Junkmas

What is junkmas? I think that picture says it all. Christmas Eve this year we celebrated junkmas at the Puzeys. It’s a holiday that Doug (Father Junkmas) has invented. Here it is in a nutshell (see picture below for rules...this was staped to a barf bag from an airplane...from last’s year) Oh...and the guys had an ugly facial hair contest too. :)
This kids picked out some hilarious stuff: Cheeseballs, oreos, tater tots, egg rolls, EZ cheese, gushers fruit snacks, twinkies, ding dongs, uncreusables, cream puffs... After the junkmas feast, the kids had a glow in the dark dance party and played a game of Shockball. Thank you Puzeys for inventing this holiday and inviting us in on the fun!

My Ornament

How cute is this? Cheryl nabbed this for me this year and I think it is adorable. Now it just needs cookie dough in the bowl. :)

25: Christmas Day

What a great day. We spent it at the Puzey’s again this year.
Here are the highlights: waking up early. watching the kids flip out over the presents & stockings as they came down stairs. stopping to play with toys. watching new movies. playing rock band. Ebelskivers and Norwegian Pancakes. watching the kids play with their new toys. Olivia dressing up like a princess. Owen playing with his AT-AT. Zac’s reaction to every present he opened. Happy kids. Lots of fun things to play with. Staying in PJs. Talking to West Coast family on the phone. Playing in the snow!

Miracle of Miracles it snowed on Christmas! After prepping my kids (who kept asking when it would snow?) that in Atlanta we don’t get snow on Christmas, the weather went and proved me wrong. It snowed enough to stick and even produce one short snowman and a great snowball fight in the back yard.

+ husband who is a kid at heart + son who is a kid = this picture of the ATAT in the snow.

2010 Christmas Card

24: Christmas Eve

Today was a great day! We went to lunch with our friends the Hinckleys so the kids could exchange their gifts. I brought the camera, but forgot to take pictures. :(
Then we headed up to Puzeys for more Christmas Eve fun. We made our traditional dinner of Autumn Chowder in bread bowls with Spinach Salad and sugar cookies, red velvet cookies, nordy bars and mint brownies for dessert. Afterwards the kids acted out the Nativity under Morgan’s direction. They did a hilarious job yet again and it’s fun to watch them each play their parts. Jonah was baby Jesus. Kate and Owen were Mary and Joseph. Zac was the wise men, Carter the donkey and Olivia was the angel.
Then the kids all put on their new PJs, read a few Christmas stories and went to bed.

23: Hair Pretties for Livie

For a gift for Olivia from Owen this year he and I made hair pretties for her. Obviously I did the work here, but he helped me pick out the ribbon, buttons and I let him help with all the gluing. I think they turned out pretty cute. :)

22: Brunch with Beth and Letter from Santa

This morning we invited Miss Beth over for brunch. We made crumb cakes, eggs and we used our new Santa mugs. We decorated the table and Owen made all the place cards. We had a nice time and she brought us a really sweet gift: Windchimes. Miss Beth loves to garden and her yard is beautiful and she has lots of fun gardeny things like windchimes and little iron statues and bird baths and houses, so my kids love her yard. Our chimes are now hanging on the eave of our house and we can hear them from the playroom.
After breakfst we went to play and the park and get some of our wiggles out. It was a nice day. One thing I love about Atlanta is that you can take your kids to play at the park on teh 22nd of December.

21: Christmas Shopping and FHE

We had a busy day: Shopping. Movie. Cookies for HT. FHE. Rocket ships. Candy Cane Ice Cream.
Today we finished up our christmas shopping by taking the kids to buy a few gifts for their friends. After a productive trip, we went to see Despicable Me at the $1 Theater. We all loved it. Once we were home we had cookies to make and decorate for Nate’s home teaching families. While I did that the kids busied themselves on the kitchen floor turning diaper boxes into rocket ships.
After dinner we had a Family Home Eveing lesson on the Savior and for dessert we made candy cane ice cream. It turned out really good. We took 2 cups of vanilla ice cream and put it in the mixer with one candy cane and a small handful of chopped up chocolate chips. Yum.

20: Stop the Clock

There are some days I wish I could just stop the clock. A lot of them actually. It seems like there is always more to do than I can actually get done in a day. Since Jonah came along getting ALL the laundry done or the WHOLE house spotless at the same time are much harder tasks to accomplish. And then there are full days that evaporate before my eyes, like today. Jonah & I took Owen to his friend’s Birthday party. Neccessary errands were taken care of. Miss Beth stopped by and I tried to get the kids to read Christmas stories with her, but they weren’t interested in that. I worked. I scrambled to get dinner ready and my self out the door to work. Work was BUSY and I got home late. Blah. Stop the clock.

19: Pancakes and MoTab

Today we dressed up in our Christmas Duds for Church. Nate and Owen wore their matching ties and I made a little bow tie for Jonah out of the same fabric. I tried to take a picture of us. That is not a very fun thing to attempt, but we tried anyway..
The kids took little cards and a few treats to their primary teachers at church. After church we had sprinkle pancakes for lunch. Today for Miss Beth we took her a Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD and a card. I have been working like a maniac lately and I’m getting pretty tired... I am looking forward to enjoying time off with my family for the holidays!!!

18: Electronic Santa

Today we had a fun Saturday. At 9am we went to Owen’s basketball game. Then a few kids napped while I got our clothes all ready for church tomorrow. Then we made a few little gifts for our primary teachers and drew pictures for Miss Beth. Owen drew a picture of her in the snow and Olivia drew a car that looked a lot like a cat. Miss Beth loves cats so it was perfect. :) Then we downloaded a song from target called Electronic Santa and the kids started dancing like robots, which reminded Owen that he has a robot COSTUME* and so he ran and put it on and danced around to the music. A few bored Andersons and a video camera make for an entertaining afternoon. It was really funny and if I can figure out how to get the video from my video camera onto my computer and then onto my blog...nevermind. Just take my word for it. :)

*funny note. The robot costume was created by Nate and Owen just before Halloween. Nate, kind husband that he is, made it to see if Owen would choose to be something other than Darth Vader (which was breaking his mother’s heart) for Halloween. As I look back on that I laugh, and I think Nate and Owen are really cute.

17: Pre-K Christmas Party

Today was Owen’s pre-K Christmas party and Olivia and I went to help, read books and take pictures. Here they are (above) dancing around with jingle bells. It is so wonderfully easy to entertain 5 year olds. Olivia always loves going to Owen’s class and the teachers and kids all know her now too. They have a little reading corner and she just walks right over, plops down on a pillow and gathers some books.
Today for Miss Beth we made ornaments, one from each of the kids, and delivered them to her door. We also took our neighbors plates of cookies and Christmas cards. Lots of Christmas today...

16: Cookie Party

Each year now for the past 3 years I’ve thrown a cookie exchange party. I love doing this and tonight was the big night. Each guest brings 2 dozen cookies. One to sample that night and another to plate up and take home. This year about 16 people came and the cookies were fantastic. It’s a really fun way to try new recipes without having to do all the baking yourself. I made Nordy bites and mini peppermint cupcakes (so...not just cookie party, but any holiday treats really...). I try to think of a fun take-home gift each year and this year Cheryl came up with a great idea: Cake plates. We made them by gluing together candle holders and plates. I think they turned out really cute! It was a fun night.
The kids helped me get ready all day. We made the treats and cleaned the house. I tried to get a picture of them helping me, but they were both too busy to look at he camera... We all had our aprons on though and the treats all turned out great. With all the cookie party preparations we forgot to get a gift to Miss Beth, so we’ll have to double up tomorrow. :)

15: Letters to Santa and Glitter Art

We wrote a letter to Santa from the kids today, reminding him of what they’d like for Christmas. I came across this address sometime last year. I don’t know if he’ll write back or not...but it was a fun little activity. I also put Owen’s Christmas List’s on here. He went through several magazines, and we had to make two different lists. It’s fun to see how he writes. :)
Today for Miss Beth we made some glitter art. We printed out pictures Nate had taken when we were visiting my parents in Vermont and then put white glitter over the snow. It turned out really pretty. Glitter is always messy, but it’s so festive too.

Crush

it seems as though Owen has a crush. I first realized it one Sunday when he was asking me how to spell Charlotte. When I finished dictating it to him he handed his piece of paper to me and asked, “Will you draw a heart around her name?”
Charlotte is in his class and we are always writing her little letters and getting little drawings from her too. It’s pretty cute.

14: Ornaments and a Christmas Card for Beth

We finished Livie’s ornaments, now we just have to spray them with clear coat, once all that glitter and glue have a chance to dry. :)
Also, we took a Christmas Card over to Miss Beth today to wish her a Merry Christmas for day #2.

13: Cookies for Beth and Believe Blocks

This year we are doing the 12 days of Christmas for our neighbor, Miss Beth. I thought this would be fun for her, as she doesn’t have much family around her and has no kids, and a great way for our kids to think of others. We have small things planned for her each day, and I am not going to try and make this a secret, because we are not fast enough to get away from her door in time. My kid’s couldn’t handle her not knowing either. :) So today we took a few iced and decorated sugar cookies over for her.
Another project I worked on today, sans children’s help, are these blocks. I like how they turned out!

12: Pancakes

We often have pancakes for lunch after church, but to add a little holiday fun we added some Christmas sprinkles to our pancakes. :) The kids loved it and it was a fun easy advent activity for our day.

11: Little Trees

We put little Christmas trees in each of the kids’ rooms and let them decorate them with their favorite ornaments. Owen loved decorating his tree and keeps taking ornaments off of the tree in our family room and putting them on his tree. Olivia likes hers, but hasn’t had much interest in decorating it this year. One very early morning (too early for mom) when Owen and Jonah were up and I was half sleeping next to them on the floor in Olivia’s room (quite a stellar night at the Anderson house...) Owen decided to decorate Liv’s tree for her with her dress up jewelry. I thought it turned out really cute. I rearranged it a bit. The kids love their little trees.

Basketball

So, none of the boys really fit into their jerseys...but it is really cute to watch them play. Owen’s best friend’s dad is the coach and they have a fun time learning to play. It’s funny to watch them steal the ball and then look at us to make sure it was ok.

10: Ornaments

In lieu of going to the store to buy ornaments this year I thought we’d make them out of sculpey. We meaning me. I let the kids decide what they wanted and then did my best to make it out of clay. Owen chose an AT-AT (pictured above), Darth Vader (of course), a lightsaber and R2D2 (the most challenging for mom). Olivia wanted princesses. And for Jonah I made a donut. :) We finished Owen’s and are still working on the others. I’ll post pictures when we finish the rest too.

9: Teacher Christmas Gifts

Today the kids and I made little gifts for their school and church teachers. We used wrapping paper to make little bags, filled them with treats and then made ornaments and gift tags. They got a kick out of this and it was pretty quick and easy.

8: Pre-K Christmas Program

Up on the “bleachers” on the top row...far left. The only kid not in his Sunday best Christmas duds. I am a rookie mom. I had NO CLUE they were supposed to dress up. Oh well. The program was really cute and they sang their little hearts out for us.

7: Decorating Sugar Cookies with Friends

We had a few friends over for dinner tonight and then let the kids decorate sugar cookies. The ratio of sprinkles to sugar cookies was WAY beyond my personal taste, but the kids had a great time. I am still sweeping up the sprinkles off the floor, but that’s all part of the magic of Christmas isn’t it? I told my kids they couldn’t lick the knifes, since we had a community pot of icing and you can see Owen enforcing that rule (true to his personality) and Olivia not really happy about that. Oh the joy of siblings.

Sugar Cookies

Darth Vader Claus and Dear Deer Princess Olivia were my super helpers in the kitchen today as we made sugar cookies. We discovered that a bell cookie cutter is actually a darth vader cookie cutter, if you think about it. :) If you REALLY think about it everything can be drawn back to STAR WARS. We used Grandma Sigurjonsson’s recipe and made a delicious batch of cookies that we will decorate with our friends tomorrow night. Owen was amazingly helpful and figured out how to roll out the dough all by himself. Olivia?...well she looked really cute making that collossal mess.

5: Christmas Movie and Cousins

Any Sunday that we can we love going up to hang out with the Puzeys and have Sunday dinner. We always have a great time there. This week the kids watched Christmas movies together. My kids were thrilled to see their house all decked out for the holidays. It looks so great! I love going there, in part, because my baby is whisked from my arms the moment I get there and then returned to me begrudgingly as I leave. He is happy to be held and held and held and adored and cuddled. Everybody wins when there is a happy baby to be entertained.

My Reindeer Children

Rudolph Puppet Show and Santa

Today we went to the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts and watched Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. It was so, so cute! The characters and story are from the one I watched as a kid, so it was quite nostalgic too. :) The puppet show was fantastic and Santa was there too! The kids took the opportunity to whisper what they wanted into Santa’s ear and we tried, but this is really the cutest picture we took of our kids with Santa. Then Santa read us a Christmas story before we left. It was a great way to start out the holiday season.

3: Pumpkin Muffins

Today we used my sister, Jamie’s amazing Harvest Loaf recipe to make some Christmas Tree shaped pumpkin muffins. The kids loved this. I just picked up the muffin pan from the dollar spot and we’ve made muffins and ice cubes shaped like trees.
Here is the recipe:

Harvest Loaf
1 1/2c. flour
1t. soda
1t. cinnamon
1/2t. salt
1/2t. nutmeg
1/4t. ginger
1/3c. butter
1c. sugar
2 eggs
3/4c. pumpkin
3/4c. chocolate chips
3/4c. walnuts (optional)

Glaze
1/2c powdered sugar
1/8t. nutmeg
1/8t. cinnamon
1-2t. milk

Mix together dry ingredients. In another bowl cream butter, sugar and eggs. Stir dry ingredients and pumpkin alternately into the butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts. Bake in a large, greased bread pan (or 3 small). Mince 1/4c. walnuts and sprinkle over top. Bake at 350 for 65 minutes (large loaf) or 55-60 minutes (small loaves). Let cook and drizzle with glaze. Enjoy.

2: Gingerbread House

If it’s not obvious by now, I am trying to take a picture each day to document our advent this year. So this is Gingerbread House day. I had to let go of my illusions of control, yet again, in order for this to be a fun event for everyone. I just put the icing on the house and let the kids go for it and put the candy anywhere they liked. It turned out really cute and it’s now the centerpiece on our kitchen table.

1: Decorating the Tree

Darth Vader Claus and Princess Olivia got straight to work decorating the bottom third of the tree. They got pretty creative, I must say. It was a great night and we played with a left over strand of lights, taking fun pictures. We ended the night reading our Christmas books before bed.

December Advent

I love my advent calendar and I love trying to infuse each day in December with Christmas. :) This year I am trying to take pictures everyday and post them. Christmas with kids is so fun. It’s kind of like being a kid again in a way and I like thinking of something fun to do each day.

Decorating for Christmas

It really is the most wonderful time of the year. I love decorating the house for Christmas and here is how it turned out so far this year...

13.1

He did it again. This time completely of his own choice and after some good training. :) Nate ran it in 1:39 this time, shaving about 40 minutes off of his last time. My hero.
It was really fun to head downtown with the kids and watch him cross the finish line. He was on the 1:30 pace team and cute little Nate that he is, had his times written on his arm so he could keep his pace. Oh the things I love about Nate...

Happy Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving Holiday was pretty fantastic this year. It was low key...well as low key as possible with 3 kids. :) We started out early, heading downtown to congratulate daddy as he finished his race. I’ll give Nate his own post for that one. After Nate had a few minutes to relax and clean up we packed up our family and food in the car and headed up to the Puzey’s house.

The kids quickly go to work making their turkeys. This year in lieu of shooting at people dressed like turkeys, we had the kids each make a turkey and then they shot at the turkeys. This was very much to the liking of tired Nate who is a great sport and would have been a turkey if asked, but grateful to not be running through the woods being shot at. The kids are getting really good at aiming too. :) The kids were thrilled by the Turkey shoot!
Cheryl and I made all of our favorite foods.

Our menu consisted of:
Turkey (of course)
Cheryl’s amazing stuffing
Sweet Potatoe Casserole...this recipe is heaven. I double the topping...
Mashed potatoes...red potatoes...skins on
Buttery Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

I always wonder why we don’t have Thanksgiving again in March or something like that. It’s a great meal! :)

Afterwards we all relaxed and enjoyed the company. We stayed the night at Puzeys and made a weekend of it all rolled up with Black Friday, the Biscut Barn, Inception, Thanksgiving leftovers, Cakestands (more details to come...), and just a whole lot of fun. Thanks again Puzeys for a great Thanksgiving.

Falling Tree

We went to Owen’s pre-K Thanksgiving program today. I forgot the camera, so all I have are these from my phone. His class made their little native American costumes and chose their own names. Owen chose Falling Tree. It was pretty cute!

Family Photos

It is time for some updated family photos. The ones I have up in the family room are from when Owen was just over a year. These ones. So with the help of a very talented and sweet new friend, we were able to get some new ones. And just in time for Christmas cards too.These were taken in Piedmont Park.

UnBirthday Photo Shoot

Recently we invited several friends to Uncle Maddios for a birthday party photoshoot. The restaurant wants to promote having your party there andhaving chef Cou Cou do some crafts with the kids. They turned out really cute and we had a great party.

Go Cougars!

This was Olivia’s costume this year. She and I went to a little Halloween Party on Thursday for her Music Class buddies. It was really cute and she had a great time with her little friends. She was not really into Halloween this year. She loves to dress up, so that didn’t really mark the holliday as being different from any other day. She didn’t really care about the candy and quit after about 5 cars at the church trunk-or-treat party. I’m glad I didn’t spend any money on her costume this year! :)

Cheeky Monkey

Do I really need to add anything to that? :)

Pre-K Halloween Party

Olivia and I went and helped out at Owen’s Halloween Party this year. We went and read our 3 favorite Halloween books to the kids. It was really fun. The kids were all so cute and excited. I love seeing Owen at school. He absolutely loves it!

Jack-O-Lanterns

After waiting for what seemed like an ETERNITY to Owen (Saturday night buying pumpkins to Monday afternoon carving them) we made jack-o-lanterns today. It was really fun and we let the kids pick out the design they wanted. Olivia’s is on the left and Owen’s on the right. They are now happily situated out front by the chrysanthemums.

Pumpkin Patch

We tried out a new Pumpkin Patch this year up in Northern Georgia. It was a lot of fun. I really love the fall and it does not disappoint here in The South. We are still having warm weather but the leaves are starting to turn. We headed out to pick out our pumpkins and take a hayride at Burt’s. My kids LOADED pumpkins one after another into the wheelbarrow and I sneakily put them back as they did. Nothing like wearing out your kids by having them haul stuff around all afternoon. :) The kids were definitely worn out by the time we headed home but we have 2 pumpkins and some fun little decorations from our day at Burt’s.

Park Day

We took the kids to the park before dinner and I brought my camera along since it was such a beautiful fall day. Owen was much too busy throwing rocks into the creek to have his picture taken. But I snapped a few cute ones of Jonah and Livie.

20 Weeks

...and counting. Jonah just wanted to say hi.

Sweet Dreams

Tonight when I put Olivia down to sleep for the night I crawled in to snuggle with her for a few minutes and tell her a story. She requested a story about a Genie and a Princess. So I told her the story of Princess Olivia who met a Genie who wanted to grant her three wishes. I asked her what each thing Princess Olivia wished for as we came to that point in our story and she wished for: 1) a birthday cake with a candle, 2) a castle with a flag, and 3) a swing.
Man do I love this girl.

Since it was so fun to hear her answers, after I put Liv to bed, I went in and snuggled with Owen too and told him a story of a little boy named Owen who was walking in the dessert and found a genie’s lamp. Owen wished for: 1) a red marble that you can’t lose (we recently lost one around here...), 2) a picture of him that never breaks (no recent broken pictures, so I am not sure about that one) and 3) pretend corn for his play kitchen. Wow, not what I was expecting, but I found it to be really cute too. I even told him that the genie granted him one EXTRA wish, and he wished for a new toothbrush...
Then I told him to pretend that he was King Owen of our family for the day and that meant that he got to choose what we were going to do that day all day. I asked him what he wanted to do and he said “Go to Cheryl’s!” Shout out to the Puzeys. :) Your house is Disneyland to my kids. :)

4 Months

My yummy little guy is now 4 months old! :) We went to the doctor the other day and here are his stats:
Height: 26.25 inches (75-90%ile)
Weight: 16 pounds 7 ounces (75-90%ile)
He has started “talking” more and is playing with toys, which is really fun to watch too. Still sleeping and eating like they are going out of style. Thank you Jonah. :)


Happy 33rd Birthday Nate

Happy Birthday to Nate! We had a fun time celebrating this year. He chose to celebrate by:
1. playing Operation with the kids (I let the kids pick out the gift for him this year and after seriously considering Hot Wheels tracks and princess shoes they finally found something that we could all play),
2. spending some QT at the apple store and,
3. eating dinner at an Argentine restaurant for dinner (it was DELICIOUS!)
Thanks Nate for being a wonderful daddy and hubby! :)

Reading

Today Livie was reading to Jonah. I LOVE it when kids “read” books to themselves. I love to hear what they remember and what they say from the pictures in the books. It was really fun to hear and I love that she sat by Jonah and read to him. :) Cute sister.

I can’t seem to get enough pictures of these two. Here are a few more I took the other day.

10 Year Anniversary

Happy 10 years to us. :) We had a fun time celebrating. The theme of the night was “just roll with it” because our plans didn’t turn out exactly as we had thought. Luckily that is one thing having children has taught us...be happy with plan B, C, D, or even E. I am happy to do that for the man that makes my life so good. It was fun for us to take a little trip down memory lane and think of how we celebrated each year. The funny thing is...the years when I was pregnant on our anniversary, I could NOT remember how we celebrated. Further proof that pregnancy brain is an actual phenomenon. :)
When Nate proposed to me in May 2000 we were visiting my family in Washington. We decided to go on a date one night and watch the sunset from my favorite spot at Larrabee park. We sat out on the rocks and brought a “picnic” of Life Cereal because it was our favorite at the time. So we hiked our way out to the rock and Nate hands me the box of Life to open, which I do, and the “prize” inside was a beautiful ring tied to a rose. I turned around to find him on his knee proposing. He was nervous and forgot the punchline which was “will you share your Life with me”  get it? :) So with that history, for our 10 year anniversary he gifted me another box of life cereal with a note that said Thank you for sharing your life with me.

3 Months

Jonah is growing like a weed, per usual. He decided on the day he turned 3 months to step up his game a bit and he started laughing. Now we are all working hard around the clock to make him laugh. :) It is so cute to hear a babies laugh!!! He also started rolling over from his tummy to his back. He is still our delightful, bubble blowing, smiley little boy and we are so happy to have this sweet addition to our family. We love Jonah.

A Day at the Zoo

Owen, Olivia and I went to the Zoo this week with our friends Katie and Emmi. It was a hot day, but we had a great time. I love letting my kids wear themselves out running around the zoo. As it gets cooler, I think we will all enjoy it a bit more. Here are a few pics from our day at the zoo. My kids look so big in these pictures. I can’t believe how quickly they are growing.  :( Sigh.

11 Weeks

Jonah is 11 weeks old this week! Time is flying by. We spent the afternoon at the pool the other day and I snapped this one of him and I giggle every time I see it. It reminds me a little bit of this one. :)
Today while playing a guessing game with Owen he said:
I am thinking of someone in our family... He has blue eyes, a big belly, drinks milk and poops a lot.
So there is our little 11 month old in a nutshell, courtesy of Owen. :)

3 Kids is Fun

So far I am really enjoying the new challenge of 3 kids. They are each so different, and fun to watch. I have my energetic boy who rushes head-long into life, my dawdling little girl who will have things here way and at her pace, and my new little lump of sugar who just smiles and blows bubbles so far. I have noticed that with 3 kids we are in full chaos mode. With one I could be “off” sometimes and with 2 there was less of that. Now I feel like the new normal is just chaos. Jerry Sinefeld said having three kids is like having a blender with no lid. That seems like a pretty apt description so far. And I’m only 9 weeks into this gig...

Olivia's Bed Head

This little girl must just nestle that sweet little head of hers into her pillow all night because this is what we end up with in the morning...

2 Months

I can hardly believe I am writing this, but Jonah is 9 weeks old already! We went to the doctor for his 2 month appointment and here are the numbers:
Height: 24.75 inches
Weight: 14lbs 14.5oz

Our not so little man is growing like a weed! :)

Pool Days

The only way to not melt during the summer in Atlanta is to go to the pool. We’ve been lucky enough to go quite frequently this summer and my kids have had a blast. As a kid my parents could never get me out of the water and it’s fun to see my kids have just as much fun as I did. 

Maddio's Art Camp

Yet another Saturday Art Camp at Uncle Maddio’s. Owen had a dinosaur painted on the side of his face, and the kids made pizza out of modeling clay and paint. It was good, messy fun. On our way out, I took a picture of the kids in front of one of the posters Nate designed for the art camp, with their pictures on it.

And Nate has expanded his resume and now can add Mural Painting to his list of mad skillz.

Atlanta Braves and Dale Murphy

It was Mormon night at the Braves game tonight, so we piled our family in the car to go and meet Dale Murphy. He kindly signed our braves baseball for us, and I told him I am related to the amazing Eli Slesk. :) Then we took the kids to march around the field in a parade before the game, and got to see ourselves on the big screen (my alternate title for this post is “Does this JumboTron make me look Fat?”). We watched about 45 minutes of the game, my kids mostly watched the cotton candy, hot dogs and frozen lemonades paraded before them in 5 minute intervals. What snacks I had brought PALED in comparison to the wonders at Turner Field that night. It was a lot for our little guys, but we had a great time, and we have successfully made it to our 1 Braves game for the season. It was a fun night! For a little walk down memory lane, here are pics from the last two times... here and here.

Maddio's Art Camp

Over the past few weeks Uncle Maddio’s has been hosting Art Camp for Kids on Saturdays. We’ve been to two of them so far and they’ve been really fun. Last time they had their faces painted. The kids got to paint T shirts this time. The Horlacher’s joined us for the fun and the kids had a blast.

Surprise!

I must say 34 has been my unexpectedly best birthday in years! I guess it is because there is nothing you really celebrate about 34, so I had no expectations. Hooray for being plesantly surprised. :) And VERY surprised I was when, after my kids were in bed asleep at the end of the day (while I was sitting on the couch, wet hair pulled back into a bun, wearing yesterday’s mostly clean clothing and watching In Her Shoes on TV) when 6 of my dear friends showed up for a surprise birthday party! They came with THE cake of my dreams (I’ve mentioned it so many times in the past it’s embarrassing...) and Nate set up the LCD projector and we played RockBand. It looked like we were having a mini rave from the outside of our house and our neighbors asked us about it the next day. :) It was a lot of fun and a really great way to spend a Friday night.

Olivia

Olivia is a two year old extraordinaire. She has the sweetest little personality and its fun to watch her interact with her brothers. Nate snapped this one of her snuggling Jonah this morning after they’d both just woken up. I love how this picture also demonstrates her amazing Bed Head capabilities.

7 Weeks

Jonah is growing like a weed. He is so round and yummy and generally pretty easy so far. He’s already 7 weeks old, almost 8 and it just keeps flying by. I look back at the millions of pictures of Owen I had by this age (literally, I don’t think I did anything but take pictures of him all day...) and he looks a lot like Owen did at this age. The other day at the pool he found his thumb and I couldn’t resist snapping a picture.

Princesses

Our friends, the Hadleys, stopped by to visit us the other day. It had been YEARS since we had seen them and it was really fun to catch up with Denise and the girls. They have two girls who LOVE to play dress up, and were thrilled when we brought out our dress up clothes. We just had to snap a few pics of the girls all dressed up. It was too cute to see them all clacking around in their heels and princess dresses. Little girls are so fun. :)

6 Weeks

I just love my snuggly little guy. Today he is 6 weeks old and we are still loving every little bit of him each day. He is growing so quickly. He started smiling last week, on purpose! Not just those accidental smiles. It is so fun to just stare at him and I love how a newborn slows down the pace of family life. We love our Jonah.

Owen's 5th Birthday

For Owen’s birthday this year Olivia and I picked up a few doughnuts and headed over to his preschool to help him celebrate. There is nothing better than walking into a classroom of five year olds with donuts. They could not have been more excited. I love that about this age.
His teachers made him a birthday crown and gave him a little ring with a soccer ball and a coin purse with 5 pennies in it! We sang Happy Birthday, ate donuts, then Owen showed me all around in his classroom and the kids danced and sang a few songs. It was really cute and we had a great time. It looks pretty great to be FIVE.

We had a great time celebrating Owen’s birthday this year. He was SUPER excited about it and it was really fun to watch him enjoy his day. We decorated his room while he slept and he woke up to balloons and streamers in his room. He thought that was pretty cool. His party was that afternoon and we had about 15 kids at the house. We jumped in the jumpy castle (thanks to our neighbors for loaning that to us), made balloon animals and swords, had a water balloon toss, decorated goody bags and had cake and ice cream. Good times.

Happy 34th Birthday Alli

Another good year. I celebrated this one in Utah with Nate’s family. If one has to turn 34, I really recommend doing it like this:
Waking up late
Going for a walk with Jill
Shopping at the Park City Outlets (with spending money even!)
Nana watched the kids while we shopped and they baked a cake for me :)
Eating dinner at Cafe Rio
Cake and ice cream with family out on the back porch
Making sure fire extinguisher is nearby as there were MANY candles on my cake. My eyebrows did not get singed, and I count that as lucky. Here’s to the next 365.

...in your life seen such cute shoes? My sister, Cheryl, gave these to me for my birthday this year. I love them so much I am going to restructure my whole wardrobe around them. :)

Trip to Utah

While in Utah we went up Weber Canyon to spend a few days at the family cabin. It is so pretty up there and the kids loved hiking around and “playing tennis” while daddy and uncle jordan played. It was fun to see them have so much fun and to spend time with our cousins we don’t get to see very often. :)

While in Utah we were able to see and spend time with several of my family members. We went to Seven Peaks one day, which is always one of my favorite things to do. My kids LOVED it and we had to drag them away at the end of the day after spending at least 6 hours having fun. We just love the water and both kids really enjoyed the slides, even the big ones. :)

Because we all love to go bowling together, Owen equates Bowling with Utah. :) We were able to go not just once but TWICE this past trip. Owen was in heaven!

We had a reunion of sorts with both sides of the family while we were in Utah. Here is the Johannesen Clan. The first picture (above) is all of us and the second picture (below) is just the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We are not short on numbers in our family. We had a great time seeing everyone and catching up.

At the Richard’s family reunion we played loads of fun games. Nate and Owen were on a team together and I made sure Olivia and Jonah were happy. :) They had all sorts of events: shot put, volley ball, basket ball, soccer and an obstacle course. We had a great time. It was a beautiful, sunny Utah afternoon. It is so fun to catch up with all of Nate’s cousins and their families.

We blessed Jonah in Nate’s parent’s ward and were able to have my 3 oldest sisters and several of their children come. It was really fun to have so many extended family members present for his blessing. Jill made Jonah’s blessing outfit and I just love it. Jonah behaved really well during the blessing, while my other two had a much harder time not being wiggly during sacrament meeting. Such is life with three I guess. :) Afterwards our families came down the street to the Anderson’s house for a luncheon. It was another fun opportunity to visit with everyone.

We always try to get a family picture with all of Nate’s siblings and their kids when we visit. This gets a bit harder as the years go by as we keep adding smaller people who don’t really like to hold still or look at a camera. But we keep trying. :) Here is the most recent Anderson Family picture.

Yum. I can’t remember the last time we made s’mores. For family night with the Andersons, we headed up Millcreek Canyon. (I cannot express how wonderful, cool and dry air felt to those of us coming from the hot and humid south. ) We had a great time watching the fire, roasting marshmallows, making and eating s’mores, throwing rocks into the creek and visiting.

Nate’s parents asked him to go through all of his stuff. You know all the stuff one leaves at one’s parents house? It was a lot and Nate, lovable pack-rat that he is, went through it all. It was really fun to see so many fun, memorable things. Here are his tennis shoes that he really did want to bring home to Atlanta. Sadly (for Nate), our luggage was already filled to capacity, so these had to make their way to DI. But we took a picture for posterity sake. Good.bye early 90’s tennis shoes. Thanks for the memories and for a good laugh on a Monday night. :)

Face Painting

Nate took the kids to Maddio’s today for a Kid’s Art Camp they were hosting. Each of them wanted to have their face painted and I thought it turned out pretty cute. I am amazed they each held still for that long. :)

Father's Day

Does anyone else find it near impossible to get a picture where all their kids are looking and smiling at the camera? I find it very, very difficult...sigh.
Father’s Day was a fun day around here and we are just so grateful for Nate! By his account, he had a great day. He is an amazing dad and everyday we love him more. :) It was fun to be able to show him how much we love an appreciate him.

2 Weeks Old

So the little man is already 2 weeks old. He is still so yummy & fun and I am enjoying having a little cuddler again. My older two don’t want to cuddle much anymore. That’s when I know it’s time for another baby. Now I can get my fill of snuggles with this little guy. He is a rockstar eater & sleeper, everything a newborn should be & we are loving the new addition to our family.

Coming Home

I always think it is so funny to strap your wee little newborn into a car seat for the first time. They look so tiny! We came home on Sunday. Nate picked us up while Owen & Olivia played at their friend’s house after church. Sunday’s are nice days to come home. We were all very excited to be home and to have our new little man at home with us. He’s going to be a great fit in our family, I can already tell. :)

Kate's Account

My sister Cheryl graciously offered to take my kids overnight while I was in the hospital with Jonah. My kids could not have been MORE excited about this. In fact, my kids were more excited about THEIR plans than about why such plans had been made (the arrival of their adorable brother?!?). At least until they met him. :)
While there, Cheryl’s youngest, Kate, kept careful notes on how Olivia was enjoying her stay. I took a picture with my phone (lousy quality...sorry) because I thought it was so cute.

Here is what it says:
(June 5, 2010: Kate is 6 years old)

Olivia has been good for 2 days.
Today she cried.
She stepped on a lego and they are sharp and pointy and she ate apple sauce and tuna sandwich and she said she liked it.
I forgot what she ate yesterday and she watched Tom & Jerry a couple times and it seemed she liked it.
I like it too.

Jonah Cannon Anderson

Our third baby arrived June 3rd at 11:36am. We are so excited to have him in our growing family. He was not all that thrilled with the process, as you can see above, but he’s now grown used to the idea of the outside world and is settling in quite nicely.
He is our biggest newborn, weighing in at 9lbs and 9oz! Our previous 2 were both 8lbs 1oz, so he was surprisingly big! He is 21.5 inches long.  He still looks really small to us though.  :)
He has already earned himself a little nickname, thanks to Olivia who pronounces his name so that it sounds more like “donut” than “jonah”. We now call him baby donut.
His name. The first name is one we both really liked. My dad’s middle name is Jones or Jonas (named after his dad’s brother) and I like Jonas, but really love Jonah, so we settled on that one. And his middle name is in keeping up our tradition of giving our kids family last names as middle names. Anderson...well that one is obvious.
So there you have it: Jonah Cannon Anderson. Here are a few pictures from the big day. I am sure there will be many more in the coming days, but be patient with me as I am sure not to post them in a timely manner. :)

Belly

Here they are. The pregnancy photos taken tonight, the eve of baby #3’s arrival to our family. He is scheduled to arrive somewhere around 11:30am tomorrow morning. Say a little prayer for us that all goes well. We are anxious and excited to meet our little man. :)
More details to come...

Nesting

I must admit that nesting is one thing that gets out of hand when I am pregnant. Here is a list of things we (read: mostly Nate) have accomplished during this crazy phase...

Demolishing old cabinetry and then waterproofing the basement, assembling shelves and moving stuff into our newly functional basement.
Cleaning out the attic, going through all the baby clothes and getting them in properly labeled bins.
Painting and redecorating olivia’s room (pictures coming...).
Painting and redecorating owen and baby #3’s room (pictures coming).
Painting the kid’s beds to match their new rooms.
Organizing the pantry and updating the food storage supply.
Planting monkey grass along the side of our house.
Cutting down low hanging tree branches and a small tree in the back yard.
Putting in stone pavers to create a little spot for our garbage cans.
 Buying a new car...that was necessary, but just adds to the chaos...
 Painting and installing new hardware into Owen’s bathroom.
 Relocating his “office” to our room.
 Relocating my “office” to the kitchen.

I am just lucky my husband is alive and still loves me at this point. :)

Last Soccer Game

Owen’s first soccer season has been a lot of fun for all of us. He has had 2 of his good friends on the team with him and his dad helped coach. It was fun to see the little guys practice and play. Here are a few pictures I snapped at his last game to help us remember. I love the picture of the little huddle. :)

Tucker Days

We went to the Tucker Days festival on Saturday. It was really fun for the kids. We watched the parade, got to tour inside of fire trucks, learn how and when to call 911, and see some dogs from the animal shelter. It made for a fun Saturday morning.

Riding Horses

For preschool this week we went to the Young’s house to let the kid’s ride horses. Sister Young teaches horseback riding lessons to kids and was really great with our little group. They learned all about how horses move, how to feed, brush and saddle them, and each of them took a turn riding the horse. It was a really fun field trip.

Beach Trip

We took advantage of an opportunity to go to the Beach this past week. I wanted to go this summer, but I didn’t really want to go to the beach with a tiny baby...so we decided this would be the best time to get away.
We had a great time. Our friends, the Horlachers, joined us and we all had a great time. We took some family pictures again (not my favorite thing to do at 8 months pregnant...but so it goes) and now everyone can see the belly.
I am just amazed by how constantly entertained kids are at the beach. We built sand castles, filled in motes and holes with water, dug tunnels, dug holes, jumped over waves, drove dump trucks, collected shells, found crabs and jelly fish, and watched clams burrow into the sand under the tide. It is just one project after another and we all had a great time.

And I am now 8 months along! It is officially 4 more weeks until Baby Day! June 3rd at 11:15am to be exact. Here are a few belly shots...

Words to Live By

For many years now, this has been my favorite quote. It serves as a sort of litmus test for me to see how well I am doing at developing Christ-like charity. I need to read it from time to time and today is one of those days. I have been thinking about it a lot lately and thought I would share. It comes from this talk, which is wonderful.

Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other.
-Marvin J. Ashton

Playdate with Grandma and Grandpa Johannesen

After we were home from the beach my parents still had a few days to visit with us. They came down to our neck of the woods one day and we took them to lunch at Maddio’s and then went to one of our favorite places in Atlanta, PDK Airport Park. I snapped a few pictures of the kids with my parents. I love my parents. I couldn’t ask for better parents. They were really cute with the kids and we enjoyed our time with them while they were here!

Amazed

I am constantly amazed by what my kids do. For example, Olivia can take one smoothie (about 1/2 cup) drink most of it in a cup with a lid and straw. Then, when mom is not watching very closely, she takes the lid off to get that last tiny bit, and it ends up from ear to ear and all over her! Usually there is a bit on her forehead, definitely down the front of her shirt and all of this happens in mere seconds...needless to say, Spray and Wash is my best friend right now.

Happy Easter

We had a fun Easter weekend. :) We attended an egg hunt with several friends and had a GREAT time. I have now put up all the plastic eggs in our house because all my kids want me to do all day is hide easter eggs so they can find them.

I always love it when Conference weekend is the same weekend as Easter. We took our kids to a session of conference at the church on Sunday and something about the dark room helped them to be quiet. About 1/2 hour into the session, Owen asked when the “movie” would be over.

This year the Easter bunny brought them things we can use to do some gardening outside (in our little containers...) and today we planted wildflowers, tomatoes and basil. They each helped out with their shovels, rakes and watering cans in hand. We decorated little stones for them to put in their gardens and put pinwheels in the yard too. They loved it and it was a lot of fun to spend time this afternoon outside playing.

Conversation with the Little Man

Today we were at a friend’s house and the kids were all playing in the back yard, having a great time. I must have called Owen “baby” which I tend to do and have done since he was little. He will always be my baby right? Well, I say I must have because I didn’t even realize I had, but I heard him say to his friend, “my mom calls me baby, but I’m not a baby. I’m a big boy.” I heard that and I realized he might not like the term I find so endearing, so I asked him if he liked it when I called him baby and he said no. Sigh... My little man is growing up and now I am embarrassing him in front of his friends.

Soccer

We have officially started our first season of soccer! And Owen could not be more excited about playing. Two of his other little friends are on the team, which is really fun! We  have had 2 practices and 1 game so far and our next game is on Saturday. It is really fun to watch him learn and play!

Austin, Texas

My sister, Kristen lives with her family in Austin Texas, and we decided to take a road trip (that’s right...we drove) to visit them and check out their neck of the woods. We loved visiting them and letting the kids play. We loved Austin and seeing all of their favorite spots and eating at all of their favorite restaurants. Kristen and Mark are excellent hosts and tour guides and we had a great time.

I thought it might be fun to share a few pictures (when I remembered to pull out my camera...I am not awesome at remembering...) of our trip. We drove out Saturday morning. It took us about 15 hours to get there. I was surprised and delighted at how well my kids did in the car for that long. We drove it all in one day.

A few of our Favorite Things we did in Austin:

*Playing with cousins. This was by far the best part: seeing the kids play together. They have an endless supply of light sabers at their house as well as a trampoline and a swing set. My kids were in absolute heaven. There is even a little neighborhood park in walking distance. (Kristen lives in a really cute neighborhood). It was really fun to let the kids run and play.
















*Zilker Park: This is THE park in downtown Austin and it has a train that takes you around the park. That was a huge hit. We packed up a picnic lunch and took the kids to the park to play and ride the train.





















*Rudy’s: we went there to experience Texas BBQ. I wish I had taken pictures of this place. You can sit in the “back yard” of the restaurant where they have picnic tables set up and a huge yard for kids to run and play. This might be the absolute perfect place to eat for parents who have young children. Also, to Nate’s absolute delight Texas is Dr. Pepper country so you can find it EVERYWHERE.

*Treats: we had the best treats. Kristen took us to a really cute candy shop that has every conceivable candy, even the stuff I used to buy at the corner store across from my Grandma’s house in Canada! It was fun and we bought the kids some lego candy. We also sampled ice cream from Amy’s and cupcakes from Hey Cupcake! Both very yummy. Nothing can outdo the treat we made though. Kristen taught me how to make caramel and chocolate dipped pretzels. I, once intimidated by the caramel making process, learned how and Kristen made it look really easy. We let the kids decorate a few pretzels with sprinkles and they turned out really cute. Kristen is great at coming up with really creative and fun ideas for the little guys.
We also tried the pioneer woman’s cinnamon rolls. I think we halved the recipe and came out with 3 dozen and they are amazing!

































*San Antonio: We went about an hour and a half south to San Antonio and stayed the night at the most fun hotel ever. We took turns with Kristen and Mark going to the temple, we played at the really cool water park that was part of our hotel, we went to see the Alamo, and the River Walk in San Antonio. Our kids fell asleep within seconds when we started back on the road to Austin that night. We wore them out (always my daily goal).











































*Hadley: We were able to meet the new addition to the Hilton family, Hadley Jane. :) She is perfect, no really, PERFECT. She smiles and sleeps and eats and wears the cutest clothes. It was fun to watch how Olivia reacted to her.













*Games: We learned a fun new card game called “May I?” that was really fun and when we had energy and time after our fun days and getting kids to bed, we were able to play a few times.

So those are just a few of the highlights and if you haven’t gone out to Austin to visit the Hilton’s you are just plain missing out because it is FUN! :) Thanks Kristen, Mark and kiddos for a fabulous trip!

Reading Books

The other day I was cleaning and getting ready for our trip, I could hear Owen reading books to Olivia. I peeked in to see and couldn’t resist, so I grabbed my camera in time to snap a few shots of them sitting together reading books.

I Love Valentine's Day

There are many reasons why. I’ll share a few. First of all I have noticed that holidays are just so much fun with kids. Here is a walk down memory lane...

Valentine’s Day 2005: we announced the arrival of Owen :)
















Valentine’s Day 2006: Owen’s first valentine’s day. He is so tiny. We started our tradition of making pink heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast.












Valentine’s Day 2007: we started our tradition of making heart-shaped sugar cookies. one thing I love to do is make sugar cookies and holidays like valentine’s day are the perfect time to do just that.















We sent out this Valentine:
















Valentine’s Day 2008: we announced the arrival of Olivia earlier in 2007 with this post, and then took a picture of her in the onesie for valentines day.  Owen helped me decorate the sugar cookies. :)































Valentine’s Day 2009: we started our tradition of our “things we LOVE about you” lists for each family member (however the picture below is from THIS year). we write one thing down each day for each member in our family. I don’t have any pictures of the kids on Valentine’s Day, but here is a picture of the kids a few days later...




















Valentine’s Day 2010: keeping with our (now) tradition of baby announcements and valentine’s day we announce the arrival of baby #3. due to arrive June 3rd.






















PS....it’s a boy. :)

Valentine's Day Craft

During Olivia’s nap one day, Owen and I made these little sculpy hearts with everyone’s name. It was our quiet activity/craft for the day. He is very excited about the baby and it was his idea to make a heart for the baby as well.

Preschool

We are participating in a preschool coop and have preschool at our house every Wednesday.  Today we made these little dinosaur headbands and I just couldn’t resist taking a picture of the kids. Olivia’s smile cracks me up. :)

Fellini's

O Fellini’s pizza restaurant on LaVista, how I love thee. My children love to eat here because there are flat screen TVs playing cartoon network, and because Owen likes the way your name sounds. Nate and I can have an actual conversation when we eat out with our children, we just have to pause and tell our kids to take another bite now and again. I had to snap this with my camera because it was just too funny to watch them crane their little necks to watch the TV which was positioned (obviously) almost directly above our table.

Birthday Girl

Olivia turned 2! I can hardly believe it. She is our darling little girl and we have had a wonderful 2 years so far. We were at Cheryl’s house watching her kids and so we celebrated it there. Cheryl bought her this dress last year for her birthday and she wore it all around the house and loved it. She even kept her little crown on. I couldn’t have been more thrilled. :)
We made her norwegian pancakes for her birthday breakfast and that’s all she wanted to eat all day.
We made some cupcakes for her and sang happy birthday. When it was time for her to blow out the candle, she knew just what to do and wanted to do it again. After a few rounds of  “Happy Birthday” singing, we dug into the cupcakes and ice cream.  She opened her presents and was delighted. Aunt Sammy made her a doll! Look how cute this is. I am amazed by Sammy’s talents. It was a really fun day for our really fun and sweet girl. We just love our little girl and all the fun she adds to our family. Happy Birthday Olivia!

Puzeys

We had an adventure this month! Olivia and Owen and I packed up for almost a week and headed up to the Puzeys house to watch the kids while Cheryl and Doug took a trip to Washington. We had a blast. It was a LOT of work wrangling six kids on my own, but here are some of the trip highlights:
While doing homework, someone tooted and each kid blamed the kid younger than him. Ha ha. It was Owen.
Zac read Owen the funnies in the Sunday paper and then had to explain every part of the humor to him. Each time he would explain it and say, “get it?” Owen would say, “No.” So cute to hear Zac try to explain the jokes to Owen.
The kids played together REALLY well and got along wonderfully (tender mercy). :)
Olivia is not a champ at finishing her dinner, since it takes her a lot longer than anyone else. Kate fed Olivia after she was done and she used all the best tactics: airplane, choo-choo train and car. All at Olivia’s very specific requests.
We were able to play outside in the Puzey’s super fun backyard! When we got home Owen told me he wants a new house (not an old one), with stairs, and a playhouse in the back yard. Those are my marching orders from my 4 year old. :) Working on it.
Morgan and Carter were amazingly helpful and always pitched in to help me work.
Zac wanted to play tic-tac-toe with Olivia during church and drew the little board. Then he told Olivia that she is X and to put an X wherever she wanted. She stared. He then handed her the pen and she stared. Then he saw he needed to lay some groundwork for her and wrote out the entire alphabet (upper and lower case) and showed her each letter and stopped at O and X for emphasis. Then he drew some Xs and Os with dashed lines for her to trace the letters. He worked so hard on that game of tic-tac-toe. It was so cute.
Morgan and her friend doing their hair and make up Lady GaGa style.

Making Cookies

I have an endless amount of help in the kitchen at all times by my two kids. They love being in the kitchen with me and helping me, especially when I am making cookies. We decided to make some cookies the other day and before I can even pull out the chocolate chips, I had two kids pushing bar stools up to the counter and climbing on. I had to take a quick picture of them helping me out, and to boot, I needed to take a picture of them in their matching T shirts. I don’t dress them alike often, but Nate bought them these threadless T shirts and they both wanted to wear them today. Why not? It makes for a cute picture and a fun memory.
The cookies turned out great by the way. Here is what we made:

Chocolate Mint Cookies
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
sugar crystals for rolling the cookies
1 bag york pieces
1/2 bag ghirardelli dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Mix dry ingredients and set aside. Cream butter, sugar, brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Chill for about one hour (I often opt out of this step). Make into 1 inch balls, and roll in sugar crystals. Bake for 8 minutes.