Firsts

2011 is just over a month old and already we have hit some fun milestones, or firsts, at our house. Brooklyn had her first day of Primary. She is so proud of the fact that she goes to Sunbeams. Her teacher can do no wrong; Brook adores her. For the first week, she mentioned her teacher in her prayers every night. One week she was sick and Brooklyn cried. The week following that Sunday, she kept asking if her teacher was all better. She is still a little shy about participating in Sharing and Singing Time, but that will come. She is learning the words to the songs and I love to hear her little voice around the house.

Ally lost her first tooth! (Actually, she has now lost two.) She could not wait to get to school and write her name on the tooth chart. I love Kindergarten; how every child is validated and celebrated in so many ways. (Why aren't we more like that as adults?) The tooth fairy managed to find her on the top bunk and left a little something. Ally was thrilled and loves feeling grown up.

Sariah put this pony tail in all by herself. I had no idea she knew how. This was the first time I witnessed it. That girl is full of surprises. She was not thrilled with me taking her picture. She acted like, "It's no big deal, Mom." Get used to it, Sariah. I will probably be annoying you for the rest of your life:)


Zac had his first Pinewood Derby. His excitement and anticipation were palpable. His dad and Grandpa helped him make his car. He reminded us constantly that we needed to work on it. I am sure he dreamed about it, both sleeping and awake. As I have mentioned before, he has amazing den leaders and cub masters. They made every boy feel so special and had several events for them to try. Zac won two 3rd place ribbons and got "Sportiest Look." He couldn't have been happier.

As for Sam's accomplishments, take your pick. He has taken to solid foods with gusto. His favorites are bread, bananas, Cheerios and graham crackers. I think his dad even slipped him some chocolate pie tonight. He has also learned to sit himself up and to crawl. And of course, I have no pictures to document these momentous occasions. Well, I do have a few crawling ones that I will save for another post.

Even Joseph and I learned something new. We are now full-fledged texters. Go ahead and laugh. Welcome to the 21st century, right? We got new phones for Christmas and I have to say, I am loving it. I get excited when I hear the little noise my phone makes when I get a text. I know I'm a dork. I especially love keeping in touch with my far away family more often. I even get texts from my Dad. So watch out, you never know what the Ansons will learn to do next!

Happy New Year

I can hardly believe Christmas is over and that January is almost gone, too. Wow! Life is settling into a routine again, but I thought I would take a moment to blog about our New Year's celebrations. We had our own little party at home. We told the kids that they HAD to stay up until midnight. We said it was the rule and that anyone who fell asleep would get water squirted in their face. They all giggled and thought that was the best rule ever . . . and they obeyed it perfectly.

We played our new Wii games that we got for Christmas. The kids were a little unsure about Disney Sing It, but after a few rounds they were belting it out. We especially like the playback feature where you can make your voice sound like a mouse. It's hilarious. Mario Cart is fun, too. Although, after watching the girls drive I am pretty sure they will not be getting their licenses for a LONG time. Course, maybe I should turn in my own. Come on, is it too much to ask for a course that has guard rails on all the turns? My goal is not to win; I just want to stay on the course for longer than 30 seconds. After we had our video game fill, we watched Despicable Me. It was an instant family favorite. At least once a day someone says, "It's so FLUFFY!!" at a random moment. Of course, we also ate lots of treats.

By 11:45 everyone but Sam was still awake. We honestly thought the kids would all crash long before midnight. Besides Sam, I am the only one who fell asleep (just for a few minutes). We handed out the noise makers (that didn't make noise -- I grabbed the wrong package. The kids were disappointed, but I was secretly glad) and watched the ball drop. At 12:10 they were still running around the family room. They thought it was great that they were SUPPOSED to go crazy. Brooklyn was in the thick of it, dancing around and yelling, "Party on the dance floor!" Where did she hear that one? It actually was kind of cute. Once we got them in bed, they did crash hard and so did we.

The next day we just took it easy. We went to Grandma's for dinner and tried to convince ourselves that real life would start again on Monday. It did. We were in some serious denial. The holidays were truly wonderful. Now we have about 10 months to rest up until we get to do it all again!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was all that it is supposed to be (even if a few of the pictures are a little blurry). The kids were up early, but not too early. Sam was still sleeping so he joined us at his leisure. Once he was fully awake, he had a great time. He played with his new toys and growled with pleasure. Santa got everything just right. There were fun surprises for all, including the Wii game that both Mom and Dad got for the family. (Good thing we saved receipts.) I especially liked watching the kids get excited for their siblings to open the gifts they bought. They are catching on to the joy that comes from giving. Joy. That is a good word to describe our morning together. Later in the afternoon we headed to Grandma's for good food and time with the cousins. I am grateful we have family close by to share the holidays with because time with family is what it is all about.

Christmas Eve

Have I mentioned that I love traditions? Well, I do and we have a great one on Christmas Eve that we adopted from the Smiths. We started at the matinee movie. Carol and company met us there. In the lobby there was a Sesame Street poster with a cut out of Oscar's head. (Is there a special name for those?) Ally wanted her picture taken, but the others declined. This year we went to see Tangled. It was adorable. Sam was a perfect baby and let us stay in the theater for the entire movie! I went totally prepared to spend most of the movie in the lobby with him. Thanks for the fun surprise, buddy.

After the movie, we were off to dinner at the Brick Oven, yum. Don't let Sariah's face fool you. She was higher than a kite all day. We just happened to catch a rare "down moment."

Sam enjoyed himself at dinner. He had fun playing with the tablecloth and slobbering on the silverware. It was great food and even better company.

Once we were full, we made our last stop of the evening at the Smith's for the Nativity. Brook and Mariah were our angels. Not sure where that face came from.

Ally and Skyler were Mary and Joseph. Ally snuggled right up to her Joseph. It was fun to watch. Skyler was a great sport. Zac was a wiseman who somehow escaped Mom's camera. A cousin from the other side of the Smith family was visiting with them for Christmas. She and Easton were the other wisemen. They had Zac in stitches "off stage." Zac's giggle is contagious and I had a little trouble being a reverent audience member.

Sariah also opted to be in the audience. I was surprised since the Nativity is usually a highlight of Christmas Eve for her. But, as she told Carol, "Sometimes when you get older, you just want to sit and watch."

Sam was actually a shepherd with Emma and Hadley. He had his costume off before I could snap a picture. He was not too impressed but he sure looked cute. Missy played the piano and David assumed his traditional role of narrator. As I sat looking at the tree I felt the peace of the season in my heart, that special peace you feel when you think of the Savior. I thought of my family and the blessings we enjoy because Christ was born, lived on earth and completed his mission. I am grateful for that special Christmas moment. Our evening ended at home where we "hung" our stockings, left a treat for Santa (leftover pizza -- lucky Santa) and tucked the kids into bed in their Christmas jammies. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

Snow Day

December 21: 4 days before Christmas, piles of laundry to wash, last minute shopping to do, several projects to finish, presents to wrap, 2 ft. of snow overnight, and an unexpected day off of school . . . What's a busy mom to do? PLAY, OF COURSE. Tuesday morning we woke up to tons of snow and no power. Joseph had to dig his car out of the driveway to get to work. While using the flashlight to find the kids' school clothes, I seriously thought about just keeping them home, but I was supposed to help with Sariah's class party, so on we went. We were going through our morning routine when Joseph called from work to tell us school had been canceled. Since when has school been canceled in Utah because of snow? In our district it has actually been 25 years. The kids were ecstatic. And so was I. Joseph came home and we decided to play. Hence, Freddy the snowman was born.

Here is a look at the top of our shed.

Brook was excited to play in the snow and use her new pink gloves.

Sariah asks to play in the snow every time we get as much as a dusting. She was thrilled there was actually enough to do something with.

Ally kept getting stuck, but I don't think she minded too much.

Zac could not get enough. He kept jumping, diving, tackling, digging, rolling, etc. He came in wet from head to toe. He had barely dried off when he got an invitation to go sledding with a friend. They had a great first ride down the hill, but the second trip down, they went over a jump on accident and landed smack on their tailbones. Their sledding was cut short and they spent the rest of the day resting in their respective houses. I am happy to report they have both made a full recovery.

Brook was excited when Dad cleared a path to her playhouse.


And she was even more excited when Dad built her a baby snowman for her house. She and Ally named the snowbaby, Diamond and decked her out with a carrot nose, pretzel arms and Craisin eyes. They were both disappointed when Diamond melted. Freddy eventually did, too. But the memories will last. I am grateful for the chance to slow down and play with my family. Somehow most of the laundry, shopping and projects still got finished, and the stuff that didn't probably was not that important anyway.

Chirstmas Program

The second graders did a Christmas program at school. They did a great job. Zac practiced his sign language for "Jingle Bells" any chance he got. He was also part of a group that recited a poem about the meaning of Christmas. On the big day he told me he was excited and also glad to get all the practicing over with since they had to miss a few recesses to work on their program. I love watching the programs at school, even though it gets a little crowded in the lunch room. If I can figure out why my videos won't work, I will post some so you can enjoy the performance, too.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and this year was extra special. All the Ansons were together and we soaked up every minute. Ally could hardly wait for her Thanksgiving feast at school. She dressed up like an Indian, sporting the necklace she made that she was particularly proud of.


The Sunday before Thanksgiving was Joseph's birthday. It was also the day David and Amy arrived from Missouri. Two perfect reasons to celebrate with good food and German chocolate cake.


Sam wanted in on the Thanksgiving dinner preparations. Actually, he just wanted to gnaw on the cream cheese. Do you think I could get anything out of this adorable product placement? I should mention that the cream cheese was for an amazingly delicious pumpkin cheesecake Grandma made for my birthday which landed on Thanksgiving this year. Thanks, Mom!

We decided to have a grand sleepover at Grandma's house the night before Thanksgiving. All the cousins slept together upstairs in the storage room, of all places. They loved it. Brook later commented, "That was funny that we slept in the storage room."

We use the term "slept" very loosely. Brook had to be removed from the room since she was keeping the others awake. She fell asleep on the couch downstairs. All the cousins were finally asleep by about 10:45. The adults stayed up playing games until almost 1 am. The first kids started waking up around 5:45 and they were all up by 6:30 or so. It was totally worth it, but we were all tired the next day. Poor Benjamin literally fell asleep in his mashed potatoes. That would have been an awesome picture.

Zac had some canker sores that kept him from fully enjoying his meal, but they did not get in the way of enjoying his time with Caleb. The two cousins had a grand time together. They are two peas in a pod. Both of them shed tears when it was time for Caleb to go home. It was a tender moment for all of us.


All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving. Thanks to the Missouri Ansons for making the long drive to share it with us. Family is one of our greatest blessings. Hopefully we can make it to your house this summer.