definetly all boy....The above picture was taken at our family reunion. We found a point in the road where it was more like a lake and so let the kiddos get out and play. They had a blast and of course it was Tyler's idea to do "mud angels"
Another picture of Tyler and Kelley with their cousin at the dunes west of Fillmore.

OK so have you all heard of "Wordless Wednesday"? There's a lot of bloggers out there that do it. I don't really, but it's kind of fun. I thought that this series of pictures might be appropriate for such a thing, except that the conversations that were going along with them was too funny not to share. You'll note my use of the Instagram App again....they have all sorts of finishes you can use with the photos, which is why they all look different....

At daddy's softball game: "Let's cheer for daddy: say 'Go, Daddy, Go!'"
"Hopefully he can hear us".... he's clear out in the outfield here....


"OK, get off, I have to pull up my pants!" And we'll leave it at that for now :)

I hate it when they leave ya hanging....

I have a friend on my blog roll that is making a big life change and announced it, but not the reason and I'm intrigued. She did promise the reasons would be coming soon. But they haven't. And for some reason I am so curious and I wish she'd blog about it more. But I can't blame her. Maybe no one cares, but I bet there's one or two of ya who have been hoping to see some pics of the new digs, or know how the pregnancy is going, or get an update on any one of my adorable kids. Perhaps you just can't get enough of my fabulous wit or writing...ha ha!

I wish I could make myself blog more. But I am SO behind. My house is in constant chaos. I am always putting out fires and never getting anything on my to do list done. Even though some of those things are really important. I get to this point in the day and I usually don't have dinner done (um...yeah...), I have no energy to do anything and still a million things to do. But despite that my life is really great. When I fall into bed every night I am grateful for my blessings, immensely so. And then I pray to find some balance.

Not much of an update I know. {{{{Sigh}}}}}

Why does it smell like the Turkey is still in the Oven?

So when I was a kid we used to have fire drills all the time. We'd get everyone together, all go out to the mailbox, talk about what we would do in the middle of the night, etc. etc. So when I was in 6th or 7th grade we had a little incident. My mom would put turkey bones on to boil after we had a turkey to make soup with. Well this particular time she forgot about the turkey bones and just went to bed. I remember waking up in the middle of the night because the fire alarm was going off and something was STINKY! I went into the kitchen and there were the turkey bones...flaming on the stove. So what do I do? I turned off the oven, went downstairs to the family room and went back to sleep with a pillow over my head so I couldn't hear the alarm or smell the smoke. Brilliant I know.

My mom got up later and couldn't figure out why the turkey was black, but still sparking, the oven was off and I wasn't in my bed.

Anyway, I've always caught a lot of flack for that. Well, last night we had a turkey dinner. I put the bones on to boil after we carved the turkey so we could make soup. We had friends over and of course the story was retold again. Funny funny. We cleaned up, they left and I was exhausted. Off to bed with me before 10 pm. I woke up a little after 1 am as usual. (Being pregnant I can't sleep more than 3 or 4 hours at a time right now. Blah.) Anyway, I got up, went to the bathroom and tried to go back to sleep. But Joey was snoring and the house still really smelled like turkey. I don't love sleeping with food smell in the first place, but it's way worse when I'm pregnant. I couldn't figure out why it smelled like we were still cooking when we'd pulled it out of the oven 9 hours earlier. Maybe 45 minutes later I finally decided I was going to try the couch. I walked out, peeked in the kitchen and a lightbulb went off. I had almost burned down the house with the turkey bones. There was still water it in, but barely!

I couldn't help but laugh at the irony. At least I'm pretty confident now that I wouldn't have taken more precautions than simply turning off the oven.