Who am I?

I've been thinking. I don't want to be one of those bloggers that just posts pictures of her adorable child. But I'm pretty sure I am. And while I'm totally okay with that because I of course am obsessed with my offspring, and my offspring is pretty much what I do, I want to be an exciting blogger too. But does that mean controversy?

So sometimes I post a little about politics...but do I really want to make enemies? I mean, I want to kindle excitement! Yes! But I want every one in the world to agree with me, and think I am just oh so right, and why didn't I think of that before, and have every one with me...well not really, I actually really like hearing what other people think...but I DO love to be right.

And sometimes I post about my deep thoughts on Oprah. I was serious about that Oprah.

And sometimes I wonder what I should share or not share, when it's going too far, ya know, the feelings thing. The "love confession" posts, which is just not really natural for me. Or maybe a testimony post, which is natural, but I just don't know about doing it on a blog.

But hey! It's my blog! (And my poor husband's, whom I represent, so I guess I can't be entirely selfish. I do still want him to think highly of how I represent us.)

And hey again! I'm private! So pretty much, I've only selfishly invited those people I love and whom accept me and my weaknesses...namely family, and friends who are pretty much family.

So hey! I guess I'll just keep posting whatev. Whatev I want.

...


And now I post this: A temple post.

I had the most wonderful experience in the temple last week. Thanks to Tim's sister Natalie who tended baby boy for us, Tim and I were able to go to Stake Temple Night. That meant we were in the temple after all the sessions had gone through, in the chapel, being instructed by the Temple President.

(Oh boy. Now I know why I don't post about this stuff. It's because there are no words.)

Our temple, which is the Mt. Timpanogas Temple, has an all-white chapel. The ceilings are vaulted about thirty feet. And there are piers in front of you, behind the podium, backed by endless windows with beautiful stainglass placings.

Here we were, all dressed in white, entirely surrounded by white, with temple recommend holding members of our stake. On the stand were our local leaders, and the temple presidency all in white. The Temple President and then the Stake President instructed us in this setting, talking of eternal things, and sacred things we only talk about in the temple.

All I could think of, was how much I felt like I was plucked from the earth and placed in heaven, being instructed by one of the Lord's servants. The room was white, the people white, all having declared themselves worthy to be there, all having answered affirmatively to the questions in a temple recommend interview.

I was extremely moved by this glimpse into heaven. The temple president instructing us. It felt like this is what it must be like in heaven! Purity abounding, all having proven their testimonies in life, all wanting to move the work forward, here to receive instruction from a servant of our Maker.

No words. I fail.

I want to be in heaven. I want to make it there. I want to be able to answer affirmatively to the questions presented me by my Maker and be found worthy to be in the Celestial Kingdom in the end, to serve Him in the Millenium, to be surrounded by those who have endured to the end, to have Tim at my side, to be the kind of wife that Tim wants to still have forever, to have kids that are proud to have me as their mother, to have my kids there with me. I want that! Yeah. I want that.

I better be a good wife. I want Tim to want me.

I'm proud to be the daughter of Glen and Meridee. I want to be there with them. I want that.

Ya know what? I have figured out a little mystery. You know why Heavenly Father gives us full-time missions? Or full-time missionary siblings/kids? I have figured it out. Yep. This mystery solved. Cause man! After two years away from my family, or worse, them away from me!, why would I ever want to be an eternity away from them?

Can't do it. Motivation locked in. For sure.

My twin brothers come home in June. Is my sentence up yet? COME HOME!!!!!!!!!

And, after watching the President Monson Missionary Work Invitation youtube video (which featured one of my missionary brothers who is the one shaking hands with President Monson in the third frame!), I saw the Glenn Beck youtube video of him speaking about President Hinckley on CNN the day after he passed away.

Wow. I loved that. Tears. Tears. Tears.

Same thing happened when we sang Hark All Ye Nations in sacrament meeting today. Tears. Tears. Tears. I sang that hymn as a missionary! How can I not cry throughout? Tears. Tears. Tears.

Is it because I'm pregnant? Cause I feel pretty real about my tears.

In conclusion, let it be known. I know this work is true. I count myself as blessed beyond measure that I know.

Baby Gender Guess!

Okay, ya'll have ten days to put in your Baby Andrus #2 gender guesses before we find out what it is! You can document your guess in the comment section of this post. Then I'll tell you if you were right February 18!

Guess away!!

Dear Oprah

Dear Oprah,

You've lost this one. Lost.

It started a year ago when you told me Juno was the best movie ever made. Tried it. And you lose.

I gave you a few more chances, but ten strikes your out.

Last week, when you continued to asked the man who had repented of homosexual acts why he would deny who he really is, why he hadn't left his wife and accepted who his true self is telling him he is, why he would deny himself a full life of homosexuality, you lost me. You lost me for good.

Trust and respect for Oprah Winfrey from Candice Calder Andrus: Zero.

P.S. Before all this I was one of your faithful daily viewers.

Beating the Winter Blues and Bump Watching

I just had to post this pic of Trent climbing under the desk. This is how he gets my attention when I'm too busy blogging.

Tim and I beat the winter blues last Saturday at the amazing indoor pool nearby. What an awesome place! And they keep the water at 90 degrees! We are definitely going to become frequent flyers at this place.







They have these little fountains that Trent loved to play with, baby jumpers in 5" of water, baby slides, big people slides, lazy river, powerful mini lazy river, hot tub, water guns, and a big bucket that dumps loads of water so powerful it can pull your swim bottoms off about every three minutes. (See the bamboo structure below? See the big bucket at the top.) So so super fun. And so perfect for all ages, even a 1 year old!

They have a lap pool too, but since I doubt I can even swim one length of the pool, I opted to play in the "Leisure" pool.

The pool slopes like a beach, so sometimes Trent's crazy crawling speeds would get him into deep water.

Below Trent is drinking up the pool water. He does this in the tub too. Where in the world did he get that from? We didn't teach him that.

Playing with dad.



Some of you remember I had a "Bump Watch" photo album on Facebook for our pregnancy with Trent. There hasn't been much to watch so far this pregnancy. In fact, I've only gained 2 pounds on the scale. But the waist sure does look different. I started documenting this Bump Watch #2 and thought it appropriate to show the regular belly, and the "let it all hang out" belly. I am in that stage, ya know. The one where you still look normal, but a little pudgy, but not pregnant...but if I really push it out, then maybe, just maybe, I can look like it's a baby and not too many donuts. I do love donuts.

The doctor assured me I would be putting on some good pounds this month. Oh how exciting. I just love to watch the scale numbers go up. ;)

I can feel the baby move every day now, and in two weeks we will find out what it is! We are the kind of people that find out. The sooner the better. When I know what the baby is, the baby is real! And that's when I really start to realize my life is changing. So reality will hit soon.

Happy Birthday Trent! You're one!

What a fun, fun day. And Trent did not disappoint.

We sang to him to get him out of his crib in the morning, and he was very excited. "This is so fun mom and dad! Let's do this every morning!" Tim had the day off of work, so Trent is always very excited for that. Then at 10 am, Trent's picture was on Good Things Utah on ABC for a Happy Birthday wish.


The rest of the day was spent getting ready for a little birthday boy party. I spent the day in the kitchen, and when the going got tough, Tim ended up there too. First, the football and helmet shaped sugar cookies for Trent's football party (yes, we are imposing football on our boy before he knows what he likes himself) didn't seem to look like footballs and helmets after they expanded and fell in the oven. This is where the "humble yourself and ask for help" part came in, and I called my new sister-in-law to recruit her cookie decorating skills. Then we had footballs and helmets again. When I didn't have food coloring, Genius Allison used Koolaid to color the helmets. Wow!



The cookie saving was imperative since I had already had a birthday cake disaster. My two layered cake, which yes I have done successfully in the past, broke like the Great Andres Fault on top, and it looked horrible! This is when Tim said, "Let's build a football kickstand and put a football on the cake." Which perhaps rendered my 'I Can Have a Good Attitude about this Cake' sign unnecessary. It read: This cake represents our hearts: Broken because our boy is growing up so fast, but full of love and sweetness for how much we love our little boy. See. Can we be impressed? I am trying to have a good attitude about my cookie and then cake disasters. Both fixed by dear husband and sister.

(We didn't take enough photos of the decorations, and here, the football eventually was placed on top the cake.)

Luckily I am really good at spending money at the party store, so we had cute decorations, a football goal post on the wall, little chocolate footballs on the table, a football crockpot, a penalty flag, D-Fence hat for Trent, streamers, balloons, coordinating green and brown. Yes. I am good at spending the monies.

We had a lot of fun blowing amazing Gymboree bubbles. They are amazing!





It was so super fun. Trent loves bananas, so we gave him a banana cream pie for his cake. This part in the kitchen was complicated. We made it from scratch, and this was one of those recipes that says, "Add the butter, add a part of the egg yolk then add the whole thing, then spin around and somersault, all the while don't stop stirring the custard! Thank goodness Tim and I were both there so we had four hands. Trent did a great job with his pie being excited and putting on a show. Don't stand too close, banana cream pie is flying.

Want some pie Uncle Curt?

At this moment, the house is still a disaster, but I choose to blog. Trent got more presents than can be taken in by a little boy, so I daresay I'll be hiding those presents and taking them out a few weeks at a time. Smart mommy huh.

Logan was a very good elder cousin and wanted to make sure Trent knew how excited he should be about each toy. Logan is so cute with his common new toy response, "Oh no! What should we do!?"

I don't think Trent knew at first this was a basketball standard, but I do know he was really excited about the big box to bang.

He loves his basketball hoop!

It was so fun to have great people celebrating with us. Thanks Jason and Meradith and Stephanie for designating themselves as photographers. We definitely needed that. And thanks Nanas for your help always.

Isn't this a great treasure of a photo. Trent with his Grandpas.

Birthday boy after his banana cream pie bath.

Princess Lucia and Little Man Trent

And thank you for reading. All of you people are so kind to let us spoil our child with love and attention so ridiculously and to still put up with us. Trent is lucky to have so much love!

I surprised myself when I helplessly broke down in tears today. This January 20th, 2009. A few minutes after twelve noon, Eastern time.

Tears of fear. Sincerely.


President Obama,
You have been blessed with the gift of speech. Please remember, your actions speak louder than your words.

I pray that the Light of Christ once placed within you can still be heard and if so, that you will heed. That you will conserve this Promised Land and not act in ways that seek to deter it from its preparation for the Second Coming of our Savior, the Perfect Governor who will surely come.

I must and will respect your office. And for you I will pray. Because I have to hope.

The Happiest Day of My Life

I have a little thought, for whomever does or does not want to read a little of my profound thought today. It doesn't need to be read, I just want to write it.

So much in movies or TV, or maybe every day life, people refer to their wedding day as "the happiest day of my life." Recently Tim and I went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (a three hour life story that would not have been possible to see had it not been for Grandpa and Nana Calder taking Trent for the weekend! Thanks!). And not that I hadn't heard it before, but here again, Benjamin Button's father tells Benjamin, 'Here is a picture of your mother and I on our wedding day. It was the happiest day of my life.' And since I was in a contemplative mood, as that movie will do to you, I wondered about that thought.

Was my wedding day the happiest day of my life? I loved my wedding day. It was beautiful. I was so excited to be marrying my best friend. And I was so anxious to start my life with him. I knew that my decision to marry Timothy Andrus was a dang good one. But the happiest day of my life? How could it have been? On that day there was no way of knowing just how happy that decision would make me.

The happiest day of my life was every day after that. It is today. It will be tomorrow. It was Saturday night when I was throwing up every hour on the hour and Tim woke up each time to see if there was anything I needed. When I realized again that that was the kind of man I married. It was Sunday when I saw my son curl up on the couch with my Timothy. That was the happiest day of my life. It was so many moments and so many moments that are to come. So I certainly hope that my wedding day was not the happiest day of my life. Cause it was happy! But I had no idea the happy that was to come.

I would love to relive my wedding day. The beauty, the dress, the people, the things said. It was the most wonderful day! And if I could relive it now, knowing what just three years of marriage to Timothy means, it would be an even more happier day!

Isn't that the happiest day of your life when you realize the man you thought you married, you really did marry!

Tim and I celebrated three years of marriage last month. Thanks for making every day happier honey! I had no idea I would be this happy.