Cease Sabbatical.

Well, that was a lovely month off.

I'm sure you're just dying to know what we've up to right? Or, if you're my mother, I'm sure that you will continue to harass (please say in a Ms. Mathis fashion all of you Bingham Middle school alumni) me until I put up some pictures ALREADY.

So, cease sabbatical. Commence catch up.

We, okay Keeler, have been working on walking. We've got the first two steps down but that typically freaks us out a little and we then cautiously lower our cute bums to the ground.

We've been sledding in Rocky Mountain National Park. By we, I mean them. The temperature ensured that Keeler and I spent a fun-filled hour in the car pretending to drive and setting off all of the lights/flashers/radios simultaneously.

We did make an appearance for the family photo. Do you think Keeler was peeved about his "Ralphie's Brother" ensemble?

We made a forray into Utah. Let's just say things did not go as planned. But, folks, we went. We saw. We partied. We stayed up super late with the Loveridges. We came home.

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Above are all of the Anderson girls with their adorable, adorable, adorable handmade baby doll quilts from Grami Tami. Contrary to Audrie's appearance, they all LOVED them. Isabel also made doll pillows with Grami Tami. Milo got a handmade animal print book bag for his set of ALMOST ALL of the Magic Treehouse books. Aaaah bliss.

We worked on our silly faces. We also practiced closing our eyes while making these ridiculous faces.

We visited Grandma Cathryn in Utah. ALL of the Anderson cousins were together. Doesn't happen often but when it does WATCH OUT because there is mucho funno. There's also a bit of "who is the Alpha female" that goes on between the little twins and Audrie. Let's just say my money is on Liv. That girl is pretty much the boss. And I want to eat her up.

We had all of our dreams come true on Christmas morning with the arrival of a.) a talking/grunting/eating/moving Panda

and b.) a princess doll and a ballerina music box complete with tiny drawers for hiding all of your fancy jewels (that have yet to be worn?? Apparently, they are just for staring.).

We got a Snuggie. Some of us (the grownups, to be exact) are pretty sure that Lisa is right in her suspicions of the Snuggie. Snuggies are made of a very, very odd material resembling felt. But not exactly felt. But really resembling it. And probably highly flammable. Or highly NOT flammable. Also, the Snuggie spoof on YouTube is hilarious. Inappropriate (consider that your warning) but HILARIOUS.

For the record, the nongrownups (also known as the only ones who count at Christmas) think that the Snuggie is "AWESOME" and sleep in it every night.

We had Christmas Eve with the Mestas cousins. There were new jammies and books for all.

We contined to work on perfecting our "eyes closed while making ridiculous face" maneuvers. (Oh, and if you can see his shirt, you can see that we are obviously getting geared up for the Olympics too. Seriously, discovering that we now have a 24 hour a day NBC Sports channel was the highlight of our week.)

We had a little part-ay with the Pierces and the Davises. 975 Homemade gingerbread men and about 9 pounds of sprinkles later, a good time was had by all. Porter (who is 4) even made an anatomically correct gingerbread man. Highlight of the evening I'd say. Yet, his mother did not include it in her blog party summary??? ;)

We had a tree! Oh sure, it was completely boxed in by couches and baskets but it was there. Way back there. In the corner. Oh, and it was tiny. Because it was in the corner. But, I tell you what, Keeler didn't knock/pull/push/drag our tiny hidden tree down even once. :) Anyone who has had a toddler/crazy monkey at Christmas time will tell you THAT is an admirable feat.

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While that is the end of the pictures, it's not the end of the updates. Thrilled aren't you?

• Well, we've also been celebrating (albeit states away) the FINAL finalization of Jess and Aric's adoption of Camden. If you haven't read her story, you definitely should. Oh sure, I'm a sucker for adoption stories but it'll really get ya. :)
• We (Erin) have also committed to another marathon. This time in Utah and this time with Shikay....!!!! I am nervous, excited, and freaked out all at the same time. Am I really doing this again??
• We (Spencer) have been working on some new addition to the climbing wall (think lots of power tools and sawdust...I am, once again, pretending that room doesn't exist. Some would say, that room is dead to me.).
• We (Spencer) have been riding our fan bike. That is a whole post in and of itself. Think 16 Candles. Think 5 am. Think the blue flicker of the television. Think Spencer riding the bike while perched precariously on a throw pillow on the actual seat (which is apparently uncomfortable) of the fan bike. Riding for his life. Lance has nothing on this guy.
• We (all of us) survived 3 weeks out of school. THREE long weeks. With sub-freezing temps. Wowza. That's all I have to say about that.

Sabbatical Over.