Hooray for more pictures!

Scarlet and I took a quick trip to visit my parents a weekend or so ago. We were able to catch a ride over with Athena and her kids which was really nice, although Scarlet still cried for a good bit of the time. It's hard being stuck in a carseat for so long! The weather was great in Lakewood, so Grandma Vicki and Scarlet picked up in the yard a bit. Scarlet was such a good helper. She saw Gramma picking up sticks and putting them into the recycling container and went and found some too. She catches on to things so quickly; smart kid.

Grandma helped her find some dandelions in the yard. Scarlet will have millions of those in our yard here pretty soon. Our neighbors will probably come over and spray for us just so they don't get the seed blown into theirs.

Scarlet keeping Starla company while she cried for her mom upstairs.

Uncle Clayton getting his first piano lesson from Scarlet. I've caught her a few tims playing and singing at the same time. She even looks up at the sheet music like she knows what she's looking at. I'm glad I finally got a picture of her!

This is just a stinkin' cute picture. She loves her chocolate pudding!

So, I almost got a new camera out of Charlie because I had "lost" mine. I finally got around to cleaning the van out and found it hidden under the captain's seat. It wasn't actually hidden...if I really would have taken more than 5 minutes to look for it, it was in plain sight. :) Oops.

Charlie told me he almost got me the nikon camera I wanted until I found the old one.

Darn it!

Catching up on Firsts!

Our first Family Home Evening activity. We got the new nursery handbook and did one of the lessons in there with Scarlet. Of course we had to hang the finished work on the fridge...a first for that too.

Scarlet getting her first portacatheter poke. This was a while ago but I thought I would post it anyway.

Her first time having friends over that weren't family. Ellie and Kate are Scarlet's best friends, well, as best as friends go at that age. :)

I thought I would post this as Scarlet's first sad-pouty face. Yes, she's thrown fits before, was sad and cried before, but this was a new face to us. The picture was taken on Christmas Eve and we really haven't seen her make the face again. I think what happened was she wasn't allowed to help someone open their presents or something like that.

Check out Charlie's Chops! That only lasted a day!

I seem to have misplaced my camera, I had it for our last trip to Seattle and haven't seen it since. I wanted to update the blog today and will just have to use some older photos.
Here is uncle Clayton and Scarlet together on Christmas eve. She's either helping him or he's helping her open a gift. We were able to go to the candlelight service at grandpa Len's Lutheran church for Christmas Eve. It was a very nice service and Scarlet especially liked helping blow out the candles at the end.
Her great uncle Dan bought these Santa hat's for Scarlet and Starla...they are so cute!
They were able to play together awhile before we left for the service.
This year we decided as an Anderson family to go Christmas caroling to some friends and afterward we went to Great Grandma Doris's house for hot chocolate, treats, presents, and more caroling. Thanks Grandma Dor for the awesome time and fun presents!!
Charlie and Len both have recently taken an exam and both found out on the same day that they passed. Len passed his P.E. (physical engineering?) and Charlie the first of 4 CPA tests. Congrats!

It's been awhile...

Here's the last picture of Scarlet with her Hickman line right after her very last bath with her line. Hooray!
Scarlet blowing me kisses before her surgery. It's always hard when babies have to have surgery because they are required to fast for such a long time. So what do you do for a kid who's hungry, tired, and stuck in a small room for hours? Give them sticky sticks.
She loves peeling them and sticking them on her tummy.
Scarlet with her home care nurse Michelle. She no longer gets to come every week and draw labs, etc. since the lines been removed. It's really sad. We've come to love Michelle and miss seeing her every Monday. Scarlet now has a portAcatheter which I'll show a picture of another time. I thought I got one in here. They put it in the same time they removed her lines. The surgeon who placed it however, put one in that was 2-3 inches too long that went all the way into her atrial valve. When the nurses tried to draw blood it would suction to the wall of the atrium and no blood return would come. We had it fixed last Thursday and it draws beautifully now. The unfortunate thing is that while there in the hospital, Scarlet picked up a stomach bug and has been in and out of the hospital this past week (that's what I think anyway). She is there right now with Grandma Debbie while I get some R&R from being up all night. I don't miss those long months with her at Children's hospital, I rarely got sleep for 6 months.
She should hopefully get to come home tonight or tomorrow. It was pretty worrisome for awhile but she is hopefully at the end of the virus and is doing a lot better.

Just for Mom

Davi and Carly's Wedding

The Wedding Party right to left: Anni (my sister), Stacey, Julie, Carly, Davi, Randy, Jon, and Micah (my brother)

Randy picking up his sweetheart

Our family together.

Grandpa taking Scarlet for a little stroll around the temple grounds.

I loved this tree, I thought there was something antiquish about the moss covered branches and the blossom buds.

Davi and Carly getting their wedding pictures taken. I got a lot of side shots because the angle I was at but sometimes that turns out to be a good thing. I think they look great together.

I realize now that I had some better shots of Charles and Scarlet but the icons were so small when I was choosing...oh well, I love the way Charlie smiles at Scarlet. He's such a great dad; couldn't ask for better.

Athena's mom hooked us up with a reduced price hotel for part of the time we were there staying with the family. They gave us a suite for 25 bucks a night! Scarlet found the alarm clock right away, she loves pushing buttons on anything electronic. We had a great time and it was so nice to have a place to crash without worrying about Scarlet getting too close to the other kids there. Thanks Athena and Athena's mom!!!!

Thanksgiving Dresses

I decided to make Scarlet a Thanksgiving dress since I successfully made the Halloween dress, then I decided I only needed a little more fabric and a zipper and I could make one for cousin Starla too. It was a ton of work, but they were so cute it was worth it.

They are both excellent baby models. Here is the view from the front and from behind.

Great job girls!

Thanksgiving is a time to remember all that you are thankful for and we as a family have so much to be grateful for this year. Scarlet is doing well, we are healthy, Charlie has a great job and we have a beautiful home, and great friends and family. Thank you all who have constantly been there for us; we are grateful for all the prayers and support you've given.