A Thanksgiving Gift To Us!

We finally heard some news! We got an email from our Mission Pres in Mongolia, the government of Mongolia has agreed, even suggested, that the Church bring into the country the three couples who have been waiting for visa's, we are one of them! They will continue to work on them, but will allow us 90 days in the country without a visa. We haven't heard a date, but, Pres Andersen has approval from the Area Presidency to allow us to come... so maybe we'll be in Mongolia for Christmas! Finally things are coming along! (We were scheduled to fly our on Aug 21st).

It was so good to be with the family yesterday for Thanksgiving, and to have Grandma and Grandpa Brady with us! Thanks to everyone for the good cooking and the wonderful company! The jewelry was fun and the boys had a good time hiking and shooting guns!

Congratulations, to Jonah and Jackson for being Student's of the Month at their schools! We are so proud of both of you! Keep up the good work!

How Pumpkin Pies Are Made?

Bring on the pumpkin pie!  We can't wait to see you all!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Guests

Hi Kids, just to let you know that Grandpa and Grandma Brady are coming to Thanksgiving dinner with us! We are excited to see them and all of you! Thanks to all of you for posting and commenting on our Blog. We have enjoyed keeping up with all of you and enjoy reading the comments. Thanks to Marla for having and organizing Thanksgiving Dinner and thanks to Loren and the boys for planning an outing for the Anderson boys! Also, thanks to Tama and Loren for setting up our blog! We did get an email from Pres. Andersen, the talks they had last week were not as productive as they had hoped, so hopefully by Thanksgiving we will have some news. We sure love and appreciate all of you, what a wonderful bunch of people and especially grandchildren! We have so many blessing to count!

Kaitlyn Pallas received her mission call yesterday. It only took 8 days from the time it was sent in! She will be going to the New Jersey, Cherry hill Mission. Kaitlyn will be entering the MTC February 24. Who knows maybe Mom and Dad will be there to greet her :) How Exciting for her!!

Anderson Boys Camping Trip!

The date for the first annual Anderson men's camping trip is almost here.  Nature be warned!  We have calendared this fun trip for the Friday and Saturday between Thanksgiving and little Joshua's blessing.  Of course, we will be going to Zion National Park.  We all love Zion NP and are looking forward to some great hiking, cousin time, games, food, and a big campfire.  Ethan and Jonah are pretty darn excited about camping and spending time with their cousins.   I hope everyone else is as well. 

I say we leave as early as possible on Friday, so we can get there early enough to get in a little hiking.  How about leaving Utah County about 8:00 a.m.?  Of course, we don't need to leave at the same time.  We will stay at the campground right inside the park near the entrance.  Hopefully the campsites will be near each other.  Right now the weather says it should be in the 60s.  It is still a week-and-a-half away, so keep your fingers crossed. 

I will have "Supervan" so I can fit more people.  Anyone was wants to ride with me, you are more than welcome, just let me know.  Everyone bring your own food, tent, bag, cooking supplies, eyc.  I will have a small Whisperlite to cook food and boil water.  Does anyone else have a camping stove?  How about a big water cooler, does anyone have one and will you be willing to bring it?  Garry has volunteered to bring some wood for a campfire.  That night we should play some games and roast marshmallows, etc.  But really we can roll with whatever there is and play it by ear.  If anyone else has some fun ideas please say so. 

I promised Ethan and Jonah we would go out to eat at least one meal while we are camping.  They really want Breakfast food.  What do you all think? On Saturday, I hope to return to Utah and Salt Lake County before it is too late.   Please share with us your ideas.  I hope this is a fun trip for all and maybe we can even turn it into a tradition

Come one come all... We are hosting a feast for ALL!!

Hey family! We just wanted to take a minute and finalize some plans for Thanksgiving. We are open to any suggestions or requests.

Thanksgiving dinner will be at 2:00 p.m.

This is what I have for dinner so far:

Turkey- Garry and Marla
Rolls- Garry and Marla
Sweet Potatoes- Jody
Stuffing and Cranberries- Mom and Dad
Relish Tray- Trisha
Veggie Dip-
Mashed Potatoes- Jenny and Trisha
Gravy- Garry and Marla
Strawberry Pretzel Salad- Tracy and Ryan
Drinks-
Anthiny else you would like to BRING!!-
Paper Products- (Sorry I do not have enough fine china for everyone.LOL)
Pies-Everybody bring one of their favorites


Let me know what you would like to bring if you have not been assigned anything. If there is anything not listed there that you would like let me know and I can make it happen.

Garry and I were thinking that it would be fun for the boys(and those girls)to go skeet shooting in the morning. Around 10:00 am or so....If you have a shot gun, shells, or pigeons bring them with you. Eldon and Garry both have throwers.

If the girls would like we can do something fun too!! (Besides cooking) I have a friend that make jewelry. She will let me use her tools if we would like to make some bracelets. I made some this weekend and they are lots of fun. I am also open for ideas.

Bring with you any games that you may want to play. We will play games after dinner. We have a WII so if you have some games you would like to share with the kids )and adults) bring them too. We have 3 controllers so bring an extra if you can. We will also provide snacks for later that night.

You are all welcome to stay here at long as you would like. We have open beds for anyone that needs a place to stay. Just let me know.

If you have any traditions that you would like to implement please let me know. If I am forgetting to carry on any please let me know.

We are excited to be together. We care about you all so much!!

Love,

Garry and Marla

Loren, are you still planning on going to Zions on Friday? Will you post some info on that? Thanks!!!

We also have Friday and Saturday to be together. Let me know what you would like to do.

Caden the newest Deacon - The Anderson Family has two!

It was good - an unexpected blessing on our part - to see another grandson receive the priesthood! Caden looked so nice in his new suit. He is such a good boy and a wonderful grandson! We are so very proud of him! The Bishop said he as impressed with Caden's readiness and in looking for a scripture Caden found it before he did.

Notice all of these young men with their white shirts and ties, they are preparing to be wonderful missionaries! We are so grateful for good children, you parents, who are teaching our grand children values and the gospel so wonderfully! We also, appreciate the good example you are setting for each other and the help, love and support you give to each other, don't underestimate the power of love and of family!

Dr. and Sister Eliason, they are missionaries waiting with us at the MTC, said they received an email from Pres Andersen, and that the meetings they are having with the lawyers and government are looking hopeful. So...hopefully, maybe...we will hear something this next week!

We were able to get a H1N1 shot, and a shot for the shingles this past week, also. We technically didn't qualify for the H1N1, but because we were missionaries and going out of the country they took us right in...so we are ready!

Thanks for your love and support! We are so truly blessed to have such a wonderful immediate and extended family!

Joshua's Blessing

We wanted to invite everyone to Joshua's baby blessing on Thanksgiving weekend. If you can make it, we'd love to have you.

Date: November 29, 2009
Time: 9:00 a.m.
Place: Kolob 11th Ward Meetinghouse
1627 W. Cadbury Ln.
Springville, UT

Directions from the North:
Take I-15 heading south.
Exit on the second Springville exit (Exit #260)
Turn left onto 3900 S. and cross over the freeway.
Turn right at the first stoplight onto 1750 W.
Turn left onto Cadbury Ln.
The church is two blocks ahead on the right.

Directions from the South:
Take I-15 heading north.

Exit on the first Springville exit (Exit #260)
Turn right onto 3900 S. and head east.
Turn right at the first stoplight onto 1750 W.
Turn left onto Cadbury Ln.
The church is two blocks ahead on the right.

Addendum: Two-footed Jonah

So I think I blogged about Jonah's biking skills a little too early.  Although Jonah is mastering the bike in many ways, yesterday while showing off his newly acquired talent to Grandma Sue, he hit a pile of wet leaves and crashed.  Thankfully, he was wearing his helmet; however, it didn't cover his face.  He hit the pavement with his head, his nose and mouth to be exact.  He now looks like a Simpsons character with a big nose and a large overbite.  Poor little guy; he has been a trooper about it and thankfully the doctor says nothing was broken.  (This poor little guy is so accident prone, eh.)  Needless to say, he is taking a couple of days off from the bike and will be walking instead.  As for the bike, it is in time-out until it can learn to play nicely and listen, which is exactly what we say to Bronwyn Sue when she goes to time-out.

Coyote Truck

Finally the Shawn Anderson family has bought a Truck! Shawn was called to be the Scoutmaster in our Ward a few months ago, so naturally he needs a truck to haul all of the scouts and their equipment around. The boys think that this truck is the best thing ever. Erik always calls it the "Coyote Truck", we are not sure how he came up with the name, but it we love it! We took the boys to a bike jump near our house, we loaded the bikes in the back of the truck. They were exhausted by the time we left. We hope to have many wonderful experiences with our Coyote Truck.

Two-wheeled Jonah

Jonah is an animal. (When asked what kind of animal he is, he replies a dog, a German Shepherd to be exact.) However, Jonah is an animal for another reason. Within only a few days, he has learned how to ride a two-wheeler without training wheels!! Jonah recently expressed interest in riding without training wheels, so this week we have focused on helping him reach that goal. Boise has some great bike paths and we have wanted to ride on them as a family. However, the training wheels on Jonah's bike were so loud and worn down we were hesitant to do so until he could ride without them. Now we have no excuses. He rides like a pro. Way to go Jonah. Persistence and hard work will serve you well little buddy.

Halloween-at Home!

Jackson and Darla, Halloween "Look-a-Likes!"

We have no news about the visa's, except that the Church attorney is working on them. We did receive an email from a couple that in is Mongolia, she said the country is experiencing an extremely bad time with the swine flu, and they have closed a lot of the public businesses and schools, the only things open are the grocery stores...So we are guessing that we will be here for Thanksgiving! That will be OK, we will be able to see all of you, and to see little Joshua blessed. We have made some changes in our daily schedule at the MTC. We have accepted an assignment to help direct the traffic for the young missionaries as they get their immunizations. We are also taking off Friday afternoons, to go to the Temple. That kind of breaks up the week and gives us a little more to do. We came to an awareness this week...

"In the economy of Heaven, nothing , no experience or trial is ever wasted. We all go through things that are intended to strengthen, build and help us. We may not understand or know why, but the Lord does! He knows and asks us to trust and have faith. Someday we may have the privilege of knowing. Someday we may look back and thank Him for the blessings that have come because of those trials. But in the mean time - know the Lord is in charge and He is aware of us!"

We are not the only ones going through "hard times". You all have had or are struggling through things, know that we love each of you! The Lord, also knows and loves you - this we know! We love you, each of you!