Family Pictures

I love my little family! I could just stare at pictures of my kids for hours.  They are so stinking cute.  And so is my hubby!

O Christmas Tree

As Brett and I were discussing our Christmas tree this year he said, " Maybe we should get a fake tree."   I agreed, but felt a huge pit in my stomach.  " Wait... It just feels wrong, " I said.  I love the idea of no mess and saving money - eventually - but then we will be robbing our children of the EXPERIENCE.  My dad was big on trees.  Real ones.  He trained us well about the value of a real Christmas tree.  We drove to Home Depot where we were going to look at the fake trees.  We stopped at the tree lot out front first where we spotted the perfect tree.  And it was real.  It just felt right. 

I remind myself of that as I vacuum up the needles every day!

I like to call our tree a "memory tree".  When I was young, my dad started giving us ornaments that represented something about the past year for each of us.  When I got married, he gave all of the ornaments to us and passed the baton to Brett who has carried on the tradition wonderfully.

 The ballerina is from my ballerina days.  Some of you may be scratching your head as to how I had ballerina days.  Trust me - they didn't last long!  The plane was given to me in college with the note " home is never far away".

In about 3rd grade I went through a major " save the earth phase". This ornament helps me remember that!

Brett gave this to me the year we moved back to CA with a note that said " Welcome Home!"

Our tree is a reminder or life and love.  I can't wait to give these same gifts to our two boys!

 Merry Christmas!



Ryans Birthday Breakfast

Presents + Family + Buzz Lightyear+ Food = A great morning!

We ate: quiche, turkey sausage, pan-fried sweet potatoes and DELISH( and not too bad for you)chocolate muffins that can be found on this great blog... it is vegan - I just de-veganize it!  Sorry Morgan!

November in Denver

The boys and I literally spent half of November in Denver.  I babysat my cute nieces and nephew for a week then we came home for a week and turned right back around to celebrate Thanksgiving with them.  It was a blast.  Ryan starting thinking that Denver was our home and we were in fact living with our cousins.  He even joined their family photo as you can see.  He smiled way better in theirs than he did in ours! 

 We celebrated Rys birthday with the cousins.  He wanted strawberry cake... strawberry.  Let me tell you, I asked and asked " are SURE you don't want CHOCOLATE cake?"  Every time he said he wanted strawberry.  Crazy kid. 

 A little birthday freeze dance in his almost his birthday suit. Very appropriate.

 Cute Luke was loved by all and did great on the trips!

three today

my baby is three.  can I have some Kleenex please? 

Ryan puts a smile on my face everyday. He is sweet, thoughtful, determined and funny.  I love this kid more than words can say.

We are in the middle of a birth-week.  More pictures to come!

Ryan Says

Ryan is hilarious.  Here are a few things he has said to make us laugh lately:

I asked Ryan if he wanted to get a shirt on when daddy was reading to him.

Ryan : No, I OK.  Daddy is hot for me.

Interpretation:  Daddy is keeping me warm.

Ryan went on a bike ride with Brett.  When they come home, Ryan told me that his bike ride was fun, but he fell "with style".

When he wears his favorite buzz pjs he likes to push the button on his shirt and say "come in star command.  Do you copy?"

Is it possible to freeze time?  I would like to do that.  Except for when he throw tantrums. I'll just fast forward those.

PLAYdough

Ryan had a friend over the other day.  It was rainy, so I had them play with some new playdough I had just bought.  10 colors.  Brand new. 

They started with two colors.  I gave them instructions to just put the colors together softly so they won't stick together. 

But for some reason both of the couldn't handle it and sqashed the playdough together. 

I was freaking out inside my head. 

 If you squash them, then they won't be their own color... we won't have 10 colors, we will have one. 

But then I saw how much fun they were having. 

So I just let go and let them go at it.

I was the one making things hard.

It was a good lesson.

 A colorful Playdough pancake

Just FYI - a fun inside idea that I got from " 101 things to do with your kids" is to roll up foil into balls and throw it into something.  I had the boys roll the foil, too.  It kept them entertained for 30 minutes! 

 That is a long time for a little boy!

Who's Who?

They sure do look similar.  I snapped this picture of Luke tonight because it reminded me of the one I took of Ryan 2.5 years ago. 

I love them both to pieces!

Happy Halloween

Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year, I decided to have a fun little party for Ryan and a few friends.  I woke up really excited that day.  I had everything planned in 15 minute increments.  I was ready to go.  But, I learned a good lesson:  3 year olds just want to play. They don't care about party games. That will make Ry's birthday easier to plan! I am thinking park and treat.  Done.

A few of the kiddos in their costumes.  Ryan actually wanted to be in his PJs instead of his costume that day.  They worked though!  

Lunch was mummy hot dogs, sweet potato fries and apple eyeballs.  Delish!

Playing Ghost tag

Painting our pumpkins

Four Months Old

Luke is such a DELIGHT to have in our home.  He smiles and coos all the time.  Here are four, four month facts about our little guy:

1. He is a mover!  He rolls and can even scoot a little bit.  He is just trying to keep up with big brother.

2. He likes to sleep on his stomach. He immediately rolls over when I lay him down.

3. He is starting to giggle and it the cutest sound.

4. He takes naps about every two hours.  It is hard getting used to that again!

The Anatomy of a Tantrum

 It all started last night, when Ryan woke up every hour crying because he was afraid of the storm going on.  Then because of that storm, we decided not to go to Disneyland.  

Plan B was going to a fun indoor play place.  But plan B was derailed because Daddy needed the car. 

A lunch at Chick-fil-a it was.  

We did have fun and had great company, but even I was disappointed in our exciting day turning average. 

The afternoon was empty so after a quick game of Hi-Ho Cherrio, boredom and grumpiness set in.

And then it began:

Ryan wanted to go on a bike ride, but he was in underwear.

MOM: Ryan, you need to put on pants shoes before we go on a bike ride. (if it wasn't cold I might have just let him go in undies).

RY: I want to ride my bike!

MOM: I  know, let's just put on pants. 

RY: I want to ride my bike now.

MOM: It is easy, just put these on and we will go. ( I threw some pants at him).

Ry:  Contunies screaming and refusing to put pants on for the next 20 minutes.  

The whole thing became very funny, so I started taking pictures, which he didn't like one bit.  

But it was funny!

 All the while, this guy was just content to watch his brother in my arms, soaking in all of the tantrum tips for the years to come.  

 By the end of the night, we all recovered and Ryan was sweet for the last couple hours of the day.  It seems he got it all out.  We never did go on that bike ride.

 Yay for tantrums!

Growing Up

 There is a lot of growing up going on in our family!  Little Luke is not a newborn anymore.  He is so alert and will flash a smile at anyone who glances his way.  He is a charmer.

 He is putting his head up and rolling already.  What a big boy! It was hard to get a picture of just him though.  Ryan is still used to being at the center of all pictures. 

Take a look:

 I just can't get too frustrated with Ryan though. All he has to do is look at me with those big blue eyes and flash me that smile and I just melt.

There are big changes for Brett, too.  He has left Bank of America and now works for Pricewaterhouse Coopers.  He is a Change Management Consultant and we are based out of LA. I can't tell you much more that that :). 

We are very proud of him and how hard he works for us.  We have truly been blessed with wonderful opportunities and are very grateful!

6 years

I remember the very first time I met Brett I was at call backs for a community choir.  He was an auditioner.  We were all standing in a circle singing and he and a few others were in the middle listening to us.  I just stared at him the whole time. I loved his huge smile and green eyes.*  He looked like he was glowing... cheesy, but he did ( Later I asked him if he noticed me staring and he said yes and he thought he must have something in his teeth)!  I came home and told all of my roommates that if I made the choir, it was a sign.  Luckily for me, I made the choir and the sign proved itself to be correct.  I love being married to this man.  

* you know those lists that you make when you are 15, dreaming about the person you are going to marry.  One of mine was someone with green eyes.  Funny, huh.  I got everything I wanted and more!

Double Rainbow!!

I don't know how many of you have seen this YouTube video about the Double Rainbow, but it is pretty funny.  Brett's brother showed it to us and I didn't know why the guy was reacting like he did. 

 Until... we saw our own double rainbow!  

(Warning: this video is not funny unless you have seen the YouTube video). 

The Little Engine that Couldn't

It all started after I had Luke.  Because of the complications that I had, there were some things that I just couldn't do for Ryan.  I had to say " I can't" a lot to him.  Not long after that, Ryan started saying " I can't" to a lot of things too.  

"Ryan, pick up that toy - " I can't"

" Ryan, get in your seat" - " I can't"

"Ryan close the fridge that you opened" - " I can't"

It started to get a little frustrating.  And we also didn't want Ryan to develop an " I can't" attitude.  We wanted him to try things and to do things.  So,  tonight for Family Home Evening, I told him the story of the little engine that could.  We played trains and repeated " I think I can, I think I can" over and over.  After I demoed the train going up the hill a few times, we let him try with his toy train.  As he was doing it, he dropped the train behind the chair.  We said,  "Ryan, get the train".  What was his answer...

"I CAN'T"

Maybe it will just take a few days to process!

Blessing Day

Our sweet Luke was blessed on Sept. 5th.  It was such a special day.  I loved seeing Luke in his cute blessing outfit ( thanks Brittney!).  

These pictures are totally Luke.  He is so smiley and sweet!

The Blessing Gang

Cute brothers!

Luke is not really loving the love!

With Great Grandpa

With all the men who blessed him

It was too hard for Ryan to resist the pool.  I came out and he was in the pool, fully clothed, and he told me he was not swimming, he was just sitting.  Love the kid.

I thought this was a cute picture of all the Andersen boys.  Ryan loved his uncles and espeically loved to play fruit ninja on uncle Justin's phone!