No kisses dad!

Isabela was happy to play until Brandon gave her a kiss.

Bath Time

Isabela is growing so fast.

She is now 13.2 lbs at 4 months old.

Brandon and Isabela playing

Isabela rolling over

Izzy rolls over all the time now.

Here she is in the process.

Computer crash

Well, our computer crashed.
Dustin was so kind to come and fix it. It took a few hours
one night, but it worked like a charm.

Three weeks later... it crashed again.

Needless to say, the blog has suffered.

Verna Pint

A few weeks ago, Izzy and I went walking to say hi to Brandon while he was working up on campus. On our way past the cemetery, I met this wonderful woman. Her name is Verna Pint. She is 76 years old. She has become my inspiration.

Verna goes walking every day. She has yoga and pilates twice a week and water aerobics regularly. Wrinkles she has, but absolutely no flab. This woman is pure muscle. She loves walking all around town. In just a few months, she has walked over 250 miles. She gets prizes for every 100 miles she walks for one of the classes she is in. She last told me that she has almost reached her 3rd 100 miles.

Verna is my inspiration. When she was 16, she was ran over by a hay-bailing tractor. It crushed her hips, pelvic bone, and part of her legs. The doctor told her she would never walk again. Her mom worried every time she tried to hobble on crutches that she was going to hurt herself. Verna was stubborn, though, and kept at it. She snuck away everyday while her family was gone. She would hobble as best she could to the park on her crutches, then completely out of breath and in pain, hobble back home. After a few weeks, she managed to pull some park benches together. She used the backs of them like parallel bars. Before they had come up with physical therapy, she came up with her own.

She said she never let anyone know. She used her crutches and hobbled whenever her family and friends were around. Then, months after the accident, Verna's mom took her back into the doctor for a routine check-up. She hobbled in, sat down, and waited. When the nurse called her name, Verna stood up, threw down her crutches, and walked happily into the exam room. Of course, everyone went crazy. She told me, "I just couldn't imagine my life never walking again. Could you believe me? not walking? They must have been crazy."

We walked together a long time. I told her that I have wheat stored here and I needed to learn how to make it into bread. She said she ground all of her own wheat. So she came over today and we made the best wheat bread ever! She hopes we still live here next summer when she comes back so we can do more together. I will be ecstatic!

Sitting on the Couch

At 10 1/2 weeks old, this is Isabela sitting on the couch. She can't sit up without back support by herself yet, but she is doing pretty well. She seems to have fun sitting up by us when we are all together. I think she likes to look around and see more things.

Misty & Christina come to visit!

Misty and Christina dropped by to visit before they went dancing... and what
a crazy dance party at the Fun Park they had!

This is Izzy talking.
She and I went to pick raspberries with Kala.
Izzy sat in her carseat on the grass, talking away the whole time.
She loved it when Kala started to play her music.

Bear Lake

We went to Bear Lake with the Spanish Branch. We had a blast!
We lathered sunscreen all over her. She was very efficient at using her hands to rub the lotion off of her arms and eating it up.
She just kept licking and smiling.
Then she slept for about 5 hours that we were there.
She woke up for about 1 1/2 hours at the end to put her feet in the water.

Immunizations

It's Izzy's 2 month check-up and she had her immunizations. She was great! until they poked her leg with the first needle. She let out a scream, paused to think about it...then they stuck her with the second one and she really let the nurse have it. They stuck her one more time while she was crying. But then they gave her an oral immunization and she stopped crying and smiled while she ate. She did really well over all.

We didn't get any pictures of the actual shots, because like great first-time parents,
both Brandon and I were holding her hands and talking to her.

She was all smiles by the time we left the office. We went to a work party for Brandon and she was a little ham with all of that attention. But after, she took a nap and seemed to be fussy the whole rest of the day. I think the shots had some side effects that made her feel pretty crappy.

G&G Chantland

Izzy went to see Grandpa and Grandma Chantland. We had a lot of fun and grandma says she looks just like me when I was a baby. Most people say she looks just like Brandon.

We finally got to go camping out first time this year. Izzy turned 2 months old. While we were starting the fire and cooking dinner, we put Isabela inside the tent with just the mosquito door closed. She was awake the whole time, just looking out and smiling, but completely content. Every time we went to check on her, she was as happy as could be.
We got to go with some friends, Martin and Jez, as well as Dustin and Kala. Jez was great! She held Izzy a lot so I was free to play and go exploring.
And Martin made the very best food! We ate so much it was better than Thanksgiving.

The BB guns came out. We had a lot of fun shooting at the little targets. I even did pretty well, knocking out a few cups before having to reload.


Izzy just woke up from her nap.

Great Grandpa and Grandma Forster came to visit on July 23rd. We love when they come to visit. This time we were lucky and Izzy got to meet Eli, Brandon's cousin from California. Eli loved Izzy and kept playing with her and rubbing her head. I am not quite sure what she thought about that, as you can see from the expression on her face.
Grandma Vilda with Izzy.
Izzy is known to make a sound that sounds just like she is saying "Hi." She also always seems to know what is going on. She makes the funniest and cutest faces at the right time, every time. We told them that she says "Hi" every once in awhile. 3 seconds later, as if on cue, she gave the biggest smile, a little giggle, and the most clear-sounding "Hiiiii." We all died laughing. She is a smart little one.

We all know how great I am NOT when it comes to putting up new posts on our blog. So I am back-tracking just a little.

Here is Izzy with Aunt Kim on July 4th at the park. I was wonderful to have the whole family out here. Izzy sure loved it and initiated Kim into the family. While sitting there, Izzy managed to go to the bathroom. It made a big spot on the back of Kim's thigh where Izzy pooped. The amazing thing....not a trace to be found on Izzy's clothes. She was completely dry and her diaper was not all that bad to change. We have called her Houdini ever since.

Uncle Kyle threw some baseballs to dunk the already-soaking wet child. 5 balls for 50 cents. He missed.
At Pioneer Park we played in the relay races. I won 2nd place for the hula hoop, using a very bent, not-so-round hula hoop.

I just finished my hooter hider. I love the little pocket on the back!

Izzy is so happy because she is the center of attention on her blessing day!

For his birthday, Brandon is keeping our family tradition alive. I have smashed my face in a cake for the last 6 years...and Brandon gave in to the peer pressure. Just think, in 11 months, Izzy will do the same thing.

Then for Brandon's birthday dinner Kyle and I took Brandon to his favorite restaurant in Salt Lake, the Red Iguana. And, man, was it goooooooood!

On Brandon's birthday, we went down to visit the family. Jenny and Jeff were up from Cedar City, so for the first time the cousins got to meet. Tyson is 19 days older than Izzy and we decided to take some pictures. At first, Izzy didn't know what to think. Then Tyson turned and started sucking on Izzy's head. She just started screaming. We all about died laughing.

Izzy is 21 days old... holding her own bottle. I was cooking dinner for a family and the stove was extremely hot. Izzy was crying and wanted to eat so I gave her a bottle. I took her fingers out of a fist and put them around the bottle. She wrapped her fingers back to her palm, but she never let go. She held it and ate until it was all gone, then she dropped the bottle and just stared at me.