Aliyah Turns One!!

We had a great celebration for Aliyah's 1st birthday. Some of Jason's family came down to have a party with us! She wasn't sure about the cake, but had no problems eating the ice cream.

Here is her cake! She is obsessed with a certain pink bear of hers. She looked at the cake and said, "bea" which is her way of saying bear.


She loves fire!


She usually is a mess at the table, but was being so neat with her cake!

Eventually, it got a little messy!

This is a video of Aliyah showing how old she is.

Aliyah was definitely spoiled with presents. She received a book and toys from Grandma and Grandpa Harrison, a skirt from her aunt/uncle and cousins, a cute pink coat and book from Grammy and Grandpa Winkel, and toys and a dress from mom and dad.

Here she is showing off her new dress!


Aliyah went in for her 12 month appointment and she is very healthy, but still afraid of the doctor. She was jumping around and singing until he walked in and then was very serious until he left. Poor guy! Anyway here are her stats:

Weight: 18 lbs 8 oz
Height: 29 inch

We have loved the last year together with our adorable little girl. She is learning things so quickly and never seems to want to stop moving. Her favorite words are "bea" for bear, "dog", "num-num" for yummy, and "mama" and "dada". She also always says "wa dat" and points to everything. It is so cute! The other night she sang herself to sleep. How could life get any better?

She just walks all over carrying her pink bear.


I have learned a lot in the past year of being a mom. That her schedule is my schedule, something that worked one time most likely will never work again, singing and dancing keeps everyone sane, the longer you are a mom the goofier you get, cheerios are never meant to be eaten but thrown, a good nap can make a mom's day, your own clothes become an art canvas, anything that shouldn't be a toy is, but one thing is for sure, you never imagine that you could possibly love them more, but it only gets stronger. She is such a joy in our lives! She makes us smile everyday!

Autumn Days!

I just love fall and wish it would last much longer than it seems to. We have already had two days of snow so it looking like it may be a shorter fall than normal. I can't get enough of the changing colors around us. We live in such a gorgeous area and get to see some many amazing colors in the falling leaves.

I couldn't resist getting Aliyah in her adorable jacket and taking some pictures in the bright leaves. She is so gorgeous but really hates staying still for a picture.



Aliyah is a non-stop mover these days and walks all over the apartment. She doesn't crawl anymore unless she has shoes on. Aliyah HATES shoes! I don't know many girls who have this problem, but it may save us some money in the future.

Because she now walks all over, she is finding new places to explore in our small apartment. She has recently discovered our food storage which takes up all of Jason's side of the closet (sorry, dear). She doesn't ever attempt eating it luckily, but one day I found her sneaking some fruit snacks and she even found herself a rootbeer to go along with them. I had been busy scrubbing the floor and she came walking in holding the rootbeer trying to drink from it.

This is the best picture I could get of the guilty face since she tried running away so I couldn't take it away!


Don't you wish they would always wake up from a nap like this? Crazy bed-head yet so happy!!


She sure is fun to have in our family and she is such a daddy's girl. I have to hold her back when Jason leaves for work and deal with her crying and pounding on the door for him to come back. Jason is in heaven though!