Cowboy

My dad is a cowboy at heart and in practice.

We were playing at this little park in the apartment complex here in Elko and Sawyer found his park feature.  I couldn't help but take a bunch of pictures that show his perfect smile and his mad cowboy skills.  Check out he rides that horse!  I thought my dad would be proud.  Perhaps it runs in this genes? As a side note, Sawyer is wearing my favorite outfit in both pictures; his coveralls.  I am sure my dad will be one of those old me who wears coveralls as he tinkers in the basement ... someday.

Happy Birthday Dad.

Come on in ...

... have a look see.

New

I know I have a lot of catching up to do, which was my plan while we are in this apartment, but I didn't think about all our pictures being on our desktop rather than our laptop.  And unfortunately, I only brought our laptop.  Therefore, I will just be posting our current business; which contains a lot of new.

First off, the house.  You have all been asking so here are a few pictures.  I wish I would have taken pictures each day because it has been fun to visit each day and see the house growing, forming, and taking shape.  But ... C'est la vie ...  Right? So here's a few from the beginning of second week framing and the end of it.

Back of House

2nd Day Back of House

2nd Day Front of House

Exactly two weeks later .....

Front of House

Back of House

Love

I am not a cool mom that knows how to facebook, tweet, or instagram.  I blog solely for the purpose of my family and friends that I rarely live in the same state or country with; and even then, I barely do that.  Our really cool babysitter gifted me with this instagram of Isla that I am totally in love with.

Jared's new job has created a lot of opportunities for growth for us individually, as a couple, and as a family.  As we pray for strength and do better some days and weeks then others handling our life; I have learned a lot.  In my effort to do better with "mommy-hood" and "solo-hood" I have been really trying to focus on recognizing the things that make me happy, cherish them, and try to feel and show more love.  Call it corny if you will, but focusing with a serious degree of effort on doing these things really has become a survival mechanism.  So when our baby sitter sent me my new favorite picture of Isla and I enjoyed the afternoon with my daughter I just wanted to put down the things I loved about today, to help make it a happy one for me.

I loved that my babysitter sent this picture out of the blue.  I love the warm light of an instagram and how it gives every picture a warm memory feeling.  This one particularly exuding the pure joy that Isla is filled with.  I loved that Isla had an unexpected and rare super long nap that allowed not only for a very happy daughter the rest of the day, but the only two cherished hours I got alone with my husband this entire week.  They were a perfect moment of sweetness and real love to face this next week with and feel like a real team despite our locations.  We talked without judgement or personal needs.  We helped each other prepare for the week.   And just enjoyed a few quiet moments together.  I love that Isla woke up happy and cuddly and just as sweet as can be.  I love that she happily played without spilling water all over the kitchen floor, while I made dinner.  I love that not only does she know her numbers but has learned to apply them to counting objects, which she happily did while I picked tomatoes.  I love that we have delicious fresh tomatoes in are garden.  I love that Isla loved every bit of our dinner main dish  (A favorite dish of roasted butternut squash and garlic pasta) and even our side of fresh tomatoes, basil, and cottage cheese.  I love that she ate all her dinner, did not throw it on the floor and played well till bedtime.  I love that she said over and over, "Oh mommy, thank you very much for that noodle," when I causally handed her a noodle to test out of the pot of boiling water.  And I love that she loves to read and we read together before bed and she quickly drifted off to sleep without coaxing or reminders.  I love that I got to talk to three of my sisters today.  And I love and feel grateful to have been blessed with such a nice Sabbath day that helped me to feel the sweet Spirit all day long.   I am grateful for such a blessed day that did not try my patience to the Nth degree.  I am grateful for a day that truly felt like the Sabbath all day long in the most subtle yet Christ-like way that is love.  I will try to hang onto the gift of this day and expand on it this week so that these feelings will become more of my character. 

I love that this picture captures all that I felt today.

2 Years Old

I am guessing at three years old kids start to really understand and can anticipate birthdays.  We  anticipated Isla's for her, again this year, and tried to get her excited about it too.  Though she didn't get we were talking about the week leading up to her birthday, she loved learning a new song for it, "Happy Birthday," and was stoked about going to sleep in her new cupcake pj's from Grammy, only to have an even better surprise of loads of balloons to greet her on the big day.  Daddy chose right with the Micky Mouse balloon and nine other colors of the rainbow.  Of course her birthday treats of white cheddar popcorn, pistachios, fruit leather, teddy grams and oatmeal were hard to "tare" her away from in order to open her actual birthday gifts.  And I will apologize in advance that most of the pictures aren't really in focus.  I seriously need to learn how to work our camera.

Grammy gave Isla a real pint sized shopping cart.  Isla filled it will all the special animals that Grammy has.

She wasn't sure about the whole, blowing the candles out, thing.  Hence the skeptical look she is giving us as she blew out her candles.  I am pretty sure she was thinking, "You guys are kind of weird.  Who lights up what we are going to eat, only to blow it out seconds later?  Oh well, I sure want that cupcake, so I will just do what they say."

It was also kind of a, "it's my birthday and I will do what I want to" day.  Isla was helping clean some dishes in her diaper, when the next thing I knew she was in the sink cleaning the dishes.  Then later we were cutting up watermelon and she wanted some.  I explained to her that I had to cut it up and then she could have some.  Apparently that wasn't a good enough answer because the next thing I new she pulled up a chair next to me, climbed up, and leaned over and took a bit right in the middle of me removing the rinds.  Oh well.  That's a true birthday part for a two year old right?

Bear Lake

Bear Lake was actually back in July.  I forgot our camera, not that I am a great photographer anyway, but nonetheless, just got a few pictures of Isla I thought I would share.  I am pretty sure Isla was confident she had stepped into some sort of "heaven on earth."  There were loads of fun people and kids to play with, endless treats to swipe from everyone down at the beach, enough water and sand to play in for as many hours as we would let her, and late bedtimes.   Most of you know Isla is definitely a little water baby and the following depicts her at her finest.

Who needs pants when you have a helmet?

Okay help me up mom ...

All right so that's how you do it?

I'll take it from here then, you can get off mom.

Catch Up

It has been a very long while since I did a post about what has been going on here.  This is my attempt at catching you all up with some tidbits despite not having all the photos I wish I did from activities we have been busy with.

Andy and Lindsey were definitely Uncle and Aunt #1 for Isla this month.  They treated us majorly to a nice week in Indianapolis, IN.  While there, we toured the Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL Colts  team.  Isla had a TOTAL BLAST with Andy, Lindsey and Charlie.  It was a huge sacrifice for them to take on these to little ones that might as well be twins.  They so much like siblings I am really wondering what our little boy will look like.  Thank you Andy and Lindsey for treating us to a really nice and needed week together (even if he was working) and the biggest blessing to know Isla was happy and so well taken care of in our absence. 

This  pic should not be a surprise to any of you but for documentation sake here was a fun surprise we had one early Saturday morning in March.  I spent the later half of the evening on a group date with Jared's siblings and parents wishing my stomach would stop trying to jump through my throat and the world would stop spinning.  Jared recalled the other day at that he was thinking at that movie, "Oh man I can't take her anywhere for the next nine months!"  I remember thinking, "Oh man, I don't want to go anywhere for the next nine months!"

For Mother's Day we surprised Anita and family with a quick trip up Sunday afternoon.  We loved having all the kiddos together.  Isla especially loved that her cousins include Ruby the dog and all his toys ... like a water bowl.

Memorial Day was filled with one of my favorite things, hiking, hot pots, and the Wrights.

Sweet Eli James was born July 23rd and we got a chance to head up that afternoon to welcome this little boy into the world.  You can check Estee's blog for some pics of him.  Isla was not allowed to go to the hospital with us so we took turns going in to see him.  Jared captured this video of Isla seeing the local hospital garden statues a tune.  As a side note, Isla is a very good at learning and memorizing songs.  She sings them most of the day, but rarely on cue.  She prefers backseat singing and serenading her toys and books.  For documentation sake, she has known the following songs for months and months:

I am a Child of God (all three verses)

Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam

I like to look for Rainbows

ABC's

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Mary's Lullaby

Three Little Speckled Frogs

Slippery Fish

Love One Another

I Feel my Savior's Love

 Row Row Row Your Boat

Give Said the Little Stream

Wheels on the Bus
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
I Love to See the Temple (both verses)

Next up was Lizzie James birthday.   It was a really fun evening with neighbors and family.  She is such a sweet girl.  I love that she and Isla enjoy each other and seem to play so well together.

With all of craziness of Jared's travel we are continually adjusting and trying to make the most of our time together while he's home.  We recently instigated an annual hike Friday when he get's home.  The first one was up Neff's canyon.  The picture of us are totally unflattering, but for again for documentations sake I had to post this little muffin just LOVING our hike, the birds, bees, flys, flowers, and trees.  It turns out if one is to actually go to the very top of Neff's canyon, high up to the wildflower fields, the trails turns ridiculously steep.  I don't think it was just the 5+ month pregnant belly that was slowing me down.  The trail turned into a steep beast for the last mile or two.  Going down though was worse.  I would prefer not to recount the number of times I slipped.  Just one more reason Jared wore the kid pack this time.  We might have lost Isla rolling down the hill, had I and my butterfinger feet been carrying her.

We started July off with one of my favorite doctors appointments together.  Here is a pick of our little man!  We are so looking forward to meeting him.

One more trip back to Logan for Sam's brithday party was filled with his annual dinner in the canyon.  Isla loved her weekend hanging out with Sadie, talking to Drew on Sadie's phone and going for little excursions with her cousins in the canyon.

One of my favorite parts of moving to Sandy has been having such a great neighborhood.  The other night we had some of our dear friends and neighbors over for an impromptu dinner and ice cream.  They have five really cute boys.  Their youngest, Kingston (3 yrs) and Isla have particularly bonded.  He has adopted her as his pseudo sister and they adamantly declare  their best-friend-hood to any who asks.  Though I don't have a picture of them together yet, here is one of Isla enjoying full control over her dad's cup of ice cream that night.

Sara and Birch came for Alex's first EFY and we got to spend a couple of evenings playing with them.  I am pretty sure that the swim party at Matt and Jessica's and ice cream cone with Birch are tied for Isla's favorite events together.

Fire season hit Utah, among other states,  about three months to early  we have had the fortune/misfortune of seeing fires ignite and spread at massive rates right from our house windows.  Jared caught this shot the other night of the West Valley fire.  This one brought ash in the air around our homes in addition to the strong stench of smoke.

At the sake of celebrating Isla's independence and removing some of my dignity I will now depict what Isla likes to do in the morning while I get ready for excercise.  She has been very good at using the toilet these last few weeks especially loves trying on my underwear instead of hers.  After taking this picture we had a knock at the door and I quickly pulled off all the underwear and rushed with her down stairs.  Then we hoped in the car to run some errands and it wasn't until returning for her nap time that I realized she still had three pairs of underwear around her waist that she had been wearing all day.  Nice

And now August.  Last weekend we reenacted one of my favorite childhood outings.  Sandy had it's very own air balloon launch and it started at a blessed 7am verses the typical 5am times.   I have been wanting to do this with Isla for a while and this park was just down the street.  We had so much fun watching the launch.  The flying pig, was by far Isla's favorite.  If you look at the last picture closely you will also notice a man flying his air balloon in a chair rather than the typical basket.  It reminded me of a favorite movie, Danny Deckchair.  Rent it if you haven't.