Look what I found!

When we were shopping for Aleah's headboard Brad went to Salem to Mel Hanks and Sons during his lunch break.  He worked for them before and after his mission so he knows them.  We get all of our furniture from them.  He took pictures and then sent them to me.  It was nice that Aleah and I could help him choose the headboard.  One of the beds had a blue blanket on it and when I showed it to Aleah she said, "That's Deed's bed.".  Haha, I decided that must mean, no.  In the background of one of the pictures I noticed that there was a gymnast on the wall.  I texted Brad that I was going to need the gymnast wall hanging as well.  I think that it is perfect and Aleah LoVeS it!  Here are some pictures of Aleah's big girl room.

She is doing really good in her bed now.  She fell off a few nights ago at about 4:15 am.  That was not fun!  She has figured out that she can get out of bed.  After she wakes up she likes to open her door and peek out.  Then she gets back in bed and calls to Brad or I.  When we go in she is sitting on her bed as if she has been there the whole time and she says with a big smile, "I'm awake!".

Big Girl Bed!

We finally did it!  We decided that we couldn't wait any more to get Aleah into her big girl bed.  Thursday I told her that we were going to have a big girl bed party after dinner.  She was so excited!!  After dinner we did some crazy dancing and then we started taking down the crib.

I was packing up all the baby blankets and towels and things while they were taking down the crib.  Brad gave Aleah her binkie and told her to put it in the bin for the next baby because she is a big girl now and so she doesn't need it any more.  She ran right over, threw it in the bin and said, "Bye binkie, see you next time!".  I started laughing because it was the cutest thing ever and I don't know where she came up with the see you next time part!  She has done so good, she hasn't even asked for it at all.  Cade is in a diaper because his clothes got all dirty and we were going to take a bath so I didn't feel like getting him dressed again.  Of course it would happen on a night that we were going to take pictures!

Aleah and Cade LOVED helping Dad put the bed together!

 As you can tell by the huge smile on her face she loves her new bed!

 Story time in her new bed with her wonderful Dad and her bunny = Good Times!

She did pretty good.  I think she was having a hard time going to sleep without her binkie.  She asked to go to the bathroom three times. Then I told her that we were not going to come in again.  After a minute she started saying, MOM, MOMMY... for about 10 minutes and then she tried DAD, DADDY... for about 5 minutes.  Then she switched back and forth for 5 minutes and then she was quiet.  The next night she wanted another story.  That lasted about 10 minutes.  Last night she wanted a drink of water and then another drink of water, which lasted 6 minutes.  Tonight she went right to sleep!  Not as bad as I was thinking it was going to be!  She is such a sweet girl and she always adjusts to change so well.  It seems like I'm always more worried than I need to be.

Aleah is two and a half!

Lately I feel like not a day goes by without me thinking, "Wow, Aleah is getting so big!" or "She can do that now!" or "She just looks like a little girl, where is my baby?!".  Well, she is two and a half so I guess that is where.  She is potty trained, which she did pretty much on her own.  We just got her a 'big girl bed'. She can open any door, turn the lights on and off, get snacks out of the pantry open them and eat them without even making a mess!  She can climb into the jeep and get in her car seat all by herself.

She knows all her ABC's and the sounds they make, thank you Super Why for that one.  She knows her colors and shapes.  She can even draw most of her shapes.  She is talking like crazy!  Sometimes I feel like I can have a semi normal conversation with her.  She can say Cade now, but most of the time she still calls him Deed or Deeda.  We still have no idea what Deeda means!  Her gymnastics skills are still amazing to me.  She catches on so fast.  Sometimes I will show her a skill and she will do it on her own her first try.

She is still such a sweetheart!  She LOVES her brother more than anything.  I love watching her grow up even though it makes me cry when I think about it!

These are not the best pictures of her, but I have a hard time getting her to hold still long enough to take a picture!

If I say, "smile" she usually does something like this.

There is bad lighting in this picture, but her little cheeser smile is pretty cute!

And her hair is long enough for some super cute pig-tails!

The Farm

Aleah and Cade love going to the Farm. When I tell them that we are going to the farm they get excited and Aleah starts singing Old McDonald.  Aleah loves to feed the goats.

I was wearing my sunglasses so Aleah needed to wear her sunglasses.  She wore them the entire time we were there!

Cade loves pushing the stroller around.  He points at the animals and says, "WOW WOW WOW!" or if it is a cow he says, "MMMMOOOOO!".

They are so so so cute together!  They are cute friends.  They love to do everything together.  When Cade is still sleeping Aleah doesn't know what to do without him!

Date to Les Mis

Last Saturday Brad and I got to go on a date to see Les Mis.  We went with Brad's brother, his wife, and their two oldest boys, and Brad's sister and her husband.  My parents were kind enough to come and babysit for us, thank you thank you Mom and Dad!  We went to PF Changs for dinner.  We had reservations but we ended up waiting for 30 minutes because the people at the table that we were waiting for were all done but they would not leave.  I started wondering if they were from France or thought that they were in France.  At least it wasn't an hour and a half which was how long the wait was when we got there!

It was my first time going to PF Changs.  I don't know why I have never been there before!  I loved the food and I loved that I got to eat my entire meal without getting up from the table and I didn't have to cut up anyone's food for them.  It was very relaxing to sit and visit and eat!

Then we hurried over to Capitol Theatre in the pouring rain.  Thankfully Brad's brother was prepared with lots of umbrellas!  I didn't even bring a jacket.  I keep thinking that I'm not going to need it and then I'm sad because I end up freezing.  We got there just in time.

We enjoyed a night full of beautiful music and a good story.  I loved the line, "To love another person, is to see the face of God."  I just about started crying at that point.

I am thankful that I got to spend some time with Brad and some of his family.  I love them and love spending time with them!