Carter Anderson

iThis adorable little boy is Carter Anderson. I'm arranging a marriage for him and Greta when they get older. This little boy has me smitten. He is all boy, but has a soft spot for Greta. He's 5 years old, but missed the deadline for kindergarten, he's still one of Austin's new best friends. All the kids his age and not in school yet are girls.

Yesterday we had flooding in our neighborhood at our new church site. They were calling everyone they could to help fill sand bags. Carter's mom Shellie called me and asked me if I could watch her boys while she went to help. Carter and his brother Luke came kicking and screaming. They didn't want to hang out with girls while the boys were in school. Carter was so upset. I told him he could just go in Austin's room and do "boy things." After about 20 minutes I found him playing with Greta.

You have to know that Carter is a TOTAL boy. He's been riding a bike without training wheels since he was 3, he roller blades in his mom's skates that are way too big for him. He always has a cut somewhere and mud on his face. He's also VERY good at ALL sports and girls have COOTIES to him, but he is so sweet with Greta and Alina when no one is looking.

I begged him to let me take a picture of him and the only way I could is if I bring him a candy bar today. That is why he looks so defiant.

Now he starts to warm up a bit.....
And that's as close to a smile as we're going to get.
And of course we can't forget Alina and "luca" (luke). Alina tells me everyday that she loves Luke. Maybe we'll have 2 arranged marriages.

Our Home

Please note that these pictures are not in order of the descriptions.....

Well here are a few pictures of our home. As you can tell the girls room is very pink, they will have beds next week after I finish painting them white to offset some of the pink. Austin's room isn't ready yet, we are taking him to deseret book to pick out pictures of Book of Mormon heroes for his room. He's very interested in prophets since President Hinckley died. He drew a picture of our beloved prophet during our Stake Conference on Sunday to go in his room.We absolutely love our bedroom, I have wanted this color in our bedroom for a long time. It's a very peaceful color to have on a wall. The outside picture is a view from our bedroom. It's so quiet here and the stars shine so bright.

The other outside picture is of our porch. We will definitely be getting a swing.:)

The picture with all the toys is the play room, we have way too many toys!!

My kitchen, dining room and living room have not been decorated the way we want yet, except for the picture of the sacred grove over our fire place. That is our newest addition that we love and have wanted for some time. My friend Shellie is very good at interior decorating and has a slip cover business that she's very successful at. We are going to find me some old chairs for her to teach me how to cover since my living room is almost just as big as our old one in Idaho, we have lots of space to fill up. Since all the rooms on the main floor are connected I'm having a hard time deciding how to paint it. All I know is that we are going to put up some chair rail in the living room and bead board in the dining. It'll look lovely. Then I'll worry about paint colors. We are searching for a coffee table, but haven't found one we like.

The kids have hideouts in the bonus room over the garage which are a big hit with all the kids around here. The other big hit at our house is we have the circle from the front door to the dining room, through the kitchen in to the family room and back at the front door, just like in Idaho. Yesterday there were 6 boys playing tag and we had our first accident. Logan who is 7 ran into the banister and gashed his head, there was a lot of blood, but he was very calm and Shellie came to get him we ended up talking for an hour and Logan wanted to play again. He's perfectly fine, thank goodness!!

We had a little get together with 2 families from our ward last Friday and Austin, Greta and Alina were so excited. Austin made signs welcoming all the kids to the party. There were 7 extra kids that night and they had so much fun. The kids filled bowls of chicken nuggets, gummy worms, smarties and pretzels. They played and watched movies while the adults played games. It was so fun.

We can't wait for those of you who haven't been here to come and see our new place!!

Pictures are coming!!!

I thought I should give a little update in case anyone wonders where we've been.

We are moved in and I'm proud to say that most of our boxes have been emptied. The only ones that remain are Cam's boxes for the desk, he'll do that as soon as this audit is over.

We looooove our house, our ward, our neighbors, and all the zillion kids here. I will have at any given moment at least 3 extra kids in my house. We have fit right in with our ward and neighbors. Our neighbors behind us have a gate from our backyard to theirs and all the kids use it to come and play. We are the hot house of the neighborhood, everyone thinks Austin, Greta, and Alina are super cool (who wouldn't) so they are the talk of the town.

Our new ward is awesome, it's a nice change from our Idaho ward and although we've always loved my parents ward and made good friends there it's nice to have our own ward. We have already been invited to a basketball game with some families, I went to a lunch play date today, we have a bunch of couples coming to our house Friday night for games and treats and it's just wonderful! We finally feel like we have found a place to call home and are loving it! I'll post pictures if I can remember to get my camera cord from my mom.


No new callings yet, there is at least 1 new family a week, but I think it's more like 3. We were worried we'd just get forgotten since there are so many new families, but everyone here is so nice. I can't wait for the summer, all the moms say they sit on the porch and sip lemonade while the kids run from house to house playing all day. We even have an older lady who is known as the popsicle lady in the summer and the fruit snack lady in the winter, she even brought the kids Valentines. This truly is a wonderful place to be.

We are doing great and the kids are happy. Our new phone number is 801-770-2975 and our cell number didn't change.

Elder Ryan Egan

Ryan, Mom, Dad at the MTC
Dad, Shane, Ryan, Matthew
BFF Andrew, Ryan at farewell open house
Ode to Ryan
Ode to Peru
Ode to Ryan's HS Dances
Caiden, Kellie, Alina (I think Ryan has a crush on Kellie. Just a guess.)
Ryan and Mom at MTC

Holly's brother Ryan went to the MTC last Wednesday. He's going to the Peru Piura mission. He'll spend 3 weeks in the Provo MTC, and then go to the Lima Peru MTC for a few more weeks after that.

Felicitaciones y buena suerte, che.

Snow Day

Utah has had a ton of snow this year. We've really enjoyed being able to make snowmen and snowballs and even a little sledding.

Today, it really came down. They even cancelled church. The last three pictures above are from today, with the cars buried and Austin and I trying to shovel. Luckily, our neighbor has a 4-wheeler with a shovel and he came over and plowed our driveway. Then the neighbor kids came over and we had a huge snowball fight.

I won.

Teeth

Austin's lost two teeth, and there's one more holding on for dear life. He loves losing teeth because it means adding to his Yu-Gi-Oh savings account.

Greta has not lost any teeth. But look at that gorgeous smile!

Sister Wilson

Sister Wilson was Austin's Primary teacher last year, and has been Greta's teacher so far this year (we're moving now, so she'll get a new one next week). She is also Uncle Ryan's best friend's mom. They have been friends of the Egan family for over a decade. When Holly and I were engaged, she threw Holly a bridal shower, and as part of the shower she video taped me answering various questions about Holly. She then showed the tape at the shower to see how much I got right. She's way cool, way fun, and the kids love her. She'll be missed as we head to our new house.

Dance Class

The girls are in dance class now and have had two classes so far. They love to dress up and show what they've learned. They twirl, do cartwheels, spin, and something called a piay. (sp?)

The teacher is Lyndsay, who is also Uncle Ryan's girlfriend's sister. The girls love her, and seem to have gotten over their shyness. It is so much fun to see them so happy and how proud they are that they can show us what they've learned in class.