Hamster in a wheel.

Hello. Hello? This thing on? Testing testing...123.

That was such a lame introduction. But it's all I got. So it's stayin'. Actually the more I sit here the more embarrassed I become by that intro.  It's not funny. It doesn't grab your attention. It doesn't make you want to read more. I'll probably have to erase it soon. 

My point is (AKA: I have no point) it's 6:22 AM and I've been laying awake since 5:30ish thinking about everything I need to document on this here blog and how behind I am.  And how much I love to write and how my brain is turning to mush and how much I'd love to have just a little time for myself and how I know sacrifice brings blessings and how everyone says how much I'm going to miss my kids being little when they're older and how fast time flies and how much my heart beats for them and how I could watch each of them sleep for hours and how I belong to a book club and haven't read a single book and how I'm supposed to be hosting this month but had to back out because there's just too much going on and how I don't comprehend how those other mothers of tiny children can even remotely have time to be reading a new book every single month and how I'm losing my ability to form separate and correctly structured sentences because remember how I just barely said my brain is turning to mush and then I thought about how Scarlett is going through a "playing with her doodie" phase every time she uses the bathroom and the first time I caught her doing it, I very sternly told her it could make her and her sisters and cousins very sick and asked her why she was doing that and how she told me, "You big so you can't play with your doodie but I just yiddow so I can play with my doodie," and I don't know how to stop her from doing it because she's getting into so much trouble every time she does it but I was just thinking maybe I'll try to reward her for every time she uses the jon without flinging poo around like a chimp and see if that's more effective because what's happening now is. not. working.

Ahem. So like I said, I'm behind on my blogging. Some of our milestones include:

• Isla had her first birthday party. On April 29th of this year. Nearly 3 months ago.  !!!!!! *Future Isla who may be reading this blog- I don't love you any less than your sisters! If anything, you're my favorite! Just let me explain!
• Jason and I took separate trips to Washington DC, New York and Nashville-all work related ventures.  I have a few doozy stories from these jaunts, trust me. One involves me getting waaaaaay too carried away with a tambourine in front of a lot of people. 
• My lover's birthday. I mostly refer to him as, "my lover". Calling him "Jason" just sounds so foreign to me. Don't be jelly-cat of how totes obsessed we are with each other. It's adorbs. 
• Father's Day and Mother's Day celebrations
• Me and the girls spent 10 days in Idaho Falls at my parents, originally planning to be there over the 4th of July but headed up early because my mom contracted some rare infection in her throat and nearly stopped breathing and was in the hospital for a solid week (ICU for 4 of those days!!!). Yeah, my Dad is still undergoing chemotherapy and out of commission a great portion of his time. All of this while they're trying to put their house on the market so they can move to Arizona. Talk about pouring rain for my Mom and Dad. As in, when it rains it pours. As in, one difficult trial should be sufficient to handle at a time, in case you've never understood that metaphor but have always been afraid to ask. Maybe you've even used it in a group of people but felt immense anxiety afterward wondering if you used it correctly. You're welcome. 
• Las Vegas week long Christensen family retreat. 


And many, many other things. SO many. Every day things that I need to tell you about. Hence the title. In case you didn't realize, that hamster is me. And I'm panting and sweating and wheezing, trying to keep my plump furry body moving forward. But then I look around and it sure doesn't feel like I'm making any progress. Sigh. Poor little hamster. I could be a guinea pig too of course. Any rodent really, who's willing to work themselves into a frenzy in that wee little wheel. The important part is that you see the correlation between the rodent and myself: the incisors. Ahem.


So I'm sharing a few pics from Isla's birthday celebration today. Because every time I look at her she's bigger and more toddlerish and losing here baby cherubicness. It's a word. And even since these pictures were taken, she's had a bunch of teeth come in. Important stuff for moms.

April 29, 2013.

Seriously, this little birthday get-up made me want to squeeze her like she was an orange and I was making fresh-squeezed orange juice. A disturbing visual. But true nonetheless.

Every party has a pooper. 

And then it's amazing how one millisecond later, she's feelin' the groove again, carefree smile on her face. Jason might say it's sortof like being married to me. But you know what I'd say? He's dead wrong. I never get over my surliness that fast. And if I do, he knows I'm faking and I'll be staring daggers in his direction while no one else is looking and then he'll be hearing about it again once we're alone. Totes adorbs.

But yeah, really really hard to get him to look at the camera. He was super distracted by a bird, what can can you do? Oh Husbands!

Party animals.

I love so many many things about this child Isla June. Among of the many, she has Snuffleupagus lashes and fuzzy chimp hair, which I absolutely adore. Not to be confused with the chimp similarity of her sister, the poo flinging one. Sorry you're sharing your birthday post with talk of your sisters latest disgusting little trick, Isla.

There's that crazy hair again.  She rocks it, just like her mother.

She is the best tempered, most snuggly, affectionate babe that I've ever come in contact with. She doesn't discriminate- doesn't just love her mom and dad but will give loves to most everyone- (especially her Papa, Grandpa, and Uncle Brian. These three seem to have her under quite the trance; she will run to them arms out-stretched every time they're in sight. She reached up and hugged on this older man in our ward one Sunday at church and he came up to me afterwards and said, She was answering my prayers. She knew I needed a hug today, with tears in his eyes.) Everyone eats her right up. She says hi (all day long) and Mama (never on command, only under distress) and uh-oh every time she drops something. She's always frantic to get to her sisters when either of them is crying and curiously pats them and leans down to put her face in their faces and hugs them. She waves goodbye and gives lots and lots of kisses basically all day long. I swoon. She's honestly the very, very, very best.

And we're the absolute luckiest to have her. Happy first Birthday Isla June, nearly three months late. You'll understand when you're a mommy someday. You'll understand a lot.