FEED ME!!

That's Aliya's motto these days! Derrick & I don't really remember the big girls eating this much. Aliya can now down Cheerios and graham crackers like it's no big deal. She constantly amazes me with how much she can eat in one sitting. She is also sitting very well on her own now. We started calling her our little puppy because of the way she pants when she gets excited. Yesterday, she officially turned 6 months old. I can't believe how fast time flies!

On Saturday, Derrick was busy working on our living room again. He was successful in installing our new front door. It looks great. This week, the drywall is going to get started and hopefully completed since it's such a small job. We'd like to be able to start painting next weekend. Yikes, that means I have to pick colors...

Madison had a birthday party yesterday for her friend at preschool. She had a blast and can't wait for her own party. I don't think I posted last week that her doctor's appointment went really well in regards to her arm. In just 5 weeks, she can quit wearing her brace and we don't need to see the doctor again. We continue to pray for protection on her arm, that she'll never break it again!

Breanne continues to be silly! She got to stay up late with dad last night because she took such a great nap. They played games on the Wii. Yesterday, Derrick made me a greenhouse to grow my seedlings in. Breanne said, "Dad, I didn't know you could make little houses." They always see him being handy around the house. Apparently, it never crossed her mind to ask him to make her a fort or little house. Both Breanne and Madison ask Derrick every day if he's staying home for the day. They've decided if he stays home, it's thumbs up day. If he goes to work, it's thumbs down day. Thumbs up today!

Life according to Aliya

Things around here are always so busy momma says. I don't know what she means by that. I got plenty of time to eat, sleep and fill my diaper. My days are usually pretty much about the same. I wake up just a little before my big sisters. Who, by the way, may or may NOT be nice to me. I pretty sure that the taller one loves me a lot. She's always talking to me and giving me toys and telling me, "It's alright baby." She talks different to me than anyone else. I don't know why. That shorter sister, I never know what to expect from her. First of all, she calls me "babes-a-roni." Sometimes she's so nice and wants to hold me and play with me. Other times, she's pulling on my legs and arms and shouting in my face. What's up with that? I used to sleep in the same room as them. That was before vacation. When we got home from vacation, I decided I wanted my own room so I started crying in the middle of the night for no particular reason. So, mom and dad told my sisters to sleep in the basement. I'm loving having the room to myself!

That vacation dad and mom took us on was tough on me! Mom didn't take my bed along. This was bad news for me. She expected me to sleep in the stroller and in a pack & play...what the world? And I was hungry all the time!! Thank goodness when we got back to our house, dad started feeding me some cereal and peaches. I love them. Applesauce is okay too. I usually use my fingers to help suck it down. I love the third and fourth fingers on my left hand. They taste so good, so I usually keep them in my mouth. It's mostly how I entertain myself and put myself to sleep.

I love to roll around and before too much longer, I plan to be playing with all my sisters' toys. They just don't know it yet. Just last Friday, I tried to play a good game of Memory with them, until mom put me in the exer-saucer. Dang-it! Maybe next time. I'll tell you another thing I like is baths! I love to kick and splash around. I even like to suck my fingers in the tub. Mom tells me that I'll be six months very soon. Whatever that means. And she says that I'm getting so big. I suppose I am.

Mom started taking my sisters and I to the park. All I know is it's bright out there. Something bright is always shining in my eyes. I usually try roll off the blanket and try pick up the brown grass. Mom keeps telling me to stop putting it in my mouth. Whatever! There's sure a lot to learn around here. Until next time...later!

Caution! Construction in progress...

To those of you who don't know Derrick very well, he's very ambitious! Don't get me wrong, he likes a day of rest. But just one day. When he sees something that needs to get done, he just goes at it! This spring, he's decided to attack our living room and he's doing a great job! Here are a couple before pictures. Our upstairs living room is the entry for our guests (we usually use the garage door into the kitchen.)

We wanted to make this space more inviting and welcoming to our friends and also more open. The living room seems so isolated to us. The picture on the left shows the doorway opening that leads into the kitchen/dinette area. (The door is just a coat closet.) On the right, you can see our red door (to outside) and the small wall right to the right of the door. There's no lighting in the ceiling.

Then he let Madison and Breanne go after two walls with a hammer...

He removed the stubby little wall that closed up the entry and made the opening that leads into the kitchen/dinnette area 3 times bigger. Of course, that will be another railing, but it's awesome to sit at the dining table and see out the front window. And amazing to stand by the front door and see into the rest of the house.

If you look closely, you can see the can-lights that Derrick installed. He's placed eight in the room. We'll keep posting pictures as this project progresses.

"Swimming and Disneyland"

Ask Madison & Breanne what their favorite part of our family vacation was, and the answer will be swimming & Disneyland.

We left for our first big family vacation on March 5th. We were very fortunate to get cheap airfair and flew directly to Phoenix from Billings and the girls all did wonderfully! We couldn't ask for better travelers...and listening to other children scream the entire flight to Phoenix reminded us just how thankful we really are! We picked up our rental car and some lunch at Chick-fil-a and we were off to Tucson. Unfortunately, I came down with one whopper of a cold the day before we left, so I was a bit miserable by the time we got to Arizona. We made it to Tucson and went to Catalina State Park and tried to do a little hiking. Unfortunately, Breanne wasn't interested in that even a little. And poor little Aliya seemed to be struggling with a tummy ache and just couldn't fall asleep. We did manage a few pictures. And Madison & Breanne pointed to the sharp pokies on the cactus. It was our first time to see cactus, they are quite amazing plants! Derrick is standing next to the biggest cactus we saw on that hike to give you an idea of just how big it was. After our time there, we met Melissa and followed her to her apartment and had pizza for dinner. I took some cold medicine and was in bed by 8pm.

We left for San Diego on Friday morning and the girls were quite excited for a "road trip." We got about 15 miles outside of Tucson when the van broke down. (It was a KIA, figures...) We were able to make it back to Tucson and exchanged the van for a running one that did us quite well for the duration of the trip. As we left Tucson again, Breanne in such good spirits said, "San Diego, take 2!" It was a really pretty drive across Arizona's desert and also California. I tried my best to take pictures as we drove, without making Derrick stop 20 times.

We stopped just inside California at about 4000 feet and it was really cold!

We made it to our hotel north of San Diego just in time to watch a gorgeous sunset at the beach. The beach was just a 10-minute walk from our hotel, so we visited often! The girls immediately loved running along the beach and into the water. Breanne loved it so much, she fell in! She was pretty freaked out, but Derrick did well to warm her up in his big sweatshirt. Family pictures were out for that night, but we did get some other great pictures. We only set our alarms twice during vacation. The day we went to Disneyland was one of those crazy early days! We left the hotel by 6am to be to Disneyland when it opened at 8am. The only California sunrise we took in. That day was fun! The girls loved it and they say that it was one of their favorite things about vacation (probably second to swimming..we'll get to that later.) Breanne will tell you that meeting TinkerBell was her favorite part of Disneyland (yes, we stood in line to meet the princesses!) They also got to meet Ariel, Jasmine and Belle. They met Eeyore and Tigger. I also encouraged them to meet Mickey Mouse, but they weren't near as impressed with him (however, he did kiss Madison's arm, it's for sure healed now!) We stayed all day and it was soooo cold after the sun went down, but worth it to see everything lit up and let the girls go on even more rides!

We slept in Sunday morning. It was my favorite morning because I got to take a short nap on the beach!!! It was a gorgeous morning at the beach and even felt warm as we sat in the sun. The big girls found it so much fun to look for sea shells and even found some sand dollars on the beach. (We found out that they're purple when you find them because they're alive. After they die, it turns white.) We grilled on our deck for lunch and after a nap for the girls, we headed for Sea World.

Here you can see the girls do their best "afraid face" as we walked through the Shark Encounter. We also went to a 4-D Sesame Street Show. The girls liked that a lot! Madison and Breanne put on their glasses early and were making silly faces while we waited for the show to start. Aliya spent lots of time in the stroller hanging out and napping. Vacation can be rough on a little baby and I think she liked having this place that was hers.

The evening Shamu Show was Derrick & my favorite part of Sea World. I took probably 200 pictures (I love taking pictures!!) but I'll share just one favorite with you. Here Derrick, Madi & Aliya snuggle to stay warm for the evening show.

On Monday, we went back to Sea World to see the rest of the animals. Our favorites were the Beluga Whales, Shamu, and walking under the sharks. (The manatees were pretty cool too.) Madison really liked Shamu and they both loved the kids area: Abby's Sea Star Spin ride and Oscar's Rocking Eel. =) Derrick also talked Madison into going on a roller coaster with him. She said it was "good" but she wasn't interested in doing it again that day.Sea World closed at 5 that night and so we went back to the hotel to make dinner and relax. Here enter the swimming. Madison and Breanne became part fish. It was just above 60 degrees and they couldn't get enough of the pool. Derrick was such a good dad and constantly got in the pool with them to swim. This is also when Aliya rolled from her back to her belly for the first time. What a big girl!!

On Tuesday, we visited the San Diego Zoo. We really liked the Koalas, gorillas and the panda bears (and I love zebras and giraffes). We were impressed by the grizzly bears and mountain lions and were anxious to add that we NEVER want to see them hiking or camping here in Montana! We posed for two pictures after our day at the zoo. In the first one we're all acting tired and silly (it's a lot of walking at the zoo!!) and a nice one too.

On Wednesday morning, we went to the beach one last time. The waves were huge and there were lots of surfers! Then we checked out the Wild Animal Park. It was okay, but probably not the thing to do after you just the entire day prior at the zoo. The highlight was see the agriculture on the drive out there and spotting the fresh strawberries and oranges at a roadside stand! They were sooo yummy!

Thursday we woke the girls us and asked them what they would want to do on their last day in Southern California. We could swim, go to Sea World, go to the beach or we could go to Disneyland one more time. Initially they wanted to go to Disney...until we told them we wouldn't get to go swimming if we went to Disneyland all day. They INSTANTLY both changed their minds and decided we should just go to SeaWorld and the beach and then come back and go swimming. So that's exactly what we did (and I even got to take a nap!!) We saw everything we loved at Sea World one last time and then took a picnic lunch to the beach. A great theory, until you get there and remember there is sand...EVERYWHERE and in EVERYTHING! Oh, well! Good memories. We drove up to La Jolla Cove where a friend told us we would see the seals sunning. It was amazing! Like 100s of seals sunning on the beach, swimming and such. The views were breath-taking as well.

Friday, we drove back to Tucson. The girls did remarkable on the drive! Here you can see Breanne in her SeaWorld hat (too cute!) And even Madison got wore out in California and had to take a nap! We stopped at a "Rest Area" by the sand dunes. It was the worst ever. Derrick and the girls are giving it a thumbs down rating. We were able to go to Craig and Amy's (Derrick's cousin) house for dinner Friday night. The girls had soo much fun playing with Sydney. It was terrific to visit with family we haven't seen in so long! We're so glad we got to do this!

On Saturday, we slept in and went mini-golfing with Melissa. Madison was really into it and Breanne even figured out how to tee off, then pick up your golf ball, set it right next to the hole and tap it in. "I'm the winner!" Then we enjoyed some good Mexican food and let the girls run around a city park. We drove back to Phoenix and swam again. By the end of our trip both Madison and Breanne had improved remarkably in their swimming and bravery around the water.

This morning, we woke up at 4am (the only other morning we needed an alarm) and were home in Billings by 9:30am. "I'm sad, I don't want vacation to be over," Derrick sighed as he drove in to the garage. The girls and I were maybe a little more eager to be back at home. The first thing the girls wanted to do was play barbies! We had a great time together and Breanne would like to go to a hotel again (as long as there's a pool.)