8 months

This cutie is now 8 months and crawling!

 He started the day after we returned from Seattle. I thought he'd be a late crawler, like Austin, since he didn't like being on his tummy, like Austin. I'm sure with the first or second child the tummy time holds true with it playing a factor with when the baby crawls, but I think with the other children it just depends on how much they want move. Austin was happy as could be just sitting there, but Erik wants to be in on the action. He follows the kids around as much as he can!

 Since he's been moving around Austin has realized that he can actually play with Erik. He'll crawl around with him and, when he wants to share his cars and trains, they'll push them around together. It gets tricky, though, since Erik prefers the boy toys now as opposed to the baby toys. Sometimes Austin is pretty good at sharing, other times, not so much!

 Erik is like Victoria at this age in that he is social and likes everyone to pay attention to him, but he doesn't want anyone but Mommy to hold him. Daddy will do sometimes!

 He's even pulling himself up!

 Here's the boys after just getting into the cat food. I have since moved it to it's old hiding place.

Erik is 19 lbs. now, but is solely on breast milk. Where he made strides from watching his older cousins in the movement department, he backpedaled in the eating department. He won't even put pizza crust in his mouth, not even to try it! He only puts non-edibles in his mouth, typical! He does have two teeth now, so maybe one of these days he'll put them to use!

The cutest story about him recently is when Karissa put some music on the other day. We had been playing it all week and dancing to it, usually with Erik on my hip. This particular time when he heard this song (it's from the soundtrack Jump In), he was sitting on the floor and looked right at me and started to bop to the beat with a big smile on his face! It was so adorable I couldn't even leave him to get the video camera!

Portland Pals

One of my best friends from high school lives in Portland, so since we were all the way out in Seattle, what's another three hour drive, right? I hadn't met Jessica's kids ever, so it was fun to see them together. Annalise is almost 3, so just younger than Austin and Karina is about 2 months older than Erik.

Here's the babies the first few minutes after we arrived.

 Sharing the pan...

 I didn't get any other pictures of those cuties myself, but I'm excited for the pictures Jessica took of them that she's editing. She owns Dreamy Belle Photography and took some awesome photos. You may have seen the ones she took of Victoria in her baptism dress at the Portland LDS Temple, on facebook.

While she was working her photography wonders with Victoria, I was enjoying getting shots of the other cuties.

 I love the look on Annalise's face here. You wouldn't have known they are 2 1/2 years apart from they way they took to each other!

 Karissa had to do some poses of her own while Victoria did hers.

Did you know President Monson was there?!

Besides taking pictures, we went to eat with another friend from high school, Shelene, who was in town with her family. We went to the park, played in the yard, and picked raspberries!

It was a great reunion for us and the kids enjoyed it as well.

Our trip back was quite the experience. We slept at Bryan and Gina's house, 20 minutes from the Seattle airport. Since we were on the late schedule, we let the kids sleep in just a little, putting us only 20 minutes behind our almost 3 hour window of time. We had to return a rental car, but that wasn't that big of a deal. The big deal was the fact a cruise had just come in and hundreds of people came the same time we did. Our kiosk to check in wasn't working, so we had to wait for another. Security was about as strict as it was right after 9/11, so it was very slow for everyone in front of us, and even slower for us with the stroller and all the other stuff we had for the baby and kids. We had to take a tram to our terminal. The escalator (which Jason would have used to get there that much faster) wasn't working. There was construction on the way to the elevator, so we had to take a detour to it! A detour, to the elevator! So, we missed the flight. We got there and watched it pull away just like in a movie. I was so determined to get there on time and worked so hard, that I just fell apart. The girls did too.

Jason went to find out what our options were. As I sat there nursing, I heard them say that a flight to Detroit was being moved to a different gate. I told Jason I was going there and to meet me there, as he was having no luck. We got back on the tram and I told the girls to say a prayer in their hearts that we could get on this flight. Right there, in the tram, they each folded their arms and bowed their heads. Right after, Victoria asked me, "Is God real?" I asked, "What do you think?" She said yes and I about fell apart again.

The next terminal had a working escalator and no detour to the elevator. The lady at the desk said she'd do what she could do to get us on the flight. She was so sweet. I could see her willing the computer to let there be a space for us, but of course we had to wait about an hour before knowing for sure. By this time, I knew we would get home. I couldn't say I knew for sure all of us would get on that particular flight, but I felt very comforted by the prayers my girls offered and knew everything would work out. After many names were called, we were called last. They had space for all of us!!! We happily took our places (3 seats together and 2 together in the back), so glad to be on our way only 2 hours later.

Karissa had left Beary at Jessica's, but Grandma and Grandpa were able to stop by and get him for us. Now Karissa has Beary again. Here's Beary being watched over by Annalise. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Anderson/Skene Reunion

We just returned from a family reunion in Seattle, well, just north of Seattle at Camano Island, with my brother, sister, step-brothers, dad, step-mom, spouses, and lots of nieces and nephews! It was a fun filled 4 days with 36 people, playing, eating and getting to know each other, some for the very first time!

We got there late Saturday night, so we just stayed at Bryan and Gina's house in Seattle. My dad, Mary Lou, two of Bryan's kids greeted us.

Here's Dominick introducing Austin to video games, at 5:30 am! Even though they aren't related by blood, they do resemble each other with those brown eyes. Dominick was a great host!

 Erik with Grandpa Dave. Obviously Erik takes after the Anderson's!

 Uncle Derek was there earlier, so we got to hang out with him and Missy and the kids at the house in the city.

 Later that day, we got settled in a beach house with Aunt Karina and her kids and went to have dinner and play more at Bryan and Gina's beach house on Camano Island. Jason helped Bryan make pasta that night. Sylvie, Bryan's oldest was their diligent assistant.

 Meanwhile, Uncle Dan played with some of the kids on the lawn. Check out that view from their deck! That's the Puget Sound.

 Here's Erik and Kallie (Derek's youngest). BTW, Erik is crawling now after hanging out with some crawling babies who must have taught him the ropes while we were there!

 Karissa's best hang out friends were Francesca (Bryan's) and Mariah (Karina's). She liked them to carry her around.

 Monday morning we took our time getting going at the house we stayed at with Karina's family. Partly because we went to bed late, partly because Karina and I went for a walk and then Dan went for a jog and got lost. Jason went to look for him while Karina was in the shower. Austin seemed interested in where he was going, but went around the house the other way while I was nursing Erik. Suddenly, 22 month-old Peter (the cute red-head below) and 3 year-old Austin, were missing! They had made the long hike up the winding dirt road to the main road. When we couldn't find them after a little while, we knew there was only one place they could be. Luckily Karina's oldest, Andrew, booked it out to the road and found some older men trying to get them out of the street!

This is Peter's big brother, Calvin (4), with the two escape artists.

 Jason, relaxing on the deck before the "big scare".

 The next big group arrived on Monday from Canada. Mary Lou's oldest, Bob and his wife Jennifer, and 5 of their 7. Here's two of the oldest cousins who were at the reunion with the youngest. (Bryanna, Erik, and Bradly).

 We had pizza that day after Terry, Julie, and their two kids came all the way from Seattle!

 The neighbor s had a dog named Tug that Karissa just loved!

 The escape artists with their trains.

 Here's Gina, the "hostess with the mostess", and Karina with baby number 7, ready to come very soon!

 We took family pics. This is Karissa's "rock star" pose.

 Terry, Bob, Karina, Bryan, Me, Kevin, and Derek. The 7 of Dad and Mary Lou's children.

 Here's all the grand kids, minus Ben who sneaked away to play video games, and the two who stayed in Canada.

 On Tuesday we all went to Seattle. Victoria and Natalie were inseparable. I hardly saw Victoria the whole trip, as she and Natalie were off doing their own thing.

 We saw the Space Needle, of course.

 Remember this tongue-tied boy?

 All of us, minus a few, took a tour by land and water on this "Duck". It was pretty fun and all of us got to be together on the bus-type vehicle. There was lots of music and dancing, and a funny driver with lots of weird hats. Victoria and Natalie surprised Grandma Mary Lou by knowing most of the words to the newest, pop songs.

 View of the city from the Duck.

 After the Duck tour and a lot of getting turned around, we made it to Pike's Place Market (where they throw the fish). We didn't actually get to see the fish being thrown. Bad timing and a lot of confusion. The rest of the group minus Grandma, Karina, me, and our youngest ones (all mine except Victoria), went to the Mariners' baseball game. I don't have pictures, but I know they had a great time.

The 4th of July found us with some warmer weather, so we went to the beach to do some kayaking. Austin is with Dominick in the kayak here.

 Victoria and Sylvie

 Austin on some drift wood

 Francesca with Karissa and the drift wood fort.

 We all went for ice cream at a very popular place just off the island. By the time we got there it was close to 6pm and with our crew of 6 vehicles, it took a while to serve us up too! When we got back to the main party house, a few of us made a huge spread of a different variety of tacos, including fish tacos with the tilapia Jason bought at Pike's Market. Here are some of the chefs: Jason, Mary Lou, and Terry.

While that was going on, there was more playing. I think we ate around 9.

This was taken while we were eating dinner. Gorgeous!  

After the sun set, Uncle Kevin and the other brothers put on a fantastic fire works show. I've never seen such big fire works right on the grass in front of me! Austin and Victoria were loving it! The show caught Erik's eye too, but Karissa was inside, afraid of the "booms".

We had a great visit with everyone and were happy that our children actually slept in each day to make up for how late they went to bed each night. Needless to say, we had quite the adjustment to our time when we got back!

Stay tuned for our quick visit to Portland....