Children's Dental Health Month

February is Children's Dental Health Month and over the years I have done several presentations at schools for kids, teaching about oral health. It is a lot of fun and the kids LOVE it. And now with my own kids it is even more fun. I talked to Elliot's teacher and she was thrilled to have me come talk to the kids. I asked the dentist that bought my dad's practice to donate some toothbrushes to the kids which I was so grateful for.

We talked about brushing and flossing, why that is important, visits to the dentist, fluoride and all that fun stuff. The office also lent me this great book called "The gross, disgusting and totally cool mouth book." It truly lives up to its name and was a big hit with the kids.

Trying to keep up...

I am trying to keep with my resolutions (resolution #1- blog more often). Really I am. I hate blogging without a picture, but if I wait until that is going to happen too much time goes by so here is our pitiful update sans photo.

Life continues here in Arlington. Too much rain makes me very much miss Ephrata although they have had lots of snow and cold that I don't really miss. I am working quite a bit- now 3 days a week and sometimes 4. A little more than I really would like but I am thankful for the plentiful work and the fact that I do enjoy my job. I work in this tiny little office with three other wonderful women (I said I would never work for a woman dentist again, but I had to eat my words here...) and actually look forward to going to work. And I do believe that it makes me appreciate my time at home more. I have to really manage my time well and still don't get everything done that I want to. I get up super early to get a work out in (resolution #2- lose 15 pounds...ya...exercise happening, but stress eating still also happening...bleh) and often stay up too late to get things done after the kids are in bed. It all takes a lot of planning and list writing for myself and for my dear husband to get things done for me during the day. We are praying for the day that Justin has a job again and we can feel like I can possibly cut back a bit. But right now I am just counting my blessings that one of us has steady income.

Justin has been dabbling in quite a few things lately. He enjoys woodworking and has been trying a few projects out with that. He has been working FIERCELY on our taxes and it looks like we may actually get a meager return after all. Going from owing $4000 to getting $300 back is looking mighty fine about now. Since we are "self employed" working for my dad, it kinda bit us big and we had to scrimp and pinch to find deductions. Very time consuming but hopefully worth it in the end. He has decided to take over the checkbook which has been my duty for quite some time now. I am thrilled about this. He has started a blog although it has been a good week or so since there has been a post. He is an incredible writer and I wish that he would pursue that a bit more especially with the more free time that he has currently.

I must give a shout out to our glorious nanny, Ashley. We love Ashley. It makes my going to work as much as I am all the better because she comes to the house to care for the kids. She takes them to the park or the walking trail, to the library or the children's museum. Just yesterday they went all the way to the temple to walk around and take pictures and then out to lunch. At least my kids are making it to the temple more (resolution #3- although I have to give kudos to Justin for going to the stake priesthood session early last Saturday). She is an amazing, beautiful young woman and we are so blessed to have her in our home.

Well, I best be getting to bed. I will go crawl in and grab my Jodi Piccoult novel that I have started (resolution #4). I am not quite sucked in yet, but if it is like her other novels it won't be long. At the same time, it will probably be a page and a half and I will be asleep ;)

I promise, pictures next time!

Continuation of Christmas Break

I was on the wrong computer when posting about Christms so I didn't have these pictures. I didn't take very many and not many good ones...maybe another resolution is in order to take more and better pictures (Justin even gave me a book to help me learn my fancy camera).

This is the kids when we were having "Christmas" at the mission home. We skyped with Justin which was a first for me. It was kinda fun! Grey with a pretty purse?

Elliot and Tripp with Mark and Hannah.

David came and spent several days with us after Christmas before heading back to D.C. and one day we beared the cold and went to the zoo. It was BITTER COLD but we still had fun. Unfortunately, the animals got the memo of how cold it was and lots of them found refuge somewhere out of our view.

Thanks Uncle David for being such a sport all week with us!

Tooth Lost!

The first lost tooth at the Anderson house! Elliot was so excited and proud of her accomplishment!

She went to bed with her tooth in a sandwich bag on her nightstand and lo and behold, a dollar was there in its place. In fact, she came in at 2:55 AM to tell me so.

Congratulations, Elliot! As a dear friend recently said, "Welcome to awkwardness!"

Resolutions

I am not a huge fan of resolutions. I think a lot of it stems from not wanting to fail so if I don't set the goal, then I can't fail at it. This isn't a good way to look at life because how can you improve on yourself if you don't at least try to make a goal and stick with it. So I was just going to let the New Year come and go, but it has kinda been nagging at me to set a few goals. So I decided on 4 and I figured I should write them down and make them "public." Hopefully doing so will help make them more solid and successful.

(1) Write in my blog more regularly. I am not going to say daily or even weekly, but more regularly that it has been. Facebook has made it so I don't write in here as much, but I still want to keep it up. Plus, Justin has started a blog and he has inspired me a bit. He has such a way with words that put mine to shame and I love reading it. I truly hope that he keeps it up.

(2) I had a goal around Halloween to loose about 15 pounds before Christmas. Stress hit our house hard and my diet took it's toll. Unfortunately when I have had a rough day, if I know that I can have chocolate or ice cream or cookies (or all the above) at night then it seems to make it all better. I had lost about 5 pounds but have since gained it back and then some. So I really want to loose those last few baby weight pounds. I have no problem with the exercising part- it is the watching what I eat part. I need to just get over the first week or so and then I should be fine. Once I succeed it will be time to buy a killer pair of jeans and a new bra.

(3) Attend the temple more. I wish that I could say every month, but again I don't want to say something that really is unrealistic. It used to be that the kids were the excuse, but now we have an excellent couple of babysitters and even days other than Saturday to take advantage of. Every time I go I am so glad that I did. And I want my children to see us going to the temple and understand the importance of the sacred work done there and the special spirit that can be felt there. Plus, my mom bought me a new temple dress :0

(4) Read more. This is so difficult just because of time and energy. I read with Elliot every night so at least a few verses of the scriptures get read and some of the book that we are reading together. But I want something for me. I wish I could say more than this, but I am going to start with the book club books for the year. It is not quite a book a month, but that is what I will shoot for.

So there you have it. My "resolutions." I hope that they stick and I will keep the blog posted on what happens with them...

Christmas 2010

This year for Christmas Justin's parents graciously took us all to Hayden, ID to Triple Play. We stayed at the hotel there for two nights and got to play at the water park and at the arcade and bowling alley. It was a bit crazy with our young family but still a fun way to spend Christmas. Since we don't get to see Grandpa Snook and Grandma Jana as much as the other cousins, it was nice to have the first night alone with them too.

Here's some pictures from the weekend:

Bowling with the cousins

(they had the cutest mini balls and pins!)

Grey cheezin' it up:

Elliot with her cousin, Faith, and Aunt Annie and Uncle Kyle:

(The boys were so busy we didn't get many pictures of them)

Ryan and Kolby:

The older cousins-

Brooks, Elliot, Faith, Kolby, Ryan

Aunt Lisa and Tripp

Christmas morning- ready for breakfast!

Opening one of many Cars presents:

Elliot's "american girl" doll- She LOVES Jenny!

Christmas Morning- a little weird in a hotel room:

The Trippster by the pool:

Grandma and Grandpa in the hot tub:

Handsome Grey:

The whole family!

Traveling with three little kids is rough, but we managed. We are planning Christmas at our house next year though! On our way home we stopped in Ephrata to visit our dear friends and enjoyed dinner with the Griggs and Plaisteds (the Hansens were missed). We got home and had one day to turn everything around and fly out to St. George the next day. Justin decided to stay at home which was probably a good decision as he ended up rupturing his ear drum a few days later. The kids and I had a very nice visit with my parents and all of my brothers (except Aaron who is still on his mission) and new sister-in-law. It was relaxing to be there and just enjoy each others company. David flew back with us (I don't even want to think about the plane ride. It was horrific thanks to Grey. Let's just say I was that mom and Grey was that kid. You know, the one you REALLY don't want to sit by for over 2 hours). We had such a nice visit with him, but I am afraid we may have scared him away from ever having kids with all of Grey's meltdowns and the lack of "fun" over the few days he was here. We are back to "normal" life now for better or worse.

Santa 2010

(Yes, that is me holding Grey in the corner...)




We only sent a few Christmas cards out this year, mostly to people that aren't on Facebook or that most likely don't see our blog. Otherwise, we figured that you pretty much know what we are doing and what we look like which is the main reason for sending Christmas cards. Please don't think we are being scrooges or anything, but I will admit that it really does add up by the time you get the cards and/or pictures and all the postage. Once again, the internet trumps tradition. Here though is the picture that we used:


Merry Christmas!!!