Oh my goodness!!! Time is flying. Alyssa is now our big 2 year old! She is talking and singing and dancing like CRAZY! She keeps us busy, that is FOR SURE! Now, we have another little girl on the way, and we often wonder what we were thinking adding another one to the mix. Alyssa is great, don't get me wrong, but she is a handful. We are always running with her, and never slow down. She doesn't stop until we MAKE her stop, and even then, it can be a challenge. She is as adventurous as they come and will try just about anything without fear. Since I've once again waited forever to update, there will be lots of pics from winter up to a couple of days ago including Alyssa's Birthday.

Here she is loving the snow!!

Alyssa with cousins Kyri and Graysen. We are so glad we live close enough that we get to play with them every once in awhile.

Here is a great picture of Mauri and 2 of her kids, just days before little Tanzi was born. Seriously!!! like 3 days before!

Oh how she LOVES smoothies! Delicious!

BUT, I'm pretty sure she loved her birthday cake and ice cream even more!!

I am not the craftiest person around, so I was pretty proud of myself for making this cute birthday cake. Alyssa LOVED it. I guess that's really all that matters!

What a goof!! Wearing dad's safety goggles! Jason would say she just looks like her nerdy mom with her glasses on! :)

So, as you know, this past weekend was the 4th of July. Alyssa LOVED all the fireworks. She was running around yelling "BOOM" all Friday night. (which is when Logan did their fireworks). Then, we went over to Bear Lake on the 4th where she had the time of her life. First of all, she LOVES going to Grandma ReNee's restaraunt to eat. Grilled cheese are her favorite, plus the ice cream of course. Then her Papa and dad decided to go drive the go-carts, and Alyssa got to go along for the ride. She absolutely loved that. Then we went to the parade in Paris ID. I think she was a little overwhelmed at first. She just stood there and stared as the floats (if you can call them that) threw candy. Once she figured it out though, she was running and picking up all the candy she could. Then, we went to North Beach where she played in the water and the sand. What a fun weekend!!!

Here she is getting strapped into the go-cart! How exciting!!!

There they all are! Ready to roll!!

If Brent's face is any indication of how much fun they were having, Alyssa must have been having a ball. Too bad you can't see her face over the steering wheel!

It wasn't the warmest day at the lake, but that didn't stop her from getting all wet, and playing in the sand to her heart's content! She can't wait to play at the lake with all of her cousins!!!

Once again, I am starting a post by saying that it has been a long time since I've posted. (I am starting to notice a trend here) Anyway, it truly has been awhile, so this post contains photos and what-not clear back from Thanksgiving. I wish I were better at posting regularly so I could write down all the silly things Alyssa does. She is growing SO fast, and says and does the funniest things. Some of her favorite things to say are:

"ouch-a-reena"

"Oh gosh"

"I do it"

"come mommy"

"what doin?"

Just to name a few. She has also become a mocking bird. Always repeating what we say. We have learned in a hurry to watch what we say. She has already said "oh crap" and "stupid" a couple of times, but only after either myself or Jason says it first. We just love her to pieces and have loved watching her learn and grow. Even though time has flown by, and we can't believe she'll be 2 in May.

Here is a picture of Alyssa eating some clam chowder. She LOVES it!!! In fact, a couple of days after this, I tried giving her a different kind of soup and she had the meltdown of the century because it wasn't clam chowder. I only figured it out after she finally quit screaming and said "kind", meaning she wanted a different kind of soup. I luckily had some leftover clam chowder. When I showed it to her, and asked if that was what she wanted, she said "yep", and was as happy as ever when she got it. Silly girl!

For a couple of days Alyssa was obsessed with having me take her picture while standing on this little pan. She would stand on it and say "picture". Needless to say, I have a few pictures of her in this particular pose.

Already loving to dress up! I found this wig while cleaning one day, and she wouldn't take it off. She LOVED looking at herself in the mirror with it on too. Pretty stinkin' cute!


Christmas day at Nana and Papa's house! They bought these fun cars for the grandkids to play with when visiting. Alyssa loves them, and talks about driving whenever we mention going to their house.

Here she is checking out the Jeep! It has taken her awhile to get used to them, but is getting better and better each time.

Sometimes, however, she would rather just play in here instead of with toys. She seriously spent quite a bit of time on Christmas climbing in and out of here.

We spent Thanksgiving in Bear Lake this year with my dad's side of the family. It was cold, but the grandkids all had a blast, and the food was DELICIOUS as always!!

Here is Grandpy with Alyssa and cousin Kennedy on Thanksgiving

In my last post I mentioned that Alyssa has a shoe/foot fetish. She is obsessed with putting anything and everything on her feet. If it looks like a shoe, she'll make it into one! Here are a few pictures to prove it!

This is her just wearing a pair of my fuzzy socks.... along with her Aggie bow which she put on by herself. Nice outfit!!!

Oven mitts??? Seriously!?!?!

She loves wearing my boots. Even if they do go all the way up to her crotch!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Oh, and GO AGGIES!!!

Alyssa absolutely loves her "Aggie dress" as she calls it. Even in the mornings when I go into her her room, she will point to it hanging in her closet and say "Aggie dress." usually followed by a "YAY Aggies". Oh how they learn fast. I don't think her dad would accept her as his daughter any other way! :)

So, for Halloween she was an Aggie cheerleader. We thought about taking her trick-or-treating to a couple of the neighbors' homes, but quickly changed our minds as it began to poor rain. We figured she would enjoy it more next year anyway. Besides, we had more important things to do... like attend an Aggie basketball exhibition game! :) A perfect Halloween for all!


For some reason, our daughter has acquired a shoe fettish. She is obsessed. Her she is turning our empty coke boxes into a large pair of shoes. She really wore them around the kitchen for quite some time! TOO SILLY, and TOO CUTE! :)

What a cute mug!


Just laying around!

So, it has been a very long time since I've updated our blog. Alyssa is now almost 18 months old, and has grown SO much. She talks SO much too. It is fun to see her develop and grow. She loves to sing and dance and run... and boy can she run. It is hard for me to keep up with her sometimes! She is a little spitfire, but we just love her to pieces. So, since I waited so long to update, the majority of this blog is pictures.

Here is our angel enjoying the grass.

Alyssa loves to splash in the tub. Not too sure her older cousins, are enjoying it as much!



I was hoping Grandpa would let me drive his motorhome.



I guess I'll have to stick to the toy cars for now.




Too bad my mom isn't this happy when she wakes up.



If I can put it on my head, it's a hat!

I must have inhereted my mom's crazy hair.

Snuggling with mom.

Looking somber.



All smiles with my cute pigtails.

Alyssa LOVES salsa!!! Here she is with Aunt Andrea eating it like soup.

A highlight of the year for me was attending a Time-Out for Women Conference this September with my sister Mauri and our mom.



Aren't sisters great?!?!



Mom and Mauri at TOFW.




I love Sheri Dew

As sweet as Alyssa is, she can also cause alot of trouble in a short amount of time. Here she is after dumping out an entire box of cereal. At least it kept her happy for awhile!

Daddy is still trying to wake up! AND it looks like Alyssa just did wake up. Nice bed head!

Nice smile!

Well, it has been a long time since I've updated our blog, and I decided I had better get after it, since our little one has now reached the 1 year milestone! I can't believe how quickly this past year has gone by. It is amazing to see all the growth and development a little one can go through in such a short amount of time. Here are a few of the things Alyssa is doing.
. She is walking all by herself, and has been doing so for about a month now.
. She can say ball, mamma, dadda, ah-oh, clock, and tries really hard to say anything and everything else we ask her to say. She also makes lots of animal noises. For dog she says "ff, ff" she can roar like a lion or tiger, and loves to make monkey noises. She is a very vocal little girl.
. She loves to clap and dance to any and all music.
. She also loves to climb in and on anything she is able to.
. She loves to pull faces. Most recently, when you ask her where her eyes are, she closes them really slowly, and sometimes even rolls her eyes at you.
. She still uses a lot of sign language. She signs "baby" for pretty much any little kid she sees, whether they're a baby or not. She signs "eat" pretty much all day. She eats like a pig, even though at her 1 yr checkup she weighed in at only 17.8 lbs. She is on the chart, but at the very bottom. She still signs "ball" even though she can say it. Some of her other signs are; more, please, bath, milk, mommy, daddy, story, play, and all done. She is just the love of our lives, and we can't imagine what life would be like without her. She is such a joy, and brings a smile to our faces almost all the time. She really is a good baby, and we don't have much to complain about where she's concerned.

Cheesin' it up!!!

One of her favorite faces she pulls.

Here she is climbing into the recipe book drawer. This is what she loves to do when hanging out in the kitchen with mom.

Climbing into her "toy" box. Usually she climbs into the box and throws all of her toys out.

She still loves spending time with cousins, and wishes more of them lived close enough for her to spend time with them.

Here she is at Grandma Deb's with another cousin. Grandma loves to play Blind Melon's "No Rain" video for them. They LOVE it!!!

"Don't I look cool in my birthday shades?"

Now that she's walking, it is hard to get a good picture of her.

Most of them are from this angle.

Here she is with the ball daddy got her for her birthday.

It's almost as big as she is, but she still loves trying to carry it around.

Silly Alyssa!!!

"Why did mom and dad keep chocolate cake a secret

from me for so long?? This is awesome!"

"I can't get enough!"

"Sometimes I think my toes come in a close second to chocolate cake!"