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.

Fall is here!

I know it has been a long time since I updated this.... I don't even have a good excuse. I just haven't done it! So here is a little picture update for September. (Are you happy now Bethany? ha ha) I'll try to post a video or two soon.
It's been a beautiful month with temperatures in the 70's for the most part. We did have a few thunderstorms, but mostly it has been really nice. There are several parks near where we live so I try to go for a walk and take Anna a few times a week. She loves to swing and would do it all day if I let her! She also loves animals and gets excited every time she sees a bird flying or a cat or a dog. Fortunately for her there are tons of people in Flagstaff with dogs, so she gets to see lots of them besides Cooper. I don't think she even thinks of him as a dog. He's just Cooper.












































On Labor Day we went to the county fair. They did a really cool thing and said if people biked to the fair instead of driving they could get in free. So we went to the fair and didn't spend a dime! Yes, we were too cheapskate to even buy some fair food. It was so expensive! But we had fun biking there and walking around for awhile. Anna loved the animals, especially the turkeys for some reason. She kept saying gobble gobble at them! She knows her animal sounds so well and loves to say them to the animals! I don't know if the animals were too thrilled about it, but we sure had a great time.
Anna is a little bookworm! She loves to look at books and be read to. She brings me books all day long and asks "book? read?" It's pretty cute. We got a new bookshelf and put her books on the bottom and she seems to think her shelf makes a pretty good chair as well as a book holder! She sits in there all the time!


Anna is totally obsessed with shoes! She puts them on her dolls, stuffed animals, and even poor Cooper! He's such a good sport and puts up with anything from her.

I think this picture is hilarious! First of all, she's sitting in a baby bouncer and it's about hitting the floor... Second, she is wearing fuzzy boots that are 2 sizes too big with her church clothes (she loves to wear these boots as well as put them on her teddy bear). And third, she is holding Barrett's Portuguese bible. She doesn't even care if books don't have pictures. She just likes to carry them around and flip the pages. What a silly silly girl we have!

This picture doesn't show it very well, but Anna fell down and got a big dark bruise right on her cheek. She's also wearing the fuzzy boots again! By the way, I do do Anna's hair every day, even though it's not done in most of these pictures!


A couple of weeks ago we went for a little hike on a Saturday. We live so close to the mountains that we only have to drive a couple of miles to get to trail heads. This hike was pretty neat because it went from ponderosa pines to juniper trees (Barrett is standing by an enormous one we found) and then turned rather deserty with cactus and yucca plants. We got quite the variety of scenery! It was a fun little hike and nice to get out in nature. It was my birthday on the 24th and I turned 24! It seemed like my birthday all week because I got packages from family almost every day. Everyone was so nice! It was also because Barrett ordered me some things online and they didn't get here in time so I got presents after by birthday too! I'm posing with the delicious raspberry cheesecake I made myself. I don't know why I made so much for just us though, we still have some in the fridge and we have been eating it every day! It is really yummy though!



While I went to the Relief Society broadcast Saturday night Barrett tried to ship Anna off! ha ha
They had a lot of fun with a box of packing peanuts! I like how happy she is just chilling in the box surrounded by Styrofoam! Those two have a lot of fun together. Anna is so much of a mommy's girl still that sometimes I'm really glad to leave her with Barrett so they can have some good bonding time.

Well that about sums up our month. I'll try not to wait so long to post next time!

Flagstaff

Whew, now that we are here in Flagstaff and are over the unpacking and are back into the swing of things I have a few moments to blog! It's kinda a long story about getting our apartment and everything, so basically what happened is that we used rent.com to find our apartment so they had us emailing the manager through the website. Well we found out that I didn't get half of the emails from her, the most important being the one where she told us she got the application. Basically she gave up on us when she didn't hear back (because I never got her email) and almost gave our apartment away! We talked to her on Monday night August 3rd and headed down Friday the 7th. So that week was a crazy one of getting deposits sent, getting a Uhaul, and planning our trip. Barrett's parents were wonderful and helped us move. We drove both of our cars down (Barrett's mom rode with me to take care of Anna) and Barrett's dad drove his truck and pulled the Uhaul.

We took two days to get down here so we got to our apartment around 5:00 (Arizona time), signed our lease, and got moved in. Barrett's brother Jason also helped us move. It was so nice to have so much help. We were a little bit surprised at the apartment since we hadn't seen it at all before we came down, but it is a nice little place. It is a townhouse style so we have our bedrooms upstairs. I like it because it seems more like a house that way. I was sad to find out that there was no dishwasher, but it actually isn't that bad washing dishes by hand as long as I stay up on them.
Barrett's parents left on Sunday after we went to Sacrament meeting at our new ward. It was a fast trip for them, but we appreciate it! We have spent the past few weeks unpacking and organizing and exploring Flagstaff. The city design is very strange since all the major highways in Arizona run through the town. We quickly learned where to turn to not end up on the highway going to Phoenix or L.A.! The city is beautiful and covered in trees. We have found lots of parks and a trail system near our house so even though we don't have a yard at our apartment there are still lots of places for Anna to play.


Barrett started the physical therapy program a week ago and is excited about his experience here. It will be a lot more laid back than we thought (thank goodness) so I will actually get to see him a lot more than I thought! We also found out that his whole third year is just doing internships so we may only be in Flagstaff for two years. I think the time here is going to fly by. Barrett has a former mission companion, Mark Moss, who started the program with him. The weekend before they started school we went down to Mesa with Mark and his wife Paige and went to the temple and did some other fun things. It was so hot there! I couldn't believe it!


We counted that little day trip as part of our anniversary celebration. Our 3rd anniversary was on the 25th so we went out to eat at Olive Garden. I also surprised Barrett by buying some high heels for the occasion because he likes it when I wear them but I always refuse. He thought it was great! ha ha
We are just enjoying life here! Anyone is welcome to come visit us in the forest!