Stander Family Christmas Party

This Sunday night we braved the cold and the fog to travel to downtown Salt Lake for the Stander Family Christmas party!  For those of you who don't know, the Stander is Jeannette's (Chase's mom) maiden name.  We got to have the party in the conference room at American Towers, and it was so fun!  The food, the company, and the activities were a blast.

 The oldest and youngest in the group, Grandpa Stander and Mckay enjoyed a nice long talk with one another.

 We enjoyed hearing the nativity story, as narrated by several family members.  The real star of the show, however, were the puppeteers. . .

 Cole was the star of the show (I terrible pun, I know, but I couldn't resist)

 Cody checking out the shepherd puppet he was in charge of.

 Jax and Clayton admiring the Christmas tree.  I wish I could've gotten a better picture, but my camera takes a few seconds to take a shot.  I wanted to capture Jaxton in the act of taking ornaments off, and Clayton putting them back on.  Eventually, I think Clayton realized he was fighting a losing battle:)

Mckay was an angel because he has discovered that he likes a bottle!  Hooray!  My life has just become so much easier!
All in all, it was a great night.  Thanks to everyone who worked hard to make it so!

Thanksgiving fun

This year Chase, Mckay, and I took the much anticipated trek to Broomfield, Colorado, to spend Thanksgiving with my Anderson side of the family.  I have not been to Broomfield for 5 years, so I was really looking forward to going back.
We left on Tuesday, just ahead of what was supposed to be that horrible storm, and had a very peaceful trip to Broomfield.

Mckay was an angel the entire trip down, sleeping almost the whole way . . . we later found out it was because he was sick.  Don't worry, he got better about 24 hours later.
On Wednesday we went to the Harry Potter movie, and Chase played basketball with the boys for about 4 hours while I lounged around, talked, and hung out with the family.

Thursday, we began the very cold holiday by either watching or participating in the Anderson Turkey Bowl!  The boys played or about 2 ours. . . the girls and the kids watched for about 2 minutes before deciding that sitting in 10 degree weather with the wind blowing was insane.
Later that day we went to the church and there we had a great dinner.  After the dinner, we cleared away the tables and played lightning (or knockout, or speed, or whatever it is you call it).

And, of course, we had the traditional pie eating contest.  Neither Chase nor I came close to winning, but we managed to get the stuff all over our face and it made for a good picture:)

Friday we went to Disney's new movie Tangled (which I loved and even Chase loved . . . go see it if you haven't!), and spent time in the Manwaring's hot tub.  Mckay loooovvved the water, and splashed everyone, including himself.  And since Friday was our anniversary (2 years and counting!), Chase and I  got a babysitter, and drove to Boulder to look at the CU campus up there.  Chase might go there for grad school, and we wanted to check it out.  It was a beautiful campus, and it had a great street nearby called Pearl Street, where you could shop and dine.  For anyone going that way, I highly recommend it.  It was a wonderful, romantic evening.

Saturday, the rest of my family went back to Payson to avoid Sunday's storm, but Chase and I stayed because there was a certain U of U vs. BYU game that had to be watched.  This pic doesn't actually come from that day, but I thought I would show it just in case anyone wasn't aware of who Chase cheered for.  And for those of you who are BYU fans, I had Mckay dressed in red AND blue, and it will probably stay that way until he's old enough to pick a side:)
After the game, we drove to Green River, arriving there at about 10:00 p.m., and stayed the night in my Uncle Stephen and Aunt Theresa's house.  The next morning, we braved the storms and finished the trek home.  It was a fun-filled week full of relaxing, family time, good food, and good memories.
And now . . . . ON TO CHRISTMAS!!

We got a video camera . . .

Chase and I treated ourselves to our Christmas present early, and bought a video camera!  And, like all parents, all of our footage is about our child doing relatively little . . . in fact, maybe nothing.  But we couldn't help ourselves, we think he is so cute.  

St. George Girl Trip

This weekend Mckay and I got to go to the Stander family girl trip in St. George.  For those of you who don't know, the Stander family is Chase's mom's maiden name.  Thursday, Courtney, Chelsea, and I headed down for St. George, and by Friday night, everyone else arrived (there were about 20 of us), and the party really got under way.  Some of my favorite things that we did include:

Hot tubbing with Mckay . . .

Channeling my artistic side by painting canvases . . .

Speaking of artistic side, this was way, way fun!  I decided to see what it felt like to be Jackson Pollock. I made a huge mess, but I don't think I was the only one . . .

After this great activity, some of us had the chance to get a pedicure. . .

We also had a great cook-off, where we divided into teams to make an appetizer, soup, salad, side, entree, and dessert.  I wish I could have taken pictures of what we created, because it was soooo yummy!  And one of my favorite activities was doing family history.  We got to go through and organize some Stander family pictures and memorabilia.  I really enjoyed getting to know the family's history better.  But best of all, I just loved spending time with my family and friends.

Cowboys and cowgirls and cows . . . oh my!

This Halloween was a week of fun.  Yes, an entire week!  We started our Halloween fun by going to a Murder Mystery at my parent's house on Monday.  It was a blast, made even more so by the fact that Chase figured out "who done it", and won the game!  Saturday we also got to go to a ward Halloween party in the afternoon, and we spent Halloween night with Grandma and Grandpa England.  Mckay and I helped give candy to the trick-or-treaters, and Chase got to watch a certain Utah vs. Airforce game.   It was a fun night (make that week) for everybody!

So Halloween is way fun with a baby.  Especially when that baby's costume happens to coincide with my costume and Chase's costume.  Yep, we were one of those families with a theme.  We were nothing too fancy.  Chase and I donned handkerchiefs and boots, and walah!  Cowboy and cowgirl.  The real star of the show was Mckay.  He's what every cowboy and cowgirl needs . . . a cow.

Here is Mr. Mckay with his Dad.   I like the part where Mckay is attempting a death grip on his bandana.  I think we both got choked more than once by our little guy.  He's into grabbing everything that's in front of his face, including hair, necklaces, and earrings. 

I always think my kid is cute, but something about this cow outfit really made me smile.  Maybe it was those cow tights that showed off his chubby legs. . . I don't know, but whatever it is, he made Halloween fun!  

Beans, beans, those magical things!

So Mckay is now old enough to eat solid foods.  Hooray!  I am very excited, because that means that I can more easily outsource his feedings.  He did really, really well this first time.  I guess beans are a hit!

On the downside, diaper changing is not as easy as it once was.  Oh well.  You win some and lose some!

Has it really been 2 years?

This Thursday we went to Snowbird's Iron Blosam Lodge (I know, it seems like it should be blossom, but it's spelled weird) to spend the night.  Chase and I were really excited because we spent a part of our honeymoon in Snowbird, so this trip was made extra special for us.  Bringing Mckay along helped us to realize that though time has flown by, things have changed a bit since that first day of our marriage!  We didn't get up to Snowbird until about 5:00, so we didn't have too much time to do things, but we did manage to take a drive and look around.  Little Cottonwood Canyon is so gorgeous this time of year, even if it was about 40 degrees.

 Can I just add that it takes Chase about 3 times to get a good picture of me. . . not because he can't take a good picture (he's a really good photographer), but because I am not photogenic.  I am jealous of all you people who take good pictures the first time!

 It was really cold outside, so we decided to leave Mckay in the car while we took a quick look around.  Isn't he cute with his little hood on?

Doesn't this look like it's a picture from Sweden?