ansons unplugged: 2008

Monday, December 22, 2008

A Flurry of Posts

Finally -- the cards have been mailed, the goodies delivered, the presents bought (and almost all wrapped), the school parties are over, the stockings are hung -- and I have a minute to myself to catch up on the blog. It is an amazing time of year. I hope I have slowed down enough to soak it in. Tonight for family night Zac wanted to act out the nativity. It was fun even though Brook (the cutest angel you have ever seen) kept taking the baby Jesus out of the manger. When we were done, we asked the kids why the Chritsmas story is so important. We asked them what would have happened if Christ had not come to the earth. (Zac answered that there would be more robbers and, you know, he is probably right.) I really thought about it too and realized again how grateful I am that He did come to earth. It was a beautiful moment as we talked about our need for the Atonement and the precious gift of repentance. No wonder the multitude of heavenly hosts sang for joy. Have a Merry Christmas as you too rejoice in the life of our Savior.

Brook's Bathtub

Brook has figured out how to open the lid and dump the toys out of this tote. She likes to push it into the living room and climb into it. Yesterday she climbed in and said, "bath -- splash, splash." She was very pleased with herself. Tonight she decided to read in the bath. We love seeing her imagination begin to emerge.

Icing on the Cake!

Joseph technically finished his Master's Degree in August. On December 12th we drove up to Logan so he could get "hooded" and make his walk across the stage. It was a fantastic day. There he is, the handsome one in the crowd. (I am not sure what I did to this picture, but it was a great shot.)

We took the two little girls with us. Zac and Sariah did not want to miss school, especially since it was Polar Express day in Kindergarten. Some good friends took care of the kids after school. The ceremony was short and sweet and definitely worth the drive. The girls were wonderful. When the string quartet began playing, Ally piped up, "Mom, the orchestra is playing." I did not even know she knew that word.

A glimpse of the future. (A future that is coming way too fast.)

Brook is proud of her Daddy and so are we. He worked hard and sacrificed time and sleep. It is a great feeling to know that it is done.

Grandpa Anson came up with us, too. Thanks, Dad, for making the trip and for always supporting us.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving the kids were chomping at the bit to get the Christmas stuff out. They had a great time "decorating" the tree. We had to more evenly distribute the ornaments later. They got the most excited about getting out the singing snowman and the advent calendar that Grandma Anson made. The highlight of each day is choosing a toy to add to Santa's Workshop. Only three more to go.

Sariah was thrilled with her job of organizing the Christmas CD's. We added some fun ones to our collection this year. The Christmas CD in the van gets a lot of play time, especially track 1 (Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) and track 4 (You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch -- One night Sariah said she was going to sing the scary part. That would be the "dum-da-dum" intro. It was pretty funny).

And now it feels like Christmas. In the last week we have finally gotten some real snow. Today it snowed almost all day. A few days ago we bundled Brook up and let her go for it. She was not too sure about touching the snow but she did run around yelling, "No (Snow)!" Since then when she sees the snow she says, "No, hat, gloves, hands." It is fun that she can remember things she has done and tell us about them. I think it is safe to say that we will have a White Christmas.

Lying Down on the Job

We were out raking leaves one day when we looked around for Zac and found him like this. What a character.

The kids actually turned out to be pretty good "leaf helpers" and probably did deserve a break.

Happy Birthday, Zac!

Zac has been six now for over a month. We had a great day celebrating his birthday on November 15th. (Yes, I am hopelessly behind.) He wanted a Hot Wheels party, complete with a racetrack cake -- which was fun and fairly easy to make (thanks Family Fun).

We started the day by inviting some friends to the "Anson Speedway." We had several races including a backward race, "potato sack" race and the grand finale. For the finale, racers made a pit stop during each lap. On lap one they had to gas up (down a cup of Kool Aid); during lap two they had their winshield (face) washed; and lap three required a tire change (they finished the race in a pair of Joseph's shoes). Then we went inside to eat cupcakes, open presents and play. Each boy left with a treat bag and a Hot Wheel of his own. I think it was a success.

Later, the family came for a family party. Zac loved all his gifts, but seemed especially excited about the baseball guys from Grandma Walker. Joseph was pretty excited, too. They did not waste much time setting it up. Since then, we have had many "baseball games" in the living room. Sometimes the kids line up stuffed animals and other action figures along the sidelines to be the spectators. I think one of Zac's favorite parts is changing the scoreboard. He aslo really enjoyed the Backyard Baseball game from Aunt Laura. He is now very much into NFL football.

Happy Birthday, Zac. We hope all of your wishes come true. You make us laugh every day and we look forward to another year of great memories.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Happy Halloween

The scariest thing about our Halloween is how long it has taken me to post these pictures! It was a great Halloween. Our kids are at a magical stage when they get so excited about the little things in life. I have to admit that I still get excited about Halloween, too.

Zac knew he wanted to be Darth Vader in September. I am not sure where the interest in Stars Wars came from. (Joseph) He had a great time and looked the part. He was a little disappointed that he could not wear his mask or take his lightsaber to school. I kind of wonder if he wanted to be Darth Vader just so he could play with his dad's lightsaber.

Sariah wanted to be a beautician. She had a great time decorating her apron and deciding what she would put in the pockets. Yet when it came time to dress up, she did not want to fill the pockets at all. She is so funny. In preparation for Halloween she did give some pretty fantastic "haircuts" to any willing "customer." (Thanks, Emily).

Brook was a ladybug. She had no say in that decision, but she sure looked cute. She did not really enjoy putting her costume on. However, once she discovered that she got candy out of it, she changed her tune. She would not let go of her bag. After Halloween she added three new words to her vocabulary: "teet" (treat), "cocklet" (chocolate) and "ucker" (sucker).

Ally was a clown. That was a game time decision. She kept changing her mind. The close runners up were Master Tigress (from Kung Fu Panda), a princess, a regular tiger, Superman, Supergirl (Mom's suggestion that she reluctantly considered because she really wanted to be SuperMAN) and a pioneer girl. Maybe if we start narrowing it down now, she might know what she wants to be for next year in time to give me a chance to be prepared. All said, she made a pretty cute clown.

On Halloween night we made the rounds to visit all of the Grandmas, even the adopted ones in our ward. We are lucky to have so many grandmas to love and take care of us. At Grandma Walker's house we got to see Emily and Chris. Emily was a pirate and Chris was an adult.

One of the best parts of our Halloween was a visit from Laura, Donny and Katy. They were here to go to our ward party with us. Katy was the cutest little kitty ever. The visit went way too fast but we loved every minute we got.

Preserving Memories

So Liz, this blog is for you. I have been a slacker and it is time for me to do a little catching up. There has been plenty going on at the Anson house. Nothing too exciting but we always seem busy. We did take a little time out at the beginning of October and went on a hike up Payson canyon with some friends. The kids loved it. Most of the way I carried Brook and held Sariah's hand. I am out of shape, but we made it nonetheless.

I could not resist this picture of Ally on our hike. I don't know why she will never look at the camera. She cracks me up everyday. She and Zac were all over the place and had a great time.

Here we are with our friends Jordyn and Jaxson who invited us to hike with them.

We did spend quite a bit of time this fall canning. We got a great deal on some peaches. We bottled quite a few and then made more jam than I care to remember, but it sure is nice to see it all lined up on the shelves in my basement. And my kids think I am the greatest because I made yummy jam. We also got to do some apples and enjoyed yummy apple crisp with the apples that did not make it into the jars.

We also got to use our stake's dry pack canner at home. The kids had fun helping us seal cans of sugar, oats and rice. Zac asked what we were going to do. I told him we were sealing cans. He looked at me for a minute and then asked, "Why do we want to marry the cans?" What a cutie.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Busy Brook

Brook is EVERYWHERE! She gets up in the morning and just runs from one room to the next to see what treasures she can find. She has a few places she likes to check just to see if we have let our guard down. Places like art boxes (she loves markers), the bathroom (she loves the toilet), the pantry (she loves to help herself to boxes of cereal) the big kids' room (she loves to play with toys that she shouldn't.) When she does slow down, one of her favorite places to land is in a chair at her table reading her book. She is pleased as punch with herself that she can climb into the chair herself. And she loves books, especially books with pictures of babies or animals.

Another favorite activity is to climb into anything she can. On this particular night, Brook and Ally were supposed to be cleaning up the mess you can see in the background. But climbing into the box was much more fun that putting toys in it. My favorite thing to watch is when she tries to climb into something that is not quite big enough. She is at such a fun stage right now. She understands so much of what we say to her and what is going on around her. It delights her to no end when she can communicate with us and we understand what she needs. Her little personality manifests itself more each day. In fact, tonight she finally figured out how to climb on the stool in the bathroom and see into the sink. She just giggled. Then she leaned over the side as best she could and made little spitting noises -- copying what the big kids do when they brush their teeth. It was hilarious. You make my day, Brook.

My Little Fish

Ally loved her swimming lessons with Miss Julene. We found a great little private swimming pool in Spanish Fork. The owner teaches swimming lessons for about the same price as the public pool, but with smaller class sizes and an indoor pool. It worked out very well. Zac also took lessons earlier in the summer. I was very proud of all they learned to do. Sariah is still a little unsure of the water. Maybe we will get her in the pool next summer. (And maybe I will learn how to take red eye off my pictures before I put them on my blog so my kids don't look like vampires. Hang with me, I am such a beginner.)

School Daze

On August 20th, Sariah became an official first grader. She loves it! One of her favorite parts is getting to eat her lunch at school. I would love to be a fly on the wall to see her interact in the lunchroom. She can hardly stand being so grown up and independent. Her teacher is Mrs. Snow and I have been impressed so far. I actually think going to school all day has been harder on me that on Sariah, although she does get pretty tired. The first few days I walked around in a daze. I missed my little shadow. I really did feel lost. I love my Sariah so much and am so proud of all she has accomplished.

Zac started kindergarten a week later on August 27th. He was SOOOOOOOOOOOO ready! If you ask what his favorite part of school is, he reponds without hestitation, "Recess!" Spoken like a veteran student. He has made several new friends. Last night for FHE he was in charge of the activity and he even taught us the game he learned in PE. We all had a blast playing with him. His teacher is Mrs. Comte. That is who Sariah had last year and she is fantastic. I was thrilled. I miss my boy, too. The house is pretty quiet in the mornings. Ally and Brook are getting some good bonding time and it is fun to spend more time with just the two of them. Zac, you are amazing and I see a bright school career ahead of you.

Ally and mom have "preschool" once a week at home. She gets her backpack and brings her imaginary classmates to school. Bless her heart. She would dearly love to go to a "real preschool outside," as she informed me yesterday. I think the outside part means outside of our house. Next year, Pal. For now it is just us and we have fun. Here she is coloring her Humpty Dumpty puzzle. She had a good time "putting Humpty together again." I am thinking we might need preschool more than one morning a week. Without Zac and Sariah around, I have become her playmate of choice. I just can't keep up with who I am supposed to be and what I am supposed to say in all of the pretend games. This morning I did laundry with a superhero cape on. I am pretty sure I was Wonerwoman for most of the time. I think I did an OK job following directions.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Awesome Anson August

Life at our house this month has been busy and exciting. The best news of all is that Joseph finished his Master's Degree. All hail, Master Anson! We are very proud of him. Since I do the blog, I can brag on him all I want. He graduated with a 4.0! What a guy. I am grateful for a husband who works so hard to provide for his family. Joseph walked around for a day or two with a big smile on his face and would stop at random moments and say, "I'm done," almost like he still did not believe it himself. His stress level went way down and we spent the first part of the month playing to celebrate. He whisked me away for an overnight stay at the Anniversary Inn. We got to go to dinner and a show and then stay the night in Juliet's Balcony. It was AMAZING. Later that week, we took a family trip to a cabin in Heber, details to follow.

The kids have stayed busy just having fun. Zac and Ally enjoyed swim lessons. Sariah does not want much to do with swim lessons, but we have convinced her to get in the pool in our backyard. Ally takes to the water like a fish. This summer she has also learned to hop on one foot.

Here is Zac demonstrating his floating skills. He can do anything if he has his goggles on. Another big accomplishment for Zac was learning how to pump himself on the swing. Yesterday we went to the park and he got on the swing by himself, got started, pumped, and slowed down all on his own. He was quite proud of himself. I was proud of him, too.

Sariah just keeps losing teeth. Her last two actually made it under her pillow for the tooth fairy to pick up. She has enjoyed playing with friends and helping Mom.

In all our fun, we have had to dodge construction vehicles. They are doing construction on the road in front of our house. It will be very nice when it is all done. It is just so loud. In fact a big truck just went screeching by. I might take it upon myself to put a little WD40 on the wheels tonight after the workers go home for the day. For the last few days we have had to park our cars around the corner so we can come and go as we need to. One night we snuck out and looked in the big hole and took a few pictures. Even Brook knows what is going on. Today she said, "truck." It seems she becomes more aware everyday.

I think we would all agree that the highlight of summer has been our trip to the cabin. Some friends of ours graciously let us use their cabin for a few days and it was awesome. The kids loved it and keep asking if we can go back. The view was beautiful and there was so much to do. We especially liked wading in the creek nearby. The kids saw a little frog even; it made their day.

We decided to have a little safari theme for our vacation. We made safari hats and binnocculars from toilet paper rolls. We hid stuffed animals upstairs and sent the kids on a "safari." We watched animal movies and read animal stories. We ate such delicacies as ostrich egg sandwiches, gorilla fingers (hot dogs) and lion face pizza.

Brook did not get the whole safari thing, but had fun anyway. She was such a trooper. The day we left she had her 15 month checkup. That is when we found out she had an ear infection and a sore throat. So we got to take her antibiotics with us. She did great. She loved pushing the doll stroller around and riding on a little rocking horse. After we got home, her virus blossomed into a horrible looking rash. It did not bother her and it was not contagious, but it looked awful. We called her spotty body and splotchy. Zac called her a leopard baby. As the rash faded, he declared, "Brook is turning human again!"

We loved just being together. It felt so nice to not have to worry about the time or about being anywhere. We made great memories together and I hope the kids will remember them for a long time.

And no safari would be complete without seeing real animals. We went the long way home by way of Hogle Zoo. It was Brook's first time and she could not get enough. She made monkey noises at the monkeys and growled at about everything else. She was not content to ride in the stroller. She needed us to get her out every time we stopped so that she would not miss anything. They liked the carousel and the train. We stopped for dinner on the way home and then took our very tired and very happy family home. Life just does not get much better.

O, Pioneers!

On the 24th of July, we went to a Pioneer Day activity with Grandma and Grandma Anson. They had the kids dress as pioneers and wear name tags of pioneer ancestors. The kids loved it. I even made Ally's skirt all by myself without a pattern -- a very pioneerish feat for me. Sariah wore a dress that was actually mine when I was a little girl. Zac was Rufus Allen his 4th great grandfather. Rufus was a scout for Brigham Young. Zac liked the part about him protecting the company from Indians. Ally was Caroline Saunders, her 5th great grandmother. Sariah was Polly Child, her 5th great grandmother as well. Both Polly and Caroline walked across the plains. I am grateful for ancestors who kept records so that we can know about their lives. I know I need to be better in that respect.

The Saturday before, we had a pioneer parade at our Stake Center for the primary kids. The kids enjoyed that activity as well. They walked around the block and had a popsicle at the end.

Zac was not entirely impressed. He got tired and hot about halfway through. Good thing we didn't have to walk all day. Joseph gave him a hard time about his hat, calling him a Newsie. What are dads for?

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Into the Woods

Last weekend, we took the kids camping. We went to a fun little campground up Hobble Creek Canyon. The kids talked about it the whole week before. Zac loved the fire and was anxious to help cook stuff in it. What is it about little boys and fire? (What is it about big boys and fire?) He loved looking for bugs and just getting dirty. He was a little disappointed that they did not have better luck fishing in the small creek that ran by the campground.

Sariah's favorite part of our camp out was sleeping in the tent. She was one of the first ones to fall asleep. All three of the big kids did a great job of settling down and going to sleep. They even slept through the night. Sariah did wake up well rested as indicated by the giggles and whispers that woke the rest of us. Brook was a different story. She had a stuffy nose that we are thinking may have come from allergies. She could not get comfortable. Joseph was the hero and took her outside to help her calm down. She finally fell asleep with us and did OK. So much for hauling the play pen all the way up the canyon.

Ally was just Ally -- she took the camp out at full speed, 100% intensity. At about 6:30 she started asking to go to bed. After an hour of whining and crying we finally convinced her that it was too early. She settled down enough to play a round of UNO and then get ready for bed. She was actually very cute was the meltdown ended. She loved "exploring" the campground with Zac.

Grandma and Grandpa Anson came up for dinner and visited with us. Dad even helped Joseph set up the tent so I could keep an eye on everyone. Thanks, Dad! They also cooked a yummy peach cobbler for dessert. It was perfect.

S'mores, anyone? No camp out would be complete without them. The kids had more fun roasting the marshmallows than they did eating them. It was a ton of work for one night of camping, but well worth all the effort. I am so grateful for the opportunities to make fun family memories!

ansons unplugged