thanksgiving break

first ever plane ride!!

we spent an afternoon up at leavenworth wandering around the Christmas shops and looking for heath's first Christmas ornament

of course heath spent a lot of quality time with grandma and grandpa :)

love this picture of heath and all of his cousins, they are a cute little bunch

this year for thanksgiving we flew up to WA to be with the andersons, it was a nice and relaxing break....and, as usual, we ate way too much delicious food! but hey, that is what the spirit of thanksgiving is all about. it was a lot of fun to have the whole family together again

first family photo

heath's blessing

mark gave heath a beautiful baby blessing on november 13th. i know mark was nervous but he did a great job and i appreciate all of the thought and prayer that went into the blessing he gave, it was perfect. i was also happy that heath could wear the outfit mark wore at his baby blessing (even though he just barely fit into it!) he looked so handsome. we are so grateful to all of our family and friends who were able to share this special day with us, we had both of my grandpas, both of our fathers, my little brother, and mark's good friend ian stand in the circle-- heath is lucky to have such a wonderful support system

the cutest little frankenstein that you ever did see

our halloween was pretty low key this year. heath was the hit of the annual allen family halloween party, but mark and i were lame and didn't really dress up. next year, next year. then on halloween night we just stayed at home, carved pumpkins (see post below), made pizza and the most amazing homemade doughnut recipe i have ever had (found here), and watched some old scary movies. and now.... bring on thanksgiving and Christmas!!

we finally went to the pumpkin patch!

it seems like every october i mention that we should go to the pumpkin patch, but it has never happened until this year. we maybe didn't get there until the friday night before halloween when most of the good pumpkins were gone...but still. it's progress, right?? heath and I were in charge of finding the right pumpkins and mark was in charge of final inspection/hauling away of/paying for the pumpkins. it's a pretty good system i think (at least heath and I thought so :)

also pictured is the final result of our pumpkin carving. i know, we are extremely artistic and creative. i bet you can't guess which pumpkin is mark's and which one is mine...

another one.

just because i can't resist that chubby little smile.

love those big blue eyes.

smile!

lately.

from the top left to right:

photos 1 and 2: Heath's first football game! as you can see, he was really into it.

3. my little superman

4. this is Heath's favorite position; whenever anyone holds him he will throw his head back like this, it's so funny. he just loves to look around

5. beautiful views from our hike up by snowbasin in between conference sessions while staying at my parent's condo--such a great weekend! already looking forward to next conference

6. fall=pumpkin chocolate chip bread season. yum.

7. me and my baby. I am so in love with my sweet boy.

8. Heath's sleeping position....arms must either be straight out or straight up. needless to say, he's not a huge fan of being swaddled.

9. since getting out on dates is a little more challenging these days, we decided to start a new date night once a week of making dinner together at home and watching a movie. this last weekend mark made a homemade seafood pasta dish (even the noodles were made from scratch!) and it was seriously the most amazing meal I have had in a long time. I made the bruschetta with our garden veggies...not quite as impressive as mark's contribution but tasty nonetheless

10. I had a feeling, even when I was still pregnant, that our little guy would be a daddy's boy, and I was so right. he loves to spend time with dad hanging out, they are so cute together.

five weeks

bath time

picnic

last week we went for a little picnic after mark got home from work to take advantage of the last warm summer days...I can't believe it's already fall!

big belly

love it.

sister.

i cannot say how many times in my life people have asked me if i like being a twin. and even though i don't exactly know what it's like not to be a twin, my answer to that question is unequivocally that being a twin is the best thing ever. having a twin sister is one of the greatest blessings in my life. we have gone through so much together and i really don't know what i would do without her. but i guess i am about to find out (temporarily anyway), because she just left on a mission to buenos aires, argentina. my little brother just got back from his mission from the dominican republic a couple of months ago so i thought i was done with this whole missionary thing! but now the countdown has once again begun. it's almost too much for a new hormonal mother to take i'm telling you. she will be such a great missionary and i am so excited for her and for the people of argentina. but i am also going to miss her.....a LOT. love you ams!!

week one.

one of the best weeks of my life. it's amazing how much joy baby heath has brought to our little family of three-- we are loving every minute of having him here with us.

Heath Eldon Anderson

Born August 9, 8:32 am

9 lbs. 3 oz, 21 inches long

He is so perfect, we are completely smitten.

More pictures to come soon....

i. am. huge.

I am seriously questioning (1) why I waited until I was 38 weeks pregnant to take a picture of my pregnant self instead of 12 or so weeks ago when my baby bump was actually a manageable and normal size and (2) why I am posting this pic on the blog for all the world to see. I have felt huge for a while now, but my doctor kept telling me I was measuring right on track...until my 36 week appointment when "all of a sudden" I was measuring big. really big. by the next week's appointment my doctor told me that with the size of the baby and all of the extra fluid I had I was basically carrying twins. awesome. seriously, who wants to hear that?? they continued to run a bunch of tests to make sure that the baby's size wasn't due to any kind of birth defect, and thankfully everything seems to be okay. so, even though I am not technically due until the 17th, I am going in on tuesday morning! which is scary but really exciting. so basically i am huge. and uncomfortable. and ready to meet my baby!! I can't believe the time is almost here.

just the two of us.

since this was our last weekend before the baby, we decided that we needed to make it pretty spectacular. unfortunately, because i am approximately the size of a whale and even things like sitting in a chair/picking something up have become major challenges, our options were pretty limited. so we went to dinner, saw a movie, and pretty much just hung out. nothing special. it made me realize that even though our life is usually nothing spectacular, i will always look back on these last four years where we have been able to spend all of our time together with the best of memories. we laugh over the fact that we really don't have "couple friends" that we do things with (we are kind of losers in this sense...), we pretty much just do everything together. and even though this usually consists of nothing more than running errands, going to the gym, or grabbing a late night treat, i have loved this time that we have had with just the two of us.

royal city.

just returned from a weekend trip to surprise mark's little sister in washington for her high school graduation. the trip was too quick...I wish we could have stayed longer. mark and I thought we were pretty sneaky planning the whole trip without ali knowing anything about it, and then mark's family surprised me in return with the most amazing baby shower and the tables were turned. it was so nice of them, we definitely have one lucky baby. I mourned a little (or a lot) over the fact that cherries weren't ready for picking yet--I am not kidding when I say that I planned to stuff a bag full of cherries to take home with me on the plane-- but other than that it was a great trip and so fun to see everyone. pretty sure it's not hard to pick me out in this pic...just look for the big bump :) the doctor says I'm measuring right on for 30 weeks but I'm not convinced, I'm feeling pretty large and in charge these days. overall I can't really complain though, I am feeling good and baby is still doing great...only 10 more weeks to go!

the hukilau house: north shore, oahu

two weeks at the hukilau house= pure heaven.
highlights include:
polynesian cultural center/fire knife world championships
a lot of matsumoto shave ice
early morning walks on the beach
hours of bobbing/body surfing/boogie boarding
hula pie at Duke's in Waikiki
mark's first scuba dive trip (so bummed I had to miss out on this one...scuba diving is my favorite)
temple session at the Laie temple
coconut and macadamia nut pancakes at hukilau cafe
hike to waiemea falls
boating into a pod of spinner dolphins
pearl harbor
relaxing/reading three books (me)
golfing at turtle bay (mark and dad)
staying up late watching old movies
snorkeling at hanauma bay/shark's cove

already wanting to go back. or move there.

coming august 2011....

everything is looking great so far and we could not be more excited!!