Good things are coming NOW.

You know that one church talk where it says to trust in the Lord, cause good things are to come? Well, lately, the good things are already coming! :) We feel really blessed lately and even though I am getting so huge, I really do feel grateful most days for all my blessings.

James parents helped us set up a plan to buy their house. Yep, we are soon to be homeowners...thanks to a lot of seller financing. We sure felt so appreciative of all their generosity, and the meetings with loan officers have already begun. At least James agrees to stay on orange street for the next few years because I LOVE it here.  I found this picture on James phone...he actually sent it to some guy for a bid on tree removal of the 2 front trees, but I figure it works here for our announcement of buying the house.

Missionary work has picked up again for us lately. We've sat in on lots of discussions with barbara papilli and she was finally baptized yesterday. She had asked James to baptize her and confirm her , i gave a little talk on baptism, and it was neat to play a small part in her conversion as well. Working with investigators always makes me feel really grateful for just how much I've been given and how much happiness I have felt my whole life. Barbara is a 51 year old lady, who finally kicked out her live-in boyfriend, lives in the trailer park, quit smoking, and is trying to get her first job in over 20 years. The changes she is trying to make all at once I'm sure are overwhelming, but she is trying so hard and looks so much happier.

James' parents left this past week and I actually always feel a little sad when they leave our house! You'd think I'd be so excited to have "my house back" (whatever that means) but they are the best help when they are here. I love all the cleaning and cooking help, but i also love just seeing them have time with their grandkids. They do so much during each break and visit so many people. It seems like they hardly ever have time for a break, because they do so much. I think I saw Wilford take one nap the whole month they were here. And, that's because he had surgery that morning, and the anesthesia wasn't totally worn off.  We had a FHE where they shared a lot of the stories from working with cuba. It was neat to hear what they are a part of, and neat to realize how much the world needs them. I know from watching Becca and Andrea that it really is a sacrifice for their kids to just let them leave... but the blessings of their service really do affect each of us individually. They spent a lot of time in utah and at the cabin, and James was sad he didn't get as much time to just sit and visit with them. But, I sure do appreciate the examples they are to me, and all they do to just serve me and tolerate my little family when they are here. That, and we have had a lot of fun cousin times that seem to happen the most during the summer months.

Spencer is now here to live with us. It's funny that sometimes i think i am still so young till I compare my life to his teenage life...and boy, have i changed! :) He is so patient with the kids and does a lot to help here and there. I am excited for him to have school start and not be hanging around the house all day. Not that he gets annoying, but it's hard for teenage boys to figure out what to do besides watch TV, eat, watch more TV, etc. He's been trying to find a job and even went on his first few dates. James and I had to double with mom and him on his first ever date. The boys treated us to a mini-golf game at Golfland and dairy queen. It was sweaty but a lot of fun. Definitely my first date with my mother-in-law. :)

Jackson's first buzz

Happy birthday to Tommie!

A whole year has come and gone and Tommie is now 1! All in all it has seemed like an easy transition to having him in our life. I couldn't ask for a sweeter baby with a bigger smile. I will always be grateful that Tommie has taught me to just take a break, and smile BIG at anyone. I can't imagine I'll ever have another baby that is just so chill... but we'll see.

With that said, he has gotten a little feisty! He is getting smarter and knows what he wants. And, when he doesn't get it... he shrieks real loud, throws him self on the floor and looks at me with the saddest face. For instance, his love of my cell phone is his newest passion. I find it hard to make any calls without him noticing...and when he does, he crawls over so fast and stands there crying till you hand it to him. Jackson can get him so mad, so fast by just taking a toy away or sitting too close. Yet, Jackson can also get him laughing faster than anyone. It's so cute to watch the 2 boys and see how they get along so well already.

I have really started wondering how everyone will get around when this next baby comes. Tommie is close to walking, but not quite and I can only imagine that I'll be carrying 2 babies around...a lot. Who knows. I walk the halls with Tommie a lot at church and wonder how James and I will both teach classes with the 2 babies. Good thing there's a lot of family in the ward!

We got our first letter from my brother matt in the provo MTC. His visa came and he is now in Columbia. He sounds great...had forgotten a towel and had the usual hard adjustment to just lessons all day long. But, we did talk to him at the airport yesterday and he was much more upbeat and excited to get to Columbia.

Shaela ended up having her baby early at 36 weeks...a little girl "whitney". She was born in Prescott and Jared was here in Mesa. Shaela's father in law drove her to the hospital, got pulled over for speeding, and Jared made it just in time to see the baby be born. It was too fast for her epidural to work so her first "all-natural" baby. I took a little day trip to Prescott on friday with julie, my mom, and mansi and brianna to visit shaela and the baby. It was fun but made me realize I still have quite a while to be pregnant! And I already feel huge, hot, and uncomfortable most of the time! :)

Family time

We have had so much fun having James' family around lately for Sam's wedding. It started with Neil and Megan coming into town, and megan giving me and the boys a ride up to the cabin in their new mini-VAN. What a step up in life!  It was just a girls trip, with the kids, but it was so fun to get out of the heat, and let the kids just play. All the cousins played so nice together, and I hardly did any cooking or cleaning. So wonderful! Tommie and I weren't feeling the best towards the end of the week, but turns out my sickness was from lack of sleep, and Tommie's was a strange reaction to whole milk.

We came home saturday night, and spent time with James and Neil. James had a whole feast prepared for us with carne-asada tacos, homemade salsa and guacamole, strawberry lemonade, and perfectly cut mangoes and pineapple. What a man!

I spent the next few days preparing the house for all the wedding festivities. Becca came over and helped get all the wedding dinner decorations ready, and the food going. We had 6 crockpots cooking tuesday night! :) Clayton and Amber, Wilford and Kathleen, Matt, Grandma and Grandpa Bennion, and Sam all had flights in Wednesday morning. We took some fun family pictures (to come later) and enjoyed a nice little dinner. There were sure a lot of us Andersens compared to Julie Willis' family that came. It was just her mom, brother, and 3 sisters. The younger grandkids sang the famous "love and marriage" and talked a little about the lovebirds.

The sealing was thursday. Wilford was able to seal them and it was a neat experience to all be in there together. Wilford gave such a sweet talk on how important covenants are, and how no matter what, we just need to stick to our covenants. Sam was sweet to sit there and hold Julie's hands, and kathleen's. Ha! cute! They had a nice wedding luncheon at the beverly building (thanks to a lot of ladies' in the ward) and then we headed to the reception for more pictures and a long night of fun. I was so proud of my boys for making it the whole night and it was fun to be back in regency (where our wedding reception was).

The whole family left the next morning for Utah--the Bennion reunion and family time. We were sad we couldn't make it work and really feel like we missed out! But, we stuck around because my brother matt was leaving on his mission. Saturday night Uncle Matt, spencer, and Jeff, and a few of there kids made it down from utah. It was fun to see them again. I really do miss hanging out with the matthews more. SUnday morning was his farewell talk. He did a great job...kept trying to crack a few jokes that no-one really laughed at. But, he did bear a strong testimony and had TONS of friends there. He had an open house sunday night, with a lot of his friends and extended family.  Monday night, he was set apart an elder by President Burnham. I actually started feeling really sad, especially when he started crying. I did pretty good at not crying until it came time for Jackson to say goodbye and he didn't want too. Jackson didn't understand why he couldn't spend the night with Matt and play super smash bro's on the Wii, or watch a dumb youtube movie with a dancing gummi bear (which always gets my boys laughing). Anyways, the more I tried to explain he was leaving the more mad Jackson got and I got pretty sad. But, Tuesday morning I came back over and helped Matt pack up his room while my mom ran errands. We had him all packed up and room cleaned out and then they left to drive him to provo. (His visa still hasn't come so who knows if he'll make it to the columbia mtc). And, now he's gone and we haven't heard anything yet. But, how exciting for him. Funny how 2 years really seems like a long time.

We then left on thursday for Prescott. Jared was hosting a work party for James' company over the weekend there. It was busy and fun. We went to the big rodeo and left Tommie with a babysitter. Jackson loved the bucking horses, but I was all about the half time show of the "one-armed bandit" who steered his horse with his feet and trained buffalo. They even got the 2 buffalo up on top of the trailer. What a hit! The next day we went to the fourth of july parade, and walked around the booths at the courthouse. They were honoring the 19 firefighters from prescott who just died fighting the forest fire. They had their families ride on top of a fire truck in the parade and it was actually kind of sad to see all the little kids. After the parade, Jared  had a big barbeque ready and the kids all played outside. It was interesting to get to know all the ladies James works with better. He has a lot of patience! :) He was ready to come home last night though and spend a little bit of time with his parents, who came back from utah while we were gone.  They are leaving in the morning for the cabin, and we aren't sure if we'll be able to make it yet or not.

James also had another HOA work party he was the DJ for. They had the fire department come spray everyone with their hoses. It was a major heat wave day with the temperature 119. It was so hot, and that water was actually really cold. Boys had a lot of fun, and shaela and i stuck around that party for quite a while.  What else do you do when it's so hot?

Whew! how's that for the past few weeks? I am pretty tired, and the boys are definitely more cranky than normal, but it has been so fun to see everyone. James is so bummed thinking he can't really get more time off work to be more involved. It is hard to have his parents gone so much, but what a blessing they are to us. And any time they come around, EVERYONE just flocks to them! Did I mention that Jackson can now go cross-eyed? Gram Cracker asked me if he has a problem with his eyes... he does it all the time! :) And he really is just hard to get good pictures of lately! What a poser.

Tommie also had his first hair cut. However, he still gets really crazy hair after sleeping. Doesn't he look a lot like grandpa bennion? Actually, I get a lot of comments lately that he looks like the baby on the movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".  Notice the 2 bottom teeth getting bigger? the top 2 cut through this week too.