They Love Grandpa!

I'm not sure who asked to be picked up first but Grandpa couldn't say no to either one! :) Payten and Taylor just love Grandpa and he just adores them! He is Taylor's best buddy and playmate! I love capturing moments like this ~ truly special!

Christmas Day & Almost Over the Flu!

Still feeling a little tender but so much better. I was actually able to spend a good part of the end of Christmas Day with Mike's family while we opened presents. Of course, when I came upstairs Mark had to act like I had the plague and pull his hoodie up over his head and cover his face except for one little hole which everyone thought was completely hilarious. He is such a character! He knows exactly how to push each situation to its fullest! Wouldn't be the same if he didn't!!! I'm so thankful though that Mike and Taylor have not gotten the flu because that would truly be horrible! God has been so good and kept them healthy! Oh, side note, the night before Christmas Eve, I was putting together ham pickle roll ups and was eating them and now that it was the last thing I ate before getting the flu, I don't think that I will be able to eat another one again. So sad. And yes, I will be ending this note with the topic of ham pickle rollups! :)

So Handsome!

I have the two most handsome guys in the whole world! I don't know what I would do without them and I love them so much!

Christmas Eve & the Flu!

Yes, I did mention the "f" word above. Unbelievable, right? That is totally what I was thinking Christmas Eve morning as I was sick in the bathroom. I actually prayed to God and said, "You know how much I've prepared for this day.....why would You let this happen?" And then immediately apologized and thanked Him that I wasn't sicker. But still! The Lord had really helped me though because I hadn't prepared half of the food that I was suppose to bring so none of it went to waste. I'm so thankful to Jesus that the medicine the doctor called in worked because the next step was to go to the emergency room for iv's which would have been so much more horrible. And Mike was home from work so he was able to be with Taylor and let me rest. I guess if there was any time that I could have the flu this was the best time. Oh my, I actually said that. As far as emotions go though, my family kept sending me photos of what they were doing throughout the day and I was crying every other hour knowing all that I was missing. But they were just trying to be sweet and include us in everything even though we couldn't be there. It doesn't feel though like we have experienced Christmas and I'm not sure when that will change. What a different day it turned out to be.

Macy's 8th Floor...

Now that we have Taylor, we go to Macy's 8th floor - last year we went with just Taylor but this year we also went with Grandma and Grandpa Henderson.

We stopped at the candy store where they make the best caramel popcorn and got that to share. Even though the story was still the same, its one of the best that Macy's has ever done so I thought it was good that they did it again.

Taylor of course got lots of treats and had a great time in the toy store with Grandpa while Grandma and I rested...:) Afterwards we went to Wendy's for dinner and got some hot chocolate from Starbucks because we also went to go look at Christmas lights in The Lakes. That's a tradition that we have had since we first got married so now I think we are just going to do that from now on - put them both together.

It was such a wonderful memory and I'm glad that Taylor has those memories to look back on!

Cole in 4D!

What a miracle each baby is! Last night, we had a 4d ultra sound done at Bella Angel Imaging in Maple Grove. Both of our parents were able to be there with us and it was a very special time! We had one done when we were pregnant with Taylor and we just had to have one done for Cole. My dreams of him possibly having a little bit of me are somewhat dashed - he, just like Taylor, seems to strongly resemble his daddy. But since their daddy is a very handsome man, I have no problem with that! :) We were able to get a 20 minute dvd and 3 pages of pictures which was very special..... Afterwards, we took everyone to Olive Garden to enjoy a great meal (one of my favorite restaurants!!!) and all too soon, it was over. My parents came back with us to our house to watch the Monday night game which was fun too and prolonged the festivities of the night! :) Its so very special to us to have these memories and these photos! Love it!

Christmas Program!

"Don't you just love this time of year?" My opening line for the Christmas program tonight! And it went so well! The bus kids came with us to the South Campus to sing a special before the program started and they did such a good job! I'm so proud of them! They looked so cute up there on the platform in their blue choir robes singing at the top of their lungs. I wish that I could have gotten a video but everyone I know was in the play or doing something for it or didn't have a camera.....so oh well....
I remembered every line and so did all the others! It turned out so very well! The Lord also helped with the sinus infection I had been battling so I didn't have to deal with a stuffy nose! My cousin Katie and her husband were in town from IN which was so special! Never in a million years did I think that they would be there!
After the program, we had a cookie fellowship and the kids really enjoyed that. Mike took everyone home on the church van and then he just went home. I took Taylor over to Heather's to meet up with Brian, Katie, Connie and Gary. Connie and Gary bought everyone Subway which was so nice and we just hung out, caught up and watched the Vikings. It was so much fun to be together! All in all, it was a very memorable night!

Merry Christmas, Grandma!

Christmas has changed over the years for us.....I remember so many years, heading to my Grandma Anderson's on Christmas Eve and all the cousins would be there and the aunts and uncles. Grandma would have her Christmas village in the bay window that overlooked the channel to the lake and her tree would be decorated with multi-colored lights with a million presents underneath that were just dying to be opened! So many memories.....

Now that we all have children of our own and my mom is now a grandma, Christmas Eve is spent at Mom and Dad's with all the brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. It is as magical for them as it was for us and such a special time! Since we no longer see my Grandma and aunts and uncles, the Saturday before Christmas is now spent together at either my Grandma's house or my Aunt Sharon's house. This year it was at Sharon's and we all brought food and played games together. We didn't open presents because my cousins still see everyone else on Christmas Eve and Grandma had bought us similar gifts and she didn't want their presents to be ruined. This year, I put together a "heritage" album for her that has current pictures of all the kids, grandkids and great grandkids. I know she liked it and it was really fun to put together. No matter how much the traditions have changed, this time is still very special for us! I'll always think of Grandma Anderson when I see a Christmas village (I started one this year!) and remember all those Christmas Eve nights and just how memorable they were for us!

Merry Christmas, Grandma!

Christmas Practice...

Thursday night Christmas Practice has come and gone! I can hardly believe it! What a busy time of year and what a busy night! Our Christmas program is on Sunday night at our South Campus and instead of having everyone come to practice on Friday night, we had practice tonight with a spaghetti dinner before. It was really good! I ate too much because I could hardly keep any breath support during the practice from how full I was! Ginger lead the rehearsal this year and I think it went really smoothly! I'm so nervous though! I've tried to memorize every one of my lines but I'm having difficulty with the last couple paragraphs. I shouldn't say that I've tried because I think I've read it through maybe two times at home in between other practice times so the fault lies with me. I will be studying very hard this weekend though! :) Taylor was pretty good through most of the first practice but by the end, Mike decided that it was just best if he took him home and I would ride back with Mom Henderson. It worked out really well because Taylor was able to get to bed on time and I was able to stay until the very end. Prayerfully everything will go just as wonderfully on Sunday!

Johnson Family

Matt, Jess and the kids came to church looking so nice this morning that I just had to take some pictures! And these are how they turned out! Such a beautiful family!

Elf Party 2009

A new Anderson tradition! Southern Living had this idea in their Christmas book they print every year and Heather & I just fell in love with it! I'm not sure the kids were as enthusiastic about it as we were but I'm sure they'll grow into it......right? :)

We all tried to wear as much red & green as we could (Taylor looked a little weird), eat a lot of red & green things and do Christmasy stuff like decorate a gingerbread house

with Grandma Anderson (Bomstad name)/Nana (Henderson name)/Mimi (Johnson name).

We have decided that if we all want to call our mom the same "grandmother" name, we are going to have to merge them all together and call her "Grandnami"!

I don't think that's going to play out! :)

It turned out to be really fun and something that I think the kids are going to look forward to.

Stinker

Not sure why he wouldn't smile when I tried to take a picture of us together - he sure was okay to smile when it was just him! I still thought these were pretty cute! :)

Diabetes or Not Diabetes...

Okay, so it sounds more drastic than it really is - I had my check up today for Cole and it included a glucose test for gestational diabetes. I'm so thankful that they have orange flavored drink because if they only had lemon lime, I don't think that I could do that (previous health experience has completely ruined that flavor for me). While we were waiting for the test to be completed - quite the long hour - we checked out Cole and he is head down and the doctor expects him to stay that way til it's time.....wow.....only 10 1/2 weeks to go.....wow! His heart rate is great and he is very active. All the time! Much more so than Taylor ever seemed to be so I'm wondering..... :) The rest of the time that we had to wait went by very quickly playing on our phones - I'm so thankful for technology at times like that - it flew by! No news is good news so I'm just waiting at this point! Oh the things we do to have little ones! Totally worth it!

Happy Birthday Honey!

Every year we celebrate Mike's birthday by spending the day downtown on Nicollet Ave shopping, eating and doing whatever we feel like doing. Its one of the most relaxing days in the whole year! :)

This year we went to lunch with Mike's parents at Chilis and then they watched Taylor for the rest of the day so that we could celebrate his birthday and go on a date at the same time! They are awesome grandparents and Taylor LOVES to be with them!

Of course we immediately got a Starbucks hot chocolate and we sat for the longest time and talked and relaxed. It was a wonderful day - one that I look forward to every year!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!