Alayna helping with the Garbage

A few weeks ago Alayna wanted to surprise me by taking the garbage can back to the house for me after the garbage truck emptied it.

I snuck over by a tree and took this video:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpEmKG-0m0w

End of School for the Summer

On Thursday, Aliece had her Preschool graduation. Next year she enters Kindergarten with a very good teacher. We are excited for Aliece!!

On Friday, Aylee and Johnathan got out after a half day of school to celebrate their commencement of summer vacation.

We're looking forward to keeping the kids really busy this summer with baseball, swimming, and of course chores! :-)

Dinosaurs, Indians and Goblins

What is this, a prehistoric, sci-fi, history channel report??? Well, our weekend could be described in such a way.

Amber planned a cool trip for our family down in the southern portions of Utah. Our first stop was Price, UT where we visted a cool Dinosaur museum. It was pretty cool because that area of Utah is where they have uncovered some huge quarries of dinosaur bones. It was pretty amazing what they have found. They had a kid's activity center where Aliece and Alayna spent most of their time.

After the museum we headed up to our campsite in Nine-Mile Canyon. We set up our camp and ate a quick dinner. Then we headed up the canyon to look at petroglyphs. The ancient petroglyphs are still around due to the flat sandstone rock walls all around the canyon. They say that the canyon has been inhabited for 8,000 years! We didn't have too much time there before it got dark, but the kids saw some cool rock art before we had to turn around.

On Saturday we loaded the kids in the van and headed down to Goblin Valley. It was quite a landscape. This state park has some of the coolest land formations - but they still let you hike among them and climb all over them. The kids had a great time exploring the valley of Goblins. While we were there we found a geocache, a snake, and a really cool cave.

It was a hot day, so after our excursions, we were beat. We sure were glad we came in May and not July.

We had a great time as a family, and are now ready for a restful Sunday!

Can't take the cold? Get out of the water!

Most of you all have been experiencing the small cold spell this week that we have experienced. Although our temperatures have not dropped below freezing this week, it was cold enough the other night that when I went to work the next morning, I walked by our small waterfall pond to find all of our fish floating on the top of the water.

Not to worry though. Amber called me later in the day all grossed out. Aliece had kindly fished out all remaining 8 goldfish and laid them out to dry on our little wishing well in the front yard! Amber was near panic and didn't know what to do about the fish lying on our lawn decoration. I suggested that she have Aliece take the fish and put them in the garbage.

Despite Amber's disgust regarding Aliece's behavior, when I got home I paid Aliece five cents for each of the fish she got out of the pond for me :-).

Congratulations Graduates

Jenna had preschool graduation today!

She goes to Little Learners Preschool and this was her first year.....she will go again next year.


This is her teacher Mrs. Lorelei

And this is her other teacher Miss Jenny.


I cannot believe she is growing up so fast!


Isn't she beautiful!!

Hot days and Cold Seats

The other day we took the kids to the Choir Concert where Amber was playing piano and Aylee was singing. The concert took place in the school gym. Since Amber had to accompany, I was watching the kids by myself. We had to get there early so that Amber and Aylee could get situated in their places, so we were able to score front row seats.

We had about 15 minutes before the choir started, so we let the kids sit on the floor an do art, climb over the chairs, and whatever else little monkeys like to do in public places.

We were all dressed up for the special event. Johnathan and I were in our ties, and Amber ahd the girls dolled up in dresses. Before the concert started, Alayna kept complaining about the metal folding chairs being cold and wanted to sit on my lap. I kept telling her, no. I wanted to demonstrate how I could keep my children in an appropriate attitude and comportment for concerts. Besides with the heat of the afternoon outside, I thought the cooler gym was nice.

During the first part of the concert I was taking little film clips of each song to capture the moment. Aliece and Alayna would try to talk to me and I would "Shsh" them and try not to look at them so that they would be discouraged from trying to talk to me during the performance. This worked pretty well, except for Alayna's plea's to sit on my lap because of the cold chairs.

Half way through the event I did a quick check on the kids to make sure that they were paying rapt attention to the musical program. As my eyes glanced on Alayna, I just about died. Our little girl was sitting on the chair with legs in Indian style. There in plain view was the absence of any underclothing under that dress. With my face turning red, I quickly grabbed the child and sat her on my lap with her dress pinned down to my legs so as not to expose her to the 125 elementary school choir children directly in front of us.

In between two of the songs, I caught Amber's attention and showed her a very upper thigh on Alayna. Amber caught on immediately and began laughing her head off.

What is with this child lately!!!

Amelia Earhart Choir Concert - Spring 2007

Thursday night, Aylee's school choir had their annual school performance. They did a great job. Amber was one of two accompanists. It is always fun to hear them perform. My favorite song they did was "Grandma's Feather Bed".

Don't touch that dial!

For the past week, Provo has been experiencing weather that is too hot for the month of May. The nineties are upon us already and we are feeling it.

I have been coming home to a pregnant and complaining wife everyday. She has been making comments about how hot our house is and how uncomfortable she has been. She has been giving me a daily report on which room is the coolest for the day and how she has tried to do all of her activities in that one room.

I guess I have just figured that she is pregnant and has just been uncomfortable. Going to Male and Female communication classes in my day, I know that women are not always looking for solutions to problems they talk about, rather they want a listening ear and some compassion. So, I try to empathize and tell her how sorry I feel for her.

Well, since it is Sunday, and I am actually home during the hot hours of the day, I noticed that it was pretty darn warm in the house. I went over to the thermostat and thought I would set the temperature to be a little be cooler. As I touched the button on the thermostat, I noticed that it was set at 85 degrees. I thought, man, no wonder it is hot in here, the kids must be playing with the thermostat.

When Amber came downstairs, I told her that the heat was getting to me and that I noticed how high the thermostat was set.. "I know!" was her reply. "I have been turning that thing up and up all week and it just won't cool off!"

I asked her to repeat herself, which she did. When I started laughing, she caught on to what she has been doing. All week she has been dying of heat. Trying to cool off the house, she has been turning the thermostat HIGHER rather than LOWER (mixing up how we work the air conditioner with how we run the furnace).

She has been having quite a few similar "pregnant moments" lately. I hope we make it to September!

Supressed Emotions

I was cleaning up some art projects that the kids had scattered across the house this past week. As I was chucking things, this artwork caught my eye.

Johnathan has a kid in his class named Leland. Leland is very rambunctious and has quite a discipline problem. He is a pretty rough kid around the edges and sometimes really bothers Johnathan. I don't know the story behind this picture, but I get the feeling that Johnathan was a little fed up with Leland the other day. I just wonder what his teacher thought of it! (You may have to click on the picture to get the full effect).

Hello Baby #5

Today was the big day for the Andersen Crew. Amber had her 20 week ultrasound. She worked it out perfectly of course and planned the ultrasound coincidental to our kids' day off of school. We loaded the gang and headed to the doctor's office. The kids did pretty well and were very excited to see baby #5 in action.

As for the gender of the baby, I am posting a picture that reveals all. See if you can figure it out yourselves. If you need a hint, just picture our family leaving the ultrasound room and going out of the office through the stuffed waiting room with Aliece sobbing, "But I wanted a baby sister!!"

A little much

So at work on Friday, I was in a meeting from 8:40 till 4:00. It was a FOCUS meeting from FranklinCovey, I'm guessing some have heard of it (maybe not all).
Anyways....it was pretty good, I learned a ton. Most of what I learned was that I am completely not organized!!! I've had a day to think about it...and holy cow...I just spent 8 hours at a class learning how to organize myself and I cannot even put the stinken binder together correctly.
I guess lesson of the day...don't procrastinate putting your planner together!
Wow I just realized how boring this post is. Maybe I should schedule some sleep time??

Age is catching up to me!

While Amber was up in Spokane last week, I had to suffer through a traumatic experience on my own. While combing my hair last Thursday morning, I discovered a very prominent and noticeable gray hair! I looked at it several times to confirm it. There is no denying it, it is gray. I checked today and it is still there. Man...I am not ready for this!

To add insult to injury, last night Amber and I were visiting about the choir concert that she and Aylee performed in yesterday at Abravanel Hall. Amber mentioned that one of the choirs used a tape recorder for their accompaniment. Aylee piped up, "Mom, what is a tape recorder?" Wow...I feel the wrinkles coming on as I type!

Jen and Chloe stayed for a few days and it was so much fun to have them. It sure makes me excited for their move here. Hopefully we will get to see them much, much, more often.
I went out and looked at the little house today and it got me so excited. I love it and can't wait for it to get finished.
Jen and Dave, If you fix the place up, we could give you a real good deal on it to live in when you move here. It would fit your budget very nicely.
It would be a little bit of a commute to Pocatello for you, when you get your job and go to school in the fall. but you'll save so much on buying the house, that you could afford it. :)

Lynn finished drilling down on the church ground yesterday. He drilled grass and Hay. This is for the project. We could sure use your added faith & Prayers, that it will have enough moisture to come up like it should and do well.
Have a great day family... *****Glad your home Amber, Aliece & Alayna. We all missed you.
Love, Jo

Dance recital time.

Jenna is a pretty lion this year in dance. They are having fun with a huge Disney program. All the girls are Nala, and they have two Simba's.

They had their first program last night. She just gets right up there and shows the crowd her stuff.

Jenna has two dances. Her first is ballet and they dance to "Circle of Life." And her second is tap and they dance to "I just can't wait to be king."

If I can figure out how to post video, I'll post some from last night.

I try really hard to teach my kids manners. But sometimes I feel I'm just not getting through to them.

All I can say is that it must've tasted really good.

Because Joey really seems to be getting into it.

I'm just glad he expresses himself at home, and not so much in church...lol