Swimming Lessons

Ali had her first swimming lessons this past week!  It's a mommy and me class.  She was the only little girl in her class.

I promise we did listen and follow directions!

Ali loved 'jumping' in from the side of the pool!  She would scoot her little body to the edge and kinda flop in.

Ali didn't love the floating on her back part.  It really seems to stress her out, but by the end she wasn't freaking out quite as badly. 

She really did a great job and even blew bubbles! I admit that I had a hard time sticking my face in the water to show her how. These lessons are in a tiny little pool with LOTS of kids. I can only imagine what fun stuff was in the pool.
It was a great time though and I'm excited for Aliyah to learn more!

Glasses

We have been telling Ali how beautiful she is for 2 years, but now she believes us because she can see it for herself!  Ali got her glasses this past week.  This picture is of her looking in the mirror at herself.

She does pretty good at keeping them on.  I think she likes being able to see better!  The only problem is that she takes them off to look at them, then she can't get them back on.  We are starting out with letting her wear them with supervision, but soon she can wear them all the time! 
Beautiful, beautiful girl!

Making Money

A while ago Ali and I went with two of my sisters and my mom to the movie "Pitch Perfect" at the theater.  While we were buying our tickets, Annaka was holding Ali.  There was an elderly man behind her that was talking to Ali.  The next thing I knew, Annaka was showing me that Ali was eating this silver dollar.  The elderly man gave it to Ali to put in her piggy bank (she's getting one for her birthday from Aunt Annaka).  I had to confiscate it, but we'll definitely put it in her bank!  It's a rare day that I go to a store or any public place that Aliyah doesn't make a new friend!  How would it be to be so cute that people literally just give you money?

Tornado Child

While Stuart and I were watching conference a few weeks back, Ali was busy unloading EVERYTHING!

 

After she was done in one area, she moved on to another!  She was crazy busy!  Usually she'll unload a thing or two, but this time she felt as though she needed to unload everything she could find!

CA Vacation: The Hotel

So, Ali and I kidnapped Stuart for a little weekend vacation!  We took him to Long Beach, CA!  We flew out on a friday, and got home on a monday.  It was awesome! 

Ali loved walking around the bed.  She kept popping up in different places smiling. :)

 

Daddy and Ali chilling before dinner.

Our cute little family!

 

Yes, Ali slept in the bathroom.  She sleeps so much better in her own room (and so do we).  It worked out great!

Ali did great on the plane.  When we hit turbulence or an alititude change, she would giggle!  Now we know she will do great flying to Cancun in January!!! :)

CA Vacation: LA Zoo

We went to the LA Zoo while on our little vacation.  It was tons of fun and a very beautiful zoo!  It also is a botanical garden, so it's very beautiful... nothing like our hot dry zoo here in Utah. :)

I'm pretty sure Ali didn't see most of the animals.  If they weren't moving, she didn't care.  However, she saw this strange warthog creature and started signing 'bird'.  Hmm.... We might need to teach that sign again.

They have a huge Elephant Exhibit at the LA Zoo and they did an elephant demonstration that we got to watch.  It was amazing to see all that they had trained this elephant to do!

 

 

 

They had a little petting zoo area for the kids with farm animals.  We decided to take Ali in, but didn't stay long because she kept pulling their hair!

 

After lunch we looked down and Aliyah was out!  We layed back her stroller and Stuart and I enjoyed the rest of the zoo.

Cute little sleeping baby!

That night we went to The Reef restauraunt for some seafood (well, seafood for Stuart).  It was right on the water and had some beautiful views!  The cute little baby just adds to the view, right?

After dinner we walked around a bit and took a few pictures.

 

CA Vacation: Aquarium of the Pacific

While in beautiful California, we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific.  There were some crazy fish and sea creatures!  It was crazy busy, so we only stayed for a few hours, but Ali did love to look at the fish!

 

 

 

I love this picture because this shark kept swimming right in front of Ali, but the kid in the orange next to her was eating goldfish crackers and that is all she could look at! (yes, we gave her some of her own goldfish crackers)  The kid on her right was eating ice cream, so between the two, I don't think Ali even saw the sharks!

 

This is why we can't have a penguin as a pet.  She'd rip it's beak right off!

 

 

 

After the aquarium, we walked around the pier.  It was very pretty and not nearly as crowded!

 

Buddy Walk!

We went to the Buddy Walk on Sept 22, 2012.  It was a blast!!!

 

 

Ali had lots of supporters there, Aunt Whitney, Uncle Paul, Sesaly, Howie, Lydia, Grandma Cutler, Annaka, Heidi, Grandma Brower, and Grandpa Amussen!

There were tons of fun things to do!  Ali loved this blow-up slide!

 

 

There was a bounce-house, but Ali used it more as a sit-house! :)

 

Ali got a crown painted on her forehead.  After she was done touching and smearing it it looked more like a smudge of  mustard.

There was a raffle and Ali won twice!  She got two little toys and then Stuart and I won and got some Sizzler coupons!

 

We were all laughing  at the actual 'walk'.  It was around the park once.  Short and sweet!

It was a great day!  Thanks to all of Aliyah's supporters!  We sure do love this little girl!!!