Sandersons

Haylee's turned the big 5!

2010-10-30T11:39:00.000-06:00

My big girl turned 5 on October 14th! We went to Gertie's for her b-day and had a small birthday party for her with my family. Then we took her on a surprise trip to Boise that weekend to see her Aunt Kalea (who is away at college in Lewiston) and to make a visit to the zoo. We took a quick jaunt to Cabela's first so the men could walk around and drool over all the stuff they want but can't have, and the women could take the kids around to see the animal displays.

After Cabela's, we went to Tucano's Brazilian Grill for lunch and it was delicious. We had them sing to Haylee for her birthday and she absolutely loved it! From there, it was finally time to hit the zoo.

After wearing ourselves out at the zoo, we went over to eat dinner and cake and ice cream at some of Dereck's family that lives in Boise.

We also tried to get in a decent family picture at the park next to the zoo. But I think we are still going to have to break down and get some professional pictures taken.

Deer Hunting

2010-10-13T10:58:00.000-06:00

Dereck left me for a few days to go deer hunting and fend for himself in the great outdoors as he does every year. This has recently become a tradition for him to go out somewhere in the middle of nowhere and camp out and hunt deer in the mountains with some of his friends from Pocatello. I woke up the morning of opening day to find out that he had already gotten his kill for the year and was done. This time around, we decided to take our deer to a local butcher shop and have them cut up the meat and make us some sausage and jerky too.

Back to School!

2010-10-06T16:40:00.001-06:00

Haylee started her first day of K-4 preschool the day after Labor Day. She was so excited to be going back to school and to be able to see and play with her friends every day! She is going to the same school this year and already loves her teacher. I am glad to be getting back into a routine again with the kids and to be able to have some time to get the house put together without having it torn apart in a half hour. Brooke is still not old enough to go to school with Haylee but we can look forward to that next year when they will both be in the same school together. So to let Brooke have some time to socialize with other kids and for me to get a break every once in a while and some sleep, we decided to stick Brooke in daycare one day a week. She is absolutely loving it!

We Have a New Addition to the Family.....

2010-10-06T16:24:00.000-06:00

We have an announcement to make. We have a new addition to the Sanderson clan. And I know that most of you are probably thinking it is a baby and that is because it is a baby. A baby puppy that is! I have to joke around about the whole baby thing because everyone has been bugging us to have another but no babies for now, just puppies. Our new puppy is a chocolate lab and we got him for a really good deal. So I finally broke down and let Dereck get himself a hunting dog. We named him Moose and everyone is excited besides the cat.

Brooke turned 2!

2010-09-01T10:38:00.000-06:00

And she will tell you all about how old she is too. Her b-day was on August 19th and it is hard for me to believe that my baby is really not a baby anymore. We all went to Gertie's for Brooke's b-day and just came back to the house, ate some cake and opened presents.

We also bought a trampoline for the girls towards the end of the summer and they are loving it so far. Now they don't have to go to Grandma's just to use her trampoline.

As you can tell, it is January and I am still blogging about August. I am way behind! To be honest, I have lost some motivation in doing the blogging lately but I have gained some of that motivation back and am going to try to catch up.

Father's Day

2010-06-30T16:12:00.000-06:00

I know this is really late considering Father's Day was back in June but I am going to make an attempt at getting caught up. Dereck and Haylee have a special hobby that they both enjoy and love to do together. It is FISHING! He is also hoping to carry that hobby through to Brooke when she gets a little more interested in going with him. So we only found it appropriate to do what Daddy loves doing most with his girls and go fishing for Father's Day. My family came down and we all went to the fish hatchery and fed the fish and then went fishing out of one of the lakes at the fish hatchery. It turned out being really windy so we didn't stay fishing for long and decided to go do some sight seeing instead. We went to a really neat waterfall with my family and then went out for some yummy ice cream. The next day, Dereck and I and the girls went to another waterfall in the canyon by the Perrine Bridge. You can actually hike up to it and stand underneath it. It was amazing and we didn't even know it was there until we decided to drive down into the canyon. We all had a great time and I hope my husband had a good Father's Day with his girls.

Kalea's Graduation

2010-06-24T13:52:00.000-06:00

My sister-in-law graduated from high school this year. We are so proud of her and all of her accomplishments even if she did go to our rival school, Burley H.S. She not only just graduated from high school but also finished her EMT course shortly before graduating. Now she plans to move on to bigger and better things and starts college at Lewis and Clark to start on her nursing degree.

Spring is in the Air!!

2010-06-23T02:45:00.000-06:00

I am pretty sure every time I blog, I talk about how I should blog more but I just don't. I keep saying I will get better about it and it has now been 5 months since I last posted. So I am going to attempt to catch up within the next week and then hopefully I will get better. Although, I am making no promises. Anyways.....Spring is in the air! Which means our already busy lives are only going to become busier. We always have so much more going on in the spring and summer than we do any other time of the year that I will have lots to blog about for the next couple of months. On to the updating.....Haylee did soccer this spring, and although I know she had fun with it, I think I enjoyed it more than she did. Brooke even got into it! But now that soccer is over, Haylee has been bugging me to let her do dance. I will have to think a little harder on that one.

After we closed on our house, we decided we could move on with our lives and start buying some things we knew we had wanted to buy but had to wait for since we were in the process of buying our house. So we bought 4-wheelers for the whole family. They were supposed to be a Christmas present but came just a little late. The kids love riding around on their little 4-wheeler and I have to admit I really enjoy having one of my own too! Now that we have dangerous toys in our house, I proceeded to buy life insurance policies for the whole family as well.

Haylee finished up preschool in the middle of May and I don't think Haylee will be the only one missing it. Haylee had a great teacher that made this year fun and memorable for our whole family and we will truly miss having her as a teacher this next year. But Haylee is very excited to be moving on to K-4 and experiencing a new teacher and classroom. So that pretty much covers anything major that happened within the months of January through the middle of May. Now on to doing posts for the last month or so.....

Denver Vaca!

2010-06-04T13:09:00.000-06:00

So we knew we wanted to make a trip down to Denver this summer to see my family and get away, but it made it even easier to decide to make it down there when one of my old friends from Idaho (she now lives in Colorado Springs) let me know she was getting married in May in Colorado Springs. So this time around, we decided to spend a little more money and fly instead of drive to save our sanity. Even though, we later realized after getting on the airplane that driving may have ended up being better as Brooke did not want to sit still for any part of the flight. Lucky for us, she was much better on the way back home. We stayed with my Uncle Stew and cousins for most of our trip, and I really enjoyed being able to spend some time with them just hanging out. Needless to say.....we had a BLAST and I am so glad that everything worked out for us to have this nice getaway.

Since Haylee enjoyed the aquarium so much the last time, we could not miss out on hitting up the Downtown Denver Aquarium again. This time both kids got to enjoy it!

Since we were already going to be in Colorado Springs for Madison's wedding, we decided to stay there overnight and do some sight seeing. Madison's wedding was at a beautiful place called Blue Skies Inn Bed and Breakfast. The kids enjoyed wearing their new dresses and showing them off and even Dereck and I dressed up for the occasion (even though there are no pics of us). Madison also married a guy named Derek so I guess we both have the same taste in names. Congratulations to Madi and Dereck Switzer!

While we were in Colorado Springs, we visited Garden of the Gods. It was absolutely breathtaking! I couldn't help myself from taking a million pictures.

We also had to stop back by the Denver Zoo again since we only made it through about half the zoo the last time. This time, we started on the other end of the zoo and made it through the other half before we called it a day when we were all getting too hot, tired, and hungry to go on. We finally made it through the whole zoo! It only took us two visits to do it. Maybe next time we will get really ambitious and try to do the whole zoo in one visit. We had a great trip and are already planning our next trip to Denver.

House News-The Final Posting

2010-01-23T03:12:00.009-07:00

So this will be my last posting on any house news because.....

WE FINALLY CLOSED!!!

And shame on me, because I am actually a little late on posting this great news. We closed on January 5th and are so happy the journey to owning our own home is over with! It was a very bumpy road to get to where we are at but it was worth it. Since we closed, we have been busy doing some remodeling, painting, and preparing to move in. Everything should be done by the end of the weekend and we should be able to start moving in at the beginning of the week. We have already posted some pictures of our new home on our blog previously but we will post some more when everything is completely finished. We were just so excited that we wanted to share the good news with everyone!

Christmas!

2010-01-08T13:21:00.006-07:00

So now that it is nearing the end of January, I have finally decided to get our Christmas pictures together and posted. We had a fairly traditional Christmas this year that consisted of making Santa cookies with Nana, spending Christmas Eve with Dereck's side of the family, opening our pajamas on Christmas Eve, and then spending Christmas Day with my side of the family. The only difference between this Christmas and any of the other ones we have celebrated together was that Dereck and I both had to work on Christmas night. It was a bummer deal that we were not able to play games with my family and relax that night (But I guess that is what I get for becoming a nurse). The highlight of my Christmas this year was to be able to enjoy watching both of my kids take part in the holiday season. So here are just a few pictures that captured both of the kiddos enjoying Christmas......

Santa cookies with Nana.....

Opening presents with Dereck's family.....

Opening presents with my family......

We also want to wish everyone a happy new year!

We Have a New Addition to the Family.....

2010-01-08T13:09:00.004-07:00

And no it is not a baby!......it is a dog! We have actually had him for about 4 months now but have yet to announce it to everyone on our blog (shows how slow I am on posting). His name is Prince and he is a german shorthair.

Christmas Pics

2009-12-21T16:07:00.002-07:00

I just got a nice, new camera from Dereck for Christmas so I figured I would try it out and take a few pictures of the kids with it. The pictures I took came out pretty cute but I think I am far from being anything close to professional.

The New House!

2009-10-23T15:45:00.003-06:00

House News!

2009-10-20T11:04:00.003-06:00

So here I am once again giving some news about our house situation. It seems neverending sometimes. The bad news is.......the house we are in now that we were trying to buy completely fell through about 3 weeks ago. After much waiting and convincing, the bank decided to deny our offer and closed out our file. The good news is......we found another house we loved that same day and it is only a block and a half from where we are at now. The even greater news is......this house is not a short sale (although it is bank owned) which means we don't have to go through the whole long process and waiting. And the even greater news is.......the bank accepted our offer and we now have the paperwork going to close. We should be able to close within 30 days or less and we can move in! Yay! So here is a picture of the house and I will put up more after we do our home inspection on Friday.....

Wax Museum

2009-10-20T10:14:00.003-06:00

Have I mentioned I love my daughter's school?!? Haylee's school does some really neat things throughout the year and the great thing is is that the preschool class participates in most everything that the older kids do. Her school just put on their very own wax museum where they dressed up to represent a book that they have read and then displayed themselves in their classrooms as a character from that book. The school does this project to help the students enjoy a reading project and gain a love of reading. Haylee's class dressed up as mice from Cinderella and her teacher played the part of Cinderella. They had to be still like wax for 30 minutes while parents and other classes came through to see their project. Haylee had a really fun time with the project and she even made her own mouse ears in class for the big day.

Happy B-Day Haylee

2009-10-20T09:51:00.007-06:00

Haylee turned the big 4 last Wednesday! I have to be honest, it makes me feel a little old knowing I have a 4 year old now running around. Haylee was so excited for her birthday this year that she had been talking about what she wanted since Brooke's birthday. We decided to let Haylee choose what she wanted for her birthday dinner and her fun activity this year. So she chose to go to Gertie's (which is an all you can eat pizza place) and bowling. She also did a birthday party with her preschool class at school which consisted of letting the kids decorate their own cupcakes with frosting and sprinkles (what was I thinking on that one!). More pictures to come later.....

Happy B-Day Brooke!

2009-08-25T09:51:00.005-06:00

Since both Dereck and I had to work on Brooke's birthday, we decided to wait until the weekend to do any kind of presents, cake, and partying. So on Sunday, we went to Thousand Springs and did a bbq on the river and went swimming. We all had a lot of fun and Brooke enjoyed her birthday party and her own cake even more.

My Baby Turned 1!!!

2009-08-25T09:43:00.006-06:00

On Wednesday, my baby girl turned 1! I can't believe how fast this past year has gone by.....

These were pictures that were taken in the hospital when Brooke was born.....

It is amazing how fast kids grow up! It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital. Brooke Lynn has gone from a cute little newborn that I couldn't keep my eyes off of to a walking, babbling hellion that I can't seem to keep up with. I can't wait to see what is to come in the next year for her and for many years to come.....

Our New House!

2009-08-07T17:38:00.005-06:00

For anyone that doesn't know......we moved away from Pocatello a few weeks ago and have made our new home in Jerome. It is really ironic that this is where I started out in Idaho and now after so many years, I have come back. It was not really planned this way but I am working in Twin Falls and Dereck is working in Gooding so Jerome just happens to be about right in the middle. We are now getting settled in and I finally got around to taking some pictures of our new home. So here you go.....

We are renting the house while we are waiting for everything to finish going through and close. And just to top everything off, we got a great deal on the house and it is in a great neighborhood. We still have a lot of work to get done in the back yard (I used to call it my little "weed patch" but Dereck chopped down the weeds) but it will all be worth it. So to make a long story short.....we love our new house and we wouldn't trade it for anything different.

Shoshone Falls

2009-08-02T21:43:00.006-06:00

A few weeks ago, we made a trip to Twin Falls with the kids to search for a place to live and while we were there we decided to take a quick detour to Shoshone Falls and Dierkes Lake.

Life Has Been Crazy Lately!

2009-08-02T21:24:00.002-06:00

I know it has been a long time since I have blogged but we have been BUSY! So much has happened since I last blogged and things are finally starting to feel a little more routine so I felt it was time to put up some new pictures and let everyone know what we have been doing for the last month. I now have a job at St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center and have been working for about a month now on the Women and Children's floor. Despite having to drive back and forth from Rupert to Twin Falls for the first two weeks or so, I have really liked my job so far. Dereck quit his job with Simplot to take a position with Glanbia Milk in Gooding which meant that we could finally find a place to live in the Twin Falls area. So to make a long story short......we found a house we loved in Jerome, placed an offer on it, had the offer accepted by the sellers, and are now renting it while we are finishing up the buying process. So between starting new jobs, working, moving, and trying to spend as much time together as family, our life has been crazy but we love how everything has come together.

I Got A Job!

2009-06-13T17:14:00.003-06:00

You heard me correctly.....I finally have a job offer! I had interviews with the Medical, Surgical, and Women and Children's units at St. Luke's Magic Valley Regional Medical Center in Twin Falls on Thursday. I was asked to come back for a second interview for the Women and Children's position this next Wednesday. But on Friday afternoon, I received a phone call from St. Luke's offering me a position on the Medical floor. So that complicated things a bit considering I really want the Women and Children's position. They were understanding of this predicament and are allowing me to interview with the Women and Children's unit on Wednesday and still holding my offer on the Medical floor until I know whether I will have an offer for the Women and Children's unit. So regardless of the situation, I know I will have a job with them. I will start orientation on July 6 no matter what position I take and will start working on the floor the week after that. Now to work out all the other details like a job for Dereck and our housing situation.....

And The Results Are In......

2009-06-13T15:14:00.002-06:00

I took my NCLEX-RN exam on Wednesday in Boise. I have to say it was pretty rough and I didn't know how to feel after it was all over. I had no idea how I did and I felt like I had failed the biggest exam I would ever take. After worrying myself sick for the last couple of days, I have found out the results.....

I PASSED!!!

I am now officially a registered nurse.

My Little Brother Graduated!

2009-05-30T09:28:00.004-06:00

I still can't believe it. My little brother graduated from high school on Friday night. I am so proud of him! Eric graduated from Minico High School with honors and in the top ten of his class. Looking at him graduate the other night made me realize how fast time flies and how old I really am getting.

Waiting for graduation to start.....

Still waiting in anticipation.....

Eric Bohm, Top Ten Scholar with Honors. Walking across the stage.....

Silly string everywhere. Wahoo! Eric graduated.

Just a Few Pictures of the Kids

2009-05-26T23:01:00.000-06:00

I DID IT!!!!

2009-05-26T22:20:00.011-06:00

I finally graduated from college! After four years, countless hours of studying, cramming for tests, procrastinating papers til the last minute, and staying up late working on care plans, I made it through Idaho State University's Nursing program. It look a lot of motivation, hard work, and commitment as well as smiles, tears, a few emotional breakdowns, and time away from my family. But in the end all of that was worth it. Since my graduation, I have taken some time to reflect on the last four years of my life and all that I have accomplished. In those four years, I managed to give birth to my first daughter, get married, make some really good friends, give birth to my second daughter, and graduate with my Bachelor's of Science in Nursing. And I would have never have been able to make it through all of that without the support of my family and friends.

A Graduation Update!

2009-05-05T16:53:00.002-06:00

It has been a while since I posted so I am just going to do a quick update for everyone. No pictures for this posting but I will have a bunch for the next posting. So I finally made it to the end......no more school, no more finals, no more classes, no more clinicals, and no more homework! I am graduating on Friday from the Nursing program in a special pinning ceremony and the official graduation is on Saturday (even though I am not walking). It feels surreal to be graduating from college and moving on with my life. I think this is one of the most exciting things that has happened in my life behind getting married and giving birth to my children. All of the hard work and time away from my family is finally going to pay off. Unfortunately, I still have yet to find a job but I am staying positive and I know something will come along soon. If things work out the right way, I will be working on the Med/Surg floor at Cassia Regional Medical Center in Burley. Dereck also applied for a job at Dot Foods in Burley that he is more than qualified for. So hopefully those jobs will come through for us and we can get a new start. Even though I do not really care to go back to my hometown, I think this may be a good start for us and a positive thing as we have lots of family there to help us out. Anyways.....I just feel so blessed I have an understanding and supportive family and friends that have been there to get me through school and now to get me started in my career. Thanks everyone!

Job Updates, Moving, Etc.

2009-04-03T14:51:00.003-06:00

It has only been a week since I last blogged but I feel like a ton has happened lately. To begin with.....this last weekend we were doing some job hunting and found a maintenance mechanic position opening at the Simplot in Caldwell. We were feeling a little optimistic about this job because they wanted previous maintenance experience (which Dereck doesn't have) but decided to go ahead and revise Dereck's resume and submit it anyways. On Tuesday, while checking the Boise newspaper for nursing jobs, I came across a job in Richland, Washington at Kadlec Medical Center that sounded to be quite promising. Feeling frustrated about my job situation, I decided to call the facility to get some more information and left a message for the nurse recruiter. On Wednesday, Dereck received a call from the Simplot in Caldwell and they asked him if he could do a phone interview the next morning. At this point, I was feeling pretty bummed and a little jealous as I have submitted about 5 applications in the last month and have not heard a thing. But anyways....on Thursday morning, he had his phone interview and they told him they would get back with him in the next week or so. By 2 o'clock, he had received a phone call back from the Simplot in Caldwell asking him if he could come there on Monday to take his JSE test and tour the plant. He also got invited go to lunch with all of the maintenance leads in the plant. Later that day, I finally received a phone call back from Kadlec Medical Center. After finding out some more information from the nurse recruiter and talking with him about the available Pediatrics position, I was starting to feel really good about what this hospital had to offer and then the nurse recruiter offered me a phone interview for next Friday. So as you can now see, we have a slight problem. Dereck is probably going to get a job offer at the Simplot in Caldwell and I am doing a phone interview with a hospital in Washington. And to complicate things, we still have yet to hear anything on our house. So I guess we have some big decisions to make.

It Has Been a While!

2009-03-22T21:02:00.009-06:00

I know I promised that I was going to catch up on my posts before but I am lacking on the blogging once again and never really did catch up. I completely missed posting pictures of Brooke at 6 months old and now a whole month has already passed and she is 7 months old. I have still been really busy with school and clinicals but our lives are finally slowing down a bit. I am officially finished with clinicals and I am now on Spring Break. I graduate in about a month and a half and it is starting to become surreal that I will actually been done with school and will be moving on into another chapter in our lives. I have started applying for jobs in the Boise area and am hoping a Pediatrics position I applied for will come through. Our house has gone through the seller's mortgage company and is supposedly in the final stages before we can claim it as our own. So things are moving right along and we are getting very excited to see what the future will hold for us.

Brooke is now 7 months old! When I took her in for her 6 month well child check she was 16 lbs. 7 oz. and 26.5" long. Apparently, she also has a huge head and the doctor was concerned that her head circumference had increased quite a bit since her last appointment. So we now have to take her back in to the clinic in a couple of months to have her head circumference rechecked. Anyways.....I am not too concerned about any problems with her head as she is still reaching her milestones way ahead of time. Brooke is now crawling all over the place and is trying to eat everything in sight. She has also started attempting to pull herself up to a stand and although she has not accomplished that yet, she can hold onto things and stay standing. Brooke's hair was starting to get too long so I finally succumbed to temptation and had a friend trim up her hair for me about a week ago (Thanks Randee!). Although it was a little hard for me to part with her hair, she looks much better with it cut and she is liking the fact that it is out of her eyes.

Haylee is becoming quite the little smarty pants and she amazes me everyday with little things that she has picked up from other places and other people. She even told my mom this last weekend that my mom was too old to come and play tag with her (haha). Eric is playing tennis for the high school this year and has gotten Haylee hooked on the idea of tennis. My mom even got Haylee her own tennis racket this last weekend. She actually is not too bad so who knows maybe she will be the next Venus or Serena Williams. Spring is finally here and it is starting to warm up which means the kids and I can spend more time outside. Here is a few pictures of the kids from the last week or so.....

Another House Update!

2009-03-04T15:34:00.002-07:00

So.....we just got a call the other day from our real estate agent saying our offer was now with a negotiator from the bank. He said that it should be about another 15 days or so before we hear our final answer. We are so excited that the whole process is moving along and now all we have left to do is hope and pray. More to come later......

State Wrestling Tournament

2009-03-04T15:10:00.002-07:00

Eric wrestling a kid from Wood River. (Eric is in the red and gold)

Eric had a bittersweet victory in overtime while wrestling at Regionals a couple of weeks ago and ended up making it in to the State tournament. Since the wrestling tournament was at Holt Arena and Eric is a senior, I figured I should probably go and suffer from the sore butt and legs I was going to get from sitting there all day. Eric started out the wrestling tournament with a loss but came back to take his next two matches to move on to Saturday. Unfortunately, he was matched up with the 3rd seed in the State for his first match on Saturday and he ended up losing this match which put him out of the tournament. But to make a long two day story short, I actually enjoyed the tournament and the sore butt and legs was worth it. Even though they don't hand out awards or titles past 6th place, Eric would have taken 7th place and I am a proud big sister. Congratulations Eric!

Just a Quick Update!

2009-02-26T17:12:00.002-07:00

It has been a while! Things have been so busy with school and everything else that I haven't taken the time to blog. So I am just going to hit on a couple of things that have happened lately to get everybody updated. I only have 10 weeks of school left! I have been very busy lately trying to get clinical hours done and out of the way but I will be done with most everything besides class by the middle of March. Dereck has just been working and working. He has been on days for the last month and I have to say it has been kinda nice having him home at night. But this is short-lived as he goes back to nights next week. The offer on our house in Nampa was finally accepted by the seller and we are now waiting for it to go through the bank. Haylee had strep throat a few weeks ago and luckily did not pass it on to any of us. Brooke just turned 6 months old last week. She is a little monster and tries to get into everything (I will post 6 month pictures this weekend). Eric just got done wrestling at regionals last week and won his final match in overtime to make it to the state tournament. It was pretty intense! The state wrestling tournament starts tomorrow and it just so happens that it is in Pocatello so that means I don't have to go too far to watch. So that is it for now.....more to come later.

5 Months

2009-01-31T17:31:00.015-07:00

So here it is January 31st and I have yet to post some 5 month old pictures of Brooke. I am only 12 days late and it is already halfway to her turning 6 months! Oh well I guess that is what happens when you are busy. Anyways.....Brooke is still the same healthy, happy baby as she always has been. Since we came back from our trip to Denver, she has figured out how to roll from her back to her stomach and then from her stomach to her back again. Once she figured this out she soon found that rolling was a good mode of transportation. So she rolls from place to place to get where she wants to go or get what she wants. Since then she has managed to almost eat a hair clip and a granola bar. Brooke can also sit on her own now and only falls over if she gets too excited or loses concentration on sitting there. She is already trying to get into everything and it won't be long before she is crawling all over the place and even walking. I can't believe Brooke is almost 6 months old!

Brooke absolutely loves playing in this exersaucer. This thing can keep her entertained for quite a while so I use it when I am trying to get some school work or house work done.

Life Update

2009-01-27T21:11:00.005-07:00

After our trip to Denver, Colorado I know there are a lot of people that are probably wanting to know what our plans are going to be. So here is the deal....we actually decided to take a trip to Boise this last weekend and take a look at our options there. We went the whole day this last Friday and looked at 15 different houses and took a peek at St. Luke's and St. Alphonsus. We felt so confident about wanting to move there that we actually made an offer on a house that same day. Dereck is already getting the process going on transferring to the Simplot in Nampa, and I have turned in my application to St. Lukes and am awaiting for the interviews to begin in March. So to make a long story short, we really enjoyed our trip to Denver but I don't know if we see ourselves living there. We made a pact with each other when we had started talking about moving that we would move wherever we felt we were supposed to be. It just so happens that everything just seems to be falling into place for Boise and I think we feel this is where we were meant to go. Here is the house we completely fell for.....

It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom with a nice yard and there is nothing behind us besides a field. It is in Nampa and was actually one of the smaller houses we looked at and it was not a house I expected to fall in love with. But the minute we walked in the door my face lit up and I completely fell for this house. Here are a few more pictures.....

This house is actually a short sale so it will probably be a couple months before we close on it and we are still waiting to hear back from the seller. But we will keep everyone updated on the progress of the house, our jobs, etc.

Family Pictures

2009-01-20T22:53:00.004-07:00

So for a dance fundraiser for Dereck's cousin, we had our family pictures taken right before Thanksgiving. We not only had just our family's picture taken but we also had a picture of the whole Sanderson family taken. Dereck's grandpa was able to take part in the picture which turned out to be a pretty special thing. I have actually had the pictures for quite some time but I have not been able to get them scanned into a computer until now. So here is our family picture and when I get the whole Sanderson gang scanned in I will post that one too.....

Trip to Denver

2009-01-16T12:22:00.016-07:00

As you can see, I am starting to fall behind in my blogs (as expected) so I am going to attempt to catch up in the next few days. There has been a lot going on in the last few weeks and we have been really busy trying to get back to reality and our normal lives. Anyways.....we are finally back from Colorado and are back into the routine of our daily lives now. Even though we had a great trip and I miss the Mile High City already, I am exhausted and it feels good to be home. On a high note, I survived my first week of my last semester of school ever this last week! Anyways, on to our trip.....we packed up the kids in the car last Monday and took off on our long journey (long car ride!) to Colorado. We took a small detour on our way and stopped in Sydney, Nebraska, to check out Cabelas. The kids and I just enjoyed looking at the displays of the animals while Dereck drooled over all the expensive hunting gear that we will never be able to afford. From there we took off and and finished our journey in Sterling, Colorado where we stayed for a couple of days visiting my grandparents. Since I don't see my grandparents very often, it was really nice to just relax and visit with them. Here are some pictures the kids and I took at Cabelas.....

On Wednesday morning, we took off from Sterling and headed to Denver. From the time we got there, we did not stop. We did so many things and had so many fun experiences that I could go on all day but I do not want to bore anyone so I will just summarize everything we did. On Thursday morning, I had an appointment with The Children's Hospital and had the opportunity to meet with the clinical nurse coordinator on the cardiac unit. The hospital and the staff is amazing and I think it would be a great place to work (they even had valet parking!). On Friday morning, I had an appointment with Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center-Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children. The nurse recruiter spent lots of time explaining the hospital and what the hospital has to offer, and he showed me each pediatric unit (NICU, PICU, Peds floor). This hospital was also amazing and I might have a hard time choosing between the two (they also had valet parking!). Here are pictures of The Children's Hospital (left) and Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center (right)....

In the midst of everything that week, we visited Bass Pro Shops/Outdoor World and the kids and I looked at all of the animal displays once again while Dereck drooled over everything. We also met with a realtor and looked at some of the neighborhoods in the northern metro area of Denver and some houses as well. It is definitely a good time for us to be buying as we found some killer deals on a few really nice houses. Each night we went out for dinner, we picked a new place to eat that neither of us had ever eaten at before. So on Thursday night, we went to a Buffalo Wild Wings and on Friday night, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. We also tried to find as much time as possible every night to take the kids swimming in our hotel. It seems like we went and did all this fun stuff yet all Haylee could talk about was going swimming.

I figured the weekend would be more relaxing because of the fact that we had reserved most of it to spend time with my family. But I could not have been more wrong! On Saturday morning, my uncle took Dereck into the mountains to show him some property he owns. So while the boys were playing in the mountains, I took the kids to the Denver Zoo. This place was huge and had all kinds of different animals that I had never even seen. We didn't even make it through the entire zoo before we were all too exhausted and grumpy to finish. That afternoon we met back up with the boys and spent the afternoon/night with my family at my grandpa's house watching the NFL playoffs. Here are just a few of our pictures from the zoo.....

So our trip was almost over, and we had been promising Haylee the entire trip that we would take her to the aquarium. When we still had not gotten there by Sunday morning, we knew we had to go that day. So we went to church that morning with some of my family and then took off to the Downtown Aquarium. I would have to say that this was probably the highlight of our trip for Haylee. She wouldn't stop saying "Look at this" and "Look at that." Here are a few of the pictures from the aquarium.....

After the aquarium, we went to my uncle's house to eat some mexican food and hang out with the family while watching the NFL playoffs (can you see the trend?). Later that night, we watched my uncle and cousin play a hockey game and even took some time to have a few drinks, visit, and say our good-byes. On Monday morning, we packed back up and took off to come home. The car ride home seemed like it took forever. Time always seems to slow down when you really want something or want to be somewhere. Anyways.....we made it home and I still don't feel like I have completely recovered but we enjoyed our little vacation.

Christmas

2008-12-28T13:44:00.025-07:00

As we always do year after year, we packed up the family and headed to Rupert for Christmas even though we didn't know if we were going to make it because of the snow storm we were having. It is probably a good thing we did because I can't cook and I don't know how we would have made it on our own. Anyways....We usually spend Christmas Eve with Dereck's family and Christmas Day with my family as my dad usually has to work on Christmas Eve. This sure beats rushing around on Thanksgiving and Easter to do two family things and eating two huge meals. So I usually tend to enjoy Christmas more. This year, our Christmas Eve plan fell through when a couple of Dereck's family members became sick. So we did a small thing with his mom and his grandma. Haylee made Santa cookies with Christmas cookie cutters, frosting, and an array of sprinkles and she had a blast. She would not let anyone touch the cookies or eat them because "they were for Santa." I love the fact that she is starting to understand how things work; she is such a little smarty pants (she must get that from her mother). On Christmas morning, everyone woke up and went through their stockings and we all took turns opening our presents. Brooke was even able to grab onto the wrapping paper and try to unwrap her own presents (with a little help of course). After a while, she got tired of trying to unwrap presents and decided she was going to start eating the wrapping paper instead. Haylee got a toy kitchen from my parents and Santa got her a toy gun that shoots rubber bullets and a sled. The gun is a special thing to her because now she can go hunt ducks and birds with her daddy. So here are some of our pictures from Christmas......

Dereck had to work Friday night at midnight so we headed back home that afternoon. Despite the weather being decent and the sun shining, the roads were still horrible and it seemed like it took us forever to get home. When we finally did make it this is what we came home to.....

So I know this post is a little late but I got it done. This next week (January 5th) we are packing up the family and heading to Denver, Colorado for a week. We are going to visit my family and check out a few of the area hospitals as well as the housing. And since we don't do things like this very often or ever, we are also going to take the kids to a couple of fun things and have a mini vacation. So anyways....I probably will not be posting for at least a week or two so until then.....

4 Months!

2008-12-22T11:30:00.009-07:00

Brooke turned 4 months old on December 19th. She is the happiest baby and she never ceases to amaze us with her new feats and milestones. I just took her to her 4 month well child check-up and she is 13 lb. 12 oz. and 24 1/4" long.

Brooke is now rolling all over the place which is a good thing and a bad thing. I love to see her roll but I now have to watch her much more carefully to make sure she is not rolling off something. She barely sat on her stomach long enough for me to take this picture. She is also starting to play with toys and make all kinds of different noises.

Brooke is becoming more coordinated with her hands so she is now able to take out her own pacifier and put it back in her mouth which definitely makes my job easier at times.

Brooke is starting to sit up without support at times when she feels like it. But she is definitely sitting with support and is loving every minute of it.

We also decided to start feeding Brooke solid foods this last week. Here she is hooked in to her highchair ready to eat. She is also starting to teeth and she has to chew and gnaw on everything she can get her hands on. So we should have a couple teeth on the bottom in the next month or so.

Of course, she had to make a mess for me by spitting her food out at me and she is giving me a dirty look too.

My daughter already has attitude towards me.

Even though Brooke is such a cute little baby, I love that she is growing up and starting to accomplish new tasks and is on her way to sitting, crawling, and walking. I think Haylee would also love to be able to play with Brooke. Well......I am sure I will have much more to share next month. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Broncos #1 Fan

2008-12-21T19:11:00.006-07:00

All of my family is either from Colorado or are Colorado natives and this means that my whole family is big Denver Broncos fans. When we had Haylee, my aunt sent this Broncos outfit for her and I decided to pull it out today and put it on Brooke. I thought it was fitting considering the football season is getting close to being over and because my husband hates the Broncos. So anyways.....here are a few snapshots I took of Brooke in her Broncos outfit. She is now their #1 fan and now we just have to convince my husband to become a fan. He might want to consider trading teams if we decide to move there when I am done with school or else I think he is going to be out of place.

Brooke was watching a football game on the t.v. even though it was not the Broncos game.

I just liked this picture because it looks like she is concentrating really hard on trying to crawl.

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

2008-12-14T13:19:00.003-07:00

So this year, I got out the Christmas tree about a week after Thanksgiving and there it sat for a good week with no ornaments or decorations on it. Haylee kept bugging me to decorate it and so we decided to do something a little different with our Christmas tree and I just let Haylee loose on it. She decorated the whole tree by herself and enjoyed every minute of it.

So here is the Christmas tree after Haylee got done with it. She didn't do too bad of a job for doing it by herself but I am still going to fix it later on.

I decided to take advantage of the moment.

So here is the Christmas tree after we turned on the lights. If you didn't already notice, most of the lights on the bottom of the tree didn't light. We still can't figure out why they won't light so we decided to just leave it that way and now we can claim we have a true Charlie Brown Christmas tree this year.

Haylee and her pride and joy decorating job.

Another picture of the girls. Brooke could not get her eyes off the lights and decorations. Every time I tried to get her attention to take the picture, she would look at me for about 2 seconds and then her eyes were back on the tree. It is probably a good thing she can't crawl yet or I would have ornaments everywhere. It is hard enough trying to keep the cat out of the tree. Until next time..........

3 Months!

2008-12-01T13:52:00.003-07:00

Brooke turned 3 months old on November 19th! It seems like just yesterday that she was born. She is growing up way too fast and continues to surprise us with new milestones she has accomplished. She just started rolling over and before we know it she will be crawling and walking.

Brooke is even trying to walk already even though she may be getting some help from daddy.

Brooke is also starting to try to hold her own bottle. Sometimes she can get enough coordination to accomplish this task. We just happened to catch it this time around. She is growing up way too fast!

Thanksgiving Family Fun

2008-11-29T22:06:00.017-07:00

As we always do every year, we went to Rupert for Thanksgiving and ate our two big Thanksgiving meals in the same day. At least we had about 6 hours in between meals to recover. Needless to say we were all stuffed but enjoyed our time with both of our families.

Haylee got to make little foam Christmas trees and a gingerbread house with Dereck's family. She had a blast doing this fun little Christmas project and I have to say that I think I almost had just as much fun helping. Here are just some random pictures we took after our Thanksgiving dinner......

Cody, Haylee, and Brooke all relaxing on the couch. Brooke has that stunned deer in the headlights look on her face....

Daddy with a cheesy smile and Brooke.....

Ehhh?!?......

Eric was trying to get Brooke to laugh......

Since Dereck got a couple days off for Thanksgiving, we decided to hit the Rupert Square on Friday night for the annual Christmas lighting and fireworks. Haylee was so excited to be able to see Santa on a fire truck, the Christmas lights, and the fireworks. It was freezing but it was worth it to see Haylee have such a good time. The lighting on the square was beautiful this year and it got the whole family in the holiday spirit. Now I just need to get the Christmas tree up......

Our blog!

2008-11-22T13:03:00.003-07:00

We finally decided to join in the fun and try out this whole blogging thing. So this is our very first post on our new blog. Time goes by so quickly and and things are continually changing so I figured this would be a great way to keep in touch with everyone and share what is going on in our lives. I get excited for what each new day will bring in our lives and the lives of our children and now I have a way to share this with our family and friends.