Season greetings!

Another Christmas has come and gone and we all hope that anyone who sees this had an enjoyable time with friends and family and felt the true spirit of the holiday.

We had a great time spending Christmas Eve with my parents by going to see "Bolt" in the theater and going to McGrath's for dinner and ending up at their house to open presents. Of course if was back home to open PJ's and on to bed, for the kids that is! Wrapping for Santa presents didn't take too long and the long awaited day came. After opening presents here and having an enjoyable relaxing morning, it was back to My parents for dinner. My sister Bettie and her family gave my parents a webcam for Christmas so Kirk got that hooked up on their end and Voila! modern technology at its finest! It was kind of strange seeing each other on the computer talking to each other as in person-although you are 1,000 miles away!

This weekend ends our Christmas celebrations with a big bang. We have Kirk's family party tomorrow from 10-2 and then we are going to stay at a hotel in salt lake thanks to Kirk's brother Kevin as he has ton of points through work. So as he and his family will be staying there also we will go to dinner and see the lights on Temple square. Sunday go to church and back to my parents (hope they won't be too sick of us! :)).

This time right after Christmas always makes me pause and think about the year that is ending and the year to come as with many other people I'm sure. I know I have been very blessed with a wonderful, loving, caring husband and 3 beautiful children and family and friends that are close by that the kids get to know and love also. Most of all I want to express my love and appreciation for my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. What a blessing it is to know I am truly a daughter of God! His hand is in my life every day through it all.

More to come with pictures

William

(William insisted I take this picture with his underwear on his head! )

I don't know maybe it's the third and last child thing but our William is definitely the one that entertains us. I was blow drying my hair today and as I am finished I look out into my bedroom and thre is Will with a pair of his spiderman underwear on his head bouncing around my bed. When he realized I saw him he laughed and said he wanted to wear them when we went out to do our errands! The funny thing about this is that there were no other kids to "egg" him on he just did it- because!

So we made it out in to the snowstorm and within half an hour he says things like "what if we drove our car up stairs?", "What if someone put on a Mickey Mouse head?". my favorite "mom what if I was in a movie and you saw me on TV? me-"I don't know-I think I would know if you were in a movie" Will-"Yeah (laughing)dad and I would be in it and we would shake our booties at you! " That's william-just random thoughts!

Our lives would be so boring without him!

Kirk's"Piggies"

As you can see by Kirk's foot,it's seen better days but when it was his choice you can't feel too bad for him-just a little! :)

Kirk has what's called hammer toes where his toes don't lie flat (thanks to genetics!)so he heard about a study they were doing where they would operate on your toes so that they can test a different way to administrate a pain medication. It was definitely one of those "window of opportunities" as they pay him to do the surgery and follow up which was done by a podiatrist in Salt Lake.

I suppose Kirk and I were pretty naive as it coems to recovery time for these things though because we were thinking that he would be out of work 1 week-ha! Now he has been instructed to stay home for the 3rd week now! His toes are healing wonderfully but it has some infection due to the nature of the surgery since he has 3 sets of stiches close together going down his 3 middle toes. What's driving him crazy is well, first of all he can't drive so I do everywhere and he can't move as fast or be on his feet for very long.

Was it worth it? Well ask him in a couple of weeks...!

Ella the Escape Artist

This is Ella our hamster that the kids bought this summer. For the most part she is great to have but I have to admit hamsters are waayyy smarter than I ever thought they were! She has escaped about 4 times now and by now we know that when she does she will be back soon looking for food/water so we don't stress too much until this past week. Since she has escaped she is always trying to get out of her cage and she somehow manages to pop one of the plastic covers off.

Well, the beginning of this week she escaped and was gone for a full day until at 1am Kirk and I hear "scritch, scratch" coming from our dresser in our bedroom! Kirk has had foot surgery (more to come on that) so he couldn't investigate so I am carefully opening drawers and I look down and there she is looking up at me like "what are we looking for?". glad that I found her without smooshing her I put her back and all is well. Well she liked that idea a little too much and last night about 12:30 am I wake up to "scritch,scratch" from our dresser-again! After a while of chasing her down I get her and put her back and we shut our bedroom door all the way. Half an hour later what do I wake up to again? scritch,scratch from our dresser AGAIN!!! She had squeezed underneath our door and went back to our dresser! I thought my early morning times had been in the past now that my kids are older! UUGGHHH Back she goes again and Kirk hobbled after me and we finally "secured" her escape hatches. I didn't know hamsters were so much like kids.

And to think the kids want a dog now......

Ohh facebook

I just realized that it has been a while since I have posted anything and I realized it is because I have been sucked into the addicting world of Facebook! For those of you who haven't ventured into this world it is quite entertaining to find old friends, play games etc. but as I said highly addicting.

My parents are in Israel with a tour and since they come back the day before Thanksgiving I get to do my first Thanksgiving in my 12 years of marriage! Thanksgiving Day happens to be my parents 40th anniversary so I was trying to surprise them by having my sisters and their families come out as a surprise but unfortunately with work schedules,it didn't work out. Although disappointing I am actually more relieved as I don't feel like I have to"paint my walls, re-do my seats on my dining room chairs, fix this that etc..."-why is it we tend to put all this stress on ourselves trying to make everything perfect when it always tends to turn out just right?

Humor of a 4 yr old

Today after taking Mackenzie to a birthday party the boys and I were in the car going home when the boys starting telling knock-knock jokes to each other. Now a 7 and 4 yr old telling jokes to each other causes laughter in itself but when the 4 year old (William) decided to make one up you don't know if it should crickets chirping because it makes no sense at all or laughing because, once again, it makes no sense at all. An example provided by William today: W: knock, knock
M: who's there?
W: cookie
M: cookie who?
W: (long pause) Banana!(as loud as he can say it)

Of course Mitchell and I just had to look at each other and start laughing hysterically at the absurdity of it as William thought it was the funniest thing he ever said!

Pumpkin carving Night

Can you believe that October is almost over? Crazy. Actually that is a perfect word for our house this last week of October with 2 bithdays and Halloween with all the festivities that is involved. Crazy but fun.

Of course being that time of year again we "rolled" out the pumpkins and let the festivities begin!



The finished products-How proud they are!




Ok- on a different note- twilight fans I know you're just dying to find out-what Twilight Character are you?


Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Field trip

Kirk, William and I were able to go on a field trip with Mitchell and his first grade class.



This was our crazy group we were in charge of!

We first went to Thanksgiving point where a tour woman took us around and showed us the farm animals, went on a wagon ride and the kids got to plant seeds and had instruction how to care for them at home. We got to see a 2 day old foal and many other animals.



Above is a pygmy goat which we were told was the smelliest animal there and that little animal sure lived up to their words! I guess they have a "natural" odor to them!

The kids had a lot of fun. Below are some other fun pictures. Mitch's B-day is on Monday so I thought that picture would be fun along with the shaving sign. I probably should have been in that picture...





After we all ate our lunches outside there as it was a beautiful day we headed across the road to Cabela's. Now for those of you who have been there imagine 52 odd 1st graders basically being set loose there with nothing set to do. Are you as tired as we were just thinking about that? We were in charge of our 5 (with Will) and told "you have an hour, have fun". After counting and re-counting each one in our group every time we moved somewhere else Kirk and I were ready for a looong nap! And you would think it would have been easier with the 2 of us!



Inside Cabela's-one of the many displays.

Snow, snow snow!

We woke up today to a "winter wonderland" to which of course the kids promptly ran outside in their pajamas (and Will with flip-flops) to run and make the first footprints in the snow!

I guess we will see if this winter coming will be as snowy as last year. Luckily this past Friday we had new windows put in our house so we don't have our old condensation filled, drafty windows-I'm excited. The joys of living in an older house!

Happy Anniversary!

Friday October 3rd was our 12th wedding Anniversary. We decided for this anniversary to actually go away somewhere so although not out of Utah we ended up at a beautiful Bed and Breakfast called the Woodland Farmhouse Inn. It is near Kamas (which is close to Park City)in a little town called Woodland. We were there for 2 nights.



It was a house that is over 100 years old and used to be the Woodland post office at one time. It was beautifully refurbished close to original with many antiques that the owner had found out in the barns in the back. We basically were the only ones there with the whole house to ourself-it was quite peaceful. This picture below is a picture behind the house with the original barns (was a dairy farm at one point) and the owners house just off to the left. Although it rained most of the weekend it was beautiful with all of the colors of the leaves.




With our lives being so crazy it was great to get away and "recharge" but at the same time it is true that absence makes the heart grow fonder as for our children in this case. They of course had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Birch but I think we were all happy to be back home Sunday night.

This and That

Although I hate getting my picture taken during this "season" in life I figured I better put something on as I was informed by at least one person they haven't seen me in many years and wanted to see me. So here's Kirk and I " hanging out" on the couch.

Of course when the camera comes out the kids want to have their picture taken, so whats a mother to do?:)-Take their picture! This is the most normal one as they are always trying to make funny faces-It's exhausting trying to have them look "normal" :)

William is in preschool and learned about Johnny Appleseed today thus the "pot" on his head. Although he goes only 2 days a week he thinks he should be going every day.

Update

As to my post on the 16th about my "TV Debut" not showing on TV-well unfortunately I was wrong. A few days later I was at a grocery store where this cute lady from myold neighborhood saw me and said "Oh look there's the TV star!" I didn't know what she was referring to at first then I said Oh no-they didn't! And she assured me that yes indeed I was on TV.

Reflections

This definitely has been a week of reflecting on life and relationships in general. A week ago today a dear neighbor passed away after being sick for a long time. We were able to visit her in hospice last sunday to say goodbye and she passed away a few hours later. Her graveside service was yesterday which was beautiful and helped you to remember to enjoy life and those around you. Also yesterday was our nephews 18 surprise birthday party that afternoon-yes 2 quite different events in one day but this one reminded me how fast your children grow up and to enjoy each moment with them.

The one that I think made my own family and my siblings really realize how precious life is is what happened to my dad this past thursday. He had come home from work and climbed onto the roof to check on some work that a man was doing to their home and he started to come down on the ladder and we don't know if it slipped or what but he fell head first onto their side driveway. He became unconscious and of course with any head wound a lot of blood. My mom found him and thought he was dead at first. She called 911 and they brought him up to the local hospital but then brought him later to the new hospital in Salt Lake that had a trauma center. He had swelling and bleeding on the brain but it went down the next day. He did end up staying for 2 days in the hospital but we actually thought that was a safe place for him as he probably would go home and mow the lawn! He looks a little worse for the wear but all he got out of it was several set of stitches on his eyebrow/forehead and and a black eye-no broken bones, no permanent damage. As you can see from the picture above he's smiling (:)) and in good spirits.

As I say life is interesting and especially after this week I realize to enjoy everyday.

What is a name?

As most of you who are reading this you know that my real name is Bobbie Ann ( no middle name two separate words) and I have come to time in my life where I like my name ( Bobbie that is :)). Of course though there are still times that I feel cursed for having a "boys name". For example yesterday.

There is this new Legacy Parkway that opened up here in our county that has been a long time in the making and is supposed to help ease congestion on the freeway. It opened this weekend and along with it there are nice paved walk ways and you can look at nature etc. Well my friend Jenny and I walk a few times a week and we decided to meet at this particular spot to try out the new walkway. Will and I got there a little early so we parked and were trying to find the path when a local TV news reporter ( channel 5 KSL) shows up with a camera man and as I was the only person there they wanted to ask me some questions about the Parkway. So here I am, no makeup, hair not brushed in a county fair t-shirt finally have my "5-minutes of fame" but strongly hoping they dont' show it on TV.

The reporter asked me several questions about what I thought about it etc. and we were done and off I went to find Jenny who hadn't shown up yet. Later that night I got on-line and sure enough I got my wish and they cut my TV part but they quoted me in this article by saying "commuter Bobby Anderson..." First of all I wasn't commuting-I was standing there talking to the reporter about walking on the paths with my 4 yr old and secondly they spelled my name the "boy way" again. So as I go on reading the article says " He (referring to me) says... I start laughing and laughing realizing that no one will know who it really was that said that as they put my quote in there but as a man was saying it! (which by the way is fine with me!)

I love my mom dearly but sometimes I wish my name wasn't be so interchangeable with a little boys name!

Here we go!

Well, anyone who knows us knows that we seem to be one or two steps "behind the times" so here we are finally attempting to blog. It will be interesting to see how often this happens and what we have to say but with 3 (4 of course counting Kirk :)) crazy kids and life in general anything is bound to happen!