Quick Catch up post

So much to say and never enough time to post it! So the kids are back in school and already halfway through the first term! Had parent teacher conferences. It usually goes about how I expect it. Emma's teachers "Emma is doing wonderful, always turns in her work, and is a pleasure to have in class! She is sweet and very bright." Oscar's teachers "Oscar is energetic and so funny. And what a GREAT artist! He is so much fun to have in class. BUT...he has a little trouble turning in work and spends too much of his class time drawing." ;) He actually had to take make-up work on our Disney World trip. Poor guy, but that is how it goes.
And the teachers are spot on with my kids. They are both so wonderful and SO different. They have their strengths and weaknesses. Emma's humanities teacher this year is the same one Oscar had last year. The first thing she said when I ran into her a couple weeks after school started was "Crystal! How are you? WOW...Oscar and Emma are such different kids, aren't they?!" We laughed about it, but the wonderful thing was that she is able to tell me what she loves about both of them and not how one is better than the other. I LOVE teachers like that.

As for Henry, I am homeschooling him for now. We are having such fun with it! Lilli is loving having someone home besides me and loves to "have school" with us. He is doing great and is working hard. He just needed a little extra one on one work and has some things he is working through. He is such a great kid! I love homeschooling him and will be sad when he is ready to go back to school.

My grandpa had heart surgery in August and I spent the week before the kids went back to school up at the hospital with him. My wonderful aunt came into town for the first few days and it was so nice to have her there. After he was released from the hospital he came to stay with us for a bit until he was allowed to do things on his own. He is home now, driving, and just feeling great! We are so grateful and can't believe how quickly he has healed. We had expected at least 4 months of long, slow recovery. BUT that isn't Gramps style. He hates to sit around so he just decided to get better ;)
So all in all, I've had plenty to keep me busy, along with every day life! :D

THEN came Disney World!!!! Have I mentioned that I LOVE all things Disney? Well, I do! :) We had a great time, saw our wonderful friends, and made some amazing memories (not all of them good I assure you! lol) There was the look on the children's faces when they meet that first character, the pride in my 12 year old as he and our friends son got to venture off on their own in the parks, the heat and humidity, the guy harassing my husband and kids because he swears my niece sneezed on his food. Lars getting security to haul the guy off, Lilli and Tony (the 4 year old of our friends) forming the cutest little friendship, and for us old folks (HAHA) the sore feet and backs ;) (PICTURES TO COME SOON!)

Other things that have happened, Oscar turned 12! That is just huge to me. He is more than halfway to adulthood. It goes way too fast. He is still into art, loves to be with friends and is our ever fun-loving guy!


Emma, turned 11. She is growing up too fast as well. She decided to cut her hair and get her ears peirced for her birthday. She is such a cute, sassy little dresser. I love it! (though don't tell her, cause she already likes to shop too much!)



I think that is about it for the last couple months, not much has happened ;) Same ol', same ol' here at the Andersen household! Adventure after adventure, we are having fun.

DISNEYWORLD!

We are off to Disney world in a couple hours. I am up early making sure all is ready, but I must admit that it is mostly because I'm so excited I can't sleep :D
I just told Lilli a couple days ago that we were going to Mickey's house; she was excited about that. Then I told her we were going to ride on a plane to Mickey's house. She started to clap her hands in excitement and then stopped and looked at me with her adorable face and said "But we don't have a plane, Mom!" She just makes me laugh sometimes, well a lot actually! I told her that there are planes that you get to pay money to ride on and she resumed her excitement and ran off to tell everyone else. The other kids are excited as well but I still don't think anyone is as excited as me! I'm not really looking forward to the plane ride. It will be us and our 4 kids PLUS Lars' brother and his family. They have 5 kids. So 4 adults and 9 kids on one airplane- the other passengers are going to hate us. Well not my kids of course, they are angels...always. 0:-) They will have all their electronics so that will help, and I will have a good book and my music. Good times.
Some good friends will be meeting us in Florida as well. They live in Georgia and we don't get to see them all that often. It will be a grand reunion and party. Living it up at the All Star Music Resort in Disney world. I'm sure it is rockin'!
I'm hoping that when we return it will feel more like fall here. Where is all that good weather? It is still too hot! I love fall, about as much as I love spring, but for completely different reasons, of course, but that is another story.
For now, I am off to Disney world! Catch ya when I get back (with enough pictures to bore everyone for hours!)

Photo shoot

Last month we had our pictures taken by a friend who is trying to make a break in the photography industry. I just thought I would post a few of the pictures he emailed me. I'll have to post more when he gets us the CD.

We had a good time, it is has been awhile since we had a family photo taken. As always, the kids are by far cuter than the adults! ;)

Sad bunny update

We had a sad event at the Andersen home today. Our newest bunny, Licorice, passed away today. We aren't positive what happened but we heard a rabbit screaming (and yes the really do scream!) and ran to see what was wrong. My first thought was that Lilli had gotten into the cage and was "loving" the bunnies too much; instead we found a bunny that was very hurt or scared and within a moment he was gone. We aren't sure what happened originally, but I am almost sure that he died from a heart attack, the number 1 killer of rabbits. They just can't handle massive scares.
We are all so sad, he was so sweet and friendly. It is always hard to lose a pet, but it is a harsh reality of having animals, especially when we have so many. We will miss him but are happy we could make the last few weeks of his life happy.

Bunny haven

Chocolate Chip and Licorice

Licorice the bunny

Chocolate Chip the bunny

We have a new bunny (another new bunny). My cute friend Meghan called me about a week ago and said she had a bunny in her yard and they needed the bunny experts. ;) I told her Lars was on his way home and would stop by to check it out. She then called a few moments later to let me know they had trapped it in a trash can, lest the bunny escape or eat her tomato plants. I called Lars again and let him know what was going on. He rushed over to rescue either the bunny or Meghan and her family; turned out the bunny was in need of rescuing. He is a darling little black bunny, probably less than 12 weeks old. One of his back legs doesn't work but he is otherwise healthy and happy. The injury is old and doesn't bother him, just life for him. He is really the sweetest bunny ever to grace our home, but don't tell that to the queen bunny that runs the living room, she is already very jealous of the 2 new bunnies.
The poor guy was quite thin but is quickly filling out with proper nutrition.
We love turning into, unexpectedly, a bunny haven and wish we had more room and money to rescue more rabbits. The dog has learned well over the last year or so since we brought her home and barley bats an eye at the new rabbits; just the way we like it. The cat is always curious and a little scared, he is so brave. :D
The kids are, of course, excited for a new pet but don't always like the cleaning that comes with one more animal. More poop and pee to clean up, but he is so sweet you can't help but love him.
So welcome to Licorice, the newest member of our home!

(Oh, just FYI, the bunny, Chocolate chip, we acquired from the farm a few weeks ago turned out not to be a girl as they said but is most definitely a boy! It doesn't really matter but she is actually a he) :)

My garden- small but wonderful...like me ;)

So I finally found a second to take some pictures of my garden. My Grandpa and I spent a good part of May digging out grass from my side yard so we could plant a garden, it isn't as large as we hope to make it eventually but it has been fun.

We are going to have so many tomatoes, I plan on canning; which should be an adventure in and of itself.

The amazing thing about my garden are my zucchinis. I bought a couple plants at the nursery but so far they haven't done great. I also planted a few seeds and those things have grown at a phenomenal rate! Don't know how but...WOW!

Today I got to harvest my first tomatoes, we have been enjoying homegrown lettuce all season but now I get to make a real salad! (If only my carrots hadn't been dug up by my 3 year old or the cat!)

Can't wait to harvest the rest as the season progresses!

(This is more lettuce waiting to replace the more mature plants)

Summertime

Fun at the farm!

The kids goofing off in the little replica of a jailhouse at the farm

It has been awhile since I've blogged but it's summer. I know it is summer because I've had days already where I hate to be outside. You know the blog about how much I love spring? Well, I could blog about how much I hate summer but who has that much time?! I don't really hate summer though, I just hate the heat; if it gets over 80 I turn into a big whiny baby. ;)

I was going to blog and post pictures of my lovely garden but it decided to pour from the heavens today so I will blog about my fun trip with my kids to the farm today.

I found out recently that a friend of mine from AZ moved to Utah, so when the kids and I decided to go to the farm near her house I asked her to come along. It is always so fun meeting up with old friends, and it has been over 13 years since I'd seen her last so it was especially fun to catch up. I met her cute kids and we both have daughters named Emma; the Emma's ended up hitting it off and are hoping to get together again soon.

The farm is always so fun! The kids love to see all the animals, especially this time of year when there are so many baby animals. The cute baby cow tried to eat everything in site. This included the stroller handle, the shirts of all the kids, chewing kids hair if they got close enough, and licking everything that came near. :) The kids, of course, loved it, except for my Emma who thought it was gross that there were cow germs on her shirt; her hands she could wash, her shirt, she knew,would have to wait until we got home.

Lilli loved all the animals and wanted to climb in all the pens with them. It was quite a chore keeping up with her. She especially loved riding the horses.

Henry found the bunnies and discovered some were for sale. They were adorable, obviously I like animals as we already have a rabbit, cat and dog. Anyhow, I had promised Henry at some point in his life that I would someday get him his very own bunny. He saw his chance and grasped with all he had. He called Dad up and checked with him and Dad said yes! (Lars is quite a sucker, especially for bunnies, he just doen't like to show it.) So we bought ourselves yet another pet. She really is cute! Henry has been on cloud nine ever since. Last night I put her in his bed for a couple minutes and she just snuggled right up to him. I wish I'd had my camera at that moment, but I didn't.

Oscar enjoyed the farm. I love that he, as of yet, isn't embarrased to be with us and do fun things like this. He just kind of ambled around and was a great help with Lilli most of the time.

Emma, like I said, made a new friend so had a great time. They loved looking at all the baby animals the most.

I myself had a wonderful time watching my kids enjoy themselves and catching up with my friend. I am hoping to have many more adventures with my kids throughout the remaining weeks of summer; I'm just hoping it won't be too hot while we have our adventures!