Happy Birthday Alyssa

Nana and Tata gave Alyssa her first birthday party, she had so much fun! Her favorite part is when everyone sang to her. Her face lit up and she seemed to know that the night was all about her, but then again, everything is all about Alyssa.
Below are pictures of the party. She had fun hitting the pinata, opening presents and playing with her new toys.

Party!

ChuckE. Cheese

Nana took Alyssa and the family to ChuckE. Cheese for her birthday. The birthday girl loved the little rides and playing the games. For dinner all she ate was cantalope and jello from the salad bar since she is not a pizza fan. Thank you Nana.

1st Birthday Cake

There are so many pictures of this it was diffiult to choose which ones to post.


Alyssa started licking the frosting as I was spreading it on the cake. Nana let her get too close to the cake so she dipped her fingers in it.

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Soon the whole hand gets in there. I was only able to write the "H" in Happy.



This is when the real mess begins.




I had nothing to do with this disaster, I was frosting the other cake.



We were waiting for Tata to arrive so he could see what his grandchild did to the kitchen. In the meantime she continued to throw cake everywhere. Now when we see chocolate on the cupboards we smile and laugh at the memory.

Playing Frisbee

Nana takes Alyssa out to play frisbee with Fez. She gets to play with the hose and everyone gets soaked!

Bad Day

The day we left for El Centro I woke up thinking I needed to save all of my pictures onto the external hard drive. We had noticed some weird stuff happening on the computer the day before and so I wanted to make sure I had my pictures. Well too late. I wasn't able to get into the computer at all, the computer would automatically shut down as soon as I signed in. I lost everything since the end of February. I don't have the rest of the cabin pictures that I was scrapbooking, but at least I can get the pictures off the blog. So just to remind all of you, BACK UP YOUR FILES!

Cabin Fun

Alyssa had so much fun at the cabin. She crawled all over the place and we were constantly following her up the steps as she giggled.


She fed the chipmunks and got so excited when they came up on the deck. She was fascinated by the hummingbirds, she would point when she spotted one.

We thought that she would be scared of the fourwheelers but to our surprise she handled it like a pro, laughing and singing as we sped through the ATV trails.

4th of July

We spent 4th of July with Grandma and Grandpa. Alyssa was so cute playing with all of her cousins. She and Tally fought over Grandma's lap many times, she kissed and loved her baby cousin Brecken, she got to ride Chase's little four wheeler, and Jaylee played with her like she was Alyssa's Mom. We went to the park to watch the fireworks. It was so much fun! She ate snowcones and the cousins' lollipops, we tried to give her cotton candy but she seemed to be afraid of it.



When it got dark we bought some glow sticks and made jewelry for her. That wasn't enough for her so she crawled over to the other kids and stole theirs from them. The fireworks started with several loud BOOMs. She was a bit nervous at first but when they lit up the sky she was in a trance. Alyssa started clapping and pointing she was so excited that she kept going back and forth between Michael and I to watch them. I spent most of the time watching my daughter enjoy them for the first time. Holidays are so much more fun when you have kids.

While I was in Utah Jessica taught me how to do digital scrapbooking and she help me with the program. Thank you for your help Jess. The rest of the pictures of Utah are being prepared and will be posted soon.

Daddy

I know this is a month too late for Father's Day, I was teaching summer school and when I got home all I wanted to do was play with my family. But I did want to thank my wonderful husband for everything he does for us. Michael is a fantastic father! When I got home from work he was always crawling around on the floor playing with Alyssa.

She was usually dressed in a diaper and her hair was only done if I did it before going to work but she was happy playing with Daddy while I was away. Not only did he keep my baby happy but there was always a snack ready for us when I walked in the door (any of you who have been pregnant can understand how nice that is). Michael would clean it up while I played with my little girl and if that wasn't enough he would cook dinner for us and clean that up too! He also gives me snuggies and tickles almost every night, who could ask for more. He is always patient and loving with us. Alyssa and I are so lucky to have him in our lives. Thank you Michael for all that you do for us. We love you!

Santa Monica Pier

We went to the Santa Monica Pier over the weekend. They had all sorts of things for Alyssa to do. We started out by going on the Merry-Go-Round. She loves rides. She was laughing the whole time.

After the Merry-Go-Round we hit the beach. The water was cold! Alyssa was wary of the water at first but after a little while she loved it. She kept kicking her feet as the waves were splashing her. In fact, she had such a blast in the water that she cried when we left.

After we left the beach we went to the aquarium. We were really lucky; we arrived just as they were feeding the fish. Alyssa got to feed a starfish and touch a sea snail. We saw sea urchins, eels, jellyfish, and all sorts of cool creatures. We also saw sharks and even got splashed by a couple of them (how many people can say that?). The employees were so nice and helpful with all of our questions. They even took a picture of us all together. It was a perfect little aquarium with all the interactive activities, Alyssa definitely got her hands into everything, well everything but the shark tank.

Alyssa had a blast the whole day. She rode on the rides, she swam at the beach, she went to an aquarium, she even tried funnel cake for the first time (she loved it, there was powdered sugar all over her). All in all, it was a great day and Alyssa was exhausted. She had no trouble sleeping that night.

It's a Boy!

We had an early ultrasound and the doctor said with all certainty that it is a girl. So we have been planning on keeping the nursery the same and sharing clothes and I had been thinking what fun it would be to go shopping with my girls later on down the road.

So we went to our 20 week ultrasound appointment on Tuesday and saw without a doubt, that it is a boy! We are so excited about the big news, but it is weird when such big plans get changed so quickly.