We got family pictures!!

When my sister was in town, she took our family pictures. Here they are!

A Few Pictures from Kansas City

Here are some pictures from our Kansas City trip we took over Memorial Weekend. I haven't quite figured out how to get pictures to stay where I want them, so descriptions aren't where I want them either, but I think you'll be able to figure it out. You're intelligent.

The first pictures was taken after the musical "Wicked." Our favorite part of that picture is the guy in the background that wasn't even close to us, but somehow is part of the photo.

The next photo is in front of the Liberty Jail in Liberty Missouri.

Gina and I were showing off our amazing talents. Then Nicole and Matthew in Liberty, MO. #5, all 5 of us in front of the Christus in Independence Missouri.

I ended up posting the last two pictures because of Matthew. Look at the picture of my sister. To her left is Matthew. Right before I clicked the picture, he jumped out from behind her and broke into some kind of dance. We zoomed the photo 8 times to see him more clearly in the picture on the right. Who knew he was a professional dancer?!

Goodbye Cooper

Today we got rid of our dog, Cooper. As you can see he is a purebred Basset Hound, and we loved him very much. We just didn't have enough time to give him the attention that he needs. He moved a mile south of town and we can visit him if we want to. Below is a picture of him at 2 months old. He was a Bumble Basset for Halloween.

Here is another set of videos...

A few days ago Nicole had a day camp at the Little Red House here in Larned. The Little Red House is a replica of the first building built in Larned. While she was there she learned about some of the history of Larned, they visited Fort Larned, and they played games that kids used to play before there were expensive toys to babysit. That evening the families got to go back for a presentation and the kids who attended the camp could teach their families the games. Here is a video of Nicole and Matthew doing the favorite game. All it is, is a metal wheel and a wooden stick. The object is to keep the wheel going as long as you can. They both did a nice job and it was fun. Who needs a play station when you can have a wheel and a stick?

All About Ken...kind of

As Promised....

(X) Gone on a blind date?
(X) Skipped school? To many to count for no good reason
(X) Watched someone die? Our son, Robert.
( ) Been to Canada?
(X) Been to Mexico I went with a friend (Scott Rogers) We crossed the boarder in El Paso and we could not find a way across to get back very scary. But then we crossed again in Brownsville, TX with Scott's Sister and had a better time.
( ) Been to Florida?
(X)Been on a plane? Many times
(X) Been lost? Too many times to count!
(?) Been on the opposite side of the country--Opposite of what??
( ) Gone to Washington , DC?
( ) Swam in the ocean? Been to the beach I am afraid of the water
(X) Cried yourself to sleep? Who hasn't?
(X) Played cops and robber? I was always the robber.
(X) Recently colored with crayons?
(X) Sang Karaoke?
(X) Paid for a meal with coins only? Pennies and Nickels! I went to Taco Bell at 10:30 at night with a sack full of coins I knew how much it would cost and had just enough of eaach kind of coin that they could not be rolled. I gave it to the guy and he would not serve me the food I was so mad I got names and eventually (the next day ) a free meal. I went to another taco bell and they gave me my food. After two hours and no Phone call Dedra thought I had died. She got her food but was not happy with me. (That was while she was Prego with Matthew)
(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? Sorry, no details!
(X) Made prank phone calls? Everyone who knows me gets at least one. The best one was when I called up a friend (Name withheld as to not embarrass her) I had her going for about 5 minutes over some cookies and would not let her hang up until she bought these 12 dollar box of cookies; 8 cookies were in the box...something like that. She was going to buy them just when I told her who I was. It was rather entertaining to me , not to her.
(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue?
(X) Danced in the rain?
(X) Written a letter to Santa?
(X) Been kissed under the mistletoe?
(X) Watched the sunrise with someone you care about?
(X) Blown bubbles?
(X) Been skinny dipping outdoors ? Scouts do dumb stuff! I will not expound.
(X) Gone to the movies and didn't watch the movie?



1. Any nickname? K.G., Kage or Kenbone Only by my mom
2. Mother's name? Sherry
3. Favorite drink? Dr. Pepper
4. Tattoo? no
5. Body piercing? no
6. How much do you love your job? I like it alot, very slow and at times, very mind numbing
7. Favorite vacation spot? Disneyland
8. Ever been to Africa ? No
9. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? Yes
10. Ever been on TV? No He actually has, we were at graduation together.
11. Ever steal a traffic sign? Yes
12. Ever been in a car accident? Yes
13. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? 4
14. Favorite salad dressing? Ranch
15. Favorite pie? Pumpkin
16. Favorite number?
17. Favorite movie? A Few Good Men
18. Favorite holiday? July 4 for spring/summer, Christmas for winter/fall.
19. Favorite dessert? Chocolate Frosty from Wendy's
20. Favorite food? Mexican food from Azteca.
21. Favorite day of the week? Sunday
22 Favorite brand of body wash? Suave
23. Favorite toothpaste? Crest Whitening w/ Scope.
24. Favorite smell? FOOD IN GENERAL!!!
25. What do you do to relax? Read or take a nap.
26. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Kansas for sure, probably in Great Bend though.
27. Farthest place you will send this message? Washington to my knowledge, but since it's on a blog, it could go to China.

All about me...kind of.

I get these kinds of surveys often in email, and instead of filling it out and sending them by email i decided to do it right here. I'll have Ken fill it out and post his soon. I encourage you bloggers out there to post yours also! So here goes!


( ) Gone on a blind date?

(X) Skipped school? The first time, I was in 2nd grade. I skipped with my big brother who was in 8th grade. We watched TV and when my parents came home for lunch, we hid in the closet for an hour until they left.

(X) Watched someone die? Our son, Robert.

(X) Been to Canada? Twice, it’s over rated!

( ) Been to Mexico?

( ) Been to Florida?

(X)Been on a plane? Many times to Utah, twice to California, once back home to Washington. I think I've flown between Boise, Idaho & Pasco, WA once. I was 3...i think.

(X) Been lost? Too many times to count!

(?) Been on the opposite side of the country--Opposite of what?? I'm right in the middle right now! I've been to the West Coast...

( ) Gone to Washington , DC?

(X) Swam in the ocean? Many times.

(X) Cried yourself to sleep? Who hasn’t?

(X) Played cops and robber? I was always the robber.

(X) Recently colored with crayons? yes

(X) Sang Karaoke? In my parents living room with my little brothers and sister. Good times!

(X) Paid for a meal with coins only? Pennies and Nickels!

(X) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? Sorry, no details!

(X) Made prank phone calls? yes

(X) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose-we weren't even talking about anything, I just started laughing! It was a primary presidency in Troutdale, OR. Makes me laugh now!

(X) Caught a snowflake on your tongue? yes

(X) Danced in the rain? yes

(X) Written a letter to Santa? yes

(X) Been kissed under the mistletoe? yes

(X) Watched the sunrise with someone you care about? yes

(X) Blown bubbles? yes

( ) Been skinny dipping outdoors ?

(X) Gone to the movies and didn't watch the movie? yes



1. Any nickname? Bug or Deder Bug, but only by my parents, older siblings and aunts/uncles on my mom's side.

2. Mother's name? Charlet

3. Favorite drink? Stewart's Keylime soda, I really love a cool glass of water that isn't from E Washington or Larned Kansas! Preferably well water.

4. Tattoo? No.

5. Body piercing? Yes, 2 in each ear.

6. How much do you love your job? I like it alot, but will be leaving at the end of the summer.

7. Favorite vacation spot? Anywhere I can be with my family. Ensign Ranch is a good time too.

8. Ever been to Africa ? No

9. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? Yes

10. Ever been on TV? Yes, the news when I was in a parade in Newberg, Oregon. I was going into 4th grade. My college graduation was aired on PBS. I was also on the news when my sister and I were selling concessions in a parade in Seattle, Washington. It seems as though I have had 45 minutes of fame!

11. Ever steal a traffic sign? Yes, but my Dad made us give it back.

12. Ever been in a car accident? Yes, but never while I was driving.

13. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? 4

14. Favorite salad dressing? My Mom’s homemade 100,000 island.

15. Favorite pie? Caramel Apple Pie

16. Favorite number? 8

17. Favorite movie? Ground Hog Day! Recently I've enjoyed 27 dresses...Benny and the Jets!

18. Favorite holiday? May Day for spring/summer, Thanksgiving for winter/fall.

19. Favorite dessert? Chocolate Pudding Cake...homemade.

20. Favorite food? Mexican food from Azteca.

21. Favorite day of the week? Sunday

22 Favorite brand of body wash? Olay

23. Favorite toothpaste? Crest Whitening w/ Scope.

24. Favorite smell? Food cooking in the crockpot when I walk in the door after church.

25. What do you do to relax? Read or take a nap. I've started scrapbooking again too.

26. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Kansas for sure, probably in Great Bend though.

27. Farthest place you will send this message? Washington to my knowledge, but since it’s on a blog, it could go to China! (please leave a comment if you are in china!)

Awesomest street in AMERICA!

Check out this awesome picture! I took this picture in Twin Falls, Idaho on our way to Kansas when we moved here. Another reason it is so great, is because it leads you right to the Twin Falls, Idaho Temple! Just thought I'd share...that's what blogs are for! p.s. Is awesomest a word?

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day to my Dad, my Husband, my Brothers, my Uncles, my Grandpa & all of our friends! I love you all! I hope your day is great and that you get an awesome dinner that is filled with your favorite foods.

This is my Dad, Kent Anderson. He is the best dad a girl could have and I couldn't be more thankful for him. I love him!

Our Little Band...

Nicole has just started to play the trumpet. Matthew just got a guitar for his birthday. The other day while my friend and I were waiting for some people from work to come over for a little get together, Nicole and Matthew put on a show for us. Try to notice Nicole tapping her toes. I love that part! I hope your ears enjoy it as much as ours did!

A few minutes later, they traded instruments. That was when Matthew showed off his vast trumpet skills! I never knew that elephants lived inside trumpets!

Friends in the news!

Nicole and Matthew are in the June issue of The Friend! We just got our magazine yesterday and we were pretty excited about it! We still are in fact! If you receive The Friend, they are on page 46. If you don't there is a link below that you can click on to look at the PDF format.

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=336b9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=da373b4c3713a110VgnVCM100000176f620a____

I know the link isn't pretty, but it will work! Once you on the page, there is a little icon that says "view" right above the table of contents. Click on that and then click on "as PDF"

A couple of people have asked how I got their picture in the magazine and it was really simple. About a year and a half ago, I sent in a picture with a little description of the kids and a waver that said they could put their picture in the magazine. We waited...a year and a half...and now they are stars! (in their own eyes) I know a year and a half seems like a long time, but once you see your kids in there, the wait was worth it.

Confession Time...or maybe just a realization...

I am a hypocrite.

Three weeks ago, I was subbing for a science teacher at my school and he left a movie for the boys to watch. It was a horrible movie, gang related, lots of cussing, these 2 guys actually make friends with a church congregation so they can steal their collection money. It was no good, and I was appalled that I had to watch this movie, and I was also really annoyed that this teacher would show this kind of movie to a bunch of guys that are in jail because of gang related activity and theft. When the teacher got back to school, he asked me what I thought of the movie and I told him I thought it was horrible, for the same reasons I explained above. He went on to agree with me, but his argument was that it had a good moral at the end of the movie. In the end, one of the 2 guys did have a change of heart. (He didn't mention that that the other one did not, and ended up getting beaten up by some thugs!)

Now fast forward 2 weeks. My little sister was in town. We had a GREAT time. One evening we were driving around and I put in the soundtrack to the movie Rent. I LOVE that soundtrack! I'm not going to lie, I LOVE that movie too! I was telling her about the story line while we listened to my favorite songs in the soundtrack, and we ended up getting the movie and watching it together. For those of you who don't know that the storyline, it is about a group of friends living in New York City. Many are homosexual, some have AIDS, one is a stripper who is addicted to drugs. The movie is a year of their life. I love the movie because "it has a good story/moral." Obviously Rent does NOT have a good moral if there are so many elements of the movie that do not coincide with the teachings of our church, but I love it because it is real life for many people. You see true emotions in the movie, and I gained a better respect for the human race in general. I also because grateful for my own problems. (I also chose not to avoid the appearance of evil, and there is a lot of it in that movie!)

I know you don't have ask me why I'm a hypocrite, you can already tell, but I'm going to explain it anyway. It seems that I have a habit of holding other people to a standard that I don't hold myself too. I was appalled that a teacher would show a bad movie to a bunch of kids in jail, but I'd bring an inappropriate movie into my home to watch, where I want the spirit to reside. I tell my kids to speak kindly to each other and not to shout, but I have been know to shout myself, and say an unkind word. The list could go on and on.

This morning I was saying my prayers and thinking about the lesson that I have to teach this Sunday in Relief Society about Joseph Smith and missionary work. The thought came to me, which didn't have anything to do with my lesson, but has everything to do with my choice of movies. "How many bad things to do you have to watch, before you get to the good part of the movie?" I wrote it down right when I thought it because I don't want to forget it. Ken and I already have a rule about the F word when we are watching movies. If they say is 3 times we turn it off. All of the sudden that seems like too lax of a rule. The other things is we don't want to hear the F word, but we'll watch a movie that takes the Lord's name in vain DOZENS of times!! Once again, where are my priorities. Many of you can probably see the obvious weakness in such a guideline, but remember we are all in different stages of growth. Apparently, my growth has been stunted!

You may wonder why I am sharing all of this with you, and you may also think that it is just a rambling of too much information. I am sharing it with you because I want to be better. If I tell someone about it, I know that the problem exists and I know I have to try harder to become a better person. ACCOUNTABILITY!

The hymn "Truth Reflects Upon the Senses" comes to my mind, hymn #273, verse 2.
Once I said unto another, In thine eye, there is a mote;
If thou art a friend, a brother, hold, and let me pull it out.
But I could not see it fairly, for my sight was very dim.
When I came to search more clearly, in my eye there was a beam.

I'm going to work harder to get the beam out of my own eye, and not worry so much about what the people around me are doing. I guess that is the point of my whole story. Hopefully I will be able to stick to it! Sorry for the novel on a soapbox! ttfn

Windmill Farms

When we were on our trip to Kansas City, we passed what a windmill farm. I don't know if that is what they are really called, but that is what Nicole and Matthew call them, and it has stuck.

Anyway, along I-70 in Kansas, as well as in other areas around the United States, there are places that are filled with these windmills.  You can tell they are huge driving by, but I never realized how huge they were.  I was on my dad's work website, looking at the pictures and I came across this one.  That little black spot to the right is a person hanging off the top of the windmill. In the background, you can see more of them that look much smaller.

If I came across this picture a year and a half ago, I would have thought it was cool, and moved on, but now these windmills are in our back yard, so I thought I'd share.

If you are searching the web, go to http://www.gravitec.com/. There are some neat pictures there. They aren't in a photo album, you just have to look around the site to see them.

All About Nicole

Nicole is 9 years old. She is going into the 5th grade this fall at the middle school! She loves to swim, ride her bike, camp out, BBQ, and attend activity days. If she could live outside, she would. Her favorite colors are red and blue. Her favorite primary song is I Love to See the Temple. Her favorite temple is Seattle. Her favorite foods are Macaroni & Cheese, Cheese Sandwiches, Baked Potatoes w/cheese & bacon, CHEESE CHEESE CHEESE! As a side note, we went to a buffet restaurant a few weeks ago, and after she had one small plate of food, she went back to the buffet line and filled a large plate full of cheese and ate it. It's her favorite!

This summer Nicole is enrolled in a band class, playing the trumpet. She is doing well.

At home Nicole is a great helper. She can clean a bathroom and do the dishes like a pro. She likes to make beds and reluctantly she will rotate laundry and fold it. She is learning how to cook and sew, and you guessed it, she has mastered mac & cheese. This winter she sewed her first pair of pajama pants, and since then she has made capris. This summer she wants to make a new blanket for her bed.

Nicole is very caring. She gets very concerned when she hears that people are ill or if there has been a death...anywhere. She has heard about a death on the news and then she prayed for the bereaved family for over a week, and this happens often. Part of her concern is because of her dad's profession. A cute story on this subject took place when she was 6 or 7. We were reading scriptures in 2 Nephi one night and it was the part where Lehi dies. We got a little bit past that, and Nicole asked in a sad and surprised voice, "Lehi died?" I said told her he died a long time ago. Then she said, "What about Nephi? Sam? Ammon? Moroni?" As she asked each name, Ken and I told her the same answer, yes. After this went on for about a minute, Matthew spoke up. "Everybody in the book of mormon is dead!" Nicole's eyes got really wide and she looked at Ken and I, "Is that true?" Once again we had to tell her yes. We explained to her that we only have one prophet on the earth at one time, not going into the times when they were on different continents at the same time. We told her that President Hinckley couldn't be the prophet if Nephi and Moroni were still on the earth. That night, she had a hard time sleeping. For the next week or so, each time we read scriptures, she seemed to be sad as we read about the different people in the Book of Mormon. She simply couldn't believe they were all dead. This experience was humorous to Ken and I, and to our families as we retold the story to them, even thought we felt sad for her, but I think once she understood that we were reading scriptures written in the past, for us today, it helped her testimony to grow.

Nicole is a kind and loving person. I enjoy watching her grow up, she gets smarter and funnier each day.

We have TWO 9 year olds!!

Matthew turned 9 yesterday! We will now have

two 9 year olds for 40 days, then Nicole turns 10.

It seems like last week I was carrying Matthew in his infant seat and Nicole on my hip, excited for Colie to turn 1, now they're both 9 and just inches shorter than I am!

I told them they were grounded for getting taller and turning another age older, and I was informed that Heavenly Father wants them to grow up and be strong. Once again I have been taught a lesson by my kiddos.

For Matthew's birthday, we barbequed, he opened his gifts, and then we went to our friends house and the kids played on the trampoline and slip n slide. It was a good

time and they were good n tired when we got

home.

Kansas City Stars--Memorial Weekend

On Friday, May 23rd, my little sister, Gina flew into Wichita, Kansas to visit us for a week.

The next morning, we drove up to Kansas City, Missouri. That evening, we all ate dinner at The Melting Pot--a fondue restaurant, then we saw the Broadway Show "Wicked." It was AMAZING.

On Sunday we went to Liberty, Missouri and toured the Liberty Jail where Joseph Smith was incarcerated for 4 months. We learned about the history of the jail and talked about Doctrine and Covenants Sections 121-123, the sections that Joseph Smith wrote while he was in jail there. I've always had a testimony of Joseph Smith, but visiting that jail solidified it.

After Liberty, we went to Independence and saw the temple lot that Joseph Smith dedicated. Across one street from the temple lot is the RLDS temple. Across another street is the RLDS convention center. Caddy Corner from the lot is the LDS Visitor's Center. Inside we learned more of the history of the area and we also got to see "The Christus." Feeling the spirit so strongly in both Visitor Centers was a very special experience for our family and we were glad to have Gina come along with us.

Ken was supposed to fly home to Great Bend on Sunday afternoon, but because of the tornadoes in Central Kansas, his flight was canceled. Monday morning, we all drove back to Larned. It was a great weekend.