2017 in review

January: I turned 28, we bought a minivan, Millie turned 5 and had an animal birthday party, busy season began, I went on a girl's trip with my sisters, mom, and some cousins (and Harvey) to Waco.

February: always the longest month of the year. Lots of soccer games for Millie (and donuts every time she scored a goal to keep her motivated), some rough nights with Harvey, and a trip to the Children's Museum with the Westons and Grandma.

March: went to the zoo a couple of times, everyone but Harvey got sick, Harvey's blessing day, checkups for all 3 kids, we went to the rodeo, Max turned 3 years old, the kids and I went to Beaumont to see the Westons.

April: We went to the arts festival with Grammy, Mitchell came to town, Tyler and I went on a date to the Men's Clay Court Championship (with Harvey in tow), I half potty trained Max, and we celebrated Easter.

May: Tyler turned 30 (but was out of town for his birthday!), Mother's Day, Harvey turned 6 months and had his first swim, Millie had her gymnastics performance and stopped swimming lessons, and we took the big kids to a Houston Dynamo game.

June: Dude Ranch 2017!, started our summer reading program with the kids, we got in a swimming funk, and Millie and I finally colored the US Map we got forever ago.

July: Harvey's first haircut, Sarah came home from her mission, 4th of July weekend in San Antonio, snow day at the zoo, the Bakers came to town and we had a mini Andersen reunion.

August: Take your kids to work day, AJ and Brittany came to town (our first time meeting Brittany!), lots of swimming, school prep, and Hurricane Harvey hit at the end of the month.

September: Hurricane Harvey cleanup (which meant no church meetings besides Sacrament meeting for the month), paternity leave for Tyler, school finally started for Millie, Max started preschool (and I started teaching!), Tyler went to Utah, we took a family trip to San Antonio, and Tyler and I had a getaway in Austin.

October: Mitchell and Shayna came to town for General Conference weekend, Tyler went to an Astros playoff game, the kids started earning money for chores, I went to Utah with my mom and sisters for a weekend, and lots of fall/Halloween fun.

November: The boys and I visited Millie at school for lunch, Harvey started walking, Tyler and I went to a fancy wedding, Harvey turned 1!!, we visited Santa, and celebrated Thanksgiving with both our families.

December: Lots of Christmas parties and events, Millie had gymnastics winter games, we got snow in Houston!!, Christmas with both of our families, and a trip to Utah for Andrew and Brittany's wedding!

What a crazy wonderful year! 2018 will be great!

Trip to Utah for AJ's wedding!

We were so excited to go to Utah for Andrew and Brittany's wedding! We left the night of the 27th. It was Harvey's first flight.

He did fall asleep about halfway through but never slept very peacefully. I can't imagine he was very comfortable. The big kids did great sitting next to Dad and watching movies on the iPad.

 We made it down to Mitchell and Shayna's place (our old apartment!) around 2am. Whew. We were quite the circus getting our 3 car seats and lots of luggage around with 3 sleepy kids. Tyler is a superstar.

The next morning Harvey ended up napping for about 4 hours so Tyler took the big kids to meet up with Garrett and McKenna at the Bean Museum! Millie was so excited to see snow and touched it every chance she got.

They came back to the apartment afterward to hang out, which to the kids meant wrestle. Max was especially little-boyish on this trip and needed lots of rough housing.

We ventured out to find the big kids some ski gloves so they could touch snow, since they were so insistent on doing that. In hopes of finding more snow to play with we went to Rock Canyon Park, but didn't have much luck there either. Anywhere the sun was shining the snow had melted. Millie made do with what she could find in the shadows.

That evening we went to Pizza Pie Cafe with Mitchell, Shayna, Garrett, and McKenna before heading up to Salt Lake! It was delicious. Gigi, Poppy, and AJ flew in and met us at Temple Square to see the beautiful Christmas lights. We were hoping that since it was after Christmas it wouldn't be so crowded, but no such luck! Guess we weren't the only ones with that idea. It was so beautiful and fun to walk around.

The kids loved having aunts and uncles to play with.

The next morning Poppy treated us all to breakfast at Magleby's Fresh (got my french toast fix). I took Harvey home to nap and Gigi and Tyler took Millie and Max back to the Bean Museum, as well as the Museum of Paleontology.

We went down to Spanish Fork to see Garrett and McKenna's new place! It's so cute and we're so excited for them. On our way home we had to show the kids the football stadium when we drove by and it was randomly open. They climbed right to the top with Poppy.

Future Cougar?

That night we met Brittany's family at Costa Vida and had fun visiting with them and being excited for AJ & Brittany's wedding! Such fun times! Tyler and I were switching off eating/visiting and watching the kids in the play area and we neglected to take any pictures. 3 kids felt like a lot during much of this trip haha.

Saturday was the big day! The sealing was at 11:30, so we weren't too rushed getting ready and getting to the Payson Temple. Harvey fell asleep in the car and Tyler's cousin Natalie was so sweet to come sit in the car with him (and Max) so I could go into the sealing with Tyler. Millie got to play with the other little kids in the waiting room. It was such a beautiful ceremony! We are so happy for Andrew and Brittany!

Then it was picture time! The Payson temple is kind of on a hill with not much around it, making it windy almost all the time. That day was no exception. 

The kids were troopers and let us take their coats off when it was their turn to be in a picture.

I was hoping to get a family picture in front of the temple but by the time we were done with wedding pictures none of us were interested in staying outside for one more minute! It was so very cold!

From the temple we went back to Provo for the luncheon. It was at La Jolla Groves in the river woods, which was beautiful and delicious! They had a sweet program. Millie and Max joined Brittany's cute cousins in singing a medley of "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "I Love to See the Temple."

Have to document when Harvey snuggles with anyone other than me!

 SO happy for Andrew!!

The happy couple during their bubble sendoff. 

I tried once more for a family picture but the kids were over it. I kind of love this picture though. Makes me laugh every time I see it.

 All the wedding festivities were over by 6:30 but we were all beat! We went back to Mitchell and Shayna's apartment, got in comfortable pajamas, and spent the evening playing games and eating treats.

Sunday morning we packed to go home. We got to go to Tyler's cousin's baby's blessing (whew that's a mouthful haha) but left right after the sacrament so we could get to the airport. Had to stop and show the kids our temple, since we don't know when we'll be back there again!

Unfortunately we were already at the airport when we learned that our flight was delayed 2 hours. But that meant we had plenty of time to get our Cafe Rio fix and let the kids run around the terminal before taking off.

This plane had two seats on each side of the aisle, so we let the big kids try sitting together and Tyler and I sat on the other side with Harvey. Millie and Max had been bickering a lot during the trip so we weren't sure it was going to go well, but thankfully they were okay.

Millie was very into the safety instructions.

Goodbye, beautiful mountains!

Terrible picture but had to remember the irony. I wrestled Harvey for the whole flight and was so thankful that Tyler was next to me instead of a stranger like last time. It was super helpful to let Harvey move around a bit more. He finally passed out in my arms literally as the wheels hit the ground when we landed! It was so funny and ironic. 

 We are so happy for Andrew and Brittany and so thankful to Gigi and Poppy for making the trip happen for us!