Anderson Adventures

Monday, December 23, 2013

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.

Monday, December 16, 2013

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!

Monday, December 9, 2013

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...

Out of the mouth of Claire

Claire was asking me about Hailey nursing. She was sad to find out that Hailey wasn't nursing anymore. She said, "Well, when I am a mommy can you give my babies milk?" Uh...nope. Can't do that. "Why mom?" Well, my milk will be gone (thank goodness) and you'll have to do it. "Oh, well, I want a big, big, BIG family. TWELVE babies! But I don't want the littlest baby to ever get big because I do NOT want one hundred babies." March 2015
Claire: Daddy, do you stink? Brian: Why do you say that? Claire: Because I can smell you. 6/18/14
Claire walked out of her room and this is what ensued: Daddy: "Claire, get back to bed." Claire: "But Daddy, my bed is being crazy!" (We try hard not to laugh). Daddy: "What?" Claire: "My bed is being crazy!!!" He went back, she tangled her blanket so her feet were getting cold. 5/15/2014
Claire asked her sunbeam teacher what "this" was, pointing to something on her chest. She thought she was talking about the pattern on her dress. Claire said, "No, no! These. They are for milk for babies." 5/2014
Eating corn on the cob for dinner, Claire turned to me and asked, "Mommy, are you going to eat some of this YUUUUMMMMYYY corn?" 5/2014
"Mommy, can you do this for me?" She hands me my eyelash curler and I proceed to curl her eyelashes. She bats her eyes in the mirror and says, "There. That's better." For the record...I have never done this, so she didn't learn it from me. 1/28/14
I was doing Claire's hair , combing through it. "Mommy, stop brushing my hair, you're making me crazy." 1/28/14
Claire has a VERY hard time going #2 in the toilet. She will hold it for days and days, so she ends up sitting on the toilet for hours sometimes. This week, she had been in there for a good two hours (and never went). Anyway, during that time she called me in several times, "MOMMY!!!! Come here!!!" And then would tell me nothing. So, after what seemed like the billionth, "MOMMY come here!" shouting, I went in to find her with the ENTIRE roll of toilet paper collected in a heap in her arms. I looked at her and gasped in frustration. I had just changed that roll! Brand new roll. Think of all that! She looked at me, giggled, and said, "Mommy...hehe....I sneezed...hehe." 1/28/14
We had our first ice storm here in Texas. I took Claire to Costco and let her walk on the ice. "Mom, I need to put on my ice skates". "Claire, do you have ice skates?" "No mom, I don't." Good point though sweetheart!
Claire always wakes me up telling me that the sun is awake. The other day, she came in, told me the sun was awake once more and then told me that she wanted some candy. I informed her that we didn't have any, but she said, "Mom, all we have to do is say Trick-or-treat!"
We went camping and I asked if Claire had fun. Claire: "I love camping, but Jared was naughty. We should leave him home".
Me: "Claire, why are you out of bed?" Claire: "Because of this..." She starts moving as if she'll pee her pants. Me: What? Claire: "Because I have the wiggles."
While at the mall bathroom, "MOMMY! YOU DID IT! YOU PEED!" For everyone to hear.
We're still trying to potty train Claire and have her poop in the potty! She says she does it, but can't seem to have it happen and will hold it for days (which is very frustrating). In an effort to get the ball rolling, I said, "Claire! Let's both push. 1...2...3...push!" At that point I did a fake push and she quickly exclaimed, "MOMMY! Don't poop in your pannies!" 7/12/13
Jared was crying and wandering around the house this morning. He popped his head in the bathroom where Claire and I were, and started to cry. Claire said, "Oh Jared, stop whining". 7/3/13
Brian and I were talking about the frustrating expenses of moving. At one point I said (about our debt), "It's all my fault." Claire came to the rescue and said, "NO! It's MY fault! My fault....and Jared's!"
This morning Claire woke up at 5 am screaming, "I WANT A COOKIE!!!!!" I went in, she repeated her sentiments. I promised her a cookie and she went back to sleep. When she got out of bed at 10:30, she jumped into my arms and said, "Where's my cookie?"