Ahh Christmas...

Christmas was a whole new experience for me this year. I did a lot of things different than in years past. First, Christmas had ALWAYS been about making homemade gifts. I think I always thought I did not have enough money for a decent gift so I worked REALLY hard on homemade gifts to compensate. This year I just spent a boatload of money on everyone and did not make one single thing. Second, Christmas has always been about decorating and making things pretty and festive. I live in a home where I am the only one of 6 people who care a whit about decorations. My boys were really excited to put up the tree but they would have been fine if it did not have its branches spread out, lights on it or a skirt under it. They just wanted a tree. So, I still decorated and fussed but it felt foolish and futile as I did so and I'll admit my heart was not as much in it as usual. Third, Christmas is usually about shopping and braving crowds and stores . I bought 99% of everything online at mostly amazon, my new best friend. There is no other way to go and I don't know how my kids would have any presents this year without The interwebs of love. And 4th, Christmas is usually about snow, but now that I am an Oregander, I am learning to train myself to expect Christmas when I see fog instead. By about dec. 20th, I realized that snow is really not coming but Christmas still is, so I better get ready, ready or not.
So there was no snow, no stores, no visit to Santa, no zoo, no crafts or sewing or homemade cards or even Christmas cards from us at all (that's a whole other story), and no fancy new homemade decorations or kids crafts (I KNOW) or even gingerbread houses (I KNOW!), but it was still Christmas, and it was still busy even though I bet you're wondering what we actually did do, and frankly I am too.
Paul's motto this month has been, "nothing feels better than canceled plans." I think with our 4 littles we both just thought it best to keep it simple. My motto is "Always complicate things".
Paul's second motto is, "Be as lazy as possible without sabotaging Melody's plans." Paul thinks my second motto is: "Do everything I can to keep Paul from ever getting a nap or any time to himself."
So basically, my gift to Paul was to plan nothing. We had a party for Goodskin Dermatology at Andina's, a very fancy Brazilian restaurant downtown. (Paul planned it and I thanked him profusely for not making it at our house!) It was wonderful! We all got to sit at one table in our own room. There were just enough seats and everyone came. We had 21 people. We all went around and introduced our spouses. I got to do a toast to Paul which was a special moment for me to tell him in public how proud I am of him and what he has accomplished. I'll tell you what was a little surreal was to see my young husband sit at the head of this large table full of guests who literally look to him for their daily bread. The symbolism of the moment was not lost on me. He conducted the dinner with dignity and grace and obvious leadership. Our guests were very gracious and grateful and kind. They were so pleased with our gift and bonuses and it was a very fun night.
We also got to go to a Blazers game. Thank you drug reps! I had the best time! My brother Dave got to go which made it way more fun because while Paul was schmoozing with all the docs and reps I got to joke around with Dave. Best brother ever! The Blazers lost at the last second by one point. Huge, huge let down! But the night could not have been more fun. Free babysitter.. Brother Michael.. Also Best Brother ever! No lines, no crowds, box seat, free food! Yes, it was totally the best! Yes, you can be jealous.
We were sick for a lot of the month. I think the kids have coughed for 4 weeks. I did go to the ward Christmas party.. by myself. The sick kids needed an early night to try to get better. My friend Christy went over the top decorating and making everything PERFECT. It was amazing and all I could think was SO MUCH WORK!
Eirik had basketball games every Saturday this month. He improved so much this season. He was so kind to his teammates and went out of his way many times to build team spirit and morale. He had a really good time and we had a fun celebration with pizza and trophies for his team at Round Table Pizza.
He also had belt testing for Tae quon do and got his yellow belt. We went to a really cool Masters Demonstration where his teachers for World Champion Tae Quon Do show off their skills. It was awesome! There were boards flying everywhere!
We went to the annual Aanderud cookie exchange at Pattys house. We took 11 plates of cookies and came home with 11 so we all got a huge variety to pass out. The kids and Paul were all really good sports about caroling as we passed them out.
On the 23rd we started a new tradition of eating Chicken A La King. The chicken is served in bread bowls shaped like crowns for the King of Kings. My good friend Erin Walker introduced it to us and all of my kids loved it. This is definitely a tradition we will keep doing. We spent the candlelit dinner talking about what gifts we will give our Savior this year. This was one of my favorite parts of the year.
Christmas eve was amazing. Ben and Kim hosted. I seriously don't know how they do all they do! They have 5 kids and they had 30 people over for dinner in Christmas eve. It was a gorgeous ham dinner. I signed up for rolls and desert. I made two gorgeous fruit pizzas. They are one of my favorite traditions but every year Paul says, "why do we do these again?" They take a long time and because they took so long my rolls were not looking good.. In fact, they were in danger of not making it at all. I had a really good plan to make my rolls look like crowns. I had a great recipe. I had it all planned but, I will be honest.. I have never been that great at rolls. I think they only turn out 1 out of 5 times I make them
If I'm really honest with myself and so at the last minute I panicked and Paul, the guy who always saves the day, bought rolls at Albertsons. We put them on cookie trays to heat them up when we got there. As Ben was announcing the food he said "melody's homemade rolls" and I was too embarrassed to say anything and as I choked on the truth the party moved on.. I did not correct him! I didn't mean to lie. I did not mean to claim then as my own but I did not pipe up and say, "Thank you Albertsons" and so... that happened. :)
They had 4 tables set with red tablecloths and Christmas crackers and Martinellis. After dinner we went to the "theater room" to watch funny you tube clips. The we stood to sing the Halleluia Chorus. The Nativity followed. I loved Eirik as Joseph, Joren as a shirtless shepherd and Teig as a Wise Man. He told me later he was embarrassed that the big kids were laughing at him. It has to be hard to be the youngest, but he was so cute!!
When Santa came next my kids eyes all lit up like it was the best thing in the whole world. They sat on his lap and the wonder and delight in their eyes was priceless.
Then there were hugs and kisses and more presents to pass out and many tired children to wrap snug in their beds and visions of sugar plums to plant in their heads.
Uncle Dave came to sleep over and to see what Santa would bring. I made the kids sit so i could comb their hair before running down the stairs and you would think I was making them all drink brussels sprouts or something. The torture! The anticipation was wonderful.
The months and months and months of making endless lists and editing and revising them for hours and hours paid off for Eirik. We did not buy him the deer camera to mount to a tree to monitor your yard that he wanted, or the camo face paint, but I think we covered most everything else, and Santa did the rest. Joren said Eirik got more than him (which was not really true) but I told it was true because he lost some presents for being naughty! He has been SO naughty!!!! He loves his bow and arrow though. This year, once again, all Teig really wanted was the candy. He did really like the slot cars though, and so did I! Juni got a beautiful doll from Grandma Law and I got a Blend Tec, exactly what I wanted. Eirik made me two bracelets, bought me a ring and gave me all his turquoise jewels. Joren gave me an amaryllis he planted at school and he wrapped up things from his room for all his family members.
The boys got so many fun things this year. We just spoiled the crap out of them. This is the first year that everything is not from mom2mom sales and we just had a blast finally getting them some awesome toys. We got a glider, a robot, remote control helicopters, bay blades , hex bugs, bike, bows and arrows, ninja swords, dart guns, games, puzzles, books, night light turtles, movies, spy gear- night vision goggles, walkietalkie watches, sky landers.. and a stomp rocket.. Wow, it was fun to see them get so many things they have been begging for for so long! It is great to be able to make their wishes come true. I feel so grateful!
Christmas night for me as a child was sometimes a letdown because when the day is over, it's over and the magic goes away an it's kind of sad. Tonight we watched White Christmas and then Paul and I snuggled with Eirik on the couch and talked in the glow of the Christmas tree about silly things and memories and wishes and then I made Eirik hot chocolate and stayed up with him until he fell asleep on the couch. I think it will be a very special memory for him. I know it will be for me.
Merry Christmas!

Best Buy

Leaving Best Buy with Paul, Joren said, "Dad I might as well just open my head and pull out my brain and throw it away because after that store my mind is blown!"

Assembly time

I just went to an assembly for Eirik and Joren at their school. Eirik diligently held his nice poster and had all his parts of his poem memorized and spoke loud and clear.
Joren pulled his shirt up over his head the whole time his class was doing their part; like a turtle, and when his group stepped forward for their part, he could not see, so he did not step forward. When they were done he sort of walked aimlessly for a minute and then say down appearing oblivious to what was happening around him. Hmmmm....

Sick day:

This morning Eirik got out of school by saying this: "It feels like a thousand tiger claws ripping up my throat. It feels like the upper half of my head is fiery red hot with an ear splitting headache and any sound will make my head practically fall off. My stomach feels like any more food with quickly make me barf and I am going to hurl at any second!"

Joren is 6!

Joren, our sweet, wild red head is already turning 6! Yesterday we took him and the other boys to the Clackamas aquatic center for his birthday. He loves to swim. He invited one friend named Izzy to come with us. I'm glad I was watching him attentively because at his first chance he took off to the deep end of the wave pool alone. I followed right behind him without him seeing me and when he got really deep and started to look worried I was there. He said, "how did you follow me?" I told him "I'm your mom, I'm always here for you." he put his arms around me and said "I love you more than the universe". We enjoyed the waves for a while and then Eirik drug me to the slides. At the bottom of this huge waterslide Joren saw us come down and of course wanted to go next. We told him sadly that he was not tall enough and we had already scoped it out to see if they would be lenient for a birthday boy and they would not. He started sobbing giant alligator tears and saying that it was the worst birthday ever. That was the low point. Dad saved the day by challenging Joren to squirt him with his new spy ring. Dad dodging streams of water was really funny and soon everyone was busting up laughing. We had sundaes and then let Joren open presents. We spoiled him this year.
We decided that starting presents a day or two early is the way to go. One present every couple of hours for two days makes it feel like a TON of presents and gives him time to enjoy them before getting overwhelemed with all of them at once. We had Ben and Kim and the kids and Grandma Pat and Grandpa John, My dad and Davy and Michael all come over for dinner on Sunday to celebrate.  I loved having Laws AND Aanderuds at our house at the same time! It was tons of fun. Joren wanted tacos and a Skylanders cake (which I bought from Safeway.. yes I am that kind of mom now. My first store bought cake!) He loved it and I learned from my recent Godzilla cake that I could learn a thing or two about decorating!  Paul and I had fun picking out presents for him. We bought him a little fish that is a hex fish so it's like a little robot that swims in the water. So cool! He got a wooden box homemade by Davy and Michael. I bet he will have that forever. It was a great birthday.
I love our crazy, wild child with a nonconformist mind. He's a little fireball.

Dinovember!

This month the dinosaurs came to life everynight for 2 weeks.

The first night Joren suggested that we call the police because this was really weird. Eirik said, "I can't believe our dinosaurs really came to life!" Teig hid the dinos under his bed every night to make sure they would not get into any more trouble.  I don't know how it happened, but they must have sneeked into our car with us because when we came out of our hotel in Ontario, ID.. there they were trying to start the car. Then at Grandma and Grandpa's house they were playing in the stream outside their house. They were so mischievous!

Thanksgiving Week vacation in Utah

We're driving home from a wonderful Thanksgiving Week vacation in Utah with my family.

What a great week it has been! Some of my favorite memories will be swing dancing with Michael and my mom, Riding a motorcycle by myself, shooting guns, Seeing my brothers in all their motorcycle gear, the gorgeous light and the mountains and staying up late with my mom cooking.  I loved it all.


I love the desert.
I love the hot sun,
the bright blue sky and the smell of the dust.
I love the dry desert plants and the rocks and wide open spaces.
I love the old crumbly buildings and piles of hay and that you can find rusty metal altoid boxes along the side of the road.
I love the black cows in the dry yellow grass and how the mountains can be any color depending in the time of day and lighting
like the stunning deep purple of yesterday.
I feel right at home here and love to be by my family.

Paul took all the boys on long 4 wheeler rides. Joren asked if he could drive. Paul was surprised when he let Joren drive that he was pretty good at it. After that Jake and Eirik got to drive too. They all got to try riding Dave and Tera's little kid motorcycle. Eirik preferred the guns. Joren loved the motorcycle and did a really good job. Even when he crashed he got up and rode again. Paul loved the dirt bikes and shooting guns with my dad. Teig loved playing in the dirt and watching all the action. Juni liked being held the whole time. My mom brought a yummy tail gait picnic of leftover Thanksgiving food to our excursion.

Paul enjoyed seeing our kids play with cousins. Ole Ab Elsie and Zinnia were so nice to our boys. Eirik and Joren slept over and did not want to leave. Ab helped Joren and Eirik build a quiver for each of them.

 We loved a too quick stop in Idaho with our besties Kit and Basil and their adorable girls. They will always be like going home. I so love them.

I enjoyed seeing my wonderful grandparents Bonnie and Stan Williams. Grandma is still sharp as a tack and doing her best to help Grandpa with the things he forgets. Grandpa is a bit confused but still teases me and laughs at my jokes. I love these people.

Eirik got to ride to Utah with my Dad and Davy and Michael. He was so excited to road trip with them that he woke up my Dad at 3:20 am and then at 5:20 and 6:20 until my dad finally got up. They had a great time and riding 13 hours with 3 kids was easier than 4. In fact there wasn't one fight our whole trip. The kids were great!

Soaked cute

Teig started to believe that the word 'so' is really 'soaked' so he's been saying things like, "I'm soaked hungry" and "I'm soaked tired". I just heard him singing to Juni, "and you are soaked cute!"

Best brothers

I just poked my head in my boys room as they were about to go to sleep. I asked if they were telling secrets like best brothers do and they said they were telling who they think is the cutest. Then they listed who the cutest people are. For Eirik it goes: 1. Heavenly Mother 2. Me 3. She-ra the hamster 4. pillow pet 5. Stuffed animals 6. Himself
Jorens list goes 1. Me, 2. himself, 3. little mermaid, 4. Juni 5. She-ra
Isn't that flattering that I'm on the list!
Eirik told me last week that he wished he could ride in a time machine back to when my mom and dad had me and get them
to wait so I would be his age so he could marry me.! I love my little guys!

GOODSKIN DERMATOLOGY- Remodel complete!!

 After over a year of planning, I am happy to announce that our office remodel is finally complete!

 Here is a collage of some before shots:

As you can see, we had a lot of pink and purple everywhere. Every piece of cabinetry in the whole office is a soft rose grey color. We could not change it all, so I did my best to work it in. 

 We chose this color scheme: 

We wanted to play off of natural beauty and to reference the Northwest. 

Paul wanted the office to be warm and comfortable.

Ta Da!

 This is our wonderful team. There is a great vibe in the office and it is a fun place to work! 

Nate Smith is our PA 

 

This is Leah, our aesthetician. She is wonderful. 

We feel so blessed to have been able to achieve this dream. Paul loves his work. It is challenging and new everyday. I am so proud of him!

Christmas preparation:

"I am going to give you a polar bear skull for Christmas. And a polar bear fur and even a baby polar bear. I am going to go catch a baby polar bear wif my net and ven I will bring it back and put it in a big box for you." Teig

Eskimo Joren

I built Joren a Teepee for his birthday last year. Last night Joren decided he was an Eskimo and wanted to sleep on the floor in the teepee.  You know Joren so you know that once he decides something, fighting is going to be a major battle so I told him yes, ONLY if I could make his bed in his teepee for him. He hated it because he wanted to sleep on a towel with no blanket, but he let me put a sheepskin blanket down that is soft enough to be comfortable and give him a brown (animal skin) blanket. I tried his red down blanket, but there weren't geese as far north as he was as an Eskimo and there were no berries growing that far north to dye the fabric red, so it had to be brown. He wanted to sleep naked, but I told him Eskimos live in the cold and needed long johns. He would not wear his black ones, but I finally convinced him to wear his white ones, but they had to be inside out because they have a pattern on them right side out. I crawled in his teepee and sang him a made up eskimo song called noni noni and we talked about the stars over the cold tundra. He told me the story about how his whole village went whale hunting and he used the whale fat to make his teepee waterproof. It was pretty sweet. The kid has an intense imagination and he just comes to life at night. I started calling it the art bug because he gets it as soon as it gets dark or as soon as I say it is bedtime and he gets all kinds of ideas. He did some of the coolest drawings this weekend. I like the weekend nights when I can let him stay up a little later and let him do his thing.

November is already here!

I also got my first pair of rain boots in the mail from amazon. I am officially an Oregonder now.
Tomorrow we are installing and painting the last of our remodel at the office. I think it will go into just one more weekend for final touches but I am so excited to have it finished. It has truly been way more consuming than I expected. I can't wait to post photos. It is looking so beautiful. I am proud that Paul gets to work in such a nice office and by doing tons of the work ourselves we have saved a lot if money.

My parents bought a house in Lake Oswego and I have been designing it as my brothers and a few other contractors remodel it. It is going to take until the first week of dec to finish but I think it is going to be pretty special. I have learned so much on this project to prepare me for many upcoming remodels and hopefully our own house someday. We have been on the search for a house in our ward. We found an AMAZING home across the river with a waterfall and trout pond and barn and shop and chicken coup, but it's not in the ward and not in the school district we moved here to be in. We are still considering it because it is so absolutely dreamy. Plus we are not even qualified for a loan yet. We are hoping to move around march/ April. I just want to be settled for good.

One thing about Michigan is that there are no mom2mon sales. I am going to miss this this Christmas. No more steals for Christmas presents.  EVERYTHING is so much more expensive here. My grocery bill has doubled! I still can't stomach buying enough produce because it is so much more than I am used to spending. I thought I would stop couponing when Paul got a job but I am considering getting back into it, even though it is such a pain.

Eirik discovered the joys of amazon wish list. He is now a very proficient Internet shopper. I know.. The horror.. I mean I just learned how to shop online in the last few years and before then there were way less choices. Now it is so easy to want everything because it's all right there. His wish list included over 200 things at one point. He has narrowed it down quite a bit and it has actually been really handy! When he has earned a reward by some particularly great accomplishment or behavior I have gone to his wish list and just bought something small. It comes in the mail and he is thrilled. I went ahead and paid for amazon prime and I have been using it for everything. I will do all of jorens bday and Christmas on Amazon prime. I am looking forward to the after thanksgiving day sales. Eirik mostly wants outdoor and hunting gear and camouflage stuff. His wish list also includes lots of camo face paint and soap that deep can't smell and other things you would never think of if you weren't a 7 year old boy. Joren wants a parrot and as usual is never happy with what he has for long so I won't invest in anything for him. He had his class start calling him Alex when he moved here and now he wants them to call him Mark. He has very intense, short lived interests. I'm not sure what I will get him. Teig loves toys of all kinds. He is so easy to buy for because he is genuinely pleased with everything. He is all sugar. Juni gets whatever she wants. There are still only 2 girl toys in the house so I plan to spoil her a bit.
I'm so excited for Christmas this year. All my boys believe in Santa and for the first time I feel like we have enough money to not stress about gifts. My intent this year is to see delight and joy on their faces! I can't wait!

Teigs strength

Did you kno I have via reawwy strong fing inside myself? It's cawed a bone. It's right here and it petects me." "that's your rib Teig". "you were right. It was my rib and it makes me reawwy reawwy strong see?" (to show me his strength he lifts up his elbow and makes a scary face and says "see how strong it is!" then he starts elbowing hard objects and pretending it does not hurt him!

Halloween 2013

 This year I let the boys order ninja shoes and new nun-chucks, swords and shirakins for their Halloween costumes. Of course, the night before Halloween, they all decided to be something else besides ninjas. Good thing we have a gazillion costumes and they could pick whatever they wanted. Eirik decided to be a Boy Scout one night and an Army Spy the next. Joren was one of the Fantistic 4 one night an a ninja the next. Tieg was a dinosaur both nights, but he talked a lot about being Wolverine. Poor Juni got to be a cutie with an owl hat. I did not get much more of a costume for her than that, but she was still the cutest ever.  I had fun decorating for Halloween as usual. I just wish i could keep my gourds and ravens up all year.