Thanksgiving and Anna's 1st steps

When I walked in the door, home from work Thanksgiving Day, I found THIS in my front room; a little turkey! I am glad this one was not cooked up for Thanksgiving dinner. :)

Although my Thanksgiving was not the typical as I spent it working at the children's hospital, I definitely was able to think of the many blessings I have, maybe even more so being with really sick children. I am especially grateful for my family, for our health, for our many opportunities and freedoms, and for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. There really is nothing more I could ask for.

On a side note our little Anna girl surprised us last night with her first steps. It was sure fun to see and we caught it on video. That little munchkin just wants to go and go. Here she is...

Kent's 28th

Instead of a cake for Kent's birthday I decided to surprise him with a home made apple pie. The only problem was I had never made a pie before in my life, through I have watched my mother make pies growing up. So I decided I would attempt, though my baking skills are sketchy. I had my mother on the phone with me throughout the process.

My biggist problem was it did not seem as if I had enough dough for the crust. I tried to roll it out really super thin to stretch it but still it barely covered the pie, so no beautiful pie crust edging, oh well.

This is a pic of my first apple pie baked for my dear husband. Yea. It tasted awfully good too!

Then for his birthday we headed up to hike one of the four peaks but sadly there was a road block and no way for us to reach it our long planed for hike. We will have to do it another time.

Instead we just walked around the mountains for awhile and enjoyed the beauty of the day and the lovely tarantulas, the size of our hands, we saw creeping along the road.
Lastly it is our little tradition to go out to eat on our birthdays. So I had Ken't choose a place to eat. He chose Happy Food. I thought, what is Happy Food? Very strange, who would even name a restaurant "Happy Food." Then it made since when he explained he had been wanting to try out this little hole in the wall Chinese food place for awhile. Yep, the food was very happy that the place was very hole in the wall. We'd go again.

Standing

She learning how to stand.

California

We spent the last week in October in California, as Kent got to present his research at a research conference in Anaheim. We spent the week at my (Dayna) parents house. They especially loved having their grandchild at their house for the first time. They set up a high chair for her and everything.

My dad fed her one day and we were very impressed on what an expert he was. She made less of a mess then she ever has with us. My mom was so good a rocking her to sleep. It was so nice to have them around to give me a break of constant baby care. I got to even take a few much needed naps.

Anna did make a bit of a mess with her toys in the house but, oh well. The first day we were there we made a bunch of Halloween cookies for my mom’s pack meeting that night. She is the cut scout leader and it was fun watching her lead the crazy cheers as the boys received their awards.

One day I went with Kent to Anaheim and after his conference we headed down to the Newport Beach Temple to do a session there. It is such a beautiful temple and nice to get away just the two of us.

My parents and I got to work on family history for several hours on day also and get a lot of things organized.

 

 

 

 

Anna loved playing in the grass out side and going on walks with my dad. It was so nice to be back home.

 

On the way home we stopped in Blyth at a park to get Anna’s wiggles out and let her climb a tree.

Halloween

We were in California at my parents house for Halloween this year. Which was a lot of fun.

As Anna did not have a costume, my mom found her a pumpkin costume she could wear to the ward Trunk-or-Treat party. Anna sure made an awfully cute pumpkin.

The rest of us dressed up a bit too, expect for my dad, he said he did not believe in the great pumpkin anymore. My mom was really cute, painted her hair and her face all fun.

Kent and my mom brought Anna up on the stage when it was time to show off the little kids costumes. My mom especially loved sitting up there with her little pumpkin on her lap.

Sunday afternoon we decided to carve our pumpkin. I began drawing a scary face on the pumpkin when my dad came over and looked at it. He said, "Dayna, because it is Sunday, you shouldn’t make a scary Jack-O-lantern.” So I had to make it a happy face. Anna really liked helping me scoop the goop out of the pumpkin.