Nutcracker 2008

Lauren and Alyssa were in the Nutcracker this year. They both take jazz and ballet. They were excited about their bigger parts this year. Lauren is really into lifts and she and a friend started off the jazz performance with a double cartwheel that was really cool. They had several costume changes, the green shirts are from their jazz dance. The yellow costumes are from Marzipan, their final dance in the Nutcracker. Below are videos, the first is just the double cartwheel, the second video is the rest of the jazz dance. The last is the Marzipan dance.

Tommy's first date

Tommy went with some friends to the Junior Prom. He is a sophomore, but these friends are juniors. He rented a tux and we even got to host part of their progressive dinner. They looked great and even though the power went out at the dance, they had a fun night.

Our Christmas Card

In a moment of December hecticness, Tom and I decided that we would save some time and skip sending Christmas cards this year. To be honest, it wasn't worth it! As the fun cards and photos started rolling in from our family and friends, I wished we had sent something out. Our family is healthy, happy, and busy. We are truly blessed beyond measure and we love to celebrate the birth of our Savior at this time of year.
I am sorry we weren't represented in your Chirstams card holder this year, but watch for us next year. We won't skip again!

Reunion Park Day

After the mom pedicures, we all went for a picnic and playing at a great park. We all wore our new family t-shirts. There was basketball, whiffle ball, playgrounds, and an ampitheater for dance performances. The day flew by, with so many things to do and so many people to talk to and get reacquianted with!

After a the day at the park, the adults had a late dinner at PF Chang's. Our family had to leave early the next day to catch our flight. What a wonderful week!

Pedicures

Friday morning after Thanksgiving, while most of the world was shopping big sales, the Andros ladies were getting pediucures.

Reunion- Jump Man Jump

We had a fun gathering day in Richmond at Jump Man Jump. It was two big rooms full of excited cousins and their parents. It was a great place for the kids to play and the adults to visit...and play too. We had some fun on the obstacle course. We had pizza and browinies after. These photos are from the age 9-up cousin room.

Andros Family Reunion!

The Andros family, all 69 of us, got together for a few days over Thanksgiving weekend. The kids and I flew out for a week in Virginia. We spent the first half with Mom and Dad and then second half of the week in Richmond.

Following are some photos of the highlights.

Our sightseeing day was the best ever! Dad took us and chauffered us around town. We saw so much in just one day. We went in the Washington Monument, the Library of Congress
(for just a second), the Archives, the Natural History museum. We saw the White house and many monuments that we usually don't see on the Metro. We went to Arlington National Cememtery, which was a first for me. We had a few cousins with us, which made it even better!


We were at the Library of Congress long enough for a picture with the Capitol in the background.

After seeing the documents in the Archives.

A carful of cousins all excited about our day. This was at the beginning, they weren't nearly as enthusiastic by the end of the day!

Disappointing Loss

As the election results were counted, we were disappointed to see that Tom lost the run for judge by a narrow margin. We were ahead for part of the vote-counting, and it was reported in a few papers that it was too close to call, but he was ahead. He got a lot of congratulations from people who were embarassed to find out he really lost. He even got a letter from one of our state elected officials congratulating him on his new job.
It is truly disappointing to put your heart into something and not get it, but we are happy he has a job he loves to continue onward with.

The campaigning continues

Jetway Chevrolet donated the use of their big billboard truck for Tom's campaign.
It is a great truck because it is so visible. We got permission to park it in Yerington and we were happy about the location. Tom ordered these banners, but it was tricky getting them attached so that the truck was road-worthy. Here are some pictures of the process.

Birthday ear piercing

Alyssa turned 10, the magic age for ear piercing in our famiy. She was a bit scared by the process, but she is happy about it now.

And the injuries continue...

Tommy took a hard hit in a football game and his coach thought he had broken a rib. He was urinating blood, like a lot of it for at least 5 days. After a few doctor visits and a CAT scan, he was diagnosed with a severely bruised kidney. He can have no contact or exercise for 8 weeks, a diagnosis that is akin to death for him because if you don't have football, what else is there in life?

Then Alyssa fell yesterday in school and hurt her arm. She didn't say anything, just went and ate lunch and went back to class. Her teacher noticed she was pale and sweating, probably going into shock, and sent her to the nurse. She told the nurse about her fall and she could see it was quite swollen. We got her to the ER for X-rays and found she fractured her radius in her arm. She will be in a cast for 6-8 weeks. That also means no violin, no ballet, and no jazz for her, at least for a while. She was quite a brave little girl about the whole thing. She has been enjoying resting on the couch with her arm on a pillow watching movies.

We are hoping to avoid any more injuries and stay out of the ER for a while.

Two concussions and a broken nose

Those are our injuries in the past two weeks with the boys in football. Tommy took a hard hit and had a mild concussion in his game last week, then Ryan got his bell rung in practice. He was pretty out of it and I started to take him home, then turned around and went to the ER. He was swelling up at the top of his nose, between his eyebrows. Turns out he had a mild concussion, and probably a broken nose. Apparently, they don't do anything for a for those, unless he has problems and needs surgery when he is fully grown. He will probably have two black eyes as the swelling drains, just in time for school pictures.

Labor Day Parade

We had quite a crowd to pass out information cards for Tom at the Cantaloupe Festival parade on Labor Day. This was before Nathan's and Adrienne's families got there. It was a very successful parade and we had a great day with the cousins after.

I was a little surprised to see how much taller than me Tommy has gotten, but notice his feet!

First Day of School

Lots of new things on this first day of school, Lauren started at the high school, Ryan, Alyssa and I were all moved to a new elementary school, so that was new for us. But at this point, two weeks into the year, everyone is doing fine, despite this nervous-looking picture.

On this day...

Nineteen years ago Tom and I went to the Washington DC temple to get married. We had lots of guests and family, many of them from across the country, who drove all over Maryland and Northern Virginia to participate in the events of the day. It was a wonderful day!

I guess you really don't know how it feels to live something that you haven't lived before. As we made our marriage covenants that day, I had no idea what the road ahead held for us. I had watched my parents and I expected to be happily married like they were (and still are - Happy anniversary to you Mom and Dad - 42 years today!!) but until you do it yourself, it is hard to know how it will be. Even though I was in love on my wedding day, I could never have known then how much more my love would grow as we experienced our life together.

I count it as a true blessing to have a wonderful husband and to have been blessed with our children. We have had many happy times, some struggles that have been great learning experiences, and also some difficult times. Tom has been by my side for everything. I don't know what the next nineteen years (and beyond!) will hold, but I'm glad we'll face them together.

Lyon County Parade

We had a great parade day on Saturday. We had many people helping and we couldn't have done it without them!! We got Tom's new campaign card in the hands of every adult there. The card looks really nice and we got positive feedback on it. We also had plenty of candy, an important detail in a parade. There were enough people that it wasn't too much work for anyone (I hope!). It was hot, but really a great day for a parade and we were so happy with how smoothly it went.

Monopoly Games

My boys have spent many summer nights playing Monopoly with Brandon Bird. They are addicted to the game. I can't say that I understand their interest in that particular game, but I love that they are having some good old-fashinoned fun. Maybe one of them will go into real estate development when they are older.

Braces, braces, braces

Alyssa got braces this summer. We didn't expect that to come up so soon since she is kind of young, but they said it was time. So, we have had three kids in braces this summer. No popcorn or Now n' Laters at our family movie nights. Here are our three in braces.

Campaigning on the 4th of July

This is the part of the volunteer group after breakfast and before heading out to Fernley, Fallon, and Yerington. Tom and the Birds went to the parade in Fernley and ran a booth at the fair there. They got lots of help from the Otuafi family in Fernley. Dorothy and Tom's friend Ron went to Yerington to run a booth. The girls and I got help from Kevin and Amy and their kids in the Fallon parade. The second picture is Alyssa, Me, Lauren, Claire, Logan and Ashley on our float at the Fallon parade. We gave out a ton of candy (but we could have used about double what we had!), lots of fridge magnets, and saw many supportive people on the parade routes. We met people at the booths, all wiith a really positive response. It makes us excited for the next event, a parade in Yerington for the Lyon County Fair in August.

4th of July

The best part about the 4th of July is Lauren's birthday. She turned 14! It was a busy campaigning day for us, so we did a birthday breakfast. This is the birthday girl and the fruit flag before the meal got going.

Girl's Camp Birthday

I turned 39 at Girl's Camp in Mammoth, CA. The first-year girls in my camp made a banner for me and Lauren bought me the book "The Host" (completely without my knowledge, she got it at the BYU bookstore!") and brought it up to camp. She ran to my camp on the morning of my birthday with that gift and a sweet card from Alyssa. I got lots of songs and treats from the girls and leaders. I went on a beautiful hike in the mountains, had all my meals prepared for me, ate treats from a yummy bakery sitting by the litlte stream in our camp, took a nice shower and had testimony meeting that night with many stake visitors. A great day really, but the best part was that I got to see my family the next day.

Alyssa's Spring Dance Recital

Alyssa's dance recital was called "A Walk in the Park." She danced beautifully and it was a joy to watch her!

Park City trip

Ryan and I went to Park City, Utah for a day before picking up Tommy and Lauren in Provo from EFY. At Ryan's request, we went on the zipline and alpine slide. Even though I have done both before, it was really scary for me when we started going up the ski lift. You can see from the picture how high up it is. Despite the fact that I really prefer to have my feet on the ground, we did the zipline once and the slide twice and it was very fun.

Alyssa's violin recital

Alyssa started playing the violin in Feb. 2008. I know I'm her mother, but I think she is really good. This is her playing at her recital. She played a solo and a trio. (Next time I'll video and post that so you can listen! I'm still learning.)

Take me out to the ball game!

We had fun watching Ryan play baseball this year. He wasn't sure he wanted to play this season, but he had fun once he got going. This is Ryan at bat and again on first base.

Campaign Photos

We had a family photo shoot so we would have something current to put on some campaign literature this summer. I was happy with how they turned out, so I am posting a few of them for you to see. Don't be surprised if you see one on our Christmas cards; that always seems to sneak up on us.

School's Out!

Hooray for us, school is out! We had a half day on Friday and I was home by 2:30 taking a quick nap! We are looking forward to a few summer projects, some campaigning, a few small trips and a few visitors. Hopefully some good weather and good books too!

Tom's TV Debut

Spring Pictures

Our family on Easter Sunday, March 2008.

Who's taller?

I still think it's close, but he thinks he's way taller than me. Ryan reminds us that I'm the one not growing, so whatever the margin, Tommy is officially taller than me.

Alyssa's Surgery

The tooth is on the top, to the right of her front tooth.

Alyssa had this oddly-shaped baby tooth that wouldn't fall out. Come to find out, she has an extra permanent tooth growing that needs to be removed. We scheduled her oral surgery, and I went in with her to get her settled. The doctor came in and never asked me to leave, so I stayed in during the procedure. Needless to say, it was quite gruesome. They hacked into the roof of her mouth with a mini-crowbar tool to dig that tooth out. They really go at it, not with nice little gentle cuts. I started feeling a little dizzy and I thought I might pass out while I was watching, so I diverted my eyes to prevent that. Anyway, it was quick and relatively painless (while she was medicated). She is healing nicely and we just hope the permanent tooth comes in like it should.