Little Reader

Josh woke up this morning at 5am to snuggle with me while dad was getting ready for work. I was reading on the kindle and Josh was helping me by turning the pages when I needed it. Ryan came over and asked Josh what some of the letters were on the page. Josh happily pointed out a "A" and was so proud of himself. Then Ryan asked "Can you see any more letters on the page?" and Josh said "Yeah! There's one and there's one and there's one..." pointing to each letter on the page. 
He answered the question correctly...It's great to start out the day with a little laugh.

A short story by Ryan

One day a man went into the mountains on a quest of introspection and self discovery. He was a good and wise man, but a very powerful man and had become quite arrogant. Becoming aware of this he set out to ask his maker for aid with what he considered to be a problem. This man was an able woodsman. He had often ventured out in his youth and learned how to find food, shelter, and the necessities for life in the wild. Many times he had retreated from society to ponder important issues in his life, but rarely for more that a few days. His pack was light. His gear was well made and reliable. For nine days he traveled in an aimless course pondering his perceived greatness and asking if he was deceiving himself.

On the evening of the ninth day he came to a good place to camp. He set his hammock, built his fire and roasted and ate a fish he had caught earlier that day. His wanderings had led him to the western face of a small mountain. He sat watching the sunset and thinking. His fire crackled as he added a few sticks. His journey had very acutely emphasized how weak and needful the human body is. He was exhausted both in body and mind. He knew he was wrong in his arrogance.

As the purple rose in the east the orange fell before him in the flaming blaze of glory that faded as a daily ritual. The man put on his coat as the temperature went down with the sun. He put another handful of sticks into the fire. “Sunsets,” he thought, “the perfect way to end a day.” In the stillness of the dusk he thought he heard a quiet “Yes.” in response to his thoughts. The purple deepened to dark blue and finally to black.

The man sat and watched his fire. The flames danced to their unheard music. Their orange was a parody to the setting sun and the man’s eyes were drawn to them. The dancing flames began to slow and beg for more wood so the man reached for his wood pile. “Wait,” he thought he heard.

“Did I imagine that?” He thought as he added another handful if sticks. “I must be patient.” He decided to wait as the voice he thought he heard had suggested. The air was still. His fire was warm and continued to dance for him. Once again it began to beg for more wood. He, as before, reached for his pile of wood and thought he heard “Wait.”

Was he not to feed the fire? He withdrew his hand and the fire’s plea went unanswered. After a time the last orange blue flames died and their embers winked out. It was very cold and the man, doubting his himself, again reached for the pile of wood. “Wait, you’re nearly ready.”

He had not imagined that. He hadn’t heard it either. It was a voice speaking to his mind, not even a voice really. He withdrew his hand again. The chill of the night began to fade as the man ignored the fire. As more time passed the coals covered themselves in their own grey ashes. The man’s eyes could not focus on anything for a moment. The fire light had gone out and not even the dull glow of coals could be seen. Then, with stillness and silence that would make falling snow ashamed for the clatter it makes, the voice that was not a voice said to the man, “Look up.”

His eyes rose. Never had he seen stars like that. All at once he realized that his eyes had not the opportunity to see the brilliance that that was the heavens until he could draw them away from the flames to which he was so close. He had seen stars before, but never like this. There were more stars than he could imagine. The vastness was staggering. In that moment he realized that all the men he commanded, the wealth he controlled and the power he called his was vaporous absence in comparison to the scene laid before him. His entire life was spent moving and building and working toward goals and the grandeur of it all was nothing. Even a sunset which he had witnessed was still continuing in its glory as the earth turned. An infinite sunset, an infinite sunrise, more stars than one could imagine and a man who thought he was powerful.

“I made this.” Said the voice. “And I made you.”

Life with the Anderson's

Most days we are pretty much AWESOME... heroic to say the least!

Other days... well, we're down right messy!

Some days we get a little silly.

I'll admit it... we even play with our food.

The majority of the time we are outdoorsy.

Especially when it's snowy!

Maybe even a little fishy sometimes.

We tend to get a little noisy.
On the rare occasion you might even find us sumo wrestling.

We're not afraid to show our muscles.

After a long day there isn't a problem a little chocolate pudding can't solve.

When we get the time, we kick back and relax...

..and watch a sunset or two ..or three.

Christmas 2011

This was the first time we stayed at home for Christmas. It was nice not to have to pack, load everything and everyone and then travel... very peaceful.

Remington got a MP3 player.

Santa gave Josh a Nerf gun.

Boston soaked up the magic by eating his candy and opening presents at the same time.

My good looking boys getting ready for Church and not wanting to let go of their finger lights.

We also celebrated the season by having our first annual gingerbread nativity party.

Halloween

It's a little late but... Halloween was a treat!

Pumpkins galore!

Jedi missionaries and Jedi bats

My Knight in shining Armour

..And, of course, the cRaZy old cat lady herself

Joke of the day

Remington made up his first joke yesterday...


Why did the cat cross the road?

-Because the chicken was squawking in his face!

Cheese Car

Yesterday we were at a farmer's market and found someone selling goat cheeses. Ryan loves to eat cheese. So, he gave into temptation and bought a tub of garlic rosemary goat cheese. Of course, Boston volunteered to be in charge of carrying it. We call Boston the Hambino because he is our only child that likes to eat meat (or anything for that matter). So it wasn't a big surprise that he wanted to get his hands on the food.
When we were a few blocks from home we caught Boston opening the tub trying to sneak a taste. We told him he had to keep it closed so it wouldn't spill all over the car. Then Remington said with a worried tone, "Yeah, if it spilled in the car, everyone would call it the cheese car and laugh at us."
Ryan and I laughed the rest of the way home. Just think how horrified our children would be if all their friends made fun of them for riding in a cheese car.