It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

We have this great new mall in Vegas, it's outdoors, and they have a little Norman Rockwell style house set up for Santa. Once a week, they allow pets with Santa. I thought that was perfect, since she is a part of our family. We got ready, and headed out to see the man in the red hat....got there and about a billion other people had the same brilliant idea we did. GREAT! It was cold, but we braved it and waited patiently, and waited and waited and waited and waited...well you get the point. It was maddness, and not worth it. We finally got there and AJ was awesome the whole time we waited, the as soon as he saw Santa, MELTDOWN CITY! He was curious, for about 2.3 seconds (picture snapped) then melted down. Poor Baby. We got a couple of good shots and he crashed the second his little bum hit the carseat. Next year, no dog, not peak Santa hours. NOTE TO SELF. More on Christmas later. Moving those pictures to computer requires time that doesn't seem to exist.

Half Way, 2 Teeth and Crawling for freedom!

So these pictures were taken back in October when the Hart's were in town, and AJ was trying his darndest to crawl. He was getting pretty close too... But the along came his 6 month birthday and literally on that day, he sprung 2 teeth. He went from sitting up by himself, to crawling to pulling himself up on things all in a matter of a week. WHAT?!? Slow down kid, what's the big hurry? I'm so sure I was ready for that, but I love it. He is so fun to watch. He particularly loves crawling over to the dog, which she doesn't love...she usually just walks away when she sees him coming. A few nights ago, she left one of her toys, a cow, on the floor next to Love Sac she's claimed as hers, and she had another, her duck, in her mouth. AJ crawled over to the cow, picked it up and starting waving it at her. She hopped down, grabbed the cow, leaving the duck behind, and back up to the Love Sac with the Cow. He grabbed the duck, and waved that in the air. She hopped down, grabbed the duck, left the cow, AJ made a move to get the cow back, Scout looked at him, nudged him out of the way, and on her merry way she went, with a mouthful of duck and cow...NICE DOG!

He loves his independence, and I'm sure will be walking before we know what to do. We've tried to baby proof, but I'm sure he'll discover something we've forgotten about before we do!

Oh so Thankful!

I really do have a lot to be thankful for. We got to go (home...I call it) to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving, which was so awesome. He packed a lot into a short week/long weekend! First, of course the best meal ever! I love Thanksgiving food. Well, let's be honest, I love all food, but I do play favorites when it comes to Thanksgiving food! It was so good and it was the first time my entire family was together in a long time! All 11 adults and 12 kids. If anybody ever asks "when exactly did you loose control?" The answer is right there...as soon as the kids outnumbered the adults. There it it!

Then came family pictures... with everyone. That was a bit of a challenge, but they came out great, and I'd love to share some, but something about copyright, and laws, blah blah blah.

After that, we had the awesome opportunity to have Mr. Anthony Jack blessed by his pop (my dad) and his cousin Everett was blessed by Josh. It was so fun to get the cousins together, since they are the closest in age...only 2 months apart. That was such an amazing experience. What a great blessing to have this amazing baby in our lives that I know will be an amazing example to both Tony and I throughout his life. It really made me reflect on the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and how grateful I am for Him, for my family, for my wonderful husband, and of course the center of it, Anthony Jack! I love my famliy so much and I am so blessed and fortunate to have the knowledge that I do and the love that I know surrounds me.

AJ's blessing day...Tony cleans up nice eh?


Me and my little man, hanging out at Nana and Pop's house

Anthony and Everett...can you believe that they're only 2 months different?!?

Proud Pop and AJ after blessing

The Hart's after the blessing...Thanks Chris for being there for us! We love you guys!

The Boys and the Babies!

Next Item up... a Monkey!

Halloween kind of came and went, and really there was no fanfare. I'm not sure what I expected with a 5 month old. I got this great Monkey costume that I was so excited to put AJ in because I call him "Monkey" more than I call him his own name! It has a curly tail on the back and a banana in the pocket. I had a great idea to dress Scout up as a banana also, but finding a banana for a 100 lb. dog isn't so easy! So, she was the old stand-by...a witch! On Halloween, we took the baby to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a few minutes, just to get a few pictures, and then went to Capriotti's for a quick bite to eat, hopped in the car to go to Dan and Jenny's, where a whole bunch of people were hanging out and BBQ-ing, and of course passing out candy. As soon as we headed to the Skelly's, the baby crashed. It was a bit past nap time, and there was a lot going on. The most unusual thing about it is that it was borderline HOT that day. Strange for Vegas, it almost always rains and is cold here for Halloween, but of course not the year I get a plush, padded, 900 degree monkey for my baby. So...the cosume got about 10 minutes of use. Great.
Tony had the Idea of putting an Angels jersey over the Monkey, so he would become the rally Monkey, but that didn't work either.
Oh well...Maybe next year it will be a little more eventful.

Trick or Treat

Don't worry, she's a good witch!

Harts in Vegas

So...here is my best atempt at an update! I'm gonna start slow and work my way up, so let's see how this goes!

We'll start out with were we left off...waaaay back in October. We had a great visit from our friends, Chris, Megan and Addie Hart. We had a great time! We shopped, shopped, ate and shopped, then ate some more! Poor Chris for enduring the shopping. And, I feel a little bad that we were such home bodies, (no shows, no doing out to dinner, just boring old home) but lately I've discovered with the baby(ies) home is so much easier. We can eat, they can (at the time roll) crawl around on the floor. I don't have to worry about Mr. Squirm Worm wiggling out of a high chair. Poor Addie had no choice...she's pretty highchair-y, AJ, not so much, especially at that time, he wasn't even sitting up by himself. Now, it's a little better (not much...which I will elaborate on in a later post). So here are a few of the kiddos hanging out together.

I think this is so cute with her little head on his shouler...say it with me now..."Awwww!"

Tick Tock

I have good intentions, just no time...maybe later.

Invitation must be lost in the mail.

To All My Friends...that I love...I love to check your blogs to feel like I'm keeping up with you even though we don't talk as often as I'd like. Some of you have changed your privacy settings so that I have to be invited and I havn't recieved an invitation :( I'm giving you all the benefit of the doubt that it was a mere oversight. If I'm wrong and you really don't want me stalking your family, then so be it, but if you don't mind me being a little voyeuristic, then please invite me! If you don't have my email, it's mollieandersen@yahoo.com . You know who you are, Joanna and Deb. Oh, if you didn't there you go!
Thanks...much love,
Mollie