She is very excited to have her Grandma Reed coming tomorrow. Grandma and Grandpa Reed will be staying with us through Sunday. Alayna has been reading the Book of Mormon on her own as she has been preparing to be baptized in September. Grandma Reed has challenged her to try to get done with the Book of Mormon before Grandma does. This has given Alayna a lot of motivation. She is really excited to see where Grandma Reed is currently at in the Book of Mormon when she gets here.
Before I go into it, I recall a couple other recent heirlooms that have gone from me to one of my kids. Jace has just finished wearing his cowboy shirt that I used to wear when I was his age. He has loved that shirt and has worn it nearly to shreds. Amber has had to perform a number of minor surgeries on it to keep it in tact.
Both Aylee and John have finished up the Harry Potter series and Aliece is now near the end as well. I remember writing a note to John in the cover of one of the Harry Potter books that came out the day (or day before) he was born. I read a lot of that book while Amber was in the hospital with him. With Aliece working on finishing up the series, half of my kids will have passed each book along.
This brings me to the heirloom used today. Aylee approached me to ask if I had a good graphing calculator that she could use at school. I have been saving my old blue TI-81 graphic calculator since high school for the express purpose of giving it to my kids to use through their high school years. This model was one of the first graphing calculators on the market at the time. It was a big deal when our teach required us to have a graphic calculator. I put that calculator to good use in highschool. It was programmable, and I had programmed formula solves and even games on it. It was a lot of fun for its time.
I had kept the calculator knowing that it would be handy some day. I had to search through all of our boxes both in the shop and downstairs. I knew I had packed it when we moved. After a long search I was happy to find it and even happier to see that it still worked. Aylee spent the evening finishing up her math with the calculator.
It is always touching to pass something on to your kids that you used to use years earlier. I guess it is just a sign of age, but it is fun nonetheless.
She was surprised how fast her time was. She did a great job and hardly looked winded when she crossed that finish line. After she was done I put on her headphones to see what she had listened to for part of the race...wouldn't you know it...the power driver for Amber was the October General Conference. To each their own when it comes to running ambiance, ha ha.
I went down stairs and said that I was going for some seeds. Jace wanted to come along so I took him to Dad's Truck Stop at the freeway exit near our house.
I guess the name of the truck stop confuses Jace because he keeps calling it "John's Truck Stop". I guess I have my very own truck stop now.
I asked him what he would like me to call him. He responded that I could just call him "Jace". He paused for few seconds and then followed up with, "Or you can call me Jedi Jace".
I guess the whole star wars thing is now replacing my little toosie man. Oh well, it was cute while it lasted. Now I have to address Jedi Jace with the respect his new title demands.
On today, Aliece entered into the birthday buddy club with the birth of her newest cousin - Reed & Michelle's new boy, born this afternoon.
We're excited to meet this little guy. Aliece is excited to be able to share her birthday with one of her cousins.
We then worked on the barn. Until now, the barn has been a huge storage unit for all of our extra stuff that we didn't know what to do with. We gutted it and set up six stalls for baby calves. We are thinking of getting a small handful of newborn calves to bottle feed and raise up. However, they recommend having a pen for each calf to prevent the spread of disease. Our barn has tracks in the walls and posts that allow us to slide 2x8 boards in them to set up walls. We how have six pens ready to go.
John and Jace set up the swings and the trampoline as well. When the girls got home we had a picnic lunch and the kids played on the trampoline and swings. Oh, it really got us in the mood for Spring and Summer.
Pizza power! Keeps me safe from Fin (scripture power)
And....
Tinkerbell, tinkerbell, tinker all the way! (jingle bells)
From the looks of it, each kid chose a quote for me for each day. They called the cards, "Business Trip Boosters". They even had six little avatars on the card that must represent each one of them. After talking to Amber it sounds like Aylee drove the project, designed the cards, and worked with the kids to get these all together for my trip.
Over the past few months I have been giving the kids a card in their school lunch with a different thought each day. So, it was fun to have them turn around and send me thoughts for each day of the week that I would be away from home.
I mentioned just last week how Avary has been confused with how to handle her underwear. She has been putting both pull-ups and underwear in the garbage can. Well, we have been working with her to understand the different. However, today, when Amber pulled the laundry out of the washing machine she noticed a bunch of white, tissue like stuff all over the clothes. She figured someone had a tissue in their pocket and proceeded to move the clothes to the dryer. When it came time for Aylee to unload the dryer and put all of the clothes in their various piles, she was surprised to find a nearly disintegrated pullup that had gone through the wash. I guess that Avary now just sticks undies and pullups directly into the front loading washing machine so that they will be reusable the next day.
On the day that we were getting ready to go to Arbon we received just over an inch of snow here in Shelley. It was Sunday, and so we had church in the morning and we were supposed to go to Arbon right after. I looked at the weather forecast and Arbon was supposed to receive more snow than us. So, in faith, I packed up the kids' snow gear to take with us. Once we got to Arbon the kids were a little disappointed in the weather. There was very little snow I mostly bare ground.
We had a great time and Arbon playing with cousins and visiting with grandparents. So the kids really didn't miss going outside and play in the snow. However, when we got home, the kids saw all of the snow and remember that they didn't get to play it yet. It was just getting dark but we hooked up an old stretcher that Dad and I bought at an auction and tied it to the hitch of the four wheeler. The kids had a great time sitting in our makeshift sled while we pulled them around the field in the back of the house.
This was our first chance at using the stretcher that I bought. It works pretty well! We were able to fit every single one of our kids in the stretcher while I pulled them behind the four wheeler.
She turned on the dryer for me to see. Sure enough there were lots of odd sounds and occasional shakes from the appliance. This sounded just like a bearing or some other moving part was going bad.
I put my head inside the dryer to look around and to turn the unit. That's when I noticed something abnormal between the drum in the frame of the unit. It looked like a little piece of black plastic. I got a screwdriver and pried it out. It turns out that it was one of John's little Lego pieces -- -- a small toy bat. It was amazing to me that seeing the size of my thumbnail could cause a big dryer to behave so abnormally.
I'm sure there is an object lesson in here somewhere about little things wreaking havoc in our lives if they are left unchecked. However, I'll let you use your imagination rather than pontificate at this time.
I gave flowers to Amber this morning. We had planned on not getting each other anything for valentines day, so she was saying that she felt bad that I gave her flowers. I told her that flowers don't count as a gift as they just die within a few days anyway. Amber decided to do the "Man" equivalent to flowers and so she baked me a special sugar cookie as you can see in the picture. I would take cookies over flowers any day!
The kids had a great time opening cards and eating treats from their grandparents, friends, and from each other.
The girls got together and made us a fancy dinner of delicious bread sticks and pizza. The boys bought the girls a game.
Everyone had a great time eating too much sugar and staying up way past their bedtime.
It is always a bit of a challenge to celebrate a birthday on a Sunday, especially if you are married to that person and you have to come up with Sabbath-appropriate ideas! :) Despite the fact that it was a busy Ward Conference today and that Amber pretty much ran the entire show at Primary, she still managed to have a good birthday.
He was saying, "dad! Avary is breaking my heart!"
I walked into the room wondering what in the world at Avary was doing to break the Jace's heart. As I entered the room I had a good chuckle when I saw that Avary had pulled a plastic heart decoration from off the wall on Jace's side of the room and in doing so the heart had started to tear in the middle.
I comforted Jace the best that I could and I fixed the heart decoration and reapplied it to the wall. The sobs soon subsided and all was well between brother and sister again.
Later that day she introduced the box to Jace and Avary. They spent a good portion of the day playing inside of their half of the box. They brought pillows and books and they almost looked cozy as they snuggled into their own box to read their board books.
I love how the simplest of things can be entertaining to little kids.
They got online and started looking at a wide variety of the toy swords. Jace patiently watched Amber click through the pages and talk about the basic features and prices.
Finally, after a few minutes, Jace responded, "Mom, I really just want a light saber." Amber was confused as they had just spent time looking several models.
Then Jace said, "I just want to eat some." Then Amber remembered that she was talking to a four year old, so she asked him what it looks like. He explained that it was candy and looked like a circle. She then realized that he was saying that he wanted to buy some "life savers".
She chuckled and told him that the next time they were at the store, he could buy some.
Several hours later, I was in the kitchen with Amber and Jace started talking about money again and said, "Mom, I don't think I want life savers now, can I buy a light saber?"
Recently, however, we have felt like it would be good to strategically wait unto giving our kids permission to bear their testimony so that the first five minutes of testimony meeting each month wouldn't begin with the Andersen crew taking over the microphone.
As soon as the meeting started we asked the kids not to go up quite yet. Then as the meeting progressed, I decided that if there were any long gaps in testimonies that the kids could go up and bear their testimony. So, I whispered to the kids, "wait for a pause before going up to bear your testimony."
John got a confused look on his face and responded, "Wait for APPLAUSE before going up?"
It all started when the swim meet took longer than usual. It was 2:30
before we were actually ready to start, and by then we still hadn't
fed the kids lunch.
Our first event was going to be starting a fire in the fire pit I got
for Christmas. We were going build the fire and then roast hot dogs
on them. Well, since it was already 2:30 and kids were starving, we
decided to forego the fire and just grill the hotdogs.
After lunch, we had planned on the kids doing their chores while Amber
and I would get things ready for our next event. However, I got a
call from a friend in India that was in Boise for the month. I ended
up talking to him for a while which messed up everything. Due to that
call, we didn't get our cupcakes with almond joy groundhogs mixed up
and baked. It was 4:30 and we knew we didn't have time to bake.
Amber decided we should run to Daylight Doughnuts in Idaho Falls. The
kids had coupons for a free doughnut. We thought that would be a fun
substitute treat. We piled everyone into the car and headed off to
IF. We pulled up to a dark Daylight Donuts bakery. Amber went up to
the door and found out that they close at Noon every day.
We chatted in the parking lot and decided that since the donut shop
was closed, we would just eat out for dinner. We had a number of gift
certificates that Amber purchased a year ago. We have been trying to
get to Smitty's Steak and Pancakes for ages, so we decided to head
there. As we unloaded the kids and were heading into the restaurant,
Amber reviewed the gift certificates only to find out they are not
good on weekends. We piled the kids into the car and when to the next
restaurant where we had a gift certificate. We got there and were
relieved to see their neon Open sign on. We pulled up to an empty
parking lot and laughed that we wouldn't have a long wait. As we tried
to enter the restaurant we found the doors to be locked. They were
supposed to be open...but they were not.
Exhausted, we decided to just go to a nearby McDonalds. We loaded the
kids back up and headed off to the golden arches. As we walked into Mc
D's, Jace said in a relieved tone, "Oh good, their doors are not
locked!"
We had a good time eating and letting the little kids play at the play
place. While they played, Aylee, Amber, and I played scrabble against
each other on our electronic devices.
We were supposed to go home and shoot the BB gun at some fake
groundhogs, but we returned too late and the sun was already going
down. We scratched that activity altogether.
Our final activity planned was to watch "Groundhog's Day" -- the movie
from the 90's. However, given the time we got home, we decided that
Avary and Jace would be going to bed. Amber put them to bed while I
started the movie with the older kids.
We all had a great time and it was a fun adventure. It was nice of
Amber and decide to hold the festivities. It was funny how nothing
really worked out as planned, but we still had a great time.
Happy belated Groundhog's Day everyone!
Of course the kids have loved having Adee's family over. They really
enjoy playing with each other. While the kids played, Amber and Adee
divided their time out between relaxation and watching chick flicks
along with doing some remodel work in our main family room.
We have had Nathan Blackburn (our handyman), over during the weekend to
prepare the room and add board and batten trim to the room. We also had
him do a Santa Fe style texture on the walls. Amber and Adee worked on
the paint job throughout this project.
I'll try to post some pictures once everything is done and the furniture
is back in.
Way to go John!
How many sane people would invite a boat load of people to their house for a party in 24 hours and then decide they don't have enough furniture for their guests, so they roll up their sleeves and get to work...
Aren't there special institutions for people like this?
Today was big day. I loaded up our four calves that have been grazing all summer in our pasture and headed them off to the Blackfoot Livestock auction.
With the turn of the weather, I think a lot of farmers/ranchers had the same idea. It was a day early, but there was a line of pickups and trailers ready to drop the livestock off at the stockyard.
I wondered how my $600 horse trailer would do on the trip. It seemed to hold up well, though it looks like I should be buying some tires for it sooner than later. If I had to go much further I would have been out at least two tires most likely.
I got the calves dropped off and signed the form. In a couple of weeks we should be getting a check. We’ll then know how profitable it was to pasture cows and irrigate the fields all summer.
If it goes well, Aylee and John will be making investments next spring for their own calves to help them prepare for their college and mission experiences that will be here before any of us realize it.
Jace has been home now for a few hours and still appears to be just fine.
The discharge notice said not to let him walk by himself. Quite Impossible as the kid is already running around the house, climbing on furniture, and joking with his sister.
He has a little stuffed puppy that the hospital gave him before the surgery. Jace has named the puppy, "Johnny". (as if we needed another John in the family, ha ha).
We're just sitting next to him now as he rests and they monitor him to make sure all looks right.
Jace has a type of hernia.
Shantell is at our place this morning helping get kids off to school.
Will send an update later.
I guess our area had 3-5inches of heavy wet snow this week while we were gone. It loaded our tree branches with so much weight that many of them broke and fell to the ground. We're going to be busy today!
Going to be driving through the night to get home.
Feel free to follow us on latitude if you get bored :)
We were pleasantly surprised, however, when most of the summer passed
without hardly any bugs in the house. As September rolled around,
however, the bugs have come by the droves and we seem to be plagued by
them just as we were last year.
Jace and Amber have taken on the daunting challenge of killing flies in
the house. John named them the SWAT team. They're pretty good at
catching the flies both on the wall and in midair. You just need to make
sure that there are no flies on your arms or your face when one of the
two of them are nearby with a flyswatter!
The rest of us found a great place to hang out for the parade. We chose a place that was fairly close to the beginning of the parade so that we would have a greater chance of receiving candy. They ended up being quite a chilly day, so many of us wish that we had jackets on to keep us warm.
Our kids got so much candy from the parade. By the time that we got home and emptied their bags, we had over two ice cream buckets full of candy.
We were excited when we saw the school bus with Alayna inside. She looked very cute standing by her window and throwing out candy to the onlookers.
Jen and her girls, Janae, and my parents spent the night last night instead throughout the day to celebrate Jace's birthday.
Jace received a lot of fun presents. He even had a couple of Skype sessions with grandma and grandpa Reed as well as with Reed and Michelle and their family.
We are excited to see that Jace is now four years old. He is growing up to be a fun and handsome boy.
They have had a great time preparing themselves for the race. They met up this morning at 6:30 AM to run their race.
I had a great time hopping from station to station throughout the race. After Amber's first mile, she was looking strong. I wish I could have grabbed a picture of her at that point. At the second mile point, she was really sweating but she had confidence in her face. I knew that it would be a good race for her. At mile three, you could tell that she was giving it all she had. That last 10th of a mile was hard but she pushed through it and into the race at about 31 minutes -- making her pace a 10 minute mile.
Amber has really gotten into running this year. It has been a great experience for her. I think next year she's going to be ready to take on a 10K race. It has been fun to see her fight so much enjoyment running with some of her good friends here in Shelley.
Editor's Note: I actually slept in this morning and my subconcious convinced me that Amber's race didn't begin until 7:35 AM. I woke up accordingly and went downstairs. My Dad was down there wondering if I was going to the race. I told him that I was. He wanted to come along, so we hopped in the truck. On the way over (about 7:45) Amber called my cell phone. I was surprised that she would call during her race but wondered if they were starting late. I answered and Amber asked if I slept in. It then hit me that I was on the wrong time schedule...the race didn't start at 7:35, Amber was expecting to FINISH at 7:35. The good husband that I am missed the race entirely. I at least got there in time to snap the picture!
All of our kids were in the younger half of their age division this year. Despite the age difference between their groups, they all did a terrific job in their races. I think we have a family who likes to run. It was fun to see the kids don their race number tags and hit the pavement running.
It was especially fun to watch Jace do his run. Aylee ran next to him to help him along. Jace insisted on riding his imaginary horse most of the way. He even held his hand out and pretend to carry some reigns as he trotted in his lane.
It is fun to see the kids enjoy running. I hope it is something they carry with them throughout their lives.
When I reached the airport, it was announced that our plane had broken down and that they hoped to have it flying again in four hours. We were instructed to call the airline and try to make alternate reservations. After waiting in line for many minutes I was able to get on the phone and get a new itinerary that would get me home around four or 5:00 PM in Idaho Falls. I was not too excited about spending my birthday in an airport, but at least it was going to get me home in time to celebrate my birthday as if I had been at work.
Luckily, they were able to fix the planes sooner than expected and I was able to change my flight plans again and get home only two hours later than I was originally supposed to. I was really grateful and relieved that are worked out that way.
Amber, Jace, and Avary picked me up at the airport and we went to the Olive Garden for lunch. It was so good to be home and see Amber and the kids again.
Work ended up being quite busy that day and so we celebrated my birthday from about six to 8 PM. After that Amber laid on the couch next to me and fell asleep while I worked on my laptop for several hours and made phone calls to help some sales guys on the West Coast.
By about 11:00 PM I finished up my birthday by waking Amber up and helping her up to bed. I was so grateful to be home and in my own bed that was still a very nice birthday!
Thanks to everyone who called or otherwise expressed your heartfelt birthday wishes. It is always good to hear from everyone.
