four months of catching up

i feel so bad when i start letting this blog go. this is actually therapeutic to me, i don't know how it always ends up being something forgotten or ignored. i love going back and reading previous blogs and reliving some memories- so i have a renewed commitment! 

    

one of the best parts of the summer was being there for the BEAUTIFUL dassia marrying our new uncle jonny. they are an inspiring, beautiful couple and i'm so happy for them. they are living in provo- so we're sad they're far away from us now. and, i guess it's safe to say now that it didn't take them long to get pregnant and we're excited to get nephew #2!!! 

speaking of nephews, that's the other big news from the summer. jessica and pacen were sent the most adorable happy baby boy- brantley matthew. we love him lots and lots. i'm not kidding, he's cute!       

another fun honorable mention from the summer was going to the shania twain concert with my family. gavin degraw was her opener, and it was amazing. so so so amazing. we knew every word to every song and had a blast!

 

i took a trip to utah to visit my good friend, becca, from school for her baby shower. i took bailey with me, and i'm so glad i did because zenna ended up puking on the way down!! that was a little bit of a traumatic experience for all of us. my first instinct was to pull over immediately and get her out and take care of her, but i was on the interstate in utah, and bailey was the voice of reason that insisted i go to the next exit. then i went straight to the first gas station i saw, bought some shampoo (because puke was all over in her hair) and forced her head under the sink faucet to clean her up. she screamed the whole time, but i got it done. meanwhile, bailey was with isla and taking care of the puke-covered carseat. she ended up tipping it upside down on top of a sprinkler going nearby. genius. so while that got rinsed out a little bit, we continued to work on cleaning zenna up and feeding isla while we were stopped anyway. the adventure continued as we stopped at ross and bought zenna a new clean outfit for the party and some gifts for becca's little one. finally, we got to see becca and had a great time catching up. zenna discovered how to pose and take pictures like we did with arms behind each other's back... and it cracked us all up immensely. 

kendra, shelby, becca, me, and zenna!

         

                 

new outfit. couldn't be any cuter. 

finally, before the summer ended, we had to visit the blackfoot state fair. i knew zenna would go crazy with all the farm animals. she's been a little obsessed. and so i went with my sisters and mom and we had too much fun. zenna of course got her some of her favorite cotton-candy, and she had plenty of eye-candy with the animals. isla loved being outside in the stroller, she gave me the biggest smiles all night long! 

on september 6, we blessed isla josephine. some things i remember from that day include being terrified that she'd have a poop-out explosion because she'd been in the habit for a few weeks of going four-five days without pooping then having crazy, explosive, disgusting poop-outs in the worst possible of times. she hadn't pooped in a few days and i was thinking "it'd be our luck" if she did it during her blessing. she didn't though. drake delivered, as always, a beautiful blessing and isla was surrounded by so many men that they almost didn't all fit. i remember how strong i felt the spirit as i watched so many of my family members gather around her, showing love and support. i felt the love from my heavenly father strong in my heart, and i felt so grateful my girls have such a strong, faithful village to help raise them. they are lucky girls- i'm a lucky mommy. we also hosted our first family gathering at our new home (even though it still had the old, stinky carpet in it) and it was so fun! 

side-note: we replaced all the carpet in our house and it was a lot of fun picking out exactly what i wanted (and could afford) to go along with our new giant sectional ... i feel extremely humble as i realize how truly blessed- even spoiled- i am. but drake and i have been working hard to provide these new upgrades to our home, and they all make me happy happy happy. 

august- after moving into our new home (finally!) school started for me and i had to go to work. the babysitting schedule was a little challenging to get worked out. grandma may comes over in the mornings because she works half days in the afternoon and then cinta, jessica, my grandma jill, or other family members keep the girls in the afternoons. twice a week i take them into my aunt tiffany's daycare. i was pleasantly surprised to find that zenna actually adapted really well to this and loved the social aspect. she especially loved learning new songs and playing with the other "pretend mommy" toys. i was sad to leave my babies for full-time hours again, and even sadder when i was forced to cut down the nursing, but i do love what i get to do every day! 

lewis and clark elementary has been different, but good. it has a few quirky things that are difficult to get used to, but overall i like who i work with and the principal and things have been going really well. i have to get used to making my copies a week or two in advance and then waiting for someone else to copy them and deliver them back to the school... usually this just means, I'm not doing activities that take a lot of copies. i've felt a lot of growth in myself as to what i'm capable of handling and remembering this year. third grade has actually been a lot of fun. i'm not sure if i like third or fourth more now... it has been really fun using songs and games in the class because eight or nine-year-olds still get really into that.

this year i have a pet hamster and he was an escape artist the first few days of school. i showed up to school on the first day and he was gone! i searched for him high and low, and all day long, but couldn't ever find him. i searched for him for FIVE days, and finally on monday, he showed up in the garbage can. he had chewed a hole in the bag and was sometimes hiding underneath the lining. i knew he'd been on my desk since friday because on monday, i found a chewed up straw from a drink i left on my desk. the kids thought this was all hilarious- and it turned out better than i had expected.

the fall is my favorite time of year. i love pumpkins, pumpkin flavored things, wearing boots and scarves, drinking hot chocolate, visiting corn mazes, and celebrating halloween and thanksgiving. this year was especially fun with my girls since zenna loves pumpkins more than a lot of things and she thought visiting the pumpkin patch was great. we also attempted the corn maze, which we ended up abandoning half-way through because it was very long, and we were packing isla who isn't light!! 

halloween was really fun! we went through several different ideas but eventually settled on the wizard of oz because my mom had a dorothy outfit. it turned out really really cute!! when zenna was trick-or-treating, she went around to each person, held up her bucket, and said "more, please!" because she is addicted to candy- and i get a bad mom award :/

finally, zenna turned two! we had a pizza party at our house with a piñata and lots and lots and lots of presents. zenna was spoiled, spoiled. it is so fun seeing her get excited about things now. some of her favorite presents were the frozen microphone and playhouse, the horse stable and my little ponies, the bouncy horse, and her dress-up things. she still loves her car most of all however! 

playing with new farm animals!

she just loved the card so much!