3 Girls, A Guy: Our Life: I. Am. Bad.

I cannot believe a month has gone by since my last blog... A WHOLE MONTH. Ridiculous really. What have I been doing in that past month? Lots and nothing... all at the same time.
I always find the month of December to be incredibly busy, exhausting, fun and did I mention busy? I do know that it is January 14th, and no blog post, but January has also been super busy for us too... hence the lack of blog posts. My New Years resolution is to blog more regularly (well not really, I never maintain NY resolutions, but if I did, this would be it). I thoroughly enjoy blogging because I thoroughly enjoy my life.
Well after Vegas brought us Christmas... ISLA's very FIRST one! It was incredibly exciting and magical to watch her discover lights, wrapping paper, ornaments, boxes, plastic and to see her play and explore each and every new toy, article of clothing, book etc... that was given to her. We had an absolutely lovely Christmas with our daughter and the rest of our families. There were lots of festivities, filled with food, love, laughs, gifts, snuggles from Isla, pictures and videos (a new video camera was Cam's gift). Here are some photos.

Isla trying to eat her new monkey, Casey.

In awe of Elmo. Thanks Uncle Brock & Aunty Sue.

All dressed up for church, Christmas Eve.

The Schellenbergs.

Christmas morning in her new Sesame Street Chair.

And in her new wagon.

with her cousins at Momo's house. Not a fan of Claus' hat.

Listening to the Christmas story.

Her little car. She loves him very much.

Reading a new book with Dad.

January brought Isla turning one. I know, she is one. Where did the time go? Honestly... it feels as though I blinked. Here she is... my one year old. What can I say about her? It seems as though in the last month, she has really 'grown up'. We can see her personality more and more and boy, is it a good one. She loves to laugh and smile at everyone she sees. She also loves to wave... it's her favorite thing. She waves at everyone and everything, including the TV and dogs and cats. She pretty much eats everything we eat and we are starting to wean her from formula and on to regular people milk. New favorites: peanut butter and strawberries. We have taken to calling her 'little monkey' because that is what she is. She climbs on EVERYTHING. Yesterday, I discovered sitting on top of our side table, how she got there remains a mystery. Also, she has an adorable rocking horse and today, she climbed onto it herself and then proceeded to stand on the seat and rock back and forth. She is nuts. She has 8 teeth now but I can feel (and see) more coming, due to the excessive drool stains on her 14 shirts she goes through daily. She is the sweetest thing ever. She LOVES LOVES LOVES music and books and will sit with a pile of books for hours. She loves her daddy very much and tolerates her mommy. She is the center of attention, ALWAYS, and is always hamming it up for everyone around her. She knows her head, ears, bee-bo (belly button) and her toes and she will point to them when we say them. She knows several other words: shake, splash, wave, no and a few more. Every day, we see her learning new things and it really is the most incredible thing. She is a sponge. Her favorite thing is to copy people and to try and do what they do. She isn't QUITE walking but I feel as though it's close. She took 5 steps today... BY HERSELF!! It was amazing and one of mine (and hers) proudest moments. I love her. A Lot. For her birthday, we had 2 parties. One family party, where I made lasagna (yes, domestic me), cake and we just hung out here with Isla. We had a 'kid' party where we did a Sesame Street party, complete with amazing cake and cupcakes that I did NOT make, a pinata and lots of kids. 15 to be exact, not to mention, 20 adults or so... maybe more. It was an amazing success and I think everyone had lots of fun! Isla loved the tissue paper and really enjoyed the cake and pizza she got to dig in to. It was the cutest. More photos.