Dear friends and family,
Because our Christmas was a little crazy, we decided to write a Valentine letter instead. We figured better late than never. Here is a quick rundown on the family, and each member.
Bonnie and Shad:
We were excited to find out that Bonnie was pregnant again, and shocked when they showed two little guys in there. In fact, I wasn’t even at the first ultrasound because, you know, you’ve seen 5 you’ve seen them all. When Bonnie Facetimed me at work, I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary. When I was shown the baby, I was like “good, a baby is in there” when I was shown the second baby I had to sit down. My very first thought was “we have to get a bigger van”. Hilariously, we had just bought an 8-seater in anticipation of trying to have our 6th and final child. Now we are the proud owners of a humongous, 15 passenger, medium roof behemoth we call Moby.
Bonnie is doing remarkably well considering the C-section (her first) required by a breach baby A and transverse baby B. We have a pretty efficient system at 2 am of Bonnie nursing both at the same time, handing me the quicker-eater to burp and change, then handing me the slower-eater to do the same while she tops the other one off. They are graciously giving us chunks of 3-4 hours at a time. We have been blessed with lots of friends and family to help including a week long visit from sister-in-law Nicole and a two week visit from Bonnie’s mom, Lori.
Bonnie continues to write for mymommystyle.com (a mommy blog) and hopes to be ready for a half marathon in the summer. Shad continues to coordinate seminary and institute programs for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and enjoys taking kids on early morning visits with him around central Illinois.
Tenny and Chap (or is it Chap and Tenny?):
I guess for now the twins go together, someday they’ll be their own paragraph. Chapman was born first at 2:01 am and you can get his deets on the announcement- Tennyson was born at 2:02 am. Since we only create two models of Anderson, it’s only fitting that we made one of each here as well. Chap looks like Jack and Grace, is smaller, and has dark hair. Tenny looks like Haken and Benny, is growing a ton, and has blonde hair. Everybody is thrilled to have them join our clan, even Ruby, we think…
Ruby:
Turning 2 in August, she was very considerate to not begin the terrible’s until AFTER the twins were born. She is now in full swing. I actually think she’s rather adorable when she has a tantrum and puts herself in timeout, but the power struggles have become a daily occurrence. She is still the favorite of all the little girls at church who love her chubby cheeks, curly blonde locks, and almost understandable jabber. Next on her list of achievements is potty-training and a big-girl bed. Here’s hoping these things get accomplished before summer roadtrips.
Benny:
Turning 4 this month, Benny was gracious enough to potty-train weeks BEFORE the twins arrived, sparing us the ignominious honor of 4 in diapers. Benny has been going to pre-preschool since last spring because of his speech delay. He really loves getting out and being part of a class. He’s a pretty social little guy. He and Ruby are kind of like our older twins as they love to play together and fight together. They understand each other in a way no one else seems to be able to. Lately, Benny has been cracking us up with the things he says, making us wonder what he’s been saying all along.
Gracie:
Turning 7 in June, Grace has thrived in Kindergarten, which has been a relief for us as we agonized about holding her back last year. We now feel satisfied we made the right decision for her. Gracie is a story-teller, and plays pretty fast and loose with her fiction and non-fiction. She changes into 3-4 outfits a day, and also cracks us up with the things she says, although if she didn’t intent humor she gets pretty upset at our giggles. We love her raspy little voice and quick laughter. Her drawings of mermaids are FANTASTIC, the shell placement seemingly inspired by Picasso.
Jack:
Although he turned 8 in December, he patiently waited until January to be baptized so that Grandmas and Grandpa would only need to come once. We ended up baptizing, confirming and then doing both twin baby blessings in the same meeting, which was a pretty meaningful experience and Jack didn’t mind sharing his special day. Jack has really stepped it up as a big brother, taking on the senior companion role when he and Benny moved downstairs. He’s not the cleanest big brother, but he is on point when it comes to getting himself and Benny ready for school and church. Jack took seriously my assignment to study baptism in the months leading up to his experiencing the ordinance, and has been a pretty diligent little gospel studier ever since. We also stepped up his diabetes technology with a continuous glucose monitor which gives us readings without a finger prick. He’s learning to become more independent with his diabetes every day.
Haken:
But the winner for the fastest growing up this year has to be our oldest. In one policy change within the Church, Haken was suddenly an 11 year old deacon, passing the sacrament, and taking the hundreds of names he has been finding on family search to the temple. I know it was only 6 months early, but I keep looking at this young man and having a panic-attack realizing that he will be leaving our home in 6 short years. He is the third adult in our family, and despite being a bit of a wuss when it comes to getting puked, pooped or peed on, we rely pretty heavily on him to help keep the chaos from exploding everywhere.
We are grateful for the out-pouring of support and love we have received as we have tried to adjust to our new family dynamic. We are blessed with an awesome family, amazing friends and neighbors, and an abiding faith in our Heavenly Father, our Savior Jesus Christ and Their Restored Church.
We love you!
Shad, Bonnie, Haken, Jack, Grace, Bennion, Ruby, Chapman and Tennyson
