traditions

The Anderson tradition is to put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  It was nice to have my family here because they not only put up the tree, but put up the whole house, as well.  That's been the trend with out Thanksgiving guests - I hope they don't mind that decorating my house is part of the package. :)  Once again we went out east to track down our own handpicked tree.  My family doesn't get to do this since they get their tree out of the attic each year.  So we had a little adventure, squeezed between Matt's two morning cases at the hospital and my brother's flight out that evening.  

And it's up now and our house is so cozy, I never want to leave it.  I absolutely love coming home to see that Matt has already turned on the twinkle lights around the house and on our one little Charlie Brown cedar out front.

great minds

You know the saying "great minds think alike?"

So, Matt and I are having a baby in mid-April- the due date is April 18th.  We found out sometime in August and had a couple months of wigging out to ourselves before we shared our happy news.  Right around the time we spilled the beans, a bunch of other people started spilling the beans as well.  Seriously, there is nothing so Happy as sharing your joy!  Let's see if I can get all the people straight who are having kids in March, April, or May.

Matt was in a Bible study with 4 other guys in college.  It just so happens that 4 out of 5 of them are having kids in April or May!  Two of the guys are on kid #2, and Matt and his friend Reid are having number one.  (The 5th guy already has a baby.)  Reid got married like two months before us so it's fun to be all on the same schedule.

Our mutual friends Dexter and Jenna, who visited this summer, are due two weeks ahead of us.  We've had fun comparing milestones via email as they are far away in Kenya.

So you're like, ok, great, four of your friends are having babies, that's fun.  No, I'm not done yet.  In October I got a phone call from my friend Erin, who told me she was driving home from her first ultrasound!   I about choked because we weren't ready to tell anyone yet because we hadn't told our parents.  She's due two weeks after me, in the beginning of May. :)



There we are looking all cute and young.  Erin and I were both El Ed majors at Taylor and became closer our senior year, and even closer when we lived together for two years in Charlotte.  She is DEAR to me and it is so fun that we can share this time together!  Especially because we were planning our weddings at the same time, it just seems so right to be planning nurseries, too!

But wait, one more.  As I made the rounds of phone calls to announce the baby, my Taylor roommate Kelly was one of the last ones for me to get ahold of.  We lived together for four years at Taylor and one year in Charlotte.  Now THAT is true roommate love.  When I told her about the babe, she paused for a second and said, "I guess this is a good time for me to tell you that I'm pregnant, too!"  Surprise!!  Love that girl!  Hilariously she was visiting her parents for the weekend and was only about 8 weeks along . . . and her mom found out that Kel was pregnant when she got out of the car and threw up in the flower bed.  Poor sick thing. :)  She's due at the end of May.

 Here we are being young roommates. 

 This is my joy the day that Kelly and her husband Justin told me they were moving to Charlotte!  

 This is a picture of my Charlotte year one roommates:

Megan, the little face in the back, is getting married this July.  It looks like the rest of us will have to cart our babies out to Idaho for her big day!

shutterfly flutterby

Shutterfly is generously offering free Christmas cards to bloggers and it is pretty easy to blog about them!  This company is a favorite of mine and really came in handy when I made a bunch of wedding albums to give as gifts to grandparents last Christmas.  Their albums are really nice and it turns out about 8 million times easier than trying to scrapbook.  I also appreciate how my friends could upload their pictures to a Shutterfly album and then I could access their pictures and add them to my album I was getting printed.  Pretty nifty.  I also really dislike the quality of prints at our local drugstore so when I do order prints, it's from Shutterfly.

They offer a very wide variety of Christmas photo cards.  Besides the traditional flat holiday photo card, they also offer folded cards and my new favorite, their flat stationary line.   I am loving some of these designs, especially the square ones- I think they are quite classy.

Hello, cute family. 

I think two pictures of Moosey would really make this card pop. :) 

I’ve also made birthday cards before on Shutterfly.  It’s only about $2 a card to order one, and less if you order multiples.  Even if you’re only getting one, it’s a better deal than Hallmark and you get to add your own personal touch!  I like making cards out of photos anyway, and this is easier than trying to get everything printing in the right spot.  

So, get your Shutterfly products today!  If you're interested in participating in their blog promotion, click here! 

skater boy

People have been asking what will "happen" to Moose after the baby comes.  Moose will be just fine, he's very tolerant of babies and generally good natured.  But I'm sure he won't get our undivided attention any more so we are trying to get some quality time in before baby arrives.  Yesterday we came across a skateboard and today we took Moose to the school parking lot to try it out.  

He's so adorable. 

He had the time of his life and did pretty well!  

He also chewed on the board a lot.

He did sustain a couple injuries.  In the above picture you might be able to see a spot on his paw where we lost a toenail. :(  Poor buddy!

I would like to report that the skater is healing nicely and sleeping well after his 20 minutes of activity.

doggy's best day

I forgot I had these on my camera.  Little buddy's Thanksgiving feast.  

behind the scenes

Thanksgiving is kind of a big undertaking.  I was thankful to have my mom at the helm this year and my brother at the camera, so really I just wandered around and did various jobs all morning.  I will say that I spent far too long on the sweet potatoes this year because of poor planning and all my pots and pans were occupied by other dishes . . . I ended up making them over a 24 hour period and then we had PLENTY, a whole dish of leftovers.  Which we put in the oven to warm up on Friday and then accidentally left in there when we went to the movies, so they were destroyed.  Basically I'm not thrilled with sweet potatoes at the moment.  BUT everything else has served us well in the leftover department.  I've been full for three days.  

Back to Thanksgiving.  Here's a behind the scenes look at our house Thursday morning.  The parade and dog show were playing the background, of course.  Moose had a pretty full day.  He normally sits on the couch all day like this:

But on Thanksgiving day he heard some attractive clanging sounds in the kitchen. . . 

and couldn't bear to be left out of the action for a minute. 

He spent the whole morning on high alert looking for wayward pieces of turkey.

Over to the dining room - looks about ready to go.

Back to the kitchen

Pleasepleasepleaseplease see how good I am?

The table set with care.

And then we were so involved in eating and enjoying and trivial pursuit and digestion, we didn't take any more pictures.

NY, NY

We're all letting the pie settle in our stomachs and watching the Aggies and Longhorns battle it out, so I thought I'd stick a couple more pictures up here.  Matt and I worked Tuesday so my family headed for the city.  Ryan has a pretty fancy camera so I thought I'd share a few of his pictures. 

Taking the train from Stony Brook into Penn Station:

Rockefeller Center:

Subway:

The soon-to-be Grandersons:

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night!