Monday, September 12, 2011

Summer Ends on a High Note

Summer is over and school is back, which means I have a little more time to myself lately.  Summer was great and I loved having my kids around all the time.  We did some really fun things together.  I didn't take time to blog about the things that we did, so I think I'll do a quick catch up post. 

In July we had a big family reunion with all the Anderson side of the family.  Everyone came to Utah and we spent a week together.  We did lots of fun activities together.  Here is the family picture we took of all of us together.   
One highlight of the reunion was our 4th of July party.  We had a water party with my Mom's big blowup slide.  We played lots of volleyball, which was awesome!  We also played some minute to win it games and had lots of yummy food. And to end off the celebration we had fun with the fireworks.  Here are a couple of pictures we took with with sparkers. 


We also went to a lake and had fun paddling around in some canoes that Papa and Gram brought.  We had a fun time at the zoo together.  It was really fun to see all the family members who live out of state.  I thought the reunion was a lot of fun. 

Another highlight of the summer was our family vacation to Los Angeles.  We drove there and stayed with my cousins Stacy and Pierce Thiot.  They live only about 5 miles from the beach, which was perfect! We spent most of our time at the beach, which was so much fun.   
The water was cool but comfortable and the sand was soft and nice.  We did lots of boogie boarding and digging in the sand.  The kids loved finding baby crabs in the sand.  Dallin was really good at boogie boarding, I was impressed!
 Stacy is a photographer - Red Poppy Photos by Stacy Thiot - so we had her take some family pictures for us while we were there.   We ended up with so many great shots.  I am going to print up the collage of pictures above to hang over my fireplace.  And this one of me and the girls to hang in their room. 



Another favorite of the kids was playing trains with Pierce. He has some really cool lego trains that are powered by remote control - a perfect combination for Dallin and Cody. But even Shelby and Darcy got into it and had a blast. 

 We also went to the Santa Monica Pier, which was really fun. They had rides and lots of carnival games. We played lots of games and had a great time. 


Soccer season is going full force for Dallin.  He's playing with the Utah Rangers this year, which has been really good for him.  It is a competitive soccer league with really good coaches.  He has loved it so far.   Shelby decided not to play soccer this year and take piano lessons and dancing lessons instead.  She has been taking piano lessons all summer long and is really improving.  The past couple of weeks have been really good for her and she is excited about how much better she is playing. 
And now the kids are back in school.   Dallin is in 4th grade and Shelby is in 2nd grade.  Cody and Darcy are both in preschool.  Cody goes M,W,F and Darcy goes M,W.  So for a couple of hours on Monday and Wednesday I am alone.  It's kind of strange, but also good. 
 
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2 comments:

Sandra Nixon said...

AMAZING pics!!!I am dying for you to take a new family photo of us now that we have our baby girl. Those pics were awesome. I love the one of james carrying you on the beach.
I had no idea you went to stay with stacy and pierce, how cool.
Also, the soccer and school pics were so fun to see. Love it!

September 13, 2011 at 7:20 AM
Pierce + Stacy Thiot said...

Um, I never saw this post... until just now. I.love.it. That first family picture of the Andersons is great! I love the colors and the cute little girl dresses. :) Good job! And we miss you guys... come play. Loooove this post!

October 2, 2011 at 5:45 PM

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Funny Quotes

  • Darcy came up to me the other day with a permanent marker and said, "Mom, is it okay if I use this pregnant marker to draw a picture?" January 2012
  • Darcy was in a bubble bath the other day having a great time. She made a beard out of bubbles and put bubbles on her head to make herself look like Santa. When it was time to clean off the bubbles I parted the bubbles to get down to the clear water and she said, "Oh, I didn't know there was water down there!" December 2011
  • Darcy calls hangnails or snags on her nails "Pinchies". She says "Mom, can you get this pinchie off my toe?"
  • Whenever we do something fun Darcy always says, "Lets to dat adain." I love her little voice when she says it.
  • Every morning Cody comes into my room while I'm still in bed and tells me, "Mom, it's light outside. It's time to get up." To which I reply, "Okay, let me get dressed." So now when Cody is getting dressed and I call to him his response is, "I'm getting my dressed on!" I love it. No more getting dressed at our house...its now know as "getting our dressed on".
  • I like to make fruit smoothies for breakfast sometimes. Cody calls them Smoot Moolies, so that has become the name for them at our house. The other day when I was making a smoot moolie Cody asked if he could help me make it. I said he could so he jumped up on the counter and picked up a banana. He proceed to peel it and then handed me the peel and said,"Here's the armpit mom." I wasn't sure if I heard him right so I asked him what it was called. He said, "The armpit...you know the thing that the banana is in." November 2009
  • This afternoon when we were driving to the store I had a funny conversation with Cody. “Does Matt have a house?” Cody asked. “Well, Matt is here to buy a new house.” I replied. “Ooooo, that sounds fun!”Cody said. About a minute passes and then he says “How is he going to carry it?” I’m trying my hardest not to laugh. “I think he needs a big rope.” Cody said, happy that he figured out a good solution to the problem. I just love Cody…he keeps me laughing all the time. January 21, 2010
  • I was really tired one afternoon so I flopped down on the couch and said, "I'm pooped out!" Cody came over and snuggled up to me on the couch and said, "I'm having poop time too!" July 2009
  • When I told the kids that James was going to be going to California, Cody sat up straight and excitedly said, "Like Lightening McQueen! He went to California!" October 2009
  • The other day James said to Cody, "How's my buddy?" Cody got a very serious look on his face and said, "Name's Tody!" (He still can't pronounce C's very well.) The only things he will let us call him, other than his name, is big boy or funny kid.
  • When we were first potty training Cody he said he needed to go to the bathroom during sacrament meeting at church. So I took him to the bathroom and sure enough he did his business in the toilet. This was one of the first times he ever did poops in the toilet so he was really excited. When we walked back into sacrament meeting (we were sitting near the front of the chapel) he loudly proclamed "Daddy, I did giant poops in the toilet!" December 2008
  • Cody comes up with cute names for things. Mostly because he has troubles prononcing some of his letters. Some of my favorite names are "Daddy's Toke-Toke" for Coke, "Dr. Seuse" for Dr. Pepper, the "lurnal" for urinal, and "peanutbutter jam" for peanutbutter mixed with honey in a bowl.
  • Shelby had a hard time saying her G's when she was little. So we were working with her on how to say Grandma. She could make a growling sound pretty well, so we we had her growl then say grandma, so she used her best growling voice to say "GRRRR AMA"
  • The sun was shining in Cody's eyes the other day and he pointed at it and said, "Mommy, that circle is burnin' my eyes!" January 2009
  • Heres a list of funny words our kids have come up with for things: Fwaps (Cody's word for patting Darcy's back), bednight snacks, square noodles (ramen noodles), peeps, giant poops, dishwasher (Cody says this is where we wash clothes), low-low (lawn mower), regular grandma (Shelby's way of describing the difference between Great Grandma and her (regular) Grandma, oopadaisy (Shelby)
  • When we were building our house Shelby and Dallin spent a lot of time here with me working on it. One day when I was putting up the finish trim I couldn't find the hammer. I was looking all over for it and just didn't have any luck finding it. Shelby (2 yrs old) made two fists with her little hands and said, "It's okay Mommy, you can use my bammers!" November 2005
  • When Dallin was 1 yr old, he used to love making car noises. His favorite noise to make was the sound of tires screeching and then a crash. So EVERY time we would apply the brakes in the car we would hear his little voice from the back seat..."errrr kshhhh"
  • When Dallin was about 3 years old, he always liked to sit between James and I on the couch. But his way of saying it was cute. He would say "Can I sit in the tween of you?"
  • When Dallin was about 4 years old, I let him and Shelby skip naps because we needed to go somewhere. As we were driving on the road Dallin said, "Wow, look at all these people who are skipping naps too!" I guess he thought everyone had naps during the afternoon! Summer 2005