December is over...

and I am glad because it was B-U-S-Y! Maybe now I will be able to breathe. But probably not. Oh well. At any rate, it was crazy and packed full of fun and THAT is why, once again, I am BEHIND in posting. This is going to be one mammoth post. So I am sorry, bear with me, etc.

December started off really great because I updated this darn blog and got all caught up. But then I fell to pieces trying to get things done for the holidays. Go figure. I think we will skip Christmas next year. Just call me the Grinch but it took a lot out of me. Thankfully by the time it actually rolled around I was pretty happy. The girls got overly spoiled and so did Travis and I, really.

I was just going through my pictures of the month of December and I am not joking when I say I wrote down 105 that I liked enough to maybe post. Now....that's just the ones that turned out decent. I probably took triple that. And I wasn't in a single one. Typical. I obviously don't want to sit here and upload that many, so I will try my best to narrow that number down...A LOT.

So....where to begin...

Isabelle turned TWO on December 10th. Yes, I am a little sad. But she is so fun right now that I don't mind that much. But we really don't have a BABY any more at all. She speaks in full sentences and is SO, so smart. She is strong and rambunctious and so funny. She hops and runs everywhere and has some nice muscular legs to show for it. She seems more coordinated than Riley...who is a little more clumsy and seems to be in her own world a little more than her little sister. They are two very different personalities that clash on occasion but they are the best of friends. They are quick to tell on each other when the other is being "naughty" and thankfully, quick to forgive.

Isabelle opening gifts. She was a little slow, but it was great practice for Christmas morning. Which went a lot faster! She got some pots and pans...which was a preview to what Santa brought the girls for Christmas. A gorgeous kitchen to share. Photos to come of that later.

Opening Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's gift to her. A very cool laptop that Santa considered bringing...but good thing he didn't!
Big girl. No baby any more :(
She is naked because she had a blow out diaper DURING her party. I know, she is two, we thought blow outs were a thing of the past, too. Apparently you are never too old for a blow out (if you are still in diapers, that is). Hopefully potty training will be happening soon. Less than 6 months is my hope. Immediately is my dream.

Isabelle trying on some of her fairy dress up stuff.

Also in December the girls wore these new, beautiful dresses that Grandpa Gary bought. Aren't they gorgeous? (The dresses, not the girls...the girls were NOT cooperating on this morning!) Silly girls. We couldn't get just a normal, stand together and smile photo.
Isabelle being uncooperative, she turned to run as I was taking a picture!

In December...my massage room FINALLY got painted. And while it still isn't fully decorated, this was a huge improvement. WHITE walls are NOT relaxing! So finally one morning Travis just started taping it off (perhaps because we had just begun reading "The Five Love Languages" together?). I had only been asking him to paint it for...3 months, maybe 4? ha ha. And I even gave him the freedom to go choose the paint color without me knowing what it was. I put my full trust in him and he did not disappoint. So the room is still a work in progress like the rest of our house and my life, but it looks MUCH better already! I LOVE the green walls!
Also, the red curtains have got to go...I know! But I need to have something over the window for now and I have had those for years, so that is what works for now.

Before shot. Here is part of the room taped off and all the furniture pushed to the middle of the room. It was such a mess!


Riley's preschool went to a nursing home for their December field trip and sang some songs for the people who were there. It was sort of cute. I mean, what can you expect from 2-5 year olds? But it was a photo-op, nonetheless.

After the program, Izzy and I hung out at school for a little while.

Riley is smallish, but her friend Tierney is TINY!

On December 18th Travis had surgery to get the hardware in his wrist removed that had been put in 5 years ago when he broke it playing indoor soccer. We had to be at the hospital at 5:45 am. They didn't even take him back to surgery until after 7. Surgery was expected to last 45 minutes to an hour. An hour and a half later, a nurse found me in the waiting room and told me the doctor had just called from the OR to give me an update. Travis was fine but they were having trouble removing one of the screws. Apparently it wouldn't budge. So it would be a little while longer. Just after two hours had passed, the doctor came out and told me that surgery went well but I was going to have to wait at least an hour while Travis was in recovery. They ended up just breaking off that difficult screw down in the bone where is shouldn't cause problems because it is so stuck there it won't budge. Travis was hilarious in recovery from coming out of anesthesia. He couldn't keep his eyes open and I wish I had counted how many times he told me how tired he was. I estimate it was roughly 30 times. Seriously. He was going to have to keep his arm totally wrapped and not use it for two whole weeks. We called the doctor's office ten days later to get in and have it unwrapped and stitches removed. He was feeling so great and has had a good recovery. Before the nurse unwrapped it and removed his stitches
After the stitches came out
X-rays. There are still some things in there, obviously. He hasn't had any problem with ulnar side where that long screw is. So they left that one in there. But they did remove two plates and 7 or 8 screws from his radius. You can see where the radius meets the carpal bones that little spec-that is the screw they broke off below the bone.
Also, its a little hard to see but if you look closely, you can see lots of little "holes" in the bone...that's where screws used to be. So hopefully in a months time those fill up and this bone is nice and strong. He is also working on his range of motion and I will be massaging to help his recovery. We don't want physical therapy to be suggested when he sees the doctor the first week of February.
Also, notice the date...stitches came out on my birthday, so happy birthday to me. ha ha

For Christmas (23rd-28th) we went to Coeur d'Alene to be with Trav's family. It was a fabulous trip for several reasons...first off, there has been hardly any snow this year. Which meant clear roads and mountain passes. We bought tire chains that we didn't even need going there OR coming home. That was my Christmas miracle. And I thank my Heavenly Father for it. I dread that drive in winter. Or rather I dread the ride, while my husband drives, but either way, I am usually SO anxious and this year there was no need to be! I also got to work (aka give a few massages) while I was there and made a few extra dollars (which helps with gas...or paying off student loans, whatever). Christmas was so wonderful. John and Barb had all five of their kids home which made for a house full. There were 15 of us in one house for a few days. After Christmas morning ended Travis and I decided to check into a hotel and have our own space to sleep at night. It was nice because I like to have my own space to get away to if I need it. Can't help it, that's just how I am! It was Travis's suggestion and I thought it was considerate of him. Christmas miracle #2. ha ha

I have so many pictures of Christmas eve and Christmas morning I don't know what to post and what to leave out. But here's my attempt. And they are all out of order. Hailee and Riley. Riley is into making the cheesiest faces for pictures right now.
Our sweet Isabelle.
Camryn. This is the best solo shot of her I could get.

Cousins. All 4 girls. Only Anderson cousin missing is 7-week old Jack. Who the girls all adore. And so do I!
It proved incredibly difficult to get any GREAT photos of all 4 at once. So I took about 30. And still wasn't all that pleased with the results :P
Grandma Barb bought these matching pj's and hats. So cute! Oldest to youngest Hailee (5), Riley (3 1/2), Isabelle (2), Camryn (1 1/2)


Grandpa with Jack on Christmas morning. I didn't really get pictures of Jack, I took more videos of him. He is so, so sweet!
Christmas eve with Santa!
Santa reading The Night Before Christmas
Isabelle was a cow in the family nativity. It was hilarious because she followed that dog around ALL NIGHT. And the dog just kept trying to get away from her and she just kept following him. The dog was a good sport and so patient with her though!
Riley was a sheep in the nativity


Mmmm Izzy kisses are the best. :)

Riley coloring with Uncle Dan after Christmas dinner

The chaos that was Christmas morning. I know two people who will kill me for posting this picture. Sorry.



Hailee turned FIVE on Christmas. Happy Birthday!!
Our girls LOVE their Uncle Johnny :)
Finally, December ended with us being home for my birthday. And I have discovered, Thanks to Travis, a delightful cake store in Sandy that is called NOTHING BUNDT CAKES. And I am addicted. So in a snow storm, we trekked up to Sandy for dinner and to pick up my Lemon bundt cake with cream cheese frosting. Pretty sure it was worth it. At least I think I am. The scale disagrees. That sort of sums up December. And that is the very short, very edited version. It was so, so busy. I know I said that already but it was and I am glad it is over. Happy 2010.

Playing catch up part two. November.

Look! I am posting AGAIN this week. Wow, I am really motivated to get caught up. And then keep up. Although I am sure I have said that at least a hundred times before.

November came and went before I could blink three times. No Joke. I don't even know where it went. I already posted about the most exciting November event for our family. The birth of our nephew Jack. November 2nd Darcy and Adam had their baby boy and he is the first boy grandchild on Trav's side of the family. The girls love him and love to look at his pictures.

So we went to Rexburg the weekend following Jack's birth to meet Jack. Grandpa John and Grandma Barb were there. We also got to meet Skyler's girlfriend and Randee and Richard came up from Utah, too. We were just missing John and Dana's family. It was fun to have mostly everyone together. And I am sure Christmas will be a blast.

THEN on November 13th we headed down to Albuquerque to visit my dad and crew down there. My younger sister Maria lives there, so we got to see her, too. YAY!!
The girls had a BLAST with Rachel's daughters, Taryn and April and it was so nice to have people around to entertain the girls! Wish we had Taryn and April around more. Dad let me have his ticket to the BYU vs UNM football game so Travis and I went to the game on Saturday and it was a terrible game. I mean...I suppose a win is a win. But that game should never have been close. The New Mexico fans sure loved it though. They said it was the best game for them all season. (OBVIOUSLY). We visited an aquarium while there and ate out a few times. Rachel made breakfast a couple times and it was just a nice break away from home. Dad and Rachel have a gorgeous home and it was fun to be able to visit. Also, Riley fell down their stairs and scraped her nose pretty good. It has since healed fine. I can barely see the scar. Riley and April
Riley and Taryn
Riley with Aunt Ria
Look how lame. Hardly any people in the stands at UNM. Crazy. But it WAS pretty cold there, I mean, not too cold to us, but cold for what they are used to in Albuquerque.
Girls at the aquarium. Much too busy to look for a picture.Riley's nose.
These two pictures were taken of Riley's nose just shortly after she fell down the steps. Not so bad in pictures. But it looked worse to me. And the scab she had on it a few days later was pretty big. But since she picked it off a few days later, it looks great.



Izzy with Aunt Ria



The night before we left to come home from New Mexico I got a message on my facebook account asking if I still wanted the tickets I had won to see a prescreening of New Moon. UM! I had entered this drawing weeks ago and never went back to the page to see who the winners were. Well...you can imagine my surprise! The movie was being release just two nights from when I got this message. And I won two tickets to the screening at 8pm 4 hours BEFORE it was being released. And I was ecstatic to say the least. What a treat! I hadn't been able to get midnight showing tickets so I just figured we would be seeing it whenever we could, sometime in the first few days it was out. Now I was getting to see it FREE and EARLY! So, on Thursday night, November 19th, Travis and I went to the New Moon prescreening and LOVED IT! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU ELE and KID to KID in American Fork/Lehi.

NEXT was Thanksgiving. Skyler had an entire week off of school at BYU-Idaho for fall break or something so he spent 10 days here in Utah. It was fun to have him here. He watched the girls a few times for us. We got to go to the BYU vs Air Force game in Provo. Thank you, Johnny for the ticket! So I got to go to two BYU football games in a row, one away and one at home and it was fun. Even despite the cold :)

Thanksgiving day was a success. The food was delish and it was our little family plus Skyler, Randee, and Richard.
That night Travis decided he was going to partake in the madness that is BLACK FRIDAY at BEST BUY. A week or two leading up to Black Friday, we found a steal of a deal on a desktop package and for several MONTHS now I have been wanting a desktop. We haven't had one for years as we have used laptops but those things won't last forever. And with me starting my massage practice, I needed something reliable to keep records on. (AND to blog, too....but mostly for business reasons, of course!)
So Travis left here shortly after 5pm on Thanksgiving day to set up a tent and camp out at Best Buy (which wasn't opening until 5am). I went over and hung out with him for about two hours in the middle of his time there. Too cold for me. But man, people are NUTS! There were about 20 tents lined up when i headed home after midnight. And Travis was about halfway back. At 4 am Best Buy employees started handing out tickets to people in line for their big ticket items. The ads had said each store would have a minimum of 6 of the deal we wanted. That made me nervous. What if he camped out all night and didn't even get it? Well, by the time they got to Travis in line, they had given out tickets for TEN of what we wanted. Thankfully our store here was well stocked. They had 18. Whew. So the waiting in line paid off and we now have a beautiful new computer. With a large monitor that I love! YAY! We also did a little more shopping on Black Friday. Including online at Toys R Us. It was the most we had ever participated in the craziness and it was rewarding to get great deals! Camping in the tent outside of Best Buy :)

Then we got out the Christmas stuff and put of the tree. And let the girls "help" decorate it. Sorry no pictures. Not that exciting. It looks the same as is did last year, you can check my archives from last December if you'd like.

Painted Riley's nails in November, too!

And then November was over.

And now here we are in December and things will not slow down. We have Isabelle's birthday on the 10th, Travis having a surgery on his wrist on the 18th, and then Christmas in Coeur d'Alene and my birthday at the end of the month. Is it 2010 yet?? I need a break! *Wishful thinking*

PS for those of you who miss the sleep pictures that used to be a frequent topic on here, I think it should be noted that in November, Isabelle fell asleep in one of the girls toys baskets :)

'Tis the season...

to give thanks. I think it's stupid that there is a season for it. I know it's a good thing because it gets some people to think about it more than usual, but just for the record, I feel deeply grateful for many things ALL THE TIME.
I am constantly thinking of all the wonderful things I have to be grateful for or about.

BUT, in the spirit of the season, I wanted to make a list of some of the things I am thankful for

• life and to be alive
• a husband who I love and who is my best friend in the whole world
• a husband who is able to provide for the basic needs of our family
• his job
• two healthy, smart, gorgeous daughters
• our home
• our health
• to be a woman
• to be a wife
• to be a mom
• to have had the opportunity to go to school and do something I love
• a supportive family
• parents and siblings
• Trav's parents and siblings
• good friends
• all the THINGS I have that make life so nice and easy (I know they aren't important and won't matter once this life ends, but they do make it so nice!) Seriously, everything we own, I am thankful to have it: clothes, my bed, vacuum cleaner, kitchen aid mixer, you name it.
• technology
• the gospel of Jesus Christ
• the atonement
• temples and covenants
• chocolate
• baked goods
• yummy food
• education
• to live in America
• to live in Utah (never thought I would feel that way!)
• weaknesses that allow for growth and learning opportunities
• trials that make me stronger
• my body, what amazing things a body is capable of
• my van
• good movies
• funny shows
• free time (though it is a rarity)
• extended families
• modern medicine
• hospitals
• every blessing in my life
• inspirational women
• other people's blogs that give me inspiration and strength and motivation to be better and do more
• goals
• service
• open mindedness
• love

I think that covers a lot of it, anyway. There are obviously so many individual things I could list. And it would go on and on. But overall, I am just grateful. For everything I have in my life.

So far behind I'm not sure where to begin!

I know, I've been doing some serious slacking lately. The past several months have felt really busy. And I just kept telling myself to wait until school was done and things would slow down. Yeah right. I have come to realize that no matter what, life won't slow down. So now I am trying to figure out how to catch up and stay with it. There is always plenty going on to distract me from the things I need to do! I wouldn't even care to try to catch up if this blog weren't acting as my journal. But because I am a poor record keeper, I need to at least mention the goings-on of our lives.

So....this may be one MASSIVE catch up post in hopes that once I am finally caught up I will feel less overwhelmed and stay up to date better. Here's hoping, any way!

Riley has been loving preschool thus far. I have posted a time or two about it, I think but I never posted about the September or October field trips. In September we went to Hogle Zoo. Yes, we go there all the time but on that particular trip to the zoo it was our first time to see the new baby elephant. Who is so, so cute, by the way! And then in October we went to the Vineyard Garden Center in Orem because they have a corn maze and other fun stuff set up for fall. The girls both got mini pumpkins and had lots of fun seeing small farm animals.

October was graduation, which at least I DID post about. My mom flew out from Pennsylvania for a few days. We went to the zoo. Again. We love it every time. Even I do. Baby monkey. It was SO cute. Unfortunately the fence is what the camera was more focused on.

Trav's work. I am always making some sort of dumb face when he tries to photograph me.

And then of course, Travis became an Adobe employee and Omniture became "Omniture An Adobe Company".
And then there was Halloween. There was trunk-or-treat at preschool and Trick or treating at Omniture (An Adobe company)and the girls made out with tons of sugar. We still have some.
Izzy reused Riley's Minnie Mouse costume from last year. And Riley, after changing her mind SEVERAL times decided she wanted to be a WITCH.
Trav's birthday was in October. AND I made probably 10 batches of sugar cookies as well. Not just for his birthday, but through out the month. Because Travis requested them several times and because one week at preschool was Riley's snack week. Guess that's exaggerating a little. It was more like 7 batches. Still. I know I ate way too many cookies during the month.

And lastly, in keeping up with my picture taking, I took several dozen MORE pictures. I have thousands of pictures of my kids by now. And I don't know what I will ever do with all of them but I have trouble just keeping the good ones. Because even the ones that aren't that great still are funny or quirky in some way. At least I can see the good in things, I guess.

Riley's hair getting SO long!
This is NATURAL curl in Isabelle's hair. I love it. Travis and Randee. Not sure what else to say about this pic.
Riley decided her long hair may need a trim and took about 3-4 inches off a small section in the front. Thankfully I caught her before much damage was done. That was a close one!Ri was jumping here and the picture turned out so funny but so cute.
Whew. All that posting photos has me worn out. ;) So that's all for today. Coming soon: an update on what we did in November. At least I am almost caught up!