Mom Anderson, Malachai, & House stuff...

We've been pretty busy lately, but we've been having so much fun. We've been able to play with our good neighbor Griffin, visit our old friends Nicole & Mike (and Mason), and Prince William again. I ran a 5K race in NSL with my friend Jamie (which went much better than last year where I was still recovering from being a new mom!), my mom and sister-in-law Megan visited for 3days (which are always jam-packed!), WE SOLD OUR HOUSE, and went to see a new Gerber baby (not ours) be blessed.

When my mom & Megan visited, we toured Temple Square, which proved to be more exciting than we imagined because the whole time we were walking around we were subjected to thunder and lightning and rain storms (that's why we look so good in those pics!). Then we went to the Oquirrh Hills Temple open house. The next day, we took Sophy to the Hogle Zoo where we met up with Troy's family, and Sophy had so much fun (and we didn't get a parking ticket on what had to be THE BUSIEST DAY of THE YEAR there). Then we went to the Mayan because Megan had never been there before. Saturday (4th of July) we went to a parade in Layton (tradition), and then to Troy's parents' home for lunch and POOL PARTY! My mom and Megan loved relaxing in the sun by the pool. We came home before the fireworks because Sophy was exhausted and my mom was driving that night. It was SOO much fun to get to know Megan (Jake's wife's sister) and spend time with my mom.

While my mom was here, our house sold. Good thing too because I'd shown our house about 10 times that week and I was NOT excited about showing it while my family was in town. We got a fair deal and the person buying it got a fair deal as well. We are very sad to leave our friend-family here, but are excited for our new adventure wherever that may be. We've recently put an offer on a house that we love in the Riverton area, so we'll see how that goes. Message to current neighbors: PLEASE KEEP IN TOUCH AFTER WE MOVE! WE'RE NOT DEAD, JUST MOVING!! We'll miss you soo much! We're scheduled to move into Troy's parent's home Aug 3rd (THANK-YOU!!) while we figure out where we'll be after that.

Last weekend, we were able to see Tyler & Beccah's baby, Malachai Aiden, be blessed. He is such a sweet little boy. I'm sure he'll get into many things (and Sophy may be the cause of some of that), but for now, very sweet and calm. :)

BOSTON TRIP BABY!! (but without the baby!)

We had a great time enjoying the wonderfully blunt and spectacular people of Boston, the public transportation, and the amazing historical sites. We were lucky enough to be able to go without a toddler-THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HELPED!! Before we left, we spent some time celebrating Troy's mom's b-day and playing with Sophy in here new "hotel" where she'd be staying for the next few days while we were gone. Here are some pictures of the pool party (she is still very nervous about the water, even with the super neat floating suit my mom sent her), but she's getting better.
During our trip, Troy enjoyed his conference and I enjoyed the super comfy Marriott bed, large screen flat screen, BBC movies on Netflix, room service, and the gym--you only have free time once as a mom, might as well use it! At 5pm the first 3 nights, we would venture out and discover the public transportation system. We did all but take a ferry while we were there. It took a cab ride to the commuter train to the subway to the other subway in order to get us downtown Boston which is why we ate dinner and then came back. We ate dinner at the Omni Parker House Hotel Thursday. It was there the very first Boston Cream Pie was created. Very very very much the best I've ever had (sorry Marie Calendars)! Friday we were able to check our bags in early and took the subway (which we knew very well how to use by that point!) into downtown and did almost everything we'd wanted to do the whole trip by just WALKING! Next time, I suggest staying in the city as close to downtown as possible.

Funny stories:

• When we first arrived in Boston, our limo driver (a black sedan) met us and was reaching out to take Troy's hand when he stepped off the curb and was 1" away from becoming hit by an on-coming car. Bostonian reaction: continued his conversation as if nothing happened while stepping back onto the sidewalk and taking Troy's bag.


• We got into the car and realized that the drivers were VERY MUCH worse than UT drivers and possibly crazier than (atleast they compete with) the Chinese ones I'd seen when I visited China. We were very grateful to the inventor of the seatbelt and that his invention was able to make it through to our day (and that very moment).


• Then (still our first 30 mins in Boston) the driver pointed out a black car to us (noting himself that Bostonian drivers are crazy) that was swerving in and out of each lane obviously trying to get somewhere very quickly and then it parked in the lane right next to us (on a highway) and the driver got out in a hurry to meet the parked car driver of another car just ahead and they pulled a gun out on someone in a parked minivan with a cop car behind them. My first reaction was that the two parked car drivers were very angry at the minivan person and wanted very badly to kill them before they even noticed (or even after they noticed) the cops. Troy's first reaction (sorry Troy, it's very cute) sounded like sheer amazement that he wasn't watching TV, "HE ACTUALLY HAS A GUN!!" The driver's reaction was, "Well, we should probably get out of here" and proceeded to speed up ahead. We never found out what happened, but the two parked car drivers could have been undercover. It occured to me later that they had parked infront of the green minivan and blocked the person in. That would be quite the sight in UT.


• LOVE the blunt-ness of Bostonians. Always trust them to tell you exactly how THEY see it, and not always how things really are. My favorite quote they ALL say in many situations: "Well, what you're gonna wanna do is..." They try to use it as often and frequently as possible and make sure you know that everyone else already knows this.


• There was a guy on the commuter train going back to our hotel one night that was calling up his "work associates" or "business partners" on some "Cigah" (as they say things) business he had just started up. He was telling them he needed them to be front and center because he had a 5 year old and had just pulled his arm out of the socket by lifting "kegs of be-ah" at his regular job. Each time he called a new person, he told different details of the "recent surgery" he'd undergone. We thought if we turned around we'd see a krippled man with no more left arm. When he got off of at his stop he threw his back over his shoulder and we saw nothing wrong at all. His stories were so funny that we couldn't help not believe them even before we saw the evidence. We bonded on the train with another lady that overheard him and worked in a hospital. She said that by the different shots he claimed to have had to have (to make the business partners understanding of his situation no doubt) the only thing she could think he'd have was Gonorrhea or Syphillus.

When we got home, we found out that Sophy had so much fun and was kept very safe up until the last day when her cute little cousin, Camdyn was chasing her to give her a hug and she was trying to get away and she tripped and landed on her face (biting halfway through her lip with a goose egg on her forehead). Trisha said that she cried quite a bit but once she asked if Sophy wanted to see the kitty, Sophy had forgotten all about it. Her lip is healing quite well, and she was never slowed down by it (part of me says "dang it!" about that). What a girl!

16 Months and LOVING LIFE!!

We've been having fun. Sophy has definitely been learning and growing (though not much hair has been produced yet). She is climbing and climbing and talking and talking. Her favorite game is to climb up on the table or up the back of the chair rails and look at us with her cutest face and laugh while doing her "crazy" dance. She loves people and lately at the grocery store when she used to get sad when people didn't react to her quiet and polite "hi", she says it louder and shouts until they turn around almost startled and then amazed at the pipes when they realize everything is okay and it was just a toddler trying to get their attention! We had so much fun playing during my cousin Jeff's bday party. Troy got to play yet another game of Ultimate Frisbee in the bottom of an old reservoir just behind the Provo Temple. It's really cool and no matter how much kids run, you can see them playing in the bottom of the old lake bed for quite a ways!

We recently put Sophy in a forward facing carseat (though Troy's "reliable car" has recently broke down again and we are down to my Honda Prelude '88 (280,000 miles, resembles a pile of bolts rushing down the freeway about to come loose at any moment, but because it's a Honda, it has a sacred pact to last longer than any other car alive.) for a short time) and she loves it! The night Troy put it in, she got to see her first real life thunder and lightning and rain storm and could not stop saying "WOW!!" (even inaudibly quite a bit too) the whole way back from the store. It's a new life now. Can't believe she is getting so old so fast!

Crazy is as Crazy does!

Well, the title says it all, I'm afraid. I've been guilty of making my poor family go crazy in support of me all over the place lately. I like to be busy, but I think this has been a bit much!-well maybe not-okay maybe. You'll see...a few weeks ago my parents, sister & roommate, and cousin came into town for a few days. It was fun, but also hard because we are trying to sell our house. My most spoken phrase to my dismay was: "We need to clean up the house right now!" I even made them put their luggage in the car in the garage so that if someone called to see the house it would be ready. Alas, no one called and as Troy mentions frequently, I should have relaxed instead. Well we had a fun visit, my parents staying until just after the first session of conference and my cousin leaving after the second session, and my sister and her roommate leaving after both of Sunday's sessions. It was a packed (but amazingly clean!) house.

After that, Troy and I studied our talks for church the next Sunday which would be Easter. It was funny because I spoke, sat down, stood up and sang in the choir, then sat down and listened to Troy's talk, then got Sophy from Troy's mom (THANK-GOODNESS for LeAnn! We had almost forgotten to ask someone to watch Sophy while we were talking!), then get the last bit prepared for my Easter Relief Society Lesson. It was such a good day, but not much rest happened.

That same week prior preparing my talk and lesson for Easter Sunday, I decided it would be a good (at this point I had so much going on, why not add more?) idea to prepare for a half marathon in two weeks. I've never run 13.3 miles as you can imagine. The day after Easter, I parked my car at the Bountiful temple and ran all the way home to our North Salt Lake City home. The fact that one has to run through 3 cities to get from point A to point B did not seem to matter much to the dissappointing distance of 7.5 miles when I was done. Then I took Sophy out and jogged 2.5miles more to get to my goal of 10miles. After that, I decided that I could sign up to run a half marathon. Then I didn't run any further that week because that Saturday was the race. I was able to run with a friend/neighbor who helped me to keep a good pace and luckily not die throughout the whole race. To my (and Troy's) astonishment I finished and was alive at the end! My time was beyond my goal of just finishing at a reasonable time of 2 hrs 20mins. What a rush(not timewise, but adrenalinewise)!

If anyone hasn't heard from me lately, I probably have actually died. Meanwhile, Sophy hasn't slowed down and we've had many fun and exciting "poop sagas" which I will spare the details on this blog. Once you've heard one, do you really need to hear any others? I will just mention that we are getting the carpet from the kitchen, diningroom and livingroom cleaned presently... Thank goodness for a loving and hardworking supportive husband, family and friends. I frequently pile too much on, but when I do I am frequently reminded of the wonderful support system I have and know that I would not be able to be so crazy if it weren't for them. Thanks to all!

Sophy is 13 Months!

Pictures for Gmas and Friends! (Video/s coming soon!)

Selling But Not Moving...

For those of you that don't know, we've put our house up for sale recently. It was a hard decision, and we aren't sure how it will work out in the end, but we are excited for the "adventure" of it all. We are very sad about the thought of leaving the Foxboro/North Salt Lake area, but we know that we will never forget it. We have been blessed to have the happiest times of our life so far here, and know that it wouldn't be without the amazing friends and neighbors we've met. While we do have a "For Sale" sign up in our front yard, we will NOT be giving up our friends in the move. Who knows, we may end up staying here for awhile! -sorry can't get rid of us! Thanks to all Foxboro/Bountiful-ites that we love so much! Here are some pics of our home for sale:

We Almost Owned a Pet

I had this great idea one day when I saw a neighborhood cat walking on our fence. Sophy was very excited and has been very interested in cats lately and it has been so cute that I almost wanted her to have a pet...almost (it's hard enough changing her diapers and cleaning up after her, to add more to that would be trouble!). But I had a *brilliant* idea. The neighborhood cat wanted milk, so I figured if I put a bowl of milk out, we could have a cat without owning one. My plan worked out a little differently than I anticipated. The a few days later, Prince William (Cori's son) came to visit and was playing in the backyard when he wandered over to a box (we should have thrown out last summer) with weeds in it and kept saying "Cat! Cat!" We didn't believe him because there is NO CAT living in our backyard...that we were aware of. We walked over to prove him wrong and saw our black cat friend hissing at us profusely. I told Troy about it when he came home and he scared her off. Until the next day we revisited the box and found out that she was hissing with a purpose...she'd just had 5 baby kittens and was protecting them. The next few days I was worried because the weather was cold and windy after nice warm weather. We checked and the mom was gone that whole cold day! The kittens had been left huddling together for warmth. The next day we checked and all except for 1 (the cutest one) were gone. We figured that she'd been so afraid when Troy scared her that she realized this was no place to raise kids (I wonder that all the time, he is quite vulgar, as anyone who has met Troy can vouch. :)) and uprooted her whole family--minus one. We waited for her to come back and get the last one and bet that she was just waiting for us to stop watching. Much to my dismay, she never came back to get the baby and by the time we checked again, the kitten was...no more shall we say. I was very sad. Now when Sophy says "kitty!" I think of the week that we almost had a family of cats and now ended up with a dead kitten instead. Sad!