Halloween Hadlee

Now that I figured out you can copy and paste from other people's blogs I got a cute picture of my littlest sister Ashlee's new little one. We got to see her last weekend and she is so beautiful. She came to our Halloween party and even got a new outfit to be Halloweeney. Love it! Hadlee has the biggest assortment of bows I have ever seen for a new baby and had a different one every time we saw her. She even had one to match her "impromptu" halloween dress. What a good Mom you are Ash! I am so happy that everyone is healthy and here. For once we are looking forward to the holidays so we can meet Morgan and see Hadlee again and OF COURSE we can't forget that we get to see Tanelle, Ben and their cute kids. (Is that better T?)

Morgan Elizabeth

My sister Alicia stole this picture from my little brothers, blog so I figure I can do it too! I have had a couple people ask me if my cute brother and his perfect wife have had their baby yet and so here she is...Morgan Elizabeth. (I DID warn Derek before they named her that her nickname, if he chose Morgan, would be Morgie or Morg, neither of which were cute nicknames for their cute baby girl, but alas,**insert sigh*** they chose it anyway...) Born 11/2/09 7 pounds 6 ounces. So cute. We are so excited for them and really wish she was not in New York so we can't hold her untill Christmas **insert another sigh** I am also so excited that both babies are here and everyone, babies and Mom's are happy and healthy. Congratulations guys. We love you!

Seven Smiles on Sunday

1- A new baby! My little sis had their baby. Hadlee Jo. Congratulations you guys! She is so beautiful! We are waiting for more pictures....
2- My parents came to visit, It was a great 5 hours and we really feel bad that they missed Hadlee's birth. :(
3- Music, Kassie had two concerts this week and listening to her do something she loves is always a smile.
4- My new VT were so fun! Great conversation and yummy treats, so refreshing. Thanks guys.
5- Truck or Treat. Some of our ward members are so creative. Siblings that matched, one boy was Harry Potter and his brother was Hedwig. One family did a Willy Wonka chocolate factory in their trunk and he was Willy Wonka and she and their cute little boy were umpa lumpa's (sp?) It was awesome. There were games out of car trunks, making the kids earn their candy. It was so cute. Our ward knows how to trunk or treat!
6- The missionaries on our ward sang the most beautiful musical number today. They sang a capella I Know That My Redeemer Lives. It was so beautiful. I tear up just thinking about it. What amazing young men.
7-It's almost Halloween! We get to go see Emmett, Cottle's and now baby Hadlee! This is why I love Halloween, it is always so fun. The best holiday if you ask me.

Fabulous Fabulous Fabulous Idea

Seven Smiles on Sunday is not forgotten...just delayed a little this week. In the meantime check out THIS...My sister sent this to me and I think that this is the best new idea I have seen in a long time so I am sharing.
Take this horrible entertainment center that you can usually find on Craigslist for $30 dollars..

and TADA make it into these..



Think I can talk Kassie into using it if I make it? Because I really really really want to!

Seven Smiles on Sunday

1- Stay at home Saturdays, our life's are so busy day to day I love it when on Saturdays we can do stuff at home. The only time I left the house was to run to the grocery store. Love it.
2- Finished some projects I have been working on, during the above mentioned SAH Saturday.
3- Emmett's team made the play-offs good for him, bad for us, I missed him coming down this weekend.
4- St. George this weekend with my sister and her cute family. Yea! We are so excited we love hanging out with them!
5- Netflix. We love picking a TV series we would not normally watch and watching it together.
6- Kassie's first orchestra concerts of the year start this week. She has two, one for Las Vegas Youth Orchestra and one for her Advanced school class this week. I love hearing her play and so I am so excited for them.
7- Friends, one of ours blessed their beautiful new baby, one helped with a real concern I had, one makes me laugh everytime we talk, one would do anything for me or my family, and does. Several keep me updated on great books to read, one checks in on us daily despite busy schedules. Sometimes we are just happy to know good people. This is a real smile this week.

And I quote...

"That would so fun to go to New York and see the Eiffel Tower"
- Kassie Lyn



(Yea for public school!! Yea for the fact that her only "vacations" are to Bear Lake Utah to camp! Poor kid)

Seven Smiles on Sunday

1- Conference Sunday. Great great great speakers. We learned alot and hope we are better now than yesterday.
2- Kassie is second chair violin in her Las Vegas Youth Orchestra. Quite an accomplishment. Wait to go Kassie Lyn.
3- Good date night last night, Kassie and a friend went to the Fright Dome at Circus Circus and we were so worried due to the quality of people there guess what we did? Took our portable DVD player plugged it into the cigarette lighter and watched a movie in the parking lot of Circus Circus. It made us feel better being right there and it was just like a drive in with a really small screen. (I think this is a GREAT idea for the future when she goes to school dances, dates etc..etc)
4. Snuggies, anyone tried them? Your arms stay warm!
5. Cool Air, no air conditioning and the air smells like fall. Our windows have not been open for like 5 months so sleeping with them open has been so nice for a change.
6. Emmett tied his last game of this football season. He had such a great time playing.
7. Cooking, this another thing we don't do alot of when its hot here, with the oven going your house gets SO hot so it been nice to cook again and be able to have the oven on for more than 20 minutes at a time. Between the open windows, halloween decorations and a good casserole we feel like it is FiNaLLy fall here in Las Vegas! Now if I could only make some homemade bread...

Speaking of that, as a side note, anyone have a good cheap bread maker you can reccomend? Or a good mixer? I don't want to spend $500 for Bosch or even $300 for a Kitchenaid. Any other ideas to make some good dough?

DaRk SiDe

I am sorry for the L O N G absense from our neglected family blog. We have been very busy. I know that all of us are busy so maybe the truth is that we havent had alot to blog about. We have been winter (spring is too hot in Vegas) cleaning...decorating for fall/Halloween (MY FAVORITE)...painting a new armoir....painting a new headboard for Kassie...working on a few things for my siblings that are having babies....traveling for anniversary and Emmett's football games....working....young womens....violin two nights a week.....rearranging my house so I love it again.....shopping on Etsy (MY LATEST FAVORITE PLACE TO SPEND MY ALLOWANCE)...the of course the dog (WHOSE IDEA WAS THAT??)and being a Mom/Wife/Daughter/Step-Mom/Daughter in Law/Full time employee/Friend, between all this I am exhausted. Whewww insane I tell you!

While I pull together some pictures of our many goings on - check out one of our biggest changes (yes our life is THIS boring that this one little change gets a whole blog post). After 30 ish years of being blonde I went to the dark side. I am choosing one color, no highlights, no expensive upkeep every six weeks and sticking to it. I decided I am too old to keep trying the latest colors, fads etc. I need my "THING" and that "THING" needed to include a change. So I am committed to keeping it dark. Let me know what you guys think.. Believe me if you prefer me blonde I will NOT have my feelings hurt, I have heard my fair share of "Do YOU like it?, that is all that matters." comments.

I for one LOVE it, I feel sometimes looking the mirror that "coming home" sort of feeling you get when you go back to your mom's, or each favorite comfort food, or read your favorite book. I love the way it makes my eyes pop and I especially love the way it looks with all of the fancy hair accessories I am obsessed with buying off of the Etsy shops. Andy, however, loved saying he married a blonde from Idaho so I am still trying to convince him he loves it. Kassie says we finally match so people will believe her that I am her Mom and Emmett, well Emmett didn't even notice. He did notice what an awesome baseball player I am so that is better in my book anyway. :)

SO I will post again soon, I have lots and lots of pictures of our many adventures but for now...Just my new hair color, yes they were ALL taken at my desk at work, by me, but different days and different styles so you can form a TRUE opinion.

Seven Smiles on Sunday by Kassie

Hi guys it's Kassie and I'll be doing 7 Smiles this week. :-)

1.) 2 days till Girl's Camp!!!!! Yay I'm very excited. As a first year I expect to get showered with pranks, though.

2.) I recently sprained my wrist and have not been able to play violin or do much else and the splint is off!!! just in time to break it going down the zip line at camp. That's what my mom says, anyway.

3.) a family friend Danielle and I started planning to fly to San Francisco for the day and see the musical Wicked. I'm crazy about it but I haven't seen it yet Mom and Dad will fly with us and go off and do their married stuff. when it happens it will be a total smile!!

4.) I played Doctor and fixed my Dads sprained ankle!! Doctor is definitely a possible career.

5.) These books I really like that were written BEFORE Twilight and is a perfect example that twilight just copied it, The Vampire Diaries is now a tv show!!!!! I'm so excited!! It premieres in September. I'm psyched!

6.)My mom finally got her Rx sunglasses so now I don't fear for my life when she
drives. Plus I don't have to read the exit signs for her. Fabulous.

7.) Annie now copies Dads noises when he does them. Shes practically putting together sentences. Next Mom wants to teach her to use the toilet.

Seven Smiles on Sunday

1- Great dinner with Brad and Ines (Andy's cougar cousin and her young hilarious husband). We laughed and laughed. Thanks guys!
2- Nice weather, it really has not been hot at all. If all summers were like this here I could stay forever.
3- Other people's junk. Kassie got a new headboard for her bed for $5 at our neighbors garage sale.
4- Sunday Naps. They should be scheduled in to everyday if you ask me.
5- The new truck - is so fun.
6- Kassie is such a good little babysitter and this last week she worked as much as I did. She is rolling in the money...maybe I should start charging her for food.... She always tries to do fun crafts or theme activities/nights with the kids. We love hearing how much our friends love her as a babysitter. We just love her!
7- Our neighbors sprinklers water our palm trees in front of our house. One less thing for me to remember to do :) Love it!

Tada...We are the official owners of a new MAN TRUCK

Its a 2006 Toyota Tundra Crew Cab, even the name sounds TOUGH. Next we need a trailer and year round pass to St. Charles campground and we are official "ANDERSONS" Andrew wants to buy a gun rack for it. I reminded him we don't own any guns. Now if I could only get him to spend less on his beauty routine than me and I may have myself a REAL man..

Seven Smiles on Sunday

1- Harry Potter was great! Being married to my husband I see alot of "everyone dies" movies so this one was so cool to me. Great story, funny, great acting. We loved it even if it, SERIOUSLY, took me four days to recover. Here is a picture of Kassie and I headed out the door at 11:30pm. (I was tired..it was late.. and am not hispanic or photogenic so NO comments)








2- Brownie mixes at Smiths for 88 cents.
3- Clearance section. Seriously I LOVE a good deal shopping. We got Crayola Color Wonder's for like 4.50 each. Finally Andrew can be quite in church.
4- Small blessings, with crappy health insurance and a car in the shop we did NOT need one more thing to go wrong. So we are so happy that when Kassie fell Ice skating and hurt her wrist it is just a sprain. We are not happy she fell, just that it is feeling better.
5- Annie. This silly dog brings Joy to our home. She has a whole basket full of cool toys ...








And yet her favorite things are..a gatorade cap and empty paper towel roll. So cute!








6- 17 more days untill girls camp. This is a smile for some of us :)
7- Chuck E Cheese. They haven't outgrown this yet.

July 4th Camping Trip

Every year we go camping with my family over July 4th at Bear Lake Idaho. We had a great time but I have to admit I only got 11 pictures. Yes only 11. Best part is only ONE of them has us in them. I am still laughing.
Here is a rundown of the few shots i got...
Picture #1 -3
My Dad, sister and her hubby riding down to the beach. Ashlee said that when we stopped to load their bikes she got about 20 mesquite bites. They were wimps. We had to stop and get them. It was DOWNHILL. My sis is pregnant but not sure what my dad and Brennan's excuse is.










Picture #4
The "kidopy" Andy bragged and bragged about his cool canopy and talked about it for months before and we hauled this from Las Vegas and it was going to give so much shade while at the beach...blah blah blah etc etc and so we took it to the beach and tada..this is all that the "kidopy" got used. For a few pictures! Thanks Andy and please don't be offended that it did not make it home to Las Vegas.








Picture of #5
One of my favorites. This is my Dad and bro in law Darin discussing the best way to get M&D's keys out of their locked truck while we were at the beach and the extra set was in the trailer back up the canyon. Whoooops. At least they had an extra set. Our extra set would have been in Las Vegas. It was quite funny. Dang kids! Right Dad?








Pictures # 6-8 The obligatory cute cute nephew, beach get up and Emmett(yep this is it! The only shot i got of kids.) on the cool blow up tramp.










Pictures #9-11 These are the most exciting. Our camp chair, camp fire stadium seating! We got to watch a movie in the middle of camp! It was so so cool, thanks Ash and Brennan. Gone are the days of "soups" made of everything we could find in the woods or braided flower crowns. We are moving on up.











Despite the lack of pictures it was so fun and we missed my brother and sister that were back east. It was a great time!