Our first Girl's Trip

I'm so excited to have a girl of my own and I can't wait for us to take trips together and have adventures together, but I never thought we'd start so soon.  But Taylor has wanted to take the kids to Disney World for the past few years.  I ran out of excuses and since he missed out on Disneyland over Christmas, he started making plans.  I didn't want to go and drag along Isla and have to torture her for a week without naps, so I decided to go visit my parents in Chicago.  

Look how happy she is... she's got Grandma and Grandpa wrapped around her tiny little finger.

Grandpa loves to take babies on "tours" around the house to check stuff out.  And Isla enjoyed grabbing and tasting everything she could get her hands on.

My parents high chair turned into a lounge chair with Isla.  When she wanted to eat she'd sit up but the second she was done she'd slouch down and chill.  So cute!

And since it was just her, it was easier to giver her baths in my mom's giant kitchen sink.  Perfectly Isla sized!

All she needed was a few plastic toys and she's good to go.

Snacks and nail polish... a perfect combo.

Blanket rides were a real hit.

As was being held every chance she got.

After 3 days of shopping and hanging out we all packed up and drove the short 3 hours to visit my sister Kristina and her family.  Grandpa tried to nap in the backseat with Isla, but she had other plans for him.

Yep, she's pretty persuasive with that smile... and those kicking feet.

At our lunch break Grandpa saved her from her boring carseat and let her try out the interesting decor spread around the gas station.  Old car on a pile of rocks.  Really?

And once we got to Kristina's house it was all fun and games and reading books with the cousins.

Isla enjoyed following both the cousins around and they were so sweet and gentle with her.

She of course had to join in on story time with Grandpa.

And pictures with cute Jillian.

And more cute pics- they're girls, what can we say?

Aunt Kristina was so sweet with Isla in the car when she was getting fussy.  Just a little face petting and Isla calmed right down.  Such a good auntie.

Sadly the 2 days we spent with them were well below 0 degrees with wind chill and so we didn't get much time outside.  But Kristina's kids braved the elements and went out to sled.

We miss them already.  Our week in Chicago and Iowa was way too short and way too cold, but so much fun.  I'm so glad we got to go visit my parents.  It's always chaos with my boys around and it was really nice to see them love on and really enjoy sweet little Isla.  I really enjoyed the break and couldn't ask for better parents or a better sister.  We love them all!

I can't wait for the next girls trip!

3 in the bath and the little one said... move over!

Sadly with 3 boys stacked together in our family, we had to get rid of bath time after one too many times of the bathroom floor getting literally flooded.  Apparently it's just TOO hard to not splash all the water out of the tub when you're having so much fun.  For a while now they've all been taking supervised showers.  Isla had her baths in a little infant bath tub, but now that she's crawling and constantly has a messy face and hair from eating/sliming herself with her baby food, it's time to start baths again.

At first she was very timid and refused to take her arms off the bottom of the tub.  It didn't help that 2 of her brothers insisted on joining her.

Yep, still not quite sure this is a good thing.

But after a little bit of time and once she realized there were toys to play with, she was sold!

Adventure School

Not much to say, just had to include these cute smiling faces I get to spend a few mornings each month with.

Wolf Advancement

Taylor has lived in this ward long enough to know that the faster you can get everyone's cub scout badges done, the better.  So each January he holds an Advancement pack meeting/Arrow of Light Meeting and really pushes hard to get everyone done by then.

This year he wanted to do a Star Wars theme.  So for the little craft beforehand, he gave all the boys embroidery thread and had them make braids (and tape them onto their hair) so they'd look like Jedi Padawans.

It was actually funny to see all the boys learning a new skill.  It made me laugh because if you asked girls this age to braid something, they'd be done in 10 seconds, the boys had no clue even how to start.

Isla was happy to grab Ethan's braid.  Lucky for him it comes off easily because she's got a good strong grip.

Then the practiced stacking cards to prepare for a later activity.

And then Taylor took all the young Padawans into the gym to perform their skills challenge.  He'd previously set up an obstacle course through out the entire gym.  Each boy got a light saber and then got to practice the course a few times.

Isla enjoyed being passed around.

Taylor got ready to take down times.

Ready, set, go!

And they were off!

One at a time of course because otherwise someone would have been trampled.

Racing over, under and around obstacles.

Stacking cups.

Okay, not really being passed around since Katie claimed her :)

And then since everyone passed their skills challenge (of course) we all gathered to receive the kid's new badges they'd earned.

Jedi Taylor with the new official wolves.

And all us moms coming up to help them get their awards.

Every mom gets a "mother's necklace" when their son starts scouts and then we get to collect all the "mother's pins" that go along with their shirt badges.  The theory is that half the credit goes to the boy for earning their badge and the other half goes to the mom who probably put in more than half the effort.

Then we celebrated with ice cream and brownies.  The boys were excited to eat inside the "bear cave" even though they're not bears just yet.

Isaac is always so excited to be included with the scouts.