Icing on the Cake!

Joseph technically finished his Master's Degree in August. On December 12th we drove up to Logan so he could get "hooded" and make his walk across the stage. It was a fantastic day. There he is, the handsome one in the crowd. (I am not sure what I did to this picture, but it was a great shot.)
We took the two little girls with us. Zac and Sariah did not want to miss school, especially since it was Polar Express day in Kindergarten. Some good friends took care of the kids after school. The ceremony was short and sweet and definitely worth the drive. The girls were wonderful. When the string quartet began playing, Ally piped up, "Mom, the orchestra is playing." I did not even know she knew that word.
A glimpse of the future. (A future that is coming way too fast.)
Brook is proud of her Daddy and so are we. He worked hard and sacrificed time and sleep. It is a great feeling to know that it is done.
Grandpa Anson came up with us, too. Thanks, Dad, for making the trip and for always supporting us.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving the kids were chomping at the bit to get the Christmas stuff out. They had a great time "decorating" the tree. We had to more evenly distribute the ornaments later. They got the most excited about getting out the singing snowman and the advent calendar that Grandma Anson made. The highlight of each day is choosing a toy to add to Santa's Workshop. Only three more to go.
Sariah was thrilled with her job of organizing the Christmas CD's. We added some fun ones to our collection this year. The Christmas CD in the van gets a lot of play time, especially track 1 (Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) and track 4 (You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch -- One night Sariah said she was going to sing the scary part. That would be the "dum-da-dum" intro. It was pretty funny).
And now it feels like Christmas. In the last week we have finally gotten some real snow. Today it snowed almost all day. A few days ago we bundled Brook up and let her go for it. She was not too sure about touching the snow but she did run around yelling, "No (Snow)!" Since then when she sees the snow she says, "No, hat, gloves, hands." It is fun that she can remember things she has done and tell us about them. I think it is safe to say that we will have a White Christmas.

Lying Down on the Job

We were out raking leaves one day when we looked around for Zac and found him like this. What a character.
The kids actually turned out to be pretty good "leaf helpers" and probably did deserve a break.

Happy Birthday, Zac!

Zac has been six now for over a month. We had a great day celebrating his birthday on November 15th. (Yes, I am hopelessly behind.) He wanted a Hot Wheels party, complete with a racetrack cake -- which was fun and fairly easy to make (thanks Family Fun).
We started the day by inviting some friends to the "Anson Speedway." We had several races including a backward race, "potato sack" race and the grand finale. For the finale, racers made a pit stop during each lap. On lap one they had to gas up (down a cup of Kool Aid); during lap two they had their winshield (face) washed; and lap three required a tire change (they finished the race in a pair of Joseph's shoes). Then we went inside to eat cupcakes, open presents and play. Each boy left with a treat bag and a Hot Wheel of his own. I think it was a success.
Later, the family came for a family party. Zac loved all his gifts, but seemed especially excited about the baseball guys from Grandma Walker. Joseph was pretty excited, too. They did not waste much time setting it up. Since then, we have had many "baseball games" in the living room. Sometimes the kids line up stuffed animals and other action figures along the sidelines to be the spectators. I think one of Zac's favorite parts is changing the scoreboard. He aslo really enjoyed the Backyard Baseball game from Aunt Laura. He is now very much into NFL football.
Happy Birthday, Zac. We hope all of your wishes come true. You make us laugh every day and we look forward to another year of great memories.

Happy Halloween

The scariest thing about our Halloween is how long it has taken me to post these pictures! It was a great Halloween. Our kids are at a magical stage when they get so excited about the little things in life. I have to admit that I still get excited about Halloween, too.

Zac knew he wanted to be Darth Vader in September. I am not sure where the interest in Stars Wars came from. (Joseph) He had a great time and looked the part. He was a little disappointed that he could not wear his mask or take his lightsaber to school. I kind of wonder if he wanted to be Darth Vader just so he could play with his dad's lightsaber.

Sariah wanted to be a beautician. She had a great time decorating her apron and deciding what she would put in the pockets. Yet when it came time to dress up, she did not want to fill the pockets at all. She is so funny. In preparation for Halloween she did give some pretty fantastic "haircuts" to any willing "customer." (Thanks, Emily).

Brook was a ladybug. She had no say in that decision, but she sure looked cute. She did not really enjoy putting her costume on. However, once she discovered that she got candy out of it, she changed her tune. She would not let go of her bag. After Halloween she added three new words to her vocabulary: "teet" (treat), "cocklet" (chocolate) and "ucker" (sucker).

Ally was a clown. That was a game time decision. She kept changing her mind. The close runners up were Master Tigress (from Kung Fu Panda), a princess, a regular tiger, Superman, Supergirl (Mom's suggestion that she reluctantly considered because she really wanted to be SuperMAN) and a pioneer girl. Maybe if we start narrowing it down now, she might know what she wants to be for next year in time to give me a chance to be prepared. All said, she made a pretty cute clown.

On Halloween night we made the rounds to visit all of the Grandmas, even the adopted ones in our ward. We are lucky to have so many grandmas to love and take care of us. At Grandma Walker's house we got to see Emily and Chris. Emily was a pirate and Chris was an adult.

One of the best parts of our Halloween was a visit from Laura, Donny and Katy. They were here to go to our ward party with us. Katy was the cutest little kitty ever. The visit went way too fast but we loved every minute we got.

Preserving Memories

So Liz, this blog is for you. I have been a slacker and it is time for me to do a little catching up. There has been plenty going on at the Anson house. Nothing too exciting but we always seem busy. We did take a little time out at the beginning of October and went on a hike up Payson canyon with some friends. The kids loved it. Most of the way I carried Brook and held Sariah's hand. I am out of shape, but we made it nonetheless.

I could not resist this picture of Ally on our hike. I don't know why she will never look at the camera. She cracks me up everyday. She and Zac were all over the place and had a great time.

Here we are with our friends Jordyn and Jaxson who invited us to hike with them.

We did spend quite a bit of time this fall canning. We got a great deal on some peaches. We bottled quite a few and then made more jam than I care to remember, but it sure is nice to see it all lined up on the shelves in my basement. And my kids think I am the greatest because I made yummy jam. We also got to do some apples and enjoyed yummy apple crisp with the apples that did not make it into the jars.

We also got to use our stake's dry pack canner at home. The kids had fun helping us seal cans of sugar, oats and rice. Zac asked what we were going to do. I told him we were sealing cans. He looked at me for a minute and then asked, "Why do we want to marry the cans?" What a cutie.

Tags

I got tagged a long time ago by three different people. So here it goes. Better late than never. Laura tagged me on this one. I am supposed to answer each question with one word.

1. Where is your cell phone? chair
2. Your significant other? Joseph
3. Your hair is...? up
4. Your mother is...? amazing
5. Your father is...? respected
6. What is your favorite thing? chocolate
7. Your dream last night was...? bizarre
8. What is your favorite drink? water
9. What is your dream/goal? peace
10. What is your greatest fear? heights
11. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home
12. Where were you last night? Ansons
13. What you're not? earlybird
14. Muffins or cupcakes? muffins
15. One of your wishlist items? Bosch
16. Where did you grow up? Springville
17. What is the last thing you did? laundry
18. What are you wearing? jammies
19. What's on your TV? Raymond
20. Your pets are...? imaginary
21. Your computer is...? black
22. Your life is...? perfect
23. Your mood is...? content
24. Are you missing someone? family
25. Your car is...? lived-in
26. Something your not wearing? earrings
27. Your favorite store is...? nonWalmart
28. Your summer is...? over
29. The last time you laughed? today
30. The last time you cried? ?

There you go Wa. Both Laura and Toni tagged me on this one.

THE ABC's OF ME:

A. ATTACHED OR SINGLE? 100% attached!
B. BEST FRIEND? Joseph
C. CAKE OR PIE? Depends. I love cheesecake, but pies are yummy, especially pumpkin.
D. DAY OF THE WEEK? Saturday. I love working together as a family and then playing together.
E. ESSENTIAL ITEMS? chapstick, lotion and warm socks
F. FAVORITE COLOR? purple or green
G. GUMMY BEARS OR WORMS? probably worms
H. HOMETOWN? Payson
I. INDULGENCE? chocolate, chips and salsa, anything salty and not good for me
J. JANUARY OR JULY? July. I love the 4th of July and the traditions we have. Plus, summer is usually when we get to see my family.
K. KIDS? 3 beautiful girls and 1 handsome boy who keep me on my toes and fill my days with joy -- really. I wouldn't want to do anything else.
L. LIFE ISN'T COMPLETE WITHOUT? the kids and my honey
M. MARRIAGE DATE? July 14
N. NUMBER OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS? Two brothers and two sisters
O. ORANGES OR APPLES? apples
P. PHOBIAS OR FEARS? I am afraid of heights and spiders. I am not a big fan of driving in the snow either.
Q. QUOTE? The soul is healed by being with children.
R. REASONS TO SMILE? I got to spend the day with my family. I washed my windows today. It is something that has been bugging me for a long time and I finally had time to do it today.
S. SUPERMAN OR WONDERWOMAN? Wonderwoman. I used to pretend I was her when I was little. Although Ally would say Superman. That is what she really wants to be for Halloween. Not Supergirl, Superman.
T. TAG 3 PEOPLE... anyone who wants to respond
U. UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME: I don't know. I am kind of boring. I did just color my hair for the first time this week.
V. VEGETABLES... I am getting better about eating my vegetables. I especially like raw spinach in salads.
W. WORST HABIT? popping my knuckles
X. X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND? ultrasound
Y. YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? mexican
Z. ZODIAC SIGN? Sagitarius

And finally, my friend Heather tagged me a long time ago -- so long ago that I don't remember exactly what I am supposed to do, but it had something to do with random facts about myself.

1. I get excited about the little pleasures of life -- when Sariah wants to take school lunch and I don't have to pack a lunch, when Jospeh gets to come home in the evening, when I have a Saturday with nothing scheduled.

2. I am fascinated by politics. I don't know much about it but it intrigues me.

3. I love Jane Austen movies but I can't get through the books. (That is close to blaphemous for a former English major.)

4. If I could travel anywhere in the world, I would go to Austria to see where they filmed The Sound of Music.

5. I am a serious wimp when it comes to pain of any kind.

6. I feel incredibly blessed to have a loving husband who takes care of me and appreciates all I do.

7. I have blog guilt. I wish I had more time to blog. It does feel great to fulfill my tagging obligations - finally.

Hope that is random enough. Things like this kind of stress me out. (There is another random fact.)