Photo Shoot

Last Wednesday I took Brynlee and Gracen to a town about 30 minutes away to get their pictures taken by a friend in our ward. She did an amazing job!! All of the pictures were so beautiful and fun! She took us down town near some old buildings, down to an old train station(both kids loved this!), and to a pond.

Here are just a few of the 54 pictures she did for me:

She did an awesome job and I was so excited to have some "real" pictures taken of my kids!!

Thanks again Dana!!

Check it out: Anderson Photography

Dance Recital

Last weekend was Brynlee's dance recital. We started out with a dress rehearsal on Thursday night, then we had a recital on Friday and Saturday night.

3 late nights = 1 grumpy Brynlee!

It was so much fun and all of the girls did such a great job! Brynlee was sooo cute! I was so proud of her for getting up there and not being nervous in front of the audience. I loved watching her just as much as she loved being in it!!

The first routine was ballet and called "Golden Slumber"

All but one of the girls posed for a picture.

Brynlee, Anisha, and Lauren

Brynlee and Lauren

Me and my Girl!

Anisha, Nevaeh, Lauren and Brynlee

The second routine was tap and it was called "Sunshine Cake". This one was my favorite!

Brynlee

You did such a great job! I had so much fun watching you and was amazed at how well you learned your routines this year! After 2 late nights of dancing, you were very disappointed that it was all over! I loved watching you on stage, at the end of the show you were blowing kisses and waving to everyone! Just watching you giggle and get so excited was enough to show that you loved every minute!

If I can figure it out, I will try to post a video of Sunshine Cake sometime in the next week!

LiTTle BRoTHer FoR SaLe...

I have some friends that do a garage sale every year. We are majorly lacking in space around here...totes upon totes of clothing(mostly Brynlee's) so I decided to go through them and try to reduce the amount a bit and sell a few things. This weekend we had the garage sale and Brynlee had to part with a few of HER baby clothes and a couple of toys she never plays with. This was a conversation Brynlee and I had this morning:

Brynlee: "I think we should sell Gracen at the garage sale!"

Me: "Well, how much do you think we could get for him?"

With a mischeivous little grin, she holds up 5 fingers.

Me: "Nah, I think we could get more than that, he's pretty cute!"

Brynlee: "Well...sometimes he's a stinker and he does bad stuff!"

I couldn't help but laugh at this little girl. She was giggling the whole time she said this and thought it would just be so funny to sell her little brother! We decided she would miss him terribly, so we're going to keep him!

Sticky face and all!

Preschool Graduate

Brynlee passed!! She's moving on to the 4 year old preschool class next year! No surprise there! We are so proud of her, she has learned so much and her teachers have always had such positive things to say about her!

It was fun to go and see the little ceremony they held for her class. They sang a few songs and received their diplomas. Then they had cake and punch to help celebrate!

Dancing and singing Goonie Bird.

Brynlee was having a great time! The first song they sang was 5 Little Monkeys and the Alligator. Brynlee was singing so good and LOUD! I was so proud of her, it was a huge surprise to me to see her singing so loudly and getting in to it so much! It was a cute song, and I thought I had it on my video camera, but when I got home I found that I had accidentally pushed the button before hand and recorded my lap instead. When they were actually singing I had the camera out, pushed the button and thought I got the whole thing. Nope...nothing from that song, but I did get some of the others that were cute too! I have been pretty sad about this most of the day, the one song she was singing and I was just holding out the camera...not recording!! Oh well! Here is a clip from the 3rd song they sang called Tootie Tot...

What a cute song!

When her name was called and she went up to receive her diploma, she was too fast and I didn't get a good picture of her taking it. I did get a great shot of her putting it to good use, though!

Best of friends! It was great for Brynlee to have Caleb and Lauren in her class with her! It helped her adjust and not feel scared when I would leave her. These 3 are some of the cutest graduates I've seen!

Brynlee and her teacher Mrs. Sasala.

Her student teachers. She says her favorite teacher was Miss Lillian (front left).

Congratulations Brynlee!!

We are so proud of you and the sweet girl you have become!

Memorial Day Weekend

Nate is on his ER rotation, so he had to work through the weekend. On Saturday, my friend called and invited us to go out to Vermilion and check it out.

Such a cute little town!!

And the drive was beautiful! We drove along the Lake Erie shoreline all the way there, and I had to keep forcing myself to quit looking at the houses for fear that I would run off the road. I need to talk Nate into driving out there with me so I can get a better look!

We got into town and looked around, here are some pictures of what this fun little town looks like...

View from a bridge in town.

We stopped and ate a snack at this cute little picnic table near the river.

In front of the bridge.

We found a fun little ice cream shop and the kids had their own cute little ice cream cones!

Cute girl pose!

View of some houses. These people can park their boats in front of their house. It was such a pretty place!

Playing at the beach.

Doing his usual sand throwing. He didn't like to touch the water.

Houses along the beach.

On Sunday we went to church, Nate was at the hospital. It isn't easy to take the kids to church on my own. I was the only primary teacher that showed up, it was an interesting day! Gracen isn't too fond of nursery. He screamed when I left him and when I walked down to check on him my wonderful friends had heard him from across the hall and went in to sit with him. He was doing good until they had to leave. Then the primary president ended up going in and taking him out for a walk to calm him down. Funny, cause he doesn't even know her. He would much rather leave the nursery with toys and friends to go walk the halls with someone he doesn't know. She had to take him out a few times, but he wasn't crying and was all smiles when I walked down to pick him up. I'm hoping he starts to do better soon!

Nate finally had the day off on Monday!! Here are some highlights from the day...

• Pancakes for breakfast
• Memorial Day parade. The kids got lots of candy.
• BBQ at the park with some friends.
• Gracen took a bite of dog poop while we were at the park(very gross). We cleaned out his mouth and Nate asked him if it was yucky and he shook his head no. Then Nate asked if he liked it and he nodded, yes! He now knows that dog poop is "ucky"
• It was really windy and cold so we left and went to our friends house to hang out and let the kids play.

Watching the parade!

Saying Goodbye

Rewind just about 3 years...we were packing our things and saying our goodbyes. Leaving Utah behind was one of the hardest things about starting our medical school adventure. It was so hard to say goodbye to our family and friends in Utah and head East into the unknown. I had no idea that this would be the beginning of so many goodbyes. Each year around this time, we have had to say goodbye to many of our friends...it doesn't seem to get any easier. The greatest thing about being on this little adventure is the amazing friends and memories we have made!

It seems like I just start to get used to the way things are and it is time for more of those dreaded goodbyes! The time flies by so fast, and before I know it, another year has gone by! This past week we said goodbye to our good friends Mark, Heather and Kimberli. We got to know them our first year of school, said goodbye to them once after a year in Iowa, and then a year later we ended up here in the same place with them again! It has been so much fun and they have been great friends to us! We will surely miss having them around!

Last Sunday we had a little(last minute) get togther with some friends in our ward to tell the Schwendimans goodbye. We had sundays and they were delicious!

Owen, Kimberli, Gracen, Lauren, Emily, and Brynlee

Dave, Eric, Mark, and Nate

Me, Leanne, Heather, Brandi, and Susan

The best part about saying goodbye is that it means we are a year closer to being done with medical school!!! 3 years down 1 to go!! Oh, how I CANNOT wait until graduation!! We officially only have 1 more year to go...now that is exciting news!!

Cruisin the waves of Lake Erie

On Saturday there was a lot going on around here! We got together with some friends and went out to the the kids safety fair. It was also May Day, and Museum Day. Part of the fun (and the highlight of the trip) was a boat ride on Lake Erie.

The rain came pouring down about half way through the ride, it was a good thing Brynlee came prepared! We had to finish the ride standing up after the seats got all wet.

It was kinda tricky trying to stand while the boat was hitting the big waves!

We passed this sailboat on our way out.

Trying to get the pinwheel to blow in the wind.

Brynlee and Gracen walked away with quite the loot! We were having a hard time carrying it all and we lost the cute bear Gracen is holding. They were giving out toys, books, bubbles, coloring books and crayons...the kids got all sorts of stuff and thought it was fun. Too bad the weather didn't cooperate so well, I really wanted to send Brynlee down one of their inflatable slides.