Kira meet Santa........

She was excited when he came to visit us at our ward party and even excited to get a candy cane but not so excited when it came to sitting on his lap....But she told Auntie M on the phone that she meet Santa and even her "god-father" Henry that she saw Santa yesterday. So I guess she's was excited to see him but not so excited to actually meet him!

On the other hand she stood up with all the primary children and "sang" their Christmas song with them.......

Thanksgiving Weekend

Our Thanksgiving Weekend was so much fun! We started out Thursday with pulling out Christmas Decorations and putting up some of them. We watched some football and then headed off to the Merrill's house at around 2:30. We hung out with Shelly while we waited for Ryan to get home from work. Once Ryan got home we jumped into food mode. Jacob and Ryan did the fried turkey (it was so good!) and the rest of us chipped in making different things. I made the Green Bean Casserole and messed it up and Jacob made the yummy mashed potatoes that he thinks he messed up... so our contributions weren't as great as we wanted them to be but dinner was great! After dinner we watched more football and waited until it was time for dessert. After dessert we headed home.

On Friday we planned to go to the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor. Jacob got free tickets at a Car Show earlier in the year and they needed to be used before December 31st. So off we went to the Luxor. Local tickets are $24.00 or $27.00 for tourists. I'm not sure I would have been as happy with the exhibit if I would have paid that much but Jacob and I enjoyed it very much. They had some pretty awesome stuff, plates, mirrors, sinks, postcards etc. They gave us each a card with information about a passenger and at the end you can see if you lived or not. Kira and I lived, Jacob did not.

After the Luxor we headed off to the Bellagio. They change their flower garden every quarter and we caught the last weekend of the fall display.

Kira didn't like the talking tree so much.

Bellagio also has the World Largest Chocolate Fountain.. which was kinda cool and a little gross at the same time.

After the chocolate fountain we headed out to the water fountains..... Kira has never really liked them but likes the music. So we walked out and watched a water show

The Bellagio does a water show every 15 minutes or so to a different song each time. It was fun to watch.

Then on Saturday we went to the Motor Trend Auto Show, we got free tickets from 7-11 so we thought we would check it out. It was WAY smaller than the Auto Shows in Los Angeles and even smaller than the one in Anaheim but we had fun anyway. Jacob looked at trucks (his is running out of steam) and I am still covetting the Ford Flex. Kira had so much fun at the Auto Show she got to get inside the cars and drive and press buttons, the only way to get her out of one car was to promise her there would be another.

CHEESE!

We were a little sorry for our fun weekend to be over, but real life always comes to take over.

We hope you all had as fun of a weekend as we did! We hope the spirit of this season finds your home and family.

Fun things

Being Kira's mom is seriously one of the funniest things that has ever happened to me. She is so hilarious! She is currently watching Disney's morning cartoons and singing along and yelling "Oh toodles!" One of the other things I love is that it is ALWAYS an adventure to open my kitchen cabinets. You may remember this post (click if you don't, it's worth it!) from last year. We have since child proofed the food cabinets but we never got around to the others (the one under the kitchen sink is done too, incase you were wondering) so every once in a while I will open my cabinet and find this...

The other day I opened the same cabinet and found crayons in there. I'm not really sure why she does this, maybe she's just saving things for later but every time I open a cabinet and find sippy cups in with my pots and pans or a puzzle piece in my muffin tins I chuckle a little and am thankful to have her in our home.

Last week I couldn't find the remote for a good 30 minutes until I went to look in her kitchen, it was in the oven!!

Kira is such a joy and Jacob and I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to her her parents.

5 Years Married 8 years together

Every year at this time Jacob and I celebrate a double anniversary, our 5th year being married and our 8th year being together. And as I sit here and contemplate how I'm going to make this post different than 2008s post I think really it's just important to celebrate this milestone. So I'm going to repeat some of this stuff again.

Jacob and I started dating near the end of November. He first took me to a bar to listen to some compilation of some guy from Dinosauar Jr. with another guy from Porno for Pyros with some other guy from who know's what. I don't really remember who they were.... what I do remember though is that we had a really fun time, even though he didn't get any kissin' at the end of the date (for those of you who know that story.. the onion rings were terrific!) After that he asked me to go to some work Holiday Party with him. And we actually have a picture of that.... (how many people can say they have a picture of their second date?)

(Don't you love my purse?)

In between that time we hit a really bad movie too but from that second date on we were pretty much inseparable. We knew pretty early on that we wanted to get married but we wanted to do it the right way... meaning we wanted to live on our own. NO parents, NO grandparents just us in our own place and that meant we had a lot of debt to pay off first. Most of it mine (what can I say? I had a lot of fun shopping and traveling?!... isn't that what you are supposed to do in your twenties?) So we worked for 2 1/2 years to get that paid off before we got engaged. We also did some other fun things.....

We spent a lot of time at Disneyland.

I took him to Ohio to meet my parents and siblings

We went to England, for a wedding we missed (still makes me a little sad)

And we spent a lot of time together!

We got engaged on March 18th 2004 and the poor Anderson family had 3 weddings in one year! (Jacob's brother and sister got married in April and May of that same year)

We got married November 20th 2004 at the very packed Los Angeles Temple (17 weddings that day.... we got married an hour after our appointment)

In the last 5 years we have had 3 jobs changes, 2 apartments and moved 241 miles. We have had our good times and our bad times, we have a beautiful little girl who brings more love to our family than we had ever thought possible. I am so thankful that the Lord brought Jacob to me. I am so thankful that Jacob didn't give up in the 8 months between when he got home from his mission and when I finally agreed to go out with him. I'm thankful for a man who loves me even when I am crazy, in a bad mood, being a bad wife or just having a bad day. I'm thankful for a man who works hard for his family and who is faithful in the gospel of Christ. He makes me a better person. Jacob, I love you!!!

Look MomMom.... Boppa did it!!

So we have been using safari since we got that virus on our computer and it really hates when I make up words!Anyway, I sent Kira into the bedroom the other day to get Daddy up from his nap and tell him that dinner was ready. So we went into our bedroom and said "Jake... dinner is ready" (which is funny by it's self) then it was quiet and I thought he grabbed her and cuddled her on the bed for a while. About 5 minutes later I hear, "Tennille, come here!"
So I walked in and saw this.....


Boppa did it!
She had gotten into a tub of lotion and decided she wanted to use it!

p.s. Boppa is her new name for herself. ...cute huh?

Kira Update!

Kira's vocabulary is exploding. I can't believe how much she is talking and saying. Not all of it can be understood 100 % of the time but she is doing well.

Here are some funny things she has said recently:

After getting back from seeing the rodeo bulls with Daddy?

Mom Mom: What did you see today?

Kira: A Horse

Mom Mom: A Horse?! Was it big?

Kira: Yes, Mom mom, I want it.

Mom Mom: You want what?

Kira: A horse

Mom Mom: A Horse? Where are we going to keep it?

Kira: Points outside to the beautiful rock landscaping provided by the apartment maintenance.

We were singing the other night a song some people know but I didn't really until recently. We learned the words at Storytime at the Library. It's called Open - Shut Them. These are the words as taught to us by Miss Susan at the Library. (Them are your hands)

Open Shut Them

Open Shut Them

Give a little clap clap clap

Open Shut Them

Open Shut Them

Put them in your lap lap lap

And there are three other verses.

So we are on the couch, before bed singing songs and she says

Open Shut Them Open Shut Them... give a little clap clap clap.... Open Shut Them Open Shut Them put them on your feet! Then she cracked up, like it was the funniest joke she has EVER heard in her life! (It might be, she's still only two)

She has been loads of fun, loves airplanes, trucks, cars and motorcycles, she loves going to car shows with her Daddy and pointed out a tractor on the way home from church on Sunday. She also loves Elmo, dressing up in Mom Mom's shoes, and trying to put on Mom Mom's makeup.

Hanging out at the car show

She loves "cycles" and want to get on one whenever she sees one.

We will be spending Thanksgiving with our friends Shelly and Ryan so we will have a great time.

All our love and prayers this Holiday Season

October Update

The end of October was busy, Kira and I went down to California for a few days. This wasn't Kira's first time on a plane, we went down last October to help our friend Krista shop for her new home. Kira did as well now as she did then. We left EARLY (5:00 am) on Tuesday morning, ran through the airport and barely made it to the plane. We got lucky and had first class tickets from Las Vegas to Salt Lake (yes, they made us go from Las Vegas to Salt Lake and then to Orange County... how that saves them money, I don't know?) The first class section had little television screen on the seat backs in front of us so I turned on Dora for Kira (a treat since i sincerely HATE Dora) and the flight went well, including the 15 minutes we were stuck on the tarmac for.

By the time we reached Salt Lake we were both sufficiently hungry and tired. We had some time to kill so we grabbed french toast sicks from Burger King (our only option.... next time I'll pass) and sat down to eat. Then we went for a walk up and down the terminal to burn off some more steam. Right before we were supposed to board we went to go look at the planes and check out how badly it was snowing. Kira went CRAZY! She kept yelling, "Look Mom mom...the plane is sleeping!" Over and over ..... and over again. Luckily, she's cute enough to counterbalance any annoyance anyone around us had. Once we got on the plane, Kira crashed out before we even got into the air.

After arriving in Orange County we waiting outside for Auntie M and Kira was so excited to see her and of course, Kira's good friend Maggie.

We went to Auntie M's, ate lunch, watched Curious George, and napped until Auntie M came home. After dinner, we did girly night, we got our hair cut and I got mine colored. Kira had a lot of fun hanging out with Auntie M. (Auntie M, for those of you who don't know is my father's sister)

Our plans for Wednesday sort of fell through but it gave us the change to keep Auntie M company at her office for the day. We had a great lunch and went to the park.

My friend Korie drove down from Brea to join us in our shopping plans. Auntie M was so sweet and bought Kira her Christmas Dress ( I'm hoping to get Christmas pictures soon), some tennis shoes and a winter coat... all of which Kira LOVES!

Our Thursday was spent mostly at GG's house (my grandmother) after getting lunch at my favorite place that they don't have in Las Vegas, Chick-fil-A, we meet Gram-Jan(my mom) at GG's and at lunch while we watched Strawberry shortcake (Thanks Gram-jan, she LOVES them). Then we headed off to Toys-R-Us, Kira picked out a puzzle and crayons & paper to keep at GG's house and GG bought Kira some clothes for the winter. Kira needed to update her Elmo wardrobe and GG and I talked her into this one


instead of the pink fuzzy one! She also got some jeans, some cute shirts and Granjam bought Kira some Monkey jamas! She loves them too and LOVES that she has monkeys on her feet!




The flight home was good and we were excited to be home. A couple of hours after we got back we went to our wards Trunk or treat party. Kira was a Red M&M for Halloween. (Thanks so much Grandma Jetta for making the costume) Kira LOVED IT!!!

She wouldn't stand still so this was the best we could do!


And sitting



She had more fun handing out candy then getting candy.

Other than those events, Kira has learned probably 1000 new words and surprises me everyday with a new statement or word. She is fun to be around and a joy to raise (most of the time)
I thank the Lord everyday for blessing my life with her, and don't quite understand what I did to deserve her sweet spirit in my life. Looking back, I wouldn't trade that difficult first year for anything because now I have Kiki and I'm so grateful for that!