WOW!!!!

A lot has happened in the last two weeks.  Our annual Music Booster See's Candies order was a huge part of it.  Just crazy problems this year!!  Between a student accusing me of stealing $21 from her order (long, crazy story) to continued damaged items in shipments - I am seriously thinking next year will be the last year for See's Candies.  Yes, have to think of this as a great fundraiser for the students.  But man, it was such a time sucker this year.

But I have to say the biggest and BEST thing that happened was this!

 My Birthday present AND mine and Rob's Christmas present!!!  Robert was here for 8 days!!!!  A total and complete surprise from our kids.  I can't believe they kept it a secret.  They are so awesome!!  They got double the reaction since Rob wasn't home when Robert arrived.

Our hearts are sooooooo full!!!

I had snow for MY birthday!!

And school was canceled!  Winter break started a day early.

The time with Robert went so fast!! 

Christmas Morning!!!

And an Anderson Family FIRST - this was done in ONE shot!

And we got to Skype with this little love:

LIFE IS GOOD!!!

What a milestone!!!

20 years!  We've been in Washington State for 20 years THIS week!  How did that happen so fast?  After 20 years Lynden is FINALLY home.  But it took quite a few years to get to that point.  There are 3 things I miss the most - friends, sunshine and Disneyland.

In fact, 20 years ago, on December 9, 1993 we went to Disneyland for one last time until we don't know when celebration.  Would you just look at our little kiddos.

So itty bitty little and Robert being the protector of his sisters.  Looking at this picture just warms my heart.

Summer Road Trip!!!

Yup!!!  Driving to UTAH!!!  Honestly I am not a road trip kind of person but when you have 4 people (aka:family) going on a trip, driving to Utah is much less expensive than flying and renting car.  It was our annual trek to BYU for Education Week.  But added a few extra days to be with friends as well.

Our timing was great as there was a Home Tour going on.  We took full advantage and got LOTS of great ideas and dreams.  I want to do this on the wall in our bedroom:

 

And want to do this to our entryway/living room wall and up the stairs.  I just can't get this out of my mind.  I LOVE IT!!!!

While in this GINORMOUS house, I got separated from the rest of the family because of my love affair with these wall treatments.  I went on a search for them.  Any guesses where I found them?

Yup!!  In the home theater room, kicking back watching a movie.  SO my family!!!

And the backyards didn't disappoint either.  Rob found a few things he wants to do too.

You can see it in his eyes:

We had also heard about the UP house (decorated like the house in the Disney movie UP) was nearby (not on the tour).  And we found it!!!

The rest of the time was spent at the Salt Lake City Farmer's Market with friends

Visiting a new and most favorite cookie place EVER!!!

Saying "HI" to our chocolate friends

Spending Sunday at Temple Square and seeing Music and The Spoken Word

My cute babies in the car

Seeing Frank and Kathie Greeno after way too many years!!!  Amber and David had never met them before so that tells you how long.

Went up to Park City

Stayed with our fabulous friends, Ken and Cyndi

Had a fabulous view of the Draper temple from our bedroom

Met up with friends we haven't seen since we left California - John and Tylyn.  So fun to catch up!

And a "girls only" with my Margaritaville girlies!!  Honestly no reference to drinking here - we all lived in a city called Rancho Santa Margarita.  LOVE these girls!!

Then the week was over, just like that (SNAP)!  We had to stop again at RubySnap for cookies for the road.  You know, you have to have a reward for getting to certain miles.  Plus we hoped that the owner, Tami would be there.  Her daughter was serving her mission in our area and we had a picture to deliver.  We brought her to tears as she was just missing her little girl the past few days.

She was moving so fast we never got a good picture of her.

And one of the BEST parts of the trip was meeting up with these people on the way out of Utah.

Lianne McCoy and her daughter Kensie and Leif Walde. 

Of course we had to go see the Brigham City Temple.  So beautiful!!

But you know what was the strangest part of the trip?  Not having Robert or Lizzie there with us.  My Mom and Grandma heart hurt not being able to see them.  Dang them for moving!!!

Brigham City marks the start of this:

A whole lot of NOTHING!!!!  Nothing through Utah and Idaho.  Now you understand why we reward ourselves.

The kids catch up on their sleep

We see awesome license plates

And they sleep some more



 

 

Until next year Utah!!!!

Back to School Photo Shoot

So this year we decided to take advantage of Courtney Price Photography's "Old School" session instead of those typical blah school pictures.  Plus we were out of town when they took the pictures and forgot on makeup day.  That's just fine because these are SO much better!!!  David is currently a junior in high school.

When did my little boy grow up?