embrace the camera ~ aug 22

i'm embracing the camera with my kindergartener and third grader today!

and this is how daddy likes to embrace the camera with his boys...

i just could not wait for school to start. last week was their first week, and with the temperatures hitting nearly 1,000*, i was happy that they were in their classroom doing something fun {under someone else's supervision} and not at home nagging me about who's coming over? or whose house we are going to? or what are we doing today? or whyyyy can't we play outside and attempt to get heat stroke?

i hope all the kiddos have a great start to their new school year!

embrace the camera ~ july 19

i've fallen off the embrace wagon. it's been a looong time since i last had an embrace post and i've been feeling a little guilty about it.  and i've also been feeling guilty about not doing a better job of blogging, documenting, picture-taking, memory-keeping...

the boys do and say really funny, random things all day long. just the other day, i told the mister i was going to start a twitter account for the boys and just tweet the random, funny stuff that comes out of their mouths all day long. it's like verbal diarrhea. but funnier. and not so gross, i think.

anyway, like i said, i want to do better at keeping my family's memories. i want to stop letting the big, messy things in life get in the way of seeing the little, awesome things. so with this post, i pledge to be a better memory-keeper. and i'm committing to posting once a day - even it's a single photo with no words uploaded from the blogger app on my phone. though, i hope to be able to do better than that.

so here i am, embracing with my sweet wyatt last weekend. he looks like he sure loves his mommy, no?

embrace the camera - jan 12

the bigs and i checked the weather online this morning and then couldn't resist some morning sillies in front of the camera.

isaiah and mikey are into exposing the whites of their eyes. 

but they aren't skilled enough to do it without using their hands...yet.

i love how liam is getting silly with his brothers in these pictures.

on another note, he is transitioning to full-day preschool today - 9a-2pm! 

wishing my sweet boy an extra great day.

embracing the camera with the anderson crew!

embrace the camera ~ oct 20

i thank God every single day for choosing me to be this sweet boy's mommy.

embrace the camera - oct 6

fall is finally here, friends! it's october, the weather has cooled down, and it's raining! yay! wanna know our favorite part about fall? the pumpkins! we had our first visit the pumpkin patch last weekend, and boy, was it fun!

too bad liam wasn't looking, or this would have been a pretty decent picture of the six-pack. :)




my dad came over saturday morning with my sister and her kids to catch isaiah's soccer game, then we all went to the pumpkin patch together. but it was an even more special outing for the kids because my dad drove out to our house in his rv. we all piled in and headed to the patch! it was very beverly hilbilly-esque. heehee but the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.

here are liam and my niece, siliana, enjoying the ride and some sweet treats.


i love this picture of my sweet boy. your joy is contagious, liam!




the bigger kids battling their beyblades in the "bedroom" of the rv. they were really enjoying being able to ride without seat belts. that was the most exciting part for them. {i have no clue why they always have to make faces at the camera.}


here are all of my dad's grandchildren in one place! seven of them, so far. number eight is on the way...and it's NOT coming from me!!!!


siliana and mikey.


for those that don't know, my isaiah firmly believes that he is a ninja and must challenge himself with any ninja-like task that is presented to him. when he saw that the pumpkin patch had this amazing rope course, he made it clear that he NEEDED to do it. and here he is...jammin' through the course like it was nothing.

umm...my knees were shaking just watching him up there.

what a proud little ninja.

last but not least, here are my dad and mikey, watching isaiah on the rope course.

 it was a super fun day for all. have you paid a visit to the pumpkin patch yet?

embrace the camera - sept 29

i don't know what's gotten into wyatt but he decided to grow up all of a sudden, and all within the course of a week. and it also happens to be his 9-month birthday today! so i'm embracing the camera with my sweet, littlest boy this week as an inevitably failed attempt to clutch onto his baby-ness, as if my life depended on it.

it's hard to believe that this is itty bitty peanut baby is how my now nine-month-old began. 

i can't even remember him being so small, portable and lightweight. he was like an advertisement for a camping tent or something. big fun, small package!

 

i was looking through photos and found this one of isaiah with me and wyatt. isaiah was crying and he said it was because he loved wyatt so much.

this is an example of the beauty of photos. you can't possibly remember every single beautiful moment all the time, but looking at a picture can so easily remind you and bring you right back to that moment...emotions and everything. i hope my boys never outgrow their brotherly love. my hope is that they love, protect and care for each other for all of their lives.

moving on...

somebody tell me who this boy is...drinking from a sippy cup like a big boy.

or this boy....eating table food like we're about to run out. 

or how about this hunk of chunky cuteness?

i really don't know who this boy is and what he's doing in my house. but he thinks he can crawl around like it's his.

i lost him three times yesterday. yes. he was lost. in our house. i ran from room to room in search of this fast-crawling little monkey.

i can't take it anymore, little man! stop growing, would you? just stop it. right this second.

embrace the camera - 9.22

my hubby recently celebrated his 38th birthday. as his gift, his dad and stepmom had all four boys at their house overnight, so that shawn and i could have an entire night to ourselves. we had grand plans to have dinner in san francisco and go out for drinks afterwards. umm, NOT. as soon as we dropped off the kids, we immediately decided, after acclimating to our new quiet surroundings, that it would be much more worthwhile to spend this glorious quiet time watching reruns and movies on the hotel tv...in peace. and that we did. 

it was wonderful weekend spent as "husband and wife" and not as "dad and mom". in just 24 hours, we scarfed down scrumptious meals at four different restaurants. talk about over-indulging. i especially enjoyed having conversations with my husband. and not just conversations about schedules and kids and the usual things we talk about everyday. we actually talked and listened and responded...about anything and everything.

one of the things i fell in love with about shawn is his wealth of random knowledge. he knows a lot of things. and really random things. he talked about wine and the different kinds of grapes and where they all originated. we watched a movie and it made reference to a name and he knew that name as the prime minister of russia in 1984...or some crazy thing like that. {and, no. i don't think russia really has a prime minister...or do they?} we talked about cars. he told me that, back in the day, cougars were for men and mustangs were for women. and that the door handles on mustangs were made deeper to make room for a woman's nails. rannnndom, i tell you. he's older than me by almost 10 years, which is really not that much in the grand scheme of things, but he has lived a lot more life than i have and i love to hear his stories.

if there is one thing that we can work on with our relationship, it's making time for each other. we often get so absorbed in the hustle of daily life with four kids, that we don't put priority on each other. i'm grateful for the time we had to get reacquainted. and i'm grateful to my in-laws for giving us that opportunity. i always believed we had a pretty strong bond, but it certainly feels like we went home to our boys with a closer relationship and a stronger marriage.

happy 38th birthday, my love! 
here's to many, many, many more. we're going to grow old together, babe, and i love you more than you could ever know.

embrace the camera - sept 8

embracing the camera with my itty bittiest babe today. this little guy is really a bundle of joy. he's the sweetest, smiliest, mellowest, little cuddle bug you'd ever meet. we call him quiet wyatt for a reason.

 i'm guessing he reserves his complaints because he's already realized that he will need to take a number if he needs anything in this casa of boys. 

in the few moments of the day where i'm not smothering him with kisses, he's a perfectly happy little spider monkey hanging on mommy's back and enjoying the scenery.

 you are the sweetest, little wyatt. 

i never realized that a piece of my heart was missing until you came and filled it. 

i hope you know and feel that you are loved immensely.

embrace the camera - sept 1

really? did i just write sept 1 for the date? wow. this year is flying by. the weeks are flying by, too, and i haven't had much time to blog. but i'm grateful for thursdays because it's embrace day. it helps me remember to take a moment and write a quick post, just so i don't forget the purpose of this blog. 

we spent last weekend in a cabin near yosemite with some good friends and our kiddos. it was definitely one wild and crazy adventure, but also soooo much fun and lots of great memories went down in the books.

 hopefully i'll have time to post the pictures from that trip after we get back from tahoe this weekend. but for now, here are our obligatory shots of posing in front of the yosemite sign. yay for tourists.

the three younger boys were asleep and we didn't want to disturb them for a picture. so in this picture, we only have one child. i don't even remember what it was like to have only one child.

  

here's one of me and my friend, lacy, at one of the first vista points upon entering yosemite. 

the views were absolutely breathtaking. i love being surrounded by the beauty of nature. the calm is incredibly refreshing. and it couldn't have come at a better time.

and here is crazy lacy diving off a cliff at rainbow pool.

and me and wyatt...on stable ground...watching her. 

call me crazy, but i prefer solid ground under my feet at all times. thanks.

embrace the camera - aug 25

it's been a long, tough week of therapy for my sweet liam. 

which is why it's been pretty quiet in our little corner of the blogosphere.

i'm just too tired to blog. perpetually exhausted.

lots of changes happening. transitions. lots of fighting. lots of tears. but also lots of progress.

and that's what keep us going.

things will get worse before they get better.

i get that.

in the meantime, i'll just embrace the camera with my sweet boy.

even though he's more interested in poking at the screen.

sorry, liam. the laptop isn't a touch screen.

 fine. don't give me a kiss. 

i'll just take one.

or maybe two. 

love you, little monster.

thanks for making me a better me.