Moved to New Mexico

Well as hopefully all of our blog followers have heard by now, we moved back to New Mexico. A moving company packed us up the week before Christmas and then we went to Arizona. Then just before the new year we drove to New Mexico to meet the truck at our new house we're renting in New Mexico. Here's one final photo of our old house in Provo. Travis and Lucas are sitting on the lawn watching the movers load one of our cars into the moving truck.

Welcome to New Mexico!

Here's our new home! It may look like a single level home but it's a 2 story home. The ground level of the home has the kitchen, a family room, the garage, and the master bedroom. The downstairs has a few more bedrooms and another family room. It has two levels because the property slopes down away from the road so the downstairs is ground level in the backyard. This is a typical New Mexican style home with the adobe look. We like the home quite well so far. We especially like the size of the backyard! We feel like we live in a forest with large trees and a large area in the backyard. The yard is a "Certified Natural Habitat" for animals apparently. There are two ponds and a nice playhouse in the backyard.

From our backyard there is an entrance to a large network of trails in the canyons. The photo below was taken about 200-300 feet from our house. We're up at 7400 feet of elevation and it's super dry here. It's quite nice to have such a nice place to go for walks. Our only major worry is whether black bears, coyotes, and mountain lions will find their way into our yard (there have been a few sightings of mountain lions not far from our home and there have been bears caught basically just down our street).

Merry Christmas 2011

Again, also a late post. We drove down to Arizona to Brian's sister Stacy's house for Christmas. Brian's sister Marci drove down with us and his parents also drove out to join us all. We enjoyed outdoor swimming, going to parks, and spending time with cousins. Christmas morning was sure fun for our boys. Marcus got a pedal-less bike from Santa. It helps teach him balance while still giving him something that looks like his big brothers' bikes.

Lucas got perhaps the most popular gift from Santa - a hexbug track set. It's a glow in the dark track set and Lucas has 4 hexbugs to run around on his track. It sure is a hit even today (6 weeks later). His brothers each have a bug as well to drive on the track. This is also easily the most popular toy that kids (boys and girls, of many ages) want to play with when they come to our house.

Travis got a present from Santa that he's been wanting for some time - a remote control helicopter. This helicopter has a hook that you can lower and raise with the remote control to pick up baskets (much harder than it may sound). Travis is quite skilled at flying it around the house.

Here's one more shot of Marcus with his new PJs that he was really excited about opening up. This was also a good excuse to get a cute photo of Angela in.

Happy 5th Birthday Lucas

It's a bit late to post this but Lucas turned 5 early in December. Here's one of the bigger things he got from Mom and Dad - a castle with Play Mobile people.

Lucas invited 5 friends over for his party and along with his brothers there were 8 boys in all. They played a bunch of games organized by Angela.

Here's his race track cake that Angela made for him with Skittles spelling out his name.

2011 Family Photo Shoot

Brian's sister Marci was willing to take our family photos this year. We decided to try something different for us that we thought our boys would enjoy - taking photos on train tracks. It took many shots to get some good ones, but Marci came through for us. Here we give the best ones...
Brian & Angela Anderson Family

Brian & Angela

Travis, Lucas, & Marcus

Travis

Lucas

Marcus

Santa and His Helicopter

As we did 2 years ago, we went to the mall on Black Friday to wait for Santa to arrive in a helicopter. He comes to visit the mall and shake the kids' hands. We had to wait nearly an hour before he arrived but the kids enjoyed the opportunity. Here's Angela and her three boys waiting.

Here's a composite video of his arrival. It was very exciting and a bit scary when the wind from the helicopter blew right at us (you can hear it in the video). Travis gave Santa his Christmas list. Marcus got scared by Santa and ran to Angela.

Sound Study of BYU Football

Brian's fellow physics faculty member who studies acoustics was asked by BYU to do a study of the sound from the PA system during two games. The goal was to see what the effect on the neighborhoods north of the stadium would be if they put the PA system in the south end zone facing north (it's opposite right now). So with the help of a number of students and a few faculty we enjoyed two games on the 10 yard line sidelines. Here's Brian holding up the cheer leader sign.

Later in the game we got a small group shot with Cosmo. Brian asked for the photo op.

First Snow to Play In for Winter

A week before Thanksgiving we had our first snow that allowed the kids to play in for this winter. They went out excited but it didn't end up quite as fun as they had remembered. Cold hands and toes changed their mind.

And then there was also the mud thing...
Here's a better idea of what the mud was like when you attempt to sled down dirt mounds.

Don't Feed the Animals

Carrying on the long line of tradition, we eat lots of ice cream at our house. It comes through Brian's paternal line. Grandpa Norvel always had more ice cream than you could eat. On this ice cream eating occasion at the Anderson house, we found out that the 4th generation of this tradition screams when fed ice cream!

Halloween 2011

This Halloween was quite fun. Our kids had lots of ideas of what they wanted to be, however it kept changing by the day. Finally a few days before Halloween we got each one to choose something. Travis decided on being a Lego man. So Brian made a costume for him. He made a box be more trapezoid shaped and then taped a bucket on the top of it. He cut out holes for the arms, head, and body in the box and cut out eyes and mouth holes. In photo below you can't see him well since he wasn't looking forward. Lucas wanted to be Thomas the Train and that was easy. Funny expression on his face below (click on the photo to see it bigger). Marcus was the only one consistently saying for a month that he wanted to be a robot. We don't know where he got that idea from. So Brian made a robot costume out of a box for him. Here they are at Grandma Graff's home (Angela's grandmother).

And here they are before setting out for the candy. Brian took them out and Angela stayed home to hand out the candy.

Here they are out on the candy trail. Travis ducked his head out of view. The face holes weren't perfect for him (as far as matching his height, etc.), but they weren't that bad. Marcus had fallen down face first in his robot costume at the second house of the night and from then on refused to wear it. So Angela came out to bring us a fireman coat for him to wear instead. You gotta love how Lucas is wearing his cap! Brian brought the wagon along to carry coats until they could put them on when it got cold. It was also handy to bring them home at the end. Brian had them out for 2 hours.

Travis Playing Basketball

Travis has been talking for some time about wanting to play basketball. We signed him up for a city team. It's funny to watch these games. Everybody double dribbles, there's traveling all over the place, no stealing is allowed, no backcourt defense is allowed, and you get assigned to defend one opponent on the other team. Travis is funny when he defends. He's always in the other kids face. On offense Travis stays in front of the defender and sometimes pushes the kid to accomplish this. His shot making ability has been improving over the course of the season. During his final game recently he scored 4 baskets. Here's a video of one of them from fairly far away.