Welcome to the family

This has been such an eventful year. Ben found Stephanie. Spencer and Jill added little Logan to the family. Brett and Jen are going to have a little girl and Nicole just landed hereself a man.

Christian proposed to Nicole on her birthday. He first asked her father for permission and then called each of her brothers and asked them for their blessing. He made a memory box that had pictures of he and Nicole on the lid and inside he had a leather bound book in which he'd written all the reasons why he loved her. When he popped the question on a beautiful star filled night you better believe she said yes...or at least he assumed she did. She wouldn't stop hugging him long enough for him to see her face. But her face was all we could see when they came back to break the news. She was lit up like a Christmas tree and the bling bling she kept flashing at me was blinding me. We are all so thrilled. Christian is just the kind of guy I hoped would find my daughter. He's a man of honor and integrity and he fits right in around here.

No Silent Nights around here

I'm on our ward's Activity Committee and was asked to sew the costumes for the Nativity Play. So how does one make 14 costumes with $100 budget....Salvation Army and..drapes, sheets, shower curtains, and pillow shams

After the feast...Comes the Thankfulness

Ben and Steph came down from SLC to spend Thanksgiving with the family in Phoenix. We spent the day at Jill and Spencer's. The weather was perfect and after a great feast we spent the afternoon playing croquet in the park...
and singing our lungs out playing "Singstar". the next day was spent shopping and getting ready for a bit of early Christmas since we will be sparse in numbers this year. Of course, the boys had to introduce Christian to paint ball on Saturday.
He came home a fan and then they got to relive all their battle wounds in the retelling of their adventure. The girls went to lunch and checked out the new mall by our house. Great Holiday!!

Ben helps keep with the tradition of finding all the smoking hot deals the day after Thanksgiving, laboriously going through each ad, getting up early with a well planned strategy, and finding most of the stuff sold out after standing in ridiculous lines. Brett had it the worst this year. He actually camped out on the sidewalk to BestBuy, determined to replace his worn out laptop. He got there at 9:30 the night before and put up a lttle tent I'd given Braxton as a birthday gift. The tent was made to look like a basketball. So here was Brett sleeping on the sidewalk to BestBuy on a Michigan winter night with his feet sticking out one end of a basketball. I guess the logical question is: did he end up with THE laptop....nope. Sold out. (the end of the story is he did end up buying one but for more than he wanted to spend)
Every baby so far has been gotten a Santa outfit for their first Christmas, from their aunt Christina. So to keep with the tradition she got Logan all decked out. I think the whole experience was sorta lost on him but the rest of us were amply delighted with the get up. What a precious little guy.

A few weeks ago, we all went over to Spencer and Jill's new house to help paint. Avery talked her great grandpa into having a pretend tea party with her. Consequently on Thanksgiving, great grandma decided to bring her a little tea set. Avery was excited. I thought it was so cute until she required that I fit my ample behind on that little chair and drink water with marshmellows dipped in it. But a gramma's gotta do what a gramma's gotta do. So Here's to marshmellow water!

Ben took an opportunity to get to know Logan. There is something remarkable about loving someone else's child and watching someone you love, loving them too. Ben had such a way with both Avery and Logan. He's going to be a great father. One thing for sure, his kids will know how to work.

Let's hear it for the boy!!

Logan Spencer Anderson has arrived!!! November 5th, Logan made his entrance into our lives. He's long like his dad (21 inches) and weighed 8lbs 10oz. Jill didn't want to get sent home, so she waited to go to the hospital until she was sure it was the real thing. Consequently, there was no time to spare and he was born naturally. Jill is doing great and thrilled with this new addition, not to mention having her body back!!!

She should have been a surgeon

One of the time honored holiday traditions that I was anxious to discontinue was pumpkin carving. Something about the slimy pumpkin guts that I always dreaded. But what I realized when I saw this picture is ya gotta have the "guts" to have the joy.

Take Your "Tricker Treater" to Work Day

Barry and Avery

Christina and Avery

Avery, Nicole and Christian

Jill decided it would be fun to dress Avery up and take her trick or treating to the offices of some of the people that would love to see her all decked out. Barry gave her a whole box of fruit snacks, Christina gave her 3 movie size boxes of candy and Christian planted candy at several colleagues desks so he could take her around his office at ASU and show her off. (She has a mild crush on him so she was very accommodating.) Halloween has gotten fun again! I love being a grandma.

Nic and Chris

Nicole and Christian were in the backyard enjoying the crisp fall weather (ya, right. instead of being in the triple digits it had cooled down to 93). Anyway, they both have such beautiful smiles, that just looking at them makes me want to smile.

R and R

These two guys better enjoy their time on mamma's lap while there's still room. Soon the boys in the family will no longer out number the girls. I can't wait to see those beautiful brown eyes passed on to a little girl.

Go Blue

On our recent trip to MIchigan Barry, Brett, and Braxton decided to show some school spirit.

U of M people are big into football and it's hard not to be swept into the mania. They pack the "Big House" with well over 100,000 screaming fans, among which are my son and sometimes his little guy and his biggest supporter, Jen. But in these pictures the Big Game Day festivities included grandpa. Our little guy Braxton is all about UofM football. In the photo he is cheering, "Go Blue!" When we dropped grandpa and Brett off to go to the game on Saturday he realized he wasn't going with them, he just sobbed. He kept saying "football, me go"

A Star is Born

If anyone is interested they can view a video of Ben and Stephanie's wedding by following this link: http://www.rb-studios.com/blog/ They are happily settling into married life. Steph's parents drove up this past weekend and helped them get ready for an open house. They had planned on having it outside but it kept trying to snow (didn't quite make it though). They moved it all inside, which made for a cozy setting. Everyone seemed thrilled with how it turned out. Barry and I wish we could have gone. Sounds like we missed a smashing party. Ben said the State Auditor for Utah was there as well as lots of friends and family.

Kissing cousins

One good kiss deserves another. These are my two grand-babies. They really have quite the bond and have made getting together so much fun. Both of their moms are expecting, so in the next few months we are welcoming another boy and girl to the ranks.

Meet the Fam

Well, here they are they some of the people I love the most in the whole world. I can honestly say that I am the happiest when I am with them.

Introductions: L to R

Christina, Brett, Braxton, Jen, Nicole, Barry, Cathy, Benjamin, Jill Avery and Spencer.

Meet the newest member of my family

We are so excited to welcome to our family it's newest member, Stephanie Parker Hulet. We've been anticipating this event for months. We all met in St George Utah on Sept 28th and with the help of my wonderful family put on a Fiesta to help the new couple celebrate. Brett stole the show with his toast to his brother. Christina made the desserts which were wonderful. We had a pinata, ping pong game and a video presentation I put together. The next night Stephanie's parents put on a reception that was breathtaking with a crepe bar, caricature artist, fresh flower cart, shrimp bar and the most beautiful cake I've ever seen. Oh course they both looked great, but Steph in that dress, whoa...