Aliya Juel's 1st Birthday Party

Of course I threw Aliya Juel quite the bash for her first birthday. I may have gone a little overboard with decorations and food, but we did a join birthday with Morgan for her 6th birthday. Most of the food got eaten and I plan to reuse the decorations for her room. We had planned to have a sunny June evening Mad Hatter Tea Party. The rain changed things and we all crammed inside. It worked out and it was still a very fun celebration with good friends and family. 

We started with all the kids making Mad Hatter hats, then they had a tea party. It was so cute the way the kids decorated their hats, Jer took over Jaxon's and added a scarf and 10/6 tag. 

We sang Happy Birthday to the girls and gave them each their own cupcake. Aliya Juel is a messy eater, she can never seem to get the food in her mouth fast enough. I assumed she would have cake in her hair, nose, basically everywhere. Well, since this was the first sugar she had, she was content dipping her finger in the frosting and licking it completely off her finger before redipping her finger. She clapped after everyone sang to her. Then the chaos of a 6 year old and 1 year old opening presents at the same time. 

Aliya Juel's gifts included: CLOTHES!!! a Vtech art easel, princess eating set, pink dinosaur, baby doll, cloth picnic set, glow worm, little people carriage set, books, and hair flowers, tea set, baby crib, rocking chair, tea sets, hand me down kitchen, college money. It was the right balance of clothes and not too many toys.  She absolutely loves every item she got. We are grateful for all that came and celebrated with us. 

After things calmed down, I was in the front room and wanted to show Aliya Juel off and how she could take some step's to all of Jer's family. It usually takes a quite a bit of prompting for her to go for something. I stood her up and she just took off, without looking back. We were all very surprised and excited. She continued to walk for everyone, even after I got the video camera. I had my point and shoot on hand :) It is so cute to see such a tiny little girl walk. She looks like a newborn cruising around. She still falls down, but definitely has the confidence of walking now. She looks so cute. 

June's 1st half in review

Pride parade with Lily.

Attempted to go for a walk, we live in Utah and the weather switched very fast and started pouring rain. We were running with the wagon and didn't get too wet. 

Aliya taking some steps on her birthday. Not quite a stable walker... at this point.

May in review

Our month started with some sign language. It was such a fun weekly play date for the kids. It has also really helped with Aliya. She can let us know when she needs milk, food, etc. We took it from the same instructor when Jaxon was a baby. It is well worth it. This time around we took it with Jer's sister and her family. Although Miriam slept through most of the classes, it was a good time.

Aliya Juel begging to get outside.

Here we are at Farm Country with Morgan, Tahlula, and Melissa. Jaxon thought it was so cool that he got to pet horses and got a pony ride. The kids also learned about the gardening cycle. It was a lot of fun to see all the animals and have it paved and clean. Definitely worth the small entry fee. 

We watched Miriam and I decided to give the two girls ponytails. Well, Jaxon didn't want to miss out on the fun. We do not separate things to being for girls or boys. Everything is equal on our home front so I didn't stop him. (although I do stop him from wearing Aliya's pink tutu to the grocery store)

Fun night with friends and dressups. Morgan and Jaxon are great buddies and play so well together. These costumes stayed on the whole night, sweat and all. They had a blast.