The Anderson Family

This is my tball team, the Unicorns. They are so cute. They have the funniest personalities. Each girl is unique and makes me laugh so much. They are getting more and more into tball. The first practice they got tired after about 10 minutes and needed drinks, but in the games they really seem to have alot of fun. They love hitting the ball and running the bases. They are such a cute group of girls!!

Since today was the last day of school for the big kids, it was my last day of tending Hunter and Savannah for this school year. It has been a lot of fun having them over every Thursday. Josie and Kate really look forward to having their cousins to play with on Thursdays. I have been tending Hunter, at least once a week, almost every year since he was born. I think that is why he and Josie are such good friends. They love to play together and have so much fun. Savannah has been so much fun this year. It has been great watching her grow and develop her cute and funny personality. I have really enjoyed spending time with my niece and nephew. When Savannah showed up this morning with that shirt on, Kate immediately had to put hers on too. They look so cute and happy!

It's so hard to believe that my first born has graduated from 5th grade. If Nebo School District hadn't changed the elementary school program, he would be going to middle school next year. I can't hardly stand it that my baby is getting so big. He is such a good kid (most of the time). I love hanging out with him and talking sports with him. He knows every statistic, record and about every game that is going on. Even though it is hard to see your kids get older, it is also fun to be able to interact with them in a different way. I really enjoy having him at this age. He is fun to talk to, play with and just be around. I appreciate him for all that he does and brings to our family. I know it isn't easy being the oldest, but most of the time he does it well and is a good example to his little brother and sisters. Way to go, Taylor. You did a great job in 5th Grade!

This is Taylor A. with his good friend and buddy, Taylor H. (There were 4 Taylor's in his class this year). They had lots of fun together this year in 5th grade. They also play on the same baseball and basketball teams.

This is Taylor with his excellent teacher, Mrs. Andersen. She taught him alot this year. He had a great time learning about America, fractions and all of the other cool stuff they learned this year. In their program they sang a lot of fun songs about America. It's funny because I remember singing alot of the same songs when I was in 5th grade. Maybe I'm not so old after all.

Taylor is always wanting me to take pictures of him while he is playing baseball. So, I figured that since he was playing 4 games in 2 days I should be able to get a picture or two. His team played in a tournament this weekend. They won 2 games and lost 2 games. It was a pretty fun tournament. Here is Taylor as he is getting ready to pitch:




...And this is Taylor right in the middle of the pitch. I thought it was a pretty cool picture.



It is so fun watching Taylor play baseball. I have enjoyed it so much these last few years. Josie started tball this year and we have had a few games. I am coaching her team. It is harder than I thought it would be to coach little girls. We are having lots of fun though. I will get some pictures and post them later. It is hard to take pictures when you are the coach!! Brenden is also playing machine pitch. We just got him a new bat and he got some great hits in his last game. As you can tell, we are definitely a baseball family. I remember when I was little spending every night at the ballpark. My sisters and I all played, plus my dad was always on a softball team. It is definitely a fun part of our summer (as well, as spring and fall, now that Taylor plays so much)!!

Today my little girl graduated from Kindergarten. It was her last day of school. We went to her graduation program and it was so fun. They sang the cutest songs and they all had on some kind of costume. Josie was a fruit. She had a speaking part. She got a little stage fright when it was her turn, but she did it anyway. She knew all of the songs so well and did a great job. Congratulations, Josie. You are a first grader now. WOW, all day school. It's hard to believe that next year I will have 3 kids in school all day and it will just be me and Kate.



Grandma Linda and Grandpa and Grandma Anderson came to the graduation. I tend Kelli's kids, Hunter and Savannah, on Thursdays so they got to come as well. It was so fun.

Josie's teacher, Ms. Mathews, put together a book of all of Josie's work for the year. She got it today. She was really excited to share it with all of us.

These girls are Josie's good friends, Sydney and Emily. We have been in a carpool with them all year and Josie loves to play with them. None of them are in the same class, but they really have fun together. They are such cute girls.

This is Josie with her teacher, Ms. Mathews. She has really loved having her for her teacher. She has been really nice to Josie and has taught her so much. Josie is reading so well and has absolutely loved kindergarten. Hopefully she will continue to like school in 1st grade. I think that she is definitely ready.

Yesterday was Brenden's 2nd Grade program. It was so fun. The kids sang lots of great songs and Brenden did great on his speaking part. He is such a good boy. I can't believe how old he is getting. Watching him sing with his class brought tears to my eyes. I really wish my kids weren't getting so old. It makes me sad to think how quickly my time with them is going.

This is Brenden doing his part with his friend, Halley:


He had the best smile on his face for the entire program. Steve and I were talking about what a happy kid he is most of the time. He is always cracking a joke or doing something funny to make us laugh. We are so lucky to have him in our lives every day.

This is Brenden with his amazing teacher, Mrs. Warenski. She did a great job teaching his class. We could tell from the very first parent/teacher conference what a great teacher she was. As she talked about Brenden, she got choked up and you could tell how much she loved being his teacher. Thank you, Mrs. Warenski, for all of your hard work and dedication to your class. Brenden was lucky to have you!!!

Both of Brenden's grandmas were able to take off of work and come to his program. He was happy to see them as they walked in the door.

Brenden was also happy to see his dad walk in. Steve has been really busy at work and working late every night so I don't think Brenden thought he would be able to come. We are so glad that he could make it.

Every week on her blog, my sister-in-law, Jessi, posts a "Gratefuls" list. It is so fun to see the things that she is grateful for each week. It also makes me think about some of the things that I am grateful for. My list could go on and on, but these are a few of the small and simple things that are on my mind today:

• Air Conditioning. We turned on our air conditioner over the weekend to find that it is NOT working, so we have been without it for the past few days (coincidentally, they have been the HOTTEST days of the year). It has been difficult to sleep, do laundry, work out and just about everything else in the house. It has made me feel extreme gratitude for the invention of air conditioning, something I guess I usually just take for granted.

• My Health. I have had a sinus infection over the past week and have felt terrible and not been able to get much accomplished so I am extremely grateful to be feeling better and back among the living. I always seem to take that for granted as well.

• Flowers. I love to plant flowers every year in my front yard. I did most of the planting yesterday and it has made my day. I love to look out and see the beautiful flowers growing in my yard. It truly makes a difference. Now, maybe we can finally get our back yard in so we can enjoy that a little more.

Yesterday was the 5th Grade track meet at the High School. Taylor ran in the 100 m, 200 m, the first leg of the 4x100 m relay, and the softball throw. He did really well. He won every race that he was in and made it to the semi-finals in the 100m and won that race as well. His times weren't quite good enough to make it to the finals, but he did a great job. He also threw the ball pretty well. Great Job, Taylor!! It was fun to hang out at the high school all day and watch the kids run. Taylor really enjoys the track meet and had a lot of fun. These first 2 pictures were taken by my friend, Emily. Thanks for the great pictures. They turned out much better than mine.

Josie's Dance Review was last night. It was so fun to watch her dance. She did such a great job. She is an awesome dancer. We were so proud of her. She was a little nervous before the performance, but she smiled almost the entire time and it looked like she really had a great time. We took pictures of her while she was dancing, but they just didn't turn out very well. Way to go, Josie.




Kate couldn't stand to have Josie do something without her. She wanted to put on a costume and get her hair done just like Josie. It was so funny. I tried to do her hair like Josie's but she just doesn't have enough hair. She thought she looked pretty and like Josie, so I guess that's all that matters.

Josie had a lot of family there to support her. Grandma Linda, Grandma Anderson, Jessi, Sharla, McKenna, Noah and Lilly, plus all of us were there to watch her. It was a lot of fun. This picture is Josie with Noah after the performance. They are both so cute and such good friends. They love to play together. They really get along well. It is so fun to have cousins that live close by and that we get to see all the time.

Steve and I have both been blessed with wonderful mothers and grandmothers. It is great that we can take a day each year to honor each of them.

We love each of you and hope that you had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Steve's Grandma Michael lives in Brigham City and we don't get to see her very often, but we also love her so much and appreciate all she has done for us and our kids.

Happy Mother's Day, Grandma Michael!

And me, with my amazing boys:

And then, of course, me with all 4 of my fabulous kids:

I am so glad to be their mom.

I am happy to say that Spring Soccer is over for the year. Yay!! It has been way to cold to play soccer. It seems like it would be a really nice day until about 30 minutes before the soccer games and then the temperature would drop like 20 degrees or something and we would freeze to death at the games. Brenden and Josie really enjoyed playing soccer, but it was just too cold this season. I don't think we will do soccer in the spring again. They can just play in the fall, when the weather seems cooperate alot better.

This first picture is of Brenden's team. No, their team name is NOT the Chickadees. It was an obvious typo by the people who took the picture. Hopefully they will get this corrected. We all got quite the laugh out of it though. Those boys just don't look like their name should be the Chickadees.
Josie really loves playing soccer. She had a lot of fun with the friends that she met on her team. They had a really fun season, despite the cold weather. It seems like kids can have fun in the worst of circumstances, as long as they have a friend to play with. The girls really had a ball!

Brenden is off to school this morning for the first time this week!!! YAY!!!! I am so happy that he is doing better. He finished his IV treatments on Wednesday and had 2 teeth pulled yesterday. It went really smoothly and he is definitely getting back to normal. He missed end of year testing this week so he will have a lot to catch up on, but he is so glad and I am so happy that he is back to normal and can go to school. It has been a crazy week of running to the hospital, doctor appointments and dentist appointments so thank goodness it is Friday! Hopefully life can get back to normal. Thanks to everyone that has helped me this week. My friend, Cheralyn, kept Josie every morning so that I could get Brenden to the hospital. My mom helped with the carpool and the countless people who were concerned and called just to check on Brenden. It means alot to our family all of the support that we have received this week. It is when we have a crisis we really see all of the love and support from our family and friends. We love all of you so much and appreciate all you do for our family.

Last Friday, Brenden started complaining about having a toothache. Of course, I thought that he was just being dramatic and didn't really listen to him. Boy, was I wrong. The toothache just kept getting worse and on Saturday afternoon his face was totally swollen. We called the dentist and got him on an antibiotic, but I think that just made him sick to his stomach and he threw up a couple of times. He slept pretty well on Saturday night, but he just kept looking worse and worse all day on Sunday and he just felt like crap.

Last night we decided to take him to the emergency room. The doctor was really concerned about the infection getting into his eye. This could be really bad for him. They changed his antibiotic and sent us home last night, but told us to make sure that we came back if he looked worse in the morning. Well, this morning he looked terrible. The infection had really settled up in his right eye and it was really red and warm. So we headed back over to the emergency room. They decided to give him IV antibiotics today and once a day until Thursday. They put in his IV and taped it down so it will stay in until they are done with the IV Therapy.

Poor little guy. I feel so terrible. It is one of the moments where you wish you would have totally done things differently. If we would have gotten him in sooner, he wouldn't have to be going through all of this now. But, what can I do now? I guess next time he tells me that something hurts, I will definitely listen to him.

His tooth is absessed, but they cannot remove it or fix it until the infection is gone. We are hoping that this really strong antibiotic will take care of the infection and he will able to get rid of the tooth soon. He has been so brave through all of this. I am really proud of him.

The things I miss the most about my dad are his funny sense of humor (he could come up with some hilarious one-liners); the way he could put me in my place when I was acting irrational; and the conversations that I used to have with him all the time. I really loved just talking to him and getting his advice. Steve has said that especially when we were first married I wouldn't do anything without talking to him and getting his advice. I miss that so much. He was so wise and great at giving advice, even when it wasn't something that I wanted to hear. I often wonder what he would think about some of the decisions we have made since he has been gone. I know that he would definitely have a opinion (like father, like daughter). It makes me sad that Taylor is my only child that even has any memory of him. I'm so glad to know that I will see him again someday. What a blessing that has been for me. I don't think that I could have made it through as good as I have without that knowledge. I love you, Dad. I am so proud and grateful that I am your daughter. You are the best!!!