Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It has been a busy year at the Anderson home. We are now living in a new home, wishing it were ours, but we will be leaving this one around the beginning of the year and hopefully buying a home so we don’t have to move for many years to come. We have only moved four times in the past 14 months, so what’s another one!?! We currently live in Lehi, Utah and crossing our fingers that a home in American Fork that we love with soon be our home. Hailee is getting into the spirit of moving too, the other day she asked when we were going to live in a different house because she was bored of this one.

John is now a CPA. He is doing really well at his new job as was recently promoted. He is looking forward to hitting the slopes with his snowboard within the next week or two, he has yet to convince me that the fun factor outweighs the cold factor, so he will be going with some buddies and not me. He is looking forward to owning a home so he can have a lawn to mow, trees to trim and most importantly so he can put nails in the walls to hang pictures without worrying about what the owner would think.

Dana has adjusted to life with two kids, but every day still wonders how people handle more than two. This year she worked on her certification to become ACE Certified Group Fitness Instructor and passed her test in October. She is really enjoying her job teaching exercise classes at Life Time Fitness, The Lehi Legacy Center, and Gold’s Gym.

We were recently called to teach the Sunbeams, Hailee’s primary class. At first we were a little hesitant, but then we realized this is the best calling in the church. We get to do it together and spend some quality time as a family. John made a puppet out of a paper bag, he calls him Max, and the kids love him. They ask every week when Max is coming. Although Max is often times the “bad example” and the kids tell their parents . . . maybe they will release us!?!

Hailee turns four years old on Christmas Day and every day we as parents wonder what the heck we are doing and if we will ever get it right. She is a huge fan of Dora the Explorer, consider yourself lucky if you don’t know who that is. She will have her first birthday party with friends on Saturday. She has recently become a fan of Tinkerbelle, so that is the theme of her party. She loves playing in the snow, which makes me even more convinced that she is more her dad’s child than mine!

The most excited event that happened this year occurred on March 23 when Camryn joined our family. She has been a huge blessing to our family and it is hard to remember life without her. Until recently we referred to her as our “calming influence”. Over the past couple weeks she has decided that she wants to “walk” around instead of playing on the floor, so now anytime she is on the floor she will yell at us until someone holds her hands to let her walk around the room. She refuses to crawl so when she is on the floor and content there she will roll.

Some of the fun things that our family has been up to this year included the Anderson Family Reunion in June. A trip to Arizona for John to do some CPA training (okay not so fun for him) and for Dana and Cam to catch up with friends. We traveled to Couer d’ Alene for Thanksgiving to visit Grandma and Grandpa Anderson and both concluded that a trip there once a year is not nearly enough. On the way to Northern Idaho we stopped to visit our friends Ryan and Andrea in Caldwell, Idaho. Now that we are back in Utah we have been able to see Grandma and Grandpa Maxfield a lot more which has been great.

So, there is a quick update. We are still getting into the spirit of blogging, but if you want to keep up to date on our family throughout the year just go to our blog @ johnandersonfamilyblog.blogspot.com. We won’t promise that we will update it regularly, but we’ll do the best we can to post the important events in our lives.

Happy Rivalry Week!

Happy Halloween!

Dana - Sarah Palin, or hot business woman . . .

Hailee - Dora, or orphan with black hair

Cam - teddy bear, or Ms. Poopy Pants

Family Pictures

Sherry did an awesome job on pictures for us, despite what she had to work with, she made us look really good.

Funny Pictures

To trump my last post, which some have reminded me was pretty negative . . . (no offense intended, just wanted to eliminate an future misunderstanding), here are some more pics of the girls.

Things that make me MAD!

OK, so I was tagged . . . but I am not big on those things, so I will not play by the rules.I will, however, explain a few things that really bug me. I think I had a bad day yesterday with salesman, telemarketers, and MLM "friends". I need a "spill my guts" therapy session, and you are now my doctor. Anyway, here we go . . . things that really tick me off. 5 . . .4 . . .3 . . .2 . . .1

1. Used Car Salesman / Realtors: I hate being backed into a corner. I hate pushy people who try to be my friend. That said, do not try to lecture my on what a good deal is and what is best for my family. Do not treat me like I am an idiot and that my Masters of Accountancy knowledge of finance and accounting does not apply in this situation. The only reason that I HAVE TO make a deal today is because you want your commission, slime bag. The real estate "bottom" has not hit yet (yes, you also said that 6 months ago, and a year ago).

2. Forwarded Emails: Please – no one is going to give you $50 for each person you forward your email to. Nothing will really happen if you do not forward the magic fairy that will grant your wish. Also, if you do have something great to forward, take the time to delete the crap above and below the email so that I do not have to wade through 65 pages of email addresses before I get to the pot of poo at the end of the rainbow that was supposed to be gold.

On that point, ever wonder how people get your email address and send you slimy spam? Yep, you guessed it. People who forward emails in this way also give a great list to spammers of emailers who will open everything in their inbox and forward it to everyone in their address book even though it is completely ridiculous/untrue. P.S. go to snopes.com to first make sure that the claim that your forward is true. Otherwise, it is just internet gossip / lies. I didn't poop on your doorstep, so please do not do the equivalent to my inbox.

3. Multi-Level "Friends": Last night we had some "friends" (are you really a friend if use your friendship to further your business?) come by to see us and tell us about the cool business that they were in. Little did we know (I should have known, we are in Utah Cty, the MLM capital of the world), but we were about to sit in on a "life changing experience".

The wife sat down and tried to explain to me the reasons why Dana and I were not millionaires. She explained that there were 4 types of ways to make money, and that we were on the side of those who do not make lots of money because we made the poor choice of going to college and were channeled into being a slave for a corporation. The big bucks, according to her, were made by big business owners and investors (um, yeah . . . I am an investor . . . .but carry on with your pointless drivel).

They were so excited to get us into this business where we buy our products online, and that if we got people below us to do the same and have multiple "downlines", that we would be rolling in the dough. . . She saidit was about making good choices, and it was the poor choices that we made that got us into our impoverished state (this is where I started getting REALLY pissed), and that choosing to network with these uber-intelligent people that I would be driving a Ferrari and living the high life.

Here's where it gets even better! We get a knock at the door from their superior "Jake" that they had been talking about. How he was going to become a doctor and had quit school to make money the real way. Jake took trips to extravagant places, drove a nice car, and was "someone I should look up to." He came in all happy and pretended to care about what was going on in my life. He explained that Dana and I "looked like a hard-working, motivated couple" that could make a lot of money if we "made better choices." What am I . . . some deadbeat HS dropout?

After his spastic, giddy presentation on why he was rich and I was not, he asked us what we wanted in life. My answers about going on a mission, gaining education, etc was not good enough. He told me that although fancy cars were not really important to me, that I would soon find out that the high life was a much better lifestyle and that I was missing out. 15 mins later, he left to go to another appointment, saying, "Thanks NICK, I hope you make the best decision for your family." (Come on . . . if you are not sure about my name, use the usual bailouts - "buddy", "partner", "pal", or even the pathetic - "buckaroo".

We then were left two on two with our great "friends" (dripping with sarcasm BTW). "What do you think?" We then explained that we liked our life and jobs, we felt that we had made good choices, and that a MLM sales career where we preyed on our friends was not our life's dream. They seemed hurt at my blunt answer, tried to small talk, but soon gracefully left.

NOTE: Yes, I HATE MLMs and if you read this and ever want to introduce me to your great pyramid idea, please save me and you the time and pain. I WILL NOT EVER, EVER, EVER sign up for such a business. I would much rather be caught in a combine or have a red hot poker jabbed into both of my eyes. And if you decide to give it a try, don't be surprised when we do not call ever you again or even send a Christmas card.

Thanks for letting me rant and rave . . . I feel better!

It's been a while

The girls are a lot bigger and grown up. We have been busy with a move and . . . we are not diligent bloggers. Is that good enough? ;) Here are some pics of the girls: