birthday out-takes

found these funny so thought i'd share:









nash wanted to help me when we went to take havey's pictures, so i let him use the flip. he thought he was sooo important. i love his coaching in these videos and that he captured the behind-the-scenes-sadness:






she really wasn't happy about taking pictures so i feel really lucky to have gotten anything out of the effort! and, just so you know, i didn't prolong the agony for too long...we played around and took a break until emmy came to help get some smiles out of her. and then we lost the balloons...



it was a good time to call it quits.

since sunday's complete meltdown she's been pretty darn happy and so so so cute (go figure, right?).
like in this video (please excuse the obnoxious three-year-old in the background. the kid thinks he should star in every video/photo ever made):




i LOVE the way she says "i love you." it kills me. and did you notice her lisp? told you so!

thanks for her super cute dress, grape grandma! and don't worry-that peanut butter didn't touch the dress. she was uncharacteristically careful despite those messy hands she just showed you!

birthday re-cap

we had two little parties for haven. the first was a backyard bbq with some friends on thursday. i took photos of all the decor and the cupcakes before-hand because the weather was so crazy that it was looking like we'd have to do the party indoors. the weather turned out great! so we got to play in the backyard and eat burgers, hot dogs, baked beans, sweet pototo fries (with curry dipping sauce), salad, cupcakes and ice cream. bbq-ing is the way to go! so easy, minimal clean-up, and smells darn good. plus the kids aren't quite so loud since there aren't any walls and floors to bounce the sound all over and drive the parents mad! we actually ALL got to sit, at the same time, and have conversations! that's success in my book.


party two was on sunday with the family. for this party i made a giant cupcake cake for the birthday girl. we got home from church at 2:15 and realized we needed to leave for orem at 3:00 in order to get dinner going. i had the cake and fondant made, but forgot about the ganache so i had to make that and threw that thing together in about 30 minutes. let's just say the picture above is very flattering. good thing it was still pretty yummy. it also helped balance out haven's completely horrible attitude. she was the WORST she has ever been. whining, crying, screaming, kicking. it was unreal. i think three days of late-nights, no sunday nap, lots of sugar, and chaos about did her in. this bad attitude accounts for the lack of copious pictures of the actual birthday girl.


i made more paper flowers and the birthday banner a while back, so the party prep was easy. lauren used her cricut to cut out the letters for me (thank you, lauren!). we also had red & white polka-dot napkins and red & white striped paper straws for our mexican coke.


i took haven's party dress off before i let her eat her cake and ice cream at the bbq. which is exactly when we realized we may not have changed her diaper all day. oops! she had the heaviest, saggiest diaper i've ever seen. good thing the party was just in our own little ghetto!

and at the family party things were so chaotic by the time we did cake and ice cream, i was lucky to get even these two shots. i don't even know if she blew the candles out on her own or if one of the cousins/brother did it for her (that's my guess. the cousins and brother were a little excited and wanted to help her do everything!).


"presents!" we heard that A LOT over the weekend. havey was pretty excited about getting/opening presents. she got spoiled rotten with dresses galore (she loves dresses & skirts. each time she'd open a present that was anything made of cloth she'd say, "pretty skirt!"), a couple other outfits, a puzzle, a backpack, four bracelets, pots & pans for her play-kitchen, a swimsuit coverup, loads of books, butterfly sandals, money for the bank, alice in wonderland, a bubble machine & tons of bubbles, and some other toys. nash even picked out two hello kitty toy candies at the store and wrapped them for her all by himself. he was pretty proud of himself.

and because we went to the doctor for a two year check-up and two shots yesterday, here are haven's stats:

weight: 27.7 lbs/ 64%tile

height: 37 inches/ 100%tile

personality: 120% stubborn

if we go by yesterday's numbers (which the doc said is the "rule"), haven will be 74 " tall at maturity. um, 6'1"? i laughed, but i suppose it's possible-my side of the family is pretty darn tall (i'm the shortest, i think). looks like a few of the boys i've had pegged to become her husband may be out of the running now ;)

happy birthday, havey girl!

and the celebrating begins (okay, it began last night...a thorough birthday review will be posted next week). i'm trying reeeeeally hard not to bug her by sticking the camera in her face today, since she is our special birthday girl. as you can see, she's not a fan of the camera. luckily i planned ahead and took these on monday (although i should have done a little further planning and styled her hair!). i can't believe my silly, stubborn, beautiful girl is two. TWO!

you can read more of my haven-gushing and see more birthday photos over here if you want...i kept it to the bare minimum here.

building blocks

haven has become quite the builder, making towers taller than she is! she will only make towers with the square blocks, even though i've shown her how to do it with cylinders and rectangles. go figure, she's a particular little girl. the thing that amazes me is that she doesn't get upset when they come crashing down. she gets pretty frustrated when things don't go her way most of the time, but she just laughs and starts right over when her "bocks" fall. maybe she's just growing up...after all, only four more days and she's two!!!

bevie did it!

pictured above: steven clark anderson, doctor of jurisprudence
                       class of 2010, university of utah s.j. quinney college of law

and because the ceremony focused SO much on the faculty and not enough on my stevie bevie (for shame!), here are a few reasons why i am so proud of him:

for the past three years he was a law student. for a lot of people, law school becomes life. grueling hours, stress, anxiety, sacrifice, and very little in between. but not for stevie. he was also a husband, a father, a home-owner, a skiier, a biker, a "big brother," a church-goer, a grocery shopper, a cook, and a million other things. what i'm saying is he managed to have a life and made law school look easy (and he did really well, too). while the speakers thanked spouses and children for sacrificing time with their spouse/father, i was thinking "not me!" i'm just really proud of him for doing SO much to make our family happy. and i'm really glad that our kids get to have "get you" time with their dad every single day. he is THE BEST!

we love stevie bevie!!!

fishies!

we went to the aquarium yesterday and all we got was these lousy photos ;)







i love haven's face in the far-left photo on the second row-she's pointing to a snake! oh, and in two of the photos you can sneak a peak of emmy's beau, nate. he's the oldest of eight kids, and man did it show. he's going to make a great dad. haven was a little scared of him at first (as she usually is with new people), but she warmed up pretty quickly. and nash was grabbing nate's hand pulling him off to "show him something" at every turn. and, as always, my kids were the loudest ones around.

orchard session

my friend, kaysi called me friday night hoping to get a session in before mother's day. i was excited to get some orchard shots before the blooms start to fall. she and her husband, his four siblings and one spouse got up super early and drove down from salt lake to meet me in provo for an early-morning session. the kids gave their mom some framed prints as a mother's day gift. i LOVE how they turned out (you can see the family photos HERE.) of course, it always helps to have beautiful subjects!

p.s. don't forget to become a liz anderson photography facebook fan while you're there checking out the photos!

p.p.s. i've had a few people ask about buying the blossom prints for their homes. i've set up an etsy shop where i'll be selling my non-portrait prints to anyone interested. just go to my shop here!

they came and went

grandma and grandpa martin just left after a twelve day visit. this morning the kids went downstairs only to find grandma & grandpa's sleeping quarters abandoned. we're a little sad being back to the normal grind, but luckily we get to see them again soon-home to PA in july, then they come back out again in august for emmy's wedding. nash got sick during the visit and as soon as he perked up haven came down with the same bug, so we had a lot of one-kid outings (one kid is a joke! it's SO easy!). lunch, shopping, more shopping, and more shopping. mostly wedding-related, although nash and haven managed to get pretty spoiled and i scored new bath towels and a broom (i know what you're thinking, a broom? towels? what can i say, i get excited about the simple things these days.)

grandpa gave nash his first "blunt-cut." up till now it's been either long & wild, or buzzed with a #1 clip. we're high-class. he now looks like a real boy...which makes me feel sad. and old.

now, off to figure out what to do with ourselves...

julian

my brother is a dad. weird. and the above picture is quite possibly the cutest thing i've ever seen.

julian andrew martin was born in london (way too far away) on 5.2.10 at 8 lbs 7 oz. he's got his mom's dimples. he might be even cuter than my kids, which andy insisted would be the case ;)

i can't wait to meet him.

happy may day!

last week i spent the cold, rainy friday making paper flowers. i think i'm in love & will definitely be making lots more, especially since all these will have new homes this morning :(



some special friends and neighbors are in for a treat-we're delivering may day baskets full of these. may day is such a simple holiday (do you even call it a 'holiday'?), but i love it. and i think nash and haven are going to love the "ding-dong-ditch" part. although i have a feeling we will be caught...

happy may day!


and happy birthday, alexistexas! if you were here or i were there i'd give you a huge bunch of these...



to make these, i used something along the lines of what's done in this tutorial (p.s. this lady is hilarious!). except i used hot glue instead of glue dots and i added cloth covered floral wire in the base. before adding the glue, i bent the top of the wire to a 90-degree angle, inserted it through the flower base, then applied the glue to seal everything up. this makes for a clean finish. if that's confusing, let me know and i'll post my own tutorial here-i'm making loads more of these anyway.


edited to add: i've had a few questions about materials and sizes. i used 12x12 scrapbook paper, cutting each sheet into four squares. so my finished spirals were about 6x6 inches before i started rolling them up. the floral cloth wire is found in the floral section (i got mine at michaels) and is in brown paper sleeves about 18" long. each package contains 12 pieces-i cut them in half to get 24 stems. hope that helps!