Projects!

I have been doing quite a few crafty projects lately and decided it would be fun to document them.

Before Christmas I made some nativity ornaments out of sculpey clay and never took pictures of them. I gave them to the ladies I visit teach though, and one of them had hers chewed up by her dog!! So I made a new one for her and remembered to take a picture! They are really fun and easy to make. (I copy the examples on the sculpey website!)


I just finished making Anna a growth chart so we can mark her growth and she can always have it (instead of making marks on a wall or door). It didn't turn out quite like I wanted, but it looks pretty good. I just have to put something on it to hang it up now. (I also need to iron it. Oops!) If anyone cares to know I just bought a sewing measuring tape and sewed in down the middle of a strip of fabric. So easy!



I've been making lots of hairbows for Anna lately as well. Her hair finally looks good in pigtails so I had to make a bunch of matching ones for those. I really enjoy making these because they are all so original! I get a lot of my ideas from bedrestbows.blogspot.com


On the hair note, I just found an awesome blog where a lady shows lots of fun hairstyles to do with little girls. Lots of the hairstyles work really well for girls that don't have a lot of hair too! The site is shortyrocksitshort.blogspot.com and she has great step by step instructions for some really fun hair! I just tried this one out on Anna this morning. So cute!





Well, since I have a baby coming in a few months I had to get some blankets made for him. So I made 5 flannel receiving blankets and one nice silky quilt/blanket. I made the same one for Anna in pink because she has been sleeping with my baby blanket that is 24 years old! It is made out of tricot fabric that is very soft and silky and she loves it, but tricot is hard to come by. My mom found a store in Provo called the Fabric Mill and they have tons of tricot! So I picked some up on our way home from Idaho for Christmas and Anna finally got her own tricot blanket. She loves it! Those two blankets were a challenge for me as I had never done baby quilts or sewn a binding on before. I had to do a lot of picking out on the first one, but I learned a lot from it and they turned out way better than I expected!




Oh, I forgot I also made Anna an apron/bib a couple of months ago that turned out really cute. I found the cutest pattern online (here is the PDF link if anyone cares! http://www.themayfly.com/weblog/smock_pattern.pdf) and fell in love with it. It is so nice to put on her for messy dinners like spaghetti because it wraps around the sides. She has a tendency to wipe her hands on her sides while she eats. (And yes, it is the same fabric as her growth chart...it was really nice fabric and on sale!)
Well, that's it for now. If any of you have fun projects you have been working on, tell me about them! I am always looking for new fun things to do.

Help Jason and Autumn adopt!!!!

Okay, so Jason and Autumn Perrenoud (our friends from our ward in Rexburg) are ready to try to adopt again, and they are asking for your help. Until now, they have not put a lot of effort into finding their child, but that is all about to change.

They have an idea, but they need your help to make it work.

They are going to use the immense power of

FRIENDSHIP

and the

INTERNET

to help them start their family.

If you are reading this, please do us this simple favor.

Here is a link for their adoption blog:

Please follow the instructions at the bottom of this post and put this link on your blog...

and PLEASE ask everyone following your blog to do the same.

If everyone does this, HOPEFULLY, this link will keep spreading until it makes its way to

their child.

Please help them find their miracle.

Thank you!

Instructions (for those of you who don't already know how):

1) Right click on the picture and Save the image to your computer.

2) Go to your blog Layout menu

3) Click Add a Gadget

4) Click Picture

5) Paste this: http://jason-and-autumn.blogspot.com/ into the link box

6) Click browse and find the image you saved.

***That's it! That's all you have to do to help them find their BABY!

Snow days

I know I have not posted for over a month but would not like to bore anyone with details so I will try to give a short recap of our holidays and a few pictures and stuff, but if you want to see all of them look on Facebook (it is so much easier to upload pictures there than here).

We spent Thanksgiving in Farmington, NM at my Uncle Greg Kempton's house. I hadn't been there for about 5 years since my Granddad died and Barrett had never been there so it was a fun little trip. It was a beautiful week and only took about 5 hours to get there. We stayed at my uncle's house but visited my Granddad's house so I could show Barrett where so many memories from my childhood occured. My cousin Nathan is living there with his family right now. It was so fun to push Anna on the old tire swing and show them the apple orchard and the river and my Granddad's huge shop....anyway it was a fun time. We were so glad to be able to be with family for the holiday!

Barrett only had about two weeks of school left after Thanksgiving and it went by so fast! We got the first big snow storm of the winter during finals week, so Barrett was finished with school by the 9th of December. We couldn't believe how the university and the whole town shuts down when they have snowstorms! That never happens in Idaho!





As I mentioned in the last post we went to the 20 week ultrasound the day before we left for Idaho and everything looks great! We are excited to welcome a little boy into our family. Since we spent a month in Idaho I won't go into great detail on everything we did there. We mostly stayed with my family and had fun just spending time with them. Both of our whole families were able to be there for Christmas this year, so we did LOTS of family stuff and loved it. It was so fun to see Anna interact with her cousins. She sure loved being around so many people and getting so much attention! We ate out at all the local restaurants we've been missing and went bowling and to a movie and ice skating with family. It was really just a fun month of relaxing and focusing on what is important in life: our families! We are so blessed to have wonderful families who have taught us the gospel and so many other things.

Anna's cheeser smile

She loved the babies she got for Christmas

Cousins!

We were able to visit a few friends and old neighbors while we were in Rexburg as well. It is always good to see you guys! It was so nice to be able to go to the temple several times as well. We had plenty of babysitters! I miss having a temple so close. It was really neat to attend with family members as well. Also, we were able to go when my good friend Summer Mortenson and her husband Mark went through the temple. I'm so happy for them!!

We came back to Flagstaff on the 7th of January and have been trying to get back into the swing of things since then. Barrett is enjoying school and staying busy. We had huge snowstorms here last week though and got 54" of snow so Barrett was out of class most of the week. It was fun to spend time at home as a family! I also got lots of sewing done! I am making receiving blankets for the new baby and I also made a nice silky one for him and Anna since she has been sleeping with my 24 year old baby blanket! It was a challenge, but they look nice and I learned a lot!

I love that sweet face!

Lots and lots of snow!

Anna has grown up so much in the past month. She speaks in long sentences and sings full songs all day long. Her favorites are twinkle twinkle, I am a child of God, rock-a-bye baby, the alphabet, and the theme song from her favorite movie Milo and Otis. (She seriously watches that movie every day and never gets tired of it). I am just amazed at how quickly she learns things and speaks them. She is really good at saying "I want some more" and "Anna need a drink". She always talks in the third person and it cracks me up. It is so nice to be able to talk to her directly and ask her what she wants and needs and she can just tell us! She really is such a joy and I thank the Lord every day for the opportunity to be a mother.

It's a....

Well we just got back from the doctor's office and the news is..... we're having a boy!! Barrett is so excited to have another boy in the house. It's really funny because our nephew, Cameron, is 8 and he is like the family baby predictor. He knew Anna was a girl (the only one who said she was a girl) and knew he was getting a little sister when his mom was pregnant. This time he said we were having a boy and he was right again!! I think he needs to start getting paid for predicting babies or something!

I'll post another update soon about our wonderful Thanksgiving and stuff, but I just wanted to share the good news! By the way, this is the first grandson on my side of the family after 4 granddaughters so my family is pretty excited. My sister Miriam is due a couple of weeks after me though with her third baby and they are really hoping for a boy, so we'll see what happens! I hope she has a boy too so my little guy can have a boy cousin to play with!

Catching Up

Trying to catch up on the past month or so... what have we been doing? Lets see, going way back to October 17 we were able to go up to Orem, Utah for my Grandpa Andersen's 80th birthday party. It was really neat to be there and see lots of relatives that I haven't seen in years. My grandparents' 7 children were all able to come and be together for the first time in like 10 years so that was really neat for them. We didn't tell my parents we were going up so we surprised them when we got to my grandparents' house. It was so fun! It was a quick trip, but so worth the drive. I love family!

Beautiful drive through central Utah

My Grandparents and all their children

All the grandkids and great-grandkids in attendence

Barrett and I got sick with colds shortly after that trip and just couldn't seem to shake them after a couple of weeks. If you haven't realized my pregnancy ticker by now, I guess I will officially announce that baby #2 is on the way and due May 8. So that is one of the reasons I was so miserable with that cold...they are always 10 times worse when you are pregnant. Anyway, we are doing better now and Anna hasn't been too sick, so we are grateful!

We have had beautiful weather this fall and have enjoyed being able to go on walks outside for as long as we can. It is definitely getting colder, but we have had lots of sunshine! It's nice for Anna and Cooper and me to be able to get out of the house!



Anna is growing up so fast and amazes me every day with the things she knows. I just started getting her the children's Friend magazine and she LOVES it! She carries it around all day and points out "Doseph" and "Hevny Fader and Jesus." She talks so much and it is just amazing to me the things she understands. She was looking at the Friend the other day and told me "Hevny Fader and Jesus. Love ooh." I couldn't believe it! We have been teaching her in home evenings that Heavenly Father and Jesus love her, but she had never said it before and it was so out of the blue! She also pointed out Joseph Smith and stated "Pwophet." Children these days are so prepared to learn the gospel and are so in tune with the Spirit!

Anna also says some really funny things. Any time you ask her what she did in nursery or what she did that day she says "color." So Sunday morning we had to wake her up for church and she had some crazy bedhead hair. Barrett said, "Anna, you have some crazy hair! What were you doing last night?" and without any hesitation and still with very much sleep in her eyes she looked at him and said in a croaky morning voice "color." We had a good laugh at that one! Apparently she even likes to color in her sleep!

Anna is very good at letting us know what she wants and even asks nicely. She often sees something she wants (usually food) and says "Cereal. Get it. Pleeeease!" And then stands there waiting or repeating please over and over until we get it for her or convince her she doesn't need any. It's pretty funny. Sometimes she just walks into the kitchen and reaches her hands up as high as she can and asks please over and over and over and I don't even know what she wants because she just says please! I ask her what she wants and she just keeps saying please so then we have to play the guessing game... ha ha she keeps us on our toes and keeps us laughing. I'll include a funny video of her doing Cooper's tricks. She just started doing them one day when we were telling Cooper to and it is hilarious! Such a funny girl!

Anyway, this post is definitely long enough. We will be in Rexburg for Christmas from December 12th to Jan 10th or so so if you want to see us give us a call! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving this week! I am so thankful for the gospel and for family. What a wonderful season to remember the important things.

Riding on the bike!

Playing at one of Barrett's flag football games

Anna the ladybug with her dad the biker dude??? on Halloween

More videos

I'm starting her out young.....she'll be a runner yet! ha ha




And a hiker too!

Funniest Video!

Barrett took this video of Anna when I was being lazy one morning and was still in bed. He brought it up to me later and I laughed the whole time!! I love the slurping noises and how she can't reach the milk. My favorite part is when she gets the marshmallow stuck on her face. Oh, this girl cracks me up.