family – Sophia A.

Spring Break

Really I am just getting worse and worse at keeping this up. I think I’m going to scrap the whole thing and start fresh maybe, with just a blog piece that I insert photos into vs a whole separate gallery. It’ll be awhile before I get to it though. We headed up to the Mall of America for Spring Break for a couple days. The girls had a great time, and we got to do a little bit of shopping. The girls really enjoy the Nickelodeon Universe area so they ride as much as possible on Monday. Sunday we head out in the morning, eat breakfast in the car, stop for lunch and check into our hotel. Then we head over to the mall to do a little shopping and check out the rides. Monday the girls ride as much as possible. Sophie mistakenly rode the swings around and around and then she had to stop for awhile. She won’t be riding those again, but she did right the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Shell Shock, which surprised us, and loved it. This year, Lexi could ride alone as well. I did ride on the Orange Streak with her so she could try it, but she’ll have to be bigger to ride that alone in future years.

Happy Holidays

Sorry about the delay. Hackers have really messed up this site. I have cleaned up this side of it, so you shouldn’t get malware warnings anymore, but the photo gallery is sort of out of commission. I’ll have to replace that and start fresh. Since Halloween Sophia has turned 10, Alexis is 5 and doing well in preschool. and we’re just about into Christmas and 2013. It’s been a very fast year. We went sledding yesterday after the first blizzard. Enjoy these pictures – I’ll post some videos as well as soon as their ready.

Away in a Manger from Melissa Anderson on Vimeo.

Jingle Bells and We wish you a Merry Christmas from Melissa Anderson on Vimeo.

Rudolph from Melissa Anderson on Vimeo.

Sledding from Melissa Anderson on Vimeo.

Happy Halloween

It was a quieter Halloween this year for us, without the cousins to candy hunt with us. Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Cathy came over, and they stayed behind to pass out candy – Cathy’s foot is in a cast, so there was no block walking for her. They handed out all 100 pieces one at a time, so we had at least 100 kids, plus a few at the end that didn’t understand the light was out = no candy. The girls didn’t overdo it on the candy, so it shouldn’t last until Valentine’s and they had fun. Aaron and Ashley came over to visit after they were done passing out candy. It was a nice night – not as crazy as some past years..it was a good time. Sophia went as a Vampire – without any teeth or fake blood, ewww..and Alexis went as a witch.

Cutest vampire and witch with the pumpkins

Family Pictures

We managed to get out to Palisades park again this fall. Most of the leaves had already fallen, but that wasn’t really my picture priority. I just wanted a family picture I could put out over last year’s and some individual pictures of the girls to show who they are at five and nearly ten. There are more in the album. They turned out pretty well.

The Wedding

Aaron and Ashley got married yesterday. Alexis was a flower girl, Sophia handed out bubbles, and programs, Brian was an usher and Melissa was a bridesmaid. It was a long but fun day. There’s a new album with photos and here’s just a couple pictures and a video.

Summer Vacation

This year we decided not to go anywhere big and while I think we were under the impression we’d save money on hotel and travel costs..the state fair took care of that. We probably spent enough there to take a trip 🙂 We started out with bowling on Monday. Sophia had been with her class before but not with us, and Lexi had never been. We bowled two games for free because the girls had coupons from the library reading program, so that was an extra bonus. Technically I (melissa) was the winner in bowling 🙂 Although none of us did that well and I only barely broke 100.

Lexi bowling — Lexi Bowling - we helped a lot, but this time she wanted to do it herself

Next up we headed for some mini golf at Airport Waterfall Mini Golf. It was going to be pretty warm that day so we headed out early, right after breakfast. We took a break after hole 9 for a potty break and to cool off in the a/c. Daddy won at golf, obviously.

Wednesday Brian golfed in the morning and the girls and I hung out at home. I had a massage at 2pm and we made it a sort of off/relax day.

Thursday we headed to Des Moines (Granger) for horseback riding and the State Fair. This was easily the best day of the whole vacation, Sophia loved horseback riding and they both loved the fair and didn’t want to leave. We saw as much as we could and found a lot of great things to buy (Hare Do, Namby memo holders, MyPillow, ice cream, corn dogs, turkey legs). Next time we might need to bring Grandma and Grandpa so we can do a couple days and hit more exhibits and have the camper to sleep in.

There are a lot more pictures – check them out in the new Vacation/Staycation 2012 album here.

New furniture

There are no words. I love this new furniture so much, especially the nightstand. It’s beautiful and really really well built (Daniel’s Amish).

From my side of the bed, looking at the dresser

Happy Fourth of July

About a week late…sorry.

Sophie, the deal maker.

Thursday night (I think) we came down from tucking the girls into bed and found this.

This is Sophie’s chore chart. She’s made it for herself, I think to avoid whatever awful chores I might come up with for her this summer. Her chores include make bed, brush teeth, brush hair, be kind to dogs, be nice to sis, help family. All noble and wonderful goals 🙂 Here’s the actual text:

READ THIS!
I made my own chore chart. If I do them all, I get two dollars. If I do some, I get one. If I don’t do any, I get zero. So, Deal?

P.S. I’m starting the chores next week, cause it’s in the midle of this week already. Deal? Deal!

She’s so funny and smart and creative and resourceful. I might let her try this out..because my printer hasn’t been working, so she may need to draw out her own chore charts anyway.

Happy Easter everyone!

Spring Break 2012: Mall of America

Sophia is on spring break this week, so we took the week off also and headed to the Mall of America from Sunday through Tuesday for some shopping and indoor amusement park fun. There is a new album in the vacation album and several videos on the way.

Here’s some videos…

Oh, and here’s the sweet Coach purse I got at the outlet on Thursday. We got some great deals on work clothes for Brian and it was a beautiful day for it.