Oops, I almost forgot! Congratulations!

Our lives have been so busy lately, that I almost forgot to mention some exciting news. Last month Jason's brother Christian got married!
So congratulations to Chris, Mary (his beautiful new wife), and Arlo and Keifer (his new sons), we truly wish we could have been there! Oh, and congratulations on the coming soon of another son, Jude!

Behold the Destruction!

We had just had it with our ugly, out-dated, less than functional, dirty, old kitchen so we took the sledge-hammer to it. It wasn't really spur-of-the-moment, but we did demolish it. First we set up a temporary kitchen in our family room--all the comforts of a regular kitchen except the kitchen sink!
As you can see in the second picture, the walls of our "temporary" kitchen are lined with the boxes of cabinets we've had sitting around since February. But it was smart of us to wait--not only did we get a break from the remodelling (see past blogs), but the weather is much more cooperative now that it's not raining every other day. Also the black plastic wall is doing triple duty: it acts as a dust wall (ESSENTIAL), a support wall for when we remove the chimney behind it (also essential), and most importantly, a child resistant barrier to keep the kids (especially handyman Gavin) out of the dangerous mess contained therein!Our kids would love to help more, and Emma does help occasionally hauling garbage to the dumpster, but it's definitely not a good idea--to Gavin's great chagrin. There's actually been a lot of progress, not quite as fast as I had hoped, but quicker than I realistically anticipated. Neverthless, anyone (adult, that is) that would like to help is more than welcome: it can be a true stress reliever pounding away at these walls!

As with any old house project, you are bound to find some rather interesting things. For instance, the opening you see in the right of the picture was an old entry way that had long since been covered up and used to be behind the dishwasher. We opened it up because that is actually almost exactly where we were planning on putting a door! (Beyond the opening you can see the rock walls in the laundry room and get a better idea of what happened in the "broken toe" blog.) We found old plumbing from the previous location for the kitchen sink, plus a hole in the floor for the old drain. There was also at least 7 different wallpapers that had been used in the room at various times, including the one that had been on the wall when there was a chimney fire. (The one in the top left of the pict above; that's why it's rather dingy looking. We think the chimney fire may have been the reason for the last remodel--at least we are assuming it was from the chimney because there is a LOT of soot in the attic.) One of the more interesting finds was stuffed in a wall as some kind of insulation--an old Salt Lake Tribune dated March 1962. It's nice to be able to actually identify the age of the kitchen (which is almost exactly the date I was guessing). It is kind of hard to see, but the stuff inside the wall opposite the bright cherry wallpaper is original adobe brick. Basically, all of the outer wall in our house was built like the wall you see there (it used to be an outer wall before the garage and laundry room were added)--wood frame with adobe brick insulation. Not the thing you think of when you hear "adobe house."

The stone wall and chimney are the biggest time consumer. Yep, we are crazy--we are taking the WHOLE thing out. You can see a little bit of what it used to look like behind Gavin in the picture above. Basically they built a chimney in the middle of the wall between the kitchen and family room and then covered it and all of the space around it in rock (think Brady Bunch). It was approximately 5' wide and 8' long--now it's just a chimney! The next step is taking off the top of the chimney, but we have to do that in the morning while it's still cool enough to climb around on the roof and in the attic. When we are done, we are replacing that whole wall space with a single beam and will have a open kitchen/family room combination. Who knew that we could make a 150-year-old house have a modern layout so "easily"? It's a good thing we are taking it out anyway--if you noticed the hole in the chimney on the left, there is no liner inside the bricks. And the section above the roof is only liner with no outer chimney bricks and is cracked--all leading to a fire just waiting to happen. Personally, we think one fire per house is more than enough!

This last picture is basically from the same angle as the one with Gavin in it above, but taken tonight. It might look like we're done, but we still need to finish the wall opposite this one, take the chimney out, and take the floor out. Yep, again, we're crazy--we are going all the way to the floor joists and studs. The plumber needs access and there isn't access to the crawl space and the floor is two inches thick and not level--we need to lower it slightly and level it. So wish us luck! Or even better, come visit and join us in the destruction!

Camping at Lava Hot Springs, Idaho

Jason and I love camping and so do our friends, the Mills. So after talking about doing something for years, we finally went ahead and made plans to go to Yellowstone on Father's Day weekend. As you can tell by the title, Yellowstone didn't happen. Emma was sick the day before we left and I didn't want to be that far away from home with her not feeling well. Then I checked the weather and found out that Yellowstone was supposed to be getting 4 inches of snow! (I don't like camping THAT much!) So we changed plans at the last minute and eventually decided upon Lava Hot Springs (less than 1.5 hours north of Logan). We had a blast! (Even if it wasn't Old Faithful!)

Here's the group (minus me, I was the photographer for all our picts). From left to right, back row, Jason, Gavin, Jordan Mills, Donna and Todd Mills; in the front Tanner Mills and Emma.
We spent a lot of time in the water (especially Jason and Emma). This is in the hot springs--they didn't recommend kids 3 and under or pregnant women get in, so Gavin and I sat this one out. Gavin was pretty bothered at being left out, but I let him touch the water and he definitely didn't like the heat. He still wanted to go in, but I knew he wouldn't enjoy it!
Jason and Emma also went tubing down the river. Emma didn't last long enough for me to get a picture--I could hear her screaming 3 minutes before anyone made it down to where I was positioned to take pictures. Jason took pity on our resident chicken and got out upstream. But he was excited to go a second time, and it looks like he really enjoyed himself. I was kind of surprised they went a second time because the first time they got seperated, lost their shoes, and Donna got dragged under (with multiple bruises to show for it). But they did, and I guess experience helped because they all enjoyed it (they being Todd, Donna, Jordan, and Jason).
Emma may be a chicken (notice the arm floaties and ring), but Gavin is a total fish! He loved the water and couldn't get enough of it. He didn't mind getting his face wet and even dove under a couple times on accident--don't worry, we kept a CLOSE eye on him. He was a natural swimmer and would take off by himself when he had floaties. The biggest challenge with him, of course, is that he's completely deaf with out his electronic ears! But it was still tons of fun. The pool we went to also had a couple of giant slides that Jason and I eventually tried. Jason was chicken the first day and then went the second day--it was his first time ever to go on a water slide (apparently the lakes in Vermont don't come with water slides). I wasn't going to break the rules of no pregnant women, but then they all convinced me that the slides were mild enough, so I did and it was mild, but still fun!
Of course, you can't really camp without a campfire. The fire was nice because Gavin didn't need a lot of reminding that it was HOT because he could tell! We did s'mores the first night and...
...homemade ice cream the second night (thanks to Donna)! Donna is a gourmet cook--she's my Pampered Chef friend, and it was great having her cook for a day. I kept things really simple on my day to cook, but she went all out with egg/sausage/ham sandwichs with hashbrowns for breakfast and dutch oven for dinner--including apple cobbler that was to die for! It was great! The one down side for Lava Hot Springs is that there is a train track that travels right through this little town. Gavin LOVED seeing real trains choo-chooing by, but what we didn't realize until too late was that the trains came every hour, on the hour, at night. Still, it wouldn't be too bad (there were train tracks not far from where we lived in Salt Lake), except that there were also six crossings in the town and the trains had to honk at each one! Oh my heavens--talk about lack of sleep! I finally slept through the last couple (from 2:30 to 6:30 AM) on the second night, since I was so exhausted from the first night!

To finish up this fabulous trip, we went to Minnetonka Cave on the way home. It is about 20 minutes from Bear Lake (for those of you going to Bear Lake this summer, keep it in mind--it's worth the trip!) and is SO COOL! Both literally and figuratively (it stays a constant 40 degrees). They have a truly awesome collection of various stalactites and stalagmites. It was Jason's and my first time in a cave and I can't wait to see another!

This isn't the best picture of the inside of the cave, but it was the best with one of us in it. Overall, we think the trip was a complete success! We all enjoyed camping so much, that we are planning another trip next month!

Anderson Family Reunion (+ another graduation)

Four generations: My grandfather, Parley Anderson, is sitting; my dad, Gavin Anderson, in the middle, and his brother, Cameron, to his left; me, Becky Cornelius; and my daughter, Emma (my son, Gavin, wasn't wanting to cooperate as "nicely" as Emma--ha ha)

On June 7th, we had an Anderson family reunion that was inspired by the visit of my Uncle Kelly and his wife Gail (they are the pair in the middle) from Pennsylvania. It was really great to see them, and I'd forgotten just how sweet and friendly Aunt Gail is! Kelly is the youngest of the five boys that make up my dad's family, and Cam is the middle child (the clown with his back to the camera). The oldest, Jesse, also made it with his wife Sharon and one of their four kids, Melissa. My dad is the second oldest and the second youngest, Wayne, doesn't visit much--I don't think I've seen him since my grandmother died in 1996. I also got to see some of my Grandpa's siblings and meet some second cousins. Overall, it was fun. Sorry, if this is a boring entry, but I am mostly doing it for the journaling side of this blog.

A couple days before, my sister Emily graduated from Highland High School--my parents' last kid to survive and graduate. All five of us went to Highland, and yet, believe it or not, Emily was the first to be valedictorian. All the rest of us got at least one "A-" (or worse), but Emily managed to pull straight "A"s for all four years. Congratulations to her! She also sang with the madrigals, was a National Honor Society officer, got an Honors Diploma, and a bunch more accomplishments that added to the number of doodads she had hanging around her neck at the ceremony. She also had all of her siblings (except Nate, in Georgia) come to support her--and she claims no one loves her...! I brought my camera, but left it in the car! So I took picts with mom's while mom used Emily's. So if I get a copy of one, I'll post it. Way too go Emily!!! I'm proud of you.

Baby Update

This is a current picture of beautiful me. I have to admit that I'm "relaxing" my tummy some to look a little bigger than usual. I'm still wearing normal clothes, but have eliminated about half my wardrobe that doesn't fit anymore. (Notice it's long sleeves and long pants--who knew it could be threatening snow in June!) The other day my very observant teenage sister Emily asked, "Are you sure you want to wear pants that make your stomach look big?" I had to gently remind her that it wasn't the pants that made my stomach look large!

So we had the ultrasound about a month ago and found out we are having a happy, healthy, baby surprise! (At least we're assuming it will be happy.) It wasn't that they couldn't find out the gender, we didn't want to know! We already have a boy and a girl, so we are prepared for either so we can have some fun with this. The ultrasound was very helpful though, we found out that everything looks great and perfectly normal. We didn't get any great pictures though, so this is kind of the best we've got.

If you have an opinion, I'm interested in what people think. We get to choose the birthday (one of the advantages of a c-section) and the due date is Thursday, Sept 25. We would prefer to deliver on a Friday because it makes missing work easier, so ideally the OB would love to do it Sept. 19. The downside is that Emma's birthday is Sept. 17 (and my brother's is the 18th). Is it worth putting off the delivery for a week so that they can each have a more seperate birthday? My doctor is very reluctant, but said that we could if we had to. What do you think?

Toe Pain

I hope that feet don't bother you, but I thought I'd share my fun toe breaking incident (this picture is a lot "prettier" than when it happened, but you can still see remnants of the injury). A couple weeks ago, Jason and I rather impromptudely started removing some very large flagstones from a wall in our laundry room. For the majority of you that haven't seen our house, the people who remodelled it in the '60s and '70s LOVED rock walls. Anyway, I had sandals on and Jason started prying on one that was up high. We have removed lots of rock already and have MUCH more to go, so we've gotten pretty good at catching the rocks. Well, Jason missed and despite having moved (what I thought was far enough) the rock bounced and landed right on my baby toe. It had such force that it cut a nice slice in my sandal, but luckily didn't cut my toe off! Instead, it broke my toe. At least I assume it was broken because I didn't go to the doctor, but it does seem more twisted than the other one. And just too make things fair, while I was treating my injury, Jason continued to remove more rock. He was determined to get this giant one (4.5' x 3') out. Well, he did it and managed to catch it (much heavier than he even could have guessed), but a neighboring rock was loosened and fell directly on his foot! He was only slightly smarter, wearing fake croc's (the foam one's with holes), and ended up with a perfectly circular scratch through one of the holes on top and a nice bruise. We ended up calling it a day at that point... The joys of remodelling!

PS. And just to balance things out for myself, a week later, I accidentally stubbed my other baby toe really hard on Emma's bike and pulled the nail half off! Do you know how funny it looks to be limping because of both feet?!

Graduate!

On Saturday, May 31st, 2008, we had our family's first official Master's Degree. Jason graduated from Emporia State University (based in Kansas) with a MLS (Master's in Library and Information Sciences). We are so proud of his accomplishment! It wasn't easy, but he stuck with it. Thanks for all the family and friends support with this, I'm grateful my parents and Abby could come--we know many more would have liked to if it was possible! Way to go Master Librarian!


This is a small clip from Jason's graduation--the "hooding" which is unique for master's degrees. Sorry about the shakiness, but I was actually quite far away and zoomed in. Oh, and I couldn't resist sharing the sweetness of this picture.

Memorial Day Weekend

We planted our new hedge on Saturday. Despite the chance of rain, and the exhausting challenge of digging through rocks and roots, we managed to get all 16 in. You can see they wrap around to the left and line the sidewalk (Gavin was supposed to pose with Daddy, but he decided to run for it). We are hoping they grow large enough to give us a privacy barrior to use our sideyard as a play space (we have a VERY small backyard). On Monday, we had a ward breakfast, watched a movie with kids in the afternoon (while it rained), and then had a BBQ with friends. One of the friends helped Jason dig out the sod for the bushes and the other was his wife who is due a couple weeks before me with her first child. It was really a great and satisfying weekend!

School's Out!

Emma and Gavin both had their last day of school on May 21st. Emma is at the last table in the back on the left in the yellow shirt. Of course, Gavin is a lot easier to spot considering there are more adults in the class than kids! This group was the toddler group (which is why Jason's in the picture), when he starts again in a month, it will be in the preschool--so no more mom or dad! Until then, we are looking forward to summer fun--including camping in a couple weeks! (Oh, and my classes ended a week later, with yearbook signing day on Friday. I got a special tribute from my students, they nicknamed be "Beck-ahh" and included a picture of my head attached to a chicken's body in the yearbook!)

Birthdays and Mother's Day

Well, I thought that I had taken some pictures of my birthday, but I guess I didn't. Jason got me a nice cake decorated with Oreo's (can't get much better than that). I got some much needed new shirts and my parents got me a beautiful fancy quilting frame! I got it set up but haven't gotten the quilt on quite yet. I'm excited though! Mother's day was rather quiet and very sweet. I got breakfast in bed and Jason made dinner. Emma was very sweet and suddenly became a prolific crafter and brought me present after home-made present. Overall, very satisfying.

Gavin's birthday was really fun and simple. I went a little overboard with the cake, but had fun. Gavin loved it! (It goes along well with his current obsession with Thomas movies and vehicles in general. I couldn't really bear to let the kids eat it because I was so impressed with myself, so I waited a couple days to cut the cake. Meanwhile, I kept noticing that the Oreo crumbs in the "coal car" kept disappearing, and Gavin's face kept getting mysteriously covered in chocolate! Eventually we did eat it and it tasted just a good as it looked! (If I do say so myself...)

The CIRCUS!

I've never been to an actual circus before, so in April we went to a small one that came to Logan and it was really fun. They had two sessions, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. We were running way late for the afternoon show, but I decided to see if we could still see some of it. Well, without meaning to, we walked right in at intermission and got in free to see the second half. Of course, I didn't really feel honest about it, and we enjoyed it, so I figured we would enjoy coming back for the first half of the evening session. It was much more crowded and we ended up on the floor with terrible seats, Gavin had an explosion in his diaper, and Emma begged for every possible treat. But it was still really fun and not too expensive. My favorite parts were the dancing elephants and the many motorcycles in a small dome that didn't crash into each other!

Jason's last day

March 28th was Jason's final day of work with the Everton collection, and it was both rewarding and bittersweet. He loved the genealogy and the variety of work required, but he missed interacting with coworkers. The closest he got was with faithful volunteers, like Lori, pictured here. But he's on to bigger and better paying things so all is well!

Easter, No. 3

The last "session" of Easter was on General Conference weekend in Salt Lake. My parents had put off celebrating until the whole family could be together, so we got to have a third event. We dyed eggs again, had the Anderson traditional "special breakfast" ("Campbell-ed" eggs and breakfast/coffee cake with double the sugar topping and icing glaze--too sweet for Jason), and did a final egg hunt while still watching both conference sessions on Sunday. It's amazing the kids weren't tired of it by then! (Yeah right!) Probably the funnest tradition that happens every year, despite my mother's best efforts, is the ONE egg that isn't found until hours, days, or even weeks later (don't worry, these are candy-filled plastic eggs). This time my brother Barry got stuck with the "lost" egg. What a great time of year!

Easter, No. 2

The "second" Easter celebration lasted three days (not on purpose, that's just what happened). On the Saturday before we went on three egg hunts, one at the mall, one at a grocery store, and then finally a neighbor that does one traditionally every year. We figured that was enough candy to last us and enough hunting, so we negated doing any on the actual day. Instead we dyed eggs, which Emma flipped over! She has such and artistic flare to life. We also got a picture of the "girls" in their Easter dresses (we actually bought Emma an article of clothing from a store other than D.I.--AMAZING--okay, it was Wal-Mart, but still...). We also talked some about the real purpose of Easter. Emma really couldn't accept that we weren't doing a hunt at home, so we caved (sort of) and did one for Family Home Evening on Monday. It was not at all traditional though because it was more like a treasure hunt, but at each stop we taught the kids about each stage of the events leading to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. It was really cool and probably the only time that Gavin has stayed happy and engaged through a whole FHE! I'm kind of thinking this might be the start of a tradition.

Easter, No. 1

We had a really fun and rather extended Easter by dragging out the festivities over a couple weeks! First we had this egg hunt at my parent's the week before because we knew we weren't going to be in Salt Lake on Easter. Unfortunately, they were busy, so it kind of defeated the purpose of doing it early anyway. But we were able to invite Auntie Abby and it was really sweet and fun. Gavin had a total blast once he started getting the hang of it and Emma was a fabulous helper.

Airplane Museum

We had to find out from Jason's Grandpa Kinney about this cool place that I didn't know existed, despite having lived here my whole life. The local air force base has a really cool, free, airplane museum. So in mid-March we went to Hill Air Force Base and had a great time. They had planes from every era and war and it was really interesting to see the evolution of design. It wasn't to large, but enough to see that we finally reached Gavin's limit. But at that point we'd seen most of the place, so we were okay with leaving. We wanted to help "donate" by buying something for each kid in the gift shop. Boy, was that a mistake for Gavin! After he calmed down in the car, he seemed satisfied with the little toy plane we bought him. Overall, it was a really fun afternoon activity and I'd recommend it to anyone who ends up near Roy (Layton), Utah.

Preschool Family Night

This was a party at Emma's school. They had family fun nights once a month, which were fun (and a free dinner). Gavin loved the gym, and every time Jason went to pick Emma up from school Gavin would try to make a break down the hall to play with the balls. It was nice to have a night when he could play with them to his hearts content.

Oh, and the girl by Emma's feet is the sister of one of her classmates, Evan. A rather odd coincidence, we bought our house from their family! And then Emma ended up in the same class as him! It was fun to get to know them. But we are still a little confused why they sold the house just to move into a rental a couple blocks away.... To each his own!

Finally warm in February

I figure it's time to do some catch up with the blog. I apologoize for anyone that has been checking my blog without any updates for the last TWO months. I was busy, but not so busy--mostly just not in the mood. I could try and blame it on the pregnancy, but really, it's just my personality! Anyway, this was just a fun picture of the weather finally warming up at the end of February. Gavin would not wear a coat and as you can see Emma and her friends had been enjoying the cleared sidwalks despite the foot of snow still on the grass!