the "little sis" gets a little older

miss isla turned 4 this year! i can't believe she's getting so old and big. from the moment she made me a mommy, i have been so in love with her. i remember feeling naked when i would leave her with brandon just to go to the store. i cried the first day i went back to work even though it was just for 4 hours. and when she was two, brandon and i visited palm desert and had a great time BUT i missed her so terribly. she's my dose of sunshine every morning.

she loves to be busy...already a budding chef, wanting to help me in the kitchen, saying things like, "only big people get to cut raw meat." she loves to help me do anything, even my chores.

last summer she learned how to swim by herself, although i think she forgot by the time summer rolled around this year. but she loves the water! she's the kind of kid who will just sit in the water until no one else is out there even if it means missing dinner.

isla's my good eater. her favorite foods include broccoli, bananas, berries, yogurt, cucumbers, carrots, mushrooms (yes, i said mushrooms)...just to name a few. she's the kind of child who would actually eat a fruit instead of a cookie any day. seriously, how did she come from ME? (although i should have known something was different about her since while i was pregnant i craved hotdogs and felt nauseated EVERY DAY.)

this past year has been filled with so many new experiences...

she had her tonsils removed just days after her 3rd birthday. it was a little traumatic for both of us. but after i fought with the doctor on the floor at Mary Bridge, we made it home and recovered on our own. since then she has not had tonsilitis once! yay! her snoring is gone, her runny noses are gone, oh, and she only saw the doc once last year! (previously we were there about once a month)

isla started ballet this year. i might be a little partial to my own child but i thought she was pretty talented with her jete's and she had a lot of fun being in the alice in wonderland production. i can only hope that she has as much rhythm as i do and will love to dance. but next year we might also try some sports. she's got brandon's perfect athletic build, so we just might have a little athlete on our hands.


she loved preschool and once it was over, taught herself to write her own name....one of her attempts to write her name. this would be cute, if it weren't on her little table.

one sad thing that happened this year is we had to say good-bye to her curls. i was giving her the usual trim one day...and well, they just didn't come back. when i see old pictures of her hair i think i might cry.

when her brother was born she became my best helper AND loves the fact that there's a little person who wants to be just like her. she loves to wrestle with macrae until he cries for mercy. and she always wants to see him as soon as she gets up in the morning.

brandon was in the Savior of the World production last winter. and isla memorized the songs as well as the acts. she never tired of watching the play and still watches the dvd once in a while.

the little missy also started primary this year. she loves being a sunbeam and her teachers often tell me how good she is in class...which makes me BEAM. when i read her bible stories she usually tells me that she knows it already from primary or that it's from "daddy's play." her favorite stories are always about the baby jesus.

and let's not forget her best quote last year from a prayer "please bless us that we can be jesus guys."

isla loves princesses! barbie princess, disney princess, she's not particular. but she also memorizes who their princes are. she also loves to play dress up.

of course, meme is still her best friend.


so this year when i told her she could invite friends from school to her birthday party, she said she just wanted to have her cousins and a pinata...oh, and it had to be a princess party.






HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG SISTER!!