Annaka

 

 

 

 

10 Years!!!!

Ten years ago I married this sexy man!  I can't say that it seems like yesterday, but still ten years is a LONG time!  It's easy to say I love him so much more than I did back then.  It's been the best ten years of my life!!!  I love you honey!

First Family-versary

Happy first family-versary to us!  A year ago today we took our sweet little Aliyah to the temple to be sealed to us!  It's so wonderful to know that we get to have this cute little girly FOREVER!  Ali and mom celebrated by getting pedicures (with Aunt Heidi).  Well, Mom got a pedicure and Ali got her nails painted by Mom at home.  I'm thinking this might just be a family-versary tradition! :)
We also got to go to another audiology appointment.  This is the second one in 2 weeks... bleh.  Apparently Ali isn't hearing well out of her left ear.  The only test they can do is a behavioral one where they play sounds and she is supposed to turn her head to the apropriate side.  When they try to hook her up to do the other tests it doesn't work because she breathes too loud.  Silly girl can't breathe quiet, she probably won't ever be great at hide and go seek!  I'm skeptical about her not hearing well out of her left ear.  She seems to respond fine to me on both sides, but who knows, maybe her right ear is compensating.  The good news is that her nerve is fine on both sides.  We will go back to the audiologist again next week (why not, right?) and do the test again to see if we get any better results.  Then it's back to the ENT doctor to see what's up.  Ultimately she might get a hearing aide on that side or require surgery.  I'm not too stressed about it because I really think she hears fine.  Ali is such a great sport about all the testing though.  She'll even sign 'more' during the test to have them play more sounds.  She's just so stinking cute!
Anyways, happy family-versary to us!  Life is grand!!!

Graduation!

So, my littlest sister, Heid, graduated from High School today!  Ahhh!!!  She was only 8 when I got married!  When did I get so old?!?

Some lovely photos of her supporters at graduation!  We couldn't find her in the group until just before they called her name, so we had some fun with our cameras! :)

Such a pretty graduate!  We are so proud of you Heidi! You never have to go to school again!!!! :)

Laundry

Ali is such a great helper when I'm sorting laundry.  She's really great at moving my piles and re-sorting them.  I've learned to do laundry rather quickly! :)
My sis-in-law Emily gave us some hand me downs and I was looking through them and left the pile on the floor while I finished our laundry.  She sat here and sorted for about 40 minutes.  Sometimes the clothes got flung behind her, sometimes she took a closer look at one or two.  One of her favorite things was trying to hold as many clothes as possible in her tiny little hand.  It must've been hard work because she was grunting the whole time. 
Maybe when she gets bigger she'll do laundry for me!  That would be lovely, because laundry is my least favorite chore!

Please?

So Ali has a few signs that she is using regularly these days.  One of the signs she uses is 'please'.  However, I think she is under the impression that if she says (or signs) please that she can do or have whatever she wants.  She will pull my hair or her cousins and when I tell her that's not nice and to stop she signs please and thinks she can do it again.  I guess we need to talk about what please means! :)

 

Sick

Our darling little baby was sick this past week.  She got a nasty cold and her 18 month shots!  She ended up having a fever of 104 one night!  I think Ali is pretty prone to getting fevers.  Now she has a molar coming in ... it's been a rough week!

Ogden Relay Race

Stuart ran in a relay race today with my Dad, sis-in-law Emily, Uncle Kirk, Aunt Tanya and (not shown) Uncle Brian and Aunt Becky.  Stuart ran 2 legs of it for a total of around 12.5 miles.  He wanted to finish, but his knee gave out while going downhill and he had to stop.  Emily ended up running 13.1 miles, a half marathon!  Awesome job guys!

 

Genius Child

This is a brag post, so feel free to skip it if you don't want to hear me going on and on about my daughter! :)  Although, I can't take much credit, seeing as how she is adopted and doesn't have any of mine or Stuart's genes.  Ali is being tested a bunch lately by the Up-to-3 program because she is 18 months.  They do testing every 6 months to re-evaluate the services she needs.  She had her speech therapist come and she said she is right on track speech wise.  Then our family therapist came and did a cognitive test for Ali.  The scoring for this test is a little different.  A score of 11 is par or right on track.  A score lower than 11 is a delay and above 11 is awesome.  Drum roll please................
Ali scored a 13!!!  That's right, she's a genius!  No delay here!  She has mastered 55% of the skills she needs by the time she's 3 years old.  And she probably would've passed more off if she was walking!  We knew all along she was smart!  The family therapist said that she isn't surprised that Ali tested so high, but was still very impressed with the results!  She said that at the rate Ali is going, once she walks and talks fluently, Up-to-3 might not need to come anymore and she can be mainstreamed right into kindergarten without additional help. :)  Good job Aliyah!

How cute is this tan little body?!?

Ali is way into doing the splits lately, she just keeps pushing her little legs out further and further to the side.  I wish I had even a tiny bit of her flexibility!

Ali is in LOVE with Morty.  She crawls/scoots to the edge of the carpet (Morty isn't allowed on the carpet) and yells at him.  A mix of Puh (puppy) and Muh (Morty).  Every so often he'll come and check her out.  Today she even got a kiss!  She was thrilled!!!

Ali's Kittens

Ali is in LOVE with her little kittens!  She cries and cries when I put them back in their bed and we go in the house.  She is so soft with them, although at times she wants to pat them, but she really does try very hard to be as soft as possible.  They also all get a lot of soft kisses!  Lucky kitties!

How does she do it?!?

Isn't Ali beautiful in the mornings? :)  Somehow during the night she got her arm out of her jammies!

If this is considered a 'fine-motor' skill, I think we'll stop with her therapies!!! :)

Working on some Jeeps!

Ali and her Daddy were outside the other day in the garage just working on their jeeps! :)  I, of course, had to take a couple pictures!

 

 

Happy 18 Months!!!

Happy 18 months to my baby!!!  I guess she's not a baby anymore!  I think it's safe to say that these past 18 months have been the happiest of our lives!  Ali is such a joy in our lives and is such a good baby!
Here are a few of Ali's favorites at this point in life:
*Singing... especially the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, and Popcorn Popping
*Reading books - she could spend ALL day reading books (with or without me)
*Food - this girl LOVES to eat - but she is rather slow at it!
*Bottles - yes, I know she shouldn't still be drinking out of them, but she hasn't mastered the sippy-cup yet.
*Kisses - I get thousands of kisses a day, and I love it!
*Snuggles - another one of my favorites!
*Dancing - you turn music on and Ali will groove to it.  One of her favorites right now is "I'm Sexy and I Know It", the one done by Ricky Martin for Glee.
*Smarties - this girl literally takes 20 minute to eat 1 smartie!  She puts it in her mouth, then takes it out and looks at it and talks to it, then puts it back in her mouth.  It's hilarious (and a little sticky)!
*Cousins - Ali adores her cousins, they are so great to her. Because of them, she loves all other little kids!
* Throwing things through the baby gate.  She likes to watch them go down the stairs.
*Holding her kittens in the garage.
*Yelling at Morty to come over to her highchair.
*Some of Ali's words: Ba-ba (bottle), Da-da, Mommy (it used to be Ma-ma), Bed, Ma (more), Baby, Me, We (I'm pretty sure this is Howie), Puh (puppy/Morty) and Green.
*When you ask Ali what a cow says she makes fishy lips.... in fact, now if you ask her what sound any animal makes she does fishy lips... I blame Aunt Whitney.

Ali can now go from her belly to a sitting position and is so close to crawling (the real way).  She loves her baths, and drinks her fair share of bath water (gross!).  She doesn't care much for TV, but loves the Ipad and my phone.  She is convinced that every phone call must be for her.  She is fully aware of how cute she is and puts on a little show for people.  She has fans everywhere we go.  She waves good-bye to people, and has just started blowing kisses.

I love this little girl so much!!

Then It Got Quiet...

I was getting ready for the day today and Ali was being a little bit whiny.  Then it got quiet...

Guess who can open her little bin of elastics?

I'm just hoping she didn't eat any!

Not only did she open them, she opened them into her walker!  It's a good thing she's so cute!

I can't believe she opened this!  I guess all of those fine-motor skill therapies have paid off!

Singing

Ali is very much into singing right now.  She has 2 favorite songs, "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Popcorn Popping".  While I was trying to take her picture today, I would sing the songs to make her smile.  These are just a few of the pictures of her doing the actions to both songs.  She is doing her 'spider' when her hands are together and her 'popcorn' hands are up to the side... she opens and closes them while rotating her wrists.  Pretty darn cute!

Subway Art for Ali's Room

So, I've been checking out some cute subway art on etsy lately, but it's SOOOO expensive!  It costs $23 just for the download... they don't even print it for you!  So, I decided to make my own!  I have this great little program (check out mymemories.com) that is amazing for things like this!  Plus, because I made it myself, I got to personalize it more by adding some fun adoption facts.  Now I just have to get a frame for it!

Salt Dough

One of Ali's therapists suggested letting Ali play with some play-dough.  I decided to make salt dough, just in case she got the urge to eat some.  This picture shows the extent of Ali playing with the dough.  Right after this picture she licked the dough and made a face.  I thought she had learned her lesson, but then she grabbed the purple ball and took a big old bite.  I tried to pull the dough out of her mouth, but it had melted.  She continued to 'chew' and make disgusted faces, then she would clap at me and smile.  It was as if she was trying to spare my feelings that I had made such a terrible treat for her!  Then she was 'all done'!
I guess we will save the salt dough for when she is a bit older. :)

Easter Egg Hunt

We went to a fun Easter Egg Hunt/B-day party for Uncle Paul on Easter! Ali got a few eggs and we had a great time!