Rocket Cake

Well, we've had an interesting Christmas around here this year.  The whole Anderson clan gathered in Sioux Falls to celebrate.  We had grand plans of gingerbread houses, playing games and light seeing.  And although we did get to see the Western Mall Christmas on Saturday, our other holiday plans were cut short due to what we think was food poisoning.  I'll spare you the details but all I can say is I'm thankful we have two bathrooms in our house.

Finally this morning everyone was feeling a bit more human again and we celebrated Christmas.  We enjoyed a lovely breakfast, a huge turkey & fixins' lunch with a whole lotta present opening in between.  But my favorite part of the day?  Jesus' birthday cake.  Our new little family doesn't have many set "traditions" yet but this one thing we've done for two years now and I would like to keep .... making Jesus a birthday cake.  It seems to be a great way for Brooks to understand the real reason we celebrate this holiday. And it's a good reminder for us too.

We talked with Brooks about the cake a week ago and we asked him what kind of cake Jesus would want for his birthday.  He replied "A rocket cake!".  Mmmm, ok?  Then again this morning as I was frosting the cake he said with emphasis that Jesus wanted a rocket cake.  I was kind of wanting to make a nice Christmas cake, elegantly frosted and decorated.  But then I thought .... we always have fun cakes for Brooks' birthdays - puppy cake, basketball ball cupcakes, a baseball cake.  So why shouldn't Jesus have a rocket cake for his birthday?  It makes sense to a three year old, makes sense to me.  So a rocket cake we had.

I have to credit Chris for the artwork.  And Brooks added his embellishments to it.  We set in a candle, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and celebrated the greatest day in history!  Merry Christmas.

Band-Aid Face

Yesterday while Brooks was doing who knows what, he fell and bumped his face on the floor.  Not hard, but still it warranted many many tears and some screaming besides.  After he calmed down, he told me his lip hurt and he wanted a band-aid.  "On your lip?"  I asked.  Yes, on his lip.  I, in all my adult rationality, explained that band-aids don't go on your lips.  He wasn't buying it.  "You won't like it on your lip.  It will feel funny." I countered.  Still no dice.  He NEEDED a band-aid on his lip.  (sigh)  So I obliged.  The result?

One band-aided lip and one silent kid.   Hmmmm, maybe band-aids on lips are a good idea :)

The Underwear Snatcher

Every morning while Brooks is eating breakfast, I lay out his clothes for him on the couch.  And it never fails that while Brooks is trying to get dressed, Carter comes up, grabs Brooks' underwear (just the underwear) and starts running through the house waiving them like a flag!  Oh, and squealing.  Waiving them like a flag and squealing with sheer delight.  And Brooks is always right on his heels yelling "CARTER, NOOOOO!  Those are MIIIIINE!!"

And I know Carter wouldn't care about the underwear at all, except that he knows it bugs the crap out of Brooks.  It's hilarious!  Well, to me anyway.  Brooks doesn't find it so funny.  He's so used to this routine now that anytime Carter even steps into the same room as him, Brooks throws himself over his clothes to protect them, again shouting "CARTER, NOOO!"  And just so the boy can put on his clothes in peace, I usually try to occupy Carter for a while or I'll send Brooks up to his room and have him shut the door.  Carter definitely has his role as the little brother perfected :)

10 years ago

10 years and 3 months ago I started my freshman year at North Central University.  I went on a tour of downtown Minneapolis with the girls on my floor and the boys on our brother floor and met Chris Anderson for the first time ... and the second time ... and the third time.  (I could not remember that boys name.)

Despite my lack of memory for cute Montana boys' names, I developed a nice little crush.  You know the "he always walks this hallway after class so I think I'll just happen to walk down this hallway too" kinda crush.  And over the next three months we spent time talking, "bumping" into each other, getting to know each other.  (ok, it was more like me stalking him and he not freaking out and running in the opposite direction.  Same thing, right?)

10 years and 2 weeks ago he finally gathered the nerve to ask this girl out on a date.  I. was. ecstatic.

10 years and 1 week ago we went on that date.  We actually double dated with Chris' roommate and his girlfriend (now wife).  It was a lovely evening at the orchestra.  He wore a handsome suit.  I wore an entire ensemble of clothing, of which every piece belonged to someone else (gotta love living in the dorms) and according to him, I looked pretty good too.  He was nervous.  I was giddy.  We held hands (gasp).

Exactly 10 years ago to the day, Chris Anderson asked me to be his girlfriend.  I said yes :)

And 10 years, a wedding, 2 college graduations, 7 homes, 4 cities and 2 kids later ..... here we are.

I'm so glad he asked me on that date :)

Our little zoo

Last week was Halloween and, like most Christian parents I'm sure, we debated with what to to about it.  Ignore it?  Embrace it?  Do an alternative?  Last year I was working and we just kinda skipped it.  I didn't want to spend the money on a costume, didn't need the extra sugar and Brooks was none the wiser.  And this year we probably would have done the same except that our church was hosting their annual Trunk or Treat outreach.  We've only been attending Brandon Valley Assembly of God for a few months and figured this would be a good way to start getting involved.  So we signed up to decorate a trunk.

Which sounded all well and good except that we had to ..... decorate a trunk.  And given my iffy feelings on the holiday to begin with, I just wasn't that into it.  We ended up going with a zoo theme.  I found Carter a tiger costume at a consignment sale a few months earlier.  Then Brooks decided he wanted to be a zebra.  I couldn't find any zebra costumes in Sioux Falls and was getting a bit worried that I'd have to spend hours making him one.  But, eBay to the rescue!  We found a perfect zebra costume for him and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg.  He loved it!  So given that we had a tiger and a zebra, I naturally went as ..... the zookeeper.  I figured it was fitting.  I feed the animals.  I wash the animals.  I clean the animals' living space.  I deal with the animals' poop.  Pretty much sums up my life.

Jesus answered my prayers and I found all the things I needed for my costume at one thrift store!  Khaki pants and shirt with "Zoo Staff" printed on the back and pair of rubber boots made me look pretty official I think.  And Chris went as Indiana Jones.  Not because it really fit, but because he already had the costume from our kids ministry days.  The final result??

Not too bad, huh?  And for the trunk (I feel bad saying this) we just kinda threw it together.  We put in some wire crate shelves and tossed in a few stuffed animals with a sign that said "Welcome to the Zoo".  But despite the lack of effort, the kids loved it.  I mean, they really loved it.  Whodathunkit?

And I'm not gonna lie.  We pretty much had the cutest kids there.  I think several others thought that too  given how many times Carter had his picture taken :)  And about the candy ... Brooks was thrilled when he was able to eat one sucker (we rarely do candy in our house) and would have been satisfied with that for the evening.  When we told him he could go around to all the trunks and collect more candy, he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself.  More???  But it didn't take much convincing, and soon he had his bucket filled.

He LOVED that sucker!

Cutest. tiger. ever!

All in all, we had a good night.  The weather was actually pretty warm for being the end of October - 40ish degrees all night.  And they said there were between 1200 and 1400 kids there.  Wow!  What an impact made for the kingdom of Heaven.  Even though my heart wasn't always in it, I'm really glad we got involved and that God can work through us, despite ourselves.

But I Just Wanted a Mustache!

So yesterday afternoon while I'm cleaning up dishes, Brooks comes out of the bathroom looking like this and says "Look Mama.  I have a mustache!"

Not gonna lie.  I was speechless.  I was so torn between yelling at him for smearing whatever that black stuff was on his face and applauding his initiative and creativity that I did nothing ... at least for a minute.  Finally I asked "What's on your face?"

To which he replied "A mustache!"

Yes, I see that.  What is the black stuff on your face?

A mustache!

(sigh)  Ok.  But where did the black stuff come from?

The garbage.

Then I became a bit worried.  Until I remembered that I had thrown away an old mascara that morning.  Apparently he found it in the garbage, opened it and proceeded to apply his mustache.  And when I asked why he put the black on his face he said ...

"But I just wanted a mustache."

Guess I can't argue with that.

Saturday Adventure: Pumpkins!

This last weekend, we drove out to Valley Spring, SD (or is it in Iowa?  I don't know) to a farm called Garden of Weeden'.  I had heard about it from  few friends and since we didn't have any pumpkins (and didn't have anything to do) we made the 20 minute drive to the farm.  It was really a low key place - but they had a bunch of pumpkins and a ton of produce!

Carter kept calling the pumpkins "ball ball".  I guess it's close enough :) 

Then inside the produce barn they had a ton of little gourds.  I mean, a ton!!

Each of the boys picked out a few little pumpkins and I grabbed about 25lbs of acorn and butternut squash.  Our whole family loves squash, so I'll put a bunch in the freezer for the winter.

Then on Sunday we let he boys paint their pumpkins.  We thought about carving them, but let's be honest, it's a whole lotta work for us and not that much involvement for them.  So, painting it was.  Yes, Carter tried to eat the paint.  Yes, Brooks eventually covered most of his pumpkin in black paint (despite my urging him to use "bright" colors) and yes, we had a great time!

check out the tongue!

The end result?

Carter's on the left.  Brooks' on the right.

our mini pumpkin creations