Growing Up Fast.

  This last week Adahleigh turned three. It's hard to believe that so much time has already past. It seems like just yesterday we were welcoming her into this world, but at the same time it's hard to remember a time when she hasn't been a part of our lives.  We've enjoyed watching her learn and grow over the past three years (and not just the hair on her head, since at first it seemed like she would forever be bald) and been amazed by her comprehension of the world around her.

  From the moment we first heard her cry, her eyes were wide open seeming to take in the world around her.

  By the time she turned one she was running and jumping, enjoying all the freedom she gained from her mobility and partaking of the world that she had been but an observer of for the majority of her first year of life.

  By the time she turned two, she was teaching her brother (who she still loves dearly) all that she knew and waited for the time when he could become her partner in crime (or at least her scape goat). She also became braver and more daring in the activities she chose.

  Now she's three and tries to be completely dependent and works through her problems with little interventions. She continues to love to learn. She has mastered her alphabet (in both saying it and and recognizing all of her letters). She loves to be read to and has her favorite shows she watches on PBS (and loves to learn from them too). She can count to 20 regularly, but higher than that things get shaky. She loves her baby sister (and likes to try and carry her, mind you Keisha weighs a little over half what Adahleigh does). She loves to draw and tries to write, most of all she loves to sing and dance [she sings all sorts of children's songs (favorite: Down by the Station), primary songs (favorite: I am a Child of God) and occasionally one of mom and dad's songs (her favorite right now is Then They Do by Trace Adkins)]. This summer she learned how to swim (with her floatation vest) and now has no fear of the water. She has started helping cook, and loves to bless the meals (she demands to say the pray all the time, and lately she wants to do it all by herself). Sunday is her favorite day of the week, because she gets to go to nursery to sing and play. These of just a few of the accomplishments that she has made over the past year.

   For her birthday this year we just invited some friends over for cake and ice cream.  Adahleigh wanted a butterfly cake  and strawberry ice cream for her birthday and put her demands in weeks in advance. Her birthday fell on Sunday this year and we forgot to pick up some eggs to make her cake (it was almost the birthday without a cake), so we had to borrow some from our friends (luckily the just live a few apartments down). 

   While Adahleigh and Charles were taking a Sunday nap (since they were still tired from going to the drive-in a few nights before), Keisha helped make the cake (or at least watched every step of it being made).

    This is probably the highlight of everyone's birthday for Ash. She loves to decorate the cakes. Her favorite for sure is making their first birthday cakes, which is always more than just a little decoration on a cake (like the tractor that Charles got for his first birthday).

    Adahleigh survived blowing out her candles without catching her hair on fire (like she did when blowing out Adam's cake last year).  Her blower was a little out of practice and she was only able to get two out of three candles, and the last one took three or four tries because her aim was way off. Three candles just proved to be too overwhelming.

    She always loves opening presents (this year was no exception), and this year it was all we could do to keep Charles from opening the ones Adahleigh wasn't unwrapping at the time (he'll love Christmas and his birthday this year).

   Of course, the two of them had to pull faces while getting their pictures taken.

    Her favorite presents this year was the picture of her and Charles at the Reno Temple that she got to hang on her bedroom wall.

   And also her new church dress.

   When Ash's family came to visit a month ago we stacked the kids beds, so they could sleep in there too. From that day Adahleigh constantly asked if she could sleep on the top. We didn't have the guardrails for the bed, so we couldn't let her since she has had a hard time staying in her bed while sleeping when it was on the floor. Ash also thought that she was too young to be sleeping on the top bunk, but said she could try it on her birthday. Adam got some boards to make some guardrails and had the bed put together a few weeks before her birthday, so we let her sleep on it a little early. Since letting her sleep on the top bunk we don't see her in the middle of the night any more and no one has fallen off the top. The funniest thing is Charles had to show her how to climb to the top and get down first, but she only had to see it done once.