The Anderson Family

So, I can't believe this is actually happening, but today my little baby graduated from kindergarten. This means no more half day school and no more hanging out with mom while the other kids are at school. It means that all of my kiddos will be gone ALL day long. I honestly didn't ever think this day would actually come. I know it is silly, but it is hard to believe that I have reached this stage in my life. I am sad for me because it means I'm getting old and I will miss my Kate ALOT, but I am also happy because this means no more half day school and ALL of my kids will be at school ALL day. That is kind of exciting if you really think about it. I am excited for my little Kate because she is SO ready to be a first grader. She loves school and I know she will adjust to the all day schedule beautifully. I'm excited for her because she really wants to be like her big sister and brothers.

We went to her graduation today and I honestly could not have been more proud. She is everything that she should be and more. She is a beautiful, smart, fun little girl who brings sunshine into my life every day (even when it rains, day after day after day!). She sang her songs perfectly. She is ready for 1st grade and there is nothing I can to do stop it, so we might as well be happy and excited for her.

She is posing for the camera. There's my girl right smack in the middle of little boys. So cute.
They had to put their sunglasses on for one of their songs. Again, so cute!!!

Josie had her 3rd grade program on Tuesday. It was fun to see her with her class and to see all that they have learned this year. They did a little play about the sun. This is Josie doing her part. She did a great job.
After the play, Josie took us to the computer lab and showed us a powerpoint that she has prepared about Peru. She is so good on the computer. We were very impressed.

So, the first week of May, we got to tend our niece, Sydnee, while her parents went to Hawaii for a week. We had SO much fun with her. She just fit right into our family. After they took her home we all missed her ALOT. She has such a fun personality and we all enjoyed having her with us. I think we wore her out with all of our activities, but I think she had lots of fun and enjoyed being with us. I especially liked it when she would cuddle with me like this. How did my kids get to be so old? The time has flown by way too fast. It was fun to have a little baby in the house for awhile. We can't wait for them to go on vacation again so we can tend her. It was a really fun and exciting week.

Josie got to run in her first track meet this year. She was really excited to run in the 100, 200 and 4x100 relay.

This is her waiting to begin the relay. Her relay team took 3rd place overall. She did a GREAT job.
This is Josie in her 100 m heat. She took 2nd in her heat. She did a great job running and had lots of fun.

Josie had a dance competition in Roy and we had to be their really early in the morning so we decided to get a hotel room with our friends Jill and Sydney. The girls had so much fun hanging out and swimming in the pool. It was a fun weekend.

In April, we went to Las Vegas for a baseball tournament with Taylor's team. We decided to just take Taylor this time and not all of the kids. We were looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend. It was SO fun. Taylor's team did so well. They won most of their games and made it into the championship game. That is amazing to go to Las Vegas and play against all of the Las Vegas teams and do so well. We lost in the championship game, but they played great during the tournament and we had so much fun.

Here is Taylor hitting:
This is the team waiting to get their 2nd place trophies. It was so fun.

Kate celebrated her 6th birthday on April 16th. She was so excited to finally be six, even though Steve and I have been telling her that she has to stay five forever. Her birthday was on a day where Taylor had 2 baseball games in Salt Lake. She agreed to celebrate her birthday by going to the ballgames and then having dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. She was so cute and excited for her big day. That night we came home and had cake and ice cream with our family. She loved being the birthday girl.
She picked out this Tangled birthday cake. It turned out so cute.

On April 4th, Steve turned 40 years old! Wow, that is old. I can't believe it. I decided to do something a little different this year so I planned a surprise party for him. This is a little more difficult that I had anticipated. I invited both of our families to Ruby River for dinner. This is Steve's favorite place to eat. The most difficult part was getting Steve there without figuring it out. We did pretty well until we pulled into the parking lot and he recognized everyone's cars. But he was still surprised and touched that everyone would make such a special effort to celebrate his big day.


The kids and I made a poster (above) with the 40 reasons that we love him. It was fun to reflect on all that he does for each of us and it was neat to see what each of the kids came up with. He is such a great husband and father and we all love him very much.

Most of our family were able to come and it was a fun night. I hope that he enjoyed it as much as we did.