Happy Anniversary, Elder Anderson!

I am happy to report that my brother, Taylor has now been on his mission for one year and he is doing great. He is serving in the Dominican Republic, Santiago Mission and I'm just so proud of him and the way he is serving the Lord. He's endured intense heat and humidity, recurring ingrown toenails, flooding, power outages everyday, and driving on the insane roads where no one obeys traffic laws! Right now he's serving in the mission office. He coordinates all the transfers and apartment moves and does all the driving and heavy lifting. This year has gone by pretty fast so I'm sure this last one will fly. I can't wait to see him again and introduce him to Justin! Congrats, Elder Anderson! We love you!

Check out these pics of the great work he's been doing.

The Jolley Art Museum

I majored in Art History in college and had dreams of becoming a curator in a museum. But who knew my career aspirations were waiting to be fulfilled at home on my own refrigerator? Would you like to see what's on exhibition right now? These are very important pieces by newcomer, Joseph Jolley. This one is his very first time writing his name. Darren would draw each letter on a Magna Doodle and then Joseph would copy it on his paper. Notice the classic backward "S" and he also wrote "Mom."The other one is Joseph's first drawing of his family. Don't you just love his use of shape and line? :) He's really not into drawing much, so this made me really excited. I am happy to be the curator of my refrigerator and to me, these works of art are more priceless than any Picasso or Van Gogh. In the future, I hope to have a similar exhibition from this upcoming artist. (I just had to share this cute picture of Justin.)

More from my big boy

My big boy just keeps getting bigger! Check out Joseph on his big boy bike! In true Joseph fashion, he's still a little frightened of it. We took it out in our neighborhood the first day he was on it and went down a little slope. He got going faster than he wanted to go and was too scared to hit the brakes. It took some heavy coaxing, but I got him back on the bike today at the park where I convinced him that the ground was level and he said, "This is fun fun fun, Mom!" Lately he's been calling me "Mom" instead of "Mommy." It's adorable, but it makes him seem old, too. I can't believe he's going to be 4 and starting Pre-school! Don't get me wrong, I love my big boy who can dress himself, go potty, go to Primary, but he'll always be my baby!