Anna-isms

In honor of her birthday, here are some things about Anna that make us smile:

Real Word             Anna's Version

Tater-tots               Tater-totters

Snickerdoodles      Snicker-ma-doodles

Nike's                     Mikie's

Sausages                Sasheshesh

Avocado                Ay-vee-cada

Rice Krispies         Icy Krimpies

McDonalds's          Old McDonald's

Pajamas                  Majamas

 

Anna loves to dress up and is always creating some pretty awesome outfits. The other day she came out and asked me if she looked "fashion."  It took me a second to realize that she meant the word fashionable. It's a little scary when a three year old is asking if she looks fashionable! The best part is that I asked her where she learned that word and she told me, "From Wild Kratts." For those of you who aren't PBS kids junkies like we are, Wild Kratts is a cartoon about two brothers who try to protect and teach about wild animals. The fact that Anna managed to find something girly on a show like this speaks volumes about her little mind.

Anna is a really sweet sister and daughter. She loves to snuggle, read books, dance, and sing along with the radio. She tries her hardest to keep up with Jack and is willing to be any character from Star Wars in order to play with him. Anna keeps us smiling and on our toes too.

Cupcakes and Turkeys

Anna turned 3 last week! We celebrated her birthday on Thanksgiving with her two cousins, Will and Finn, who had a birthday earlier in the month. We had dinner down at Em's house, and in our rush to get on the road the night before, I forgot to grab my camera. Luckily for us, Amy had her camera and got a lot of really good shots during the day.  So if you've seen their blog, the rest of the pictures may look a little familiar :)

Here are some pics from the dinner. The food was amazing.

 

After dinner, we had a series of activities to keep the kids entertained while the adults rested and talked off their turkey lunch.

Spa time for the girls

Movie time for the cousins

Pine cone turkeys and other crafts

Every time we see a pinata at the store, Anna always asks for one, and so I decided that I would try and make her a festive turkey pinata for her birthday. If you're wondering why his belly is square, I couldn't find any balloons in our house and so I had to use ziplock bag. I was a little worried it would break after the first hit and so I went a little crazy with the papier mache. We ended up having to break it open. I don't think the kids minded :)

The November birthday cousins:

Presents and the loot from the pinata

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving with a couple of nontraditional aspects (cupcakes, presents, and pinatas) but it was a really fun day. I think we'll have to make some of those into family traditions.

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween. The kids got some wonderful candy, and since Jack can't have peanuts, we enjoyed raiding his candy to keep him safe. It's a win win for everyone. Plus, our quiet street was extra quiet tonight and we have a whole bowl of candy left over. Looks like a lot of sugar highs in our future.  Here's our little Jedi's all dressed up and ready to go:

Japanese Gardens and Food

The weather was really beautiful yesterday and so we decided to go explore Portland. The city is famous for it's food cart/trucks and so we decided to go and try a couple. We found a parking lot downtown that was ringed with every imaginable food type: Thai, German, French, Indian.... After making a lap and checking them all out, Christian got some fish'n chips from the The Frying Scotsman and I got some teriyaki chicken from the Aloha Bowl. The food was really good and surprisingly affordable. We are excited to go exploring for food trucks again soon. Of course, we forgot to take pictures of this part but here is one we found online.

After eating, we headed over to the Japanese Gardens. They were beautiful! We can't wait to go again.

 

Making dragon faces!

 

Fall Fun

I love Fall. It is my favorite time of year. We have been having a lot of fun enjoying the Fall activities near our home. We went to a pumpkin patch with Dave and Em.

The kids and I went on a hayride around the pumpkin patch, which was really fun. This farm has a section of Christmas trees along with the pumpkins. I love Christmas tree farms.

Jack went on his first big slide and loved it!

Back at home, we have been trying to get outside whenever the weather is dry.  Here some pictures of the kids on the backyard swing and on the front porch.

Sorry this is blurry, but he looked so cute!

I love the way Anna is looking at Jack. She loves her big brother!

Parades, Parties, and Pets

After going through the camera today, I realized we have a lot of random pictures to post. So here we go:

 Obi Wan Jack-  

Yes, Jack is still in love with Star Wars and I fed his obsession by making an Obi Wan cloak

Our house backs up to a green belt and so we have lots of critters coming through the yard. Mostly our visitors consist of squirrels that the kids call Bushy and Muncher, and a raccoon we call Bandit. The kids love watching the squirrels climb across the telephone wires and eat the nuts from the trees. Bandit isn't as frequent of a visitor, but he comes out in the afternoon sometimes to drink from our bird bath and take naps in the yard.

We have really enjoyed living in a small town. There is only one high school here and the football team is a pretty big deal. We can hear the marching band, cheerleaders, and game call from our house on Friday nights and we love it. This last Friday was Homecoming and after school, there was parade right down main street. We asked some of our new friends to walk over with us and check it out. The parade was short and sweet, which was perfect for me, and the kids got a bag full of candy, which was perfect for them.

On Sunday, we went down to Em and Dave's to celebrate Steve' 35 birthday. We ate pizza, watched General Conference, played in the yard, and had some yummy cake. The kids had a great time decorating cupcakes and playing with each other.  We had a really nice afternoon.

Some Questions for the Kids

We recently read a blog where the Mom asked her kids a bunch of questions about herself. The answers were cute and so we figured we would try it with our kids too. I asked the questions with Jack, and Christian asked them with Anna. Here is what we got as well as a picture of the kids in the linen closet. They like to dump out the sheets and towels and make beds. As cute as it is to find them like this, I am not always happy to find my clean linens on the floor! Anyway, the questions are a little long but we wanted to keep all of their answers:

Mommy According to Jack:

1. What is something Mommy always says to you?
Jack: Good things

2. What makes Mommy happy?
Jack: When I play around.

3. What makes Mommy sad?
Jack:  If I don’t play, Mommy will be sad.

4. How does Mommy make you laugh?
Jack: Tickle me

5. What was Mommy like as a child?
Jack: I don’t know cause I don’t remember.

6. How old is Mommy?
Jack: 26

7. Where is Mommy's favorite place to go?
Jack: The cemetery (This is not true of course, but it's what he said. Crazy kid!)

8. What is Mommy's favorite thing to do?
Jack: Play cars with me

9. What does Mommy do when you're not around?
Jack: Sneak

10. What is Mommy really good at?
Jack: Winning

11. What is Mommy not very good at?
Jack: Sharing   

12. What does Mommy do for her job?
Jack: Lots of things. Chores.

13. What is Mommy's favorite food?
Jack: Carrots

14. What do you and Mommy do together?

Jack: We play lots of things and do lots of things.

15. How are you and Mommy the same?
Jack: Our skin.

16. How are you and Mommy different?
Jack: Our eyes are different

Daddy According to Anna

1.       1. What is something Daddy always says to you?
Anna: Thank you and you’re welcome

2. What makes Daddy happy?
Anna: Play together

3. What makes Daddy sad?
Anna: When we play tennis

4. How does Daddy make you laugh?
Anna: He makes me tickle

5. What was Daddy like as a child?
Anna: He liked to play with us

6. How old is Daddy?
Anna: 4

7. Where is Daddy's favorite place to go?
Anna: To his work!

8. What is Daddy's favorite thing to do?
Anna: Play with me in the sprinkler

9. What does Daddy do when you're not around?
Anna: Play with the TV and he doesn’t sneak around

10. What is Daddy really good at?
Anna: Good at playing tennis with Mommy

11. What is Daddy not very good at?
Anna: Not playing soccer

12. What does Daddy do for her job?
Anna: Play with the tv

13. What is Daddy's favorite food?
Anna: Chips

14. What do you and Daddy do together?
Anna: Plays with me

15. How are you and Daddy the same?
Anna: He’s good at hearing

16. How are you and Daddy different?
Anna: He’s different with his hair

Portland Temple

 Last Sunday, we drove up to the Portland LDS Temple to walk around and enjoy the flowers. Here's some pics:

Here's Anna trying to get Jack to smile. 

It worked!

Jack posed himself for these pictures and really got into it!

 Notice Anna's feet in this picture. While I walked around the fountain to take this picture, Anna managed to take her shoes off. After I finished taking the picture she proceeded to get up and walk into the fountain. The kid is crazy about water. We should have known when she sat down that this would happen!