Asher turns 7

Today my sweet little Asher turned 7. 
He is getting so big.
He was a real trooper today.  We have been on vacation for the last week and drove home today.  What should have been a 5 hour car trip, ended up being a 9 hour drive because of traffic.  We stopped for dinner and then got home around 7 p.m.  That means he waited all day for presents because we were planning on being home early so I didn't bring them.
  We did finally make it home and he was thrilled to open presents and play...all night (He is still awake putting lego sets together with Micah as I type this and it is 11:56pm!  We promised him he could stay up as late as he wanted...I never thought he'd last this long!). 
Tonight he kept saying, "This is the best birthday ever!" I'm sure glad he thought so because I don't think I'd feel that way if I spent all day in a car!  We are celebrating it with friends tomorrow, so that was the only thing that made me feel better about the whole day!  He is such a sweet boy.

7 Things about Asher that I LOVE!

1.  He is the biggest tease, with the biggest heart.
2.  He adores, ADORES his baby brother (I heard him telling Jude today, "I love you so much.  You don't know, but I love you more than anyone else loves their baby." 
3.  His dimples.
4. He is all boy.  Rough and tumble, dirt and mud. 
5. He loves to play---anything.  He is our little soccer star.  One of the things I love is the faces he makes, especially on the soccer field after scoring-it's priceless!
6.  He has a caring heart.  He feels sad when he knows others are sad.  He has a very caring and sensitive side.  He is a big helper too.
7.  He is a momma's boy...and I love it! He loves to have me come to school for lunch, to help in his class, or wherever. 

We love you so much, Asher.  You are such a special part of our family!  Happy Birthday.
(He just came over and curled up on the couch...I think he's already asleep).

Micah turns 10

Micah turned 10 in January.  Yes, 10-double digits!

He's always been my low key child when it comes to birthdays.  Not big on parties, just a day to do whatever he wants.  So....

 this is how he looked for most of the day.

Homemade ice cream brownie cake-his favorite.  And, this is the best picture I could get of him. 

10 things I love about Micah

1.He is funny and has a great sense of humor

2.  He is passionate about soccer.

3.  smart, smart boy

4. very dependable

5. Hard worker

6. I've said it before, he has a great laugh

7. A good friend and a good brother

8. still loves to snuggle with me (but don't tell his friends)

9.  tries so hard to be good

10. helpful

Happy Birthday!

Last month was Dudi's birthday. 

So of course he got to pick the birthday dinner.  

Austrian anyone?

 Schnitzel.

It turned out really good.  Even the kids liked it, but then again it is fried!

 German potatoes.

Cucumber salad-yummy!

Somehow there is no cake picure, hmmmm.

Dudi spent most of his birthday at church, but the night before we were able to go out with some friends.

He is such a great husband and father.  

We got him a new satchel for his birthday.  He now has all the kids calling it his man purse. 

Happy birthday

"Queen for a Day" -- Reflections

I enjoyed Mary's recent post about her big 30th birthday surprise. We have been so busy this week that I had to read her post to find out whether or not she really liked her "queen for a day" experience. It sounds like she did, and that is a good thing. In reality, she actually deserves to be "queen for a day" everyday (or at least once or twice a year), but I have kind of slacked off in that department. I did want to make her 30th birthday something special to repay her for throwing me the best birthday I ever had on my 30th (almost 3 years ago). The surprise party she conjured up for me was probably better than what I pulled off for her, but that is pretty consistent with most things in our marriage.

I'm pretty happy with how the whole day turned out for Mary. The thing I am actually most proud of is the cake and frosting that I made (with Livy's help ???) from scratch. I'm also pleased with the video clip I put together, which I showed to her to start the whole day off. I attached the clip to this post. I think the kids are pretty hilarious in the clip; they all tend to say the most random things, yet each one manages to retain their own sense of unique randomness at the same time. That is quite a feat if you ask me.

Embracing it

It's true, I'm 30.
And guess what?

I'm embracing it.

The day was filled with surprises from my sweet husband.
He took the day off and sent me to the spa for a facial and full body mud wrap.  And yes, it was a FULL body wrap.  So I get to this beautiful spa and was a little mortified to find out what the full body mud wrap entailed.  Let's just say that anything involving me wearing a paper thongs is a no-go.  Yet, there I found myself lying on a table with some poor woman rubbing mud on my white, dimpled, stretched marked rear end.  Sounds relaxing, right?
I had a mental chat with myself and decided I had to get over it so I could actually enjoy it.  So I did, I embraced it.  And it was great. I could definitely be a return customer for the facial.

Next he sent me to P.F. Chang's for lunch with about 10 of my friends while he watched all their kids! I had to go straight from the spa which meant I had NO make-up on whatsoever (not even lip gloss!).
  But guess what?
 I embraced it.
I figured, my skin was at its best because of the facial, so no biggie.
It was really sweet of him and lunch was so much fun!  I'm still thinkin' about that Mongolian Chicken-Yum!

Then I was off to an embroidery class.  I've been trying to go to one for a while, so he decided to set one up for me.

To wrap up the day we dined on a cake Dudi and Liv had made.  The boys decorated it with a tiara because I was "queen for a day."  They did a fabulous job.

It was one of the most thoughtful and fun birthdays.  Thanks, Dudi!  And now that I've decided to embrace it, 30's not SO bad!

Hear ye, Hear ye!

Her Majesty, Princess Olivia, request your presence at a tea/"T" party (tinkerbell and Tiana party) in honor of her third birthday.

Those in attendance will include her royal court.

(Jesse was one of her gifts. Ken was MY old Ken-I love that I had the exact one from the movie. We took the kids to see Toy Story 3 for Asher's birthday. And no, I did not tear up in an animated children's movie...there was something in my eye).

There will be dancing and dining.

Please wear your finest.

The menu will include:

frog (chicken) legs

fairy wands (dipped pretzel rods)

green apples

Mama Odie magic potion

Bayou bread

frog and Tinkerbell cupcakes

Proper etiquette is a must!

3 thing I LOVE about our princess:

1. Gives the BEST snuggles and kisses.

2. Talks with so much animation and smacks her lips when she tells the really good stories.

3. Always willing to help and so tenderhearted.

Happy Birthday!

Has it already been 5 years?

This little guy adds so much fun and silliness to our lives. We are so glad he is part of our family.

5 Things I LOVE about Asher:

1. That he always wipes off kisses. AND that he wipes off his lips after he kisses you! Such personality!

2. The silly faces he makes and his contagious laugh.

3. How he takes care of his little sister, and admires his big brother.

4. His snuggles.

5. His energy and imagination.

Happy Birthday to our big 5 year old.

We sure love you, Asher!

Birthday x's 4

Wow! This year we reallllly drug out the whole birthday deal. I think Micah ended up celebrating his birthday 4 times.

The first time we celebrated was a week before his birthday at Disneyworld.

The second was on his birthday with just our family.

The third time was over his baptism weekend with his grandparents and other family members that came in.

And finally, the FOURTH time was his actual birthday party with friends. We didn't have a free weekend till the middle of Feb., so that's when we did it.

Of course it was Star Wars themed (His cake was a star wars lego guy. At some point I will draw the line as far as cake requests go).

It was a lot of fun and we had star wars food and games! Thankfully I can just reuse ideas from previous years!

Great 8

I can't believe he is eight-I'm not old enough to have an eight year old, right?

He is such a good boy.

Eight things I love about Micah...

1. His sense of humor.

2. His desire to be good.

3. That he loves to play games and do puzzles.

4. Hearing his American Idol critiques.

5. He is a good student and is super smart (if I do say so myself).

6. He loves to read.

7. He is kind to everyone (with some exceptions to his brother).

8. That he takes more showers than anyone else I know-he loves them.

I brought cookies for his school class today and got to eat lunch with him.

Tonight he picked his favorite resturant "Red Lobster" to eat at.

We are excited for him to be baptized next weekend.

We love you so much Micah!

Birthday weekend

This past weekend was Dudi's birthday. We went camping and had cake with some friends. It was a lot of fun!

I tried my hand at making a brownie ice cream cake. This thing weighed about 20 pounds!


Dudi and Arron sharing a moment..


All the kids waiting anxiously for cake (we had two cakes).


Dudi making his "this is really good cake face."


The camping trip.


Dudi and Arron did get the Hotel Haycock (15 person tent we borrowed from our friends the Haycocks who couldn't come) up. By the way Haycocks, we renamed it the Anderson Inn.


Asher throwing rocks in the lake.

It was a good time. We made s'mores, roasted hot dogs, played some football, put on layers and layers of clothes, put the kids in their sleeping bags and stayed up talking and laughing around the campfire.

Happy Birthday Dudi!

happy birthday to me

So I've been trying to convince Dudi that I need a new camera for a while. I took some photography class at school and I'm slightly obsessed with it, so in order to "better develop my talents", I needed a new camera, right? RIGHT?
Dudi is reasonable, but wasn't convinced of my "need." He'd always respond that my pictures were "great with the camera I had" or something to that effect.

Then one day, I thought of the perfect analogy.

HD is to tv what a dslr is to a camera.

My birthday was last month and along with the beautiful cake my friend Aleasha made me, guess what Dudi got me?!


That's right. From now on you will be able to enjoy this blog in HD. Of course I had to share some of my first shots. And yes, they are of my favorite models ( side note- Liv is the most willing subject, therefore she has the most pics).








I've said it before, and I'll say it again-he is soooo good to me!

I heart photography.

Birthday girl

Last week Olivia turned two. I seriously cannot believe that she is already that old, don't get me wrong, she acts every bit a two year old, but it has gone by so, so fast. We were at grandma and grandpa's house, so we celebrated there with her cousin Isabel who was turning 4 (note the six candle's on the cake).
My humble attempt at a pink princess castle cake. At least it tasted good.




I don't think we could get anymore pink on her. The girl loves her some pink!

Livy with her great grandmas (above and below).


All that partying started to wear the birthday girl out.
Happy birthday, Livy!!! We love you.