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!

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!!

Grandkids

Aspen, Aiden, Hobie, Della, Jeff Jr., Aliya, Isla

Meet the Platt grandkids! Isla is just the luckiest cousin, because they all ADORE her. I feel so popular when we walk into Sunday dinner and here a lot of footsteps our way screaming "She's here! Isla's here!!!!!" then many hands grab at our daughter and we have instant babysitters for the next 2 hours or so. That is heaven.

We had a fun get together with the shirts that Grandpa Dave and Grandma Gaysie bought for them while they were vacationing in Europe for 2.5 weeks this past Summer! But I am so proud to be related to this good looking bunch of kids! I can't wait to see what Isla's personality will turn out to be and where she will fit in with her cousins!

Ryan's Mission

it has been a crazy week for our household. my little brother ryan moved in with us 2 months ago to start working on turning in his mission papers. well he got his mission call last tuesday (11/08/2011) and we headed on up to cache valley to call the troops in and open it!

 waiting for everyone to arrive! so nerve racking!

 the friends came by for the exciting news:  marilee & nykelle warnick, bri & colton roberts, and danielle parker

 the family: dad, micah, me, ryan, travis, & tiffany

grandma afton, aunt karla, and aunt jen:

 our nephew tyler (we'll be doing the same thing for him in about 6 months!)

 niece kairie!

where oh where is he going????

The KOREA DAEJEON mission reporting on January 11, 2012!!!

No one guessed near this area, the closest was Travis saying Russia.

Sister Ashley:

Dad and all his kiddos:

Future Elder Jensen and his nieces Kairie & Isla:

We are so proud of him and the choices he has made! We can't wait for him to go and spread the gospel and bring the joy of the LDS religion into the homes of others.

Isla's 1st Birthday Party

Our baby is one! We had a fun party and all our great friends & family showed up to help celebrate!

Isla didn't know what was going on, and she was getting pretty mad at mommy putting on the silly lame party hat for pictures. But luckily Uncle Ryan was near to make sure it stayed on!

The cousins on Micah's side came by for their favorite baby niece

Our amazing friends the Webbs:

Boyfriend Wade and Auntie Sara came down from Idaho for the big day!

Ummmm about the whole blowing out the candle wasn't too big on Isla's list - she just knew that Grandma Gaye had made the her favorite type of dessert: chocolate chip cookies. I came across an amazing recipe for a chocolate chip cookie cake in a Martha Stewart magazine, Janae was a champ and helped me assemble the chocolate chips - i'm so glad that it turned out great...seriously everyone loved the light airy texture!

Boyfriend/BFF Boston was on hand to help me share my birthday cake! These two crack me up, they seriously have a love/hate relationship. But they are always besties when it comes to sharing food!

Present time! Adele was so cute, she picked out her very own present for Isla - princess jewelery, baby feeding toys, and a blow-up balloon of an animal! Too cute!

Bestest cousin-friend Megan was willing and able to assist Isla wherever she needed to go!

The Uncles Blake and Ryan were manning the drinking station

Uncle Travee and Future-Aunt Tiffany came by for some snuggles!

Have I mentioned the Bennett's?? We are so lucky to have found some life-long friends ever since Micah and I were newlyweds, the Bennett's lived right below us in Legacy Village Apartments in Logan, and then we were both so lucky to have our babies 2 weeks apart

Me and my siblings - goodness we're getting old!

Family picture time!

We just love her cheeks :)

Aunt Karla and Grandma Afton came to spoil Isla! This is the lady who Isla gets her middle name from:

And Grandma Afton who was staying away from the camera...too bad we got a quick pic in!

How could we forget Grandpa Kenny with his two ladies: Kairie and Isla - this is where the blue eyes and fair skin come from ;)

We are so glad Grandma Maisie posed for a picture too!

I can't believe she's already so grown up, I can remember the feeling of exhaustion during those first few weeks of her life, then she would coo and wiggle as infants do and that would energize me to keep on going. She's a little person now, giggling, walking, and always asking us "What's that???" as she points at something. She's such a social and happy girl, saying "Hi." to anybody in close range, at grocery stores, in the mall, walking down the street, and if you're one of the lucky ones she'll blow you a kiss. She's still growing into her cheeks, but they are just so kissable I'll be sad when they start thinning down. She's a little miniature of her daddy and I'm just so lucky to have both of them in my life, and even when daddy is at work I can always have him around because of her blue eyes, button nose, and cupid bow lips. How we love her more and more each day.

 

Utah State Fair

We have had the best Summer with baby Isla....so much fun that I may have neglected our blog! So much has happened, so I better start catching up. One of our favorite times was going to the Utah State Fair with our great friends the Zurns.

We enjoyed the animals, riding ponies, corn on the cob - isla is in love with corn on the cob, it keeps her entertained for about an hour - going down the giant yellow slide, and i LOVE the tilt-a-whirl, so micah indulged me and he bought us some tickets to go on it. I pretty much giggled the whole time I was on it!

Isla has been growing up so much and is such a big girl - more on that later!