Happy Birthday to Me!

Nice title, huh?! :) Funny! Wow, I am so thankful! I honestly have the most wonderful family and friends! What a day! It started off truly wonderful doing one of my very favorite things... (don't laugh!) going to church!! We were at our condo this weekend so we went to our "Branson" church... Ted Cunningham is awesome! His messages are on line every week too (hint hint)... Today's message was on the man of the house... "Stepping up into his role as leader in the house!" What a great message! As I sat there with Paul (my husband) and Dad (my dad... of course! :) ) listening to the message I was amazed (not really!) that they are both already "stepping up"! Wow! I am blessed! :) Spending my birthday (and birthday weekend) with our very wonderful friends Kevin and Jenny (and Kaden, Paisley, Scarett, and Violet) just made it all the better! Kevin, we can celebrate our birthday's together anytime!! New York this year... I say the beach next year! :)

What a fun "brunch" after church at IHOP! Okay, how many people have been sang to for their birthday at IHOP?! Thanks mom and dad! Dad, don't be embarrassed... I know I could have choosen anywhere... I wanted IHOP!! :)

Spending the 3 1/2 car ride home from the condo in the car with my family was PERFECT! Just being with my family is all I need! Of course, my sweet hubby couldn't settle for that... :)

What a surprise! 2 years in a row!!! A surprise birthday dinner!! Thank you to my incredible parents, my wonderful mother and father-in-law Ruth and Larry, my awesome brother and sister-in-law Mark and Denise, my fantastic friends Amy, Jeff, and Ashlyn; Lynn, Lee, and Connor; Lisa, Brady, and Allie; Morgan; and of course my fabulous husband Paul and super kids Jake and Taylor!! Thank you so much Paul for putting this together for me tonight! You are truly wonderful! I am so blessed! Jake and Tay thank you for being so excited for me and for caring so much about my having the best birthday ever. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone for helping to make my birthday a great one!

Thanks for all the phone calls, birthday cards, gifts, emails, and facebook wishes today too! Wow, I'm so spoiled!

I hope you all know how very much you all mean to me! I'm so very blessed to have each of you in my life!!

Ohhh so thankful!!!

A little warning... I'm typing this post on my Palm Pre! I feel so thankful for all of my blessings!. I've definitely been blessed! I was so fortunate to be brought into this world by two of the most wonderful people in the world! Thank you mom and dad for being the most incredible parents ever!! Thanks for always putting our family first in every way every day!! Thanks for giving my brother and I such a family centered peaceful childhood full of love and happiness. Thank you for always been the most wonderful role models!! I love you mom and dad!

I'm so thankful for my sweet fun loving husband! Paul, thank you for always trying to make me happy! Thank you for always being my best friend... Thank you for really "knowing" me and for always wanting to spend time with me. I can't begin to list all of the things you have introduced me to! Life is definitely interesting and exciting with you!! And, of course, thanks from the bottom of my heart for being such a wonderful dad to our kids...

Jake Jake Jake.... Wow wow wow! What a great kid you are! I'm so thankful for the smart, handsome, athletic, energetic, caring kid that you are!! Thank you for asking such awesome questions all the time! Please never stop asking them! I love the way you try so hard in everything you do! I love the way you love and care so deeply... I love knowing you are "on my team"! I love you Jake Anderson!

Sweet spunky Tay... You rock! What a truly fabulous young lady you are!! I'm so thankful for the smart, beautiful, outgoing, athletic, considerate kid that you are!! Thank you for always thinking of other people's feelings! I'm so thankful that you have such a caring, understanding, accepting heart. It feels so wonderful to know you always care about us all so much. I love you Taylor Anderson!

I have so much to be thankful for that I don't even know where to go from here! ... I'm so thankful for my incredible inlaws who love our sweet kids so much and who are always eager to help us anyway they can. I'm so thankful for my special brother Brandon and sister-in-law Courtney... And my awesome brother-in-law Mark and sister-in-law Denise... My adorable nephew Jackson and my beautiful neices Morgan, Alex, and Ella. My fun, cute, and loveable dogs Duke and Bailey.

Thank you for my grandparents and all of my relatives!!

Thank you for all of my wonderful friends....

A blessed October!

Wow, I can't believe October is already over! This time of year always seems to fly by so quickly! I must admit that as I laid awake last night unable to sleep... It could have been the Excedrin I took... or maybe because I was squished between my husband and my daughter on half of our king size bed (the other half empty, but my daughter wouldn't budge :) )... and my dog (the small one) laying on my pillow at the top of my head... And my other dog (the big one) moving around VERY LOUDLY in his kennel last night... Hmmm.... Not sure what it was. :) Anyway, I was thinking of EVERYTHING as I laid there... And I almost burst into tears as I realized that half of Jake's life THAT HE WOULD BE LIVING WITH US A CHILD was over! He's 9 and he'll leave for college in 9 years! Oh, geez! I just love love love my two kids!!! As most parents do, of course. My biggest hope is that I'm teaching my kids to have a close relationship with Jesus... I pray pray pray for this everyday. I want to teach them to look at the bright side of every situation.... There is always a dark side and a bright one... Why not choose the bright one?? I also want them to always always always think the good (versus the bad) of everyone and everything. How awesome is it that we ALWAYS get to choose how we feel?? Thank you God for this gift!! I also hope I'm teaching my kids through example that they have the gift of making someones day brighter... always! Even a simple smile to every stranger that they meet... even the ones that don't smile back (instead of thinking how rude they are for not smiling back... how about thinking of how they may be having a very rough time in their life right now and that even though they didn't smile back... you may have made a positive impact by smiling at them), even an extra long glance at the waiter as they take your order to show them you don't take what they are doing for granted... We are given opportunities all the time to show that Jesus is reaching out to the world thru us. It's so easy to be selfish, to think of ourselves first... It's harder to put others first... But, we benefit so much from putting others first... The benefit to the other people is easy to see, but the benefit to ourselves is even greater if a little more difficult to see. If we all just put everyone else before ourselves then we would be such a happy world! :) Does that mean that we shouldn't do things that make ourselves happy? No way! Do I still take walks? Yes! Not as often as I'd like, but I do because they make me feel so much healthier so that I'm then more energetic for my active kids. Do I still get my latte from Starbuck's way more than I should? Yes, because that's the way I spoil myself! Speaking of walking... I think I better do that as I'm needing an energy boost! I hope anyone reading this has a super day! Let's all be forgiving of ourselves and others as we and they make mistakes in our strides to be the very best that we can all be! Just like we teach our kids... It's okay to make mistakes... The important thing is that you learn from each one and come away better! Enough rambling from me! :) Check out these last pics from the month of October at the Anderson's!

Tay and I at her school halloween party... Tay is Sharpea Evans!

Jake and Tay getting ready to trick-or-treat.

Jake and his KU football face!
Jack and Jake!
The "Bunco" girls outting for October... What a wonderful group of friends! We have so much fun and I just love all of their individual personalities!!! :)

Jake and Paul went to a KU football game and had a blast! What a great birthday gift Uncle Bran and Aunt Court!

Nana and Papa brought Jackon to see Tay play in her soccer game! Jackson had a blast and Tay was so happy and proud to have Jackson there!

Lots of Love in October!

October has been a packed month! It always seems like October thru December is busy busy busy. Of course, I feel blessed to have such a packed calendar as I know it's because we are spending lots of time with fabulous friends, fun family members, watching action packed kids activities... Okay, I'm sounding "corny"! But, you get the idea.

On Sunday we had a Halloween party with 7 (8 including Tay) of Tay's girlfriends. We had so much fun!!! Lot's of great food (thanks Amy for helping with the yummy food!), crafts, games, and of course "playing in Tay's room". What a wonderful group of girls! We had the 6 Daisy's and two other friends from school. I can't tell you how much I enjoy having Jake and Taylor's friends over to our house! I hope they always continue to bring their friends over.
Miley Cyrus!!! Wow, what a fun night we had! Dinner at a hamburger place at the Power & Light district and then a great concert! Taylor and I feel so blessed to have Amy and Ashlyn as such great friends! Fellowship and fun! What a great combination!

My baby girl.... We had Tay's conference last night... Great job Taylor! We are so proud of you! Keep up the great work! We are happy that you are such a fun, caring, energetic, confident little girl! Still our tomboy, but we're seeing lots of girly girl now too! We are so proud that you volunteered to say the prayer at church in front of all the kids with a microphone! Your prayer that night meant the world to me.... You started to pray for something, but said "never mind, you already pray for that".... I convinced you to go ahead and pray for it anyway... you prayed "that you will say lots more prayers in church"... The condensed version... You meant that I already pray for you to be like Jesus... And you were also praying to be like Jesus... You go girl!

Our cool athlete Jake... :) Jake had an awesome conference last night as well. We are so proud of you Jake! We are so happy that you are such a confident, funny, outgoing, loving, and active guy! Keep up the great work! We love watching you enjoy your sports.... and everything else you do... Loved you as John Wayne in the 3rd grade musical! We love the way you try to bring people to church and how you pray for family and friends to have Jesus in their lives. You rock!

Duke in the front yard playing "fetch" with the boys. Wow, we have been blessed with yet another wonderful family member! Duke rocks! Like every good thing... He brings on more work! Ha! :) But, well worth it! He is so sweet and loving and Paul can't wait to take him hunting next week!

October is flying by!

Wow, I'm a little behind for October blogging! :) What a busy month. I will try to play a little catch up before I take Tay to her soccer practice this morning.

Jake turned 9 this month! My baby!!! I can hardly believe it. He decided he wanted to have a sleepover! Well, we finally got the list "narrowed down" to 14. 14 boys for a sleepover. Although, we were very excited... Paul and I weren't exactly sure how it was going to go. Well, it was AWESOME! The boys (and Paul and I) had a blast!

Last night we had an absolute BLAST at the KU pep rally! Wow, what a fun time. We went to a "really cute pizza place where you build your own slice of pizza".... :) Yummy! We had a great time with our friends, Jeff, Amy, and Ashlyn! Then we cheered on KU at the pep rally with the White's and Nana and Papa even came! I believe I love KU even more now! What a great night!




Thursday night was a fantastic night for the Anderson's as well! We got our new "puppy" Duke! He's awesome! He flew in from Mississippi and we picked him up from the airport and arrived home around midnight... What a night! He is a trained hunting dog and WOW, he is trained! You would never guess that he's an 8 month old puppy! He just worships Paul and is so sweet and lovable... Unfortunately, he isn't house broken yet, but he's so smart, and with his perfect obedience training we are hoping he will learn very quickly. :)

Okay, I know these pics are not in focus, but I thought they were cute so I'm going to post them anyway. :) We went to our first ever "Mud Run". Definately different then anything I've ever been to. Huge trucks try to get thru large amounts of mud... There was mud flying everywhere... Definately something everyone should see sometime in their lives. Jake and Taylor kept saying "Jackson would love this!"... Yes, little man would definately have loved the big trucks plowing thru the mud. We had a blast!

What a beautiful day....

Lots of praises for today! Today I'm thankful for...

1. Jake didn't complain of a headache this morning... :) Progress!
2. I met two wonderful sweet God loving women in my bible study this morning.
3. My parents were with my precious Grandma yesterday when she had a heart attack... Thank God she wasn't at her home alone. And today is getting better!
4. My little sweet doggy Bailey comes running to me with her entire little body full of love when I bend down and call her to me.
5. It's warm, sunny, and beautiful outside!!!
6. I've remembered to water my mums for the week I've had them and they are thriving. :)
7. I get to watch my little girl play soccer in her soccer game tonight.
8. That I have a washing machine and a dryer... It will only take me a few hours to catch up on laundry today instead of the days it would take me to do all this laundry by hand!
9. That I have K-Love to listen to each and every day at home and in the car! Love it!!!
10. That my awesome husband set up this "skype" camera so we can see each other and the kids when he's out of town. And so we can see our niece Alex at college! Fun!

Wow, did I really just create a "top 10" list! I hope each of you make your "top 10" list of things you're thankful for today!

Have a wonderful day!!! Make it a blessed one!
Nicole

Update on Jake

Thanks everyone for all the well wishes and prayers for Jake! I can see some improvement! However, he's still having some really bad headaches. Please keep praying for the little guy!
Love,
Nicole

Counting my blessings...

Tonight I find myself really counting my blessings... As many of you know... Jake has been suffering with a concussion that he got at football practice on Thursday night. We took him to his third Dr. in 5 days and they (at Children's Mercy Hospital) confirmed that he is suffering from post-concussion syndrome (severe and almost constant headaches that could last a few days or up to a couple months!) and the poor boy also has strep throat. We feel so bad for him and have been worried too. As always something good always comes from something "not so good". I feel so lucky to have been born into such a wonderful family, with such caring friends, and to live in such a great safe community. It's been amazing how many people have called, texted, and emailed to check on Jake. And I know many many of you have kept Jake in your prayers for a quick recovery. Wow, he's a lucky boy... and so are we. I know it's easy to take things for granted because we get so busy and caught up in all of our "to do's", but as I sat in the ER I realized what I (we) have. :) I definitely know I've been blessed... I hope I'm living the life God wishes for me and I hope I'm always open and willing for Him to guide me where He wants me to be. Please pray for Jake to have a quick recovery... I want my happy, fun, chattering kid back. :)

Also, I read an article on a sweet little girl named Marley in the Liberty Tribune last week... She's only 18 months old and her mom is a teacher in Liberty. Let's all help this sweet little girl... October 3rd is Jake's bday (and also the Hannah Montana concert that Tay and I are going to with friends), but I plan to run by the garage sale. And October 10th is Jake's football teams Homecoming, but I'm going to see what I can do to participate in the walk. No matter what... Let's all pray for this sweet little girl...

UPCOMING EVENTS TO BENEFIT THE MOORE FAMILY....

A HUGE GARAGE SALE!Over 50 families have donated items and 100% of the proceeds will go directly to "Marley's Medical Fund"!!!!OCTOBER 3, 2009 665 Butternut CourtLiberty, MO 64068(291 and Clay Woods Drive, follow PINK signs!)

MILES FOR MARLEYA 5k walk will be held in Liberty, MO on OCTOBER 10, 2009. Please visit the link below for more information...click on the MILES for MARLEY icon on the bottom right hand side of your screen!
http://ls.liberty.k12.mo.us/

The grandkids...

We took pics of mom and dad's grandkids Sunday evening... They all did great. :) What a sweet group of kids... :) Here are Jake and Taylor with my brother Brandon's kids Jackson and Ella...

K-Love's encouraging word today...

I felt compelled to post this...

K-LOVE's Encouraging Word today... "Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better." Colossians 1:10 NLT

Okay, Paul was out of town on business and I had just learned of Jake's concussion yesterday so I was a little down yesterday evening/night. I don't like feeling down! :) (Does anyone?) I always try not to let myself feel down, but to instead look at "the positive". And the positive was that I'm so glad I took Jake back to the Dr. yesterday (Thanks for encouraging me to do this Pauly!) so that we were able to find out that he had a concussion. I dread to think that we could have had him go to football practice where he could have been SERIOUSLY hurt had he gotten hit again which would have been almost 100% probable. Anyway, I got lots done last night as far as catching up on laundry until midnight. Then just as I was going to bed I decided to "get on the Internet... for a minute"... I should never do this as I can't just get on there for a minute. :) I happened to look at my college friend/sorority sister's blog (http://www.stephanievest.com/) because they are having a walk in remembrance of her and another friend of hers that lost her battle with cancer. I then looked up another young mom's blog who had also lost her battle with cancer... And 3 hours later (after reading her blog) I went to bed in tears reminding myself how precious every single minute of our lives are. I encourage each one of you to really enjoy every minute you have... with your children, parents, husband, wife, relatives, friends, strangers... Enjoy it as you never know how many "moments" you will have. Whenever my loved ones (kids, hubby, family, friends) are stressing me out :) I try to stop for a second and think how I would feel if this were the last time I saw them alive... Puts it all in perspective real quick! Try it... :) It makes you appreciate that moment and person so much more. Enjoy this very moment!!! Appreciate it! Live it! And make the very most of it no matter how irritating, boring, depressing the "moment" may be... Make it a good one! You can do it! And so can I! :)

After four days of serious headaches....

Well, after four days of major headaches for Jake it has been determined that he has a concussion. Thursday night at football practice he hit his head really hard when he was blocked and has had very painful headaches on and off ever since. Our Dr. told us at our Friday appt. that she thought it was allergies... Geez! Luckily, I took him to urgent care today and she said he definitely has a concussion. Prayers for a quick and full recovery for Jake, please! :)

Since I'm using this blog as a "documentation" for things that are happening in our lives... I thought I'd share this... After our Dr. appt. we went to Red Lobster for lunch. Jake told me that he wished people got their money based on how nice they are and not on working. He then said that he wished Daddy didn't have to work... Instead Jake wished that people were paid depending on how nice they were... He said "Then our family would be rich because we are so nice." He said "Then a lot of rich people would really be poor." Okay, I'm not telling this because I want to say "how nice our family is"... Ha! Instead I think it's so awesome that Jake realizes how important it is to "be nice"... We've tried so hard to instill in the kids that it's so important to be nice to everyone and I'm happy that he has noticed and tries so hard. It's also great that he realizes that money doesn't make people "better"... He's a smart kid! :)

Boys weekend at the cabin!

Six dads and their sons went to our cabin this weekend to have a little "boy" time. They are friends of Jake's that he goes to school with, plays football with and that live in our neighborhood. They had so much fun! :) They rode dirt bikes and four wheelers, shot be be (not sure how to spell that!) guns, drove the Mule, watched a movie projected on the house while they laid on the trampoline, sat around the campfire and had s'mores, played football and basketball, and goofed around a lot. We love having friends at our cabin! So much fun! :) Here are a few pics of the boys night at the cabin...

Alex had just left before this pic of the boys on the Mule... ):

They had to "squeeze" together to fit in the pic... They were spread out a little more while they shot.

Monday Madness at the Anderson's!

We started off this week with a super duper Monday! (Yes, I did just say "super duper"! Not too cool! :) ) Jake had one of his first Necco Raiders football games and Taylor had her first Sharks soccer game... at the exact same time on Monday. So, Paul, Nana, and Papa John went to support Jake while Grandma Ruth, Papa Larry, and I cheered on Tay. They both did awesome!!!

Taylor had a blast at her soccer game! She totally started getting aggressive in the last quarter.... Yeah Tay! She started off playing the "defender" which is her cousin Alex's position. Awesome! She called Alex after her game to tell her all about the game. :) Alex loved it! She "almost" made three goals and was very quick running down the field. She was a Spectacular Soccer player! We can't wait until her game next week. Here are a few pics...

She has a huge smile on her face in this pic where she is kicking the ball!

Jake rocked at his football game! He was the kicker and all three of his kicks were great. His first kick went 35 or more yards and landed only 4 yards inside the other teams in zone. Yeah Jake! He also made some great runs (35 yards, etc) and made two interceptions and two touchdowns. Jake was beaming at me when he came through the front door! :) Here are a few pics of our Fabulous Football Player...

After the game.... And very proud of his performance... :) Which isn't always the case as he is very much a perfectionist! :) Not sure where he gets that Nana... :) Hmmmm...

September 11th...

Wow, what an emotional day September 11th is for so many people. I remember September 11th 8 years ago so well. Jake was 11 months old... I think I just cried all day watching TV and holding him. My prayers are with all of those who lost loved ones on this devastating day 8 years ago.

Now, for happier times. :) Here are some pics from our Labor Day weekend at the cabin. We were so blessed to have a weekend of great friends and family. Saturday afternoon after Jake's football game (he won, yeah!) we made our way to our cabin. Nana and Papa joined us and so did our wonderful friends the White's. We grilled out, talked, played Scrabble (love this game... it's one that can only be played with great friends and family... otherwise, no one will ever speak again... Ha! :) Hmmm.... IQ... :) ) played volleyball (thanks Amy!) and washers, jumped on the trampoline, went for mule rides, rode the dirt bike, and lots more! Then on Sunday afternoon all of our guests had to return home so we joined our great friends the Gordan's and Valentine's at the Gordan's cabin for a night of fun and food! Monday was full of working around the cabin for the Anderson's! Jake and Tay enjoyed basketball, bike riding, and pogo sticking while we worked. Jake can pogo jump for 47 minutes straight!!! :) He must get that from Paul... :)
Paul and Mike... Shooting clays...

Dad shooting clays... Wow, he did great! Must be a natural! Paul and Mike were very impressed. Papa Bud is smiling down at sweet Papa John!

Amy and Ashlyn... Bay even snuck in the pic as she loves Ashlyn!

Anna, Abbey, and Tay... They look so sweet and innocent! Ha! :)

I love these girls! :) Remember when we used to be so into "BFF"... Wow, it's been so long.

Playing a game of Washers... Thanks for bringing this game Amy! We HAVE to get one! :)

Playing badmitten and volleyball...

Jake... target practicing...

Ashlyn and Taylor... They listened to music, sang, and performed all day!

Jake even had time for his 30 minutes of reading... Check out Bailey!

Caylee and Nicole hanging out on the front porch of the Valentine's cabin...

Papa, Nana, Jake, and Tay next to the very popular white board!

Hanging on the deck...

Raiders Simone Tournament

Jake had a blast in his first tackle football game last week. The Simone Tournament is a huge tournament that the Raider's have sponsored for almost 30 years. The Raider's dominated this year... We won 1st place in all age groups... 3rd/4th, 5th/6th, and 7/8th. Here are a few pics... :)

Jack, Jake, and Nate... After the big 1st place Championship win... :)

My boy... Geez, I just love that kid! (And, his sweet sis too! :) )

Jake running with the ball... The Championship game... :) He's the A Back (Running back)... I'm just learning it all! I still forget which position he plays on defense... I know he tackles! :) Ha!

Nate and Jake on the sidelines... I'd love to know what they were talking about.

Jake walking off the field... I hope he was thinking happy thoughts! I hope he was feeling good about how he played. :)

Take it to the house, Jake! :)

This was Wingman Night... The Raider's pair up the younger players with an older player and they are "buddies... Wingmen" all year... Such a great organization. :) They were all getting ready to run up "Raider Hill"... The flag team (1st and 2nd graders) and all 3 tackle teams. Go Raiders!!!