HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY JARED!!!

Jared had a very fun birthday, today. He got up bright and early at 6:30am. %) So we had breakfast and played around for the morning 'til Ryan woke up. He had a lot of fun looking at his books and finding ways to entertain himself...

When Ryan did wake up, he came and sang "Happy Birthday" to Jared. Even though Jared doesn't really understand that it's his birthday or what the song means he really enjoyed hearing it. So, we sang to him several times this morning. We didn't wait long before giving him his birthday presents...

When we were living at my Aunt Maureen and Uncle Jerry's house there was this circus tent in the play room that Jared loved. He'd crawl around in it and play hide-and-seek. So, we decided it would be the perfect birthday present. As for the newspaper, it's something Jared loves to play with... when he can get a hold of it, so that was a present that seemed obvious. He seemed to really enjoy them. :)

I'd heard a talk a while ago (by Elder L. Tom Perry, I think) where the brother told a story about a family tradition they had, so we decided we'd adopt the tradition. What we did is we picked five objects and set them out for Jared. We set out a hymn book, a hot wheels car, a scrap of plastic from one of Ryan ME classes, a handmade clay pot, and a baby medicine bottle. We then let him go to see which object he'd crawl to. The object he picks will then foretell what his future occupation, interests, and hobbies might be. It's just for fun, but who knows how true to his future it might be. :)

 

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So, he picked the clay pot first, and then the piece of plastic, and then he went for the hymn book. So, he's going to be a very creative, intelligent, musically talented man when he grows up, or... he just wanted to play with a clay pot, piece of plastic, and a hymn book at the moment. We'll see. ;)

We got to visit with several extended family members through Skype and Kinect, today. It was a real treat. Jared enjoyed seeing all the family and hear his cousins sing a happy birthday song to him. Later in the evening, we frosted his cakes and let him have one all to himself. It was pretty fun to watch. He's always been a good eater and liked almost every food he's tried, so we weren't surprised he enjoyed his cake so much.

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He got quite messy, so when he was done, we put him in the bathtub and Ryan bathed him while I cleaned up the kitchen.

Jared had a great day and we spent the rest of the evening playing, eating cake, and visiting with more family.

Happy 1st Birthday, Jared!!! The joy you bring to our lives is indescribable!! You're the sweetest little Goober and you make everyday an adventure! We love you!!!

Country Apple Tart

Now that we’re all settled in I’m going to start making pies again every Sunday. Yesterday, I made a Country Apple Tart. Jared and I got up and spent the morning in our pajamas in the kitchen having some fun.

My little assistant.

I got a few new supplies from my Aunt Maureen who shares my enjoyment of spending time in the kitchen. I got a small food processor and a pastry canvas with a rolling pin cover. The food processor works like a dream for making pastry dough. This was the most delicate and turned out to be the most flaky dough I'd ever made and it was very fast too. With the pastry canvas you just rub flour into it and the dough doesn't stick one bit.

I've been trying to explain to Ryan that there are different kinds of tarts in all shapes in sizes. This one is the kind that doesn't use a tart pan, you just wrap the filling in the crust around the edges and bake it on a cookie sheet or in a pan.

The crust turned out so delicate it was kind of tricky to wrap it around the filling without it falling apart. But, it worked out okay. Then, we put it in the fridge so it could go in the oven after we got home from church.

I didn't get a picture of it after it was baked, but it turned out really good. We ate it with a scoop of frozen whipped cream. It was delicious! We also had some Broccoli Tarts with our dinner. They were pretty good too; Ryan really liked them. ;)

Home Sweet Home

Welcome to our new home! We’re pretty comfortable here now that we’re settled in. It’s been nice to be able to spend some  time relaxing and just spending time together at home, as a family, this past week. We went to our new ward for the first time on Sunday and it seems like a very nice ward, of course. I’ve never been in a ward that hasn’t been nice. ;D We’ve found that we’re very close to all the places we need to go and that’s been very convenient. Ryan’s been riding his bike to and from school every day; it’s about a 7 minute ride, not bad at all. We feel very blessed to be where we are now. There’s no place like home, and I think we’re going to like it here for the next eight months. We've taken some pictures, so that those who can't come visit us can have a photographic tour of our new home!

This is the kitchen. We have almost all our family on the fridge. Jared loves to pull my towels off the oven door and run off with them and leave them places.That little Goober!

This is our dinning area. It's nice to have a kitchen to cook and eat in again.

This is the back door that leads to the backyard and carport.

This is the living room.

 We had to keep our landlords couches in the apartment, so we have three couches now. We were afraid of it being a little crowded, but we made it work. Now we have seating for ten!

 This is our front door area. It's soo nice not to be in a basement any more. We've been basement renters for the past two and a half years. Ugh!

 This our mail box. It's quite impressive. ;D

This is the front yard view of our apartment. We have an "ANDERSON" sign next to our front door, so you know we're the Anderson's. =)

 This is our carport. Yay!! No more parking under a tree with sap and bird poop all over our car, and walnuts and leaves on it in the fall.

This is the baby room. We've had to put some storage in Jared's room, but he still has plenty of room to play. 

Here's more of his room, where I rock him at bed time.

 This is more of Jared's room, where we keep his toys and his clothes.

 Yay!! We have a washer and dryer. Very convenient!

 This is the bathroom.

This is our hallway game closet and storage.

 This is the multipurpose bedroom. It has the desk, sewing desk, painting table, and most of the storage.

This is the door to our back yard...

...and this is the yard. We share it with the neighbors on the other half of the duplex, but that hasn't been fine. We're glad to be settled. No we're getting back to focusing on school and the big job search. Thanks for taking our tour. Wish us luck!

Good-bye Elder Jacobs :'(

Today, my little brother Ricky left on his mission to the South Dakota Rapid City Mission. He came by our apartment to said "good-bye," before going to the MTC. It was a very bitter-sweet visit while he was here; my parents and little sister, Roni, came too. Unfortunate Ryan was gone at school, during the visit. Jared gave Ricky lots of good hugs and we got some pictures before he left.

I'm so proud of my little bro! Good luck Elder Jacobs!! We love you!!!

The Move

Two weeks ago is when we moved from Sandy to our new apartment in Provo, and then from our old apartment in Provo to the new one. Needless to say it was a long process and very tiring. We were able to move into our new apartment on August 20th and then spent two days cleaning it to get ready for the rest of our stuff to come over and going to the old apartment a couple times a day to work on boxing everything up. It made for a very long week.

Jared helping with packing.

 On Wednesday (22), several of the men from our ward came over to help us load up our boxes and furniture. Two brothers helped us by letting us use their trailers. This is a picture of only one of the trailers. We had two very full trailers and some stuff in the vehicles as well. I don't think we realized we had so much stuff. :P I think most of it was furniture though. ( 8)I hope! )

We shared otter-pops with everyone who was helping us, since it was a warm day. Jared had one himself. He only got a couple tastes before it leaked all over, but I think he enjoyed it. He had his own personal play-buddy and baby-sitter during the loading and unloading. Ryan's school friend, Brettany, played with him in the yard while we worked. It was very helpful!

 These are the before shots for this tour of our home. These two pictures are the bedroom. Ryan is getting pooped!

 This is will be our game closet.

 This is the baby's room.

 This is the laundry room.

This is the bathroom.

 This is the living room. Quite cozy looking isn't it. ;)

This is Ryan taking care of the heavy stuff. What a muscle man!

  This is the kitchen.

This is the dinning area.

It's so much easier to look at these pictures now that we're settled in. It's a lot of work unpacking and finding places for everything. So, the next few days we had a lot of work to do. I worked on putting all our food storage and kitchen things away so that we could have a functioning kitchen (we can only afford to eat out so often, as much fun as it is). Ryan worked on defrosting the freezer.

 I guess this isn't the recommended way of defrosting a freezer, but Ryan has experience on his side. ;)

 By the time he was done there was this whole bucket full and some other big chunks in the sink. One of the joys of being a renter. You have to deal with whatever the previous renters have left behind.

 It looked really good and was a lot more roomy once he was done. =)

 Another project of Ryan's was to fix the neighbors mail box. When the brothers from our last ward came with their trailers, one parked their truck next to the mail boxes, so when his son opened the door to get out, he completely knocked the mail box off it's pole. It was pretty funny. Ryan fixed it no problem. Our biggest project of the day, was going back to our old apartment, cleaning it, and then settling things with our old landlord. :P (Some landlords are major punks and that's about all I'm going to say about that.)

Moving is a lot of work, and there's several people who were a big help!

Thank you to: Aunt Maureen and Uncle Jerry, Jason, Jessie and Adam Richens, Brother Hopkins, Brother Judd, Brothers Fisher, Roberts, Walch, and Thomas, Levi and Brettany Ruppert, Amy Peterson, and several others. We've been very blessed with great friends and family! Thanks! =)

Wobbly Walker

So, we know there are some people who haven't really gotten to see Jared walking yet, because they live in distant lands (i.e. Germany, Michigan, Indiana). We thought we'd post a video so you could. He's gotten pretty good at it, but is still a little wobbly. He definitely gets into more things, be he's been really good about listening and leaving something alone when we say, "No." It's been fun; he's a good boy. We love him like crazy!! :)

Jared's Couch

Jared got a baby couch from Grandma Kris and Papa, this summer. We were wondering how he'd like it; turns out he loves it. It was a hand-me-down couch so we had to clean the cover, but he wanted to sit on it and play with it anyway.

The living room is Jared's second play room, so that's were we've been keeping his little couch, and he always goes and sits on it to play or to lounge. We've been calling him our "little lounger baby."

He knows how to open and close it himself. But, mom likes to pretend to squish him in it. 

 Thanks Mark and Kris!!! It's been a lot of fun! ;D