Lucky Middle Child

Over this past summer, Liv and Drew got a little closer in age when they started doing everything together. 

It seems like the "middle child" is labeled as a bad thing, but I realized that it just may be one of the best spots in the family. 

Our lucky Olivia has TWO best friends.   

She has Addison to take care of her and do the things that Drew can't do with her.  

And she has Drew to be her biggest fan club and to do the things that Addie won't do with her anymore. 

50% OFF

Halloween fabric was 50% off per yard, but you had to buy at least 1/2 a yard.  So, my friend, Barb, and I bought several different patterns and split them.  My mom was intrigued and wanted in on it too.  Over the next couple of months we bought every piece of clearance fabric we found from that line not sure what amazing (obviously) creation we'd come up with, but sure more would never hurt. 

Over 2 years later (and after my accident) we finally went to work and made not one, not two . . . 

 . . . but three little quilts for our tables.  One is for Lisa who doesn't enjoy this hobby with us, but still reaps the "rewards."

I laughed this Halloween when my mom texted me and said - Halloween fabric is 50% off.  We joked that we would only buy it if we bought tons more over the next 3 months, had to order more on the internet to complete our plans and waited 3 years this time to do anything with it. 

Temple Square 2012

We headed to an old favorite . . . Windows on the Wasatch.  It's the hospital guest restaurant . . . top rated hospital for guest food, but only 3rd for patient food.  We can vouch for this after our 5 day stay with Drew and our almost 2 week stay with me. 

Ansen remembered watching the same snowflakes in the windows the year before and gratefully the circumstances were better this year.

And then we headed to Temple Square.  First we took a quick trip through City Creek . . . I think we're the last ones on the planet to experience it, checked out Macy's candy windows (they're back) and then headed for the lights.  

We literally ran into one of our favorite moved away neighbors at the reflection pond.  How can we go months without seeing them and then see them twice in a week?!  But we'll take it. 

Ansen pushed an empty stroller, which was nice with the throngs on people we had to weave through for no reason . . . 

. . . and Drew took this comfy, easy seat for the night.  I guess we'll just be satisfied that I was capable of it after last year. 

Last time we were there (like yesterday), Drew was this big . . . 

Ooooh, that makes me sad. 

Oh Easy . . .

This quilt was hanging in American Quilting and my mom, Becky and I spent 15 minutes discussing how sure we were that between the 3 of use we had enough scraps to make it ourselves . . . easy. 

We weren't even close until Becky bought a bag of scrap pieces and the project began.  Becky ended up cutting most of them and like any "easy" project this turned into mayhem with enough squares to make just at least 7 of them.  (Not worth the small amount of money we saved by not buying the kit). 

Lesson learned . . . but I'm sure it will need to be learned again . . . I just have a hunch.

 

It wasn't done quite in time for 4th of July, but it's done now.

Aggies

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Ansen took the kids to an Aggie football game (they're finally having a season worth watching).  They went with our current Aggie neighbors (the Kohlers) and our moved away Aggie neighbors (the Robbins).  Since Barb was going to be in Logan sewing anyway, I tagged along and sewed all day with her (my favorite kind of "football"). 

3 dads, 9 kids . . . lots of treats.

Then we headed over to Robbins for pizza and hang out time with one of our favorite moved away friends. 

Seriously, the kids guessed Robbins when we were surprising them with our Disney (via Las Vegas) before they guessed Disneyland and then were honestly a touch disappointed when we confirmed we were in fact going to Disnyeland and not the Robbins. 

(we're missing Ruby)

Smartypants

Ansen and I (probably more me) are so amazed by our little boy genius.

He's 3 and he can write his name. 

 I thought it was a fluke that he was some how forming what looked like letters, but no. He does it over and over now. 

Correct letters in the correct order.

(this was the first night I thought it was a fluke) 

I mean this level of intelligence . . .

 . . . would probably not do things like that.

And then I remembered Liv was doing what later proved to be O's at 3 . . . so maybe we can just say he's a little ahead of the game . . . 



And that I am somehow responsible for that . . . obviously.

The Parade Quilt

I got a little smarter and my mom and I co-sewed a quilt for Lisa for her wedding.   It came together twice as fast . . . imagine that.

I finished binding it right as the sun went down at a movie in the park the night before her bridal shower.

(It's on my lap under Drew.)

My mom and I were a little surprised when it showed up at the Provo 4th of July parade a few weeks later on the ground being sat on.    

(I think Lisa caught on though and in the picture it's nicely folded behind Lisa.)

But then remembered my "lesson learned" . . . use it and enjoy it.  It's actually more fun to see it show up places then to think it's sitting (being special) folded in a closet.

Little Boy Wonder

Drew headed out to help Ansen in the garage and play in the snow.

I couldn't help but think he was cute . . . 

and this was funny . . .

This is Ansen's childhood cape that Grandma brought out for us. 

It doubles as Ariel hair :(



Wanna know who is awesome?

Addison is awesome. 

(friends and family night)

I might cry just a little bit everytime I see her do a backhand spring.  Only because it was so hard, so frusterating and took so long, but she worked so hard and so long, never quit (even when she really, really wanted to) and got it down. 

(blurry, but look at those strong, straight arms with her heading looking straight down . . . that was the last aspect of the back hand spring we were working on)

I might cry just a little bit everytime I see her do a backhand spring becuase I know just how proud she is of herself, how happy she is to have it down and how much she just learned about hard work. 

 (bottom right base - they didn't get their pyramid perfect that night, so no pizza party)

(blurry again . . .

I'll get plenty more over the season, I'm sure, but she's cute so it's here)



(look at Liv standing front and center like it was her big night . . .  that's just our Liv though)

We went to Matt and Lisa's for homemade shakes right after . . . I just liked this somewhat stupid picture featuring Matt's Grandpa's hand carved art.

And guess who wants to be a cheerleader now?



And wants to do stunts all the time?

Just this cute boy . . .

I understand

Ansen has a harder time relating to Olivia.  He was a careful child, much like Addison and this second not careful, reckless, loud, energentic child that we have is hard for Ansen to understand.  But I understand her very well because I was that not careful, loud, reckless, loud, energetic child too. 

As soon as I saw this picture of Olivia with her curls stringy and whispy, those bright blue eyes and those light, non-existent lightbrows it reminded me of one of my schoool pictures. 

The one where I'm sure my mom spent considerable time getting my hair curled and just right and then I ran around like a crazy person at recess and ended up with a stringy, whispy look too. 

It immediately removed the frustration I was holding onto that every pair of Olivia's leggins magically get holes in the knees.  I remembered that it was indeed "magic" because the very same thing used to happen to my leggins.  

That's why I understand when the doorway jumps out and smacks her in the shoulder, the couch moves and runs into her toe, why food somehow appears in her lap at dinner and spills follow her everywhere.  That's why I understand she is talking quietly and she is holding still when clearly she's not.

That's why I understand that telling her "be careful" doesn't change anything, because she already was being careful . . . I know, I get it.

And I love her for it.  It's also re-assuring to Ansen, that like me, she'll survive. 

Black Friday Shopping

I'm not a huge shopper by nature.  Not anything like Lisa and I really hate obnoxious crowds and stupid traffic, but I LOVE Black Friday. 

Why?!  I'll tell you . . .

Not everyday do you make random friends everywhere you go and get to experience this . . .

ONE

Lisa and I were in a 3 hour line at Target and made pretty good friends with the sisters behind us.  Lisa went and gathered gloves for everyone to choose from, I hunted down a cart for all of us.  A cart that I had to follow someone out to their car to get.  A cart that I had to be apprehended (kind of, but not really) by security when I walked out with my cart friend with a movie in a purse . . . it was too hard to hold for that long.  Lisa and I were pretty much pulling all the weight in the new found friendship though, until . . .

Adele, our close new friend and Target employee, offer us a free move to the front of the customer service line if we would open a Target debit or credit card.  Not interested in a credit card we all searched for a check or deposit slip with proof of our account number.  Our new friend had one, but needed all of her "sisters" to move to the front with her and pay separately.  Adele was on board and off we 4 sisters went . . .

To the FRONT of the line, void of any wait.  We all promised to "do it again next" and departed from our never to be seen again sisters!

TWO

Plus . . . where are you ever going to see something like this at midnight and find it hilarious especially when you're standing in line behind it for an hour (on our second trip to Walmart)

Pictures won't even do it justice.  But that is a basket FULL of lettuce, cilantro, broccoli, and half and half.  We decided they had to own a restaurant, but couldn't figure out what you would make with all that and why in the world you would buy it on Black Friday. 

THREE

And don't worry we made a SECOND trip to Target that night, but this time we were smart.  We got our fire pits, walked straight to customer service like we (and Adele) owned the place, purchased and left. 

FOUR

Ran into some good, old friends

FIVE

I ended up with a . . .

TV (I'm not sure I needed, but wanted the option)

a fire pit (I envision long family discussions around it while roasting marsh mellows)

all 3 seasons of Arrested Development (will NEVER regret)

Ernst goes to camp/jail/work (babysitting nights - 3 nights for $5 . . . try and beat that)

loads on new Rubbermaid

and some not to be named Christmas stuff.

Not my best year, but not a bad year.

Ansen rocked it too the next morning with a generator, work shirts and helped Addison buy her much anticipated and worked for i-touch on sale (she was still sick). 

Happy Thanksgiving! 2012

It's weird to think that last year Thanksgiving was non-existent for me.  I have absolutely no memory of it and I have no idea what my sweet kids did that day. 

Two years ago, on his way out the door, Ansen got the news that he was being laid off at work (turned out to be a blessing).

One year ago, I got in a terrible accident (also turned out to be a blessing - I can already say that).

But after 2 terrible Thanksgivings we wanted a good one

(even if the terrible turned out to be a blessing).

We almost did it, except Addison got sick on Tuesday morning and ended up sick until Saturday morning.  But we will take it.

We did Olivia's class party and honestly how did we do class parties, birthday parties, Christmas gifts, church lessons . . . pretty much everything before pinterest?

Sarah found these cute hats on Pinterest for the kids to make and they were darling. 

It was also Mrs. Plank's birthday so we had a Thanksgiving Feast combined with a birthday party!



We had all the kids bring Diet Coke or a Twix . . . Mrs. Plank's two favorites.  I could never maintain the excitement and enthusiasm for 30 gifts like Kim did PLUS everyday, all day. But I sure love doing it for an hour or two here and there.  They really are cute kids and I love knowing who Olivia is talking about everyday.  

As for Thanksgiving day I got ONE picture.  Pretty lame.  We had dinner at Banna and Branda's with just us and my cousin, Justin plus Jenny, Alice and Parley.  

Even though it was fun, I can't wait until at least Jeff is back next year.

And then of course Lisa and I headed out for Black Friday (now Thursday night  . . . how sad :( ) shopping.  More on that.

Chris and Andrea were here that weekend too - always fun to be with family!

Ans n' Ash - Part 1

We met in Logan the day before school started in August 1998. Ansen introduced himself as, "Ansen, like Hansen . . . mmmm bop, but without the H." (Ansen doesn't remember when we first met, but he soon could not forget me:) 

He and his friends took me and all my little freshman roommates to a lot of school activities.  They took us to the cemetary at 2 in the morning to see the weeping woman, taught us to jump the fence and run around in the football stadium, played with us in a huge all apartment complex waterfight, snuck us into the underground tunnels of the school, drove us to Aggie A night, and showed us where to get free dinner every night of the week at difference school activites for the first 2 weeks of school.

This is the night I "impressed" him at Olive Garden by drinking 11 pink lemonades and 7 breadsticks and who knows how much salad.  And then thrifty me boxed up my actual meal and had lunch and dinner for the next day. 

The all apartment complex waterfight.  This was the first night I knew I would get along with my roommates and also realized the guys across the way were pretty cool too (we all teamed up).   And yes, I wore overalls.

The M4 girls is what everyone called us.  We all really got along . . . and we got along with Ansen's apartment too.  We played pratical jokes on one another all year, went shopping, ate dinner, hung out and got in all out wars.

I'm vividly remembering the dried oranges we had to clean off the door the last day of school that they thrown at our door at some point in the year.  I think I remember a broken window when they were trying to get in and pull us out the window.  I definitely remember a tampered with juice bottle and I remember salt in their whole gallon of milk . . .  yeah, we were all dumb.

We went on our first official date to Homecoming in October.  It moved pretty fast after that and by Thanksgiving we were thinking wedding - maybe. I e-mailed my Dad to ask him how my "friend" would know if they were following the Spirit correctly.  Dad caught on and thought "this little girl thinks she's going to get married" and wrote me an 11 page reply. 

(This was actually the Sweethearts Dance in February)

I went to Maine over Christmas break to meet his family, but we told everyone at home that I went to Farmington (left out the Maine part) to visit a friend - I wasn't ready for questions.  

We got engaged on February 12, 1999.