My "baby" is officially 4!

~~~~Warning - REALLY long post with LOTS of photos!~~~~

I was a bad blogger last week. Sorry to anyone who has been waiting ever so patiently for an update ;) In my defense, it was just a crazy, insanely busy week.

About the title of my post...Seriously, where does the time go? It does not seem like Ms. Aliyah should be 4 years old already!! The old saying that kids grow up fast is such an understatement. Makes me sad :( Her birthday was Wednesday the 20th, but her party was the Saturday before (the 16th). She had a great time and got lots of really cool presents. Then Monday (President's Day) we went shopping ALLLL day. Aliyah ended up getting some much needed new bedroom furniture. She officially has a big girl bed now...which I have failed to take any pictures of yet...shame on me!! There are a few things I still want to do to her room to finish it off but I might just have to get some pictures of just her bed for now. For those that are wondering, she was in a toddler bed...not the crib. However, she slept in her crib until she was a little over 3 years old. She never ONCE tried to climb out and we tried a toddler bed when she was about 2 1/2 and she did not want anything to do with it. So we didn't push the issue. She's been in the toddler bed since about last May and her poor little feet were touching the bottom of the bed so we knew we had to upgrade to a big girl bed soon and we just so happen to find some really cute furniture on sale when we went shopping. She also got a new dresser to match her new bed :). I promise I will have some pics to share soon.

But first, I have TONS of pictures from Aliyah's birthday party. Like I said she had a blast. She wanted to have a High School Musical party so that's what we did. We rented the teen center in town which has a dance floor and a place for movies so we had High School Musical music playing (noone really danced though ;) and we played the first High School Musical movie. Other than that, everyone just visited and had a good time.

Just a shot of the cake.


Birthday Girl posing in front of all her presents. She could NOT wait to get into all those pretty packages. The color is WAY off in this picture...I was having a horrible time with the lighting in that place but I didn't have much time to keep messing with my settings so I eventually gave up and set my camera to full auto (where's the embarrased smiley when you need it?).


These pull-string pinatas are pretty cool. Not as much fun as whacking them like the old ones but you don't have to worry about anyone getting whacked upside the head ;)


All the other kids did get a turn to pull a string. Aliyah just so happen to pull the one that made the bottom come open.




We did the cake after the pinata and Aliyah had put a piece of gum in her mouth. You should have seen her trying to blow the candles out while chewing on a big ole piece of gum. She did manage to get the job done though. We probably got a little extra saliva on the cake ;)


Just a couple of her opening presents.


She got a lot of really cute summer clothes. Now I just wish the weather would warm up!


And the end result of the day. She wanted to lay in Mommy and Daddy's bed for a little while before going to her own bed so I let her. I put her in our bed and went to do a few things and by the time I got back she was already asleep. There's nothing sweeter than a "baby" sleeping.


Just a little more up-close. Sorry I couldn't decide which one to post, so you get both :)


We had a little party at our house for her on her birthday with the grandparents so I will be sharing pictures from that tomorrow.