Happy Halloween

Sophie's pony-tail today with a cute headband my friend makes. I love how long her hair is!



Mmm pretzels and carrots...



We made a sporatic trip to Wyoming to visit Kale's grandparents. It's rare that we have the same days off (let alone the entire weekend) so we thought we better take advantage. Sophie did great on the car ride. She had some major stranger danger but it's still fun to have his grandparents see the baby!

MMMM sweet nectar! (don't worry it's not open)

Sophie is getting to be such a big girl! I love her so much. I wish life had a DVR button to pause, rewind, (and sometimes fastforward) because it seems like she is just growing up too fast. She is so sweet and I just love being around her. She's finally getting over her cold and has been very pleasant lately!

I didn't get very good Halloween pictures this year. Sophie was a lady bug! We really only wore her costume to a little church function. It was still fun to dress her up! She was darling, thanks Crystal for letting us borrow such a cute costume!

My cousin was induced on Oct 23. Her husband is overseas so I thought it would be a great opportunity to be a support during her labor. She made labor look super easy and had a BIG beautiful baby. I recommended my midwife to her and so that was just a cherry on top (being able to see my midwife again). My midwife is wonderful and I just love her.

Aaron

We were at Carter's exchanging something we got from Sophie's birthday and she grabbed this little doll. I have been looking for the perfect doll... I wanted one that was completely soft but had no luck finding one anywhere! This is a smaller one, but it's the perfect size for Sophie right now and she LOVES it. She turns into such a maternal baby and pats and hugs her dollie. One of her favorite things to do is swing with the doll.

Halloween party tonight, pictures to come!

Updates on the Bettolo Fam!

Hi! I'm just lounging on my couch right now watching TV. I thought I'd blog. Sophie is sick. Poor baby. It could be teeth (she's been grinding them since yesterday) but I think she's got a little cold. Some low-grade fevers and nosey-nose stuff. Poor girl! She keeps coughing because of the drainage. I must say that my husband paid me a nice compliment today. Someone from the neighborhood came over to visit. I was inside with the baby but heard him say: "I am so glad my wife is a nurse. I wouldn't know what to do and would probably be taking the baby to the doctor but my wife is so good. She's been giving her medicine, has the humidifier out, has her bed elevated, and has been so calm about it. I am so grateful she is a nurse and knows what to do and is taking such good care of our daughter." It was such a nice thing to hear. My love language is definitely words of affirmation so things like that mean so much!

A dear nurse I work with gave me her baby monitor. It has been so nice. Sophie's room is on the top floor and our family area is on the third floor so I always had a hard time hearing her. It has made it so nice. I was able to take the monitor outside with me today to work in the yard. I love our yard! It's been on the cold side, but overall the weather has been nice and we've spent a lot of time outside. Sophie LOVES the tramp. She loves it when I hold her and sit with her and Kale jumps around us and bounces us. She likes to also be cradled while I jump really high. It's way funny to see her. She could spend hours out there! She used to hate the feel of the grass, but I think she's liking it now. She tolerates it at least. A few days ago we were out there and she was trying to chase after a little froggy. It was so funny. We also have seen a few snakes (ew). I love having my window open at night. There is a pesky barking dog a few houses down and next door, but other than that I love the noises. The birds and bugs just sing! I love the wetland area for that reason.

Kale and I have hit a wall lately with classes. I have never been great at math so my class is getting a bit more technical. Kale has night classes three times a week... but they follow a ten hour shift that starts at 6am so he's usually exhausted. He's working 6 days a week between two jobs. Poor Fella. Sometimes I think I should be working more to offset everything so he can cut back, but I love being home with Sophs, and Kale has said he would rather be working than parenting! He does a great job though, he'd be wonderful. I just hate the idea of working full-time! Kale is so good with Sophie. On my days off he takes such good care of her. She has been eating so much better. Kale can get her to eat much better than I can. She's kind of a diva when I try to feed her haha! She grabs at the spoon, gets mad and throws her sippy at me, and refuses to eat. Kale is amazing though; He gets her to eat her veggies and can get her to eat 4oz. Sophie has started to pull up on things. She can't quite get her booty all the way up but she tries. She loves to stand and has for months and months but has no interest in taking any steps! She is a stubborn girl. She doesn't crawl but instead she scoots around on her butt. I don't mind her lack of mobility though, I'll be honest!

We are liking our house. We've had a few obsticles that suck, but it's nice having extra space. I still have cabinents that are completely empty. I'm slowly filling them up. Today I found the cutest little 1L deep fryer at Target. It was only 24 bucks and I couldn't pass it up. We made french fries tonight and they were delicious. I got front-loading washer/dryer appliances when we moved in. It was my little splurge. I love them, they ALMOST make laundry fun again! It's been a bit tricky with my cloth dipes because they use so little water I have to do a couple cycles to get them clean. I actually have my old washer and am probably going to get it hooked up so I can go back to using it. Our laundry room has so much space, it's wonderful. We got a deep freezer. I LOVE it. It's a midsized one but I love having that extra space to help build my food storage. I wish I had more experience with what I can and can't freeze though. There have been some great caselot sales lately. Also, something new to us, is recycling. Our city does it. I haven't quite figured out the best way to organize recycling and keep it from the regular trash. Sometimes I can't find the little 1 or 2 recycling thing on packaging and stuff so it makes it hard and definitely takes up more time. I hope I can find a good system and get good at it. I still feel like I have so much to do. Everything is moved in. I still need to 'organize' things though. Things are just kinda put into closets and stuff. I need to go through my shed, organize drawers and closets better, and get a little more organized in the pantry and kitchen cabinents. If only there were more hours in the day.

Hmm.... what else.... I love my job. Everyone I work with is fantastic. I love the patient demographic and the experience I get. It's so neat to have such a wide scope of diagnoses too. I have learned so much. Wiping baby bums is SO much easier than adult bums. My mom had a little sewing machine that was in a rental house she bought last year that she gave me. I can't wait to use it. I found some cute homemade Christmas gifts that I can't wait to try. I took several sewing classes in Jr high so lets hope it comes back to me and I can be crafty.

My brother has been home from the mission for a few weeks now. He's got the post mission blues. I feel bad, it must be so hard to make that night and day switch. I heard the college dissolved the student wards?! Boo! I am going to talk him into signing up for some institute classes. I am also going to make him go biking with me or something. But c'mon... let's face it, I'm probably pretty lame to hang out with. If anyone has a sweet girl in mind that he could do a group date with, or know of any fun activities, please let me know!

Now, for the picture part of my post:

My mom found a teeny snake and was letting Sophie check it out (ew)

Sophie loves playing in the sink. It's the only way I get her to hold still while doing her hair. Now she knows how to turn it on though on her own, so it gets pretty messy.

I love my beautiful baby! She looks like such a big girl lately. I miss her being a teeny baby that I can snuggle. She is just like a little person now. She is so sweet!

Loves the tramp (this is mid-jump)

Made us some baby-legs. Sophie's thighs are so fat though.

Jeff's Home and Sophie's First Birthday!

Jeff is home from Australia! We went to the airport to get him. It was funny because another family was there picking up a missionary also and when my brother and the other missionary came down the escalator the other mom like fell to the floor and started to scream and wallor. I was so distracted watching, I thought it was hilarious! Sophie was a total grump. I don't think she likes big crowds and lots of noise. She was so fussy (and in turn-so was I)

After we went to eat at Chuck A Rama. It's one of Jeff's favorites. I can't quite eat like I used too... after a couple plates I'm full. We have this joke that we always undo a button and get another plate. Sophie's pants were a little tight and we undid her button, haha

Our new house has a really neat yard. Most of the day and especially in the morning it sounds like one of those nature sounds CDs. There are frogs, fuzzy caterpillars, and snakes (ew I don't like that part so much). My mom was over and caught a small one and Sophie was checking it out.

Sophie had her 1 year checkup. She is such a big girl! She was 22lbs 2 oz (68th percentile) and 31 inches long (96 percentile). Sophie has been pretty grumpy/fussy this week. Her bum bum issues are getting a little better now but did get worse when we tried a slow introduction of milk again so the doctor gave us some enfagrow toddler formula samples to get us through two weeks until we're going to try milk again. We're continuing the miralax so hopefully that will help when we try again in a few days. They want me to introduce 1oz every few days. She got 5 shots, poor baby!

This was taken on Sophie's Birthday! I spent most of the day cleaning. Kale was home and I rarely have another body to watch Sophie while I unpack. The day was SOOO productive. I was able to unpack and clean the rest of the garage. This is a picture of Sophie playing with her new birthday toys! I am proud to say that I got all of Sophie's toys at the DI! She got a star stacking toy, a pull toy with lots of little blocks, and a wooden puzzle toy. She is so dang sweet. Seeing this picture makes me smile.

Today we had a birthday party for Sophie! I have felt slightly stressed and very busy all week preparing. I didn't think about it being conference weekend. A lot of people couldn't come, but it was still fun!

This is before the party. I made the banner with the help of a nice friend's diecuting! It was a cupcake theme. I made her birthday cards too. It's fun to make things like that, especially when it's for something special. Sophie was pretty grumpy today. She woke up really unhappy after her nap, poor girl. She was very clingy to me and just seems like she's having a hard week. I hope next week is better. I can focus on her and not worry about unpacking, cleaning , ect...

She's got curlers in. Her hair is SO long now they barely work ha.

Some of our party guests!

We had a bubble machine, so fun!

Sophie's favorite color is purple!

Cupcake theme party

A lady in my old ward has a cupcake business (Whimsy Cupcakes). We were lucky enough to be her husband's home teachees so we got some cupcakes here and there, and they were DELICIOUS! Not only do they look great but they taste so wonderful. We got pink lemonade flavor... the cupcakes are so soft and moist. The frosting is the perfect balance of sweetness! They went super fast (shoulda ordered more) and I had to hurry and snap a picture quickly!

Opening presents

Whimsy made a JUMBO cupcake for Sophie. I died laughing... I thought for sure she'd really go after it when we put it in front of her. She was so dainty about it! She'd poke her finger in the frosting and taste it. Finally after a few tastes she went in for it with both hands.

She made more of a mess than what she actually ate, but it was so fun to watch her!

Sophie and her daddy!

After being cleaned up we went back outside to swing (she loves swinging and jumping on the tramp!!!)

Overall it was a great birthday. It's such a bittersweet feeling. It actually makes me really sad to think that a whole year has gone by. Even though I know I have many more great years to spend with Sophie, it's just sad to see how fast time flies! She is such a big girl. She is a pretty good sleeper. She never goes down easily but she sleeps through the night. She is a very picky eater. She only eats: banana, applesauce, and pear baby food puree, toast, lil munchers and yogurt bites, yogurt, and she is a great water drinker. She doesn't crawl, pull up on things, or walk. We get asked those things a lot. She's on her own pace: I really think it comes down to being stubborn/lazy. Her newest, not so desirable habit, is throwing temper tantrums. At home I don't mind, I can remove her from the situation and let her 'voice' her unhappiness. In public is a little different because people look at you so critically. If I don't give her something, let her touch/hold something, or even just walk away from something, she does a high-pitched shrill shrieking. Sometimes she'll even pinch/hit me! Oh my goodness, that baby girl of mine! I hope it's a phase. She's such a good baby and it's just out of character for her. I just take it as her way of communicating since she can't talk yet.

She's become quite the babble-er. She love to rock back and forth too. She's gotten to be a pro at the sippy cups. We started using some spill-able toddler water bottles. Once in a while she gets pretty soaked. Speaking of soaked, she LOVES to sit in the bathroom with her legs in the sink! She knows how to turn the faucet off and on, and likes to splash and spray stuff. She loves baths, and swimming. We went to the Marshall White Center this week and she smiled almost the whole time! She is really good at kicking and splashing. I dunked her a few times, but it always makes me nervous! Sophie's has a really cute birth mark on her left chubby thigh. Her hemangioma is still there. The first year is a rapid growth phase, but they usually start to get smaller and usually disappear by the time the baby is 5.

We're happy to be in our new house! We had another little bump in the road. The fridge's water supply was turned off. When we moved in we turned it back on. Little did we know the sellers didn't disclose that the water supply has a leak! The entire floor around the fridge and the ceiling below and downstairs wood flooring is ruined. Luckily we don't have to pay for it, but it's still not fun! They're going to fix it this week. We are going to paint plum purple in our living room, and green in Sophie's room. We have been doing some work in the yard too... pulling weeds and changing around some landscaping. It will be nice when there are no more projects :) Ha like that will even happen huh?! I hope I will have more time to blog: it's my journal and my own little therapy. Thanks to everyone who reads :)