April 2012

April was a very busy month for us. We had lots of things go on, so prepare for picture overload.

Claire turned 4! Hooray! We were just going to have a little family party for her but she proceeded to invite all of her little friends to a party. Smart, sneaky girl. So we had a party with her friends. So at our party we had Milly, Lily, Ellie, and Claire. Hee, hee. That's didn't get confusing at all.

We had lots of fun decorating cupcakes. Those little girls really got into the sprinkles. We also played with Play-Dough, had a little lunch at a princess table, and opened presents. It was a very fun time. I was seriously worn out by the time we were done.

Bobbi also had a birthday this month. She is 7 years old now. That has to be some kind of record for me and cats. Growing up cats were the disposable pet. I bet we had no fewer than 20 different cats when I was a kid. Bobbi has just stuck around. I think the older she gets the smarter she gets. She doesn't wander very far from home any more. We sure love our kitty cat!

We had lots of fun with family over Easter weekend. Here is Grandma Julie with all the grand kids minus our Alaska group. (We miss you Savannah and Gabe!) Aren't those two babies that Grandma is holding cute?!

Claire and Jolie had lots of fun on an Easter Egg hunt in Grandma's yard. These two get along so well. It is fun to have them play together.

All the cousins having a ride in the hammock. It looks like Brynn is thinking "Hey, how did I get roped into being the one that has to push?"

Coloring Easter eggs. Grandma boiled 8 dozen(!) eggs so there were plenty to go around. The kids got to color as many eggs as they wanted.

Claire and Mommy getting in on the coloring fun.

Derek making beautiful creations.

Hi Ashley! :)

Jon, being......Jon.

Aunt Becca having a good time. Bec, what are you doing here? I don't even know. :)

Babies love to eat eggs. Last year Jolie chomped down on an eggs, shell and all. This year it was Miles' turn. Yum, yum.

Katie coloring her egg.

Brynn and Syd getting in on the action.

We had a small family party for Claire on her birthday. (it happened to fall on Easter this year.) She did a great job blowing out her candles.

Of course she had a Hello Kitty cake.

She got a Hello Kitty umbrella and a HK dress. Funny story about the umbrella: I bought it 6 weeks before her birthday. I was so proud of my find, and I hid it in the sewing room closet the minute I got home. The very next day Claire comes running into my room carrying the umbrella yelling "Look what I found, Mommy, a present for me!" Darn kid! So I told her it was a secret for her birthday and we put it back in the closet. About once a week she would tell me that she knew a secret about her birthday but she wouldn't tell anyone...and she didn't. She even acted surprised when she opened the umbrella. Good job, Claire! I may have let her play with it one time before her birthday.

She got a HK mug form Grandma and Grandpa to eat her cereal in. 

Opening more presents.

We all went to church together on Easter day. Afterwards we took some pictures of everyone. Here they are. I am going to state the obvious. This is me and Shawn.

Our little family. Look at my cute girls and handsome husband!

Syd; I love her freckles and red hair.

Claire: She loved a lamby button we found so I sewed it on her dress. So cute!

Brynn, Love her smile.

Cute girls.

The Anderson family that was all in town. Don't we look so nice and respectable?

This pic is much more accurate to what we are in real life. I loved this pic: prepping for pictures.

I took this picture of all the grown-ups taking pictures of the kids. it is like the paparazzi. Silly grown-ups.

I hope you all had a great April, now that it is almost June. Bring on summer!

March 2012

It is now May and I am posting about March. Sigh. Oh well, here we go. Get ready for lots of pictures.

 Some foot drawing done on an early morning by Sydney and Dad. Nobody even got kicked. I have really ticklish feet. Don't ask me to explain. It is a Shawn and Syd humor thing. Sometimes those two are on their own planet.

 Claire doing a one-footed trick. Very cool.

 Syd got buried in the sand at the park. I am pretty sure it was her idea. I'm not surprised. Can I just say how much I LOVE my girls' friends. They are such good kids.

 Up to her neck. Silly girl.

 Brynn did thes drawing of her and me a while ago. It had been hanging on my bedroom door but was getting pretty tattered. So we took a picture of it before we sent it on it's way. Very cute.

 A drawing from Claire. 

 Another drawing from Brynn. This one is not so sweet as the other one. I think she was getting out some pent-up aggression here.

 Our chickies learned how to get out of their little home. They love to perch on the edge and watch us go about our business. They also love to poop on my floor. Time to move them out the shed.

 We got some awesome shirts for St. Patrick's Day. Hooray for CrossFit.  I dare anyone to pinch these girls. While Claire and Brynn were not sure what was quite so funny about these shirts, Syd could not stop giggling. Hee Hee!

We ran in the local Shamrock Shuffle with all out mates from CrossFit. Shawn did the 1 mile with the girls and I did the 5K. Syd get 2nd place in her age division. Shawn got 3rd place in his age division (while pushing a stroller), and Brynn got 5th place in her age division. I was so proud of all of them! Go Team Anderson!

I didn't get a ribbon like everyone else, but I have this awesome picture instead. I am grace and beauty when I run.  Right.

Stretch started acting really strange this month. We thought she might be egg-bound so we gave her a steam bath...in a cooler....in our bathtub. Come to find out she is not egg bound but broody, meaning she wants to sit on, and hatch some eggs. So she got the spend the night inside in a sauna for nothing. It was probably good for her skin. Don't her eyes looked refreshed? It sure made my house smell like a barn.

We hope you all had a great March also, even if it was a while ago. :)

February 2012

Another month has slipped by. Here are a few pictures of things we have been up to:

My mom and I went into town with the purpose of going to Sam's Club to buy spinach and cheese. That seems pretty harmless, right? After we finished at Sam's (and only buying a little candy) I said to my mom "So there is an hour before the kids will be in bed. Where are we going now"? I wasn't really serious. But she was. So we went to TJ Maxx and found these super cute chickens. I had to bring them home. Aren't they so cute? :)

Brynn made this picture in art class. They were talking about Native Americans.

Claire loves the days we watch Cohen. They play together really well. This day they played prince and princess. Cohen was a reluctant prince. He tried to rip his princely vest off when it got in the way of his crawling around. We sure love this little boy!

Shawn made us all pink heart pancakes for Valentine's Day. They were a hit!  I can never get pancakes to look like anything but misshapen snowmen so I was impressed with this. He also bought flowers for all four of us girls. Good job Daddy!

I have wanted to make a log cabin quilt for years. This year I used some of my birthday money to buy fabric and get started on that quilt. It involved lots of cutting fabric into strips. I purchased some pre-cut strips (the rolls in the back) and decided that is really the way to do these things. Aren't they pretty all wrapped up together?

We have not had much snow this winter. So whenever we get any snow the girls are really excited to play in it. This day it snowed enough that the girls made a little fort in the back yard and this little chickie. It cracks me up that my girls made snow-chickies.

Last month one of our chickens, Peck, died suddenly. We were all very sad. These birds are definitely beloved pets. So this month when the baby chicks came in to the local IFA we decided to get two more. These are our new babies, Buffy and Penny. Bonus points for anyone who can tell me what TV shows we got their names from. Buffy is a Buff Orpington. She will be a beautiful yellow-gold bird when she is full grown. I  wanted a Buff Orp solely because how pretty the adult birds are. Penny is a Amerucana like CeeCee. We are hoping she will lay green eggs. They have taken up residence in an old cooler in the corner of our dining room. It is fun to have them inside and watch them do their chicken thing all day long. They are surprisingly noisy. We can hear them from our bedroom at night. I am wondering how long they will last inside before Shawn starts to protest. :)

This month I participated in my first triathlon. It was a blast! It was a indoor triathlon held at USU. I did it with a bunch of my buddies from CrossFit. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE CrossFit?

We started out with a 400 Meter swim. Yes I know I look creepy in my tinted googles. That may be a purchase I need to rethink.

After the swim we hopped out, threw on some shorts (and I pulllllllllllllllllllled my knee brace on...I need to work on transitions for sure) and headed over to the fieldhouse where they had stationary spinning bikes set up. We did 6 miles on the bikes. This was actually really fun because we just turned the resistance clear down and pedaled the crap out of those bikes. At one point I hit 30 MPH. Too bad this is not what road biking is like. It was also really fun that Shawn could come up and chat with me while I did this part. I was so glad he was there cheering me on. Thanks baby!

After the bike we did a 4K run on the indoor track. That translated into 20 laps. And as you can tell from the picture I was feeling it by the end. (PS-I hate pics of myself running, I always look like I am in pain...which I guess is usually true).

The whole event was fantastic and I can't wait to try a sprint triathlon this summer. I was ridiculously proud of my arm and calf tats that I was able to sport for a couple of days. Silly, I know, but so cool!

The girls asked me why I had mooo written on my arm.

And here is the calf shot. I know you wanted to see. This event was totally the highlight of my month!  Oh and the fact that later that night we got Indian food and ate it in front of the TV. Good times!

The next day we had Mom and Dad, Jake, Shanna, and Cohen over to eat scones. They were super greasy and buttery and gooey and yummy! We haven't had scones in a really long time. When we were kids Jake and Mike used to make scones all the time on Sundays but they were never patient enough to let the dough rise so it was like eating hockey pucks. Funny I know, but I really was nervous to start frying them until Jake got there to tell me what to do.

Oh, and this is my new haircut that I got just today. What do you think? :)

I hope you all had a great February. Time to bring on Spring!