My mom

In honor of mothers day, I thought I would write about my amazing mom. She first of all had 6 children, and was an amazing mom. She ran a business with my dad and still does. She decided to go back to school, while running that business and having a ridiculously busy life. She graduated magna cum laude. That right there should tell you how organized, and smart she is. She would come home and study, while the grandkids and kids were occupying her house. She still managed to get all of her things done. She also ran a 188 mile ragnar race soon after getting done with her breast cancer stuff. She did pretty good. She received bad news about 6 1/2 years. She went in for a routine breast and mammogram visit and got the news that nobody would want to get. She had breast cancer and would need sugery to remove the lump and have several rounds of chemo therapy as well as radiation. Her six year mark was last november! WAHOOOOOOO. She has been 6 1/2 years free of that terrible disease. She loves my dad endlessly and would do anything for her children and grandchildren. She loves her family, extended and her own.
I learned from her these things: Get out of bed early, exercise, and do your hair and makeup, even when you feel like crap!!! I always do my hair and makeup and I have always exercised. She also taught me that education is very important. I am now going back to school because of her amazing example. If she can do it with her busy life, so can I! She taught me to have a testimony of the church and to always read your scriptures. We read as a family EVERY monring. She would read to me and my siblings out of the book of mormon picture books. We would all be huddled around her. Her sittting on the floor of the family room leaned up against the couch, so that everyone could look at the pictures. I think she thought that one through, or she just didn't want to hear all of us nuggets fighting!!! She has taught me something that I absolutely love! COOKING!! She is an amazing cook. When I cook something I always ask my kids, "does it taste like nonni's?" I have had a couple of "no's", but when I get the yes's, VICTORY!!!! WAhooooo, it tastes like moms. I have never had something yucky out of her kitchen. She encouraged me to try out for all sports. To this day, I love sports! Love playing them. I have now encouraged my kids to do the sport thing! She came to all my volleyball games, basketball, softball, soccer and everything between that. She taught me how to drive (i'm sorry mom!). Probably not an easy task. She taught me how to work and to work hard and get it done right the first time. She taught me to love the lord and the gospel. She was in the delivery room for all of the births of my babies, coaching me along, especially when I tried natural child birth. She kept telling me to keep going, it was almost over. At the moment I was thinking she was a liar pants!!! She helped me and stayed with me after each baby was born. If she hadn't I would have just sat crying! She got up in the middle of the night with me when I had cameron. She made fun of me when I was a new mom for having cameron sleeping right next to me and the baby monitor right by me also. I actually laugh about that now, that is why I put that on here. She helped me to see how funny it was! She has helped me out tremedously over the passed few years with all of my health issues. She has gone with me to all of my epideral appointments. She was there when I was having all of my kidney episodes. I am so thankful for her. I don't know what I would do without her. She has helped me tremendously thoughout my years as a mom and growing up.
My mom is amazing and I love her lots. I am thankful for her and her great example! Thankyou mom for all that you do, and who you are! You are amazing!

Grandpa Anderson

This blog is all about my wonderful Grandpa Anderson. He was the worlds greatest grandpa, to me anyways.
He passed away, Friday March 11, 2011 at 6:25 p.m. California time. He was almost 92 years old, and from what I understand he DID NOT WANT TO TURN 92!! My mom and sister, Jodi were able to be there as well as my grandma, aunt Kym and Aunt Dawn. He was surrounded by the love of family, which he loved! He loved all of his grandchildren and we all loved him very much. He was a source of knowledge and wisdom to me. I had the wonderful experience of visiting often. Every opportunity I had to talk with my grandpa, I did. I would ask him about when he was a kid and his family and work and everything in between. He had story after story to tell and they were all interesting! He lost his own dad at the age of 17 and had to start working to help bring in money for his family. There was 10 of them. He was also in the navy as a young 20 year old.
My grandpa gave the best hugs in the WORLD! You have not been hugged until you had a hug from him. He would hug like it was his last. He would squeeze the life out of you and it wasn't on purpose, that is just how he hugged. It was the best hug I have ever had and in that hug I knew I was loved by my wonderful, amazing grandpa!!! Everyone that knew him has only ever had wonderful things to say about him.
Here are a few of the wonderful memories I have of my amazing grandpa.
He loved roller coasters. Our family, a few years ago went to Knotts Berry Farm with grandma and grandpa and my sister-in-law, Lorrie and her family. I wanted to ride the "excellerator". It went 200 ft. in the air at about 90 miles an hour. Pretty fast. I wasn't sure I could do it. I was quite nervous. So I asked Anthony to go with me, He said "NO!!!" My grandpa said, "I will go on that ride if Anthony goes on the super scream". So of course I said, "yes". I wanted Anthony to ride a scarey ride. I really didn't think he, grandpa, would go. So as we are walking up to the ride, my heart was POUNDING, my hands were very sweaty and shaking, my knees were knocking. I turned to my grandpa and told him all these things, because of course he was as calm and as cool as a cat, so I thought! He turns to me and says, "I think I may have a heart attack on this one, don't tell grandma!" Oh my gosh, I thought I was going to die right there. I was looking for some comfort not him telling me he was as scared as me! So, we did it! We both loved it, it was an awesome ride. He even said, "THAT WAS FUN, Lets do it again!". I told him I was good. He then rode on the super scream with anthony, right after the ride with me. That one went straight in the air and then drops you. SCAREY!!! He loved the thrill of things. He was an adrenaline junky. Perhaps that is where I get my need to ride roller coasters from! I will blame it on him.
I remember as a little girl visiting my grandparents and my grandpa would scare the crud out of me. He had this snort that sounded terrifying as a little girl. He would chase me around on his hands and knees snorting at me, I would run and scream trying to get away from him. Funny, I probably wasn't little I was probably around 12! just kidding! He would get such a kick out of scaring me.
My kids loved watching him do the quarter trick. He would stick a quarter in his hands and pretend to put it in his ear and shake it through. He had false teeth that he would loosen up in his mouth to make the rattle, or make my kids think it was the quarter trying to get through his head. Cameron just figured out how he did this trick this passed christmas when we were there. Grandpa did that trick for cameron one last time.
My grandpa loved playing. It was like having another kid in the house. He would play on the floor with my kids and of course when they whipped out the construction stuff he had to be outfitted in it! He would mess with Cameron and spencer. When they made him mad he would pop them with his cane. As long as they kept laughing he was fine still teasing them. He loved playing as a kid. He was a 90 year old kid!
We had an amazing christmas with grandpa. It was his last one and I am so thankful we were able to spend it with him. I had a strong feeling that we needed to go do that this passed christmas. We were able to spend the last 2 christmas's with him. What an awesome memory I will have, as well as my kids.
My grandpa was one of the strongest men I know. He was ripped!! My boys would comment all the time how ripped grandpa was. They were amazed at how muscular he was and even as a 90 year old man, he was strong!!! In my eyes he could do anything!!!
He was a carpenter by trade. Everything he touched, he made beautiful! He had beautiful hands, which in turn made some of the most beautiful things I have seen. He had such a talent for building and building to perfection.
His favorite past time was napping. He loved taking naps. Every chance he got, he was snoring his head off. I would be in a conversation with him one minute and the next he was sleeping. He had a knack for just falling asleep. I think he took about 20 naps a day. Just 10 minute little things here and there. I think that is where I get my love for napping from.
He and I shared a loved for rootbeer, well we called it rootbeer, it was actually cherry pepsi! I would only drink it when I went to visit grandpa. It tasted different at grandpas house. It tasted better, more yummy! I remember a year ago when he was in the hospital they wouldn't let him have anything but water, and he was not happy about that. I came in the room and he told me to come closer, he kinda whispered to me that he wanted me to go get him a rootbeer (cherry pepsi). He said "sneak it in!". I didn't. I think grandma overheard that conversation. She put the kabosh on that little plan!
He called my payton, his buddy. Payton has struggled for a while with various things and it made him feel so loved and so good that grandpa called him his buddy! Everytime we visited him, grandpa would say "there's my buddy, I missed you!" He would give him a big hug and make sure Payton knew he loved him. I greatly appreciated that. When I was called about his passing, I knew I would have a hard time telling Payton that his buddy died. When Payton heard the news he started crying and said, "mom now I don't have a buddy, now what am I going to do, my buddy is gone, I don't have a buddy anymore!"
I love my grandpa more than anything! They just don't make grandpa's like that anymore. He was the best of the best. He was one of a kind in everyway and because of him I have my mom! She inherited his beautiful blue eyes, something I wished I had inherited. They both have the bluest eyes, so pretty. My grandpas eyes were so comforting to me. Those baby blues were just gorgeous!!!
I am so thankful to have been so blessed in my life to have had such a wonderful grandpa like my grandpa. He has blessed my little family so much and has blessed each one of their lives. They will always remember him with great fondness and admiration. What a great opportunity to have had such an amazing man in my life for the passed 38 years.
I LOVE YOU GRANDPA! I will miss you everyday!

I started school! wahooooo

January 31st I started cosmetology school. I was quite excited. The day didn't start off that great. I had to drive to Tucson to pick up my birth certificate, so I got up at 4 and headed to Tucson. I had to have it in order to start school and they didn't let me know that until I got a call from the director on saturday (2 days before i was starting). Anyways, so I got to school just a touch late (10:00). It was a lot to take in for the first day of school. I hadn't been to school in 17 years for starters. I wasn't nervous, surprisingly, I was overwhelmed and excited. We got to open our kits, which consisted of everything I will ever need for school and then some. So fun!! I was salavating over all the stuff I got. I brought it home and mady wanted to see everything, including the manequins! she thought they were cool.
The next day we started cutting hair on the manequins. I was shocked, really. I said to the instructor, "are you serious, we are gonna cut hair already!" It was a fun week but so much to take in. The following Friday we had our first test on a live model. I passed with 100%. I actually passed my written test also with just 1 wrong! Not so bad. I am the fastest in class, and not on purpose. The other students are always trying to beat me. I really don't like it. I don't like feeling that I am in a race all the time. My instructor said to me, "it's helping the other students work faster!" Whatever! My instructor, Shonna, paid me a nice compliment. She said "girl you are fast and efficient!" That's good in the cosmetology world.
I was talked into changing the color of my hair. I swore I wouldn't do that, but you can all see how well that swearing worked huh! It has been colored to a Red/Brown. I am starting to like it, now that I finally got my makeup figured out. Change is good right. I just keep telling myself that, and my family!
I am one of the older students going and one of 3 L.D.S students. I feel like the mom of the class, but I am loving going to school. I have wanted to do this since I started attending Ricks college, a long time ago. It is a little crazy at my house and we are still trying to get our schedules down, but I am having so much fun. I have already cut Mady's hair, cut, colored and styled my moms, and colored my sister, Jodi, hair. It's been kinda fun! Loving it for now!

payton turned 12!!!!!

Payton turned the big 12 on Thursday. He was soooo excited. He has been wanting this birthday to come so that he could pass the sacrament. I don't think he really understands the importance of passing, but I think in time, like all young men they start to understand the reverence and importance of it.
On my kids birthdays they get to go out to lunch with mom. I am glad that they still think it's a treat to eat lunch with mom. Payton picked Filibertos. It's a mexican food restaurant here that it sooooooo yummy! He loves steak, and he loves tacos. So what better combination than to add the two together and have carne asada tacos!!! He was in heaven. He also got to pick dinner that night which was spaghetti. We also had nonni and poppi, Aunt Jodi, and Grandpa Jeffers come to our house for dinner on Sunday. They went to church to be there to see Payton receive the priesthood and then afterwards came back home and had dinner and cake. This year Payton picked to have a giant Chocolate Chip cookie for his cake. We also have these skillets called, Skookie skillets. You put the cookie dough in these skillets and cook them. We like to put vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of fudge sauce on top as soon as they come out of the oven. It's quite a treat to have.
Payton got to go on his first campout this past weekend. Because he now get's to go on all the campouts, we sorta thought it would be a good idea to get him a backpack for his birthdays. He was quite excited to get his own. Anthony went with him on his first campout which was a snow campout. It's the campout that all the boys look forward to. They went to strawberry and camped in the snow. Now for me that doesn't exactly sound fun, but for Payton it was a blast. They went sledding the next morning and just had a lot of "boy" fun!!! He was quite a happy boy.
I am thankful for Payton. He has brought laughter and happiness to our family. Everyday is something new with him. I am glad that I get to be his mom. We are both learning a lot about each other. I love him lots and I am thankful that he chose to come to our family.
Love you payt! Happy Birthday little buddy!!

New Years

We had a great New Years with some good friends of ours, the Hewards. Cameron and their son Jarren are actually the ones who started the "family being friends" thing. Great family! They have 3 boys the same ages as our 3 oldest. We had them over for dinner, games and fun! We had decided that it would be fun to have a game of dodgeball out at the tennis courts. We happen to live a few steps away from the courts. It was perfect for dodgeball. I bought the balls and I am so glad that the balls I bought were nerf type. Otherwise there would have been a few of us walking away with some serious bruising. I have to say that my team won!!! We played 4 games, and might I add it was quite cold! Anyways, we split the teams up evenly and went for it. My team won the last game. It was me and Camerons friend Deaven left. He and I were hucking balls at each other and I won by barely hitting the bottom of his shoe. It was so much fun. I paid for it later, but it was fun and well worth it. We came in and played nerts and ate more. Then at that certain hour we went outside and started lighting the firworks! That was fun!!! Although me, Rachel and Mady only made it about 5 minutes and had to come in, but it was great. It was quite the boy thing!!!
Such a great time with good friends! Thankyou Hewards for a great New Years Eve!!!
Kyle took pictures and I will have to post them when I get them. He got a video of me falling and Cameron dragging me off the court. NOT FUNNY!!! I will probably not post that. There is also another one of me stuffing the balls up my shirt. Hey a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!!! I couldn't let them get the balls and most of my teammates were out! Had to put them somewhere.

What a fantastic christmas

This Christmas was such a fantastic, great Christmas. We went to California for 8 days and it was great! We were supposed to leave Monday morning but changed our plans and left Sunday evening. We got there about 11:00 at night. By the way it was raining like crazy for the last 2 hours of the drive. There were accidents all along the highway. Since I was the driver, I was praying that I would not get into one as well. It was crazy driving! Anyways. My brother and his wonderful wife Sassafrass (cassie) had already been there and so I was quite anxious to get there and be with them. They live in Washington state and we don't get to see them that much. The fun part about leaving Sunday night is that nobody was expecting us. So I made a couple random calls just to make sure they were still up, so that we didn't have to get anybody out of bed upon our arrival. We did lots of hanging out and relaxing. The cousins had a blast. And the best part was that they all got along and there was no fighting, and we, the adults didn't hear any of them the entire week. Grma and Grpa did an amazing addition onto their house. They now have this huge room upstairs for about 20 people to sleep in. It was great! All the kids and Sass and Aaron (my brother) slept in that room. They were good sports to do that. It didn't sound fun to me sleeping with 10 kids, but they did it! Friday my parents and sister cocoa (jodi) arrived for the weekend. That was great also. Nonni and poppy were there and Great Grma and Grpa. It was such a great time. Christmas was wonderful. Although it took forever to open presents. Our family tradition is to let the youngest open a present first and then we go to oldest. We keep doing this until everyone is done unwrapping presents. So you could imagine with 20 people how long it took. Christmas morning was eventful with Cocoa stabbing herself in the leg with my Aaron's new knife. She was trying to help Cody open a present (you know the wrapping that nobody can get through!) and the knife slipped and made a clean slit through her leg. I might add it was the leg that she had recently had knee surgery on and grueling physical therapy. My dad took her to the emergency room while the rest of us opened presents. We had quite a busy house but such a fun one! Twenty people and I thought it would be crazy, but it wasn't at all. It was an absolutely wonderful christmas that I will remember and my children for a very long time.
I don't have pictures yet. When I get them loaded I will put them on here.

Mady makes me laugh

AAron got new glasses and so yesterday we had to go pick them up. The whole time we were at the eye Dr.'s Mady is trying sooooo hard to convince me that she needs glasses. Of course I kept telling her she doesn't need them. The girl has perfect vision! So this morning as I am telling Aaron he looks so cute in his glasses, mady comes over to tell a story. She starts by using her hands and all of her body to describe this. This is her "Mom, I think that I need glasses, I'm serious! At school I closed my eye like this and I couldn't see out of it. Then I did the other eye and the same thing. Serious mom! I couldn't see of that one either! I need glasses mom. I am being so serious!" I looked at her like, ARE YOU SERIOUS GIRLFRIEND! Then I started laughing my head off. She didn't like that too much. I let her know again that she was NOT getting glasses! I wonder what story she will come home with today! Guaranteed it will make me laugh!!!!