Isla's Newborn Pictures

I'll admit that I'm a fairly cheap person.  I can hear my sisters and mother laughing as I type this.  Okay so I'm REALLY cheap.  And sometimes I regret that.  Like when I look at beautiful newborn pictures I wish I had splurged a little and gotten some of my boys.  Sadly they're not that little any more.  But Isla is.  And thankfully Taylor has an amazingly talented cousin I LOVE who lives just 10 minutes away and just happens to be an AMAZING photographer.  And just happened to offer to come take pictures of cute little tiny Isla. So of course I jumped on it.  We threw my boys and her boys down in the basement to play and then had the best time posing and oohing over this perfect tiny one.

 So cute in Heather's tiny basket.  Of course right after this photo she peed all over this blanket, so we moved onto the pink one.  

 Heather even edited them.  Aren't they amazing?

 Everything I read online said you needed to take the pictures in the first 7 days of life or else you'd have a hard time keeping them asleep.  We didn't get around to doing them until she was 15 days with the wedding and all.  Isla was amazing though.  She was awake and then I fed her and she passed out.  We quickly got several shots of her asleep.  So sweet!

 And then she woke back up (being naked and moved around will do that).

 But she was an angel awake.  So sweet and quiet.

 Heather kept laughing because it genuinely seemed like Isla was posing.  Heather started taking hand pictures and Isla did this.

 Then feet pictures and she did this.

 She was so sweet.   

  I can't decide which is my favorite!

 Can you blame me?

We needed a lazy afternoon

After a full day of laundry, cleaning up from the weekend, swimming and spanish the boys were kind of losing it.  This is always apparent to me when they start crying for no apparent reason and dramatically throwing themselves onto the floor and whatever couch is nearby.  (My skills of observation are pretty amazing right?!?)

A bag of microwave popcorn and some new library books to the rescue.  Even Isla joined the party and peacefully slept on the boppy.  This house was peaceful for the next hour and when they started to get up and play again they were magically different people.  Isaac asked if we could do this every day.  Absolutely!

Isla at 1 month

Happy Birthday big girl!  We're loving every minute with her (and I'm loving putting her in cute dresses for Sunday).  So cute!

Happy Father's Day!

Who knew I just needed to have them pose in a new funny way and they'd all smile for me.  Luckily they were all smiling and looking the first time since Isla rolled off Miles' bum seconds later and of course then all 3 boys thought this was hilarious and couldn't stay still.  

Chalk Festival

One of our favorite events in Utah is the chalk art festival at the Gateway.  And since the boys have been mostly cooped up in the house this summer with me and a newborn sister, I took advantage of Taylor being home from work and darted off with just the boys.

We saw lots of amazing drawings.  This one with the minions from Despicable Me was a favorite.

And then after what seemed like hours (to Isaac) and lots of whining (from Isaac) we finally arrived at the station where the kids can get chalk and try their hand at making masterpieces on the sidewalk.  

 And after we'd had enough and were hot enough, we headed down the their favorite:  the splash pad.

Miles literally had to be carried away kicking and screaming after a full hour.  He LOVES this place.

Isla- 4 weeks old already!

I can hardly believe how fast she's growing up.  It's bittersweet.  Isla is a good car rider.  She's happy to sleep as long as the car is moving- but the second you stop she wants OUT.  And I mean OUT!  She is always really warm when I pull her out and she seems to hate getting overheated.  I made that cute pink cover so I could stick blankets in with her and sadly it's already been removed.  She doesn't need any extra heat!

Isla is awake mostly in the evenings these days.  She has gotten on a pretty consistent schedule of nursing, being awake and happy for another 20 minutes or so and then she is only happy if you swaddle her and let her go back to sleep which thankfully she does mostly on her own in her crib.  Of course I can't resist letting her sleep in my arms on the couch most afternoons when I'm feeling drowsy.  I just can't pass up this cute newborn sleeping stage.

So peaceful.  She's been sleeping 4-6 hours at a time at night and usually gives us a good 5-6 hour stretch to start.  Hallelujah!  I know I'm spoiled and it could change at any time but I'm actually feeling pretty good sleeping from 10pm-1, 1:45-4, and 4:45 to 7.  Our only complaint is that she gets hiccups ALL THE TIME. And she HATES them.  It's actually funny.  She'll hiccup then growl, then hiccup then growl and continue this until they stop.  She never really screams about them- just the growling in between each one.  So at night I nurse her and then have to hold her upright another 20 minutes or so before putting her down.  I'd rather just be able to feed her and put her back but for now it's sweet to hold her even if it's 1:30am!

We love this cutie!

Multi-tasking

Every single one of our kids has a picture like this and I just had to laugh and run grab my camera when I saw Taylor and Isla like this.  Taylor is very good at multi-tasking and Isla is great at being content just sitting on your lap.  

Daddy's Girl

Taylor's been really busy with work lately and has had very few hours at home to enjoy Isla.  Luckily his being tired lines up perfectly with her being an obliging newborn sleeper.  If you're willing to be a heater under her, she's ALWAYS willing to sleep.

They're so cute together and he's completely smitten with her!

Miles and Isla

At first all 3 of my boys were very interested in Isla and frequently asked to hold her.  Ethan and Isaac haven't asked to hold her in weeks now and seem to mostly ignore her.

Miles though is VERY interested in her.  Holding her.  Bringing her a binky when she's crying.  He calls this "crabby" and will come and tell me "da babee is cwabby".  Apparently I've told him he's crabby one too many times when he's crying.  Oops!  So cute together.  Here's to hoping they stay little friends together!

Pool Time

We've had an amazingly beautiful winter and spring.  Most days have been in the 60's and 70's.  We have been LOVING it.  But that's not quite warm enough for swimming so we've been waiting for the first true day in the 90's.  And what a wonderful coincidence- it was a Monday.  So of course Family Home Evening had to be done in the pool.  Does it look like anyone minded?

Taylor spent the whole time giving rides to kids around the pool and throwing them high in the air.  Ethan and Isaac spent the whole time shooting at him with their squirt guns.

Isla and I skipped the water and enjoyed watching the boys play together.

She's already assuming the sunbathing position- we may be in trouble!

Strawberries with Grams

Sometimes the simple joys of summer have to be recorded.  Sunday night we walked over to Grams house for dinner and she promptly handed each child a cup and shooed them out the door.

To pick strawberries!  Truthfully they were pretty small but that's as big as they grow.

The boys got so excited every time they found one.  It was like an Easter egg hunt in June!

And then we all got to enjoy what was left of them at dinner (since Isaac and Miles may have gotten their hands on most of them without us noticing).

Pinwheel Cookies

The first week we only ended up doing 3 popsicle activities.  And that's fine with me.  Some mornings they just seem to want to play and nothing motivates them.  But those are usually the days when they're playing really nicely together so it's really easy to just let them keep playing and save the work for another day.  I'll probably not blog about most of our summer activities but this was too cute to skip.

Pinwheel Cookies:

Make a batch of sugar cookie dough.  Divide it into four parts and dye each a different fun color.  Refrigerate for 1 hour.  Nurse the baby (you could omit this step but it was necessary for me :).

Then take a small piece from each color and roll them into a ball.

Then roll the ball into a snake.  Miles was very good at this since he loves to make "sakes" in nursery each week.

Then bend the snake around itself making pinwheel shapes.

Bake.

Eat.  We ran out of sprinkles so only some of them had them.  But they were delicious and very fun!

Angry Birdie Boys

This turned out to be our 2nd activity and actually took 2 days because of the drying process.  First we went outside and hunted for small stones.  Washed them, and then painted them in the colors of angry birds.

The boys were actually pretty careful and kept the table mostly clean.  It has been a little tricky this year with timing.  Last year I could just stop what I was doing and devote all my attention to the kid's activity.  This year I have to make sure Isla is down for a nap.

The next day we used Sharpies to add faces to the birds and piggies.

We carried out their box of wooden blocks. (This is a fun idea and the kids were WAY excited but I wasn't crazy enough to think it was a good idea to have them shooting rocks in our house.)

They built castles and set the piggies in place.

And then the shooting began.

And the spontaneous cheers!  They really loved this and spent hours outside building and shooting.  Sadly I took the angry bird rocks away when we brought the blocks in (since I don't want them being shot IN the house).  But I'm planning to pull them out in another week or so and I expect they'll be just as excited to play again.