There once was a little girl named Kira

Who was born 4 years ago today,

She brought so many so much happiness

She brought with her lots of smiles

She brought with her lots of energy

She brought with her lots of LOVE!

1 day old

6 weeks old

1 year old


1 year old.

2nd birthday

3rd birthday

Our little girl turns 4 today. It's unbelievable! Time flies - I won't say that it feels like it just happened but it doesn't feel like 4 years. Our Kira has blessed our lives so much, she's fun, and funny and sweet and smart and full of life.

We have a fun day planned with the Winnie the Pooh Movie, some Fro-Yo. Then Del-Taco (Kira's request) and home for cake and presents. I'm excited, Kira is excited, Jacob is excited.... we are all excited.

I could tell about her likes and dislikes. I could tell you about her favorite shows but what is most important is that she loves, she loves with her whole body and her whole soul. She is a good girl who tries to do good. She's totally excited to start school and learn.

Kira, we love you, Boppa. Have a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

California - Here we come!!

This past weekend we got to spend some time in California. The reason we went down was our niece turned 8 and was going to be baptized!!! So we left Friday afternoon about 4 and stopped at our beloved Miguel's Jr. for dinner. I'll mention that Kira ordered something other than a chicken taco which was pretty cool ( I like that her menu is expanding a bit)

From there we headed down to Newport Beach to stay with Auntie M, Uncle Bill and Maggie. Kira was very excited to have a "sleep over" at Auntie M's! We got there, hung out for a big and Jacob felt right to sleep. She had FINALLY fallen asleep about a half hour out and it turned out to be the worst moment because she didn't want to sleep once it was time. But eventually we all fell asleep.

Saturday morning we woke up, had some breakfast and Kira and I got a little hair trim. Kira got "JUST A LITTLE BIT" done, I got a little bit of color and a new shape. After Kira got her hair done/did Jacob took her to the beach. They had a great time and I got some "me" time.

Kira and Daddy made a sand castle.

And Kira got to play in the water!

Around 3 o'clock we left for Corona, to attend the baptism of our niece, Kyla. We were so proud of her decision to follow our Heavenly Father and know it's a day she won't be likely to forget.


Here is Kyla and her some of the cousins that were there. I love that they are all friends and enjoy each other's company as much as they do. I talk about it often but I never had cousins growing up and I'm SO glad that Kira does and gets to see them often enough that they are friends.
After the baptism we got to hang out and talk to old friends. We had SO much fun and can't wait to do it again soon!

On Sunday we had a little brunch in Newport Beach. Uncle Bill grilled some burgers and we got to sit, watch the NASCAR race and visit. We also had a little early birthday party for Kira. She got some fantastic gifts and she loves them all!!!

Kira taking silly pictures of Daddy!


Her birthday cake!!

Opening gifts.

After birthday stuff, Kira got to go to the park with Aunties M and Cheryl, while Jacob and I got to go to IKEA. Which was not as successful as I was hoping. Papa, Bruce, Bill and my dad all left for the Costa Mesa Toyota Dealership and my Papa ( my grandpa) is now a proud owner of a 2012 Scion xB in silver (how cool is my grandpa?)

It was once again a VERY VERY VERY quick trip. We are really hoping we get to go down and actually spend some time with people.

A Monkey for you and a Monkey for Me

We got to have some visitors last week, the first to our new home. Uncle Bruce and Auntie Cheryl came up to Vegas for a real estate conference and stopped by. The day we got to see them was Bruce's birthday. (bruce is my uncle, kira's great uncle) Uncle Bruce loves monkey's and Kira shares his love. Bruce gives great monkey cards for birthdays and gave Kira her very first monkey at my baby shower.

So when we set off to get something great for Bruce we knew it had to be monkey related. Santa (also known as GramJan and Papa Mike) brought her a Monkey pillow pet this past Christmas and she loves it! She named him George and sleeps with him every night OR lets her My Little Pony (Kilack - more on the name later) use him as a crib. But monkeys are sometimes hard to come by, and we were struggling after walking through Wal-mart to no avail. But we stopped at Hallmark and found an awesome uncle monkey card and as I looked at their window at Bed Bath and Beyond I remembered that they had little pillow pets now. So with a little prayer we headed over, walked around the whole store, Kira was amazed with ALL the stuff there and on the last leg of the store Kira spotted them. We found a little monkey pet for Bruce. We brought the monkey home, wrapped him, signed the card and Kira was so excited for Bruce to open his present.

Fast forward two hours, and Bruce and Cheryl get here, with a friend of theirs. Bruce walks in with..... a Monkey Pillow Pet for Kira! And she of course LOVES it, she is sure this one is a girl because there was a bow around it's neck and now she has both a girl and a boy monkey pillow pet! So loves it and cuddles and and I tell her to get Bruce his gift............ a mini monkey pillow pet! They both love them!

I for one am so grateful for the fantastic family that we have. I know she's too young to realize it now but we are so blessed to have so much great family around us. Jacob's family coming to help us move, my parents for sharing jokes on the phone, my aunts and uncles who have blessed me in so many different ways.... Thanks everyone! We love you!

Kira's First Art Book

Jacob and i text each other all day. It's very convenient, as he spends his days next to large very loud machines and can't hear me talk or even hear the phone ring. So when I got a text from him about our Saturday plans, it wasn't a great surprise.

We already had plans to look at a new couch for our new place, and we were on a search for a Bakers Rack also. Jacob added a stop at the new Cosmopolitan Hotel. I'm sure I posted about it earlier this year, it's part of the new City Center Complex. There is an Art Store in the Cosmo, is called Kid Robot and their summer project is to have these little Dunny's (see below) painted by popular artists and then they will be placed around the Cosmo for a while. Tara Mc Pherson was the artist in town on the 2nd and 3rd of July and Jacob wanted to go see her. If you know Jacob well you will know he's into art, a(I have posted about Robert Williams and his shows before) and Tara Mc Pherson has been featured in his favorite art magazine a couple of times. So Saturday morning came and we went.

Here is Kira, all ready to go. We were all so excited we got to have Jacob on a Saturday, that hasn't been a common thing around here lately.

We got to the Cosmopolitan and took the elevator up to the 3rd floor (Scott Conant's restaurant is up there, i want to go, so maybe he'll read this and give me some free meals, because other wise it's just a pipe dream) and walking across the lobby type area we saw this....

This is a picture Kira took of it. She had been working on it for a little bit by then.

Rear View.

Here is Tara painting a bit.

Jacob and Kira both picked out books and both got autographs. Kira picked her booked based on how many scary pictures there were in each book. Kira was very sweet when asking for her autograph, and even spelled her name for Tara.

Tara made a personalized little picture for Kira. Kira, of course LOVES her book. (it is put up safely with Jacob and she can look at it with daddy)

She also got to make her mark - the little scribble is is covering up. She is refusing to write her name, because she can't do it perfect. (An Anderson trait all the way, my mother-in-law says Jacob was very similar and we have a nephew who has refused to do somethings until he knows he can do it)


And finally a picture of Kira with Jacob's job site behind her. I will have to post about that soon.

It was a very fun day, we looked at couches, didn't buy any but have an idea of what we want now. No luck on the bakers rack so i bought one from Jc Pennys online. I'll have to show you pictures when it gets here because the website is not cooperating!

Hope everyone is having a good summer!!

ADDED NOTE: This is the book Kira picked (see link)

Moving, A Haircut and the Auto Collection

Things here at the Anderson household have been a little CRAZZZYYYYY!!! (yeah, like CRAZY!

We have FINALLY found a new place to live. It hasn't hit all of our check marks BUT it hits most of them.

Likes - 3 bedroom, 2 car garage and Kira likes the stairs, 1700+ square feet

Dislikes - Not such a big yard/outside space, 2 levels.... stairs. Different ward (despite my complaints I have made some fantatic friends and Kira loves her primary!!!)

So things here have been a little crazy! We signed the lease on the 10th and get the keys on the 24th. We are living amongst the boxes which are driving me and Jacob crazy but Kira seems to find fun.

Things here are now 1000% more crazy!!! But we are close and almost there.... this process is going to last at least another 4 weeks (with unpacking) but it will be worth it.

In between the packing of the boxes, our own Auntie M came up for a visit. The annual Hair Show was at the MGM and Kira and I got our hair cut for the summer....

Here are Kira's before pics...

And after a couple of long conversations and 2 inches lighter...... we have the after pics:

She loves it, I like that the curl is back and Jacob like's that it's still long

Lastly, the yearly tradition of the Father's Day Auto Collection. We went after church, Kira sang 'I'm so glad when daddy comes home" and another song I can't remember. She did well and stood right in front of us so we got a direct shot for her UUUUMMMMOOOAAAAEEE Kiss!

I LOVE the sense of history there! The cars are beautiful yes, but just look at the car above... look at what we used to drive... look how difficult that is. Then we had a great time at the Merrill's for some pretty yummy pulled pork (my favorite!!!)

So that's what's up with us... What's up with you?

Kira meeting Cars

We have famous people come and visit Vegas ALL the time and we never go and see them but when some very important celebrities came into town we had to take the time to go and see them. 'Mater, Lighting McQueen and one of the new stars of Cars 2, Finn McMissile. We had a little bit of a wait but it was worth it! Kira had a great time and she can't wait to go and see the movie in the theater (it will be her first theater movie that she will be awake for - I took her to see Enchanted when she was about 2 months old and she slept through the whole thing)

She had so much fun!!! Mater is probably her favorite!

Kira with Holly Shiftwell. - a new character in the movie

Finn McMissile -

Lighting McQueen!!!

This is her while we were in line. She was super excited and very well behaved.

Update

It's been a while since we just did a general update. Things at the Anderson house has been a little crazy for us. We have put in our 60 - yes 60 day notice at our apartment. We are looking for a house to move into. It's been a little bit of a struggle since apparently the Las Vegas market is one of considerable speed. Basically no one wants to talk to me until we are two weeks out.

We are not sure if we are going to be in the same ward (as our ward takes up about 2 square miles) There are few houses in our boundaries that are 1 - in our budget and 2 - meet the qualifications we want (namely a 2 car garage and at least 3 bedrooms)

I will be calling someone on the 9th and get things started! Wish us luck and good fortune please!

In anticipation for our move, Jacob got a little house warming gift for us....... We have a family date night on paydays to Sams Club. We eat cheap pizza or hotdogs, drink large sodas and then shop.... for the past 3 trips we have seen a grill. It's a pretty nice one but it was returned and all the sticker said was "damaged or missing parts". The first time we went it was 98 bucks.... and we thought without knowing what was wrong with it, it wasn't worth the 98 bucks to see. The same happened on the next trip. This past trip though we walked by the clerance isle again. I have never had a lot of luck in Sam's clearance but I still think it's worth checking.... and this is what we found...

For 40 bucks we thought - okay, let's chance it. Jacob knows a lot of welders though his job so missing legs, or handles could be remedied with some welding and a piece of metal. Screws are easy to find etc. SO we bought it.... and he put it together with a little help from Kira. Turns out there was a dent on the right side.... but with all that auto body work Jacob has done, he got it all worked out and you can barely tell.

It's currently living in our dining room until we can find a place with a back yard (or in actual terms a piece of dirt about 16 feet by 20 feet that the people of Las Vegas call a back yeard) I am looking forward to some yummy food.

Here is the Boppa enjoying the fruits of her labors - which included handing pieces of metal to Jacob and holding his screwdriver for him... but she LOVES it!!!!

This is a picture of an attempt to do a cute hair do... but it didn't quite work out like I planned. Her hair only likes to do a few things and being held up by Boppy pins is not one of them. But she liked it and we will try something again soon.

She is doing fantastically. She is, as always, a lot of work. She is SUPER smart and learning to read (I think she has memorized the books we are working on so I'm waiting a day or two between sessions.... I mean it's good that she's memorized sight words but it doesn't do any good if she can't sound out the new ones) Anyway.

We just got done with sports class, that she loved, even though they don't hand out candy at the end of class. The summer it looks like we won't be doing much. The center is over booked with summer stuff for kids whose parents work so there is no space for the little ones during the summer. We are thinking about enrolling her in soccer come the fall. It's what she has chosen and she is very excited about this prospect.

She is loving sunbeams and loving singing time with Sister Bootkey (Guetke). She loves her new Sunbeam teachers and enjoys sustaining all those who get new callings on Sunday. We are working on her reverence during sacrament but she is improving.

If she had her way she would skip her 4th birthday and go straight to being 5. She can't wait to go to school.... which maybe a problem here in Vegas. (Rumors are kindergarden classes are going to be full - so I'm contemplating homeschooling.... we'll see)

As for me, I am waiting to hear back from the cat scan place about my next scan. I still don't know if I should hope for no growth or hope the little thing has grown so they can take it out. It's hard to say really, especially because we will be moving in June so having to pay for and plan a surgery doesn't sound like so much fun for me. I have been released from primary, which I was so totally sad about but actually really enjoying Relief Society. I miss the kids but love the spirit I have been feeling there and know it's exactly what I need right now. No news on the baby front until the cat scan is done so once that is done and we know what's up we can start planning Anderson Baby 2 (or 9 depending on how you look at it)

Jacob has been working like a dog. He's worked many a 6 day week. ALL DAY! I know I sure miss him. I sometimes feel like a single mom. I know I'm not but sometimes he home long enough to eat dinner, bathe Kira, read scriptures, say prayers and fall asleep in front of the tv. He does love his job, which makes me happy. He's excited about his bbq and wants to attach a smoker to it.... we'll see...

Anyway, we hope you are all well and I may not post again until we move. We will see how crazy it get's around here.