Back in October when Andersen's parents came to visit, I got to do a little shopping with his Mom. And she picked out this sweet little dress for Waverly to wear for Christmas and I have been waiting till she can fit into it. She just looked so cute in it, of course I had to take pictures. Thank you Nana and Papa for the Christmas dress!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Nana and Papa's Christmas Dress
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Monday, December 21, 2009
Will, Christy, and Opryland
This last weekend we were able to go and visit Will and Christy and their girls in Tennessee this last weekend. It was a great trip and the boys love getting together with their cousins, probably because of all the unusual girl's stuff they get to play with while we're there :0) This was some kind of store they had set up, complete with shopping cart.
It was an incredible place and all decorated for Christmas. Here we are standing by the side of the river that goes throughout the "Delta" and that's the actual hotel in the background.
This was the life sized nativity in front of the hotel. And you can see the trees in the background completely strung from top to bottom in white lights. These trees lined the drive up to the hotel. I still cannot even fathom how the wound lights around every single little branch!
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Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Sugar Cookies
This is one of my favorite memories of growing up, making sugar cookies with my Mom. But it is extremely time consuming so about once a year I talk myself into making them. The boys were super excited when Saturday I decided that I felt like baking cookies. We all had a great time decorating the cookies and then taking them to our neighbors.
And then we spent all of Sunday in a sugar coma.
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Sunday, December 6, 2009
Packages Arrive!
This is mostly for my parents so they can see how excited the boys got when their Christmas packages arrived. I had to break up the first video into two parts and the last video is of the next day after we got the train all set up under the Christmas tree. Thanks Dad and Mom!
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10:56 PM
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Saturday, December 5, 2009
Dancing With Waverly
The other day, after Porter and Campbell got home from school I caught Porter NOT doing his homework. Instead he was "dancing" with his little sister. I had been attracted by the sound of Waverly giggling and went in to see what had her laughing and there was Porter holding her up by her hands and twisting her side to side, signing some little diddy. I couldn't resist, I had to take pictures.
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Friday, December 4, 2009
Christmas Tree Outing '09
One of our traditions each year is to go out the day after Thanksgiving (or some time that weekend) and get our Christmas tree. Sometimes we just go to Home Depot and pick out a tree, but our best trees have always been the ones that we've cut down ourselves. And since we had Will and Christy with us we decided to make it a day outing. Luckily there was a tree farm just down the road from us, AND over the river and through the woods. It was a beautiful day so it turned out even better than we had expected.
First, to get a across the river we had to take a ferry. This ferry claims to be the oldest working ferry in the United States and I believe it. Here is everyone watching a load of cars coming across. This thing was even paddle powered!

The kids loved being able to get out of the cars and by fortunate luck no one fell in. I think we were all more aware after loosing Mason the day before ;0)
Oh, and no farm is complete without a huge dirt pile to climb!
This picture cracks me up because it looks like Coolidge just caught a whiff of ...
They even found Santa, although he looked pretty busy. As hard as they tried to pull him out to tell him what they wanted for Christmas, he just wouldn't budge.
Keep pulling Porter!
Then finally, success! We found the perfect tree, but it was a little tricky cutting it down, even though there were plenty of helpers.
And poor Will even got crushed in the process. He thought the tree was going to fall the other direction.
Oh, Christmas tree! Oh, Christmas tree!
It was a great day and we were glad that Will and Christy and kids where there to help us pick out this year's Christmas tree. We think it's our best one yet! Our tallest tree at 9 feet. And it only cost us $60. We are definitely coming back here next year. Thanks guys!
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9:55 PM
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Thursday, December 3, 2009
Black Friday
The day after Thanksgiving we had the brilliant idea of going to the Mall to check out the deals. This is a tradition in MY family and I have pretty fond memories of this tradition, which means that for me to have any memories of it I was probably a lot older than my kids are currently. Taking 7 kids under the age of 8yrs to the Mall on Black Friday is not a good idea. Fortunately there is a small play area in the Mall where we were able to corral them all and I think they were having a pretty good time. At least Coolidge looks like he was having fun.
Andersen said that when he showed up at the shop, Mason was in the manager's office, eating a Subway sandwich, coloring in a coloring book with some one's coat wrapped around him, as happy as can be. The couple that had found Mason made sure to glare at Andersen until they left. Andersen informed me that the next time we loose someone (which I hope never happens again) that I get to go because he looked like a complete idiot when the officer started filling out his report and Andersen couldn't even tell him when all the kids' birthdays were. Then the officer told him that someone from child services MIGHT come out to our house to follow up on the report.
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Monday, November 30, 2009
Thanksgiving '09
This year we were able to spend Thanksgiving with Will and Christy. It is wonderful to have some family close by.
Even though we at at 2pm I think everyone was tired of waiting. Luckily we had the rolls ready first ;o) Here are Campbell, Kaylee Porter, Will, Mason and Cambri patiently waiting.
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Saturday, November 7, 2009
We Start 'Em While They're Young
I've been trying to teach Waverly that the way to her Daddy's heart is BYU Football!
Thank you Tiff for helping us indoctrinate our children. Love the hair band!
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Thursday, November 5, 2009
My First Half-Marathon!
As most of you may know, I am a life-long runner. I think it all started in elementary school where I prided myself on being at least as fast, if not faster, than the boys in my class. I just loved to run! So naturally I ran Cross Country and Track in high school and even in college. Many of my summer Saturday work-outs at Ricks (now BYU-Idaho) included 2 hr. runs where we could easily get in 13 miles, but on Halloween morning I finally ran my first official half-marathon (13.1 miles). Luckily, I was able to train with this amazing group of ladies from my ward. I don't think I would have kept with the training if it weren't for them. We started training about 3 weeks after Waverly was born, but they all made running fun again!
The race was in Eaton, OH so we all drove up the day before and stayed in a hotel. Here we all are, ready to run. From left to right, Lora, Angela B., Angela N., Me, Ashlee, and Nancy.
Nothing like a little Pepto Bismol to calm the pre-race jitters!

It was a really cold and WINDY day. In fact, my one mile that was completely into the wind was a whole minute slower than any of my other miles, even my last mile.
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