Thanksgiving Weekend

This year we decided to head down to California for Thanksgiving. We were excited to be able to see family. On Wednesday afternoon we headed down and stopped in Corona for Miguel Jrs. (Real Mexican food- no Good food - yes)

Then we headed down to Newport Beach and got to stay with Auntie "M", Uncle Bill AND Maggie! Thursday morning we woke up to eggs and toast and Jacob, Kira and I took turns getting our hair did.... Kira got a trim, Jacob got a cut and I got a cut and a color (yep, my hair is now more brown than red and I'm loving it! - Jacob not so much)

Then we cleaned up and headed to Papa's house for Thanksgiving. This was the first Thanksgiving without my Grams and her presence was missed but Gram Jan and Papa Mike did a great job with the food and I got to laugh with my Uncle Bruce so we had a great time!!!

On Friday we headed out to Corona for cousin pictures! My sister-in-law arranged to have some cousin pictures taken. So we got the kids all gussied up and out to Riverside we drove.....

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids I took before the professionals got to them

This is almost all the Andersons... we are missing Elizabeth and Tommy, but they are in Taiwan so we got what we could. Cute Nat Nat smiling at us!

These are the goggle faces from looking at the Ducks!



Angee (angry) Kira and Rinny Rin Rin waiting for their turns.

We had a great time with pictures, then headed off to pick up some pizza and wings for dinner... Here are Nat Nat, Kira and Kyla having fun while waiting for Auntie Val to pick up food

I have said this before and I will say it again... I LOVE that she has cousins!!! She always has such a good time with them!

On Saturday we took Kira to Fashion Island Mall to go see Santa. We had a lot of fun with Auntie "M" , Gram Jan and Auntie Korie. Korie took pictures of us while we were there which is kinda fun.

Here is me and Kira checking out the really cool Koi pond they have there. We were checking out this huge Koi that would flip is back tail up out of the water. I think I thought it was cooler than she did but she's pacifying me :)

Here is Kira with Santa. This Santa is her old friend (see here) and she walked right up to him and said "HI SANTA!" and when he asked her what she wanted she told him Sunglasses!!! So I need to make sure Santa get's those glasses for her!

Here she is on some huge presents they had in front of their 100 foot Christmas Tree. It was pretty awesome and that courtyard always brings back memories of a Young Adult Dance we had there some 10 years ago!

Here is Kira with Auntie M, talking about her visit with Santa

And with GramJan looking at the village they had there!

We spent Sunday with Jacob's parent's, and Kira had fun playing with Nat Nat and Sarah. We love seeing everyone and wish we could fit in everyone every time we are down but hopefully we will get to see you all at some point.

We wish you all the best this holiday season and we will hopefully be back soon to let you know of our goings on....

'Til next time!

A Walk About

You probably can't tell by looking at me but I try to walk every week day. I don't get to do it everyday BUT like I said, I try most days and today was no exception. What makes today special is that Kira asked to bring my camera along. Now, i don't normally like her to use my camera. We got a good deal on it but I still don't like the idea of it breaking... so I told her she could use it IF she kept it around her neck. She agreed, so I made a make-shift necklace for her and off we went. Kira usually talks almost the WHOLE WAY...sometimes she sings, usually the ABC's or some not quite right version of "Give Said the Little Stream" or You are my sunshine....but today she took pictures... and I'm going to share them with you...





On the way down.


On the way out.

Her very first pair of Chuck Taylors.....

Her steering wheel... she does drive sometimes too



Walking down Patrick

I'm not sure these walks are really helping me.... but even if they don't.... I'm glad that I do it everyday... cause I get to spend time with my Boppa and THAT IS DEFINITLY ACCOMPLISHING SOMETHING!!!

Cousins

I have said this before but one of the things I love most about being part of a good sized family is that Kira has cousins... and she has a lot of them! I didn't have cousins growing up not really. Had some step-cousins who were fun but we didn't get to see them much and then no other cousins until I was 17. So the 3 cousins I do have are more like nieces and nephews. On the Anderson side she is number 7 of 8 so far and on the Winfrey side she is 3 of 4. She has 3 cousins that are less than a year difference in age, two who are a bit older and 1 who is 9 months younger.


She loves all of her cousins but is great friends with her cousin Mikey who is 5 months older and she is close to her cousin Corrinne (Rinny) who is 9 months younger.

Recently with the wedding and some other things thing going she has been able to see alot of her cousins. And I got lucky with some camera shots! Uncle Wade brought Rinny and Garrett with him up to Utah and stopped her on Sunday and I got these fun pictures.



You know how kids are, one thinks something is fun and the othersw join in. Rinny thought it would be fun to play in the tub so Garrett and joined her....



....and made silly faces


and other silly faces



Then on Tuesday as Wade was coming back through town they stopped in Vegas again so we could go see the Lions and the MGM. A popular stop for us, I have showed you pictures of this before but this time was different, this time we got to see some cubs... Not itty bitty cubs but cubs all the same AND we got to see them play!!!

I had a great video of the lions playing but google reader is taking FOREVER, so I'll try again later!

I got these on the way back to the car.... aren't they too cute?!

Makes me wish I had cousins........ we sure are thankful for them!

Halloween in Vegas

This year Kira picked Ariel. This was the first year she was old enough to realize what "dress-up" was and what "trick-or- treating" was. We talked it over with her and she decided she was going to be Ariel... her favorite princess, because "we both have pink hair" (or so Kira says)

On Friday night we went to our wards trunk-or-treat/soup potluck competition. She had a great time going from car to car and getting some candy (her favorites are the suckers) and then once she went around the one time she had fun handing out candy to those who "re-visited' or hadn't come around yet.

(This is her handing out candy)

On Saturday we were supposed to join a friend in their trunk-or-treating but they came down with colds (they are all on the mend) but we already had Kira dressed up and ready to go so I looked on-line real quick to check out some free options and we decided to hit the government building in Las Vegas. Kira had a great time moving from table to table collecting candy AND someone was even handing free trophies. Like real trophies... below is the only picture we could get of her with her trophy which she thinks she won for being Ariel. (Anyone else have a 3 year old going on 16?.... the attitude of this girl amazes me!)


All in all it was a great Halloween. On Sunday, actual Halloween, we hung out with cousins and she got to give out candy to the 8 kids who came to our door. We may try real trick or treating next year, when it's not on a Sunday and she isn't wearing plastic heals .....

'Til next time....

Uncle Butt got Married!!

Uncle Butt and his love Amy Browne got married on a stormy day in October 2010. Love was felt all around and the stormy cool air felt warm with all the love that radiated off of the two of them...... a little mushy.. yeah but it was such a great day!


This was my first sealing since ours almost 6 years ago and I love all the things the sealer (the guy who married them in the temple) said. It was so nice to be reminded of the things we can do to make our own marriages strong... simple things like putting your spouse first. Not to lose yourself in your marriage but by putting your spouse and their needs first we can grow as individuals and as couples.



After the sealing and the pictures, we joined Brett and Amy for a scumptios lunch at an Itilian place in Henderson.


The Monday and Tuesday before Brett took over my kitchen to make his wedding cheesecakes. There were beautiful and tasted great! Kira had a TON of fun cookin' with her uncle.


She got to help him butter the cheesecake pans and she had more fun when she got to eat the butter off her hands...... ew!



While at the resturant, we got some family pictures done by the cool photographer Korie.... I'm so excited to have these... with Jacob taking pictures like he does we don't get a lot of family pictures cause he's usually behind the camera... so I LOVE these!





SO we are so HAPPY that Brett got married and that we have a new sister!