Decor

Can't forget to mention.....

Aliyah's special birthday decorations.

The day before her birthday, no birthday decorations could be found.

They are in our Neverneverland basement.......somewhere.

Well, Lexi being the detailed planner that she is, thought it wasn't right for her only sister to have NO birthday decorations on her very FIRST birthday.

So she enlisted the help of her brothers and they got to work.

Alexia even had her daddy draw caterpillars for them to color and coordinate Aliyah's caterpillar cake.

I have to say, I think we should keep the regular birthday decor in Neverneverland.
They are not nearly as fabulous as these creations.
Aliyah's special birthday decor was up way past her birthday.
Rob asked, "Can we take these down yet?"
"No, just a little longer."
Alas, they are no longer beautifying our home.
Until the next birthday.......
That would be Lexi.
Let's see what she comes up with for her very own special decor.

1

It's already happening.

My Lovely Little Aliyah is being disobedient and not listening to me.

No matter how many times I ask her nicely to stop growing up, she does NOT listen.

Pics taken by Mary Alison www.photographybymaryalison.blogspot.com
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She turned the BIG 1!!

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I have to confess.

I am always sad when my babies turn one.

It's amazing within one year, 365 days, how much their little minds and bodies change.

A-mazing!
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The big day started off right with M & M pancakes. I did sneak some white wheat in them. Shhh.

(Notice there's no bib? She absolutely will NOT wear them. Pull, stretch, cry, scream.....you get the idea.)

Then, there was lots of fun with fingerpaints.

However, little Ali was more interested in the wash bucket.




Hmmmm.

We've got paint and water......what's missing.

Oh ya!

Sand!






That afternoon the festivities continued and we headed to the Zoo.

But not without earning some free admission tickets first!

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Hogle Zoo was doing a promotion with Cache Valley dairy products.

For every 4 empty packages that were brought in=1 free admission, up to 4 admissions.







Needless to say, my freezer if FILLED with Cache Valley butter.

We only had to buy ONE ticket=7 dollars.

AWESOME.





Aliyah loved it.



There was lots and lots of pointing and Aliyah talk.







These bats were the creepiest animals at the zoo. Eck!

They were also by far the smelliest!

So glad I am not an elephant!

9 months is ENOUGH torture!

Good thing 9 long months=blessings.

4 crazy kiddos.

Or should I say 4 crazy monkeys.

We said goodbye to the zoo and left with 4 crazy monkeys.

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Next up, presents and cake!

Aliyah was SO exhausted.

Our birthday girl did not appreciate our singing talents.

She did decide to taste her cake.

So many things to love about our little princess.

I pulled the kids aside and individually asked them what they love about Ali.....

Parker: "She's funny! I like her laugh."

Lexi: "I love everything about Aliyah......except for when she wakes me up at night crying!"

Dylan: "She's funny! She makes funny noises and does funny things."

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Little Aliyah is definitely a keeper.

Toothless

"Leave it to a baby to turn your world upside down,

take your breath away and make you fall in love again.

With {her} toothless grin,

your baby sets your heart on fire."
Jan Blaustone, The Joy of Parenthood

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Love this girl.

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My priceless baby is now ONE!

How did that happen?

She's also no longer toothless. Two tiny, sharp cuties on the bottom.

Thank you, my darling, for waiting for the weaning process to begin

before your pearly whites started to appear. So thoughtful.

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It's fun to watch her personality develop.

She's definitely got a feisty side.

She lets her siblings know when she wants to be left alone and when she wants them out of her face.

Mischievous!

Yes, the little miss has started the joyous stage of curiosity and exploring.

She picks random things up and puts them in her mouth. Looks around to see who saw and takes off as fast as her little hands and feet can take her.

Still crawling.

I'm ready for her to walk. Her pants are wearing away.

Diaper changing has become a wrestling match.

She loves the stairs.

Now if only she could get descending the stairs mastered.....without tumbling down them.

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Still taking two naps a day.

Still not sleeping through the night.

Go ahead, cast your judgements and theories.

After a year of waking up every night with her, Rob was so kind to take the night shifts over labor day weekend. Feeding her a bottle in the wee hours of the morning has shown us, she truly is starving in the middle of the night.

Seeing as how she's still teeny,

I suppose I can hang in there a bit longer.

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Love this girl.

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She loves to play in water.

Even cold Bear Lake water.

Even toilet water.....Eck!

She loves to sing with others.

She loves to imitate sounds and gestures.

She knows she's dang cute when she clucks her tongue and pops her lips.

When she hears, "Yay!", she knows it's a good reason to clap her little hands together.

She loves to be outside and gets upset if someone walks out the door without her.

She loves whole milk. "Yay!"

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Her siblings simply adore her.

I really hope it lasts.....forever.

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Love this girl.

Final 7!

It's official.
We are down to the final 7.
Our swim days.... BBQ's with friends...

Carefree days of fun in the sun....

They are all near an end.

How is it possible that in 7 days my kids will be full of first day excitement? They'll slip on their new school clothes, strap on their new backpacks, and happily set off for school. Too bad the happily part doesn't last very long!

Our final days of summer have been and will be jam packed with fun! A mother/daughter overnighter in a friend's cabin, more laughs with friends and amusement ride butterflies will continue at Lagoon, one last park day, $2 Tuesday trip to the dino museum, a night at the ball park, a hopeful day trip to Bear Lake, AND my baby's FIRST birthday! *sniff*

Is it possible to fit all this fun in? You betcha!

Happy final days of summer fun!

He's five and he does the jive!

My sister is a kindergarten teacher.

She really wishes Dylan was going to be one of her students this upcoming school year.

She knows her day would be filled with laughs.

Our birthday king had a couple of peculiar birthday gift requests.

Orange Powerade.
A new toothbrush.
His very own toothpaste.
His very own bag of cheetos. Yum.

Dyl also asked for and received a red two wheel scooter to replace his three wheel scooter. After all, he is growing up you know.

Dyl Pickle chose his birthday cake.
Inside and out.

Hmmm. Red insides.

After cutting the strawberry cake, we couldn't help but talk about what it resembles.

There's so many things to love about this little guy.

Always brings me smiles. Ok, not always.

Has the cutest contagious giggle.

Full of charm.

Love his hair.

I love to watch him with Aliyah.

Aliyah and I sure are going to miss him every Monday-Friday morning when he's in kindergarten.

He can't wait!

My dear Dyl Pickle, thank you for being

YOU!

What to do?

One of my main purposes with this blog is to keep some sort of a family record. I love capturing my munchkins precious faces and documenting some great family times. However, have I been diligent in printing our family record in some fashion? Nope.

So my dear fellow bloggers, I'd love some insight. What do you like to do for paper copies of your blog?

Do you simply print them and put them in a binder? One downfall I see in that is you always get the side margin printed also, which I don't particularly need/want lots of copies of. Unless, there's another trick to printing that I'm unaware of. And yes, I am long over due in updating the side pics and family pic up top. There's no Aliyah!

I at one point last year attempted to create a book on Blurb.com, but I have so much to print that it was just a big nightmare and would have cost a fortune. Blurb wasn't as easy to use as I had hoped.

What about backup? I'd love to save a hard copy. **Gasp** No, I haven't even done that yet.

Many thanks for your help friends!

By the way, is your summer ZOOMING by like mine?

Wowsers!

I was in Hobby Lobby the other day and they of course already have Fall and Christmas decor for sale. I love Fall and Christmas. BUT I want summer to stay awhile!

For the Love of May

I like June.

But May is even better.

May is good to me. I get to celebrate Mother's Day and my birthday.





Mother's Day is a day filled with many wonderful things.

No cooking. No cleaning. Much relaxing.

My Roberto spoils me with lots of delish food.

And of course, there's always the tender homemade gifts from the kids.

Then there's my birthday. I'm not one of those people that dreds their birthday. Don't get me wrong, I don't enjoy the fact that I get older.

Celebrating my birthday is still good times.

Lunch with my mom and a couple of sisters while a dear friend watches my kiddos. Not having to worry about "What's for dinner?". Children who are just as excited to watch me open presents as I am to open them. And of course, a fabulous hubby who always does a great job of planning.

This year, my Roberto surprised me with a "Minute to Win It" party. (What's "Minute to Win It" you ask? A fun game show that my fam enjoys watching together. Definitely worth checking out.)

He even incorporated one of our beloved family birthday traditions......with a twist.

My dear friends wrote very kind words about me and put them in balloons to be popped.

Well, look what was behind those balloons.....

Whoa Nelly! What a beauty! (Am I really posting this for all of you to see?? I must be crazy.)

Many thanks to my love for fun times. Can't wait for next May!

It's a good life.