2015! An update on our life and Aleana.

Wow 2014 has come and gone it was a great year for our family and we look forward to 2014 which is already starting out fast.

Aleana! 

Aleana loves the snow and has been sad that it has not snowed more.  It is not to fun to play out in the cold when there is no snow.  She has got cabin fever quite a bit but has also been sick or her friends have been sick so we have not gotten out a lot. We look for sunny sky's and try to take advantage of any warm day we can.  I love her purple out fit and for those of you who know I love purple I promise I only bought her the purple hat. 

She loves to be involved in most anything we do in the kitchen,  She stand on our stool that she calls "my stool".  She loves it because it helps her to reach and do just about any thing.  One day we were coming home from the store and she ran in the house and saw her stool and said "Hi stool, I love you"

She is very independent and does things herself.  If we try to help she says "My do" or if we are doing something with out her she will run in and say "my help" or "I help you".  She is not a big fan of mixers or vacuums she will plug her ears and say "Aleana's ears loud".  If she sees one or thinks we need to vacuum she will say "Aleana's ears loud" or "that's loud one".   I love that she wants to help but some days I did to be more patient with her stubbornness and independence.   However I do get a little upset, yet want to laugh inside we I come in the kitchen and see her standing on the counter with the cupboard open.  She is also using our entertainment center for a jungle gym and did pull the tv off luckily it is a flat screen and did not fall on her.  We are going to mount it at our house.  She has also colored on the screen and put sicker on it luckily I got it cleaned.

We have a bit of an ant problem so she will let me know if we have ants she will often says "look mom ants" or "look mom I show you".  She will sometimes says "ants eating my socks".  We have been trying to work on keeping food in the kitchen and off the floor so we tell her we don't want the ants to eat it.  Most of the time she will pick things up and say "no ants eat it" but for a few days she was putting food down by the ants and saying "ants eat it".

I think I will see this again when she is older, but she will actually be talking on the phone. She is such a funny girl and thinks she is so grown up. Although there is times she still likes to be carried down the stairs or have help.  She will say "mommy hold you", "hold you" or "hold you hand".  I think she mostly wants help so she can jump down the stairs :)  However if we pick her when she does not want to be picked up she was yell "get out" or "my walk".  It has to be her chose.

She also like to put hair spray or something in her hair and say "oh pretty."

She still loves her TV shows and we can tell when she has turned on the TV because she will run and dive onto the couch.  I have resorted to unplugging the TV so she does not have it on all day. Her favorite movie right now is "Lion King" and some of her new shows she likes to watch are "My Little Pony" and "Wild Kratts"    One of her most common phrases is "ona watch a show"  sometimes that is the fist thing she will say when she wakes up in the morning or from nap. She can start and own movie and loves to watch shows and play games on my tablet, or "mommies tabet"

She loves her peanut butter, but only straight from the jar.  She will sometimes take it on apples and on rare occasions she will actually eat it on bread.  She sure has a mind of her own. 

She wanted to pill the cucumber all by her self so I thought I would let her try.  She did really well! The she decided to drink it instead of eat it, cucumber water anyone:). 

Meal times are still a bit of a challenge but she seems to be eating better and staying at the table t little better. On thing we have been working on is getting her to ask to be excused before she can be done.  Sometimes we have to bring her back to the table to ask but she will ask. It is cute when she does it is something like "pezz may be escuse."  It has been really cute lately she has wanted to set seats at the table or set out food and snacks for her friends Emarie and Addy, or for Layla.  She also likes to put out things for grandma, grandpa and Debbie to pick out.  She is starting to use her imagination and I think she needs to see family and have more play dates with friends.    

She sees us get ready to go out and work on the house and wants to be just like mommy and daddy.  She can be challenging but we are so lucky to have her! 

When one of us leaves she she has to give us hugs, kisses, fives and knuckles and she will tell us "kisses first" or "knuckles first" if we forget.  She also good at saying "I love you" or "I love you too".  She started this new thing that I thought was so cute.  One day daddy came home and she gave him a hug and said "I miss you too".  Curt will come home and say "I missed you".  Know she is saying it back with out any prompting.   Other cute thing she says are tooth past or what should like "my face".  

She mostly likes to play out side but I can get her to play inside with toys sometimes, she likes to play with her animals and lego, as well as her dolls and stuffed animals. She loves to "fall mommy over" and use me as a jungle gym.  We did line up pillows and jump on them yesterday which she thought was fun.  I can also get her to do art project for a while. 

Everything seems to have a house "Macey's house" "beddies house" "toilets house" and "nursery's house".  She comes up with the funnest things.  She loves to watch Curt bless and pass the sacrament and has actually tired to runny and find him during the sacrament, although she is really good at taking the sacrament when it is brought to us.   She also loves to crawl under the benches and play with friends who are sitting near us or just sit and look at a book in the middle of the isle.  I don't know if this is bad but she likes to go in after church while Curt is picking up the garbage and sit at the sacrament table and say a little pray.  Then she will go to the first bench and pretend she is giving them sacrament.  At least I know she is paying attention and learning something.  

She can be really bossy and we are working on having her ask for things nicely, but it kind of makes me chuckle when she yells "Open this door", "Shut this door", "Eat your dinner right now", or "No". Although when she get upset and hits me or tries to scratch my face then that does not make me happy.  It must come naturally to girls because we have never hit her or scratched her or scratched her face.   Today at the store she want to walk and was doing good but ran away from me so I chased her and picked her up and she got upset and hit me in the face.  She has got an arm on her.  I had to carry her around for a while and she did not like it but she stayed with me after that.  

Sometimes it is hard to get her into her car seat and I think I have been to lacks with her at times, but when we are at home it is often easier because she loves to open the garage and that can kind of bride her.  Often the actually trip is not as hard as getting her back into the car after.  I love her and will have to find ways to make things easier.  

On another note Aleana is getting her last 2 year old molar,  she is in a lot of pain right now but hopefully it will be in soon and she will have a break for a while.

Our House

For an update on Curt and I is pretty much we have been build our house and will be for quite a while :).  It has been stressful at times trying to get in all our hours especially with the cold weather and sicknesses.  Both us and the Galvin's have taken our turn being sick which has made trading hard, but we have amazing family and friends who have stepped into babysit and come out to help so that we can continue this program. Also I have been stressed with getting Aleana to nap on time so we can get out to the work site, she has been doing better so hopefully it stays that way. Aleana also misses her Daddy a lot and has acted out more so we hope the rest of this process goes quickly.  I know we still have a long road ahead of us but if we are diligent we will have our own house by the end.  

Here are some more pictures of our our house.  We also have most of a garage which I do not have a picture of yet. 

Curt, his Dad and another worker names Celeste.  Curt mom, sister and grandma where watching Aleana. 

Add caMe and my Dad.  He tries to come about 2 Saturday a month and mom help some and babysits.

Aleana's first prayers.

For a while now Aleana has liked to help us say prayers and will copy what we say and say small parts on her on like "Jesus Christ Amen".  Tonight she wanted to say her own prayer for dinner.  I could not really understand what she was saying but her dinner, mom, dad, Aleana, thank you and bless you.  I thought I would help her close her prayer and she stops put her hand up and says "No I say it"  she proceeded and then closed with "name of Jesus Christ Amen" I could not help from laughing.  It is amazing how much she picks up and how sweet and innocent she is.    

Tonight before bed she wanted to say it so we let her and when she was done I tried to say family prayer.  She stopped me and said "no I say it" and said a second prayer.  Then she let me say family prayer. She is learning so fast and I am so proud of my independent little girl.

New Years Eve!

 On Christmas Eve we made to Temple Square to see the lights.  Aleana loved all the lights and seeing the temple.  She did not like us stopping her to take pictures because she just wanted to run and see more. 

We took her into see the statue of Jesus and they played the audio.  Aleana started looking around and we told her Jesus was talking.  She looked excited and said "Jesus is talking to me" the rest of the evening and the next few days she kept telling people.  "Jesus was talking to me."   I love her sweet and innocent faith.  Also when we went out side and heard the native scene she said "Baby Jesus talking to me outside"   

We spent New Years Eve with Julee just watching shows and then we spent the next few days at Curt's parents because Tiffany and her family came up from New Mexico to Visit.  Tiffany is having a baby boy!