It's beginning to feel like Christmas!

They started playing Christmas songs on the radio early this year, and that with the new snow we've had recently, I really feel like Christmas is right around the corner!  We haven't even set up our tree or lights yet...

I read this great quote today, and it is definitely nice to remember this:

Thomas S Monson

Overdoing it is especially common this time of the year for many of us. The causes for this might include too many Christmas activities to attend, too much to eat, too much money spent, too many expectations, and too much tension. Often our efforts at Christmastime result in our feeling stressed out, wrung out, and worn out during a time we should feel the simple joys of commemorating the birth of our Savior.

Finding the real joy of Christmas comes not in the hurrying and the scurrying to get more done, nor is it found in the purchasing of gifts. We find real joy when we make the Savior the focus of the season.

 

Family Photos 2014

We got our pictures taken with the same lady who took them last year.  She is great and she always gives us a great deal!  These are my favorites...

It's hard to tell in all of the pictures, but it was FREEZING that day!  The weekend before this, it was nice, and the weekend after, it was nice...just this day it was terrible out!  But despite that, I really like all of the photos.

She took us to the U of A this year....I love that place!  SO many nice places for good photos.  There were 3 wedding parties taking pictures there too that day, haha.

Olivia Reads

She's a tad immature....haha!  She is loving reading though, and is picking it up pretty well.  For the most part right now she is just reading words she has memorized, but it's a start!

Winter has arrived...

We had fun sledding on the PD day our kids had last week.

The girls with their friends and neighbours making a loooong train

The fantastic four

Anderson train

It was a lovely day and not too cold.  This week however, we received a HUGE dump of snow, and the temperature dropped to -30 most days. It was colder with the wind chill too!  I don't mind the weather like this when I don't have anywhere to go or anything to do. I got winter tires put on the van literally the night before we got the snow and I am so grateful.

The kids love it though:
 

 

Photo Re-Creations

I love when people re-create photos of when they were little.  Some of them can be so funny. 

 

Isabelle and Lily wanted to re-create this photo of from when they were younger.  They sat on the wrong sides of each other, oops. Oh well, it is still funny.

 

Fort Ed in 2006 vs 2014

And then this summer, at the Anderson Family Reunion, Ben's mom wanted the grandkids to re-create this old photo:



Fun fun!  It is fun to look through and see how they have all changed.  Can you spot Izzy?

Izzy's Last Primary Presentation

The presentation went great today!  No busy streets or tiny chairs anywhere, haha.  All of the kids did a great job and they sung the songs beautifully.  It is my favorite sacrament meeting of the year.

It is bittersweet for me to know this is Isabelle's last primary presentation.  I can't believe she will be in YW next year. I am so glad that I have been able to be in primary these past couple of years with all 4 of my kids.

Last night I had the strangest dream...

Last night I had the strangest dream...

It was the day of the primary presentation (which in real life is tomorrow) and our ward had moved into its new building, only it wasn't in Beaumont, it was in Mexico. It was this tiny, weird version of the Bonnie Doon Stake Center. There were 4 wards that met there already and so there was no room for us, and so we had to have the presentation outside, right beside a busy street. And the kids had to sit on these teeny tiny chairs that they couldn't fit into. It was pure chaos!

You know you're the primary president when this is your nightmare, haha!

Chalkboard Art

 

It's been fun to make various kinds of chalk art on my little board.  I have a whole bunch more I want to try out.  This is what I currently have on it:

 

Chloe tried to read it and said, "WHAT does it say??!!!?" Haha, it says, "There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind." A C.S. Lewis quote

And here are ones in the past I've had:

Olivia LOVED the rainbow background in this one

You can see the one in the background here, "Always be a little kinder than necessary."

Appropriate for springtime in Alberta with it's long winters

I think this was my all time favorite.  I had it up around Valentine's Day