All the Things Between

We've been pretty scanty at the Andersen home with posting things. And it's time to fix that. So here we go. Everything that's happened at the Andersen home between now and several months ago. (Hold on to your britches--this is going to be a doozy!)

We'll start at Halloween. Santa and Buddy the Elf came to visit us on Halloween.



Chelsey spent a lot of time last semester trying to put together our Europe scrapbook. And no, she's still not finished. But she's made lots of progress!



Dallin is just as weird as he was before. He's not growing out of anything. He's going to make it. He's a true Andersen (and he's staying that way).



Ella was blessed at the William's home. Still can't believe that little person belongs to Brandon and Brittany.



She wasn't stoked about the massive dress and being passed around to everybody. In self-defense, she decided to sleep through the whole thing.



Chels and I made a gingerbread house with Megan Daniel. Yup, Seantylle being in Virginia is no reason for us to stop having fun together.



Mom didn't want to help with the house, but she liked making sexy faces in the kitchen. Megan D. couldn't help herself. She had to capture this one.



Jeff and Jessica got Graham a truck for Christmas. I was supposed to email this picture to the Bodens. And I didn't. But it's here now!



Jessica and I celebrated being 44 together. You never get too old to lick the frosting off the candles.



December was a rough month at the Andersen home. Mom and Chelsey taught Relief Society and Dallin spoke in Priesthood Correlation one Sunday and two Sundays later I taught Relief Society and Dad was the last speaker on the Christmas program. Chels and I wanted to listen ot mom teach, but we couldn't go cause Chelsey needed to get ready for her lesson. So we left her a note and some cookies instead. And yes, we did try one. :)



We watched a show on organized your house during Christmas Break (it was on Oprah, I think) and Dallin decided it was about time we started cleaning up our house. He decided to start with the den. Apparently, if your going to do something, you might as well start with the hardest part and work your way out. For the first time in years, the back of the closet in the den is clearly visible. He thought such and important moment in the Andersen home deserved to be documented. And here it is.



Admittedly, Dallin's not the only one that's been organized. Mom decided it was high-time her cookbooks were actually accesible and usable. This is what our cookbook cupboard looks like now. Much better.



Mom's been purchasing some new tupperware. Tupperware that she loves. And Dallin thought it would be a good time to go through our old tupperware to make room for the new. And here it is. This is maybe three-fourths of the tupperware we had that actually had lids. We got rid of several mis-matched containers and lids. It was a good day.



And finally, we're up to last Sunday. We celebrated Geri's birthday on Sunday. And what did we have? Thanksgiving, of course. Geri wanted a full turkey dinner, and sweet Mom did it for her. Happy Birthday Geri.



Ella was not as happy with Geri's birthday dinner as Geri was. She's getting really annoyed with all these big people eating food and not sharing with her. She's ready for the real stuff. But . . . she didn't get any. So she sat in her walker and sucked her fist. She looked adorable, even when she was slightly annoyed.



Thanksgiving leftovers--in January. Wahoo!

My Day with Dad

Dad has begun a new tradition. The first Saturday of the month we go see a family movie. The rest of the Saturdays he spends with one of his kids still at home. Today was my day. We did a lot of good things. We washed my car and vacuumed it out, hit Borders for warm Apple Spice drink, and we fixed a couple of things in my room.


Notice the gap? Yup, it's about four inches big and looks stupid.


Voila! No gap. With a couple of awesome power tools and about 20 minutes the problem disappears.


Picture on my night stand. I've had this particular lace piano since Chels and Mom went to Italy years and years and years ago. It has never been hung on my wall.


Picture on my wall. Doesn't it look good? I'm so glad my piano finally has a place in my room. I've always loved the grouping of standing pieces with hanging pieces to create a comprehensive design or art piece. And I love the juxtaposition here. I have a standing clock, an item generally found on the wall. And I have a framed piano on my wall, and item that usually has all three legs firmly on the ground.

Just a Friendly Reminder

As we all know, reading is my passion. In fact, the only thing I'm more passionate about than reading is letting other people borrow and read my books, especially my favorites. This post is in interest of helping all my wandering children to come home.

This is a shot of my whiteboard. It's all organized with a general to-do list, a random list of numbers that don't make sense to anyone but me, my calendar, and a scripture to remind how I should approach my life. (For those of you who missed my birthday, that calendar is 'Studs in Spurs' calendar Chels gave me. Admittedly, January is not very studly. Just wait until you meet September!)


If we zoom in on the left, we will see my lending list. This is where I keep track of all my wandering books.


I'm not asking for my books right now. I just want to make sure they all make it home.

PS All the books currently on that list are super good! If you haven't read them yet, I would recommend writing down the titles and looking them up.

You want to know what did we did on our Christmas vacation? Well, let me tell you...

So...I uploaded these in reverse chronological order and because Seantylle isn't here to tell me to just upload them again I'm going to roll with it...hope you don't mind.

We spent most of the week between Christmas and New Years in Omaha, Nebraska. Dave and Rebekah have a beautiful house but the best part about it (as far as Graham was concerned) was the unfinished basement. Rebekah's sister-in-law was visiting while we were there and she brought these little cars - Graham would have been down there all day everyday if we would have let him.



We went to the Winter Quarters Visitors Center and then drove around the temple. We had a good time pushing the handcart around the room. Seantylle and I had been there before but never in the winter - it was so cold. It gave me a greater appreciation for what those saints endured.

They have a room where you can look out a big glass window at the cemetery to the right and the temple to the left and then out of the corner of your eye you can see a painting of the Savior on Easter morning. There was a special spirit in that room.



We went to the Omaha Zoo - perhaps the best zoo I have ever been to. We had a blast. Graham loved all of the animals but really enjoyed seeing the gorillas and the giraffes.



Charlotte, on the other hand, didn't really love the zoo - it was cold and she couldn't touch the animals.



Nana, Papa, Jeff and Jessica - thank you for all of the great gifts - Graham loves his bulldozer. He told me Charlotte and I weren't allowed to play with it because it was his favorite.



I just thought this was a cute picture of Charlotte - We were making (graham cracker) ginger bread houses and she was just ready to go to bed.



Speaking of making ginger bread houses here's a cute picture of Seantylle and Graham. Building theirs.

We wish we could have spent the holidays with you all. It would have been great to have shared Charlotte's and Ella's first Christmas with everyone and then could have been there to meet Chole. We love you all and can't wait to see you this summer.