March 2014 FHE

We had a family home evening at Jeff and Margie's house on March 16.  It was Joe's birthday.  We had a variety of food, thanks to everyone who brought something.  Jeff made a stir fry with rice.  Margie made lasagna.  Steve and Katie made a spinach and strawberry salad.  Kristin brought jello with whipped cream on top.  Nickie brought steamed vegetables.  Emily brought the dessert.  It was some Mexican dessert that I can't remember the name of but it was amazing.  We put candles on it and sang to Joe for his birthday.

Jeff and Margie gave the lesson.  Jeff told about how when the Lord helped free the children of Israel from bondage, Moses led them in the wilderness for 40 years.  The Lord provided for all of their needs.  When the people complained and were not grateful for all Heavenly Father had done, the Lord sent serpents among them, which bit some of the people.  The people knew they had sinned for not being grateful.  Moses prayed for them.  The Lord told Moses to make a brass serpent and set it on a pole for the people to see.  The Lord promised that everyone who had been bitten would live if they looked at the brass serpent.  It was such a simple solution to their problem but many of the people would not do it. Sometimes it is the small things that we do that make the biggest impact on our lives.

I talked about how I was so inspired at the Women's Conference in Salem a few weeks prior to do small and simple things to accomplish big things.  The stake president mentioned in his talk about simply opening the Book of Mormon daily and reading a little or a lot.  It is small and simple thing but by just doing it daily for a few minutes will make a big difference in our lives.  Jeff and I have been struggling with our kids and their behavior lately and we have gotten lazy in our family scripture study because it was so hard to keep the kids reverent for so long while we read.  So we decided to read only two verses a day with them and then read a chapter in the children's Book of Mormon Reader with them.   It is simple but we are so far being consistent and we feel a stronger peace in our home.

Then we played a game where each kid chose a picture of a different scripture story and they told the group about the story.  Then they got to throw a rice bag into a bucket after they finished telling about the story.

It was a wonderful night.  Joe brought his friend, Taylor for us all to meet.  We missed  Rob and Diana's family and Megan and Ryan.  The kids got to eat on our deck in the backyard for the first time because it was such nice weather and so I snapped a picture.  I'll try to take more pictures next time.  The next family home evening will be in Salem on April 20 and Kristin is in charge of the lesson. 

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February 2014 FHE

We had a wonderful time visiting while we ate our dinner of baked potatoes which came from potatoes grown in our garden last summer.  We also had broccoli cheese sauce, cheese, sour cream to go on top and a green salad and home made bread.  I tried making whole wheat sour dough bread  and everyone seemed to like it.  I love baking with sour dough these days.

 After dinner we had our lesson which was about wonderful women in our lives who have remained faithful to the gospel even through very difficult challenges and have left a wonderful legacy for their posterity.  We talked specifically about Dad's Grandma Anderson.  Her parents came over from Sweden and had a very difficult time making ends meet in Benjamin, Utah.  After she married Henry Anderson, they moved to Nebraska to farm.  There was no branch of the church there so they attended the Church of the Brethren but she taught from the Book of Mormon in Sunday School.

She remained faithful and true to her testimony for her whole life.  We also talked about my Grandma Wiest who also had a very difficult life when her husband left her with 3 boys, ages 12, 9 and 6, the oldest being  Grandpa Wiest.  She took in boarders and cooked for BYU students and did laundry for people to earn enough to support her family.  She taught her boys the gospel through word and deed and remained faithful to the end. 

August Family Photos

Sorry it's taken so long to get these up, but better late than never!  It was so fun to get to see everyone this summer.  

The first few are a little fuzzy...

We love our Aunties!

Good lookin family!

Beautiful Girls!

We'll let Joe explain this one.

Cute kids!!!

Continuing with the cute theme.

Thanks for sharing Lizzie!

 And we're excited for January baby! :)

I guess Margaret, Rob, and Diana successfully avoided the Paparazzi, but we love them, too!

Updates from Kristin and Lisa

We've had a fun and busy summer so far and were thrilled that our adventures included visiting Mom and Dad in Ohio.  It was so great to see them and see the  work they are doing with the youth in Kirtland.  The church history sights were also amazing and we had a great time.  You can read about each day of our trip on our blog starting here.

Here we all are standing on the steps of the John Johnson house where Joseph Smith often stood to teach.

One of the things that Dad thought would be fun was to take turns having a different person arrange the pillows on their bed each day we were there, then submit the different designs for your vote to see who the winner was.  So, for your viewing enjoyment, here are the four pillow designs.  Please vote for the one you like best by leaving a comment.

Design #1

Design #2

Design #3

Design #4

Spoiler alert: reading our blog before casting your vote will disclose who arranged what design, so cast your vote first :).

Steve and Katie Update!

Hi everyone!  We decided to finally make our debut on the Anderson family blog! Sorry we've been so slow to do so-but love getting on and seeing any updates on this or your other blogs.  It was so fun seeing everyone a couple weeks ago at Kristin's-and to Skype with Mom and Dad.

We finally updated our blog with some pictures and videos (I warn you, the first-time-parent-syndrome is very apparent-there are a lot!) but it was kind of fun to go through the pictures of Lucy in her first year and see how much she has changed.  And hopefully those of you far away will especially enjoy them-especially both sets of our parents who are currently on missions :)

Before I forget, I wanted to let you all know about my parent's 50th Anniversary next August (of 2013).  To celebrate, our family has finally pinpointed a date that we think (and hope and pray) will work for all of us 9 kids with their spouses and children (the grand-kids will number close to 30 by the end of this summer!)  We've never been able to pull this off-and we're so excited about trying to do this for my parents. (Often one spouse or another can't make events because of work, as you well understand, and there are a number of grand kids either not met by all, or not seen for a number of years.)

So anyway, I thought if I let you know the date as far in advance as possible, we could make any other cool family events (marriages, vacations, etc.) a priority as well.  As of right now it is set for Saturday July 13th, 2013 in Oregon-so we'd likely be gone from the 4th of July weekend through that next week/weekend (or from mid-week to mid-week?) to spend as much time with everyone as possible. I'll let you know if this changes, but it looks like this is the closest date we'll get to getting everyone possible there.

We would especially hate to miss any weddings!  So if any of you eligible maidens and man happen to meet a significant other prior to that time, and are making plans to solidify that union...please don't pick that weekend!  Okay, obviously you have to do what's best for you in the end (and this goes for fun Anderson vacations that may be in the planning, or whatever else you can think of)...but we just can't miss this one for my family! :)

Wow-that took up way more text than I'd meant it to, but there you go.  I'm so excited about the prospect of having my whole family together!  And I am SOOOO grateful to have inherited the best in-law family ever.  You guys sealed the deal for me that Christmas I met everyone-because I knew that yours was the kind of family Steve wanted, as did I.  Thanks for all your love and examples!  Again, pictures are up on our blog if you're interested :) Lucy is the star of course.

We love you,
Katie, Steve, Lucy, and Hannah

Security number

When I logged into the blog just now I got asked to "enter your phone number" as a new security measure.  I'm not sure if that was just a fluke thing, or if everyone is going to be asked now.  I didn't realize when I set up the blog that my personal phone number was getting stored as a security question, but that is the number you have to enter to get passed.  If you get stuck not being able to log in, you can text Kristin for my number or message me on facebook and I'll hook you up.  Sorry for the inconvenience.
-Lisa

Happy Birthday Rachel!