Pumpkins!

~Happy Fall~

From the Anderson kids: Ethan-10, Sean-8, Kaitlyn-6, and Nat-21 months.

California in a nutshell

 We had the most amazing time in California! It's hard to put into words how wonderful the whole trip was!! It had so many firsts for the kids: airplane ride, seeing mountains, hot tub, seeing a lake, fireworks over a lake, seeing the ocean!, swimming in the ocean, and hiking just to name a few! I wanted to post a few pictures to get a glimpse of our trip:

Lake Tahoe. We spent the afternoon at this gorgeous beach our first day there!As you can tell, Jarod and I are just taking it all in and enjoying the scenery! Nat played in the sand with those buckets for 2 hours and was happy as could be!

 The cousins playing miniature golf in Squaw Valley, an absolutely gorgeous place and also the sight of the 1960 Winter Olympics.

We also took some pictures while walking around Stanford University, the Alma mater of Patrick, my brother-in-law. Jarod thought it would be fun to propose to Kaitlyn and get her reaction :-).

 

My amazing sister and her family! Love them and so proud of them!

Kaitlyn and Brooke were best buds! After spending the first half of the week at Lake Tahoe, we went to Mountain View to my sisters house. They danced over and over again to music from 'Rio.' I love this picture! I love how girly they both are!

Our family picture my sister took. I love these people more than I can express! I am overwhelmed by God's blessing with these 5 people!

Later I will post pictures from Santa Cruz where we went to the beach. It was beautiful! It was hard to leave the beautiful scenery. I understand why it would be hard for my sister to ever move back to the Midwest after being out there for a week. We came back so thankful for such a trip, and we plan to go back in a few years! What we loved most was spending time with my sister and her family. We love them so much and miss them a lot, but I am excited about what is going on in their lives.  I will continue to pray for God to become more and more meaningful in their lives. Thank you Kerri and Patrick for such and unbelievably great week! We love you!!

Summer!!

 Well hello there! I really have not had a chance to blog in so long! I thought I would try to update you on what is going on in our household. First thing: we got a dog. A few months ago we rescued a border collie, Pete, who was going to be put down.  He was a very timid and skittish dog. We tried to get him used to us and house trained, but after over two months we had no progress. He was scared of the kids and still peeing and popping in the house, so we found him a new home. A lady that wanted a running buddy and lived on 5 acres out in the country took him. She wrote us and told us that Pete is doing great, and they love having him. So after he had a new home, we found this guy:

He is a black lab, and we named him Willie (Wildcat). He is two months old and very, very sweet. He is kind of lazy :-), but he loves the kids and loves chasing the cats.  He is doing really well on his house training and hopefully will be fully trained in the next week or so. We really like having a dog, and he is perfect for our family. I'm sure there will be Willie stories coming later on my blog.

Preschool is almost over for the year. We have two more days next week, and that's it! Nathaniel will be moving to the one year old class (Brown Bears) next year. He is getting so big! He is starting to say words and play by himself more. He is goofy, sweet, energetic, and adorable. He loves playing outside. Here is a picture of him and his buddy, Samuel, running down the hallway of the preschool wing at church to go play outside. They squealed the whole way down the hallway they were so excited!

The kids finished their school year on Wednesday. They all had a fantastic year! They are growing in to some pretty amazing kids! We couldn't be prouder of them! We also really love their school and are so thankful for wonderful teachers. This is them on the last day of school after receiving several awards at the assembly that day:

They are now ready for 4th, 3rd, and 1st grade. It's amazing how fast they are growing up! I'm looking forward to the summer with them! Our summer will include a trip to California to see my sister and her family. We haven't been on a family vacation since Sean was 1. We get to spend a week with Kerri and her family at their house in Tahoe and their house in Mountain View, California around the 4th of July. We can't wait!! It will be the first time for our kids to fly, and we all look forward to some great memories! Anyway, that's all for now!

Birthdays and puppies

Kaitlyn turned 6 years old a few weeks ago. Instead of a birthday party this year, she invited two friends to come over for the day. She invited her friends Ryleigh and Lydia. They played and played then got all dressed up to go out for dinner. They spent about 20 minutes getting all dolled up and picked out their own outfits. We took them to dinner and had so much fun. Here they are posing before we left for the restaurant:

So a friend of ours on Facebook posted that they had a friend that had a dog they needed to find a home for or they were going to put him down. Now normally I don't even give it a second glance, but it just happen to be the kind of dog that Jarod has always wanted- a pure border collie. This dog was being trained to work cattle but had gotten stepped on by some horses. So naturally he was too afraid to go near the large animals anymore. We thought about it for a few days and decided we would take the dog in. It was just an opportunity that we couldn't pass up. So we got him Thursday, and here is a picture of the little fur ball:

His name is Pete, and he is 5 months old. He is very skinny and skiddish. He had been stuck in a barn with little human interaction, so he doesn't know what to think of people. So we are working with him on potty training (only 1 accident so far!) and coming near us. It will be a slow process but worth it. He is a very sweet puppy! I love this picture below. I was getting him to 'come' with a treat and Gus was checking him out and Nat was taking the whole thing in:

We think he will be a great addition to our family. We realize the hard work it will be especially at first to get him even used to us, but border collies are very smart dogs. We look forward to teaching him all kinds of tricks!

Random

- Last weekend we got to say goodbye to our friend Doug. His funeral was amazing! Sounds strange to say, but it was. Our auditorium was packed with family, friends, coworkers, and church members. Jarod lead worship with a full praise band and lead everyone in an amazing worship set. It's what Doug would have wanted since worship was such a big part of his life. I was sobbing during "I will Rise" and couldn't sing the words. It's a song all about Jesus overcoming death and the promise of eternal life. "I will rise when he calls my name. No more sorrow. No more pain." To think that Doug was in the presence of God singing right now, and watching his family lifting their hands praising, was amazing! There was laughter, tears, and worship. I'm so thankful for hope and for God's promise to those who love Him.

- I took Sean to a birthday party at the roller skating rink last weekend. That place is crazy! They had like five different parties going on at the same time. I told Jarod it was like Chuckie Cheese except on roller skates! Wow. Too crazy for me, but at least Sean had fun!

- Anyone watch 'Biggest Loser'? I am so ready for Conda to go!!!!

- So for spring break I am going to get to meet my two new nieces!! We are traveling up to Emporia for the first weekend of spring break, and the kids will stay there while I travel to Iowa to see Adam and Heidi. I can't wait to see family and get to snuggle with some sweet, little girls!

- Nat has started walking. He is doing a really good job! He can walk all the way from our living room to our kitchen. He gets really proud of himself and giggles while he walks!

- The kids are doing great at school. The boys got straight A's last quarter and Kaitlyn got all S's. The boys are getting to go down to the kindergarten rooms and read with some of the students who are struggling either socially or with reading. It's like a little mentor program. It's really good for them to help out these kids and be an example for them.

-Today was my birthday. I am now 33 years old. At least I'm not 40 yet! ;-)

Update

Our friend, Doug, passed away early Tuesday morning. The funeral is Saturday. Please keep praying for his family who is left behind and especially his wife, Quaye.

The Glory of it All

Two weeks ago a friend of ours, Doug, went into the hospital not able to breathe because his lung collapsed. While in the hospital he found out he has cancer in his lungs and on his bladder. A few days later he found out the tumor on his bladder is inoperable and has spread to his pelvis. His prognosis is 12-18 months with chemo and 6 months without. He is around our Dad's age (around 55) with a wife, 3 children, and 7 grandchildren. Too young to be going through this.

Tonight Jarod got a text that the family was called to the hospital and for the ministers to come. Our hearts sank. Jarod headed up to the hospital to be with Doug and his family. I put on some praise music here at home. It's what I needed while I prayed and took care of the kids. It's very different listening to songs while praying for someone to live through the next moment and praying for comfort for the family as they will have to say goodbye soon. David Crowder's song "The Glory of it All" came on, and the words just hit home.

"After night
comes the light
dawn is here
dawn is here
it’s a new day
it’s a new day
everything will change
things will never be the same
we will never be the same
we will never be the same
we will never be the same
we will never be the same"

Praise God for Doug's faith! A faithful servant of His King! Praise God for hope during suffering and for hope that death is not the end! We will never be the same. Our God and King Jesus changes us. Even death can not separate us from Him.

Please pray for Doug and his wife Quaye. Doug is a part of Jarod's praise team and a big advocate for missions. He has spent the last few days telling young people about making the choice to follow Jesus! Jarod texted that he has stabilized for now, but please pray for them as they face this journey.

Nat Nat turns 1!

Nathaniel turned 1 today! I can't believe how fast this year went! We celebrated his birthday by having some friends over this afternoon for a party. Here is his cake from the party:

He didn't shy away from eating his cake in front of everyone. It took a little while but he dug in and enjoyed his cake:

After a quick bath, he opened his presents. It was very cute because the older kids came and helped him open his presents. His buddy from preschool and church, Samuel, is the guy in the green shirt:

We are so very thankful for this little man! What a blessing he is, and as Jarod told him this morning, we are so thankful he joined our family! We love you Nathaniel Phillip! We pray you continue to be the sweet, loving, and happy boy that you are!

Snack Time!

Nat found the cereal:

And he poured himself a snack:

He was very proud of himself!

Family

Jarod and I were very blessed to get to spend Christmas with family this year! My sister and her family, my brother Matt, and my Dad and his girlfriend all came to our house to celebrate. It was a lot of fun getting to hang out, shop, bake, and play games for a week. Christmas morning was fun with all 5 cousins getting up and opening presents before Jarod headed up to church (we all went to church on Christmas eve). One of my favorite moments was when Kaitlyn opened up the present her brothers gave her. They got her a necklace with a butterfly on it. Here they are putting it on her ( I think they love their little sister!):



I love my family and had such a great time with them. It is exciting to see God working in their lives and drawing them closer to Him.

We got to enjoy a week with Jarod home and the kids out of school. They closed the office at the church this week so it was like an extra week of vacation. We got things done around the house (new faucet installed, trim for kitchen lights in, backyard raked), and we also just really enjoyed being home together. We had lots of fun memories made like this one:


Nat got a hold of a cup of opened yogurt and enjoyed his snack under the table! Needless to say he got a bath right after that! :-) Can you believe he will be 1 year old in just 2 weeks?!

Anyway, we hope you had a wonderful Christmas!!