Baby's First Christmas

Well I think baby's first christmas is really her second christmas because this year she didn't know the difference! we had a lot of fun though... the great-grandkids are expanding and it was fun to get them all together although pretty chaotic. i imagine it will just be crazier next year as they are all able to move! Jaydon is 2, Emmit is 1 and Neveah is 4 months... it will be nice for Diem to have cousins so close in age!


Diem came home with her first cold... her nose is all stuffy and there is snot running out of it, but she's as happy as can be and thinks the snot sucker is a game! She contiues to be a super fun baby... she is understanding her toys more and finding that she can spin things and make things make noise. She loves watching her parents drink water with ice in it and watching the dog play fetch.

We just booked our tickets to new york so she will be getting her first plane ride pretty soon! I feel like there is no point to writing anything and that i should just put up a bunch of pictures because those are much more fun!

The December edition

So I kept feeling guilty about not keeping this blog up to date more, but i've since realized that a once a month goal is reasonable! We started this blog when we were living in St. Thomas... but interesting things were happening every day! Now our interesting things revolve around nap times, diapers and smiles that melt your heart -none of which we can capture to post!

Anyway... for Thanksgiving we went out to the Black hills to visit Linda, Al, Cole and Dillon. Diem got to meet her cousin Isaiah... they were super cute together... she actually looks like she enjoy's hanging out with him!

In my efforts to catch a good smile i often take sets of random pictures... this winter hat that she has is so cute... and now she actually likes wearing it.



And since everyone gives you a million Babies first Christmas outfits, we had to take some of those pictures... She's such a good baby and puts up with my picture marathons so well!


Grandma Janet just left to go back to New York... i'll have to post those pictures later because i don't have any on my camera... we took them all on my mom's new camera...she was using an ancient box with a 1/2 inch screen that you couldn't even see... Grandma's need a good camera! :-) More to come... hopefully in January!

The past two months

So we have been REALLY bad at updating this blog! Sorry to those of you who check it. If you are interested, we have a snapfish account that we upload all our pictures too, so i can email you the link to the albums and you can see pictures. She is growing and changing so much!

Now she smiles, laughs and talks to you in her own baby talk. She'll prop herself up on her arms and is now to the point when she will roll over. It won't be long until we are chasing her around the house.

We had two pumpkin outfits that were given to Diem, so we dressed her up in both (she spit up all over the first one so that gave me an excuse to put the other one on her!).

Neither one of them fit, but they will be too small next year... baby clothes are impossible to fit!

I have been playing dress up with her a lot recently.
These are some pictures of Diem in an outfit that i had worn when i was a baby. Not too practical for a baby to really wear, but now we can compare our Baby pictures!

These last pictures are of Diem and Isaiah... i guess you could say they are "God siblings?"
We are Isaiah's Godparents and his parents are Diem's God parents.


It's crazy to look back at pictures of Diem just after she was born... she seems so tiny then!

Football takes over town!

So we live in a small town outside of Sioux Falls - about 3,900 people.... They just finished the new Harrisburg high school football stadium across the street that seats about 3,500 people. Last friday night was the first game and seriously it was like the movie "Field of Dreams"... the cars were lined up as far as you could see.


Stanek came in for the big event and he sat in L.A. like traffic... he could see our house for 15 minutes and couldn't get there (okay, so not as bad as L.A. where we sat for 2 hours looking at the LAX airport and couldn't get there - therefore missing our flight home for X-mas). Lando, Stanek and Jake walked over for the game... people were parked all the way down by our house, so there was quite a crowd walking over. By the time they got there, there were no more seats left so they were standing - which was fine by them.

On the baby front...
Grandma Janet and Grandpa Ed left on Wednesday... sad to see them go.
You can tell by Diem's yawns that she was quite upset as well :-) This weekend we head to Rosholt for a baby shower and introduce Diem to the town! Other than that... we are settling into life once again... stay tuned for more...

Diem's Baptism ~ 08/30/08

Diem with her parents and grandparents.


Phil, Robin, and Isaiah...Diem's Godparents and future husband!


Mom, Dad, and Diem.


Can you say "Baptism Party?!"


Diem Hazel in the baptismal gown first worn by her Great-Great-Grandma Hazel in 1911...also worn by Great-Grandma Marlene, Grandma Jill, and Lando among many others. The blanket she is laying on was made for her Grandpa Leon on his baptism by Diem's Great-Great Grandma Westby from a parachute her Great-Grandpa Harold brought back from WWII...also used at Lando's baptism.

Trip to the lake and the "Big City" of Rosholt, SD

Grandpa Ed and Grandma Janet arrive in Sioux Falls!


Getting ready for Diem's first boat ride!


Janet getting a chance to ride while at Grandma Jill and Grandpa Leon's house.


Great-Grandma Marlene


Great-Grandma Doris

Coming home

So the hospital birthing suites at Avera in Sioux Falls are SUPER nice! Better than a hotel room even. But it was nice to go home... there is nothing like your own bed for a good nights sleep. This is Lando and Diem during an early morning nap. I probably should have been sleeping, but like any first time parent i was a little camera happy.

Diem was 6 1bs. 14 oz. She's a little one and all the clothes we have are quite big. However we are learning that sizes on baby clothes really mean nothing. This was Diem in her car seat on the way to her first doctors appointment. The car seat just swallows her whole - she is so tiny! She is becoming more alert and awake every day and it is super fun to see her open her eyes up big. They were quite bruised after delivery so she had a little trouble the first few days.

Yesterday a crew of Lando's family came down for the day to visit. It was really great to see everyone and this picture is of 4 generations... Great-Grandma Marlene, Grandma Jil, Lando & I and Diem. We will keep posting pics because i can't stop taking them! Many are also up on Facebook so you can find us there too!

Labor & Delivery

So here i am in front of our house... the last "pregnant" picture. Fast forward about a week and we get to my due date August 4th. I go in to the doctor for a routine appointment, and everything looked good, but I was put on the non-stress test to watch the baby's heartbeat, and there was a wierd little drop (which in hindsight was probably a machine malfunction), but the doctor didn't want to take any chances and said she would like to induce labor.

So we walked across the street to the hospital and a few hours later, this was me modeling the portable fetal monitor after they induced labor. It didn't really work... i was having contractions according to the machine, but i didn't feel anything. So then they broke my water and BAM... 12 hours of INTENSE labor followed.... the last 2 1/2 or so of pushing.

At 3:50am on Tuesday August 5th, we were finally blessed with the greatest cone-head baby... she was perfect. He name is Diem Hazel Anderson. She is named after two very important people in our lives. Diem is the Latin version of Day, my grandmothers maiden name, and Hazel is Lando's great-grandmother's name.

Jill and Leon had been sitting outside the room since about 9pm monday night, my mom was sweating it out in New York not having any real access to updates. I think they were all probably more stressed than i was! in the end the delivery was a success and mom and baby were both healthy. We received a delivery of some very special flowers. They were in a vase that was given to my grandma when my mom was born. Someday, Diem can pass them on to her daughter when she has her first grandchild and the cycle will continue. Stay tuned for more baby news!

4th of July

So we've been meaning to do another post, but we've found we update facebook much more easily than this blog... it's much easier (and faster to upload photos), but we are still going to keep this going, cuz not everyone has facebook.

The weekend of the 4th was awesome. All of Lando's family gets together at the family cabin on Pickerel Lake. Lando and i lived there for a summer right after we moved back from St. Thomas and before we moved to California. It's so nice to be able to go away for a holiday weekend, to have 2 or 3 days off in a row (in the summer!) and to just be able to spend it with family.

9 months pregnant and i was still able to get in and out of that kayak... i've been missing physical activity, so that was fun.

Valerie, Lando's cousin, is due 1 month after me. We are both having girls which is cool because right now the only two family grandchildren (Emmit & Jaydon) are both boys.

Now we are a week and a half from baby due date and so we are just hanging out and waiting... HOPING that she is at least on time if not early. Late would make things much more complicated, but i guess we really don't have much say. The goal is to get the fence done before she's here, but even that is looking less and less likely... we'll see! Stay tuned for baby pics!