So I had a look and there is was, in Paul’s bag (which he had checked twice already!!). So here are a couple of snaps from this afternoon.

We spent a nice afternoon at Howie’s watching the superbowl and eating a variety of tasty nibbles. Here is Isla all dressed up to walk back home again. She is waiting very patiently for me to put on my boots.

This was the sight that greeted me when I went to get her up from her afternoon nap.

After she was done playing peek-a-boo she put up her arms and demanded ‘ba.’

Love April, Paul and Isla xxx

No new photos today since our camera’s whereabouts is unknown. Not wanting to point any fingers but Paul had it last! I’m sure it will turn up in a pocket sometime soon. We have had beautiful snowy days this weekend. We got out for a ski on Friday afternoon and did the trail through the trees by Bear Lake. We didn’t get out yesterday since it was a little windy and cold for us. Today is Superbowl and Paul has big plans of sitting around eating and watching at Grandpa’s with the rest of the Tougas clan, so we might manage a walk but that will be about it.

In Isla news she has discovered the power of speech.  Up until recently all her words named things, doggie, kitty, dad, mum, etc or were greetings, bye-bye and hi. However the last week or so she has started to use ‘Ba’ as a command for being picked up and put down. Every time she uses it and we respond appropriately she is delighted. Very cute. She is still using the sign for more but it has morphed into ‘I want’ and she will do it and then point or vocalize what she wants. Also very cute, unfortunately Evie doesn’t understand sign language so it doesn’t matter how many times Isla signs ‘ I want’ and then says kitty, Evie doesn’t come over!

Have a great week!

Love April, Paul and Isla

P.S. Isla and I will be winging our way home to New Zealand the end of May and staying for nearly four weeks. We finished booking our tickets on Friday. Too expensive to buy Isla a seat so she will be a lap child all the way to NZ- yikes!

Hello guys.  I have a new phone that takes pretty good pictures.  Today I got three that I though worth sharing;

Isla loves to take down all the small bottles from the turn style cupboard in our kitchen.  The most fun are all of the small bottles in my hot sauce collection, far too low in inventory I fear but still quite a few.  She does this just about every morning while I check my email.  This morning she figured out how to take the cap off the big Tabasco bottle, she must have given it a great big pull because as you can see in the shot bellow, she was not very happy.

But I got her some milk right away to ease her unhappyness and it helped some.

Later the same day we were passing the pub so I decided to get her a first French Strong Ale!  I was visiting one of my advertisers, the Ale House, to discuss business of cource.

Missives of a Dad.  Paul

On one busy week end and with a lot of help from Pop and my buddie Mika we have completed two new project that will make working (working?) in the garage easier and even more enjoyable.

New bench top.  I needed a steady large area that had a good back and overhang to clamp things to.

Brew sink!  I bought this commercial sink from a fellow that had it in his back yard.  I think everyone thought I would never get it really working.  My mate Mika (plumber/contractor) was able to plumb in the hot and cold water and pipe in the drain in half an afternoon.  I’d of made a mess at it but it’s tidy and leak free.  With all of the large equipment that I need to keep constantly c

Thx Mica!

leen for brewing this will be great.

Paul

We just had a gorgeous weekend. The sun was shining and everything looked beautiful. It was also a full moon and was the biggest and brightest moon of 2010 apparently, and we could believe it, it was massive. Paul, Isla and I got out skiing on Saturday morning, we went to a cross country ski club learn to ski class. We spent a couple of hours skiing around Bear Lake and trying to improve our technique.

Saturday night the Tougas siblings all went out for a meal at the Hotel and Seward, while Grandma and Granddad Tougas kindly stayed home to look after Isla. We had a great night and a delicious meal.

Today we have all been busy. In the morning we all went to church and then Paul spent all afternoon working with a friend to plumb in a sink in his garage for the beer brewing. Isla and went for a walk down to the boat harbor with my friend Erin and her son Noah and had a visit with them at their house. Isla enjoyed giving the ‘baby’ lots of little kisses, very cute. Couldn’t catch her doing it on camera so you will just have to imagine. Then I walked home just in time to have a visit from my friend Jessica. So Isla and I had a nice day socializing.
Here she is with Noah, you will notice a pen in her hand. She spent the visit finding pens and by the time we left she had about five in her hand!

Isla continues to love/terrorize the cat. She insists on trying to give Evie kisses and has developed a new fixation on Evie’s tail. Naturally as Evie gets annoyed about her tail being grabbed she starts swishing it which only makes it even more enticing to Isla.
This one is very fuzzy but I still thought it was cute!

We hope everyone has a fun week!
Love April, Paul and Isla xxx

Another busy week in the life of Isla (and as a result a busy week for Paul, April and Evie!). She literally doesn’t stop moving from 6am until 6pm- aside from a couple of naps, and even then she is moving around a fair amount and often ends up upside down and round the wrong way in her crib. She has also taken to talking non-stop. Unfortunately none of us are fluent in baby gibberish so we don’t actually know what she is saying most of the time.
Evie is also kept constantly on her toes and spends most of her life being chased around the house by Isla. We will have to get some video of this since it is pretty funny the games they are playing together. Here is a little photo of Isla once again trying to entice the cat down to give her cuddles.

Here she is playing peek a boo games around the laundry basket.

Isla enjoying a meal from her new plate.

We hope everyone has a great week! Love April, Paul and Isla xxx
P.S. We are very excited to have just booked a trip to Seattle for Spring Break in March!

When we left for Hawaii there was about a foot of fresh, powdery, beautiful snow. While we were gone it warmed up and rained and all the snow melted. Aside from a little fresh snow last weekend which allowed us to go out skiing, there has been no new snow. My walk to school is treacherously slippery and looks very similar to a ice skating rink. So fingers crossed we will get some fresh snow soon!

Isla has been busy this week as always. She is fascinated by all things and is particularly interested in trying to work out how things work, e.g. the computer, the printer and how to do up the clips in her high chair. Today she discovered if she pressed a certain button on the printer she could make paper come out! She has had a lot of fun practicing this!

On Saturday I reintroduced the sign for ‘more’ and Isla has picked this up and is having a lot of fun using it to ask for more food. It is hard to resist those cute little hands signing for more!

Here are a few photos from the last couple of days.
Isla is right into kissing and cuddling everything at the moment. We are all enjoying this, possibly with the exception of Evie- I don’t know that she always appreciates a 20 pound baby hurtling herself at her for a kiss! Here she is giving the pillow she got from Meme and Pops a cuddle.

Here she is with one of her favorite Christmas presents, a little pink purse that has things in it and plays music. Isla loves taking everything out and then putting it all back in again.

Finally, here she is showing off her computer literacy!

Well I finally got caught up with all the Hawaii photos so now I can start reporting on what we have been doing since we’ve been back!
Here is Isla with one of her best friends, Evie, the cat. The reaction from Isla when she first saw Evie after our trip away was gorgeous. She was so excited and was giggling, and calling out to her, trying to kiss her and cuddle her. Very cute!


Isla was also glad to see her friend Lucy and enjoyed a tea party with her in the weekend.

Isla has been having a lot of fun with blocks lately and is getting good at putting the blocks together and can stack them. Paul is glad this is something she is enjoying since he also likes playing with the blocks!

In the weekend we got to try out our new sled ($12 from the supermarket!) for Isla. Paul and I went cross country skiing and pulled her along behind us. Luckily Isla enjoyed her sledding!

Finally, Isla spent some time the other day reminiscing about our trip to Hawaii. Here she is trying on my bikini! Putting on necklaces and singlet tops is a current favorite activity for her.

Here are a last few photos from our trip so we can start putting up some more current photos! Here are Isla and Emily enjoying the beach.

Once Isla got used to the sand she loved crawling around in it and getting as sand covered as possible!

Isla spent a fair amount of time in her stroller this holiday and this was the view we often got of her looking up cheekily at us!

Here we are out for a meal with the family (Isla was here too, but no photo of her).

For our final photos from Hawaii here is our little hula girl!

Paul, Isla and I borrowed the Tougas family rental car and made a day trip to Lahina, another town along the coast. Here are a few photos from our day.
While we were there Isla got to try her first ice cream. She wasn’t sure what she thought of it at first…

Not quite sure why I look so grumpy in this photo, maybe it was because Isla was eating all my ice cream!!

But she definitely decided ice cream was delicious!!

We finally have some fresh snow falling here tonight. Very excited because we bought Isla a sled when we were in Anchorage and looking forward to putting her in it and towing her behind us when we go cross country skiing.