Christmas 2018

This Christmas was pretty great with the new babies. There really is something special about having newborns during Christmas to help remind us of the Savior as a newborn.

We came home from the hospital the day before Christmas Eve. Hallelujah! I was so glad that wasn't in the hospital on Christmas. For the last three years we have spent Christmas Eve with the Bednars and the Noonans. This year I still felt like we should spend Christmas Eve with them but they had to come to our house. 

We did a night in Bethlehem again and had chicken, pita bread, veggies, and fruit. We also acted out the nativity story again which was complete chaos with 18 kids. It was totally hilarious. As Jack was reading the story we had basically 3 nativity stories all acting out at the same time. It lasted all of about 5 minutes. 

Poor Gracie did not feel well at all. She had a terrible cough/cold that had moved into her eyes. You can see in the pictures how awful she feels. She looked more like the angel of death than one proclaiming the Savior was born....

Ruby was one of the cutest shepherds I have ever seen...

Afterwards, the pajama fairy dropped off Christmas pajamas for everyone. However, right before this picture was taken we did have an incident that made everyone pretty grumpy, especially me.

The Noonans had given us a glass Christmas ornament of the leg lamp from a Christmas story. Benny had found the gift bag and opened it up. When Jack saw it he tried to pull it away from Benny and Benny held on. This resulted in the glass ornament being torn in half. Kind of funny if you think about the how it ended for the leg lamp in the Christmas story...

Anyway...I was pretty upset and they both felt bad. So, needless to say, those smiley faces are not quite genuine as everyone was a little bit uptight right before bed. Now I look back on it and it is a funny story but I was not happy that night. Shad is still convinced that he can fix it, so it is currently sitting in our laundry room awaiting a repair.

Haken and Jack's Santa haul

Ruby's Santa gifts

Benny's Santa gifts

Gracie's Santa haul

I didn't get many pictures of Christmas morning because I was still pretty sore and just wanted to sit there and enjoy the day. It was a great relaxing Christmas really. I didn't worry much about cleaning up (mostly because I couldn't bend over to pick stuff up) and we stayed in our PJ's all day. We didn't have anywhere to go and it was awesome.

No gifts for these boys. They got diapers I guess :)

The best gifts we got were these two sweet boys!

This year each of the kids drew a name of one of their siblings and got a gift for them with their own money. It was really sweet to see the things that they picked out for them. They were very thoughtful. Most notable were the twin babies that Haken got for Ruby. She treated them like our twin babies.

Jack also picked out a mermaid and princess drawing book and gel pens for Gracie. They were a total hit. I think she drew for most of the day.

Our big gift for the kids was telling them about a dinner cruise that we are going to do on a riverboat up the Mississippi sometime in the spring or summer. We decided last year after doing Lion Kind tickets that we would do an experience for the kids rather than getting lots of gifts. They loved it, so we did it again this year.

My mom actually spoiled us with most of our gifts this year. All of the presents under the tree were from her. Most notable were the Amazon Echo and dots for everyone's room. They have been so awesome to have. Now all of th kids listen to music in their rooms and we can use them as an intercom throughout the house. It was such a great gift! We really love it when Grandma Lori spoils us.

Gingerbread houses

With Grandma in town this week we are doing some things that I wouldn't attempt doing without an additional adult. Gingerbread houses usually aren't my thing, but my friend had an idea of taking all of our Halloween and parade candy that the kids collected and use them for gingerbread houses. It worked brilliantly.

I made the royal icing and we just used graham crackers to make the houses. I thought they turned out pretty cute and the kids were actually really good about not gorging on candy in the process. They are pretty excited to eat them in the near future though.

Ruby was obsessed with collecting suckers.
She didn't really care much about decorating the houses.

We seriously had SO much candy!

The start of Haken's Wrigley field

Daddy made a lean-to shed. He wants an exact
 replica in our backyard.

Grandma saved the day helping Jack with his house.
The roof kept falling down but she found a way to make it work.

Haken's Wrigley field

Gracie's pink house

Daddy's shed

The other side of Daddy's shed. (The chewed up starburst didn't hold
up the sucker trees as well as he had hoped).

Benny's masterpiece

Jack's 2 story house with a detached garage.

Festival of Trees

Last year after Christmas my siblings had the idea of decorating a tree at the festival of trees in honor of my dad. We donated to it and kept it a secret from my mom for a year. Megan and Lisa did all of the shopping and decorating. They did a really great job and captured some fun things about my dad. It was a really great tribute to him. It ended up selling for $1,300 and all of the proceeds were donated to Primary Children's hospital.

They also took my mom to the festival and surprised her. She had no idea that they had done this. When she walked by the tree she was so surprised and broke down crying. They recorded a facebook live video of it. It totally made me cry. It was a really special moment. 

Merry Christmas from the Anderson's!

                                                                                                                   

Dear Loved Ones,

2015 has been one of those years that you never forget, and as we also just had one of those years in 2014, we’re looking forward to a super boring 2016. Here’s the low down:

February-

We were delighted and surprised to welcome our third boy into the family (the gender was a surprise, not the fact that we had a baby. Being surprised by the gender, by the way, is not as fun as everyone said it would be. I just experienced a whole lot of anxiety over it.) We named our fourth child Bennion Steve Anderson. Bennion comes from one of Bonnie’s pioneer ancestors, John Bennion, who was a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, and Steve is after my father (also a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, so there’s a pattern there). Benny has been our easiest baby so far, he just smiles a lot and laughs at his siblings. In the rare instance he does cry, it’s because he’s hungry, tired, or poopy, and will literally go back to smiling and laughing as soon as he is fed, napped or de-pooped. He’s recently figured out how to army crawl and frequently ends up underneath the Christmas tree.

March-

I received a phone call one day before classes began, informing me that I may or may not be on a short list for a coordinating position. (Note: I am a religious educator for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have been teaching teenagers in a released time seminary setting for the last 10 years. A coordinator is an assignment within Church Education where you train early morning seminary teachers and/or direct an Institute of Religion for young single adults, and usually means you’ll be moving far, far away…)

A few anxious days later I got the call inviting me to accept an assignment in Urbana Illinois. I was given two days to report my decision. Bonnie and I decided, in addition to praying and going to the temple, that we should seek the counsel of our parents. Since I come from a clan of wanderers my dad and I had a jolly ole time discussing the upcoming adventure. Since Bonnie has never lived outside of Utah, our discussion with her mom was a bit more serious. There were even tears… Which was understandable since Bonnie’s father had only passed away a few months before and Lori really loves us. But everyone knew this was what we were supposed to do so we accepted.

May-

We had 5 days to find a house. We only needed three. We actually sold our house in Utah on the same day we signed the paper work for our new house in Illinois. We totally appreciate the miracle of this occurrence as moving is not supposed to be this seamless. We have found ourselves in a wonderful little neighborhood of super nice people (seriously, we have a neighborhood directory and we’ve already had a block party) in a great community with good schools, and a close-knit ward family that welcomed us in the second we got here.

Bonnie also turned 30 this month, so that’s something…

June-

Haken turned 8 years old and on the 4^th of July I got to baptize and confirm my firstborn, which was pretty cool. He’s really just growing into a responsible and caring young man. He’s also a bit bossy, but what can you expect from the firstborn (am I right Ryan?)

Gracie turned 3 years old and is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen. She even makes temper tantrums and power struggles adorable. She is a bit of a diva, but I’m told all sisters are (I wouldn’t know). She’s also pretty tiny for her age so we get lots of comments as people are impressed by our super smart and coordinated 18 month old.

July-

We packed up all our earthly belongings (well actually a moving company did which is so much better than the Elder’s Quorum) and we trekked east, following the Mormon trail in the opposite direction. We posted our exploits online with the #reversepioneers, since that is how we felt. We arrived in Illinois on July 24^th.

August-

I turned 34, (note: at this writing it’s been three days since I played football on Thanksgiving Day and I continue to be so sore, it’s debilitating. So, you know, awesome.)

Haken also started school, and has now seen three different elementary schools in as many years. I’m glad he’s resilient.

Jack (who turns 5 this month) also started preschool. He goes to the local Catholic Church preschool, and has two wonderful and patient teachers. They’ve been super accommodating with his diabetes and we’re grateful. Jack, who doesn’t even realize he started over with new friends, because he considers everyone he meets to be his friend, also started gymnastics this year. We figured he should try it since he likes to do running summersaults down the hall and can perform backflips off the diving board. (I didn’t teach him that, I’m too afraid.)

December-

Which brings us to now. I think we are adjusting well, and I couldn’t be more proud of Bonnie. I always knew she could thrive outside of Utah, and now she knows it as well. We look forward to seeing what the Lord plans on doing through us in our new home and opportunity, and can’t wait to hear about what He’s doing through you. We love you, pray for you, and feel very blessed to be your associates during this special time in Earth’s history.

Love,

Shad, Bonnie, Haken, Jack, Gracie and Benny

Christmas Day

Things that stayed still on Christmas day so that I could take a picture...

Our beautiful tree...

Gracie's goods from Santa...

Jack's goods from Santa...

Haken's goods from Santa...

The room the way Santa left it...

Jack...He didn't move from this spot all day...

I think he liked his present from Santa or something... 

Merry Christmas from the Anderson's!

We are going electronic with our newsletter this year. 

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas 2011

I know this post is late when all of my Christmas decorations are already down and everyone in the world has already posted their Christmas happenings. But better late than never I guess!

We started off our Christmas with our Christmas Eve tradition of a delish dinner made by Shad. I think he saves up his culinary skills all year long to prepare for this night. I definitely don't mind not having to cook at all. I look forward to it every year. He stuck with the tradition of cornish game hens seasoned with fresh herbs, small herbed potatoes, asparagus, gourmet yellow carrots, radishes, and a bit of bubbly to wash it all down. Oh, and of course all of this is lathered in his special herbed cream sauce. It was worth waiting for all year!

Another Christmas Eve tradition is Christmas jammies from Grandma Evans. Can you tell Haken is a bit excited about these? Jack liked them too, but was more into the lens cover of the camera.

Santa visited our house that night....

....and Haken tore into all of it within a minute of waking up. Haken didn't get up until after 8:00. We had to make lots of noise in the kitchen so we could open presents before church at 11:30. It is fun to watch him get more and more into it with each year. Even the smallest things are exciting to him, like the orange in the bottom of the stocking.

I think Jack would have just been happy with Haken's huge sucker and nothing else. Especially since he was terrified of the ball popper we got him. It has taken weeks for him to get used to.

But the other few toys he got, he liked.

With it being Christmas day on a Sunday we had to get a family picture just before church.

That afternoon we made our way down to Salt Lake to be with my family for a few days of Christmas festivities. We had a yummy dinner at my aunt Cheri's and talked to my cousin Spencer on a mission. We stayed that night at my parents and then had all my siblings come for presents the next day. At this point we were FINALLY able to tell my parents that I am pregnant (although Haken spilled the beans just a few hours before to my mom). We gave our parents each a set of coasters with family pictures in them. One of those coasters contained the ultrasound picture. I didn't take any pictures of the reactions, but we did get it on video if I can figure out how to transfer it all over. We told Shad's family over Skype on Christmas Eve. 

Jack really enjoyed tearing the tissue paper into tiny little pieces. Best present ever.

Uncle B and auntie M who came up from Arizona for Christmas. We sure miss them!

This picture pretty much sums up our vacation. Not sure why, but I always feel like I need a vacation from my vacation!

It was a great Christmas! We were even able to see the zoo lights at Hogle Zoo the next day before we headed back home. Haken loved seeing all the animals and Jack was such a happy little boy, even in the cold. All of that footage is on the video camera once again.

We truly are blessed this year and look forward to the new adventures that will come our way this next year!