Twinners...

We had a little mother/daughter shopping trip on Saturday (Kenz was wanting some long dresses, I guess I've taught her well :) And we ended up with VERY similar dresses, and of course we both wore them to church on Sunday, so we had a little twinner thing going!

I know I have lots to blog about, but I just don't have lots of time to blog it...so Jayden's teeth story and some more pics of that will be coming soon...I PROMISE!

Growing Up...

So we have moved things around a little.  Chris' dad was getting rid of a king size bed.  We figured we have guests come regularly and so why not take a free bed?!  So we did...

 which means that Payt inherited Jaxon's old bed

 and Jaxon now sleeps in great comfort...sprawled across the bed!  

so we no longer have a crib OR a toddler bed!  Stages come and go.  My kids are growing up and getting bigger and needing more space!  Who knew!

Student of the Week!

Kenzie's teacher recommended her for student of the week last week! She got to eat lunch with the principal and received all kinds of coupons!

Here is what Mr. Baggaley, Kenzie's teacher had to say about her:

"Since the beginning of the year Mykenzie has impressed and surprised me with how great of a reader she is! She has also come along nicely in math as well. She always tries her hardest in all she does. she is creative and expresses herself like a little lady! Keep it up Mykenzie! You are a great example for the rest of the students in my class! :)"

We are so proud of her for working hard this year! So we are going to put one of those coupons to use tonight and go to a pizza buffet! (yes, you read that right and I'm not sure we will all be eating dinner tonight!)

Crazy Hair Day!!!

There isn't anything too crazy about this one, but he just NEEDED his picture taken with his awesome gun. But he's just so darn cute....(sidenote, this little darling ended up in instacare last year on crazy hair day, I remember so well, because Jayden insisted on having crazy hair too last year, even though he wasn't in school...and he had to come with me to the instacare, crazy hair and all!)OK, so the kids LOVE crazy hair day and look forward to it all year. You can see their personalities a little by their choices, or how much I could talk them into. This is the first year Jaxon has done anything besides some spikes. It's not very daring or too crazy, but that is kinda Jaxon's personality. He doesn't like to get too crazy. (Plus with his short hair, there aren't a lot of options!) He kinda went for the Alfalfa look.

sidenote: his part is crooked because he is getting too tall for me to look down on the top of his head, so I couldn't really see what I was doing. And we were in a hurry so we wouldn't be late for school.


Jayden can be talked into lots of crazy ideas...if he doesn't have the crazy idea himself. So this seemed like a good idea. Plus, with hair as short as his, there aren't a lot of choices!




And Mykenzie...my favorite hair ever! Who ever new fazoodle pieces were so multi-funcional.



She had eyes in the back of her head...like, a LOT of eyes in the back of her head!
And there we have crazy hair day 2012! Go Eagles!! (as in Park Elementary School Eagles!)

Deep Thoughts for a Thursday Afternoon

Maybe this link is here just so I remember how to find it, but Lisa sent this to me yesterday and it just really seemed to ring true to me:

http://powerofmoms.com/2012/04/your-children-want-you/

I will admit that the last few years have been a bit of a rut for me. I have had ups and downs and good days and bad days. I've struggled with depression for very L-O-N-G months at a time. It's been rough. I have theorized lots of reasons why things have been so rough, why I feel like I'm failing in my responsibilities, and why I can't jus

t be happy ALL THE TIME! This little article struck a chord with me. I have thought that my depression was brought on by changes in stages of life...ya know, from poppin' kids out every year or two, to being done and just raising the kids. Our life doesn't have as many dramatic changes as it used to. That may play into it to some extent. I also had someone tell me that when you get close to 10 years of marriage, you go through some rocky challenges. But when I read this blog I made another, perhaps more important realization. About three years ago, I came across a blog:

http://nieniedialogues.com/

It is a great blog, by a LDS woman who survived a plane crash. She is awesome and she does some amazing missionary work with her blog. Anyway, back to me...3 years ago my friend told me about this blog. I spent a few days of doing nothing BUT reading it. I went back to her very first post and read everything. I came out with a commitment to be more like her. She was just amazing to me. Her life, as she presents it, is PERFECT. Her husband is the most perfect man, her children are perfectly behaved children who don't even know what a TV is, her house is perfectly clean and decorated for every season...I'm talking like featured in magazines it's SO perfect. She seemed to me what every general conference talk to women is talking about. She has not a flaw. At first, that gave me a greater determination to do better and be better...to BE her. But the more I tried, the more I feel like a failure...and thus begins the downward spiral of measuring myself to people online...Facebook, Blogs, gossip magazine web sites...those things combined with a nature towards laziness and it just got bad.

Reading this article I realized that I am comparing my worst self to their absolute 100% perfect day of "those people". Who is going to post a million pictures of their messy house? Seriously, I consider cleaning before even taking a picture. Who is going to Facebook about how they let their kids watch hours upon hours of TV that day because they felt like it? (I mean, who else besides me?) I have been trying for SOOOO long to be "that woman"...you know, the one who runs marathons and ironmans, is the relief society president, has the most fashionable clothes and perfect hair, the house that is never messy, the ever adoring husband with whom she's NEVER exchanged a word in anger or frustration. The one who's kids wear designer clothing and let her do their hair...NO MATTER WHAT. She is present at every meeting/activity. Always smiling and taking meals or treats to whoever needs it and runs a successful business out of her home as well as directs a charity or two. THAT, my friends, is why so many women in Utah are on anti-depressants. We are measuring ourselves against literally a virtual reality.

So this morning on my walk with Chris, I talked the ENTIRE time about this awakening of sorts. My kids need ME. The one who carried them around for nine months. The one who cares about THEM. The one who is here when they get home from school. They don't need the collective virtual women that are represented in blogs and other media. Those women are great and they are doing great things and I'm sure they are great moms too, but they are not me. Their gifts are not mine. And most importantly, they are not the mother to MY kids.

And so, I need to not compare...heck, I really only need to blog and facebook to keep track of family and friends. There is no need to spend hours on the "blogosphere" that are going to end up with me feeling more frustrated and more like a failure and disappointment that will without doubt lead to greater depression.

ONWARD and UPWARD for me from now on!

Generation Gap?!

How times have changed!

Easter!

We always love Easter around here. It's full of lots of traditions and sometimes its actually warm and it means that winter is mostly over (in Cache Valley, winter never really ends). We had our annual jellybean hunt, dying eggs with ALL the Anderson family, Easter dinner and rolling eggs down old main hill. Then there is always Chris' hiding of the Easter baskets.

his was in my office

trying on his new suit coat

Jayden's was in the laundry room hanging up under a shirt

trying on his new suit coat

Mykenzie's was in the hall closet, hanging up under my coat

Jaxon's was in the closet under the stairs

My handsome boys all ready for church

Pretty girl

all the kids ready for church...I threatened to use this picture at Mykenzie's wedding (that got even less of a smile)

Spring Break Fun...

We get a little bored some days....

I LOVE Payton's face in the top one...he was having so much fun

And Jaxon is totally looking the part...

So it's spring break for a whole entire week! Last year we went to Albuquerque and spent the week with Katy, Micah and Emmett. We went to zoos and museums and camped in their backyard and played with Emmett. It's hard to top that, so we decided to reset the bar and start really LOW, so maybe next year will be AWESOME, even if we don't do much! We had some plans to go to Salt Lake, but we had to get some work done on the car and so that adventure got scrapped. We've been hanging out, staying up late, sleeping in, playing outside, watching movies, playing xbox, reading books and doing nothing planned or too exciting...except, of course, making Zombie faces!