Christmas Break

We sure had a great and LONG Christmas break. After a week of missing Jackson, we were ready to get to Arizona! We woke up the Tuesday we wanted to leave to a crazy snow storm. Matt had been staying with us and we had so much fun spending the weekend with him. He cracks me up... always telling jokes, dancing the "dougie", making up pick up lines... He didn't even have a coat, had a hole in his shoes, and kept making whistling noises at the snow "wooooo-eeee". Even though it was hard plowing through the parking lot, we made it out, only to go 30 miles an hour max for the next 4-5 hours. James was a trooper and didn't really complain about the horrible roads. Matt slept the whole trip and even when we got to Mesa, it was still raining. Poor windshield wipers NEVER turned off! We picked up Jackson and went straight to the Andersen Christmas party (minus Mom, Dad, and Elder Matt.) We sure had a good time being with everyone eating dinner, skyping Wilford and Kathleen, making gingerbread houses, and the Santa was amazing (he even made the big boys sit on his lap!)

The next night was Sam's missionary dinner. This is one of my favorites traditions the Andersen's have. Though the testimony meetings always go a little long... It is so neat to see how many missionaries their family has. Sam sure seemed older and ready to serve in Texas.

Christmas Eve was the Anderson party. Shaela even brought the new baby, Jace. We had the usual nativity (James was a wise men and I was a shepherd AND we got to sing silent night. we're so good at duets.) Grandma and Grandpa Anderson and the sister missionaries came. My dad read some journal entries on meeting my mom and past Christmases they've had together. That was sure neat.

Christmas morning (can you believe I didn't take ANY pictures?) Jackson wasn't too in to opening presents. Once he opened one, he just wanted to sit and play and eat chocolate out of the stockings. I suprised James with some published blog books and an ESPN jeopardy game. He gave me some games and a present in MY language of love (aka. mesa thrift money!). We got to play some fun new Wii games (including SING-IT, in which I lost every round). We took naps and went over to Nate and Andrea's house for the evening.

All in all, we spent LOTS of time relaxing and enjoying having family around. Mansi and Brianna were the best babysitters and Jackson became obsessed with Bubba (Matt.) He still looks at pictures of him every day (even though they're tiny blurry ones on my phone, he still gets so excited). He calls his name out constantly and wants to see him on the computer (skype). The sad thing is, he kisses the screen! He LOVED the trampoline, grass, and playing with Libby and Tippy. Although Tippy bit the neighbor girl while we were there and had to be given away. My mom lightened and cut my hair and already, my appearance improved 100 points. James got to play lots of basketball and we enjoyed the Darl Andersen family reunion. (That was a little much for me, I'd never even met some of the cousins, and they don't schedule nap times!) We celebrated New Year's eve first by eating hot dogs with my famiyl and lighting off firecrackers. Then, James took a good 3 hour nap while I drove Matt, Mansi, and Brianna around the neighbor lighting off firecrackers and smoke bombs at random neighbor's houses, including grandma and grandpa Anderson's. (can you tell it was the first year fireworks were legal in Arizona?) Then James woke up and we spent the last few hours at the Merrill's playing cards and eating candy, then making a bunch of "rukus" out on orange street.

8 hours later, we started the drive back to Utah and thus, the cold. It is so hard for me to find ways to entertain Jackson (the total outdoors boy) when it's so cold. He watches way too many "mee-s" (movies) and we visit the library twice a week for storytime. But all in all, another good vacation has come and gone.

Catch-up

Wow, it's already been a long time but yet, there's still more to catch up on.

August:

This was a BUSY month for our little family. James started classes in the athletic training program, and boy oh boy is he a new MAN! He loves school! It's great to see him excited to read his textbooks, and go to class on time, and talk about everything he learns. He started a clinical assignment at Mountain View High school in Orem working with all their athletes. The high school boys seem to love him and make up nicknames for him. (It's probably because he gives such good massages!) I started another year of hall advisor and kicked off a big week of RA training. Despite being gone all day, James played MR. MOM and canned peaches and homemade salsa. Even though his mom wasn't around as much, Jackson started walking! It took only like 2 days of holding his hands high above his head, but he mastered it fast. Some people say it's hard when they start walking, but honestly, Jackson was so much happier! August also brings about BYU football season and Jackson actually made it to all the games this year. With books, toys, and LOTS of fruit snacks and juice boxes, he was a happy boy! He would even clap along with the fight song and stare at the ball. James couldn't be more proud.

September:

One of my highlights was taking Jackson up to the petting ZOO at thanksgiving point. He started being able to make LOTS of different animal sounds, and ran around the place pointing and grunting at the animals. SO many people stopped to comment and after 2 hours, I decided I'd had enough. James played on an intramural football team (of course). They played hard every week and practiced for hours. They didn't make it as champion, but James was definitely the star quarterback. I blame their losing on the fact the made James NOT play quarterback for awhile.

October:

My parents made nice trip up to visit. We enjoyed a football game and of course, the homecoming week festivities. My dad is always so good at supporting BYU and doing all the "different" activities. Yet, those are always my favorite parts of his visit! We ended the weekend off with a good visit to the OC-TUBA fest where some world famous tuba players sang into their tubas. (literal singing). It was great! October is also my birthday month and James surprised me with a gym membership to 24 hour fitness. I couldn't have asked for a better present. Jackson gets to go play int he kids' club and I've definitely become more fascinating with Zumba, cycling, and body-pump classes. Jackson loves the little playgrounds, and the worker girls are nice BYU girls that he loves. Thanks James, for giving us something to do each day!

James and I also went to our first haunted house to celebrate halloween. It was raining pretty bad on halloween, so we took a raincheck for another night. However, it was SO freaky, the people actually touched you and I kind of just froze. James had to pull me through the whole entire thing, saying "Shawnne, you have to walk.... shawnne, MOVE, etc.". When it was over, I even started crying! Now, I realize why we will never do something like that again.

NOVEMBER:

Living with the freshmen...is well...crazy sometimes. We had some lovely young men decide to vandalize a car int he parking lot (and well, it was our van...). They picked it up, moved it, cracked the window, and pooped on it! The police officer sure was mad and it took weeks to get it all figured out. Drama came when one of the boys' uncles got involved (tried to persuade my decision, guess that's called witness tampering...). Anyways, right around that same time, I had a girl try and stab herself on the balcony during the ward party, 2 girls that had anxiety attacks (rolling on ground screaming), a boy with a pretty severe eating disorder, and another attempted suicide (drug overdose). It pretty much wore me out trying to deal with it and Thanksgiving was a much needed break. My mom watched Jackson and we left with Brad and Julie over to Disneyland. Despite getting the stomach flu, I had so much fun! Normally I love Indiana Jones, but seeing as my stomach hurt, my favorite was the Buzz Lightyear shooting game. Brad spent lots of hours making a Disneyland trivia book which provided lots of entertainment in the car. We visited Huntington beach and of course, brad was the only who got in. We also ran the turkey trot...together. WOW! James wasn't feeling good and so, he didn't even try and pass me, just ran with me. It was great! Ok, so we jogged. But, still beat the sister missionaries my dad invited! The Bob and Marlene Anderson's got together and for the first time, James met some of my dad's sisters. We then went over to Nate and Andrea's new house in Gilbert for a few hours.

December:

Well, that brings us to now...the crazy time of year with freshmen checking out and James taking finals. So far, it's looking like it will be his best semester grade-wise...which is definitely exciting! We spent the past weekend going up to Salt lake city. We went to the BYU basketball game at energy solutions arena. Jackson was mesmerized by all the lights, sounds, and people. Halfway through the game, when he finally snapped out of his staring, he started yelling "basketball hoop" at the top of his lungs. James and I got a good laugh realizing he must think that's what everyone is yelling. We went to the temple square lights, and went up to visit my mom who was in town. Sunday was Grandma and Grandpa Matthew's homecoming talk form their Ogden mission. I spent most of the time outside with Jackson but it was fun to see all the family. We had a big luncheon afterward and I met a lot of their investigators. I'm always continually amazed at what good missionaries my grandparents are. My mom took Jackson home on the plane with her. They are so good to help us through our busy times. I know Jackson's having LOTS more fun than he would here, and even though I hate going without him, it's been very helpful to get caught up on lots of things. Sometimes I really wonder how long I can keep up a more than 40 hour work week and stay on top of the house stuff and be a good mom. Luckily, peak weeks like this (where I work 80 hours) only happen about 3 times a year. But, we'll leave for Arizona this coming Tuesday. We're already counting the days....

What to do with all my energy?

I've decided Jackson has way too much energy. Besides learning how to walk, he spends most his time finding something to throw, something to jump off of, or lately, to throw his head back on. These videos make me laugh. The first shows how he is no longer satisfied with crawling. This happens all the time when I won't help him up so he can walk. The second is what he does on the bed all the time.

Visit from Taylor

We were lucky to have Taylor LeSueur come visit us for a week. He sure is an active little boy who is SO smart and wonders about EVERYTHING. I found I only knew about 1/3 of the questions he asked. We enjoyed some good mini-golf, playing in the duck pond, watching some movies, and of course, the cannon center. I think Taylor's favorite part was that he didn't have to eat anything healthy. James was helping a guy in our ward coach a football camp for little boys, so Taylor and cousin Matt went along too. Between that and getting hives form the duck pond, I think we wore Taylor out! He drove back to AZ with us and I was so impressed he could sleep through Jackson's screaming. What a trooper. I think my favorite part about the whole visit was when he commented on our apartment while talking to his dad. "Dad, there must have been a MASTER architect because it's amazing how they fit so many things in such a tiny place!"

Trip to Arizona

For 2 weeks in July we got to just leave everything and enjoy family. We spent the first half with my family. Jackson LOVED being around all the kids, and of course, everyone spoiled him. I still think his favorite is my brother Matt. We had a big shower for my Aunt Kris (who is having baby number 9), did lots of Mesa Thrift shopping, lots of swimming, and of course, my mother saved my hair! I loved being in Mesa again, James and I commented over and over how nice it would be if he got accepted to a PA school in Gilbert. Once again, I think we wore Jackson out!

Luckily, July means that Wilford, Kathleen, Sam, and Spencer get to spend some time away from the Dominican Republic. We sure enjoyed having the whole family (minus Clayt's family) at the cabin. I always forget just how pretty it is. There is a nice pond right outside the back of the cabins and Jackson spent most his time staring at it, crawling around in the dirt, and doig everything he could to avoid family devotionals! We drove up to Green's Peak one day, rode horses another day, and spent some time at the ranch's playground. Jackson was spoiled once again with all the attention. One morning, Wilford took Jackson out early in the morning for a little "grandpa time". How nice!

I sure wish this picture wasn't blurry!

Or that James' eyes weren't closed,

or that Jackson was smiling!

Pretty view though...

Thanks to Em, the MASTER of fishy lips,

Jackson can now do them. I keep trying to

get it on camera to show her though.

Someone asked me why I never put pics of ME on the blog. Well, I realized since I really do take most of the pictures, the only ones taken of me are usually by some niece or nephew. I had a good laugh at these two... :) Looks like I need Shaela's "glamour shot" camera!

After the 2 weeks, we decided to leave Jackson with my parents for a week and a half. James needed to prepare for finals and finish his 2 correspondence classes. I really needed to get everything ready for check outs of all the summer students. Rather than just pay for a babysitter here, we left him for the first time! I think it was a little hard on me to go from only being gone for like 4 hours to something that long, but we sure appreciate all my families' help! We were able to get everything done, and James even still made it for 4 days to scout camp. The drive home to Arizona felt extra quiet and lonely, but it was one of the prettiest drives I've ever made. There were scattered thunderstorms followed by full rainbows and double rainbows. The pictures don't do it justice, but I did try! Thanks to grandma and grandpa Andersen, he flew home the following week with them. They said he was perfect on the flight! (Our prayers were answered!) Jackson seemed to have a hard transition to being with boring us, in our tiny apartment, but once we learned he had double ear infections, I felt a little better about my parenting! A week and half later, after 5 days of fever's over 104, and a whole bottle of Amoxicillin, he's a new man!