Food & Friends

Last week we had our friends the Johnson's over for dinner. It's nice to finally have a place of our own to have friends come to. We had a great evening eating, letting the kids play, and chatting. After dinner John gave the kids some fun dips. Charles wanted nothing to do with it. (He's not much of a candy eater.) Madison and Emily (the Johnson's daughter) loved them!!!
Poor Emily got the green one and it turned her face and mouth green. But she loved it!
We had a great time and look forward to LOTS more dinners with great friends!


Charles took the Camera and was taking pictures.
Check them out!

There's Mike

And Charles' didn't want to miss out on having a picture, so he took one of himself.

11 weeks and counting

Baby #3 will be arriving around September 8th, 2010!!!!!!!!

I had my first Doctors visit and Ultra Sound today so I feel confident enough to tell all!!!
And there is only one in there. At least that we could see.
I kept thinking for some reason that there might be 2 but only 1.

FHE

A few months ago we started doing family home evening more consistently. Charles asks almost everyday if we can have family night. I think he likes the games and treats. Since we moved into our house my dad his been lonely at his place. My mom works on Monday nights and they are now officially empty nesters. My dad asked if he could join us on Monday nights for dinner and family night. We gladly said yes. Last night was his first night he was available to come over since we've settled in. He is the high priest group leader in his ward and has been busy the past few weeks. The kids always love it when grandpa comes to play. He makes funny voices with their stuffed animals and they think it is hilarious. They sat on the table in front of him just rolling with laughter as grandpa gave each animal a voice and made hats out of napkins. It was so cute!
Then we had family night. Mad does not sit so well but loves to sing the songs. Her favorite is Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam. She calls it BEAM! Charles is doing much better at listening and remembering what the lessons are about. After family night we went to Wendy's to get a frosty. My mom gave the kids a coupon book that had 5 coupons for a Free Jr. Frosty. Since they expired yesterday I figured we might as well go get our free Frosty. It was perfect there were 5 of us and oh they were so yummy! Small!! But Yummy!

We have a HOME

We finally moved into our new house. It is perfect!!!!
I (with the help of family either working beside me, for me, or watching my kids) spent the first week of 2010 cleaning and painting our new house. This house was DIRTY! The people that lived here before us only lived here for about 2 years, they bought it brand new. And I don't think they ever cleaned. So that was my job. But we would not have electricity and water until Tuesday. So the 1st day I could only work until it got dark. I cleaned and cleaned. And then painted a LOT! We had 3 days to clean and paint the house in time for the carpets to be cleaned on Thursday so we could move in on Friday since I was photographing a wedding on Saturday. It sounded like a good idea until Tuesday came along and I was nowhere near being done. John suggested we hire some painters to come in and paint the common areas. (keep in mind our house is over 2700 square feet) so paining that much house with just a few people is nearly impossible without a professional. We had a painter come out on Tuesday and gave us a reasonable quote and he said he could do it all in one day. Sweet!!! He was hired! And he did a great job!!!! (If you need a painter let me know I will gladly refer him.) He also have me some painting tips as I was painting the upstairs bedrooms while he was doing the common areas. The tips worked wonderful! The rooms look amazing!!! By Thursday morning the upstairs was done and the common areas were completed! It looks great!!! I LOVE all the colors we have chosen. While the carpet cleaner cleaned up stairs I painted the office downstairs. And then let him finish while I cleaned the kitchen. The house was transforming already!!!
Friday we moved in and tried to unpack as much as we could. By this time I was TOTALLY STRESSED!!!! I did not feel anywhere near ready for my wedding. I said a lot of prayers went to be early and tried to relax.

Saturday we (John and I) did the wedding and had a great time. It went very well and the bride looked Beautiful! While we were gone our family took turns watching our kids at the house all the while doing some more cleaning. My brother-n-laws spent the whole day installing overhead lighting upstairs for us. It looks great!!!! They did an amazing job!
I CAN'T BELIEVE WE ARE IN OUR HOUSE!!!!!
(I'll post pictures soon, we are still trying to unpack a few boxes and then hang pictures.)

Eventful WEEK

We had a very eventful week after Christmas...

Sunday night we had a family dinner with John's extended family. His aunt's Lori and Vicki were in town with their families from Utah and his Aunt Karen and Uncle Wendall came to town from Vegas so that we could all be together. It was lots of fun. We have not all been together in a very long time.

Then on Monday night we went to Chuck E Cheese for family home evening. A few months back we had a problem with Charles peeing in the house. Yes you read that right. He would pee in the middle of the floor or outside. I was getting so frustrated nothing worked to get him to stop. Finally I decided to do positive reinforcement instead of taking things away for the bad behavior. So we made a Chuck E Cheese jar and every time he went potty in the toilet he got to put a marble in the jar, but if he peed any where other then the toilet he he had to take 5 out. It only took about a week or so for him to correct the behavior. And once he filled the jar we was able to go to Chuck E Cheese. It worked great!!!! He had a blast at Chuck E Cheese. We invited grandma and grandpa to come along. It was a nice evening out!

For the past week or two Madison has been very whiny and clinging and not sleeping very well at night. At first I figured to she was cutting teeth. Which is was. But she never got better. A few times this week she woke up with a high fever. So I would give her Tylenol or Motrin through out the day to help her feel better. She would start to act a little better but was not acting normal. Finally on new years eve I decided it was time to take her to urgent care. (On January 1st our insurance would be changing to Kaiser and I didn't have all the information yet, so I figured this was my last chance.) We picked John up from work and headed to Fullerton. Of course when we got there there was a long wait. But the kids did great waiting. We went to target to get a gift for our nephew and pick up some more Tylenol. Then when we went back to urgent care to wait some more Madison was doing SO GOOD!! She was acting like herself again. I questioned weather or not I should be there, but decided to at least let the doctor's tell me nothing was wrong. We finally got called in and the doctor ruled out all the normal issues, No ear infection, No strep throat. But possibly a urinary tract infection. Yikes! But how do we test for that? She says we need a urine sample. Urine sample from a 2 year old are you kidding!!! She said well if she's not potty trained then we can bag her. I was very puzzled by this suggestion. But said well let's just do it. So they but a bag over her private area that was to capture the urine. Then we just waited... and waited... I gave her as much water as she would drink... waited some more...then finally after 20 minutes she PEEd! I was very excited. The did some tests and concluded that she did in fact have a Urinary Tract infection. She gave me a prescription and sent us on our way. Being new years eve many pharmacies closed early. We found one close to home and made it in time to get our prescription filled with just minutes to spare before the closes. (And this was a 24 hour pharmacy, but since it was a holiday they were closing.) So we made it just in time to have our current insurance cover it. Within a few days Madison was back to her old self. Boy did I miss that little girl.
On Friday we decided to activate our Disneyland passes. (Not such a good idea with our little lady still not feeling well.) She was not a happy camper. She did NOT want to sit in a stroller and screamed when the ride ended. It was not such a happy time. But we were able to get on a few rides and then we finished the night with Jamba Juice and Wetzel's pretzels for dinner. (Charles NEW FAVORITE dinner!)
On December 30th we found out that the 2nd loan had approved the short sale and on the 31st we CLOSED ESCROW. HOORAH!!!
Now comes the huge task of preparing to clean, paint, move, and get all utilities activated!
But we are NOW HOMEOWNERS!!!!!

APPROVED Again!!!

We FINALLY got approval from both the 1st and the 2nd and our loan is being Funded as we speak!!!! It will record tomorrow morning and we will be homeowners tomorrow. I CAN NOT believe we have finally made it this far! We have given the owners 3 days to get out so we will take possession of our home on Sunday at 5 PM. Hooray!!!!!!! Yippy!!!!!!!!Hooray!!!!!!!!!! Yippy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas 2009

This Christmas has by far been one of those Christmases that just doesn't feel like Christmas. The Anderson/Garthe home has been so chaotic, with moving, not moving, working like crazy, and just not feeling much like diving into Christmas. But we managed to have a pretty good Christmas despite our lack of Christmas spirit.We spent Christmas even morning at my Sister-n-law's work party. It was nice they had lunch and Santa for all the employee's families. Anna invited us all to go and we had a nice time. The kids got to sit with Santa and he gave them each a $10 gift card to Target. Pretty sweet deal! That afternoon we went to Claim Jumper with my family for dinner. My mom was sick with the stomach flu so she stayed home but the rest of us enjoyed some yummy dinner. Then we went back home and did our semi-traditional Christmas program. We each prepared a message or song to share. It was nice. Then my little family headed to the Garthe/Burke home to open our Christmas Eve gifts. (Pajamas!) And to see Anna and Bobby open their gift. This year all the adult couples drew names. We drew Anna and Bobby and Bobby was going to be with his family for Christmas so this was the only time we would see him. Since I made their gift, at least part of it, I wanted to see them open it. I was really nervous about them. You never know how someone will react to a homemade gift. To my surprise they both LOVED them!!!! They are huge Football fans. Bobby especially LOVES the Chargers. So I made them each a Charges Apron. (Both Anna and Bobby really enjoy cooking.) Anna's apron was more girly with a cute ruffle skirt and more curvy. And Bobby's was more masculine and straight. We also gave them a Pazookie pan set. Which is the best if you love Pazookies. I am so glad that they enjoyed their gifts.

(Sorry the photo is blurry. But you can see the aprons that I made for Anna & Bobby.)

Then we headed back home to put the kids to bed. They both konked out on the way home. Which is very unusual for Madison, but she didn't have much of a nap.




A few weeks before Christmas the primary had a Christmas activity and gave each child a bag of glitter and oatmeal to sprinkle on the lawn. A note was attached to the bag telling the children that the glitter will glisten so Santa will know to come to your home and the reindeer will smell the oatmeal. Charles asked me almost every night if it was time to put the special stuff on the lawn. And of course when it came time to actually do it he had fallen asleep in the car on the way home from Grandmas. As I was changing him into his jammies (he was still TOTALLY asleep) then all of a sudden he sits up and says Mom we have to put the stuff on the grass so Santa and the Reindeer's can find our house. I told him I would do it and had to take a picture to prove it. John thought I was crazy for doing it, but my little boy had been wanting it done for a very long time and I couldn't let him down.

Christmas morning was nice. The kids aren't at the I can't sleep because I'm too excited stage which is great for us. When Charles woke up I had to remind him that it was Christmas. He was very excited. (Grandma & Grandpa stayed in bed and let us have our own little Christmas as a family.) Daddy went down stairs to see if Santa came and to light the fire. In our house Santa fills the stockings and brings one gift and he leaves it unwrapped. All the other gifts under the tree are from mommy and daddy and those ones are wrapped. This year Santa brought all of us Disneyland passes. We were SO EXCITED!!!! The kids got some good gifts from mommy and daddy and had a great time opening them. Then we had breakfast with my family and then opened presents from each other after that.





It was a year for making aprons; I made Charles and Madison each one and Aunt Goo too!

Mid afternoon we went to the Garthe/Burke home to to Christmas with them. The kids did pretty good. It's hard with some many people trying to remember who gave you or your family what. But we are thankful for all the great gifts we got. Then we hung out and had dinner. It was a great day!