Normal Christmas??

Let's take a walk down memory lane shall we to Christmas 2012?

It's like the ghosts of Christmas past are coming to haunt us. Too bad I don't have a picture of Michelle's flood that we "cleaned up" on Christmas Day after we got home from the hospital. It was quite a doozy. :( 

I guess it  was our turn this year. It doesn't look too bad, but they let water spray in our walls for 4 days. Maybe we'll all develop a mold allergy since I know they're not going to fix that part of it. 

But...we're in good spirits and I refuse to have a bad Christmas! We even kept the kids home from nursery so they wouldn't be sick. Even so, Claire has a runny nose. Ha! We'll just say that someday Christmas will go as planned. :) 

Merry Christmas Eve Eve. 

Happy 31st!

Brian turned 31 on Saturday and we had a family filled weekend to celebrate. We are VERY low key birthday people, so don't ever expect pinterest worthy picture of fantastical parties from us. :) We like them small. 

We spent Friday night at the very highly hyped-up Gaylord Texan Hotel. This hotel is gorgeous! Amazing. Beautiful. In our dreams we would be able to stay there someday. Although we felt incredibly underdressed and didn't spend one penny, we still had a good time walking around. I'm sure it would have been more fun if we would have been willing to spend some serious dough, but we weren't there for that. I'm not quite sure if we will make it a Anderson Texas tradition, but going once was fun. 

I asked Brian if doing Christmas things for his birthday got old and boring, but what else do we do? Well, we did the Christmas event the day before and then spent his birthday doing what we love most: Shopping for clothes.....without kids! Sigh. It was fun! Sopping sans kids is so easy. 

I would have loved to make gingerbread houses with the kids and I'm sure they would have loved sitting inside of this little store.

Yes. That's a real gingerbread house.

Brian loves to teach our children how to eat like animals, so eating birthday cupcakes was no exception. Jared previously ate two unfrosted cupcakes and loved them. Somehow when the frosting goes on, it's the only edible part. Silly kids. 

We love this guy! 31 great years and it just keeps getting better! We love you, Brian!

Thanksgiving

I am finally getting to writing about the second biggest holiday of the year. It has only taken me a week and a half as we are well into our Christmas season. Oh well.

Our Thanksgiving started off like any other normal Anderson holiday: with a trip to the ER. Go figure. It's almost laughable. This girl has the absolute WORST and best timing in the world to get sick. The worst because it's the holidays. The best was because our family just arrived hours before she woke up wheezing and we were able to leave Jared at home with them.

I spent all day Thursday making way too many rolls and pies that I'm finally starting to see disappear from my baby belly. I went to bed at 1:00 and Claire woke up at 2 with a terrible croupy cough and some incredibly scary breathing. She could barely get any air in. Mind you, she had not been sick in the slightest that day or any other day recently. We gave her a blessing (which I'm so grateful for) and allowed my anxiety clear for a moment when I was reassured it would be a quick doctor trip. She even started to calm down by the end of the blessing and breathe a little easier, but we took her in anyway since we couldn't take her to her pediatrician on Thanksgiving anyway. Just get her on steroids and have it taken care of.

We took her to Children's Medical Center in Dallas where I have now seen the most ridiculous non-emergency, emergency room entrance. You have to walk about a half-mile before even getting to check-in. Is that an emergency? Come on, people. Terrible planning. After being in the cold air and being up for a little longer, she was breathing almost normal (still a little wheezy) by the time we got to the treatment room. Ridiculous #2: treatment room. What are these people thinking? I guess we live in a ginormous city where they need to be able to treat lots of people at the same time; however, I feel like they're just helping spread illness faster by this room. You have basically an open half-cubicle...one rear wall separates you from the person behind you. That's it. While we were there I watched 3 other children vomit. I was sure we were going to all start throwing up by the end of our stay. After two hours, she got her steroids and we went home.

On to Thanksgiving. We got home from the ER at 5 and I got up at 7:30 to start making dinner. I cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner on 2.5 hours of sleep all by myself...and I didn't burn anything. It was delicious (at least I thought so). Our kids had way too much fun with cousins and we had major withdrawals when they left a few days later. After dinner we took the kids to the park....COLD!!! I started to get T.I.R.E.D. and took them home shortly so I could get some shut eye.

Our Thursday night ritual of going to Target at midnight was hampered because I had to sleep. I went to bed by 10:30 and slept for 10 hours. That's a lot for me. Happy black friday. :) The men took the kids to Legoland on Friday where Brian had too much fun with Claire. Daddy daughter dates must be fun! Mary and I walked around the mall and bought very little. Long lines are enough to make me leave. By the time Saturday came, family was leaving and Claire came down with a fever. Super weird. We gave her some Motrin and it never came back. Weird. Then on to more sick week by Monday......

 This girl loves to sing!

We are totally a Lego family.  

Haha. That smile... 

Girls vs. Boys

Illness. It stinks. It's pesky. It's annoying. However, it's apparently so much worse for boys. You'd think that this is just for men, but it's not. It applies to little boys too.

When Claire was little would just need snuggles and mommy time.

Jared. Oh, my sweet Jared.

Today he threw up all over me not because his runny nose is preventing him from sleeping. He threw up all over me because the anger fit he threw by me not turning on the TV fast enough made him gag on his severe congestion.

True story. I guess we should call this being a man's man. Right?

The Verdict Is In....

Yes, we are having another baby! Yes, we know what it is! Yes, I looked at gender reveal ideas in hopes to do one and came to the conclusion that they're just to much work for me (or too deliciously edible for me to eat an entire plate of cookies or a whole cake.) So, let's all pretend that I'm super fun and did something totally adorable to announce the gender of our new little person. 

First off, I've been asking Claire for weeks what she wants to have: a brother or a sister. She tells me a brother most times and tells Daddy she wants a sister. I understand Claire, I want them both too.

Look how cute!

Before we got pregnant, I was POSITIVE we were going to have a girl next. Then I started having dreams of having a boy...well, of having Jared for a second time. Truth is, I was going to be thrown for a loop a BOY was the announcement.

I've never had such a cute full body shot before.

And now...we are going to be adding to our family, a VERY WIGGLY and another adorable baby GIRL!!! We are incredibly excited! We have no idea what we are going to name her yet, but we've flooded our minds with such ridiculous names that I fear it might be difficult. :) 

Halloween!

I would lie and say this is Halloween, but the truth is, I didn't take one single picture on Halloween. Not one. Claire was a cat for halloween and the cutest darn cat you ever did see. She had a BLAST trick or treating. Both Claire and Jared knocked on their first house and walked right in when the door was opened. You'd think they just went to grandma and grandpa's house the way they ran into that house. We all had a good laugh about it. 

These pictures were from our ward trunk or treat the next day. Also the day I went crazy at the 50% off Halloween costumes isle (dress up box idea). Claire had to be sully. She was a little blue monster for about 80 percent of the day. 

Jared fell asleep, but didn't miss all the action. He woke up in enough time to run around the parking lot and even lick the asphalt. Yes, that's true. Sometimes I don't know what to do with this kid.  

Yes, my face is green. I used eyeshadow, so it wore off. Yes, all of my laundry now glitters from all the makeup residue from the black dress that caught most of it. 

And naturally we set up "our" tree the next day. :) Bring on the Merry! We bought a tree for the kids....we're just that pathetic that we now have 2 trees. :)

Pumpkin Carving

Yes, we Anderson's are celebrating Halloween; however, we're just doing it to get through to CHRISTMAS decorations on Friday. We can't wait! I told Brian that next year we should dress up our house in Christmas attire for Halloween... ;) Right.

He was on my side.

Anyway, I really do love love love Halloween and I can't wait to go trick or treating with the kids! As for carving, we're going to always buy little pumpkins. Easier to carve, yet I still didn't come away unscathed. I cut my fingers every single year.

Also, if you're wondering if my children ever have clothes on? Uh....mostly, but they love to be naked. What can I say.

Jared isn't feeling well, so he stayed home from church yesterday and snuggled with his favorite person ever. He loves his daddy!

Pumpkin Patch

Guess what!? We actually did something as a family this weekend. It is about time! Brian has taken the last couple of days off from his paper writing and I've been in absolute heaven. Last night we were babysitting, which was awesome. The kids played while we watched some Parks and Recreation. Ah...the simple life of spending quality TV time together. :) 

Anyway, we went to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch today and had a blast! We went with some of our new friends from the ward, took lots of pictures, and had lots of fun. Claire, for the first time ever, LOVED the bounce houses. She would tell Brian, "Ok Daddy, four more times." She'd go down four times and say, "Ok Daddy, just seven more times." Then she'd run for her life up the slide and down the other side. Smart little girl. Jared's favorite thing was ambushing anyone with a dog. He would run up to the nearest dog and give it a great big hug. Good thing daddy was there to save him once or else he would have fully embraced a dog butt....right in the face. 

So fitting...for her daddy.

Who could resist a photo-op with the Duck Dynasty gang? 

The kids actually liked the hayride. Yay!

Jared sure loves to roll those pumpkins over and over... 

...and throw hay!

Gosh, she's a cutie!

Poking my camera with straw.

Claire's efforts in pumpkin rolling were a little more half-hearted than Jared's.

Super fun! We'll be making this a yearly tradition...for however long we live here. :)