What have the Anderson's been up to?

I noticed I haven't blogged much lately, so I thought I would give a little update on how we've been. First off, I can't believe we are less than a month away from Ayden's SECOND birthday! I really cannot believe it's been almost 2 years since he graced us with his presence :) We are planning a birthday party at my mom and dad's house like last year, hopefully minus the rain so we can splash in the pool! Invitations will be sent out soon with more details! Also I am very excited that Elmo (Sesame Street Live) will be in Ft. Smith the week after Ayden's birthday and we have tickets on the 4th row!! I hope he loves it as much as I think he will!!!

Ayden went to the doctor last week for his 4th follow-up appointment for fluid on his ears and HOORAY---his ears were all clear! For several reasons, recurrent ear infections being only one, we have decided to hire an in-home sitter one day a week for Ayden and keep him out of Mom's day out this fall. We have found a sitter with a local nanny agency and Ayden did great with her last Monday. She will come to our house on Mondays from 8-2 while I sleep and occassionally other days as needed for me to run errands or go to appointments. I am working Fri, Sat, and Sun nights now and its actually working out really well, even though its one more night than I usually work! Since I am a "prn" employee, I do not have any benefits, including paid time off, so after doing the math on how much money I would need to take a 12 week maternity leave after our next baby, I decided to start working an extra shift a week to start a maternity leave fund! Even though I am working more, I feel like I have more time off because I have my days off all in a row. Plus, I am not obligated to work 3 nights a week, so if I need a weekend off (like for Ayden's birthday) I can take it off without a problem. So that's the plan for the next several months, we'll see how it goes!

Speaking of work...can you believe we have lived here for 9 months now?! I can't believe how fast it's gone by, and how much Bentonville really feels like home after such a short time. We have both adjusted to our jobs--Chris works a lot, but gets to work from home frequently which is nice, and he enjoys his work more than anyone I've ever seen! And I really am enjoying my job (finally!) even though I will always miss my St.Eds girls!

Tomorrow is my 6 month surgery anniversary!! Check out my weight loss blog later for my official 6 month update and stats :) Having this surgery is hands-down one of the best decisions I have ever made (after marrying Chris, having Ayden, and becoming an RN:) I am hoping to reach my goal weight by my one year anniversary in January and be cleared to try for another baby!

Well, I guess that's all with us...we are doing well but of course missing all our friends and family that live oh-so-far away :( Anyone considering relocation, Bentonville is great!

Precious Ayden moments

Unless you've been under a rock, you know that

Ayden doesn't go anywhere without his 2 best friends :)

Ayden brought his baby to me this morning and said, "Momma,

baby hungee" I gave him one of his old bottles and he

just loved feeding the baby!

Then he found an old binky (yikes!) and said, "Momma, baby

has a bunk!" And then took it to his baby! What

a big boy!!

Waiting for daddy to get home from work

So cute!

Mena Pics!

Here's a slideshow for the non-facebookers out there :)

I'm Back!

It's been awhile since my last post but I've been a busy lady! I worked a ton the last couple of weeks and then we just spent a week in Mena visiting family. We had fun but are glad to be home and back in the swing of things! I took over 100 pics of our trip and I will admit I am far too lazy to upload that many pics to blogger, so for all you facebookers, check out my Mena Summer '09 album, and you non-facebookers (aka DAD) ask mom to show you!

We had so much fun in Mena! We ate smoked ribs (thanks Dad), swam, and watched fireworks on the 4th at my mom and dad's house. Sunday we spent all day with Mimi and Pappaw Wayne and Chris' 3 brothers, 1 sister and their families---lots of people lovin on and spoiling Ayden! Tuesday we spent the day at Little Missouri Falls and Albert Pike with Pappaw Dow and Memaw Deb and her 3 grandsons who are here visiting from Germany. It was so much fun, we haven't been there in years! Wednesday we took Ayden up on the mountain for his very first train ride! It was lots of fun to do all the things with Ayden that Chris and I grew up doing as kids. Yes, as it sounds, it was an insanely busy week, Ayden had minimal naps and maximum sugar, but all in all it was tons of fun and we loved having the chance to spend time with everyone!