Another Year's Come and Gone

Can you believe I haven't written in over three months? Can you believe I ended last post implying I'd be posting again very shortly? That was a good joke, huh? Can't believe you all fell for it. I got you good. Let's all throw our heads back and have a good hearty laugh about this now. If we were hanging out I might even throw a bowl of peanuts into my face. 

I reference that scene from Dumb and Dumber a lot, but what you don't understand is that it's

it's my favorite thing to visualize. I'd say I spend anywhere from 77 to 93% of each day visualizing throwing a bowl of peanuts in my face while the room roars with laughter. And someday I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna take the plunge and JUST. DO. IT.

Seriously my head's about to implode. What is it with this time of year and head colds? We all forget how miserable colds are, don't we? When we're all good and healthy? Because if someone misses work or stays in bed all day over a "cold" we think they're complete wimps, right? Am I right? Like Really? He's gonna stay home and in bed because of a little case of the sniffles? But then you're hit with one and the world is quite literally ending. Sinus pressure that could actually shoot your head right off your body... send it soaring high into the air... like 15 or 20 feet I'm talking. Sore throat. Cough. Having to breathe through your mouth constantly due to congestion. The cotton mouth and subsequent taste left in mouth due to said cotton mouth. And then you start popping advil cold and sinus like tic tacs and you fool yourself into thinking you're getting better because you're masking the symptoms and then you try to do something like go for a run and you realize you might have the lowest IQ on the planet for making that decision.

Bleh. It's all utter misery. Real misery. I'm gonna try to remember this next time I'm tempted to mock someone for complaining about having a cold. Actually, no that's not me. It might be my husband though because he quite frankly NEVER. GETS. SICK. Which I'm happy about. Happy/jealous rage.

Before we get into the meat of this post, I'll have you know I've been desperate to get back to you, bloggy blog. I know you told me to only call you that name when we're alone but I can't help it. Don't be embarrassed. To show you how serious I am about us, I have a babysitter at my house right now. And I am here at the library. That's right, I'm paying big bucks for this time together. Because every second Isla is left unattended, she sprouts wolverine blades from her hands and destroys whatever she can in the house. She hangs by her feet on the ceiling fan and while revolving shreds around and around. You get the scene. I have plans to be a regular blogger again now that the new year is here, so be expecting that, folks. And by "new year", I mean the year my youngest child goes off to college. {Insert cry emoticon}.

I thought it was bad in my last blogpost to "wrap the summer up" in one post, and here I am starting a "wrap the rest of the year up" with some highlights I don't want to ever forget of 2013. After this update post, I'm gonna really get down to the nitty gritty of here and now. 

In August: We took my Dad on a surprise weekend get-away to Jackson Hole for his 60th birthday celebration. He'd been undergoing chemotherapy since January (still is) and hadn't really left the house during that time. So we thought we'd rent a cabin and give him a change of scenery. We thought we'd view the Tetons once more before they moved down to Arizona, which they did a few weeks after. My heart will burst even beginning to consider this year for my Mom and Dad. But this weekend in Jackson was relaxing and serene. It was perfect!

In September: Jason, family and besties threw me a most killer surprise 80's themed birthday party to commemorate leaving my 20's complete with a Thriller flash mob in my very own back yard. My parents surprised me, my pregnant Nessa flew in for the day so we could sing karaoke together, and I was so overwhelmed by it all that I ugly-face cried pretty much the entire evening. Isn't that the look we're all going for when we're in the dead center spotlight like that?

 In October: We left our baby Isla with my sissy Vanessa and flew the coop to Mexico with Lucy and Scarlett and 100 or so NorthStar employees. The girls were in heaven and the trip was amazing in every wonderful sense of the word.

 Remember that glass blowing factory we went to on our way to the beach? The one where Jason (not our three or our five year old) backed up into a glass chandelier and knocked off a bunch of hand-made pieces and broke them? And then we ran outta there faster than you can say "bull in a China shop"?

We asked to hold the large lizard, but this puny one was all they had.

Also, remember how these two are our kids second parents? Remember when that huge wave came crashing in and almost swept Lucy away and it was Merv who saved the day while her parents stood by watching? I do.

And then we came home, Autumn had officially arrived in our back yard:

  and I got to be a pubescent wizard boy for Halloween walking around stupifying everyone; "the boy who lived" if you will. Dreams come true, people. Dreams come true.

 

 In case you didn't know, Jason was Hagrid. Oh, and in case you didn't know, go get a life.

Along with a miniature wolf, cheetah, and dairy cow to boot. Makes sense.

In November, we celebrated a little something our family likes to call, "Thanksgiving". Just a crazy family tradition we started, I know, everyone thinks we're crazy. Okay but really, this year's Thanksgiving was unique because we ended up having a Friendsgiving- rented a cabin in Big Bear Cali and Christensens, Carliles and Fullmers spent the week basking in each other's good jokes, watching our girls do the worm across the kitchen dance floor, and staying up late with inquiries of Would You Rather. It was a dreamy, dreamy week surrounded by pine and crisp mountain air.

There was a little of this…

 

And a lot of this…

And have you ever seen in all your life such delectable morsels?? I daresay no.

And December brought heavy snow and sparkly lights and garland and all of the magic of the season. All of the magic of Christmas eve and Christmas morn and the spirit that resides the whole month long. And by Christmas magic, I mean the kind that has children levitating around the family room. We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas.

The day after Christmas, we forsook our freshly revealed Christmas loot, packed and bag and headed for the warmer weather. My side of the family got to be together for a week in Arizona and every single minute of it was divine. Swimming in the pool all day and s'mores around the fire pit at night. {Insert second cry emoticon.} Phew okay, this has got to be a wrap, right? That sums it up ya'll. Cheers to the New Year. 2013 had it's good, it's bad and it's ugly. But we're still here. Maybe I'll get more than like two posts in on this here blog for 2014. Wish me serious luck.

Wrap it up. Put a bow on it. Sayonara til next year.

Au revoir Summertime. As much as I love you, the change of seasons is one of my very favorite things in life. So I'm ushering you on out. Now git! Beat it!! Scram!!! Ahem. Oh September in Utah. How glorious are you? Yeah, you! I'm talkin' to you, you little rascal! Don't act like you didn't know! How are we already to your last day? It's 57 degrees outside at this moment. And breezy. The high today is 74. And I'm euphoric. Except I tend to jump the gun a little this time of year. Like how I wore a ski mask yesterday to church, and alls anyone could see were my little beady eyes peering out. Actually, I did wear boots and a sweater over my dress last week. I teach gospel doctrine in my ward and was counting every time I'd feel a bead of sweat trickle down my back. I'm not exaggerating. At all. My face was all flushed and glistening as well. And as soon as I gave an "amen" to that closing prayer, I ripped that sweater off at the speed of light and started swinging it around over my head, like a helicopter. You know what song I wanted to sing. But I couldn't. I'm not sure why I had to wait til class was over to take that sweater off, but I did. Counted beads of sweat instead of the obvious solution.

Back to my point, fall here is SO SUBLIME!!!! Jason and I put our kids to bed last night, ran out to our back yard and cannon balled it right into our double wide hammock to look at the stars. Best part about it? We had to snuggle under a blanket. Because it was chilly.  Don't even get me started on the smell outside that comes with that chill. Heaven on earth. Think of the sound of leaves crunching beneath your feet and that camp-firey pre-snow smell in the air at night. You know the one.

This summer nearly institutionalized me, friends. I'm here to give you and our future generations our summer 2013 hi-lights before we're buried in snow. I realized I have to give you the condensed version if I'm going to be capable of this. This post is squeezing so many events into one post that it might blow your mind. Literally, your head might explode, and I'll apologize to your family at your funeral. It'll be the most bizarre causes of death anyone'll have heard of, and I'll be so overwhelmed with guilt that I'll have to run out half way through the service. Everyone will be talking about it for months, years even. And I'll defend myself for the rest of my life that I forewarned my readers. But do you listen?

First and foremost, did you know my sister Vanessa was here all summer with her chitlins? Which means the entire summer basically was spent making animals in the clouds.

Until we shoved them off the blanket so we could lay down and take selfies.

Jason and I had Jason work/fun related jaunts to Washington DC, New York, and Nashville. All within the first month of summer. I'm no spring chicken anymore people. Wore me right out.

DC in May is lovely.

I think I might hear, "That's enough, honey," from Jason more than anything else. Especially with lots of stuffy businessmen watching. Like in this photo below.

We went to a fancy gala while in music city. Remember last time when I said I had a good story to tell about me and a tambourine? We were at this here fancy dinner in this huge ball room full of round dining tables and the musicians there had handed out a dozen or so tambourines. When the music started, we were supposed to dance around with it just long enough to hand it off to someone else we didn't know. You know these getting to know you type things. Well, I started off with tambourine in hand, except I didn't hear the part about handing it off. I just thought we were supposed to keep going til the music stopped. There there I was, beating that tambourine like it'd never been beaten, dancing up a storm, figure 8-ing around all the tables... for like a good twenty minutes. Not kidding. I was about to pass out wondering WHEN IS THIS SONG GOING TO END?!?! When I finally looked at Jason, who was seated, he was watching me, laughing and trying to motion me over to him. So I went, and he told me I was supposed to pass it on a really really long time ago. I know that honey, I'm just waiting for the right moment. Can't a girl just dance around these people's tables if she wants to? Maybe circle them 4 or 5 times each? Smiling and waving all the while?

And then remember that morning how we went to a key-note speaker address in a big conference room and my phone started playing my audio book super.. I repeat super loud when he was speaking? And there I sat, fumbling around trying to turn the narration of "Pride and Prejudice" off and just couldn't do it? So I had to whisper yell, "Sorry!" like 5 times? And then I immediately spilled my water all over the crotch of my pants? And had to walk around making small talk with people with my husband? Did I mention the pants were tan? And it was a crazy amount of water? Didn't think anyone could be this big of a buffoon in the course of just a few days, did you? Jason can testify to it all.

Big. Long. Sigh. 

Moving on. We celebrated this boy's birthday while in Nashville and started the day off with a music city food tour. Ended the day at Kayne Prime steakhouse. If you know my husband you won't be surprised at all that the day revolved around good eats. Isn't he handsome? Don't be coy. It's okay. You can say he is. Go on. I dare you. Say it to my face. No really, you can. 

Part of Jason's birthday gift was to go to a race track and race a sports car while we were in Vegas a couple weeks later. He loved it, and I loved that they knew we were coming and had this cute little stand set up for us to use as a prop for taking pictures of our adorable children.

So here we are in Las Vegas at the Christensen Family annual retreat. It was about 110 degrees the duration of the week, but that didn't stop us from taking family pictures and acting like the heat wasn't getting to us. Isla is especially chipper. And Grandpa. 

Actually, all my kids look pretty awesome here too. 

Red hot sweaty faces meant lots of water gun fights and pool time. And that made it aaaall completely worth it! And the week was a total success as usual! 

Scarlett spent basically all day every day laying out at the pool working on her tan. She might not look that comfortable, but I'll tell you what. She was. Life jackets even make for the most inconspicuous tan lines.

But back to the family pictures- I'll never forget the squabbling and scuffling that surrounded that photo shoot. There was name calling and cursing and a few right hooks here and there. But we all said cheese and smiled brightly when that camera was ready. Just the way the best families do.

We can't forget Lucy's birthday party when we returned. She turned 5 and invited the little girls from our ward to come party with her- you guessed it, princess style. I couldn't believe that's what she wanted when we asked her. She's so unpredictable. 

And Rapunzel even made a guest appearance. It was the best!

What none of us could quite understand was my little niece Eve's complete and utter disdain for the visiting princess. Was it her singing? Was it her dancing? Was it the fact that she talked about what really makes a princess beautiful lies within? We're not sure. All we know is that any time Rapunzel would hint at doing something any of the girls didn't approve of, they'd threaten her by simply pointing to Baby Eve. And there E would be, popping her neck and cracking her knuckles.

Lucia is kind and thoughtful and so eager to learn and try new things. She loves life and is so fun to experience things with. She is the epitome of everything wonderful that a five year old little girl could be. She really really is. Except for when she throws a fit about the color of cup/bowl she's served. Hoping that doesn't stick with her into adulthood.

 Alright, I might get to our last month of August in my next post but right now I gotta get off this computer. I'm starting to get major heebie jeebies sitting here, so you'll have to be content with this until next time. Now, I don't wanna get any hate mail/texts like times before, with you being all frustrated and begging to know what we did in August. It's coming people. Or it might not be. Ever. Sometimes I play hard to get like that. I try to be unpredictable and mysterious with my husband but that doesn't always work quite like it used to (still not giving up though- with the whole mysterious and unpredictable thing. He just wishes he could figure me out!) so it falls to you. Xoxo. (Big hug, little kiss, little hug, little kiss. In that order.)

Chickens are threatening to destroy my marriage. That's right, chickens.

Remember how Jack Handey so insightfully pointed out, "It's sad that a family can be torn apart by something as simple as a pack of wild dogs"? Well today folks, I'm here to discuss the fact that it's also sad that a happy, loving marriage can be torn apart by something as simple as wild chickens. Or domesticated ones, in our case. And we're learning you don't even need a whole pack to do the job. We have four. And they're more potently destructive than you could ever imagine.

But remember how magical it was all to be? Remember what it was like for the girls to find the first laid egg? Remember how we all partied like it was 1999 for three days straight over that first wee little egg?

I'm about to paint you the real picture. I'm not proud of it. It ain't pretty. But it's gotta be revealed.

Here's the back story. I didn't want chickens. Not yet. Jason's been wanting to get chickens to teach the girls responsibility ever since I birthed our firstborn. I still thought this summer was too early. I told him it would just end up being another thing that's my responsibility. It would end up being more things I've gotta feed and clean up after. He swore that Lucy would be the one doing the feeding and cleaning. Remember how she just barely turned 5? Ugh. Here we go. 

 So yeah, I wanted to wait a few more years to get chickens. Or at the very least until, our fence was completely finished so they could roam some of the time. But neither of those things were waited on. We had a coop with chickens inside faster than you can slap your mama. I don't know about you, but for me that's pretty fast. So I'm taking our table scraps and watermelon rinds out to them, as I expected I would. He doesn't want me doing that; tells me alls they need is the chicken feed. I'm asking Jason when he's going to clean the coop out because the poop is out of control. I'm telling him I want to cancel the pest control, because once that fence is finished, I wanna give them recess and they're gonna wander and eat bugs, and we can't kill our chickens with pesticide. We can't eat pesticide eggs either. I tell him, I noticed the chickens are completely out of water today when I was back there. You think we should just wait for Lucy to notice?And he tells me chickens can live for up to 3 or 4 days without water, they'll be fine. ?!?!?!?!?!?!? The first night he brought those stinking chickens home, we were laying in bed. That coop's supposedly predator proof, but it's on loose dirt and has no bottom. So I'm laying there and shoot up in bed and tell him, Raccoons could easily dig under that dirt, dig their way into that coop. Those chickens aren't safe.  Him: The chickens are fine. Raccoons aren't gonna take on a full grown chicken, and they'll be fine for one night. Whaaaaaaat?!!!!!!? Me: You bring those chickens into the garage until we make that coop safe! Our girls aren't waking up to gleefully go check on them to find bloodied mutilated chicken corpses in the morning! Of course I had to find several accounts online of coons killing hens to back me up. But he eventually, full of loathing and vexation, brought them into the garage for the night, and put chicken wire a foot into the ground the next day all around the base of the coop, all the while shooting daggers into me from his eyes. In truth, all of these conversations with him have brought about what I can only describe as primate behavior in my dearly beloved. On more than one occasion, he's turned right into Tarzan in loin cloth right before my very eyes; beating away on his chest. And when this happens, I'm forced to go ape, too. And a scuffle ensues. He's stronger than I am. But I'm so scrappy. 

He thinks I'm being controlling. He thinks I'm inserting myself where I don't belong. He grew up on a farm after all, and has let me know several times that a little uptown girl like me doesn't know what I'm talking about with any of this stuff. (I never have been and am in no way now an uptown girl.) He just wants the chickens to be "his and our girls thing", and he thinks I'm trying to take it from him. And he wants Lucy to be solely responsible. Which means if she doesn't feed them or give them water, she's gonna find dead chickens. And that sure'll teach her consequences and responsibility. Gotta teach 'em the hard way. Ahem, I know I already said this, but, remember how she just turned five? I do. Remember how much that young whipper snapper Mattie loves her daddy on True Grit? And she's like 12 and avenges his death? I think this all plays into the vision for his life he created long ago in his mind. That along with several episodes of Little House on the Prairie, Back to the Future 3, and Swiss Family Robinson. And the first several seasons of Saved by the Bell, not the college years. The college years were the worst.

Now, I'm all about teaching them responsibility. But let's be reasonable here. She's too young to be solely responsible for them. And ain't no chicken starving to death on my property if I have anything to do with it.  We're not farmers. We don't have necessity to have a harsh homestead view of the survival of the fittest and the circle of life, no offense Mufasa. Ain't no runts being butchered just for being runts while I'm runnin this home show. What Jason doesn't understand is, when he says, "it's not your concern," or, "just let it go, the chickens aren't your thing," etc, as much as I'd like to have the capacity to do that, it doesn't mean that I can. For a stay-at-home mother, a home is more than where you rest your head at night. It's my domain. It's my lair. It's my turf, territory, my business. All of it. SOY AMA DE CASA. I am the nurturer of life! Maybe I'll go build a chicken coop in his office. I'll tell him I'll come by occasionally to deal with them, but in the meantime he needs to just pretend like they're not there. Truth is, as much as I'd like to withdraw, (believe you me, no one wants to quit their job on sick days like moms do), no creature will ever dwell within the boundaries of our property without being under my stewardship, care and nurturing. Just won't happen. Ain't no way. This is why I didn't want to get the dang things yet. I am the mother of this house. I'm not being a control freak; control freak is not my thing. I have plenty of things, trust me. But this is just the reality of the situation. It's like when Jason has tried to take shifts with our babies in the middle of the night and tells me to just sleep through it if they're crying. What's the purpose of me laying in the guest bed at 3 AM with my eyes bugging out of my head listening to my baby cry? Just gimme 'er. GIMMEE!!! If they're gonna live with us, I just can't help myself. I'm gonna make sure they're taken care of until our kids really can completely take it over. If they're outta water I can't just sit back and wait until she notices. Not yet anyway.

If I was a career woman and we both picked our kids up from day care and headed home from the office in the evening, it's possible; (possible not probable) that I could wash my hands of it all, maybe the dynamics would be different in our home. But that's not the case. So if he comes home from work this winter and I'm out back roosting with them, he's just gonna have to deal with it. If I'm inside that coop, perched right on top of those chickens, keeping them warm and softly clucking to them, then so be it.

Maybe we're just not good at team projects. Weren't those the worst in school? Are any of you good at team projects with the Mister? Do sneaky hate spirals get the best of you every. time. you try to tackle anything together? Like moving for example. Or getting ready to host a party. Or how about when we'd been married for three weeks and thought it'd be cute to rent a tandem bike and take a ride across the golden gate bridge in San Fran? Except it turned out that they're like unrealistically difficult to pedal and we had to huff it up a gigantic hill and Jason was yelling at me to pedal harder and then I was yelling at him because he wouldn't let me steer it and then when he finally let me I immediately crashed us and made another biker totally eat it? This ever happen to anyone else? Anyone? Anyone?? No? Hmm. Another example, Lucy's first bath was a big hurdle for us. He was telling me what to do and how to do it and yelling, you're gonna get soap in her eyes!!!! all frantically. And then I had to stop it all, take a step back and seriously ask him if he's clued into the fact that this child has been living in. my. body for the past 3/4 of the year and how he could possibly entertain the idea that he was even remotely more invested in and concerned about the well-being of this morsel as I was. Then he apologized, we made up and had a good laugh about it all while toasting ginger ale to each other. And then I punched him in the throat. An unexpected jab to the adams apple can be a most effective form of communicating. I learned that in my RAD class. They asked me to come back and certify to be an instructor, remember? That basically makes me more Chuck Norris than anyone you've ever known. I can unscramble any egg. And why did the chicken cross the road? Because it didn't want to get a roundhouse kick to the face by me. Back on track.

Point is, I've come to the conclusion in the short few weeks that the chickens have been in our possession, that we have to get rid of them. They need a new home. Whether that means it was too early for our kids or too early for me or too early in our marriage, I'm not quite sure. It's possible that the neighbors may or may not have recently heard, It's either me or the chickens! There's not room for all of us! Everybody told us our relationship would be put to the test when we first got hitched, but no one warned us about chickens. They told us about selfishness and dishonesty. But why didn't they tell us about chickens? We might be on the brink of completely failing the chicken test. Hubby might be sent to sleep in that coop soon. They might end up being fried up. There's no telling what I could do. And I can't exactly see Lucy or Scarlett as adults sitting in a support group, saying, "Those chickens were the beginning of the end of mom and dad. They couldn't stand the sight of each other once the hens came and we had a miserable childhood and upbringing. But looking back I really feel like those fresh eggs were totally worth it."

 Any takers?

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.