What's your new years Resolution?

Do YOU make a resolutions list?

I have been thinking a lot about that as this year ends and a new one starts, and I think I should make a list this year, to improve my self, my family and my situation. But a long with that I am more curious if anyone else does this, or has intentions of doing it, but hasn't yet?

So just for fun, (and you know it will be) post one or two or a few of your new years resolutions that you have for the upcoming year....

Here are a few of mine to get you going...

1. Find a good exercise routine
2. Find time to meditate each day
3. Finish our basement and backyard
4. Positive thinking about self and others

Update: Christmas and other stuff

We had a good christmas, we didn't take any pictures that day, not a single one! I just didn't think about it really. I was just enjoying the holiday with all our family. But it was a good day, busy but good...

We got up around 9am and opened presents on christmas morning. After presents we had a yummy breakfast, and then headed over to Kory's parents house. We were the first ones there, we visited with them for a while, and then left to go to my parents house for christmas with them.
This year was special because my mom made everyone in our family something homemade for christmas.
All of the grand daughters got Care bears ( inspired by kory's sister kelli) and younger grandsons got dinosoars (which they thought were the COOLEST thing ever). And then she made each of her kids a Sudoku quilt! And if you know my mom, that just fits her perfectly, because she loves Sudoku.
The older grandsons got blankets that you can use as a blanket or pillow. They were cute, she did a good job on them and despite ALL the boys growth spurts and facial hair this year, they still thought they were cool.

She did such a good job on all the gifts! I wish I would have taken pictures...oh well!

What we are up to now:

Kory and I both worked really hard on our basement yesterday cleaning up all the concrete demolition from when Kory and his dad moved our drain a month ago. It took our entire Saturday, but we got it all cleaned up and organized, now we can start ripping out the other half of our basement. YEAH! Just in time for 2009. Any volunteers?

We are also Dog sitting for our friends the Flygares while they are in Louisiana. Their dog is so much different then our little tiny pup. He seems ginormous to me, and our little Zoe just about has a heart attack if he comes up to her to try to smell her. I don't blame her though, he could fit her whole body in his mouth. But they are both getting used to each other, and learning from each other. It has been fun to have this goofy, slobbery, frizby throwing pup around this week. We have been puppy sitting for 6 days now, and have 2 more days to go. He sure does miss Jess and Sky though, as do we.

On that note, I have the flu today. I got it last night right before we went to bed. I was up all night by the toilet until about 5 am. I am feeling a little better today, but I have the flu leg cramps, and I am feeling super dehydrated, and could really go for some apple juice, but we don't have any, and Kory is at church.

Today is the 1 year anniversary of us closing on our house! We have made so many good friends in this neighborhood, and have really enjoyed living here. It has been a lot of work, and we still have a lot of our stuff in boxes, but we really do love our little green house. We are hoping that next year we will be able to finish the basement, and the yard, by the summer... here's to 2009!

Sorry this post was just a bunch of writing and no pictures, and all over the place really, but it's my blog and I can do whatever I want.

The polar express

One of my many many brother in-laws and all of his children do this awesome polar express train ride at their houses each year. It is really fun and they do an awesome job with making sure that the true meaning of Christmas is emphasized. This year I took my family with me on the ride because Kory had to go on a business trip, and many of the Anderson family members didn't go. (for a variety of different reasons) So we thought it would be a good year to let my nieces and nephews come to it with us. We ended up sharing a train with Kory's parents and his sister Shauna and her kids, and I was so glad because we had so many kids on the train, which made it that much more enjoyable and all the kids had the TIME of their lives! So thanks Mike and all his family for really going all out each Christmas and sacrificing so much of your time and resources to spread Christmas cheer to those around you. We sure are lucky to have you in our family!

Waiting to ride the train

Loading the train
the lightsHinkley and SantaMaddyAislynnNicolas (he was a good sport, but what he really wanted was to join lynus who was standing on a bench watching the toy train set go around and around)
MaggieLynus (couldn't keep his eyes off the train even for a minute)Jacob (he wanted the train)
Andy Bob and maida (I was so sad it turned out blurry)

It all came and went so quickly

I have contemplated this blog entry for many weeks now. And I have gone back and forth about it, thinking to myself that this experience is not something you share on your blog. But I have changed my mind and feel this is something I need to share. By writing this, I am not asking for sympathy by any means. Because that is not why I have decided to share this. A part of me is sharing this because the news of this experience just didn't spread like we had hoped it would, and because of that I have had to tell a lot of people in person which for those who know me know it always ends up in tears or rather starts in tears, and I just can't do it anymore. It is just too hard. So please be respectful of what I have written, and know that this is a part of the healing process for me.

On November 24, 2008 at 6 and a half weeks our tiny baby went to heaven, or maybe it went to heaven days before that, or maybe it never came from heaven? Maybe it was just science at this point. I will probably never know in this life.

Did you know how much you were loved little one? Did you know how much you were wanted, dear sweet baby? We will never know, and maybe one day when I go to heaven, I will get to say, thank you, baby for making your journey so short because it taught me so much in my lifetime. What that is, I probably wont know until that day comes. Until then, I will wait

Having a miscarriage is something I assume all women/couples fear both pregnant or not. But especially once you begin the journey of having that special spirit growing miraculously inside of you. Each day you pray for it to thrive and get strong, you take your multivitamin religiously, watch what you eat, and you plan for the future: What do you think he will look like if he's a boy? Do you think it will have your eyes? My nose? What do you think about this name, I want to paint his room this way? Can you believe it is this big already? All these questions and thoughts go through your head and despite the fact that your body is sick and tired, your mind is enlightened and your life finally gains purpose.

Then it is all taken from you in flash, and you find yourself still tired and hurting but alone. Sure you have your friends and family telling you that the sun will come up tomorrow, but really will it? This will only make you that much better of a mom when you DO have a baby, they say, but will it really? They all mean well, and want you to feel loved, but what you really want is for your baby to stay where it is at. You want it to grow strong, healthy and happy, and in nine months you want to hold that precious wrinkly pink ball of joy and look into its eyes and say I love you, dear sweet baby. Thank you for picking me as your mother.

And now I am back to the beginning. A part of me wants to start trying again right away, but the other part of me, wants to close that door forever and give up and say I can’t do it again, I can’t hurt like this ever again. But if one thing life has taught me over my mere 26 years is that through our trials we grow stronger, and when we feel like we can’t go on, that tomorrow will not bring us any joy, we have to remember that this too shall pass. That life is not going to always be how we "planned" or expected, that sometimes we will have to face hard things, things that others do not. But if we stay close to our Savior, he will make us whole again. It is like the last verse of the hymn "I believe in Christ"

"I believe in Christ, he stands supreme! From him I'll gain my fondest dream;
and while I strive through grief and pain, his voice is heard, "Ye shall obtain"
I believe in Christ, so come what may, with him I'll stand in that great day
When on this earth he comes again, to rule among the sons of men.

I have felt my saviors love for me through all this. I know that he has, and will continue to be by my side through this, and that when the time is right for us, he will say to me "Ye shall obtain".

For now Kory and I are doing OK, I say that because we are, we have a roof over our head, food on our table and many people who love us. We have many things to be thankful for, and know that in time we will find peace again. We are looking forward to the new year, and all the new beginnings it will bring our family. We appreciate every ones prayers and thoughts and kind words of advice that have been offered to us at this time, we wouldn't have been able to get through this with out them.

The Sleepy Fox givaway

My very creative friend Darcie, is having a giveaway, she is giving away on her blog sleepy fox blog a FREE ALLIGATOR. She also has some other pretty stinking cute stuff as well. But if you go to her blog and post a comment she will enter you into her drawing to win her super cute alligator friend...
Isn't he so adorable? So if you are feeling lucky or feeling like this little guy could bring some holiday cheer to someone you know, go enter her drawing! Or better yet go buy one of her other amazing items she has on her blog. Best of luck!

Oh Christmas Tree...Oh Christmas Tree!

So, its been awhile yes? We have been busy and have probably had one of the hardest weeks of our lives the last couple of weeks, but I am not going to post about that, because this week we are moving on and getting on with our lives.

We usually put up our Christmas Tree the day after Thanksgiving, but because of some events surrounding that holiday, we weren't able to. Instead, I dragged it out of the construction debris in our basement, on Tuesday, then Kory and I put it together that night, (Seriously it only took us 10 minutes) Then finally on Thursday I was able to put most if not all the decorations up on it. (I still have to put up our ornament that represents this year, but I have to make it first :)

In our last apartment I felt like I had LOTS of decorations, but now that we are in our house and the decorations are spread out throughout the house instead of in just the one room we had before, it seems like very little Christmas Cheer at all. But I am not really feeling up to, nor do I want to spend the money on it this year either. Not that i am being bah humbug or anything about it I just didn't realize it, and now Christmas is right around the corner! So we will be more festive next year. I just feel like being simple this year. :)

Anyway here is a picture of our BIG Christmas tree. On a side note, we picked this baby up at home depot in January of this year and scored it for 25 bucks! It was their last display model, and so it didn't have a box, and it did take me a while to figure out how to take it down, but other that that, it was TOTALLY worth it.

Last years Tree, we put it on a end table to make it bigger :)

This years tree

If you are wondering about the big clock in the background, that was CUSTOM made for Kory by Jerome Miles, He did a really good job and it is very awesome.

Give Thanks

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for making my birthday so great. I am truly blessed to have so many great friends and family members who went out of their way yesterday to make me feel special. It really did brighten my day and make me feel so loved and cared for.

Thanks again!

Thankful tag

Shauna tagged me for her Thankful tag, where you have to write something you are thankful for, for each letter of your name.

A: All the prayers and kind words offered to our family right now

M: My Family

Y: You bloggers, for your friendship and involvement in my life.

So now I tag all the Jessica's and Jessie's on my list, Kat C, Jordana B , Shanna R, and Julie A.

Good luck

I'm Thankful for...

Little pink plus signs... :)

Tagged...6th folder 6th picture

Shauna and Keri both tagged me for this, and this is what was in my six folder six picture. This picture is of my nephew Nicolas, who I tend two days a week. I think I took this picture right after I got my camera, so I was playing with features and such. That's it.

WTF?

Kory brought this home to me last night, I didn't believe him at first, I thought it was an old receipt from a long time ago, but sure enough Kory was able to buy 11.208 gallons for 21.28 bucks! I was in shock and looked over the receipt a million times to make sure it was all true! It was the best day! We are seriously considering going and storing up while it is such a deal!

Looking for things to do in December...

I was asked to help out with this months enrichment, and I am needing some help. I am to make up a list of things for families to do in December, so if anyone has any ideas or websites I can look at, that would be much appreciated! Fun traditions, or things going on locally, I am pretty much looking for anything really, this is not really my forte.

Thanks any suggestions are GREAT suggestions!

Why I shop at Maceys

With the economy being as it is lately, I have found that many people who regularly wouldn't shop at Walmart, are caving because it "saves" them money. This may be very true, and I won't get on my soap box about the consequences of supporting that establishment, because you already know them all. But what I am going to write about is how GREAT my local Macey's market is...

Top ten list of why I opt to shop at Maceys

10. Smoke free: Maceys has opted to no longer sell tabacoo products! I admire this move for 2 reasons the first being because they had the guts to do it despite the huge revenue loss and second because lets face it, smoking is barf, I hate it, and by not selling it, they are saying we hate it too.

9. Closed on Sundays, besides the obvious religious reasons, I know how much it blows to work on a Sunday, and I believe everyone needs a day off from work. It makes for much happier workers. No disgruntled checkers up all night because people just had to get their munchies at 3 am.
8. Comparibly cheep produce: I was able to get 2 GOOD sized pumpkins for just under 2 bucks each! They have AWESOME produce selection, that I just love.

7. Free samples: I have to admit that this is a silly reason to love a grocery store, but there is something comforting about free samples, I guess it reminds me of my childhood. Especially from someone smiling and not grunting.

6. Friendly Checkers: Ever been in contact with a disgruntled checker? (I have, the last time I shopped at walmart) I forgot what it was like to have a checker ask " How are you today" or even smile at me for that reason, but at Maceys they are always kind and friendly.

5. Baggers: I didn't think these still existed, or maybe its because I stopped going to the checkout stands since the birth of the "self checkout" because it helped me avoid awkward conversations with gum popping pregnant teens working at walmart.( I know that is harsh, but you all know who I am talking about)4. Paper or Plastic? Who still asks that right? In a world where everyone wants convience no one cares to ask if you want paper or plastic? Well this may not be important to some people, but I would much rather have paper bags because they are easier to recyle.

3. Doughnuts and Hot cider: The other day, they were giving out doughnuts and hot cider to customers. I just thought it was thoughtful, and welcoming. They are currently doing a drive where for each 25 dollars you spend you get 50 cents towards a turkey. They don't have to do these things, but they do it to give back to their customers.

2. Community envolvement: They are all about running and hosting drives for the community. Just recently for Halloween they did a pumpkin drive and sold pumpkins to raise money for an elementary school.
1. Small and convienant: When was the last time you were able to run into a Walmart to just grap a loaf of bread, or a can of something you forgot, and didn't have to wait in a bi-A line, and it wasn't 6 am? It's not like they don't have a lot of customers, they just always have enough cashiers on hand to make sure their customers aren't waiting, and their employees aren't over worked.

I am not saying you should stop shopping at where you shop, but maybe look around and notice what you are missing, because my grocery store is pretty great, i'm just saying is all.

Halloween Decor

I have finally put up all my Halloween decorations. The final touch was added on Monday night, when we had Kassie, Jerome, Kelli and Kyle over to carve pumpkins. I had a really fun time this month working on all my decorations to make my house more festive. I can't wait for ALL the trick or treators tomorrow night!

Jack the Pumpkin King Pumpkin and Kory's non carved Pumpkin
(Jack's face is already starting to shrivel a little bit)

Skeleton Garland, skeletons in the window, spider webs and tomb stones

This is our family room window, it is hard to see the detail from the picture, so I added some up close images to give you a better idea of what it looks like.

Halloween Party

Kory and I went to Kelli's Halloween party, and had a blast. Because so many other people already wrote about it, if you would like to see more pictures look on THIS blog or THIS one. And I am pretty sure Kelli will have some good pictures up sometime this week, so look here too. Kory and I dressed up as characters from FUTURAMA, with our good friends and neighbors the Flygares. Kory was Dr Zoiberg, I was Amy Wong, Jess was Leila, and Skyler was Fry. It was totally their idea, so I need to give them all the credit, (Kory and I were just not feeling very creative this year as far as ideas go) so we joined them, because we really love that show, and really liked that idea.

The Cast from Futurama

Leila, Fry, Zoiberg, Amy Wong

One of the games we played was this really awkward game where you had to sit on laps. After the game Kassie came up and told me about how I had my hand on my brother in-law Jeff's leg, which I was completely unaware of and I was sooo mortified because lets just face it, that is pretty awkward. I didn't remember doing it, but sure enough Kelli got a great shot of it here...Sorry Jeff, that is sooo awkward!

Tagged....yet again

As if I already don't post enough about me, I was tagged again by my very good friend and neighbor Jess to write ...

4 jobs I have had:
1. Provo Craft Cricut cartridge editor or something like that.
2. Swimming lesson teacher
3. Nanny to my two nieces and nephew
4. Communications Director...aka grunt worker for a medical software design company

4 movies I have watched more than once:
1. Little Mermaid
2. Chipmonks adventure
3. Emma
4. V for Vendetta

4 TV shows I watch:
1. Brothers and Sisters
2. Heroes
3. One Tree Hill
4. Grays Anatomy

4 people who email me regularly:
1. Kelli Murry about all her parties
2. Anderson Family Forwards
3. Work
4. North Park 3rd Ward YW Leaders ect


4 favorite foods:
1. Massaman Curry
2. Chocolate
3. Watermelon
4. Smoothies

4 places I want to visit:
1. Korea (to see Chelsea)
2. Fiji or Jamaica
3. Hawaii
4. Europe

4 things I'm looking forward to in the next year:
1. All of the babies being born on the Anderson side of the family, can't wait to see what they look like.
2. Finishing our basement
3. Having my ROYAL birthday, 26 on the 26th!
4. Having a garden with two peach trees, two pear trees and an apple tree.

4 things I like about my husband:
1. That he loves me even when I am grumpy
2. His laugh
3. That he works hard at his job all day
4. He has really beautiful eyes.

I tag.............................Kassie and Kory (because I think he needs to blog more on our blog)

Happy Halloween Craft

I pretty much lost all motivation to decorate my house for Halloween, after I had failed not once but twice to make awesome decorations for my house. Which all ended up being total disappointments. This year I was totally excited for Halloween and couldn't wait for October, but as the holiday comes closer and closer and each day my decorations are not up I get less and less pumped about the holiday. Well then on Saturday I had some time to myself, you know that rare instant where your house is FINALLY clean, dinner is in the oven, and your husband is content with working on a project. So I sat down and made this Halloween sign for our door. I was really happy with how it turned out and it lit a new spark and I am once again TOTALLY excited about Halloween....I know it is such simple sign but it was just what I needed to get me pumped again. Maybe I am the only one who feels like this, who feels like they have all these ideas and intentions, but find themselves constantly never getting to them, or doing them and being totally put out that it was a HUGE flop. Am I just crazy?

Down in the Dark

As promised here are the events of Kory's recording session.

Now, you have to understand something about our basement. Its a dungeon right now, and it is primarily just for storage. We haven't started on the remodel, but Kory needed to record a song for Kelli's Halloween party, so on Saturday afternoon he, Kyle and Nick (Brandon) made due with our smelly basement and actually did a pretty good job. I was upstairs and all I could her was the compressor going, and lots of boyish giggles. When I went down stairs to see what they had done, i was shocked to see walls covered in carpet held up by 2x4's! So creative...

The "control" room

Kyle was totally rocking out when I took this picture....

The vocal booth

The drum place
behind the curtain of carpet
2x4 that is nailed into I believe the ceiling and then carpet nailed to that. By doing this they created a hallway to the control room
Door
some how they got these mics in the ceiling.


Capet walls