G.T. and the Halo Express

One day, when I was in elementary school, my mom heard about this set of children's audio tapes on James Dobson's radio program called G.T. and the Halo Express. I can't remember the specifics of the story, but the creators of G.T. had a son that was disabled and undergoing some medical treatments. They created the series for their son to entertain him as well as teach him scripture verses and important biblical themes. After hearing about them on James Dobson, my mom went to our local Christian bookstore and picked up Winning the Great Race of Faith. It's actually number 4 in the series. I listened to this tape until it basically fell apart. I loved it!

The premise of the story is pretty corny and completely un - T.C. (theologically correct). It follows the lives of Michael and Christie - brother and sister who are frequently visited by their guardian angels G.T. (Good Tidings) and Guardian and their band, the Halo Express who appear to teach them special lessons like perseverance, overcoming fear, and sharing God's word. The greatest part is that each story is interspersed with wonderful, catchy music AND every song is an actual scripture verse with reference. I still have every single verse memorized from the original G.T. tape that we bought all those years ago.

For Christmas, my mom found the whole series online (now they actually have CDs!) and ordered them for Keaton. There are 7 total in the series, including the Christmas one - that's over 100 verses put to music! I still think that #4 is my favorite, but they are all fantastic. Keaton has already enjoyed listening to them in the car. It's so refreshing to hear him singing scripture instead of "I Love Trash" or "Fruit Salad. Yummy yummy" Bonus: I have woken up every morning this week humming a scripture verse!

You can order the CDs from the website: http://www.gthalo.com. If you want to try one out, I would strongly suggest #4, or you can order the all 7 CDs for $69.00. Such a worthwhile investment, if you ask me!

Thanks, Mom for such a great gift!

New Years

No New Years Eve party is complete without party hats (or crowns),

yummy food,

Busted!

wine and cards, 

an 11:00 game of charades to ward off droopy eyelids, 

Oh yeah, and plenty of FAMILY!

We all managed to make it until Midnight - even Keaton. What a fun night! Happy (late) 2011! 

Fun with Mia

Keaton's closest cousin on the Archambo side is Mia, 6. Since she was out of school the week between Christmas and New Years, Mia came over to play almost EVERY DAY! Keaton would wait patiently at the glass door every morning for Mia to get there.

They had hours of fun playing in the castle, in toy closet, and watching the Disney Channel together. Mia likes to "mother" him a lot which is fine with me because she keeps him entertained and out of trouble!

Side note: anyone that has a 6 year old girl in Hawaii they would like to rent out to me to come play with Keaton, please let me know... They are the best entertainment EVER, because they are responsible enough to let you know if something is wrong, and young enough that they still like really PLAYING.

Mia teaching him to play Twister

They liked to eat all their meals INSIDE the castle!

Probably watching iCarly or some other show way above his maturity level. Who cares? If he's with Mia, he won't complain!

Needless to say, it was a sad day when Mia had to go back to first grade.

We love you, Mia!

Christmas in Oklahoma

Backup 1 month...

We left the east coast on Christmas Eve and flew to Oklahoma to visit the Archambo side of the family. By the time we arrived, I had 2 sick babies on my hand. Keaton was recovering from Croup, but was still running intermittent fevers. Mark had developed a nasty cough. I wanted to get them both into a doctor ASAP just in case they got worse over the holiday. We went straight from the airport to the ER after hours clinic (all other doctors offices were closed), and spent 5 hours there. The doctor confirmed that Keaton was on the mend, but was worried about Mark. They x-rayed his chest, tested him for RSV and other infections. He tested negative for everything, so she sent us home with instructions to keep him elevated while he sleeps and a prescription for a nebulizer - breathing treatments twice a day. We made it home just in time to spend a fun Christmas Eve opening gifts with all the siblings.

Jewels, Jason, Jacob, and Baby Adrian (5 months)

Mia with her new necklace from Hawaii!

Christmas Day was very low-key - maybe the most laid back Christmas that I remember in that house in 15 years. My parents are practically empty nesters, and all of my other siblings were spending Christmas Day with their "significant others." Even my Grandmother spent Christmas in Indiana with my Aunt and Uncle. Uncle Dale and his friend came over for lunch, but other than that, it was just me, Scott, Keaton, Mark, and Brumbra and Papa. No complaints here. We needed an easy going holiday to rest and focus on getting my boys well again.

Amazingly, Santa found us in Oklahoma, and he did not disappoint.

Tidmouth Sheds

His cardboard castle! Unfortunately, we had to leave this OK because it's literally almost as big as his room in Hawaii. We got 3 solid weeks of play out of it, though.

New calendars for B & P

My mom's Christmas dinner table. I love my mom and her funny dish fetish. It doesn't matter if it's 4 guests or 40, the table will always look perfect!

Brumbra and my little sicky boy!

Here's the odd thing. Usually, by the time Christmas comes and goes, I'm READY for it to be over. The Christmas music is played out, I'm sick from all the cookies I've eaten, and completely broke from buying gifts. I guess with all the traveling and sickness this year, I was actually really sad and disappointed to see Christmas go - almost like I missed it somehow? Strange.

Oh well, only 335 days left!

New Toys

Sorry for my month-long hiatus from the House of Anderson. I have no excuse other than I lost access to my computer for 3 weeks and the task of playing catchup has left me overwhelmed and unmotivated to blog. I have no idea where to start so lets just start with today. I'll play catchup later...

Both of my boys got new toys this weekend!

Mark is getting better and better at holding himself up, so it was time to put the ole swing away and get out the exersaucer! He looks like he's having fun, right? Anything that will entertain this boy for more than 15 minutes is a hit in my book.

Scott found this used tricycle on Craigslist this week for Keaton. With a little steel wool and elbow grease, and this baby was as good as new! He's still getting the hang of the peddling motion. Thankfully, it has the "parent control" bar.

Oh yeah. He's wearing a sleeveless shirt and flip flops. In January.

Christmas Tour: Part 1

We were so blessed to spend 10 whole days in Greenville with the Andersons, Workmans, and Lieblers making some pretty special Christmas memories!

Mark looks up to his big cousin, Douglas

Mark showing off for his Nanny - Matthew being Matthew!

Aunt Jenny

Cousins, cousins, cousins!

Douglas, Matthew, Caroline, Keaton, Laura, and Mark - soon there will be 7!

Matthew and Keaton are 8 months apart and great friends

Mark was a big hit!

"Fa la la la la la la la la!"

Pancakes and Frosty the Snowman with cousins

They waited for us to get there so we could help trim the tree

Keaton and Nanny

Some quality snuggle time with Grammie

Meeting Halfway

The Hobbs are some of our dearest friends from Covenant. Some of my favorite memories of our life in Chattanooga right after we were married are hanging out at the Hobbs's house on Lookout Mountain. They have lived in Sheffield, England for 6 years, so we rarely get an opportunity to see them, especially now that we live in Hawaii. Thankfully, the stars happened to align this year for us to be in South Carolina at the same time. We got to spend the morning with Andrew and Valerie and their new baby Max who was born in July. Mark and Max were fast friends.

Such a treat to reconnect!