My Letter To Santa

I know the pictures I kind of hard to read, so here is what my letter to Santa says: 

 Dear Santa, 

             My name is Jessica Andersen. By now, I'm sure you have made your list, checked it twice, and have found out that I am on the nice list! I appreciate this a lot, but let me ask you this...have you ever heard of a Silhouette Cameo? But that's all, right? You have only heard of it. That is why I ask you to trust me, hand this letter to your wife, and then converse with her when she is done. Thank you! 

Dear Mrs. Santa Claus, 

            Mind if I call you Mrs. C? I wanted to write a letter to your husband about what I wanted for Christmas, but then I realized you would understand me better. Then, hopefully, you'll be able to act as my mediator, and convince your man just how important this is to me! 

           As a woman, wife, and maybe even a mother, you can relate to the many sacrifices I have made in my life. My time, energy, talents, and even my body have been given in hopes of making the people I love the most happy. So far, I hope I have done just that. 

          After 5 years of marriage, 2 beautiful little girls, countless hours of sleep given up to comforting children, and many crafts put off, I think it's time for me to have a selfish moment... 

          I want a Silhouette Cameo!!! I want to get back into scrapbooking (the non-electronic kind). I want to create sentimental items for my daughters. I want to decorated my new house to make it our home! I know I can do all of these things, and much more, with a Silhouette Cameo. Now I need you to turn on your sweet charm and convince your husband that this is the perfect gift for me! Thank you for listening to this slightly crazy woman who just wants to get her crafty back on! Merry Christmas!                

                                                                                      Jessica Andersen 

*This was part of a contest I entered for a Silhouette Cameo. I hope you got a good laugh out of it because I sure had fun writing it. Happy Holidays!

My Little Love All Grown Up!

Last week Chloe started Preschool! I can't believe it! She is absolutely loving it, but I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. She is my baby and I can't protect her when she's not home. No, it's been good! She has also started a ballet class which she is loving too. And I am really looking forward to just spending some one on one time with Adi. So, here are some pictures from the first day of school!

My preschool babe!

She wrote her own name...I want to see how much it changes this year!

Her and her sweet backpack!

Am I a bad mom for not letting her get a Princess or Dora backpack? I made her get a Hurley one!

Chloe needed a picture for the first week of school, as they were working on getting to know each kid. I didn't have any recent photos of her, so we had a small photo shoot!

 

Can you say adorable? I think she is! If you noticed, the first day of school photos, she doesn't have her hair down...that's because her and her 5 year old cousin decided to play hair salon the Sunday before school started. Let's just say I don't let Chloe out of the house with her hair down at this time!

Fall Food!

I just love the Fall! The weather is cooler and the world just looks so beautiful. But my favorite part is the yummy food that I feel like tastes better during the Fall!

I recently canned peaches with my mom and sister and look forward to doing applesauce. With some of the fresh peaches we didn't can, I made the best peach pie EVER! It has a meringue crust with pecans in it. On top of that is a cream cheese and whipped cream spread. Then you top it off with fresh peaches in a glaze! So good! I took it to a neighbor's house and like always, I was super nervous and insecure about my food. It did not go over very well when he told me it was good but at first he was really skeptical. I will never make this guy anything again! (He has already asked me to make the pie again!)

Another treat I LOVE are my mom's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! They are the best with Guittard chocolate chips....milk chocolate ONLY! ;) So, here's the recipe if any of you want a yummy treat soon!

Mix:
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups oil
Add:
3 cups canned pumpkin
3 tsp. milk
3 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs, beaten
Add:
6 cups flour
2 Tbl. baking powder
1 Tbl. baking soda
1 Tbl. cinnamon
1/2 pkg chocolate chips

Bake at 375 for 11 minutes. This recipe makes a TON so I usually half or third the recipe! Let me know if you try them out!

Adelaide is 1

August 2nd

We celebrated Adi's first birthday as a little family of 4! We had a photo shoot...

Then we went to Grammy's to play with the cousins and eat cupcakes. Adi didn't have a cupcake until we got home with Daddy!

 She didn't like being in her high chair at first!

 But soon changed her mind when we started to sing!

 She was a little unsure at first...

But soon devoured it!

We then celebrated with extended family on Sunday...

 She wasn't interested in presents until...

She got Tigger!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Love!

Photo-A-Day

As I was wasting time online today (*ahem*), I mean, doing research, I happened upon this page...

http://www.theidearoom.net/2012/07/photo-a-day-august-challenge.html

It's a photo-a-day challenge for August. I didn't think much of it as I casually looked it over. As I looked at Day 2, it was meant to be...

For those of you who fell behind, August 2nd is Adi's first birthday, so I decided I would try the challenge. It should be interesting, but really fun. Don't worry, I'm not going to blog everyday, but I do want to post all of my pictures eventually. 

So, here ya go, my "OUTSIDE" photo

This is a picture of our raised garden bed that Jeff designed and built. He is going to make three more...someday. But, we have had a few interesting comments from neighbors after we put this in the back. One guy thought it was a well and others just are confused! Good times!

Backyard update:

Jeff is in the process (isn't he always) of putting the swing set together. This is the project I have helped the most on too. After all day Saturday, and a little bit last night, this is where we stand...

Chloe keeps close track of his progress and he definitely isn't going fast enough! (I did try to warn her!) Anyway, we are still working hard (some more than others) and it's coming together.

We have grass!

You heard right, folks! After a 2 1/2 week battle, we were able to get our sod put in on Saturday. It is getting to feel a bit more like a backyard. Enjoy!

COW APPRECIATION DAY 2012

HAPPY COW APPRECIATION DAY!!!

I don't know what you would do for free food, but I am training my kids at an early age...

That's right, folks! We love cows!

At Chick-Fil-A, they have Cow Appreciation Day and you get a FREE MEAL for dressing up. So, I spent all night last night creating costumes. I loved it! I made Chloe's costume, my mom bought Adi's costume last Halloween (just for Cow Day), and my costume is from a time WAY back when my dad wore it for a work Halloween party! We don't mess when it comes to Cow Day!

The first thing Chloe said when she came into my room this morning was, "Mom, is it Cow Day?" We then called my mom and met her at Chick-Fil-A and got in our costumes in the parking lot. We had yummy breakfast and then hung out at my house until my sister brought her kids over and then we got dressed and went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A!

This year, I decided I wanted to enter the photo contest because my cows are just so cute! These are a couple of our pictures for our photo shoot!

Cute, right?

These are the two I entered in the Calf and the Herd photo contests...

So, if it's before July 31st, 2012 and you are reading this, go to www.cowappreciationday.com and vote for us! Adi's picture is under my name, Jessica Andersen from Herriman, and the Herd photo is under my mom's name, Sharla Savage from Taylorsville! I will let you know if we win!

P.S. Here is dinner...

 Daddy helped the girls get ready, and...

Aunt Ali came!

There was a small storm brewing, and someone forgot to shut the garage!

TUMBLE WEED!

It took about 20 minutes to get us all in the car and the garage door shut! But, we did make it to Chick-Fil-A and got our free meal. Yes, this is the 3rd year in a row that I have done all 3 meals at Chick-Fil-A! It's gross, but good! Such a good day!

A week of set backs

My poor husband! He tried so hard to get lots of work done this last week, but it seemed like everything was against him! But, before I go into that LONG story, I want to share a couple of photos I took of the girls on the 4th! I was bored while Jeff was working in the back, so what better thing to do than torture my kids...

So precious! Ok, now to the yard stuff...

First, the sprinklers took longer to finish than he planned (but I could have told you that was going to happen). But it was set back even longer because of the rain on Thursday. Most people welcomed the rain with open arms, but Jeff might have been the only one not liking it 100%!

He was supposed to be getting a bobcat and plate compactor delivered on Thursday afternoon, but they called and said the bobcat was having mechanical problems, but they could get it fixed and have it to him on Friday morning. They didn't. He ended up calling 4 or 5 other places and finally finding a bobcat to rent. He finally got a bobcat and drove it to the backyard. He needed the bobcat to level out the yard a little more, but most importantly, get this off of my driveway...

21 yards of topsoil!

So, after 2 hours of doing a little leveling in the back, Jeff headed to the front to start working on the topsoil. But before he could get there...

STUCK IN THE MUD!

Yep, the ground was so wet that the bobcat just sunk. (Found out later that our sprinklers right there were broken...hence the super wet ground.)

It's a good thing there is so much construction going on in our neighborhood! We had help from a construction worker and his bobcat...

Jeff was really frustrated at this point, so he had the rental place come pick up the bobcat and he would find another way to move the topsoil. He also called and canceled the sod we were going to pick up on Saturday... :(

That's the hole caused by the bobcat! Jeff didn't want to deal with anything that night, so at 5:00 pm, his dad went home, his buddy came over, we went to dinner, made a SUPER yummy dessert, and just relaxed the rest of the night!

Saturday morning was spent fixing the broken sprinkler. I am grateful that the bobcat got stuck or we never would have known that our sprinklers were broken! (I had to work really hard to help Jeff see the up side to the muddy mess!)

While working in the front on Saturday morning, the construction workers working on the house next door became good friends! They helped us dig the bobcat out on Friday and they also used their machines to fill in our pit int he backyard!

Jeff was so grateful that he didn't have to do that himself! (He was going to make a sunken patio, but recently decided against it so he needed to fill the hole he had already dug!)

Our next door neighbor got a buddies' bobcat on Saturday and allowed Jeff to use it Saturday evening. But, with a big swamp on one side of our yard, and a huge hole (the foundation of a new house is just being put in) on the other side, Jeff had to go between the neighbor's and his neighbor's yard, across the neighbors backyard, and then into our backyard. Sorry, that's kind of confusing! Maybe some pictures will help!

It took him well over 3 hours, but he got all of the topsoil into the backyard! What a trooper!

So the goal is to get the topsoil spread out before Saturday and hopefully put sod down. Keep your fingers crossed for us!