Isabelle is 11 months old!

Can't believe she's almost 1 already. Gah.

Weight: 18 lbs. 4 oz. (14th percentile)
Height: 29 inches (56th percentile)

 

  
Likes: baths, crawling, Baby Einstein, Sesame Street, Elmo, dancing, cheese, playing in the fridge, escaping out the back patio door

Dislikes: holding still, car seat, wind, closed doors

New things this month: cut 5th tooth, walks along furniture, stands on own

 This has been a busy month, and Instagram has done nothing but feed my compulsive picture taking habit, so bear with me.

I can't stand that my kids are growing up so fast.

 First Easter egg hunt with the Murset cousins

 With Grandpa Rich

She still gets so excited about the cat. Tiger does not return the sentiment.

  

 

 Love those baby snuggles when she first wakes up!

She is such a cheeseball! Check out those silly faces.

  

 

 She is such an active little thing and cruises everywhere, but when she ends up on her back, she just flails around until someone rescues her. Never really got the hang of rolling over...

 We gave back the gadget chair we were borrowing from Maria and switched it for her walker.

That first night we got it, she just took off!

She hasn't been as interested since, but she's almost walking on her own now anyways. (She does love to watch herself on video, though.)

And now for the obligatory

Mess of the Day

by Isabelle

She has truly embraced the whole 

"Don't leave a room without leaving your mark on it" way of life.

She has this on her to-do list at least 3x a day.

Ripping/eating magazines is a new favorite. She has munched her way through several of Madelyn's National Geographic Kids issues.

Something I forgot to post last time was that we had to tape a piece of cardboard over the power button on the computer because she liked to turn it off as you were using it.

She is clearly so pleased herself.

This was a celebratory Easter morning unroll.

 Baby wipes....

SIGH

Emptying the silverware, as you're trying to load it. Her specialty!

This picture (she was crying because I wanted her to hold still--THE HORROR) made me laugh because it reminded me of this picture Madelyn drew of herself with a fu manchu:

Once she had discovered that plant and its yummy dirt, there was no going back. We had to find it a new home at grandma's.

She loves to empty the baskets and then swim around in the dirty laundry/rub the clothes on her head.

 

 And one lucky day, she managed to eat half of a Red Vine (and get red drool everywhere) before she was caught.

The toddler years are going to be fun! Pray for me!

Easter/Spring break

 Tulips, daffodils, jonquils, cherry blossoms, anemones and crocuses that I planted a couple years ago.

Spring officially arrived  on the calendar right before Easter this year (so naturally it's snowed twice since then...) and we were looking forward to having a break from school for three days.

 So what happened at the beginning of the week?

 

 All three kids got sick again!!!

Yaayyyyyyyyy

Colds, and another ear infection/cold for Isabelle (and teething, just to make sure there would be no sleeping for either of us all week). Luke had to miss out on his preschool Easter egg hunt and party. It had only been two weeks since they'd gotten over their last bug (where Luke had double pneumonia and a 107° fever and the everyone else had colds and Isabelle had a double ear infection and basically everyone was dying). And even now, Madelyn still has congestion in her sinuses. We should just go in quarantine.

Luckily, this go round wasn't quite as bad as the time before, and they were still able to enjoy their break for the most part.

 By Friday, everyone was feeling well enough to go down to my parent's house for an Easter party. There was a giant egg hunt, and each kid had 20 eggs of a certain color that they had to find. Madelyn and Luke never found all of theirs because my parent's yard swallowed them up somewhere.

 

My brother Kevin, his son Gary, and Isabelle

Mark had to work so didn't come with us. We were gone nearly all day and were very tired by the time we got home.

 All except for Luke, who can keep going on Minecraft juices and sheer force of will.

 Easter day was very exciting for the kids because the Easter Bunny apparently made a last minute decision that they needed brand new bikes! So they got those as well as baskets full of toys and candy. *Spoiled*

That picture of Madelyn's white board of a message she left for the Easter Bunny with a drawing of some eggs. It says, "To: The Easter Bunny, Love: Madelyn Yoder and my cat Tiger. P.S. He is nice."

This is Luke's first two wheeler, and after he found out that it had training wheels (he was afraid of having to balance and didn't think he'd be brave enough) he's been zipping around on it everywhere. Madelyn had a bike that she'd outgrown and today she gave it to a neighbor friend so that they can ride together. Love those kids!

34, and yes I still think about Harry Potter all the time

Oh, hi blog. Has it been 3 weeks?? Sigh.

I just wrote this entire post, only to accidentally delete it. So here we go again!

I turned 34 last month. I tried to milk it for all it was worth, of course.

 The day before my birthday, my sister Maria and I braved the freezing wind and went to the Waffle Love truck. Divine!! (If you haven't tried Liege waffles before, you must. You really must.)

 The day of my b-day, I drove down to St. George with Isabelle and Luke and met up with my sister-in-law Monica. She treated me to lunch at Einstein Bros. Bagels--my choice because I love carbs. Then I hit up Target and Old Navy, which is all I ever really want from a good birthday. Mark was even able to get off work early and grab Luke and take him home before Madelyn's bus arrived. (So that I could shop longer, obvs.)

 Look how cute! Squee~ I did buy myself some shoes at Target, but everything else was for the baby. That's how it goes.

 I got some Pizza Hut yummies on the way home (I got one of those giant cookies for my "cake".) When I got home, this was waiting for me. My sister Maria had come and left me this awesome surprise. So festive! The roses were gorgeous. :D

 Then I had to haul the kids over to Maria's so I could go to a very long and boring COMMITTEE MEETING for church while Mark gave a lecture on surgical PAs at SUU. Grownup stuff. Humph.

 

 This was what Madelyn drew in my birthday card. (My middle name is Lynn. Close enough.) 34 looks like a lot of freaking candles.

And I got this! Of course, we'll get the extended version when it comes out too, and then have a Middle Earth marathon that will be like, 24 hours long. Oh yesssss.

 That Saturday, I took Madelyn and her friend Danzi to see Cinderella and I LOVED IT SO MUCH. Cinderella has always been my favorite since I was 5, and this movie was just gorgeous. ♥sigh♥

 And my mother-in-law brought me a homemade German chocolate cake! Yes I did eat about 1/3 of it by myself.

I never did get a pic on my b-day, so here's me and Baby Girl (10 months old):

 And one of my new Harry Potter tees. One can never have too many, even when one is 34 years old.

Speaking of!

I've been grappling with something for about 6 months now, which I intend to resolve this year. When I joined Pottermore, I was sorted into Slytherin House. (With a vine wood wand, 10 3/4 inch, slightly yielding, phoenix feather core.) Now, there are a lot of good traits that come along with that house. Resourcefulness, cunning, ambition, leadership qualities, self-preservation, determination, cleverness, fraternity and power. (I identify with the resourcefulness, self-preservation and determination.) However, nearly every single Slytherin portrayed in the books and movies have been mean, prejudiced, self-serving, manipulative, etc. And the vibe I get on Pottermore--and from the internet in general--is that people with Slytherin pride really enjoy the "bad boy" aspect of it. Even in my welcome letter to Slytherin, it basically said, "Welcome! We are better than everyone else!" Really? Ugh. (Mark is in Gryffindor and Madelyn's in Ravenclaw, which they like to gloat about.)

I should mention that I have taken various online Hogwarts House Sorting Quizzes and the first NINE TIMES, I was put into Hufflepuff (which should tell you a few things, lol) and the tenth time was the official Pottermore one which put me into Slytherin. I've always known I was not Gryffindor material, but it was a huge shock to see my result. I really feel like I don't belong there. I can't get excited about playing around on the website with this identity crisis. (Maybe I can't see myself with all the pro-pureblood, anti-Harry Potter nonsense and rubbing elbows with Voldy and all the Death Eaters??)

Super pressing issue, I know. But here's why.

I have always fancied myself a Ravenclaw, not because I think I'm super intelligent, but because I love learning so much. I used to read encyclopedias and the dictionary for "fun". I own hundreds of books and dozens of nature documentaries. I have a degree in Food Science and Biology. My family watches NOVA religiously on Wednesday nights and I actually just penciled in "Life in the Undergrowth, Tuesday at 9:00, channel 11" on my calendar. (A David Attenborough special about bugs--he makes the best documentaries.) I'm visual, creative and am a perfectionist, too.

On the other hand, I'm loyal to a fault, hard working, honest, giving, empathetic, am an introvert, and just want EVERYBODY TO GET ALONG, which lands me solidly in Hufflepuff. Honestly, I'm fine with that house, too. But part of me wants to not just be a nice marshmallow that gets taken advantage of. I'm probably a RavenPuff or HuffleClaw, most accurately. (Or maybe I'm all four houses combined and that makes me Divergent?? Oh, wrong franchise, lol.)

Anyhoo, what I really want to do is to re-register and take the sorting quiz again (which you are not technically supposed to do...). I'll accept my fate if Pottermore puts me into Slytherin again. Although this time, I won't have Mark hanging over my shoulder making suggestions that probably skewed my answers, *ahem*! I really just wanna know where I belong, so that I can feel legit when I choose a new Hogwarts tee to buy at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, if I ever get to go. So do you think I was sorted into the wrong house? Am I being dumb and need to just embrace the silver and green?

So now you know what sort of things 34-year-olds think about. And my husband can attest that you can still play lots and lots of video games even when you're 36. Not to worry, Millenial generation!