Our intentions were good, but apparently we're not the best at following through with things. We did some videos of the kids for Austin's parents for Christmas and then we did nothing with them! I totally forgot that we even did them and as I'm going through my pictures I find these! So, a very very belated Merry Christmas Grandma and Grandpa! Enjoy!
Well, we had our 1st annual Christmas pizza and cookie night with the Rogers. We had the kids make their own English muffin pizzas and then we all decorated cookies for Santa (and some for us, too, of course!)
Sorry, my kids look pretty ratty. It was their first day off for winter break and since I spent all day in the kitchen making sugar cookies (dang, those take a long time...especially with three helpers), I didn't even bother to do anyone's hair. We're lucky they were dressed for the day. If I recall correctly, I had just gotten out of the shower myself when the Rogers arrived that evening! Anyway, we had a great time and the kids loved decorating the cookies. As you can see, Spencer was a huge fan of the red crystals! Scott was extremely impressed with Linda's "artistic frosting abilities" and "attention to detail" and I even caught Austin getting into the spirit of it. It was a fun night...one that we'll definitely repeat next year!
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So, my sister, Kristen and her friend Tommy from work went to their boss, John's house for "game night." As they are walking up they can't help but notice how pristine his front lawn looks with all of the snow and they decide to write an anonymous message in his lawn. You see, John is Scottish and apparently he has a tendency to sound a bit like Shrek, so they decided to stomp that into his lawn. They go into game night, have a good time and no one says a word about it. Game night is also the following night...Kristen won't be going, but Tommy will. Kristen asks Tommy to bring up the subject to see if they knew it was them who did it and when Kristen asks Tommy about it at work on Monday, Tommy says that he forgot to bring it up. No worries, though, because it's not a big deal, right? Hmmm...
Well, on Monday Kristen and this lady are working on a project together and John comes over and proceeds to tell the following story to the lady Kristen is working with:
"You guys will never guess what happened! Not yesterday, but the Sunday before, I was teaching the Teachers (the 14-15 year old boys) in church, and they were just being so disrespectful. I couldn't get them to stop talking and I finally had to raise my voice a bit to get their attention. Well, when I raise my voice, my Scottish accent becomes stronger and then they all started chanting, "Shrek! Shrek!" I went straight to the bishop and told him that something needs to be done about their lack of respect and that I am no longer going to put up with this."
Meanwhile Kristen is intently listening to this story and is busting up laughing. They keep looking at her like "this story isn't that funny" but she can't contain herself.
And the story doesn't end there. He continues:
"And then, this weekend we notice that night that those boys had come over and stomped Shrek into my front lawn. I reported this new incident to the bishop, who then asked the them to confess. No one would fess up, so he made them all come over to my house and mess up the message and then he told them that the next time it snows, they all need to come over and shovel for me."
At this point, Kristen still thinks this is hilarious, but also very sad. She feels horrible that innocent boys have taken the rap and thinks, "Oh no! We're going to start a ward feud!" She doesn't have the guts to tell him that it was actually them and decides to leave it up to Tommy to come clean. She's now laughing pretty hard (enough that she's crying), but is more a nervous laughter than anything. They keep asking her why she thinks it's so funny and she can't answer them!
So when John is done telling his story, Kristen says, "Tommy has got to hear this! It's so funny!" So they go over to Tommy's cube and John retells the story to him. Tommy listens to the story, completely stonefaced. Kristen takes a steps back behind John (so she thinks John can't see her, but Tommy can, but John really could see her) while he's telling the story and puts her arms out like, "Seriously? You aren't going to say anything?" John finishes his story and Tommy says nothing! John and Kristen leave and go back to their desks. Kristen IM's Tommy and asks him why he woosed out. He says, "It would've been weird since you already heard the story and didn't say anything. He told you first, you should've said something." So, they go back and forth about what to do and how to approach John. They are both a little nervous and hope that he thinks it's humorous and that it doesn't upset him.
Kristen is telling me this story and I'm nervous for her. Seriously, if she's anything like me, avoid awkwardness and confrontation at all costs. But, she has to do something because these poor boys are being accused of something they didn't do!
So, Kristen and Tommy decide to nip this in the bud (which is more like a full blossom at this point) and walk over to John's desk and set the record straight. As they walk up, John chuckles and Kristen asks him what's funny. He says, "Oh, just something my sister-in-law said." Just then Tommy completely busts up laughing and says "I can't do it any more!" Both Tommy and John are laughing hysterically and it's then that Kristen realizes that the joke's on her! They had totally fabricated this whole story to get Kristen!
I was laughing so hard when she told me this part of the story that I was crying and my throat and stomach hurt! I guess it was so funny to me for a couple of reasons: it was 1:00 in the morning, the way Kristen told the story totally got me too and I thought it was great that Tommy and John knew just how to "get" her. If any of you know her, awkward situations are Kristen's nemesis and they put her right in the middle of one! So, this post is a shout out to Tommy and John...props and thanks for the good laugh!!!
The day after Thanksgiving, Sarah was kind enough to take some family pictures . We went up the the USU campus on a FREEZING cold day and we severely underestimated the time of sundown. We didn't account for the mountains, which hid the sun about 45 minutes earlier than we expected. So, needless to say, having to hurry coupled with the cold made for an interesting experience. The kids were surprisingly cooperative considering the circumstance and I think we got some really good ones. Sarah did a great job and I hope that having these in her portfolio will help and not hinder (referring to the subjects, not the quality of pictures!) her budding business! After the fact, I realized that we didn't get one of just the kids, but oh well! It probably would've been a nightmare anyway! I am so happy with how they turned out...thanks Sarah! You're great! 
I know I am several holidays behind, but I know that if I don't do it now, it'll never get done! We were lucky enough to be able to have my entire family around for Thanksgiving this year and we all met at my parents' house in Draper for the feast.
So, we had a stroke of genius this year and decided to feed all of the kids first. We set their dishes on top of ours and that way no one had to eat at the dreaded Thanksgiving "kid table". They felt just like grown ups and then all the grown ups were able to eat our scrumptious dinner in peace! One of our favorite Andrus Family Thanksgiving traditions are the famous orange rolls. I was put in charge this year and, as always, made way too many (6 dozen didn't sound like too many until I saw them all bagged up on my kitchen table!). Unfortunately, the kids like them just as much as we do (with the exception of Codey who "prefers rolls that do not have orange rind in them"). I didn't get to Paige fast enough to take her picture before she popped the rest of hers in her mouth, which she so graciously agreed to show me.
They started the reception by serving an amazing dinner. They had a special children's menu and before it could even arrive, I look over and see Kamae sleeping right at the dinner table! Poor thing....it had been a long day and she was really sunburned. Austin ran and bought some Aloe Vera from the gift shop in the hotel lobby and I was able to put her head on my lap, unbutton the back of her dress, and rub aloe on her back without her even waking up. She was out! One problem, though. They (she and Paige) had worked hard to rehearse a song to sing at the reception. They hadn't done it yet. So, we let her sleep for a little while and then woke her up. I had to use every bribe in the book to get her in the mood to want to sing. I knew once she completely woke up she'd want to do it, but getting her to that point was a challenge. I kept asking her, "What can I give you to get you to sing?" She finally said, "Mom, the only thing I want in this whole world right now is to go to sleep." Aaaahhhh....what do you do? So, I gave up and just took her on the dance floor with me and started dancing. She finally woke up completely and was her happy self...thank goodness!:)
I found Kamae just in the nick of time. I'm pretty sure she was about to take a finger-full of frosting right before I found her (she did that to Paige's castle cake on Paige's 4th birthday), but she claims that she was just touching the flowers. Hmmm...either way, it's a good thing I found her when I did!
Aunt Suzy was so smart to bring little activity bags for all of the flower girls. We lined some chairs up and set them up along this little wall at the back of the reception. It was perfect and kept them entertained for a surprising amount of time!
Here is a video of the girls' "performance" at the reception. They sang, "What I've Been Looking For" from the High School Musical soundtrack. Paige is on the left and Kamae is on the right. I really wish I had moved them up into the light a little more, but oh well! Sorry!
I thought the cake was beautiful! The thing that amazed me is that the pink stripes aren't ribbon like I expected them to be. I suppose they are a fondant of some sort, but they were metallic looking...very cool! It's hard to tell from this picture, but the cake topper is an "R" for their last name.
Cutting the cake...
Austin's parents enjoying being able to relax and watch everyone dance!
Grandpa and the girls were too tired to last the entire reception! It was getting pretty late and it had been a long, event-filled day! The three of them decided to call it a night!
Like I said before, the whole wedding and reception was perfect! It was well planned, the weather was great and everything was gorgeous! Thanks again, Donna, for a wonderful time and for the great memories!
