RACHEL'S BIG DAY

For this birthday Rachel received .... clothes (of course) fit for a college campus, tickets to fly up for MDT auditions in Provo at the end of the month, dorm posters (impressionists, who are Rachel's favorite) and pictures in frames (from Sarah of "sisters") and the traditional, to share, New Years Eve party goods. Oh, how did this little girl get so old so fast?

For Time and All Eternity

On December 28 Laura, Dallin's sister, was married in the Salt Lake Temple in freezing weather. (What else would you expect from a 7:40 am sealing.) It was a wonderful sealing and we are so happy for Laura and her husband Whitney.

Curly Sue (I mean Elizabeth)

For Laura's Wedding I curled Elizabeth's hair for the first time. I have been wanting to curl it for a long time. The curlers worked great and I am afraid that I will be tempted to curl it everyday.

WINTER DANCE & VOICE RECITAL

Rachel and Sarah were busy, busy, busy all month preparing for CHRISTMAS LIGHTS - their dance and voice shows on December 19, 20, 21, and two on the 22nd. The whole family (Mom, Dad, Jas, Stef, Paisley, Robb, Marybeth, Katie, Dallin, Elizabeth, and Jeff) enjoyed the closing night show as everyone was in town for Christmas.

ACT I

ACT II

The girls did a great job (along with the rest of the troop) for another spectacular show.

Celebrating at Disneyland

New Band Shot!!!

Can't Believe it's Been Five Years!!

Happy Anniversary Jason and Stefanie - a couple that was meant to be together and is the most amazing team ever. We love you so much and are so happy that you found each other!!!

Happy Anniversary

What a wonderful day - We love you Robb and Marybeth - you are such an amazing couple!!!

Laughed Hard and Out Loud!!!

Although you do know I'm a softie for Bible Comics.

The family has never been together like this.... Jeffrey home from his mission and the additions of Dallin (Katie's husband) and Marybeth (Robbie's wife) while Jeff was gone. Boy is it fun and exciting!

It won't last long. Jason (with Stefanie & Paisley) has to be to work in Kansas tomorrow so they fly out of LAX this afternoon.

THEY'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

Katie, Dallin & Elizabeth arrived Wednesday evening, driving from Provo after Dallin taught his last Seminary class. Robb, Marybeth and Jeffrey arrived Thursday night after Robb & Jeff's last final and Marybeth was off for Christmas break from teaching.
Jason, Stefanie & Paisely flew into So. Cal. on Wednesday night and spent Thursday at Disneyland with the Whelchels. The came into 336 Thursday night.
We all sat around the "New Parlor"and laughed and talked ... just what Mom ever wanted!

AND THE FUN HAS JUST BEGUN....

OUR (Not Quite So Little) MUSICIANS

A CHRISTMAS RECITAL

Monday evening the "little girls" had their winter piano recital. These are the same numbers they performed the previous evening at the Stake Bell Choir Concert.

Our Little Musician

This is how excited Elizabeth is to come to CALIFORNIA!!!!

PAPERED PARLOR

While the floor varnish was drying (for 3 days) this made a good time to trim the wall paper. Yes, not only is this old fashioned LOOKING wall paper it is old fashioned handling as well. All the edges had to be trimmed with an xacto knife. Dad's office was very practical place to do this Thursday evening and Friday morning.

Friday afternoon we started papering. Hey, I know Mom said no more Parlor posts, but Dad snuck his cell phone camera in the room and got this pic. Mom is the administrator and can omit it if she want's.) The papering wasn't particularly difficult it just took time - a few hours of layout and a few hours of pasting on Friday, and about 19 on Saturday and another 7 - 8 thrown in Monday morning. It was a fun stage, as each new element went up the girls would check in and ooooo... and ahhhhh...

DMW Challenge finally revealed

THERE IS NO SKIPPING UNTIL THE END!!!! You must watch until it gets to that point. Well, I don't think that Marybeth and I could get any more silly than in this video. But I have to admit I enjoy doing it with her. We just say go and things flow like hot chocolate syrup on an ice cream sundae. We had a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy it. And thank you to all those that participated.

DMW Challenge revealing!!!!!!

Well the time has come FINALLY. Tonight is the night to reveal the winner and prize of 30 mins. to he/she that had the most marbles in order here are your guesses.

Sarah - G,Y,W,O,B
Dallin - O,B,Y,W,G
Dadcorn - B,Y,W,G,O
Mom - W,G,O,B,Y
Jeff - W,G,O,Y,B
Katie - W,O,Y,G,B
Rach - G,Y,O,B,W
Stef - Y,B,O,G,W
Paisley - B,W,G,O,Y
Jason - O,W,B,G,Y

We are going to add a twist to the game, just for fun!! Here are the stats: One person got 3 Two got 2, Three got 1, and 4 got zero. For those of you that aren't confident in your answers you have until 8:00 PST (in CA) to change your answers in the comment section. At 7:30 the voting will be closed. You may change them as much as you like, but at 7:30 they are set and then we will Determine the winner.

Snow

So I previously mentioned it has been snowing since 3pm yesterday which makes for some deep snow. Jason was out shoveling it off the driveway and Paisley was out playing in it. I went out for a little bit, but I only own the $1 gloves from target so my fingers didn't last long. Paisley thinks it is so fun to say snow and to play in it. This snow storm ended up getting our ward Christmas party that was supposed to be tonight canceled! Bummer!

Maplan Christmas Party

Last night was Jason's work Christmas party. It was held out at the country club which is a couple miles outside of town. Usually it is no big deal to drive out there but since 3pm yesterday it has been snowing so it was a little more tricky to drive out there. Neither of us had been there before so that was fun. The food was very good. There was music and and drawing for prizes. We didn't win any of the prizes but we did win the center piece! That makes 2 years in a row for us now!! We had so much fun. Some of our very nice friends watched Paisley for us so we were able to attend childless. She had a lot of fun playing with her friends and having her first pajama party. I think we all had a very fun night.

It's Magic

Well the Magic Eraser certainly lives up to its name! Yesterday Paisley colored all over our blue walls with an orange crayon. The crayon magically disappeared from my wall with very little scrubbing. I cleaned most of it, but since Paisley was the one who put it there she had her fair share of cleaning. She thought it was a lot of fun and screamed when we told her that was enough. I'm glad she likes to clean, because I see a lot of that in her future!

Final Drawings

Here is my last two drawings from my class that I got an A in!!!

To0 Bright for Bananas

By My Eye

A year ago TODAY was a big day for the Anderson's. Check the blog for a post made a year ago today. It sure brought back a lot of emotions and memories for me.


(This picture was taken a few minutes ago. A lot can happen in a year)

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

Here is how we are celebrating Christmas in Wymount.

Thanks for the stockings Grandma!!

NHS - Newly Honored Sarah!!!

It happened - 100% National Honor Society Cornwalls.

We so much enjoyed the William M. Monroe Chapter of the National Honor Society Induction Ceremony Tuesday night where Sarah was officially inducted.

The ceremony is getting a little bit better - not one falling candle!!

So proud of you Sarah!!

Dad's Ingenuity!!!

I just had to post this picture. One night when dad had to vacuum all the floors but didn't want to have the vacuum be on the floors (for fear of scratching) he came up with this great idea. He strapped the vacuum to a back pack and carried it on his back while he used the hose to get up all the dust. I didn't see it - just the contraption - but I had fun picturing it - thought you would too.

A PHOTO FINISH-ed FLOOR

The 3rd coat of varnish went on last night. Dad is pretty well pleased with how it turned out.
Since we were in the varnishing mode, it seemed like a good idea... maybe a crazy idea, but a good, crazy idea... to also put a coat of varnish on the Dining Rm and Entry floors. This will help tie in the finish with the new Parlor floor. Of course this meant putting Mom in even more upheaval with moving everything out of both rooms. Only the perimeter that is exposed around the area rug in the Dining Rm. needed to be done.

We love CORNwalls

We are preparing Elizabeth for a Cornwall Christmas by feeding her smashed CORN and popCORN. We are so excited.

Ginger Bread Houses

Last week we had Robbie, Marybeth, and Jeff over to make Gingerbread Houses. Can anyone guess whose is whose.
PS Stefanie you put all of ours to shame.

Here are some of our friends that were hanging out in our backyard. (Okay so we share the backyard with all our neighbors.) The picture is from our bedroom window.

Ice Storm

As you may know from the new there is a major ice storm "wreaking havoc" in the Midwest and east coast. Kansas is lucky enough to be the dead center of the Midwest so we are getting pounded with the storm. I took these pictures in my backyard this morning. Jason said on his slow drive to work there were tree branches and bushes down all over the place. All of our trees are luckily still standing right now. I thought it was really pretty how the ice encased every single branch and blade of grass. Our whole yard is flooded and Jason said all the streets are flooded with little islands where the road is visible. Last night on the news they said we were going to get an inch of ice and the storm is supposed to continue on with another on the way. Oh the adventures we will have with new weather we've never experienced!

'Tis the Season!

I bought these cute little figures for $20.....each! Comment if you want to know where I got them. Cute huh?
JUST TEASING! I made them out of sculpie (aka clay) at our relief society enrichment! Nice huh? It was really fun, My favorite piece is either Mary or the Black Sheep, my least is the star. Happy Holidays!