A weekend with the Richmond Boys

Zeke and Zion came to visit Elk for two weeks this June.  We were so excited to spend time with them so we decided to dedicate a weekend to them.  Friday we packed up and headed to Elk.  Isla loves her cousins and they were so excited to see each other.  The boys didn't wast any time asking Ian "Sonic" questions and we all caught up while jumping on the trampoline. 
On Saturday we wanted to take the boys into town.  In a brilliant twist of fate, I found a $20 bill in my jacket pocket!  Where do you go when you have an extra $20?  Goodwill of course!  Ian got some awesome water galoshes, I got some cute new kicks and the kids all picked out a toy.  All with some change to spare!  After that we headed to the apartment so the boys (and Isla - she loves Sonic too)  could have Sonic time.  I ran a couple errands.  Then we went to Burger King.  Oh my it was so delicious.  I've been trying to loose weight and I just went for that Burger instead of the Salad and I loved every bit of it.  After that we took the kids to the Reptile Store in the mall.  They have every kind of scary thing you could think of which I am so desensitized to now because I have a daughter who was born with a love of reptiles.  They just come the way they come.  The boys loved the store.  After that we went to the dollar store so the boys could get their fill of candy and we headed back up to the mountain.  That night we watch Mary Poppins at Zekies request!  How cool is that!  We popped popcorn and cuddled up.  I love it that Isla loves that movie.  I loved catching up on the movie until I fell asleep which is what I usually say about every movie I attempt to watch after 8pm.  We all went to church the next day and came home and had lunch.  
Oh my!  I forgot about Ian showing me our land that he and Galen had cut out.  I couldn't believe how real it felt walking walking up our road and standing where our house will stand. 

We had such a great weekend and we love those boys so much!

Ian and Isla's latest favorite game to play together called "Steamroller."  It's pretty self explanatory:)

Sick Week

Well this week was an official sick week.  Ian went in to work a couple hours late on Tues.  to help me because I wasn't feeling well.  We had both noticed Isla had some goop in her eye and as soon as he left it stared getting worse and her eye was red.  So off to the doctor we went to find out she had pink eye.  In addition to that, the nurse she saw (not her ususal doc)  seemed to think we needed to test her for symptoms that she may have due to her UTI she had when she was 3 weeks old. She said her kidney could be affected but wouldn't show any noticable symptoms and this could cause high blood pressure.   She said she needed to have a catheter for this test and we may want to consider putting her under since it can be tramatic.  We're going to get a 2nd opinion since the original doc that diagnosed the UTI said it would just go away with time.  Plus she's seen another doc since then who never mentioned anything about continueing problems.  Don't you just wish when it came to you kids that the doctor could Always be right and never be wrong so you wouldn't have to worry about whether or not you should trust their advice?
Well since Isla was contagious, we spent 24 hours inside of our tiny apartment in a quarentine.  We couldn't even go in the backyard because we share a courtyard with a hundred other people and most of them have kids.  Thank goodness for pinterest!  We used a couple ideas I found on there.  Here is a picture of Isla doing some "spy training."  She loved it.  I didn't think about the fact that she'd want me to do it too.  I soon learned how weak my abs are and how out of shape I am as hovered under the "lasers" over and over. 

 

We also sent Grandpa King a "hug" from Isla by tracing her arms spread open and cutting them out and sending that to him.  Also a pinterest idea.  On the way to the mail box we spotted a worm, so we decided to get a jar and some dirt and bring him back in with us.  Isla named him "Sherman the Wormin", which I believe is a Backyardigan character.  

Grandpa Williams stopped by because he had a hearing in Spokane and said he didn't care about her being contagious, he just wanted to say Hi for a minute.  That small visit from the outside world was huge for both of us and bolstered our spirits!

After our quarentine was over we were a couple of stir crazy girls!  Poor Ian had gotten a cold starting Weds.  and the whole house was feeling droopy.  I took Ian a care package to work with all the works you could need for a cold.  Then after my floral class I called Mariah and asked if she wanted to walk the Centennial trail downtown with the girls.  She said yes.  On the way up to the South Hill to get her, Isla and I stopped at the Public Market to get some food for lunch.  We chose some very huge grapes with a sign next to them appropriately titled, "Big Ass Grapes."  They were quite good.  Then we chose two different scones.  One was Pina colada flavored and it was amazing.  The other was lemon blueberry and it was equally amazing.  Once we all got downtown, we decided to go check out the river instead of the trail because the river is so high right now.  It was an awesome sight to see!  It gives you so much adrenaline to look at because it is going so fast and the water splashes up on the walkway.  Yikes.  Sometimes I confuse the feeling of adrenaline with the feeling of terror so I had to do a little translating for myself while we looked at that river, especially with having the little ones with us...Yikes.  But it was amazing.  Isla said afterwards, "That was a great adventure!"  Awesome.  I'm glad she mixes adrenaline with excitement :)

failure to launch

I just found that previous post in my "waiting to publish" file on my blog.  It's not ironic at all that it started out saying "I hate blogging."  Ha ha.  I tell you what I am beyond grateful I keep trying cause I had forgotten everything I wrote about already and that was just last year.  So sorry for the confusion.  I just hit post to get  that one out there but as I write this, we are in Spring 2012. 

Here's for a quick family recap:
Ian rocks at Innovation Computing.  His boss Wil, moved his family to Texas to start up some new business there which left Ian with some new weight on his shoulders at the office here in Spokane which he is carrying brilliantly. 
Ian and I have decided to train for a marathon!  Woo Woo!  My dad is the crazy one that got me excited about it.  We're training for the Santa Barbara Marathon in Nov. of this year.  We actually love our days now that we are training because we fill them up and truthfully I think we spend more time together oddly enough cause we have it all scheduled.  Ian works out at 5am.  He comes home to a lovely breakfast made by moi.  We wake up Isla and have some good old fashioned family time at 6 am.  Wow. So unlike me.  Then it's my turn to work out at 7 pm each night after dinner.  I look forward to my work out time.  So far so good. 
I am fulfilling my dream of studying floral design!  Have to say I'm really loving it so much.  Its so great to go to to class for an hour and let my brain do something creative.  I'm such a nerd student.  I'm on the edge of my chair listening to every word my teacher says which is quite surprising since in my past school years I was more of a ummm we'll say free spirited student.  
Here's a pic of my latest

Isla is 3 1/4 years old.  She loves friends, curious george, telling jokes, being dramatic and grammas and grampas. 
Here are a few of here latest "Islaisms":

Isla saying her prayers:  "Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for my nightmares... Just kidding!   In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

As I was cuddling in bed with Isla after we've done our night time routine I said, " I think I'm going to go to bed now."
Isla's response was:  " I think no.  I think heck no."

Isla and I love dates.  We date each other quite frequently.  Here is a pic of our latest date to Manito Park

Mother Nature!

Confession: I hate blogging! I feel so guilty about it too. I want to preserve all the happenings of our life, but I dread sitting down to write about it. Looking at others cute, interesting and totally unique blogs only deepens the guilt. Whew! There! I got it off my chest! My conclusion? Just get over it and do it. I know I will be grateful I did years down the road. My other conclusion is to write about the high lights. So here are our highlights.

• It's summer! We've had our first week of 80 degree weather this week just in time for the 4th of July. It's lovely, although I have to admit I was enjoying the cooler weather that lasted through the spring. Aunt and Jen and Grampa King are visiting us this week and we are enjoying the sun. Tonight we will be heading out to Sandpoint ID to watch the fireworks.
• Isla is learning to swim! Go girl! Kick and Paddle!
• Ian's company is flourishing in the middle of this economic down turn. Right on babe! His boss asked him to go with him to a Dave Rasmey business conference a few months ago in Portland. They learned a lot, especially about building a strong team to work with. This month Ian was able to renew 3 school contracts and also get 3 new ones to sign on! He is doing tremendous! He loves how much he is learning since taking on a management position and is really excited about it. He is also currently studying to get his windows 7 certification. He is also working out everyday and getting his "Hansen calves" back. Very Sexy. He also just took on a new calling as the Ward Clerk. That job is giving him a lot of work, but he is good at it.
• As for me, I am working on burning the butter and loosing this extra weight. I love my classes at the gym and Isla likes the child care and it's a great stress reliever for me. I work in the nursery at church and LOVE it. I learn a lot from working with Sister Lee who has a little experience with kids seeing as how she has had 12 of them. I am working on how to be a better mom and get Isla to eat, speak kindly and pee in the toilet. In addition I am looking at taking floral design classes at the community college this fall. I am most excited about that!

And to round it out here are the latest "Islaisms"

• Ian: "Isla how old are you?" Isla: "I'm 53!" Ian: "How does she even know the number 53?" Me: I can only shrug my shoulders in dis belief.
• Isla: "Dad, you're cute...and adorable."
• Isla and I are playing on our bed. She crouches down next to me, pats my head and smiles as she says, "You're a buddy."
• Getting ready to go to the gym one morning I say, "Isla, we need to leave in 5 min." Isla says, "Ok but I just need to cry for 3 min first."
• Driving out to Elk Ian loves to drive pretty fast on the country roads. Each time we go down a dip, my weak stomach drops to my knees just as if we were on a roller coaster. I usually cry out, "Oh my stomach dropped!" Last week as were heading out there, Isla suddenly shouted from the back as went down the hill, "Oh! Scum drop! Do it again Dad!" It took us awhile to figure out "scum drop" meant "stomach drop."
• For our FHE lesson I was teaching about the Holy Ghost. Me: Isla can you say "Holy Ghost?" Isla: "Ohhh Scary! Ooooooh Holy Ghost! Ooooooh!" Me: "This ghost is not scary, he is our friend." Isla: "Oh, Ok. I'll share my pop corn with him." Picking up her pop corn she begins walking around the apartment saying, "here Holy Ghost! Here's some pop corn for you!"
• Isla's cousin Siena spent the night. We made a bed for her next to Isla in her room. In the middle of the night Siena came out to get me saying she was homesick. I went with her back into their room to lay down with her for awhile. As we are whispering to each other, Isla wakes up, sits up in bed and says, "Are you kidding me Mom?" I tell her Siena feels sad. "Oh OK she says. " Matter of factly she gets up, gives Siena a hug and then goes back to bed.
• 
  

Delicious Fall

Our camera broke the week we were in New York. We got to take pictures there for about two days. We've got some cell phone pictures I need to put up here, but I thought I better get an entry in cause it's been awhile.
This fall has been the best fall for me that I can remember in a very long time. I usually start to get anxious the end of August anticipating fall. I mourn the end of summer. It feels like time is moving too fast and everything is changing. As the days get shorter, I get more anxious. The darkness makes me feel even more anxious. I was telling my mom how it goes for me and she was like you have just got to change your perspective! She listed off all the things there are to love about fall and seasons changing: it's like you get a new wardrobe when you bring your warm weather clothes out of the closet, curling up by the fire, hot chocolate or tea, beautiful colors, baking, holidays. I said ok, enough is enough. Enough with this drama over a season changing. I decided to be excited about fall and winter coming. This September and October have been like a tender mercy from the Lord for me. It has been sunny and warm and beautiful. The air has that crispness in it that lets you know it's fall. The days are getting shorter, but the sun out almost every day has made the transition so awesome for me. I have noticed all the changing colors of the leaves, I have been excited about the holidays and interested in decorating our apartment. Ian and I are even dressing up for Halloween. He is a rocker and I am his rocker chick - totally hot. Pictures to follow. This may sound like a silly thing, but for me it has been huge and I have felt like God made this beautiful Fall just for me. And besides if it gets too dark, ill just go tanning :)
So this next portion of today's entry is to unabashedly brag about Isla. You have been warned. She just gets cooler and cooler every day. Her voice, her hands, her nose, her giggle, her eyes, her tummy, her little bouncy run- I just want to eat her up all the time. She is incredibly smart and really keeping me on my toes. Ian and I have to be super careful about what we say. She just needs to hear something once and she's got it. The other day she dropped something I think, but all I heard from her in her tiny little voice was "Holy Crap!" Woops.
Here are some new "Islaisms"
The other day I made carrots and seasoned them with parsley. Isla saw the seasoning on them and pointed to them and said "dirty carrots!"
I took her to the park a couple weeks ago. I would help her climb up on something and then she kept leaping into my arms without any warning. I would catch her with my heart racing. Once she did it when we were both on top of the slide and she would have fallen about 10 feet. She just smiled at me each time and said "good catch." Seriously
She has about 5 friends in our little apartment complex that she LOVES. Deanna, Sergey, Hannah, Adam and Lilly. She loves people.
She and Ian are hilarious when they play monster. If Isla gets too caught up in it and starts to get scared, she will start saying, "Hi daddy. No scared. It's ok. Hi daddy!" It's as if she is trying to tell herself, It's just dad, don't be scared, its just dad.
She loves music. She can pick out a guitar and a piano from a song.
She's always telling me now, "I wanna hold you mama."
When I got home from being gone all weekend and she saw me she said, "Oh, I found you!"
Ian and I have such a blast with her.
Ian, Isla and I just got back from visiting my cousin Beth and her new husband and their combined six kids in Star, Id. It's a way cute town outside of Boise. Beth, me and her step daughter ran a 10k in Boise. It was awesome. It ended on the BSU football field which was way fun. Ian and Isla were there at the end to cheer me in. They are the best cheerleaders ever. It was so fun to see the girls and it was fun to get away as a family. Life has been pretty busy lately so it was a good break.
Ian has been doing awesome at work. He has big responsibilities on his shoulders now that he is managing. He has had to work late a lot the last couple months and it's been stressful for him but he takes it on like a champ. His company is lucky to have him.
Well, I think that's it for now. Until next time...