This Face

This is the face Aliyah makes when she wants us to scrunch up our foreheads.  I'm pretty sure she thinks she's scrunching her forehead up.  It's hilarious!

A Good Book

Have you ever been reading a book that you enjoyed so much that you couldn't put it down....

even for a trike ride?

Well, apparently Ali has that problem with this book that she got for her birthday from her birth-grandma!  (Grandma Amussen, those 3 books you gave Ali are some of her favorites! Thank you!)

Lydia's Birthday

Lydia (Ali's cousin) had her 2nd birthday at the Aquatic Center last week.  It was our first trip to the pool this summer!

This is all Ali wanted to do the entire time.  Walk around like a stink-bug on the cement.  Luckily Aunt Annaka was willing to follow her around on her adventures.

What a view!

Aunt Whitney, Thor, Daphne and Aunt Emily.  Ali actually went down the water slide and loved it, however, she hated waiting in line.  She got really grumpy really fast (it was nap time) so we cut the trip short.

Happy Birthday Lydia!

Pope Ali & Test Results

A few weeks back Stuart put Ali's swimsuit shorts on her head, he then told her how pretty she was.

She decided to wear it the remainder of the night.  She would take it off and put it back on herself and wait for us to tell her how pretty she was.  She'll also put things on us now and tell us that we are pretty. 
In other news, Ali had her semi-annual testing with the Up-to-3 program last month.  They came today and talked about all of the results.  Ali is doing amazing!  They basically have a list of things she needs to acomplish by the time she is 3, and then they give a percentage of what she has accomplished.  She scored above average on most of the areas, and just barely below on the others.  Her highest scores were on fine motor skills and social skills.  If you know Aliyah, you know that 'very social' is an understatement!  She's such a little smarty-pants!

Summerfest!

Ali and I hit Summerfest this year!  We met up with my brother Dallas and his family, Whitney and her kids, as well as Grandma Cutler, Annaka and Heidi!

Is Grandma helping Ali to walk, or is Ali helping Grandma walk?

We went on flag day, thus the patriotic outfit.

Instructing Grandma to 'go' probably...

We don't quite have this walking thing down, but we are getting there!

Some of the group!

They have some people there that do balloon animals, it's great, they are fun people who just work off of tips.  Lydia got a yellow kitty.

Ali got a pink flower.  She loved it, she kept snuggling it and licking it.  When she couldn't keep her mouth off of it, I had to take it away.

Happy Father's Day!

Aliyah is very lucky to have the best dad in the world!  She adores her Daddy and basically has him wrapped around her finger, just like any good daughter would! :)  I'm so thankful that our daughter has such a great example of what an amazing man should be.  Hopefully one day we will have a little boy who can learn from Stuart too.

 Stuart got pancakes for breakfast, they weren't all letters, he had some normal ones too.

He also got a new CD stereo system for his new truck.  I'm terrible at surprises and I let him open it a few weeks ago... but I did take pictures! 

Also, Happy Father's Day to all of the other Dad's in our lives!  

Pool Party

While Stuart was at an Aaronic Priesthood in Action camp last week with the YM in our ward, Ali and I had a little pool party!  Aliyah loves the water and we invited a few cousins over to play too!  Yay for summer!

A Night at the Movies Goes Bad

Last night the young men and young women in our ward went to the new movie "Ephraim's Rescue" (Stu is the young men's president, and I'm the advisor for the beehives).  I couldn't find a babysitter for Ali, so she came along.  She likes going to theaters, the movie wasn't scary and she loves the popcorn. :) 
Well, we were watching the movie and I had forgotten her sippy cup of water in the car, so we were letting her have a little bit of our diet coke.  She started getting hyper and laughing and being silly, it was pretty cute.  Then at the end of the movie, there were maybe 10 min left, she pooped in her diaper.  I figured I'd wait and watch the end of the  movie and then change her before we left.  Well, she just got crazyer and sillyer ... until she decided to use my body as a slide. 
She started up at my chest and slid down to my stomach and said 'weeeee'!  The smell was terrible and I glanced down at my shirt.... to see poop on it!  I quickly turned to Stuart and told him what happened and that he had best come out with me.  So, into the women's bathroom we went (after checking to make sure there were no women in there!) and cleaned up Ali first.  She ended up leaving the theater in just a diaper.  I, however, didn't have that option.  I was trying to scrub poop out of my white shirt with wetwipes when the young women's president came in and offered me her jacket!  Thank goodness for her!

Good thing she's so stinking cute!

This is a picture of Ali 'puckering up' for a kiss!  She gives great cheek kisses these days... they are very loud and wet!

St.George Trip

We went on a little family vacation to St. George a week or so ago.  We went with the Bytheways and had a blast!  My grandparents have a house down there that we stayed at and we hit the awesome splash pad/kid river and carousel in St. George.  The kids loved it!

This is what happens when Stuart picks out his own shoes... yes, they have separate toe slots.  Stuart forgot his shoes, so we went to the factory outlets to get some.  I stayed in the car with a sleeping Aliyah, and he picked these lovely things out.  He bought them because they were on clearance for $25.  I think I know why.

On the way home we decided to stop and have lunch at a park or some other grassy area.  Well, apparently the Cedar City area doesn't have many parks that are easy to find.  So, we had our lunch in the empty horse trailer that the Bytheway's were pulling (they had helped some friends move).

The Bath Waits For No Man

So before church this morning I turned the water on in Ali's tub (but didn't close the drain), just like I always do.  Then I went and got her dress, usually she hears the water and comes to the bathroom and starts loading toys into the tub and waits for me.  Well, not this morning...

Yup, she got herself into the tub.

Along with her jammies and diaper.

Crazy girl!

11 Years!

Today is our 11 year wedding anniversary!  Unfortunately, Stuart is at AP camp with our ward, so Ali and I celebrated!

We went out for Mexican food with some of my family.  It was very romantic. :)

She sure loves the camera!  Stuart and I will celebrate this weekend.  I'm so lucky to have such a great husband!  It's been the best 11 years of my life! 

Our New Toy!

We got our new toy today!  Because Ali has Down Syndrome, she gets in free (along with whoever she is with) to all National Parks.  So, we decided a trailer was in order. :)  This trailer is beautiful inside and it is exactly the floor plan we wanted!!!  Anyone want to go camping???