John and Jenny?

I snapped this picture of Jace and Chloe tonight when Jen and Dave arrived in Arbon. Mom mentioned that it looked just like Jen and I when we were little. Although the roles are reversed as Chloe is the older of the two, there is quite a resemblance.

Snowed In

Amber, the kids, and I came up to Arbon for the New Years weekend. The weather was great coming up, but Dad warned us that a winter storm was blowing in that night (Saturday).

We stopped in Pocatello to see Grandma Dorma and then headed out to Arbon, clear skies all the way. When we got to the Valley, the scene changed immediately. Winds were coming from the south and the visibility was really limited. When we turned down the lane we were immediately thrust into large drifts of snow. Sliding and snow flying into the windsheild, we made a haphazard trail to the house.

When we made it our kids made a quick exit from the van to the house. Joe followed about forty minutes later. We were glad he made it in time because the weather only got worse.

On Sunday they cancelled church due to the west blizzard that had blown in. I took this picture of Joe standing by the kitchen window. All the windows had snow blown into their panes. It was cool to hear the wind whipping around all day Sunday. It is always fun to be snowed in - playing games, keeping warm, and hearing the wrath of the winter elements all around.

Jace Meets Grandma Call

On our way to Arbon on Saturday, we stopped into Pocatello to see Grandma Dorma. I didn't think of it being Jace's first time meeting Grandma Call. I didn't have the camera with me so I took this picture with my camera phone. It is not the highest quality picture, but at least we captured the moment.

We had a nice visit with Grandma, but we had to keep it kind of quick as Arbon was experiencing the beginnings of a west blizzard and we wanted to get out there before we were snowed out. We made it just it time too!

Hitting the Slopes

I had promised to take Johnathan and Aylee skiing this week. They have been really excited for the past two weeks for us to go skiing. Today was the promised day.

At about 12:30 we headed out to BYU to rent some skis. Once we were outfitted with skis for the kids, we headed up to the Sundance Ski Resort up Provo canyon.

Once we got to the resort we there was a huge line of cars. We waited for probably 20 minutes in the car until we got into the main entrance of the resort. There were people directing traffic. Once we got up to them, I rolled down my window to ask where we should park. They said that the parking lots were all full and that we should come back tomorrow. I tried to explain that we had just rented skis and that tomorrow would not be an option. The lady told me she was sorry that it happened that way, but that they could not fit us in the lot. I asked about the people leaving the resort. She said that I could circle around and enter the line of cars again and hope someone had left.

We left and re-entered the long line of cars. This time the stars were aligned properly because as we reached the lady, she got a call on her radio that someone had just left the parking lot. We were ushered up to the lot where we found the coveted parking space.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hitting the bunny hill which is free. Johnathan got a refresher course on skiing and Aylee just enjoyed herself as she skied all over the beginner slope.

By the time we were done, I would take a rest here and there and the kids would take the rope tow on their own, ride up to the top and ski down to the line for the rope tow again.

We had a great time. However, the next time I take them, I don't think the bunny hill is going to suffice. This is going to be an expensive tradition!

Fox and Geese

On Christmas we let each of the kids choose an activity that they wanted to do for Christmas. Since we received a nice new blanket of snow Christmas morning, snow games were definitely on the agenda.

Aylee chose to play Fox and Geese in the snow. She told us that both of her Grandmas have told her that they used to play that game. I vaguely remembered having played it as a grade schooler.

We put together the track and reviewed the rules the best that we could all remember. The rules were off a bit due to a foggy memory, but our rules worked out just fine. All the kids had a great time running the track and avoiding the fox.


Just for fun, I looked up the rules to Fox and Geese and thought I would share them with you all in case your youth catches back up to you and you become involved in a game.

Fox and Geese
Tramp down the snow to make a big wheel and a hub. (Looks like a wagon wheel with a big centre.)

One person is the fox, and the rest are geese.

The fox tries to catch the geese and the first one caught becomes the fox.

All participants must keep inside the paths.

If a goose steps off the path he/she then becomes the fox.

The only safety for the goose is in the hub, but no more than 2 geese in the hub at a time.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from John, Amber, Aylee, John Jr., Aliece, Alayna, and Jace Andersen!

Fun Filled Christmas Eve

Last night Amber and I let the kids all sleep out under the Christmas Tree in order to usher in Christmas Eve. Jace opted to sleep in his crib, however :). We had pretty much every inch of space occupied by a sleeping body. Amber slept on the sofa and I crashed next to Alayna. The night went fairly well despite the sleeping furnishings available in the living room.

I remember as a kid, Dad telling us how he liked to lay under the Christmas tree and look at all the lights. I used to do that too. I remember laying there closing my eyes slowly to watch the lights change into shining star-like orbs - what a fun, peaceful feeling it was, too! I think the kids were able to do the same thing last night as they lay by the tree slowly falling to sleep.

We had a great Christmas Eve. Amber and I spent the early afternoon taking snapshots of the kids and editing the prints to look half decent in a 10x13 frame. With a little creativity, we narrowed the 200 some odd shots into five awesome portraits. It is always a difficult thing to get these young-uns to hold still long enough and pose with a natural smile to capture their youth for eternity. After some sweat and tears, we finally can saw we accomplished the task.

We set the computer up to Google Earth and Norad Santa to track Mr. Kringle's progress around the globe. The kids would run the computer every few minutes to check up on the magical trip (I have to admit, I was right with them too).


The evening started with a very fancy and delicious meal prepared by Amber with place settings arranged by Aliece (of course!). We were living a bit on the edge tonight and gave the kids the fancy champagne style glasses for dinner. Not a single spill ocurred! Wow!

Music and scripture were the concluding portion of our evening as we sang songs around the piano (with accompanists: Amber, John Jr., and Aylee) and watched the "Joy to the World" DVD put on by the Church.

The kids then eagerly rushed to bed as the internet reported Santa's arrival into the Eastern part of North America. Aliece was very concerned that we all would not be asleep in time for Santa's arrival!

Amber and I have wrapped up our remaining presents - there are not too many as we have decided to cut down on gifts this year - all around the board. We're hoping to focus the season more on the Savior as our Christmas gift. Hopefully it turns out OK. We're going to cross our fingers that our two gifts per child limit will be well received.

Well, I am going to get to bed so that Santa doesn't see me up and skip over the house - that would not bide well with the children!

In the News...

On Saturday, Amber took the kids to downtown Provo to see the annual Christmas parade. The Andersen crew who were staying at a hotel nearby for Jace's blessing, joined Amber and the kids.

An unplanned highlight of the parade involved some observers (aka. Grandpa and Grandkids) getting caught up in a fun snowball fight. A reporter for the Deseret News saw the ruckus and snapped some pictures of the whole affair.

I think this photo they included in the paper includes Aylee and Alayna with Grandpa dodging snowballs in the center.

Santa Gives His Own

This is a story that Grandma Call wrote for a Christmas booklet that Debbie Packer was putting together. Grandma thought it might be fun to post it on the blog.

Santa Gives His Own

By Dorma Call

Mr. and Mrs. Andersen were the perfect couple to play Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus and they thoroughly enjoyed acting the part. So every year on Christmas Eve, they would dress up like the jolly, happy people that they were and play Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus to some of the members of their Pocatello ward. This project always brought great joy and satisfaction to the couple and they did it until they could no longer get around to do it. They loved sharing the Christmas Spirit with others in this special way.

One year, just after dark on Christmas Eve, Gerald and Dorma Call had just gathered their children in the living room for a special evening together. As they looked upon their small children their hearts swelled with love for them. How dear and precious each child was to them, just as each is precious to Heavenly Father. Their eight children were such good boys and girls. How blessed they were to be the parents of such loving and kind children. Each of their children was excited for Christmas too. Dorma and Gerald hoped that they had taught each child the real meaning of Christmas, even though the commercialism was a part of the celebration too.

There was a knock on the door and the twins, James and JoAnn jumped up together and ran for the door. When they opened the door they were excited to see Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus. Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus were invited into the warmth of the Call home and Santa Claus pulled out a really nice gift for each of the Call children. Evelyn and Connie were old enough to know about Santa Claus but were still as excited as the smaller children. Dorma and Gerald enjoyed the children's excitement. Their eyes twinkled as they secretly shared a knowing smile, recognizing Brother and Sister Andersen from the ward underneath all the costume and make-up. How thoughtful it was that the Andersen's would leave their own children on this special night and show such caring to others. Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus had brought candy, nuts, and fruit as well as the nice gifts and they made themselves comfortable as they were in the Call home and visited with the family. Oh what a special Christmas that was for the Call family.

Shortly after Christmas, the ward was divided. The Call's and the Andersen's were now in different wards and the children of the two families grew up in different wards not knowing each other. Time passed and the children grew up.

When JoAnn Call was a senior in high school, she started dating Lynn Andersen, Mr. and Mrs. Santa's son. After Lynn and JoAnn were married, Dorma shared with her daughter the secret identity of Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus who had come to their home years ago when she was just small.

So the real Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus gave JoAnn their son for Christmas, although it was several years later.

I Can Make A Difference By...

The following video was created by Aylee for the "Reflections" competition a couple of months back.



Link: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-7869202243920108498&hl=en

There is a few minutes of blue showing as it was a requirement for the judges to have a few seconds of blank screen - so just have some patience.

All of our school age children submitted items.

Aylee submitted four items and won two trophies (one for this video) and one ribbon. Johnathan submitted two items and won a trophy and a ribbon. Aliece submitted one item and won a ribbon.

Kyle - 10 Years @ Smith's

Kyle was recently awarded for 10 years of service at Smith's. They had a really cool party in Pocatello on Nov 6th. It was a really yummy lunch! Anyways...congrats to him!

Wow....is thanksgiving here already?

I just realized yesterday, that I better start thinking about shopping for some food for thanksgiving. I cannot believe that it snuck up on me so fast this year. That never happens. It seems like Halloween was just a couple of days ago. I guess that I've just been working way too much, and with dad being so ill lately it just flew by. I guess I better get started Christmas shopping, and making cards, and, and, and.....lol What are everyone's plans for Thanksgiving?

Wickedness Never Was Happiness

Alayna has been having a hard time telling the truth lately. She feels that lying will keep her out of trouble. The problem is, she is too sweet and tender to really make it work to her advantage.

Today, Amber was sitting at the piano while Johnathan practiced next to her. Alayna came into the living room with a nice large brown mustache. Amused, Amber asked her if she had been drinking chocolate milk (the kids all had some for a lunch snack after school). Alayna, somehow thinking that she might be in trouble for driving the chocolate milk, shook her head "No". Concerned with Alayna's response, Amber asked again if she were sure that she had not been drinking the chocolate milk. Alayna again said (but time verbally), "No, I didn't do it."

Now, in a loving, but correcting way, Amber said, "Alayna, I think you are telling a lie." Alayna choked back a tear and said that No, she was not lying. After that she started crying. She walked around the house for about 10 - 15 minutes just bawling as her conscience caught up to her on this mishap. After a while the crying stopped and I went up stairs to find that she had fallen asleep on the bed - with her cheeks still wet from all of her guilt ridden tears.

What Mom and Dad do when no one is home

What Mom and Dad do when no one is home

The other day I decided to go home to Arbon and visit Mom and Dad. I didn't tell them that I was coming because I wanted to suprise them. This is what I found them doing when I arrived. I hid behind my car and recorded the entire thing.

Don't they look like they're having fun?

A Roadside Distraction

Today Jake and I were scheduled to have lunch together. I had planned, however, a daddy-date with Alayna to come to work with me in the later part of the morning. Jake and I decided that we would keep our lunch appointment and meet at Carl's Jr. so that Alayna could play on the indoor playground while we visited.

Jake beat us to Carl's Jr. by just a couple of minutes. He decided to stand outside by the road to wait for us. The road was congested with busy lunch goers, and it didn't help that we were on the road where the High School is located. I saw Jake on the side of the road by the parking lot and pointed him out to Alayna. Jake started waving at Alayna to get a response from her and she was waving back.

I slowed the truck down to make the turn into the parking lot. The person behind me also slowed down. However, it appears that the third person was distracted by Jake's energetic waves to Alayna instead of watching the cars ahead of him. Sure enough, he rammed into the guy behind me.

I was oblivious to it all but I saw a concerned look on Jake's face. When I saw the car behind me pull into the same parking lot as myself with another car right behind, I figured something was up. We didn't want to get tangled up in the mess, so we grabbed Alayna and quickly walked into the restaurant, not daring to look back at the two cars that were getting ready to assess the situation.

We had a good lunch and no cops showed up to escort us outside Whew!

Robbed!

Yesterday morning I woke up and went to the computer to catch up on emails and such. I had Quicken open from the previous night of doing our monthly budget. So, just before closing the program down I updated my transactions. After the download I noticed that I had a new transaction on my Discover card. It was for appleonlineus to the amount of 100.00 even. The transaction took place on Sunday 11/4.

I scratched my head trying to think of anything that Amber or I would have ordered from Apple Computers. I couldn't think of anything so I called the company and asked them about it.

Someone had ordered a $100.00 iTunes Gift Card with my name and Credit Card number. Man I was mad. I wanted to know the email address, ip-address, general location, etc of the purchase, but they would not give me that information. They did, however, commit to refunding the purchase back to my account.

I then called Discover Card and had them cancel my card. After they canceled it they told me that it would be 7 - 10 days before I received my new card. I hung up and then thought about all of the auto-payment setups that I have with Discover. I called them back to complain about the 7 - 10 day wait time and they said, "Well, we could expedite it to you." I asked how long that would take. They said that it would be here tomorrow (today now). Wow! What a difference, I guess I just had to complain a bit!

Anyway, over the next few days I'll be calling businesses and trying to change my credit card on file with them.

I can't believe how easy it is for someone to take your card number these days. It could be from an unsecure website, a mischievous waiter/waitress at the restaurant, or the teenager at the drive-thru window. Anyone who takes your card away from you and returns a few minutes later could have written down the necessary numbers.

Well, that is my first experience with a stolen card. I am hoping my identity is safe in the meantime!

The thing that makes me the most mad....I had just memorized my discover card number! :-)

Baby Refund

Over the past few days, Jace has been a bear to live with. He is screaming unless you are holding him. He won't sleep unless he is in your arms. Amber and I have been a bit frazzled with the amount of sleep he is letting us have - Amber has the worst of it as she is still nursing.

We were joking yesterday about taking him back to the hospital to get a refund. That very same day we got this check in the mail from the Doctor's office from the doctor's that delivered Jace. It was a refund check for the same amount of our copay for Jace's delivery.

Wow! They do give refunds! The only problem is they didn't send a "Return Label" with the refund, so I guess we will have to keep him.

Saturday update

Dad is doing pretty good today. Micah has been at work at the hospital so she has been able to sneak in a few times to say hi. Kyle and I and the kids were there this morning, and he looked pretty good. He is just anxious to go home. Hopefully it will be soon. His oxygen is down to about 4 liters and they are starting to test blood thinners to get rid of the clots he has without making him lose blood. So far he seems to be tolerating things well. I work tonight again so I will be able to drop in on him a few times tonight and in the morning. Thanks to all that have come to visit. It means more than you think! We love you so much. Carina

Glen

Just wanted to let everyone know that Dad is doing ok. They gave him 2 more units of blood yesterday. His blood levels today suggest that he doesn’t have any active bleeding for now. He is having a lot of trouble with walking. He gets pretty winded. He is on a lot of oxygen! I know it is at least 10 liters….but I cannot remember for sure. They are hoping that he won’t need it so much after the next few days. It looks like he has some pneumonia in the bottom of his lungs, but it seems to be getting a little better. He also has staff infection, but for now it doesn’t appear to be MRSA (which is the worst). So for now, he should be there until the first of the week at the very least. Oh and he also has blood clots in his leg, that are breaking loose and moving up (they are mid thigh right now – started in his calf). That normally would be really bad, but since he had the surgery to put the filter in …. So far it is ok. They are trying to decide when they can put him back on his blood thinners. Here is a picture from Halloween. He looks pretty good in this one.

Love ya, Carina

Halloween Haul

Our Halloween festivities made for a very busy day for the family - especially Amber who spent the early morning dressing kids, applying makeup, and taking pictures. The kids had a great time showing off their costumes at school.


Amber and I met at the Mall during lunch with Aliece, Alayna, and Jace hoping to do some trick or treating there. However, we were off on our time and they hadn't started the trick or treating so we just let them play in the play area.



Amber grabbed the kids just as school was getting out and they came to Novell to go trick or treating. We did a couple of floors there and got a lot of candy.



Jake had invited us to go to Omniture for their Halloween activities. So, after about 45 minutes of Novell trick or treating we went to Omniture as Jake's guests. My goodness, they really out did themselves. Each department had its own theme. The place was decked out to the hilt! They had candy, activities, pictures, actors, etc. It was pretty incredible. The kids really enjoyed themselves. They will never be able to look at Novell's trick-or-treating in the same light again!



When we got home we had the traditional chili dogs. Then the kids headed out to go on their third trick or treating outing of the day. For the trick or treaters at our house we played our Halloween Soundtrack that we made and had Jen's old strobe light going in the window as well as a black light that I "inherited" from Jake when he left Novell. We also through a little dry ice in the front yard pond. It was pretty fun.



By the end of the day we had a 5 gallon bucket plus an ice cream bucket of uneaten candy. Our biggest haul ever!

After the kids got in bed, Jake and Shantell came over and visited for a bit. Jake had an interested costume - dressed up as a man with broken fingers - you'll have to ask him why he changed mid-day from Harry Potter to his new outfit.

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

Now Playing, This Halloween

We were wanting some Halloween sound effects to play in our window while the trick or treaters visit us tonight. Last night we got the kids together and mixed up a bunch of home made Halloween sounds. The result was this 4 minute Halloween soundtrack. So, if you need any scary sounds this Halloween, download our kids!

To download the soundtrack and listen to it, click here.

Another update

Sorry I didn’t write here last night, I was so tired. The doctor called me last night at 7 to tell me that she had interpreted test results incorrectly, and with the help of another doctor, they have decided to do another procedure (one that she was thinking she would do anyway). I had been to a checkup at my doctor who is also dad’s doctor. He asked how mom and dad were doing. I said I thought mom was doing ok for now, but that dad was in the icu. He had no clue, the surgeon was supposed to call him, but hadn’t yet. So he literally ran down to the icu to see dad’s status. They ran an ultrasound of his legs, and did find clots. They want to put a filter in his inferior vena cava….(spelling?). They are too nervous to put him back on Coumadin to manage his blood. He usually has this problem with anemia like now. But with nothing he would clot uncontrollably. So this is the best thing they can do now. She will do it today about 11-1130. And while she is in there, she will repeat the egd (upper scope), to see how things look a couple of days after the first one. My work schedule this week is kinda weird. I won’t be able to spend too much time with mom. I work tonight (Tuesday) from 7pm to 7am, Wednesday 11pm to 7am, Thursday 8am to 430pm…and Saturday 7pm to 7am. I would appreciate if you have any time to call and talk with mom and dad. They could really use the company. Visits would be great too, but it is really short notice so I understand if you cant. Mom’s number is 878-2868 and dad’s is (while in the icu 677-6136 or 677-6503 to the icu desk). He may be well enough in the next day or two to move to the medical floor. When he does you can call at 678-4444 and ask for him. When I find out his room number I will let you know.

Love ya lots, Carina

Glen Again

I just wanted to let everyone know that yesterday morning, dad (Glen) stabilized enough that the doctor felt that it was safe enough to do the scope. His numbers were not where she would normally like them, but he was still losing way too much blood, so she felt it safer to check than to wait. She found a big blood clot at the fundus (top) of his stomach that she could not get out. There was a lot of blood in his stomach that she was able to suction out. And at the pyloris (bottom) of his stomach, it was bleeding pretty good. She sprayed some epinephrine (spelling?) on it and watched it for a while. It didn’t start re-bleeding so she felt ok about it. She was nervous about going further into the duodenum (small intestine), because she didn’t want to stir anything up. She went ahead and everything looked ok there. She will probably re-scope him before he leaves or shortly after (as an outpatient), just to make sure nothing has changed. The finally started giving him some diuretics because he has had so much iv fluid, he is very puffy. They gave him that late tonight and is doing good. They didn’t want to give it to him till now, because his blood pressure has been so low, they didn’t want him to bottom out. They also have found that on his chest x-rays that his lungs are looking better, they were looking a little full of fluid, but today’s looks better than yesterday. His sleep apnea is also worse now, sometimes he goes 20 seconds without breathing, so they put him on a cpap machine, and told him he needed to start using his at home again. His heart is also at least 1/3 bigger than it should be, so they are a little worried about that. But feel that they can give him some medicine to help. He has quite a bit more color today than yesterday. He was looking pretty gray. They are hoping to start him on a liquid diet maybe tomorrow. They are thinking that within the next day or two they can also move him to the medical floor out of icu. Thanks for all your prayers, I’ll try to keep you updated.

Love ya, Carina

Glen

Just wanted to let everyone know that we put Dad (Glen) in the hospital last night. He is in the ICU at Cassia (in Burley). Don’t know what is wrong quite yet. We met with the surgeon last night, and we need to get him stable before she can take him into the OR. He has lost a lot of blood. They gave him 6 units of blood and 2 units of plasma last night. They are doing more labs today to see if he will need more. His blood pressure last night was low about 90/45 (lowest about 70/25). It is a little better this morning. He was throwing up digested blood, so we need to do a scope to see where he is bleeding from. He is in serious condition. He is finally getting a little sleep, but not much. They have to wake him up every 15 minutes to do vitals, so just little cat naps. But he is able to talk and visit with the nurses some. Keep him in your prayers. I don’t know if he will be able to talk on the phone (maybe) he is in room 136 (677-6136). I will probably have my cell 312-5741 (I’ll try to keep it on as much as I can). Love ya lots, Carina

Backwards Day

This week is Drug Awareness week at the school. For the week, the school is having dress up days or theme days.

Today's theme was backwards day. The kids had a great time putting their clothes on backwards and heading off to school. Even Alayna got involved and did the backwards thing even though her audience was Amber & Jace.

All Tied Up!

Now this is the way to control kids!
Tie them up!

The Pledge

Wow...was I surprised when Jenna all of a sudden blurted this out! I had no clue she had ever practiced it!

New Job

I just had to tell everyone that I got a new job at the hospital. I will still work in Same Day Surgery/OR, but now I will also work in the Birth Center. I am so excited. I will have more hours, but they will be at night, so I can work while the kids are sleeping (I hate finding places for the kids to go during the day - I feel like I am burdening people). Anyways...I will be working as a CNA and get to assist in deliveries and take care of the babies too! I'll let you know how it goes!

Snow-FALL

This morning we woke to a blanket of snow. It was quite the experience for us to have snow this early. I am not ready for winter to be on the horizon already.

The kids begged Amber to let them go out in the snow. It being Sunday, Amber said that they could go out for just five minutes or so to build a quick little snowman. The kids were dedicated to the task and quickly built their man of snow.

I was surprised in that the snowman lasted all day and into tonight. I guess we can always hope for an early ski season!

Blanket

Ok everyone! I went to the store and bought this pattern. We all know that I don't sew...well not so straight! Anyways....these will be made for Christmas....I'll keep you updated!!!
Carina


Simplicity 4993 One Size Rag Quilt Wall Hangin
One Size Rag Quilt Wall Hangin

When We're Helping We're Happy

I worked from home today as Amber went to volunteer at the school. It is a little more tricky now on these days that I work from home because we have an infant. Today, Jace woke up while Amber was gone and was hungry.

I didn't know how I would be able to continue working and feed Jace at the same time, so I asked Alayna if she would like to feed Jace. She was ecstatic! I got the bottle ready and plopped him on her lap. Jace was satisfied and Alayna was in Heaven!

The End of an Era

Today marked a sad end to a multiyear chapter in my own history. I have been preparing for it for the last few weeks, but it will be a hard transition I'm sure. Today Jake and I diverge in our career paths. As of tomorrow, Jake will no longer work at Novell with me. I'm excited for that career change the Jake will begin in the next few weeks. But it will be hard to go without yelling out of my office and having him reply to random comments and thoughts. I don't know who I will sit with at company meetings and get-togethers. I don't know with whom I will express frustration or laugh about funny things within the office.

I remember that I was very excited the day the Jake got hired on at Novell. It was almost a dream come true for me. I had gone from working on the farm with family all of my youth, to the lonely world of city life. I was thrilled when Jake was excited to interview for a position at the company where I worked. The rest is history. It has been a real enjoyment for me to be employed with my brother and work side-by-side.

I'll let Jake give you all the details of his leaving Novell, and his thoughts, but I just wanted to say thanks to Jake for making Novell a much funner place to work. Who knows, but we'll cross paths again in the professional world. In the meantime he does remain in Provo and I'm sure we'll get together often.

Now I wonder what it will take to convince Joe that he wants to come work with me at Novell.

Alayna Singing to Jace

The other day I was holding Jace and Alayna came in and started to sing songs to him. I realized that I was missing a kodak moment, so I grabbed the camera and filmed her singing "I am a Child of God". Of course, once I got the camera pointed at her she would look to the camera instead of Jace, but it was cute none-the-less.

If you can't see the video, click on the following link:

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-4478280120313811274&hl=en

Jace gets Involved

It was fun to share conference with the kids this Saturday and Sunday. Jace was especially fun to be with on Sunday. Sunday was probably the very first day that Jace really interacted with his eyes. He started giving us intense gazes and would follow our movements. He was pretty dang alert and even acted like he enjoyed some Boy time with Johnathan and I during one of the conference talks.

Jace continues to endure the constant requests to hold him and play with him. All the kids love to be near him. Now that he will look at you and even give a hint of a smile, it is even funner!

Tree Planting

Mom, Dad, Jen, Chloe and Joe were down to see Jace on Thursday and Friday. While they were down here I kept Dad pretty busy. One of our activities was to plant our free tree from Provo City. Alayna wanted to help Dad and I, so she headed out to supervise. Didn't take us too long, but it will look great in a year or two.

Other odd jobs that got done were fixing the scooter and evaluating the latest repairs on the truck.

We had a great weekend with everyone down here.

Congratulations Lynn

Hello Family,
We had a branch party Friday night, I was sick @ couldn't go buy Lynn went and the men were cooking the main dishes.
Lynn made BBQ pork ribs and they were delicious! HE WON 1ST PRIZE FOR HIS DISH!
He won a Chef's hat. I thought I would show you a picture of the Happy winner eating one of his favorite snacks. Milk and ginger snap cookies.. Congratulations Lynn.

Help

Planning to go to the South Towne Expo center. Looking for cheap, but good places to stay and eat. Any ideas??? Email me at work carina.blacker@intermountainmail.org

Welcome Home: Jace Reed Andersen

This morning just after 11AM, Amber and the baby came home from the hospital. Before we left the hospital, we called the Social Security Lady associated with the hospital and told her our baby's name: Jace Reed Andersen

Everyone is excited to have Jace and Mom home with us. Of course Jace has been the center of attention all afternoon. I hope he is ready for this constant companionship of older siblings!

Tugging at your Heartstrings

Amber has been doing very well at the hospital. Ever since the first day of her stay there, she has been up and walking around. The nurses are amazed at how well she is doing. She was doing so well that she had hoped that she could come home today. Normal C-section visits would dictate that she comes home Friday morning. However the nurses in and she felt that it would be fine for her to come home today.

Amber was disappointed, however, when she learned this morning that the doctor wanted her to stay with the full-time. He didn't have any reason for it, he just thought it would be best. Amber had a hard time accepting that, and it took some sweet talking on my part to help her feel better about it.

While Ann went exercising this morning, Alayna sat in our office in the house and stuck close to me. She was being very clingly.

Amber called while I was holding Alayna. I talked to Amber for a bit and had her convinced that we were all doing OK and that things would be fine for her to stay the extra day as originally planned. I then thought it would be a good idea if Alayna had the chance to talk to Amber. I asked Amber she had a minute to talk to Alayna. Amber agreed. I asked Alayna she would like to talk to Amber. Alayna shook her head yes. When I gave the phone to Alayna she immediately began sobbing from the bottom of her heart. In between chokes of tears, Alayna got out the words, "Mommy, I want you to come home!" and that was all she could say. She then just sobbed and sobbed.

By the time that I got Alayna off the phone, Amber was in tears herself. So much for rescuing the situation. Amber did end up staying there at the hospital today. But, she was mad at me for making her smear her makeup with her tears from that emotional episode with Alayna on the phone.

Our new Real Estate Agent

Thought I would pass this post along of Jake's. JO

I'm a Utah Real Estate Agent!

I had the month of August off from MBA school, so I thought that I would put that time to good use. I signed up for Real Estate classes, attended them all, and on Friday I just passed the state exams to qualify me to become a real estate agent for the state of Utah. I have not yet signed up with a brokerage, but I will be doing that in the near future.

Over the past couple of years, I have been kicking myself for not getting my RE license instead of selling those stupid security systems :) when I got home from my mission. I talked to Shantell and she told me that I'd regret it forever if I didn't get it out of the way while I had time. I'm glad that I got done when I did, becuase the state has now upped the education requirement from 60 hours of classtime to 90 hours. I finished the classes 1 week before the change went into effect.

I am hoping to get my Idaho license as well, and that should be quite a bit easier. Idaho and Utah have an agreement that makes it so that it's not too tough to be a realtor in both places. I will have to take some Idaho real estate law classes and take the state exam, but that shouldn't be too bad. I will probably work on that in December or some other time where I feel like I've got some extra time.

So, that means if any of you decide to buy or sell houses, I am the guy to come to :).

Friday, September 07, 2007

Welcome Baby #5

Well, our fifth baby arrived today at 7:30 AM. Our insurance carrier changed since our last baby was born, so due to the change, we had to switch hospitals. There is a new federal law that saws if your doctors have an office that is further than X miles from your hospital, and you have had a C-section before, you have to have a C-section again. Aylee was C-section due to her being breach, however, the other kids were all vaginal births. The law still stands and Amber had to have a C-section this morning to bring our little son into the world.

We are still looking for a name right now. He came in weighing 7 lbs. 9 ozs. He was 20 in. tall. The doctors were getting a kick out of his high pitched little scream that he has. Baby #5 does not have much hair on his head - another difference from all of our other children.

He had a low blood sugar count after the birth and thus the hospital ran some extra tests - especially where Amber had the Gestational Diabetes. But, the determined it was low simply due to Amber not eating anything before her surgery because all of his other tests were just fine.

Amber did a great job. It is pretty intimidating to go in for a C-section when you know well and good that you could do just fine without it. She was stellar. She astounded everyone by standing up and walking up and down the halls at mid-afternoon. We're hoping that she can be as active as possible so that she can resume her regularly scheduled chores by the end of the week ;-).

Ann and Jake have been down watching the kids and taking care of that end of the spectrum. We're sure glad to have their help.

The kids are very excited for their new brother. Each got to hold him a couple of times today. Aliece has also insisted that it is "tradition" that we go eat a McDonalds on a day when we have a new baby born in our family. I don't know how it can be tradition when we just did that for Alayna, but Amber acquiesced and Jake Reed and I took the kids to McDonalds for dinner tonight to celebrate the occasion!

We'll try to keep you posted as we get a name picked for the little tyke.

Reverent Delirium

Yesterday at church I had to come late because I was attending the Spanish-speaking branch. As I walked into the chapel, I had a hard time finding my family because they were so darn reverent and quiet. Usually I see heads bobbing or excited voices talking.

When I finally located my family, I went in and sat down next to them on the bench. After sitting there for just a few minutes I noticed that there was something different. Amber turned to me and whispered into my ear saying, "Aliece is cracking me up, she is trying very hard to be reverent."

I turned and looked at Aliece, she was sitting there with her arms folded and and her mouth suppressing a proud smile at the effort that she was giving for reverence. This continued, throughout the whole first part of the sacrament meeting. We did not hear a single sound from her even as they passed the sacrament. Even the ward clerk noticed something different and smiled as he walked by counting the members in the rows.

Aliece maintained the same composure even throughout the first speaker. Every time I would look at her, she would try to suppress that proud smile that she knew exactly what she was doing. Amber and I were just amazed. We figured all of this reverence however, must have been pretty tiring, because after the first speaker she had fallen soundly asleep.

At the end of the meeting, we decided that it would be time to wake her up so that she would be ready to go to her class. As I lifted her up to start to wake her, I noticed that she felt quite warm. Amber and I figured that it was just because that she was asleep and laying next to Amber. However, after the closing song and the closing prayer, Aliece was still very warm.

I decided that I should take her home and take her temperature. Right after the meeting she and I hopped into the van and drove home. I took Aliece's temperature and found that she had a fever of 102°.

I then realized, that this newfound desire for reverence, was likely nothing more than the result of a delirium coming from her high fever. Oh well, it was nice to think that our daughter was turning a new leaf. :)

Aliece's first tooth (loss)

Aliece was over to the neighbor's house today playing when she tripped and fell -- knocking her mouth on their table. After the incident, she politely asked the mother if she could go home for a minute to check on her tooth.

She came and showed Amber her mouth. There was blood everywhere and Amber tested the tooth to find that she nearly knocked it out - it was pretty wiggly. Amber yanked the tooth out and Aliece is the proud owner of a missing front tooth.

Aliece is pretty excited to be getting a visit from the tooth fairy tonight. She has all of the tooth protocol down to the letter due to the experiences of her older siblings.

Aliece is the third person this week who has lost a tooth in our home. Johnathan lost one late last week and Aylee did earlier this week. That's quite a stretch for us!

The Barraki Star

Johnathan has recently been infatuated with the Bionicle website -- especially the Barraki movie trailer.

He has the theme song memorized and just sang it at his school for show and tell.

I have posted a copy of his singing. Just click this link:

http://www.john-james-andersen.com/john_baraci.mp3

Guy's Day

Earlier in the year, Jacob had mentioned that he wanted the men in the family to get together for a guy's day. Having Joseph go to California, however, threw a wrench into planning anything during the summer. However with Joe's recent return, Jacob did not waste any time in calling us altogether to have a quick guys get away.


The activity of choice was a simple fishing trip up to the Bear River near Grace, Idaho. Jake and I traveled from Provo and met Dad, Dave, and Joseph. I had looked up a couple of spots on the Internet that were popular fishing locations around Grace. Our selection was the Black Canyon near Grace. It was a beautiful little canyon made of lava rock. The river was more shallow here and had several terraces making small waterfalls.

During the beginning of our fishing adventure, dad showed us all up by catching the first two or three fish. Us boys were only successful at catching lots and lots of green seaweed. After a couple of hours, I caught about three nice sized fish in a row. I soon shared my power bait with Jake and Joe who started to fish the same hole as myself. Dad came up to the bridge where we were fishing off of, and started fishing also. I started looking around for Dave, as he had been fishing upstream a little bit earlier. I scanned the banks of the river to no avail. I asked dad to help me in my bank scanning. Finally as I was looking off the bridge I saw what looked like a fishing pole sticking out of the water. Then I noticed what looked like Dave's hat. My heart jumped in my body, thinking that maybe Dave had been crossing the river and had slipped and fell and have gone unconscious. Seeing his fishing pole sticking out of the water, I was afraid that Dave had drowned. As I was pointing over toward Dave, trying to get dad to see what I was seeing, I saw Dave's hand come out of the water and give me a quick little wave. Instead of being a drowned body lying in the river, Dave had taken off his shirt and donned some swimming shorts and had laid himself in the water underneath a waterfall and was fishing totally submerged except for his head. I laughed to myself and thought that is so much like Dave!

By the end of our adventure, everyone of us had a caught at least one fish. We had a great time spending the day fishing.

To finish off our great day, we stopped by a local diner and ordered some burgers. It was fun to sit and chat and talk about the day's activities. We had such a great time together, I fear that we will have to make this an annual occasion. It was good to get us altogether and it was especially good to see Joe after having him be in California during the summer.

Lots of Pictures!

We have been having lots of pictures taken lately.I just had Jenna and Joey's taken (Micah had to work and Brad didn't want to). I figured this was ok since we will have our school pictures really soon. Micah and Brad just had their school pictures taken earlier this week. Jenna will have her pre-school pictures taken soon - and by the way I chose to send her back to her old preschool. Brad is getting football pictures next week. And before we know it both kids will have another set of school pictures this next spring, and then Jenna's dance pictures. Wow that is a lot of pictures. Anyways...I thought I would share some. Some I really like...and some I don't.Some really show their personalities....I love this one of Joey.The photographer was not very good with little ones.And some of their smiles are pretty...well not natural. But they turned out pretty good anyway.
Aren't they the cutest??!!?