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.

Summer is officially here!

Time has flown by so fast lately, yet the days seem long and lazy. I'm sure the 115 degrees help with that. My brother Matt is officially graduated from Westwood. He had his 18th birthday, was ordained a priest, went through the temple for his first time, and now is in Utah with my mom and sisters for 2 weeks. Can't believe in 3 weeks he will be gone on his mission.

According to matt, those shoes are the coolest. 

Swim lessons have started. I drive over to Kino so Shaela and I can be together. Jackson sure has picked swimming fast, and I don't worry about him in the pool as much. Tommie.... he just loves the one-on-one time with me and I'm sad to think he won't be my baby for very much longer. I really am. He's on the verge of walking, says dada, and finally cut his first 2 teeth. I know when this next boy comes he will just seem huge and it's weird for me to think about. It actually really does make me sad. Jackson was my baby for so long. 

 I have loved how tan my boys get. Poor James hasn't gotten out much lately, and they kind of look they aren't even his kids anymore. James hates this picture, but how can you not love it?

After swim, we all walk over to Kino's cafeteria for free lunch...thanks to Obama and taxes. The kids love it and I still sneak food off Tommie's tray and drink his chocolate milk. 

Jackson turned 4 on sunday! He started the day by saying "now that I'm 4, I can do whatever I want". Ha! Wouldn't that be nice. He had a pirate party on saturday with a few cousins. He has become obsessed with the tv show "Jake and the neverland pirates" and we had little headbands, eye patches, and swords. They played on the tramp, ran through sprinklers, ate hot dogs and popsicles, had a dance contest, and tried to catch little goldfish in a swimming pool.  We made a little poster to hang up about him with his stats for this year: He is 42 inches tall, weighs 36 pounds, and has 20 teeth. He loves wrestling, playing ipad, watching tv, watering things with the hose, painting, and playing with anyone besides me! :) He would rather be at orange patch, with Eliza, going to grandma's, or having snacks (not "real food" as he calls healthy things). He does love to eat spaghetti and meatballs, carrots, yogurt, ham, and crunchy tacos. He gets really mad whenever it is bed time, or someone tries to discipline him, or he has to go home from somewhere. Seriously, it is a major ordeal to leave and come home from something. He just loves whatever he is doing, and never wants to leave. So annoying, but hopefully it ends soon cause it is getting kind of embarrassing. I can't just pick him up and carry him away anymore.  Anyways, I couldn't ask for a better helper though and he is getting smarter and bigger every day. Happy birthday jackson!

matt gave this shirt to jax on HIS birthday...said he's supposed to wear it every night he's on his mission. 

He wanted to call everyone and tell them it was his birthday. 

Jimmer is naughty. That's all there is to it. He busted through the chicken fence...AGAIN. And, I just can't take him out for walks anymore. It is too hot and my legs swell really easy this pregnancy. After spending the day at Shaela's house, she decided something needs to be done. So, our newest idea...put him on the treadmill. This was his first morning and he ran for about 40 minutes straight. It took lots of cheese and ham in front of him to get him to keep going, but judging by his laps around the yard now, he will be back in soon. I hope this solves our puppy problem. If we can just make it till he's 2...I think we'll see some improved behavior. :) For now, I am just hoping the treadmill 3 times a day will do the trick. I'd love to be able to take out the garbage without getting tackled. Seriously. I'm too pregnant for that. 

What is this smooshed box that arrived in the mail??? Worms. 2,000 red wrigglers to be exact. James has a new business idea...thanks to the neighbor Brent Leavitt. Even if it doesn't work out for a business, we wanted some more composting for our garden. Is it normal to order worms online and do research on vermicomposting?

Tommie has gotten wild!

I don't know how it happened so fast, but I can't keep up with Tommie anymore. He still doesn't crawl normal....now it's more like a scoot on his bum while sitting up straight, but he is FAST. He climbs up on anything and everything and walks all across the furniture, and walls, and tables, and chairs, and toilets, and drawers.... he empties everything in sight SO fast and loves it. He is adorable now, and so happy to be more independent, but boy do I feel like I chase after him all day. Everyone comments on how tan he is and his huge smile. He finally just cut his first 2 bottom teeth and I was amazed that it didn't affect his sleeping through the night. He'd cry in his sleep, but never wake up fully.

Jackson has been so obedient lately, and has tried so hard to jsut be nice. For mother's day, they interviewed him in primary, and he told the primary teachers all about how I want him to say "I'll be happy too" when I ask him to clean his room, eat veggies, etc. His answer to every question about things I like, was all about him being obedient. Ha! They must think I'm obsessed, but lately, it's worked and he ahs been so sweet. I can get him to eat dinner now just by saying it'll make me happy, and he does. I hope he always wants to try so hard to make his mom happy! He started swimming on his own 2 weeks ago. He can't come up and take a breath, but he sure can go for wuite a while without breathing. We have spent every afternoon at my mom's pool and now swim lessons have started at kino. He is definitely way too advanced for his class, but he loves it.

It's really hard to be pregnant when it's so hot. Without swimming, I just can't get up energy to do anything else, and my veins in my leg just throb. But somehow, when I lay in the pool....all my problems go away! :) I had another doctor's appointment and guess everything looked perfectly normal in the ultrasound. What a blessing! I am starting to gain lots of weight, but still have sick days of lots of throwing up. So, who knows. I do what I can, but have given up daily exercise. I feel like chasing tommie around and vacuuming are pretty much my workouts! :) Lame huh?

James has been working so hard lately to not only get all his meetings done at work, but to get the house stuff caught up on. The summer lawns are coming in so green, and our tomatoes and squash are coming in from the garden all ready. The chickens have gotten so big and James calls them "his ladies". I guess he is starting to feel like his house is overrun with boys as well. Jimmer has sure been naughty lately, and both of us are back to wondering why we have a puppy. He is determine to get into the garden, and eat the tomatoes, and through the garden into the chickens. He doesn't eat the chickens, just scare them to death and still their food. Every morning at 5:30 he starts barking right by our bedroom window, because he's either stuck under the fence while trying to get in, or he has been in with the chickens and wants out. Talk about annoying because our boys sleep in till 7 still! I think we need to start breeding him. The websites say that may help the energy. HA! I love being surrounded by testosterone.

Sam is engaged to Julie Willis, and they just a took trip down from BYU to meet the family. They stayed here for 2 nights, and it was so fun to get to know her and see more of Sam. It sure made me glad i'm not in that stage of life anymore though! Made me realize how lucky I am to just be married and be past all that. It was exciting though. They will come back down in 3 weeks for the wedding, and spencer gets here in 2 weeks to stay. I'm not sure reality has set in that another boy will be in the house, but lately, I'm not really into planning or preparing for anything. I should be though since i do have lots to do!

James left for the cabin with the priests in the ward this morning. I'll miss having him around this weekend, but Becca's coming to spend the day tomorrow and have a swim and dinner party. Shaela will come back from Prescott this weekend too, so I'll have some friends next week! :)

It's may again!

May is always a fun month....it used to mean just my mom, grandma mish, and mansi's birthday and mother's day...and like my dad once wrote in the family journal, "the month of may is great...it's like being 2 bra sizes bigger than your best friend" (i always thought that was so random). Anyways, now it means James birthday and our anniversary in the same week. And to make it even better, I've only had a few really sick days the past few weeks, and they were monday and tuesday of this week. The rest of the time I haven't even thrown up and have been sleeping so much better. I hope it lasts.

We traded out the washing machine at the cabin to replace the broken washer in the house. It is so incredible to have this tim of life where I do all the research on washers, figure out the one I can afford, call Kathleen to double check she's ok with it going in her house, and she's already bought a new washer and dryer that were way nicer than anything I had in mind! We are so blessed right now, and James and I continually talk about how spoiled we are. To have his career just starting out, where we hardly make any money, yet month after month, everything works out and we live in such luxury, we really do.  And we have the best neighbors, all the kids are always playing, and I never worry about anything. I have LOVED spending so much time at my mom's and Julies.... I can't imagine ever living anywhere else. James can't imagine staying here for a long time...but that's an argument for another day.

So, James spent his 26th birthday driving to the cabin. We even took Jimmer (threw him in the back of the truck with the washer and dryer) and our new fishing poles and BB guns. We had so much fun. We stopped at Eddie's grocery store in pine top to pick up steaks. They gave us free steaks on our honeymoon and we haven't been back there since. but we had a BBQ and ate chocolate chip cookies while singing to James. It was nice to see him relax and to not have good cell service so he wasn't always on the phone! Jimmer was the best dog in the mountains. He has been so naughty here at home lately, and I've told James several time that maybe a dog wasn't the best idea. But, at the cabin, he never barked, followed us around everywhere, swam in the pond, and made me have a change in heart. He has turned out to be a really good dog, just gets serious pent up puppy energy.

We stayed until monday morning and woke up by 5 to drive home. He showered and went to work all day while i just crashed. Monday night, we needed to unload the washer and dryer from the truck. James good buddy Jeff came over for advice, we ran to Dairy Queen to meet Shaela and jared for family night, and by now it was pretty late... but we got it unloaded at like 10pm and I went to bed. James was out of clean garments so thought he'd stay up to wash some from work. It turns out the hot water valve on the wall broke off and water was spraying everywhere. James woke me up, but we had never known where the main water shut off valve was. So, by the time we found it, we had a pretty good flooded laundry room and cupboards.  My dad came over early the next morning and helped us fix it, and then the cold water one busted right after he left. So, James took the day off and it ended up taking all day to repair the valves, clean out the clogged drains, and fix the broken dryer vent from the cabin. I am so glad to have a washer back and have done LOADS of laundry!

Yesterday was our 5 year anniversary. 5 years and almost 3 kids later, we are even happier. I know the first few years of marriage did actually seem hard, trying to learn to get a long, but I really have felt like things have gone better lately than ever before. He really is my best friend and I can't imagine life without him. No matter how big and swollen I get, he tells me every day how good looking I am and cracks jokes to gets me laughing.  He is so supportive of everything I want to do, and he never gets mad at me. He loves his little boys and they just adore him. We just ate dinner at home and Jackson loved the ice cream cake.

I forced Jackson to keep taking pictures of us till we could come up with at least 2 good ones. James was so annoyed by the end, and I kept laughing at all the new poses we were trying. Nothing like trying to teach a 3 year old which angle you look best at! These are the best we came up with and they still make me laugh!

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