Fun in Raleigh

A couple of weekends ago while Chris was busy with the youth at church, we took the opportunity to go to Raleigh and hang out with all our people over there! We had so much fun with KayKay, Amanda, Brandy and her girls, and Emily, Rob, Jane and Cora. It's so great that they're all so close together so that we get the bonus of seeing everyone at once :)

On Saturday, in KayKay's neighborhood, they were having a Fall Festival that we all met up at.

Here we are on the train ride. The kids really did enjoy it!

They had these big hamster balls that we convinced Cadence to do. She's such a trooper and did great!

all while the brothers cheered her on.....

Playing the dancing video games with Mya

Trying to fit 3 kids in a double stroller! Caleb Shaun wasn't having anything to do with it!

After lunch at Subway where KayKay loaded everyone up with Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Creed enjoyed his :)

Something other than church stuff :)

Not a ton has gone on in the Andersen house as we're gearing up for the holidays but since this blog has been way more neglected than it should be, here are some pictures of some of the stuff we've done lately. Nothing spectacular, just everyday life!

An afternoon at the park - always a good distraction while Daddy is teaching.

Look at how big this girl is! I love her big self!

Caleb climbed up and went down the big slide all by himself! He was so proud :)

Corn on the Cob for dinner. I love Creed's fat squishy fingers. and he LOVES corn on the cob! Seriously, if we all had the passion for life that he has for corn, we could accomplish great things :)

We were all so thankful for a warm day in November! Everything stopped and we just played outside instead...

Middle School girls learning how to cook! So fun and Cadence wanted to go - and why wouldn't we let her? If Cadence is going to aspire to be like someone, these girls are definitely on our list of people for her to look up to! She got to make the brownies and then lick the bowl so it was a good day in her world :)

Songs for Hootenanny

Here are the links to all the songs in one place! Happy Learning!

TAKE IT ALL

YOU'RE WORTHY OF MY PRAISE

SO GOOD TO ME

ALL BECAUSE OF JESUS

SING SING SING

LEAN ON ME

TODAY IS THE DAY!

ONE WAY

LORD I LIFT YOUR NAME ON HIGH

ME WITHOUT YOU

GOOD MORNING

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

MY SOUL MAGNIFIES THE LORD

HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SING

RISE AND SING

OPEN THE EYES OF MY HEART

TELL THE WORLD

BLESSED BE YOUR NAME

READY SET GO

Halloween!

This year for Halloween the Force was with us! For all the drama that Christians bring around this time of year, it is still super fun to get to dress our kids up, load them up with sugar, keep them out way too late, and have them entice strangers to give them the candy :)

All that aside, here are our 3 Star Wars people trying to pose for a picture. Caleb obviously wasn't much into it but he's 2 - so what do you expect? Creed wouldn't stay still - which is why he's being man-handled by his sister AKA Princess Leia (and yes I did her hair myself!) :)

Caleb at least got a little less zombie-like once we let him have the light saber - although both Cadence and Creed look a little worried in the pictures where he has it.....I wonder why...

Creed excited that Caleb and his light saber walked away!

Caleb saying "cheese" again. I don't know why he tilts his head to the side to say it - but he always does!

and of course our beautiful Princess. She's pretty much awesome!

From 3-5 our downtown businesses hand out candy. So, us and most of Mooresville, dressed up early and headed out to get free candy.

The boys - perfectly content with their lollipops from the bank.

The ridiculous line of people that crawled along the sidewalk to get a piece of candy. We didn't do that...

we walked the opposite of the flow of traffic on the OTHER side of the street and got our candy that way! Chris wasn't thrilled about this, but I thought it was a good idea.

Creed in a sugar coma. The muck on his face is where stickiness from candy has mixed with the felt of his $5 costume and made his face ultra-dirty.

We went to the Kales along with the Devines, Lewis', and Starings and busted out the fire pit for the evening. It was so fun! Our boys are way into fire - which is scary - but thankfully with enough adults around, we were safe!

and this is the sign of a really fun day....

Girls Weekend!

This past weekend Cadence and I went on a trip - just the 2 of us - to Florida! It was Tara's baby shower, Terica is in the states, and overall I was in need of some time "south" so Cadence and I headed out.

Killing time in the airport

I took no pictures of our time at Terica's but it was lots of fun just hanging out and letting our kids play. It's so fun that we all have kids that , for the most part, enjoy playing together.

The next day was Tara's baby shower - which I also took no pictures of :) and then we went back the the Allen's house to hang out. Cadence and Xander played during the shower and then we all went back to their house. Tara and I worked on the Myra's nursery and caught up while the kids played and watched a movie.

That evening, Xander's school was having a Trunk or Treat so we thought it would be fun to go to! Xander was already planning to be a pirate and since we didn't bring Cadence's halloween costume, we put together a girl pirate outfit and off we went!

Getting Candy!

This truck was by far the best "trunk or treat" trunk I've ever seen!

There were games to play and inflatables to jump on and of course pictures to color (Cadence was really excited for the coloring)

After a full day with the Allen's we headed south to Green GiGi's to spend the night. Lellow GiGi had been shopping and brought back a coloring book so they got to color some more!

What a full weekend in FL leaves you feeling like :)

After a super long (5 hour) delay in Punta Gorda, we were finally on the plane to go home. Probably the only advantage to the delay was that the sky was beautiful as the sun set while we flew. So, we took some pictures of it for Daddy to see :)

I'm so thankful, not only for great friends and family in FL, but for the chance to spend some one-on-one time with our girl. She's growing up much too fast for my liking and with the

busy-ness of the 2 boys I feel like I often miss sweet moments to just enjoy being with her. So, when there's a whole weekend full of fun - Cadence style - it's a great chance to recharge my tank with her and at the same time savor every moment with her because they're going by way too quickly!