dream big

So this is my biggest and wildest dream--to live in a
 placewhere snow can simply not exist.
From what it looks like,

this place above, couldn't have snow any day of the year.

With us moving in the next year or so for  grad. school,

I am keeping my eye  glued to CA.

Overall, my number one  place to live is San Diego. 

How amazing would that be?  I would have a palm tree for a Christmas tree!

And on Christmas day I could walk down the beach

instead of trenching through the snow.

Maybe Austin will let this dream come true!

Afterall, SDSU has both our degrees :)

christmas time

M.E.R.R.Y  C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S everyone!

So I know its a little late, but I am just getting around

 to blogging about our Christmas.

This year, we decided to let eachother each open

a gift on Christmas Eve.  This was  BAD idea!

We couldn't stop at just one--so we ended opening all of them!

 

Everyone finally made it to the big celebration!

Eliza and I just kicking it at the party.

Austin and I ready for a nap! It was a long day.

hit me with your best shot

So just the other day I was with my mom

up at South Town mall getting some Christmas shopping

done for the kiddos that still live at home.

If any of you have been to South Town mall, you

know how horrible the intersection is to get in and out

of it.  So there we were--we made it

through the crazy intersection getting ready to turn into

the lower Macy's parking lot.

I was waiting for another car to pass that was coming in the

 opposite direction I turned in.

Blinker was on, and I was sitting there for a good 30 seconds.

When what do you know...I get rear ended.

The person was going pretty fast because when she

 hit us,  she hit us hard.

I was expecting to see my back end all crushed in.

But to my amazement there was hardly any damage

(that was visible at the time.)

So for right now, I have an imprint of the

person's license plate (she hit pretty hard for that to happen)

and sore neck to go with it.

I smacked my neck/head really hard on the back of my seat

so, now I am paying the consequences for it.

With a day full of a head aches and sore neck.

Maybe I should go get is checked out?

Other than that quick little incident..we still went shopping

and found some great stuff for Emma and Josh.

happy day

I am happy to announce that fall semester is

offically over!

I honestly don't think there are words that can to justice

to express how we feel to have this semester over with.

Can I also simply say how easy life is when you just work?

I honestly don't know what we will do when

we graduate...probably go to graduate school

and get another degree...ha

but we are taking this three week break seriously and resting up

for spring semester---seventeen credits each.

we're taking advantage of every second possible.

what are we doing to ourselves?

Anywayss, we are almost done with

Christmas shopping....with only

10 more days left we better hurry up!

let.the.holidays.begin

We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving because we sure did!

Who can go wrong with two Thanksgiving dinners in one day?

Austin signed us up to make the pies

and from what I heard, they were delicious!

(Since I can't have them. I just make them.)

As embarressing as it is, we have had our Christmas tree up for nearly two weeks!

We absolutely love Christmas and go all out every year.

We will be sure to post some pictures of

our event-filled season this year!

p.s only 26 days until Christmas!



From the Mouths of Babes

Meet Calvin.

He is my cousin that I used to watch almost every

 weekend growing up.

And like most little kids, they have a certain

outlook on life that you always wondered

where they got it from.

Well, the other day he was in the car with

 some friends and his parents

and they could see the Draper Temple from the freeway,

he told his friends thats where I got married.

  He then struck up a conversation with his

 Mom that went like this:

Calvin: Mom, where is Austin and Tara's baby?

Mom:  They don't have one yet.

Calvin: Well ,then how long does it take to make a baby?

Mom: Nine months

Calvin:  Well, haven't they been married for a year?

Mom: Yes, more then a year.

Calvin: Well, where's the baby then?  Because that has been plenty of time.

While he still trying to figure out where

 we are hiding our baby,

 little does he know he won't see one for

a couple of years from us.

 I guess we will just have to 

keep him searching until then.

Attitude of Gratitude

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are a few things that Austin

 and I are grateful to have in our lives:

-family

-my amazing husband

-school (even though there are days we hate it)

-our jobs with a stable company

-being able to pay for both our degrees debt free

- our molly dog

- good health

- g-free foods

- the church

- friends

- our talents

- Austin's outlook on life

- our ward

- freedom

- personal trainers to help keep us healthy and strong

-  the people i am surrounded by at work, school and church

-temples

-Heavenly Father

-atonement

-missionary work

- being able to spend a lot of time with Austin

- and finally, knowing what we are doing in life is the right thing to do.

Yesteday, Emma had her last, and final primary program. As always,

the whole family was there to support her in this grand finale!

She did a really good job on giving her quick talk about a modern day

 miracle that has happened in our family a few years ago. 

Of course, I was all teary eyed,

Jenni, Cordell, my mom, Dad and grandma were all crying as well.

  It really touched my heart to see Emma up there teary eyed

as she told her story. Keep up the great work Emma.

You are an AMAZING little girl :)

The Biggest Loser--Anderson Style

So Austin and I have a really big weakness--its called my mom's kitchen!  Its filled with yummy food at all times of the day, and is all made from scratch.  With the Holidays right around the corner, Austin and I decided that instead of getting nice and plump this season, we would shead off the weight and more!

So here is the competition:

Who ever can loose the most body fat between November 10th to Feburary 10th

 (This will be the total percentage loss.)

Will be the "Biggest Loser" and gets a gift of their choice and

 night out on the town to celebrate.

We measured our body fat yesterday with our personal trainer and are

 ready to kick some butt!

Emma Lou

The other day I got a phone call from my little sister saying she was in November's issue of the Friend.   I was so excited to here this because she had submitted it over a year and a half ago. I went straight to lds.org to find and there it was.  Its under the "I am trying to be like Jesus" section.

I have to admitt that I have a pretty cute little sister.  She looks exactly like me and is more like Jenni in personaility though.  She is a killer soccer player , a straight A student, and she just made student council.

What more could you ask for in a little sister?

Well I didn't mention how spiritual she is at such a young age.  She is 11 years old and some of the things she says makes me tear up because the spirit is so strong.  I am happy that I am her sister and get to be involved with her day-to-day life.

Love you Miss Emma!

Piano Man



Austin and I were lucky enough to see this man in concert this week. 

His name is Jon Schmidt and is an up and coming piano man from Utah.

He has so much personality during his shows it great.

Hope you enjoy it!  He really is amazing!

P.S.  This one is called Love Story meets Viva La Vida

Spook-tactular Weekend

Happy Halloween!

I have a confession, I don't really care for Halloween.

Sure there are super cute decorations for it, but I have never liked to dress up for it.

And neither does Austin.  Thank goodness!
Sadly, Austin and I didn't realize it was Halloween until the doorbell rang!
Pathetic,we know.

We spent the night watching movies all warm and toasty while buckets of water came pouring down outside.

Poor little trick-or-treaters.  They looked miserable in the rain.
Other than eating my weight in Almond Joys, I think it was a pretty good Halloween.



We're Back

We're back.

And we are just thrilled to have our blog back up and running.

Its our way of keeping a journal & saving memories.

We'll keep it updated this time, we promise.