Christmas (cough, cough!*) 2025

We started off Christmas break with a night out to eat at Golden Corral. The kids loved it! They'd never seen so many options for food and desserts before! We might make this a tradition.

And of course, we decorated Christmas cookies!

And then things slowly started going downhill. On Christmas Eve, Violet woke up feeling sick. Travis stayed home with her that night while the rest of us had a fun night at Mamie and Papa's.

On Christmas morning, Jaxon developed a cough that got progressively worse as the morning went on. We had to stop asking him to give hugs, or talk as it just made him cough even more.

Violet was still sick on the couch and didn't feel like opening presents. Eventually she and Jaxon went to bed. The whole situation distracted us from taking lots of pictures. We were trying to get through as many presents as we could.

For the next WEEK, it felt like we only had 3 kids. Ginger, Ivy, and Talmage has lots of fun with their presents. 

At the end of the break, Violet and Jaxon started turning a corner, and Violet felt like she could finally open her presents we had saved for her.

We even had an extra day to do something fun, so we went to BYU.

 It was a crazy fun, crazy sick, crazy crazy Christmas. 

Holiday Prep

We got tickets for Luz de las Naciones, and loved all the performances! We saw a bunch of friends there, too!

Ivy lost her first tooth! It's funny because dhe actually lost the other front tooth soon after, so it was just like the song!

Thanksgiving at the Andersons...Ivy wanted to wear her turkey hat she made at school.

This is not holiday prep, but it's just typical behavior around here. Marching around with underwear on the head.

We had a night out with friends and saw Nate Bargetze in Salt Lake. It's always fun to catch up with friends!

We also took the kids to their first movie, at the movie theater! I get a free ticket everytime I work a book sale shift at the library, so it took several shifts to cover us, but it was worth it! We saw Zootopia 2.

The youth always love volunteering at the food pantry. We love our ward so much!

We had a Noche en Belen before Christmas. Our ward truly outdid themselves!

I wish I would have gotten a picture of this cardboard scenery in the dark that night. It was lit up beautifully!

We were at little late to the event because we had Violet and Ginger's Christmas Show!

Then we made it to the church in time to join in the fun. I wish I would've gotten more photos of that night. We just enjoyed ourselves too much. :)

We're Building a House!

We were originally just planning on moving to a bigger house. But when Travis was called as bishop, we suddenly had more time on our hands and our plans changed. We're very excited.

 

Halloween 2025

 Ah, Halloween. Good times. Came across this fun, throwback picture.

Jaxon was a robber, Violet a ninja, Ginger a witch, Ivy a mummy, and Talmage a vampire.

We love trick or treating with cousins. Such a fun tradition.

Happy Halloween!

Back in the Swing of Things

Violet decided to try the trombone this year. She's had a lot of fun with it!

Still taking trips to the cabin. This time we took Zyanya, and the girls had a great time.

I love seeing Jaxon spend time with Talmage. He doesn't mind playing old school Little People. Excuse the mess, our house is very much lived in.

Travis still takes hikes with friends in the ward. I'm not a huge fan of hiking, but I fully support him going. ;)

And here the youth are at the food and care coalition, in charge of making breakfast for hundreds of people and cleaning up after everything. They do this every few months- they love it.

Talmage likes creating his own art projects on a whim.

One of the kid's experiences last Christmas was going to Nickelcade. The kids loved it!!

Goofing off with cousins at Mamie's...

So, one day I come home and Ivy and Talmage tell me about how they had been on a walk around the block, and on the walk they saw a dead bird. They felt so sorry and thought it should have a proper memorial service. Me: "Oh! How nice. Now, WHERE.IS.THE.BIRD?" (on their chest of drawers, of course). After a good hand washing, he was given a short service outside our outdoor garbage can.

 Life is never dull around here.