Winnemucca Welcome Home

We have finally arrived safely to our new home in Winnemucca, NV.  Oh man, don't we wish we could call this our home the whole time we are in here!  Kim and Anita kindly offered to drive out with us and with an enormous effort from the ward here, Jared got the truck unloaded and everything put into the house in like 30 minutes.  Anita and Kim had planned to stay the weekend to help us unpack and move in but unfortunately this morning Anita walked down the stairs only to slip for the last half of the staircase and may have broken a rib or two.  So she and Kim headed back this morning.  Isla and I are still more sick than I care to admit, so we unfortunately had to skip church to spare everyone the illness exposure.  On the plus side, in honor of Isla turning 5 months and due to her EXTREME curiosity and desire to try our food, got the pleasure of her first "solid" (I use that turn very very loosely) food meal; a delicious oatmeal mush.  Together we shared our first meal in Winnemucca.

Our First Supper

A skeptical first "solid" supper

"Yum!  This is good ... see Isla"

I think the jury is still out on this one

Party before the big move

With our move to Winnemucca being postponed by a month and having moved out on time we were in a state of limbo and thanks to the Watts (again) were not left homeless.  We sure our grateful for our family.  After partying it up for a while with them Isla and I went to Yakima to soak up a little sister-cousin-niece-nephew time, because our opportunity to have such a nice long visit is usually quite rare.  Seriously when do you just have a few weeks with no obligations?  With the blessing of Southwest's affordable airfare we lucked out and hoped the plane to Seattle and shuttle to Yakima while Jared was about to leave for Winnemucca to start work.  Emily, Ryan, and girls were in SLC, so we got to fly with Emily and the girls to Seattle.  Boy, am I glad we road together.  It was a long, long, very long day, but actually not as bad as I thought it would be.  Luckily Sage just got deliriously "happy" while still staying very obedient and with all the long traveling and layovers that she wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it could be.  Of course after eight ours of travel and more wait time in the airport you loosen your boundaries a bit and let the kid roll around of the floor if it makes her happy.  Oh well.  She's healthy still.  Isla and Mila also did well, they mostly just got pretty cuddly when they were tired of traveling, so that wasn't bad either.  My favorite part was when both of them fell asleep after eating and with a whole row to ourselves, I had one girl sleeping on the seat to the left and the other to the right while Emily read stories to Sage in their row.  It was pretty adorable.  Frankly, I was largely impressed with all three girls ability' to cope.

Anyhow, Yakima was so much fun to be all together.  I loved that I could actually walk (albiet long walk) to Emily's house from Sara's.  I felt totally spoiled to have three of the four sisters together for so long.  And yes, at times it did make me wish a bit that we all lived closer.  Skype, gmail chat, and cell phones sure do shorten the distance between each member of my family thought, thankfully.  We enjoyed cooking, a really fun Indian night, girls night out, painting, earring making, baby clothes shopping, basketball games, FHE's, Ryan's birthday, baby photo shoot, baby shower, and a lot of day-to-day enjoyable time together with all the sweet children.  Sometimes it really did end up more referring, feeding and playing with the kiddos than the actual activity we had planned to do, but I sure didn't mind a bit.   Here's a few shots from some of the time we had together.

Isla's Photo Shoot by Birch

I really love these shots of her, they just capture her eyes and inquisitiveness so perfectly

The kids all did a great job taking care of her.  My favorite was in the morning while I made their lunches or breakfast they would dance to music to entertain her or try to teach her to crawl.  It was really adorable.  Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of her with each of them, but her are two with Alex and Chloe.  

She was smitten with Alex and Chloe was smitten with her.  If Chloe wasn't taking a bath with her, she was watching her get a bath.  

I love painting and was so so excited when Sara asked me to do one for her.  It reminded me how much I would love to do some for our home.  If only we had a Micheal's or Joann's to get some canvas.  

Oh well.

Sara also taught Isla a new trick.  That she now, can't get enough of especially when I try to change her diaper.  Thanks Sara.

One last shot with the three of us before we flew home.

While we were away Jared had a last few days with his family.  They made the most of it by breaking out the nerf guns from Christmas, geared up with a variety of protection equipment and in fun Watts' style had an all out "battle" around the house.

Looks like no one was left out.

Cousin time

In between all the crazy hustle and bustle of moving, we decided to make use of the time and visit more family.  Here's a few shots oh some cousin and sister time we caught while the Andersen's were in town with the Wrights.  It was so so much fun to be all together.  Isaac and Lucy were practicing being great older siblings for there soon to be arriving baby sister Kate.  Curious Lucy got diaper 101.

 Mila + Isla

 Isla modeling her adorable knit hat handmade from my former boss and her new cute tutu pants.

 The whole gang .. Sagelicious, Ike, Lulu,

Isla, and Ginga

 So cute together

Oh, and so are we (missing you Sara).

Isla's Opera

Watch out Sara Brightman, we might have a new and upcoming rival!

Story time with Isla

Isla love story time.  She listens intently as we read each day.  Lately she enjoys "holding" a.k.a. grabbing and eating the book as well.  She has also become quite the story teller herself.  Check it out....

Ghanaian Basket

I love these Ghanaian baskets and have fond memories of walking down streets and streets full of them in Accra.  I came up stairs one morning to find this seen.  Guess she takes after me a bit after all.

Isla + Bathtime = Best time of the day

Isla loves loves loves the bath, or shower, or let's face it, anything water.  And this little lady can splash!  I guess the good thing about that is our bathtub walls and bathroom floor get "mopped" daily after bath time.  It is a rare occasion that Jared or I don't have to change our soaking wet clothes after her splashing.  It is so fun to see her light up when the water starts running.  In fact, ever since her first bath she has been hooked.  She has been able to recognize the water and impending bath since I can remember.  Here is a small video of her enjoying her bath after her four month check up and dreaded immunization boosters. Do know though, that this video contains infant nudity.  View at your own discretion.