The Best Christmas Present

Well, for those who don't know Mark and I are expecting another baby this summer. It was sort of a planned surprise. We were under the impression it would take a while since it did with Weston but we were wrong! Thankfully. I am so excited and so is Mark. We will find out what we're having in February...but don't worry - I already know it's a boy. =)

Also, I just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. It will be a while before you hear from me because we are leaving to go to Brazil for a week. So be sure to watch for my next post. It will be full of Christmas and vacation!!

Anderson Christmas Party

My sisters and I all got together with our families on Friday night. It was so much fun. The cousins exchanged names and opened their gifts. Then the sisters exchanged names and we also did our new tradition. Each adult brings a gag gift from the dollar store and we each pick one to open. It was hilarious. Here are some of the best gifts.

 Amy got these silly face glasses. 

Sarah got "flarp" which was a little baggie that exploded to smell like the word that rhymes with flarp. We figured we'd better do it in the garage and it's a good thing we did! I've never smelled stink like that!! It was hilarious.

Miss got a bright orange laundry bag labeled "soiled".

There were lots of other good ones. Becky got a pair of miniature horses that were supposed to be "room decor". They were hot pink and bright orange. Lynn got an "intruder alert" that will warn him if someone breaks in. Aaron got one of those towels you can wrap your hair in but it was broken! And Mark got some "warming lotion". Yep, all from the dollar store. 

I love my family and I am so glad I have such great sisters. Here is a picture of the five of us. From the back left, Sarah, Becky, Amy, Miss, Me

Hey Santa

For some reason unbeknownst to me, my husband has become totally against crowds and lots of people. You would think he didn't live in California for EIGHT years! Sheesh. Anyway, this newfound phobia led to him saying there was no way he would go to the mall to have Weston sit on Santa's lap. Santa was of course at our ward party but we forgot all about it and didn't bring the camera. Plus the line was incredibly long. So, Miss and I decided we would take Weston and Makoy together since she has some time off work. And for the record, there were only about four people in front of us in line to sit on his lap. I was a little worried that Weston would have a total melt down but he was fine. He just fussed when I backed away to take the picture and pointed at me to let me know he wanted me, not the weird guy whose lap he was sitting on. =) Unfortunately he looks pretty uncomfortable in the pictures I took though! Anyway, it was pretty cute and I'm glad I took him so I could get a picture.

Another birthday and some silliness

I mentioned I was making a special cake for Wes last Saturday. I don't really like how it turned out but I suppose that's just because I know what the one in the book looked like. Weston loved eating it though and made a huge mess. It was pretty funny.

Also, Mark used some tape to take Weston prisoner. It was loose - don't worry. But it was pretty funny and Weston was just walking around like nothing was on him. His daddy is silly.

Happy 1st Birthday Wes!

I can hardly believe it but my baby boy turned one today! I did good until I was holding him right before I put him to bed...then I cried! He's such a good boy. He is so obedient (for a one year old boy at least) and has been such an easy baby. He has been walking everywhere for the last month and is officially off his bottle. He loves to make people laugh and his little grin can melt anyone's heart. We are so blessed to have him and I honestly don't know where I would be without him. I love you Fussy Britches!

Anyway, for his birthday we didn't do much since Mark works nights. Once Wes had lunch though I gave him a huge sugar cookie to eat. I'm making him a special cake for Saturday when his aunts come over and I wasn't up to making two so he got a different treat instead. After he took his first bite he looked up at me and slowly smiled and said , "num num". He made a huge mess but it was great.

Unfortunately he did have to go in for his one year well baby check and get shots. =( We're going to Brazil on the 26th and the nurse said he should have his immunizations for as long as possible before we go. The doctor's office was actually one of his favorite things of the day though because he played with the little round chair the doctor sits on for about 30 minutes. He was having a blast! He weighs 23 1/2 pounds and he's 31 1/4 inches long. He's growing great and has reached all the important milestones he should have by now.

Here is the huge mess he made after opening his presents. It was fun to watch him. He got an alphabet train from Grammy which he loved. 

Here he is opening a new flap book. He loves them so much and they're about the only thing I can read to him since the flaps keep him occupied long enough for me to actually finish a page before he turns it! 

This is the toy train my parents got him. It's cute and he really likes it. He also got two wooden puzzles and last night Miss gave him a cute toy dog. He's a spoiled little guy and it has been fun to watch him play with all his new toys!

The most wonderful time of the year

So on Saturday we got all of our Christmas decorations up. And when I say "we" I mean ME. Mark did help move the bookshelves though so I appreciated that! I love getting my house ready for the holidays. I feel such an added measure of the Spirit and I love having that feeling for as long as possible! 

This is my nativity set and I just love it so I had to post this picture of it. Sarah gave it to us for our first Christmas and I don't think I'll ever get rid of it!!

Here is our tree and our new addition to the family...a piano! It's Sean's actually and he is letting us borrow it because I am going to start lessons. Hopefully this week. I love it. Our tree is kind of Charlie Brown and this picture doesn't show the decorations on it very good. We are against fake trees but we had to get one a few years ago because Mark was in Missouri for Christmas and I flew out to see him for a week and didn't want our tree to die. It seems like now there's been a reason to use it every year since then! This year is because first and foremost we have NO room in our tiny apartment for a big tree and also because we are going to Brazil for a week the day after Christmas and I didn't want to come home to a dead tree.

I turned the flash off on this one because it was glaring off my book case so sorry for the yucky coloring. But here are our stockings. Fussy doesn't have one yet because his from last year says Baby's First Christmas and it's not so I have to get a new one!

I also love this time of year because of the fun projects. My sisters came over last week and we made wreaths together. It was the funnest thing ever! Here are pictures of all of them and one of mine. You can't really see much detail...it looks more like a Christmas tree threw up on my love seat. =) 

Mark's birthday and Thanksgiving

I am such a bad wife! I meant to do a special post about my hubby on his birthday (the 24th) but I totally forgot because I didn't get the picture I wanted of him when he was younger! Anyway, despite his groanings of being 27 I think he had a pretty good day. I surprised him and met him at work at 9:30 pm to have dinner with him on his break. Here is the picture of his cake. It didn't turn out quite the way it was supposed to but Mark liked it so I guess that's all that matters.

Anyway, there wasn't really much to take pictures of on Thanksgiving. We had a fun but busy weekend. We went to my parents house around 10:00 and had lunch and then at about 3:00 we headed over to Mark's dad's house and had dessert. Then the day after Thanksgiving we went to Shelley to spend time with Mark's mom and the rest of his siblings playing games and eating even more turkey. It was fun but the best thing about Thanksgiving is just taking the time to realize how blessed we are and all that we have to really be thankful for. Things are great for us right now!

Family Pictures

After I saw Cherice's post about her sister's family pictures that she took I really wanted her to do ours. So she did yesterday and she did NOT disappoint! Honestly, she's so talented and we could not be happier with the way they turned out. I have a lot of favorites and really wanted to post them so sorry for all the pics!

This one is my favorite.

This one is one of my favorites too and Mark's favorite.

I know everyone thinks this about their kids but I swear Weston is so adorable. I love the way these pictures of him turned out. Thanks SO MUCH Cherice!! Seriously...start a business. =)

Utah Weekend

So as I mentioned we went to Utah last weekend. Jerry's daughter got remarried so we tagged along with him and Marlene and went to a couple temples. Bountiful was really beautiful and the celestial room reminded me of the San Diego temple because of how open and bright it was. Logan was beautiful too in a different way because it was built so long ago. We love going to different temples and that was number 13 on our list.

Anyway, we stayed overnight with Crystal, Sean's wife. Sean is in training for the Air Guard Reserves and Crystal is 20 weeks pregnant all alone. It was good to see her and we stayed up playing games and talking. Weston was really good and laughed more then he has ever! I think his car seat was making him giddy.

Marlene put this headband of mine on him and he looked so cute. Then he was standing at the mirror in the bathroom and giving himself kisses. We had a really great time. Thanks Crystal!

Bed Head

Yea! I found my camera! Weston apparently pushed it off the TV stand and I found it lodged between it and the wall. Thank goodness I got on my hands and knees to play chase with Fussy or I never would have found it!

Anyway, I took these pictures the other day. Weston woke up one morning with seriously crazy hair. I thought it was adorable. He's also making his 

new face where he tucks

his upper lip under his teeth. 

It's so funny.

MISSING CAMERA!

Well, we had a wonderful weekend in Utah and went to the Bountiful and Logan temples. Weston was adorable and I got some really cute pictures - only to find that I can not find my camera! It's got to be around here somewhere because I didn't leave it in Utah, but until then, my posting may be infrequent. I REALLY need to find it because if I can't we're going to have to buy another one. We've got holidays coming up and most importantly, Weston's first birthday! I must have a camera! Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Tis the Season

Okay, I could not take it any longer. I usually don't get all geared up for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. The day after. But I'm especially excited this year and I had to change my blog so that at least something around here will remind me of Christmas. I still don't think I can break out the decorations until the day after Thanksgiving. =)

Some fall pictures

So I thought that since winter will be here any time now I would post these pictures of Weston. We took them a couple weeks ago. Mark and Fussy were at Jakob's house helping rake leaves.

Mark and Weston

Weston was not too thrilled about the leaves.

He started to cry in this picture.

We love fall but I can not even begin to say how excited I am for winter. We haven't had one in years! We're crazy...we know.

Remember When

As I mentioned, I'll be putting an older picture of us up every month. This month, in honor of it being the birthday of the Marine Corps (November 10th) I decided to post this picture of us at the last Marine Corps Ball we went to. Every year they have a ball to celebrate. Each battalion has their own and it is so great. This was in November of 2006. We wanted to go in 2007 but I was over eight months pregnant so this was our last one. Semper Fi!!

Halloween

We had such a great day on Halloween. Weston was absolutely adorable. He didn't even mess with his costume. I didn't take a picture before we left the house so this was as good as it got. We saw Sarah and Lynn and their girls who were adorable. Hallee was a queen and Hannah was Hannah Montana. Since it was also Dad's birthday we went to my parent's house for dinner and then went trick-or-treating with Amy and her kids and Miss and Makoy. 

We took this picture in front of a giant pumpkin/scarecrow guy. And yes...Kaden did drop Weston right after this picture. He's tough though! Makoy was a dinosaur and got hoarse from screaming "roar!" so much. It was cute. Kaden was a power ranger and took his role very seriously. Emma was Mulan. At one of the houses the guy who gave them candy said, "oh look, a Japanese girl" and Emma goes, "No, I'm Mulan". It was cute. =) 

Earlier in the day we watched all FIVE of Jakob's boys for two hours while he went grocery shopping and we had SO much fun. Lunch time was a bit hectic but after that we went to the park and then walked to a park in a neighborhood by us. They climbed trees (Tyrel made it to the VERY top of one that was huge), played on the swings and monkey bars, and rolled down a huge hill. All the while they were doing this Weston was pushing his stroller everywhere, crying every time he came to a bump and couldn't get past it. They were all so adorable and it was fun to watch them. Mark and I think maybe we could handle six! Well...maybe just for a few hours at a time. =)

Carving Pumpkins and Cupcakes

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

(and happy birthday Dad!)

We carved a pumpkin yesterday and had lots of fun. Weston didn't like the goop though and started crying after we put his hand in. You can see it in this picture.

He kept trying to figure out how to get the goop off his hands.

Mark made me do the face because he knew he wouldn't do it "good enough" for me. =) I was concentrating pretty hard but still ended up giving our guy a loose tooth!

The finished product!

I made eyeball cupcakes this morning for all the nieces and nephews. Hopefully they'll like them. I love the end of the year with all the fun holidays!

Mmm...sour cream

On Sunday Weston managed to get a hold of the spoon I had used to put sour cream on my baked potato for dinner before I cleared the table. By the time I noticed, this was what we were left with. He was going to town on the spoon. Apparently he doesn't have the same aversion to sour cream that his dad does! I guess I'm going to have to remember that he's tall enough to reach even MORE places now!

If you look closely you can see he managed to get it on his hand too.

My little rascals

Last week when Weston destroyed the contents of his dresser he wasn't quite finished. A couple days later I went to check on him while he was playing with toys in his room (so I thought) and found this. He was so happy to be in the bottom drawer! He was pulling on the one above him, trying to make a ladder or something I suppose.

On Saturday morning Mark somehow managed to get Weston to just sit with him and watch a show together for a little bit. It was so cute. Weston never sits still so it was a rare treat for Mark. He was resting his head on Mark's shoulder but of course, as soon as I break out the camera he's always striking a pose so it didn't last long after I took this picture.

Another tag - but better

I'm supposed to tell seven random/weird things about myself and be creative. So here goes:

1. When I was little and rode my bike around our driveway I obsessively had to go right the same exact number of times that I went left. Do you see why I'm always mentioning my OCD?

2. I used to work for a business real estate company in California. I've sent things to Bill Gates and have seen paychecks for over a million dollars!

3. I almost drowned when I was three years old. My sister Becky jumped into the creek and saved me before I got washed down stream.

4. I used to be really good at impersonations. Some of my personal favs include: Ross Perot, Mrs. Butikofer (8th grade teacher), and of course Chris Farley. I live in a van down by the river!

5. My biggest fear is that someone will be standing behind me in the mirror when I'm washing my face. Miss and I used to keep watch for each other. It still freaks me out...especially since my husband and brother-in-law have taken advantage of their knowledge of this fear. Meanies.

6. I only had to push for ten minutes when I had Weston. And they say your first is the hardest!

7. This year was the first time in two years I got to enjoy a primary program and not stress about having to put it together! It was great. Being primary president is just about as stressful as it gets!

So I'm supposed to tag seven people but I don't wanna...if you read this and want to do it, I tag you. =)

I got tagged...twice

8 Things

8 things I'm obsessed with right now:

1. Family

2. Teaching Weston to stand/walk

3. Blogging

4. Cleaning 

5. Reading

6. Spending time with old friends

7. Finishing my "book" - more like a big journal of my life story so far

8. Did I say blogging already?

8 words or phrases I use often:

1. No

2. Mommy said no

3. No, no, no!

4. I love you so much

5. I know, right?

6. Seriously

7. Are you stinky?

8. Are you hungry?

8 shows I love to watch: (we actually don't have TV but these are some of the shows I watch online or used to watch)

1. House

2. Life

3. The Office

4. American Idol

5. So You Think You Can Dance

6. Next Food Network Star

7. Friends

8. The Mole

8 things I did yesterday:

1. Laundry

2. Made dinner (spaghetti)

3. Changed diapers

4. Fed Weston

5. Worked on my "book"

6. Went to dinner and a movie

7. Cleaned my house

8. Played with Fussy

8 Favorite Places to Eat

1. Home

2. Anyone else's house 

3. Sizzler

4. California Pizza Kitchen =( We need one in ID!

5. We really don't eat out much

6. So this is hard for me

7. To come up with 8 places

8. That I like to eat at

8 things I'm looking forward to

1. Owning a home

2. Weston walking

3. Having another baby (not an announcement folks)

4. Our trip to Brazil in December

5. Halloween

6. Thanksgiving

7. Christmas

8. Weston and Mark's birthday

8 things on my wish list

1. House

2. New wardrobe

3. New car (or at least one with power locks!)

4. Cruise

5. More room in my apartment

6. To be free of school debt

7. To go back to school

8. A better job for Mark

8 people I tagged:

1. Sarah

2. Becky

3. Mom

4. Alise

5. Danielle

6. Amanda

7. Jill

8. Natalie

Mischevious with a capital "M"

I know I've been posting like crazy this month but I had to share this. This morning I was preparing my sunday school lesson in the living room and Weston was playing in his room. I must have been really focusing because as I was almost done I realized it was WAY too quite. Any mom knows that quiet is the best sound in the world...but only when your kid is asleep. So I go back in his room and this is what I found.

Let's assess the situation here: In the upper right hand corner you can see patches of baby powder, the bottle is on it side in the chair, which also has patches of powder. (And yes, I know it's my fault for leaving it open.)

He's playing with a DVD which he slid from the living room into his room. He seems to prefer Iron Man. He gets it out all the time. Good taste in movies already. You can vaguely see the other one behind him. He takes two and slides on them as he crawls to go faster.

His entire pants drawer is emptied, as you can see. There was nothing on the floor before he went in there. So yes, he created all this mayhem single handedly. 

And last but not least, the look on his face of complete satisfaction on his face. It's like I walked in his room and he wanted to say, "Look Mom, I made this for you today." In the future, I just hope it's a drawing or something.

Picture of the Month

This weekend I was going through our pictures and merging them all into one folder. I came across a lot of old pictures of us and I couldn't believe how many there were. So I decided rather then wasting them, I would post a picture once a month from our earlier years. Hope you all enjoy!

Let it Snow!

Hooray! It snowed this weekend! I know it sounds crazy but winter has always been my favorite season. Besides driving in the snow, everything else about it I love. So after not having a winter (or any other season besides summer for that matter) for four years I can hardly wait for winter this year. I was flipping out when I saw all the snow falling. This was what we woke up to on Sunday morning.