More photos!

Hey gang! More photos of Isla - these are from last weekend when daddy's team played again and when I was a really, really hungry girl. So hungry, in fact, that I thought daddy had the goods!

With Grandma and Martin arriving safely in the US, we're sure to get a lot of good shots off this week and next!

The beauty contest

For those who may be thinkin', "She looks just like her daddy!", no worries because she won't look like a little boy or a big man someday! Why do I know this? haha, glad you asked! ...

So when Ross was little, his mum, Helen, wanted to enter him into a 'Beautiful Baby Contest' in Guernsey. When she went to enter him, the little boy section was closed, so she just put him into the little girl section instead - and he won!! Here's the photo she entered, how beautiful is he??!

There's always hope, haha!!

Why do we only let a few folks view this blog?

Because this could easily be found as child porn by sickos out there! But to us, these photos are sooo adorable. Isla just loves to be with her daddy and daddy just loves to hang out in his big ole chair. And I love to take photos of them! These are from Saturday when we had a nice little movie marathon (courtesy of McDonald's Redbox, love it!!). We saw The Ruins (ok, ending coulda been better), What Happens in Vegas (ok, kinda slow at the end) and The Love Guru (ok too, lots of great one-liners).

Towards the end, it got a little warm in the house and it was a perfect time for Isla to let loose, she's getting so big and holding her head up so well, we've all come a long way.

County Fair time

My mom, dad, sis and brother in law, Jeff went out to the Clay County Fair last week and had a ton of fun...without us:( oh well, we were there in spirit!!

Here's the winning Guernsey milk cow (aptly named after the island...or the island was named after the cow? hmm...the age old question...). Then my sis's head and my mom and Teresa on the tilt-o-whirl. Spinning does me no good anymore, but they loved it!

How fun!

Haircut

As my middle school science teacher always said, "I didn't get a haircut, I got 'em all cut". Here it is, hope you recognize me next time you see me (jk!).

The best box

This is the box that holds it all - the recipes and magical concoctions that I grew up with. Of course, there are so many more that are just in memory, like that hot toddy mom gave me (when I was what, eight?? hee!) and pistachio pudding. I only hope to give another little girl I'm so fond of such a treasure trove someday!

Speaking of little girls, wasn't my momma a cute little thing, too??!

Thirty things + one

...That change when you have a baby...

Caught this article on www.babycenter.com, it's beautiful!

1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.

2. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid.

3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.

4. You respect your body ... finally.

5. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.

6. You find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own.

7. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child.

8. You lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have banished years ago.

9. Your heart breaks much more easily.

10. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.

11. Every day is a surprise.

12. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive. In fact, they please you. (Hooray for poop!)

13. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.

14. You become a morning person.

15. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.

And from our readers...

1. "You discover how much there is to say about one tooth." — Ashley's mom

2. "You finally realize that true joy doesn't come from material wealth." — Anonymous

3. "You now know where the sun comes from." — Charlotte

4. "You'd rather buy a plastic tricycle than those shoes that you've been dying to have." — Sophie's mom

5. "You realize that although sticky, lollipops have magical powers." — Roxanne

6. "You don't mind going to bed at 9 p.m. on Friday night." — Kellye

7. "Silence? What's that?" — Anonymous

8. "You realize that the 15 pounds you can't seem to get rid of are totally worth having." — Brenda

9. "You discover an inner strength you never thought you had." — Ronin and Brookie's mom

10. "You no longer rely on a clock — your baby now sets your schedule." — Thomas' mom

11. "You give parents with a screaming child an 'I-know-the-feeling' look instead of a 'Can't-they-shut-him-up?' one." — Jaidyn's mom

12. "Your dog — who used to be your 'baby' — becomes just a dog." — Kara

13. "You take the time for one more hug and kiss even if it means you'll be late." — Tracey

14. "You learn that taking a shower is a luxury." — Jayden's mom

15. "You realize that you can love a complete stranger." — Dezarae's mom

And I need to add my own! I'm excited to learn (and I'm sure some AdFarmers are glad to learn too!) that motherhood can actually make you (me!!) smarter... check out this article!

Also, I finally got my haircut in honor of Ross and my anniversary. It'll be three years when Helen and Martin are here so here's a vid of us celebrating! The haircut isn't in this video, but the new one is standard issue AdFarm, too, haha! I'll post some pictures soon if I can stand to put some makeup on during the day. I am proud to announce, though, that I've managed to take a shower every single day, yay me!!

Lotsa Anniversaries and Birthdays!

This post is dedicated to my mom and dad - married 38 years ago today! Four kids and five grandkids later, here they are...amazing. And they're still devoted to calling their kids when they're in a tornado warning and going to all of the motocross races, to the county fair and doing all sorts of fun stuff together. We love you guys!!

And a huge 'happy bday' to my aunt Barbie - we can't wait to see you again soon!

(Isla is also one month old today, and David Beckham is in town just for it, whatta great end of the week it's been!)

Fun with mac

Hey everyone! We're playing around with the new comp. today and did a video for everyone! It's so nice to say HI!! to everyone in between naps, diapers and all the fun we have here at home, we miss you all and can't wait to see you soon!

Spitting image

Just getting our printer/scanner thing figured out and it takes pretty good scans, yay!! Here are some baby photos from Ross and me, so now ya know where Isla got all that hair from!!

The first photo is Isla, then me, then Ross. Don't be confused about the little pink blankie in Ross' pic - the hospital ran out of blue blankies, evidently! And proper baby clothes so they had him in a little paper nightie, haha!!

I can't believe these photos are from almost 26 years ago (Ross is just three days younger than me so his is that old too!)... It's amazing to see a tiny little mirror basically laying in your arms countless times per day. You just can't help but think about what they'll look like someday - and hope they don't get your bad habits (like picking my nails...). There's always hope :)

Happy Birthday, Islie!!

In honor of Isla's one-month birthday on Friday, here's a video that my mom took the day she was born. She's so strong, she's been holding up her head since day one! Now she's 9.1 pounds and growing like a little weed (not a cockleburr, aunt Barbie! hee).

In about three weeks, Grandma Wallis is coming over from Guernsey (one of England's Channel Islands). We're pretty excited to open our house and share it with family again, it was so empty after everyone left last time that it will be wonderful to have a full house again!

Iowa = Idiots out wondering around...When Pushed

Not quite, we sort of had a plan. But we didn't plan on the weather turning from 85 degrees in KC to lower than 60 up in NW Iowa! Poor Isla, she got a few sniffles while up there but she's A-ok now.

This past week we traveled the almost six hours up to Iowa to visit another side of the family - my brothers, sister and grandma Hanna. It was a great time, as always, and Isla made the trip a fabulous one. It was so refreshing to see some more family, it's getting hard to be so far away from everyone, but I suppose we're all spread out the way it is, you almost have to start your own "colony". At least there is the internet to keep in contact!

Here are a few pics from the weekend, courtesy of my wonderful niece, Calista, and my momma. There's my Grandma Hanna and Isla in the infamous "Swingtime Hammock"...funny story there! Mom and I went out to buy a swing for Isla and there were only a few options. One was pretty cheap-looking and then this hammock caught my eye. It said, "Gentle swinging motion..." but I failed to read further. So later we were home putting the swing together and were trying to find where the automatic swing button was. That's when I read the box further - "Gentle swinging motion...WHEN PUSHED." What a horrible, horrible children's product, tricking new parents/grandparents into buying these kind of products. They didn't have that tip in the what to expect book - Read all parts of the package before purchasing a product! At least she really seemed to like laying in it, and a huge thanks to little Calista who always volunteered to push/swing little Isla.

There are also pics of my mom, Calista and Isla, my brother with Isla and my sister-in-law, Steph, with Isla.

Got 'em!

Here are some pics from "family time"! I'm so glad we were able to all be together again, it was a great time and we're so glad they were all able to come and enjoy themselves in Kansas City!

These pics were taken down on the Country Club Plaza, a beautiful little outdoor shopping place. Come to think of it, that's all KC really has is outdoor shopping places...Zona Rosa, the Legends, tons of strip malls...unless you go down to Johnson County, but anyway. Needless to say, we stuck to TJ Maxx and Costco a lot after this shopping trip! It's a good thing we rubbed the pig's nose (or picked it like Renee, my cousin did!) down there because we founds some great bargains (and finally a computer desk) that week!

Then there are some of my mom (Carol) and uncle Jerry, etc. eating some GREAT KC barbeque. Oklahoma Joes (you'd think the guy woulda named himself KC Joe?!) was yummy and well-worth the travel out to Olathe, Kansas...the one that's nearest was connected to a gas station and didn't look so appetizing! And of course, we went to the Cheesecake Factory and Ross had to introduce everyone to his favorite "pub", O'Dowd's and have everyone try "mary rose" sauce (mayo + ketchup + soma-other stuff). It's good, I promise, and I hate mayonnaise...

Oh! And if you're wondering about the "spider hunting", well a picture really is worth a thousand words in this case. Or screams. Hopefully I can get a pic from my aunt Barbie of the spider she found outside our house. Really, you've never seen anything so hideous in all your life. You can even see its eyeballs, I screamed a lot after meeting it in real life! And probably ticked off the neighbors.

Stay tuned for more to come!!

Nap time

Isla and I took a well-deserved nap yesterday while Ross had some alone time with his Wii. What a great day yesterday was!! I got a new book, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society about Guernsey (which is where the photo on our blog is from - breathtaking, isn't it!) during the German Occupation on their island. It's so good so far! In my next post, I'll be sure to put up some photos of the creepy German bunkers that litter the island. And the German Underground Hospital that they built there, it is the creepiest place I've ever been. You'll love it, I'm sure!

The rest of the week, we'll be up in Iowa to debut little Isla to the rest of my family - my brothers, sister and Grandma Margaret, among many others. I can't wait to see them - I haven't been fit to travel for over a month now and I miss them all so much! Watch for photos of this party too!!