this catch-up brought to you by instagram

i am officially the world's worst blogger these days. i keep thinking maybe i'll get back into it. and then i don't. i have no more excuses. but i do feel better knowing that many of you have dropped off the blogosphere as well. i think it's safe to say that it's all pinterest's fault. am i right?

i thought i'd do a quick recap of the last few months based on my instagram feed. because it's basically all i have as far as documentation of my life since october. we'll start there.

october: nash joined a soccer team. and didn't even finish the season. by the end i just got sick of fighting him about going and since practices were on monday evenings i seemed to forget about them till it was too late.
 
halloween was awesome. because it always is and always will be. its the one holiday that i will never give up on.


we made "mummy bars" for nash's class and friends.


and of course there were our costumes, which i already posted about.

november: haven did a soccer camp, which she loved. she's pretty darn good.


she also sported her first french braids.


nash turned 5. we celebrated at home and then again with friends at the park. sick mom = no party. but he didn't seem to mind. he got a bunch of office supplies and was in heaven creating all sorts of...stuff.



we also had birthday lunch at capriotti's where they have the most amazing "turkey" sandwiches.


december:  the kids and i drove to mesa for the birth of emmy's baby, max. it was the worst delivery ever, poor girl. but max came out holding his head up and ready to party. i got to photograph the whole thing and probably should do a post on that. it was intense.



christmas almost didn't happen at our house. i barely had energy move, let alone to shop and then on top of that i got food poisoning from cafe rio the night we packed to go to utah. i forgot all nash's clothes since i had to pack in 5-minute intervals with breaks to throw up and lay down in between (i just barely started being able to eat there again). but the kids got to decorate the tree, they had fun with grandparents and cousins, and they still believe in santa. i'd call that a success.





january: emmy, nate, and max came to ring in the new year with us. at 9:00 p.m. we thought the ball dropped at 9 here, but it was actually at 10. so we faked it. another holiday fail due to a sick and lazy pregnant mama! but we still had fun.



baby max was kind of a party pooper. slept through the whole thing.


and of course we went bowling and got donuts on new year's day. it's tradition.



i had a birthday so stevie took me to the red rocks casino for a dinner (we ate at the food court since i didn't want to spend money on food that i would just have an aversion to post-pregnancy), a movie and a night of good sleep. turned out to be one of the worst nights of sleep i'd had in a long time. next time he's taking the kids away so i can just sleep at home alone.


the bath was nice, though.


and the "sinning" ;)


haven filled out the best questionairre EVER for primary. she knew her name, and her favorite food. she also knew her favorite primary song, but it turned out to be the same one all her classmates chose, so i'm pretty sure their teacher guided them on that one.


okay, i'm pooped. i'll resume with february at some point. see how i'm not promising anything? under-promise, over-deliver. except i'll probably blow that, too. it's the only thing i'm good at these days. that and being negative. ha!

in case you haven't heard (cause apparently i forgot to tell a lot of people?), we are moving! it happened really fast and everything has just fallen into place. it's a brand new home that i am in love with. a big reason is that i got to choose my flooring (above) and we'll have a yard! granted it's a vegas-sized yard, but a yard nonetheless. big enough for a garden and room for the kids to play. we have our final walk-through on the 10th and we close on the 11th! which means you probably shouldn't expect me to make that blogging return i promised almost a month ago any time soon. such is life, right?

eight seats

february is generally a really long month, especially for being such a short one. but this february flew by in light of a handful of really great changes here at the anderson house. since i've been a terrible blogger i figured i'd write up some of these. more for myself and as a journal than anything.

after being outbid on an amazing house in the perfect location in january, i was crushed. i gave up looking. we got bored. so we bought a car. that made it sound like we bought a car on a whim, and let me assure you we did not. we knew we had to get a car before baby comes because the element has only two seats in the back. we'd been researching and browsing, but we just figured we would get the car after we found a house. but we were both feeling like a house was never going to happen. vegas is weird...community planning, house styles, yard size, taste level, etc. and i am learning that i am really quite terrible with change. i'm actually a complete baby about it (although i prefer to view myself with a more positive spin: i am very idealistic). i was starting to feel like i would rather stay in my tiny little rental than give in and buy a house here. we needed some excitement, though. remember, february is a long month!

so one sunday night steve was on craigslist and found a listing for the perfect honda pilot at a dealership. the salesman brought it to him at work the next morning and steve made the deal. i, of course, went with him to deliver the element (for trade-in) and give my seal of approval before we made it official later that night. when we pulled up to the dealership haven bounced out of the car and as she bounded through the parking lot she shouted, "we're getting a new car because we're having a baaaaaby!!!". it was just about the cutest thing she's ever done. also awkward for me, especially since i wasn't exactly showing. there's something really uncomfortable about telling a bunch of grown men that you've been knocked up. almost as bad as the first time you have to tell your parents you're pregnant (which happens right after you yourself accept the fact that this "thing" now has to come "OUT!!!"). i mean, clearly your parents are now going to know that you have sex! but the cluster of salesmen standing around the lot had a good laugh.

here's a super excited haven waiting...and waiting. buying a car is not quick.

you should have seen the kids when we opened the doors to let them check it out...they went NUTS. it was like a two-kid circus in there, flinging seats up and down, flipping things open and closed, climbing over the backs then the fronts. leave it to nash to discover every possible mechanism in that car within thirty seconds. and then, of course, there was me screaming at them to "get your feet OFF the seats!!!" the screaming continued for a few days while they settled into the excitement (and until i bought some seat protectors and realized that, despite the light color, the seats are actually very easy to clean). even two weeks later nash loves to tell everyone he sees that we have eight seats. he then goes into some math (which he's really good at) and tells us all the different situations that can be solved by having eight seats! he's still working on "playing it cool."

project

i've been really busy around here. so busy that you may have noticed i haven't blogged since before christmas. and even that post wasn't much. i wish i had something to show for all my time spent away from here, but really it's all been due to this one particular project:

okay, so really i haven't been busy at all. just plain old lazy. this thing has been sucking the life out of me for 16 weeks. nash and haven have become so used to that phrase that if i'm laying around (which is pretty much the case at any given moment) nash will say, "mom, is the baby sucking your life away?" i signed up for this, but holy moly, i did not know what i was signing up for! this is not the same experience i've had before. i feel like it's the biggest joke anyone's ever played on me. maybe it's karma kicking my butt for judging lazy, "sick" pregnant women in the past. never again. now, having been the most lazy, sick pregnant woman i know, i have some major sympathy. i've had every symptom in the book along with excessive fatigue, diziness, and just general apathy (due largely in part to my MS since I had to stop my usual therapy to get pregnant). luckily, though, i have not been emotional, because that would put me over the edge. so, while i feel sick, tired, ugly (the acne is unreal) and fat at least i don't feel crazy! knock on wood.

baby is due july 13th and with any luck we'll find out the gender next week!

p.s. now that i'm starting to feel like i can function again, i'd like to say i'm going to catch up on the past few months. but i don't know if i can promise anything good. since i got my iPhone in october i think i've pulled my real camera out twice. i'm already regretting this and have vowed to return to my camera crazy ways. until then you can follow me on instagram for a few random updates (@lizzythebotanist).

2011 Card

josh & kristi's announcement

josh & kristi

bevie's little brother, josh, got married this summer and i got to take the happy couple's engagements AND design their announcement. kristi wanted to include their story as part of the announcement and she did a great job making it cute and interesting. i think i did a great job of fitting it all in ;) it wasn't as easy as it looks!

here's the front:


and the back:


there was a also a sealing insert and family dinner invite. then those things, along with their engagement photo were tied up with bakers twine and tucked into the envelope (as seen in the first photo). i was so happy with the final product and it was such a fun project.


and, of course, the wedding was amazing...i'll have to post about that soon. nash & haven (and all the other cousins) were adorable, the decor was beautiful, the food was delish, and there was dancing. which is always a good thing.

from across the nile...

halloween happenings

my energy levels are at an all-time low and have been for a few months (you probably noticed that i rarely post here anymore). halloween is in the air and i am doing my best to make it awesome for the kids, despite not caring about it at all (which has never happened to me in. my. life). you can call me debbie downer if you want to. i don't mind. two points for honesty, right?

i think i'm doing pretty well, considering. we decorated. we went to the pumpkin patch tonight with the cousins. we've watched labrynth and hocus pocus + set the dvr to record all the halloween specials. 

we've made a round of sugar cookies with friends and are planning to do another round this week so that i can perfect my glazing skills. and, my favorite thing so far: we've been reading a different halloween book every night (and will continue to for the entire month of october). our favorite book so far is "a woggle of witches." steve read this book as a kid. i'd never heard of it, but when i googled it and saw the cover i knew i had to have it. the illustrations are amazing. if the book wasn't out of print and hard to get (i managed to score an ex-library copy on paperbackswap) i'd rip all the pages out and frame them.

so now i'm caught up on october. now i just need to get our costumes ready and blog/catch-up on the entire summer + september. excuse me while my head begins to spin...

just because

photo from our recent utah trip when we drove the alpine loop to see the leaves.

sunday school

since this month's primary* theme is on being a missionary (and i'm the new ward primary president. what? yeah, i don't know what they were thinking either. clearly they are desperate;), i thought i'd share some church related news on the blog.

remember how i mentioned that nash knows more 'book of mormon stories' than i do? here's some proof. a child's 6-minute interpretation of the book or mormon. he may or may not have left out some key events and confused some others, but he's four!



also, my dad was interviewed for our newspaper back home. the article is an overview of our religion and focuses on the fact that we are, contrary to what some believe about us, christian. nash almost blew that for us when he skipped over the birth of christ. good thing he has goodly parents to show him the way ;)

*primary is the children's organization within our church.