Yummy Raspberries!

Yesterday we went to a friend's house to pick some of their raspberries! I could have picked a lot more were it not for my three little 'helpers', but we had fun and it was actually sunny while we picked. We were able to fill three gallon size bags in about two hours. We love raspberries and now we get to make freezer jam! That is about as domestic as I get....there are only three steps. ;-)
David has been out of town this week, thus all the blogging, and we can't wait to have him home tonight! And if you haven't heard the crazy news, our very own governor, Sarah Palin, is running for vice president with John McCain!!!

The sun was a little bright and they weren't cooperating enough to take a second shot.

Bohdan chilling in his stroller while we picked berries.

Yummy raspberries.

First Grade!

Shira started first grade this week! Here she is on her way to the first day of school. She was so excited! She is growing up way too fast. I'm going to miss my little helper around the house. I'm so proud of her.

Beauty Pageant Queens

Some fabulous friends put together this Murder Mystery Mayhem of beauty pageant queens and we all dressed up as either a judge or a beauty queen. Going out to Kay's house and picking out costumes was half the fun. After dolling ourselves up we met at Lindsay's beautiful home, thanks Lindsay. We all had roles to portray and I was the cunning, yet true to my word, Miss Amy Arizona. I would stop at nothing to win the competition and that included paying off the dubious Judge Julie, aka Kay. It was all in the name of the cripple children's fund, and I didn't mind donating to such a cause. And neither did Miss Texas, aka Tiffany. She apparently out-bribed me and I had her whacked....with the ever so popular method of breath mints! You heard it. I murdered Miss Texas to become Miss America. And it was worth it. So scandalous. I didn't actually know I was the murderer until half way through the evening. I must have been good because only one person figured it out. I guess I am that innocent. ;-) (totally kidding) Thanks to Lindsay, Shawna, and Nicole for such a fun evening! Now for the photos....

Presenting Miss Amy Arizona!

I loved the shoes so much I wore them to church the next day!...but don't worry, I changed the dress and took off the tiara.

Miss Arizona, Miss Lousiana, & Miss Alabama

Miss Alabama looking sweet and innocent.

My favorite one in this shot is Shawna!

Discussing the murder that just took place.

P.I. Pete was investigating the whole evening.

Judge Julie and Miss Arizona paying her off.

Miss Mississippi threatening Judge Julie.

The nine month pregnant Shawna drinking! Now that is scandalous!

Miss Wisconsin & Miss Louisianna

Me & the one I did away with, Miss Texas.

No More Training Wheels!!!

A couple of weeks ago we went out to Palmer to stay the weekend with Grandma Kay and Grandpa Blake and had a great time. The kids were riding their bikes while we were waiting for David and Kay to show up. Blake decided Shira didn't need those training wheels anymore and amazingly talked her into the same idea. Within about 10 minutes Shira was off and running, thanks to Blake's kind patience. ;-) Everyone was thrilled that Shira did so well and David was grateful someone else had taken on the task of teaching her to ride without training wheels. Thanks again Blake! The pictures say it all. She is so proud!

Pool Party

It's been a while, but Kristi had a super fun pool party during one of the 12, so I've heard, sunny days of summer. I've also heard this was the worst summer in 30 years, as far as high temps and sunny days go. But it's all good. Better than 100+ degree weather....right??? Anyway, it was a great party, thanks Kristi, and the kids had a ton of fun in the pool, throwing water balloons, eating, and on the slip-n-slide.

Asher showing off his water balloon.

Asher about to throw his water balloon. (I love the evil grin.)

Do you see why this kid cracks us up on a daily basis? This is Asher running for the slip-n-slide. He wasn't going very far once he landed on the slide, so each time he did it he got a little farther back and put a little more into it.

Success.

This is actually at Grandma Kay's hot tub, formally Kristi's hot tub, but I threw it in with these shots.

The look of pure enjoyment eating a frozen treat. You'd think it was 100 degrees. ;-)

"Mom, I'm stuck!"

Asher cracks us up on a daily basis. First, he loves to find all the loose boards on the fence. He then pulls them off. But this time he went a step further. He actually got stuck in the fence. David spent a few minutes trying to get his big head through the fence, then realized this was a perfect picture opportunity. So I came out and snapped a few shots and laughed at them. I suggested they might want to pull the rest of his body through as opposed to trying to yank the poor kids head off going the other way. Thanks to me our son is now a free boy.

Here he is stuck in the fence.

Here David is listening to his wife. ;-)
Asher showing us where he was stuck....and obviously happy to be out.

Potpourri

The more I look at the word potpourri the weirder it looks and the less sure I am of how it's spelled....but I'm moving on. These pics are just a bunch from the last few weeks. Enjoy. Plus, Grandpa Andersen just got his knee replaced and needs some new pics to look at. :-)

On one of our sunny days a rain cloud passed by. Since the kids were already in their swimsuits running through the sprinklers we just let them keep playing. Shira & Asher are jumping with cousins Kenny & Katie.

I like to think of this as Asher's mug shot with a wink. He just finished a bowl of spaghetti and I thought it was picture worthy. He really likes spaghetti.

While the grown ups were picking out costumes for a party,

the kids couldn't resist doing the same. I love Zanders pink and black shoes! Only real men wear pink!

Daddy reading to the kids before bed....priceless. Blake practicing shooting his bow.....but he doesn't really need to practice.
David with his new rifle. The boys are going hunting next week!
And my favorite shot of the week...Asher and Bohdan giggling on the couch.

Word Verification, my butt.

Does anyone else think it's ironic that on some of these sites you have to verify a 'word' by typing in what you see before you can continue...cause you know, if you 'spell' the 'word' wrong the world might just go through another Y2K. But the thing is.....sometimes they aren't even WORDS! And the funny thing is, I can still spell them wrong! Ha ha ha! Did anyone else notice this, or is it just me? Because here on our very own blogspot world they do it. They are guilty!!! Don't get me wrong, I don't mind typing in the 'letters', but just don't go and call it Word Verification!!! Cause it aint a word!!! Ahhh, (deep breath) I feel better now.

All Things Bohdan

Since Bohdan is the third child I want to make a point not to forget about him. I already feel like I don't blog enough about him. So this one is for you, Bohdan! (Since I'm sure I'll have him reading in no time and blogging right after that!) On the 22nd of this month Bohdan turned 1/2 a year old! In the past few months he has learned to roll over, I'm sure you are all impressed, he sits up on his own, eats his toes, has started this week on somewhat solid food, and my personal favorite, blows raspberries. It's super cute. Especially when you combine the last two.....eating baby food AND doing raspberries, which he loves to do! It's hard not to laugh. He will also go to sleep on his own when we lay him down! So nice. I didn't even have to go through the much dreaded 'cry yourself to sleep' phase. Yeah for small blessings! But just so you don't go and think he's some angel child, he doesn't take long naps and still wakes up several times in the night. :-) Don't worry, though, we aren't throwing him back....not sure where back would be, but we aren't going there. The pics below are from the last six weeks or so. Oh yeah, and he got his first tooth last week!!!! Ouch.

In the swing, which he has graduated from and put away!

Wearing my hat on one of the many camping trips.

LOVE those big (still) blue eyes.

Chomping on a fish from his saucer.

I love it when they suck on their bottom lip and their cheeks stick out even more.
Found his toes a while ago, but it's still funny.
I want to munch on them too....and do.

Blowing raspberries!

And my personal favorite because you can see his fat cheeks while he blows more raspberries! Munch munch.

Troublesome Creek

This camping trip happened right after I got bronchitis. David had the week off and really wanted to go camping again. He promised two things; to take me some place warmer (north), and that I wouldn't have to lift a finger. He kept both of those promises, by the way. I don't even think I unbuckled Bohdan from his car seat more than once. And none of us had to wear our winter coats as we sat around the camp fire that night. We set up camp right next to troublesome creek and just enjoyed the sunset while Brady and David had their usual jam session on their guitars. It was nice, even though I was sick. It was fabulous to go to bed that night without cold feet and stay that way all night long in a sleeping bag. All was well, until Bohdan woke up at 6am and I realized we had a few mosquitoes in the tent. As I searched diligently for the little buggers I soon discovered that we were being invaded by little no-see-ums. They were mine. As I found them I started killing one by one. About 20 deaths later, David woke up and asked me what I was doing. I told him about the invasion and he asked me how they were getting in. After a close examination, we found out they were crawling through the mesh of our tent!!!! We were doomed. David got out of the tent to put our tarp over the top in order to prevent the rascals from getting to the mesh. As he was doing that it started to rain. So much for the warmer weather. He got back in the tent and we got a few more hours of sleep. Then my cell phone rang. It was a sweet sister from our ward who had called the day before wanting to ask me a question in preparation for her Relief Society lesson on Sunday. She found out I was on my death bed, or so I sounded and claimed to be (but I really was), and was calling back to let me know she would be dropping by some home made chicken noodle soup!!! Much to my dismay, I had to say, ever so foolishly, "but I'm not home." She just paused. I felt so dumb! I told her we would be home the following day and she kindly said, "Oh, I'll bring it by then." I felt about this small (the size of one of those no-see-ums). She was so sweet and I just wanted to shrink up and crawl under a rock. Oh well. I decided I would just explain it to her later and tell her of the promises my sweet honey made. I did, and she did bring over the soup, which was DELICIOUS! I savored it over the next couple of days and it was the best part of being sick. Back to the camping trip. By 10am we could tell the rain wasn't going anywhere, so we all agreed to just pack up and head home. Since I was sick I just had to sit in the truck and hold Bohdan. ;-) So much for camping at a spot called Troublesome Creek....should have known.

Asher fell asleep like this.

Shira, David, and Bohdan at our campsite.

Asher, Asher, Asher

Sometimes I feel like I could write a book on all the joy Asher gives me. And by joy I mean grief. Yesterday he took out my car keys, unlocked the car, and got inside to play. Apparently he wanted his dinosaur that was sitting on the front seat waiting to get returned because he already has one. While playing, he somehow set off the car alarm and freaked out. As I panicked looking for the keys in my purse, which of course I couldn't find because Asher had them in the GLOVE COMPARTMENT! I ran outside, yanked him out of the car, glanced around for the keys, found nothing and for some reason thought if I locked the doors the alarm might go off. Ya right. After screaming at Asher to find out if he had my keys or not, he finally answered and said yes. "Where are they?" "In the car," he said. Of course they are. When I run out there to open the car to look for the keys, I remember my brilliant spur of the moment idea to lock the doors in hopes of the alarm shutting off. You have to remember that the car alarm is extremely loud and causes me to not think clearly at all! Now I've got to find the extra, never use them for they might reset the car's key system in case the car gets stolen, set of keys. I find them, push the key's unlock the door buttons, but sure enough the battery is dead, so I run outside and unlock the door. FINALLY!!!, the alarm stops and I can hear myself think, or should I say scream. I apologized to the neighbor who was outside working on his car, and look for the keys, remember they were in the glove compartment. I start the car, hoping it still starts because I may have reset the whole car system, etc. etc. It starts!!!!! Much to my relief. Now for a little child abuse. I threw Asher in his room, he was terrified at that point and I figured it would do him some good to be a little scared for a while. After a few minutes I went in his room and just held him. He really was scared. I gave him the whole shpeel (sp?) on why we don't play in cars and what not. I hope it worked and he stays out of my car.
You might ask yourself, what was I doing during the time Asher was stealing my car keys.....I was blogging of course!

But it doesn't end there.

Just two days ago I woke up to Asher cutting his hair....not that it wasn't getting long, but we wanted it that way. And he just had to cut it right around the top of his head about a quarter of an inch long. So, now there are about half a dozen chunks cut out of his hair. But luckily after I threw him in the bath and washed and dried his hair, you really can't tell unless you are looking for it. Yeah for small blessings.

This morning we watched Uncle Jaben while his mom and dad were working, he has down syndrome and can't be alone. Well, he spent quite a while in the bathroom this morning and during that time Asher decided he just had to go right then! After holding him off for a few minutes he told me he just couldn't wait, so I told him to go in the backyard and pee on the trees. A few minutes later he was doing just that....so I thought. When he came back in I asked him if he peed on the trees. "Nope, I peed on the deck." "On the deck??? Why?! I told you to pee on the trees, or at least the grass!" Sure enough, I went out to look at our deck and there was a huge wet spot covering the deck and everything that happen to be laying around! Argh! Oh well, we just hosed it all off and moved on.

Never a dull moment when Asher is around.