One Week

Seems like this past week has been lots of little sweet moments sprinkled in among the long days of packing, entertaining, and trying to get everyday things to feel as normal as possible. Kinda chaotic, but good too. 


So to keep it short and sweet, James is walking on Friday! We are all so excited. We're probably a little more than halfway packed, and are starting to make plans for finals and cleaning so we can officially leave before the week's end. So much to cram into one final week in Idaho that lists don't seem to help at this point. Running on adrenalin seems to work pretty good though. 


Our kiddos have been having a rough time adapting with all the stress, but are just sweet-hearts. We finally had to introduce Dean to the time-out chair and it seems to be helping him understand we really mean business about certain concepts. He's such a smart kid and such a sweetie and we really hate having him be so out of his element. He's old enough now to understand what we're saying so hopefully it will all calm down a bit soon. Speaking of how sweet and smart he is...he spent about 10 minutes today playing with Riley. He put his bare foot up against her bare foot and he was giggling and she was smiling. When he'd had enough he got up and kissed her three times and went and did the next thing. Such a tender thing to be able to witness as a parent. And as for the smart...he learned how to take off and almost put on his shorts today with a little help. We were very impressed. He also spent about a half hour taking off his sandals and trying to put them back on again. He really loves to buckle all the clips in the baby bouncer, strollers, and high chair too. He's figuring things out very quickly. He can also jump up on the beds and chairs and get down again all by himself. We have a video of Dean at the water park this week, it's kind of long. 

Riley finally giggled this week! And she doesn't have a very loud laugh like Dean did, but it certainly is adorable. We finally caught it on video too, so hope you enjoy it. She also rolled over accidentally once, but hasn't quite figured out how to do it again. Sure she'll figure it out in no time. She sure loves her big brother too, because whenever he pays attention to her, or when she hears him being happy she gets all smiles. It's so cute. Also, she folds her arms around herself. We catch her doing it all the time, and mostly when she's sleepy. She'll be three months already on the 20th and it's Grandpa Keel's birthday too. It'll be a pretty exciting day all around!

Probably won't be up for much next week, but we'll post again when we can! 


Love, 


The James Anderson Family

Fireworks, Cake, and Announcements

This was most certainly an exciting week for our little family starting off with Independence Day on Monday. That morning James was asked to be in the parade with the Wendy's float, so Brittany walked with Dean and Riley over to the park to watch from there. It went much better than she thought, with Dean being so little and wanting to run away in all the crowds. He did a pretty good job of holding her hand and looking at everything, even if he did beg the sweet older ladies in front of them for some caramel popcorn. After about an hour though the slide was too enticing, so he played on that until Dad came over and then we all went over to meet him, and he got to go with Dad the last little stretch of the parade too. He loved all the balloons flying up into the sky and the marching band and stereo music being blasted. It was a lot of fun. 

 (the Wendy's float)

(Bruce, James' boss, James and Dean)

(Riley was being so sweet and enjoying all the excitement too)

(this is Dean dancing to the music)

Then that evening we all went to Wendy's by the greenbelt in Idaho Falls and ate as a family and staked out our spot from last year. It was perfect. We had a few drops from the sky, but it cleared up just in time for the fireworks at around 10pm. We had a hard time keeping both babies entertained while trying to avoid the wind and sun in the early evening, but it was worth it in the end. The fireworks were great. Dean kept repeating us really loud saying "Beautiful! WOW!" and it was so cute. Riley slept through most of it, and didn't make a peep when she saw a few of the final ones, she was pretty exhausted from a long hot day. We all were! We were going to set off some of our own when we got home, but it was too late for that once we finally did because we were all so worn out. We set them off Tuesday night instead, and Dean was a bit more nervous about that! Our favorites are still the ground blooms. They're so neat! We kept a couple to set off when family comes over for James' graduation if we have time. 

 (trying to get all of us...didn't quite work...but it was fun!)

(James and Dean having some fun waiting for it to get dark)

Brittany's 25th birthday was on Friday and we celebrated by making a yellow cake with rainbow-chip frosting, and having chicken salads and ice-cream. James also let her get a few things to decorate for his grad party, and a couple cheap pairs of pants, since she has gotten rid of so many recently that don't fit anymore. She got a free haircut, too, because she donated her hair. It is so short again, but she loves it. It's a lot easier to maintain than before. She also had a few sweet texts, phone calls, and cards from loved ones, and lots of comments from everyone, so that really made her feel special. Brittany also got to work on and send off the announcements she designed for James' graduation. It was a really great week and week-end.


Next things on the list: graduation preparations, more packing, and cleaning. James is so excited and we're getting really anxious to get things done. James' mother is coming up for his graduation and we're really glad that she'll be able to be here to see him walk. We've already done a lot of honing down piles of things around the house and packing items we don't use very often. Now if we can get most everything else packed by the end of next week, we'll be able to deep clean, and focus on graduation until time to load the trailer and head to California. Maybe that's wishful thinking though with a toddler entering terrible two's and a two and a half month old who wants to be held all the time now? We'll shoot for that I guess and if we land somewhere in the middle that's better than not trying at all, right? Besides, we love a challenge!! 


Love, 


The James Anderson Family

July, July, oh how we love July

Happy July to you all! We're really enjoying our last few weeks here. This past week was especially great because of our 3rd Anniversary on Tuesday. We took the opportunity to go to The Falls and enjoy the cool air being blown near the water. Dean really loved watching it. He kept saying "water! water!" And Riley was just being a cutie-patootie, like always, on her blanket. 

Then after a walk around the falls, we enjoyed dinner at Olive Garden, in an attempt to commemorate our first date of Italian food. It was a very pleasant experience. Dean especially loved coloring, and eating the macaroni that would stick to the spoon long enough for him to shovel it in. It was pretty cute. He also got along with our waitress really well and was talking up a storm with her. Haha. Riley slept through the whole thing and got a lot of compliments. 

Also this week we attempted to take Dean to the splash park. We went at 8pm since the water isn't turned off until 9pm. Well, of course, it turned off at 8pm just this once inexplicably, so we let him run around and splash in the leftover water for awhile anyway. It was the perfect evening to do so; warm, but still cool enough to enjoy the evening outside. We bought Dean some 3T swim trunks because he grows so fast, but when we actually tried them on him they're a bit big! It was pretty funny watching him run around in them. At least he kept his trunks on though! One little boy decided he'd had enough already and discarded his and his swim diaper altogether. The mom's mortified look as she chased him around to remedy this was pretty funny. 

We also had a fun time shopping with Dean this week, since they had a special cart where he could drive and beep the horn while we did our grown-up stuff. He loved it. We had fun trying to maneuver it around. It's trickier than it looks. 

We have also started putting Dean to bed in his toddler bed, once again, in preparation for Riley being old enough to start sleeping in the crib very shortly now that she's sleeping through the night. We've been pretty impressed with his naps going well, but at night it's a little trickier. We think he doesn't like the light coming in and shining in his face, because he'll keep getting up to shut the door. Finally, we decided to leave the door closed for a little bit just to see what happened. James called it. Dean ended up half on the bed, sound asleep. We couldn't help taking pictures before we put him fully in it for the night. We love our sweet kiddos. 

Happy Independence Day tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll have more cute things to share again next week. 


Love, 


The James Anderson Family

Our Story

We really love looking at pictures from our wedding over and over again. It was such a perfect day, surrounded by our loving family and friends, good food, good music, and the covenants of the temple. Since our third anniversary was yesterday, we thought it would be appropriate to reminisce a bit about how we met and all that's happened since then. 

Brittany was home for the summer of 2007 from BYU-Idaho trying to figure out whether or not she wanted to go on a mission and working at Barnes & Noble, and James was attending VVC and working at Sherwin Williams. Brittany felt strongly that she was to get involved with the YSA ward and attended her first dance on May 11, 2007. That's when we met.


Brittany loved James' personality and how tall and handsome he was. James thought Brittany was an over-hyper 18 year old and wasn't interested right at first. But when Brittany kept complimenting him on his dancing he finally decided to give it a shot and asked her to dance. The dance was great and led to an even better time swing dancing later on. We talked about all the things we had in common, and by the end of the night we had exchanged numbers and planned on trying out a date together. 


Brittany was dating other people too, but not for long! After our first date at Juliano's Italian Restaurant in Hesperia, and bowling thereafter, we were both interested in being together as boyfriend and girlfriend. We continued going on dates until Memorial Day, then Brittany got rid of the competition and when we went to Disneyland together in June we made it official.  We had the most amazing time there. James not only made Brittany fall in love with Disneyland, but him too. 


At the end of the summer going on a mission was out of the question, so Brittany decided to continue the relationship while she kept working toward her degree. It was SO hard for her to leave James and be away from him for 7 months off and on. But we knew that was what needed to happen, since Brittany still wasn't sure she was ready to get married. We managed to see each other for conference in the beginning of October, and by the time Thanksgiving rolled around, James proposed and Brittany accepted. 


James couldn't wait to propose! Brittany drove all the way from Idaho to California and that same night went to a bowling activity with James, so when that was over around 12:30 AM, she was exhausted. That didn't stop James from asking her all night to check her pockets though, and when he dropped her off on her door-step there was something in the pocket. Finally! It was a ring box and Brittany was wide awake after that. 


We had a long engagement, but saw each other in between school for Christmas and Valentine's Day, and by the time June arrived we were ready. James had finished his AS in Business Administration and been accepted into the Accounting program at BYU-Idaho on the Fall/Winter track. What a fun year of dating and engagement that lead us to being a family of four by our 3rd Anniversary. We are so grateful for being in the right places at the right times to make that happen, and for all the support we've had from our loving families to do it. Two degrees and two kids later, we're ready to finish up here in Idaho and add another degree to the list. 


Love, 


Brittany and James

Countdown to California

Seems like we're leaving Rexburg and our apartment complex just in time. We were just informed by our managers here, that our complex has been sold to a new owner and the rent has been raised. We also keep hearing about ways that the community and campus are being "improved" and feel like it's changing too much to keep up with. We have been going back and forth wondering if it's the right thing to do, and it just seems like someone is trying to tell us something pretty loud when things just keep pointing us in that direction. So the prayers continue as we move forward in faith that this is what we're supposed to do for the time being.


We had a pretty busy week. We finally got a blog put together to sell some of our gently-used or really cheap items, to try and find further financing for car repairs, moving expenses, and get rid of some things. Hopefully we'll be able to get something out of that. We've also started organizing things into boxes and have been trying to foresee which things we can put into storage once we get down there, and which things we will need to have readily accessible. All of the sudden it seems like we have a lot of stuff! But we know we hardly have anything compared to most. Especially if we manage to get rid of the things we're trying to sell. 


Anyway, enough with the boring stuff. Looks like we're too busy to have a get-away anniversary after the babies go to sleep like we planned. Probably pretty typical for a 3rd anniversary right? We really wanted to steal away to go to the midnight showing of Transformers tomorrow, but looks like all our usual babysitters are unavailable. Sheesh, who said they're allowed to have lives? :) Plus, we should probably just focus on all the things we need to be doing anyway. Being a grown-up is a bummer sometimes! Haha.

 (she likes to sleep with her arms up like this lately.)

 (james' boss and his wife got Riley this adorable onesie and cute plaid shorts)

 (being cute for Momma)

(she's big enough for the bouncer now! and notice her cute skort!)

Little miss Riley Mae is growing like a weed, as Dad Keel would say. At her appointment on Thursday we were told that she weighs 13 lbs. 10 oz. and is in the 95% for weight, and 99% for height! She's 25" already! She also discovered her hands this week and they are always in her mouth now. She's doing really well with tummy time and is just the cutest when she's awake. All smiles and coos. Her sleeping through the night is benefiting all of us. We officially packed away all her 0-3 month sleepers and onesies. Thankfully, the pants, skirts, and dresses still fit her pretty well; but we'll probably be packing those away too before we move. We wish we could capture more photos of her smiling and being cute, but it always seems like we're running around doing everything else so when those moments come we just like to enjoy them without worrying about pictures all the time. It's so true how the oldest gets all the picture time. However, we have been really good at keeping her baby book and calendar up to date, since we had practice on Dean first. So you win some, you lose some. 

Speaking of the Dean-ster, he is so good at talking and running and helping now, and we've been enjoying it for the most part. The weather has been really nice lately (in the 80s until about 8 pm) and he has really been loving it. He has finally reached the point where he feels comfortable playing on the playground while we just watch. He loves climbing up and going down the slide over and over, it's fun to see him so excited. Pulling him away from it though afterward is difficult, we feel bad because he's having so much fun. He and Mommy have been having lots of fun playing pretend lately and practicing new words and actions. For example, he'll say "goodnight," after which he'll lay down, pretend snore, and then pop up and say "good morning! I'm awake!" after a few minutes. It's fun watching him try to jump, since he doesn't quite get all the way off the floor, and we can't help trying to get him to say things like "hippopotamus" because his version of the word just makes us giggle. He had a lot of fun visiting the Lane boys next door this week and blowing bubbles. All he said for hours afterward was "bubbles, bubbles!" He also got to give Shayla a few kisses when she visited this week, and ran around with a huge grin and made us chase him at the ward camp-out-feast Friday night. Such adventures! We sure do love our handsome boy. 

(walking around with a hamper on his head. stopped to say "cheese" for the camera.)

Well, back to our countdown to California list for now. Stay posted for our next developments! 


Love, 


The James Anderson Family