July and August Activities

My Dad's Birthday 

July 14th was my Dad's birthday and the 1 year anniversary of when we found out we were going to be placed with Aleana and our life would be changed forever.  We are grateful for the decision Aleana's Birthmom made and for the way she has influenced our life.   

 Aleana being busy and crazy like usual

24th of July

For the 24th we went up to Cinnamon creek with our friends the Moores for their family reunion.

Them and both of their families are amazing and have excepted us and family.   

We had a great day spending the day up their playing and hiking.

 Curt and Aleana

 Brigham and Chelsea Moore

 

Chelsea and Ezra

Aleana and Andy

 Guitar Lesson's

Aleana loves music and gets excited every time Curt pulls out his guitar. She strums the strings and slaps the wood.  I think she is a born musician, we will see if she continues her love for music when she gets older.   

  Camp Bartlett Reunion

I worked up at Camp Bartlett in Southern Idaho for 5 summers while I was a teenager.  I loved the place and the people I worked with. Many were family and cousins.  It was a wonderful learning experience for me and helped me grow into the person I am today.  The camp director decided to have a staff reunion on Saturday July 27th so I had Curt, Aleana, and my sister (who also worked at camp) come up with me to see old friends and the beautiful place we worked. 

Here are some pictures!   

 Aleana's 10 month Pictures

 On August 2nd Aleana turned 10 months, she is not going to be a baby much longer.

Aleana is now 20 lbs. and 29 inches and is working on her 8th tooth. 

 Aleana is so much fun and super active.  She is crawling everywhere and is fast too.  She is able to crawl up the landing and the first three stairs. She gets nervous and sometimes tries crawling back down but most of the time she just wines until I come get her.  She also likes to crawl under the computer desk, under tables and chairs, and into places she can barely fit (like behind the rocking chair in the living room where we keep all of our newspaper and she loves to rip up and eat paper).  

  Her new favorite things are anything with a cord especially if it is plugged into the wall, she unplugs them and then tries to plug them back in.  Here favorite is the fan in her room, as soon as it cools down it is coming out. Hopefully that phase will have ended if we need to put a heater in there this winter.  She loves trying to turn on and off light switches.  She also loves the bathroom, tipping over garbage cans, spinning the toilet paper off the roll and putting things into the toilet.  Another thing she loves is opening drawers and unloading everything in them, toys, clothes, DVD's etc.  I am not so worried about the messes but the squished fingers.  It is fun to see her develop new skills but it is tiring.

 She has the funniest little grins and she also started doing this cute little giggle which I know she does just to make us laugh.  I absolutely love it and it makes me laugh every time.

 Still a chewer but I guess she never really stops getting new teeth.

 Say Cheese!

 Model pose.  I just love how her eyes pop!

 She is still a little talker and babbles as she crawls around the house or when we are playing with her. I bet she wont stop talking once she figures it out.  

 Aleana in her cute new crib that we bought for her a few weeks ago. I am glad my friend told me about covering the edges to keep the crib nice because she loves to chew on the sides

 Aleana loves to play chase, she will just start laughing if we starting crawling after her saying "I am going to get you."  Also she will sometimes chase us back.  It is fun to start being able to play with her more.

Aleana loves it out side.  Sometimes when I am doing dishes or cooking she will sit and look out the back window. I usually could take a brake too so I take her out to play on the grass.  Aleana has also learned how to wave good bye and waves to us or visitors when leaving.  It is the cutest thing!  

Silly little girl loves to play with her spoons and is not a big fan of eating.  Sometimes I can trick her into eating if I have two spoons and I give her a bite of food and let her bite the spoon and sneak away the spoon she is holding. She is still pretty good at feeding her self but often does not get a lot in her mouth so it is a good thing she still loves her bottle and formula. However I have the challenge of getting her to take milk from a Sippy cup and getting her off of the bottle. It will be nice when she can take fresh cow's milk because formula is expensive.  I love my little girl but she does come with some fun challenges.

 7 year Anniversary!!!

Wow time flies when you are having fun.  On August 4th we celebrated our 7 year wedding Anniversary.  These years have been amazing being married to the best man in the world and this last has been one of our best years!  Preparing for Aleana, getting to be her parents for the past 10 months, finalizing the adoption, and taking her to the temple to be sealed to us for eternity.   

 I love this man and I am grateful he has been by me these past 7 years!

 To celebrate we spent a night at anniversary inn and my parents came up and watched Aleana. 

It was my first night away from her and I handled it really well and I think Aleana did too except she wanted to stay up and party with my parents past her bed time.  We were going to have Julee come up and stay the night with Aleana, but she tore a tendon in her foot the night before she was planning to come up so I am grateful my parents could come up.  Also I am glad Chelsie Atkinson was willing to watch her in the morning when my parents had to leave to go to Kristal Sabitis’s Wedding.

We stayed in the Arabian nights room which was nice.  It was good to have some time alone.

Wow time flies when you are having fun.  On August 4th we celebrated our 7 year wedding Anniversary.  These years have been amazing being married to the best man in the world and this last has been one of our best years; preparing for Aleana, getting to be her parents for the past 10 months, finalizing the adoption, and taking her to the temple to be sealed to us for eternity.   I love my family!

 Aleana's First Fair

 On Saturday August 10th We took Aleana to her first fair! We did not get there until later in the day because Curt had been gone at scout camp, so we were not able to stay very long but it was fun to go and play at the fair.

 She loved seeing the animals, I think the Lambs were her favorite

We brought my sister Debbie along with us.

Aleana also enjoyed seeing the farming equipment she love 

vehicles, wheels, and random gadgets so they were right up her alley.  

Getting a shoulder ride from dad.

My videos don't load very well but I got some cute ones of Aleana jamming out to the music while we were looking at the booths and eating dinner.  It was fun and I can't wait until next year!