The Jace Man Turned 1 !!!

We love you little man.  You bring so much joy and happiness into our lives.  We know you will be such a good big brother.  Keep smiling!!!

Merry Late Christmas!!!

Dan's parents and his sister and her family came to Arizona and spent Christmas with us.  It was such a blast to have them here.  It was absolutely beautiful weather.  It was 80 degrees on Christmas Day!  I could get use to this!  On Christmas we woke up and opened presents, then Sadey and Clay (with help from Dallas) used hand puppets to share the story of the birth of Christ from Luke 2.  We had a scrumptious egg casserole made by yours truly :), then headed outside for our first annual chocolate Santa hunt at the playground at our apartment complex.  In the afternoon we went swimming and went for a walk to check out the remote control airplanes at the park behind our apartment.  Before our company left to go home we took them to Amazing Jake's for an afternoon of fun.  Amazing Jake's is like Chuckie Cheese on steroids.

Dan's niece and nephew, Sadey and Clay, and brother in law Dallas

 Dan and Sadey

                                                                                

Dan and his dad Dean

Anderson outing to Amazing Jake's

 Dan's older sister Rachelle and his mom Linda

Clay and Sadey riding the tea cups at Amazing Jake's

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a Christmas tree that is three feet tall.

I was on call for work the weekend of Christmas, but we rang in the new year the best way possible... a trip home to Utah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Boston, Carly, Teresa (my new sister in law...way to go C.J.!!!), Kelli, Grafton

Jace and Grafton

 Jace, Kelli and Taylor

 Man I love this kid!!!!!!!!

 Grafton, Boston, Taylor and Jace bowling at Provo Beach Resort

 Out shopping with the girls

 Sadey had her birthday while we were in town.  She cut off 14 inches of her hair and donated it to locks of love.  This is the coolest 5 year old you will ever meet!!

 Dan and his brothers-in-law, Dallas and Billy

Mom... typical M.A. being M.A. picture!

Thanks for family...

Dave, Emily and kids were in town for Thanksgiving (Dave is Dan's brother).  We have so much fun with their family and wish Kentucky was not so far away!!!  Now when they come into town they get to kill two birds with one stone and visit us and Emily's sister who lives in Scottsdale.  We kidnapped our 7 year old nephew George on Saturday and he even got to sleep over and go to church with us on Sunday.  Dan and George played Little BIG Planet on the playstation until the wee hours of the morning on Saturday night  (oops, sorry Emily, we definitely violated 7:00 bedtime).  Dan fed George ice cream for breakfast Sunday morning.... so I am pretty sure if he was not already the favorite uncle, he is now :)  On Monday,  Dave, George and Emma came over in the morning and the boys played playstation while me and Emma when to Target and then made delicious cookies.  Emma was a good little helper in the kitchen and made sure to remind me multiple times that her mom lets her lick the bowl AND the beaters when they make cookies at home.  Tuesday night we left all the kids with a babysitter and went out to dinner with Dave, Emily, and Emily's family that was in town.  We went to a Mongolian restaurant... and there was some serious G.I. discomfort afterwards.  Yikes!!!  I would like to give a special shout out to Dave who has single handedly kept my sanity in check by providing buddy passes so I can conveniently fly back and forth from Arizona to Utah at an affordable price  :) :) :)  I love you forever for that one Dave!!!  Thank you for deciding to be a pilot.  I owe you big time!!!

My handsome boys ready for church

The morning of Thanksgiving we flew home to Utah.  Talk about cutting it close!!!  We almost missed our 

6 a.m. flight that morning.  We got to the airport and the economy parking lot was full on the west end, so we had to circle back and try the lot on the other side of the airport.  When we got to the other lot we could not find a parking spot anywhere.  Luckily there was a parking lot patrol truck that flagged us down and told us about the outer darkness corner of the parking lot where the remaining TWO parking spots were.  After parking, we got to the shuttle station just in time to watch the shuttle drive by and so of course we sat there like a bump on a log waiting for another one to come along.  Thank goodness I had checked us in online the day before, because by the time we got to the ticket counter, they said we would not have been able to check-in otherwise.  By the time we got to security it was 5:55 a.m. and our flight was leaving in 5 minutes!  There was a line about 20 people long, so I said to Dan "follow me" and I suddenly became the lame person that everyone hates that shuffles their way up to the front of the line.  I could feel many angry stares burning a hole in the back of my head.  I walked right up to the lady that was next up to go through the metal detectors and in my most desperate, sad, i'm going to miss my flight voice, asked if we could jump in front of her.  After a long pause, she hesitantly said yes.  I think it helped that I was holding Jace.  I never hesitate to play the baby card in times of desperation... it works like a charm :)  As soon as we were through security, Dan ran to the gate and literally got there as they said "last call" and were in the process of closing the door.  Woosh, that was way to close for comfort.  We must have worn Jace out because he was a champ and slept the entire flight.

Jace looked so stinkin' cute bundled up for the cold Utah weather... although he did cry bloody murder every time I put his coat on.  The poor little guy couldn't figure out why he had gone from being sock-less in his onsie, to multiple layers and a hat.  He was not happy about it!!!  It was 80 degrees in Arizona on Wednesday, the day before we left for Utah, and 18 degrees in Utah on Thanksgiving Thursday.

Jace and Grandma Anderson.  Thank you Linda for always letting us invade your house when we are in town!!

Jace (4 months) and cousin Grafton (6 months, Kelli's baby).  These two are already little buddies and I love watching them grow up together.  I also love getting Grafton's cute hand-me-down clothes from Kelli who we all know has much better taste than I do!

Of course no trip to Utah would be complete without some quality time with the shopping crew... Mom, Grandma, Kelli, Taylor, Grafton and Jace (asleep in stroller).  These are the memories that are near and dear to my heart.  I love you all... see you in January for the after Christmas sales!!!

Sometimes it's so hard to get Jace to fall asleep

Jace was having fun on the bed and smiling a lot, so I grabbed the camera to record him laughing ... guess he was tired. 

FALL...OH HOW I LOVE YOU!!!

My mom was down to visit last month.  Thank you mom for always being in tune and knowing when I need you!!  I don't know how you do it... but you always know.  I love it when you come, even though you and Dan talk my ear off.  It is hard to say between you two who hits a higher word quota per day!!!

Jace loves to hang out with Dad and watch sports. 

Life is so rough at this age.  Eat...sleep...eat...sleep...eat...

These are two of the girls in my young women's group in our ward in Chandler.  They came over

to the house to play with Jace so I could get some cleaning done. Thank you girls!!

Dan was on fall break for a week in October.  He had a big paper for school to work on, so Jace and I took a trip to Utah to hang out with grandma and the gang so he could get his work done.  Taylor enjoyed putting her bracelets and necklaces on Jace while I got ready in the bathroom in the mornings.  

Me, Carly, Kel, Mom and the kids went to Gardner Village to see the witches.  It was such a beautiful fall day.  Nothing beats a fall day in Utah, except maybe sitting on the ski lift while its snowing, or sitting out on moms back porch while the kids play on Sundays, or biking up the canyon in the crisp morning air... ok so maybe I miss Utah and family just a little bit.  It's not my fault you are all so likable!!

Is that a face a mom could love, or what???

I am thrilled that it is finally a bit cooler outside.  Arizona summers are brutal!  It's now a much more bearable 80-90 degrees during the day.  Good buy triple digit days...you will not be missed.  Jace is happy to know that there is life outside our 900 square foot apartment.