Zambersonville

Splash Park in American Fork

2011-08-25T14:10:00.005-07:00

Well, we have moved. We now live in Orem. I am trying really hard to be positive, but it's really hard. There are a few perks to living down here. I have a friend who moved down to American Fork when we were juniors in high school. We have stayed close friends and now we get to hang out all the time. We hung out yesterday afternoon at a splash park in American Fork. It was awesome and the kids had a blast. Just a few pics.

(Teddy did not want his picture taken)

(His I'll show you shot)

(Aurora being cute as ever. A little girl came up to Aurora pointing at her swimsuit and said, "I love her". We had a good laugh about that.)

(The kids and I walking around in the little river they have there.)

This is my friend Jessica and her little girl. Thanks for such a fun day.

Just a bunch of pictures!

2011-03-09T18:50:00.012-07:00

The fact that we haven't posted pictures forever, I blame on Zann. I finally asked him nicely, and for those of you who just rolled your eyes it truly was very nice, and he did it. So here some very belated pictures.

My grandma died this past October. It was a blessing to see her go. She died at the age of 97. Three days before she died my brother and wife brought their three girls to see Grandma. This was also the first time I was able to meet my triplet nieces, Addison, Brooklyn, and Cambria. All of the grandkids are here, but one.

This is all of my brothers and sisters, but my brother and his family.

This is Teddy pulling the Home Alone face.

Happy Thanksgiving. This is the craziness that was happening downstairs. Thank you Colton for watching all of the kids.

I went to Bath & Body Works and got some lotion. Teddy wouldn't let go of the bag. It was really funny. He started putting things in the bag.

It's a Sesame Street book with Elmo, just in case you can't see it. The bag went everywhere with us. It was pretty comical.

Merry Christmas. This was our tree. Please don't ask me why Aurora is not wearing pants.

My little sister Suzy got home from her mission on December 13. What an awesome Christmas present. We sure missed her and have fully enjoyed having her home.

We taught Teddy how to say Suzy. He said it so cute. He is such a sweet kid.

We had a party at my oldest brother's house after we went to the airport. The kids loved seeing everyone and my older brother Nathan wanted in on the action and wanted to see how strong his legs were. Peyton, Lydia, and Teddy are all getting rides on his legs.

This is Teddy's loot from Christmas. He was so spoiled.

We went to eat first with the Richins and there was a sleigh and we got Aurora just a laughing. It was so cute. This was the cutest of all the pictures I thought.

Happy New Year everyone. We went and visited some of our closest friends, The Richins, who just recently moved to Salt Lake. We were able to go and hang out on Temple Square with them and see the lights. The kids had been sick and we were worried we weren't going to be able to go, but we were able to go. The lights are awesome there. I love seeing them. The kids had a ball.

We got some awesome snow one Sunday and so we had to build a snowman. Zann did most of the work while I watched the kids. I did help decorate the face though. Our lights also look awesome. Way to go babe!

At the end of January we were able to go to Phoenix, AZ for Zann's work. It was awesome. They paid for everything. We took Aurora, but left Teddy with my sister, thank you KaDawn.
This is us on our last day there.

This is the view from our window. It was beautiful. We stayed in the Sheraton Downtown. We were on the 22nd floor.

Aunt Annelle. We almost named Aurora after her because she was born on her birthday.

Aunt Ellie. She is the best cook ever.

In this picture are front row: me, Aunt Janett, who is holding Aurora, Grandpa and Uncle Quinn
back row: Heather, Raylynn, and Aunt Elli.

This is Uncle Quinn holding onto Aurora. She loved seeing all the animals and sitting on the horse. I wish Teddy could have been there with us. He would have been in heaven.

Zann had a bunch of meetings on Saturday and so I drove up to Show Low. It's about a three hour drive, but completely worth it. This is my grandpa. He is the most amazing man in the world. He has so much love for everyone. I wish I were more like him. Before I left I was doing fine without crying, but he followed me out to the car and I lost it. The ranch will always be my second home. I am grateful he was able to meet Aurora. I got lost on the way back to the Hotel. I drove around Phoenix for 1 1/2 hours before I finally made it home. It was awful.

This is Adelaide. She is a daughter of one of Zann's coworkers, Gary. His wife's name is Theresa. We hung out Friday night while they were in meetings. It was so much fun. Aurora had a little playmate too.

We had some extra time before we left on Sunday and so we went to the Mesa Temple. It was beautiful and so peaceful walking around the grounds on Sunday afternoon. We also found a ward to go to and went to Sacrament meeting. There was actually somebody in the ward who Zann went to high school with.

This is us at the Phoenix airport. I was so ready to be home. I totally enjoyed the 70 degree weather. We came home to snow. Lovely:(

Happy Birthday babe! His birthday was February 17. He wanted to make a Jucy Lucy.

A Jucy Lucy is a delicious meat and cheese thing we learned about on Man V. Food way back around Thanksgiving and I've been wanting to make one ever since then. It was amazing.

What can I say, he likes to wear what Aurora likes. Obviously Zann doesn't like it when I dress him up. I want you to know, anytime I put Aurora in that dress, Teddy will try to take it off of him.

Teddy has recently become a fan of Turtles. He loves Raph. He can even say the name. It's really funny. This is part of his Halloween costume for next year.

Teddy is really into lining things up in a train. Apparently we need to get him one. I am not sure why he is only in his diaper. His smile makes up for it though.

Aurora has this face she does. It makes us all laugh. She doesn't do it all the time though so I am glad we were able to get it on camera.

I got this 'do from "Despicable Me". I do her like this all the time for church. I think it is adorable.

Fun in the tub

Just so cute!

This was just a few days ago. Teddy loves to be pushed around in the basket. He gets mad if Aurora isn't right next to him. He is such a great older brother.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T15:52:00.000-07:00

(Disclaimer: To anybody reading this post who's name isn't Amber Smith Anderson - first off, it's not to you, so maybe just don't read it. If you still wish to, fine - it's on our blog, after all. If you get grossed out by its cheesy/corny Valentine nature, that's not my problem - I told you you didn't have to read it...)

Dear Amber:

I wanted to give you a Valentine, but I wasn't sure what to get for you. I decided for starters to put it up here so you could have it all the time - like a permanent valentine, instead of the ones kids give out that get chucked after the candy is gone. After today, there's a permanent digital record of how much I love you. Cool, no? So, back to what to get you...you said not to get you these:

'Cause they're all marked up a ton around this time of year, and I know I can't get you these:

'Cause you make better ones anyway, plus we're tracking our calories and trying to lose weight. What does that leave me to be able to give you for Valentine's Day? Pretty tough. I'll try for a poem:

I used to be all alone
Without a Valentine
"Enjoying" Single Awareness Day
Since nobody was mine

But then I met this girl
With beautiful red hair
The first time that I saw her
I had to try not to stare

We spent some time together
And before very long
It became quite apparent
She was the perfect one

I said, "Be mine forever"
And she said, "Yes, I will!"
We've had such times together
With her, life's one big thrill

So now when Feb 14th
Comes rollin' round the corner
I dress and smile and have fun
Instead of being a mourner

Now I'm so glad that she is mine
I'll never let her go
She's my one and only Valentine
And I truly love her so

I don't really know if a poem can summarize how I feel (especially one that short). You are the most wonderful and amazing woman ever. You make everything brighter and have made my life so much richer than I could ever have on my own. You make me smile each and every day and I'm so grateful that you're mine. I guess the best thing that I can give you for Valentine's day is this:

Pretty corny, no? Yeah I know, "I give you my heart!" It's true though, that's what I promised to you before and that's what I try to continue to give you each day. Thanks for not crushing it, 'cause it's the only one I have. I love you. Happy Valentine's Day.

Love,
Zann

And we're back

2011-02-01T20:14:00.003-07:00

Sorry for those of you who may have tried to look at our blog, if there are any people who still look at it. I hated the design and now have changed it. I hope you like it. We went to Phoenix and had a blast and will hopefully be able to post some pictures in the next couple of days.

Vote for Teddy and his cuteness!!

2010-12-07T15:13:00.000-07:00

We've entered this picture of Teddy in a photo contest on Shutterfly. Please go and vote for him here:
http://contest.shutterfly.com/contests/showentry/682432
Of course, we're aware some of you may (do...) have your own entries in said contest, in which case we understand if you don't vote for us, or vote more for yours (I think you can vote as much as you want?). Anyways, check out our kid and if you think he's as cute as we do, please vote for him!

Dang cute, no?

FREE CHRISTMAS CARDS!!!

2010-11-16T06:59:00.001-07:00

Ok, so this is basically a shameless plug for Shutterfly and their Christmas cards - no sense in pretending it's anything else...but hey, for 50 (yes, fifty) free Christmas cards, our blog space is definitely for sale! Not to mention, they have some pretty sweet cards. Here's a few:

This one is prolly not the one that Amber and I would go for, since we're pretty traditional about wanting to have a card that actually says something about CHRISTMAS on it rather than stupid, generic "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings", but I really like the design:

They do, however, have a line of religious-themed Christmas cards for those of us who don't want to forget "The reason for the season" - there wouldn't be Christmas without Christ. I really like this one (and it's just a coincidence that it has the same picture - ours will actually have pictures of our family, don't worry...)

Anyway, they have TONS of designs, and they make it easy to find what you want - you can narrow your search by how many spaces the card has for pictures, whether the card is flat or folded, paper type, card size, price, colors in the design, or even the designer, should you be savvy enough to know who some of them are (or, I guess if you find one or two you like by a certain designer and want to see more). So - this season, expect to see a wicked-sweet Chrismas card coming your way from the Andersons, courtesy of Shutterfly. "Thanks, Shutterfly!" *looks at camera with a cheesy grin*

As (sortof) promised...

2010-11-02T12:44:00.003-07:00

Ok, so I said I might maybe post family pictures, so I figured I'd kindof deliver on that sortof promise. First off, here's a picture of the whole family:

Teddy was first to have his individual pictures taken. He started off in pretty good spirits:

What I really like about the above picture is not only his super-cute smile but also the fact that he looks like he just finished a tap-dance routine or something. After a while, Teddy started to wear down...

The photographer said she liked that one a lot. I don't think it's Teddy at all. The only time he sits that still is when he's tired, and even then, this just looks way too posed to me. The next picture was Teddy's reaction to the photographer's continued attempts to get him to sit still and pose, and I love it:

I think it captures a lot of who Teddy is - not that he's a really ornery or bratty kid, but just that he has a very independent spirit and way way too much energy to sit and pose in some chair forever, or even for five minutes. He's awesome.

Aurora was pretty tired by the time it was her turn to take pictures, but we got some good ones:

The first one is awesome, I love her face in it. The flower one is just dang cute. We got a print of that to put in her bedroom. We love the crying one too - that was her "I'm tired and sick of pictures" reaction - as opposed to Teddy's shouting - we definitely have a boy and a girl. Anyways, not much else to say about the pictures. Our kids are pretty stinking cute. If you want to see more of the pictures (or see us in real life...) come and visit us sometime.

We're not dead yet.

2010-11-01T15:10:00.000-07:00

So we keep getting hounded by people to update our blog. Here it is. We're still alive. Amber has at this point renounced all blogging responsibilities and laid them squarely on my shoulders, so we'll see if I pick them up and run with them or leave them lying in a pile on the ground. If I choose the former, you'll see family pictures from us soon. Hope for that, because our kids are really cute and apparently super photogenic. And no, I'm not being vain, just truthful. That's all for now.

The cutest kids

2010-07-05T12:11:00.003-07:00

For those of you who posted comments about my last post, thanks for being on top of it. I appreciate all of the advice, especially those certain few who took the time to write me on Facebook or email me. You guys are the best. I did delete your comments, but once again I appreciate all of the advice that you had to share. You all showed so much concern for me, which is very appreciated, but I wasn't sure if anyone looked at how cute my kids are. I wanted to give you a second chance.:)

Here are a few pictures that my sister-in-law took when Aurora was first born.

These are ones we took.

Isn't she a tanker. She is in the 99% for weight and 94% for height.

Remember

2010-06-22T15:17:00.000-07:00

when we used to post things on this blog? That was awesome.

Aurora Inez Anderson

2010-04-11T17:39:00.000-07:00

Aurora Inez Anderson
4/11/10 3:16 AM
9 lbs 15 oz
21 inches

Pickleville Shout-out

2010-01-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

I'd just like to take this chance to give a shout-out to Pickleville Playhouse. They are doing two performances of their melodrama from last summer, The Hanging of El Bandito at the Eccles Conference Center on USU Campus, February 13th and 15th. Amber and I went this last summer and saw their production of Annie Get Your Gun in Bear Lake and were thoroughly impressed. Not only was it a much better and more fun-to-watch production than the one put on a couple of years ago by the Utah Festival Opera, but they did an excellent job of gracefully handling a power outage caused by a raccoon chewing their power lines. I would recommend any of their productions, they do a fantastic job and it made for a wonderful anniversary date for Amber and I.

Disclaimer: I may or may not be hoping to get free tickets to one of the aforementioned performances by doing this shout-out. Hey - if it would get you free tickets, wouldn't you do it too? Seriously though, the promise of free tickets in no way influences my assessment of Pickleville or of any of their productions. They are amazing at what they do and anybody's money (or blog space...) would be very well spent in getting tickets to see one of their shows.

And the verdict is...

2009-11-30T18:01:00.002-07:00

Sick!!

Teddy got a flu shot last Wednesday and got sick. Happy Thanksgiving to us. He has since passed it onto me. I am not sure if I have the flu or a cold or what. Onto happier news which is what this whole post is about we are having.... we don't know. They think it may be a girl. Yes I said it, a girl. I was 100% expecting a boy. I don't know how to do girls. The Lord knows best though.

I hope everyone had a fun Thanksgiving.

Happy Birthday Teddy

2009-11-03T20:28:00.005-07:00

Today is Teddy's birthday. At this specific place in time, I was lying there hoping not to have a C-section. Thank goodness I didn't have to have one. Teddy was born at 9:47 pm. What a sweet blessing it is to have a little boy. We had so much fun. We actually celebrated his birthday on Friday, October 30. Thank you to those family members who drove so far. Zann's parents even came up from Riverton, which meant a lot. Thanks also for the many many presents he got. He has loved playing with all of them.

Teddy was pretty good to let me make the cake. He hung out and played in his room. I was really nervous because I really wanted to do a soccer ball. I think it turned out very well. I have never done anything like this before. It's not perfect, but I think it looks amazing.

Zann has been waiting for his whole life to have a 1 year old to dive into a cake. Teddy met and exceeded all of his expectations. I can't rmember the last time I laughed so hard.

This is the aftermath of the cake.

This is our cousin's boy James. You can hear him laughing in the background a few times during the cake video. He loved helping Teddy open his toys as well as playing with them. He was so cute with Teddy. It was great having him here. This was as they were leaving. So cute.

Happy Halloween!!!

We had some amazing friends that we met in the 10th ward, the Croppers. They are just as amazing as they come. They invited us to carve pumpkins with them their first year in Logan. The following year we decided to do it again. Darrell decided to split our closeness and move to Lehi. We didn't carve pumpkins with them last year and so we decided this year we had to get together. We did and had a ball. Zann and I always forget our camera when we want it. Thank you Janell for providing the pictures. I carved the Trick or Treat and Zann carved the Utah State. Pretty amazing if you asked me.

This is all of us. Their little boy Stephan was so cute with Teddy. They played together and Stephan kept saying Teddy's name. We will be getting together soon I am sure. Their whole family is in BYU shirts and we are in Utah State gear. Gotta' love it.

Teddy was a Teddy Bear for Halloween. He was the cutest little thing ever. Enjoy these pictures.

Unexpected #1 and now Unexpected #2

2009-10-01T07:07:00.006-07:00

I am not sure how many of you know, but before I got pregnant with Teddy I had a miscarriage. I was almost 3 months along. It happened New Year's Eve at about 2 am. What a way to bring in the new year. It was so hard for me, but I have never been that close to the Savior. I have also been able to help some of my other friends because of this. We were going to wait a year before getting pregnant, but the Lord had a different plan for us. We got pregnant with our little boy whom I love and adore. He has got to be the cutest little boy on earth. Here are just a few pictures of him.

Happy Thanksgiving a year ago. Isn't he so small? Can you believe how small he is? Wow! How time flies.

Just him being cute with his little hat on.

He hates to be laying in the grass. He also doesn't like to crawl in grass and so he will stick his butt really high up in the air.

Well, the intensity is over, we are expecting our second bundle of joy sometime in April. I am somewhere between 12-13 weeks along. Like Teddy this was definitely unexpected, but again, the Lord had different plan for us. They will be about 17 months apart. We are excited and it will be wonderful.

Labor Day Weekend and more

2009-09-18T07:48:00.008-07:00

For Labor Day Weekend we went camping over night up Logan Canyon. We went with the Algers who have two cute little girls. It was an adventure for sure taking little ones, but it was a blast. Here is Zann putting up the tent.

Here is just a way fun picture of Teddy and Daddy sporting off their hats.

I was pumping up our air mattress when Teddy decided to help.

Of course he had to play on it after it was all pumped up. The Algers had a battery pump that we used after I had pumped for about 10 minutes. I was grateful they had brought their pump or I would have been working on pumping this thing up until it was time for bed.

The Alger girls. They are just so cute.

This was the only picture I took of their family. Oops.

The Algers brought otter pops and well, Teddy has to have anything we are eating.

Teddy didn't have the best night. We think something he ate gave him an upset stomach. It could have been the Skittles or the Starbursts that we gave him. (Are we stupid parents or what?)

The Algers weren't up yet when we got up so we decided to put Teddy in his backpack and off we went. It was fun just to walk around and see the beautiful nature around us before we packed up and left.

I think this is one of my favorite pictures of Teddy ever. His smile is just so cute.

We put Teddy in the tent while we were getting everything out of it. We left him in it and then he decided he wanted to come out too. As you can see from the picture, he couldn't. It was pretty funny.

We have a lot of weeds around our house and so on Monday we pulled some of them, put them in Zann's truck and then took pictures so you can see the insane amount of weeds we had.

Teddy and I were playing a couple of weeks ago and it was just too cute not to get the camera out. I could put about 20 pictures up, but this one was my favorite.

Teddy likes to play in water. I can't remember what we were doing, but we put Teddy in the water with his diaper on and this is the result.

We both have recently got haircuts. Here is Teddy's before.

Teddy's after. (Did you know that we are already teaching Teddy how to play the piano?)

(I am just kidding, he does love to play the piano with me though. He can be anywhere in the house and if he hears me playing he comes a crawling.)

My before.

My after.

It's a lot shorter, but I woke up this morning, brushed my hair, put some hairspray on it and it was done. Easiest 'do ever. It's completely different, but I like it. For those of you who are curious I donated it to Locks of Love.

9 Months +

2009-09-02T15:23:00.003-07:00

Teddy is now 10 months and I have no idea where August went. We have been crazy busy here. Well, Teddy's stats are as follows:

Height: 28 in. 40%
Weight: 17.88 lbs 11%
Head Circumference: 17.8 in. 50%

I was a little worried about his weight, but the doctor said not to worry about it. If Teddy just sat around all day I might be a little bit more worried, but he isn't.

We have moved into a new home and have remodeled the bathroom already. Pictures will follow. They are on the camera still and I can't ever remember how to get them off. Here are some fun things we did do this summer.

Teddy loves to swim. We crashed our Stake Swim Party and had sweet Amanda Stevens take pictures of us. Pretend we are not in the pictures since Teddy is the cute one and the only one in these pictures that looks good. (He looks drunk. I am not sure why, but look at how cute he is.)

Last by not least, Teddy with mommy.

My sister left on her mission to the McAllen Texas Mission. She is going to be an awesome missionary. Here is a picture of everyone that went to her being set apart. This is also the front door to our new home. Doesn't it look awesome?

Well, none of the pictures that we have taken in August on our computer yet, so once Zann gets that done, you will see more updated pictures. Life is good here. We are not dead, just extremely busy.

Jewelry

2009-08-07T12:40:00.002-07:00

I have to post this so you can see how awesome this jewelry is. My friend is very reliable and is quite frankly amazing. Please let me know what you think. She has been making me jewelry for gifts for years. Trust me, you will love it.

Check it out!!!

http://jessikaannejewelry.blogspot.com/

Better Late than Never

2009-07-18T15:14:00.011-07:00

Well a lot has happened and I have been extremely busy and let's just face it, really lazy. We left for California late at night on June 10. The drive was long and boring, but since it was at night we switched off driving so at least one person was asleep. My mom road with us because no one else wanted to go with us. We got there about 7 in the morning. We went and got a tour of UC Davis campus. It was beautiful. Here are all of my siblings. We went on a bike ride around the campus.

(T.J., Conrad, KaDawn, me, Colton, Suzy, Nate, and Clint)

We then went to my brother's house and ate some awesome food. The Nord's certainly know how to cook. We then went to our hotel rooms to get ready for the graduation. My brother Conrad graduated with his PhD in Biomedical Engineering. He is one smart little cookie.

All of the siblings again. This is the first time in a long time that we have all been together.

The whole family and his professor was so cool. Conrad was close to the beginning when he graduated. His professor said, "Let's just leave." Conrad made a sign for us to leave and so we did. It was awesome. We were there for maybe an hour. We then went back to the Nord's house and ate more delicious food. Did I mention that the Nord's know how to make good food?

This is Teddy and Maggie together. She is so cute and Teddy is even cuter.

I can tell that you are all wondering where my sister-in-law is through all of this since she is not in any of the pictures. Well, she was pregnant with three little angels. She has since had them, but I want to do a separate blog post of the little angels. You will meet Addison, Cambria, and Brooklyn soon. Isn't she such a cute pregnant lady?

The next day, we went and hung out in San Francisco. We went to the Jelly Belly factory,
Lombard Street (Famous for the road on "What's Up Doc?"),

and of course Golden Gate Bridge.

We then left and drove on and on and on until we got to Baker's Field where we stayed the night. We then continued on our way the next morning. Any gueses to where? Nope. Nope. Arizona. Show Low to be exact. My father's family live there. We had so much fun. We got to ride horses.

The only time we ever get dilly bars are in Arizona. In fact, I had no idea there was even a Dairy Queen in Utah was when I was in College. I am so stupid I know.

The sad thing about the vacation is that we forgot our camera. These are pictures taken from other people's cameras. I do have some more pictures that I would like to add, but I need to get them from my family.

We were able to go to the Snow Flake Temple while we were there. We did a session. Such a beautiful temple. Very small, but beautiful.

(Uncle Ken, Aunt Lafawn, my mom, Grandpa, Clint, Aunt Ellie, Aunt Anell, Uncle Quinn, me, Zann, Teddy, Colton, Tenille, Macie, my dad, Suzy)

We also got to see some old friends that used to be in our ward. Kyle, Amy, and Joshua Smith. It was so good to see them. We drove home Tuesday and got home about 11:30. It was a quick trip and we wish we could have spent more time in Arizona. We had a blast too. I will get more pictures to put on here.

Teddy woke up from his nap. That is all for now. We are no longer private. I have decided that it's not worth it. Make sure to tell your friends that. Also, we bought a new house and have moved in. We have already started a new project. We are remodeling the bathroom. It is going to be awesome when it is finished.

Here is daddy and Teddy mowing the lawn for the first time. Teddy loves to ride on the tractor.

A-M-B-E-R S-M-I-T-H A-N-D-E-R-S-O-N

2009-07-01T09:06:00.003-07:00

Amazing wife
My Eternal Companion
Beautiful
Extremely friendly
Righteous daughter of God

Sister extraordinaire
Mother
Intelligent
Truthful
Hard working

Always looking to serve others
Never afraid to stand up for what's right
Daughter
Everything I've ever dreamed of
Rockin' piano player
Smiles bring me joy
Outstanding
Never could I find a better companion

I love you sweetheart!!

Have you ever seen a cuter kid?

2009-05-20T09:10:00.005-07:00

2009-05-07T12:49:00.009-07:00

I have been really lame and have made excuse after excuse not to post. Well, no more. Here is what has been going on.

Zann loves riding his bike through rain and snow. Here is a picture to prove it.

My birthday was on March 28 and Zann wrote me the most beautiful poem. (I did get permission to post it.)

My dearest love, my darling wife
You are the best thing in my life
You mean the world to me, you see
I could not face life without thee
But of all your beauty, all your charms
One of my favorites is your arms
For in them I have found a home
From which I will not ever roam
In them there is happiness
A place where I can be at rest
They offer safety from the world
From winds of change that wildly swirl
In your arms is securtiy
That comes form your great purity
Peace, comfort and contentment too
I've found when I am held by you
And when the world is dark and cold
I turn to you and you can hold
Me in your arms, for they impart
Such warmth to body, soul and heart
And though you are no manly girl
Who lifts huge weights and could me hurl (Thank goodness)
In your arms is quiet strength
Which comes from serving God (and others) at length
My dearest love, you've brought me joy
And made me one way happy boy
So thanks for all that you have done
For choosing me to be the one
Who gets to be your companion
For not all men are blessed and able
To be held in the arms of an angel

He is such an amazing husband. We were lame and didn't get any pictures so here is a picture of us.

Teddy needed some church clothes and so when I saw this outfit I had to buy it. It was on sale too at Shopko, which was a double bonus. Zann decided to switch ties, which I thought was very appropriate.

Last Sunday we went to my brother's baby blessing. Here are my siblings with their new babies:
T.J. and Lydia, KaDawn and Margaret "Maggie", Nathan and Payton, and me and Theodore "Teddy".

Here is a picture of Maggie and Teddy at the blessing.
Teddy is now 6 months old. He is stinking cute and we love having him in our lives. His stats

Length-27 in. 71%
Weight-16.63 lbs 34%
Head-17.5 in 71%

For his 6 month birthday we decided to put him in the Bumbo naked with the water running and gave him cereal. He got it all over himself, but it was hilarious to watch him. As you can see from the picture, he loved it.

Teddy has discovered that he has a tongue. He is stinking it out all of the time.

He is also rolling over and starting to push up onto his knees. One thing that he does now is wrap himself up in his blanket. It's a riot.

This picture is for my friend Jessica Newman. She bought this outfit for him and he loves it. He is so cute in it too.

What an adorable family:

We are just enjoying life and grateful for the summer time. Teddy loves being outside. He especially likes to swing. He is such a wonderful blessing.

Funny Video of Teddy

2009-04-29T21:57:00.003-07:00

This is a couple months old, but it's funny

Ode to Dad!!

2009-04-03T13:20:00.003-07:00

My dad is one of my heroes. His full name is Theodore Kay Smith. He has provided for eight children. He did that by working at a job that he hated for 25 1/2 years. How many of you would stay at job you hated? He was recently laid off and I hope he remembers that he is loved by eight children, currently ten grand children, with another four on the way who are going to love him just as much. I am not trying to brag, but my parents have done a fantastic job at raising us. Here is how they have done: Four out of the five boys have been on missions. My youngest brother Clint is preparing to go since he is still in High School. My little sister just received her mission call to the McAllen, Texas mission. Six out of eight kids sealed in the Temple. My little sister is going through the Temple on April 12. I don't know about anyone else, but that is pretty impressive.

My dad's home town is Show Low Arizona. This is the Snowflake Temple. This was taken in July of 2006. This was a bad hair year for me. The Temple is absolutely beautiful. I was able to stand in the circle with my Grandpa. It was such a wonderful experience.

This is a four-generation photo. My Grandpa Smith came up for my brother's wedding. It was awesome to see him. This is my grandpa Theodore Fawns, my dad Theodore Kay, and my brother Theodore James, and his three boys, from left to right Eli, Talmage, and Luke.
All of the grandkids love "Bumpa". This is Luke and Marcus. One of the first few words for all of the grandkids has been "Bumpa" (Grandpa) and "Tactor" (Tractor).
One thing I love about my dad is his laugh and smile. I have always loved watching movies with my dad because anything he laughs at is that much funnier. His laugh and smile are just contagious. I have always loved the movie "While you were Sleeping". There is one part in the movie where the paper boy is riding his bike and throws himself off his bike. I remember rewinding the movie about 20 times to watch that part over and over again. I laugh so hard at the part now because I always remember my dad laughing at that part.
One of the funnest days for me was my wedding day. I love Zann with all of my heart and I am grateful that my dad loved him. They are a lot alike and have always gotten along. I love this picture.

This picture of my dad and Teddy when Teddy was a day old.
This is a picture of my parents. I love it!!!
This is the most current picture of almost everyone. My brother-in-law, Ryan was taking the picture, and my brother Conrad and his wife Angela are in California so they are not in this picture. My sister KaDawn has since had her baby and also my sister-in-law Kate. My other sister-in-law Tenille is due at the end of this month. What a fine looking bunch.
Dad you are so loved. You have started a legacy that will continue on. You have taught us to choose the right. You have helped us all gain a testimony of the Savior. We are all eternally indebted unto you for teaching us. Zann, Teddy, and I love you so much. The Lord lives and loves you too.

Happy Birthday Zann!!!

2009-02-17T11:45:00.004-07:00

Happy Birthday sweetheart. Zann is 26 today. So here are 26 things that I love about Zann.

1-He has got such a strong testimony. He knows who he is and where he wants to go. He is such a great example to me. He magnifies his calling too, which is sometimes difficult for me to do.

2-I love his smile. He has got the cutest smile ever. This is at his graduation that we never blogged about. Isn't he so cute?

3-He has such kissable lips too. One of my favorite things to do:)

4-I also think he has one of the cutest butts. It is this cute little pouchy thing. I love it.

5-I love his laugh. It always makes me smile.

6-He has the ability to do whatever he puts his mind too. Once he gets a project going, he does everything to finish it, especially when it comes to computer stuff and fixing up his bike.

7-He has such a full plate right now and he still makes time for me and Teddy. He is working 40 hours a week, going to school full-time in Grad classes, and being a full-time daddy and husband.

8-Even though he is so busy, he is more than willing to help and do whatever I ask him.

9-He is so patient with me and for those of you who know me well, know that that can be really hard to do sometimes.

10-He is good to plan fun dates. For Valentines Day, we got a babysitter, but I got sick and the babysitter was no longer needed. Zann was awesome and took Teddy for the day so I could sleep. I felt better towards the night time so we had a movie night with Teddy instead of having a romantic dinner at home. I hate getting flowers for Valentines Day and told Zann that. He surprised me by getting me Tulips. He brought in a package of Tulips for me to hold and then brought in another package of Tulips and said, "Hey, can we plant a garden and put your Tulips next to my Tulips?" He also bought my favorite flower, Daffodils. He bought me a beautiful pearl necklace with a heart on it with matching earrings. They are beautiful. He treated me like a queen and it was awesome.

11-He is like a little kid. He likes to do things spontaneously, color, write little notes like he is a little kid, and even has looks like a little kid. For example, when I get mad at him, he knows if he makes a certain look I will just start laughing. He shrugs his shoulder and gives me his puppy dog big brown eye look. He also has another look that looks like this:
12-He does little things for me. He is always leaving notes around the house on sticky notes or writing notes on the mirror for me.

13-He is never afraid to do service. Even though Teddy may be screaming in the back seat, he will stop and help people. It's amazing too because every time this happens, Teddy will almost immediately stop screaming. Go figure.

14-Zann is a genius. He never brags about it, but he is so smart. He never makes me feel like an idiot because I am not smart at all. He is a wonderful speller. He has been in the spelling bee at Utah State University three times now. This was a picture taken last year. He took 7th place.

15-He is not only text book smart, but also computer smart. He is so willing to help other people out with their problems. He has helped out my brothers, sisters, and parents over and over and over again.

16-Zann isn't always the cleanest person, but if I ask him to pick up his things they are picked up and put away before I can blink an eye.

17-I love my family, but they are very sarcastic. I don't always do well with this sarcasm. Zann always sticks up for me.

18-Zann is so helpful with Teddy. He loves helping with his baths, playing with him, and giving hugs. He is wonderful.

19-Zann loves me, which isn't always easy. Especially when the hormones kick in. He has been an angel to me even though a lot of times I don't deserve it.

20-He loves to read books. There is always at least one book in the bathroom behind the toilet that he is reading.

21-He always makes time to read The Book of Mormon.

22-He loves to talk. We play a game now called the random question game. One of us will ask a question and then we both have to answer. It has made many a drives more exciting. It has been fun to get to know him better as well.

23-He doesn't believe it, but he is a wonderful older brother. He has two brothers who are struggling. He worries so much if he is doing enough. He tries so hard to show them love. He knows what to talk to them about to get them talking and laughing.

24-He is full of faith, hope, love, charity, and the list goes on and on. He is a wonderful example to those around him, especially me.

25-He always tells me how beautiful I am. He is always complimenting me even though I may be in my pajamas, hair pulled up, and no makeup on. He still thinks I look pretty.

26-He completes me. My weaknesses are his strengths and my strengths are his weaknesses. He knows me so well, it's hard to play games with him sometimes. :)

I love you honey with all of my heart. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and know that Teddy and I love you to pieces.

3 MONTHS OLD

2009-02-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

Teddy was three months old a week ago. I have been horrible and posting pictures of him. We blessed him a month ago and so better late than never, here are some pictures of him and his blessing day. This was taken after about 50 other pictures that he was in. He was through with getting his picture taken.

What a cute little family.

Some four generation pictures.

My family.

Anderson cousins and Aunts:

The Marshall family. They have adopted us into their family.

We believe he is about 25 inches long and weighs somewhere in the 13.5 pounds range. We are not exactly sure on that. He loves tummy time and bath time. He is even starting to push himself forward a little bit. I don't want him to be mobile quite yet and am not looking forward to when that day comes to tell you the honest truth.

He has discovered his hands. He plays with them often.

He is also making cute little noises. He is in the middle of telling us a story.

He has discovered how to blow bubbles and has become quite a little slobbery boy. He also loves his tummy time.

Zann really likes this pictures because he looks a little crazed.

He can pull himself up if you grab his hands. He also plays with my arm now when I change his diaper. He is just a cute little boy and we love him soooooooo much.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Teddy and daddy. I went to get ready for church. Zann and Teddy are both just a little tired.

This is a picture from Christmas. My little sister made our matching PJs.

Quirks Tag

2009-01-16T15:06:00.003-07:00

Things that make me Amberish.

1. I am terrified of: not making it into the Celestial Kingdom. I do not know why this has been such a big deal for me, but ever since I had my miscarriage and had Teddy it seems I am always worried about not being able to overcome my weaknesses. I am afraid I am not doing enough of the good things to make it to the Celestial Kingdom. I am afraid that I am wasting time by the things that I dwell on. I stress myself out way too much.

2. I'm (almost) always: with Teddy and I love it. He is such a fun little kid. He is starting to smile more and more. He is even starting to laugh every once in awhile. Thank goodness for little boys. He is such a blessing in my life.

3. I can't stand it when people: send rude emails. If you can't say anything nice, than don't say anything at all. If you are going to be mean and you think you are trying to help, then call. It sounds much better when they can hear your tone and you can hear theirs.

4. I've always wanted to: Go to Europe. After 6 years of French, what can I say? I want to spend a week in the Louvre, see the Eiffel Tower, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the list goes on and on. I would love to see Italy, Spain, Germany, England, and so on and so on. It would just be awesome.

5. I worry about: Being a good parent. Am I doing everything to make sure my baby boy is happy? I worry that I am not doing enough. I worry and think about this way too much.

6. I have.. issues.. with Logan woman drivers. They are awful. Ok, not all bad drivers are woman Logan drivers, but 95% are. There are turning lanes in Logan, use them and get over so those who do know how to drive can.

I tag anyone who wants to.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-26T19:13:00.005-07:00

All of us in the Anderson family want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! For those of you whose addresses we don't have, here's our Christmas card:

Although you can't tell from the picture, Teddy has also started smiling, which turns up the joy of parenting quite a few notches. He has some very cute smiles and we enjoy seeing them every day. Here are some pictures we took one night when we went to lay him down for bedtime:

As you can see, we have been blessed with one stinkin' cute little boy. Lest you think he's all smiles though, here's a video we took tonight while we were showing him his new toy he got for Christmas:

As you can see, he's got some warming up to do with that toy.

Christmas was very good for us as we hope it has been for all of you. To all of you, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Teddy

2008-12-03T19:23:00.005-07:00

Today is Teddy's one month birthday. I thought we could celebrate by admiring how cute and how big he is. Here are some of the pictures that we have taken of him.

This is the first family portrait taken at the hospital right before we left.

He has the cutest face before he cries. It is not cute at 4 in the morning, but it is cute during the day. He preps himself before he screams.

This was taken when he was two-weeks old. Teddy Power!!

This is his first walk. We went out on November 16. We went a total of 2 blocks away.

Again our first walk.

Dad had to buy this outfit when he saw it. He is our little Teddy Bear. Now he looks like a Teddy Bear.

Teddy did not like the Bumbo very much, but he was gassy when we put him in it. He sat in it for a total of a minute.

He is already showing off his muscles.

This was taken today. He is balding. He used to have a lot of hair, but as you can see he is now balding.

That is our little boy. We love him tons. We will be weighing him tonight and seeing how tall he is. He was sleeping well, but lately he gets up at 3-5 for a feeding and then doesn't go back to bed. Any suggestions would be awesome. He is such a sweet boy.

New Niece LIlly

2008-11-30T19:48:00.004-07:00

Well, I figured it was time to let go of my pride and let everyone know that Zann's brother Dakoda's girlfriend Ashley had a baby. They named her Lilly. She was born October 26, 2008. She was 8 lbs. 3 oz. Here is a picture of her.

Going Private

2008-11-24T13:49:00.001-07:00

Hello one and all. We have decided to go private. We will be doing this by this weekend. If you would like to be invited, please let me know your email address (unless you know I have it like Kellie Buckner or Rachelle Richins).

Mom's Thankful Thursday

2008-11-14T23:36:00.004-07:00

Zann let me do the Thankful Thursday and since we don't know how to do anything on time, it is of course late. I am grateful for epidurals and also for my little boy Theodore or Teddy as I like to call him.

Some people have asked for the story of delivery and so without further ado here it is:

I woke up at 5 Monday morning and was having contractions and they were about 7-8 minutes apart. I got up and started moving about 6 and they went away. At 7 they started again and didn’t go away. We called the hospital and they said we should come in. We got there about 9:15 and they admitted me and checked me. I was dilated to a two. It was great since I was only dilated to a one for five weeks. We were excited. We got all checked in and watched some movies. We even played Balloons Tower Defense Three (This is a game on ninjakiwi.com, our new fetish). They started me on Pitocin at about 10:45. Dr. Fowers came and broke my water between 12:30 and one. We were watching Nacho Libre when he came in. The pain continued to increase and they gave me some medicine about 2:30 that knocked me out until 3. After the medicine wore off, I wanted the epidural. They came in and gave it to me at 3. The doctor told me it would take effect in about 15 minutes and that I would feel the next couple of contractions. That wasn’t the case. For me, it was immediate and I was grateful.
The babies heart rate kept dropping anytime they increased the amount of Pitocin. It was strange. I had to be on oxygen from about 4:30 on. It was not fun, but not bad. The Pitocin made me have too many contractions all at once and they baby couldn’t recover from it. The nurse that helped us at the first, Candice, was nice, but when she left at 5, we got an awesome nurse. Her name was Kayla. She was great. She was proactive with everything. I was dilated to a 5 at about 5:30 and then I was dilated to a 10 by 8. Anytime the heart rate dropped lower than we thought was good, she came in before we could call her. They prepped me for a C-Section because they didn’t know if I could deliver the baby vaginally. The let me rest from 8-9 pm to see how far the baby would drop. I started pushing shortly after 9. I threw up a ton of bile during the pushing. That was some of my best pushing. The baby came out and the umbilical cord was wrapped around his head twice. Dr. Fowers had to cut it off before he was born the rest of the way. He was without oxygen for a few seconds. He wasn’t a crier and still isn’t a crier.

He has blessed our lives in so many ways. I am going without much sleep. We went to the doctor today. He has gained 14 oz. since last Friday. That is two oz. a day for those of you who can't do math. He has also continued to grow. He is the 90th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight. He is a great little boy. I love him tons. I am excited to continue getting to know my son better.

This picture was taken when Zann's parents came up last weekend. It is one of my favorite pictures.

A Very Special Thankful Thursday

2008-11-08T17:12:00.007-07:00

No, this week's Thankful Thursday is not about not drinking or abuse or something like that, I just borrowed the tagline "A Very Special" from old school TV shows because I think it's funny. Some of you may have worried that I had given up after only one Thankful Thursday. Luckily, no I am still at it. I've just been super busy. A lot of that business, in fact, is due to the subject of today's Thankful Thursday
Yes, today's Thankful Thursday is all about my new son, Theodore Zann Anderson. Isn't he cute? I'll be skipping the two categories today and just focusing on Teddy for all of my gratitude, because there's a lot of it. What a wonderful blessing it is to have this sweet little boy in our family!! I am so grateful for him. From way back when I was excited to be a daddy and I knew that I would love him and be glad to have him, but I had no idea just how much I would love this little guy.
From the second he was born I loved him so deeply it was amazing to me. I sat there and looked at him and put my hand on his little chest (and tummy, he's a long baby but he's still a baby...) and I was so proud to be a dad and so happy to have him here with us. He has brought such a sweet spirit into our lives and our home (don't worry, we did have the Spirit before).
It's been amazing to me how much we have come to know him and learn about who he is and what his personality is. As I'm writing this, he's just going on 120 hours old, yet you can tell that there's much more to him than that. Babies make the veil so thin and we can just catch a glimpse of where they came from and where we're headed.
I love this little guy so much. I had to go back to work again on Thursday so I can support our family now that I'm the (almost) sole breadwinner. I didn't want to leave and I'm always so excited to see him and hold him when I get home. He already seems to know who his Mommy and Daddy are and he absolutely loves his grandparents as well. He is such a wonderful little boy and I don't think I could possibly be happier to have him here and that he is ours.
I hope that this wasn't too disjointed. I'm pretty much out of words to describe how I feel about our little Teddy, so to sum it all up, I'll just say this: He's wonderful.

More Pictures of Teddy

2008-11-05T09:19:00.007-07:00

Here are some more pictures of Teddy. The first is Teddy and Mommy the day after he was born. Mommy is not near so tired now as she looks in this picture...

The next one is with Grandma Wickham and Teddy. Isn't he so dang cute?

Now we have Theodore and Grandpa Theodore:

And finally, baby and mommy again, taken just a few minutes ago. Hope you've enjoyed his cuteness as much as we are!!

Theodore Zann Anderson

2008-11-04T05:59:00.004-07:00

11/3/2008 9:47 PM
8 lbs 1 oz 21.5 inches

Still no baby

2008-10-30T14:52:00.002-07:00

For those of you who can not wait for me to have the baby, well, neither can I. I am still pregnant. We went to the doctor today and did a NST (Non-Stess-Test). The baby is healthy and well. I am going in Monday night to be induced. They are going to give me something to help soften my cervix. If that doesn't work then they will give me pitocen. If that doesn't work then we go C-Section. I almost know they are going to have to go C-Section so I just wish they would jump straight to that. Why go through all of the pain if you don't have to. Do not think I want to be cut open, but if they are going to have to do it anyway, I just wish they would do it at the beginning.

Thankful Thursday

2008-10-17T10:55:00.005-07:00

Ok, so I know it's Friday but I've been meaning to do this for a few weeks now. In case you haven't noticed, the last few posts by myself on our blog have been pretty negative. In the hopes of showing all of you friends and family that I'm not really that negative, I am starting a theme day: Thankful Thursday. Every Thursday (that's not a promise, just a goal) I will post on the blog about two things that I'm grateful for. One of those will be spiritual, the other temporal. Hopefully this will help me to count my blessings and help all of you to feel a little more grateful for the blessings in your lives. So without any further ado, Thankful Thursday for 16 October 2008:

Spiritual - My Amazing Wife, Amber

This fits in both categories, really, but I'll put it here. I am so grateful to have such a wife as Amber. She makes every day of my life more meaningful, fun, peaceful, exciting, productive, loving, good, and fulfilling. Besides that, she's beautiful! To quote a favorite movie, "She's pretty much the best thing that's ever happened to me." I'm so thankful for the way she loves me even though I have so many little goofy weaknesses that make it hard for me to even get along with myself sometimes. She is very patient with me and my sometimes childish/silly ways. I have grown so much in the time we've been together, and though the credit goes to the Lord in the end, a big part of his plan in helping me get here has been by blessing me with a wife who is capable of getting the best out of me. What a blessing it is to have her for my own and to know that our marriage will last forever.

Temporal - Double-Stuf Oreos

First off, why would you even CONSIDER buying regular Oreos? To borrow from another quote, "What's fun about less [frosting]?" Ok, now that that's out of the way, what an amazing cookie! Oreos and I have a friendship that goes way way back to the earliest days of my childhood. I have developed, discovered, and been taught many different ways of eating Oreos, and they are all delicious. I really do have a great fondness for these little cookies. Whoever invented these cookies deserves a Nobel prize.

PS - Isn't Amber a cute little soccer player?
PPS - After that spiel about double-stuf, I DO still like regular Oreos, so if you have some I'd be HAPPY to come over and help you eat them...

Feel sorry for me...

2008-10-06T08:55:00.004-07:00

So, for those of you who weren't aware, I am working full-time at New Dawn Technologies. It's a great job, I work on a great team and the work is enjoyable. I have been working since I started here (along with a coworker who started shortly after me) on a project to create our own version of "document automation" software. Basically, what this does is you create a document and put in the document certain bits called "fill points", which correspond to data that you want to dynamically fill in your document. For instance, a fill point could pull in data about the charges against a defendant, or about witness names and addresses for a subpoena (we do justice software). So once you create a template for this, you can generate the same document over and over again for different cases, thus saving somebody the monotony of having to do it by hand. Pretty sweet eh? So we requested an icon for our awesome piece of software. On August 18th, these are the designs we received:
Not bad eh? I mean, the gears are a little blah but the magic wand is pretty cool, sortof like we magically create these awesome documents. So we sent our feedback (which is what was requested): "NO GEARS...boring, and lightning and paper don't go well together. The magic wand is cool but maybe stick with the straight edged paper to stay professional looking." We felt pretty good about that.
After a week or so I finally heard the results of our icon quest. Another employee (not the one who asked for our feedback) had decided on an icon for us. Here it is:
Every time I see it I cringe. Gears. Green ones. The apparent reason for this is that authoring these templates is an administrative action and green gears are the administrative icon for our main product, JustWare. Still, gears? Tell me if I'm overboard on this, but I can't stand it and neither can my coworker who's on the project with me. Please everybody pity me.

For the lazy and forgetful

2008-09-22T12:33:00.002-07:00

For those of you who are lazy or forgetful, we are having a little boy. You can look at him manhood further down the blog. I am due on October 28. My last doctor's appointment though he told me I would probably go early. We will see if he is correct. I am 35 weeks tomorrow.

Again, I am having a little boy that is due on October 28.

Rant

2008-09-17T11:07:00.004-07:00

So I'm in class right now. Yes, I know blogging in class is a no-no, but I am in a state of serious frustration and need some kind of an outlet. As a recent college graduate and one of those people who is crazy enough to pay for more punishment by going for a Masters degree, I've been to quite a few classes and had quite a few teachers. I am writing today about two things that I am utterly disgusted with. 1 - POWER POINT. Microsoft must have struck a deal with the Devil himself on this product, because as a part of Office it's completely ubiquitous, but beyond that, in the way it is USUALLY used (some teachers know how to use it well) it COMPLETELY saps any semblance of real learning from school. It causes students to disengage from the lecture (trust me, I know) because most teachers that use them READ from the slides in their teaching and post the slides on the internet. "But that's so nice, you can have those notes for later!" - THAT'S WHAT A NOTEBOOK IS FOR!!! I have learned MUCH MORE from teachers who DON'T use powerpoint than from those who do, because I know I have to be taking notes myself rather than letting the teacher spoon-feed them to me. Beyond this, a lecture without powerpoint slides flows in a natural way, rather than in some predetermined order that may or may not actually work when the teacher gets into class. Another part of the problem with this is that it causes people (I'm one) to prepare lessons and/or presentations to the slides, rather than fitting the slides to the lesson. This is a BAD way to prepare a lesson. Anyways, just to quickly end this little rant, the other annoying thing to me is the whole tenure system and that being tenured leads (some) teachers to spend way too much time on their research and none on being a good teacher, and teachers who are "great researchers" are often sortof arrogant, especially in terms of showing up to class with little or no preparation because they feel they are expert enough in their field to not have to worry about it. Anyways, maybe I'll write a post about things I'm grateful for to balance all of this negativity. That's all, goodbye.

TAGGED!!!

2008-09-16T17:05:00.008-07:00

The Rules:

Link the Person who Tagged you. Mention rules on your blog. Tell about 6 quirks of yours. Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same. Leave a comment to let them know.

Quirk #1: When I sleep, I can not repeat CAN NOT feel any human breath on me. I know this sounds weird, but if I can feel my own breath I will move my arm. If Zann is breathing on me, I will pull the covers up over my neck, which leads me to

Quirk #2: I have to sleep with some kind of blanket. Whether it be a sheet, small blanket, I just have to have something covering part of my body.

Quirk #3: I hate being told what to do. I didn't realize it as much until I got pregnant and people tell me all the time that I shouldn't lift that, I should sit down, or I need to take it easy. Honestly, I know what I can and can't do. Don't tell me that I can't do it, or I will do it.

Quirk #4: Once I start something, I always think that I will finish it in a timely manner, but if I don't make a goal to work on it everyday for at least a half hour, it will just sit there. I finally finished a quilt today that I started a year ago. I have moved it back and forth between places and kept telling myself that I would get it done. It is now complete. This is what it looks like:

Quirk #5: I have a nose that can smell awesomely well, particularly candy. My sister's roommate was eating a candy apple Now and Later. She offered me one and so I knew she was eating a Now and Later, but I was able to guess the kind. I have been in the passenger seat before and somebody in the back seat was eating a watermelon Jolly Rancher and I was able to guess that someone was eating it and I didn't see them.

Quirk #6: I have a husband who I love.

I tag Kellie Buckner, Rachel Richins, Janelle Cropper, Mindy Anderson, Mindy Holmgren, Jessica Nielson Newman.

Don't you wish your wife was hot like mine?

2008-09-04T19:56:00.002-07:00

Old and New Car

2008-09-01T21:51:00.006-07:00

We sold our car on August 2, 2008. We were very excited except that we now have to find a new car, which has been an extremely big head ache.

We really liked this one and even put an offer on it, but we were denied. This is a 2003 Toyota Camry with 59,690 miles and they were asking for 10,800. We offered out the door $10,500. it was a low blow, but like we said we were denied anyway.

They were having Car Wars Thursday-Monday. We went and have test-driving the cars since Friday. We test drove a 2000 Honda Accord with 97,000 miles on it. It has a V6 engine and runs so smooth. It is a great ride. The guy wanted to sell it and so we made him an offer. We drove over to my parent's house and they drove in the car with us. My father is a mechanic and he also has a really good friend who looked at it as well. He said we were getting a great deal. We are now the proud owners of this wonderful car. It was quite a bit less than $10,500 and so we can now buy a camera as well. We are pretty excited about that. The cool thing about buying the car was that we were able to pay with cash. We have been saving for a few years. We highly recommend doing this. We don't have to pay anyone. we are going to be getting the title instead of some lien holder. Sweet!!

More Problems

2008-08-14T12:41:00.007-07:00

It has been forever since we have written, but it is kind of hard writing since we do not have the Internet. Well, that is just about to change. Ok, so it has changed. We got the Internet last night. I was on this morning looking at blogs and having a grand old time. It was great.

Some sad news, our camera broke. We are now in the market, saving up to buy a new one since we do have a little one on the way. You can bet your bippy that there are going to be tons of pictures up of our newborn when he decides to come.

Zann went on a hike a couple of weeks ago and I will let him tell you about that as well as post some pictures. About a month ago, he got strep and we took him to the doctor and they gave him the option of getting a shot or taking 4 pills a day for 10 days. Which would you do? He got the shot. Well, he aparently should have taken the pills. Just as the nurse was finishing giving him the shot, Zann said, "I feel dizzy". He then passed out. I ran around the table to hold him up while the nurse went and grabbed the doctor. His eyes were open, but glazed over, he sounded like he was snoring, and he was frothing at the mouth. I thought I was going to be bringing a child into the world without a husband. I was so scared. The doctor came in and they were about to give him a shot of something, but then Zann came to. He was fine. Apparently what happened was a vasovagal reaction. I'll spare you the explanation and just tell you to check out the Wikipedia article on Vasovagal Syncope. Not even a week later, Zann was riding his bike and crashed and burned. He got a little hurt, but bodies heal themselves. Unfortunately, bikes don't. He is still currently transferring different parts of it to his old frame. At least we didn't need to buy him a new bike.

After all is said and done, we are very happy. We are rearranging things in our aparment/house to get ready for the baby. We only have 11 more weeks. That is so weird to me. We are super excited. Life is wonderful here, just busy.

2008-06-25T09:39:00.004-07:00

My Brother

This is a video my brother Dillon made to take to skate shops around the (Salt Lake) valley to try to get sponsored. As far as I know to this point he has two or three sponsors, but it could be more now. Anyways, he's awesome as is my other brother Dakoda and I just wanted to share the awesomeness. PS - sorry for the large size of the file, but that's life. I promise it's worth the wait.

2008-06-18T10:02:00.004-07:00

Extra points for the person who can tell the gender from the pictures (it's there if you look close), and who can tell what everything else is!

2008-06-07T17:44:00.001-07:00

We never did post the pictures of the Rexburg Temple. There is a good explanation. That would be that we checked in our camera, but we never checked it back out. It is now currently in Rexburg, Idaho. We are blessed enough to have some friends from Rexburg who happened to be going up there for Father's Day. Wonderful people. We will post more when we get the pictures.

2008-05-31T12:19:00.002-07:00

As promised, Zambersonville proudly presents Jean's Golden Girls

2008-05-26T23:02:00.006-07:00

We went to church yesterday. We decided to be good and go to all three meetings. It was good until Sacrament Meeting and they went 10 minutes over. The only day that it has been nice, is on Sunday when we can't do anything. We did go on a couple of walks and were able to enjoy the weather a little bit. If you remember, Zann has been on a kick on taking pictures of license plates. Well while on our walk, I noticed some license plates that we didn't have and wished we had the camera. Apparently Zann is not the only geek in this relationship. Open mouth, insert foot.

Today, I have not been feeling well. We stayed in
this morning watching David Archuleta for about an hour. We then went out and walked around the town. They have about 20 art galleries and that many realtors here. We then came home and played Dr. Mario. You should all start calling me Dr. Mario. If you look on the left side of the picture and see the three crowns, that would be me, Amber. and I just happened to clean sweep him with three wins. It was great, but I of course am not a sour loser and am a gracious winner. Yeah right.

We then went to Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. As you can see in this picture, there is plenty of rain. It rained almost all day today. Hence, we went to Narnia. It was awesome. Highly recommended.

2008-05-25T08:08:00.003-07:00

Here's the two of us chillin' with the bear chair here in town. On Saturday morning we went and watched the big "Old West Days" parade here in Jackson. It was pretty much like any other parade you would see elsewhere except that there were a TON of horses and even some mules in it. We had a good time. After that we walked around and checked out some shops for a while until about noon, when we went and saw the Bar J Wranglers again, this time performing at the town square. That was awesome, especially since we got some video of them, which we missed out on Friday since we didn't bring the video camera there with us. After the Wranglers was the real reason we went to the town square though: Jean's Golden Girls. For those of you who don't know, Jean's Golden Girls are a group of old ladies 50 and up who come and perform at a half time show once a year at an Aggie basketball game, and they are great. They do these dances that you would never believe any old lady could do. They were there yesterday and we got video of the whole performance. At the end, one of the Golden Girls even made me (Zann) get up and do the twist with them. We would post video except we didn't bring the cable to get it off the video camera, so as soon as we get home we'll put it up. It will give you all something to look forward to. Anyways, after that we had lunch and pretty much stayed home the rest of the day since it was pretty cold and rainy. Not exactly the weather we would have ordered, but we're still enjoying our vacation. More to come later today!

2008-05-23T21:44:00.004-07:00

In case you couldn't tell, we went to Grand Teton National Park today. It was BEAUTIFUL. We had a great time. We went to Jenny Lake and took a bunch of really pretty pictures of the lake and the mountain. We wanted to hike around to the other side and up to Hidden Falls, but they said the trail was 80% snow covered so we just walked around on the trail that was by the lake shore. It was a really nice day in spite of it being cloudy. The sun even came out for a while and we were able to enjoy getting a little pink. There was also a ton of wildlife around the lake, including a lot of different birds and some really teeny little chipmunks. On the way back to the car we were able to see one of them up close and personal as we stood very very still while it was running around looking for food. It was right at our feet no more than three feet or so away. The best part was how it would run around and then just stop there and stand on its hind legs and look around. It was really funny.
Here's a picture for your viewing enjoyment and another picture of us at the lake so you can believe that it really was as pretty as we say. As we were leaving Jenny Lake, Zann

decided he wanted to take as many pictures as possible of all the different license plates of all the different states that were there. We took over 10 pictures. Just when I thought Zann couldn't get any geekier, he always surprises me. After we ate lunch, we took more and ended up taking over 20. We even got a picture of one from Canada. In the evening we went to the Bar J Chuckwagon and ate some great food and saw the Bar J Wranglers. It was pretty expensive, but the food was pretty good and the show was really really good. I had a steak and Amber had chicken and beef. The show was a lot of fun, the Wranglers were really funny and sang some really great songs. It was a great time. More to come!!

2008-05-22T18:53:00.003-07:00

Welcome to Jackson Hole!! Ok so this street is in Idaho Falls, but hey whatever. Maybe we should change the name of the blog to Anderson Avenue, then we could have this picture at the top. You guys should vote on it for us. Anyways, we're on a long needed vacation here in Jackson Hole. We left this morning and drove up to Idaho Falls, where we went to the Idaho Falls temple. Wow, what an amazing temple, it's so beautiful in there. It was funny because we were chosen as the witness couple because there was NO other couple there in the session until right before it started. It was really great, we had a wonderful time and the inside of the temple there is really really nice. Since we couldn't take pictures inside, here's a picture of us on the outside.We are here. We are just relaxing and tomorrow we will be going either to the Tetons or Yellowstone National Park. Make sure to check out our blog everyday to see what we are doing.

2008-05-12T15:00:00.001-07:00

We're going to be parents!! 10/28/08. More details to come.

2008-03-15T16:42:00.003-07:00

It's a sad day in Logan today, for the mighty Aggies have fallen. After beating Boise State twice this season, including a 19 point blowout on their senior night in Boise, we lost to them 88-78 in the WAC Semifinals. Amber and I, who are huge Aggie basketball fans, had to turn the radio off towards the end. Let's just say this picture of Tai Wesley pretty much sums up how the game went for us. But there's no reason to give up now, they've had a great season and will still have an NIT bid by virtue of being the WAC regular season champions. The Aggies are still our homeboys and we still "love the spot where the sagebrush grows".

2008-01-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

I just saw the preview for the next Chronicles of Narnia movie, and WOW!! Amber and I saw the first one a couple or three times in the theater, which means we liked it a whole lot, since we rarely even go to the theater period. After watching the trailer for this one, I can't wait. I can assure you that Amber and I will be in line May 16th to get our tickets.

2007-12-26T16:21:00.001-07:00

I came across this today on the journal page of Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband's webpage. No matter how much I look at it I still laugh. A lot. If only I were that awesome.

2007-11-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

My dear friend Mike recently posted on his blog a list of six random things about himself. Apparently this post was because he was tagged to do so in a blog from a friend of his. Mike then said, "But, I don't really know a lot of people who blog, so I don't think I'll be passing it on. Sorry!". Thanks a lot Mike. But to make you feel better, I'm posting my six random facts here, so you can enjoy strange and interesting things about me and my life. Here we go:
1. I share a birthday with Michael Jordan. I know, what a silly thing to be proud of. As a matter of fact a quick check on Wikipedia shows that I also share it with Bonnie Wright (the actress who plays Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter movies), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun), Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day), Rene Russo, Rick Majerus (Former Utah basketball coach), Jim Brown (one heck of a running back back in the day), Frederick Douglass, and Charles III, Duke of Bourbon (among others). Besides that, my birthday present in 2009 is the end of analog television broadcasts in the United States. Amber herself shares a birthday with Julia Stiles, Vince Vaughn, Byron Scott, Reba McEntire, and Utah's own Jerry Sloan, along with many others. So what's special about Mike? Well, when I was in third grade and His Airness was the king of the free world, I was given a tee shirt for my birthday and on that tee shirt were stats about Michael Jordan, including his birthday, which to my surprise, was the same as mine, exactly twenty years earlier. Since that day I've been happy to know I've shared a special day each year with the greatest basketball player to play the game (even though I did hate him for beating the Jazz in the NBA Finals two years straight.
2. I am a HUGE computer geek. No I mean HUGE. I'm sure many of you knew this already, but I've been into computers for a long time and I've always enjoyed the fact that they are so neat as toys and so powerful. I'm a geek to the extreme. I'm in a class right now where I'm building a computer. Not in the way that some of you may think where you go to somewhere such as newegg.com and buy parts. I mean I wire every connection from the processor to other parts such as the clock generator, the RAM, the ROM, the programmable interval timer, the PPI, etc. That's how nerdy I am. I write assembly code. I get excited when my favorite text editor has syntax highlighting for a new programming language I'm learning. I know what a "linux distribution" is, I've discussed with people which is best, and I've even tried probably 4-5 different ones for myself. I have a computer at work that can boot to one of three, THREE different operating systems. I come home and tell Amber all about my nerdy homework. I'm a geek through and through. But at least I'm not trying to learn the Dvorak keyboard layout like my favorite mission companion. If any of what I just said made actual sense to you, welcome to the nerd club.
3. I am married to the most wonderful woman on earth. Yes, I know all of you who have women in your life who aren't Amber (they better not be) think they are the best, but all of you are mistaken. Amber Smith Anderson is simply the most amazingly wonderful woman who there could possibly be. Did you know she loves to dance and is pretty good at it? She is a very caring person and always looks out for those around her. She is extremely supportive of me in all that I do. She likes Strong Bad as much as I do. She gets all wrapped up in books and can't put them down, which is really cute. She gives the best hugs ever. She loves me for who I am while helping me to become who I am capable of being. She's good at sports. She likes a lot of the same goofy stuff as I do, particularly "Boy Meets World". Pretty much she's the perfect woman.
4. Yes, I love "Boy Meets World". Cory, Topanga, Shawn, Eric, I love them all. Amber and I have been watching seasons 1-3 on DVD (we borrowed them from our friends, but we would gladly own them), and enjoying ourselves very much. I used to watch it all the time with my brothers on the Disney Channel, along with "Even Stevens", "Lizzie McGuire", "Bug Juice" (which was really fun to make fun of), and other such great shows. Yep, I'm really cool. I'm also a huge fan of "The Wonder Years", and if any of you know how those two shows are connected (aside from being about a boy growing up), good job! I also like Cookie Monster, Tigger, Schoolhouse Rock (Verb! That's what's happening), Amber, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, anything Homestar Runner (especially Strong Bad or Teen Girl Squad), Amber, Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Loony Tunes, Harry Potter (in my book Dumbledore is still not of the opposite persuasion), Amber, The Music Man, Dr. Seuss books, Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband (Corn dogs, corn dogs, they are so good to me!), corn dogs, the Big Blue Special from A&W, A&W root beer from the restaurant, Butterfingers, Amber, Butterfinger hot chocolate (it really exists), pizza of almost any kind, China, Amber, Chinese food, Chinese (the language - both Mandarin and Cantonese), Chinese people, most Asian stuff, the United States, patriotism, President Bush, Amber, certain Beastie Boys songs (weird...), lots of other random songs from random bands, stuffing, Amber, Linux, my Mom and Dad, my brothers, free stuff, Amber, and most importantly the Lord. The best thing is, Amber feels the same about most if not all of this stuff!
5. During my mission, I lived down the street from a hospital where many of the SARS patients were admitted. Yes, what a claim to fame.
6. Amber and I have a blog that we unfortunately only post to about once every eon or so.
So there you have it. Sorry it took so long to finish, Mike, but you'll get over it. Enjoy!

2007-09-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

Beatboxing Flute

Go and see this right now!! Our wonderful friends, the Buckners (also known as Bucknizzles for the days when I'm feeling street...) showed us this YouTube video and this is SO COOL. I can only imagine the garbage this guy took for playing the flute, but I'm pretty sure nobody is laughing now. Take some time and watch the Inspector Gadget theme as well as Sesame Street, they are awesome! I like to TRY to beatbox, and I don't think I'm this good without an instrument. Wow.

2007-08-31T14:01:00.001-07:00

This is a (very small) picture of what Romney Stadium looked like last night for the home and season opener of the Utah State Aggies. In spite of past disappointment, Amber and I went to support the boys in blue and white. During the first half, it was looking really good. The Aggie offense was quite effective and the defense stopped UNLV very well. The second half, however, was quite disheartening. It seemed like every time the UNLV quarterback touched the ball he was either completing a pass or running for several yards, and we couldn't get a drive going if our lives depended on it. After going from being up 10-3 to being down 16-10, it was a great feeling when we scored to tie it up at 16, but I think the missed extra point attempt took as much out of the team as it did the crowd and it was just rough after that. Anyway, by the end when we lost the ball on the kickoff return with 1:02 left and down by 7, I'm ashamed to say it, but we left. I love the Aggies and I want them to do well, but there's so much disappointment, it can be really frustrating. It's ok, at least my Logan Grizzlies are having a rip-roaring start to their season. I'll continue to bleed blue, even when our team is left black and blue.

2007-03-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Amber and I with our dear friend Mike Lundberg. You can see a link to his blog on the right. He has been a good friend of mine since high school, so we still keep in touch (sortof, I'm pretty crappy at it still). Notice how fat I am. We recently got a new fun toy called StepMania that should help with that, though. Basically it's a Dance Dance Revolution clone that runs on your pc. It's really cool, I would recommend it to anybody. Go to http://www.stepmania.com to check it out. No really, go see it. Go. Hurry. Why are you still reading this?

2007-03-12T13:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, we're still alive!! Yes after all this time Zambersonville has a new post. This picture is really not that recent, it was taken July last year but it's new to the blog, so here you go!! This is Amber and I in front of the beautiful Snowflake Temple in Snowflake, AZ. We went to Arizona to visit Amber's family (on her Dad's side) this last summer and had a GREAT time. We've been plenty busy since then, so I'll try to put a few things up but you may just have to imagine all of the fun stuff we might have been doing during the time from then until now. For now, know that we're kicking and life is good!!

2006-06-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

If you were to click the links on the right you could go to Kason's blog and read all about Paris and what he's doing there. Or you could try Mike's and see EFY stuff or read back a little in his to see his exploits as an intern in Washington D.C. Or for real excitement, you can stay here and see a picture of...our first homemade pizza! And our first loaf of homemade bread! Ok so it's not that exciting, but I was excited enough to take a picture. The pizza was really good although we would probably make a different dough and put less sauce on if we had it to do over again. The bread wasn't all the way done, and that was my fault. Oops. Also, I'll put a picture of Amber and I at her Institute graduation. She's the bomb - she's already done with college and graduated from Institute (though still taking classes there). If only I could catch up to her.

2006-06-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry our posts are so few and far between. You'll get over it. Here's some pictures of Amber and I when we went hiking the Crimson Trail, a very popular trail up Logan Canyon. The first is Amber on our way up. Isn't it beautiful? Beautiful canyon, beautiful girl, it's perfect! The second one is me goofing up at the top. Basically, you go on a bunch of switchbacks along the side of a mountain until you get to the top, at which point you walk along the edge of some big old cliffs and enjoy some awesome views. It's a great trail. We had a good time hiking it.

2006-06-04T07:35:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of our nephew, Jacob T. Webb. He is absolutely the cutest baby ever and if you don't think so, just take another look at the picture. He was born just a few days before we got married, which makes it very easy to know how old he is. At this point, that would make him ten months and counting. He is also one of the happiest babys you have ever seen. We hope and pray to have kids like him.

2006-05-31T08:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to the Monkees!! Ok so I've been looking for excuses to make posts because we haven't posted for a while. The problem is that we have stuff to post but at home we have slow internet and at work I only have a little time on my breaks and I don't have our camera here to be able to post stuff. Anyway, I just heard on the radio that on this day in 1966 they started filming for the first season of The Monkees, one of the greatest TV shows ever!! I absolutely love this show and Amber will probably give me a hard time for posting this but they are just great!! Here's a picture of their lovely faces on TV Guide after they had such a hit first season.

2006-05-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

Well, here's our engagement picture. It's over a year old now, but I posted it just so that our blog would be a little less boring. I mean, who likes a blog with no pictures? Yep, so that's us! Uh-huh...there we are...yessiree...ok....I guess that's all.

2006-05-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

I have posted links to three new sites on the sidebar. The first is Homestar Runner, possibly the best site on the internet (besides this blog of course), the other two are to my friends' blogs. Kason and Mike have been two of my best friends since high school and they have pretty good blogs so if you want to check them out. Check out Homestar Runner whether you want to or not, because it's amazingly funny. I recommend you go to "sbemails" on the bottom and watch the one called "dragon" and the one called "kids book". Peace out.

2006-05-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

So I just discovered the other day that Napster now has this thing where you can sign up for free and listen to any and all songs on their website five times for free. At first I wasn't too impressed, but when I found that they had a lot of the albums and artists that I like or that I would like to check out, I was pretty excited. Obviously five times is not enough if you really love it, but hey for free it's not too bad. It works out really well for when I'm at work, I can just find an album I like and play it as if I actually owned it. Yay for Napster. If you want to try it out, go to www.napster.com and give it a whirl!!

2006-05-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

Hi, this is the Anderson's blog. yay!