One year has passed since our newest little blessing arrived. Aliya is the sweetest little baby and we think she is so much fun. We may be a bit partial. It's amazing to watch how much she is learning and doing. She might be the fastest crawler ever. She has 4 teeth on the botttom. She waves and says hi to everyone, especially strangers. Knows how to zoom up and down steps and she says about a dozen words. She is not particularly fond of baby toys, but loves to play with her big sisters' toys. She's also grown attached to a particular blankie. When I got to get her up from a nap, she hands it to me. Derrick said last night, when he put her to bed, she picked it up off the floor as to take it to bed with her. She loves mom best, but gets really excited when she sees dad for the first time of the day. I wouldn't trade her for anything! She has been a great addition to her family and we continue to feel absolutely blessed through her.
It's tricky to celebrate a one-year old birthday. I made a sunflower cake for her yesterday and we brought it to small group to celebrate with the families there.
Tonight, we have an icecream social with Breanne's preschool class that we'll call a birthday celebration as well. Afterall, Aliya is my daughter, she LOVES icecream!
Last week, at work (church) Breanne's preschool teacher, Ms. Amy, said, "I just love your daughter." She went on to praise Breanne for how easy-going, compliant, and what a good listener she is. We're so proud of her. She knows almost all her letters (except for maybe 2). What a sharp girl! And, I think she might even look a little bit like me.
One of the projects that has been keeping us busy lately is remodeling our main bathroom. Derrick is amazing! We've had help from a friend from church too. Here you can see the tile floor. We loved the original 1978 vinyl flooring, but thought it could use a bit of a facelift! On Saturday, they installed the cabinets and countertop and sink, but I'm reluctant to take and show any pictures yet, because, we hate the paint job. I promise I'll post pictures as soon as I get the paint color figured out. (This will be the 4th time we've painted that bathroom in 3 years...good thing it's a small room.)
Breanne's first day of preschool was Wednesday. She was so very excited and she did great! Her favorite part was.....SNACK! Her friend Gracie brought icecream sandwiches. What's not to love? She was especially excited when they got to do the weather on Friday. She told me on Wednesday that she'd really like to bring snack on the next day to preschool because she really wants to be the snack helper. Her before school pictures...she totally hammed up. She kept posing, making weird faces and "hugged" the door. Oh, Breanne!
We made it to LifeLight in Sioux Falls, SD and back again. It was a really fun time with our girls (plus one.) We invited our niece Braelyn along with us for the weekend. She was a joy to have with us. On Friday night, we got to see Stellar Kart (Derrick & I went up front). They were very entertaining! Following that, we took the 3 big girls up front to see SuperChick. They loved it. They danced up front and sang. All weekend long, if you asked Braelyn about the concerts, she would say, "I like SuperChick." 
Aliya adapted very well to her surroundings for the most part. She crawled around the lawnchairs and was very peculiar to stay on the tarp we laid down. She enjoyed her meals strapped into her car seat. Spaghetti everywhere and all.