Moving and sharing a family tradition...

Moving
We were very fortunate and our house sold in 1 week! We are moving in with my in-law's while we wait to hear about the home we have an offer in on, or find another house. Rob started taking some of our things to storage on Saturday, so hopefully the big move won't be too stressful.


Progressive Dinner
Each year, the Saturday before Christmas my family does a Progressive dinner. It is really nice that we all live so close to each other, but it still takes a long time. We started at our house at 4:00 p.m. and finished at my brother Kevin's house at 9:30. Anyway, each course was delicious and everyone did a good job. We had Hot Wassail at our house (we hadn't ever tried the recipe before, but it turned out all right), then we went to Kolby and Heather's house and had appetizers. He made a hot artichoke dip for vegetables, and homemade chicken nuggets--much better than you could get at McDonald's! Then we went to Kelcey and Lyenna's for Oriental Chicken Salad. It was really yummy too. We had the main course, Prime Rib, at Kristopher and Becky's with green beans and baked potatoes. It was SO good. Rob thinks it was the best piece of meat he has ever eaten. It was really good, but mine was cold since I fed Seth first...I should have made him wait! We also played a game and watched the Nativity story there. We finished with dessert at Kevin and Jeni's. They had made sugar cookies for the kids to frost, raspberry filled cookies, apple caramel pie (I think that's what it was) and an apple cranberry pie. Needless to say, we were extremely well fed. The cousin's exchanged their gifts for each other at Kevin and Jeni's too, and amazingly, even with the 15 kids there it wasn't too chaotic! I'm already excited for next year! By the way...we took our camera with us, and didn't take one picture. I know, lame.

If you know anyone, that knows somebody....

Our house will be listed on the Utah MLS starting tomorrow! If you know anyone that is looking for a home please let them know our house is for sale. Our home is 3 bed/3 bath with 2 family/living areas. It is approximately 1800 sf and is on .27 acres. You can leave a comment or call me for more information or pictures, but I don't want to leave more information on here since it isn't private.

As for what we are doing...we have put in an offer on a home that is a short sale. We put it in the first week of November and were told last week that we should know within the next 2-3 weeks if the bank chose to accept our offer. If we do get this house (it is in South Jordan) we can be in it for a very long time.

So once again, please keep your ears open for people that may be interested in our home!

How two year olds can be confused...

Brody is in a little bit of a hitting phase right now. Most of the time it is just in fun, but sometimes he does it when he is angry. Rob will play around with him and they'll hit each other. I never thought it was a good idea...and now I know I was right!

I met two of my roommates for lunch at McDonald's on Thursday--not for the quality of food, but because there is a playland! I was holding Seth and Brody was standing near me, but was also walking around a little bit while we waited in line to order. There was a lady behind me that kept talking to me and Seth, probably because he is so cute! Anyway, I went up to order and I hear the lady say, "Oh, sorry, I'm not your mommy!!" I turned around and Brody was looking around for me, and she said he had spanked her! I was kind of embarrassed, especially when she said it hurt, but I did apologize, and mostly now I think it is funny! Here's to two year olds!!

Remembering...

For as much as I like to talk, I am not very eloquent. I am never able to express my thoughts and feelings in a way for people to really understand. I usually just end up hoping they can make the ends meet of what I did say and what I wanted to convey.

My mom called me this morning and told me one of my friends had died. She was a friend of the family and someone I looked up to. She was young. She was beautiful with a great smile. She was talented. She was nice and genuine. She was thoughtful. She had so much going for her. And now she is gone.

My first memory of her is at Magic Waters when we were really young. I'm sure we knew her family before, but this is the first time I remember really KNOWING her. I remember I thought her swimming suit was so cute, and I loved her name. I think anytime I played 'pretend' for awhile I would choose my name to be Brooke. Even way back then I think I knew I wanted to be her friend!

She would pick me up my sophomore and junior years of high school for early morning Orchestra. I can't remember now if we were supposed to be there at 6:15 or 6:30, but I know more often than not we were a few minutes late. I knew I wouldn't get a bad look from the conductor though because I would walk in with Brooke and she was a favorite. (She was an awesome flutist.) I cherished the 5 minutes it took for us to go from my house to the school. We couldn't really get into deep conversations for the amount of time, but I will say spending those few minutes with Brooke in the mornings was the ONLY thing I looked forward to in regards to early morning Orchestra! She was so fun to be around. Honestly, I wanted to be like her.

I felt lucky to have a friend like her. I never told her that. I never told her how much it meant that she was my friend. I never told her I felt special when she talked to me in high school. I think the reason I felt so special when I was with her (as I am sure many others did as well) is because she was special. She had the ability to converse with anyone and make them feel at ease. She really listened to you. I had the perfect chance to tell her recently. I even thought about it at the time, but thought she would think I was stupid and that maybe the opportunity would come again. It didn't, and it won't.

I never took the opportunity to tell her how I much I appreciated her when she was here. Maybe now she'll know how much she was loved and will be missed by all who knew her.

My Halloween Post

Growing up, each year my family would go to my Aunt Chris's house/neighborhood for dinner and trick or treating since we lived on a busy street. We would have dinner in a pumpkin (I'm sure other foods too, but that is the main thing I remember) and then my cousin and I would go trick or treating throughout the entire neighborhood. I remember feeling like we were gone for hours, and maybe we were, but we would go until we were too tired to go any further. Lucky for us, my aunt has continued to invite us over to her house and continue the tradition of getting together. Last night at her house we had Gumbo that my brother made (it was delicious), Chili, Bratwursts, hot dogs, breadsticks and other snack foods. Everything was so good.

I took Brody out with his cousins while Seth stayed at the house with Rob. Brody was really good, but did want me to hold him while we walked. Needless to say I did get a workout. Brody wouldn't say 'trick or treat' but he did say thank you to everyone that gave him treats.

Earlier in the day we went to see Rob's grandpa at the retirement center. All of the residents were in the main room and they had 10 stations set up for the kids to walk around and get their candy. Here are Brody, Seth and Grandpa Baumgartner.

Quirks

I noticed I had been tagged by Jessi about a week ago, but I'm just getting around to doing this tag now. Here are the rules- List 6 of your quirks (also known as things that show a little bit of OCD!!)- Tag six other bloggers (I tag Jen Haddock, Rosie, Wendy Brown, Lyenna, Julie, and Danica!)

1- I like the eggs to be taken out of the carton evenly. For instance, if you need two eggs, then either take them directly out of the middle (since I usually buy 18), or one from two opposite corners. I like the weight to be distributed evenly.

2-If I am in front of the computer, I have to control the mouse. It drives me crazy to watch other people use it, even if they are completely capable.

3- I'm always trying to find ways to improve recipes. I like to add things in, just to see what it will taste like. On the other hand, when I am measuring, I am very precise.
4- If I am reading a good book, I get totally involved to the point I don't even hear when someone is talking to me.
5- I really enjoy taking long showers and hot baths--ask Rob. :) I think the best in the shower--that's where I get epiphanies!! (Unlike the location that those occur on Scrubs!!)
6- I love planning ahead for holidays. I already have a couple of Christmas presents bought and lists made out on what we're giving most people.

Now you know a little bit more about me. I'm sure I have many more, I just can't think of them right now! I'd be interested to see if anyone else has noticed any quirks I have, even if I am unaware of them!

Elephant Walk

Last week we went to the Elephant walk at the Gateway. It's funny because you get there half an hour early so you can get your spot on the sidewalk because there are at least 500 other mom's with toddlers and babies waiting to see the elephants walk by, and five minutes after it starts, it is over. Oh well, Brody loved it and was so excited to go.

Brody got out the door without me combing his hair, so it is a little all over the place.
Here is Seth. Usually he does a really cheesy grin, but this is just one of his normal, darling smiles! This is their cousin Preston. Sorry Kim, it isn't a very good picture. I love Preston's look though! After the Elephant Walk we went to lunch at Jason's Deli at the Gateway and shopped at Old Navy (I got some killer deals on some shirts!). Then, we went to the fountain to let the older boys play in the water. Big surprise, Brody didn't want to get in. However, grandma was nice and tried to coax him into the water. Grandma ended up getting more wet than Brody!

Trial Lake

Rob's family has often talked about their fishing/camping trips to Trial Lake in the Uintas. After being married to Rob for 5 years I finally got to go this beautiful lake. I definitely want it to become a family tradition for us as well. It is gorgeous up there, but our trip was a bit chilly. I want to go in July or August next year when it is really hot in the valley.


We left a bit later than we had planned on so I was worried that Rob wouldn't have a chance to catch anything, but we all were able to catch a couple of fish--Brody included. I have never seen fish jump so high out of the water as I did here. It was more than just once too. I still can't believe it. It was a really nice day and the boys did really well, even with the air being a bit nippy. Here is a picture of Brody after he caught his first fish.
We finished off our fishing trip with a stop at Dick's for a shake, which is another Andreasen family tradition I am happy to carry on!!

And here is a picture of all of us at the lake.

Tagged

I've been tagged by Heather. The Rules: Answer the questions using only ONE WORD. Then tag four others. I'm going to tag Cynthia, Holly, Heather (wilson web) and Ashley (come on, you know you want to update!).
1. Where is your cell phone? Kitchen
2. Your significant other? Rob
3. Your hair? Blonde
4. Your mother? Roseann
5. Your father? Brent
6. Your favorite thing? Dessert
7. Your dream last night? Worrisome
8 Your favorite drink? Lemonade
9. Your dream/goal? Travel
10. The room you’re in? Study
11. Your hobby? Reading
12. Your fear? Dying
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
14. What you’re not? Quiet :)
15. Muffins? Chocolate
16. One of your wish list items? Maid ;)
17. Where you grew up? South Jordan
18. The last thing you did? Nurse
19. What are you wearing? pajamas
20. Favorite gadget? Microplane
21. Your pets? none
22. Your computer? Desktop
23.Your mood? Tired
24. Missing someone? Rob
25. Your car? Pilot
26. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes
27. Favorite store? Book!!
28. Like someone? Friends
29. Your favorite color? Black
30. When is the last time you laughed? Tonight
31. Last time you cried? August

My Brody Boy

Since the only pictures I have taken recently were of Brody, this post is all about him.

Brody loves to watch "shows" and "sports." Elmo, Thomas, Word World and most recently "Buzz and Woody" are his favorites. We went to a wedding Tuesday night and there was a balloon man there. He was amazing. We were expecting the normal balloon shapes like swords and poodles, those kinds of things. This balloon man was much more talented than that. He made Brody a Buzz Lightyear. It was amazing. I also saw him make Cinderella, Indiana Jones (complete with a whip and hat) and a stormtrooper on a speedracer.





I've mentioned this before, but Brody is already a pretty good athlete. The other night I was pitching to him in the family room. I was sitting on the couch and he hit the ball over the ledge separating our kitchen and family room (we have vaulted ceilings and there is a space in between), and the ball hit the blinds by our kitchen table. It's a bit hard to explain, but it was a VERY good hit. I only let him hit the soft foamy ball when we're inside now. He also enjoys shooting hoops, playing catch, golf and soccer. He really is a talented little boy, and I'm trying not to be too biased!



A favorite meal of the Kemp family is Chili Mac. It's Chili over spaghetti noodles (actually you can use any noodles) and cheese. Brody really likes it. Anytime I make it, Brody eats a ton. This is what he looked like after having it for lunch the other day.



Brody likes to make us laugh. Unfortunately, he can tell when we're trying NOT to laugh, and realizes that is his opportunity. Tonight during family prayer, it was Brody's turn to say it and the cadence he used for each word was hilarious. I don't know how I was able to continue helping him to the end.


The other night when Rob got home he did play-doh with Brody. Needless to say, Rob and Brody made different shapes than when Mom and Brody play! (Notice Brody's worried look!)




Now you know a bit more about the little boy that brings so much joy to my life!

I admit, I am a groupie

That is a phrase I never thought I would say. However, due to my love of cooking and finding new recipes to try, I found this website (ourbestbites.com) and fell in love. It is usually updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and it is the first website I go to when Rob gets home. I love it. If you've talked cooking/recipes lately, you've probably already heard me talk about it. Now the rest of you get to share in the joy!

The first recipe I tried was the Creamy Tomato Soup. Even though I love tomatoes, I've never been a real big fan of tomato soup. This recipe changed my mind. The first time I made it, I followed the recipe. The next two times, I doubled it with the intention of freezing it, but didn't make it that far because it was so good.

Now I'm hooked. I definitely recommend the Caramel Toffee Fruit Dip. I think it is better after it has chilled a little bit, and it is worth it to try and find the chocolate covered toffee bits. I have only found them at Smith's Marketplace (try Fred Meyer if you live in Oregon).

I've also made the Brazilian Lemonade a few times, and really enjoy it. In fact I have some limes in my fridge and we are going to have it tonight! Our most recent favorite, and this is SO sinfully yummy (and unfortunately, bad for you), is the Puffed French Toast. I made it with the Buttermilk Syrup (which is basically caramel and is also delicious), but I didn't dip it in the cinnamon and sugar. I can't even describe to you how good this is. We decided we should have it for breakfast for a holiday or something, but we should only have it once a year. The problem is, this is so good, and I told friends about it. I made it a couple of weeks ago for the Young Women Leaders in my ward and it was a hit. We've also made plans to have it for a Youth Leadership meeting. If the kids knew how good their breakfast was going to be that day, I don't think there would be any complaining. Anyway, I highly recommend trying the French Toast and syrup, and soup, and drink, and....anything on their site is worth trying! Hope you enjoy and hope you try something new!

Full of fun

We are currently going through our first bout of throwing up and diarrhea with Brody. I believe we have gone through more than 40 diapers since Wednesday afternoon, and two loads of poopy clothes. It's been fun. There are two positives that may come out of this though. One, I learned that I really won't throw up if I see my children do it, it's just something that happens. Two, Brody recognizes when he has to go to the bathroom now and says, "Diaper, more" about two seconds before he goes to the bathroom. Maybe this illness will be a blessing in disguise and we'll be able to potty train easily. Let's all keep our fingers crossed for that, okay?

Brody loves going through my purse. I usually try and put it on top of the fridge or on the counter where he can't reach it ever since "the gum episode". One day I was on the phone with Rob's mom while I was feeding Seth. Brody had been playing with his toys, reading books and playing in his room. All of a sudden I realized he was being pretty quiet and everyone knows that a child being quiet is getting into mischief. When I called his name he didn't answer although I could hear him in the kitchen. I finished feeding Seth and went to find out what he was doing. I found him playing on the floor, with my purse. In said purse was a pack of gum with maybe one piece missing. That was before Brody got it. When I found him there were two pieces left. I asked Brody where all the gum went and he pointed to his mouth, and then said, "mama, gum...Brody." I couldn't help but laugh and tell him no. His diapers smelled minty for three days, and just in case you're wondering, minty urine does NOT smell very good. Back to the original point of this paragraph (you're getting two stories for the price of one!). Last week I was cooking dinner and Brody came into the kitchen looking like this:
At first I was worried that he was bleeding, but then I saw him holding my lipstick in his hand. Obviously I hadn't put my purse where he couldn't reach it. Luckily, I only found lipstick on his face, not anywhere else. Oh, the joys of having a two year old!!

Seth was born with a Hemangioma on his right arm. Here's a picture (out of focus-sorry) of what it looks like. Our pediatrician said that it should go away and/or lighten by the time he is two. Seth is a thumb sucker, and recently has been wanting to suck everything (which is not all that unusual). Last Sunday morning I was feeding him and saw that he'd tried to be matching. (The picture was taken two days later and is on his left arm!)

Finally, last Sunday Rob got Brody dressed after church and proclaimed that you don't have to match on Sunday afternoons! Once again, please forgive the out of focus picture, I hadn't changed the range on the camera. And two more pictures for good measure of the boys.

This one is right before Brody goes in for the "smother".

My Fishing-Man

This is Rob in his element. I think he would go fishing every day if he could. I am sure he wishes he could be like his uncle Dave. Dave is an excellent fisherman and has been fishing 5-6 days a week this year. Dave is also doing research and writing a book about fishing. He asked Rob if he wanted to be his 'research assistant', too bad for Rob he is also not retired! Rob went fishing with his uncle Dave and cousin Matt over the weekend. It was Rob's best fishing trip of the year, he said he stopped counting how many he caught after he got to twenty. This one he is holding was about 22 inches long. Maybe he should just quit now so he goes out on top!

In other news...last week we moved Brody into a toddler bed and Seth into the crib (in the same room). Brody is doing sleeping well in his new bed, but he has come into our room at 6:00 every morning since he's been in there, and of course, he comes and crawls into my side and says "hold you". It's cute, but I definitely sleep better without a little boys arm around my neck. Seth on the other hand...is still waking up 2-3 times a night. Since both boys are in the same room I really hesitate to make him cry it out. I also just don't know if I could handle listening to him cry for an hour. I'm hoping he'll just outgrow this really soon. Any suggestions? Oh yeah, Seth has also started eating solids. I'm also hoping that will help his tummy feel nice and full. We'll see.

Not much else going on here. Roommates: Jen and I were talking today and thought we should have a big roommate reunion so we can all see each other. Anyone else up for that?

A bit of nothing

In addition to exclamation points (see previous post), I also like oxymoron's- i.e. the title of today's post! Thanks to everyone who has commented so far. I read blogs all the time, but never comment. I now see how fun it is to get comments, so I will try to comment on your blogs...just so you know someone is reading!

I took Seth to his 4 month well baby check-up last week. He is a big boy. He weighed in at 16 lbs 4 oz. We have to be really careful when we change his diaper to make sure we get in between all the rolls. He is a really happy baby. Unfortunately, he is also a really happy baby at 4:00 a.m. while I am trying to sleep and he wants to play. That has been his new thing. I hope it becomes something he 'used to do' very quickly!

Over the 4th of July weekend Rob helped me get the boys on a nap schedule which is really nice. Seth had somewhat decided that he only wanted to take one nap a day. That really wasn't working for me, and he was still cranky a lot of the time. Part of the problem is that I have a hard time staying home during nap time (or any time for that matter). I was always up for going shopping or to lunch (well, especially to lunch!) or just hanging out, but I finally realized that this is not the time in my life when I can do that. I need to have a schedule every day, and do the fun things once in awhile, not the other way around. Sad times, sad times. :)

Rob and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary yesterday. It was all very romantic. He went to work and then a continuing education class. I watched my niece and nephew and then went to Young Women's. He did bring me two dozen roses home though (thank you honey and Costco!) and a piece of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. I decided to be adventurous and got "CRAIG'S CRAZY CARROT CAKE CHEESECAKE: Carrot Cake and Cheesecake Swirled Together, Topped with Cream Cheese Icing and Roasted Almonds". It was good, but I've liked other kinds from there better. I felt there wasn't a good ratio of cheesecake to carrot cake, but it was still good and I still ate the WHOLE piece. Rob had the Dulce de Leche kind. It was good as well, but we both liked other kinds better. Even though we didn't get to spend the day together it wsa still a good day. We are planning on going to a nice restaurant next week to celebrate since we had so much going on this week. Anyone want to volunteer to baby-sit?!!

We're done? Not exactly!

You may notice after awhile that I like using exclamation points. I think it is one of Rob's pet peeves about me. (I know I can name many others, but those may come out in other posts. I don't want to give out all my secrets at one time!)

Last night once I had set the blog up I had Rob come down and look at it. He was very excited with the title "Family of Four" thinking this meant we were done having children. I told him it could be changed when another child comes along. I guess the title is more like a work in progress!

Last week we went on vacation with Rob's family to Millsite Reservoir in central Utah. We stayed in camp trailers (thanks grandma and grandpa Andreasen) which was really nice for us and the kids. The trip was a lot of fun, but the water was a frigid 59 degrees. I heard once you got up on whatever you were trying to do it wasn't too bad. However, being extremely out of shape like I am (I'd like to blame it on the baby, but I've had ample time to at least start exercising) I was unable to really get out of the water. In my defense I did try to wakeboard first, then slalom ski, after failing miserably with both of those I went to my old standby of two skis. Unfortunately, I was exhausted, sore and cold by that time and couldn't even get up with both skis. That was Tuesday morning....I didn't touch the water again. :) Here are a few pictures of us on vacation.

Rob and Seth taking a nap (see the little rolls on Seth's legs?)

Rob and Brody on the 4 wheeler Brody and Rob fishing: Brody loved 'casting' and making his pole go "Splash!"

Okay, one more picture to go along with this long post. This one is to tell you how awesome my family is. The adjustment to having two children is a little bit (well quite a bit) harder for me than I imagined. I knew it would be hard, but I've really struggled on how to get things in the house done and take care of the boys. Enter Summer and a very large yard with a lot of work needing to be done. It just wasn't getting done, besides Rob mowing the lawn we really didn't have any flowers, there were weeds in our front flower beds, and our garden was a HUGE weed patch. About 3 weeks before we went on vacation my mom spent the day with me and tried to help me pick out flowers to put in my yard. It was so overwhelming to me since I know nothing about gardening and couldn't really picture what it would look like when it was done. I ended up buying 6 geraniums after spending at least one if not two hours at the store with her. Anyway...we planted those with plans to eventually go and get more. When Rob and I drove in from our vacation I noticed something was different. My whole flower bed and walkway was planted (don't ask me with what types of flowers, I don't have a clue). Rob took Brody to check the mail and noticed our green waste garbage can was overflowing. He looked in the garden and not only were all the weeds out of it, but it was planted and had an irrigation system set up in it too. I knew right away that it was my mom who had done it. She's just like that, always serving other people. She didn't do it alone though, Kelcey helped her and made it easy for us to water everything in our garden, just by turning on one faucet. Thank you Kelcey and mom for doing all the work in our garden, we really appreciate it, and a thank you to Lyenna as well for giving up spending a day with Kelcey so he could do that for us.

So this picture:

My mom wanted to get me a zucchini plant for my garden, so she and my dad went to the nursery at 8:00 Saturday morning (as we were still in bed!) and came to our house to plant it. My dad was showing us to take the flowers off once they've bloomed to make the flowers bigger. Brody thought this was great and wanted one behind his ear, and then it just continued from there. Aren't these boys cute?!!

First Post!

All right, let's see how well I do with this. I am finally contributing to the blogging world after reading them for over 2 years. I kept telling myself that it would be stupid for me to do a blog because my life is not very interesting, but I enjoy reading them so much I decided to do it anyway! I'll commit to updating once a month, and then if I do it more often you'll be surprised, and I'll have exceeded my expectations (how's that for an ego booster?)!