Let's be honest...

I am a horrible blogger! I have cute kids, lots of stories and family that would love more posts, but somehow spending hours on the computer reading other blogs, watching hulu, pinterest, etc is more motivating than doing my own blogging. We don't have a TV (which I love!) but when I want to multi-task and watch something mindless and blog, it can't be done, so mindless usually wins. Maybe I need to set a weekly blogging date for myself, instead of always thinking I will get around to it? Not setting any resolutions to blog more in 2012, but here's to hoping to! :)

Surprise: It's a GIRL!!!!!!!!!!

We are thrilled to announce the birth of Eleanor "Ellie" Brooks Anderson

11/20/2011 8:59am 6pds 11oz 19.5in

Eleanor is French and means Bright, Shining One

Brooks has been a female name for seven direct, generations on Brooks' side of the family, and now Ellie makes eight!

Daddy picked Ellie's name in the summer of 2009 and never wavered from it. So, no Eleanor is not a family name, just a name we loved:)

She has an incredibly peaceful spirit about her and already is starting to wrap her Daddy around her little finger ;)

Her birth didn't exactly go as we had envisioned and prayed for...But we don't regret trying to have a homebirth and VBAC. We are so thankful for the patience and guidance of our midwife and doula, during the 28+ hrs. they were by my side helping me labor and we will be forever grateful for the amazing care and team of doctor's and nurses that helped us at UCLA. There was so much peace and joy that filled the OR as we waited for her to be born and find out who I had been carrying for 9 months.

We have been enjoying one another and getting to soak in this newest member to our family. Asher hates hearing her cry and loves to give his Ellie hugs all the time. If I can think of anything outside of her and Asher, I promise to post more pictures....

All Tuckered Out...

This is what a hard day of running errands with Mommy will do to a kid :)

Belly Photos

In the words of Shakespeare I am most definitely "like a sail full of wind" and have been for a while now. Having a baby belly is such a funny experience. In the commissary just a couple days ago, one of the checkout women patted her belly, pointed at me and said "getting big" which I laughed at and agreed. I then walked across the parking lot to Starbucks and was told I barely look pregnant! People's perspectives are so interesting. Here are some growing pictures from the last few months...I honestly like being pregnant once I am past the morning sickness. I am a little anxious to see how big I get though, considering I have almost 10wks left and am quickly outgrowing clothes!

18wks. It's hard to believe I felt big then!

24wks...I love Asher's grumpy face in this picture

26wks

28wks

30wks...I didn't know there was such a thing as the 3rd trimester pop since my pregnancy with Asher was not exactly normal. I have definitely experienced it with this baby though!

With 500 of our closest friends...

That is how Andrew describes our camping experience last weekend. You would think California would be an easy place to find beautiful, peaceful camping....But you would be oh so wrong! For Labor Day weekend Andrew, Asher and I went camping down south near San Diego. Friday night we camped at Doheny State Park otherwise known as Dana Point. Even being 28wks pregnant I was excited to be camping and had very high hopes for this experience. It is basically in Laguna Beach (beautiful area) and it is the #1 most popular camping ground in CA! We had booked this one night back on March 1st. (Talk about having to plan in advance. It fills up 6mnths out in a few hours!)

See the tents through the "trees"? There were also other people about 10 ft directly behind and in front of Andrew.

So much for high expectations....The beach was peaceful and big, but seemed literally dirty. Not with trash, but actual dirt. Our site was mixed in with RV's and tents and was no wider than 2 car widths. They charged for the showers and you only got 2.5min. (remember CA is a bankrupt state!) We had the party RV across from us blasting Eminem until I have no idea what time and to go along with that, trains rolled on bye, about 500 ft. away every few hours for the WHOLE night! My boys did manage to get sleep, but between having to use the bathroom every few hours, the music, barking dogs and the trains...I did not sleep so well!

View to the Left...RV central....Our tent is just at the right corner of this picture

View to the Right....Ours is the orange Marmot tent...Talk about close quarters!

Saturday evening we changed spots to another beach spot a bit more south of where we had been the night before. This time we were camping on a Marine Base, so Andy had high expectations for the kind of people we would encounter (no late night music blaring, respectful pet owners, etc) and the facilities. This spot was even worse than the night before. Two rows backed up to each other, so we were literally about 2 ft from other people's tents. A young teen girls soccer team had several spots near us and I had to get up at 11:30pm to tell them to quiet down as they stood 3 ft from our tent, talking, laughing, yelling and the parents all sat around the fire ring drinking, adding to the noise!

Andrew making breakfast before we got the heck out of there! So much fun to make camping food while you stand in a parking spot...(insert sarcasm)

The bathrooms were trashed, the showers were free, but there was no hot water. The RV across from us, brought out a plasma TV and started a movie at 9pm! Who goes camping and brings vacuum cleaners, plasmas, and full on, huge BBQ grills among other things?!?!?! The best part was the 6 MASSIVE tanks that rolled through the site, about 10 ft from our tent at 6AM ON A SUNDAY OF A HOLIDAY WEEKEND!!!! Andrew and I were so exhausted and disappointed, we made breakfast and then literally threw everything in the car without folding stuff up and drove home. I will say that thankfully Asher had a great time getting to play in the sand, so for him, camping was a success.

Andrew is determined to find some place worthy of being called camping, but I have my doubts...Oh, Colorado how we miss you!