Blessed

• My Wonderful Merciful Savior. He took on flesh and bore God's wrath so that I may be in fellowship with Him here on earth and for eternity in Heaven.

• My dear husband. It's not always been easy, but it's always been worth it! We have been through so much in the time we've been together, and I know God has only made us stronger through it. I am blessed to be your wife. 

• Our 2 sweet kids. Thank you God for entrusting us with these two precious lives! They teach me about love, trust, and patience, in new ways everyday. 

• My parents. Thank you for modeling Christ's love in a loving marriage. You lived out your faith everyday, even in the hard times and you instilled the same in me. You continue to give selflessly of your time, energy and resources, even when there was nothing left to give.

• Our families. Brothers, Sisters, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins-whether blood related or by marriage,...we love you! I don't know where I would be without my family and I am so thankful for the relationships I have with Jim's family. 

• Friends who are like family. God has blessed us with a great extended family! I love doing life with you. I love making memories with you. I love watching our children grow up together. Thanks for sharing your life with us!

This is just part of the long list of things I am thankful for, but the ones that are nearest to my heart. 

From my family to yours...Happy Thanksgiving!

The Anderson's 

My Little Man turns 2!

      I can't believe my baby boy just turned 2! It seems like just yesterday we were announcing that we were expecting. He is a ball of energy with such a sweet spirit. As with most parents, I think my favorite things are hearing him say "I love you", and hearing him laugh. He has the most contagious, uninhibited laugh! 

      

     We celebrated his birthday with a party fit for a "Little Man". It was a Milk, Cookie and Mustache Bash. I thought it was such an original and unique idea...until I started looking on the internet to purchase things for it...and found a ton! I worked with an amazing designer on Etsy that sold entire party printable packs for this exact theme. A few color and wording changes later, and the invites were the perfect start to planning this bash. 

Special Thanks to Robin at Paper Clever for the
invites, banner, food tags and favor tags! Check out her Etsy shop!

  

    

     The backdrop (given to me by a sweet friend-Thanks, Carla!) created a real focal point. I used gift wrapped boxes to add height on the table. 

     We had 6 types of cookies and 3 kinds of milk. A friend let me borrow some awesome antique milk bottles and a vintage milk sign. (Thanks, Chrystal!) I cut some mustaches from black cardstock with my Cricut and added them to the paper straws in the Frappuccino bottles. 

      My dear husband came up with the great idea of creating an Andy Warhol inspired collage of our son, which we used to play "Pin the Mustache on Jacob". Guests had fun with the paper photo props and collection of ties...even some clip-ons for the little ones! ;) We played "Name that Stache" and had some "Wooly Willy" games. Favors were white chocolate "milk mustache" lollipops. 

     A tradition we started in our family was to have a children's book "guestbook". We invite our friends and family to write a special note to the child. Our oldest still loves for us to read her every note from all 4 of her birthday books. I think at this point she can recite them to us, but they mean so much to her and I know they will for years to come! 


Printables: Paper Clever (http://www.etsy.com/shop/paperclever)
Paper Straws: Creamy Cakes (http://www.etsy.com/shop/creamyspecialtycakes)
Name that Stache game: Busy Chickadees (http://www.etsy.com/shop/BusyChickadees)
Mustaches: Cricut digital cart: Mustaches & Glasses