My first weekend in Virginia

John and Angela were baptized by Jacob! This was a wonderful day... Cindy was good and invited a lot of friends to the baptisim. This was the first experience with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for many... I was able to give the talk on the Holy Ghost and I was a bit nervous seeing as it would be a first for so many people. People were able to see many important ordinances in one day, ordained to the Aaronic priesthood, baptisim by immersion, and then recievinig the Holy Ghost... a day packed full of LDS ordinances!

The family pictures were actually taken on the following Sunday...

Saturday was pretty busy!

Grandma and Grandpa Phillipps, Ray Vejnar, Aunt Cherice

Craig, Robin, Megan, Sammie, Silvester, and Lillie

were able to be to attend the special event!

Jacob and the twins!

John kept saying he felt like an angel and new he could fly.

Angela was really excited herself.


Jacob did a fine job baptizing them!

Unfortunately Dale was still in Afghanistan and unable to attend the event, he was missed.

Man... if you don't stay on top of this... you kind of get behind :)

So I knew when I got back from Virginia, more than two months ago mind you, I knew I would post more about my wonderful stay there... and my life... well... i kind of bombed on that one didn't I.

I am so incredibly grateful that I stayed a month longer in Virginia!!! I just adore my nephews and nieces and spending extra time with them was amazing! Before I left my sister had them write a list of things that we had done together... some of the lists were different for each child... and that is how it went. It was wonderful realizing all of the memories that we had created together. Now if I had only written all of them down at the same time... I would be able to remember all of those things as well! But alas I did not and now I am going to try and recall some of those awesome things. It turns out that some of the most ordinary things became some of the most special activities.

I guess it would be more apporopriate to write down each activity in my jornal so I won't bore you with all the details... but some fun things included reading stories together, answering their questions... in fact i was lucky enough to have my 8 year old niece ask me what it meant to make love... yes i did give her an age appropriate answer. I do think it is important to answer kids questions accurately no matter how difficult it might be to answer. I realized more and more how wonderful family life really is... it is so hard at times... but so rewarding. Kids are demanding and they do want to be recognized for what they do... who can blame them? I think all of us want to be recognized for what we do each day. What would the world be like if we actually were able to recognize each other for their efforts? I imagine it would be much better than it is now! That was kind of a tangent... moving on.

It is nice being an aunt and not the mom... for instance when the kids are fighting over something really silly I can sit in the background and laugh because often it is kind of ridiculous... but when you are mom... you get to make the most of it and hopefully teach a lesson along the way. However... Mom's out there.. you are SO Lucky!!! Your kids LOVE you so much!

Now I feel like I get a pretty large amount of love from my nephews and nieces... friends and family... but it will be incredibly amazing to have the love of my own children one day!

There will be some catch up posts along the way!

new hair cut

I totally chopped off 11 inches of my hair. I went to my friend Katie's for a bit about 3 weeks aog and decided to get a trim from her hair girl. Well, Katie convinced me to donate my hair which meant I had to cut at least 10 inches off. This is the result.........

Another month in Virginia!

This morning I realized that my decision to stay in Virginia another month until Dale gets home will keep me from seeing people I promised to see and a few events I was looking forward to. However, when I was deciding to stay in VA for another month I just kind of thought to myself that whatever is in Utah for me will be there in 4 weeks just the same as it is for me now. Sorry if I will be missing an event that I planned on doing with you, but know that I will try and make it up in one way or another!

I couldn't resist the pleas of my cute nephews and nieces who pulled their birthday money together to make the expense of changing my ticket less. John, Angela, and Alisha gave me $60 dollars to put towards my ticket... they each had $20 to buy whatever they wanted and they wanted me to stay so badly they gave it to me!!! Its just about enough to make me melt away! When they offered their birthday money I had to ask a few others what they wanted... The last few days 4yr old Jordan had been saying things like: "Mom, Just pretend Aunt Cherice isn't here... we are ignoring her" "You're never coming to my school again!" and such... but he too said he wanted me to stay! Jacob, my oldest nephew (16), said he would love me to stay. I asked how much money he would donate to the cause and he said $0... If he had to pay I could go home. Joshua was asked the same question and willingly said: "I will dip into my college savings fund and donate $50 for her to stay... I guess you could take more if you needed it" All in all it was a very heart warming experience to know that my nephews and nieces would sacrifice to keep me here another month.

I have been so happy being in the Anderson home. I have to admit that I have been a little lazy at times... and now that I am staying I better physically write out some goals that need to be accomplished before I leave. The new date of departure is March 9, 2009. Now we just have to hope that our wonderfully inefficient government gets him home at least a few days before then as promised, so Cindy and Dale can get away for a couple of days.

Tonight HAIRSPRAY's traveling Broadway show was in Charlottesville and Joshua and I went together for our early birthday gift. We were buying tickets when a lady asked us if we would like to buy tickets from her. I luckily had enough cash in my wallet that she was willing to give the tickets to us at a discount. Joshua and I sat on the second row... from the stage... I have never been that close before. It might have been nice to be a few rows back for the mere purpose that I now have a kinked neck... but it was fun because we were able to see all of their facial expressions. Everything was up close and personal... I could see the little details you never get to see and it was nice! The music and message of Hairspray are really great, but they always like to add such crudeness and vulgarity to plays it kind of puts a damper on things. In the meantime... Joshua and I enjoyed ourselves thoroughly!

Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where innocence was blissful with clean humor? I would love it! Maybe one day!

Maggie Moo's

Today was a fun day! I went with Anna, John, Angela, & Alisha to a few toy stores. Each of them had their own money to spend... and they spent almost every single penny! John bought a big wrap around green snake from ToysRUs and then we were off to the mall for one last stop at Build A Bear! They each kept track of their money very well and knew how much money they could spend, they even banned together so they could buy more. It was quite amazing to see them at work! Excitement was in the air and boy were they happy.
After the shopping event I had planned to take them to Maggie Moo's for ice cream and that was definitely the icing on the cake. We LOVE ice cream... Love It! and we made our own flavors and they were delicious! I was given many thanks as they said "This was a really fun day aunt Cherice, thank you so much for taking us" It was my pleasure... they got the lecture of being on their best behavior and they did a great job! I wish we had a camera for some pictures. I will just have to add some of the cute things they bought while they were with me. Its really fun being an Aunt!

Humble Pie

Yesterday I was able to go with my nephews and the youth in their ward on a temple trip. It took two hours to drive to the Washington, DC temple. I was so super tired. I thought about doing baptisms with the group because I haven't done them for years. As I sat watching them I decided that I wanted to see what the DC temple looked like inside. In I went to go on a session. It was a little confusing getting where I needed to go, but fortunately there are such nice people inside the temple it wasn't a problem. I rented my clothes and in I went. After the session I was sitting in the Celestial room completely grateful that the temples dot the world today. I love going to the temple! I love the feeling of peace and tranquility. I love having the opportunity of helping those who have passed on without having the fullness of the gospel in their lives. I am awed at what gospel truths can be learned... even though I know that I haven't even tapped into a small grain of sand of what I could truly be learning. I am so grateful for eternal families! Where ever I move to or end up living I need to have a temple close by... the farthest distance I can handle is a 25 minute drive because I need to go to the temple. I need that influence in my life. I love going every single week but I guess I would survive if I was only able to go twice a month. I love temples and know they help us in our eternal progression!

Today was Fast and Testimony Meeting. I decided not to go to the singles ward and stay with my sister and her kids, after all that is why I came to Virginia... to be with them :) As I was hearing testimonies... I was thinking about mine. Life has been kind of difficult for me just being in the limbo phase of life... not really having any idea of what I will be doing next. I have been aweful in some circumstances, ungrateful... and down right mean, mostly to my mom (sorry mom... thanks for understaning :) I am sure I have a lot of repenting to do for those things... any way... During these last 5 months I have been having a break from life... but at the same time I have been able to help people which in return has helped me. I have been able to visit friends and family (thanks for letting me come, you know who you are), I did a nanny job for my good friend Amy, worked in our family business- The candy shop! and now I have been able to stay with Cindy for the past 4 weeks with 2 more to go and they have been great! Cindy has enjoyed having someone play with the kids and give her a little bit of a break. Her husband has been gone for more than a year now. Any way... I haven't really done much except play with the kids and keep my sister company... but it has been wonderful and I have been happy! I love the things kids say... I love how much they care about you... I love that they LOVE me! And its kind of fun watching them fight over the silliest things (probably because I am not the mom)! I love seeing that my nephews and neices have a testimony of the gospel. I have been fortunate enough to hear them share their testimonies. They have a great understanding of the gospel and it makes them happy. If I didn't have time to figure out my life I wouldn't be able to take the time to create wonderful memories with people I love. The Lord works in mysterious ways. You never know the end from the beginning. I'm glad that my testimony is strong enough that during hard times I know that it will all work out in the end and everything will be ok! Hopefully I can be more grateful during those times... but I do believe that we experience trials for our good and I was able to see a little bit of that today! Thank You My Loving Heavenly Father

Kids say the darndest thing moment:
Anna (turns 10 in 2 days) today during sacrament meeting has this conversation, it was so funny! Anna: "Hey Angela, let me see if you have gone through puberty yet?" Angela: "How do I do that?" Anna: "Let me see your belly button...(Angela lets Anna see your belly button)... oh your belly button is still an inny... you haven't gone through puberty yet" Cherice:"what are you talking about?" Anna: "Once you have gone through puberty your belly button is an outty" Cherice: "Ummm Anna... that's not the case... sometimes when a woman gets big and pregnant her belly button becomes an outty but it changes back. But your belly button doesn't change when you go through puberty" Anna: "hmm---are you sure?" Cherice: "ya, I am pretty sure... I have gone through puberty and I still have an inny belly button... I'll show you when we get home"

Chinese New Year Celebration with John and Angela

Saturday, January 30, 2009

John and Angela had a celebration at school today! It was fun and exciting to watch them as they painted fans, danced, and sang songs. They had a nice Chinese meal and John and Angela were very generous to share. Apparently it wasn't hard for people to know that I was related because a few teachers said that Angela and I looked like one another! But mostly it was great because they were so happy that their mom and I could come... its great being loved :) Here are a few pictures of the days events!

I was born the year of the dog... and yes... some of the things they say seem to be true of me.(Dog (Yang, 3rd Trine, Fixed Element Metal): Honest, intelligent, straightforward, loyal, sense of justice and fair play, attractive, amicable, unpretentious, sociable, open-minded, idealistic, moralistic, practical, affectionate, dogged. Can be cynical, lazy, cold, judgmental, pessimistic, worrier, stubborn, quarrelsome.)