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!"

Our new backyard!

As many of you may remember, if you've been to our house, we used to have this beautiful wooded area directly behind our home. It was the main reason we purchased our home. It seperated us from the neighbors behind our home, and gave us some sense of seclusion. We loved the quiet peacefulness of the area. Well, this is to be NO MORE!!! Sadly the city has decided to put a park in back there. Jason and I were so upset when we heard this because we knew they would come in and ruin this beautiful area. Our idiot neighbors seemed to think it was a great idea to get the city involved. They are all now up in arms as the city has come in and cut many live trees down, and leveled much of the area. (what did they think was going to happen? That's what we'd like to know) The neighbors have gotten articles written in the local paper and have even been on the radio stating that the area is now ruined. As sad as we are about it, we are even more upset that our neighbors did not see this coming. Oh well... maybe someday when we're rich we can buy a nice big house out in the country!!! Untill then, we will have to deal with this!

This is what it looked like before the city started cutting the trees down. Mind you, this pictures was taken in August when the trees all had leaves.

And this is what it looks like now!

If you look closley, you can see a city worker sawing down one of the trees.


Here is a large tree trunk where there used to be a huge 70 ft. beautfiful willow tree.


This is what I have woke up to every morning for the past week at 7:30 am. This equipment litterally shakes our house! So much for nice peaceful mornings. Luckily Alyssa's bedroom is on the other side of the house, and it doesn't seem to bother her too much.
Such a sad affair!!!!

This past week we were able to go to Pocatello to spend a few days with my family. (by we, I mean me and Alyssa) We had a great time with Tawn's sister Mauri and her kids, and Tawn's sister-in-law Nichole and her kids. It seemed the smaller kiddies loved spending time in the kitchen. They are kind-of like dogs in that respect. They are always scavenging for food. When one of them drops food from the highchair, you can bet the other two will find it. It was fun to watch them. I am excited for them to get a little older so they can interact with each other a little more. Right now they just roll around on the floor together and steal each others toys. Graysen was not too happy when we took Alyssa's binki away from him. Although, he took it away from Alyssa first. Funny kids!!

Zane playing under the table in the kitchen


The older kids loved having Grandma or Grandpa read them stories. It was pretty much the only time you could catch Brody holding still.

Rub-a-dub-dub four kids in the tub.

Alyssa had fun peeking at Grandma through the refrigerator door. Good thing Grandma spotted her, or she might have gotten her fingers shut in the door.

Here she is from the Grandma's view inside the fridge. "Peek-a-boo I see you."

I'm not sure why, but Alyssa was somewhat obsessed with Mauri's little red cooler. She was always climbing around on it. I say, "whatever makes them happy."

Zane, the instigator, getting them both into trouble. It wouldn't be so bad if half of the things in there weren't made of glass.

It's just so much fun!!!

About a week before our trip to Pocatello, Mauri and her kids came to Logan. We decided to go visit Great Grandma Dora. Kyri loved sitting on Grandma Dora's lap. The other two kids had more fun crawling around and getting into mischief.