Day Trip to Boise

Brandon decided it was time for us to drive to Boise this week. Okay, that makes it seem really spur of the moment, which it wasn't, but we did make a quick trip to Boise earlier this week. The kids were pretty good, even though we didn't get home until after midnight. We stopped to see Brandon's Great-grandma Isle. She is 96 years old and the last time we saw her was the summer we got engaged. So she had never met any of the kids. We had a nice visit with her and the kids thoroughly enjoyed all of the teddy bears she let them play with.

Britton loved this bear. It sings America the Beautiful, and she is actually trying to sing along with it. She would get very frustrated when it stopped.

The reason Brandon got the idea to drive to Boise is because his cousin got married in November in Denver, but because he can't get time off in the month of November we weren't able to make the drive down. Luckily her husband is from Boise, so Brandon said since it was a shorter drive we might as well go to the open house. It also helped that we hadn't seen his cousins for awhile.

William hanging out with cousins. I think Cameron is teaching him a new handshake.

William and Francis hanging out. William has had an affinity for Francis since they met. William loves this whole family but he seems to gravitate to Francis. Caitlyn demonstrated once again how shy she can be.

Here is the reason we came. It was really great to see Uncle Terry and Aunt Cara and their family.

We had to get some pictures of Uncle Terry with the baby. He loves to hang out with our kids, and they seem to like him too. Britton did run up to him a couple of times.

Showing off her skills in the high five department.

Britton's fluffy skirt. I was just trying to keep her happy since she missed her afternoon nap.

Caitlyn was dancing and running around, she might have even participated in a hide and seek game. It was a great visit, the roads were clear both ways, it snowed after we got home, I just wouldn't suggest making the whole trip in one day.

Christmas Pictures

I thought it might be nice to put some of our pictures from the holidays up. Some of these are out of order, because I realized that I had forgotten to put them in and I didn't want to delete everything. There are a few pictures so bear with me.

This was my big project for Christmas, new hooded towels for the kids. I found a great tutorial here, but I didn't do the pleat at the neck. Then I got some felt, very inexpensive, and appliqued the kids' names on the back. I was going to do it on an edge but Brandon liked the idea of it being across the back.

It is nice having the towels, our others were five years old so getting a little trashed, and the kids really like them. Well, William and Caitlyn like them, Britton is okay with being wrapped up after the bath but then she wants it off. And since I got the towels at Walmart they really weren't that much. Brandon decided to share a candy cane oreo with Britton and this is the result. Then he told me that I needed to clean up my baby. Interesting.

This is from William's Christmas program. It was a crazy day because they had all of the Kindergarten classes together so William had to be at school in the morning. Brandon got him there on time, and the girls and I were still in bed when Brandon got back. William had fun singing with his class.

This was the whole group. They had three 2nd grade classes, three 1st grade classes, and three Kindergarten classes. So a lot of kids, but it was fun.

William after the program, right after he told us that he didn't want to go home with us, and of course Caitlyn had to be in the picture too.

Opening Christmas Eve presents from Grandma and Grandpa Luke. I convinced Brandon that we needed to let the kids have a Christmas morning with cousins and at Grandma and Grandpa Luke's house. Luckily he was able to get Christmas Eve off, he found out the Monday before, so he didn't have to make a late night drive.

Britton isn't really into opening her own presents yet so she needed a little help.

And what was in the presents, pajamas of course. Girls in pink, boys in orange, and this is proof that last years Black Friday expedition by Mom, Crystal, Zach, and Brandon was worth it. Thanks Grandma for your hard work, they are so warm.

There was enough snow for sledding, Brandon took the four older kids out on Christmas Eve but he did have help on Christmas and I thought I should get some pictures on Christmas. This is Grandma Luke with Caitlyn in the sled. I will have you know that Mom yelled the whole way down the hill. Caitlyn does too, I think it adds to the enjoyment.

Brandon and William going down.

William and Bailey going down the hill. If I find the time, meaning if I get over my laziness or get Brandon to do it, then I might post video of opening presents. We didn't take any pictures, just video. The kids didn't go to bed until around 10 Christmas Eve but William and Caitlyn came to get us at 5:30. Brandon had to take Britton back to bed for a nap, but we did manage to keep the kids quiet enough that the cousins didn't get up for another couple of hours. The kids had a great time with their cousins and their presents. Hope you all had a great holiday season.

Happy Christmas!

Look at that beautiful family! I guess this is our Christmas card this year. 2009 has been a fun year with new experiences for all of us.

William started Kindergarten in August and loves it. He also got to play Tball in the summer. I would love to say that his team won a national championship, but it was just Tball, they just took turns batting and fielding. He seemed to have a fun time.

Caitlyn learned life without diapers is much better (at least for us, we don't have to change them). She's also had to learn how to live with William going to school every day.

Britton, of course, has done plenty of growing. She turned one this December and is already teasing her siblings. She started walking a couple weeks before her birthday.

Marybeth has turned into quite the sewer (if that's what you call it). She's made skirts for the girls, including the two in the picture above. She made William's vest, and has done other sewing projects. She continues to chase the kids each day. She's also still the Primary president, which keeps her busy, especially Sunday mornings.

Brandon tried to get us to move from our house in search of a new job, but we ended up staying at Channel 8. He continues to run and even got to volunteer at one race this summer.

We have truly been blessed this year, and can't wait to see what 2010 brings.

Love,

The Isle Family

Britton's 1

Here is our baby princess last year,
And here she is now. One year old, I can't believe it. Some of Britton's accomplishments this year: She learned to walk, the first child to do this before their first birthday; she kept all of her hair and it got longer and thicker; she grew taller, around 95th percentile for height; she cut two teeth, not a record but it sure took her long enough; she thinks that her siblings are pretty funny; and she is still mostly happy. Britton had a great birthday, William and Caitlyn were very excited about her birthday but Britton just really wanted her cake.Here is her cake. In case you can't tell it is a train. Luckily there are seven cars to the train, one for each letter in her name. Very convenient, it wasn't until after we had named Britton and brought her home that I realized that all of the kids have seven letters in their names. Brandon does too. I am the oddball.

Here is the front of the train.

Britton and her big present. She uses it when she can get it away from her older brother and sister.
Now everyone in the family has an apron from Grandma Luke. Britton broke in the new bib quickly.
Britton and her cake. She is so excited but she did want the cake to be a little closer.
No hesitation at all. I love how big her eyes and mouth are in this picture. She knew exactly what to do with the cake.
She wasn't too sure about the icing.
And she didn't like how the icing stuck to her fingers. She kept Grandma Luke and Great-grandma and grandpa Isle entertained with her antics while she was trying to get the icing off of her fingers.
She kept pretty clean. William was a complete mess after having his cake on his first birthday, but Caitlyn and Britton were both clean. I guess it is a girl thing. Now she is one and off on new adventures. I think Brandon is looking forward to nursery.

Pictures from Thanksgiving and Fun Times

I have been such a slacker so this is going to be a lengthy post. The Sunday before thanksgiving we had quite a surprise. I was home with three sick kids, so Brandon went to church by himself. When he left it was a little cold and overcast but by the time he got back there was about an inch of snow on the ground. So we bundled the kids up so they could play a little. Britton getting into her snow stuff. She really can't move much once she has them on, and the boots are too big but she stays dry.

I think Caitlyn is trying to catch snowflakes.

William throwing snow, without gloves because it would take too much time to put them on.

Caitlyn got Daddy, it helps that she was close. Britton is pretty much in the street.

Britton had to crawl down to the end of the driveway so she could wave down the street to the neighborhood dogs. She likes to say hi.

For Thanksgiving we went up to Grandma and Grandpa Luke's house. The kids were really excited because cousins were there, and the love showing off for Grandma and Grandpa. Mom decided that we should Indian and pilgrim hats. I of course don't have any pictures of the boys pilgrim's hats, or the rest of my kids, but here is Britton with her feathers.

And here is Mom with her pilgrim hat.

Brandon wanted a picture of our cherry pie. We made two pies and rolls for dinner, and all that went was left over was a little of the cherry pie.

These are some random pictures. Brandon wanted me to try a curlformer in Britton's hair, and the top is just long enough. Of course she pulled it out, but we got a few pictures before she managed that.

Here she is from the side. The curlformer is just so long that she could feel it moving around.

This is why we put pigtails in her hair. It just grows right over her eyes. This was one morning when we were being lazy and Britton was content to snuggle with Mommy. At least until Daddy pulled out the camera.

Our silly baby girl. As I was trying to get Britton in the tub she ran off before I could get her shirt all the way off. Some of her shirts go on really well but don't like to come off. She wasn't happy about the struggle with the shirt but thought it was funny to walk around with the shirt on her head.

Walking is Hazardous

There seems to be an epidemic of walking accidents at our house. I have to admit that most of them are happening to Britton, which makes sense since she has only been walking for maybe three weeks, but some of them are happening to people who have been walking for years, for once I am not talking about myself. A couple of Sundays ago William had an unfortunate accident while walking home. He tripped once and made it out unscathed but then he tripped again and managed to stop himself with his nose. He insisted on a bandaid, it was bleeding, so here he is with his bandaid. And this is when I took it off the next day. You may have to make the picture bigger, but he took skin off in a couple of places. This is his only injury from walking lately, but he does struggle to walk sometimes. I think that he gets his balance from me.

Britton learned to walk, yeah! She has been the fastest so far. She walked a couple weeks before he birthday, which is about three or four weeks before William and Caitlyn did. She does okay until she gets excited and speeds up. Sunday she was having all sorts of fun walking around during Sacrament meeting and she got a little too excited. She went head first into a bench. She had a nice goose egg, and now has a lovely scab.

Looking very sad and pathetic, poor kid. Who knew walking would be so dangerous?

Oh William

We had our first Parent Teacher conference for William this week. He absolutely loves Kindergarten and there has only been one day where his teacher told me he was having a really rough day so I had hopes that the conference would go well. She seems to really enjoy having William in class, which is really good, and seems to be adapting things to make them more of a challenge for him. She did have some funny stories that I thought I would share with you. The first one shows why it isn't worth it to teach your child how to read. She noticed one day that William wasn't working on one of his papers, he was pulling out all of the crayons in the bucket, looking at them, and then putting them back. So she went and asked him what was wrong. He looked at her and said, "I can't find a blue crayon." She pulled one out and said that it looked blue. He looked at the crayon and said, "That isn't blue, it says indigo." Then he found blue violet which he said looks more purple. His teacher laughed and said that she found him a new bucket, and he told us at the conference that the new bucket has cerulean which is a type of blue. In another funny story his teacher said that they were supposed to be cutting something for a project and she saw that he was at his desk and had six pairs of scissors in front of him, but he wasn't doing anything. She asked what was wrong and he told her, very frustrated, that the scissors wouldn't cut and he had tried all of them. Because his paper was bending just a little the safety scissors wouldn't cut. So his teacher got him started and he was able to finish just fine. So it sounds like he isn't a problem in class and his teacher enjoys having him there. Good things to hear.