We lived after the manner of happiness: January

January

Henry Celebrated turning 6 with a Pirate Party! This was his first friend birthday party and it was a lot of fun going on a treasure hunt for sea shells, diamonds, shiny rocks, etc. We walked the plank and made foam hats, swords and eye patches.

We love you Henry! Hope you had fun celebrating.

Henry also got to celebrate at school. We brought little Jamba’s to his class.

He loved celebrating at school with his class.

It seems that our kiddos get to celebrate their birthday’s like 5 times! Here we are celebrating at Grandma and Grandpa Parrish’s house. Happy Birthday Henry-you make us so happy!

Babysitting Carter. Be careful if you have us babysit, you kid just might play with a laundry basket the whole time.

There is this awesome gym in Brigham City that we met up with some cousins to play at. This is Cole on the rope swing, Emma and Sadie on the rings. So, so much fun!

We will be doing this again!

Random January Pictures that I liked.

February

Grandma and Grandpa Anderson Returned home from their mission to Prague!

Waiting for them to arrive was kind of hard on the kids…

The adults did a little better…

Henry and Emma were ready with their signs at all times.

We were all so excited to see them! We are so proud of them and grateful that they served a mission. It blessed all our lives even though we missed them so much and are so glad they are back!

Welcome Home Elder and Sister Anderson!

When Grandma and Grandpa left on their mission they told Henry they would be back to celebrate his 6th birthday. They almost made it, but decided to stop in Dubai for a short visit to Jon’s brother and his family. So we celebrated the day after they got home…again.

We were so lucky to have the missionaries stay with us for a night on their way home to Idaho. We loved celebrating Henry’s birthday and talking to them about their mission.

Look at their luggage! Not too bad for a year and a half, I guess!

Jon celebrated a big birthday this year!

I finally finished our 2008 Blog book and gave it to him. It was pretty exciting.

Henry thought it would be fun to spray silly string for Jon’s birthday. It was cold and it froze when it hit the ground, but it still worked!

The next day we drove to Idaho to celebrate with his family and get ready for his parent’s Homecoming. It was so fun to have so much family around.

Grandma and Grandpa did a fun puppet show that all the grandkids and adults enjoyed! Then we got to eat some yummy chocolate and were given some really awesome souvenirs.

All the girls got amazing scarves-don’t we look lovely????

The missionaries did a wonderful job on their homecoming talk-such a great sacrament meeting. After we had a lunch at their house. These are a few of the missionaries from their mission.

Some of the people who came. I of course didn’t get a single picture of our family, but of everyone else! Oh well. This last one is the Price family minus one brother and his wife. So fun that they could have such great support.

Henry had a line dance at school. He wanted to wear his chaps from when he was two. It was cute to go and watch them all dance-he has a fun class.

We have been working on a few science experiments lately. We are growing crystals and grass.

Today was haircutting day…

Sweet hair guys.

Went and helped for Valentines Day in Henry’s class. So fun, I even got a few Valentines myself when kids had extra-yum!

We had a great snow day!

Jon pulled the kids around the yard on the sled. He was some sort of superman because he did it forever and the snow was pretty deep. It was a fun day.

Henry and his cousin Gage dressed up as girls at my parents house. They thought they were pretty funny!

Only Mason didn’t go along. I am sure he will be happy when these pictures surface as teenagers.

Just some of my favorite random pictures from February.

March

Tried out some slime with clear glue instead of the regular white glue. It turned out pretty cool. I am not sure if it was more stiff and gel like because of the glue or because my borax is so old.

Jon’s Sister lived on 10th West and with the construction they tore down their house. It was pretty sad to see it go. There one day…

Gone the next. Good memories in that house-farewell.

Our house didn’t get torn down, but we sold it and moved out a few days after the above house was demolished. I was so sad to say goodbye. We lived here for almost 5 years. We brought two babies home to this house and had many of wonderful memories. I LOVE my neighbors and will miss the everyday chats we had in the yard while the kiddos played. We own some land and will start construction soon. We were so blessed to be able to rent a house in our neighborhood and ward so that the transition could be easier and Henry could finish school.

The house we rented was just a street over, so we decided to not take down the trampoline and just carry it there instead. It was pretty funny looking.

I think that I will miss my pink room the most! Goodbye house!

Henry participated in his first Science Fair ever. He made tinfoil boats and then guessed how many pennies it would take to sink them. It was an easy and fun experiment.

It is a good thing we have a LOT of pennies because that big rectangle boat didn’t want to sink!

Congrats Henry! Love the fake smile buddy.

Emma found the huge lollipop she got for Christmas. Santa won’t be bringing one of those again- S-T-I-C-K-Y!

April

My AMAZING neighbor did an art class for some of the kids in the neighborhood. She just charged us for supplies-if even that and we volunteered to help once and watch kids once. It was awesome! Emma loved it and got to do so many cool things. I wish I could have done some of the things that she did! At the end she did an art exhibit. So fun!

On our way to the art show. Emma, my Mom and Charlie

Emma’s work-Love it all!

Since it was close to Mother’s Day my neighbor framed one of their pictures and had them present it to us as a gift. It was so sweet! Thanks Hannah for all your hard work. You amaze me!

We got a new baby Nephew-Bennett-he is such a cutie!

Congratulations Joe and Marilyn!

We got some snow. Emma decided she had to wear her princess dress outside to play in it. I decided it wasn’t worth a fight.

Once upon a time Charlie needed a haircut.

There was a LOT of hair and then there was really none.

Henry’s Class went to Jenson Historical farm on Charlie’s birthday so we went along to help out and celebrate with Charlie.

Charlie loved it and Henry Loved having his little brother around. It was a perfect birthday for Charlie.

That night we let him blow out a candle in a cookie with whip cream-it was what we had on hand!

I got to go Dress shopping with Jon’s sister JaNae. It was so fun.

She looked Fantastic in all of them-wish she would have gone with the hat though…

We got to celebrate Charlie’s birthday with a lot of family a few days after his birthday. He is all about everything Superman right now, so we let him have a super hero birthday.

He was so happy in the morning as we baked his cake-notice, superman pj’s

Even though it was pretty freezing, we celebrated outside-first hotdog roast of the season!

We had to bring the presents inside it was getting so cold.

Happy Birthday Charlie we Love you! You are so funny and happy and such a good sleeper we could just squeeze you! We are so happy you are a part of our family.

Un-attended Children and bright frosting is never a good thing…

Henry did soccer again this year. It was a lot of fun. Something just clicked and he finally understood how the game worked and that he wanted to make some goals. He is really great at big power kicks-especially if he thinks it is getting anywhere near their goal he just power kicked it out of bounds-sometimes to the other field. It was pretty funny and scary to be on the sidelines when he did that-which was about every 10 minutes.

Can’t wait to see what next year brings.

Henry got to go to the gym this time. He loved it! The only problem is that I want to play on all the equipment too!

Love, love, love doing this.

We just let them do what they wanted this year and well I think their hands are proof of our love. Ha

I love how you can tell who’s dozen are who’s. Emma of course is in her picture, but hers are all pink, Henry’s mostly blue, and Charlie’s are pink just because he was next to Emma, but they are all cracked and damaged in some way!

We are also expecting Baby number 4 the first part of December!

We went to our annual neighborhood Easter Egg hunt. The difference this year was that we no longer lived in our house. It was still partly in our old backyard and it was kind of sad. The new owner is great and was happy to help host it, but everyone kept asking if it was sad for me and I almost started crying a few times. Stop asking already! Jon just thought I was being silly and the kids didn’t seem to mind at all.

My iris’s that I won’t see bloom-tear. Oh yeah and Charlie with a binky because he burned his hand really bad that morning.

Henry after one of the games. I love those freckles!

Then off to my parents house for another hunt. I love Easter Egg hunts!

We broke out the balloon launcher again. Emma preferred lightly tossing her eggs down the hill and then going and picking up her unbroken eggs and putting them back in her carton. Pretty sure we still took home 10 Eggs that she couldn’t part with. I think Charlie is licking one of the other two off his lips!

Sunday Easter Garb. Yeah they are the same clothes from Tina’s wedding and just about every holiday since then.

The kids were in no mood for pictures. They just wanted to get inside to their candy.

Just painting some rocks

and then some egg cartons

and Charlie getting stuck in one pant hole. Henry called me a mean Mom at this point and rescued his little brother with a look of scorn for me. It was funny.

Random pictures of popsicles and finding the kids playing in the shower.

The Land. That is what we are calling it. We go just about everyday. Here we have cleared some of the bushes that have overgrown from the neighbor and Jon is trying to scrape the top soil with my Dad’s Backhoe. It is a bit muddy so it isn’t going so well. (4-16-11)

Okay this is it before any construction. Jon and I have been working on designing the house for about 6+ months now. We are so excited for it to come to life!

First day of construction. All staked off and they have started digging!(4-25-11)

Only a few hours later. I can’t believe how fast they are!

The excavation guys were really nice. We had a few freak out moments about the house placement, but they were really awesome to work with and one of them showed Henry how there is a marble inside a spray paint can.

4-26-11 Footings! The kids LOVED climbing the dangerous hills and jumping off near all the rebar. We are such great parents. It did make me nervous.

4-28-11 Framing the foundation

May

Emma turned 4! Where did the time go? I can’t believe how old she got so fast. She is a sweety who loves all things princess right now so we did a castle. It did have a mishap on the way to my parent’s house, but it mostly stayed.

I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but we celebrated again with Jon’s family and I made the same cake.

Emma finally got what she had been asking for-a princess baby!

We also took her to Chuck-e-Cheese to celebrate. Happy Birthday Emma!

I went with Henry on his field trip to Willow Park. It was pretty cold and rainy, but we had a good time. I really like knowing all the kids in his class.

Henry had his Kindergarten program and did a great Job. His teacher assigned him a line to say and I was surprised when he brought it home. It said “My favorite day of Kindergarten was when I brought Jamba’s for my birthday” I thought it was kind of funny. Anyway at the end of the program a few of the teachers were crying as they were trying to talk, including his teacher. Henry was really quiet after the program and then at home he just sat there depressed. I kept asking him what was wrong and finally he just started sobbing saying he was going to miss Mrs. Schmidt. I think he finally realized he wouldn’t be seeing her everyday and it was the first time he understood missing someone. It was heartbreaking. We had a great year!

The last day of school I helped with the class party. I did three relay games for them to do in groups and they turned out pretty funny. Then we brought Jamba’s for the class. It was a great last day-Henry will really miss his class especially because we will be changing schools for first grade. I think it will be hard on him.

The day after school ended, we went back to participate in the Wildcat Run. Henry was really excited. I decided to run with him, but there was so much chaos at the beginning with kids tripping and adults running over them-it was crazy. I ended up helping a little boy in his class who had tripped and was bleeding, so I ran with him instead and didn’t see Henry cross the finish line. He said he did great though and I believe him:) Henry and Ivan posing with Mrs. Schmidt. Ivan refused to look at the camera!

We drove to Bear Lake with some of Jon’s family to check out the cabin we would be renting at the end of the summer. It was FREEZING!

Luckily Jon’s Dad brought a kite along so we got to get out the car and play for a minute. Henry had a blast.

Henry has always had the BEST expressions. That is one of the things I just love about him!

I had no idea how much fun a kite could be. It wasn’t doing so well so Grandpa found some black plastic in the field and attached it as a tail. Then he started sending things up to the kite along the string-I didn’t know you could do that! He sent up straw, paper towels, and an airplane. It was pretty entertaining.

Emma, Charlie, Kenton and I just froze on the tailgate of the Land Cruiser.

Bear Lake is a beautiful place, even if it is freezing and windy!

Later that night we celebrated Grandma Anderson’s birthday a little late. It was so fun to have family in town. Happy Birthday! We love you!

For Family Home Evening we made chalk outlines of each other. I can’t remember what the lesson was on, but I am sure it was a good one!

Last minute we decided to rent a cabin with some friends up in Eden. We ended up getting the same cabin we stayed in over Thanksgiving last year with my family.

We had three couples and 11 kids between us(8boys and 3girls). The Hot Tub was fantastic entertainment!

We had great food, music and entertainment

We visited the Hill Air Force Space Museum. The kids loved it and it was free!

In the children’s play area of the museum there is all sorts of fun hands on stuff that they kids and adults can do.

Jon and I had a little fun as well. I suspended the ball in the air with the blow-dryer. Then Jon tried to ninja chop the air without making it fall. He was successful!

Thanks Kade and Natalie and Kurt and Kanani for the good times!

And yes…it really was that funny.

We decided that for my Dad’s 65th Birthday this year we would go out to eat with just the adults. It was fabulous! So much fun to get to visit with my siblings and parents and in-laws and actually be able to hear each other.

I made a 101 Reasons we love Dad book and it was really fun to see how many things people put that were alike. Happy Birthday Dad we LOVE you!

(side note that isn’t really that side, but I want to put it here so that I remember dates and I guess to let people know as well. There is never the right time or place to let people know that your Dad has Cancer-so I guess this will be it for me. My Dad found out on his birthday that he had a very aggressive form of Prostate Cancer and needs to have it removed. He didn’t tell any of us that day, but several weeks later. He will go in for Surgery in August. He feels just fine, they just found it from a routine check-up that he did. I strongly suggest everyone get routine check-ups when they are recommended. I am so glad that my Dad did. We Love you Dad!)

House update for May (Beware, it is a LOT of house pictures).

Basement poured 5-5-11

This is the third drink that I caught Charlie trying to drink. Between coffee and energy drinks and who knows what else, I hope we make it through this time alive! Jon made us go and measure during each step of the process, just to make sure! Henry and Emma were usually great helpers.

5-11-11 Plumbing in and gravel down.

Look at the massive hills in our backyard! Kind of scary!

5-13-11 Basement and patio poured

Henry and Emma being the Statue of Liberty

5-19-11 First wall somewhat framed out!

5-21-11 Basement mostly framed

5-25-11 Basement Ceiling put on ( Don’t laugh I don’t know the correct terminology!)

5-26-11 Upstairs outer walls framed. They are seriously so fast!

5-30-11 More outside framing and the DECK!!!

5-31-11 Some of the trusses in the Garage going up

June

We use Crayola watercolor pencils to do our face painting. It is practically mess free and it wipes off with a wash cloth. The kiddos love it

We went to Jon’s sister JaNae’s wedding shower in Idaho. We are so excited for her to be getting married in July to a great guy named Wayne.

Jon, his Dad, Brother and Brother-in-law went to Texas to look into buying a new Franchise. Interstate All Battery. They had a great trip and we have now invested into the company and are so excited to be trying out a new adventure with some of Jon’s family.

While he was gone the kids and I drove to Plain City to celebrate our niece Sadie’s birthday! (I started a blood thinning shot to help prevent blood clots because I got some after Charlie. Anyway this was my first week of shots and Jon had been doing them for me because I was too chicken. Well since he was gone, I really couldn’t think of anyone I wanted to give me a shot in my stomach so I did it for the first time by myself at the party. I was so proud! I know too much information, but I just wanted to remember)

Somehow while Jon was gone Henry managed to get a fat lip and a fat ear.

Just a beautiful Summer day that we enjoyed being outside.

Emma drew the cutest people with chalk

I got some sweet eye pictures of the people I love. What color would you say Henry’s eyes are? Green? Hazel? I just don’t know.

I got to take Bridal pictures of Jon’s sister JaNae. It was once again so much fun. I love taking Bridals with family around because it just becomes fun and silly.

We ran into a few snake friends along the way. Pretty sure I was the only one to freak out. Oh wait, I think Michelle did too.

Such a beautiful Bride!

One of my favorite things to do with the kids-let them paint/wash the car with cheap shaving cream. Such a fun summer activity!

We went to the Parker’s Ranch (Sister Parker is my Relief Society President and I am one of her counselors. We have served together for 4 years in Y/W and Relief Society. Every year we have a summer Barbeque with our families-I love it)

I have wanted to get my boys picture with this fantastic truck of theirs for a few years now, and just haven’t done it. Of course on the day that I have a chance I have dressed them like the homeless for some reason! Oh well maybe someday…

We had our Parrish Family reunion at the end of June, in Mantua. On our way to our campground we passed all these fields of beautiful poppies! It was so incredible. We camped for three nights and everyone did great-such a fun reunion.

We had the perfect campground. It was the end one so no one ever came down that way and there was tons of shade and fun hills to climb and a small stream to play in. Plenty of tenting space and a fun road for bikes, as well as a field for kickball.

The boys built a dam in the stream and the kids just had fun climbing and exploring while I sat with my feet in the cold stream. It was perfect!

We went to the fish hatchery one day. I used to go here when I was little with my Grandpa Parrish, so it is a good memory for me. Jon is always embarrassed that we actually go to a fish hatchery and not to a lake or something!

Emma caught the first fish in our family. It ended up being the biggest fish we got! She had a love hate relationship with it until…

She put it in the bucket. Then she fed the poor dead thing all the fish food that was meant for the fish in the pond. She was so proud of her fish!

Henry was next. He was pretty excited about his fish, but wasn’t as brave as he used to be.

Then Jon helped Charlie. He was very leery! (poor kid had a few pretty bad mosquito bites!)

While we were busy with Charlie Henry yells over that he has another fish.

And another…

And another! We kept telling him NO MORE! You can’t throw them back and you have to pay for them! I think that our fish dinner that night cost about $35! Oh well, fun and food for the whole family right?

Emma picked me some flowers while we were waiting for our fish to be cleaned. We had some yummy fried fish and chips that night. We also stopped by Hill Air Force airplane museum for a quick tour before it closed. It was a busy day!

Back at camp we enjoyed four-wheeler rides. We got a few wind bursts followed by some light rain once in a while. Charlie is protecting his eyes in the bottom picture from one such rain.

My brother also brought stuff to rig a zip line in camp. Here is Henry before he rammed his leg into a buried rock. I don’t think he went again, but we did make some adjustments after this!

We also visited Mantua Reservoir one of the days. We unfortunately didn’t get to play long because we had some crazy wind storm come up. It was really fun though while it lasted!

Henry was pretty distraught when he realized that his life jacket didn’t make him know how to swim. He thought it would just do all the work for him-poor kid.

Emma making some funny faces. I think she must have been eating liquorish or something

Henry and Asher being crazy! Asher is a year younger than Henry and they are pretty much the same size.

Some of the kids found fishing line and a hook and did a little illegal fishing. Almost anytime they put the line in they caught something. The fish were all tiny and so different it was a lot of fun. Some of the kids caught 8 or 9 fish. Some just caught them in nets too. It was pretty fun. We of course let them all go.

Cute cousins trying to stay warm on the beach after the crazy storm. These three got pretty scared, so I just had them hide under these towels! We had all our stuff fly everywhere and big branches came down and those who were out on the boat got pretty wet! I almost went that time and am so glad I didn’t!

Back at camp after the storm calmed down. I got the kids going on a craft so I could cook my meal. Notice in the background all the cotton on the ground. It was EVERYWHERE! At first it was kind of cool, but then it started getting in everything and was pretty annoying.

My Mom and Marnie decided to give my Dad a haircut during some downtime.

The flowers were just so amazing I couldn’t get enough of them! Notice the bottom two pictures have a bee in them-pretty cool! Such a fun reunion!

House Update for June: 6-1-11 More Trusses done.

6-2-11 They put some of the ply-wood on the roof!

The basement and Henry and Emma upstairs in their room.

The Deck. I am sooo excited for this! I love the framing stage of the house. Everyday is something new that makes it that much easier to imagine the finished product!

6-5-11 Only two days later and it looks so much more like a house! They just work so fast. We are building with Sierra Homes and we are so happy with them. They have been so great and easy to work with.

Back views of the house

Henry and Emma playing in the tall grass behind the house. Thankfully the kids LOVE going to the land everyday to check the progress and play in the grass and in the dirt. No one has gotten hurt yet…cross our fingers!

Charlie and Jon driving Henry’s remote control car in the basement.

6-7-11 Once again only two days later. Framing goes so fast!

They framed our storage room, more of the stairs, and our little cut-outs under the stairs in the playroom. Emma just enjoying the land.

6-11-11 A roof and windows!

6-18-11 Bath Tubs and our Trex Deck!

6-19-11 I think electrical stuff was mostly done here. The important part though was cookie’s with cousins, four-wheeler rides with Grandpa and an amazing sunset.