Miss you

Sadie, I heard your sweet voice today and I can't believe how much older you sound already. I miss your huge smile and your zurbets on my cheek. I am counting down the days until Thanksgiving. I just hope that 3.5 months doesn't let you forget your favorite aunt that loves you more than anything!!

Happy Birthday Joshie!

Whew, so another birthday down. Josh turned 27 yesterday. I took him out to dinner to a steakhouse here called Prospector's. We shared a salmon dinner and when we got home all of our friends were waiting for him. Josh walked right in the house and put our dinner in the fridge without even seeing anyone. Then he looked up and everyone started yelling and he jumped. It was a great reaction and I'm sad I didn't get it on video, oh well. Happy Birthday sweetheart.

Josh in front of the restaurant. We had a crazy waitress who actually sang happy birthday in an obnoxious voice, all by herself.

27 candles and a homemade german chocolate cake, his fav

Presents: GU hat from Andy and Jenn, MarioKart from my parents, and laser tag from me. Yes, laser tag, don't judge it just because I bought it in the toy section of Target for a 27 year old. It is going to be a blast and you will be jealous when we are playing it wishing you had it too.

Thank you everyone for making his birthday work out and coming to the surprise party, and for the gifts. Thanks for the ice cream Brittney and Rhett :)

Results are in

So I stole the picture from Heather's blog, but here are the results. #1 is Heather and Daren, #2 is us, #3 is Jenn and Andy. So thank you to everyone who helped us win, woohoo! :)

Wild Walla Walla

So at first glance you may not think Walla Walla is that crazy or eventful, but all you have to do is step into the Anderson home and you will have the time of your life. We went there this conference weekend and spent Friday-Sunday amongst the chaos. Here are some funny events that took place:

-Getting our stuff settled in Garrett's room we find a sacrament tray stashed in the corner next to his guitars (just in case you might need an extra some day)

-Random toy gets bumped in Eli's bedroom, who is sleeping since it's 12:30am, and it will not stop making random shooting noises so Cookie fumbles around with it until she gets too frustrated and yells for Dallin to come shut it off asap

-Our sleeping arrangements: 3 beds: 2 twin sized beds, (one being a real bed, one a blow up) and 1 queen blow-up bed that deflates after a half an hour just by itself with no one on it, and 1 pillow.

-Cookie states: "don't look in there, (meaning Garrett's bedroom closet) we had to bulldoze all the crap left in his room into that closet." I look over and the closet door is bulging out diagonally because there's so much stuff in it. I laughed hysterically about it that night just looking at the door sticking out before i went to sleep.

-Saturday morning Eli runs downstairs with his hands out and yells "Dad! something happened in Garrett's room!" (meaning we had all of our stuff in there and he forgot we came the night before)

-Cookie to Todd: Do you have a pen?
Todd looking in his pocket: No, but I do have mints, couple of chapsticks and some darts

-Doing my make-up Sat morning and Lydia comes strolling in and lifts up the seat and starts going to the bathroom. Mid eye shadow I realize she just sat down on the toilet without saying a word to me, door open, and is taking a dump.

-Eli keeps punching Cookie's butt over and over and so she tells him to stop. His response: "but your buns are squishy"

-Rachel: we will get to see you a lot more often now Eli
Eli: Why?
Rachel: well, we just moved here to go to school
Eli: What? This isn't school, this is my house

-Cookie: Alright, count the kids, something is dead in the garage and it REEKS out there!!


To say the least we had a GREAT conference weekend at the Anderson's and can't wait to go back! :)

Here is Eli with his light-saber. He has this next to him about 95% of the time. He is doing his super-hero pose for me.

It happened to be homecoming weekend, so here is Bridget with her date.

This is Cookie laying down in the closet trying to find Lydia's coat somewhere in "the black hole".

Eli and I playing Superman with our matching capes.

The infamous "SHOP" that we visited before our WW driving tour. I was very impressed with the Shop, especially the electricity.

Disclaimer: Despite all of the craziness at the Anderson's, I just want to say that they are an amazing family and totally inspire me to have a big family some day. Cookie went from early morning prep of kids, to a soccer game, grocery store, sewing a homecoming dress, making dinner, cleaning up, making dessert for after homecoming, entertaining teenagers, and staying up with me until 3:30am...all in ONE day. Whew! Just to get up 5.5 hours later to make everyone breakfast.
And I was so happy to stay up until 3am, partly because I love staying up late and haven't been up that late since before I was married, but most of all because it was so nice to just sit down and talk to my aunt who is so amazing and funny all at the same time. :)

Sunday Ride

Josh and I went on a bike ride on a popular trail in downtown Spokane called the Centennial Trail. It runs right along the river and was a beautiful trail. We had a great time checking it out and trying to squeeze in some exercise on Josh's day off from studying.

Thought this was a cool pic of Josh skipping rocks on the river

This picture is for you Jenn so you can see my cute basket that you gave me! I put stuff in it every time we ride our bikes.

Haunted Houses!

Last night we got together with our friends and made "haunted houses" out of graham crackers and candy. It was a competition and we all need your help to find out the true winner!! So look at all three houses and vote which you like best on the side.

Haunted House #1

Haunted House # 2

Haunted House #3

Aprons?!

So I have this grand idea to make and sell aprons. Not sure if it's going to just be on-line or at a kiosk in the mall etc etc or if I will actually ever do it, but I just got inspired and very motivated to do it. No, I have never ran a business or know anything about it, and I have also never sewn an apron. BUT....tomorrow I am sewing one, and today was talk about what I would name it. Vote on the side for what you think the name should be. This might sound crazy, but if I really do it the aprons will be SUPER cute and fun to own. SO...here I go on an adventure :) Also, if you have any other ideas on a business name, leave a comment!

Wii-fun!!

We had several law-school couples come over on Saturday after our ward party to have a Wii Bowling Championship, boys vs girls. All I have to say: girls whooped 'em!

First game: Normal bowling, Second game: Left-handed only, Third game: Between the legs

So it starts out sideways, sorry, not sure how to fix that since that's how I held the camera for who knows why, but here is Rhett's "between the legs" strategy. And yes, the credits are longer than the actual movie. So I'm not a movie-edit specialist, give me a break!

Spokane Fair Demo Derby

Josh and I went this last week with the Harris' to the Spokane Fair. We watched some of a hypnotist show and then headed off to the demo derby. None of us had been to one before and we had a blast! There weren't as many trashy people at the derby as I had hoped, but a 16 year old did win the whole thing!

After the derby we checked out the fair rides which were bigger and better than any traveling rides I've ever seen! One was like the Superman ride where you lay down on your stomach. I was very tempted to try it out until I found out of course it cost an arm and a leg to go on it. So since it took your arm AND leg, I figured it wouldn't be that fun anyway.

One of my fav parts about the derby is that by the end all of the cars were smoking a ton and made it that much more exciting.

The pinky in the middle was the car I voted for and was a crowd favorite for driving backwards during the race before the derby, but it ended up that #100 won, the car Heather voted for

I would have to say not the best picture of us, but Heather and Daren look cute :)