March Adventures

One of our favorite things about living in Illinois so far has been the awesome adventures we get to go on as a family. Everything here is so close and there are so many fun things to do. March has turned out to be a pretty busy month for us and it is not over yet.

During the first week of March Shad went up to Minneapolis for a week to get some training for work. We were going to go up with him but with the additional trips planned for March we decided he should go on his own. So he sent me a lot of selfies in restaurants, showed me what he was eating, and how dirty his car got from the storm he traveled in.

Of course Benny and I had to send him a selfie back as we sat at the church during scouts. We would have much rather been with him all week.

During the second weekend in March we went to Decatur with Shad for work. He had a meeting there and we have a yearly pass to the children's museum that we have never used so we made a day of it. I hung out with the kids while he met with priesthood leaders there.

That museum is amazing! We will be going back often with it only 45 minutes away. They had everything from water, to bubbles, to painting. I swear nothing was off limits there. The kids had a blast and never ran out of things to do.

I think this was one of their favorite things. It is a treehouse type thing that you can climb that is 3 stories high and sits in the middle of the museum. The kids loved climbing to the top.

There is something for everyone. Even Benny had a great time, although by the end he was a VERY tired boy.

Our next adventure was the following weekend at the Wisconsin Dells. Shad had a meeting up there, so we tagged along as a family. I can't believe I didn't know that places like this existed before! It is an entire town full of indoor amusement and water parks. We stayed at one called "The Wilderness." It had 3 indoor water parks as well as indoor amusement park, arcade, tree course, and outdoor water parks (that weren't open in March). We were able to get a screaming deal since we stayed on a Thursday night during the off season. We swam for two days and the kids were exhausted. The best part is that I didn't have to put an ounce of sunscreen on them! Shad had meetings on Friday so I braved it by myself with the 4 kiddos. Luckily our friends the Wheelers were also there and that was very helpful. They have 5 kids and their ages match up quite well with ours making the "buddy system" easy. Haken went on all of the rides with his friends all day, so I never even saw him to take a picture. The slides were great! I think we will have to go back every year and we will definitely rejoice when Jack hits 48" so that he can go on ALL of the big rides. He is a dare devil and wanted to go on everything, but he was too short. 

This is a picture of just one side of one of the parks. They are massive and have slides everywhere!

This was Benny the first day. He was exhausted from the 4 hour drive and didn't want to have anything to do with the water when we got there.

He had a lot more fun the second day.

Especially with his big brother Jack.

I don't even know how many times Gracie went down this slide. She was on it pretty much all day long. I think she must have swallowed a gallon of water throughout the day though, because I think I took her to the bathroom about 8 times.

I didn't get any other pictures with our friends, but on Thursday night we went to their condo for dinner and played the candy bar game. It was a huge success....except for Jack's huge blow up because he didn't get the Rollos he had his heart set on. I love those little caramel bombs too buddy...

We can't wait to go back and are excited to try out some of the other hotels as well. It will be a refreshing tradition to have for the winter. 

Now....on to Utah tomorrow for spring break. The adventures just never end!

February

Here is a synopsis of what happened in February...

We announced we are pregnant with baby #5...

There is a visible bump (this is 13 weeks)

Haken discovered perler beads and is determined to do the whole United States.

Haken also became a cake decorator for the Blue and Gold Banquet. He won the award for the "most boyish cake"

The kids ate a lot of grapefruit...

We had joyschool at our house twice. We learned about transportation and Easter....

We tried to curl Gracie's hair with sponge curlers....

This is how it looked in the morning with curlers all over the floor next to her bed...

 We attended the Stake Valentines family dance and had WAY too much cotton candy...

Benny had his first birthday and we celebrated by having the Noonans, Morefields, and Bednars over. It took Benny a while to be convinced he could eat the cake with his hands...

He also opened lots of gifts...

In honor of his birthday, Shad did a little photoshoot with Benny...








The kids discovered that a blanket over the heating vent is their favorite thing in the morning...

We learned that the kitchen sink makes an excellent water table and baby bathtub...

We found out that Benny really likes stomp rockets...

Gracie continues to be our innocent, materialistic, princess diva...

 

January

In an effort to catch up. Here is what we did in January.

Gracie started Sunbeams at church....

Shad built stuff...

 We fit a record number of people at our table....

We love having the YSA's at our house.

Jack got an insulin pump...

It's been challenging and life changing at the same time.

 We went to a museum up in the Chicago suburbs with our friends the Hopes while Shad and their parents attended a seminary inservice....

We had joyschool at our house and learned about monsters...

Gracie played dress up daily. It was a special treat when she had a friend to dress up with...

And lets not forget this little bugger. He is fully on the move now and really figuring out crawling. By the end of the month he was starting to ditch the army crawl...

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

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Dear family and friends,

We’re calling this our “Happy St. Patrick’s Day Letter” since that is the nearest holiday, and, like any good drinking Irish Catholics, this holiday is very meaningful to us. This has been a very eventful year for us, and I’ve been given the assignment from my superior to tell you about it.

The biggest event of 2014 was the death of Bonnie’s father Guy. He was diagnosed late 2013 with terminal brain cancer and we felt very fortunate to have so many good days with him before we had to say goodbye. Some of those good days were at a family reunion in St. George. A beautiful home was rented with a luxurious pool and hot tub. We laughed a lot. I went golfing with grandpa Guy and Haken (I didn’t know that would be my last round with him) and it was an overall pleasant week. As Guy declined, we took more opportunities to be in Centerville with him and Lori. We have found the promise in the Doctrine and Covenants to be fulfilled where the Lord said “Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die...And it shall come to pass that those that die in me shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them;” We miss Guy terribly, but we know he is engaged in the great work of the Lord on the other side of the veil, and we know he is one of those angels who “speak [to us] by the power of the Holy Ghost” and he is still an intimate part of our life.

The second biggest event of the year was the birth of our fourth child, and third son, Benny. His birth was a special day and we're glad he made it here safely. He's a good eater, and quiet cryer (I have no idea where he gets it because we're a loud bunch).

Aside from both these landmark events, here's a quick update from our daily lives. Haken turns 8 in June and is trying to finish the Book of Mormon before he gets baptized. As he's only in 2 Nephi, he may need to finish up with the children's reader version. He's become quite the little writer and is obsessed with geography. When I showed him Google earth, I think he literally died for a second.

Jack (and us) has had one year to get used to life with type 1 Diabetes. We just started to feel confident when he got the flu. It got scary really quick. But no worries, apparently we're just to expect one ER visit a year, that's the diabetic way. Anybody who knows Jack loves him, he walks around like a miniature Zack Morris (that's a "Saved by the Bell" reference) saying "what's up" to the adults and shortening all his friends name, "Hey Liv."

Grace hasn't grown in two years. I'm not kidding, she still wears some 9-12 month clothes. But she walks and talks like the almost three year old that she is. It's funny to watch people stare at her like she's this super genius one year old. I'm OK if she's behind physically, maybe she can make through high school looking like a ten year old. Her girliness is off the charts from her love of getting her hair done to her insistence on wearing only things that are pink or sparkling. She is adorable and I think we'll keep her.

Bonnie ran a half marathon while she was pregnant. (Thought I'd throw that in there because it's so hard core). She has added to her domestic goddess rap sheet a specialty in couponing, and can sell anything on the classifieds. It's really amazing. She's amazing. The highlight of our summer was getting to go to Boston, then New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio on a Church History tour. We got to spend 9 days together (thank you grandma Lori for taking the kiddos for that long) and we made some wonderful new friends.

I have been enjoying my assignments at work teaching freshmen the gospel and writing seminary curriculum. I feel like I get the best of both worlds and could keep this up as long they'll let me. I've recently tried my hand at photography and it's my current artistic expression (obsession?). And I got myself committed to running a half marathon this year. Somewhere in hell a snowball is making it.

We thank you all for your love and friendship. Please keep in touch with us. We're on Facebook and Instagram. We both blog (Bonnie: shadandbonnie.blogspot.com and Shad: shadmanderson.wordpress.com and you can check out my photography at shadanderson.photography) and you can even call us on one of those telephones things.

Much Love,

Shad, Bonnie, Haken, Jack, Gracie and Benny