we didn't get nuth'n

that's a double negative.  We are so so so spoiled!  Anna pretty much enjoyed 5 present opening sessions.  First at the buhlers!  She wasn't too sure at first, but did love opening up her presents, and adored everything that was opened - especially the clothes from uncle steven and aunt joy, which seems strange for someone pint sized.

After our un-christmas christmas at the buhlers, we drove back to bountiful to spend real christmas with my family.  First thing we went to get family pictures at the capitol.  Richard is really excited to see them.  He asks at least once a day if they came yet.  They are ought to be really cute.  After that my mom treated us to a rib dinner - wow it was good.  Then present opening #2.  We exchange homemade gifts.  My sister amy made us the coolest book - the ABC of anna's family.  She absolutely loves it.

 Next was real christmas morning at aunt amy's house.  For most of the morning anna found a quiet corner to read books in and to get away from the commotion.  smart girl.  Anna was spoiled by aunt amy, who gave her a doll stroller - which is her favorite toy at friends houses - so we're happy to have our own now so that the toys can be delivered to every room.  Of course this happened pre-stroller, but now that anna's toy carrying capacity has increased 10 fold I am finding myself tripping over toys in every room instead of just in the hall between her room and front room.

 Anna loved cousin amber's doll house - you can see why.........here she is putting a turtle in the barbie baby rocker.  BTW my dad made that house.  pretty amazing - and huge.

 Next up christmas afternoon at grandma heiner's house!  Lucky us!  Grandma heiner went crazy on anna (:  She loves all her gifts.  So much that I took them away so that I can give them to her at later phases when she gets bored with her current toys.  Her favorite thing from grandma so far is the heads book.  My dad also made us some COOL COOL blocks, which is something I love to play with and have been secretly wanting since anna was born.  Sadly they were too heavy (and stinky) to take on the plane.....we'll get them next time someone visits I hope!

Christmas day was fun.  We went to church with aunt amy, then drove to my mom's and hung out with all the family - cousin elizabeth and cousins chloe and remi.  Mom made the most delicious ham.  Rich and I both agree that it was our favorite food that we had the whole trip (well it probably tied with that tri-tip joyce!).  thanks mom (s).  After dinner mom rushed us to the airport and ahhhhhhhhhhhh we made it home.  It's good to be home.  Oh so good to be home.

We've decided that our trip was successful on several counts. 1- anna can name her cousins when we point to their pictures.  Except for some reason she gets evan and remi mixed up.  2- anna loves her daddy more, she asks for him a lot more now. if only she'd call his name instead of mine when she wakes up in the night  3 - we have more appreciation for our parents and siblings and the crazy/loving people they are  4- we have much more appreciation for our boring life back home.

thanks for letting us hangout at your houses family!

The Quarry

 Today we went to dinosaur natn'l park near vernal.  They just reopened the quarry, which is a giant rock wall full of dinosaur bones that is surrounded by a building.  It's actually really amazing.  If you followed my link you may notice that you can only go to the quarry at certain times.  We were not aware and thus waited at the visitor's center for over an hour (as the website suggests you may).  Anna entertained herself pretty good by climbing on the exhibits.  It's amazing to me that these creatures once ruled the world.

 All this geology must have my grandpas brain hurt.  That or he was just being a grouch.  who knows?!

vernal.

Richard is from Vernal UT.  We've been here since last friday.  It's a pretty great place, mostly because grandma and grandpa and aunt joy dote on anna so we get to rest.  But there are things to do here....if you don't mind venturing out into 30 degree weather.........like shopping at walmart, smiths and Cal Ranch.  Oh yeah, and eating at cafe rio.  Although last time we ate there anna barfed, so i haven't wanted to go back this time.  Anyways, the other day we went shopping at Smiths.  Richard thought it was pretty funny how Anna shops so we got it on video but i can't get it to upload, maybe later.  He now understands why I wake up at 5:30 or 6:00 to go grocery shopping without her.  I love it when rich goes out and about with Anna and I because I always end up feeling vindicated in my petty frusterations with toddlerhood.

 We took a trip to browns park.  It is 1.5 hours in a car to get there.  The scenery is pretty (in it's own way).  You have to go through wyoming to get there and when you get there you are 10 miles from colorado.  Anyways, the highlight of the trip was that anna slept in the car the whole way there.  But it's a pretty special place for the buhlers i guess because his brother steven was REALLY mad that we went without him. 

 This is Browns Park.  Yup, we drove 1.5 hours each way to get here.  Rich was happy with the trip because we saw elk and deer.  Girl elk and man deers.  Seeing those horns is all he cares about.

Back at the Buhlers, anna really enjoyed placing stuffed toys on this rocking chair and rocking them.  Aunt Joy says she was watching anna and anna got away for just a few minutes.  when she went to find her she was feeding a stuffed penguin yogurt.  She loooves the toys at grandmas house.

Since anna was having such a great time with the Buhlers, Richard decided to give me a suprise!  It is our anniversary today (the 22), so we left anna and went to the B&B where we had our 1st night together - the Johnson Mill in Midway UT.  It was so much fun, I enjoyed every second.  Sadly we forgot our camera, but this is the room we stayed in.  We walked to a restaurant (which ended up being yucky - im picky), then came back and played foos ball for a while.  Somehow I got richard to watch the notebook.  He assured me that he'll take care of me when I'm old and cooky.  Before breakfast the next morning I had succeeded in taking 3 baths in the amazing jetted tub which was set next to a fire place and a window with a view of softly falling snow.  That was the life.  Before heading to SLC to pick up steven from the airport, we were served strawberry stuffed french toast with bacon and cantaloupe.  So goood.  Im so happy rich planned a suprise for me, I'm too cheap to splurge on something like that - but I do enjoy a good time! 

When we got back we had a stronger desire to play with anna.  Rich pulled her in the firewood sled over the inch of crusty snow in the back yard.  She and the dogs loved it.  Last night Rich's parent's friends came over to chat.  Of course we talked about animals.  Somehow it was mentioned that rich and I eat a lot of lentils.  Paul hates them and his friends didn't even know what they were!  Can you believe not knowing what a lentil is?  One of his dad's friends had eaten a woodchuck before.  But no lentils.  I guess that's vernal for you.  Exotic in it's own way.

pre-christmas with a toddler

Anna and I have been in Utah for a week. We had to leave Rich home (someone's got bring home the bacon). It's been a fun time watching Anna experience new things!
The airport was a blast. I think anna ran a marathon on the moving walkways. She couldn't quite figure out why she wasn't going anywhere....she made a lot of people laugh...

First we went to my Grandpas in Wyoming and experienced SNOW! Anna was able to enjoy it for about a 1/2 hour thanks to the snow suit our neighbors bought us (thanks Dorothy and Brad!). I didn't think it would be smart to take her out longer than that in 15 degree weather. It was great for anna to meet great grandma and grandpa Heiner - although she was rather shy and grouchy.

On the way home from WY my mom dropped us off at my sisters house in Morgan UT. Anna loved all the attention her cousins gave her. She even got to be part of a 3 yr old's playgroup for the morning. She's a bit short for that table in the pic below. Her cousins loved bossing her around. It was hard for anna and I to say goodbye to aunt amy's but we'll be back on christmas day.  This is anna digging into the christmas book box at aunt amy's.


Tuesday night we stayed at my mom's house.  My mom is really busy with her flower business, but we were able to get her to play with us a little bit.  Anna loved all the toys at grandmas, especially the dollhouse.  My dear friend rachel came and visited with us and we went to the bountiful temple.  We also went to story time at the bountiful library, but anna was too busy exploring to pay attention.  Tuesday night we visited my brother andy in w. valley.  Anna loves her cousins!  She came down with pink eye and luckily aunt virginia had some left over drops for us.  thank you!

Thursday night my mom and dad took my brother andy and I and our kids to the Hogle Zoo Lights.  it was awesome.  Anna loved every minute, except at the start when everyone was going in and she had to wait for me to put her sweater, coat, sweatpants, snowpants, hats and hoods on.  She was so excited to go in that as soon as I put her down she started running, and fell flat on her face because she was so bundled that she counldn't run right and she also couldn't stop her fall.  Grandma is a spoiler and took us all on the carousel.  Anna loved riding on the animals!  This is a bad pic of her and gma, but really cute of cousin chloe! (above)
Here is anna and uncle and and cousin remi next to the voluptous gorilla.

Is anna sumo baby or what?  well we all look like sumo people acutally.

Zoo lights were awesome.  We couldn't get enough.  the movie is anna waving bye bye to the animals. she loves to say bye over and over as if she was a movie star.  thanks mom and dad.

Now to the buhlers.  We drove to vernal to be with aunt joy and gma and gpa buhler.  Uncle steven is too cool to come hang out with us until right before christmas.  Here is anna decorating the tree.  She loved it.  And she is so good and doesn't really play with it.  Dad put a train around the base of the tree which she will just watch and watch.  She also has all of dad's old little people toys to play with, but I think I like them more than she does(they are the same ones I had as a kid - the little people zoo and farm and car lot - anyone else remember those?)! 

We went to see a 3$ 3D movie with aunt Joy.  Hugo.  Anna was amazing.  She just sat there for about 30 minutes of the movie with these glasses on - until she pooped her pants.  Then the fun was over and I sent her out with dad.  I was pleasantly suprised at how long she lasted.  Hugo was a good show, it was fun to go to a movie.  (Last movie rich and I saw was in Harry Potter 7 in July, before that was Harry Potter 6 last december).

Anna's being Graceful

Nicole worked this week so Anna got to go to a few different babysitters this week. She had a good week playing with her friends, Zachie, Spencer and JJ. Here are some pics and a video of Anna playing with JJ. Nicole sent me this email the other day and pretty much describes Anna these days "So im thinking anna says a lot about food and animals. thats what we talk about at our house. she must be a buhler. food and hunting."

Anna enjoys to wave to people

These she is with food in her hands

Maybe she will become a pianist who knows.

Reading books

Before the dance.
Another Favorite thing Anna enjoys watching TV

pilla pilla

this is from the weekly email we get about anna:

You've noticed that your toddler seems to copy everything he sees - it's how he learns. And it includes mimicking words, at which he's becoming more and more precise. By now he can probably say about six words (plus "mama" and "dada") and babble whole conversations that include several clear words. He also loves hearing (and dancing to) songs with responses and gestures. Like most things, he wants to hear them over and over and over.

It is her to a T! She copies everything we do! She mimiks all sorts of words - catapillar = pilla pilla, bread = brea, bath = baa, milk = mi

She loves eincy weency spider and teddy bear teddy bear turn around and ring around the rosie and wheels on the bus. She remembers the actions and does them - its really cute.

cravings.

Last pregnancy all I remember craving was fried chicken and soft serve ice cream.

This time I think I'm a lot more crazy and I have a touchy appetite.

Last week I was craving cheesy bread. We bought a pizza. That didn't cut. I'm still craving that. I think I better hold off on the cheesy bread though, I'm sure we'll have pizza at my mom's house.

Today I was craving blueberry bagels. So I tried to sub by making blueberry muffins. Didn't cut it. So we went and got some, brought em home toasted and buttered em. yum yum.

that's it. just wanted to put it out there that this pregnancy has made me a crazier and more needy woman. Sorry richard.

ham

It's what we should have made for T day instead of turkey. I don't really like turkey. Or poultry in general for that matter.

Back to the story. Anna is a ham. She does things just to make us and other people laugh. Our favorite is "the face." She often makes it during boring lulls at the dinner table. I caught it on video, Rich is behind me coaxing her.

sick kids and sunny days

We broke up with the rain for a week... don't worry I'm sure we'll get back together soon. But it was a crappy week to be rain's-x because anna was sick. Actually anna got everyone sick, except zachie since we didn't see him this w/e.
So we've been hanging out inside naked to avoid excess laundry.
And kissing the catapillar at the beginning of Baby Einstein. Or pillapilla as anna says.
Anna's feeling better today. She didn't lose her breakfast or have too much diarrhea. So we headed out for our usual loop. Stopping to feed the ducks although not being able to feed them because they left with rain. Anna below is saying "where's duck?" We also stopped to play at Woodhaven park. Who says sandboxes are summertime things? Unfortunately my run has turned into a walk, so we didn't have enough time to visit the library before anna fell asleep.Ah well, still a good morning. Funny video: before anna went to sleep she did some imitating (I do push ups on this concrete slab - anna enjoys doing them too and counting "wa too wa too").

wish i knew

Anna is a real reader. I just wish I knew what language she's speaking! Her two favorite books right now are What the World Eats and Cookies Cookies. Yes, both about food and Yes, both books that I often read.


Anna is way into the imitation phase of life. She does EVERYTHING I do. I've got to watch myself very carefully! Except I'm not sure who she's getting these temper tantrums from....

Weekend to the MAX

Wow. That's what I call a weekend. We need a weekend break from our weekend.

So wed night when rich got home we went shopping at fred myers and ace. We bought tortillas and milk. Wahoo.

Thursday Rich played football with the ward. Anna and I did our usual 4 mile route. Turns out it's a perfect turkey trot route, so we got some good entertainment while running (if you count watching people dressed in turkey get up running good entertainment).

After that we raked our neighbors leaves.

Then I took the best hot bath bubble bath I've ever had while Richard watched football.

After that I cooked some stuff for T-day (brown rice hazelnut dressing which rich hated, roasted brussel sprouts - which are always a hit, pumpkin crumble - which is also always a hit, and poppyseed salad - yum).

We headed over to our friends the Lymans for dinner. It was very nice. Becky is a super good cook so everything was wonderful. Anna ate like a queen - and then when she was done with her tray she ate all the food off of her friends trays. What a monster. What 18 mo girl can make a 5 year old cry? I guess jello w/ marshmellos is not something to be shared.

We finished the night watching something lame on TV after anna went to bed. It was great.

Friday I worked - but first I went to freddy's and bought marked up 1/2 price boots, of which I took back later in the day. Rich and anna visited me for lunch. Anna was very naughty but after they left I heard a million times how cute she is. I knew I wasn't just biased.......

When I got home I was craving cheesy bread. Rich was demanding to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! he now knows the perils of being a stay at home parent. So we went shopping for a rocker recliner. I hate sales people so that didn't last long. But I was still craving that cheesy bread so we stopped by whole foods and got some pizza. Anna ate all mine. So we went home and took her to bed, after which we ordered a pizza from dominoes and ate the whole thing. I was so bloated I fell asleep on the couch while trying to stay awake to watch a movie.

Saturday we went hiking. Turns out I suck at choosing a hike and directing us where to go - so we parked at the wrong trailhead. Turned out to be a good hike anyways. Horsetail and pony tail falls. We hiked probably 3 miles and the end of the hike took us to a waterfall. Funny thing is the waterfall is right on the highway, about 1/2 mile down from where we parked. Our camera battery lies to us and says its charged when it's not. So we didn't bother bringing the camera. A nice lady offered to take pics and send them to us. Hence the pics.

Anyways, since we parked away from where the trail ended I decided to jog back to the car - full bladder and everything (seems that no matter how often I pee my bladder is full - darn baby). My clothes don't fit good, so I had to empty my pockets before jogging back to the car. Otherwise I would lose my pants while jogging. Hence, I gave rich my phone and he set it (naturally), on the trail head sign.

Turns out we left it and didn't realize until we stopped for lunch at ikea. Someone honest called and said she had our phone.

anna's begging to go outside to be continued later. We're back, 3 hours later. And anna sees the waterfall picture and says WAAAERRAALL. Awesome.

So anyways, this girl calls while we're at Ikea and says she'll meet up with us later so we can get it. How nice huH? While waiting for her to call we had lunch at Ikea, which is always good, mostly because it's so cheap and totally free for anna!! (this is important because it seems ridiculous to buy a meal for an 18 mo old - but if you don't buy a meal for anna you are forced to practice extreme portion control)

Alright, so we get home and Anna is asleep. I attempted to take a nap but couldn't sleep with the 3 football games going on in the front room. I went out and raked leafs instead. I needed to work off that pizza we ate the night before. While I'm out there slaving away rich says - Hey! Want more work to do? Actually he said "Someone's giving away black eye susan transplants" so I took em. Awesome. So I put those in and then was worn out.

After that we went to retrieve my phone ALL THE WAY back up by Ikea (it's by the airport in case you've been here - its far away). Then since we were in portland and since we bought a pass to OMSI we decided to stop by. wowsas.

After OMSI we hurried home and made an appetizer for a get together with some friends. That's right, we kept anna up past her bedtime. Super shame on us - anna was a monster the whole next day. We only kept her up until 8:30. Anyways, it was a lot of fun, the one game we played......

Sunday morning we made a turkey and mashed potatoes then went to church. Anna was actually good. We took her to nursery. Sunday night nothing exciting happened. I guess that's the end of our weekend! Hooray for a weekends to the max.

unadulterated meatballs

Thanks to our generous Buhler parents, we have a freezer full of meat. We have stuff from cows and elk and a few cuts of deer for Richard's brother steven. This is good news to the creature growing inside of me because she increases my iron needs by about 10 milligrams per day. Menstruating women need 18 mg/day, Prego's need 27 mg/day, men and women who don't lose blood monthly need 8 mg/day.

Meat is the best source of iron for 2 reasons. #1 Meat contains the most mg of iron per serving and #2 15-35% of the iron in meat is absorbed. While tofu and lentils may have high amounts of iron (2.8 mg and 3 mg respectively per Bowes and Churches), only 2-20% of that is absorbed due to the phytates and different proteins.



As you can see in the chart above (created during naptime, thank you for the 2 hour nap anna). Red meat is also a great source of zinc - which is also important during pregnancy. Similar to iron, zinc from meat is more readily absorbed than that from plant foods, which is why it is important that women who are vegan and pregnant be careful about their food choices.

Something I was not aware of previously is the high content of MUFA in red meat. Monunsaturated fat (MUFA) is good for you (or so we think at this time). This is why olive oil is preached as the holy grail. For reference, olive oil has 10grams per tablespoon, canola oil has 8 grams per tablespoon. From the chart above you can see that 80/20 has 6.5 grams. Interesting. However, 80/20 ground beef (meaning 80% muscle and 20% fat) also has 5.7g of saturated fat.....you need about 12 grams per day.......so I suppose its better to get your MUFA from plant oils.

Getting to the point - red meat is NOT BAD FOR YOU. It's only bad for you if you eat too much. Just like everything else. This may be gross to some people - but have you heard the term don't reinvent the wheel? Eating vegetarian could be thought of in a similar manner. Animals eat ALL day to make the meat the on their bones. Eating a small portion of animal muscle provides our bodies with the nutrients they took ALL DAY to create. While it is possible to get all those nutrients from plants and supplements - it's a lot easier to just find a way to fit in a little meat.

Now that you are utterly disgusted with the thought processes I go through before cooking a meal - here is a yummy recipe for meatballs (without any "healthy" additions, hence the unadulterated) that I made out of some cow from our freezer:

1 package of ground beef (? possible 3 pounds - any input joyce?) - pulled out of the deep freeze and defrosted in the microwave for 10 minutes

1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
some soy sauce (probably about 1/2 T)
some Worcestershire sauce ( probably about 1 T)
basil, oregano, parsley (probably 1 t each)
1 onion, fine dice browned without any oil in a skillet

I preheated the oven to 400, mixed it all up with my hands, and formed it into balls and placed on a cookie sheet lined with foil. I baked them for about 20 minutes - checked the temp with a thermometer (it was like 180, only needs to be 160 for ultimate safety). They were really good. Anna couldn't get enough. And we put them on top of spaghetti squash (you know to get some fiber vitamin A, I'm not going to continue that thought process today- delectable!)

"I had a purple punch" CRABS!

Nicole & anna and Richard. (beard guy)

Anna, do you want to play w/toys? I saw a tiger at the zoo! I want a horse. My favorite colors are purple and green. What are yours? "I love you! Animal. A bone from a dinosaur. Lollipops! I want a pet turtle, because I don't want a guinea pig anymore. Cat."

Nicole, Dog. do you have a dog? We had a party at school. We played games my favorite game was bingo. I was a mermaid for the party. we carried pumpkins, mine was a scary face. we also played buckets. you throw Balls. I hurt my finger on the shopping cart. " we Went to a doctors, I want you to see my bandaid. I cried. I need a pill today. We had a picture of my ouchie (x-ray). Long time ago we had stitches at my doctor." she was under the shopping cart where the "big " items go and stuck her finger under the wheel in the parking lot and it messed it up pretty bad.

Richard
"Its time to eat, I will get back after I get eat." I had a purple punch" CRABS! Do you want to catch more crabs? I want to come see you again.

heart
CHLOE

THANKS Chloe, you made our day! Nieces/cousins are the best. Anna especially loved the baby card! (chloe is on the left in the picture up top)

what we are having

So my sis in law skyped us the other night. Anna and I were eating grapefruit at the table. Richard said "hey joy - guess what we are having." She said "Sloppy Joes?"

Then Richard said "no - for number 2"

She was even more confused.

Joy did not know that we had just returned home from our ultrasound! We are having a.........

GIRL

a cold time at the zoo

"I'm a stinker, I don't deserve this trip to the zoo!"
"look at me, I'm so cute!"
"look at my cute hat - by the way this is not the same day as the zoo trip but the pictures just got here somehow"
"bundled up at the zoo!" Look at this little cute walking. She's got on a onsie, a long sleeve shirt, a fleece vest, a coat, long underwear and sweats. Oh yeah and a pair of mittens + a pair of gloves + a hat. I think she was warm.

Oh yeah, our camera died after this. so no more zoo pics.

lunch with the ladies (+ zachie)

To celebrate Britt's b-day (uh a month late...) we went out to lunch! I thought sweet tomatoes was a good place for kids because of the wide array of foods available for tasting. Turns out that jello was a big hit. Oh, and the mini ice cream cones. Anyways thanks for a fun time ladies!

A good gloomy weekend

Anna was getting a little stir crazy, so Richard decided to play a little game with her. She got REALLY excited. This is at the tail end, so she's a little more tame here. She loves her daddy! And for good reason!

Anna's hair is turning brown at the top ): She's still a pretty blonde right now though! Look how cute she is. I love this pea.

It was rather gloomy this weekend. Ah well. We still went running. Cleaned up the yard a little. And then, like the rest of Portland we went to OMSI.

We bought a pass to this museum and apparently it is really busy on saturday afternoons. Luckily, having a membership voids you of the big line. Anyways, anna had the time of her life and I enjoyed it much more since I only had to pick her up 1/2 of the time.