Learning to ride bikes

This year for Christmas Santa brought the boys bikes. They have had lots of fun learning how to ride them. Noah seems to think its more fun to just sit on it and let you push him around. Its been fun living out here in the country where the boys can just run and play and there is not alot of traffic around to worry about. We are looking forward to spring time coming so we can play outside everyday.

Its hard to believe how much these little boys have grown up and how independent they are becoming. And what great friends they are to each other. I hope that they always love each other as much as they do know. We are so lucky to have them as part of our family.

Playing Outside

We has some beautiful weather this week, which means great weather to play outside. Something my little boys love to do. Cars, Trucks, Balls they are all fun but, when you get to play with them outside it is sure to be a fun time. And everyone knows when little boys can go outside and run all there energy out it is a wonderful wonderful thing. It always cracks me up when Thomas and Noah come up to me through out the day and say "Mommy I think it is warm outside and we need to go outside and run all of our energy out." My favorite thing about playing outside is that almost 100% of the time they fall into bed at night. Well here are some cute pictures of my little rugrats enjoy!

Im glad we have moments like these captured in pictures. When you look at this its hard not to remember the joys of motherhood and how fun having a family of your own can be. And if you ask me those are by far the cutest kids out there!

Invisible Mother....

I got this off of a friends blog and thought it was so beautiful. It was just what I needed to read after a day....heck who am I kidding after a Week like I have had. To put it short my wonderful children.....drove me NUTS this week. They got into anything and everything. Dumped dresser drawers. Dumped all the toys in there room that they could get to. Got into things in moms room. These are just a few of the things they have done this week. Im glad it is saturday and im looking forward to next week being a much better week.


It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask me a question. 
Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?' 

 Obviously not. 

No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. 

 I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this? 

 Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.' 

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going; she's going; she is gone! 

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England ...

 Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. 

I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. 

I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. 

I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: 

 'To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: 

 No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. 

 These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. 

They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything. 

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.' And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.' 

 I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. 

 It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.' 

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. 
 It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. 

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree. 

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'you're gonna love it there.' 

 As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. 

 
And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women. 

Great Job, MOM! 
 

 
Hope this encourages you when the going gets tough as it sometimes does. We never know what our finished products will turn out to be because of our perseverance. 



Its always fun when Grandpa comes, When Grandpa comes hooray!

I know these are a few months old but I wanted to get them on here anyways. A few months ago we went and picked up Papa Andersons motorhome for him and had it parked in front of our house. In November Papa Anderson came out to pick it up and take it back to Arizona to sell it. Both Thomas and Noah both love there Papa very very much and were very excited to see him. Although the visit was much to short and we would have loved for him to stay longer we were all very happy to see him. And cant wait for Papa and Grandma to come out and see us agian. We love you Papa!

Has anyone seen Noah?

I came into the front room one morning to find this. When I called for Noah there was no answer.....just a few wiggles from the lump on the couch.

To my surprize this is what I found.

When I asked Noah if he was being silly his response was...."No Mama its to cold"

Baby Its Cold Outside!

So these are a couple of pictures that I snapped out our door this morning. It was much to cold to venture out into it . We have been having "Ice Storms" and if you can not tell from the pictures the trees are covered with ICE. Every where you look is ICE. Honestly i think it is very pretty to look at ..... from inside your cozy warm home. But as you can imagine it is pretty dangerous to go out in it. We love Texas winters for the most part. We have a few days like this and a few days it is just cold. But then the next day you wake up and it is 80 degrees out side. So you are able to defrost from the previous days. Unlike in Rexburg where you would have months and months of just plain old COLD weather no defrosting till spring time.

We are Finally Back

So the last couple months have come and gone and nothing got blogged about. But we finally have internet agian and hopefully i can get back into this. So we have been up to lots the last few months. We moved from Irving down to Waxahachie Texas. It is a pretty little town main street is lined with beautiful old victorian houses. Its a much smaller area then Irving was but we seem to like it. Adam is kept busy at work. Balfour Beatty is building the new Court house, parking garage and jail expansion and renovation. This keeps him busy and heis learning more everyday. Adam has also been called as a ward missionary in our ward and is enjoying that.
I keep busy with the boys at home. We live out in the country and they love to be outside. We are loving the Texas winters and glad to not have the Idaho winters anymore. I teach the 11-12 year olds at church and have learned to love the calling. They are a fun group of kids. Thomas is a good big brother and loves to help Noah with what ever it is he is doing. Noah loves to do what ever Thomas is into and they both LOVE Transformers and GIJoes. Both of them are often found singing and they both love music. I love to hear my little boys singing the primary songs. Nothing sweeter then the sound of children singing. I hope to get back into updating this often with all the fun things going on in our daily lives. So check back often.