Friday, April 24, 2009

Wow, I'm on my 4th post. See what happens when Chris works late? Collin and Hans have pink eye and well, I'm letting the kids watch cartoons tonight! (cough cough) It's something they only do once a week on either Friday or Saturday...a treat!
So where was I?
In the last week we have had a birthday, a piano recital, a skating party, a concert, an AWANA program, and a 12 mile bike Ididaprob (a math take on the Ididarod in Alaska). I think I was to the skating party...
Did not have the camera set right for pics here and did not realize it until it was too late! Oh well.
Basketball!
Our spring birthday boys got a basketball goal for their birthday. I realize everyone benefits, but it's been something we've/ they've been wanting! Everyone joins in on the fun!


Even Chris got a swoosh!
It's the season of Birthdays! It starts in March with Erin's and the we have one every 2 weeks or so until Hans' on April 20th, usually with Easter in there somewhere. Since I've been horribly behind in my blogging, here's a quick Birthday party wrap up!/Alan with friends Caden, Tyus, Kendrick, Tristen and Titus. A nice little group of boys that had fun shooting every dart gun in the house. The biggest complaint was they jammed a few guns and lost several darts. Hmmm, these things happen! Alan got a fancy pair of roller skates and gave dad a thank you hug!A few weeks later, it's Hans' birthday party. His was the day before his birthday and he wanted an army soldier party and an army soldier cake. He wanted to help make it, dirt and all. (the dirt is cocoa). We had water guns to play with and a trampoline to jump on: squirt the birthday boy. They got soaked!!! Oops.

Hans had to attend a 5&6th grade band/ choral concert on his birthday. We snuck some celebrating in afterwards with Mom and Dad Anderson. Ice cream, presents, off to bed!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Turkey!!!
It's turkey season here in KS and well around here that means that Chris starts scouting and checking out where the turkeys are so he can get up early in the morning to shoot one! His alarm actually did not go off this morning, but fortunately he awoke 5 minutes before his buddies were scheduled to arrive. Remmy was here for a few days and he had to inspect the bird...

Whew, now Chris will need to go help Bill get his turkey...

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Easter Blessings to you!
While the rain is falling outside and the house is a bustle preparing for Easter dinner, I want to take a moment and record why Easter is so special to me. It is actually special in and of itself, but especially precious to those who believe. Our pastor has done a two week discussion on what propitiation is. Propitiation is the satisfaction of God's wrath. It can be hard for us to understand why loving God would have or even could have wrath. But a righteous and holy God can be not acquainted with sinners and still remain true to Himself. And yet this was His heart's desire, so instead of giving up on us, he allowed and was even pleased to pour out His wrath on His own Son. The only one capable of satisfying it and surviving. If you doubt the legitimacy of Jesus being who He said He was behold the words of the prophet Isaish spoken hundreds of years before Jesus concerning this very topic:
Isaiah 53
Who has believed our message?
To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants,
that his life was cut short in midstream.
But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people.
He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.
But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.
Easter Blessing to you!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Carman - "The Champion" from Dallas

Here's an oldie but a goodie! We pull this out every Easter!

***Warning: a rant post***
HELP! Oh my, what a mess, I feel like all those people I used to make scrapbooks for!!! I am trying to organize Alan's 2005 photos and yeah and even the 2004 Christmas photos that never made it into his book. As much as I love scrapbooking, it is taking me a while to absorb alllllll of these wonderful digital photos, that I have hidden all over the place on disks and folders on my computer. Eek! I thought I had them all printed out and ready to go and I'm still finding more. My epson printer is going wild this a.m. I'm still trying to keep up both a family album and one for each child, although as they get older it slims down to just birthday, school and special photos, but I'm still working on it, because each photo is so fun...maybe I need to just switch to those photo books and be done with it! But I just love the feel of a handmade scrapbook page. Ah me.
Well, there's my rant, I just had to tell someone or pretend like I'm telling someone! Now I need to change some ink cartridges and get back at it!
These are some of the photos I found that had been left out:

This last one is Alan using the training potty we had in his room, he did NOT want to potty train (well he was born 4/02 and it's 6/05 do the math) We were home from the pool and Collin some how talked him into using the potty and boom we were done with diapers forevermore. How could I leave THAT out!

Friday, April 10, 2009

More kayaking pics:
Collin was the first to go solo and he was quite pleased with that! Erin went next, Ann borrowed the neighbors kayak and she gave it a whirl, she said it was very freeing and fun to be out on the water on her own!
"I'm in a pickle" Erin got trapped under the pier, she wanted help but instead she got herself out of her pickle
Alan got to do some paddling while Chris took a break.
Thank you Mike and Ann!!!
Kayaking
After the wedding and some quick visits to Bruce and Karen and Cathie and Mitch we (Mom, Mike and Ann, Mark and Lu, Bill and Paula and the 6 Andersons) loaded into 4 vehicles and headed to Annapolis for some R&R. Ann and I stopped for coffee and gas and by the time we got home the kids were already in the water. We left the suitcases for later and headed for the water (well, for me it was my camera).
Aunt Ann giving kayak and water safety instructions. She and Chris did the coaching and helping.

There are some fun reception photos to share yet. It was so amazing to see so many aunts and cousins, people I just do not have the luxury to see often anymore. I actually had a long cry Sunday morning when I realized I do not think I hardly finished a conversation with anyone with out it being interrupted and how long it may be until I see them again. Between dancing, children, photos etc, my apologies to those I really wanted to catch up with, but never got it done. That said... Alan and Hans were something else again when it came to dancin!
Chris playing some major air guitar with Erin...

Monday, April 06, 2009


The wedding was beautiful. I must confess the bride, who looked utterly exhausted the night before was absolutely radiant! It was a beautiful, beautiful wedding. My brother Michael played piano to open


The MOTB is gorgeous and the mother of the groom did something I could not believe. She sang an absolutely beautiful song accompanied on the piano by her mother and the violin by her sister! It was lovely! I know I could not do that without becoming a very large puddle. Below is Maria, who joined our family as their exchange student from Bolivia and my neice Tara, sister of the bride and matron of honour. The flower girl was a bit nervous and was not going to toss her petals down the aisle with the photographer with his huge camera in front of her. She finally scooted passed him and made a dash toward her mother the matron of honour, who was also stunning in her wedding attire! Aaron awaits...
The bride and my brother, looking very handsome and more like my father than I ever remember!

More pictures will follow...

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Here we are at the Wichita Airport at 6:30 a.m. We managed to get up and out the door by 5. God was so good to us, the airport was not crowded! We were the only ones going through security at the time, so they did not get mad at me that I had our boarding passes all mixed up and the kids had gone in first so I was not there to help with shoes etc. (y'know cuz I was messing with the Boarding passes and Chris was bringing up the rear). Then they boarded the plane 45 minutes early while we were doing our "last potty break". We made it though!

A walk down memory lane:
This is one of the first times I've been to Hershey PA since our Wedding 14 years ago! It took 2 cars to get us from BWI to all of our destinations. Mike and Ann were kind enought to shuttle us around alllll weekend! This is Mike's car ahead of us, don't ya love the Hershey kiss lights?
Here is the apartment I used to live in, I had the second and third floor and the brown door on the side was my entry way.We went straight to the rehearsal & rehearsal dinner... And in the morning I was delighted to see the sunrise coming in on my dad's desk. Mom has kept it much the same way he did even though he died in 2003. I added some of his memorabilia for this shot (the license and the veryyy old stuffed dog in the back)

All dressed up and ready for the wedding!