Saturday, December 31, 2011

Christmas Parties



We had a wonderful time celebrating (for the last time) in Winnemucca at the Ward Christmas Party.  Isla had a particularly great time in the lime light leading the ward in a few celebration hymns.  The next few days we headed out with the moving trucks to Utah.  We stopped in Logan for a week to celebrate Christmas, where Isla decided when meeting Santa in that she prefers it to be on her own terms.  After Christmas we headed to Mapleton to party with the Wrights for New Years and then up to Midvale to start our temporary stay in some Midvale apartments until we found our home in Sandy, UT.
Here is a few clips from the Christmas parties and some darling pictures Leah took in Mapleton.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Thanksgiving

We spent a wonderful thanksgiving with the Watts in Logan this year.  We feel we have so much to be grateful for.  The most obvious and greatest blessing is of having two increadible ever growing families plus our own sweet little family.  We also just found out (blessing in disguise) that Jared has been asked to take a remarkable move in Barrick over to their head regional offices in SLC, UT managing the health (Industrial Hygiene) of not one, but of all the mines in North America.  These mines stretch from Canada down to the Dominican Republic.  Though we are so brokenhearted to leave our dear friends in Winnemucca, we are sure this move will be much better for our family in the long run.  This is a huge unexpected change for us, but we are welcoming it with open arms despite all the unknowns.   We are grateful for the time Barrick has given us in Winnemucca though. 


There was lots of creating involved this Thanksgiving.  
Like these sweet little edible turkeys we made with the kids.  Who doesn't love Reece's and Oreo's?

Lindsey also whipped out her amazing talent and gave little Isla her first haircut.  Though this has been a tradition for my mother to do, I think Lindsey did a great job filling in for my mother who is serving the Fijians with all her heart.  I was totally impressed with Lindsey's ability to not only cut, but cut well, the hair of a child who was busy trying to do anything but get her hair cut.
 I'll get your hair ready to be cut next Grammy.


And finally we worked on creating some cozy knit pieces.  I had a hat I was working on for my brother and Sadie was knitting up her very first infinity scarf.  Since being introduced to knitting by my aunt Jackie years ago and then being reintroduced by two dear friends Adriane and Amber, I have really taken a liking to this knew form of creating.  It started last year when I decided after looking for years to replace a favorite beanie Jared lost while we were dating, I decided I would just have to learn to knit myself and make the hat if I couldn't find it.  Thanks to the support of Adriane and Amber many a night calling them late and having them talk me through problems and stitches over the phone or letting me drop by for a personal lesson, I finally finished his hat.  Now, a year later, I am getting a little addicted.  Though I haven't spent a ton of time on projects I have loved the results of what has come out so far.  I will have to show pictures of finished projects later, when I snaps some.

 Concentrating...
 Got it!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Organizing

My mother tells stories of my obsession with organizing from a very young age.  Isla looks so much and acts so much like Jared that I start to wonder sometimes if she is my child at all (j/k).  These pictures will prove, according to my mother, Isla is, in fact, my child too.

*Please not the following pictures contain some bum:

Nothing like a little sorting in the buff...



I'll get that pan for you mom

What's that?  Baking powder?  Sure let me grab that for you.

 Jared and I were cleaning house and walked into the dinning room to find this...

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Last of the season


Isla has been a big fan of corn since we first let her have solids.  Weather it was just gnawing on a kernel-less cob sucking out the juices or full on eating her own piece.  These are just a couple of shots I thought were to sweet not to post.  She was totally engrossed and ended up eating three whole pieces for dinner.  Winnemucca has fabulous corn by the way.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween

A monkey was the first animal Isla learned to identify.  She is very good at making monkey sounds.  Her monkey is a close rival to dog Jared gave her for her birthday so we decided to make her a monkey costume for Halloween,  She was a pretty cute little one if I do say so myself.



 We got really festive, Watts-style and enjoyed a delicious meal of Monster Guts (green salad) and Ghost's graveyard (Shepard's pie with Ghost-shaped mashed potatoes and olive eyes on top).  But the homemade pumpkie ice cream pie with chocolate rice krispie crust really made the evening.


 Isla was insistent that Halloween includes candy.  Sooo yep, she trick-or-treated to our sweet grandma neighbors house for a Twix.  Not the greatest picture but it was for documentation sake.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Meet the Michelin Wo-Man



We're staying warm this winter.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

What been happening at our place

In the world of exploration that is our life currently, we have learned a few things about out daughter.  She is "re-organizer".  This essentially means that she takes everything out of any container or place and put it somewhere else.  Seeing only half of her climbing in and out of our kitchen cabinets to reach something for her stash is not uncommon.
 Exploration naturally includes eating by herself.  This was a particularly exhausting lunch session that ended up restyling her hair.
 Want some yogurt.  It is fantastic when eaten with fingers.  Who needs silverware?

 Isla got 5th's Disease right after her bout with the flu for her birthday.
It was a rough month for her.  Poor little girl all covered in dots.
 Sometimes reorganizing get's messy.  Dang Cherrios.
Washcloths in the basket, out of the basket.  Wait wait ... heat up by the dryer for a second.  Okay, washcloths in the ....
 Who saw that?

Friday, September 2, 2011

Happy 1st

 Isla had her first case of the flu on her birthday so our celebrations were a bit sporadic.  We fit in what we could when she was feeling well.  The morning of her birthday was beautiful outside so we decided to dress up and have a little photo shoot.  She chose to bring along her monkey.  They are inseparable.  Enjoy the photo shoot while I share with you a few things that she accomplished in her first year.
Along with the usuals: rolling over, crawling, and walking, Isla also became a pro at picking rip fruits and vegetables.  Her favorites being gooseberries, raspberries, and apples.  Though occasionally she did get a few green tomatoes just to make sure they didn't taste the same as the red ones.
 Isla took her first consecutive steps out on this lawn and spent a lot of the summer out here digging through and dumping out my pots.  She LOVES dirt and rocks and typically tries to eat as much of it as possible before we catch her.
 Isla managed to sprout eight teeth in her first year and has the sweetest smile that she is not shy about sharing with anyone.
 Isla is mischievous beyond all get out.  You can see it in her eyes and in the trail of objects she "reorganizes" throughout the house and yard.  It is not uncommon to find refrigerator magnets stuck to our cooking pots, half eaten apples in her toy basket, and DVD's in the kitchen drawers. 
 She has developed quite the vocabulary in the past few months.  Besides generally just being a little parrot she has mastered the following words and mostly knows when and how to use them: ba (ball), mom, dad, yes, yeah, oh yeah, aba (a bath), puppy/poppy, doggy or ruff ruff, no (hasn't quite grasped it's meaning yet), mo (this means no when she has done something wrong and is said very seriously), all clean, all done, more, pees (please), cheese, yum, no dat (tho that), no dis (no this- generally used when she wants more options), uh oh, hello, htsss (hot), amen (mot consistent yet), hi, Isla (she says this alot, sometimes I think she is mocking us), and poo poo.  I can't be quite sure but recently I have heard her refer to her blanket more than once as "Norris. "  Little concerned about tha,t but oh well.
 Isla likes to cuddle for brief moments over and over and over.  She is very loving and if someone is crying she always tries to make them smile.  She is very serious about eye contact.  And makes sure she has it when talking to anyone. 
 Isla is mostly a good eater as far as variety goes but is a great eater when it comes to quantity.  She eats all day long.  If we are not on top of the game with snacks every hour in addition to normal meals she loudly and repetitively will announce "more more more" to let us know she is hungry.  She likes: avocados, apples, cheese, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, mandrine oranges, asian pears, crackers, cheerios, yogurt, dried fruit, peas, toast, and cucumbers (only if she is eating them from my shopping cart in the store).  She does not like meat.  Irony anyone?
 She hasn't ever really been a big fan of sweets in the handful of times we have let her have some including the New Hampshire celebration.  So we made her some delicious peach muffins for her birthday to blow her candle out with.  We had been practicing blowing all month.  She is really good at it and blew out her candle all by herself.
 Needless to say, she loved her muffin.
 For Isla's gift/party we bought a swimming pool (that she undoubtedly will enjoy next summer) and filled it full of balloons.  It stayed up for weeks she loved it so much.  This is her squealing in delight!  It was a lot more fun then then new car seat she also got for her birthday. 

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Off in 'Nampshire

I am not quite sure I can adequately describe how much I love going to visit New Hampshire, RDC, Squam Lake ... I love it.  The humidity was perfectly lovely and warm.  We got a lot of rain but when it wasn't raining it was amazing!  This was a total vacation.  We did almost all my favorite things; like running/hiking up the Rattlesnakes and surrounding areas daily, relaxing on the dock (plus, a lot of vigilance on the dock to with Isla this year), family, and swimming, swimming, swimming.  With all that fun there was hardly time for pictures.  Here are a few that we snagged.

Hiking up to the beloved West Rattlesnake for dawns first light.  Hence the  hats, sleepy eyes and strange outfits.
She felt victorious!
Nothing like a corn on the cob, or two or three, for a Wednesday Ball field picnic
 Couldn't get her out of the water even when it was raining and cold.  No stopping this little one. 
 Yikes.  Not sure why I am volunteering this one.
What child doesn't love pulling out everything from the kitchen cabinets and then maybe or maybe not putting them back in.  Again, the outfit?  Please don't ask.  We ran low on warm clothes for the nights and tie died a few things for warmth.
 I think Jared got a migraine from all the water he shoved up his nose diving.  Weirdly though he still thought it was worth it.
 Isla made new friends.

 I think we all know of Isla's fetish with books by now.



 This was pretty cool.  I couldn't believe how close the duck kept coming.  Isla couldn't have been more elated about it.  She would even swim right after the duck when we weren't watching.

 Once we put on the life jacket she had no limitations.
 We celebrated Dad's birthday during Hurricane Irene with a very yummy festive German chocolate cowboy cake.  Yep, that's right.
 Yee Haw!
 Isla joined in the celebrations having a birthday only four days later.  She got her first doll to go along with a sweet little rocking crib and bedding my mom and dad made for her.  We call her Peppermint.
Thank you mom, dad, Trish and Patrick for such an awesome REAL vacation.  A perfect summer trip.