Christmas 2006

Arizona Christmas

There are 28 Andersons together this year for Christmas. Garrett, Jeanie, Solomon (4) and Jeremiah (1) have joined Garrett’s family in Arizona for the holiday. This includes Grandma Susie and Gramps (Bruce); Taylor and Teresa Anderson, and their kids Danielle (9), Leah (5), Andrew (3) and Jessica (<1); Trent and his girlfriend LaRae; Julia and Brent Crenshaw, and their kids Christopher (4), Susie (4), Evan (2) and Anna (1); Grant and Alena Anderson and their kids Clayton (6), Whitney (4) and Owen (1); and straight from England (with the Air Force) Carma and Ian Sheehan, and their son Jak (<1). Carma is expecting another.

The Andersons get together every other year for Christmas. Jeanie has been coming since 2000 when we were engaged. At the time, we only had 2 grandkids. Two years later we were up to 7, including a newborn Solomon, who was the youngest at the time. Last time, in 2004 we were up to 9, and anticipating Jerry’s birth on January 11th, just after Christmas. This year we are up to 14, and Jeanie is happy to not to be either pregnant or have a newborn.

This is also the first year that we are trying this gathering in Arizona. We have traditionally gathered at Gramps and GrandmaSusie’s house in Bloomington, Illinois. Now we are staying at either Grant or Taylor’s houses in Mesa and Gilbert. It has been surprisingly chilly here the first few days. We are very happy to be here with family, but we have become unaccustomed to the fast pace of the big city. Every so often we turn to each other and bless the non-existent traffic, affordable houses(and forest) and comfortable life we live in small-town Illinois.

Solomon is really enjoying his cousins, especially Grant’s kids that we are staying with. He humors Whitney and plays Polly Pocket with her, and Clayton is probably just as much a Star Wars nut as Solomon, so of course they get along well. Grant has done a lot of work in his yard, including burying his trampoline, and sodding the back yard. I've gotten to help him some, hauling rock and sand from the front yard to the back. We look forward to spending some time laying brick this week. The house looks great, and so does the yard. We are very happy to be here sharing this Christmas with my twin brother and the rest of the family. Sincerely, Garrett

Midwest Beauty

I am looking out our front window at an amazing sunset, with bright colors streaming through the trees in our front yard. The past four days have been absolutely beautiful here. It warmed up to 60 degrees every day, and the skies were clear and sunny. I know this is sounding like a weather report, but it is more than than. This is California girl admitting that after 5 years out here in Illinios, she has finally learned to appreciate the beauty of flatlands, the corn fields and scattered clumps of trees. I still miss the magesty of the mountains of Utah, and the Pacific Ocean beaches of California, but I have settled in the the beauty around me. We are heading to Arizona for Christmas, and that will be yet another type of beauty that this country has to offer. America is truly an amazing place. There are so many different types of landscapes to enjoy from coast to coast. I hope to one day travel coast to coast and get the whole picture of "from sea to shining sea!" Well, that is all for now. Enjoy the beauty of the season, wherever you may be. Love, Jeanie

Thanksgiving Afterthoughts

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I find myself being extremely grateful for the time I have to spend with my husband when he is off of work. The boys love having their Daddy around and so do I.

We had our first Thanksgiving dinner at our new home, and it really helped make it feel more like home. We enjoyed ourselves, but wish we could have had some family around to share it with. Maybe someday.

Anderson Afterthoughts

Thanks Garrett for putting some pictures up on the blog for me. Our Dial-up internet just isn't quite up to the task of working with pictures. We do miss high speed, but we had to cut it out of the budget.

I guess the names of our boys are no longer anonymous. I forgot to fill Garrett in on using Alias names before he went to add to the blog.

In case you are wondering about the tye-dye shirts in the picture below... Garrett's friend Thom and his wife made those shirts as their "amusement park" shirts so they would never get lost from each other. They had a couple extras, so they offered them to Garrett and Solomon so they could feel like part of the family. I think they are really cool shirts, well done Lisa!

I hope to be back in the swing of things of blogging at tleast once a month now, perhaps even more often than that. If you are interested in seeing more pics of the extended Anderson family, check out the family website at www.grandmasusie.com. We are looking forward to being with the whole Anderson Clan at Christmastime in Arizona. We are ready to take a break from cold Christmas in Illinios.

Lots of Love, Jeanie and Family

By the way, the past three entries were written by Garrett. I hope he will contintue the blogging habit and we can use this as a family journal.

Roller Coaster Fun

In late September, Solomon and I were invited to join Thomi and the boys (Noah & Kaleb) at Kings Island in Cincinnati. Thomi had one extra ticket because he had miscounted his kids. He counted Jessica, when kids under 4 are free. So Solomon (free) and joined the Reeds for the weekend.
Solmon and Noah took a little convincing to get on a few of the rides, but Kaleb was up for anything. However, after experiencig "The Beast", which is the big old wooden coaster, Noah declared "Im never doing that again!" and Kaleb exclaimed "Me neither!".
You can see Thomi and Jessica right behind us in the coaster. This was a pretty tame one, the Little Bill's Giggle Coaster.

Solomon's Superhero Rumble

Solomon had a superhero birthday party this year. It's one of the perks of being born on Halloween that you get to pick a theme for your party. Of course, not all the kids have super costumes - so we had Superbee, SuperClown and Super Bob (the Builder). It was a big hit. We had a pinata and an ice cream cake (which we just barely finished yesterday (over 3 weeks later). In the photo - Bolomon is the only one truly protecting his secret identity. We got "Hello my name is" nametags for all of them. I (Garrett) rented a wheelchair and went as Professor X. It's a perfect costume for a bald guy like me. It was either Charles Xavier or Lex Luthor, and besides, one of the other Dads was coming as Magneto.

Jerry in the Leaves

What a cute little boy - every time Jeanie brings a camera around he starts posing like this - including the laying down in the leaves thing.

Our New House

This is what our yard looked like in September - now all the leaves are on the ground, and Garrett spends several hours each weekend trying to move them around.

Life in the Slow Lane

We are settling into life on Meadow Lane. I know in my last entry, I said I'd have my husband upload some pictures "as soon as he gets home". Well as it turns out he hasn't come home since then...only kidding. We have been technologically challenged this past couple months as we have been in progress of moving and preparing our previous home for renters. So, we are trying to catch up now and it seems to be a hopeless task. I had 107 e-mails in my inbox when we finally got internet hooked up at the new place. Needless to say, I have not been working my online business at all these past months. It is time to get moving with that again, because we need the cash flow! The boys are great, they are a bit disoriented in the new house, but seem to be getting used to it. This house is much smaller than our last one, so it has been an adjustment. But, we are now on 1 1/2 acre wooded lot, while before we were on a standard size city lot. So we traded inside space for outside space. Once the weather warms up (next spring) I'm sure it will all make a lot of sense. For now... there are days that I wonder what we were thinking. I better get going back to bed, considering it is 5 am and the boys will be waking up before 7 am. I will try to get some pictures on here as soon as possible. Love, Jeanie

Anderson Afterthoughts

At the end of July, my husband and I bought another house. This one, we plan to call home. So, August and September have been a time of busy preparations...getting the new home live-in ready, and preparing the old house to be sold. But, the market is slow here, and not much happened in six weeks of trying to sell, so we've decided to rent it for a while and see how that goes. The new place is almost ready for us to reside in it. We have two weeks until we turn our home over to the renter, so by then the move will be complete. When my husband gets home, I'll have him upload some pics of the new place. I just wanted to explain why there has been absolutely no time for blogging. That's all for now!

Anderson Afterthoughts

Before June turns to July, I decided I'd better add something new to my blog so as to not lost all the reading audience I may have once had. I think this serves more as a journal than a way to keep others informed, since I only know of two or three people that ever read it. But, I did just spend the last hour reading over blogs of some of my friends who I have not been in touch with lately. I really enjoyed catching up with them with the help of blogspot.

During the month of May, my boys and I spent three weeks in CA with my family. We had a blast, and enjoyed the weather tremendously. I suspended all my responsibilities here in Centralia, so it took a little getting used to dealing with life again when we returned. Slowly but surely we are getting back into things. I will write more later about our CA trip, and I will publish some pictures. But, for now I need to get back to sleep before my little monkeys decide it is time to start a new day. Bye for now, Jeanie

Anderson Afterthoughts

Springtime is here in full swing and I am loving the weather. We took a roadtrip to Indianapolis for the past couple of days and had a lot of fun. One of my friends was going to visit her family so I invited myself and my boys to come along. Every few weeks I feel the need to skip town, so I'm always looking for an opportunity.

Today we spent two hours in Chuck E. Cheese - it truly is "where a kid can be a kid", and so can the grown-ups. My boys loved it. I love it when they squeal with delight over how much fun they are having.

"Bullfrog" is starting to stand up on his own and has taken 4 steps on his own, yet usually only one at a time falling down in between each one. He loves the attention he gets each time he stands back up! Watching kids learn to walk has got to be one of the most rewarding parts of parenthood. I'm loving it!

March 17, 2001

Five Eventful Years

Five years ago today my husband and I were sealed in the Oakland, California Temple. In some ways it seems like we've been married a lot longer than that, yet March 17, 2001 seems not too long ago. We have had a very eventful five years - and two wonderful little boys to show for it. I am very thankful for my patient and loving husband who has helped to make all my dreams come true. I know there are many experiences ahead of us, and I look forward with anticipation! I am thrilled to continue experiencing life with my best friend - the love of my life.

Anderson Afterthoughts

It's been almost a month, so time for an update again. I decided blogging once a month is a reasonable goal for this new year.

We are just plugging along with our lives here in Centralia. We've had a bunch of snow this week, which has made our city more beautiful, and more cold. Garrett started school again today, he is taking two classes this semester. He had two months off between semesters this time which was great! This semester marks his half way point, only three more to go.

My business is starting to pick up as Spring approaches. I went to the annual dinner and training conference for the company last month and was very inspired by it. I have been working harder since then to generate business in my area. If you haven't already, check out the website www.fsbolocal.com.
They are trying to expand nationwide this year, so anyone who is interested in a part-time job from home, give me a call.

Well, I really should be sleeping so I'll sign off. We've all been sick for a few days, so my sleeping schedule is off from all the naps. I hope we will recover soon. It is so sad to see my baby feeling so miserable. I hope he will return to his happy self very soon. Bye for now, Jeanie

A new favorite

I am happy to report that a new movie has replaced Star Wars as #1 on Boomer's favorite movie list. Garrett introduced him to "The Princess Bride" last week, and he abslolutely loves it. We have watched it at least twice a day since then. Boomer wants to have it on as background "noise" while he plays, and he'll just stop playing to watch his favorite parts. So, now we act out Pirates and Princesses instead of Jedis and Ewoks. Of course, Boomer still loves to play with his Star Wars toys and watch the movies, but at least we've added some variety to his interests. Who would have ever thought a three year old would love "The Princess Bride"... INCONCEIVABLE!

We are a happy family!

Happy New Year

We had a very pleasent December, and enjoyed all the time Garrett and I got to spend together with our boys. It was strange not to be around any family, but also nice to concentrate on our own little family. We had fun decorating our house, and the Christmas bush that we used for our tree. As you can see in the picture below, we have two beautiful boys who provide us with all the entertainment that we need.

We enjoyed a weekend with friends up in Normal, IL over New Year's weekend. We appreciated Garrett's parents willingness to let us stay at their house for the weekend even though they were gone in England.

It has been somewhat of a struggle to get back into the grind of everyday life this past week after the holidays. However, we are optimistic as we start a new year and look forward to a new year of adventures.

Lots of Love, Jeanie and family

p.s. check out Grandmasusie.com for more cute pics of our boys- yes we are bias, but there is no disputing how very good looking they are!