All About Annaka

JOY School 2011

2011-12-14T11:07:00.000-08:00

Annaka was invited to participate in Joy school with some friends from our ward. She LOVES it so much. She loves learning and loves her friends, so it's a win-win! I also love it! I love teaching and I love planning/preparing lots of fun things for the kids to do. We've had a good few months. I thought I'd just take pictures of what I had saved so I don't feel bad when it gets "lost"... I also think it will be fun to look back on and see how shes progressed. I mean she's just turned two when they first started...

We have super fun, creative mom's in the Joy school rotation...fun parties and cute treats and crafts!

C is for Cat
A spider web painted with a marble
Helping hands tree...just cute in and off itself, right...but apparently the basket to the lower right is full of good things, and when you see your child do one of those things, they can put a hand up on the tree...see I never got any directions with mine, so I wasn't too sure what to do with it until just the other day a friend told me. I had a good laugh. It all made sense. Oops.

D is for Dog
I think it's fun to see her try to trace the 4s
Fun egg shells to decorate the letter "E"
This was at the library "storytime".
I taught Joy school the Monday before Thanksgiving...although not a lot of kids made it, I still had a blast planning and playing with the kids. Above is the treat we had...corn treat...made out of kix cereal.
They made puppet turkeys, glued healthy food to plates of food, made headbands with 6 feathers, noodle necklaces to help with fine motor skills, (glue sticks do that as well). We had a lot to do, and didn't get to finish, but it was FUN! Anna and her friend Amie coloring and eating.
And for lunch^
Anna all dressed-up but not giving me her attention.

Swim with Grandpa

2011-07-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

Grandpa was getting Annaka prepared for the lake...Aren't they just so cute walking down the street like the beach was just around the corner?! Or the lake...

Oh, something that was pretty fun about this swim is my dad got his underwater HD camera for his birthday, and he used it for the first time with Annaka. It's a pretty cool, expensive toy, and let's just say, we were still trying to figure it out. Ha-ha.

Bedtime

2011-06-24T22:49:00.000-07:00

Anna has recently decided that she doesn't like to wear her pajamas to bed. She won't let us put them on her. she usually ends up going to bed in just a diaper these days. BUT some nights she picks out her own PJs and lets us put them on...

Before bed each night we sing these songs (sorry it's sideways, I always forget it doesn't flip it on the camera!)

"two swings"

2011-05-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

This was just cute of Annaka.
She was trying to get my attention and I just wasn't giving it to her, but when I finally did she points at her swing and says "baby swing"

and then at Owen and says "Owen swing, two swings!"

I thought she was just so observant. Look at all the blankets and stuff in with Owen, and look at the stuff Annaka put in with her baby's swing. What a Goose :)

Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat

2011-04-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

How fun is this!?! We went to the Mirage on the strip and saw dolphins and lions and tigers...but no bears...ha-ha...okay-ANYWAY! One of my friends from the ward is able to get discounted tickets to the Siegfried and Roy Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat and so we went today. Yes, I'm blogging about it the very same day we went! Way to go me! So, this picture is Annaka not so sure about the dolphins. They can come super close to you...enough so that you could literally reach out and touch them if you were allowed to. It was exciting and within 5 minutes of us being there a dolphin came right up in front of us unto the wall and flipped over on it's back like it wanted a belly rub! So cool. After this Annaka wanted me to hold her if we werent walking, and she clung to me and would sometimes turn her head to see the dolphins. It was pretty funny.

See how close they are!

This was the small pool...they have 2 more. one main pool to the left of this video and one for research and births...One dolphin was very pregnant, very large...I could relate.

Here she is clinging to me...I guess we arent quite ready for Sea World :) I could watch the dolphins all day though.

You can go under to see the dophins in their tanks. Annaka liked that much better...she knew they couldnt eat her through the glass...

She liked to watch the dolphins through the glass though :)

I liked to watch the dolphins under the water too...

Annaka was having a great time being independent walking instead of sitting in her stroller...it made for more work on my part, but she was still pretty easy.

After we watched the dolphins for some time we went to Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and saw:

A lion. (He was beautiful...NOT like the ones we saw in Africa at all...I should post a picture of one of our African lions we saw on our safari)

Look at this guy, he reminds me of the lion on Narnia

A leapord...which we NEVER saw on our safari...hard to come by

A black panther like the one on Jungle Book...hard to see in the picture, sorry!

Annaka eating some M&M's (thanks amber). I just liked the mossy tiger in the back or maybe it's a lion, we did see a white lion that we thought was a tiger at first....

This ones a tiger...their were several there, but I never got a very good picture of any of them because they were all sleeping.

The three little ladies enjoying a girls day out :) Such cuties!! (they are all the oldest, 'only childs' so far and get along great!)

My one and only...but NOT FOR LONG!!! Enjoying it while she can...

It was just so relaxing and beautiful...to think in the middle of the strip you find dolphins and lions and tigers and beautiful plants and flowers...it was wonderful!

After Annaka saw the dolphins interact with people she liked them much more...at least she didn't cling to me like at the beginning. She actually was getting pretty giddy and waving at them. So I thought we should try to get a picture of us again. Of course she was being all silly...

We finally got one!

And she has been up to...

2011-03-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

This is what our little Goose has been up to the past month or so: (We sure do love pictures, I take pictures with the intent to post, yet I never do before I take MORE pictures for yet another post, thus all these pictures have added up to create ONE BIG POST, instead of many small ones…) Pampering! Ok, so she doesn't have a black eye...she found my make-up and I must say I'm very impressed with how well she put it all on. (the story goes: I was getting ready and she was in and out of the bathroom, as usual. I just let her do her thing and she lets me get ready pretty well. But this time she was searching for attention, so she grabbed my make-up bag and darted out the door...I followed and took it back from her, but she screamed and threw a fit, so me being the awesome parent I am, gave it back to her (taking the things I still needed) so I could finish getting ready. I watch her put the lids on and off and put things in and out of the bag. But the next thing I saw she had put foundation on her chin, blush on her cheeks and eye liner on her, yes...eyes! You can't see the blush and foundation very well in these pictures, but the eyeliner was right on target ;) Silly girl.) 18 months!! Annaka turned 18 months Feb. 21st! I think this is a very BIG DEAL- maybe it's because I'm in the primary and she gets to go to nursery ... officially! So, for her 18 month birthday I got her some water colors and we painted. She got so into it. She didnt show excitement, it was more like curious ...Very meticulousabout things. She got into it, that's for sure.

Her first strokes (of the brush) figuring it out

trying something new (fingers)

Now she got a little confused, but learned quickly...not very tasty

Gardening

I have been wanting to plant a garden in our backyard in the beautiful retaining wall Kirb built last summer, but we never filled in up with dirt. In Feb. I went with my friend to her ward's relief society activity all about how to garden in the desert and that was motivation to just GET STARTED. Kirby was kind enough to get some mulch for our yuck dirt and Annaka and I went out and planted (some flowers, lettuce, zucchini, carrort).

putting on the gloves

Decided she liked it better without them. The mulch was so soft and she loved playing in it.

Baby Sarah

These little cuties get along so well! They are pretty much a year apart and some how they mesh really well. Annaka loves to play with baby Sarah...whenever we first see her she immediately puts some sort of toy or object on Sarah. Today she tried to put one of the larger books on her, good thing I caught her, Sarah is just a little on and that book would have been just a too much for her to handle. I've had a good time babysitting her, I'm hoping it will be good prep for 2, but Im not so sure, Sarah is SO easy!

Annaka will say "hol" which means hold and we will set Sarah on her and Anna gets all giddy and you can just see how special she feels. Sarah is a good sport!

Dad Time

Like usual, Annaka LOVES her time spent with Dad. He is so sweet with her and you know he comes home from school (test the next day or not) just to spend time with her...She has him wrapped around her fingers, that's for sure!

One Result

of our little garden we planned- can you see it? (although I 'm not entirely sure it's not just a weed :S):

Valentine's gift

Grandma and Grandpa B. spoiled Annaka for Valentine's Day this year and got her her very own washing machine, with iron and ironing board. Little did they know that she loves helping mom do the laundry and some of her favorite play things are her very own clothes.

Grandma was smart and cut up some fabric squares just special for her washer. I find Anna playing at her washer AT LEAST once a day! She loves laying out all her fabric and I find it so entertaining to see what she thinks to do with them...line them all up, stack them, even iron them and put them in the baskets.

Hair Salon

My friend Melanie is a hair dresser and one day when left Annaka with her to be babysat I said, you should play hair salon with Annaka and see if you can get her to keep her "pretty" in. BECAUSE- this little Goose will take out any "pretty" I put in her hair within 2 minutes of it being in.

You can see from the photo below Melanie works miracles...serious, she has YET to take her "pretty" out since Melanie did play hair salon...I had said it in passing...NOT REALLY expecting her to, but boy am I pleased they did! She is so cute with that little curl...okay, at least she doesnt look so much like boy...look at ALL the pictures above, they were all taken before this one-which was before the hair salon with Melanie. The best I could get was parted to the side...or mullet...which would you prefer? How about neither!

Horses, Dogs and Ducks

2011-01-28T10:09:00.000-08:00

Horses: This was way back in September of 2010 and though I may have posted about this already, I don’t remember (so sorry if it’s a repost). Anyway, we went to Alamo to go camping and ended up staying in a tent at our friends…We really lucked out…the fun of camping, plus the luxury of electricity and toilets CLOSE by…and an added bonus…horses! This was so much fun, Annaka was so small…only 13 months, I can’t believe how fast she has grown-up! She is now 17 months old and I look at her on the horse and have a hard time thinking she was that small such a short time ago…now she thinks she is such a big girl J.
It took Annaka a bit to warm-up to the horses, but that’s normal for her, totally her personality to observe first, then cautiously go about doing…Let me tell you, as a parent, that has been a wonderful quality for a child to have…

Such a beautiful and calm horse

Dogs: We went to our friends house the beginning of this week and she has a dog that is usually in another room when Annaka is over…but this time a little boy let him out and I told Natalie (my friend) to just keep him out, it would be good for Annaka…She has been around dogs before…our friend Becky has three SUPER cute little ones that we love to go visit (we need to more) and they lick Annaka’s face and she smiles. With Natalie’s dog, Rocky, she would smile and point at him, but once she found out that he would eat the cheerios she dropped on the ground, she was in love. She took all her cheerios one by one and set them on the ground for Rocky to eat, she thought it was great fun (It made me wish Kramer was around still, that’s what he would have done). Since then, every time she sees a dog she makes a point to tell me…This is at Sunset park...Annaka is trying to follow the dog.Her new favorite book, "Im Going on a Bear Hunt" she finds the dog on every page.

Ducks: We went to feed the ducks at Sunset park, our first time, and it was great fun! I CAN’T wait to go again, with Kirby this time.
This lady brought 3 bags full of bird seed and fed it to the ducts...they went crAzy! At first Annaka ate the bread herself

When she realized the ducts would eat it, she couldn't get enough of it.

Potty Training

2011-01-21T14:12:00.000-08:00

Not yet...but my mom did say this was blog worthy-so here I go:

Annaka got her very own toilet for Christmas (actually 2, which is great...one upstairs, one down) She as never used the one downstairs (although she has upstairs) I mostly just want her to see what it's for. If she sits on it, she gets a sticker. If we see she is "pushing" we hurry her to the bathroom so she can learn that's where we go to poop or pee. I always tell her when Im going to the bathroom (which is a lot) and she'll follow me in their and sit on her toilet, then I'll give her a sticker...stickers are amazing, by the way :)

So, first story. The past three nights while the tub is filling up I put Annaka on her toilet seat (the ones that fit on the big toilet, thank goodness). The first two nights she didn't like it and got off pretty quickly, and what does she do...PEE on the ground, of course. The third night I got smart and gave her books to look at! She did great, and peed in the toilet!! Yeah! The fourth night: She sat forever on her toilet, but no pee, although she didn’t want to get off the toilet because she enjoyed being read to...the fifth night, Kirby's turn...and success!!

Alright, the BEST story: This happened this morning-I had just changed her diaper and put her in her highchair to fed her breakfast and she points to her bum (which is has done before to tell me she has poop) so I said “oh, did you poop?” and then she points to the bathroom...I was very impressed at this point and so I took her into the bathroom like she told me and set her on her toilet. Me, thinking she had already pooped, clapped for her and said okay lets go get a sticker, but she said no! So, I waited in there with her for a bit and low and behold she poops! Of course I didn’t take her diaper off, so it wasn't in the toilet, but WHAT A GREAT girl to tell me she had to poop and point at the bathroom! AND maybe even the most amazing part...staying their (even after I offered her a sticker) until she pooped! I am in no way "potty training" right now- just trying to get her familiar with the toilet and what it's used for...I think it's a lot more successful than I had anticipated! Yeah Annaka!!! Although my mom said it's probably just a phase and once she realizes she has to use the toilet all the time, she’ll digress...but we'll celebrate the simple things!

Okay, one last story about the toilet (this actually happened awhile before the first two I mentioned above):
Annaka was being quiet...this is always a sign of her mind spinning and she's up to something...I go in the other room and see this:
This is not like my daughter at all really. She rarely gets into things that she knows are not hers, but that roll of toilet paper just sitting there must have got to her. When I saw it, my first reaction was: upset, but I stepped back and decided to ask her, "what are you going to do with it?" She points at the bathroom...I followed her. She points at her toilet. I say, "yes, that's where it should go." She proceeds to pick up every single piece of toilet paper, take it to the bathroom and put it into her toilet. She was very diligent too! What a little smarty pants :)

Beaumont Christmas

2011-01-21T12:52:00.000-08:00

Its fun having both sets of parents so close to each other in St. George. Annaka gets to celebrate with everyone on the fun holidays that we make it to St. George for. This was her Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Bs…
Thank you Grandma and Grandpa (and the Reads for the kitchen)!!

She got a kitchen! It was not on the list but the Reads got a killer deal for it...FREE! So we took it :)

Annaka got a Cozy coupe...and wanted to play in it the moment she saw it...Too bad she had to wait for Dad and Grandpa to put the darn thing together...now I understand why parents stay up until all hours of the night putting together their kids toys! Very smart!

Wahoo! "Finally!"

New Year's 2011

2011-01-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

Just 7 months late...better late, then never, right??

This year on New Years my parents came down to Vegas and stayed in a hotel with their friends the Buxtons and we met up with them for the day.

This chair was in the lobby of the hotel my parent's stayed at.

She must have thought it was massive!

We went to Fremont Street (I think that's the name) that afternoon (where the big New Years party is always held) and walked up and down it. The coolest (well, the coolest part was being outside! It was sunny and FREEZING cold! Poor Annaka, all I brought her was a light sweater, it looked beautiful outside...so deceiving!) anyway, the coolest part was this spray paint artist...I didn't even think to take any pictures of the art (only my freezing child getting some grandpa bonding time)...but it was so fun to watch him paint- seriously one picture took him around 5-minutes!

Deb Buxton happened to have a quilt and was so kind to let Annaka have it, or else she would have been sick that night, I'm sure of it.

On the way home (grateful to be back in the car, heat blazing) we saw Goliath...the vehicle version.

For our actual New Year's party we went to a friends house and enjoyed some games and food until we watched the ball drop on TV and we saw some chips of Fremont Street...it was kind of cool to say we were just there that afternoon. Annaka was really good for us, she's always been really good at going down at other peoples houses, so we just brought the pack 'n play and she was out, a little later than we wanted, but it was a party, so you can't blame her.

Hope everyone is having a great 2011!!

"Say Cheese"

2010-11-19T21:00:00.001-08:00

When I take a picture of Annaka I tell her to "say cheese" and she makes the funniest face...it's because she knows that this bright light is going to flash into her eyes and she's not so sure she enjoys that very much, but she likes to get her picture taken (because she likes to see herself after on the camera) so she tries really hard to look. Funny goose of ours :)

ONE

2010-09-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it to the one year mark! Went fast, but really it seems like this sweet thing has been in our life a lot longer...I look forward to all the new things she will learn and her bright personality coming out along the way.

Happy Birthday- We love you, Annaka!

Her birthday was, in my mind, the perfect 1st birthday...consisting of:

Food
Presents
Cake
Family

Before I get started with the party, let me just inform you that this little girl LOVES books. Thus, the book worm theme (of sorts, I only did so much)

The invite:

Food:
Yummy shredded chicken tacos, creamy orange jello/pudding whip, fruit salad, pasta salad, and homemade strawberry lemonade ~yum-yum~

Presents:

She got spoiled: Books, clothes, Dora couch, music CDs, The 3 Little Pigs playset, Jungle bopper, bathtub stickers, doll, toy dog, toy cell phone, orange ball(to be seen later in post) and so much more! Thanks everyone!

Cake:

She took 3 good bites of her cake and then mostly just played in it. That's my girl!

The above mentioned orange ball, from Troy and Becky, she let you know how she felt about it

Family:

Thanks everyone for making the trip, it made for the best birthday! It wouldn't have been the same without you!

Whitehead Family
Beaumont Family

Almost one

2010-08-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

So I thought I better update the summer of Annaka before she hit the 1-year mark...wowzers! Here goes nothing:

See that thing in her month? Yeah, that pacifier or binky or whatever you like to call it...well take a good look, because this is the last picture of her with it in her mouth. Yep, it is gone, at 10 1/2 months we weaned her from her pacifier...Dad did a great job and I'm soo happy we took the week or so to do it! She doesn't need it now and has learned to self-sooth to sleep and calm herself down...plus, from this picture you can see that she loves books, those do a great job whenever she needs a little R & R.

While I taught swimming lessons Dad was hard at work all summer long putting down new floors, landscaping the backyard, and organizing all his boxes...Anna loved to "help" him out too...

Good girl Goose, way to take a load off Dad :)

LAKE POWELL TRIP:

Annaka's first time to Lake Powell! SO much fun. Had a few hard times with the schedule of things as we were trying to load up and shop (how do you get around that?) but once we got out on the lake she was great! Loved the sand, the water, being outside, riding on the boat, jetskies, and even wakesurfing...I'll have to get some pictures from my dad (grandpa).

First dip in the lake-half naked of course.

On the trip she found her toes...can you blame her, having to sit in her carseat all the time she found something to entertain herself with.

My sister did this and took pictures on my phone...she thought she was pretty funny, but I'm pretty sure Annaka liked it too...yummy fruit snacks.

The drive Annaka did really well. From Vegas to St. George she did great, I can't even remember what she did, so must have been good. From St. George to Powell and back she (me and Kirb) had it made, Becky and Brady got to sit in the back with her and entertained her the whole time-thanks guys:)

Annaka, aka: Anna, Anners, Angel, AnnEka, Annie, Munchkin, Missy, AND GOOSE :)

2010-07-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

It has been 2 whole months from the last time I posted anything, that’s one way to put into perspective how fast Annaka is growing up. Here’s a quick sum up of what Annaka’s been up to over the past 2 months!
She has become a lot more mobile. She pulls herself up onto everything. The first place she learned to do this was right where her toys are...from the picture you can see what she likes to do when leaning over her toy box-just pull all of the toys out. I think it's only the beginning of this because in nursery the kids still love to take the boxes of toys and throw them all over the ground (:S)

This picture is one of her first times pulling herself up, she was grunting and groaning.

A friend I have here let me borrow her walker and it has been heaven sent! Can you tell how much she loves it???

FINALLY, we found something for Annaka to sit in during meal times! It was just $5 at a yard sale and it does the job.

She loves to get messy (one attribute she did not get from her dad). If we give her bananas or anything soft at all, it never ends up in her mouth, but all over her hands and tray! Crazy munchkin!

Summer has been fun, we get her in the water as much as we can (which is NOT enough) and she loves it, every second!

We love our Goose!

Title of this post: I thought I'd mention just a few of her nicknames.

Big shopper

2010-05-03T14:06:00.001-07:00

Over spring break we got our tax return and decided to do a little shopping! I don't know if it's sad to say or not, but I finally put Annaka in the shopping cart without her carseat and it was pretty funny... Not sure about it

Ok, I think I like it

Yeah, this is pretty fun!

Hey, no hands!!

Man, this is the life.

Love my captions?? :)

My superhero baby

2010-05-03T13:37:00.001-07:00

These were taken before Spring break, which was before Easter, so it must have been the end of March and I just never have put them up, but thought she was pretty funny. Annaka's out of her bumbo, and into a space saving highchair of sorts...found at a garage sale for $5, but we are still in search of a real highchair...

Perfect Park Days

2010-03-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

In Vegas you got to take advantage of the perfect park day weather...like it has been for the past week or so...But it does get pretty crowded at the park, especially those baby swings...But I finally got Annaka in one just the other day and boy did she love it! Way fun, so we are going again today, and maybe I can get better pictures, because these ones are from my phone!

Sunday Walk

2010-03-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

A few Sundays ago Kirb and I decided to go down to the wetlands park for a walk...and while we were walking we might as well take some pictures of our little lady...This is what we got:

our porcelain doll :)

My camera is NOT the greatest for professional pictures, but it does the job and we got a few good ones. (7 months old)

Loving the Hot Tub

2010-03-01T10:20:00.000-08:00

When I was in St. George last I was able to take Annaka in my parents hot tub and work on some swimming skills. We cleaned the hot tub first and put the temp down to around 97 degrees so it was like a big bath tub. We did all the fun stuff I usually do when I teach parent-tot classes and also the harder things for most babies (i.e. going under water and floating) To say the least, Anna LOVED it! I had TONS of fun, she made me laugh so much with all the faces she pulled and her babbling, squealing and laughing.
She's all smiles!

Annaka is "scooping" her arms, and I'm making sure I'm modest (which wasn't always the case wearing my sister's cute swim suit)

What a good little floater...this was her 3th day of floating, sort of getting the hang of it, but far from floating on her own...we'll get there before your 1 for sure!!

This was one of the first times Annaka went under the water...no big deal, right. (Just to explain: the humming is a way of giving the babies a cue that they are going under the water and it's also a way to teach them to blow bubbles out their noses)

This is on the 3rd straight day of swimming and Anna is already learning to "get ready" to go under water, I was laughing so hard...sorry. Watch her face... I wasn't going to put her under water we were just going "up and down" as part of the "circle game" is what I call it when I teach but how cool is that! She had only been under 6 or 7 times before.

The JOYS of having a 5-month-old

2010-02-13T14:28:00.000-08:00

The smiles: this is one of my favorites! It is so refreshing to see this girls smile- we'll do anything to see it, NOT that it's hard to get her to, she loves to smile. The other day a lady said she has "the cutest, most intense smile"...ha ha...not sure what to make of that-but I love that whenever I look her way she will smile at me...(no teeth yet...thank goodness)

laughing: I don't know very many people that can get Kirby to laugh REALLY HARD- his daughter is one of them though. We have had some good times laughing so hard with our little lady, it makes my eyes water. Who would have thought a 5-month-old could be SO funny?! She has finally started to get this giggle that when you hear it, you can't help but laugh yourself.

sitting: her preferred position. One that I love just as much as her. We still put the pillows around her as cushion for when she leans just a little too far and crashes...but she's doing soo well, I even feel safe being in the other room.

pooping: Now this is big for us. Anners has never been a good pooper...man the trauma we have been through with her belly aches...although she still prefers the "belly hold" facing out. Yesterday she pooped 5 times...which also resulted in her VERY FIRST diaper rash...not fun...so she got to go without a diaper for a few hours, and made for a rough night, but we did pretty good with treatment so it's all cleared up now.

sleeping: She is the best sleeper and always has been...I've never had to do anything to get her to sleep through the night. Although she actually just started waking up once at night, which I totally am okay with because she takes the BEST naps and I need her nap time as much as she does...trying to move in, clean, and organize this new home is MUCH easier with a sleeping baby.

eating: was not one of her strong points but now: she eats her rice cereal, takes a bottle and is still, still nursing (the correct way) nights and mornings...honey, you rock!

dancing: We love to put music on and dance. It would probably be embarrassing for me if anyone ever walked in on it, (I'm not one to brag about my dancing skills, although I've always found it fun, you can ask my cousin Kelliann if you want some good details about that) Some of my favorite dance songs (I don't know the real titles, sorry): "Hey Soul Sister" and "It's Gonna Be a Good Night" sorry no pictures of this :)

playing: she will just sit and play by herself. It's great fun to watch her entertain herself...it's a treat, that's for sure. And we love playing with her, of course. She isn't the fragile baby she once was, she loves being tossed in the air, swung in circles and any sort of swinging, shaking and bouncing...in moderation of course.Some other things she likes to do is: STILL loves looking in the mirror, her showers, hanging out with other kids, and babbling.

She's already loving being the center of attention... :S

the loving: she is so loving. She will give hugs. I love her hugs when she puts her arms up around my neck. When she is sitting on your lap, she will just turn her head and look up just to smile at you (what a cutie, you just want to squeeze her!!) She also started this new thing were she will pull her face so close to yours that your noses touch and then she smiles at you and it makes your heart melt. It's the greatest feeling and our love for her grows everyday, it really is incredible to be a parent.

Thanks and Santa

2009-12-03T15:21:00.000-08:00

Had a great Thanksgiving with the Shaws. Always enjoyable to visit and eat with the Shaws.
Went over to the Beaumonts for pie a little later and got a picture with her and Tori and Megan.
Saturday, Nov. 28th we went up to Tuachan to visit my mom who was working and to have breakfast, little did we know SANTA was going to be there!(Or maybe we would have changed her out of her pajamas) Anners did pretty good at first...ha-ha...then we got her to cry. Santa was a good sport.

Likes to look at...

2009-11-16T12:14:00.000-08:00

The remote control Herself in the mirror above her swing DOTS THE TV, of course. FANS

And her bouncer animal friends

Chocolate Covered Pretzel

2009-11-15T16:30:00.000-08:00

Today Annaka was sleeping in her swing and DJ decided to put a chocolate covered pretzel on her head. Kirby went to pick her up and he got chocolate on his hand. He looked at her head and saw a chocolate pretzel melted on her head. When DJ was asked why he put a chocolate pretzel on her head, he just shrugged his shoulders.

Hanging Out with Aunt Becky

2009-11-13T13:34:00.000-08:00

Today

Yesterday, Nov. 12th

Annaka's Blessing (Nov. 1st)

2009-11-12T14:09:00.000-08:00

Annaka's blessing day- was a big day. We had a lot of family come to attend, which was so nice and we may not have had that if we were in Vegas. We blessed her in the Santa Clara 5th ward. It was a great meeting and Kirby gave her a beautiful blessing.
After her blessing in Santa Clara, we drove down to Vegas for Kirby's white coat ceremony. It all went so well and we are so grateful to our families for their love and support. We really are so happy to be close and share these wonderful times with everyone.

Grandma Whitehead was really getting Annaka to smile. It was so cute!

Loves TV

2009-11-10T10:45:00.000-08:00

Annaka is very fasinated by the TV. She has been having some bad belly aches lately and so we bounce her and set her in front of the TV and she is just fine. It was funny the first time we figured this out, my mom was holding and bouncing her and walked over to the TV, when Annaka saw the TV she stopped crying. We just looked at eachother and laughed. So I had to document it.

The next day (11/06) Annaka was having a hard time again, so we set her in her bouncer in front of the TV, next to Troy so he could keep her bouncing. And she was good for about 45 minutes. It was great. We dont know what we will do once we move and don't have a TV anymore :S

Sleeping on her Belly (11/08)

2009-11-09T10:07:00.000-08:00

Annaka was being a little fussy, probably because her belly was bothering her. But when her dad layed her on her belly and patted her back, she felt better and well, as you can see...fell asleep :)

Look at those cute legs.

Hand Sucking

2009-11-09T09:54:00.003-08:00

Yesterday (11/08) I caught Annaka sucking on her hands...It was so cute. She has always liked putting her hands near her face, but hasn't been a big sucker. So I thought is was really funny to see her actually sucking on her hands. She sure seemed to enjoy it.

About Annaka, dedicated to Kirby

2009-11-09T08:29:00.001-08:00

I should have started this blog 2 months ago because Annaka is now 2 months and 2 weeks old. Since her dad is gone to Vegas on the week days, maybe a blog about Annaka would be enjoyable to him. It also serves as a great way to record Annaka's growth in an interesting way. And, once we move to Vegas (which should be soon, yippee!) maybe her grandparents, aunts and uncles and other family members would like to know how she is. Okay, and maybe it's because I love her so much that I can't get enough of her and think she is so wonderful that she should get her very own blog. But anyway, I think all around it's a great idea and feel sad that I didn't think of it sooner. I'll try to catch up as best I can. Well, enjoy all about Annaka, because I sure enjoy and love her so much!

I LOVE these two so, so much!