Jacob is so not surprised! ;)

Jacob and I have been working on finishing the basement. When Jacob was spray painting the basement, he painted the kitchenette the regular tan that went on all the other walls. Then we decided it would be fun to have the kitchenette and the bathroom be a different color. We chose a light peachy color for the kitchenette (don't worry I think it turned out good, plus it matches well with the hall paint), the bathroom is a dark green. I think it may be a little too dark for a basement, but Jacob insists it looks good. (Really, I just think he doesn't want to repaint it. ;) )

Yesterday Jacob painted the kitchenette while I painted the bathroom. Because the kitchenette had already been painted tan and the peach color is light it definitely needed a second coat of paint. Jacob planned on doing the second coat of paint today along with ward fellowshipping visits, home teaching, writing a paper for his masters program, and reading a hefty 30 page article for class. Oh and did I mention he gets home from work at about 6:30 pm. So poor guy, had his plate overloaded. So I thought I would help lighten the load for him.

So while Jacob was at work, I put on the second coat of paint in the kitchenette. I didn't tell Jacob because I wanted him to be surprised. When Jake got back from all his church stuff, I went along with him as he went downstairs to paint. I was waiting on the edge of my seat to hear his reaction. I had visions of him being so happy and feeling so lucky to have such a sweet thoughtful wife. However, I was a bit disappointed when I heard, "wow, I did a better job than I thought. I don't know if I need to do a second coat after all."

Needless, to say it was pretty anti-climatic when I had to tell Jacob that I already did the second coat of paint.

Aliece Graduates from Kindergarten

Today was a very big day for Aliece. This morning, shortly after school started, we were invited to the elementary school to attend the 2008 Kindergarten Graduation.

Aliece prepared all week for this momentous occasion. She knew exactly what dress she was going to wear. She wanted her hair in a braided pony tail. She wore a pearl-like necklace. Finally, she wanted to make sure that we were going to be there.

Aliece was so cute at the graduation. She would sit perfectly still and quiet - she knew that this was an important day! She had one struggle that she had to deal with throughout the entire 30 minute program, however. Her poor little graduation cap would not stay on her head with her hair in a braid. She would be sitting quietly only to turn her head and have her cap fall off. She dealt with it well through their performance - holding to her head when it would slip, or quickly picking it up and placing it on her head when it would fall off. Nonetheless, she kept her smile and loved every minute of the ceremony.

I have condensed the half hour program into the following small three minute video:

mowing sucsess

Yesterday I mowed the front, back and side!! Man, I was exausted!! But I still cant wait till next time!!
Love ya all!!
A's

Dreaming Big

Yesterday, Fin and Jace were dressed up on some baby Yankee garb that they received from Grandma & Grandpa Reed when they were first born. Amber, Michelle, and I snapped some pictures of them in their uniforms. It was funny trying to get both of them to smile while we were snapping pictures. One would be crying while the other one would be smiling big. Then, the roles would reverse. One would be happy and the other one would be distraught. We finally caught a few fun pictures.

The final picture here is of the two boys dreaming of their futures in Yankee Stadium.

Thai Cookoff

Yesterday, Amber and Michelle spent all afternoon in the kitchen. They invited one of our neighbors over who loves Thai food. Michelle acted as the cooking show host - assisting the others in chopping, mixing, and cooking up a huge variety of Thai cuisine.

By the time dinner rolled around, we all sat at a very full table of food. We all stuffed ourselves - the food was excellent.

We appreciated all the work Amber and Michelle went through to tantalize our tastebuds.

Aylee's Lawn Expertise Expands

Aylee asked if she could take on more of our lawn mowing needs at the house. For the past year, I have mowed the front yard and outlined the back yard getting it all prepped for her to do the straight, easier mowing.

She asked if I couldn't try her out on doing everything. We tried it out and she was able to do a really good job. She mowed around taller sprinkler heads and didn't run over any of Amber's plants.

The promotion also came with a pay increase (Aylee negotiated that part of the bargain early in our talks). She gets a $2.00 more every time she mows the lawn, and I get a mostly hands-off mowing experience!

Good Job Aylee!

Memorial Cakes

Amber and Michelle spent a good chunk of this morning in a cake decorating frenzy. Amber took advantage of Michelle's artistic talents and asked her to work with her on decorating a couple of cakes for the holiday today.

We experimented with some frosting colors and finally got what they wanted. They ended up doing one cake as an American Flag (which was the cake we ate tonight for FHE). The other cake was of a rocket hurtling through space.

Here are the finished products:

Challenges with Inventive Minds

I have often read about the trouble famous inventors caused when they were children. Their inquisitive minds often led them to dismantling household items often to the point of destruction. Lately, we have been experiencing many of the same challenges with our inventive son, Johnathan.

The other day, Aylee asked if she could take apart an old cell phone. I told her yes. Johnathan got excited seeing Aylee looking into the underbelly of the phone and it has been as if we unleashed a curious beast.

Later that day, while Aylee was dissecting her phone, I caught Johnathan with a screw driver starting to tear apart our doorbell. I explained to him that he needed to get permission on those types of things and that the doorbell was off limits.

Well, today, when I got out of the shower, I found the scattered remains of one of our Nintendo 64's rumble packs It is an attachment that makes the joystick shake when you get hit in the game. I queried Johnny and he said that he wanted to see how it worked. However, he took it apart to the point that it would have taken me a long time to figure out how to get it all back together - including soldering wires to the right spot.

We had another talk and I hope he understands that he just can't dissect anything that looks cool to him. I hope this conversation sticks a little bit better than the last!

Gut Wrenching Thought

The other night, Amber went into Aliece and Alayna's room after bedtime. She found Alayna, standing in her window sill of her second story bedroom. The window was wide open and she was leaning against the screen to get a better view of the neighborhood. Had the screen popped out of the window, Alayna most certainly would have tumbled the two stories only to land on our cement patio.

I couldn't sleep with visions of seeing Alayna falling through that window. The very next day I looked for a window lock and installed it on their bedroom window so that it will only open up a few inches.

Man! The things kids think up that adults are oblivious to!

7 Miler with the Kids

Last night, Amber, Michelle and I watched National Treasure 2 - The Book of Secrets. It was pretty great. The movie needed to be returned today, so after a bunch of chores and work in the yard, Aylee, Johnathan, and I hopped on our bikes and made the seven mile round trip to the nearby Macey's Grocery store to return the DVD.



The bike ride went very well. I think it is the farthest that I have taken either one of the kids (though Aylee may have gone farther with someone else - not sure). Johnathan's seat is going to need to be raised some more - that kid just keeps growing. We made the trip in a half an hour each way. I was worried how the kids would do in the narrow tunnels underneath bridges and freeways, but they did remarkably well. They are setting themselves up for some more biking adventures if they keep this up.



Once at Macey's Grocery store, we went to the deli and ordered small ice cream cones. The cones were massive for a 51 cent small order, but they were good. We sat for about 20 minutes licking our ice cream and chatting.

It sure was a fun way to return our rented DVD.

Two Little Buddies

On Wednesday of this week, Michelle Reed (Reed's wife) and their son, Fin (Verne Franklin Reed III) flew down to Provo to stay with us for a while. We've had a great time visiting and watching Fin and Jace interact and play together.



Both Jace and Fin are just two months apart. Those two months however, still put them at different levels of physical capabilities. The fin crawls like a maniac. If he can get anywhere fast. Not only that, but he is also cruising along furniture. He will easily pull himself up to a bench or a couch and walk along it. Jace, however, is still working on the crawling aspect. He gets himself into a crawling position all the time. He knows that there is something that he supposed to do to start moving. He will rock back and forth trying to get those legs and arms to work together. He'll often get a few inches and then revert back to scooting or rolling around to get what he wants to get.



Amber went to the store and bought a child gate. After seeing how quickly fan can crawl around the house, we thought it might be nice to have a gate to block off certain portions of the house to keep him and Jace compartmentalized. We know that within just a month or two you will be Jace that we need to keep behind that gate, so was a worthwhile purchase.



Jace is not the only person learning new things from his cousin. From this picture, we see that Jace is teaching Fin how to operate a standard desktop computer.



All of this playing and sharing of information is hard work. Here is Jace and Fin having a coffee break after a long hard day of play.

May Snow?

When we purchased our house a couple of years ago, we were very excited about all the trees in the front yard. Little did we know, however, that one of the byproducts of these trees was a plague of cotton in the month of May. I guess these trees were not quite that simple Quaken Aspen variety that I grew up with in the nearby hills of Arbon Valley. These trees have a strain of cottonwood in them.

During the beginning or middle of May, Cotton begins to fill the air. It is hard to walk outside and not get caught and particles in your nose and in your lungs. It does wonders for the allergies. Another problem with the cotton is that if you leave the door open to the house for any small duration of time, the airborne cotton loves to make its way into the house onto the floor and carpet. It is always a mess to clean up. If you walk in it it will cling to your shoes and then when you walk on the carpet it sticks to the carpet.

Last Sunday I took this picture of the cotton in our yard. The blanket of cotton looked just like a new fresh blanket of snow. I try to rake it up earlier this week. However, it's very hard to rake cotton. It tends to ball up and stay in the grass rather than gather on your rake.

On Tuesday night, however, we had a Pacific storm rolling in. Part of that storm was high gusts of wind during the night. Ever since that windstorm, we have not seen any more cotton flying in the air. I am hoping that the wind has blown away any leftover cotton blossoms on our trees. Luckily, the cotton season only lasts a week to 10 days. Other than that we still get to enjoy the shade of the trees provide in front of our home. I guess there will always be trade-offs between the plants we love and their byproducts that they produce.

Everyone Has an Office

The other day I came home from work to find my house full of makeshift offices for each other the three oldest children. I guess they have all already chosen their careers for their lives.



Aliece had moved all the kitchen barstools around into a makeshift desk. Upon the desk she had various tends, pencils, papers, and let us not forget if you small vases of flowers. She was busy illustrating pages in a book that she had stapled together. With the pictures in her book, she was also creating a very skillful story. The book was actually very well done. It is one of those books that Amber plans on saving for lease to look at years from now.



Aylee's desk was at the piano. She was sitting in a plastic chair and was using the piano bench as her desk. She had a plastic Lego case but was serving as her laptop. She had some advertisements telling people that if they had problems they could come to her at the FBI. She was available for consultations to help crack codes or solve problems.



John had his office in his bedroom on the floor in front of his large plastic Lego container. Of course, John was doing what he does best -- -- building things. He is already convinced that he is going to be a builder or an inventor when he grows up. That boy is always experimenting and inventing things. He is simply amazing.

Final Amelia Earhart Choir Performance

This is the time of year when nearly every day our kids have some sort of performance, field trip, graduation ceremony. Last week, the Amelia Earhart choir made its last performance for 2008. For our family, this is the last performance that we will have with the choir and due to the new school being built in our neighborhood.

Amber played beautifully for the choir and the kids his voices sounded supreme. I sat in the audience with Aliece and Alayna and Jace. Our little kids did very well sitting still and listening to the performance. Aliece, of course, was very excited about the whole performance. I didn't even know that she had the skill, but while the kids were singing Alyce could hardly contain her excitement. She put her fingers up to her lips and started to whistle for the kids. I looked over at her. It was funny to see this little six year old putting her fingers in her mouth and whistling with excitement. I tried to explain to her that she needed to stop whistling. She said, well can I've whistle after the song is over? I then explained to her that whistling at a choir concert was not appropriate ever. It was so funny to see her get so excited over the performance.

The choir teacher was very emotional over the performance. She will be losing about two thirds of the choir with the new school. Not only that, but she will also be losing her star piano players. Amber and her friend Rebecca have been playing for the choir for the last few years while their kids have been in the choir. It will be interesting to see if our new school will have a choir or not.

"Flipping" Out

A few weeks ago, Johnathan and Aylee had an end-of-class gymnastics performance for all of the parents. The Provo Parks and Recreation hosted several gymnastics classes over the spring. Aylee and John both participated and enjoyed learning some of the basics of gymnastics.

I made a video of segments of their performance for your viewing pleasure. If you cannot see the video below, click HERE.

Disneyworld Welcomes Amber - Congrats!

If you all go to the fitness site: http://andersenranch.abilityweb.us/fitness.php you will notice that Amber is the first one of the group to finish the Andersen Spring Fitness Challenge by making it to Disney World in Florida! Along the way Amber has shed a ton of pounds as well as several inches. Congrats to Amber for her arrival!

Hiking the Y

I started up my last class this weekend. To the kids, this meant that on Saturday I would get to rip off a chain that is the countdown until I finish my MBA. Every link I pull off on Saturday afternoon after class represents one more weekend down. The link I tear off has an activity written on it along with a countdown. This one said "Hiking the Y" and "4 more Weekends!" I was excited about the "four more weekends" and the kids were excited about the hiking.

Amber had prepared some gear, along with borrowing a hiking backpack baby carrier. I grabbed a GPS and some hiking shoes and away we went. Jace did very well nestled in the backpack carried which I wore during the hike.



We had a great time starting up the mountain. During the hike we probably passed some 50 other people making the ascent or just coming down from the hike. We passed two sets of people that we knew from our neighborhood that had moved out in previous years. One of them was a webelos leader in his new ward and he had a handful of cub scouts with him. The other was a family that moved out three or four years ago. We were lucky to meet up with them because they were moving to Denver in a week to start a new job. It is pretty fun to see who you can meet when you hike the Y!


On one of the 14 marker posts up the mountain, we stopped and grabbed a photo of our family on the trail. The view of Provo was already starting to look pretty impressive. The weather was perfect for a hike and the kids were energetic!



As we neared the trail split where you decide if you hike will end at the bottom of the Y or at the top of the Y, we asked the kids which end they wanted to take. They all were enthusiastic about going to the top of the Y, so we altered course and headed up the higher trail.

Aliece was full of energy and ran on up ahead of all of us. She was the first one to make it to the top. She was pretty proud that she was the first one.



Once at the top we had a brief snack, chatted, and then called Jen to sing happy birthday and let her know where we were at (Jen has made this hike with us several times when she lived in Provo). We also had a girl take a picture of our family sitting at the top.

I had my GPS with me and had tracked the hike. Here are the stats for going up to the Y: We had climbed 1,100 feet in just over one hour of our adventure. Of that hour, we were moving 40 minutes of the time and stopped for pictures and breaks for 20 minutes. Our moving average was 1.7 miles per hour. Our walking distance was nearly exactly a mile.

On our way down, we stopped at a geocache that was located near the top of the Y. We let the kids take a look at it, but we didn't have anything to trade, so we just put it back. As we neared the trail split where we had originally turned to go to the upper part of the Y, Aliece pleaded that we take the other trail and visit the bottom of the Y. After much persuasion, we all agreed and made that short trek.

After visiting the bottom of the Y, we headed back down to the van. On our way down, we stopped and took a picture for a family that had eight children. Their oldest was 11 years old. They had a lot of very young kids. It was pretty cool to see a family that size doing the activity together. They explained to us that they made it a ritual every year.

Near the end of our trip, I continued to carry Jace in the back carrier. He had been very quiet and content the entire time. As we were walking Amber stopped and asked the kids to be quiet to see if they heard something. The mountain was quiet as we all listened. While we were listening I heard a faint hiss. I thought that was what Amber was pointing our attention to. I listened again and the hiss was a little louder. Amber asked, "What is that?" Again, I thought she was talking about the hissing sound. I listened more intently wondering if it were a snake, or an upset badger. All of the sudden the hiss was even louder, but this time it seemed to be right behind me. Suprised, I yelled and started running (I was behind everyone) and yelling "let's go!" Amber and the kids just looked at me with confusion. I stopped and said, "didn't you hear the hissing?" They had no clue what I was talking about. I asked Amber what she was listening to and she said, "it is the Carrillon Bells at BYU - they are playing a song". Then I realized what I had heard, and why no one else had heard it. Jace, who was riding on my back had has head propped in a position where his breathing was up against his blanket right behind my neck. The hissing sound I heard was Jace breathing with a snotty nose through his blanket. We all had a good laugh about it.

Caught by the Bishop

Last Saturday Jake and I attended the closing social of the BYU singles ward that we are now in. We played human Fooseball (sp?) and ate some good food. It was a lot of fun. To play human fooseball all players hold onto a pvc pipe in a line. Then set it up like it would be on a real fooseball table. One row is one team the next row must be players from the other team, etc. Middle rows have about five players on a pipe while the last defensive line near the goal has only three players. Then comes the goalie who does not have a pipe. Players cannot let go of the pipe to get the ball. It is really quite comical to see one person on the end of the pipe try to go for the ball and yank the rest of the players hanging onto the pipe along. We played with 2 big soft bouncy balls so no one would get hurt, as players are actually quite close to each other.

Anyways, Jake gave up his spot playing fooseball to give me a chance at it. I was having a great time. Meanwhile the food came out and some of the people started eating. Not having anything else to do, Jake joined the food line. Meanwhile I am still having the time of my life playing fooseball. Jake looks around for a place to sit and every table has about three girls sitting at it. (This ward really is about 3 girls for every guy). Of course Jake doesn't want to be antisocial and sit by himself. He also doesn't want to make the girls feel like poison by studiously avoiding them. So he sits down at a table of about 3 girls. Meanwhile I am still oblivious to the situation and continue playing. Before Jake knows it the rest of the table fills up with girls and he is now surrounded with a bevy of single girls and his wife is nowhere to be seen. Jake was already feeling a bit awkward when the Bishop comes up and asks Jake if we (Jake and I) always eat separately. Busted! The worst thing is Jake was completely innocent. Should he have sat down by himself? I guess I am going to have to be more aware of how things look. I hate that!

The snake that haunts the Y

We hiked the Y yesterday and when we where coming down, mom said, " Shhhhh. I here something. " All of the sudden dad started panicking. Then he said, "What! Huh! Oh." He said that
he had heard a hissing sound over by us. Then he heard it right next to him! Thats when he started panicking! He said that then he realized it was just Jace. When he was panicking we all started laughing because we new that there wasn't anything there.
Well, got to go before dad peaks over my story and deletes it. :)

I'll get back with you soon!
A's

Spy club

On Wensday, I went to my friends house. There was another girl coming over too. Her name was Kasidy. We made up a spy club and awsome fort! Carmen and Junnie are our masters we are soposed to fight Dr. Doom. Our mission was to sneak up Honey Chex cereal. When they took a handful to eat I refused. They thought it was a good idea. So now we sneak stuff up and take it to our fort and then we put it back. I can't wait till next time.

More Bike Woes

When I got back from Branding on Saturday night, my neighbor across the street was outside and called me over. He told me that on Saturday morning early at 1:05 am he came out of his house and there were some guys standing around my bike messing with the wiring. He yelled at them and then called the cops. He told me that he was an ex law enforcement worker. He chewed me out for not locking the handlebars. I didn't tell him that the wheel lock no longer works from when it got stolen last. So yesterday between finals and studying, I bought some chain and a lock and locked it up last night.

Family-- Branding

In reference to the branding video, this is why we still have the cows. Every year I begin to wonder if we should sell them but days like Saturday make it all worth the work and frustrations.
Dad

Branding 2008

We had a great, albeit a quick, weekend in Arbon. Thanks to Mom and Dad for working around (and with) the bedroom remodel project, and all the people. It was once again a great experience.

Thanks to everyone that pitched in with the painting project - especially Jen and Amber for all your planning and work throughout it all.

I created a quick video last night for our kids that was mostly just a compilation of the pictures I got from Troy and Jen & Dave. I also threw in some of the video clips from people too.

It is nothing fancy or artsy like Joe does, but I thought you would all like to see them.

For those of you reading this in email, you can click the following link instead of watching it directly HERE.

My lucky guess

I was playing Guess Who with Nae. Almost every time she would have one guy left and I would have three. I would take a daring and she would throw down her card meaning I had won!
Well bye!
A's

Aylee Performs

Last night Aylee's piano teacher held a Piano recital at a neighboring church.

This first video is of Aylee's first of three pieces.
(If you can't see the video, click here.)


This second video is of Aylee and Amber's duet together.
(If you can't see the video, click here.)


Aylee did a terrific job. It is fun to see her get so good at playing the piano!