Ultrasound Update

Monday I went in for an ultrasound update because last month there was a lake of blood on my placenta they wanted to check again. I'm pleased to say that it has shrunk on it's own to almost nothing (what the Dr. thought would happen) and everything looks good. They might do one more follow-up as a double check, but since my Dr. was out on maternity leave (she had her baby on Tday) we'll see what happens next month. I guess Jordan has been worried and was really relieved, but I haven't been. I thought it would probably shrink and haven't been worrying about it until I needed to worry.

Next month is my last 4 week appt and then I'm down to 2 week appointments. Craziness!

I made yummy treats last night (with Jordan's help) so I'll be posting those recipes soon. I had a couple of failures on Monday night just because I haven't made them in awhile and made dumb mistakes. Gasp...I even burned chocolate in the microwave and that smelled gross. I felt like a rookie.

Last night everything turned out pretty well except for our first tray of molasses cookies which were way too doughy so they were dumped. The fudge is way yummy and the graham cracker cookies with sliced almonds drizzled and cooked with a butter and sugar mixture turned out great on my third try (two trys on Monday and the last try last night-success!). The recipe from my mom had wrong proportions so that's what threw off my 2 first batches trying to adjust the amounts. We made these when I was little so for sure my mom wouldn't know the correct amounts. It was a few trial and errors before getting it right.

Also, only 3 more days of work and then we're both off for 2 weeks-yipee!

Christmas Eatings

This year we are staying home for Christmas which is going to be fun in so many ways. Jordan and I are both taking 2 weeks off from work and we are planning activities to do everyday as a family - like the zoo and Children's museum and I can make lots yummy food. I am looking forward to not traveling anywhere.

We are also hosting some get togethers at our house like the BYU football game and an all day LOTR (Lord of the Rings) Nerd-a-thon. Jordan's little brother and his family are also coming to visit for a few days so I'm planning our food for the two weeks of Christmas and wanted some additional ideas of yummy things you like to make over the holidays.

Some recipes I've pulled to possibly make. We have a $50 Basha's card that I received for Thanksgiving from my company so that will help towards the food costs.

Menu ideas for the 2 weeks of Christmas:
Our favorite homemade Chicken Parmesan (dinner)-maybe Christmas Eve dinner
Breakfast casserole (breakfast)
Blueberry stuffed french toast (breakfast)-maybe for Christmas breakfast
Gooey pull aparts (breakfast)
Chicken Enchiladas (dinner)
Cheese ball (get together)
Turkey Meatballs (get together)
7-layer Mexican Dip (get together)
Challah bread and Salmon-also possible Christmas Eve dinner
Cheesy potatoes (get together)
Potato Skins (get together)
Crockpot Stew w/homemade bread or rolls-dinner this Sunday
Carne Asada Tacos (dinner)

Let me know of any of your favorites that you love around this time of year. Of course I'll also be making some yummy treats to give away and for our family. I'll be posting some of these recipes in the coming weeks.

We're almost done with Christmas and just have a few last things to wrap (ha, ha) up. Matthew, us, my parents, Jordan's parents are all done and we just have a few other things to finish. Our Christmas cards are going out tomorrow so I'm excited about that!

Rainbow Jell-o Salad Recipe

Here is the rainbow jell-o salad that I made for Thanksgiving. I've had this recipe since my college days when we made it in a class. It is time consuming but easy to make. The results look cool and is really yummy!

Ingredients:
-1 small package of each of the following jell-o flavors: Black Cherry, Raspberry, Orange, Lemon, Lime.
-Boiling Water
-2.5 cups of sour cream

-Dissolve the black cherry jell-o in 1 cup of boiling water. Divide the mixture in half and add 2 tablespoons cold water to one half and pour into a 9x13 pan. Put in the freezer for 8-9 minutes (make sure it is level).
-Add 1/2 cup sour cream to the other half of jell-o and mix well until well mixed. When clear jell-o is set add jell-o w/sour cream on top and put back into the freezer for another 8-9 minutes.
-Continue with the rest of the jell-o flavors. Layer in the order listed above ending with the Lime sour cream layer.

I suggest putting into a clear 9x13 pan as it looks really cool when all the layers are set-up. Enjoy!

No More Daycare Center!

We've had continual problems with our daycare center saying that we owe money when in fact we don't. I pay up front on time every week and have been tired of the continual hassle about our payments. To be fair their old manager wasn't keeping up properly with the payments in the system and everything was off. She was let go and I think they are just trying to keep up with things.

In Matthew's class there has been a girl lately who is having major problems. She hits the other kids, bites them, and isn't very nice. Matthew has come home with scratches and bites lately which I have felt bad about. Yesterday when I dropped off Matthew a little girl immediately hit him over the head and I saw other kids pushing and hitting each other. It felt really crazy and I felt so bad leaving Matthew there. He looked so scared to be there. :(

I finally decided enough was enough and called Jordan and said that was it. I was going to call the babysitter that comes into our house and see if she could come into our house 2 days a week and then find someone else for the other day. When I called my babysitter she said she was looking for more hours anyways since her dad lost his job and everyone needed to pitch in to help out. She is totally fine coming in 3 days a week. We are so excited as Matthew loves her and she is really great with him. I told the Daycare Center yesterday when I picked him up that Friday was going to be his last day. We're keeping him on the drop-in list as an emergency but hopefully we're done there now. It was a good center and the providers were really good I just felt that Matthew needed to be home where he felt the most comfortable. I feel so better about the situation now and I know he will feel better being at home too. Two weeks ago we were home when he woke up from his nap and he didn't want us, he wanted the babysitter. He was so upset that she wasn't there and was a grump for awhile.

Thanksgiving Update
Just a quick update about T-day. We headed to Utah early to see the Coldplay concert. It was amazing and if you get to see them on tour definitely do it. I think it's the best concert I've ever seen-awesome!

Mainly we just played with family and had our traditional pie night the night before Thanksgiving where we all bring pies and talk and play games. This year we did karaoke so that was fun! Matthew even sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and the ABC's and loved the microphone and wanted to keep doing more.

For Thanksgiving day there were 35 people that came to my mom/dad's house. It was a bit crazy but fun. We all contributed and I made a ribbon jello salad that is about 10 layers of different jello. Of course I knew as soon as I suggested that I make it that my mom was going to say "that is just so much work" and of course she said that. I made it Wednesday and it took just over 1.5 hours with all the layers, but it's not hard to make it just takes time. Jordan helped me so that was nice.

I was definitely looking forward to Black Friday. I started really getting into it after we got back from London. I LOVE saving money so this day is right up my alley. Jordan dreads going to my parents as it means he has to go do Black Friday. When we go to his parents they live too far away to make getting up super early worth it so he gets a break every other year (not that I haven't contemplated getting up at 2 in the morning so we can drive into Vegas). We started our morning at Kohl's (4 am) and the line was super long so I stayed there and gave the list of what we needed at Toys R Us and Jordan headed over there to wait in line until 5. Good thing he did because the main thing we wanted was a kitchen (it's a manly blue) and he only saw 4 more after the one he took. He got through his line before I was done standing in line for 1 hr. at Kohl's and came back to help me finish up and get stuff out to the car. We then headed over to Target for the craziness again. It actually didn't take us long there. The main thing we went for was a wii game but it was out of stock so we mainly got cheap but great DVD's. Jordan went back later and got a rain check for the game so that was good. We went out to breakfast and then I went out to my favorite craft store (Roberts) and got a few things. Later after lunch with the fam I went to Gymboree and The Children's Place and got some cute things at a great deal for the baby.

All in all Black Friday was a success and I can't wait until Christmas morning when Matthew opens up his presents. How pathetic that we had to buy a cargo holder for the top of our car to carry all our crap home! :) We needed one anyways with the baby coming and visits planned for this summer. There is no way everything will fit in the back of the Santa Fe for 3 people and a baby (who will most likely have the most stuff).

A Couple of Ultrasound Pics

Here are just a couple. We had them saved to a disk, so cool they can do that now. We didn't have the option 3 years ago when pregnant with Matthew.

Only 9 oz. here in weight. Less than a can of coke. It's amazing what technology can show us. The baby looked really healthy. No heart defects and the spine looks to be completely enclosed. It's amazing the detail that we could see and shows me again the miracle of life, babies, and the little beings that our Heavenly Father entrusts us with every day. We have a huge responsibility to raise our children right and teach them to love the righteous things in life. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by that responsibility and just hope that I'm parenting Matthew the right way.



She looks like she's sucking her thumb here, but who knows.


As a side note, I do have a lake (pooled blood) on my placenta. I guess they are pretty common in pregnancies and the Dr. doesn't say anything unless they are unusually large. Most are 3-4 inches, but the one she commented on is 7 inches across and thin. Next month when I go in they are going to do another ultrasound to see if it has shrunk or not. My Dr. said she wouldn't be really concerned until about week 32 as the baby isn't using much of the placenta right now to grow and that is what they would be worried about with the lake is that the complete flow of blood isn't getting to the baby as it gets bigger in the last 2 months. We're going to watch it for now and I'm not worrying about it so we'll see what happens next month. Hoping that it will shrink by then as that is what usually happens.

So the baby is a........

GIRL!!! The Anderson tradition is still going strong. We haven't talked names yet, but I have a good idea of what I want so we'll see. The ultrasound tech said she knew from the moment she saw the baby but kept us in suspense as she looked all the other parts over. We'll try and post an ultrasound pic later after we get home from work.

Home Means Nevada

As you gathered from Karin's post, she's out of town for a week, so Matthew and I have been muddling through on our own. To break things up a little bit, I decided to take him up to Nevada for the weekend. I spent a day with my brother and his family in Vegas, and then drove the familiar road out to Beatty to spend a day or two with my parents. It was a short visit but well worth it. Going back to Beatty always brings a lot of memories to the surface, and this was the first time Matthew was old enough for me to start sharing a little bit of that with him. I'm also glad he got some quality time with his grandparents, to whom he became quickly re-attached.

On Saturday morning, we (sans my mom, who had to work for a few hours) went out to Rhyolite, the local ghost town, which about a hundred years ago was a lot bigger than Beatty. My dad has done a lot of work out there renovating a building appropriately called the "Red Barn," which is now serving as an art museum, so we went to check that out. The Red Barn sits on land which actually was in the town of Bullfrog, apparently, given that the old Bullfrog jail is right next door. My dad snapped this picture of Matthew "locked up":



Probably the most unique building in Rhyolite is a house made largely out of bottles. Matthew was a big Bottle House fan - he spent about 10 minutes just walking around the outside running his hand along the bottles. Here's another shot from my dad:

Karin here: I love this picture of Matthew and don't be surprised if you see it somewhere soon!

Here's another one I shot:

That afternoon after my mom got back from work, we went down to the Amargosa River (which is basically an underground river - just a little stream above ground most of the time).

Matthew was mostly interested in playing with sticks and rocks. He used this one to lead music for a while.

Karin here: People always tell me that Matthew looks like Jordan and I just didn't see it until I saw this picture and I really see Jordan in Matthew here.

At some point over the weekend, he started yelling in the middle of singing songs to try to scare my mom:

Karin here: I've played a game in the car with Matthew before where we sing songs and then in the middle either I sing louder or he does and then I act scared. I made it up one day when he wouldn't stop screaming (because he was upset) in the car home from work/daycare and we laughed all the way home doing these songs/scaring each other. We play lots of silly games together.

Unfortunately it was a pretty short weekend. I wasn't too excited to drive back today, but I did better than I thought I would on my own with him, courtesy of a portable DVD player, some Pixar movies, and Kung Fu Panda.

I'm so glad they had a great time in Beatty without me as it helped break up the week for both of them. Today Matthew was sad being dropped off at daycare and wanted to play with Jordan today poor kid.

Karin again: Our event just ended and we'll do some final packing tomorrow (Tuesday) and then I catch a flight home at 4 pm. I can't wait to see my boys again. I've really missed them this week. It's been a fun event, but I'm really glad it's pretty much over. It's hard being at an event where I can't participate as much as I would like because of my energy level. This is our last big event until February and it will be nice to have a few mellow months in the office. I've been traveling/out of the office way too much lately for my liking.