thank you third grade...

i am a wreck.  my baby (even though she is my eldest she will always be my baby) is finished with third grade today.  it feels like just yesterday that i was panicking about her going to kindergarten.  i spent the weeks before trying to do everything that i wanted to do with her before she started school.  i had always heard that once your kids go to school time flies even faster.  it's the beginning of "growing up".  i tend to get really sad and nostalgic on days like this... the days before school starts, the days before school ends.  it's not that i have a reason to be so sad.  i'm a very involved mom.  i am always present.  i spend a ton of time with my kids and i don't live a life of regret.  i think that a milestone like this only makes the passing of time more evident.  it's easy to get caught in the hustle and bustle of homework and reading goals and school projects and functions and sometimes the days seem to drag on.  sometimes all i want is a weekend or a break... fall break, christmas break, spring break, a random monday off here and there.  it's hard to believe that another year of dragging days and breaks has gone by.  i will probably never stop saying that time flies.  when i'm watching my children and their children graduate high school, get married, become parents... time will still be flying.

em has grown so much this year.  her teacher didn't only teach math facts and spelling, he taught them how to be better, more responsible people.  we are so thankful for the wonderful experience that third grade has been for our entire family.

the days are long but the years are short

happy thursday!
a

wordless wednesday

just love her

could it get any cuter!?

her teacher is in the light blue shirt, front of the line

on the eve of em's last day of third grade i thought it fitting to post pics of her on the first day of third grade :)

where did the year go?

happy wednesday!

a

wordless wednesday

nick and i dressed as woody and jessie from toy story for our friend's famous couples party.

yeehaw!

happy wednesday!

a (aka jessie)

i...

i am...
happy
sore from running stairs in bootcamp (don't ever run stairs on your tippy toes)
forgiving
creative
simple... i like the little things and i'm easy to please

i love...
rainy days
sweet tea
chips and guacamole
crafting
driving through the mountains with the windows down and the music turned up

i don't like...
classic rock
complaining
sushi
jealous people
changing the sheets

i am looking forward to...
taking the kids to west point and nyc in the fall
emily's swim meets
sitting on the porch with nick when we are older
calling dave ramsey in a few months and yelling "we're debt free"
camping

i wish...
people were kinder
i could hug my uncle lee one more time
my kids didn't argue
i had a little fairy to come change the sheets
dr pepper was good for you

i hope...
my kids know their value
the tomatoes i'm growing are good this summer
i give more than i take
my kids know that things do not matter or make you happy
em isn't too devastated on the last day of school, she wants her teacher to move to 4th grade with her

happy monday!
a

the post in which i boast a bit...

i'm not usually one to boast, but i am one proud mama right now. here's why...
at the beginning of the semester a new girl (let's call her "c") came to em's school and was put in em's class.  em, being the friendly, outgoing ball of spunk that she is, offered to show c around.  a couple of weeks after c's arrival, em started coming home and telling me that c wasn't being very kind to her and was calling her names and causing problems on the playground.  em and i would talk about how she should respond to c and when it would be necessary to talk to the teacher.  the situation ended up turning worse and c's aunt was called in to talk to the teacher and em was asked to be in on the meeting and to tell the aunt first hand how c had been acting.  the teacher stood behing em the whole time and told her that he was very proud of her, and c's aunt was thankful for em's honesty.  em was the kid of character for her class that month for the way that she treated c.
fast forward to today when i was in the room talking with the teacher.  he said that he was very proud of how em handled herself with the "c situation".  he said that em acted in a very christian-like manner.  it's not typical for him to be able to share that with a parent, but he goes to the same church that we go to and he knows how important it is to us.
we are so thankful for the teachers that em has had.  out of four teachers, two of them are members of our church and are strong christians... God is so good!

Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,
just as God through Christ has forgiven you."

Ephesians 4:32

happy monday!
a

the story...

when i was trying to come up with the new blog name, i threw around many different ideas, but nothing seemed quite right.  i thought about something crafty, since i love everything crafty.  i thought about something photography related.  i thought about doing something crafty with our names, but that beats the point of taking our name off of the blog.  i was stumped.

nick and i were talking a while back about living in colorado and that's when it hit me... yosemite drive.  the name of the street that our first family home was on.  perfect.

when we were planning to get married, we decided that we would buy a house instead of renting or living on post (ft carson).  he was there in colorado, i was not and that posed a bit of a problem when it came to house hunting together.  with an almost one year old, a full time job and wedding planning, it was impossible for me to make a trip to colorado after january.  he looked at a houses for a couple of weeks but didn't find anything that matched what we wanted.  when he called to tell me that he had found "the" house, he talked me through the layout and explained the house with the most detail that he could and right there, on a phone call with 800 miles between us, we decided to buy the house.  everyone thought it was crazy that he bought our first house without me even seeing a picture of what the outside looked like.  he spent weeks getting the house ready before em and i moved up there. doing things like pulling out the carpet and refinishing the original 30+ year old hardwood and taking useless features out of the back yard (whick was huge, by the way).

the first time i saw the house, our first house, was a week after we were married.  nick flew down to drive em and i and our belongings up to colorado.  he, of course, being the perfect gentleman that he is, carried me and em over the threshold and into the house.  it was even better than i had pictured, it was perfect.

we got right to work, turning our house into a home.  we ate our first family dinner of lentil soup sitting on the floor around a trunk (we didn't have a table yet).  we fell into routines in that house and we fell more in love with each other, with being a family.  we learned to work through anything that came our way.  we learned how to be a team and to always have each others back.  we learned how to live within our means.  we hosted countless get togethers with his fellow army officers and their families.  we celebrated birthdays and positive pregnancy tests.  we became the trivial pursuit champions (that's right, andersons), carved pumpkins, dyed eggs, planned camping trips, planned our move back home, and devoured tri tip and fajitas around our dining room table.  none of our family lived nearby (we did have a cousin in the area, which was nice), so we hosted visitors as often as we could.  there wasn't a month that went by that we didn't have out of town guests and we loved it.  we didn't have cable (gasp) and we would spend our hours talking or playing cards. we could look out our front window and see pikes peak.  we had a sweet neighbor, chester, and i would take him dinner at least twice a week so that he didn't have raisin bran every day.  it's where i spent my 23rd birthday laying the tile floor in our kitchen (he cut, i placed), and wouldn't change a minute of it.  we put our family to work when they would visit... nick's dad helped us re-plumb our master bath after we gutted it.  it was gross, let me tell you.  the only thing we did in there was brush our teeth, we never even turned the water on in the shower.  we tore it out after nick returned from iraq and remodeled the entire thing on our own.  it's where we learned that it's easier to paint base boards before you put them in... thankfully we didn't have carpet!  it's the same home that the three of us walking back into together, exactly nine months to the day after we walked out when nick deployed to iraq.  it's where we jumped in the fallen autumn leaves.  it's where we made snow angels and built snowmen and snow bunnies.  the house that we sold after two days on the market, much to our surprise.  the house that we drove away from on a beautiful april morning with a four year old em in the back seat and ethan on the way, moving on to the next chapter of our lives.  the house that i will always miss.  there are days that i long to be back there, life was so simple back then.  i'm so thankful for that home.  it is where we became a family.

happy friday!
a

i have pictures, but i have to stamp them before i post.