12.07.2011

Starting off the Holiday Season

I am so excited that Isla is getting older and understanding more of what this holiday season is all about. Everytime she sees a Christmas tree or a Santa figure she says "oooohhhh" and blows it/them kisses. 

Our besties the Zurns invited us to go and see the Festival of Trees @ the Southtown Expo Center. That was one crazy festival!! Our favorite tree was the "UP" tree - it was pretty cool. Isla wasn't understanding that the chain/rope that was protecting the trees from little gremlin hands like hers - so it was meltdown time when we kept her from grabbing all the fun trees. 

Here's the Zurns: 


And us: 


This is how Isla really looks most of the time:
One sock, hair escaping, and a cheeser smile


Saturday December 3 was the Grand America Hotel for the yummy Breakfast with Santa that Micah's family does every year!



Micah's sister was ready with a pose at every turn:


 Here's Aspen helping with Isla who was "BIG GIRL" with eating all her breakfast.


Here's me trying to discuss with Isla why we don't run all over a restaurant...yeah all you mom's know that face, it's not really a discussion when the one-year-old is dead set on running wherever she wants. 


Aliya is such a hoot. I asked her for a beautiful cheese smile:


Uh....Santa wasn't the biggest hit with Isla, ha ha. She was fine just looking at him while in Mommy's arms, across the room. She totally blew him kisses when she was that far away.


Here's the whole crew: From the left we have Britt, Matt + 2 girls, Camie & Jeff + 4 kids, Papa Dave and Grandma Gaysie, and our family; Micah, Isla, Poo-Bear, and me.


Isla's new picture taking face: Tongue out!




So after discussing with Isla about running wherever she wants to, she decided she'd be cornered in the room and eat some ice with a spoon.


So we went outside and took some pics in the freezing cold:
here's isla's face when she saw the big Christmas tree: AAAAHHHH!!


 Santa and Mrs. Clause gave out some legit candy canes, so on the ride home we let her go at it:


12.04.2011

Halloween 2011

We had an amazing Halloween, Isla was ecstatic when she realized that people will just give you tons of candy and treats for a smile and a "hi"

Our great friends Janae and Boston came over and we decorated our Halloween bags with footprints that were really ghosts. Now Isla thinks that paint is just for the bottoms of her feet. 

We got some cute pumpkins from Isla's Great-Great-Grandpa Stuke's own garden, and we decorated the front porch really spooky with spider webs, a spider named Frank, and some strobe lighting! 


Isla is really getting the hang of saying "cheese" when the camera comes out.


Our first stop was Grandma Gaye's house for the annual Halloween pizza party. Unfortunately right as Isla and I rang the doorbell to say "Trick or Treat" Isla slipped and fell face first on the porch step and started bleeding. But no worries, Grandma came to the rescue with treat bags and pizza!


Gardner girls were dressed in their finest as Tinker Bell and beautiful fairy princess (I can't remember what the exact name was for Aliya, they always have the funnest names that somehow involve a Disney princess character)

Next stop was at Daddy's work, Aunt/Grandma Helen had a nice sized treat bag for all her adopted grandchildren! Isla is getting to know Helen is the one to know at the office, she has a special treat drawer and will give her anything she wants!

 Helen gave her this Tucan Sam bird that's a puppet, candy, a Halloween straw, and these spooky glasses. All of which Isla is still playing with to this day. Especially the glasses, Isla wears them in the bathtub the WHOLE time she's bathing.


So you may be wondering, what's Isla's costume??? Well the thing is Isla LOVES stuffed animals. But she wasn't really into wearing them. She was a Panda Bear, but she wanted to hold and cuddle her panda bear the whole morning. So after finally realizing that other kids wear costumes we got to put it on for some trunk-or-treating and trick-or-treating!


I love the picture up above because Micah told me that this is the exact face I make everytime I pick Isla up, and I'm so grateful he snapped a pic at the right time so I could see it. She really does make me so happy :)


 We headed over to the trunk-or-treating at our church, and they put on a great party. There was music blasting, really good decorations, and tons and tons of candy!

Our friends the webbs had a great family costume: Damsel in Distress, A Dragon, and a Knight in Shining Armor! Haha

So we kind of got a little lazy with Micah's costume, I was a zookeeper with my animals...Micah just stuffed Isla's giraffe in his hoodie and called it good :)


 BFF Boston was a cute little sock monkey and helped Isla show some dancing moves off in the parking lot:




Isla was loving this blow-up Frankenstein, She kept wanting to touch and give him kisses:



A rare picture of the momma's and their babies:


After a couple more neighborhoods Isla was ready to dig in to her candy stash! She loves popcorn, skittles, and whoppers and was so delighted to open up the bag!


 Uncle Poo-Bear was close by so he could eat some of the hard-earned candy:


Good thing Isla loves brushing her teeth...because our candy stash got low pretty quick with daddy, mommy, and uncle poo bear around to help her!



12.03.2011

Thanksgiving 2011

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful and relaxing. We switch every year for our families, we are space cadets because we honestly thought we were down here in Salt Lake City last year, when truly we were up in Cache Valley last year...so we goofed up and spent Thanksgiving at the same place for the past two years. 

We have no idea how that happened! Who forgets where they were for big holidays?? Oh well.

Isla has grown up so much, she is a little person now, walking everywhere, and talking/jabbering non-stop, she knows that I'm "mamamamma" and micah is "dadaaaa" she rolls our names out. She is enjoying picking anything she is able to lift and carry it around. She adores all her stuffed animals. She loves blankets - she's not particular about any one blanket in particular, any blanket will do. She's a snuggler. She loves blowing kisses and saying "HIIIIIIII" to anyone close by. She's getting to be a little screamer/screecher in public places...we'll need to discuss this with her, because it's getting pretty loud lately.She loves to be tickled - her laughs and giggles are so fun to hear, so we make sure to tickle her MANY times a day. She loves food still - especially noodles, she loves slurping them in. Cheese is a favorite too, cheddar, swiss, provolone, cheese sticks, parmesan cheese, cottage cheese...you get the point :) She loves being chased, and even makes a snarling noise while she chases us back. 

She loves all types of mediums: finger painting, drawing, and coloring. So I have to make sure to pull out crafts to do for the holidays: we started Thanksgiving with the standard turkey hand. She thought it was hilarious to trace her hand. 




She's pretty good at keeping the crayons on paper, and loves to carry her artwork around all day! Tomorrow we'll start on all the Christmas crafts that are a must for little children to do!!