October - Now

I thought I would post a couple of pictures updating life here in Modesto. I have now started to get at least one day a week off and even sometimes 2 days off. I have really been taking advantage of it and doing small overnight trips to all the really beautiful destinations here in Northern California. I have visited the northern coast on Hwy 1, it is really awesome up there. Also visited Monterey (my favorite), Carmel, Salinas, Watsonville (where all the raspberries and strawberries come from), San Fracnisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz (one of my favorites), Reno, NV, Lake Tahoe, Hollister, Gilroy (garlic capitol of the world) and the Napa Valley. All very neat places to visit and all within a couple of hours from Modesto.
Being a big fan of christmas and the season, when I got back and settled in from Thanksgiving, I went out and got my christmas tree. I had to really haggle with the old redneck coot that was selling the trees. I finally got it for $35 although his initial price was $60. I reminded him that the local grocery stores were selling trees for $20 although they weren't as nice.
Today my cord of Almond wood was delivered so I spent some time stacking it. A cord of wood is a lot more than I realized and it took me a couple of hours to move it and stack it. Now I have a roaring fire in the fireplace.

Aylee Wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving

Or Click HERE.

John Wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving

Or Click HERE.

Aliece Wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving

Or Click HERE.

Alayna Wishes You a Happy Thanksgiving

Or Click HERE.

PVC Pipe Guns

The other day I checked out a cool book from the library. It is a comic book that has a simple chapter story. At the end of each story, it teaches you how to make the thing the story was talking about.

The favorite chapter in the book was about a PVC Pipe Marshmallow gun.



The kids have been bugging me all week to help them make this gun. While Mom and Dad were down for Thanksgiving, they showed the comic to him. Being the congenial grandpa that Dad is, he told the kids he would help them build their PVC Pipe Guns. On Friday we went to Home Depot and got all of the PVC connectors and pipe necessary.

Dad spent the next hour with the kids assembling their guns and gluing them. When they were good enough to test, the kids were thrilled to see how far their marshmallows would fly and, much to Amber's chagrin, how hard they can hit.



Needless to say the kids are wearing some huge smiles while Amber has banned mini-marshmallows from the house :-)

Happy Thanksgiving

For thanksgiving we had all of the Andersen Family in Utah. We all worked together to make the thanksgiving feast. Everyone made something and we were able to all sit in the same room and enjoy the culinary delights of the day.

We were excited that Jen, Dave, and Chloe were able to make it despite the health problems Jen suffered earlier this week. Jen was in good spirits and hardly acted like anything had been wrong.



Our kids were excited to see their cousin as well as their aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

Johnathan Performs at Thanksgiving Program

Johnathan and his grade-mates at the school performed an awesome thanksgiving program for all of the parents. The boys and girls all dressed up in cute little Native-American costumes and sang thanksgiving songs for all of the parents.

After the program there was a huge feast of parent-delivered cookies, crackers, pies, etc. We had a great time!

Watch out for Elf-Yourself e-cards

==== I wrote the following post in generic form because I'm going to paste it on my technology blog also ====

On Saturday, I had received an email-advertisement for an online e-card generator hosted by jibjab.com. It is a holiday ecard named "elf-yourself". You upload photos of you and family and friends. You then stick your uploaded faces onto their website and they transfer them to a bunch of dancing elves. You can select the type of dance that the elves perform. In the background there is a holiday jingle to wish your recipient a happy Christmas.

After I successfully made the ecard, I showed it to my children. My 10-year-old daughter wanted to make one of her own. I helped her load the pictures onto the computer and she skillfully cropped the faces so they fit well on the elves. She was so proud of her newly created e-card that she posted it on our family blog.

When I first watched her e-card it was very cute and I told her she did a good job. Later that day, she tried to show the card to one of her friends. However, we found that the e-card would not load properly. It almost appeared as if the e-card had expired.

The next day I received an e-mail as well as a comment from that blog post. People were upset by the content of the e-card. I loaded the blog post up into my browser and sure enough I found the content of the card to be different than what my daughter had originally created. In fact, it was somewhat obscene. It was definitely inappropriate for a 10-year-old girl as well as all of her friends that she sent a card to. In the place of her card, was a Valentines Day greeting -- a striptease that someone else had created in jest for a friend.

Somehow, the unique key associated with my daughter's card expired early (within the day) and someone else's card took the newly available key. Thus, the card that we intended to share with everyone else no longer existed -- instead they would receive a card that was definitely inappropriate and offensive.

Luckily, jibjab.com allows you to purchase your flash file (e-card) for about four dollars. This way you can ensure that the card you made is going to be the card that your recipients receive. I am not angry at jibjab.com for this mixup - I am sure was just a random technological foul-up. But it has taught me a lesson -- as long as your information is hosted by someone else, on someone else's server, you can never truly be sure of it's presented result.

So, don't thow out the paper greeting cards just yet -- ecards may look fancy and fun, but you just never know what your recipient will end up seeing!

A visit from the Boswells

We had a great visit from the Boswell family who have been living in Coppell Texas. We have known the Boswell's since our college days at BYU. We have gotten together sporadically throughout the years and we have a great time on every occasion. They were heading up to Park city for the week to spend time with family at a timeshare. They stayed the night last night and for the first part of the day today.

Of course Amber and I had a great time visiting and catching up with Scott and Erin. If we thought we were having fun reminiscing and visiting, it would be nothing compared to the excitement and animation that our children expressed during that time. Erin and Scott have four children. The four children that they have are all within just a few months of the age of four of our kids. Johnathan is the only one without a matching partner in crime. That didn't stop him though, as he was right in the middle of the thick of things. It was crazy, and it was fun. It was very relaxing to be able to visit with a family with a similar number of children so that we did not have to apologize all the time for the noise in the racket being made by the little ones all about us.

Aylee and Megan worked on a fun chopsticks duet while they were here and we took a video of them performing. It was a lot of fun. The kids had fun playing and running and visiting. Of course, when it was time to go, our kids were pleading for them to stay -- even asking them to come and live with us!

Reflections Awards

Today was the reflections awards ceremony for the kids at school. Aylee, Johnathan, and Aliece all contributed and submitted items to be contest.

Aylee got a trophy and two ribbons. She got a trophy for a piece of literature that she wrote. Her ribbons were from a computer drawing she made of a soldier and a photograph she took of a sunset.


Johnathan submitted one item this year. He received a ribbon for his item -- a photograph of one of the marigolds in our garden.


Aliece was excited to get her very first trophy from the reflections competition. She won her trophy for her single item -- a photograph of a chicken that she took during a field trip for school.

The kids were excited about their prizes when we were excited to be there to watch them received their awards.

Classroom Behavior Monitoring Form

Amber and Aliece's teacher have been working on ways to help Aliece focus more in class and be more obedient.  The teacher has been implementing some techniques we use at home with Aliece, and we have been trying to implement some of the techniques she uses in her classroom.

One such technique that the teacher is using is that she gives Aliece a Classroom Monitoring Behavior Form each and every day.  The form has three sections:  Morning, Lunchtime, and Afternoon.  Each section has a frowny face and a smiley face.

The teacher circles the appropriate face for each section of the day and then sends it home with Aliece.  The bottom of the form has some comments.

Aliece's behavior has greatly improved with this system and it gives us a chance to follow up with her at the end of the day.

Last week, Aliece got two smiley faces and one frowny face.  The comments said that she was really good except that after lunch she kept pulling a sucker out of her pocket and licking it throughout class - even after being told to put it away.

We talked to Aliece and told her she is not to bring candy to the classroom.

Today, we got a form home with another two smileys and one frown.  The note today:  "Now instead of candy, she is eating toothpaste".

Sure enough, there was a half tube of the personal (travel) size of kid's toothpaste in her pocket.

I am not sure if the teacher was laughing as she wrote her comment or frustrated.  Either way, we got a kick out of it.  We are definitely going to be on our toes with this one for many years to come!

Toughen Up Kid!

Amber has been riding bikes with the kids to and from school each day.  She has a jogging stroller that she is able to pull Jace and Alayna with.

Anyway, Amber has been reporting to me that Johnathan has been the slowest one on his bike.  They all ride to school and Johnny is way in the back.  He acts like he just has no energy.

We have been getting on his case telling him that he can ride faster than his sisters.  We are always telling him to hussle up.

Well, tonight, Amber asked me to check out his bike.  She watched Johnathan today and she said either he is really out of shape or something is wrong with his bike.

After dinner tonight I hopped onto John's bike and and rode it around.  Oh, man.  The thing was hard to pedal.  It just would pedal very quickly.  Plus his pedals are now warped and bent a bit so that during the pedal motion they bend here and there and it is hard to keep your feet on them.

I played around with it and pulled some plastic netting out of the bearings on his rear wheel.  There was a good 10 inches of it in there.  I hopped back on and voila!  it was much easier to pedal.

We still have the issues of the pedals bending wierdly, but this should really help him. 

Now I feel badly that we have been giving him such a hard time!

I'm Not Done!

I had a four hour commitment at the church this evening. Amber was home with the kids starting at 4 PM. She made the most of it and baked some yummy lemon squares. While she was making the lemon squares, our backyard neighbor could be seen in her kitchen window making something in their kitchen. She must have noticed Amber doing some cooking because she called a little bit later asking what Amber had been making. After Amber explained, our neighbor told her that she had made some pumpkin cookies. They both decided to swap half of their desserts so that instead of one dessert we could all enjoy to desserts.

Jace had been eating in his high chair. After he was done eating, Amber presented him with a pumpkin cookie thinking that he might like it. She was very right, indeed! Jace devoured that pumpkin cookie. When he finished, he made a loud yelling sound that appeared to be, "I'm not done!"

Aylee looked at Amber and they both asked each other at the same time if Jace really said those very words. His cookie was gone, he had eaten it so quickly. So, Amber took his tray off of the high chair and put him down onto the floor. He freaked out, screamed, and beat his hands on the floor as he continued to throw himself prostrate on the ground. Amber and Aylee decided that Jace had indeed spoken those words. Whether they were those words specifically or not it sure sounded like it and his reaction made it appear as if he meant it!

Surprise Visitor

For church today I had taken Jace to the Spanish branch. Amber took the rest of the kids to our home Ward. This is our standard procedure on Sundays. During Sunday school I had about 15 minutes to run home and create a flyer in Spanish regarding some service opportunities that the church has requested that our stake perform over the next couple of weeks.

I didn't have much time so I raced into the house with Jace. I set him on the floor and told him to go play and then I ran into the office and started typing up the Spanish flyer. While I was typing I heard loud banging noises from what sounded like upstairs. I first wondered if Jace had made it upstairs so quickly. I know that he has the ability to do so at that speed, however, the noises were so loud I couldn't imagine that Jace could be making them.

I quietly stepped out of the office and found Jace in the entryway near the play closet. I stood there and watched him play for a few minutes to see what in the world he was doing because so much noise. After just a few seconds I heard the sound again. Two things concerned me, it was not from Jace, and it was coming from upstairs.

With the fight or flight instincts taking over, I had a long debate in my mind that only really lasted a second or two. The question was what do I do with Jace versus what do I do to find out who was in our house. While I stood there trying to figure out the best course of action a head popped out into view up the stairs. I jumped about 2 feet high and then realized that it was Aylee's head that I was seeing.

Apparently, Aylee got sick during church (said she didn't feel well) and went home to rest. She had heard Jace and I return home and make noise. So, she thought she would trick us -- and she surely did!

Classy McDonalds?

Saturday was the dedicated day for my monthly date with Aliece and Alayna. Sometimes I do their daddy dates together when they want to do the same activity. One of their favorite activities for a daddy date is to go to McDonald's to eat hamburgers and play in the play area.

Recently, our local McDonald's was closed down for a couple of months while they did some remodeling. They really have spruced up the place with the remodel. In fact, when you walk into the McDonald's, it appears that you walked into a Starbucks or some other trendy little hip restaurant. There are curved partitions, high leg tables and chairs, and even a glass wall with the McDonald's logo on it with a waterfall flowing on both sides of the glass.

Even the play area was remodeled to give you the sense that there is more playspace even though they didn't enlarge the area at all.

When asking the girls what they wanted to order, they both replied that they wanted six cheeseburgers each. Being the wise parent that I am I told them that I would order one a piece and if they wanted more I would buy them more. Of course, Alayna only the bun portion of her first hamburger, and Aliece completed one cheeseburger. After their handful of fries, they were full and ready to go play on the play area.

I was really surprised by the trendy look that the new McDonald's has. They really have worked hard to change their perception of being a kid place to a place for adults and business people to grab a cup of coffee, and read their paper. I guess we'll see how it goes!

John's Challenging Sweeping Job

We were hurrying last night to get our kids to the babysitter in order for Amber and I to go to a high priest's social. We didn't have much time between when I arrived home and when we needed to leave to drop the kids off. We quickly made them some food and let them eat it. It was getting time to go and so I ushered in all the kids to hurry up and get into the van. Johnathan still needed to do his sweeping chore.

Stressed, and trying to hurry in order to get his chore done before we left, Johnathan grabbed the little sweep vacuum that we have and hurried to get it set up. In the process, the vacuum fell onto the laundry room tile and the compartment containing all of the dust and debris from previous sweeping episodes came undone -- dirt, dried food, paper, and everything else went flying all over the floor.



Seeing the mess, I hurriedly told Johnathan that he had better get out the broom and do it by hand that way. I continued to load kids into the van and I heard Johnathan exclaim in despair and fear. I went over to him to find the in his haste he tried to grab the broom that had fallen behind the refrigerator in the garage and used his weight as a leverage to pry it out from behind the appliance.



The result of his efforts yielded a broom with a severely bent handle. He was trying to straighten it as I got there. Seeing as I gave a talk on patience on Sunday in church, I decided I had better not fly off the handle (no pun intended). So I told him to just go ahead and sweep with the bent handle the best he could. In the end we had to leave before he could get the job done. We rushed out of the house leaving a pile of dirt scattered around the broken vacuum, a bent broom in the middle of the kitchen floor, and the remains of Hawaiian haystacks from dinner decorating the dining room area.

Everyone survived, and believe it or not we let the mess stay overnight. First thing this morning it got cleaned up and no one was hurt in the process.

The church ground

The other day, I was working on the fence around the project ground and Kevin Garn ( The guy that bought Gail Wood's place) stopped and visited a while. He said he was still interested in the ground and would put a pencil to it to see how many cows he could run on it. We didn't talk price though. However, he is still interested. Maybe something will come of it.
Wednesday, Cody Evans installed the pump and controls.
Today, Roy Fowler from the NRCS came out to inspect the project. He was impressed and said he would get in touch with me later next week. He said they might not be able to pay on the water part until we actually had the system up and running but the fence should be finalized. We may be able to still get the money on the water too where they already paid for the pipeline. We'll know maybe next week.

If it all passes, we will have it all done. I asked about not having the perimeter fence done and he said it wasn't a problem since they don't pay on it anyway.

Happy Veterans Day

The fifth grade classes at the elementary school hosted a patriotic tribute on Veterans' Day. Aylee participated in the event. She both sang and had a recitation part in the program. Aylee and her class did a tremendous job.

They had all of the veterans stand up and be recognized at the beginning of the event. It was touching to see those who have served our country.

Caching - Big Van Style

Saturday ended up being a fun day for us. We started off the morning by raking leaves and doing some other yard work. I had some wiring problems under the ground that led to my flagpole. I worked on finding those issues and repairing them as well as enhancing the covers for the different electrical connections under the ground for the flagpole and for the pond.

Aliece and Alayna had a piñata movie party at one of their former primary teachers homes. During that time Amber and I took the kids to the library. Aylee and Johnathan needed to find some new books that were more challenging. Amber and I are going to start a little book club with the kids in order to challenge them to read more difficult books. After the library, we went to Kmart and bought some real bottles of pop. Those are going to serve as our prizes for kids the finish their larger chapter books.



Once the girls got back from their party, we decided that we would spend some time geo-caching as a family. We have been playing with the idea of purchasing a larger Van for a time when our family will need it. We had some neighbors that have a larger 11 passenger van. They let us borrow it so that we could take it around town and use of geo-caching just to see how I felt and to see if it was too big for us to manage easily. It is definitely not a minivan. However, I think we could probably get used to the idea of driving a larger Van around when we'll have to.

After finding about three geo-caches and swapping toys and other knickknacks, we topped off the evening spending some quality time at the Golden corral restaurant. We all stuffed our faces greatly, and had a good time.

The Last Days

A co-worker told me a story yesterday about his 14 year old daughter. It was funny enough that it kept me laughing the remainder of the day. Hopefully it will do the same for you.

"My daughter came to me last night and was distraught. She had tears rolling down her face as she declared, 'Dad, we are in so much trouble.' I asked her why. 'Dad, the scriptures say that in the last days there will be abominations (Obama-nations) .'"

He tried to console his daughter but, she was dead set on it and just kept saying, "No, dad really! We are in so much trouble!"

Well, people I guess we know for a fact that these are the last days! :) I thought it was hilarious!!!

President-Elect O-Bomb-A

At dinner on Wednesday, after the presidential election, I was discussing the election results with our kids. Amber and I were asking them what kids at school were saying, etc. Aylee told us, "Well, I wasn't surprised when I heard the Obama won early this morning."

Alayna retorted in her four-year-old Amelia-Bedilia style understanding, "I didn't hear A BOMB go off this morning, I was still sleeping!"

Amber and I laughed our heads off as we realized that when we were talking about Obama, Alayna was thinking we were saying 'A Bomb'.

Hopefully her innocent mix-up is not an omen!

Why I like to vote in Utah

As I was preparing to vote intelligently this week, I was reviewing the voter guide that came into the mail a few weeks ago. When I got to the Governor's race, I came across the following Libertarian candidate. Oh, I just love voting in Utah!


SUPERDELL Dell Schanze for Governor

Text from the Voter Guide:

Qualifications: "SUPERDELL is your only choice because YOU didn't file. Huntsman took away your freedoms and raised taxes more than any governor in the history of Utah. Springmeyer has admitted that he doesn't care about the constitution. The definition of the word insane is voting for the same people while expecting change.

There is not question that Dell Schanze is different. There are only 3 people on the ballot and SUPERDELL is the only one that is NOT socialist. If you are unsure then fill your heart with love, completely open your mind and pray to God earnestly. You can't afford to get this wrong and will be held accountable for your choice."

Happy 35th Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Amber and I wanted to take a minute and wish Mom and Dad a very Happy Anniversary. 35 years!! We have all been blessed by your marriage and your lives together. Thank you for being an example to all of us.

I know that our kids will be well off if we can be the kind of parents you have been to us.

Have a great anniversary!


Click HERE if you can't see the full card below.

A Happy Andersen Halloween

We had a great halloween this year. Amber ran herself ragged between school halloween activities, Novell activities, and neighborhood trick or treating. The kids had a blast though, and of course, nabbed a lot of candy!

John Jr. - "Jack Alien" (One of his invented superheroes)

John Sr. - Elvis

Jace - Cowboy

Aylee - Mulan

Amber - Wicked Witch

Aliece - Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty)

Alayna - Snow White

About the time we finished our Trick or Treating, Adee and Adam arrived. We are excited to have them spend the weekend with us!

I'll be home next weekend

Hey, just wanted to let you all know that I will be in Arbon on the 8th and 9th of November, next weekend. I have a 3 day weekend so I thought I would head up there. I would love to see anybody that would like to be in Arbon over the weekend (siblings, spouses and families) but I know we will all be together over Thanksgiving.
I am really looking forward to spending time together over Thanksgiving. Miss you all.

Joe

BYU Alumni Networking Event

I was invited to represent Novell at a recent BYU alumni networking dinner. The purpose of the event was to help students network with experienced professionals to talk about their career paths and the importance of networking in their professional lives.

The event started out with some hors d'oeuvres and uncoordinated mingling. I was able to meet quite a few students and visit with them about their career goals and aspirations. I also met the coordinator for career placement for the technical majors at BYU. We talked about some possibilities of getting Novell some exposure with BYU students. I am really excited to work on improving our relationship and letting the students know of the opportunities and technologies that are available at Novell.

After the mingling was over, we were ushered into a banquet hall at the Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni building where we sat at tables and visited with students that were assigned to our table. I met a lot of talented and exceptional young people who are going to be leaders in their chosen profession.

I was honored to be selected to attend this event. It is always a wonderful thing for me to associate with college students -- especially those from my alma mater.

Raking Leaves

Tonight we donned the rakes and employed the shopvac for blowing power and we start gathering all of our leaves in the front yard. The kids have been dying to have a leaf pile to jump and play in.

Amber waa heading to the temple. However, the kids were having so much fun raking, she decided to stick around and join in the fray. The kids had a blast -- Amber and I had a fun time too.

We still have plenty of leaves on some of our trees, so I imagine this was just part I of our raking activities this fall!

FHE at the Food Bank

The other day I was doing some research on the Utah County food Bank. I discovered on their website that they have a weekly family home evening and night at the food bank for families. They accept children of all ages. You just have to sign up and get an available spot.

A couple of weeks ago I signed up our family to attend this family home evening. The kids did a great job there! They were definitely our children in the way answered nearly every question that was asked and they were energetic in their participation during the evenings activities.

We had a fun little 15 minute lesson that was followed by a tour of the food bank. We then ended the evening by doing a little service project where we made little Christmas stockings that will be filled with candy and given to some pf the children of the patrons of the food bank.



It was a fun experience for our children to be able to see how the community assists those in need. I hope that it will help make a difference in their attitude towards the things they take for granted and the blessings that we have in our life. I hope my children will always be generous and lookout for those that struggle.

As the Bible says, this is pure religion.

Pumpkin Carving Lunch

Today during lunch we carved pumpkins in preparation for Halloween this weekend. Each of the kids played a major role in the design of their jack-o'-lantern. We had fun sitting around the table talking, drawing, and cutting away at our individual pumpkins.

Karina's Baptism

Sunday evening was the baptism of Aylee's friend, Karina. Karina is the young woman Aylee invited to hear the missionary discussions. Earlier in the year our family prayed for some names that we would focus on during the year for missionary work. Karina was the name of the person Aylee had felt good about. She has been taking a missionary discussions for the past two months. It has been a great blessing to have the missionaries in our home so often as they have talked to Karina. Aylee's friends have also helped out with the missionary efforts. Karina has attended discussions in the homes of at least two other families in the Ward during this time.

The baptismal service was very nice. The ward did an exceptional job in the planning and execution of the baptism. Karina had a big smile on her face and was excited for this day to arrive.

I am very proud and how our children have worked to improve their missionary skills. They have been a great example to me. I have appreciated Aylee's friendly demeanor and her willingness to share the gospel with those around her. She is a great example to her brothers and sisters. She is also very good example to Amber and I.

Attending this baptism was very special for me. It reminded me of the baptisms that occurred on my mission. Each one of those individuals that were baptized during my mission hold a very special place in my heart. I am grateful for the joy that can come to those who change their lives and live the gospel fully -- enduring to the end. Truly, this is the way to live and to find joy and happiness.

But I have so much to say

Sunday was the kids' primary presentation at church. The kids were really excited about it. On the way to church I was asking Aliece how she was feeling about the upcoming presentation.

Aliece was stressed. She said that she was worried because her voice has been scratchy and that she wouldn't be able to sing really pretty. I tried to calm her down about her voice.

She then asked me why her voice was getting scratchy. I told her that it could just be that she talks a lot. I suggested that maybe she should try not to talk so much for the next few days.

Aliece protested that idea by saying, "But Dad, I can't do that - I have so much to say!"

Our Haunted House

This afternoon I had some extra time at home with the kids and with Amber. We took advantage of that extra time by creating a Halloween video for our family. Each of the kids pretended to be a ghost or other Halloween entity. We took a few shots of them acting as well as some background shots. We then played around with our green screen and with the at video editing software.

We spent about an hour together working on it. Everyone had a good time except for Jace. We still managed to capture him in action though!

Feel free to look at the video below. Hope you enjoy it! Oh, and happy Halloween!



The Video

To all of you whom I told I was going to be Nancy Drew this year, it has been postponed to next year. Instead I will be warrior type Mulan.

The Witch left me with the Kids!

This weekend was the designated Andersen girls night out. A couple of months ago, Shantell invited all the girls over 18 to join her for a witch's a night out. There was a witch event in Salt Lake City that was supposed to be really fun. I took the last part of the day off of work so that I could come home and watch the kids while Amber joined the rest of the women in their adventures.

Not to be outdone by the cackling women, we had a little party here at the house in their absence. Aylee watch the kids while I ran to the store and got some candy toppings. The kids played with friends for about an hour and a half while I made dinner and sugar cookies.




After dinner, we had a sugar cookie decoration activity. The kids had a great time mixing up frosting, choosing candies, and arranging them creatively on their baked cookie. Just before we were ready to eat our newly decorated cookies, the girls called and announced that they were coming over to do a mini parade for us.




Aylee made a special sign for the women that we hung over the door. The sign said, "Welcome Witch Night Party Girls".

We frosted some cookies for the pointed hat clad women and demonstrated the our decorated cookies. They then showed us their costumes, cackled around the front yard for the neighbors to hear, and got several photo shots in our miniature Grove by the driveway.




All of the kids thought it was a neat thing to have the women, all dressed up as witches. Jace, however, was the only one with reservation. He took one look at that much estrogen dressed in black and made up with bluish purple makeup and decided he would rather be somewhere else.



After the gaggle of witches left for their special event, the kids and I snuggled down into the playroom and watched a movie. The movie was a little bit scary for the two younger girls. It was a movie made for families, what it had some jumpy scenes here and there. It ended well which made both Aliece and Alayna happy. In fact, as Alayna offered our family prayer just before bedtime, she thanked the Lord that the boy, Tom, in the movie, was able to be reunited with his family in the very end. :-)

Cheap Dinner

Tonight was night three without Amber and the younger kids. Amber had convinced the kids that we would have a daddy date every day she was gone - she did this so that they would come home with me and be willing to leave her in Idaho. Of course, this puts the pressure on me. Each day the kids ask what our activity is going to be.

For tonight's activity, I decided to take the older ones out to dinner with me instead of making it myself. Amber left me with a bunch of coupons. We drove to Del Taco first and ordered 3 kids meals (Burger, fries, pop, and a toy). I ordered a taco. After coupons, our total price was $0.00. That is right, an entire meal for four people at no cost.

We took our meal to a nearby ice cream shop that does liquid nitrogen ice cream. We sat in the shop and ate our meals and then I went up to the counter to order ice cream. The gal said that she would just give me the discount without taking the coupon because it was so difficult to process the coupons. I laughed, and said that was OK. I told her I knew the owner and he had given me a pile of these dollar off coupons. Either she was really nice, or she was impressed I knew the owner. When we went up to the counter to order, I told her that would be getting a large size and splitting it. She said, Oh, I'll just give you a bunch of the kids' sizes ($2.50 each) and charge you for a large size ($5.00).

She started to make it and then said, "hey, come behind the counter kids - why don't you help me make the ice cream." They got to choose their flavors and add-ins. They got to pour the cream, add the flavoring, and mix in the candies that they chose. She then let them go in the back area and hold their metal bowl while she injected liquid nitrogen into their mixture. They laughed and squealed as nitrogen gas vapors bubbled out of the bowl and onto their bodies.

After their servings were made, she asked me what I was having. I said I was OK, but she insisted and I ordered. She made mine for me. The ice cream was delicious! When she rang up the order, we got all four childrens' cups ($2.50 each) for $5.00 total.

The kids really enjoyed themselves, and I had a great time too. It was an adventurous night on the town feeding four people with dessert on a five dollar bill!

Mmmmm...Mutton!

Amber is staying up in Idaho Falls with Jen this week and I am playing Mr. Mom with the three oldest kids. On our way home from Idaho Falls yesterday, we stopped in Arbon. While we were there, Dad gave me some mutton to take home in Amber's absence. Amber does not like the smell of the mutton cooking in the house and this seriously limits its consumption at home.

Tonight I cooked up two packages - one of steaks and the other of chops for me and the three older kids. They loved the stuff and kept telling me how good it was. Everyone cleaned up their plate and there was no left-over meat. Ah....it was good!

An Arbon Valley Detour

We arrived at Jen and Dave's house Monday morning at 4:00 AM. We slept there until about 10AM. I left Amber, Alayna, and Jace there and went on to take the older kids home. Amber was staying to work on painting cupboards with Jen.

On our way home, we took a detour into Arbon to say Hi to Mom and Dad. The kids were grateful to get out of the car and visit with mom and dad.

Dad was out fencing, so I took the motorcycle out to the field and worked with dad for an hour or so. He mostly did the working, and I just visited. I couldn't stay too long to be helpful, but it was fun to talk.

Once Dad ran out of wire, we came back to the house. I packed the kids back up into the car and we continued our trip home.



On our way out of Arbon, we saw this beautiful, complete rainbow. It was as if Arbon was giving us a goodbye gift for the trip home. I sure love it out there. It was great to spend a little time with Mom and Dad.

A Spokane Trail Ride

While we were up in Spokane, Brett had arranged a morning for us to go up by the Liberty Lake to go on a fall mountain bike ride. Reed's inlaws lent me a bike, and I borrowed Ashlee's bike helmet for the event.

It was a beautiful ride on a nice wide trail. I have never really be mountain biking on a trail before, I have always just done road biking. The autumn surroundings were also a big plus. We spent a couple of hours on the various trails in the area. It was a lot of fun.

I could really get used to riding up in the hills if I had people to go with. I need to be a better dad and get Aylee and Johnathan doing some trail rides with me.

This weekend

This weekend was a good one, at least most of it. I had pack the mail so I couldn't spend as much time on the project as I wanted but was able to do some. Then Wednesday I was going to get a lot done when I happened to have a fire down between us and Barry's. It was a little stupidity on my part but a lot of dumb luck too. I found I had a short on the batery cable on the Versitile tractor and it started a fire. Could have been disaster but I was able to get the fire out with only a burned cable. Jake had come out to help so we went to AF and got a new cable andThursday we were up and and going. Jake helped a lot between work and we were able to get a few braces in. Firday, Jen abd Dave came and Julie and we worked and got morefence done. We even got about 1/4 mile of fence up. By Saturday, we got all the braces for the cross fences in and another 3/8 of a mile done with the added help of Janae. It was enjoyable to have all out and working together. The weather was perfect and we ended the day very tired but happy with our accomplishmeants. I really appreciate all the help. I know it was a lot to give up a nice weekend to come and help us. Thanks so much. Dad

Prayer of the Faithful

We were sitting at the table getting ready for dinner last night. Jace was screaming his head off. He was not happy, he was hungry, and he did not want to wait for the rest of us to bless the food.

I asked Alayna if she would say the prayer. We all bowed our heads amidst the screams of the one year old. Alayna started praying and Jace kept up his vocal rampage. After a few sentences into the prayer, Alayna then asked, "Please bless Jace that he will stop crying right now!"

Just after she said that, Jace stopped crying. He didn't make a noise throughout the rest of the prayer.

When Alayna said, "Amen", she dug into her food as if nothing was interesting about the experience. The rest of us just stared at each other, then at Jace, and then laughed in amazement. To Alayna, her prayer was answered and she expected nothing less - she was not amazed or surprised at the sudden change in attitude as the rest of us were.

Resurrection

Amber and I were talking last night and she shared a funny comment that Aliece made after one of the sessions of General Conference last week.

She and Aliece were in the other room and Aliece told Amber, "Mom, President Hinckley hasn't spoken in this conference yet. I wonder when he will." Amber softly explained to Aliece that President Hinckley died last year.

Aliece quickly replied, "I know, Mom! But isn't he going to be resurrected?"

Amber had to explain that resurrection doesn't usually happen right after you die and that we probably wouldn't be seeing President Hinckley in any near term conference lineups.

It is funny the things you assume when you are teaching children certain doctrines or real-life scenarios that you take for granted!

One Amazing Performance

Amber and I must be getting desensitized or numb with the number of children that we have. Last night was the stake talent show. Amber was performing with her duets group at the show. So, our family planned on attending. Earlier this week, however, a couple called us to ask us if we would be able to babysit their four children that same evening. Without a worry, Amber told them that we would take care of it. Then, on Friday, the girl that has been receiving the missionary discussions at our home asked if she could attend the event with us. Amber told her that she sure could. I had also invited a young man in our neighborhood to perform with his electric violin at the stake talent show. He had agreed to sit with us also.

So, Amber and I had 10 children under the age of 12 sitting with us along with this young single adult friend that I had invited to perform. We took up two rows in front of the stage. We had a terrific time! All of the kids behaved themselves very well and everyone was entertained by the performances of the evening.

Amber and her duet group played "stars and stripes" -- is sounded amazing just as it always does. I love to go to their performances. Our friend also performed with his electric violin. We had some problems with the sound system but it still sounded incredible. We want to see if he will come and give Aylee some violin pointers since she has started to play the violin for the elementary school orchestra program.

After the event, Amber and I were fairly surprised ourselves that we were able to not only survive the evening, but really enjoy it. The kids did a really good job. But the amazing thing is that Amber and I were not even stressed to have that many children sitting with us and being under our care. I hope Amber doesn't get any ideas that we could do 10 children in our family! But I have to admit, it was a lot of fun for one evening.

Fitness Tests

Aylee and Johnathan have been participating in the presidential physical fitness testing in their school this past week. So far, they have been doing an excellent job.

Johnathan reported that he was the fastest runner in his class for the 1 mile run. Ever since our family has started to run in a variety of fun runs which typically are about 5 km Johnathan has been a fan of running. In fact, Johnathan's primary class asked parents to write down different talents of each of the children. Amber wrote down the Johnathan's talent was running. Ever since that experience a few weeks ago, Johnathan has been running the 1 mile distance to school about twice a week. He really is a terrific runner.

Aylee and one other girl in her class were the top pull-up winners for their class. They both completed nine pullups. This was more than any other boy and girl in their class. Aylee is one tough girl! I guess that chin up bar that she has installed on her bedroom door is really paying off!

I don't know how my children got to be such stars of physical fitness. They must get it all from their mom, because I sure didn't have much to provide in the area!

Aylee - Teacher's Aide

I just wanted to give a big shout out to Aylee. This week Aylee's class received a new student. Aylee was asked by her teacher to stick with the girl for a while to help her get adjusted to the new school. Aylee sits by the new girl in the classroom and lunch, and helps her with her schoolwork and is her friend.

This is not the first time that Aylee has been asked to do this sort of thing. Last year, Aylee was asked by her fourth-grade teacher on a consistent basis to befriend or tutor different kids in the class. Aylee has such a great personality that she can easily make someone feel at ease and feel wanted and loved. We always get raving reviews and sincere appreciative complements from all of her teachers.

It is nice that Aylee is smart and always gets good grades. However, the thing that impresses me the most about Aylee is the person that she is -- someone that is kind and helpful and can be relied upon to help fellow students, as well as her teachers.

Tears of Joy

This morning we were sitting at breakfast and discussing the fact that we would be going up to Spokane next week to visit the family. Amber mentioned to the kids that it will be a very special visit because Reed will be coming home from his tour with the USS Abraham Lincoln in the middle east.

The kids all expressed excitement and plans for the visit and homecoming. Aliece was so sweet when she interjected, "I am going to have tears in my eyes when he comes home, but they will be tears of joy!"

She is definitely our dramatic one!

1st place derby race

John had a scouts derby race. First try: Backwards. First try for John's best friend: Backwards. DAD WOUND THEM UP! Second try for John: WINNER!!!!(ALL THE WAY TO THE END!) Second try for John's best friend: WINNER!!!!! (ALL THE WAY TO THE END!)
DAD WOUND IT!!!!!!! The only boys to make it all the way to the end!! We think the luck is the spray we used. The directions said to use a kind of spray we don't have. But they won! After that every parent asked dad what the secret was. All the Boys wanted dad to wind they're's. GOOD JOB JOHNS!!! (3 of them.) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

Conference Reflections (From Mom)

I was going to blog this morning and I realized that they way the blog was put on here for us to read, it goes right to the blog to read it. Lynn has told me that there is nowhere to click on posting a blog. When I went to post one, well he is right and I can't remember the blog address so for right now, I will make a long comment instead of a blog.

You know it has just cracked me up reading about John and Jake and your close contacts this week. I believe it though with you too.

It has also been so fun hearing about your conference week-ends, Jake's was by phone but I really enjoying hearing what you have done.

That is such a fun time for me. The excitement of getting to hear from the brethren and the fun and closeness we feel with our families. I love it all so much, including the fall weather as Jen has mentioned.

But MY HEART IS ALWAYS THINKING OF MY FAMILY AT THAT TIME, WHETHER YOUR ALL HERE WITH US OR NOT.

If your at home with your own families, I feel the joy of the fun I know you are having.

If your here, It makes it all the better and I enjoy every moment of it.

I love you all so very much. Thank you for the love you show us in return.

Love ya ton's mom

The Andersen Store

Over the past little while we have been cleaning out parts of our house and taking things to DI, Freecycle, and Craigslist. I recently put the scooter up for sale and had a guy call me asking if he could come and look at it tonight.

When they arrived, Aliece was outside. She came running in the house yelling, "We have customers!"

LOL...we didn't sell the scooter yet, but as Aliece exclaimed, it sure seems like our house has become a store lately :-)

A Perfect Monday

We woke up this morning and it was a bit chilly today. Chloe ate breakfast for about an hour while I got ready. Then she took a bubble bath for at least another hour. She was in a very laid back mood today. I got her out and dried her off and wrapped her in a blanket. Then we sat in front of the heater and read a couple books. We had a real enjoyable relaxing morning.

Jessica Rogers (I'm not sure what her married name is) was in Poky for a few days so she called and was going to be in IF today and wanted to meet for lunch. I mixed up some bread to let it rise while we were gone and went off to lunch. It was a lot of fun to see her and talk about old times. She stayed for a couple hours and then headed on her way.

Chloe took a nap, I finished the bread and then just laid back and relaxed until Chloe woke up. Then we made some delicious soup from zucchini from our garden and other vegetables and waited for Dave to come home. He was a bit late so we put dinner on hold and went out for our activity for FHE. We went out to south IF and picked potatoes from a field they had harvested. Chloe and I had gone the other day but we wanted to take Dave back to get some more. The farmers are nice to let us come get them. They said they would rather see people using them than letting them go to waste.


Chloe found a potato that she thought looked like a person and she kept saying "nose", "eye ball". I think it looked pretty distorted but she was ecstatic. She hung on to that particular tater and sang "rock a bye baby" and talked to it for a while.

After a while, she fell over and broke a limb or part off and then quickly became disinterested. We picked til it was dark and then went home for some good soup and bread by candle light. Chloe was excited about the candles. Then we finished our FHE. It truly felt like a fall day today. I love the new season.

What a perfect Monday.

Conference Weekend!

Well, conference weekend again! Dave and I decided to stay home for the first session of conference on Saturday and then head out to Arbon during the second session. Chloe slept the whole way and we enjoyed driving and listening to the speakers.

Dave went to the priesthood session with Dad. Mom, Nae, Chloe and I had a girls session at home. We painted each others finger nails, ate ice cream and enjoyed girl conversation.

On Sunday, we were pretty lazy but enjoyed conference once again. I had found a Simpson puzzle at a garage sale this summer that looked pretty fun and was excited to bring it home for conference, however, when we opened it, most of the puzzle was still put together and was very difficult to get apart. We thought it may have been glued, but came to the conclusion that when it was made, the cutter must have been a bit dull. We worked on it for a while and even used a pocket knife for a while, but it kept breaking the pieces and was just not worth the effort. So Dad went to the bedroom and came back with a 1000 piecer in the middle of the first session. We decided to tackle it but Dad got a "headache" before the boarder was even done. So Mom gave Dad a massage, then Nae gave Dad a massage . . .then Chloe even gave him one! Dave was thinking maybe he should get a headache also :) Dave and I diligently worked and by the close of the second session had still not finished. I don't how long it's been since we haven't finished a puzzle during conference. We really missed Joe and others who helped on puzzles. It was still fun and we enjoyed our time there.

Oh yeah! Dad also got his hair done. How did he make out? :)

It's about time

In another day or two, I should be able to start on the long awaited fencing project. I need to find a few more posts for the braces. We'll be setting about fifty brace posts. Once they are in the rest should be pretty easy. Hopefully I'll start drilling holes in a day or two.

Who's Older than your Daddy?

Today, when President Monson was speaking about how long he and his wife have been married, I nudged Johnathan who was sitting next to me. I said, wow, 60 years is a long time.

Johnathan then replied, "Oh, wow. So, do you mean President Monson is older than you?"

Conference Fun!

The kids have been very excited for Conference this weekend. Saturday morning Aliece woke up and the first thing she asked me was, "When does conference start?" I told her it would be a couple of hours. "Oh!", she exclaimed, "I want it to start now!"

The kids had a fun time with some conference games that Amber prepared for them. Aylee laminated some fun coloring pages and other projects that could be written on with dry erase markers and then erased with a cloth. The kids had a ball.

Johnny had a non-member friend come over to work on their space derby kits together. We ran a little long with the kits, so his friend stayed and watched the first Saturday session with us.

Amber and I also made a quick trip to the store to by a cheap vacuum cleaner - our last one really sucks...well, doesn't suck...you get the idea :-). Therefore, in between sessions we were cleaning house, moving beds, and de-junking the office, etc.

Friday Interviews

On Friday, I took the entire day and went up to the BYU campus. I had been up there a week earlier to set up a booth at the career fair. A colleague and I had setup 18 interviews for Friday. We started interviewing at 8AM and didn't finish until about 3PM. We then had a bite to eat and reviewed all the interviews to see who we would offer jobs to. It was a very tiring day. I have never done anything like that. It was fun to be back on BYU campus. I don't get there very often - maybe once a year on the average.

The amazing part of this is that when we saw Jake and Shan at the movies, Jake told me that he did some interviewing that day for a side job he wants to have done with his browser. He said that he went to the BYU Wilkinson Center to do the interview. I was amazed...I was at the Wilkinson Center for my interviews also.

We talked about where we did the interviews, and we were only about 20 yards from each other at the same time. That was so funny. Of all the times I end up at BYU and Jake was there! In addition, among all of the places on campus, we were in the same building -- only a short toss away from each other.

Cornbelly Fun with Alayna

On Thursday, Alayna had a field trip to Cornbelly's with her preschool class. Amber went along for the fun.

They had a great time playing on all of the toys, bounce houses, and photo ops. Alayna and Jace even got to buy a little pumpkin. Alayna was so excited!

Get Smart

Earlier in the week, Jake and Shan called to see if we wanted to go see "Get Smart" at the theater. We had talked about it over the weekend a bit, but hadn't really solidified anything. I forgot about it until they called and we didn't have a baby sitter, plus Amber had lined up some visiting teaching.

We had to decline the invitation. We really wanted to see the movie though, so Amber and I decided that we would do that for our Friday night date.

As we were walking to the theater, some tall guy waved at us. I thought it was weird and didn't know if I should be waving back. As we got closer, I realized it was Mark Stanger. We said "hi". He told us that he thought I was Jacob.

It turns out Jake and Shantell didn't go to the movie after all on Tuesday - they also had decided to go on Friday with Mark and Jenny. So, all six of us went into the theater together.

It was a funny experience combined with a funny movie!

Conference Kit Movie

Earlier this week the kids made a conference kit for their cousins. I wanted their cousins to receive the kit before we posted the video. They should have received it by now, so I am posting the online version.

I thought the kids did a pretty good job!

To view the video directly, go to this link.

Evening of Fellowship

This was a very crazy day for both Amber and I on Thursday. What made it even more busy was that I was in charge of a stake activity that night for all ward leaders. We were calling this our "evening of fellowship".

Instead of having our traditional stake meetings that evening, we invited all the ward leaders to meet with us and go canvass the stake doing visits to nonmembers, less active members, etc. I like the idea of this activity because it reminds me of the true ministry of Jesus Christ. You do not read often of Jesus sitting in meetings talking about things that we should do. His life was a ministry because most of his time was dealt in actually doing what he taught rather than sitting, coordinating, or planning. I really feel that that is the way we should be in his Gospel. We should spend more time doing rather than planning. 
Earlier in the day I had purchased some cookies, crackers, and cheese along with some drinks. When the meeting started, I looked around the chapel and saw that it was nearly full of people! I started to worry about the amount of food that I had brought. We have invited all bishopric members, elders quorum presidencies, high Priest group leaderships, ward missionaries, and relief Society Presidents. We had probably 80 to 100 people there. It was a very exciting sight to see.

Our stake president welcomed everyone and gave a few words about using our faith to actually do the work. I then got up and explained how the evening would work. I had arranged a couple of tables full of materials that people could use if they wanted. These materials included pass along cards, free English class courses that we teach, special Ensign magazines of the Savior in both English and Spanish, an invitation to our upcoming stake talent night, our stake mission plan, and a letter from our stake presidency regarding missionary work.

The wards had selected a number of families and set up appointments for them. They also were asked to provide a backup list of people that they could does it should their appointments fall through, or should they have extra time on their hands.

It took about 15 minutes to arrange some companionships throughout all the wards and send them on their way. We had several stake members that I coordinated with the wards to help boost their numbers so that they could make more visits. By the time I was done arranging all the companionships, I was an odd duck and was not needed for any more companionships. I was on my own!

I was worried because I was afraid that I might not get to do any visits. Here I was, the one planning the evening, and I myself did not get to go out. Finally, I decided I would just walk around the neighborhood without any appointments or without a companion and knock on some doors to visit people. On my way out, I met to stake clerks that were on their way back in. All of their visits ended a being very short and they were down for the evening.

One of the stake clerks talk to me and I told him what I was doing. He said that there was a neighbor that he used to have that was a very nice Spanish-speaking family that happened to be in our ward. I asked if I could go with them and go visit that family. We went together and met the family. The husband was getting ready to go to work as he works swing shifts. They have four daughters all under the age of 10. They were a very nice family. By the time we left, I knew that I needed to talk to Amber to find some friends of the daughters may have that could invite them to activity days and other events that pertain to the daughters of that age.

Once we got back to the stake Center, I took the other clerk and we drove around our neighborhood. I thought it would be a good idea to stop by one of the young adults that used to be one of my young man when I was young men's president eight years ago. He is actually one of the boys that came up to Arbon one year to go branding with us. He has not been active in the church for the past four years and it has been probably two years since I have seen him. We stopped and knocked on their door. One of the girls answered the door and we talked to her for just a minute. As we were talking with her, this young adult came walking outside of the house with headphones on ready to go somewhere. We stopped and visited with him and found out that he was going to a haunted house in Salt Lake. He was going with some friends, but they had not arrived yet. He invited us into the house and we had a great visit. He has started to play the electric violin. I have never heard anyone play of electric violin, so I asked if he would give us an example of the music. He plugged in his MP3 player which had a recording of his songs. He played a few for us. It was awesome music! He has always been so talented. We talked about the upcoming stake talent show and invited him to participate in the talent show. He agreed to do it, and so we gave him a flyer and I'm going to contact him later to arrange the details. I am really excited to hear him play in person. After about 10 or 15 minutes, his friends arrived and he had his leave. I sure loved those 10 minutes of visiting. It has taken me two years to go see a friend. I've missed him, and the visit with him made my evening!

We all got back together for some light snacks after our visits. Amber and our neighbor came over to the church to prepare and serve the refreshments. It was fun to have Amber there. She and Debbie made the desserts last throughout the refreshment period - even with the full-time missionaries taking five or six big cookies each :)

One set of Spanish speaking ward missionaries went to the family of the boy that Johnathan has been working with on missionary work. It turns out that the family are actually members of the church. However, they so less active that I doubt any of the kids are members. We are pretty sure Johnathan's friend has never been baptized. We don't think his older brother has been either. They are such a neat family. The ward missionaries are going to start working with getting them activated and going to the Spanish branch.

It was fun to walk around and hear the experiences that people had. It sounds like it was a success. I had several people suggest that we do this more often. The Stake President told me afterward that he wants this to be a scheduled event for every year, or twice a year. It was one of those evenings that you come away walking on a cloud.