Andersons

A year

2010-02-06T07:33:00.008-05:00

Somehow the blog became less important. I blame work for being so busy but also blame Facebook for trying to take over the online world. Despite taking almost an entire year off I thought we would try this again. So here is a year-long update to catch us up...

Emma turned 12 so we now have a Beehive

Emma participated in one regional and one state Honors Choirs

Jeff finished cardiology fellowship and accepted a faculty position at Cincinnati Children's Hospital

Karen and the girls spent an entire month in Utah over the summer

Emma started 7th grade so we now have a Middle School student (and she is doing great with the change)

Karen took the GRE and rocked it and is now enrolled in the Masters of Statistics program at the University of Cincinnati

Miia turned 8 and was baptized

We drove to Utah to visit for Christmas...57 hours in the car...one night stranded at the Relax Inn in eastern Kansas because of an ice storm...great visits with our family and friends in Utah, Denver and Kansas City

Jeff crashed on a snowboard...right knee swelling and pain...orthopedist visit...MRI...medial meniscus tear...knee surgery

We will try to do a better job posting in 2010!!

Outer Banks 2009

2009-05-10T19:11:00.001-04:00

$4000 and a weird dad

2009-02-03T15:55:00.005-05:00

I figure that the purpose of posting anything on this blog is twofold, first to document great experiences that we have and second to entertain myself and you all who choose to visit this site every once in a while. Let me try to do both with two different stories.

To entertain...Last night I took the initiative to prepare a family home evening lesson on missionary work. Our ward and stake are focusing on missionary work the next couple months and we even had a special ward fast for missionary experiences this past Sunday. I thought that it would be a great time to talk to the girls about the blessings of missionary service and how they could share their testimonies with their friends. (I pause here to say that my girls are actually already very good at this. We picked up one of Mary's friends to go to church with us on Sunday and as she jumped into the backseat of the suburban Mary asked her, "are you Fasting today?" which led to a long discussion about how we fast because our parents force us to.)

So, in one of my recurrent hypomanic states I became very excited about inspiring and uplifting my girls with a lesson. I prepared to talk about Jonah and his missionary experiences in Ninevah. Then in a stroke of brilliance I decided to pull out my old missionary journals and read to my children some of my personal experiences. The Jonah story went well; how could you fail to inspire when talking about running away from your responsibilities, getting thrown from a ship, swallowed by a whale and then puked up in response to fervent prayer. I then pulled out my journals. I read about receiving my mission call, arriving in the MTC, flying to Alabama and then read the entry from the last night of my mission. They mostly paid attention; I only had to ask Mary once not to stand on her head on the couch. After I finished my story I closed my journals, told them how great I thought being a missionary was and asked them what they thought. They stared at me for a minute and then Emma said, "Daddy, why did you write like that? You sounded so weird." Of course I could not explain myself. To my girls I may not be inspiring but I am, and probably always will be, weird.

To inspire...Since we moved into our new home we have had problems with the kitchen sink. When we fill it with water to wash the dishes (we have no dishwasher that doesn't have a first and last name) it takes about a half and hour to drain. I have tried several remedies over the last few months including taking the pipes apart under the sink, buying a snake to clear any hair balls or food clots (in addition to not having a dishwasher we have no disposal), and pouring down the sink some expensive combination of nasty chemicals called "Liquid Fire" all to no avail.

Finally we got fed up with the situation and had someone much more handy than me come over and diagnose our problem. His solution, "call Roto-Rooter, they have a big snake and they can clean out the pipe for you." So we did. Roto-Rooter man came by the house, spent 3 hours (at $150 per hour) digging around our basement pipes only to tell us that he thought our pipe was probably broken somewhere 20+ feet away from our house and may need to be fixed. But he would have to have Roto-Rooter man #2 come by with a special camera to make the official diagnosis. The next day the special camera showed up and after another couple of hours with the big snake and the camera, #2 said that our pipe was probably broken (although he couldn't really see the break even with his fancy camera) and that he could be by the next day with a crew to tear up our yard and fix the problem. His estimate for the repair (if it was broken): $4000. Holy Hannah! We had no idea where we would get that kind of money. Luckily we could just go back to how things were with a real slow drain right? Nope, in all of the Roto-Rooting our drain had gone from slow to just about non-draining.

We thought. We prayed. We talked to friends. They prayed. We fasted and prayed some more. We called our Home Warranty company and they required a different company to come out and diagnose our problem. They would pay for up to $500 against plumbing expenses. At least it would be a bit less. Today they showed up at our house and we paid them our $50 co-pay. They spent about an hour in the basement with different equipment, walked upstairs and told Karen, "Well, I cleaned out your pipes, things should work better now." She turned on the kitchen faucet and ran the water for twenty minutes with no problem.

I realize that there are probably a hundred explanations for the sequence of plumbing events that occurred over the past week. I felt strongly today however, that the reason things occurred as they did was that we have a loving Father in Heaven who knows us, cares about our every day lives, even about our plumbing, and who offers to us his tender mercies in so many ways to remind us of his love. Prayer and fasting are true and powerful principles.

Road Trip

2009-01-04T10:43:00.009-05:00

If 2009 continues as it started it is going to be a great year. Last night we returned home from a road trip to New Orleans where we watched the underrated University of Utah football team roll all over the mighty Crimson Tide of Alabama. Here are a few snipits from our trip.

We loaded the red suburban on New Years Day with several faithful Utah fans, filled the 44 gallon tank, and headed off for New Orleans. A few of our good friends agreed to keep our girls for the days we were gone. The first day we drove to Birmingham and stayed in a hotel there. We enjoyed Rootbeer floats while we watched the last half of the Orange Bowl and saw Cincinnati sputter their chances of a BCS game win away. The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and experienced some true southern hospitality as one of the hotel workers brought us out her homemade lemon pound cake to top off our dining experience. Bryce had already gone back to the room to get the leftover ice cream.

We then left Birmingham for the second leg of the trip to New Orleans. An hour outside of Birmingham we felt compelled to stop in Tuscaloosa to visit the campus of the famed University of Alabama. We stood in awe in front of Bryant Denny Stadium where there were monuments to all of the past Alabama coaches who had led their teams to national championships. There was even a spot for the next coach to accomplish this feat.

We arrived in New Orleans mid-afternoon on game day. We walked about two blocks down Bourbon Street before running away from that madness. We then found Cafe Du Monde and had ourselves some beignets and a great little restaurant where we could eat catfish sandwiches and cajun jambalya. Eventually we made our way to the Louisiana Superdome where we watched our University of Utah Runnin' Utes completely dismantle the Crimson Tide. It was beautiful.

The drive back was filled with hours and hours of reading news stories and reader comments about the game, the unfairness of the BCS system and the call for the Utes to share at least part of the national championship this year.

Two hungry girls

2008-10-31T17:26:00.011-04:00

Last night we had a one-year-old birthday party for Edie and her two friends, Tabitha and Seth. Karen made a beautiful 3 layer chocolate cake for the birthday kids and we put them on the table to let them eat. All three were hesitant at first to touch the cake. Seth was even a bit scared (perhaps less of the cake than of the crowd who was chanting "go, go, go"). Finally the babies started exploring the cake. Well, at least two of them anyway. Seth was very proper and with a spoon started digging out chocolate chunks. Tabitha sat and watched curiously. Edie picked the chocolate chips off the top and then, without further ado, opened her mouth and took a big bite out of the top of the cake. . .

The first bite brought cheers from the crowd and was followed by several more just like it. It wasn't long before Edie was covered from ear to ear with chocolate cake and frosting. . .

As a couple of interesting afterthoughts: Tabitha finally did get some cake. She was just smart enough to wait until everyone else left and she then slowly, daintily, ate to her hearts content. The adults were all standing in the kitchen laughing about Edie's behavior and wondering where she learned to eat cake with such passion. It was just then that we turned back to the table and got the answer to our question.... . .

Extreme Daddy Daughter Dating

2008-09-16T22:19:00.002-04:00

Usually when someone from the Coast Guard tells you it is too dangerous to go boating you should listen. That is what we were told when we got to the shore of Lake Superior for our kayaking adventure to the Apostle Islands. Five of us went; three of us had never been on a kayak before; one of us was wheelchair bound; and the Coast Guard said the 4 foot waves were too big to be safe. But we had driven over 12 hours in the last day to get to the shore so we could boat to Oak Island and camp for a few days. So we decided to venture into the water to see how bad things were. If they were too dangerous we would turn back. Too dangerous? Again, three of us had never been in a kayak and really wouldn't know "too dangerous" unless we capsized our boats. Happily we paddled along in 4 foot waves for the next 4 miles/2 hours and made it too our campsite. Fortunately the waves and wind were going in our direction and if we would have turned back it would have taken us many more hours to get back to the car. We were safe and only later did the only experienced boater in the group tell us that he hadn't been that worried about capsizing in a long time. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

My friend John invited me on a camping/kayak trip to northern Wisconsin several months ago. I told him I would go and later invited Emma to go with us as well. Emma took a few days off school and we boated, camped and hiked. It really was a wonderful experience to be with Emma and to spend a few days in one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The only thing that would have made it better is if I would have had my other girls (especially Karen) with me as well.

Camping

2008-08-28T06:45:00.007-04:00

We went camping with some friends on the Little Miami River last weekend. We cooked with the Dutch Oven, made s'mores and the girls and I went canoing on the river. It was fun to be outdoors.

Andersons on Anderson in Anderson

2008-07-26T15:43:00.005-04:00

For those of you who have not heard, we have decided to stay here in Cincinnati for a little longer (at least). My fellowship finishes next June but we have decided to take a faculty position at Cincinnati Children's Hospital after I am finished. We love it here and the job is about as good as it gets for a pediatric cardiologist.

After we made the decision to stay we started looking for homes. We have been renting a house for the past two years and really wanted a place of our own. We looked at a number of places but really fell in love with a house just around the corner from us (see above). It is an old house with original hardwood floors and a half acre back yard. The girls won't have to change schools, in fact they won't even have to change bus stops. The silliest part of the new house though, is that it is on Anderson Avenue in Anderson Township. We will therefore be, at least for the next few years, the Andersons on Anderson in Anderson.

Seriously?

2008-07-17T20:42:00.004-04:00

Oh to have three older sisters and to be too small to fight back!

$1000

2008-06-04T19:54:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the long time between posts. I have no excuses since work and life are always busy and will try to keep up. This past week we unexpectedly got a check in the mail for $1000. Now we have received plenty of big checks in the mail in the past but they usually are from car dealerships, mortgage companies, or banks looking to give us a new line of credit. This time it was a legitimate check worth real money. We are not used to having an extra $1000 lying around let alone having it unexpectedly so it has been interesting to think about the options. We have come down to a few and thought we would find out what you all thought. As we see it our options are as follow...

1. While we have always been careful about debt (forever credit card debt free!!) we could certainly send the money off to one of our many student loans, although sadly this amount would not even make a dent.

2. We could put the money toward our own retirement accounts and forget about it for a long time.

3. We have yet to start savings account for the girls and thought about splitting the money four ways and get going on that project.

4. We could put the money into food storage and stop feeling guilty every time we have a talk/lesson on the subject.

5. We could replace one of the many things that are running out of life in our home...dining set, couch, beds for the girls.....the list is fairly long.

6. We could continue to "discuss" and stare in awe at the check without actually doing anything.

Let us know what you think...poll is to the left.

We the people

2008-03-16T20:41:00.005-04:00

We, The People of the Anderson household in order to form a more perfect family, to be fair, and have equal rights, do ordain and establish this constitution for our house...

Emma had the assignment in school to write a constitution for our family; so for the past week we have been discussing the formation of the Constitution of the United States as well as what we would like the Anderson Family Constitution to entail. The final document created a legislative, executive and judicial branch within our little family. Today, after several days of heavy campaigning, we held elections. In a landslide victory Mary was elected President (assigns jobs, organizes meetings and play dates, and selects the Judge) and shortly thereafter chose Emma to be the Judge (throws criminals in time out as needed). As you had to be at least 8 years old to be President, 10 years old to be judge Miia was elected to be one of two Representatives. That left Karen to be our sole Senator and me to fill the role as the second Representative.

Mary and Emma thought they had pulled off the ultimate coup of course. They could not believe that they were now the President and Judge of our family. Alas, Karen and I are no dummies. What they haven't yet figured out is that as the principle lawmakers, we can sign any bill we want into law and have the 2/3 majority needed in our Congress to override any veto that may come back to us from President Mary. Imagine the laws we could make....

Ski conference

2008-03-02T16:38:00.004-05:00

This past week I went to my first "Ski Conference". Although I have been to several medical conferences over the past 8 years this was a new concept to me. A ski conference is where doctors (or anyone else I imagine) get together to "learn" at a ski resort. In this case the conference was held at the Snowbird Cliff Lodge. The meetings were held each day from 7am-1030am, recessed until 4pm and then more meetings from 4pm-630pm. Of course during the break there was a magnificent mountain just waiting for us to ski.

One day I skied with my brother Trevor and the second day with my friend Jamie and his wife Kate (see above). Although we love Ohio whenever I visit Utah I miss the mountains.

The Great Divorce and the Lizard

2008-02-16T08:11:00.005-05:00

Artwork by Matt at http://www.virb.com/groups/06519715

I am not one for making New Year's resolutions but this year I made one. I committed to myself to read one (non-pediatric or cardiology) book per month. I love to read and have a tendency to start a lot of books only to lose time or interest and not finish them. So I told myself that I would be very selective and only choose excellent books to start, and then persevere to the finish. My first choice was recommended by a friend and turned out to be one of the most interesting and certainly one of the most thoughtful and insightful books I have ever read.

C.S. Lewis is someone who brings to life our relationship with Christ and our struggle to live as He taught and gave us example to live. Although I have read several of Lewis' books and really enjoyed them I had never read The Great Divorce. This book tells of a man who has a dream of a journey he has from Hell to visit (and perhaps stay) in Heaven. He vividly reports the differences between the two places and along the journey describes several of his travel companions and what things are binding them to Hell and making it difficult for them to choose to leave their present place of dwelling behind and relocate to Heaven. It is a fascinating description of the many things that retard our own spiritual progression even while in our mortal state.

While I don't want to list every encounter he had, nor do I want to ruin the experience of reading The Great Divorce for anyone, which I highly recommend, there is one character that was particularly vivid and thought provoking. One man on his journey to Heaven is carrying a red lizard on his shoulder. The lizard is constantly whispering evil thoughts and lies into his ear. The man meets an Angel who tells him that he must allow the Angel to kill the lizard in order for him to continue on his journey. The man is not permitted to kill the lizard himself and the Angel cannot kill the lizard without the man ordering him to do so. In the exchange that follows, the man, with prompts from the lizard, gives every reason imaginable why the Angel should not kill his companion. Some of these include...

He doesn’t want to bother the spirit with killing it
It isn’t presently bothering him because it went to sleep
He’ll be able to get it under control himself through gradual process
He doesn’t feel well enough to go through with “the operation”
He thinks killing the lizard would kill him
He’ll go and get his doctor’s opinion (back in Hell), and come back later
Then he asks why the spirit hasn’t killed the lizard yet

Finally, in a painful experience, the man orders the Angel to kill the lizard. Within a few moments the lizard transforms into a beautiful and strong stallion that will accompany and assist the man as he continues on his journey.

I was just so impressed with the imagery of the lizard as the sins that "so easily beset us", by the eternal truth that the only way to overcome our own shortcomings is through the power and assistance of our Savior and the Holy Ghost, and that ultimately our sins can be transformed into strengths in our lives. As I said, I highly recommend this book to any of you who might be interested.

Blessing Day

2008-01-20T18:03:00.000-05:00

Today was Edie's big day. It started out with a bath in the sink. The bathroom was busy with three other sisters and Nana and Grandpa who came to visit for the weekend. Karen finished Edie's blessing dress yesterday. We took all of the blessing dresses out so the girls could look at them. They are all a bit different but all very beautiful. The girls were very excited to see the dresses that their mom had made them when they were born. We hung them next to each other and took a few pictures. We dressed Edie before church to take some pictures but changed her back to some "regular" clothes to avoid spit-up disasters on her dress before the blessing. We took her to church, fed her and changed her into her dress. Only two small spit-ups later we blessed her. Blessing your child is one of those spiritual signposts that dot life. What a great spirit this little one is and we are so blessed to have her in our home.

Renaissance Girl

2008-01-18T12:42:00.001-05:00

Not long ago Emma represented her class in the Ayer Elementary Geography Bee. While she was hung up on this particular question about the Mississippi Delta she did very well overall. Emma is a very well rounded girl and this year has also won the National Fitness award, received the highest reading test score in the 5th grade and won the best visual arts entry from her school in the District Reflections Contest for her black and white pencil drawing entitled "Making the World Better Day by Day, Bit by Bit"... to be displayed later. We are so proud of her.

Traditions

2007-12-29T15:04:00.000-05:00

Christmastime is filled with traditions at our house. We each have carried traditions from our homes growing up and over the past 12 years have come up with some traditions of our own. Some of these include cheese bricks (Grammy) and prime rib (Nana and Rocket) on Christmas Eve followed by pajamas (Grammy) and ornaments (Nana) for the girls after reading the Christmas Box story (Pypers) and reading/singing The Little Gray Donkey (Grammy). On Christmas morning we make crepes before opening presents and have the girls take turns wearing a Santa hat and picking out presents for each other from under the tree.

Over the past couple of years I have taken each girl on a Christmas Date in first few weeks of December and we always take the girls to a movie on Christmas Day. Our favorite tradition has become making homemade gifts for each other. For the third year we have each made gifts for each other instead of buying something store-made. This has required us to start thinking about what to make several weeks/months before Christmas. It has become quite an adventure and the girls have become quite creative.

Traditions are so important to us. They are signposts that mark events in our lives every year as time continues to pass us by. I am so grateful for the traditions that we have continued and the new ones that we have created.

Merry Christmas...just mash play.

2007-12-20T18:58:00.000-05:00

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Even more baby pictures

2007-11-25T18:33:00.001-05:00

More baby pictures

2007-11-05T16:21:00.001-05:00

New Baby!!

2007-11-03T17:56:00.001-04:00

Today was the day, finally! Karen went into labor about 2:00 AM. We made it to the hospital by 3:30 AM and had a baby by 11:51 AM. That is the short story. The 10 hours that made up the labor process were much more complicated. Karen had been having false labor for a couple of weeks and was fairly frustrated, so going into "real" labor was exciting. It quickly went from exciting to painful. Karen had decided early in the pregnancy to have natural child birth and had done her research. While I cannot describe the experience of watching her go through this I can say it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I have see a lot of babies born at work but had never watched a natural child birth from start to finish, let alone one where the girl I loved was the one in labor. I have never been more amazed or more in love with the girl I married than today. She was incredible.

We found out after the delivery what made it so difficult. The baby weighed 9lbs 12oz!! She was more than 2 lbs bigger than any of our girls thus far! Crazy! She is a chunkey monkey and is beautiful.

We decided to name her Edie Verity Anderson and after spending a few hours with her we feel very good about the choice...she really is an Edie.

Both mom and baby are very well and very happy!!

Witches and princesses

2007-10-21T11:47:00.001-04:00

Miia had her 6th birthday party last week. Our house was filled with 16 extra 6-year-old girls dressed in all sorts of costumes. We painted pumpkins, played duck-duck-goose and doughnuts on a string and had icecream and cake. Way fun and way tiring. I don't know how the kindergarten teachers do it every day.

Sliding Rock

2007-09-29T14:12:00.000-04:00

First day of school

2007-09-03T13:52:00.001-04:00

Last week we sent the girls off to school again. Miia, after waiting all summer, excitedly got on the school bus for the first time. She is so funny, reminding us every day that she "gets to go to school again tomorrow." Karen is enjoying having 4 hours to herself each day for the first time in 10 years, at least for a few more weeks until #4 arrives.

The big vote

2007-08-28T09:24:00.000-04:00

We (and by we I mean me of course) decided to let you all in on the naming of our new baby. We are in the serious countdown to full-term and delivery. We have several names we are tossing around and thought it would be fun to see what you thought. To the right you will see a list of a few of the top names. Feel free to share your opinion via a vote. In full disclosure the most popular vote may not become the actual winner as we as parents have enough votes between us to override you all.

Also, if there is a name you would like to suggest that is not on the list please feel free to leave a separate comment.

Karen Joy and her belly

2007-08-09T17:38:00.001-04:00

Vacation

2007-08-06T20:10:00.000-04:00

We got back yesterday from a little trip to North Carolina. We were able to spend time with many of our good friends and spend loads of time outdoors, at the lake, at the beach, in the mountains. We also spent many hours in the cramped car our energy kept at bay only by the constant reading of the newest Harry Potter book (we essentially read the entire thing out loud in the car as we travelled.) The movie above is of the girls sliding down the natural waterslide at Looking Glass Falls near Asheville, NC.

Although we had tons of fun visiting North Carolina's beautiful outdoors the main reason we made the drive was to go to the temple with our friends Eric and Peri Borries.

It was wonderful to be in the temple with them and to feel the peace that resides there. The Borries were kind enough to let us stay in their home (again) and from there we went boating on Falls Lake, lounging at Carolina Beach, hiking at Umstead State Park and visiting our many friends in the area.

We left Raleigh and drove to Asheville for the last half of the week. We enjoyed being in the mountains and driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Yesterday, we finally drove home. We finished Harry Potter and the last drop of gas in the car as we drove into our driveway in Cincinnati. I know we used the last drop of gas because when I got up to go to work this morning the gas tank was completely empty-luckily I had the gas can for the lawn mower or I would have had to push the car to the hospital.

Self pride and accomplishment

2007-06-16T12:44:00.000-04:00

We have finished another school year; Emma flew threw 4th grade and Mary through 2nd. Miia graduated from Preschool and is anxiously awaiting riding the bus to Kindergarten with her sisters next fall.

On the last day of school the girls brought their report cards home. Both did very well so we decided to take them out to dinner to celebrate. Emma has been working all year to change her Science grade from a B to an A so that she could not only be on the Honor Roll but so she could have all As and get an "Excellence" gold sticker on her Honor Roll certificate. She finally accomplished this during the last term and we are very proud of her for her hard work.

Emma was telling us about a conversation she was having with a few of her friends during the day, before the report cards were handed out. One of her friends was telling her that if she got straight As her parents were getting her a Nintendo DS Lite. Another friend informed her that if he got strait As he could choose any gift he wanted up to $500. Shocked at the gifts her classmates were earning I asked her what she had told them she would be getting if she got straight As. Without hesitation she said, "Self-pride and accomplishment." Amazed, I asked her if she really said that. She said, "Yeah, well it's true".

I am not sure at moments like this where our girls come from but I am proud of them for what they do and what type of people they are developing into.

Road trip

2007-05-29T19:01:00.000-04:00

For Memorial Day weekend my friend John invited us to visit his family in Milwuakee. So Friday afternoon we all piled into John's Suburban and hit the road for Wisconsin. We had as much fun travelling as you can with 3 little unmedicated girls in the back of a car (hint: Benadryl). We spent Saturday and Sunday in Milwaukee being hosted by John and his family. We had a tour of the city, enjoyed a Kite Festival, swam in Lake Michigan (well the girls swam anyway) and visited some great restaurants. We even found a new favorite custard shop, Kopp's Frozen Custard.

Monday we drove down to Chicago in the morning and spent the day visiting some of the sites there. We went to the The Art Institute of Chicago, Navy Pier and strolled along Michigan Avenue spending most of our time in the Lego and Hersheys stores.

We left Chicago Monday evening and just about made it back to Cincinnati when we ran out of gas. Luckily John's aunt and uncle came to our rescue. We rolled back into our driveway around midnight just in time to get 5 or 6 hours of sleep before work today. Sometimes vacations can be exhausting.

Surprise!!

2007-03-31T08:02:00.000-04:00

Some of you guessed our little secret from my not so subtle post. We are going to have another baby!!! After a six year hiatus our little family is about to grow again. We shall see one more time if any of my y chromosomes are strong enough to beat out the x chromosomes and make us a boy. Considering the strong-willed girls that we have already made I am not counting on it. Luckily we make beautiful and happy girls and will be thrilled to have another if that is what happens. This time around we are going to wait until the birthday (due date November 4th) to find out the gender of the baby.

Karen is doing fairly well. A little bit sick but she tells me it is not so bad. I keep offering to find someone to write her a prescription for Zofran but she is too much of a trooper. I told her there should be some benefit to having a doctor husband, aside from the huge debt and having me work 80 hours a week but still she refused. The girls are so excited they can hardly handle it and the list of possible names for their new sibling grows each day.

Thank you for everyone who has already called with their congratulations. We, I am sure, will be calling for more advice and help as we feel like we are doing this again for the first time.

Do you know what I know??

2007-03-22T17:43:00.000-04:00

An new baby

2007-02-17T18:34:00.000-05:00

No, not that kind of baby! For a long time we have been talking about getting a dog. For a long time we thought the girls were not old enough to help care for a dog. A little over a year ago Mary got a hamster named Carrie. Despite me thinking that the little one would be dead or lost within a month she is still around. Mary has actually done a great job taking care of her. With the experiment of a small pet out of the way we moved into serious negotiations for a bigger one. We finally decided it was time.

So this weekend we went to The League for Animal Welfare and "interviewed" several dogs. We fell in love with the first one we played with, Carson. He is 4 months old and a beagle mix of some sort. He was very excited to see us. We loved a lot of things about him, his friendliness, his energy, his kisses, and especially his eyes. As you can see from his picture he has heterochromia, one blue eye and one brown eye. We looked at several other puppies but none were as perfect as Carson...so we took him home. Did I mention he is a boy...I am so happy to have another male in the Anderson home.

Mad Scientists

2007-02-13T15:59:00.000-05:00

We went to our first science fair as a family this past weekend. Mary and her friend Abby decided to enter a project this year. Their question (which they came up with on their own) was "Which liquid in our house weighs the most and which weighs the least?" They hypothesized after looking at all of the liquids they could find that the corn syrup would be the heaviest and that water would be the lightest. So they measured an equal amount of each liquid and weighed them on a little scale. Sure enough the corn syrup was the heaviest. To their surprise however their milk weighed just a bit less than the water. It is unclear to me whether there was indeed a statistical significance between the weight of the corn syrup and the rest of the liquids (I think they were still working on their z-scores and p-values).

Regardless of their shakey statistical methods, they explained their project well to the three judges and were awarded a 1st-place blue ribbon for their efforts.

The remainder of the science fair (made up of first through sixth graders) was terribly interesting. There were at least 5 groups who studied the effects of mentos exploding when dropped in various bottles of carbonated sodas (something Borries kids likely did as youngsters), there were multiple "which carpet cleaner works the best?" projects, and several looking at the effect of different music styles on heart rate (punk rock seems to be the type that raises HR the most.) By far the most interesting project to me, however, was the one measuring the most likely first move in rock-paper-scissors based on sex and age. You will be interested to know that both younger and older males tend to lead (60% of the time) with a rock whereas the majority of females lead with either paper or scissors. Hopefully this helps the next time you are challenged to a game.

Hair adventures

2007-01-28T17:43:00.001-05:00

So it started like this. You all know Miia: short, cute, full of energy, maybe a little bit stubborn at times. If you have forgotten who she is, here is a picture. See what I mean? Cute as abutton!

Mary, also very cute, had been asking for weeks to let her get her hair cut. Well she finally talked us into it so Karen was going to take her to the salon to get a trim. As little sisters often do Miia decided on the morning of the haircut that she wanted to be like her big sister and get a haircut too. Emma, who is a great big sister, offered to sacrifice some of her Friday morning and give Miia a trim, free of charge. Karen, one of the most thoughtful and trusting mothers in the world, agreed to let Emma work her magic. Just as Emma was setting up her beauty salon Karen got a phone call from a friend she hadn't talked to in some time. Those of you who know my cute wife know that she is a bit of a talker. Who knows how long she was on the phone, but when she actually got off she found her daughters in the bathroom, and one with about five inches less hair on the left side...

We have been trying to decide since that dreadful day who is more embarassed, Emma because she mangled her sister's hair, or Karen for not only letting her children play with scissors but for giving the go ahead to let them cut each others hair.

Anyway it was off to the salon for all three girls after "the incident" and $40 later the three of them have fashionable new hairdos. I think they look great and I always appreciate a story that gives me a good laugh. Thank goodness I have a wife and three girls who continually provide me these kind of stories.

On the third date of Christmas..plus a Christmas surprise

2006-12-31T07:47:00.000-05:00

On the final adventure of the season Emma and I attended the Cincinnati Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. The ballet was performed in Music Hall which was decorated beautifully. Although this performance was far from as good as what Ballet West puts on it was still fun to hear some of our favorite music and for Emma to watch the ballerinas. I cannot believe how grown up Emma has become.

The Christmas dates were very fun for me this year. I think the girls really enjoyed them as well. However, they were long forgotten when the real Christmas surprise showed up on Christmas Eve. Nana and Grandpa had bought tickets to Cincinnati several months ago and we had kept it a secret from the girls. I picked them up from the airport on Sunday afternoon and dropped them off about a block from the house. I drove home and sent the kids out to the front yard to play. As soon as they spotted my parents, with my mom wearing a santa hat, walking down our street there was much screaming, running, and rejoicing.

It was nice to have my parents here for Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner and a very fun Christmas morning. We then spent a few days exploring Cincinnati, something we haven't had time to do since we moved here. We really do live in a pretty great city. You should all really come visit us and we will show you. We really are blessed to have great family and to live where we do.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you. We miss you tons.

On the second date of Christmas...

2006-12-10T20:51:00.000-05:00

Did I mention that we love Christmas? Mary and I attended a great performance of A Christmas Carol yesterday. It has been years since I have seen or read this play and I was particularly impressed with it this year. Maybe it was the amazing performace by the actor playing Scrooge. Maybe it was the fact that I got to share the experience with Mary. Maybe it was just that I was touched by the correlation of the message in the play to the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My favorite part of this story is when Scrooge is taken by the Spirit of Christmases to Come to the graveyard. Upon a grave with the headstone that he finds is his own he pleads, in anguish, with the spirit to know whether the visions he has been shown are those that will indeed come to pass or whether they are things that may come true if he does not change his ways. One of my favorite quotes from the play is when Scrooge proclaims,

"Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only? Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!' The Spirit was immovable as ever.

So it is in our lives. What a blessing it is to have a testimony of the life, example and sacrifice of our Savior. How important a gift is that of His Atonement. No matter what mistakes we have made; No matter how far from the path we have strayed; He is always waiting with open arms to have us return to him, and because of his sacrifice we can be forgiven of those mistakes. The life we lead is the life we lead; if we are not where we want to be we have, with the help of Christ, the power to become who we want and need to become. Merry Christmas!

On the first date of Christmas...

2006-12-03T17:46:00.000-05:00

We love Christmas at our house. We love the time we get to spend with our family and friends. We love the food. We love the music. We love the extra time we spend thinking about our Savior and serving others. We love the traditions we have grown up with and the ones we are creating.

I have tried for the past few years to spend time periodically with each of my girls on a "Daddy/Daughter" date. This year I decided to take the girls on special dates to Christamassy events. The first of these dates happened this weekend as Miia and I attended a special music concert at Cincinnati's Music Hall. Carolfest is a Christmas concert put on mainly by the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus, along with a few other groups. There was singing, dancing and even a couple of special guests (Santa Clause, Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.) The Music Hall was decked in festive decorations and was beautiful.

As you can see by the photo my littlelist princess put on her nicest red velvet dress, got her hair curled by her Momma and was the cutest little one at the concert. Miia tired of the singing about an hour into the production. Luckily the young ballerinas swept onto the stage with one of the next couple of songs and saved the day. I love Christmas and love my girls.

A witch, a princess and a cow

2006-11-12T16:45:00.000-05:00

We took a major step in the Halloween department this year. Our girls have always enjoyed dressing up, to be honest they would dress up almost every day of the year if they could. This year, however, was the first year they got really into trick-or-treating. Perhaps it was because we live in a real neighborhood this year (not that the University Village or our townhouse in Durham were not real neighborhoods) with houses and yards an tons of kids. People went out of their way to decorate their homes and set up their porches for little goblins to come by for candy. There was a yard decorated like a graveyard, two people who had built bonfires on their driveways, and even one guy dressed in a Harley-Davidson shirt and a long beard (costume or not??) who whispered that he had adult treats as well and showed me to a barrel full of Jello shots (of course I declined the offer.)

Mary and Emma ran from house to house and Miia tried with all of her might to keep up with her sisters despite her short little legs. It only took us an hour to canvas our neighborhood and by the end Emma and Mary had their bags so full that the straps had broken. Miia's basket was markedly smaller than her sister's bags so I ended up with half of her candy in the pockets of the cargo pants I was wearing. They had so much fun. I had so much fun watching them. It was a great Halloween.

The best Nana ever

2006-09-04T09:36:00.000-04:00

This past month we had the first our first visit from Nana since we moved to Cincinnati. Obviously we hope this is the first of many visits as we absolutely love having her stop by. We hope that Grandpa Rocket sees fit to join her on some of her trips too. This time we got to do a little back-to-school shopping while she was here. We also visited the Cincinnati Zoo (pictured here). Our girls are very lucky to have a Nana that loves them, an spoils them, and their only complaint about our latest move to Ohio is that we did not decide to move to Utah so they could be spoiled on an more regular basis. Maybe next time...

Brothers

2006-07-09T17:42:00.000-04:00

Last month we went home to Utah (on our way to Cincinnati :) ) to celebrate my brother Spencer's wedding. It was good to spend time with our families and especially good to spend time with Spencer's new wife, Laura, and her familly at wedding showers and wedding dinners and wedding receptions and wedding weddings. The girls were in heaven of course because a wedding transforms them into instant princesses. They got new dresses and shoes and even spent an entire afternoon at the Beauty School (courtesy of Melissa and her friends) having their hair and nails done.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was going out with my brothers the night before the wedding for a boys' night out. Althougth it was not as wild as some last hurrah nights before weddings may be, we had a good time playing pool and talking and laughing. What a blessing it is to have the brothers that I have. They are all a little bit different and are all examples to me in one way or another. Even though I enjoy living where we have chosen to live, one of the downsides is that I don't get to spend so much time with my brothers. I hope they all know how much I love them.

PS. I love Melissa too but she is not one of my brothers. She did, however, marry a great guy who I count as another brother.

Off we go

2006-06-15T21:56:00.000-04:00

After several months, innumerable prayers, and just about daily scrambles to clean the house to make it presentable for showings, we accepted an offer to sale. It is fortunate for us as it happened the day before we pack up the moving truck and head to Cincinnati. We are very grateful for the chance to get this done before we start a new chapter in our lives. We have been imagining for the last few weeks how we would make it work should we have to sell the house from Cincinnati, most significantly how we would afford to pay two house payments for who knew how many months. Thank goodness for blessings and the hard work of Karen and the girls to keep our home in immaculate shape so that it was so impressive to our buyers.

This picture is of our celebratory dinner at Tomato Jake's after selling our home. Like I said tomorrow we pack up everything we own into a moving truck (in fact, to be completely accurate, we pack up everything we own into 16 feet of an ABF trailer). We will then drive ourselves to Cincinnati, catch a plane to Utah from Indianapolis (hundreds of dollars cheaper to fly five bodies to Salt Lake City than from "the Natti"). We will spend the next week in Utah for by brother Spencer's wedding to Laura. Then we will fly back to Indianapolis, drive to Cincinnati, and unload our truck. If you aren't confused enough yet it gets worse. We will be able to move our 16 feet of stuff into our new home on June 24th but will not be able to move ourselves in until July 1st (long story) so we will be staying with our good friends Dave and Michelle Hooper for a week. I guess it is appropriate that we won't get settled until July 1st as that is when my life and our lives will change significantly for the next three years. More to follow...

Memorial Day Weekend at Falls Lake

2006-05-28T14:49:00.000-04:00

This weekend we went camping and boating with some of our friends at Falls Lake. The forecast for Friday night included severe thunderstorm warnings and the possibility of nickel-sized hail. When we arrived at the campsite the sky was clear and blue. Several families arrived and we made it half-way through dinner before the forecast proved true (at least part of it.) We spent the next hour or so running back and forth between the campsite and the van to hide from the rain. Eventually the rain went away and we got back to dinner and s'mores.

The next morning we got up, ate breakfast, and headed to the beach. We spent most of the day at the beach and out on the lake. We are lucky to have such great friends to spend time with and to live in such a beautiful state. Soon we will have to say goodbye to both our friends and North Carolina...so sad for us.

Souvenirs

2006-04-30T21:26:00.000-04:00

In getting our home ready to put on the market I was going through some of our things that were in storage and found a picture we had taken down some time ago. It is a painted picture of some old shoes hanging on a nail on the side of an old shed. It is not a great picture. It looks like something you might find someone trying to sell at a flea market. I purchased the picture years ago on one of the last days of my mission in Alabama. I was going through this phase where I was trying to collect everything I could to remind me of my mission. I knew I may never make it back to Alabama and I did not want to let go or forget the experiences and relationships I had there. So I bought things. This picture, although not amazing or even very good, will always remind me of my mission.

This picture made me realize that I am currently going through another phase of collecting and hoarding as we prepare to move to Cincinnati. We have really enjoyed our time here in North Carolina and I know we will miss it. So if you come to our house in the future don't be surprised if you see a stained glass window of a lighthouse on the beach, a bunch of Tar Heel paraphernalia, or coffee-table books about North Carolina. We are excited to move on but sad to leave this place we have come to love.

My first gig

2006-04-09T18:30:00.000-04:00

Some of you know that a few months ago I started taking cello lessons. This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time and finally had the time and money, so I took the plunge. Learning something new like this as an adult is a unique experience that I think everyone should have. Getting my fingers to do what my brain wants them to do, or getting my brain to understand what my fingers should do to make pretty sounds come out of the cello is taxing.

My teacher, Phil, comes to my house two or three times a month and at the end of our 45 minute sessions I am physically and mentally exhausted. But I am progressing. I am learning by way of the Suzuki method: I memorize short songs without having learned to read music. This way I can learn proper techniques of playing without the additional strain of translating notes on the page into notes on the cello. So I can play a bunch of short songs; most are big hits like Go Tell Aunt Rhody, Lightly Row, and Song of the Wind. Additionally, although I haven't confessed this to Phil, I have secretly been teaching myself some of my favorite hymns. I can sound out A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, and several Christmas songs.

On to the title of this entry. In one of the cutest moments in the lives of my cutest girls (which is saying a lot as their days are completely filled with cuteness), the girls asked me to perform for them. You see they were having a funeral for one of their dolls. I am not sure the circumstances surrounding her death, I can only say that the next day she suspiciously was again alive but had a different name. The girls held a funeral for her and asked that I come and provide some music for the service. So in Mary and Miia's bedroom, at the funeral of the doll, I had my first gig.

The nine-year-old

2006-04-03T20:41:00.000-04:00

Emma had her ninth birthday last month. As impossible as it seems to her parents that they could have a nine-year-old, yet so it is. Some days we both wonder where our oldest daughter came from. She is so smart and so funny and so talented and so kind. But more often we understand exactly where she came from....the moments when she is doing complex math problems in her head (for fun), being punny with her words, and most often when she smiles her big smile and her eyes sparkle. It is then that I see a little miniature Karen inside that nine-year-old body. Yet she is not an exact carbon copy of her mom. She has a bit of her dad's teasing nature in her as well. We are very lucky to have Emma in our home.

A thousand words

2006-02-21T07:19:00.000-05:00

The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. This picture of our Mary is evidence of the truthfulness of this saying. If I wanted to capture Mary's personality in one snap-shot I could not have done it better than this picture did. Notice Mary's friend in the background who is posed for a perfect portrait in contrast to our little actress who cannot help but try to make everyone smile with her antics.

Mary is such a joy to have around. We never have a dull moment and we can always count on her to liven up any room that she is in. She is so much fun and brings such an active (if not a little wild sometimes) spirit to our family. She is currently busy with Girlscouts, dance, and piano lessons and enjoys having her mom as her teacher. In fact, her favorite time of the day is her "mommy time" where she gets to spend some alone time with Karen doing whatever she chooses to do. She also is busy taking care of her new hamster, Carrie. It is now a rare moment that Mary is not carrying around Carrie or building her a castle to play in.

We hope this update on our "littlest-middlest" princess makes you smile as much as she makes us smile every day.

Girl Scout cookies

2006-02-12T18:40:00.000-05:00

This weekend marked a very important event at our house. We picked up the 240 boxes of Girl Scout cookies that Emma and Mary sold. We are now trying to decide whether to deliver the cookies or just eat all 240 boxes. For those of you who did not purchase cookies from our girls or any other girls a box of cookies now costs $3.50. For those of you who like math this means we have $840 worth of cookies in our bedroom right now. This is equivillent to one month's mortgage, about 5 car payments, 8.4 American Girl dolls, 70 piano lessons, 67.2 dance lessons, or 280 trips (with three girls) to the Dollar Store. These are just a few of the things we base our financial decisions on at this point. Based on these calculations, and the fact that we don't want to get violently sick, I guess we will go ahead and deliver the cookies instead of eat them all. Having said that we would like to report our favorite Girl Scout cookies to you all,

Jeff is a Thin Mint man through-and-through.
Karen is enamored with the carmel and coconut of Samoas.
Emma loves her Thin Mints (with Do-si-dos a close second.)
Mary prefers the peanut butter goodness of Tagalongs.
Miia sticks with her mom and her Samoas.

What are your favorites?

No more TV

2006-02-01T18:54:00.000-05:00

So we gave up our TV. We didn't just decide not to watch it anymore. It is now packed up and put away in a closet, along with all of the electronic boxes and wires that go along with our TV. We decided to do this as an experiment in time management as well as in an effort to improve the spirit and tone in our home. So far the experiment has worked. Aside from a few times when I have missed watching Scrubs or The Simpsons we really have not noticed it being gone. We don't have a big home, so our front room is a family room/living room/sitting room. This has been the same in every home we have lived in since we got married. Our television has always been the focal point in that multipurpose room. This focuses the attention of the room right on the TV. It is not only the focal point in the room but the portal in our home to the outside world. What we watch comes right into our home and influences our thoughts and actions. Although we consciously have tried to avoid overtly immoral programming we had noticed it was increasingly difficult to find anything to watch. We decided to change the focus of our front room, and maybe our home and lives. We rearranged the front room and put the piano in the TV's old space. The girls were initially beside themselves when we told them we were going to put away the TV. How would they survive? They cried. Since the TV has actually left we have heard very little in the way of complaints. Somehow, as children usually do, they find much more imaginative ways to fill thier time. They seem happier and more well behaved, or perhaps we have more patience and love with the TV gone. Either way, our home has been more peaceful and quiet the last couple of weeks.

"Home" for Christmas

2005-12-31T19:05:00.000-05:00

Some of our friends who have moved away from Utah have always said that they are going home when they travel back to visit. We have never had mixed feelings about this and feel pretty comfortable saying that our home is in North Carolina. In fact our home is really just anywhere where our little family lives. Having said this we were lucky enough to come to Utah and see many of our friends and family over a two-week vacation this past month. After our visit we decided that our goal each time we return to Utah is to spend time with our family and friends and eat at all of the places we love and miss (like the Spaghetti Factory, The Pie , Maddox's Ranch House , Nielsen's Frozen Custard and Hires.) In the midst of gorging ourselves for two weeks on the above delicacies and great food that both Karen and my mom cooked we did have time to remember what incredible families and friends we have. I wanted to personally thank all of you for the great people that you are and for the wonderful examples you are for us and our girls. We are truly blessed to have you in our lives. Specifically... Rocket and Nana, thank you for taking care of us and allowing us to take over your home. Chris and Angie, thank you for sharing your beautiful children with us and giving our girls cousins they love so much. Trevor and Jamie, thank you for letting me dig up your front yard. Just kidding. Thanks for being so much fun and teaching us great new games. Spencer, thank you for introducing us to Laura. I was so impressed with her and was especially touched by her song on Christmas Eve. I think our little family will not go another Christmas Eve without including some rendition of A poor wayfaring man of grief. Melissa and Brendan, thank you for taking care of about a million kids for us during our party and thank you for doing a beautiful job on our girls hair. Melissa, you really have found a wonderful talent. George and Valera, thank you for spending time with our girls. One of our only regrets after moving so far away is that they are not around you two as much as we would like them to be. Julie and Art, we hope you all had a great holiday and we are sorry we did not get to see your family. Bruce and Carolee, thank you for playing games with us. We love you guys and you are such great examples to us. And Bruce, thanks for helping Karen with my Christmas present. It is beautiful. Craig and Janet, we missed you and want you to know we were thinking of you and hope to see you soon. Ben and Donna, thank you for being you. We are always excited to visit with you and love your spirits. Sean and Shelly, You guys are the best. Thanks for giving us a great date without the girls. Thanks for hosting a busy party at your home. Thanks for being great examples for us. And Shelly, I am not grateful for your passion for spin class as it landed me in spin class and I thought I was going to die. Brian and Katie, Thanks for the tour of your home. You two make a great couple. Grammy and Grandpa, thank you for always being willing to visit with us and to spend time with our girls. As always, you have such great insight into our lives and we love to listen. To all of our friends, we were so happy to spend time with you. We especially appreciated the time we got to spend with the Scotts. You two may be the thing that in the end will push us to migrate back to the Salt Lake Valley. We are very blessed to know all of you and to have your influence in our lives. Once again we hope you all had a Merry Christmas and we wish you a very happy New Year.

Our resident artist

2005-12-04T20:00:00.000-05:00

I have been married to Karen now for over 10 years (or a decade as Emma likes to tell people) and rarely does a week go by when I don't learn something new about her. When I called home this week the girls told me that Karen was painting a Nativity scene "stained-glass" window on our house. Of course I thought they were making this up. Sure enough, when I arrived home that night our front window was transformed into a beautiful scene: Joseph leading Mary (and baby Jesus) on the back of the little gray donkey. I was truly amazed. It immediately added a sweet spirit to our home to have the scene brighten our front room. We had a holiday party at our house last night and every person who attended commented on the beauty of the picture. That's my eternal companion!!! We are so grateful this time of year for the birth and life of our Savior. What a blessing it is to have a season to celebrate the gift of His life and to remember His sacrifice. It is so great to have these couple of weeks to examine our lives and re-focus and re-double our efforts to serve Him and to serve those around us.

Our new floor

2005-12-01T21:06:00.000-05:00

We persuaded George and Valera to make the trek to North Carolina over the last couple of weeks to visit and to help us lay down ceramic tile in our kitchen and dining room. George and Karen worked sunup to sundown several days to get our floor torn-up, cleaned, glued, tiled, grouted, cleaned again, and sealed. I am grateful for their talents in fixin' things. Our house looks great. The girls loved having their grandparents here. Valera taught Emma to play solitaire on the computer and finished a quilt for Mary. Miia couldn't stop talking about having her "papa" and "grams" here. Everyone (except Jeff) even went out to the Outer Banks for a few days and played on the beach and visited the lighthouses. We had so much fun having the Pypers here and were sad to see them go. Our home is just a little bit nicer because of the hard work and love from our family. Thanks.

Homeschooling

2005-10-16T18:32:00.000-04:00

For the past two months we have been carrying out the experiment of homeschooling the girls. Okay, if I am honest, Karen has been carrying out this experiment, and I have been acting the cheerleader. You know, it is amazing the difference we have seen in our girls since starting this school year. Not only have they academically been advancing but more impressively their behavior and the spirit in our home is dramatically different. We have attributed the changes to their better rest (don't have to wake up so early to get to home school), their lack of stress (don't have to come home from school at 3:30 PM and do their homework AND clean their rooms AND have piano practice AND get ready for dance or soccer). Once or twice a week they have class or an activity with other home school kids in the neighborhood. So far their "socialization" has not been stunted by them not being in a classroom with 30 other children every day. All in all we are very happy with how things are going. I think there are days where Karen gets tired and wonders what she has gotten herself into but for the most part we are happy.

A decade with Karen

2005-09-06T22:17:00.000-04:00

I have wondered many times in the last ten years how it was possible that I not only found Karen but managed to get her to marry me. This week is our tenth anniversary and I now can no longer remember life without my sweet wife. The best part of it all is that the better I get to know her (and I feel like I learn a little new about her every week) the more I fall in love with her. When we got married I knew I loved her. I did not understand then that I could love her so much more, but I do. Having little girls that all remind me so much of her helps compound that love even more. I hope to make her as happy as she has made me for a long, long time (maybe forever).

My date

2005-08-14T17:11:00.000-04:00

Emma and I had a date. Well actually everytime I mentioned that I was on a date with Emma she scrunched up her nose like a little bunny and said, "I am not my daddy's date!" We went to the wedding and reception for some of my friends, now Kevin and Mary (Pressly) Garrison. It was hands down the most amazing wedding I have every been to. The wedding itself was in an old and beautiful church and the ceremony was amazing. The entire wedding party was perfect. Following the wedding we went to the reception at the country club down the road and were treated to a elegant party. I think Emma had a great time, although she twisted on her toes and turned red everytime I told someone I was with the most beautiful girl at the ball. It really did scare me though, to imagine the three princesses in my house and the weddings in my future.

ROOTS

2005-07-31T16:51:00.000-04:00

Over the past couple of weeks we wore ourselves out on vacation in Utah. We had a great family reunion with the Art and Jan Anderson side of our family. It was so great to see everyone and spend time catching up and chatting. Karen and I both think it is amazing to be related to such incredible people. From my grandparents right down to the smallest of my cousins we just have such wonderful people in our family, such great examples to us. A great legacy to live up to. Aside from the formal Anderson reunion we got to spend some time with other family as well. Karen in fact spent several days at the first official Pyper sister retreat. Specific details of the retreat have been kept under secret wraps but I understand there was a lot of game playing, shopping, swimming, and of course talking. Karen had so much fun that I am sure this will not be the last sister retreat. We got to spend some more time with the Biggs and Pyper family too. Although we love living in North Carolina we very much miss being so close to our family......maybe enough some day to bring us back.....maybe (don't get your hopes up yet Shelly and Nana :) ) Along with the reunions we did a bunch of other things that reminded us why we love Utah. Karen and I got up one morning very early and hiked to the top of Mt. Olympus. We made it to the top befor the sun was making it too hot and had such a beatiful view of the entire valley (I of course had a double dose of beauty because I could watch my cute wife while I looked at the valley below!) We had planned on running the Deseret News Marathon but because of various injuries and illnesses during our training we got demoted to running the 10K. We had a great time running that race though. We will not give up on our quest to run a marathon together. After spending two weeks in Utah we were glad to come back home to North Carolina but we will have at least a few days of withdrawl from the mountains and our family. Our girls especially will miss all of the love showered on them by their Nana and Grandpa and cousins.

Championship swim meet

2005-07-10T10:53:00.000-04:00

This weekend was the Durham Swim League championship meet. Both Mary and Emma swam fabulously and their team, the Parkwood Piranhas, won the meet and are now champions of the league three years running. We have been amazed at how great this swim team has been for our girls. Both of them have really become good swimmers and plan on continuing in the sport for a long time.

Soggy fireworks

2005-07-05T20:30:00.000-04:00

We had a great day on the Fourth of July. We were lucky enough to have a picnic that evening with the Greg and Kathy Christiansen (and Reagan, Bethany, and Henry), Spencer and Brooke Cutler (and Kirsten), and Jonas and Rachel Anderson (progeny yet to be determined). We ate near the Regency Park and Amphitheater in Cary and tried hard to listen to a concert by the North Carolina Symphony while the kids all played in the streets around us. There was good food (Karen's fried chicken and cornbread), a riveting game of Perquackay, as well as a dangerous game of frisbee between Jonas and me..... .....then in a turn of events typical of circumstances familiar to us North Carolinians we found ourselves watching fireworks, through some tall trees and in the pouring rain. We laughed as the fireworks beat out the rain and exploded above the lake. What a great time. I was reading from the scriptures this morning the last words of Lehi before he died, "the Lord hath covenanted this land unto me...and also all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord. Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom He shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity." 2 Nephi 1:6-7 This year, more than in any year we can remember, we feel blessed to be living in a land with so many freedoms and opportunities. We are aware of the sacrifices, both in the past and present, of brave men and women who fought for and are defending our liberty and freedom. Thank you so much.

Match Day

2005-06-20T18:57:00.000-04:00

We found out last week, after what seemed like forever, that we really will be going to Cincinnati for my pediatric cardiology fellowship. For a long time, and for many different reasons, we have felt that Cincinnati was the best place for us and would be the place we would end up. Even though we have felt fairly confident that we would end up there, it is very nice to have it finalized. Along with the excitement of the news has come the reality of the impending hard work of fellowship. I think we both feel that I need to be at a place that will give me a solid foundation in cardiology and Cincinnati will indeed provide that. The people there are great and I am thrilled to be spending the last part of my medical training in such a great place. Aside from the great training, we are so happy to be moving closer to some of our good friends, Dave and Michelle Hooper. In fact, the girls I think are excited to be moving closer to the Hooper kids, even if their match wishes (to return home to Utah to be spoiled on a daily basis by their Nana and Grandpa Rocket) were not fufilled.

Our #2 drama queen

2005-06-13T21:59:00.000-04:00

Our girls love to dress up just about as much as anything else in the world. Mary is certainly no exception. Here she is putting on her best model impersonation. drama queen

Graduations

2005-06-13T21:37:00.000-04:00

This weekend marked the most recent of my graduations. I am now officially a pediatrician. From now on it will be that much easier for me to explain to people outside of the chaotic world of medicine what exactly I do. No more, "I am a pediatric resident....no, not a medical student....well, yes I am a doctor but.....no I cannot write you a prescription for a Z-pak! Finally, I can just say I am a pediatrician. Well, of course if I am honest I have to continue to confuse people with my new role as "chief resident", which may be the most confusing thing ever to explain, or the fact that even though I am finished I am not really finished because I want to do a fellowship in pediatric cardiology. Oh well, maybe someday it will all be clear...to me and everyone else. Not to change the subject but I have decided that graduations really are no fun. Don't get me wrong, it is nice to get together and celebrate this accomplishment with the people who have gone through this with me and my family who has supported me for the last three years. The thing that is painful for me is that I feel like my life is a series of periods of time where I meet, get to know, become friends with, and get attached to a group of people, only to have them all go away after "graduation", after which I most likely never see them again. High school, undergraduate, medical school, and now residency. It is really hard to come to care about people then to lose touch with them. Hopefully I can do a better job keeping in touch this time around.

Swim meet (Parkwood vs. Duke)

2005-06-05T21:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had a swim meet. I did freestyle and backstroke. Mary only did freestyle. In the swim meet I was fifth place in freestyle and second place in backstroke. -Emma

2005-06-05T20:55:00.000-04:00

Uncle Trevor and the kids at the aquarium

2005-06-05T20:53:00.000-04:00

Aidan and Miia at the beach

Andersons, the Andersons, and the Andersons

2005-06-05T20:37:00.000-04:00

This past week has been very eventful for us. Trevor, Jamie, Aidan, and "little" Jonas came to visit. I say "little" Jonas because my cousin "big" Jonas and Rachel moved here from New Haven this past week as well. We have been busy going to the beach, visiting museums, playing lots of games (Jamie would have won Settlers of Catan for the first time if not for a crucial error that left the door open for Trevor to steal the game from her), and just talking. Although I think Aidan was a little overwhelmed at first with all the attention from the girls, and most likely frightened by their rooms filled with dolls and dress-up clothes, he finally settled in. It did not take long before he and the girls (especially Miia) were best friends. Karen and I certainly loved seeing Trevor and Jamie and staying up too late every night talking and playing. I think all of us by the end needed a day or so to rest from our sleep deprivation. We are so thankful that they were able to come visit us. We are also thankful that Jonas and Rachel have moved down for law school. Having been away from family for the last few years has really made us miss being able just to call our family and have dinner or talk or play games. Hopefully they will not get tired of us during the next year that we are all here together because we really love being with them.

12 Miles

2005-05-29T10:44:00.000-04:00

"Jogging is very beneficial. It's good for your legs and your feet. It's also very good for the ground. It makes it feel needed." -Charles Schultz As many of you know Karen and I are training for a marathon this summer (www.deseretnews.com/run). Yesterday we met another milestone by running 12 miles. We both felt very good through about 9 miles and actually probably started the run with a pace that was a little too fast. For the last 3 miles we both were tired and had to push ourselves to finish. We finished the 12 miles in 1:58. As always we were happy with our efforts when we were done. It was the first week that neither of us felt sick for the entire day after our run.

End of school

2005-05-26T20:30:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the last day of school at Southwest Elementary. Both of our wonderkids were promoted, Mary to first grade and Emma to third grade. They proved to us once again that they are unique and individual and completely different from each other by virtue of the end-of-year awards they each received. Emma took home the "Best test taker" award for her second grade class, showing off her diligence in studying, doing all of her homework, and preparing for her tests. Mary, our artist, was given the "Best creative writing" award. We love them both very much and are very proud of their accomplishments.

Happy face Miia

2005-05-26T20:29:00.001-04:00

Happy face

2005-05-26T20:29:00.000-04:00

"Best test taker"

2005-05-26T20:28:00.000-04:00

"Best Creative Writing"

Washington DC

2005-05-18T18:34:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we went to Washington DC. I presented some research at the Pediatric Academic Society meeting and Karen and the girls came along. The first two nights I was without my family and stayed at a hostel in downtown DC (always trying to save a little money you know). Let's just say that the experience was interesting. I stayed in a room with four bunk beds and 7 guys from the UK. We all shared one bathroom with the entire floor of four other similar rooms. The rest was not great but I really could not beat the price of $27 per night. When Karen and the girls arrived we went to stay with one of Karen's friends, Camille. She was gracious enough to put us up in her apartment and to spend some time with us while we were in town. While in Washington we went to the National Zoo, the Smithsonian museum of American History, walked by the White House and Capitol; but by far the most exciting part of the field trip was taking off our shoes and playing on the grass on the Mall. We now are all home safe again and are grateful for the history of our country and the freedoms we enjoy because of the sacrifices of those who have gone before us.

My baptism

2005-05-12T20:09:00.000-04:00

When I got baptized the water was really warm. I really liked the refreshments part. I love the dress my mommy made me. I had lots of fun at my baptism. - Emma

Emma's baptism

2005-05-08T19:32:00.000-04:00

We have had such a great weekend here at our house. Nana and grandpa Rocket have been here spoiling the girls and Chris and Krystel have been here. Melissa and Brenden flew in as well. The house has been crowded but it has been fun. Emma was baptized yesterday. For as many times as I performed this ordinance on my mission I could not believe how nervous I was. Luckily Emma was calm and collected. She really is an amazing girl. We had her write her testimony down and copied it as part of the program for the baptismal service. I wanted to include it here for those of you who were not able to attend, "My testimony is, I believe in Jesus the Christ and in God our Heavenly Father and in the Holy Ghost. I believe that the church is true and that the scriptures are true. I believe that the Articles of Faith are true and that the prophets lived. I know that Joseph Smith witnessed Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father in the sacred grove. I know that when I get baptized I am making a covenant with Heavenly Father. I know Jesus was born and died on earth. I believe that we will return to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again. I know that I can repent and be forgiven of my sins. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan, that is the right plan. I believe that if I choose the right and listen to the Holy Ghost that I can live with Heavenly Father again. I know families can be together forever." What a blessing the gospel is in our lives and what a blessing our girls our to us.

2005-05-08T16:30:00.000-04:00

Emma's baptismal day, May 7, 2005

2005-05-05T19:53:00.000-04:00

My girls: Miia Hope, Mary Grace, Emma Joy, and Karen Joy

Welcome

2005-05-05T19:39:00.000-04:00

Karen and I have learned a lot together over the last ten years. One thing we are aware of is that neither of us is very good at keeping in touch with all of our family and friends. As we have been blessed with some pretty great family and friends we have always felt bad about this. So we decided to try something new. We will try to post here our trials and triumphs we face as a little family and hope by so doing we can more easily share our lives with those that we love.