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").