Christmas Traditions

I love Christmas traditions! We don't have any that are super unique, but I love them just the same. So here's the play by play. Every Christmas Eve we go down to Andy and Melissa's house and stuff ourselves so full with the most delicious food.

We have lots of fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa Behrend because we hardly ever get to.

And of course we act out the Nativity. This was Aliah's first year being in the pagent. She loved dressing up like an angel and going to see baby Jesus.

Then of course the night ends with Christmas PJ's!

Christmas morning was great too. We opened presents then went over to Spencer's mom's to open more presents. Then we met back at my dad's to eat a Christmas Feast, and of course, open more presents! Here's Aliah with all her loot.

(Just to brag about my savvy shoping, we only spent $30 on her!)

I arranged for a talent show in both families. Unfortunately I can't upload any video, but it was really great. We had singing, piano, guitar, flute, cello, and even a saxophone number. I'm so excited to make my family do it again year after year and take credit for this grand new tradition!

We hope everyone's Christmas was Merry and Bright! Ours sure was thanks to great friends and family!

A Fun Couple of Weeks

We have had a fun couple of weeks! School's out and I'm LOVING being a stay at home mom! It's going to kill me all over again when school starts back up in Jan. I'm so happy to have been home for all the fun stuff the girls have been doing though! Inara started rolling over, and eating rice cereal. She LOVES it! She's always grabbing the spoon and pulling it into her mouth.

And Aliah has started potty training, again. She's really not any more into it then she was last time. It's just something for her to do if she's in the mood really. (It's nice to have my own cheer leader though for when I go. Each time I flush I get a "Yeah Mommy! Big girl Mommy! Treat Mommy." It's great. And I do always get myself a treat! :)) I realize it's much more work then I'm willing to put into it. But if I don't do it now when I'm home from school, when will I?

The girls also met Santa for the first time. Or course Inara couldn't have cared less, but Aliah didn't want anything to do with him. Well I take that back, she wanted his candy, but wouldn't sit on his lap or talk to him.


The girls are growing up way to fast! And they are having a lot of fun playing together. For all of you out there (and there happen to be a bunch) who are pregnant with your second baby, two really is better then one! Here's a little preview of the great things to come!


Telling secrets. (Sitting in a toy bin. Don't ask, I don't know.)

Watching movies. (I think Inara looks like Steph's baby Sage in this picture.)

And genuinely having a good time doing everything together. It's really easy to get Aliah to do things now because all we have to say is, "Inara is doing it." Works every time. Except once when I wanted to cut the girls nails. Instead of agreeing, Aliah ran away yelling, "Nawa no, hurry, it's owie!"

Oh I love these little treasures!

A First

Aliah had her first hair cut the other day. I took her with me to the salon when I went to get my hair done for my birthday. She LOVED it. I didn't think she would hold still at all, but she soaked it up and kept saying she was a princess. It was very cute.

She loved the cloak Jenni put on her.

Here's the new Aliah. She doesn't look any differend really, but her mullet is gone now. Jen is sweet she didn't make me pay for Aliah's haircut. We grew up around the corner from eachother and she does my hair every year for my birthday.

Here's me after my haircut. I'm holding 13 inches of hair that I donated to Locks of Love.

The Best Day of my Life

A little over a year ago I wrote a mass email telling everyone about the best day of my life. It was one lazy afternoon when Aliah was maybe a year old and she was laying on my stomach and we were both laughing our guts out at each other. Do you remember? Well I didn't think anything could top that but today something did. Aliah was dancing and singing around and apparently Inara thought it was the funniest thing in the whole world because she was laughing harder then any of us. It was Inara's first time laughing so it was so fun to hear anyway, but having my two little treasures laughing together was just music to my ears. I'm happy to report I have a new Best Day Ever!

We're Off To See The Wizard

Dorothy

Lion

TinWoman and Scarecrow

Here's my cute family in our Halloween costumes. I love dressing up. Spence and I have already planned next years outfits. I guess some people would say we're out of control. Oh well, I love it!


Spence and I also went to a couples costume party thrown by some friends in our ward, it was a lot of fun. We dressed up as Jack and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. This isn't a great picture, because you can't see our outfits very well, and they were the best part. I forgot my camera. :( But at least it's something!

Fall Fun and a Bunch of Pictures (A Power Post)

We went to the pumpkin patch today. I've never been before. I didn't really like it, but that was probably because I was by myself. And Inara was crying most of the time. This picture turned out really cute though, and I'm already dreaming up the perfect scrapbook page to compliment it. (Someday I'll post my pages.) Doesn't Aliah's smile in this picture just melt your heart? She's so much fun.


She wanted her picture taken with all of these. She got her head stuck once. It was pretty funny. She didn't care about anything there, not even the animals. Except for the ducks of course. She always likes ducks.


Here Aliah is painting pumpkins with her cousins Tavia and Joanna. I think Joanna looks so pretty. (She's the one looking at the camera.) Her dimples are so cute. (Tavia is adorable too, but you can't really see her face.) Aliah had so much fun. She loves crafts and things that let her work with her hands. Eventually she started eating the paint so we had to make her stop. We'll see if there are any long term effects when she starts school. :)

(Oh funny side story. The other day I was writing a card to someone, a real card with a pen. And I drew a smily face like this. :) Like I was typing. I laughed so hard. We sure live in a technical era huh. I can't even write normal anymore!)


These are the girls Halloween Party outfits. I didn't want their costumes ruined before the big day.

Lets see, what else?

This was kind of funny. We left the girls with Spencer's mom for a couple of hours and forgot diapers, so when I picked them up Inara was in this towel. It's a good thing she wasn't with someone in my generation because they wouldn't have know how to use a cloth diaper. We were so lucky. It made me think about using cloth diapers all the time. It seems a lot more environmentaly friendly, plus I'm sure it's better on the baby's sensitive skin. They still have diaper services right?

My sister Abby and Brother-in-Law Joey were here from Virginia. It was great. We had a baby shower for Abby, and went to the BYU game together. (Go Courgars!)


ALSO...
We made lots and lots of applesauce and various other apple things. It was a good harvest.

Here are my spoils, minus the stuff we already ate, and the other 2/3 that stayed at my sister Sarah's house. We also did peaches and apricots this year.


Here's my unbelievable handsome husband, (seriously he's like a movie star!) with my two beautiful children. I'm the luckiest person in the world.

This last picture is my favorite. What a gorgeous little girl Inara is turning into! Her smile is kind of goofy, but I just had to show it off. It's so big, and when she sees me she always smiles like this. It just melts me. (Like Aliah's smile in the first picture.)


I'll leave you with this little video. We call this freestyle walking.

Being a mom is SO great!

Thriller

My most amazing niece Kailey is in Thriller with the Odyssey Dance Company this year, (she's only 14!) and I'm SO proud of her. She works SO hard! She goes to dance class almost every day and still gets great grades and has tons of friends. I don't know how she does it all because every time I see her she acts like she's got nothing in the world going on. She's just so laid back and casual. Anyway I thought I'd post some pictures of her so I can brag. It's about time I wrote about something other then myself and my kids. My big family is the greatest in the world and I'm so proud of all of them!

Kailey is the oldest, then working down are my nieces Gabraylie, Ellary, and Zoey.


Kailey is in the bottom left corner.

My Witch's Boot

I made this Witch's Boot at Enrichment. I think it's cute. Thought I should show it off. I love crafts.

Bragging Rights

Last night I was planning on making a post bragging about how Inara is just three months old but sleeps all night now that she's learned to suck her thumb. But I feel asleep nursing her to sleep. (I don't want to hear from anyone that I shouldn't nurse her to sleep. I don't care.) And then she was up five or six times. So forget the good post.

Kiwi

Kiwi’s homeland is known as New Zealand, however it was actually first grown in China, and its real name is Chinese gooseberry. This fruit is grown in many European countries but the most appropriate country for Kiwi cultivation is New Zealand due to the climate and the soil. It has an oval and round shape with a rough and feathery outside. Inside it has seeds and it is green with a sweet and sour taste. And today it almost killed me. Well not really. My sister Abby was having some kiwi this afternoon and offered me some. I had never tasted kiwi before so I took a bite. (Just one!) I liked it and quickly decided I was going to start buying them. Until about three minutes later when my mouth filled with sores and my throat closed up. It's a good thing I only took one bite! My brother-in-law took me to get some Benedryl but the pharmacist told me it would dry up my milk if I took very much. That scared me so I decided to wait it out and hope it calmed down. After about an hour it did but it still hurt to swallow. Now I'm totally fine. Isn't it a fun adventure to find out your allergic to something at age 26?!

My Aliah

Aliah is just totally amazing! She's so smart, and goofy, and sweet. (And throws great tantrums when she feels like it.) It's like she's always performing. She's full of fake laughs and fake cries. And she says the greatest things like "hug-a my Leah" when she wants you to hold her. She groups things together too. For example, all drinks are "juke" (juice) and all blankets, pillows, beds, etc. are "naps." All food is "cheetah." We have no idea where that came from, but we say it all the time now. When dinner is ready she'll yell down the hall, "cheetah daddy." That means come to the table. It's so cool because we can totally have a conversation now.

This morning I couldn't stand to leave for school because she was being so adorable, so I just skipped it and stayed home to play. She's just getting so big so fast!

(Patiently waiting in line for her turn on the obstacle course.)

She's really creative too. She'll make up songs and dances. And when she dances her movements will change depending on the type of song. If it's up beat she'll smile and dance crazy, and if it's a slow song she'll put on her serious face and make smooth long movements. It's so great watching her change moods. We were telling stories the other day and it was her turn. She totally made up a whole story about a how this princess was sad because she didn't have her blankey. It was so cool!

(This video is dark because we're in a fort that we built, and this isn't her best story telling, but the story she told all by herelf was too long and blogger wouldn't upload it. But you'll get the idea of how cute it is.)

She LOVES to help. She's always, always helping. "I help" means two things. Either I want to help you, or I want to do it myself. She's getting very independent.

(Helping dad paint her art table.)

(Helping dad fix his bike.)

(Helping mom make chocolate cake.)

This last couple of weeks I've felt my greatest joys and deepest sadness as a parent. The sadness came the other day at the store. Aliah walked up and said hi to a group of kids and no one said hi back. She just watched them walk away, the smile melted off her face. She put her head down and slumped her shoulders as she slowly walked back over to our cart. I lost it right there in the Home Depot. I gave her a big hug and just started crying. I couldn't believe the sadness she felt. That I felt! I'm so afraid of not being able to protect her from the cruelty of the world. But she's so strong; she totally rebounded and within a minute was back to her happy self.

She's so sensitive to peoples feelings. If anyone seems sad she gives them a big hug and asks "okay?" Or she'll do a fake cry to try to empathize and give them her blankey. (That's a REALLY big deal.) It's really super sweet and it makes it impossible to keep feeling upset.

Then my greatest joy happened when Aliah and Inara were playing in their room. I walked by the door and Aliah was reading her scripture book to Inara. she kept saying, "three egg diaper." (Those are the words she says every time she reads or counts.) And then she'd show Inara the picture and point and say, "Jesus." When I walked back by a second later Aliah was folding her arms, and with her head down was saying a prayer with Inara. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to walk by at the right time so that I saw that sweetest of all moments. Spencer and I decided our job was done. Our job is to have kids and teach them the gospel right?! Well it looks like Aliah's got it, so I think we're all set.

Honesty Aliah's greatness has nothing to do with us; we are just so blessed to have her as our daughter. I love her so much more then I could ever put into words. My mom once said in her journal that she was looking in on her sleeping son and thinking about how fiercely she loved him. Then she thought, if I love him this much I can't imagine how fiercely Heavenly Father loves me. Isn't that a beautiful thought?

I'm so happy to be a mother. It truly is my greatest joy.