1st Trip to the Dentist

I took Annaka in to Dr. Bybee back in January. He is a WONDERFUL pediatric dentist. He was very bubbly and so great with Anna. Anna loved it all! She got to show the hygienist how she brushes her teeth, got a purse full of 'teeth' stuff, including a princess toothbrush and stickers. She loved the big yellow banana chair.

Anyway, we are happy to have found this place, although we hope we only have to make regular check-ups. If my children all inherit their dad's strong teeth we should be fine, but if they are like mine...we might be here a little more often!

Oh and the balloon was pretty cool too.

She didn't have any cavities so she got to stand in front of Minnie and take her pictures.

JOY School 2011

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

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

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"

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

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...

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!