Birthday Preview

May Day May Day...Isla's 1!!! I seriously can't believe she's 1! I was sitting in church thinking back on the year, and how difficult it was, yet how much my heart has grown in the process. I think I needed some humbling, and I believe the Lord was molding me into the person he knew I could be....just a small step in my journey.

We had cupcakes because we are waiting for the mini-cake when Stevie comes next Monday to take pictures! Turns out she doesn't like cup cakes as the video shows! Ha! Here are some pictures I took, but the professional ones will be posted in a couple weeks!

Just cause she's CUTE!!

Firsts

I know this is terribly cliche but I have been super busy, so blogging has been on hold for a while...sorry! Here's an update on some of Isla's firsts: She has two bottom teeth, and is now getting two more beside the bottoms, and two on top! She took her first bubble bath, and went to the park for the first time and we slid down the slide (which was kinda scary she said :) and played on the swings!! Oh, and first Justin Bieber hair-do! Ha!

Piano Lessons

Adjusting the volume

"Look how sore my fingers are! I need a break!"

Ya I'm pretty much making Isla write an concerto grosso! Ha! I picked up this fancy little number at Once Upon A Child for a spendy $4.50! I heart that place! Isla loves her baby grand! She jams on it all day and sings sometimes too! It has a backbeat and you can record yourself (Chelsea lost an entire afternoon after discovering this). I have no idea what any of the buttons say because it's all in chinese, so thankgoodness music is a universal language!

Isla at 8 Months!

Chelsea and I did these on my way crappy camera, with some serious editing! Don't worry her 1 yr. will be taken by a professional! Ha!

Leftover Christmas Pears!!

My parents gave me some of their left-over Christmas Pears from Harry and David and Chelsea left them in her trunk to freeze and thaw for a couple of days, so...I wanted to use them still so I tried this fabulous recipe and was pleasantly surprise how delicious they were! If you have any hard, bartlett pears that works great too! Try it out, you'll be glad you did!

Pears in Raspberry cream sauce:

3 Tblsp. butter

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tea. ground ginger

2 dashes of ground nutmeg

1/2 tea. cinnamon

4 firm bartlett pear peeled, halved and cored

3 tblsp. heavy cream

1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed

Preheat oven to 375. In a ovenproof sauce pan combine butter, sugar, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Cook just until butter is melted and then put in your pears cut side down. Bake with foil on top for about 25 mins, turning them over halfway through.

Lift pears onto serving dish and bring the remaining liquids to a boil *REMEMBER THE HANDLE ON YOUR SAUCE PAN IS FLAMING HOT!!! DO NOT TOUCH* because I totally did like 3 times! Add cream, and bring mixture to a boil. Thicken for about 1 minute. Take off heat and stir in raspberries. Spoon this delectable concoction onto your pears and then I top with home-made whipcream (heavy cream, 4-5 tblsp. sugar and 1 tea. vanilla and whip with mixer).

ENJOY!!

Christmas Time

Well...hmmmm where to start? We went to Price this Christmas and got to see Ben and Kim and the kids while we were there. Isla kept waking up at the crack of dawn. I watched the sun rise over the bookcliffs one too many times! Ha! We were all basically sick, John (Tim's dad) was probably the worse! I had a good time getting away from I.F. and shoppin' with the girls though! Then we stopped in Lewiston (Cache Valley) where my parents live because 5-6 hrs. in the car with Isla was less than ideal, and we got snowed in! Long story short we were gone for like two weeks! It was very nice to see family and rest from being sick, but consequently I took like 3 pictures and they were only of Isla, so here's she is with her new doll, and hopefully next year I will be better at documenting the festivities!

Photo Shoot

So I decided to make some last minute Christmas cards for my family, and since I'm cheap and Stevie's probably slammed...I did my own lame photo shoot. Here's the blurry, unprofessional pictures I came up with:

My Christmas Card to you..

I was reading a talk by Pres. Henry B. Eyring, and contemplating the need for "Peace on Earth", a phrase often heard this time of year. I came to the conclusion that we do have peace on earth if we want it! Pres. Eyring said:
"More than any other people on earth, we have, through the glorious events of the Restoration of the gospel, felt the peace that the Lord offered His people with the words 'Be still, and know that I am God.' "
Maybe we can't stay wars or world-wide anxiety, but if we just be still, and trust in the Lord, truly we can feel peace. If the peace begins in our hearts we can spread it to our homes, and then communities! If everyone trusted in the Lord and did his will, we would have peace on earth! My goal is to really try and trust the Lord. I know to often I demand justice when what I really need to give is mercy! I wish all of you Peace in your homes and hearts this season as we turn to our Savior!

Thansgiving what-nots

So I went to a little craft party at my friend Pam's house and we made the cutest little turkeys! I quickly decided this is what we would be doing for Activity Day's too! I love them and they are super easy! I wanted to make a cute crafty cookie, so I realized that my flower cookie cutter could be turned into a turkey! How lucky! They turned out Ok (I'm not Martha Stewart people!) Wow, you're thinking, Isla let you do all that? Well, No! She was asleep for half of it, then she unrolled the paper towels while I was frosting and sprinkling! Ha!

They grow up too fast...

Chelsea thought it would be hilarious to yearbook Isla, and she's right, it is hilarious, so I thought I would share the fun. Let me know if you: a.)like it b.)think it's horrifying c.)want my Christmas cards to include 1978 Isla

A new addition to the family!!

CHE CHE is here! My little sister Chelsea is going to be living with us for the next 8 months until her parole officer says otherwise....Haha NO, she's going to Austin Kade for esthetics! We all have mixed feelings: Chelsea leaving her friends and having to live in our basement, and with us now we can't walk around in our underwear. The good though is that she will get a great education in something she loves and we will have a live-in baby sitter! (And the fact that she is super fun and we love her to pieces helps too!)

Fairy Butterfly Princess?

I don't know what the heck this costume really is, but it's CUTE! I bought it about 4 years ago, and like everything else with Isla pants...it fits! I seriously have been oddly blessed with things like this. I had almost everything bought before she was even realized, and it has all worked out! Tender mercies for sure! Anyhoo, the pictures aren't great because Isla didn't see dad all day except for a minute while he took the pictures so she was crazy-excited and consequently blurry!

Baby needs her some Exersaucer!!

Well, we finally bought Isla a substantial toy! We really haven't gotten her much of anything, because Aunt Lisa lets us borrow all of her little girls clothes, and we got tons of toys for the baby shower! We've been super lucky! Plus I hesitated because she hated her swing! Anyhoo she was SICK of her old toys so we got this exersaucer and she likes it! YEA!

She seriously played with the nub that was sans toys for forever! Of course! We should have just gotten her some toliet paper rolls and old newspaper! Ha!

Morgan being a smart-alec and telling me she's too small because her feet don't quite touch the ground! She'll grow into it MORGAN! (She's just jealous!)