hotel hotel

Kory travels a lot for work, and is a part of a priority club. Because he is a part of the priority club we got two free nights that we had to use up before the end of the year. So we took a little mini vacation to good old Sandy Utah! (I know super exciting, it really was tho) Who doesn't love a good nights stay in a free hotel on a king sized bed with a free breakfast and a hot tub to boot? I know we are HUGE fans.

The nice big King sized bed!
I dont know why I always document the sinks but I do.
This is the OTHER tv in the lounge area. Thats right we had TWO tv's!
Axel had a blast!and we even got to bring our dogs! but next time they are staying home, they were such pills the whole time!

The 2nd night Kory gave it to me to use with my mom and sisters to have a Girls night out! (because he has been working every spare minute in our basement, and couldn't get away a 2nd night.) This was way awesome for all of us because it is something we have NEVER done before, but always wanted to.

And although we didn't get very much Rest and Relaxation on our girls night, we sure did have a fun time!

My Mom and Hilary at Oliver garden
My sister Liesel and I
Ready to swim! He was such a Ladies Man! He was the only kid there, and ate up all the attention he got from his aunts and Grandma.We had 3 beds and cradle in our room, but the baby bed made me nervous because it has these big bars and he kicks his feet a lot and at one point he was like an inch away from hitting his head, so Axel ended up with me most of the night.

The incident...

This is not going to be a positive post, but read on anyway...

When I was pregnant and working with the YW in my ward, we had a camp garage sale to raise money for girls camp. People in our neighborhood donated lots of stuff, and I found something I had been looking for, a door bouncer. My nephew Kylo had one of these when he was a tot, and it was so fun to see him jump and bounce in it, so I was ecstatic when I found one in great condition. And I thought its from someone in my ward so we should be good.

Here is where it gets sad, and I feel like a bad parent for not looking closer at it. Axel is getting big enough now to use such items and so I wanted to give it a go to see how he liked it.

At first he was not so sure about it, and as you can see, a little too little still.

Especially since he was right where Celeste could get to him. Then he warmed up to it and started kicking his legs and smiling at me.

But I thought you know he is still too little to be in this. So I reached down to pick him up and all of the sudden I felt the rope snap and BANG something hard on my hand, but my baby was safe, only because I caught him. He was scared and screaming but safe. Once I calmed him down and reassured him that I wasn't the most horrible mommy in the world. I went to check out what had happened. And this is what I saw.

It looks like the rope just snapped, OR what I was thinking is it snapped a long time ago and someone just re threaded it though the top before they took it to the garage sale. I am lucky that I didn't walk away from him, and that I got to him in time.

I learned my lesson for sure. I wont use those EVER again unless they are new. Even then, the whole idea scares the crap out of me. I am just glad I decided to take him out of it and that didn't leave him in it one minute longer because it could have been much worse.

Luckily for me he didn't have a scratch on him. My hand however had a huge scratch on it from that big white tube thing.

After that it went straight to the trash!

MIA-Merry Christmas

They say if you have a bunch of time to blog you aren't living your life, well I don't know how true that is but it sure feels like December flew by, and for us it was FULL of busy busy busy stuff. Now that the hustle and bustle of Christmas is over I am going to play catch up and fill you in on all the good stuff that we have been up to.

One per day :) So here is the first one. Enjoy! And come back tomorrow for another!

Axel's Baby Blessing

On December 6 we blessed Axel in our church. Kory gave him the blessing and he did such a good job. We had so many people come support us that day despite the blizzard outside, like always we felt so loved and blessed.

Kory did such a great job on the blessing, he was really nervous about it, but did an awesome job for sure. Here are the pictures from the after party at our house for you all to enjoy. Sorry the lighting was way bad, the snow outside made it really bright in our house.

hip hip hooray!

I am so glad I have THIS,

so I can do more of THIS!

(and yes Story came and sat next to me and Axel all on her, and she was so good with him) and they are both intently watching THIS.
Kory installed my dishwasher last night, and it works GREAT! I got it for my birthday with the help of so many people! We got a really good deal on it at the D.A.T.S (Day After Thanksgiving Sale -Rainey A)

I am so glad to finally have one! Can't wait to do the dishes tonight!

Thanks

I have so many things I am thankful for, I would list them all but I think that would take a long long time, so I will just list the things I have been thinking about lately.

My mom made Axel this BEAUTIFUL quilt! She told me she wanted to make him one, but I had no idea it would be so detailed and amazing! Isn't it so beautiful? He loves it too, he sleeps in his bed now like a charm thanks to the quilt. :) Seriously this picture doesn't do it justice. There is so much detail in it and it is all done so well. She is amazing!

My mom is so great, I need to give her props for this weekend. Not only did she put on a full spread for thanksgiving, she spent her vacation helping my sister move, and then throwing together a breakfast for my brother and his family. She is so self sacrificing. I am really grateful for her and her support, she really is the glue that holds our family together. I know this will be a much treasured quilt for many many years and hopefully generations to come. Thanks mom!

My dear friend Diana came into town and just so happened made Axel a blanket too! It is so adorable! And she seriously did such an awesome job! Thanks D!

I am so grateful for my group of "girlfriends". I love it how we can live far away from each other and not see each other for months or years and when we get together its like no time has passed at all! I used to get a lot of anxiety whenever these said reunions would happen, but then one day I realized that it didn't matter that my hair wasn't as cute or my clothes weren't as fashionable as all my super model friends, what mattered was that these girls are my friends, and loved me when I was in high school in my most awkward of phases and they still love me now.

I am so thankful for my little family. I have such a great husband who just adores my son, and a son who just adore his papa. These boys make my life complete, not to get all sappy on you or anything but, Kory seriously is such an awesome husband. He works so hard, and puts up with all my emotional drama, and he lets me stay home with my baby boy. Right there makes me the luckiest women in the world. My baby is the sweetest, handsomest little guy EVER! I love being his mama, and that he loves being my boy.

I have two of the most awesome dogs! They are so loyal and loving. No matter what they are always so glad to see me. They are so good around Axel, it's as if they know how special he is to us.


Lastly, I am grateful for the moments I get to myself to cultivate my talents and enjoy and reflect on all my many many blessings. I am a pretty lucky girl.

Magic show, crafts, and NEW MOON!

First things first...

My sister took me to see a private premier of New Moon on Thursday night. It was a lot of fun. And I liked it much better than Twilight. I wont say anymore than that. However, Movie+Baby at bedtime=not as much fun as I would want it to be.(For those of you who think I took my baby to the midnight showing shame on you for thinking I am THAT parent. I went to a private earlier showing at 7:45 pm:) Axel's Bedtime is 9, but he starts to get cranky at 8:30) Anyway, Lesson learned. My Sister did tell me that he was great and it wasn't THAT bad. But I think when you are the parent and your kid misbehaves or is crying it seems sooooo much worse. Or is it just me?

Second

I went to a FABULOUS craft class taught by Kassie. She taught us how to make stuff with paper clay. Here is what I made,

I am very happy how it turned out, and can't wait to put it in Axel's bedroom! For those in the Family that read my blog and missed it, you really did miss out. I am stoked to take my new skill and make other things as well. Thanks Kassie!

Third

For family night this week we went to a Magic show at the Provo Library. (It was free by the way) It was mainly for little kids but we had a fun time. Especially when a kid about 8 years old came in half way through the show and started complaining that he didn't have a seat. He kept moving from seat to seat saying "Where am I going to sit!?" He finally decided that the seat by me was the best one, but still not good enough, he tried everything from kneeling on the chair to sharing his brothers seat. But after about 10 minutes of that he finally just said "Well I guess I am just going to stand." Then, it was as if a light came on in his head, and he reached forward and tapped the guy in front of us on the shoulder and said "Hey will you move over, I can't see!" So the guy pretty bothered, moved over and he goes "THERE! that's better." I could not stop laughing. I felt bad for his mom, I am sure she was embarrassed, but that was by far more entertaining than the magician, and his not as funny jokes. I am sure the magician was ticked he was stealing his thunder, but for the rest of us, it was quite funny. Lesson number two learned this week, it is always funnier when it is someone ELSE's kid making the ruckus in public.

I WISH I had the gumption to ask someone to move that is in my way. For example, we went to a play last Friday night that our stake put on and the couple in front of me kept sticking their heads together to gawk and stare at there baby so I could not see for the entire first half. I was complaining and letting out annoyed breaths of air the whole time and Kory kept SHHHHing me. Because he has better manors than I do when it comes to stuff like that. (For example he was politely slouching so the kids behind us could see the whole time) See if I had that kid with me I would just be like hey tell them to quit moving their heads! Anyway, lesson #3, there are some things kids can get away with that adults JUST cant.

And if you want to watch a super embarrassing video of me, here ya go. Obviously I am not that embarrassed as I am putting it on my blog.



(Yes, this was part of the "Magic" show, I know right? Some magic?)

just some crafts and very special things

This week I have the craft bug, I have so many "projects" I want to do, but it's about finding a few moments to do them. On Tuesday, I made these "Give Thanks Blocks" at Enrichment. I don't really like how they turned out. But it was fun to get out of the house and make something, and visit.

Then on Saturday I made these...From an old Quaker Oat bin, I made this storage bin to hold all my wax smelly stuff (Scentsy) that I had lying around, and if you ask Kory, were cluttering up my shelf, smelling up my drawer, and falling all over the place. It holds about 8 of those small Scentsy containers. I put all my left over summer smells on the bottom (grapefruit, watermelon, fruit basket type smells), and my winter smells (Pumpkin Spice, Cinnamon Vanilla, Apple Cobbler type smells) on the top for easy access. I am sure someone out there has a much better way of storing these, but this is what works for me.

note: I like the Oat box because it has a nice lid. Some storage containers have graphics on them. The oat boxes don't.

I also decided it was time to redo my pen holder, this time instead of using a jar, I went for the can look. I like this one much better.

Note: Any type of Pineapple can works best for this, they are just the right size.

I have also been working out the details for my Children's Clothing line. (I know I promised this months ago, but there is a lot more to it than one would think) But here is a small preview of it to get you all excited and wanting to order some for your little tots for Christmas. More details to come soon. Plus by being my friend I will be having some awesome chances at winning some of these cute outfits. But that is a blog for another time! This is the one I made for Axel back when he was nothing but a fetus, he fits in it now, and looks super cute in it. (and of course the first day he wore it, he had to christen it with a diaper blowout before I had a chance to snap any photos :( ) This week Axel was given an awesome gift! He was given his Anderson Christmas Stocking that his Grandma made him! Its really cute and as you can tell, he is so excited for christmas! Thanks Grandma Maida! I know the skeleton shirt in this picture just doesn't go, but hey look at that smile!


Lastly we have all been doing a whole lot of this lately to try to keep ourselves from getting any sicker. Boo to cold and flu season! Summer please come quickly!

Happy November!

For a year and half or so every time I walked by this book at either desseret book, or stevensons copy, I would pick up flip through it and wish I had an extra 15 dollars to buy it. But I could never justify spending the money. So the other day I went to the library, and thought hmmm maybe they have it? And sure enough they did! I loved loved loved it! It just recharged my batteries for sure, and opened up my eyes a little wider to this great calling of motherhood. I highly suggest you pick it up and give it a shot, especially if you have been down or overwhelmed lately. It is an easy read that only took me a total of 3 hours to finish. But it was worth the time. It totally changed my perspective on how I have been viewing everything lately. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a mom, but sometimes it is really hard, and she points out all of those hard things and tells you ways to overcome and look at it differently. It was just a really good thing for me to read and I suggest every mother whether you are having babies, your babies are having babies, or you care for someone else's babies, I suggest you pick up a copy today and give it a shot, it will totally make your day.

Anyway, I went on a walk the other day with my cute niece and nephew who I babysit a couple times a week. We went a leaf hunting! I gave both the kids a bag and told them to pick out as many bright and pretty leafs as they could. They had a blast! We talked about colors, shapes and why the leaves turn colors. It was a great activity for preschoolers, and this weather has been so great its a shame to spend it inside.

When I got home I sorted through the leaves, picked my favorites and made this garland to go around my door. I don't think it will last longer than a week, but it still was a fun fall activity to do with young kids. And now my house looks festive! I also clipped a few branches off the trees and made this centerpiece. I think it turned out nicely. (but yeah, it wont last longer than a week, so I will be replenishing it again this week)

I just thought it was a fun way to bring all the beautiful fall colors inside my home. I love looking at it too, and it didn't cost me a dime! Which made my husband happy too. :)

Axel has really started to love taking baths! He especially loves to do back floats! . He gets fussy when you sit him up, and arches his back to get you to put him back in the water. He will be a great back floater for sure! Can't wait until the summer to try it out in the pool!
On Saturday we went and saw "Where the Wild Things are" I wont say anything about it, but we thought it would be fun to dress up, or at least dress up Axel :) It was really early, 9 am! Which is why he is snoozing. I was pretty nervous about bringing him, but he did pretty well. Thanks kass for taking us!
Later that day we cleaned out some bushes in our back yard, it felt good! We cut down the bushes this summer, and because of all the rain they started to grow! Yikes! But we took care of that. Now we just need to rake up all those darn leaves!

We have also started reading to Axel before bed. (Its never too early to start right?) I got a whole bunch of books from the library, and should have done better research. I got some good books, but some were truly disappointing. So I think my trip this week I will do a little more research, and put a little more thought into it and only check out good books. It's a great way for us to wind down for bed. I would love any suggestions on your favorite books to read to your tots, or the books you loved reading as a kid. I have a small list of my own but that wont last long. Thanks, and have a beautiful Happy Fall Day!