Tuesday, August 13, 2013

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!  


Monday, July 15, 2013

Summer Fun!

My 9 month old Little Aleana

On July 2nd my little princess turned 9 months old!  
Aleana has 7 teeth and just cut her 8th tooth yesterday.
She weighs 19 lbs. 3.5 oz. and is 28 3/4 inches tall. 
Here car seat only goes to 22lbs and 29 inches,
so we have ordered her a new car seat and we are just waiting for it to come.  
We also deiced to get her a crib and Curt's dad brought up her
 dresser/change table today that he refinished. She is actually going to have a bit of a bedroom set.  
 She is such a happy little girl most of the time. 
She loves to wave at and play with other children,e specially her little friend Kaylee.
Also loves to babble in her baby talk like she is trying to tell us something. 
 I think she is going to be a talker like her birthmom.  
 However when she is upset, tired or hungry she lets everyone know.
 She is a dramatic little girl and is either really happy or really sad and not much in between.
 She is still so curious about the world around her, I think it is so fun to watch her explore and learn, but I have to follow her around because she gets into everything and everything she touches goes right into her mouth.
This little girl still loves books and I hope she will always be that way.
The best way I can get her to hold still to change her diaper
is to give her a book to look at.
 She still has a bit of a hard time allowing me to read her a book
because she thinks that she needs to play with it.  Having her turn the
 pages helps but not for too long.  At least I am trying.  

I thought it was really cute, she was holding this book and just laughing.
  The best part about it is that her half sister looks a lot like Dora
 and she loves her sister.
She loves to just be on the floor playing, she really does not like to be held much unless she is eating. 
We discovered this weekend that she loves large stuffed animals. When were at the store looking at cribs and she getting so excited about the large giraffe and tiger.  So I pulled out my stuffed animals for her, she seems to like my big teddy bear.  I think she is going to love the Zoo I hope that she is ok with the fact that she can't pet the animals :).  

She really enjoys this toy she got from her birthmother
and playing with our old VHS's and Video games.  She loves the
controller because it has lots of fun buttons to push.
Baby on the Go!
She crawls everywhere and follows me around the house, 
except up and down the stairs.  
She is like an adorable little puppy dog.



My happy little girl.  She is getting better at allowing me to feed her so she get something besides milk and cereal.  She loves to feed herself anything dry that is easy to pick up and is not a fan of anything that is soft like fruits and veggies.  We will slowly work towards more table food, but we have to be careful with bread products because she throws them up. Hopefully she is not allergic!

Aleana's First 4th of July!


We are at our annual 4th of July picnic with my mom's family.
It is fun to be able to spend time with family.
Me, Aleana, my sister in law Kathy and her baby.
Aleana's first Stauffer cousin.

Aleana has a lot of second cousins, here are just a
 few with her and my cousin Joy.
There were about ten born these last two years.
 She will love playing with the next 4th of July  
Aunt Debbie
Mommy and Aleana
We did not take her to any parades or fireworks,
maybe next year when she is a little older.
Curt and I just stepped onto our back porch and watched the ones at the Stadium.

Family Reunion 

We went up to my Grandma Taylors Cabin up in Liberty with Curt's family starting the evening of the 4th and headed home the morning of Sunday July 7th.
We mostly enjoyed spending time around the cabin visiting, playing, roasting marshmallows and eating.  
On Friday we went to the Dinosaur Park with and the Air Force Museum.  But we forgot to grab our camera. The kids loved seeing the Dino's and digging for fossils in the sand.  They also enjoyed going into the Dino Museum, especially the animatronics Dino show at the end.
The Air Force Museum was fun but really hot and everyone was tired by the end.
It was cool to see the plans that Curt's Dad worked in the War as an airplane mechanic. 
That evening we watched Lee's Slides from the war.  
Tiffany is getting married next weekend in New Mexico to a Guy named Tyler Brown.
She is going to become a mom of three. So we throw her a bridal shower.   
Here are a few pictures
Ryan and Lisa and Marianna
Tiff and Emmy opening presents
Here is Aleana after she was cleaned up and clamed down from throwing up the pancake I gave her for breakfast.  I guess that was her present to Tiff. No more bread product for Aleana for a while.  
Mathew and Emmy Playing Star Wars with the Bubble wands Julee gave to the kids.
Julee
Curt and Aleana

After the baby shower we went to the Huntsville Cemetery to see the gave sights of some ancestors.
My Brother Allen came up that night to take some family pictures.  Here are a few.
 Family minuses two
 Grandpa and Grandma with grandkids
The Boys

 The Girls
 Our little family
Aleana exploring the cabin, she wanted to play with everything!
She loved these pillows and giggle when she was them.  There was also one with a Elk. 
Especially when she was sitting with Tiff or Julee.  

Becca and Julee
Curt and Marianna
Mathew and Tiff playing Pit
Hannah and Aleana playing,
Aleana loved playing with her cousin especially Hannah and her cousin enjoyed playing with her.   
Becca and Aleana
Curt and the kids
Marianna
 Emmy and Aleana with a funny face.

We had a fun time being together as a family. Thanks everyone for all the help!  

Swimming

Our friends Josh, Lindsey and Ethan Boucher we in town from Iowa last week to spend the 4th of July with their families and they decided to come up to Logan for a day.  Another friend, the Robison's, had a ward pool day so we all went swimming.  I wanted to get a picture of us the Boucher's but I forgot.  I did get some of us and Aleana in the pool. 



This was her second time, she loves swimming. She kicks her legs, splashes and lays flat on her back on top of the water. I will have to do mommy and me swim class with her next summer.