V-Day Photoshoot

Every year I try to get a picture of the Andersen kids around Valentine's Day. This used to be a fun endeavor - back when there was one cute little girl who loves to have her picture taken.......

Since adding boys, this picture has turned out to be more of a chore than a fun afternoon with cute kids. However, we press on! determined to get a picture. This year it took 42 attempts to get something that I could settle on. Here are some of the outtakes for your viewing pleasure :)

Yes, Caleb Shaun is drumming on Creed's head - another reason that I'm grateful to only have sisters!

So,as you can tell by the majority of the pictures, one Andersen was less cooperative than the other 2. As a result of this, Chris and I thought that this was our best option/representation of the holiday :)

Happy Valentines Day! Love the Andersens.

V-Day Preparations

Cadence had her Valentines party at pre-school today. Therefore, this year we had to make valentines for everyone in her class. She really didn't get what we were doing but enjoyed writing all the names on the cards and putting stickers on them. It made much more sense today when she actually got to put them in her friends "bags" at school and she got cards in her bag. That was lots of fun for her!

In the process of making the cards Caleb Shaun wanted to sit down and color with Cadence. So, we pulled out his crayons and let him go to town on some paper. I really think this was the first time we've ever really let him color - which is shameful since he's 18 months old! He didn't really get what to do with the crayons but caught on after awhile. He mostly thought crayons were for eating or drumming with but that's OK; it wasn't horrible for his first time :)

I lost the paper with all the names of Cadence's classmates so we worked from memory to come up with a partial list. I wrote them out for her to copy and then realized that she only writes in Upper-Case so I had to re-write them in "tall" letters for her to copy.

Eventually we just let Caleb Shaun down from the table. He's much happier playing in the bouncy seat anyway! It's definitely one of his favorite things to do lately.

A Few of My Favorite Things

There have been lots of new favorites in our world lately, and most of them have to do with food :) Now that Caleb Shaun eats, we get to try lots of things to see what he likes and doesn't like - and what we need to work on to get him to eat!

BoJangles - a HUGE success! Who doesn't like fried chicken and salty fries washed down with some Cheerwine ?!?

Creed even gets in on meal times spending many of them like this......

Although more times than not, he ends up like this......

Happy boys are definitely high on my list of favorite things and this little boy with the big mouth and lots of gums captured our hearts in a dangerous way!

Another happy boy - this time because he has gotten the end of the bag of popcorn. He looks so big here that it almost makes me sad.

Big Sisters who cherish their role in the family and do it with excellence. She is always helping out one brother or the other and has so much fun doing it. I'm so glad for the way God has shaped this little girl to love others - especially her brothers :)

Click HERE to watch a video of her reading to Creed.

Eating boys make me happy because full tummies lead to full nights of sleep and THAT is definitely one of my favorite things!

New Floors

We redid our floors.
Here is the video of our Fun and work!

Food Updates

Several big food changes have happened in the Andersen house over the past couple of weeks. The first is that Creed has started eating baby food! :( this is a very mixed emotion topic in our house because as glad as we are that he is sleeping thru the night much better, once he starts eating, there's no going back on him growing up.

So, we started cereal last week 1/3/11 and he loved it! Like, cries when you take him out of the high chair - loved it. However about 3 days in, we realized that he wasn't pooping and had a very constipated little boy for about 5 days. It was pretty scary so in that time we gave him apple juice and prune juice and prunes with a spoon (that's what the pictures are of). He loves them! and now that he's going to the bathroom again, we are mixing his cereal with prune juice and he loves that too! So far our baby boy is turning out to be a super great eater.

The other big change is with Caleb Shaun. He has decided to eat! We knew that it would be one of those things where we he made up his mind, he would just start eating and it seems that his mind is being changed - one meal at a time. With Creed now in the high chair, we've moved Caleb Shaun to the booster seat by his sister. He wants his own plate and utensil and whatever we're eating on the plate. Granted, he holds the utensil in one hand and eats with the other one, but it has been so much fun to watch him practice eating at meals. This is such a huge answer to prayer! and another great part is that there seems to be no shrieking at the table. Shaunie is so much more content to be treated like a big boy.

This picture is what our meals have looked like for the past 3 days. I guess this is an upside to snow days :) Chris is home and can help me get all 3 kids to the table at the same time so that we can practice eating and table manners with our crazy boy!

Snow Much Fun!

Snow days! 3 of them this week (so far)! With 3 kids I've decided a couple of things about snow.

1. Snow is really pretty coming down and a pain in the butt once it's on the ground

2. 3 kids and too many days inside are not fun :(

3. Daddy being home for 3 extra days is fabulous!

4. Snow is fun for a small kid for about 3 minutes and then they want inside and there is a new load of laundry to be done

5. I'm really glad to live in NC where snow comes and goes pretty quickly!

Snow Day #1 consisted of a snow man - made mostly by Chris; homemade donuts - made mostly by Ashleigh; and a gingerbread house - decorated by Cadence.

it's the most busiest time or the year!

So it's been a month since we blogged and there is no excuse :) Just 3 kids and life and that isn't an excuse just our new normal. We've been to FL for Thanksgiving, Chris (quite possibly the best husband on the planet) took care of the big 2 kids for a week by himself so I could spend some time with my gran. We came home, finished and performed a church Christmas program, had 2 performances for our music lesson kids, packed and shipped most all of our Christmas stuff, and are now repacking and cleaning to head back to FL for Gran's 75th b-day celebration and Christmas!

Here are a few pictures of some of the things we've done. Although, there should be way more pics taken lately, there just haven't been - again no excuses it's just my new reality.

I love this pic - taken at my mom's house. It captures where her grandkids are at this stage of life so well.

Cadence - the really good poser for most all pictures who does anything to make yellow GiGi happy - even if the smile is fake

Caleb Shaun - one of the happiest kids on the planet

Creed - screaming again because he was woken up to be dressed in sweater pants for a picture

Jane - not really sure of what to make of the Andersen3 :)

Our 3 miracle children - I can't tell you how much gratitude wells up in me when I see the family that God has put together so perfectly for us.

We didn't have a big Christmas tree this year because Chris saw no need to put one up since we were literally here 2-3 weeks of the Christmas season. So, instead we did a little tree for each of our kids. Maybe one day I'll actually get a picture of each kid with their tree but for now, this what I had. Cadence and I decorating all 3 because the boys don't care anything about it :)

Our Creed Samuel - who basically looks more like my sister Elizabeth and Chris' sister Lisa with his coloring than he does Chris and I. We'll wait a summer and see if he darkens up!

The first snow of the season. It's snowed 2 days so far this year and I've been surprised by both of them! This day we were loading the car up to head to the church and set up for the Christmas play and all of a sudden, I took a load to the car and there was snow! I went to get Cadence (who isn't from FL and therefore not impressed by snow). She did suit up and come out for a minute and her outfit was so funny to me that I did get a picture of it. Yes those are pj's, a scarf, and her cowboy boots

I met Christa at the mall this past week to get pics of the kids with Santa at Bass Pro Shop. He wasn't there because we went in the afternoon and Santa doesn't clock in til 5. But the kids had fun regardless. We colored and played with the games set up around the Santa area. We are so grateful to the Callaways so close that we can meet up at the mall to color together.