Merry Christmas!

It's a little strange to be the one who's in charge of Christmas all of the sudden. When did I grow up and have a kid? I thought I was supposed to be the kid on Christmas morning... Well not this year. Steve, Aliyah, and I decided to stay at our own house Christmas Eve and enjoy Christmas morning, just the three of us. It was really a nice peaceful way to start the day. Not a lot of hoopla, just spending the morning together and opening our stockings. After a fairly unsuccessful outing at church (Aliyah was a little restless due to the fact it was naptime), we joined our families and let the festivities begin.

We headed down to Betsy's and had dinner with her family. Aliyah also got to tear open her first Christmas gift, since we only did stockings in the morning. She still needed a little help, but did pretty good after she realized that mommy wasn't going to tell her no when she ripped it. She got a big box of Latin themed play food, and wanted to dig right in.

After we spent the afternoon there, we continued on to my parents' for the evening and the next couple days. We wasted little time getting to the presents there as well. The highlight of Christmas for me was the little kitchen my Dad and I built for Aliyah. Ok, so really my Dad built it while I handed him tools and I decorated it, but either way, it's awesome, and as much as she did seem to like it, I'm pretty sure I was way more excited for it. Along with her kitchen, Grandma got Aliyah pots and pans to cook her new food in. She has gotten lots of use out of all of it and spends lots of time cooking just like mommy :)

On Christmas Eve we were able to continue our tradition of making tamales!  My mom and Michael joined us in the assembly line and we were able to pick up Danny and Marina from the airport just in time to enjoy the results.  We're getting better at the tamale making process, but they could still use some work :)

 All in all, it was nice to be able to spend time with family and friends and to be able to relax and enjoy the holidays.

Thanksgiving...

Believe it or not, we did celebrate Thanksgiving last year, and although we lack proof via pictures, we actually celebrated it twice, in the same day. We had an early dinner with Roger, Betsy, Brittany, and Karissa, and then went over to my parents' house and ate with them, my grandma, and Michael and Danny. Both dinners were delicious and enjoyed for many days following and it was great to spend lots of time with family.

Aliyah helping me make the stuffing (which didn't turn out so great, so send any awesome recipes my way for next year!)

And although we have no pictures of our Thanksgiving celebration, we were sure to get documentation of the Apple Cup celebration. UW Huskies vs WSU Cougars. Huskies all the way!

It's raining, it's pouring...

Rainy season is here, and although it hasn't been too bad, it is wet. But a little thing like weather does not make a toddler want to stay inside, so rain clothes were necessary. She's lookin good huh?

Pumpkin Picking

I took Aliyah to a pumpkin patch this year and she had a blast! Not so much with the pumpkin picking part of the day, but they had a huge pile of saw dust with a bunch of cars and stuff for the kids to play in and she loved it. She literally played for hours. They also had some farm animals to look at and a small corn maze. She had fun in the maze too. Grandma met us there, so one of us would run ahead in the maze and Aliyah would run to find us. Other than when we went in the maze, she got really mad whenever we took her away from the sawdust pile, so if she looks upset in some of the pictures, that's why. She just really wanted to keep playing. We had a great time and will definitely go again next year! Hopefully we'll find a time that Dad can come too!

Trick-or-Treat!

I guess I should say trunk-or-treat. Halloween was definitely a little more fun this year, as she is starting to understand what's going on. Aliyah got to go to two Halloween Parties this year, one with our ward and one with Grandma Natter(we went down to spend her birthday with her and finished the day trunk-or-treating.) She still doesn't really understand the whole trick-or-treat thing, but she liked to carry around the bucket and got pretty excited when people started putting stuff in it. And isn't she the CUTEST ghost you've ever seen!!
I also got to go to an adult Halloween party. It was really nice to get out and spend time with my friends without a child in tow.

Washington Summer...

We got home just in time for the best part of Washington's summer, no rain and 80 degrees pretty much all the time. Perfect! And conveniently, Steve had about a month of no work and all play, before he had to go back to school. So, we spent a lot of time in the sun and the water. Aliyah had a blast, and so did we. Her are just a few of our outings:

This is on the Puget Sound just a few minutes from our home. I think this was her first (but definitely not the last) experience eating sand. And it was impossible to keep her out of the water even though the beach was more rock than sand and the water was freezing.


Kent Fountain- She loved filling that cup and dumping it all over herself!


This is Angel Lake, also very close to home. We spent a lot of time here on those warm sunny days, sometimes going a couple times a week. It is a really nice park and the lake was really warm and had a lot of shallow area. These pics were taken the first time we went to the park. We were just planning on checking it out and walking around, but as soon as Aliyah saw the water, there was no saying no. Needless to say, we weren't prepared for swimming, but had a great time anyways.

We are seriously loving the area we're living. There are so many places close by to enjoy, especially in this beautiful weather!

Aliyah's Birthday: Part Two

A few days after we got home from Guatemala, we had another little birthday party for Aliyah with our families. She seemed to have a good time and got lots of fun gifts. It took her a little while to understand the idea of opening presents, but by the end, she was doing her share of tearing. We are happy to have so much of our family close by to share these occasions with us.


This party also allowed me my first attempt at cake making/decorating. Although it definitely wasn't perfect, I'm pretty proud of it. I made a chocolate/chocolate mousse layered cake with marshmallow fondant and Tres Leches cupcakes for the non-chocolate lovers, which were super yummy. Aliyah wasn't so sure how she felt about them though; by the time we got to the cake, I think she was just ready for bed, she was just so pooped from all the attention! (I may have overcompensated a little for her sadness in one of those pics. I look like a crazy mom!)


In the end, a good time was had by all.