The Andersen Family 

Nathan, Lizz, Harlow & Baby

April 11, 2013

Photograph by Becca Laing

What a wonderful year we are having!  Life is beautiful & rich!  We feel so incredibly blessed!  Nathan is starting his last year of school at BYU, planning on graduating next spring.  Harlow is growing fast, exploring new things every day, loves being outside & learning to walk.  Mommy is feeling great so far at almost 8 weeks pregnant, thrilled to be having & bringing another little perfect angel into this world. 

after 1 comes....2

Coming November 23, 2013

 a new little one will be joining our family!

Can you see our excited faces the day we found out :)

Nathan & I are very excited to be expecting again and Harlow is excited to be a big brother, he just doesn't really know it yet...up in heaven they were the best little buddies though! 

Silence

I was down stairs doing the dishes when I realized that my house was very quiet...too quiet for all three of us to be at home and no sleeping baby.  I remembered Harlow going up stairs and guessed he might just be getting into some sort of mischief in his favorite place - the Bathroom.  So just in case, I grabbed the camera and snuck upstairs to find...

Grandmas

I am so thankful for my wonderful Grandmothers Nadine Farr Rasmussen and Lois Wilkey Larsen.  Such amazing examples of lives of faith, service, and optimism.   The love they have for us and confidence they feel in us is so apparent every time we see them.  I am grateful to the pride they have & show in me.  It makes me want to rise up and be my best self.  

My Grandma Larsen is someone who I value my time spent with her.  She is humble and patient.  She is loving.  But one thing special about Grandma Larsen is that she is "real".  She doesn't beat around the bush, she tells you things how they are or how she sees them.  I love talking with her because I feel like I can be open and honest with her without fear of being judged, "looked-down upon", or weird.  She loves me for me and is always there with a kind listening ear.  She knows she's getting older and has been cleaning, sorting, preparing her and her belongings for the time when she will join my Grandpa.  She's an example of someone who knows what needs to get done and gets right down to work to do it, without fear. 

I'll have to be honest, I don't have as many memories with my Grandma Ras as I had with Grandpa but looking back I know why.  Grandma Ras has led a life of service.  When we were together at family gatherings I never made a meal or a bed, or anything.  "Grandma, I'm on vacation!" as I so obliviously told her once when I was a little girl when she asked for help unloading the dishwasher(...I'm embarrassed to tell that little story).  I don't remember grandma because she was the one doing all those things.  Doing them so none of us had to.  Now that she is older and has Alzheimers I am getting to see a new grandma.  Its hard for me to watch but even now I get beautiful glimpses into "my grandma", the woman she truly use to be and I love it.  What a wonderful woman.

Easter Joy

We bought some candy for Nathan & I - which Harlow loved.  (Seriously don't know how this guy knows exactly what sweet things are the moment he sees them, even if he's never seen or tried them before.  Its like he has a little built in radar for the sweets.  Thanks to his Dada, of course)  But for Harlow instead of candy we got a big blue ball which he loves...but the ball got totally upstaged by the Rollos candies.

Tonight we went out to Grandma and Grandpa Henderson's house with Spencer & Angie, and Nathan & Colleen's families where we had a big Easter Egg Hunt.  Colleen was so great and even had eggs set aside for our little Harlow Boy so Daddy and he got to go a huntin'.  The Easter Bunny also brought a sweet spiderman couch and rocketship backyard swim for our little guy :) it was fun being with family and celebrating all together.

Easter is an interesting time - I guess holidays in general are.   The world commercializes them so much so as to take all special & spiritual meanings out of them.  It seems like we can on longer simply celebrate the holiday...let me explain that better...we have to make more and more of an individual effort to bring Christ into our homes with these holidays, it doesn't just happen.  WE CHOOSE TO LET CHRIST IN OR IT JUST DOESN'T HAPPEN!! I am grateful for the time we took out to remember our Savior, His sacrifice and resurrection but I know we could have done more.  If we  are not careful and prepare then all the sudden we realize the holiday is behind us, gone, and a memory, with little to show for it.  I want to re-challange myself to be the Mommy, to be the one on top of seeing that the true meaning of our special holidays comes through and is the center of our celebrations!  It's one of my jobs and I want to rise to the call and bring the light of Christ into my family more!

"BA" = ball

Harlow has said his first word - Ball!!

 

If we're being honest his real first word was "Dada" but Harlow didn't use it exclusively for Daddy so we just couldn't be sure.  But Harlow definitely knows "Ba!"  He says "ba" and points his cute little finger right at it.  Harlow doesn't exactly know what is a ball and what's not, for example, balloons look like balls and apples, and wheels...round and circular objects - yup, all "ba"

Fun in the Sky for FHE

 A buddy of Nathan's from school, named KJ, has his private license and they had worked it out to go flying together.  When he came to pick up Nathan last night to fly we learned that there was an extra seat and Harlow & I jumped at the chance to fly with them.  Look now its a FHE cause we were able to all go together :) We flew in this small 4-seater Piper, the smallest airplane I have ever been on.  Harlow did great...He slept almost the entire time.

KJ's a good pilot; we were safe and got to do some fun zero G's, hard banks, climbs, windy landings, and see the beautiful mountains.  With the zero G's he told us it was coming and I still let out a yelp and put my one free hand up on the ceiling of the plane (like that was going to do anything for me) ...I did much better the second time.  It was dark and at first we were disappointed that we weren't going to be able to really see anything but we were gladly wrong.  The sky was clear and we had a nice full moon.  I was surprised how well we could see, it being a night flight and all.

When we got home I told Nathan "You know, I'm just not feeling 100%" but he agreed so I didn't feel like a complete dork.  A little motionsickness from the plane ride followed me over into today :( Good thing for peppermint...

 Hahaha - I love Harlow's squashed face in this picture

...he would not keep that headset on for long

Oh My Grossness!

Nathan was watching Harlow while I was doing the dishes and I hear "Lizz, I think Harlow just threw up.............oh sick!"  I came around the corner and....

from Nathan's side:
I'm watching Harlow and I look over and he has dark green puke all around his mouth and on his hands.  I look down and there between his legs is his pile of his same dark barf.  I went to pick him up and all the sudden I realized, it's not barf!  Harlow had had a huge blowout!  All up his back and down onto the floor.  Then he must have turned around so it was in between his legs...and decided he wanted to try some?....I have no idea...

We don't think he ate a lot but it definitely made it in his mouth and on his face!  as well as all over the white carpet that we just had cleaned!  Oh Harlow!  Mommy wasn't very happy while she was cleaning it up, not to mention totally grossed out!  By far the grossest thing he has ever done in his short 1 year of life!

Vegas Birthday Bash

With the longer 3-day President's Day weekend we planned a trip back home.  It was so much fun to finally be down in Vegas with our families again.  I absolutely love, and very much appreciate, how the Andersen's and the Rasmussen's can get together and have so much fun!  We all had a blast spending this time with each other and celebrating our Harlow Boy's first birthday.

Harlow was cute getting into his cake.  He would get scared/nervous/timid (not sure which word truly fits...) when everyone cheered and made a big fuss...finally when people got quiet and doing other things he felt comfortable to start exploring his Birthday cake.  He can be a messy kid but generally speaking he's pretty clean.  What I guess I mean is that he's not one to throw his food all over.

...blue Curious George cake?! ...we didn't have brown...yea I know... But I still think it turned out cute

Thanks to our sweet Mommies, who are incredible Grandmas!  Grandma Rasmussen gave Harlow $20 for his missionary account we've started for him, his first big ball, and travel bags of cereal.  Grandma Andersen gave him an awesome bath boat with a white bearded captain, and fishing hook and fish with curly tails to be caught on.  Amanda Pinto brought him a teddy bear which now lives in his crib.  The Yi's brought yet another signature card congratulating Harlow on turning 8 on the outside and then helping him morning a loss on the inside :).

After presents we had a small talent show where Rian, Ellie, and I all did solos for everyone.  And then, the best part, we filled the Rasmussen's house with all of our voices singing our favorite hymns.  And dang, we sounded good.  Everyone singing made my heart happy!  It felt so good!  Imagine if that's how it was in church, every person truly singing with everything they had!  It was wonderful!  Thank You Everyone!!



**For church earlier, we went to the Silver Springs Ward.  I know Mom enjoyed having her 3 girls home with her and sitting all together is the ward again.  It was nice to see familiar faces of people I admire and care so much for.  I have heroes in that ward - so thankful for their faith and the lives they've lived and continue to live.

Birthday Boy

Harlow's Big Day - Our Valentines Baby

 Happy 1st Birthday Harlow!!!

A big Thank You to everyone that was able to come, even with it being Valentine's Day and all!

Grandma Larsen for the awesome counting book
Jeralyn for his favorite gift - the shinny, helium balloon
Laing's for the puzzle
Arnetts for the Lobster, shrimp party that night
Ashton Girls for the trail mix
Leo (& Jen) for being such great friends

Our little guy has turned 1! We can't even imagine life without him!  He brings us more joy than we ever thought possible and unites our little family. Family's are truly eternal.  You can just tell that Families are the way to go, it's Heavenly Father's purpose - just feeling this love is a testimony of that!

Harlow is crawling faster every day and walks along the walls, couches, chairs....he is quick and mobile.  He has loved chasing the blue birthday balloons all around the house.  He is a good-natured little boy and has only thrown a fit maybe three times, twice of those three times were when I took our electric tooth brushes away from him - oh my goodness!  He eats so good and I just sit and giggle to myself when he feeds himself cause he's so cute!  I just want to soak up all those little moments and remember them forever!  I love being his Mommy!  He is playing with us.  He loves to be tickled and chased.  He waves to everyone at the store and by the time we leave we are friends with everyone.  They even call "bye Harlow" as we're leaving :)  Daddy taught Harlow to give kisses. His method:  ask for a kiss, when he gives Daddy a kiss reward him with ice cream, repeat until Harlow has idea firmly planted that 'I get what I want when I give kisses'.  I've noticed him point to things and if I don't respond he leans over, gives me a kiss, and the points again as if saying "I gave you a kiss, now take me over to the balloon"  haha

I hope we can always make his birthday's special and that he can feel our love!