Sledding on Christmas Eve!

Neal and I sledding at a park in American Fork. I was determined to go this morning and so I pleaded with Neal to come along with me. We had a lot of fun! It was really fun to watch all the little kids sled down the hill. The kids had made these jumps that literally put you straight into the air and then they would land with a thud down onto the ground again. They enjoyed trying to hit the jumps and I avoided trying to run them over as I sled down the hill. I love my snow tube, it's a Uncle Bob's snow tube. It's sweet!

The Anderson Family Christmas Party!

Emily, me, and Neal at the Anderson Christmas party! Isn't Neal getting so tall, I can't even claim I'm taller than him anymore! ;) Actually, in all honestly, I get to claim I'm the shortest kid now. Short, in perspective to them! I may not look shorter in this picture, but I am centimeters shorter than Emily! :)

Alicia with my cousins Blake on the left and Josh on the right. They're such goofs!

Alicia, Emily, Kiera, and Denay. They are my dad's only sister's oldest daughters. Kiera is at BYU studying history and Denay is a senior at Layton High about to graduate and go to BYU. Oh yeah, what a trend I started! Emily just graduated with her bachelors degree in biology from BYU. Go Em! She'll officially walk in April.

Neal, Emily, and Colton. Colton is brothers to the other two goofs in my picture. They tend to take after their father who teases me constantly. You'll always have to have one of those uncles in every family, right?

And you might be asking, what is Neal resting his arms on? Well my Grandpa Anderson just had a total knee surgery and so Neal borrowed his walker to play around with. My Grandpa is hilarious, but so smart. He's strapped on a basket from a child's bicycle to the front of his walker so he can carry objects in it while he's burning around with his walker. Genius that muggle!

Oh Christmas Tree...Oh Christmas Tree...

I love taking close up pictures! Check out how I captured the sparkles on the present. These ornaments belong on the tree below. It's an amazing Christmas tree!

What? Upside down? Yup, this tree belongs to my sister's friend. If you know Ashley Farr then you can go take a look at it. She said her mom saw it at Quilted Bear or some store like that and had to get it. Their dad was a little frustrated they bought the whole thing when he got home, but look at it, I wouldn't be able to stop myself either. It's awesome, everything is upside down!

Neal and I at our Anderson Family Christmas party. We went to Golden Corral, first of all because we can eat dinner, and second it's one of the only places that provides a party room big enough for our family now. We did our annual money box tradition, and this year I got one of the five twenty dollar bills. Yahoo! Grandpa Anderson got the $50 and donated to Neal's mission fund. Overall it was fun as always to get together with the family. Yet, I could do without my cousins trying to get our waiter to ask me out. They think they're so funny! :)

These boots were made for walk'in!

Check them out, I finally found myself some cute, tall, black boots! And it's not too awkward to walk around in them either. :) Bonus! I decided to try out a new store in Sugarhouse called Shoe Carnival. I love it because they carry cute shoes and they have sizes 10 and 11. Yeah, just what I need. I have a feeling Shoe Carnival and I are going to be good friends!

It's puzzle time!

FairyTales by James Christensen, it's so fun to look at!

Mom, Emily, and Neal getting in on the action of putting this thing together.

Smile!

Hey, so the day after Thanksgiving, my brother Neal, and my sister Emily and I put together this amazing 1500 piece puzzle. It probably took total man/woman hours ~12-15hours. But it was so worth it! The puzzle is a painting by James Christensen, a well-known artist who specializes in fantasy themes. This one is called FairyTales. It's composed of 25 or so fairy tales all combined in one frame. It's fun for the looker to pick all of them out. This is one of my favorite pieces of his work, another one is his Nursery Rhymes painting. My goal is to glue the puzzle together and frame it. If I can't have the real one then I can make due with this one on my wall. It sure was fun though spending time with my brother and sister. :)

What have I been doing?

Sorry everyone, it's been a while since I've posted something. Yah, I'm alive, but nothing too exciting has happened. Work is going well. I held a cute little 6 mo. old baby today for a couple hours because he was just not content to sleep in his crib. The nurse giving me report was right when she said he "likes to be held". It was fun, he slept in my arm, caused paralysis, and after handing him to my tech to be fed, I was able to get the blood back into my arm. :) Ha, but he was worth it! Well tonight I did see Twilight though! Overall I liked it! It was fun to see the book come to life. My missionary brother is doing very well in the MTC. He's been there a month now and although learning spanish is hard for him at times, he's relying on the Lord every minute and loving it. He says he trys to run 2 miles a day and do ab work outs because he's trying to regain his six pack. My family had a good laugh at that one. Well it's crazy that December is almost here, but life moves on. I hope to hear from you all soon. Enjoy this Christmas season, and remember it's the spirit of Christ that we're celebrating!

We went "Into the Woods" to have a great night!

Laura, Jackie and me

Me on a toadstool!

Check it out, the prince is right behind us!

Agony! No, that is not what us girls felt at "Into the Woods", but the princes in the musical surely felt that way a few times. I went with my good friends from work, Laura Hess, Jackie Elliot, and Jessica (Laura's roommate, who works in the PICU). The song "Agony" was hilarious, one of my new favorites. I've now added another musical to my seen list. I just love them! "Into the Woods is about a Baker and his wife who want a child, but come across Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Raapunzel, and Cinderella in their quest for one. The message of the play is that we are all not alone and that we must work together in order to accomplish each of our goals in life. I had a lot of fun! After the play, we found a toadstool to pose on. We also found one of the princes, who didn't appear to be in much agony anymore. However, I highly suggest if you haven't seen the play, to understand the "Agony" song, you should go to this link at Youtube and watch it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc_GEhu6oCY. It's great! You'll laugh, I promise!

It's snowing!

Welcome to my house in the winter. It's a new site for me too! Well this morning I woke up to whiteness! I knew this storm was coming and thus I was very grateful I didn't have to work this morning. However I was intending to go to the gym but that goal has been shot down. I'm not a big fan of driving in the snow. So I got up, made a good breakfast, got back into bed, read a few chapters of my "Chronicles of Narnia" complete series book, and blogged. I decided everyone needed to see what I am seeing at my house. I hope to make a snowman later. Oh yah, and it was just two days ago that the ice cream man drove down my street. No lie!

Elder Anderson entered the MTC - Oct. 29, 2008

Well he's officially a missionary now! He was set apart Tuesday, October 28, 2008 by Stake President David Miles. The family started the morning off by eating at Bryce's favorite restaurant, IHOP. I ordered my favorite thing on the menu, Cinnamon Swirl French Toast. When we got there, we noticed two other missionaries and their families. Come to find out, ingoing missionaries to the MTC receive their meal free. What a deal! He was to report by 11:30am, so we got there a little before 11am to take pictures, of course! And then we finally entered the building. I think we all did okay until the final saying good-bye scene. We were all crying, Bryce was going down the row giving us all hugs. I was the last one to get a hug and by chance I glanced down the row right as he gave Neal a hug. Now these two boys have become so close over the past couple of years and Neal just burst into tears. Now this made me cry even harder and you know when you can't control your crying and you snort. Well some people do and if you don't, I guess your lucky. But I did, and it was actually humorous! But just seeing them two saying good-bye was heart renching. He then looked at mom and said "I'm going". I think he told her this because one of the branch presidents had just got done telling us that saying good-bye is like a band-aid. The quicker you tear it off, the less pain you feel. So he said "I'm going" and then passed me. And since I was the last one in the row, and he gave me another hug. And then we watched him walk out with the other missionaries, down the hall, and around the corner. I'll never forget him walking out...it was like he was marching with the 2,000 stripling warriors or something. A man of God. He's in His hands now and our family is comforted in that knowledge. I love you Bryce, you'll do great and the family and I are praying for you everyday!

Chantel Nebeker is now Mrs. Chantel Wilkinson

On Saturday, October 25, 2008, one of my best friends, Chantel Nebeker, married her best friend Reed Wilkinson in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. It was a beautiful wedding! I had the opportunity to be one of her bridesmaids as well as her sister Shelley. We got to wear pretty chocolate brown dresses with brown polka dots. Chantel had me do her hair for the wedding, and I'll admit I was pretty nervous. I've never done anyones hair let alone for a wedding. Yet after I curled it, I decided to leave it down because it looked more amazing than I could've imagined. We added the tiara and the veil and she was set. Beautiful is all I can say! Brynley and Paul Mosley were able to come to the wedding and Paul shot some pictures of the trio. I love these girls! I'm so glad we have each other and will forever.

I bought a car!!!

Yes, it's true, I bought my FIRST car! It was a good experience; however, I didn't enjoy the searching part. I bought it from Incredible Auto Sales off of Highway 89 in North Salt Lake. They had amazing customer service and I certainly recommend anyone else to go there. So it is a Toyota Corolla S 2007. I love the dark blue color and it has gray-black interior. I drove it home a little scared, but excited that it is now mine. Yeah! I love it!

Raining at the St. George Marathon? Yeah, hard to believe, huh!

My family headed down to St. George friday afternoon and arrived just in time to eat the famous pasta dinner at the convention center. The marathon took place Oct 4th at 6:45am, and yup you guessed from the title, in the rain! In the 32 years the marathon has taken place, it has only rained twice. The second time was this year! Overall, the runners weren't a fan of the rain. It slowed times down and chilled them, as you can see from my brothers picture. Yet, they perservered and finished still. My brother Bryce leaves on his mission in 3 weeks to San Fernando California. My dad and him trained for this together, and I know they really enjoyed doing this together before he left.

After the marathon, the girls went shopping. I bought a really cute jacket that was a steal of a deal. And while the boys were at priesthood, the girls went and saw "Les Miserables" at the Tuacahn Outdoor Ampitheatre. It was an amazing show, yet like the marathon, the show went on in the rain! We looked at each other 3/4 through the show and just burst into laughter. "Are we crazy to still be here," we asked each other. The wind was blowing so hard it blew rain panchos onto the stage and almost hit Jean Valjean in the face. Then the rain just pelted down and while others were booking it out of the theatre, we endured it (with the help of our umbrellas). We were lucky though, as much as we would've like to have sat closer, our seats were on the very top row, which meant we were able to use our umbrellas. Well it was a great weekend, and I love my family so much. I love spending time with them!

Inspirational books! I loved them!

I just finished reading "Tuesdays with Morrie" last night on my night shift. It's a very inspirational book! I also finished reading "The Last Lecture" a few weeks ago, and found both of them to be equal in the amazing outlooks on life given by the main characters in both books. I was inspired after reading these books. I want to write down quotes from these books and post them around my room and house to always remind me what life is about, and what I should be focusing my time and energy on. It's not the worldly things that matter in life. It's the personal moments, charitable acts, random acts of kindness that really matter. These moments can simply involve calling up an old friend, listening to someone, or just being there in every sense instead of just being there. I highly recommend these books to anyone in search of reading something good.

Rise and shout, the Cougars are BACK!

The Cougar trio...yes, Brynley, Paul, and I returned to BYU for the football game vs Wyoming. We shut them out 44-0! It was an awesome game, and even better because I was able to spend it with my two good friends. Afterwards, Paul treated me to a specially made sandwich and cheetos while Brynley took a nap before her night shift. I really enjoy hanging out with these two. I can't wait for baby #2...yeah I'll be an aunt again. :)

I saw CATS, it was amazing!

Wow!!! I went and saw CATS at Capitol Theatre in SLC tonight. It was really fun! The songs were really upbeat and fun to tap my toes to. I'm now interested on buying the soundtrack so I can have another musical to sing to. The song "Memory" was truly amazing. Other than that I think "Mr. Mistoffelees" was also another fun song. And I can't forget to say something about their costumes, well they were really cool! :)

Let's do another one!

Here is my creation, yes it's similar to the one Kinsey made for me, but I am just beginning to branch out. Flowers are just comfortable for me to sketch or in this case, paint! In school and church I always doodle these type of flowers. My next project i've decided to go on a limb. I want to paint the eifel tower. I hung this painting in my living room. It's a lot of fun and i'm so excited to have one more hobby to enjoy! If anyone wants to try, i'd be more than happy to paint with you.

Paint Day with Kinsey England!

So I embraced my artistic side once again today, but in a different form. I've alwasys wanted to buy a canvas and paint on it, but I never knew what my brain and hands could produce. I hung out with Kinsey England from my ward, who is also a fellow nurse who works at IMC, and we had a great time. We started off the afternoon eating lunch at Paradise Cafe in SugarHouse. It's an awesome place to eat, I recommend it to everyone, plus they have amazing cookies. Afterwards we headed to Roberts crafts and bought our canvas boards, paint, and brushes. We went back to her house and started our adventure. I started off painting the background black and when it was dry, she painted the flowers. She's so talented, i'm working on being as good as she is! She's too humble but she really is good. I also painted one of my own, my first, which will be posted later. I love this new hobby!

I passed the NCLEX, yeah!

Oh my goodness, what a summer! I found out today that I passed this beasty test. I just started crying and thanked my Heavenly Father for blessing me. I worked so hard to pass this test and I figured after all that I can do, He would help me with the rest. My family has been so great for me, they've been such a great support. Thank you dad for your father's blessing, it gave me the needed strength to get through the test. I am deeply grateful for all the support from my friends and family. I am so excited to dive into life now. I have a list of things I've been waiting to accomplish and do. I love you all, thanks for being there for me!

Craft day!

Wahoo, it's finished! This was my saturday project inbetween study sessions. It took a few sessions of spray paint and sanding, but it finally came together. I also bought a hammer, yah that's right, and used it to hang the shelf on my wall. It looks really cute in my room!

The Hardy Family Reunion in Yosemite National Park, July 23-28th, 2008

Welcome to Yosemite National Park!

We had a great time! Since our family has all grown to pretty much the same height these days, we took two separate cars, which allowed for two people to sleep at a time and then the passenger had to stay awake for the driver. So we traveled about 13 hours to Cali and 13 back, so it was nice to have the extra room to spread out! In Yosemite, we hiked to a few waterfalls. The boys hiked Half Dome. I would've liked to, but I felt I wasn't in shape to do it. So the rest of the family that day hiked to Vernal Falls, which was still a pretty difficult hike. We also went to the Mariposa Grove of Sequoia trees. These trees can live to be over 2,000 years old and although they aren't as tall as the Redwood trees, they are wider in diameter. Check me out trying to be a tree hugger, huge huh! Well, it was all around really fun for our family to be there all together before Bryce leaves on his mission. Speaking of which, Bryce got his mission call the day we got to Cali so he had to wait until we got home so his "Brotherhood" could come over to watch him open it. It gets better, his mission call is "California San Fernando Mission" which has Yosemite located just north of its boundary. So pretty much we were in his mission when he got his call to the mission. Got to LOVE it!