Crazy projects

Ok so I am going to be going crazy on my posts right now since I have 3 months to catch up on.  Truthfully one of the main reasons I stopped posting for awhile is because all of the things that were consuming my life were things I couldn't tall about.  I tend to get very ocd when I start a project and I like everything to be perfect.  Well a couple years back now I asked my mom to tell me some stories from her life that I had not heard about and that I could help her compile it to give as a gift for her kids.  Well it was so enjoyable talking with her each day and hearing these great stories from her childhood.  Well we took a break for a year and then started up full swing in October. My sister Heidi was the only one in on it because I needed someone to help me with editing details.  What a project it became.  We spent a full day in Utah trying to get it set up in a picture book format in order to get this wonderful price, only to not be able to finish it. I'm sure we will look back and laugh but at the time I don't think any of us were having too much fun   :-)  I ended up taking the information home and frantically searched for programs that would be the best quality for my moms budget.  Wow, that was a process in itself.  I halfway redid it in shutterfly to only find out the deal wasn't going to work.  So, with A LOT of patience from my family, who were so neglected, I finally found a better programming site and set to work formatting the book again.  There are a lot of other boring details, can you tell I'm a little obsessive, but it ended turning out alright.  I want sure where to cut the information off at and in the end took excerpts from my moms journal.  It was fun to read some of the things she said.  My mom was pretty patient as she was not up to date on her journal.  I had her tell me, from the best of her memory, some of the things from her kids later lives.  I hope none of my siblings were upset if she forgot things, she was in a time crunch.  Anyway, I sure love my mom and am grateful she was willing to share her life with us.  Wonderful woman, and turning 70 this week.  I'll tell you that threw me when I realized it.  For some reason I figured my parents would never get old, but time just keeps ticking on.  As I have lost my last grandparents the past few months it makes me grateful for the time spent with them and makes me wish I lived a little closer so I could spend these next years making more memories.  I just have to be grateful we are as close as we are, and can visit even the little that we do.  So grateful for my family, immediate and extended, and both sides.  We are blessed.

Christmas time

The weekend before Christmas Mikes mom and sister Melodee came out to visit. We always love any chance to see family so it was wonderful.  Momma sharp and I went to see the Hobbit while mike took Melodee and the girls shipping for my Christmas.  It was wonderful to see them but they unfortunately got stuck in traffic headed home.

A had a wonderful Christmas  for Christmas eve a always have people over but this year they all canceled at the last minute  this was a good thing since my turkey was raw in the middle.  An hour and a half later we had dinner.  That night we just sang songs, read the Christmas story and opened our Christmas jammies.  Christmas morning was wonderful because Emma is now old enough to understand the Christmas  magic.  She got what she asked for, a princess tea cart.  This girl loves tea parties.  Emma was even more excited for Vivian to get presents.  Next year we may spread the present giving over a couple days since they always get so overwhelmed.  Good times

Pre-Christmas update

So we have been hanving fun with Emma little preschool group again this year.  For December we make gingerbread houses.  They all fell and ended up more like piles of Graham crackers, frosting, and candy.  They enjoyed eating them.

Vivian is so funny.  She just has to be involved and wants to do everything that the big kids do.  She also has a temper and so watch out if you try and take a toy she wants.  She loves singing songs and dancing.  Its fun for my girls.

Catching Up

So I have been the worst blogger ever.  I have so many things to blog about that I don't even know where to start.  We got new phones a few weeks ago, my first smartphone, and I still have yet to download my pictures so there is one of my excuses.  Some of my others are that a lot of the things that have been consuming my time before Christmas were Christmas presents that I couldn't talk about.  For example, the book I helped my mom create to give as gifts to her children, that took more time than I would care to admit.  My poor family were so neglected for a good solid month.  I'm such a perfectionist, and re-did the project twice to get a better deal.  It was 2 years in the making and I am just so releaved to have it finished.  Our family has been busy as usual with all the holiday parties and family gatherings.  Both of my Anderson grandparents passed away and just so many things.  Once I upload my pictures hopefully I will get decent posts of all the many things that have transpired in the past 2 month.  For now, happy new year. We love you all.

Missing in Action

So I realize that I have truly been missing in action lately.  Mike asked me the other day if I was ever going to blog again so I know I am past due for a new post.  I guess since we were just out in Utah that all our family are aware of what we were up too, but it is always good to have updates and pictures so here we go.

My grandmother Myrtle Anderson passed away a few weeks ago and although we miss her and I kept catching myself thinking that I needed to make sure to go and visit her while I was in Utah, it truly was a blessing for her not to be in so much pain and stress anymore.  It was amazing how quickly everything transpired.  I was so grateful that I was able to come home and be with family during that time.  It all worked out that we were able to be there while Mike was away on business, that way we could be with family instead of home by ourselves.  We enjoyed seeing both sides of our family.  Vivian continues to get sick every time we come out, but is luckily she is feeling better.  I took her a good week and a half before she had her appetite back.  Poor girl.  She is also getting some molars, so that may have had something to do with her poor mood.  I'm sure traveling and being away from home tdidn't help either.  I could tell she, as well as the rest of us, we so glad to be back in our own bed. 

Since we've been home I have been busy with getting the house put back together and getting back into the swing of things, as well as preparing for Christmas.  We sure can't wait for the holidays!  Emma has decided that she wants EVERYTHING she sees in any catalog.  I remember that I was the same way.  Luckily she's not old enough to be too dissapointed when she doesn't get EVERYTHING that she wants.  We sure love these kids of ours.  Vivian is almost 18 months and the nursery leader let her come in to nursery for the first time this past Sunday.  She did really well.  Emma has been transistioning into Primary as well.  I have been subbing and it has been so bittersweet seeing her sit there with the rest of her Pre-Sunbeams.  I can't believe my baby is getting so big.  :(  

 

Restlessness to Reassurance

Do any of you have those moments where you just feel restless. Nothing is terribly wrong in your life, in fact it is overflowing with blessing, but you still feel "wanting". This past week I was truly feeling this way. Mike had gone on another business trip and I was missing family and just looking for some change in our lives. It's funny because I grew up my whole life in the same town, same house and rarely had any change, but once I left home it seemed like every year I was moving somewhere different, meeting new people, doing different things. I guess part of me came to think of that as "normal". I would in some ways prepare myself to not "put down roots". We are so blessed to be where we are and I just need to sit tight and enjoy the ride. Hopefully all this looking for change won't bring unwanted changes in our lives. Yikes! Anyway, my whole point of this was to talk about how much the Lord can help teach us if we are open and willing to listen. Mike and I had had a crazy week and hadn't seen each other a whole lot, I was feeling "restless" and so the thought of going to the Relief Society General Broadcast was at the time just another check on my list of things I needed to get done. I'm so grateful that I went though because it was exactly what I needed. The messages that were shared I felt like were just for me. At least I was able to take what I needed to hear from them. It's amazing how much insight we can get into our own lives when we are surrounded my the influence of the spirit. There were so many impressions that I received that honestly had nothing to do with the topic of the talk, but it's what I needed to learn. I can't wait for General Conference next weekend! I'm so grateful for the Atonement and how it can help us in every aspect of our lives. I'm thankful that I am living here in California and that we have the opportunity to know and serve so many wonderful people, and feel of their love for us. So many have taken us under their wing and helped us as we are far away from home. There is much to be grateful for including: kisses from my baby, thank you's from Emma, encouragement from my husband, the holidays approaching, opportunities to use my education, freedom, the spirit, scriptures, temples, restored truth, the knowledge that I am a daughter of God and that he has a plan for me and my family, and that he was able to help me turn my restlessness into reassurance. I hope you all enjoy this coming conference weekend!


For any of you who missed the General Relief Society Meeting here is a link:

 http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/general-relief-society-meeting/2012/09?lang=eng&vid=1868422120001

This and That

So this post will be a smorgasbord of things.  First, we love this cute video of Vivi, it just shows that she is finally learning some new words.  :) 

Last weekend we went camping with our ward.  It was beautiful being up in the mountains and seeing the Giant Sequoia's, but it was sure cold at night.  Luckily we were able to sleep in a cabin instead of our tent.  We have become such wimps here in California.  I think it only got down to 50 degrees, but we were freezing!  Granted it's a lot harder when you have kids that you are trying to keep asleep in the cold.  Vivian did pretty well, but Emma was up and down most of the night. Oh well, it was great to be able to be out and doing something different as a family.  Emma had a wonderful time playing with her new friend "Balyssa" aka Alyssa.  They were inseparatable the entire time.  Too cute. 


Here's some pictures of us on our drive. 

 

Oh, speaking of different things, I took the girls to see a movie in the movie theaters as well last week.  I was truly just in the need to get out of the house and since it was the dollar theater I didn't thin it would be to much of a hardship to just get up and leave if we needed too.  Luckily we didn't need to because both girls sat there throughout the whole movie.  We saw Madagascar 3 and it was a lot of fun.  Emma was the best because, as you can imagine, every time she wanted to say something she would talk at the top of her lunges, "Mom look, it's a Tiger", or she would laugh and explain something to me.  It's pretty impossible trying to get her to whisper when she is excited about something.  Hopefully the other people in the theater just got a kick out her exclamations. 

This past week we started up with our preschool co-op again.  We have a fresh new set of kids, and Emma has sure been excited.  I had the opportunity to teach the first week and it went pretty well.  It's always hard to know what to expect since most of the kids have never been in a structured "classroom" environment/routine.  I think for the most part everyone had a great time and we can't wait for the fun activities we have planned this year.  I hope all the other moms are as excited as I am.  I have sure enjoyed having this opportunity for Emma to be in preschool.  Although she will have experienced 3 years of preschool by the time she enters Kindergarten, I think it has been such a great thing for her.  I has helped her academically of course, but the social aspect, as well as learning to listen to someone other than her mom is so valuable.  It has also given me a chance to use my education as well so it doesn't seem like I am completely losing it. 

Vivian is getting so much better at walking.  She has been taking quite a few steps the last few weeks, but in the last few days she has just taken off.  I will have to get a video to show.  She gets so determined and excited.  Sometimes it seems as if she is surprised that she is still standing.  These kids sure bring us joy.  Gotta love em. 







On a sidenote I have been obsessed the last couple of days.  Mike has been gone on business for the last 3 days, and in order to keep myself busy I have been reading "Catching Fire" and "Mockingjay" again.  Love "Catching Fire", could do without reading "Mockingjay" again.  I should not ever pick up books because I get obsessed with them to the point of not getting enough sleep, hence why I am going to end this post and go hop into bed while I still have a chance and the girls are napping.  Oh wait, Vivian is stirring, Urgh, my nap will have to wait. :)