Merry Christmas 2010..

3 days away...

I can't believe Christmas is just 3 days away. We are working hard to get ready to leave for the cabin tomorrow, Where we will spend Christmas and new years. We are really looking forward to this break to be with family!We have been busy with fun christmas things. This is just a random post of some fun pics of the kiddos.
My kids are so excited for christmas. Our Elf Bling came back this year and they have loved finding him every morning, Ella laughs her head off everytime she sees him, it is so cute. We have tried focusing on Christ each night before bed and reminding the kids that this is why it is the best time of year, because His spirit is all around. I love the feeling everywhere and know that it is His spirit that brings this happiness and Joy into our homes. Merry Christmas everyone!

 Skinny Brigham!

 They have to do a nice face picture and then I let them do a silly picture, Ella always tries to do whatever her brothers are doing!

A Christmas Party with friends..

We had the funnest little get together last night with my friends from high school. It was so fun to sit and talk with all of them and to reminisce about the old days and to talk about the new days, we are all in the same stage of life right now, married with young families, so we all have so much in common and it was seriously so fun to just be with them. I love them all and feel so blessed that I had these girls in High School and that I still have them now, I think it is pretty awesome that we were all married in the temple and we are all still very active in the church. I love you girls, thanks for such a fun night and I am looking forward to another one next month!

 Heidi, Melissa, Carrie, Hayley, Ashlee, Sandy, Butch, Me

 We did a white elephant exchange, there was some awesome gifts but this one was by far the best, Sandy had found a picture that was taken of all of us at our all night senior party and she blew it up to huge, Carrie got it and we were all dying at how young we all look especially compared to high school kids now, then we tried to re-inact the photo, I think it would have been perfect had Jade and Zeis been there. Seriously love these girls.

 Melissa and chad got a bag full of old Jazz stuff

 and the other hilarious gift was these huge underwears, seriously can you even believe they make  these.

 So glad we were able to get together and can't wait to do it again!

Sub for Santa and Candlelight Christmas...

The Shupe family decided to do a Sub for Santa family this year instead of gifts for each other.
So we sponsored a family of 5, each of us took a family member and bought a few things for them. Our little family bought for a 5 year old little boy, so Parley helped me pick some things out, he was a little curious as to who this little boy was and why we were buying presents for someone we didn't even know, I explained to him why we were doing it and I mentioned that this family didn't have very much money so we just wanted to help them a little bit with some christmas presents, he then said, "Mom, I want to give him all my money in my missionary bank." He has had this missionary bank since he turned one and has been putting any spare change or money he has earned working with his dad in it. I kind of forgot about this simple request until monday night when we were getting ready to go deliver everything to this little family and Parley said again, "mom, I really want to give this boy all my money." I asked him if he was sure and explained to him that it was a lot of money, He said he was sure, so we dumped it out and counted about 35 dollars, I asked him again if he reallywanted to do this and he had his pure little heart set on it. so we put it all in a little baggy and he asked me to put it in a box like a present. I was so proud of Parley, I know how important that money was to him and think that he made quite the sacrifice for this little boy. I will always remember this experience and hope that Parley will too. We delivered everything to this little family in their tiny basement apartment, they were very grateful and the boy was excited when Parley gave him the box with the money in it. What a great experience for our family and what a blessing this time of year is to give us these wonderful opportunities to help each other out!
After we delivered everything we went to dinner at Hire's and then up to This is the place park and went to Candle light Christmas, it was a lot of fun, they had lots of activities for the kids, a train ride, a nativity , santa, a puppet show etc. it was a lot of fun and all my kids loved it.

Potty Trained...

  So I honestly didn't think this day would ever come for Brigham. He is quite a stubborn little boy and when he gets his mind set on something he doesn't waver, He has wanted nothing to do with going potty in the toilet. Everyone always told me that the second one is always easier because they want to do whatever their big brother is doing, this is not the case for Brigham, he could care less where Parley goes potty! but about 3 weeks ago I decided one monday morning to give it a shot, (My goal has always to been to have him potty trained by Christmas) he fought me all morning on just putting the underwear on, I finally got them on him by distracting him and while I was in my bathroom getting ready he ran back and told me he had to go potty, I couldn't believe it. He went in the toilet standing up and all. I was so proud and we made a very big deal of it. Well, he had a few accidents that day, more than not, but I felt we made progress, The next day was even better and I am happy to say that a couple of weeks later, he has it down, he has still had a few accidents mostly when he is playing mario kart because he doesn't want to take the time to go, but other than that he has done awesome. I am so proud of Brig and feel so happy to have only one in diapers. Definitely a blessing!! Love you Briggy boy, way to go! (his legs are so skinny and pretty much no underwear fit him, hopefully he grows into them soon)

Thanksgiving 2010..

Our Thanksgiving was very low key this year and it was actually pretty nice to not be in a hurry to go anywhere. We ate dinner at 4:00 at Great Gma and Gpa Shupe's house, so we pretty much hung out all day in our pajamas and watched the parade and played some wii until we had to go. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving day and that we all were able to remember all that we have to be Thankful for!

 This is how Parley looked the other day when he got home from  school, he had had a thanksgiving feast! Parley came home an Indian and Brig came home a pilgrim ( i wasn't able to get a picture of brig because he fell asleep on his way home from school that day)

 Travis's mom Heidi was supposed to make a few pies for Thanksgiving and since her kitchen is under remodel right now I volunteered my kitchen so I could watch her and re-learn how to make pie, I remember making pies in foods my senior year of high school but honestly I don't think I have made one since. So this was so fun for me to watch her and help her, Thanks Heidi for teaching me how to make pies again! bythe way they were delicious!

 This is my only picture from thanksgiving dinner, but here is the 3 kids enjoying their dinner...

And here is our Thankful turkey for 2010, this has been a fun tradition for our family, we try to do a thankful feather every night in November, we missed a few nights but for the most part Parley wouldn't let us miss! The kids loved doing it! A few things we were thankful for this year are:
-School, Church, Bottle, Coloring, House, Turkey, Blanket,  family, Bedroom, Ella, Food, Ball, Book of Mormon, Prophets, Cars, Body, Grandma's and Grandpa's, Jesus, The U.S.A, an amazing Husband, Girls (that was parley's yikes!), Bed, Toys, Fresh Air, Camera, Temples.
It was fun to hear what the kids were thankful for each night and how they would really think about it. as for me, I am so thankful for my little family, I love them more than anything and I can't even imagine life without them. We hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! WE are all looking forward to Christmas!

A Christmas Party in November...

 We had our 2nd annual Anderson Family christmas party where we went to the Bishop's storehouse and worked for 2 hours and then went to the Brown's for a yummy dinner and program. It was a very fun night. I loved going to the storehouse there was something for all of my kids to do.

 this year we packaged toilet paper..

 bagged potatoes...

 these 2 were as happy as can be riding on the carts..

 these 2 were so crazy together but at least they had fun while they worked..

 Me and my sister Emily took lots of the youngest kids into the store part and stocked the shelves..

 Brig was my best little helper and loved stocking everything...

 we also bagged oranges..

 Then we went to Brown's for a yummy dinner, it was so fun to be with everyone and of course we missed Brad and Aimee and their family and of course mom and dad, but are so excited that they get to be here with us next year. 

 Travis and I brought home a whole bunch of gifts for everyone from my parents from the philippines , all the guys and older boys got some oakley knockoffs, they modeled for us!

This totally got me in the mood for the Holidays, I had to give the program and I focused on Gratitude, we have so much to be grateful for. And my eyes were totally opened when we went to the Philippines, I really feel so blessed to have all that we have , especially the little things that we take for granted everyday, like flushing toilets, warm water, a garbage system that takes away garbage once a week, a beautiful home full of more than enough of everything! I really think that my kids closets could clothe more than 100 kids in the philippines. We have so much to be grateful for, and I am so grateful for this time of year to reflect on that and to be with family. I love to be with family, I think that is what the Holidays are all about and am really looking forward to the next couple of weeks to do just that!

Pres. Monson said in his talk "The divine gift of Gratitude":

My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven. 

I just loved that and thought that I am going to really try to live with Gratitude ever in my heart, so that I can touch Heaven. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!