Small Town Country Fair

Strawberry and lemon smoothies, pony rides, and plenty of animals to pet. It was an idyllic afternoon for the girls.

Just my size!

"MY DEAR WORMWOOD,"

boomed a voice.* "JENNYYYY," exploded/warned/threatened Tom, the first to jolt to reality. After a moment I realized that instead of buzzing at 6AM, the alarm had played the beginning of the last CD we listened to, The Screwtape Letters. These first three words of the book not only struck terror in Tom's already pounding heart, but concluded my own rather strange dream that included a round of golf with my maternal Grandfather (???). The reading was loud enough to shock a restful sleeper; thus it's understandable that Tom, already in a state of alarm (he immediately recalled being in the midst of a futile escape), was scared stiff when the stranger in our room bellowed to his nephew.

*Note: I wanted to tell this story from Tom's point of view, but when I requested that he retell his nightmare he said, "Negatory. It's not something I want to remember. The devil shouting 'WORMWOOD' is enough."

SCHOOL

• First week: great!
• Second week: absent with colds, including coughing with Eliza's every utterance. We did drive Daddy to the bus stop and drop the class snacks off at school.
• Third week (today): preceded by prayer that Eliza would be able to attend school. Eliza was much better. En route, on Tuesday at 8:40AM, Mona lost her hastily eaten breakfast. The car smelled of apples and cinnamon. Was she carsick from eating too quickly, too early, and driving for 50 minutes? Did she pick up a virus in nursery Sunday morning? We dropped the snacks off at school and headed home. She has been keeping food down and running around, and talking as usual (not that sickness ever stopped this girl). Maybe it was carsickness?
  

UPDATE

I had hopes to often record moments here, evidently it is months. As you may infer from the above, Eliza is now in school. We decided after we moved that since we couldn't be a part of the awesome preschool group we were in last year, K4 is a good alternative. (We moved in May.)

Tom's parents came shortly after to help us get settled in and celebrate with us as Tom walked. (I made him walk because he was timing contractions during BYU commencement four years ago.) We went to Tom's swearing-in ceremony in Richmond after he passed the VA Bar (YAY TOM!). Early this summer, we visited close to home with many dear relatives we haven't seen in a long time at a family reunion in D.C., and my parents visited Dave and Kimi before and stayed a bit longer after to be with us in our new place.

On July 4th we went to a patriotic concert in the National Cathedral and saw the spectacular Mall fireworks. We drove to Saratoga Springs in July where Tom took the NY bar (since he only had to take the state portion and is CRAZY about studying - we're not moving to NY), and visited Valley Forge and Philadelphia on the way. During that trip Tom and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We went to Hattie's too - where we sampled the fried chicken made even more famous by victory in a Bobby Flay Throwdown. This summer we've also become addicted to Pottery Barn Outlet, where we've found, significantly discounted, almost everything on our new-home-wishlist.

RECENT QUOTES

8/3/2009
Tom, Eliza and Mona were casually watching "Truth in 24" an Audi car-racing documentary. A German engineer was explaining the function of the engine he designed, and concluded with the statement in a German accent, "you see, it's really very simple." With a pointed finger, Mona rose up in disagreement, "NO! NOT SIMPLE!!!"

8/7/2009
Arkansas Cheese - In the car on the way to Leesburg, Eliza and Mona were eating lunch. Eliza said, "Mommy! Look at my Arkansas cheese!" Mommy stopped at the traffic light and turned around to see a minuscule Arkansas shape bitten out of her slice of provolone.

8/29/2009
Mommy: "Those are some big eyes you have, Mona."
Mona: "My daddy gave me my big eyes. Thank you, Daddy!!!!!" [She ran over and gave Daddy a huge Mona-hug.]

8/29/2009
Mona: "Mommy, I want mango. Mango does body good. Jesus said, 'Eat mango.'"

8/30/2009
Daddy: "Mona, do you ever stop talking?"
Eliza: "No, she's always go talking."

9/2/2009
Mommy: [While teaching Mona to say "God's covenant with Abraham"] "Do you want to say 'with Abraham?'"
Mona: "No, I want to say, 'creation fall in the garden the flood tower of Babel!'"
[Mommy & Liza burst into laughter.]

9/11/2009
Eliza: "I want to go to Kentucky!"
Mona: "No! Kentucky has sakes!!!"
Eliza: "No, Kentucky doesn't have snakes, Nevada has snakes!"
Mona: "Oh."

9/15/2009
Eliza: "Your last name is Andersen, your first name is Mommy, and your middle name is Jen."

Thank You!

We want you to know that we are thankful for you, our family and friends.

We would have liked to send each of you real ones, but after the sixth turkey Eliza was ready to throw in the glue stick :) Happy Thanksgiving! Love you!

Ahhh to Zzzz

Just a glimpse at what they are doing:

How does she sing with all that noise?

Eliza, quizzing Ramona.

Finding the melody.

This game began when the girls were VERY excited to have the lunch that Mommy was making (too slowly).

She is absorbed with, captivated by, hooked on, preoccupied with, and really into PINK. Eliza was browsing through a catalog when a play kitchen caught her eye. She informed us that she needed a pink kitchen because it matches her ballerina dress. So we made a refrigerator and a stovetop/oven from a couple boxes, some pink construction paper, and the better part of a roll of packing tape. When she wasn't giggling and squealing with delight, she was pointing out the necessary features of her new appliances: a knob for controlling the stove and oven temperatures, an oven door and shelves and bins for her refrigerator. All pink, of course.

Pinky (as Grandpa calls her), with her refrigerator.

The next day she worked feverishly in her kitchen and was very careful to warn Ramona about the heat of the oven. She didn't waste any time putting in her order for a pink toaster, a pink telephone, and a pink bed. We'll be back with part two of the story...

Lately Mona has been... soo Mona. Yes. Makes me want to squeeze her too.
{Papers and elements from The Night Before by MK Designs and Winter Wonderfull by Cinnamon Designs. Template by Emily Powers.}

Moments Like These

Time for a new header and way past time for a new post! I've taken a different approach with the header. I always feel the need to update the look to the next season before I post. Maybe this will help me be better about blogging - we can hope! :)

{Credits: Metamorphosis by Emily Powers and Kathryn Wilson at www.wearestorytellers.com}

Today we watched videos we had taken the past couple of years and hadn't been able to view because we needed to convert the file type. [Thanks to Tom and some new software, we have included our first video in the post below. :)] We had so many laughs over the things we had all but completely forgotten... how Mona sounded as she sang and growled just months ago... the joy in Eliza's "whee" as she slid down the slide... I ran across video clips of Eliza when she was Mona's age and found I could barely remember what it was like when she was so little - only 2 years ago! I felt a tug on my heart as I thought about how the moments fade into years and the time has flown before I know it. I'm sure you know how that feels. As I created this header I found this word art. It seemed just right.

Here's a cute memory from this week:

After breakfast Eliza was wandering around and Mommy asked her if she is finished with her plate. Eliza answered yes and took it into the kitchen. Ramona was still eating and said, "Na na!!" She pointed at Eliza's napkin on the table and said again, "NA NA!!" I told Eliza that Ramona wanted her to throw away her napkin. Eliza said, "Oh, sorry!" She picked it up to throw it away and Ramona said, "Thanks!"

We've been busy the past couple of months. Tom finished two of his classes in the first two months of the semester. I have begun to dabble in designing digital scrapbook kits. Eliza has been going to ballet and preschool. Ramona has been trying some new foods! We discovered "The Whole Foods Cookbook," for families with allergies. Mona has tried many of her "firsts" this past week. It was so fun to see her eat bread! I enjoyed serving everyone the same meal. Now if I could just get everyone to eat it. :)

New Dresses

Eliza and Ramona received some new dresses from Grandma A. Eliza's favorite was the pink one, and they were both so excited they started dancing with them. Ramona dances while holding the dress with her chin. Thanks, Grandma!!

Two Birthdays

Eliza turned three in April, and Ramona one in May.

For her third birthday, Eliza began the day with pancakes, syrup and strawberries. She was eager to ride her bike, wear her princess dress, and of course, eat cake! Eliza first wore her princess dress. She rode her bike on the balcony - pedaling will come soon... Tom took the girls to the park while Jen finished the cake. Grandma and Grandpa called that afternoon. Eliza had ravioli with Alfredo sauce for dinner. Jen helped her eat each bite at the end so she could eat dessert... her birthday cake! We made the chocolate buttermilk cake. She loved the frosting the most! A busy and happy birthday!

When Eliza sees this page she says "That one's my favorite! Those bugs are getting my birthday!!" The first time she saw the page she said "I want to go to that one! Mom, can you get me that chair? I want to sit on that chair!!"

She looks so grown up... time marches on.

Finding her wings. Within a week of turning eleven months, Ramona began taking steps. She had been walking along the furniture and walls. On April 14th, she put her hands up and stepped - and her face was full of joy. I think she felt free... Tom tried to get her to walk that evening. She took a few steps and cried out with glee - walking was SO fun! She laughed and shook her head, we think it was because she was amazed, and thrilled, to be walking. A day or two later, Eliza took Ramona by the hands and the two of them walked. Ramona giggled and squealed and Eliza laughed and praised her. Almost two weeks later Ramona was trying to walk all the time. Eliza was always yelling out that "Ramona is walking!" and cheering her on. Jen heard someone yell, "YAY!" and looked over to see Ramona walking. Ramona had said, "YAY!" because she was walking - free as a bird.

It's remarkable to me that Ramona is already one. We tried to have portraits taken. One of Eliza's did turn out perfect. None of Ramona's did. She had a hard time being any distance from Mom and Dad at the portrait studio. At one point we had Ramona laughing and smiling. We asked the photographer to hurry and take the photo, but she was standing there trying to decide which photo of them frowning she should delete from the camera so she would have room for more... We took this photo of Ramona at the National Arboretum a couple weeks later.

Tom and I are so thankful for these two!