More Pictures of the Kids

The top two pictures are us on our last day at the hospital. Kelly had to wear a mask because she had been sick. She was so excited to hold Parker. She has been really good with him at home thus far. She likes to hold him and pat him on his head softly whenever he cries. The bottom left picture is Kelly with her aunt Lindsey. Aunt Lindsey is Kelly's favorite! The bottom right picture is Kelly in her Halloween costume. She was a blackbird. Here she is imitating a bird as per the instructions given from her grandpa!

Parker James has Arrived!!!

Weighing in at 7 pounds 15 ounces, standing 21 inches tall, the light-weight medal contender of the world: Parker James Andersen!!! Here he is...born at 2:30 on October 24th.

Kelly's Birthday

This is one of Kelly's 2-year old birthday pictures. More are on the way!! Isn't she cute?!

Proud Peach Picker

Picking Peaches

Our bishop called us up on Friday this week and told us a friend of his owned an orchard of all kinds of fruit and had just finished harvesting his peaches for the year. He offered our bishop the opportunity to invite anyone and everyone he knew to come and pick as many peaches as they wanted. The orchard is about 450 acres...so there were a lot of peaches to pick!!! We went out Friday evening and again on Saturday afternoon and picked 72 gallons of peaches!!!!! Kelly absolutely loved it and probably picked some 18 gallons just by herself! Of course, she ate some during the process and hasn't wanted to do anything else since Friday other than pick peaches! She was an incredible help! It was soo much fun! Her favorite things to say were: "We're pickin peaches!" (if a peach fell on the ground, she would say-->) "It's yucky now. Pick new one!" "It's a little one, daddy!" "Pick big one!" So, if you want some peaches, you know where to find them!

Kelly's Real First Injury

So not too long ago, we were on "skyping" with my mom and dad when Kelly starting crying off and on and kept holding her hand out and saying she had an "owie." After taking a closer look at it, we noticed that her thumb was really swollen on her right hand. My mom looked at it via our webcam and we decided that it felt and looked like she had dislocated her thumb! We couldn't believe it! So, right before she was to go to bed, we instead headed for the hospital to get it checked out. In the meantime, while driving and then playing in the doctor's office while we waited on the doctor, her thumb naturally slid back into place. We took some xrays and had the doctor look at it, but in the end, all we could do was let it heal up on its own. Luckily, actually, it slid in place on its own. It would not have been fun to have to put it back into place! So, thank goodness for that! Anyway, here's a picture of her thumb not too long after we got back from the hospital...lots of swelling and coloration...and Kelly was an incredible trooper through it all!

Just Pictures for Fun

Here you've got Granny and Kelly waiting together to go up the ski lift on a full moon-lit night. Also, Lindsey and Kelly are playing in Kelly's new tent, which she loves! The other pictures are of Kelly with her great Grandparents on Rachel's side of the family and Rachel and Kelly laying on the lawn at Temple Square looking up into the trees together.

Trip to the Temple

We took Kelly to Temple Square, which she really liked. She loved all the flowers and kept calling the temple "Jesus' house." She then proceeded to call everything she saw that evening "Jesus' water," "Jesus' flowers," "Jesus' tree" and on and on. It was pretty cute. Her favorite thing to do, though, was to walk on the short walls that formed up the flower beds. She would walk around all the flower beds and then bend down to smell them. She loves flowers! It was pretty cute!

Fun with the Family over the Summer

So my Mom came to town for about a month and we had the chance to spend lots of time together as a family. We picniced at Grandma's house, watched the 24th of July parade, went to the zoo, played in the mountains, rode a ski lift in the middle of the night, and all kinds of other fun. Of course, it all had to wind down eventually so that Rachel and I could get back to work and now school. So anyway, it's back to the good-old days as we not only are counting down to baby #2 but by my April graduation!!!

Back to School

Well, I've started school up again and I'm FINALLY a senior! We're looking forward to graduation and especially baby #2 here in just over a month. I know we're not exactly regular bloggers but we're trying. Just be patient with us and we'll eventually post something! This was taken at the zoo while mom was in town visiting. It was quite a challenge to get Kelly to smile for any picture that you wanted her to smile in unless you were tickling her or playing with her.

Just Counting Down to Baby #2!!!!

More Camping & Other Misc. Pictures

Camping Pictures & Other Misc. Pictures

These pictures are from our camping trip to Moab a few months ago as well as other misc. pictures from the past few weeks. If you want any details, just let me know!

Our Journey to get to Our Vacation

Our trip plans originally included leaving on July 3rd to go and see Kim and Nick for the 4th of July. We were planning on spending 3 days with them and then heading home to spend a week with Rachel's family. That didn't exactly happen.
Our trip started with me working until nearly midnight on July 3rd trying to get ready to leave. Then, I ended up working all day the 4th of July until about 11 that night. Saturday morning rolled around, and Rachel and I work a few more hours before we packed up and finally left. We didn't get very far however.
About 3 blocks from home, our car started smoking like crazy. We ended up having it towed and fixed the following morning (Sunday by now). So, once the car was towed we went out to dinner instead of going home, and our waitress didn't even know we had been seated. The service was pretty poor that night.
Once dinner was done, we headed home and walked in the door only to have the dining room light burn out as I turned it on when we walked in. It couldn't have been any worse than that...or so we thought.
We got the call on Sunday morning that our car was ready and so we packed up again and thought we were finally on our way to our vacation. About half way up to get our car, we realized Kelly was missing a shoe and had to turn around to go home and find it. We did and began our journey one last time. We finally got to the shop where our car was and they said it was ready. However, right before I was ready to pay, the mechanic came in and told us there was still a problem.
After about an hour and a test drive, we finally paid and were able to take off for vacation...and that time it was for real.
We loved the week we had with Rachel's family! Kelly loved every minute of being outside every day, playing in the lake and with her cousins, riding and driving the 4-wheeler, and everything else! It was worth every minute of our challenges to leave to take that break. We had a blast!

Our Vacation

The Rocking Chair

Kelly loves the rocking chair in her room. Every night before she lays down, I rock her and sing to her. This one night, I peaked in on her and found that she had moved all her stuffed animals into the rocking chair and then climbed in with them and covered herself up with her blanket. She fell asleep that way.

4th of July

Independence day didn't exactly turn out as planned for us this year. Rachel and Kelly went to watch the parade while I ended up working all day. The other little girl in the pictures with her is Hanna, in our ward. They have a lot of fun together! I ended up replacing 2 water heaters and replacing a ceiling that ended up having a water pipe break inside of it once I finished the water heater in the same apartment. I couldn't believe it! I finished the second water heater just as all the fireworks shows ended. I was able to sit down and have dinner with Rachel and Kelly that evening, though. Rachel barbecued for all of us, and I was able to take a few minutes out to eat with them. I didn't get home until almost 11 that night, though. Some holiday, eh?

Kelly's Muscles

So we've done the "superman" thing with Kelly a handful of times and she decided that it was her turn to hold us up!

Just for Fun

Kelly and Aunt Kelly

Rachel's Fish Lips

Trip to Vegas

We recently took a trip to Las Vegas to visit Rachel's sister and her family. We had really nice and relaxing time down there. The weather was beautiful! We also ran in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer fun run that Saturday. This run has kind of become a tradition for us in Vegas. Anyway, Kelly had a good time just running and playing down there. She went swimming for the first time and fed ducks for the first time as well! The ducks were obviously more than friendly! Kelly could have fed them all day.

My First Half-Marathon

Thank you to everyone who donated to my cause this year, the Huntsman Cancer Institute. My team raised $2,483!!! That put my team 10th place overall in fund raising. My team also placed 4th overall in fund raising per team member. So, thank you again!
The race was fantastic. The weather was beautiful...a little chilly at the start but sunny and breezy the rest of the morning. This was my first half marathon ever. Thanks to my training and experience, I now realize that I will never run a full marathon. I don't know how those people do it. Anyway, I ran it and finished in 2 hours 41 minutes. Not bad for a first timer. The first marathoner passed me at 2 hours 5 minutes or so with a few miles to go. Amazing! Rachel and Grandma came to the race as well as Uncle John, Steven, and others from the family. What an experience!



The pictures here are of me nearing the finish line and with my professor who joined my team this year. He did the full marathon (he's done 43 full marathons now!). All for a good cause, too. So, look out for me next year!!! I'll be doing it again & looking to double what we raised this year!