Way Back When

I haven't ever missed my hair until I found this picture today. I also didn't realize I still had so much baby weight from Inara. Man I was skinny! Aliah is a year old in this picture, I figure I have six months left to look like this again.

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!