Weeds!

Why is it that everything in my yard has yet to bloom and the weeds are the only thing green right now? Last Friday I decided I couldn't stand looking at the weeds anymore and we ventured out into the yard to make it look a bit nicer. I was surprised to see that there are little buds on everything in my yard so in a few weeks it will be really beautiful. There are also bulbs popping up all over. I love this time of the year! There is nothing more rewarding than seeing your yard come back to life and know that everything didn't really die over the winter.

Haken was a huge help and Jack was just happy to be outside. I think he would live outside if I would let him! We also planted our first round of sugar snap peas, one of our favorite treats from our garden every year.

I think we have another golfer in the family...

This face is so Jack...and yet he reminds me of Haken at this age.

Planting peas

Flu Bug

This week the flu bug definitely found our family. About 3 weeks ago Haken had a fight with the flu that went off and on for about a week and I thought we all got lucky and didn't catch it.

 I guess we were wrong because on Sunday during choir practice Jack lost it all and we had to quickly head home (luckily I was able to catch it all in the blanket). I felt so bad for him. At this age he really didn't know what was going on and tried to re-swallow everything instead of just letting it out. He pushed the bowl away whenever I tried to catch anything. All he wanted to do was cuddle with his binki and blanket on mommy or daddy (which is now becoming a difficult habit to break). I have to admit that I did like that part since he is not usually a very cuddly baby and all I wanted to do on Sunday was lay around anyway. Monday he acted pretty normal, ate, and kept everything down, then that night was a rough one full of pajama and sheet changes. This is exactly how Haken's flu was. He was fine one day and then the next day it was like it was back again!

So, yesterday (Tuesday) I got this fun little flu, probably from all of the cuddling I did with Jack on Sunday. I only threw up once, but that was enough for me. I hate throwing up. I will hold it in as long as possible. I don't usually get that sick during my pregnancies so it had been about 4 years since I had really thrown up. After coming out of the bathroom yesterday I looked at my boys and immediately called Shad to come home. Jack had been a grouch and Haken had preschool to get to that day so I knew I couldn't do it. I spent pretty much the entire day in bed, watching movies, reading books, and trying to sleep, unsuccessfully. Shad enjoyed a great day off with the boys being the mom and running the carpool. However, he is starting to feel a bit off tonight so we will see if he gets another day off this week.

It's amazing what 12 hours of sleep can do for you! I feel 100% today which is great since I couldn't possibly take another day off from being mommy. I'm also glad that the weather is starting to get such that I can open up all my windows and get this nasty bug out of our house. I can't wait until my little Jack is back to his old self again, he has been such a little whiner and it is driving me crazy! Especially since this bug has really made him adverse to pretty much ALL food. I hope it doesn't pop again as this flu has done already a few times. I guess I need to sanitize my entire house tomorrow!

Success in Parenting

As a parent I feel like I am sometimes guessing on how to handle things with my kids. Sometimes I feel bad for them because it is a "trial and error" thing most of the time. We really are just learning together.

Well, 2 weeks ago I had planned a trip to the Treehouse children's museum with the boys. I was rushing to get ready and get the boys ready so we could leave. After I gave Haken a 15 minute warning he started to complain and whine to me about how he didn't want to go because he wanted to stay home and watch his favorite show that had a new episode on later that day. At that moment I realized that something needed to be done with what has become an obsession with the T.V.

Haken is at the age where he really loves and looks forward to watching the preschool shows that come on in the mornings. They are mostly educational and teach him good things, but he wasn't really ever "playing." Although I really have to blame the obsession on myself. During the winter we spend a LOT of time inside. That is just the way it has to be when you live in Utah and everything fun is at least 30 minutes away. During the summer he plays outside basically all day so there isn't much time for T.V. For the past 4 months or so on a normal day he pretty much watched T.V. from about 9:30 (when we got home from our workout group) until 12:00 or 1:00 depending on if it was a preschool day. That is roughly 2 1/2-3 1/2 hours of T.V. a day, (which research says is pretty normal for a kid his age)!! Again, it is my fault because I would just get busy with the day, making breakfast, taking a shower, cleaning up the kitchen, starting the laundry, etc...I swear it was 11:30 by the time I could focus on anything else. I felt like such a bad mom!

So, after realizing that Haken would choose a show over going to a children's museum that day I decided to have a Family Home Evening that night on how we spend our time. Kind of a "good, better, best" lesson for a 4 yr old. I am so excited that it went over well with him. I was expecting him to be so mad with the rules that we made, but he wasn't. As a family, we decided that he could watch 3 shows a day and he could decide which ones they were. If he wanted to he could substitute one of those shows for 30 minutes of a video game time since he loves playing the Wii. We don't have DVR so he just has to watch his shows when they come on, but he has learned that in the morning he picks which ones he wants to watch and then we turn on and off the T.V. accordingly. I found that most of the time he was watching shows that he didn't really care much about, just because he wanted to watch the show that came next. He actually turns the T.V. off now all by himself once his show is over and he counts down the shows, knowing how many he has left during the day. There have been so many good things that have come out of this. Not only is he watching less T.V., but he has actually started to play with his toys which have just sat there for months. His imaginative play has come back and he has become so creative lately. He is more cooperative and not angry when I tell him it's time to turn it off, because he was part of the decision making process. He has really been more cooperative with lots of other things unrelated to the T.V. as well.

I also feel like I benefited from my own lesson because I realized that I too could do better on limiting my "screen time." I would be just fine not watching T.V. at all, but I do like to get online and check out all my usual websites. I decided that I too would choose my time wisely and only get on once all of my "chores" were done for the day (which is sometimes after the boys go to bed!) I am also working out and reading my scriptures before the boys get up instead of going to the workout group at the church everyday, helping me to have a better handle on my morning. Although I do still go twice a week just to keep my sanity and have some "women time."

I love making a change in parenting and seeing the benefits of the change in my family. We aren't perfect, but I think seeing things that need to be changed is the first step to becoming a better parent.

Spring?!

It has been one of the mildest winters on record here and yet I still can not wait until Spring! We have only had to shovel a handful of times and Shad has used his new snowblower about 2 times. Most of the time the snow all melts by the afternoon so we don't need to shovel at all. Today it is almost 50 degrees outside and will probably get up to 60 or more in the next few days (go ahead and laugh all you Arizona dwellers, that is WARM here!) Seeing these little tulips pop up in my front yard makes me so happy and excited for the months to come. I planted 100 new bulbs last fall and I can't wait to see the colors that will fill my yard. I don't know if it is the anticipation of our spring break get away to Arizona, or knowing that the baby will be here in a few short months that makes me so antsy right now. This spring will be glorious!

Half way mark and it's a....

GIRL!

Today marked 20 weeks in my pregnancy and our scheduled ultrasound. I have felt that this was a girl since pretty much the beginning of the pregnancy. It has been such a different pregnancy than my boys were. I wasn't as sick, I have been gaining weight slower and measuring smaller, and haven't really felt pregnant at all until just recently. All of those signs told me that this had to be a girl. Turns out I was right. When the tech told us it was a girl Shad said that I didn't even sound surprised. I told him I wasn't, because I knew all along! Mother's instincts I guess...

We are so excited for this little girl! She will have the best big brothers looking after her and will have her daddy wrapped around her finger (although he doesn't know it yet). She also marks the end of a long streak of boys on my side of the family. Six great-grand children, all boys, and then her. I would say she is going to be one spoiled little girl! Looks like she is right on schedule too for July 11th and weighs about 11 oz (like 3 sticks of butter). Can't wait to meet her come July....or June, if she is ready.

Her cute little Anderson profile

Tiny footprint

Waving "hello" or scratching her head, you decide...

14 Weeks

20 Weeks

Not a lot of visual change yet, although I feel like she has gotten much bigger in the last week. I feel movement all the time now and I switched out most of my clothes for maternity clothes last Monday. Got a new haircut this week too!

Upgrade

It has finally happened! We have become a minivan family...and couldn't be happier! As we started January we realized that our main vehicle was due to be registered. Since we were already planning on buying a van this year due to the addition to come in July we decided now was as good a time as any to upgrade. So, on January 21st we sold our beloved "silver bullet" (which we purchased 5 years ago from my dad) and went in search for the perfect van.

On the 9th of February we officially became minivan owners and went from this....

To this.....

This car is already very loved due to the amount of sacrifice we went through to get it. We test drove pretty much every mini van under the sun and knew what we liked and didn't like. We got to be pretty picky, but also knew that it would be difficult to get all of the features that we wanted for the low price that we wanted. We decided not to settle and kept looking....in the meantime sharing our 1994 green Ford Taurus. Being a one car family is HARD! I hope we never have to do that again! Or at least if we do, I hope we have a more reliable vehicle that doesn't break down on our way to Logan or in people's driveways. 

Anyway....we decided to talk to a guy in town named Don who bids for cars at auctions and then fixes them up. We decided this was probably the only way we would get exactly what we wanted for the price we wanted. He bid on this 2004 Toyota Sienna XLE Limited and won it for us! We were excited because it didn't need a whole lot of work (just a side impact accident) and would have everything for a super low price. There is no way we would have gotten this deal at a dealership. 

The van was drivable and actually not in bad shape at all. It really just needed a new sliding door, some body work around the fender, and a new axle in the back. We kind of bid on it blindly not really knowing what features it had, but it turned out even better than we thought! It has everything that we wanted including leather, low miles, a DVD player, automatic adjustable cruise control, automatic sliding doors (such a lifesaver as mom!), automatic back-hatch, stow n' go seating, 6 disk CD changer, built in window shades, sun roof, and the list goes on. Shad and I laugh that we are still trying to figure out where all of the buttons are. A new one appears everyday.

It was a leap of faith buying a car at an auction but I was so impressed with Don's work! In just 2 1/2 weeks (some of the longest weeks of my life!) it went from this...

To this...

Totally amazing to me! The door is totally automatic and functional. The paint matches perfectly, it drives smooth as butter and no one can tell the difference. Here are a few more pictures of the inside:

The DVD player has been so nice! The screen is a huge 12" screen. Haken has loved it so much that we have set a rule that we only turn it on when we go at least 30 minutes away from home.

The headrests in the middle were missing. Don is still looking to find replacements. He really has given us the best attention to detail on this van and not cut any corners.

The middle seats fold up for easier entry to the back if needed, but we usually just leave them up. Also, the back seats fold into the floor for flat storage in the back.

This van will be very loved for many years to come. I love it more each day I drive it around. I think I can deal with being a "soccer mom" if I get to drive this around.

Shad's first major exhibit!

Last Thursday we received an E-mail confirming that Shad's painting got into the international art exhibit at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City! For those of you who may not know what the Church History Museum is, it is a large museum that has works of art as well as historical artifacts that document the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is across the street from temple square in the center of Salt Lake City and people come from all over to visit this museum. 

Every 3 years they accept entries from all over the world into a competition to be selected to be in their exhibit. The theme for this year's exhibit is "Make known His wonderful works." They look for pieces that are different and that display the theme chosen for the year. Shad has entered in past year's competitions and not been accepted, but this year they asked to have an "in person" look at his painting and they accepted it into the exhibit. They had over 1000 entries from all over the world and only select a few to put into the exhibit.

It will be displayed at the museum from March 16th to October 14th. His painting may also be seen in future publications of the Liahona, Ensign magazines, and the Church News. So, keep your eyes out for his name and go and visit the museum to see it in person! This is such a HUGE accomplishment and I am so proud of him!

"It was good" by Shad Anderson