Fall Fun

Elsie loves farm animals, especially cows (this is in no way a result of us having named her Elsie). A few weeks ago we went to the library and there were cows in a pasture across the parking lot, so we went over to see them. I realized I've never taken her to the farm. Grace and Tyler have been so many times, but I've not taken her yet. So, I decided to take the kids on a day off from school. I thought Elsie would love it. Nope! She wouldn't get out of my arms she was so afraid. I had to go back out to the car and get the stroller. After about an hour she warmed up to it all. She even got on a pony for a pony ride. She was so proud of herself. She kept saying, "horse, bum, neigh neigh," meaning she rode one on her bum.







Tyler has been begging all summer for a suit to wear to church like his dad. Most boys have to be forced into one and Tyler has been begging for one. I finally found him one. He was so excited. I made Grace and Elsie skirts, so they were all adorable Sunday at church.




During the priesthood session of conference my sister, Mandy and I took the kids to Gardner Village to see all the witches. They also got to go to the petting zoo. Elsie even got brave enough this time to pet a goat. She was rather proud of herself.







Elsie still enjoys a bottle before bedtime.

Been A While

I guess it is time to update the blog. (I've had a complaint or two) We've had a fun summer full of family. We enjoyed hosting some of Brian's family for the Anderson Family Reunion held here in Salt Lake. It was so much fun and we loved seeing everyone. The kids amazed me at their ability to pick up with cousins they haven't seen in two years and play like they see each other every week.

We also enjoyed having my sister, Melanie, stay with us during my family reunion, which was also here in Salt Lake. We loved spending time with everyone.

We've enjoyed a couple of trips to Lagoon, this summer. Tyler is especially liking it now that he's taller and can ride the bigger rides. I even braved Wicked for my first time. I rode with Tyler, who is amazingly brave. I tried to hold his hand and he brushed it off as he threw his hands into the air. I even rode the Rocket with Brian. (For those who don't know, I have a tremendous fear of heights.) I'm rather proud of myself, although Brian might tell you I wasn't as brave as I'm leading you to believe.

Grace turned five in July. I can't believe how "big" she is getting. No, she's not getting any taller, really, just older. She had a fun Tinkerbell birthday party. She is already planning her party for next year. After a family trip to Incredible Pizza she has decided she will have her next party there. Lucky for me, my kids had previously agreed to just family parties next year. :)

Tyler and Grace have both started back to school. Tyler is in first grade and goes to school all day now. So far he is liking it, minus a small deterrent on the first day. I picked him up and he had a big goose egg on a very black and blue eye. He was playing soccer at recess and wasn't watching where he was going and ran into someone. He is very active and always running. He's now playing fall baseball.

Grace also started school with Tyler. She is in kindergarten this year. She LOVES it. She had to wait a week after Tyler started while they did kindergarten assessments and thought it was terribly unfair that he got to start school a week earlier than her. She is back in dance as well.

Tyler came to me a couple of weeks ago and declared, "Mom, I want my own private property." I looked at him a little puzzled, so he clarified, "That means I want my own room." He's certain he's brave enough to be downstairs by himself, so I spent a couple of days painting and redecorating the guest room. Tyler now has his own room.

Brian bought "The Lamb of God" video for our FHE lesson this week. The kids loved it and keep asking to watch it. Yesterday Tyler had a friend over to play and I hear him ask his friend if he wanted to watch the Jesus movie. They turned it on while they played and I heard Tyler telling him what each part was about. Then this morning I came downstairs to wake up Tyler and Grace for school (she slept down with him) and they were already up, bed made, sitting on the couch watching the Jesus movie. Gotta love them.

Over a month ago I lost my camera, thus partly the reason for lack of updates. Thankfully Brian just found it, so here are a few pics.

Grace's 5th birthday party:






Grace's dance recital. She was a bird in "Beauty and the Beast". She was so cute, and did a great job. The whole production was awesome!







Since I haven't blogged since our Easter drama, I figure I'd better put up Easter pics to show all ended well on Easter for the kids, after a tough lesson learned.












Elsie loves Disneyland and especially Pooh and Minnie. She reads Disneyland books all the time.

Tyler's first day of school, including the shiner after his first day of school:



Grace's first day of Kindergarten. She was so excited for weeks, then got a little nervous that morning. But she did great and now LOVES kindergarten.


White family photos. It's been years since we had EVERYONE together at the same time to get this done. Thanks everyone for making it possible.

NO EASTER BUNNY

So, the night before Easter I put Tyler and Grace in my bed to watch a movie before they went to sleep. They asked for chocolate milk, so I gave them each a sippie of chocolate milk. Brian and I went downstairs to watch T.V. A little while later I came upstairs to put the kids to bed and found the BIGGEST chocolate milk mess ever. They had gotten into a chocolate milk fight, spitting chocolate milk at each other, and all over my room and bathroom.

Well, the next morning I heard the kids wake up so excited to go out and see what the Easter Bunny had brought them. Tyler was so giddy, saying, "I hope he brought me this, or that." Grace had tiptoed out and peeked around the corner to the living room and came running back, yelling, "He came. He came." I kind of cringed in bed, feeling guilty, but knowing I had to teach them a lesson. Tough love is tough on Mommy!

They finally came running into my room, asking if we could go out and see what the Easter Bunny had brought. I told them they had to wait for the baby to wake up. Well, with all their excitement Elsie was up quickly. They lined up and went running into the living room. They ran Elsie over to her Easter basket and excitedly showed her what the Easter Bunny had brought her. Then they looked around. Their baskets weren't there. "Where are ours?", they asked. "Hmm, the Easter Bunny must not have brought you one for being naughty," I replied. "Look," I said, pointing to a piece of paper on the couch. "It looks like he left you a note."

The note was from the Easter Bunny, telling them how disappointed he was was, and that such behavior was unacceptable. He said he'd finish his route and then stop back by, and that they had better quickly clean their room and toy room, and be very obedient to their mom and dad. They didn't seemed shocked, there were no tears. They helped their baby sister look through her loot, and then they got to work. My house was quickly cleaned up. They help set the table for breakfast. Got showered and ready without a fuss, and were pleased to find their baskets waiting for them later in the day.

I hope a good lesson was learned. Come December I think the "Santa won't bring you anything" threat might hold a little more weight.

Disneyland February 2010

We just got back from Disneyland where we've spent the last week. The weather was warm and beatiful, until the last day when it cooled off. We had a blast. Tyler and Grace loved thrill rides, surprisingly. Tyler's favorites were Star Tours (of course), and Space Mountain. Grace's favorites were Astro Orbitor, Space Mountain, and Tower of Terror. Elsie's favorites were Winnie the Pooh and the Carousel. We knew Elsie loved Pooh, and found out she also LOVES Minnie Mouse. The hightlight for Tyler and Grace, both, was getting picked for Jedi Training. Tyler was so serious, as he was certain he was really fighting the dark side. We had to watch the show three times. Tyler would have watched it more, but we drew the line after the third show. And of course, Grace loved seeing the Princesses and dining with them at the Princess dinner. Here's some of our picture hightlights. There are 133 of them, so don't feel like you have to look at them all.

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