Happy Father's Day!

Today we are celebrating Allan's first official Father's Day. We started the day off with presents and breakfast in bed! What better way could you start the day? Snuggling your baby? We did that too!


Allan has been wanting a macbook air for quite some time. For those of you that know allan or who have been to our house, you're probably thinking, "ANOTHER COMPUTER?!" Yeah, me too. He told me when we got married that he would probably get a new computer every two years. I just thought he was kidding...nope! His presents this year were $$$ towards a macbook air...

[I made a faux macbook air...they're paperthin now-a-days! and yes, I know the apple is the wrong way, I wanted it right side up when he looked at it.]

...and a Doofenshmirtz "action figure" for his desk at work [any phineas & ferb fans?] Okay, you might think the second one is weird but my hubby is obsessed with Phineas and Ferb! Obsessed!

You are the best father to Holden. You love him so much and he loves you to the moon & back! I love watching you as a dad. Makes you even hotter ;) 


...and Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers celebrating their big day today. You guys deserve it! Especially to my dad, dad-in-law, Robert, Babe, and Steve [almost dad!] who I love so much and am so grateful to have in my life. 


-Little Wife Power House

It's almost here!

We had some Easter pictures taken of Holden and his cousins a few weeks ago. I love that he fits perfectly in his Easter basket. What more could you want than an adorable baby in an Easter basket?! I'm looking forward to lots of family time in Midland this weekend. Holden & I are hitting the road alone *cringe* because the hubby has to stay home and do homework all weekend. *double cringe*

Anyhow, let's not forget what Easter is really about. It's easy [especially for me!] to get caught up in the fun toys and candy but we need to remember it's really about our Savior's sacrifice and resurrection. I'm grateful to him. He loved us so much that he gave his life so we could live with him again.


Go here to hear a beautiful testimony of Jesus Christ and here to watch a little Easter movie.

-Little Wife Power House

"you're growing grass inside your house?!"

YES. I'm growing grass inside my house. Wheat grass to be exact. You know, the stuff you can take shots of at Jamba Juice? 

I will not be taking shots of my wheat grass. *GAG*

I'm just doing it to make it feel extra Spring-y at the Anderson household. And it totally has! I love the way they look in my Target $1 tins. I've been able to do some fun things with it. I've already had to trim it 3 times and I love the way it makes my kitchen smell when I do :) I got the idea here from 320*Sycamore. You can follow her steps on how to grow it if you're interested. 

Today I'm prepping for Holden's first Easter. Since having Holden, I've noticed I get muuuuuch more excited about holidays. I want to make them perfect for him! I loved holidays growing up and I know he will too. Uh, what kid doesn't love them? 

I finished getting everything for Holden's Easter basket [will share next week. I probably should have done it before to give you guys some ideas but I didn't. Oh well, maybe you can use them for next year if you need to!] I dyed some Easter eggs using this "recipe." It really is like a recipe and the colors are so vibrant! I haven't seen egg color like this before. Check out this post [hers look great. and follow all of the links too! She found some really cute Easter-esque items.] I also made some Easter cookies...think Cadbury Mini Eggs. Drooling yet? I'll post about those tomorrow!

What are you doing to prep for Easter? 

-Little Wife Power House

Springville, UT

Okay, so I know I promised LIVE BLOGGING from the road [along with seesallierun] and we so did not deliver! I have a good excuse though! Most of the trip we did not have service and especially not internet service so yeah...live blogging was not an option. And we've been having too much fun here in Utah and keep forgetting to update our blogs! Bad bloggers. Forgive us? 

We left at 3AM...yes 3AM last Saturday. It was Allan's bright idea [actually, it turned out to be a great idea]. We made it to Springville around 8PM and got to go out with my brother and SIL at Zupa's! I was going to put up a picture of Sallie & Garrett at 3AM when we were leaving but I don't think Sallie wants me to so I'll be a good friend and leave it off. Even though they look good!

This whole trip we have been serious tourists. You'll see in the posts to come! I love the "Life Elevated" at the bottom. So funny. 

Holden was really good on the long, long drive. Long. He entertained himself for a while when his mouth discovered his toes...

Anyway, more to come on the trip. Temple Square. Park City. The Sweet Tooth Fairy. Holden's 8 month birthday. Holden's new friend. Happy St. Patty's Day! Holden is wearing green...

["Irish you would kiss me!"]

Check out the fedora we got Holden while shopping at the Park City outlets earlier today! He wanted to be like his cousin, Asher.

Doesn't he look like he belongs in a retirement community playing shuffleboard? I love it! Hope everyone is enjoying this "holiday!"

-Little Wife Power House

the Easter bunny came early!

 

Happy [early] Easter from the cutest bunny around town! 

Ears courtesy of PBK. Blair & I were picking up Holden's Easter basket and I just had to get these! How could I not?!

-Little Wife Power House

PS. Guess what we're going to see this weekend? Gnomeo & Juliet! I'm so excited :) 

a little valentine's day fun

As a family, we decided nothing flashy for Valentine's this year. No fancy dinners, no fancy gifts, etc. Allan broke the rules though and got me a new apron and THIS. Holden and I spent the afternoon making a few Valentine's for some friends...

I made candied pecans and printed out the recipe. I still need to drop them off...sorry friends! I'll get them to you soon! We made a card for Daddy. Getting a 7 month old's handprint is harder than you would think. Opening & closing...moving. It turned out decent. 

I picked up a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's because it just looked so romantical...and I wasn't in the mood to cook a big meal. I'm a wonderful wife, eh? :)

We chose Stardust for nostalgic reasons [we watched it the first night we kissed. TMI? haha] I had been exhausted ALL day and feeling sick...so I was a lame-o wife and feel asleep part way through the movie. Good thing we weren't trying to make V-Day special this year...The only thing that mattered was that I got to spend the evening with my Valentine, Allan. I love you!


-Little Wife Power House

oh so romantical

So Valentine's Day is coming up. It's never been a big deal to either of us. We spent our first Valentine's Day together at Mr. Chopsticks [Dentonites you know what I'm talking about!] and watching the OC. Allan bought me one rose because he thought I would think flowers are stupid [I'm so tough, right? jk]. We had only been dating about a month and a half. It was sweet :) 

Honestly, I can't even remember what we did on our 2nd V-Day together. Is that terrible?

Our third V-Day was our last "childless Valentine's Day" so we celebrated it on a mini-vacation at a hotel in Frisco. It was right by the mall [yes!] so we shopped, went out for dinner, and ordered room service for breakfast. It was really relaxing [which I needed since I was preggo]. 

This V-Day we're not doing gifts. Neither of us really want to spend money on things we don't need when we just got SO many wonderful presents for Christmas. We were so loved that the spoiled feeling still hasn't worn off [our bank account is thankful for that]. Maybe we'll go out to dinner and watch a movie or something at home. Life as a parent is exciting, isn't it?!

I did, however, find this adorable craft [at Oopsey Daisy]. I love writing little notes to Allan and he loves finding them. [awwww]. This can be one small way we'll celebrate V-Day...and we get to write mushy love notes over and over again to each other! Score!

I get so excited about things I have to do it at that moment so last night I ran to Joann's and bought the supplies.

 [got the last two wooden hearts]

 [red chalkboard paint]

 [I found these from the husband this morning! He's already writing me mushy notes. I love it!! "I love you thiiiiiiiis much!" and "I {heart} LWPH!" I can't wait to erase these and write something back for when he gets home.]

I started by taking the jute [string] out and painting away. I did 3-4 coats because I wanted it to be really red. I let it sit for a while in between each coat. Make sure to paint on wax paper [thanks, Oopsey Daisy!]. It makes it a lot easier! Let the final coat dry overnight and reattach the jute. Now you can write to your little heart's desire! 


They could hang all over the house! Here's to making V-Day a little more romantical in the Anderson household :)


-Little Wife Power House

looking back on 2010

Well, 2010 was kind of crazy for our family.


We bought a house...

We had a baby...

We survived our first road trip with Holden...

We lost someone we love...

But got to catch up with a lot of family...

We celebrated a lot of "firsts"...[including Christmas!]

So happy that I get to spend 2011 [and forever] with these studs...

Goals for 2011:

• attend the temple once a month
• exercise once a week [i hate working out]
• read our scriptures daily [this way harder than it may seem]
• get my life organized again
• read 2 nonfiction LDS books
• cook four times a week

We hope everyone has a safe & happy New Years!


The giveaway ends at midnight tonight. Go here to enter! 


-Little Wife Power House

more Christmas fun!

I told you...FOUR Christmases! It's just been so much fun to stretch out Christmas. Luckily we have enough family that we might get away with this every year. muahahah :) 


We went over to my Mom's tonight. Emily, Steve, John, and Chris all came down from Utah and Julie made the trip from Dallas. What a wonderful family we have. We opened presents first since the amazingly tasty chicken pies took a while to cook. Here are a few pictures of the shenanigans that ensued.

christmas lights around the neighborhood

After Christmas at Allan's parents we drove around our neighborhood to look at the lights before they are all taken down. We were seriously impressed with some of them! We better step up our game next year. We are going to do our usual after Christmas run to get some awesome outside decorations [at 50% off :P] for next year. Here were some of the best.

The last one won "Best Decorations" for the neighborhood. We agree! It was so beautiful. We just sat there for a few minutes looking at the house. 

I'm making cinnamon rolls to bake in the morning and Allan is wrapping some presents for me :) And yes, we are wearing our sexy PJs. 


Check in tomorrow for my 100th Post Christmas Giveaway!!

-Little Wife Power House

Christmas with the Anderson[s]

What a fun day! I love having so much family. That means Christmas seems to last a bit longer. We get to have FOUR Christmases this year [didn't they make a movie about that??] Two on my side, one on Allan's, then the most important one...OUR LITTLE FAMILY! 


We did Christmas today with Dad, Elizabeth, and Robin. First we went to Kobe's for lunch. That is only our favorite restaurant ever. I could eat it every day...It started out a little rocky with the H man:

Luckily he quickly shifted gears...

Let me tell you, they spoiled us. Especially little Holden. That's part of being a grandparent right? Spoiling your grandchildren. It was santaholden's first go at unwrapping presents and he did better than I thought he would! He loved playing with the paper [it crinkles. should have expected that.] He even ripped some! 

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party 2010

We had our annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party last night and I have to say, it was a hit in my opinion! It was a mostly family party this year [I think we will alternate family party then friend party each year]. There must've been 30 people there [with only 3 friends]. Having a big family on both sides is crazy fun! Check out how awesome everyone's outfits were!

[santaholden&daddy having fun]

[jett with a mouthful of casey's amazing oreo balls]

[me&julie with her cute new haircut]

[my two favorite sisters]

I covered the table with butcher paper and they colored with Christmas Crayons. We also had cookie decorating, party favors, a Christmas movie [Rudolph], and bowling for the kids:

Here are a few pictures of the food and I'll include links to the recipes [at least for the food I made]:

Go here for the pumpkin cheesecake muffins

Go here for the chicken quesadilla pinwheels

Go here for the hot mulled apple cider

I'll type up the recipes for the snickerdoodles [yum] and Lori's sausage dip [so good] if any of you want it! 

Can't wait until next year's party! Thanks to everyone who came and to my awesome photographer [Lori}! 

Happy Sabbath!

-Little Wife Power House

Gingerbread Houses

I know, I know...I just posted...but I wanted to post about the Gingerbread Houses we made on Saturday before I had too much to write about that they just fall by the wayside...


I found this homemade gingerbread house tutorial here at Oopsey Daisy [love her blog]. I can't wait until Holden is old enough to help me build and decorate the gingerbread houses. I think it will be much more enjoyable next year since I worked out a few quirks. 1) the recipe says to chill for 3 hours. DO NOT make the day before and chill overnight! The dough gets rock hard and dry which makes it almost impossible to work with. That's after letting it sit out for a long time and adding a little warm water. 2) keep the glue [aka burnt sugar] warm on the stove while building the house. 3) cut your pieces as straight as possible! It really, really makes a difference. I used a pizza cutter and my houses were still a little "special." I'll try harder next year...

 [casey&joe building their house and allan in the early stages of construction]

[the finished products! yay for gingerbread houses!]

[the proud participants]

The tree idea was also from oopsey daisy. I can't take credit for anything [like I said - no creativity bones in my body]. They are just ice cream cones turned upside down, smothered with icing, and decorated. What a great idea!

Hope you guys are getting into the Christmas season as much as we are! I will be be prepping all week for our annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party on Saturday. Check in next week for pictures!

-Little Wife Power House