Santa Story

Julie, my college roommate who watches Ander during the week, shared a funny Santa story with me. One morning, Ander was in the high chair with her two children, Bethany, 5, and Jacob, 7, eating cereal. She left for a moment and when she was gone, Ander began screaming. Not just a whiny scream, but "bloody murder" scream. She rushed into the room to see what had happened, thinking his high chair had tipped or that something horrible had happened. There were Bethany and Jacob, their eyes wide open with worry and fear and Jacob at the edge of tears. Julie asked "What happened?!" Jacob looked at her and said, "I just put on my Santa hat and said, 'Ho, Ho, Ho.'"

Apparently, Santa is not a big hit with Ander this first year.

Giving Thanks in the Alamo desert

A nice photo of the beautiful young lady... taken at Lake Alamo where we spent our Thanksgiving. The eight families joining us all brought dishes and dinner was a delicious affair with turkeys, prime rib, ham, side dishes galore and plenty of pie. That was on top of all the snacking that happened before dinner. We took turns riding quads and going on longer rides in the dune buggies and Jeeps. Or you could go down to the lake and fish, or just hang out at camp napping or hanging out at the campfire, which is what Laurie is doing in this photo.


Shane took out his dirt bike and gave it a proper introduction to the desert. Until then, he had ridden it only on asphalt. It was a bit squirrely with road tires, and he needs to get some knobbies to help it out a bit, but he had a big grin on his face after returning from his ride.

I stuck close to camp and Ander, who was a bit clingy in the new environment. Shane took this photo of us sitting near the campfire also.

It's chilly here...

We've had a wonderful winter storm come through, giving us much needed rain over the past 5 days and giving us some chilly temps. We're keeping Ander warm with a couple of hats...

Teaching the little man how to skateboard

Ander came across Laurie's skateboard and kept pushing it from one end of the house to the other end, "walking" on his knees with his little hands on the surface. Laurie decided to help him out a bit and put him on it.

Camping - Lake Alamo Oct.' 07

Laurie, Ander and I met mom and dad at Lake Alamo in mid-October for a weekend camping.
Here we have Laurie, the kindling killer and rowing machine with a photo of mom baiting her hook (poor unsuspecting fish).

Halloween '07

Laurie is working on sewing her costume which included a dark blue corset. It turned out okay - Laurie was pleased with the results, wearing it all day on Halloween (sorry, no photo of that one).

Ander became Tigger for the day. He fell asleep before any trick-or-treating, but wore his costume to day care.

Tiger in the pantry

October 31, 2007

The shelves in the pantry are just the right height for Ander to pull himself up and then pull everything down on to the floor.

Cushion fun

We have a few large extra couch cushions in the living room that we use for reclining on the floor. Ander likes to climb on, over and around them. Recently, I've been putting them up as a tent and he is crawling through them, which he loves.

3 Gens of Chlarson Men

H.R., his two sons Jerry and Shane, grandson Ander and grandaughter Kyra.

A Visit to Page

The weekend of September 15-16, we headed up to Page to visit Grandma and Grandpa Chlarson. Uncle Jerry also visited with 3-year old cousin Summer from Salt Lake City, Utah. It was a family affair and here are a few photos to share.

Laurie and Ander with Grandma Sue and Grandpa H.


Uncle Jerry sharing some of his drink with Ander -- not much made it in.


But Grandma Sue was able to share her pineapple -- yum!


Sue's daughter Shelly came over with her 4 children, for a total of 7 grandchildren visiting that day (The 5 youngest can be seen here. The 2 teenage girls are bonding at the front of the house - as far away from the young ones as possible.)

Aunt Judi comes to visit

Laurie's Aunt Judi and Uncle Kendrick from Cortez, Colorado, stopped by for a visit when they came to the Valley to babysit his grandchildren.

Couchin' it

Laurie's temp tats

Laurie creates some beautiful drawings, some of them on herself. Here's one of her recent masterpieces. Note that her cell phone is never very far from her. :)

Rebel Yell

Laurie decided to help Ander update his look to match the current mohawk resurgence. His first tooth peeking out gives him the extra rebel "edge".

Bigger than an eggbox?

Ander pulled this 18-count egg carton out of our recycling barrel and, as he was playing with it, I couldn't help but see similarities in the size and shape of it with Ander's back -- except that it was larger than he was!

Mimicry is the highest form of flattery

He may not be able to read, but he can assume the pose...

Aunt Kim and Uncle Brian visit

Kim and Brian visited over the Labor Day weekend doing lots of hanging out and resting, though Ander doesn't allow much of that, does he Brian? (note Ander grabbing his ear while he's trying to nap)

Monsoon beauties

This time of year Arizona generally experiences it's monsoon season with cloud formations that become theatres of color at sunset. Below are a few of them with the last catching a piece of rainbow (nice work Shane!).

Fan Fun

We got a fan that, no surprise, Ander is very intrigued with. We keep his fingers away from it by using a dining room table chair laid sideways as a fence. He stands at the "fence" with the wind blowing on him, making noises (intentionally) and faces (unintentionally).

And then there's the drooling...

Laurie's back...

Laurie returned from the summer in Colorado. She's getting settled in at her new high school and making friends. When not texting on her cell and listening to music, she plays with Ander.

How did he get into his toy basket?!

Prunes

Our independent son sometimes insists on 'helping' when he's eating. Here it is prunes...good thing a bath was next on the schedule.

Goin' swimmin'

The house we rented has a community pool. Ander and I are headed there to keep cool...

Spending time with dad

Shane cut his hair very short the day or so after arriving in Arizona to keep cooler. Ander really likes it too....


This is one way to keep Ander from watching TV while dad does...

Boy in motion

Ander began crawling as soon as we arrived in Mesa, Arizona. Three weeks later, he is pulling himself to standing using furniture and cushions.

Dinner Guests

Before we moved to Arizona, we had a number of friends over for dinner. A few photos we took... David watches Ander while Shane finishes up dinner.

Jim begins working his influences at a young age... yummy, beer (this is one of Shane's homemade brews).

Hats

The King (a Burger King bag)

A pair of sweats can turn you into one of Snow White's Dwarves...

Boy's Big Toys

Shane did some online research and got us a great deal on our first family car, a diesel VW Passat (whew! - we can finally all ride somewhere together).

And Grandma Dawson got a big toy for Ander - it currently takes up 1/2 of the available space in our small living room.

Texture

Dad has Ander touch his face to teach him what "scruffy" feels like.

Ander's 4 month check-up

Weighing in at nearly 15 lbs., Ander is right where he needs to be. He's a compact boy at only 23 inches so far but he has a big brain with a head circumfrence in the 90th percentile (he has lots of brains!).

mmmm...toes

Within two weeks, Ander went from grabbing his toes to sucking them.