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!