Christmas Time

I can not believe that Christmas is already over! It should be barley Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful Christmas, the kids were so much fun this year, I say that every year I think. Sariah really got into it and understood so much more than last year. James and Haylee were so good with her, really playing up the Santa thing. James finally got the x-box 360 he has been dying for; and he got a .22, that Josh has been dying to get him since he was born! Haylee got a new bed spread and about 30 pillows for her bed and she also got a Karaoke machine. We would ask Sariah what she wanted Santa to bring her, she would always say "I want a crown, princess dress and glass slippers" So she got plenty of them! I am so sad that it is all over, even Sariah said to me today, "I miss Santa". James said today,"364 days and counting till Christmas comes again". So we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

My attempt at a family picture

So much for trying to get a nice picture of the kids for Christmas cards. It doen't help when I am behind the camera yeling at them to "SMILE dang it!

James

This has been a wild week! James has three wrestling matches in one week. First was Mogollon which was a great match! James got his first PIN!!! It was great, he really needed that, his last win was last year at the Cottonwood tournament, which was his only win. So it was so much fun to see him pin his guy, granted his opponent was probably a forth grader and he was really small, BUT he still won! And he got a bloody nose so that made it seem a lot cooler for James. Yesterday was crazy! We had a match in Blue Ridge. It was soooo not fair! My knowledge about wrestling is very limited and I think I knew more about it than the ref and the score and time keepers!! It was a joke! So we lost, we have been undefeated for years and we lost unfairly to Blue Ridge. James was matched up with a nice kid who was really good, he lost but again I think it was unfair, not just because I am his mom either!! His poor nose kept bleeding! The ref had to call the match three time for him to go clean up his nose and then lost his patience with it and just called the match over!!! OH I was NOT happy! The ref started to do another match, and James and the other kid wanted to finish. So when he was done I told him that these boys want to finish their match! He looks at me like 'woman go away' so he lines the boys up and lets them wrestle for maybe 5 seconds and calls the other boy the winner! I was so pissed! This wrestling brings something out in me!! But for some crazy reason I love it! So when all your boys are old enough for wrestling sign them up! It is so good for them. James is not the best athlete, but it doesn't matter, he is out there trying and the whole team is so good to each other, No one has ever made him feel bad for not winning, it is always praise, and I just want to hug every single one of those boys. Sorry I forgot my camera again, so I have no picture, I will take some tomorrow in Cottonwood.

Sariah's Hair Salon

Sariah has a new hobby, she thinks she is a hair stylist. Arrrrrg, 2 year olds are so much fun. She has cut about four Barbie's hair now, I keep finding them and the hair all over the floor. So far, I know I just jinxed myself......she hasn't cut her own hair, YET! And she is also a baker. I have found her so many times with cereal, or chocolate milk, or pretty much anything she can pull out of the pantry and take it to her kitchen and "Cook dinner". She fills all her cups and plates with food and sets it all over her room. Life would be so boring with out a toddler! A little cleaner but boring.

Peaches, peaches everywhere!!

The whole gang helping out!

Such a big helper!















Seriously..........how beautiful is that??!!

Just a little bit of peaches :)










My friend Mendie was putting in an order for fruit from Utah, so I told her I wanted to order two boxes of peaches and one box of apples. Josh and I got to talking and thought that we should get one more box of peaches so I told mendie and she changed the order. Well the fruit came in when I was gone so Josh went to go pick it up and he remembered that we wanted another box, so he told Mendie that I wanted one more box! So he came home with 4 boxes of peaches and one apple!!! Holy cow it was a lot of fruit!!! So we got busy making jam and half peaches and applesauce and apple butter! My sister and family came up for the weekend to help me with all the canning and we had so much fun. It was a lot of work but we got a lot of jam! I have never in my entire life seen such perfect fruit, every single one of them were perfect and so tasty. Last month I was busy canning zucchini relish trying to get rid of all the zucchini, next is more tomatoes!!

The fair!

Oh how I love the County Fair! I have always loved going, ever since I was a kid. The animals, art displays, cooking, sewing, school displays, and lets not forget the most important........the FOOD! Oh my HECK, I love funnel cake way too much! And the curly fries! What more can I say. I have to starve myself for the next week and work off all the calories I consumed during the fair but it was worth it! James was doing another fund raiser for the Jamboree scouts, they were selling BB-Q sandwiches and the moms were in charge of the hospitality room for all the fair workers. So I spent many an hour at the fair this year. I can not tell you the number of snow cones that I bought for Haylee and Sariah, it's probably in the 30's! We could keep the LaFevers in business ourselves. All in all it was a great fair, but I am glad it's over! I am TIRED! And best of all Haylee won some ribbons! She was so excited! Last year she got robbed, so she was not sure if she wanted to enter anything this year, but I talked her into it. She entered two drawings and some zucchini relish. She got a first place ribbon and a second place for the drawings. And she got a first place on her relish! I entered some relish too but got nothing and she got the first place, she thought that was great! I also got a third on my salsa. So she earned 9 bucks! Way to go Haylee!

Catchin' up

Our men cookin breakfast

James' big catch!
I think Haylee's looks bigger! She wouldn't touch it so she put the stick in it to hold it up.
All ready to go for a ride!!

I guess I better post something, since it has been awhile! It has been busy busy around here! But mostly fun stuff. Well school started, as you well know, and I lost my camera so I have no first day of school pictures! I hate it when I loose my camera! The kids got good teachers this year, again, we have been lucking out. James is in 6th grade, it doesn't seem possible that he is that old....does that make me old? Naaahhhh. Haylee is in the 4th grade, and is really feeling like she is something because she goes to the middle school now. She was quite concerned with her school clothes this year, she "couldn't look like a dork at the middle school"! I am sad that the summer time is coming to an end and Fall is on it's way. I LOVE summer here. And I HATE winter! It is so cold and ugly. I will just savor the last days of summer. We have been canning lately, a bunch of zucchini relish, 6 batches! So if any of you want some, I have plenty so come get a jar! I have 16 tomato plants in the garden and they are all getting ripe so I will be canning those soon, yummy! I would take a picture of the stuff I have been canning, but the camera is dead. I did find it but the battery is dead and I can't find the stupid charger! We went to Lake Powell last weekend with the Lee family and had a blast!!! We were there four days and loved every minute of it. The weather was absolutely perfect. We had our boat, John Lee brought his and then we rented two jet skiis. So much fun! I have always been a bit afraid of the jet skiis, I know I am a wimp! Josh talked me into going on a ride, and I loved it! I even drove it for a bit and it was so much fun! So sorry, I have no pictures of the lake either. I was so mad about the camera, we almost went to Wal Mart to get a new one. So now this week is the fair, I love the fair! Or I should say I love FUNNEL CAKE at the fair!!! It is my weakness! Why do I have to love food so much? James is doing another fund raiser for his Scout Jamboree he is going on so we are busy with that. So if you go to the fair this weekend, stop by and buy a BBQ sandwich from the scouts in the big building and help send these boys to the Jamboree! Well I have kinda caught you all up on what is going on here at the Anderson household! I will post some pictures of one of our camping trips of the summer, this is the one that we went with the Ashtons and Josh's cousins.