Christmas Baking

There are a couple things I intend to do every year at Christmas time. One is sending out Christmas cards (never happens) and the other is doing baking. The baking actually got done this year. The Christmas cards will get put into storage along with the many others that were purchased and never used.

So on the 22nd I started my evening of Christmas baking. Tyaan made time to help me for a little while. (She actually came home from her boyfriends house to help me which gives you an idea of how much she loves me. She doesn't like baking...) I put her in charge of rolling and cutting out sugar cookies because it is one of my least favorite things to do. She made it through a couple cycles before starting to grumble, but managed to finish almost the whole batch before I relieved her to do the last handful. It was nice to have her help with that.



Besides the sugar cookies I made rocky road (the biggest request from my co-workers), chocolate chip cookies, and fudge. I made at least 2 batches of everything (except for sugar cookies because 1 batch is a lot) so it turned in to several hours of being in the kitchen. Tyaan helped me stir the first batch of fudge which is a 2 person job (right Lisa?!) and Jon came and helped me with the 2nd. Tyaan also stuck close by so I could call her in to hold, or stir, or open packages when I needed her to. I also made the icing for the sugar cookies and decorated enough to send to work the next day.

These are the containers I put together for Jon and I each to take to work the next morning. They were really cute (the picture really doesn't do it justice) and I had to take a picture after working for so long on getting everything ready. Jon said his was gone pretty early in the day.


I was also able to put together 5 plates to give to people and took another of these cake pans to my moms house on Christmas eve for us to snack on. It was really enjoyable for me and helped get the Christmas spirit in our home a little bit more. Plus I had lots of goodies to pick at for a few days!

Waterpolo vs Alta Loma

We played Alta Loma on 12/15. Alta Loma has a really good program and therefore a really good team. They outnumbered our girls at least 2 to 1 and he changed them around regularly. Needless to say it wasn't a fun game to watch. I don't know what the final score was (thankfully the scoreboard wasn't working) but I think we had 4 and they had a lot. Tyaan was playing point again and the girls she was playing against on the other team were really really good. One girl in particular was an excellent player and it was obvious she had a lot of experience in that position. Tyaan played well, but was struggling. She was pushing as hard as she could and trying to turn the girl to get past her but you could see the effort. In both of their previous games nobody even came close to taking the ball from Ty and she could turn them and get around them relatively easily, but in this game the ball got taken from her a few times. She did manage to get around her a couple times but she was exhausted by the end of the game. She scored 1 goal and assisted on at least 2 others. She had 1 ejection because the girl did a good job at swimming underneath her to get the call.

Tyaan was frustrated afterwards, but she did really well considering she was playing a new position against a team that obviously has a lot of strength and experience. I'm glad they got to play them because I think they all needed the pressure and hopefully the team will have learned from it and be better prepared when they play teams from their own league.

One more pre-league game on Friday and then she has a few weeks off for Christmas break (from games anyway - I'm sure there will be practice most days) and then the league games begin and we'll see how they do!

Our Christmas Tree

I put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. (Yes, I have a fake one) It's such a pretty tree and I've been enjoying it. The tree skirt is new, because I had people coming over and couldn't find mine in the garage. (of course I've found it now!)

Waterpolo vs Corona

Tyaan's 2nd waterpolo game was on December 3rd against Corona High School. It was a fun game to watch, although we ended up losing. The final score was 12 to 9, but Tyaan scored 7 or 8 of their goals and played great!


Here she is playing point. She's looking for passing and shooting opportunities. There is a 25 second shot clock so she can't take too long to act.

I got a few seconds of video of 2 of her goals. I get too into the game and forget about the camera, so I didn't get much.

Waterpolo Season is Here!

Waterpolo season has officially begun! Tyaan had 2 games so far and is playing exceptionally well. She's running the pool which is really fun for me to watch. She handles the ball well, is strong enough to pressure the other team without getting pushed around herself. She is one of the captains and her coach has put her in point because she handles the ball and the other players better than anyone else on the team. It's not the funnest position to watch her play, but she plays it well and gets to handle the ball on every play. She is passing the ball really well, which isn't easy to do in this game, and is shooting great. She's also playing really smart and in one game got 2 penalties called on their goalie and got 5 meters, which is a penalty shot. She made the first one and almost made the last one.

Lining up for their game against Webb on 12/2

To begin a game, and each quarter, there is a sprint for the ball. Tyaan is usually the one to sprint because she swims so quickly. This is her getting ready for the sprint. (She's #3 this year)


Unfortunately they don't have a lot of experience on the team this year so they lost both games, but the playing time is helping the new girls so hopefully by the time league starts in January they will be playing well enough to do good in league.

A Visit from some OTHER Andersons!

My Uncle Kirk and his family came down to SoCal to go to Disneyland. They stopped at my moms house after driving all night so we got to go visit with them for a little while.

Here is Tyaan and Abbie coloring.

On Monday, December 1st, Tyaan and I went down to Disneyland to hang out with them. Tyaan got away from practice a little early so we got down there around 5:30 or so. We met up with them and got to go with Seth on Astroblasters (one of my faves) while Trena and the other kids were waiting for the parade to start.

Tyaan was excited to have her first caramel apple eaten right from the stick.

Tyaan and Seth helping out Buzz



After the parade we went to the "Honey I shrunk the Audience" show in Tomorrowland. Here's Tyaan showing off her 3D "safety glasses"

Kirk, Seth, and Abbie

The park closed at 8:00 so we weren't there very long, but it was fun to visit with them for a little while. Unfortunately we missed them at my moms house when they were headed home, but hopefully we'll get out to see them again soon.

Disneyland! - We're back!!

I decided to renew my Disneyland season pass this year because I have friends and family coming in to town to go. I had a discount if I renewed them before Thanksgiving so Tyaan and I went on Nov 25th.

Here is Tyaan trying on an adorable apron we found. Almost bought it...


It's Christmas season at Dland so Jack is back. This is a cheesecake we got with our dinner. He was edible too!

Tyaan was texting, as usual. I was trying to get a picture of her but my flash is too slow so I could never get her by surprise.

It was a lot of fun. I had been missing Disneyland for a while and it's great to get to go again. It's hard to get down there as often with Tyaan's practices everyday, but we'll do our best to go as often as possible.

Ward Thanksgiving Dinner

Our ward had a Thanksgiving activity on Nov 22nd. They served a turkey dinner with all the usual sides and desserts. We hadn't planned on going but our friends, the Withers, talked us into it. It was fun to visit with them and it was a pretty good dinner.

Here is Mike, Kaitlyn, & Kathy


Here is Russell and Jon


This is Russ and I cracking up when they told Russell he had to pose with me the same way he had with Jon.


In case you were worried, he didn't...

Trip to Salt Lake

Last week (Nov 16-19th) my mom, Tyaan and I all piled in the car and drove to Utah. The occasion was my Aunt Lisa & Uncle Chris' sealing of their adopted baby (lil Chris) to them in the Salt Lake Temple. They have just moved back to Salt Lake from Dallas (finally!) so it was a great opportunity to see them, the baby, and a lot of family that lives in that area.

We left Sunday afternoon and drove to my Aunt Terry's house in Cedar City. We got there about midnight and it was really cold, but no snow. This is the first time I'd been to this house that their family built themselves. It's a beautiful house and I'm glad we stopped to see it. The next morning we got up and ready and my Aunt Terry joined us for the remainder of the drive to Salt Lake.

Here are a couple pictures taken from her upstairs balcony.





We got to my grandma's house in West Jordan on Monday afternoon. We spent the evening visiting with family which was great. My mom and Aunt Terry spent the night at my Aunt Rolayne's house nearby (where they stayed up most of the night playing Wii from what I hear!) and Ty and I stayed at my grandparents house.

Tuesday was the day of the sealing. It was Chris & Lisa's 4th anniversary which is why they chose that day to do it. They actually ended up in the same sealing room that they were in when they were married. I'm so glad that I was able to attend.

Here are some pictures at the temple after the sealing.






Later that day a lot of the family got together at my Aunt Rolayne's house to celebrate. I got to see many of my cousins that I haven't seen in a while and got to see lots of new babies! There was lots of food, lots of visiting, and video games going on in the basement. Ty and I sat at the piano for a little while which I always enjoy.


Wednesday finally came and we had to head back home. I got up early and went to the Jordan River Temple. I had grown up seeing this temple just up the street from my grandparents house and had never gone there to do a session so I figured it was about time. I really enjoyed it and was glad I made myself get up and go.

We didn't leave until early afternoon so we got to visit some more with family. My Aunt Terry drove with us back to Cedar City and then the 3 of us headed for home. We got home around 12:30 or 1:00 Thursday morning and went straight to bed. Both Ty and I had to be up and at school & work the next morning.


It was such a fun trip. It's a long drive, but I'm so glad I went. I love my family and don't get to see them as often as I'd like to. It's also nice to get to spend time with my mom and Tyaan. I couldn't have asked for better friends to travel with.

Cross Country Time Trial

On November 12th Tyaan's cross country coach held a time trial for Tyaan. She had been running really well in spite of an injury and he wanted her to have one last chance to get her letter on their home course.


She got her leg wrapped and I prayed that she'd make it through one more run without the fracture becoming a break. She was really nervous because she knew it was her last chance to beat the time.

Her coach set up the course and had another girl run with her to help her set her pace. She started really well and hit the first mile mark at about 7 minutes. She needed to finish the 2nd mile in less than 15 to make her time. The closest she came to her letter time previous to this day was 22:45 (1 minute over) and she had a split of 15:30 on the 2nd mile that run.

She hit the 2nd mile at about 14:50 which was great, but she had to keep her pace up to finish in time. It looked like she slowed a little bit early on the 3rd mile so her coach kept yelling encouragements and telling her to hurry up. You could see her pace pick up when he told her to, so it was really helpful to have him pushing her.



She was coming around the last field near the end of the 3 mile course and had a minute left before going over the time limit to letter. I watched the stopwatch count away her time and I knew it was going to be close. I was so worried she was just going to miss it and I knew she would be SO disappointed. She came around the last corner with about 20 seconds left and ran as hard as she could. She crossed the finish line with a time of 21:39, just 6 seconds under the varsity letter time.

It was a stressful 20 minutes for me, but she pulled it off! She ran really really well and now will be an athlete with varsity letters in 3 different sports. Her leg was sore afterward, and she was exhausted (and sick) but I'm very happy that she'll get rewarded for it. And now we can let her leg heal because she started water polo practice in the pool the next day.

Homecoming

Tyaan's homecoming dance was on November 8th. It was a busy day, but she was beautiful all dressed up. We spent a lot of time shopping for the dress and shoes but seeing how pretty she was when it all went together was worth every minute. She went with Wade, who is a friend from school.

Here are her pictures we had taken.



These were some pictures I took when they met at Wade's house before heading out for the night.


It sounds like they had a good time. The dance was held at the Ontario Convention Center, which is where it was held last year as well. They went to dinner before the dance, and afterwards came to our house to watch a movie. It's hard to believe her last year of high school is going by so quickly!

Cross Country League Finals

Tyaan had cross country league finals on 11/6. It was on the Mt. SAC course which is a difficult one.

Tyaan had been running with pain in her shins and we'd been treating her for shin splints. While getting it wrapped at school one day the trainer noticed it was sensitive to the touch and told her that it was probably a stress fracture rather than a shin splint. We took her to the doctor and got x-rays and sure enough she's got a stress fracture. Every time she ran on it there was a risk of it becoming a break. She wasn't practicing on it and was doing extra swimming to get the work out in without having to actually run on it. She wanted to run in league finals so she got it wrapped and we hoped for the best.

We were still hoping she'd pull off her letter time even though it was a lot to ask of her running injured on this tough course. She ran really well getting a time of 23:06. It wasn't a letter time, but it was a great time for her on this course and she finished 3rd on her team.




Unfortunately their team didn't finish high enough to qualify for CIF this year, but Tyaan really had a good season in spite of being sick, and then being injured. Her coach was happy with her run for finals and set up a time trial on their home course just for her so she could try for her letter. It was really great of him to do for her (she had missed the previous time trial since she wasn't practicing with the team every day) and he probably wouldn't have if she hadn't run so well this day. And the best news is she didn't leave with a broken leg!

Cross Country Photos

Here are Tyaan's cross country pictures for the 2008 season.

Halloween Relay

My work always has a Halloween activity where they give out prizes for costumes and pumpkin carving and guessing how many candies are in a jar etc. This year they put together a relay race for teams of 4 and I got recruited to be on a team...

First there was a list of Halloween movie titles that had to be unscrambled. I was chosen to do this part of the race. I flew through this list! It was pretty easy, but I still beat everyone else by quite a bit of time.



The second leg of the relay was juggling. A person had to juggle while walking in and out of the cones.

The third leg was a 3-legged race. They had to tie their legs together and run through the cones.

And finally the fourth, and last, leg was a race to eat 4 Twizzlers. I got to do this as well. It didn't sound so bad, although I don't particularly like Twizzlers, but they turned out to be the big multi-colored ones that taste nasty! We had to eat 4 of them without using our hands. It's harder than it sounds. It took several minutes, and as you can see there was a crowd watching. It was fun though, and our team won 1st place!


The best part is each of us won $100 for finishing first. We knew we were competing for $100 but all thought it was for the team so we'd each get $25. But all 4 of us got $100. Not bad for an afternoon break! I still don't like Twizzlers though.