Junkmas

Another great Junkmas holiday with the Puzeys. This time they had the genius plan to combine it with the BYU game! It was a fun day. Much junk and BYU even won the game! :)

Beardo

Nate’s good friend, Andrew, bought him this Beardo for Christmas this year. It is a crochet hat with an attached beard with awesome handlebar mustache attached. Anyone who knows Nate understands that funny facial hair is part of who he is...I won’t embarrass him (read: myself) with pictures. So Nate has been taking his little Beardo everywhere he goes and snaps pictures on his phone. It’s a man thing. :) Beardo instantly turns Nate into Mr. Tough Guy.

Christmas Morning

Owen. Always so demure.... We had a fun Christmas this year. The Hilton family drove in from Austin to be a part of the festivities and we are so glad they did. The kids all had a great time with their cousins. The kids were so patient this year. We woke up and got ready and went to church. After church we put PJs back on and then opened our gifts. That took some effort on their part! It was a great morning. It was fun to be all together at the Puzey’s house. We had Norwegian Pancakes for brunch and played with new toys all day. :)

Christmas Card 2011

Christmas Cards

The kids love to do crafts. This year we made Christmas cards for their friends. They loved it and it was pretty quick and easy. Hooray! :)

Kindergarten Christmas Program

Owen’s Kindergarten class program this year was so cute. It was the nativity. Owen was a cow. He was really worried. He had been sick the few days before, but we practiced his lines. He was so excited that he was feeling well enough to be in the program. It was really cute. Then we went to see his “who” that he made of himself (in the picture below) in his classroom.

Santa

Today we went to the Center for Puppetry Arts here in Atlanta to see Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. We did this last year too, and it was so much fun! Afterwards we went to see Santa. Owen was very excited about this. Olivia seemed excited, but when it came right down to it, she chickened out. Luckily we were able to have another chance and she took her turn that time. Jonah didn’t really get it and didn’t really like it much either. I never got a great picture with all three kids, but I tried. That counts for something, right? :)

Decorating the Tree

Another fun holiday season has begun...
We decorated our tree this year and it is so much fun to see the ornaments and let the kids hang them on the bottom 1/3 of the tree. :) They each decorated their own trees this year too for their rooms, which is always a big hit. I love having the tree up and the fun Christmas lights glowing through the windows.

Thanksgiving

We started our morning nice and early by heading downtown to Turner Field to watch Nate finish the Atlanta 1/2 Marathon. We had fun filling our pockets with acorns while we waited for Nate to cross the finish line. We got there an hour after the race started, and saw the first guy cross the finish line at 1:08!!! That’s insane... Nate beat his previous time and finished at 1:34! Go Nate!!! He had a great time. He ran with his good friend and running buddy, Shannon Hill again. It was a great way to start our day.
We headed up to the Puzeys after Nate was cleaned up, but we missed the Turkey Shoot this year. boo. We did have a great time. The meal was great, the company was great and we are Thankful for our many blessings. :)

Zoo Day

Another fun day at the zoo. This time we got FREE Tshirts just for being members. The kids always love this and then they eat dinner really well and go to bed early because they are so tired from having fun. Why don’t I live across the street from the zoo?

Ragnar Relay Tennessee

Here they are. Nate and the Chariots of Tired team. They made it through their 2 day, 200 mile relay race! Nate had a great time. He spent a lot of time organizing, preparing, training, and designing and it all paid off in the end. Here is a map of their race. They started out early Friday morning and finished on Saturday late afternoon. Nate was TIRED but happy when he finally arrived back home late Saturday night.

Happy Halloween

Our ward had our Fall Festival on Saturday before Halloween. We had a great time. This year we decorated the trunk with potions, since we had a scientist, and since dry ice is just so much fun. I only managed to snap 3 pictures the whole evening, but I had to let you see our potions. :)

What a holiday! I find myself fighting against all odds to make this holiday last only about one week. I did my best. We had a great time of it this year. We carved our pumpkins, made our favorite cookies (and promptly took them to share with friends the following day...can’t be too careful with these...or I’ll eat them all myself), went trunk AND trick-or-treating, won for best trunk at the ward trunk-or-treat (oh yes we DID), and didn’t spend one red cent on costumes (hooray!).
Owen dressed up as a scientist. This was his choice. He wants to be a scientist when he grows up and we have been working on experiments (moon mud, oil and water, tornado soda bottles...thanks aunt jamie!) and learning lots of fun stuff. I tried my work coat on him and he and I were both thrilled that it fit! And, nerd that I am, I kept my big goggles from college Chemistry class and he wore those too. At the ward party someone asked him if he were a mad scientist, to which he bellowed, “I’M NOT MAD!!! JUST A SCIENTIST.” He sounded a little mad. Our trunk was decorated with bubbling, steamy potions. It was fun.
Olivia borrowed a costume from her cousin, Rylee (actually 1st cousin once removed...that was for my mom). She thought she was Strawberry Shortcake and who am I to correct her? She looked cute and has been bouncing around the house for days in her costume. She is the most easy-going Anderson by far and if someone asked her if she was a fairy, she said yes, or if a princess, also ok by her. She is easy-going but does have an opinion too. Once while trick-or-treating the kind lady putting candy in her little bag was met with a stiff arm from Olivia and an, “I don’t like that kind.” I was a bit speechless. We obviously didn’t review our trick-or-treating etiquette.
Jonah was a frog. I nabbed this costume years ago after halloween and it finally fits someone at the right time. He looked awesome and was great! He even said trick-or-treat a few times! Not that anyone but Nate or I could decipher it well. He was happy wearing his costume, walked around the neighborhood (slowly) and only went to a few houses, but he had a great time and was fun to have along for the night. My other kids have not fared so well at this age, but he was great.
We went to my sister, Cheryl’s house for dinner and trick-or-treating. Cheryl is amazingly hospitable, as always, and made her rockstar southwest chicken soup. Another Happy Halloween. :)

Delicious Tradition

I tried my best to not make these this year, but...I won/lost that one (depending on how you look at it). I posted the recipe before. Yum. I have to share the love quickly because they are delicious! The kids and I made these. Making cookies with kids is fun and incredibly messy, but fun.

Pumpkins

We carved our pumpkins! This year we bought smaller ones, which were much easier to carve. Hooray. I stopped by a little local produce stand to get them. I consider it a tender mercy that my kids kept calling it the pumpkin patch. So no driving hours to an actual pumpkin patch. Phew.
Owen wanted a traditional pumpkin face. Olivia wanted a princess. Jonah was napping, so he didn’t get to vote. The kids chose a robot face for him. I chose the BYU logo for our big pumpkin. We kept one extra to either 1) make into a pumpkin pie or 2) spoil in the fridge before we get around to making a pumpkin pie. Anyone ever made a pumpkin pie from scratch?

Kiddos

We had to make an “Owen’s Favorite Things” poster for kindergarten this week and Nate drew a cartoon of him. He started to cry when he saw his cartooned face because he “looked weird” so we snapped a quick pic and printed it out and glued it on top. :) I didn’t know he was so sensitive about his face. He picked out he pictures of all of his favorite things. It turned out pretty cute.

His favorite things right now are:
jumping on the trampoline
Christmas
StarWars
Bowling
Bouncy Balls
Playing at the park with Friends
Pretending to be a Waiter
Scaling the door frames
His Birthday
The Beach
Building Sand Castles
Playing Soccer
His Tomato Plant
Glow in the Dark Dance Parties (especially at Puzeys)
Making Cookies
Kindergarten
Building towers out of Blocks and Legos
Drawing/Painting
Collecting
Swimming
Jumping over waves at the Beach
The Aquarium
Pretending to be a Ninja
and many, many more...

He has had quite the list of things he wants to be when he grows up. In the past few months it has transitioned from Helicopter Pilot, to Ninja Wizard, to now a scientist (because he loves to invent things and thinks it would be cool to make potions).  He is a fun-loving, energetic happy boy and we love having him in our family.


Olivia is my sweet girl sandwiched between two loud and energetic boys. You literally have to part the Red Sea (Owen and Jonah) to hear her sometimes. She is much more quiet than the boys and loves imaginative play. She can make playthings out of anything. We don’t allow toys at the dinner table, but that’s not a problem for this girl because her spoon and fork are best friends having a party. She loves to play with her little baby and puts on her pink easter hat, sunglasses and her little princess heels and pushes her baby around in the stroller. She loves to read and I have yet to see what her book limit is. We always reach my limit first and I think it was about 20. She loves to: jump on the trampoline and play with Owen, play with her petshops, paint with watercolors, chat with Miss Beth, go to Cheryl’s, go to the library (for the stories, she does NOT like the songs...), play at the park, play princess, watch shows, wear pink, wear her boots, and snuggle. We love our Livie girl she add such a soft, sweet happiness to our family.

Little big man is growing up so fast. We went in for his 15 month check up recently and he is growing like a weed. He talks a TON. His words right now are: dad, mom, hi, Owen, Olivia, book, ball, up/down, on/off, please, more, uh-oh, uh-uh (no), crash, car, Jesus, all done, ouch, hot/cold, moo, ruf-ruf (dog), meow, wow, yes, choo-choo, hand, hat, kiss, diaper, bye-bye, wow!, cool!, all gone, belly button, buckle, whoa!, bonk, stuck, treat, boom!, diaper, pumpkin, cheese, shoes and probably a few more we haven’t been able to decipher yet. He is energetic and fun. He loves to smile and will say cheese for the camera. He loves to read books. His favorite book is moo ba la la la :) He loves to play outside, dance, be toted around my his mom, go for walks, do anything the big kids are doing, & play catch, to name a few. He is just a little joy to have around and we love him.

Park Afternoon

We took the kids to the park to play the other night after dinner. It was a lot of fun. We are having wonderful fall weather. It has been brisk, but not cold. This is my favorite time of year. Jonah would not let go of that little football. He is just SURE he is as big as the older two and can do anything they can. He gets a little peeved when he can’t keep up. Owen loves the swings, he loves underdogs, and is no longer afraid of heights. He is now quite the little climber. Olivia is still more tame in her outdoor endeavors. She likes very mellow pushes on the swings, but she loves the slides.

Fall

The kids and I took a walk around the neighborhood. The leaves were so pretty we decided to make crowns out of all the leaves we could find. Tree climbing is big around here these days. I snapped a few pics at the park the other day too.
I love how easy it is to play outside this time of year. No bugs, no suffocating humidity, no crazy heat. We are trying to get as much outside playtime in as we can. :)

Nate's 34th Birthday

The big 3.4. We planned a fun day for him. We had breakfast cake that morning (his favorite) with eggs, and gave him his presents. I let the kids pick out gift for him. Owen (and Jonah) picked out lego sets (since that is Owen’s favorite thing to do with daddy), and Olivia picked out a book called “I am Small” (since that is Olivia’s favorite thing to do with daddy). That night we took him to dinner and made him some brownie cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. It was fun to celebrate Nate’s day. We sure love him around here.

Unicorn

Owen drew this picture for Olivia. It’s a unicorn. :)

Saturday

This little missy is reluctant to take pictures, so I usually get her when she is distracted when I can. Today she smiled for me. Yay.
Today we worked out in the yard, then went to Art Camp at Uncle Maddios (where the kids had their faces painted) with our neighbor, Miss Beth. After lunch we came home, did a little side walk chalk art (Owen drew the Solar System) and painting and then watched the afternoon session of General Conference, while Owen practiced his mad door jam climbing skills.
It was a nice day.

Personal Hygiene

Jonah doesn’t know that he is little and don’t even TRY to tell him. He just KNOWS he can do anything the big kids are doing. One of his favorite things to do is wash his hands. This is an activity that is full of squeaks and squawks because he can’t turn on the water, or pump the soap, or dry his hands, or climb down by himself. But he insists on doing it, repeatedly. He needs to lather up and rinse off at least 6 times. It’s a little OCD, I’ll admit, but he has such a grin on his face the whole time that I crack up.

Owen's Birthday Thank you Cards

This is my favorite way of doing kid thank you cards. I just love to see how he draws things. :)

Washington Park, Anacortes

Our last full day in Washington Nate and I took the kids to Sakuma Brothers for some delicious shakes and to Anacortes to play at Washington Park and watch the ferry boats come and go. It was so beautiful. It’s a rocky beach with driftwood to climb and play on. After wearing the kids (and ourselves) out, we headed back to my mom’s house where everyone came over for a Salmon BBQ. That is my favorite meal. It’s delicious and nostalgic.

Grandma & Grandpa Johannesen

We had a great time staying and playing at Grandma and Grandpa Johannesen’s house. My dad let us “help” him in the garden. We spent one morning picking and cutting up green beans. My kids followed him all around the yard eating berries and chatting to him while he worked. My dad built a cute playhouse in the back yard and my mom made blankets, pillows and curtains to go inside. We went to visit them at work one day at the Bishop’s storehouse. My parents were so generous and great and we all had a great time! We were so spoiled on our trip. :)

Fishing on the Skagit River

After heading back to Mount Vernon from Jamie’s we headed out for an evening of fishing on the Skagit River. My dad’s friend has a piece of property out on the river and Owen was dying to have “fishing lessons” as he called them. It was a really nice night and my mom packed us a picnic dinner. Karen and her kids and Heather, Skyler and Tyler came and joined us. We didn’t catch anything, except a log that looked like a fish. And Olivia caught a cold. :)

Slesk Orchard and Gardens

One must always visit Slesk Orchard and Gardens when in Washington. My sister Jamie and her husband Billy are amazing and we love to visit their home. They have an enormous yard with a beautiful garden. We loved walking through the garden picking and eating along the way. They have apples, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, corn, squash, pumpkins, dill, sunflowers, carrots, asian pears, and more. My kids loved the berries. I loved the apples. Nate and Billy set a new record for Aerobie “volleys”...it’s 45 in case you were wondering. Jamie made us a new cookie, which was delicious (see recipe below). We played on the play set and sat and talked on the wooden swing. Billy took the kids around the yard in the wagon on a hunt for fall leaves. We went to Hovander Park. Hung out with Paul, Katie, Avery and Jack. Nate relished a long, flat run (no flat surfaces in Atlanta...). It was great. Jamie gave us (me) chocolates, raspberry jam, dried plums, dried asian pears to take home with us (me). :) We had a great time!

Grandpa Johannesen's Workshop

My dad is always creating something, whether it be a painting (see paintings on the wall), his garden, a play house or a playground for the grandkids, a whittled bird (see shelf behind him), inventing a mobile square foot gardening system, or a model airplane. I saw him in his new workshop off the garage (which he built himself...this was actually my room when I came home from my mission) and had to snap a picture of him. Cute dad. :)

Seattle Temple

Day 1: We flew out EARLY in the morning and took a non-stop flight from ATL to SEA. Jonah was less than thrilled, but the kids did awesome! It’s tough to sit still for that long. My mom and dad picked us up at the airport and took us to lunch. Then we headed straight to the Seattle Temple. My mom is an amazing genealogist and had several family names for us to do. They were special names and when I heard that she wanted to do family names I asked if she’d wait for us to come to Seattle so we could be there for it. My dad did all of the sealings. It was a really, really wonderful experience. I don’t get to go to the temple with my parents or my sisters and their husbands very often, so it was really fun to be together there. My mom was sealed to her parents. My brother in law was sealed to his parents. My nana was sealed to her parents, as were my grandmother’s sisters to their parents. There were several names I didn’t know, but it was fun to have mom tell us where they all fit together on our family tree. One of the sealings we did was for the King and Queen of Ireland. It was a great experience. A fantastic way to start out a family vacation. :)

Happy Birthday Owen

We have a 6 year old in the house! I can hardly believe how quickly the last year has gone, but Owen is now our smart, energetic, happy, ever-climbing, knock-knock joking 6 year old BOY! He had it all worked out in his head how he wanted to spend his big day: Breakfast cake in the morning. I brought donuts to school to celebrate after lunch. We partied at Chuck E. Cheese with a few of his friends. And then invited our neighbors to join us for ice cream cake after dinner. It was a full day! :) We love our Owen.

11 Year Anniversary

That’s right.  11. We celebrated by having dinner at a “restaurant” at our house, called Fun Food (named by Owen). I borrowed this idea from my friend, Robyn. The kids brought us the menu and then our food and even refreshed our drinks a few times. They were very cute and excited about it. Olivia somehow came up with the term “giver-giver” as her word for waiter. When we corrected her, she changed it to “waiter-waiter” a few times, but ultimately settled back on “giver-giver” as her title of choice. I have no idea.

We had a great meal and topped it off with this little “wedding cake” the kids and I made together. Owen wrote out the menu, and chose the marker based on the color of the food (except for cake which was white, so we had to improvise). White board courtesy of Home Depot build-it workshop last Saturday.

Earlier in the day we showed our kids a scrapbook I made of our first year (from meeting to marrying) and before bed we showed them our wedding album. They enjoyed it more than I thought. THEY even commented on how young we looked in our wedding pictures...stinkers.  It really was fun taking a little walk down memory lane. I am sure glad I married this guy and that we’ve created this little family. I love you Nate!

1st Day of Kindergarten

Me: Hey buddy, how was your first day of kindergarten?
Owen: It was AWESOME!!!
:)

Back to School Family Night

This morning for breakfast we had a little pep rally. We talked about school and what things we need to do each morning before we head out the door. We made sure Owen has his bag ready for tomorrow’s 1st day of Kindergarten! We also tried to get Olivia excited about preschool, which she and I will be doing together at home. Here’s to a fun year!

Meet the Teacher

Today we went to meet Owen’s Kindergarten teachers. We are VERY excited to start school next week! We decided to take his teachers some cookies. I let Owen choose which kind. He looked through the cookie book I made. He settled on sugar cookies and picked out some shapes: a world, a fall leaf and a star. He has a two teachers, so we made a plate for each and I had him write a little note to each saying “I am excited for school.” His teachers are very sweet and the classroom is darling. I’m excited to have a big, bad kindergartener in the house. :)

Emily & Tyler's Wedding

I really do love to see the temple. We had the wonderful opportunity to be in SLC for Emily and Tyler’s wedding. It was so fun. We were able to go with Emily to her own Endowment and be there for their sealing as well. They are a darling couple and we love them very much.

I took this one at Emily’s wedding reception at the Old Meeting House in SLC. She wanted to dance with daddy. :)

BYU

We love going to visit the BYU while we are in Utah every year. This year Nate went to the fancy new Brimhall building to check out the new Communications and Advertising hub there. It was really cool. We walked around campus a bit and rounded out the day by bowling at the WILK. Good times. :)

S'mores

Owen requested that we go camping while we were in Utah, but we settled on making s’mores instead. :) Nice compromise, right? Papa pulled out the gas grill and we roasted our marshmallows over the coals and made our delicious treat. We have decided that at trip to Utah just isn’t complete without s’mores. Or bowling, but that’s another post.

Grandma & Grandpa Johannesen

My parents, my younger sister (Heather) and her daughter (Skyler) were visiting Utah while we were there and it was really fun to see them. We were able to see them for just a few days, but tried to spend as much time with them as we could before they left for Mount Vernon. Heather cut everyone’s hair (which was especially wonderful since we had wedding pictures just a few days later...) and we introduced them to the Crown Burger. Yum. :)

Bear Lake

The Gavin and Jill Anderson family reunion happened this year at Bear Lake. We rented a cabin and spent a fun week together. We had a great time swimming, hiking, crafting, playing games, watching movies, etc. It was fun to have everyone under one roof and for all the Anderson kids and grandkids to play together. Our cute, engaged Emily had to spend a whole week (!) without her fiancee just a few days before their wedding. My friend Katie came out to play for a few days while we were there. It was fun to see her and her cute kids too. She fit right in with the Anderson clan. :)

Kid Pics

My friend Danae came by the other day to take some pictures of the kids. I wanted to take some pictures that would show what my kids are interested in right now.  Owen is into StarWars these days. It all started out with wanting to be Darth Vader for Halloween. :)

Here are Livie’s pictures. I wanted to show that she loves books and also to show her in her room. :)

This whole photo idea started out with my wanting to do some one-year photos of Jonah. I wanted to capture him in his little space in his bed and then get some fun ones as well. I love this little face. :)

Trampoline

In the heat of summer, for some reason, we decided we needed a trampoline for the kids. We bought it a few weeks ago and Nate spent the better part of a day putting it together. The kids were sooooo excited and they all love it. I was surprised that Jonah would like it so much. We piled a bunch of balls on it and it has been a lot of fun. I asked Danae to take some pictures of the kids on the trampoline as well. :)

35 Years

Wow. I turned 35 this year! Crazy.

So here’s how it all went down. The morning of my birthday Nate and the kids made me stay in bed while they prepared breakfast in bed. My favorite: eggs and peanut butter toast. Yum. Then I opened my presents. This is an Anderson family tradition which I realized the first year I was married to Nate and I gave him his gifts at the END of the day (a Johannesen family tradition). Later we went out to lunch at Uncle Maddio’s, then Bowling and to see Rio at the $1 Theater. It was a lot of fun. Later that night we put the kiddos to bed and went out to dinner with the Hansen’s. Carolyn and I have the same birthday. It was a really fun day! That night I climbed into bed (after brushing all the toast crumbs away...) very tired and happy.
Then tonight we went to Puzey’s to party it up. Cheryl made AMAZING cupcakes and they gave me a darling gift (see above).

4th of July

We had a fun time celebrating the 4th this year. I think we took on too much, because both Nate and I were exhausted. Nate ran the Peachtree Road Race, largest road race in the world. He and 55,000 of his closest friends. Luckily he qualified for an early start. It was a hot sticky Atlanta day. The kids and I ventured out to a parade that morning. Olivia (see photo above and another below) had her hands over her ears for most of the day. :)
We headed up to Puzey’s after the parade and had a great time on the giant slip and slide. About 5 other families from their ward came over and we had a BBQ and fireworks show (quickly before the rain started). Then we all sat out on the porch enjoying the cool night, thanks to the storm.  We piled our kids into the car at 10pm to head home, tired but happy!

Temple

With the rededication of the Atlanta temple recently, we had the opportunity to invite our neighbors and friends to attend the open house. We invited our next door neighbors to come with us. The mother and her two young boys accompanied Owen, Liv and I. It was really nice to share the experience with them. The other night while we were chatting outside my neighbor showed me this picture. It is from her Kindergarten-aged son’s school journal for the year. She saw it when he brought it home at the end of the year. He drew the temple and our 2 families. I was so impressed that he even drew Angel Moroni on top! I am grateful for the opportunity; it was a neat experience and it is always great to have the opportunity to share and clear up any misconceptions people may have.

Father's Day

We sure love our dad around here. Today was fun. We celebrated after church with Norwegian pancakes and gave him his fun gifts. One of our favorite things is to give him a book from the Nate the Great series each holiday. We have 3 now. Our kids are at just the right age for these books and it’s a series Nate loved when he was a kid too. So after pancakes (which Nate the Great LOVES...if you remember...) we read the new book and then let our dad take a nap. Then we went and celebrated with the Puzeys.
It was a fun day, and we are grateful for a happy, funny, loving, hard-working, patient dad.

Goggles

Olivia needed her own pair of goggles for the pool and needed to try them out in the bathtub the minute we got home...

Jonah's 1st Birthday

It’s official. I have a one-year old boy as of today. I am both happy and sad about this. Mostly happy. We celebrated with some birthday pancakes this morning and then he blew out his candle and opened his presents (with much help from his sibs). He really enjoyed when we sung Happy Birthday to him, so we sung it to him at random moments all through out the day. We partied with some Maddio’s pizza and cupcakes at the pool. We love our little man!

Bed Head

She’s outdone herself again...

Jonah's Chompers

Jonah has six teeth so far and they are the funniest little chicklet teeth. They are great for smiling and, as we found out at dinner last night, great for corn on the cob too. :)

Children's Parade

Our cute neighbor, Miss Beth, was volunteering at the Decatur Art Festival this year and wanted the kids to join her at the Children’s parade. They were able to dress up and parade around downtown Decatur, ending up at the children’s area. It was a fun way to spend our Saturday morning. Owen wore his Darth Vader costume from Halloween. You can see just how much he’s grown since Halloween. :) This princess dress is Olivia’s favorite and she wears it at every possible chance. It has already fallen apart once and Miss Beth kindly sewed it back together for our Livie. I just love my kids’ ages right now. They think knock knock jokes are funny, they love to play at the pool, they love to sit and read books together, and they love to dress up, especially for a parade! :)

Picking Strawberries

We went on our annual berry picking trip and went home with a gallon of sun-warmed strawberries. In the past few years we’ve made freezer jam; this year we just ate them. :)

Beach Trip

When life gives you another opportunity to go to the beach what do you do? You go to the beach. So off we went again with our friends, the Hinckleys, to the beach in Florida. We had a great time. The weather was great and the kids played for hours. There seems to be no end to the number of holes that need digging and buckets that need filling with water. Why don’t I live at the beach? I can’t remember...

I thought Jonah would have a tough time at the beach this year, because of his age. I was wrong. He enjoyed it much more than the other two would have at this age. He crawled around in the sand and loved being in the water. I have a beach baby.

Another Soccer Season

We’ve completed another soccer season around here. This season Nate coached. It was a lot of fun for both of them. Owen likes practice much better than games and he chases fewer butterflies every season. :)

Mother's Day

Me and my little bugaboos. I love being a mom.

Career Day

Today I sent my preschooler off to school dressed up for Career Day. What does he want to be when he grows up? A ninja, of course. Can you see the ninja stealthily hiding?

11 Months

I love, love, love this little mug. :) He is such a happy and fun baby. He loves to dance and busts a move anytime he hears music. He has started to clap his hands and wave. His laugh is hilarious. If I could figure out how to get it on here I would. Baby laughs are the best. He is not walking yet, but we are dangerously close, which is saying something around here since his older sibs didn’t walk until 16.5 months!!! Go Jonah!

Atlanta Temple

hip, hip, hooray. After almost two years without a temple in Atlanta, our temple is renovated and will open in May. We were able to attend the open house two times. Once with Barry & Krissie, the Kirkhams and our neighbor Beth. Second with another neighbor and her kids.
On Sunday May 1st was the dedication and President Monson and Elder Ballard were here. I am so grateful to have our temple back!

Happy Easter

The kids had a great time hunting for Easter eggs this year. They didn’t really seem to care what was inside. They just LOVED hunting for eggs. Here are a few pictures we snapped at our easter egg hunt this year.

And an Easter family photo.

Barry & Krissie

We had a busy and wonderfully fun month this April. We had Nate’s younger brother Barry and his wife come visit us. This was a surprise visit for Barry. He didn’t find out where he was headed until he was at the airport in SLC. His cute wife planned this trip and we were thrilled to have them visit. We went to the aquarium, the dogwood festival, maddio’s, the park, the atlanta temple open house, and soccer games; we played tennis, video games, hide and seek in the dark and had a glow in the dark dance party; we loved having the chance to get to know and them better and like them even more. They were so cute with our kids! Thanks for coming all the way out here to visit us in the South. We sure love and miss you!

While Barry and Krissie were here we stopped by downtown ATL to the dogwood festival in Piedmont Park. It was a fun and picturesque way to spend the morning.

I don’t want to brag or anything, but we do have the WORLD’s LARGEST aquarium here in Altanta. It costs like it too. :) We spent the afternoon there with Barry and Krissie and had fun. It was Barry’s birthday that day and we celebrated later with Gigi’s cupcakes. Yum.

Beach Trip

Well I just finished shaking the sand out of all of our suitcases. We had a great time at the beach. We traveled along with the Puzeys and the Johannesens (my parents) to Florida for some fun in the sun. We played in the ocean, YOLO boarded, swam in the pool, flew our pirate ship kite, took family pictures, went crabbing, went fishing, and had a great time with our family!

Our kids went fishing for the first time this trip. We tied a weight to Owen’s fishing pole and let him cast and reel to his heart’s content, which was a lot. It was fun to head down to the water after dinner and see the sunset and have some fun. Vacation rocks. And so do grandparents. :)

This year the Puzey’s introduced us to the YOLO experience. We were a little apprehensive about paddle boarding (you know how graceful we can be...), but we they were super fun and not as hard as we thought they would be. We even went to the YOLO store here in Santa Rosa Beach. It was a ton of fun and we will definitely YOLO again. :)

...a marshmallow in a swimsuit? Jonah had a great time this trip. He loved the pool and tolerated the beach. This was his first trip to the beach, unless you count this one at 8 months pregnant.

At night we took our nets and our flashlights and went crabbing. The kids loved this and it was a great way to get out any last bits of energy before bedtime as well as see the ocean at dusk. Crabbing is awesome and so are the Puzeys. :)

Here are a few pics I snapped of our family enjoying the sun and sand.

Family Photos at the Beach

My friend was at the beach at the same time we were. She is crazy talented with the camera and she came by and took some family pics for us at the beach.

A Tale of 2 Stretchy Monkeys

In his pre-k class Owen earns points everyday for good behavior, and when he has enough points he get to choose something from prize box. One day he came home with a turquoise (his favorite color) stretchy monkey that he LOVED. Olivia, being a little sister, naturally wanted to play with his new toy, but it was so beloved...usually he didn’t want to part with it.
Today when we picked him up from school he excitedly handed a PINK (her favorite color)stretchy monkey to Olivia and told her he got it for her from prize box that day. Owen is a great older brother. Olivia could not have been more thrilled. It was so cute to see how they love each other. Man I love my kids. They teach me so much, everyday.

Home Tour

My Mother-in-law Jill has been asking about how the house looks these days. We have started skyping recently and what little peaks she gets look so different from when she saw it last, I promised her I’d post some pictures of what we’ve done. Check them out on the Projects page above.

Mormon.org

I submitted a profile to Mormon.org! Here it is!
https://www.mormon.org/me/3MCY/Allison

8 months

Jonah is 8 months now. He started eating people food and is loving it. So far we’ve tried blueberries, bananas, pretzles, cheerios, avocado...he loves it all. The other day I put him down in the family room with some toys and when I looked over at him he had pulled himself UP TO STAND at the table!!! He is way more motivated to move than my other two kids were. It’s hilarious and surprising at the same time. He sure is a lot of fun and I’m beginning to see he’ll probably be giving us a run for our money...

I love this little mug. Jonah is growing like a weed. Tooth #2 is in, next to the first, and another one is making it’s way up top too. He is ALMOST crawling, which is amazing to me, since my other two kids had no interest in moving at this age. It’s probably because he gets more “floor time” being the third and all... He really loves to play with Owen. Owen is strong enough to rough house with him, but old enough to know not to hurt him. They laugh and roll and play. He LOVES it. Olivia is still a little bit smothering of Jonah, so he’s a bit more guarded when she comes around. I love this round face and how ready he is to smile all the time. :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Olivia

Believe it or not (I hardly can) Olivia is THREE years old. She is growing up so fast and is a delightful little girl. We celebrated with some princess cupcakes. It was hilarious to watch her face as we all sang happy birthday to her. She has been singing “happy birthday to me” for the past few days, which is sweet to hear as she plays. She is our chill, happy, sweet little girl and we love her so much. :)

List

I am a collector and creator of lists. I found this one as I was trying to clean out some of the clutter on my computer..

This makes me happy:

A leisurely day with my little family
Feeling healthy and skinny
Being pampered
Making good decisions
Getting things accomplished
A fun night out with Nate
A vacation with Nate and our little family
Saving money and being thrifty
Buying the right thing at a great price
Getting rid of old stuff
Being outdoors
A hot shower
Things that look beautifully designed
Family naps
A clean house
Feeling like I am wearing flattering clothing
Getting enough sleep

First Tooth

Jonah’s first tooth has appeared. Isn’t it adorable? We try to make him smile all day long, just so we can get a sneak peak at it. And yes, those cheeks are just as soft and yummy and kissable as they appear to be. :)

Basketball

How cute is this little team? :)

Washington DC and Richmond

We decided to get out for a few days and take a road trip to visit a few friends. We headed up to DC to visit the Bywaters, and then to Richmond to visit the Thompsons. We had a great time. The drive was about 12 hours and the kids did as well as can be expected under the circumstances. We met the beautiful new addition to the Bywater family, baby #4, Isabel. She’s perfect. :)
We spent a few cold days out and about in DC. We rode the metro into the city and took the kids to the Building Museum where we played with giant legos and ran up and down stairs and had a great time. We also experienced guacamole nirvana at Rosa Mexicana. I am still dreaming of one day having a guacamole cart in my house... Another day the Bywater’s pulled out the go-kart for the kids to try, which was hilarious. I want to buy a go-kart now. :) Owen had a Star Wars loving buddy and we watched a few of the prequils and they played lego star wars to their hearts content.
We tried ice skating. Olivia lasted about 10 seconds on the ice and was DONE. Owen LOVED it and Nate and I had a great time too. We are not a graceful family and putting us on ice is a bit risky, but we managed and it was really fun and  made us laugh. We took the kids to an Airplane museum where they all dressed up like little pilots and rode on toy planes.
Chantal and the girls came up for a sleepover and the house was so full of kids and friends. It was so much fun and I miss them all already.
In Richmond we visited with the Stuki’s and saw their cute house and then stayed at the Thompson’s. Chantal and the girls took us to a great BBQ place for lunch called Buz and Ned’s. It was delicious! I bought a bottle of BBQ sauce and am excited to try it out this weekend.
We did manage to wipe out three of us with a stomach bug, but we are all feeling better now. Owen and I were sick on the way home and he only threw up once in the car (in a bowl) and then not again until we walked into our house where he ran for the bathroom and made it...tender mercies...
All in all it was a busy, fun trip and I miss you guys already. :)