Christmas 2012

Christmas was different this year.  I had to work A LOT...  pretty much every day from Friday until Wednesday after Christmas.  I had to do my 'fair share' of hours in both departments (Peds and ER).  We celebrated Christmas with Kale's family on the Saturday before.  It worked out really good (I was able to get part of my shift at work covered).  We had a delicious dinner at Outback and then headed to Uncle Justin's house.  It's so nice!  The girls loved their slippery floor and were running all over the place.  We did Christmas there.  It was wild!  We just said go and wrapping paper went flying.  Sophie got spoiled and got some really cute things!  

Aunt Felicia and Uncle Justin had gingerbread houses for the girls to decorate.  Sophie loved hanging out with the family and was really friendly!

I worked a grave on Christmas Eve, so our Christmas morning was only half the fun.  Santa brought Sophie a new kitchen, lots of new food and dishes, and a shopping cart.  Sophie was so excited.  She loves that the kitchen makes sounds.  

Since I had to be to work we saved our family presents until after, so we just went through our Christmas stockings.  Kale got some new glasses for his brand new eyes (Thank you Lasik!)

I left for work and was anxious to get back.  When I got back we went to my family's house to have Christmas there.  Sophie loves being at her Grandma's house and was really excited to see her!  We got spoiled - it was so fun.  My mom got me a new iPhone and I was SO excited!!!  So also made Sophie and I matching church outfits.  She made Sophie this awesome dinosaur quilt (Sophie LOVES dinosaurs).  Sophie loved it and laid it out to look at it before lounging on it the rest of the night.  Thank you so much Mom!

When we got home, we did presents at our house.  Sophie's favorites were her new princess accessories and a broom for her new kitchen.  She is such a big girl!  She loved opening presents and said Thank you and was so excited for them.  It's really what makes Christmas fun.

Here is some of my new loot.  Thanks Kale!

And Kale...  he's got a lot of new sports outfits.  He also got Rosetta Stone and is excited to try to learn Spanish as it would be very helpful with his job.

My cousin gave Sophie this little Graco set for her dolls.  It's so cute!  The swing actually swings and plays music, I can't believe how darling it is!

We had a good Christmas and are so blessed.  How was yours?

Hogle Zoo

THE ZOO!  I was babysitting for a friend from work and we wanted to do something fun with the kiddos.  We went with my cousin too.  It was a long drive there, it was hot, and the zoo was particularly busy.  We tried to make the best of it.  Sophie loved being in the reptile building.    

There was so many fun animals to see.  Sophie and her little pal loved riding in the wagon and checking out all the animals!  There was a new cute little giraffe too.

Sophie wanted a treat so we got an ice cream and she loved it.  We saw the rhinos, the elephants, and the new Rocky Shores area.  It was fun... it was short and sweet and back to the car for the LONG ride home.  

Home Depot!

We went to the Home Depot Kids Project Activity on Saturday.  We did a bunch of these last spring but the Summer has been so busy!  We were glad everyone had a day off to go together!  It was all about Fire Safety and we built a little firetruck.  Sophie got a little toolset for her birthday but using real tools was way more fun!

Sophie has the best Grandma that is so patient and kind.  She loves doing stuff like this!

Daddy helped too.  She got to wear her little Home Depot Apron and we got another pin to add to it showing what projects she's done!

One of the best parts of her outings with her Grandma to Home depot is getting to pick a treat!!!!

Treehouse Children's Museum

We went to the treehouse museum today.  It was a lot of fun.  Sophie had a great time.

Her favorite spot is the farm area and the kitchen area.  She gets quite possessive though whenever anyone else comes in to play.  Luckily it wasn't very busy so we didn't have to worry about it today.  She loved going through all the food and playing with the dress up clothes there.  

She liked being a 'fireman' too and sitting in the back of the little truck.

So... normally the music area makes Sophie really grumpy and really anxious because it can get chaotic.  Today was actually the first day she's actually every tolerated being in there and actually playing with the musical instruments!  

This picture sums up Sophie when she's mad.  She has such a hard time with sharing things with others...

4 Generation Pictures

My Grandpa thinks the world of Sophie.  She makes him so happy and he loves seeing her.  She has always had a special bond with him, too.  We did some 4-generation pictures when she was really small, but my Grandpa is always asking about doing another 4-generation picture with her.  We finally got the chance to do a picture.  It was so much fun to take them and I know Grandpa will just love them.  

Sophie loves being at my Grandpa's house.  He stocks his freezer with her favorite popsicles!  He always looks forward to seeing her and she makes him so happy.  We just love visiting him and are so lucky he is still around to hang out.

Happy Birthday Sophie

We had Sophie's 3 year appointment today!  It was at 230 and I had to wake her up from her nap so she was a bit grumpy.  We had to wait a bit before we were seen but the pediatrician is wonderful and so kind.  She spent a lot of time with us and we love how thorough and smart she is.  While we were waiting she was really enjoying playing with the doctor kit.
Her stats:
Height: 38.5 inches (85th percentile)
Weight: 31 lbs (58th percentile)
She is such a big girl and so much fun to be around.  After her appointment we just spent the day hanging out.  We went to My Grandpa's house that night to open family presents and visit.  He just loves her!  I can't believe my baby Sophie is already 3 years old!  Happy Birthday Sophie!

Some things about Sophie:
Her favorite animal is a puppy.  She loves to read her caterpillar book and likes to keep it in her bed with her at night.  She likes the color pink best.  Her favorite foods are oatmeal, pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, apple slices, and any sort of juice.  She likes to play with her dinosaurs, build towers with her legos, kick the ball around, jump on the tramp and swing outside, watch TV, and play in her kitchen.  She also likes to read books and play with her dolls.  She loves junk food and likes chips, french fries, and any candy she can get her hands on!  She loves to count her numbers up and back down.  She knows up to 15 in Spanish too.  She also likes to name colors and shapes and can name about 15 different shapes.  Her favorite restaurant is Jeremiah's and we eat breakfast there about once a month.  She eats so good and just LOVES it.  She loves seeing herself in mirrors.  She likes to sing "popcorn popping" and sings along to lots of songs from Yo Gabba Gabba, Elmo, and some church songs.  She doesn't like anyone else to sing with her though and gets mad.  Her favorite activities would be going to the park, going to the dinosaur park, the kangaroo zoo, and swimming.  She likes to dance around and is really full of energy.

Our typical day would be waking up around 8am and resting in bed with me or hanging out on the couch.  We usually have some breakfast and then watch some shows on TV.  Later we usually go play upstairs in the playroom with Sophie's kitchen.  Sometimes we'll run an errand.  She usually takes a nap between 1-2 and sleeps a few hours.  We have lunch when she wakes up and play until Daddy gets home from work.  We hang out more and usually have dinner, a bath, and get ready for bed.  Our bedtime routine consists of brushing our teeth, getting in our PJs, and playing with puzzles in her room. Then we rock in the glider and read a book.  If we would let her, she would take a billion different toys into her bed with her so we usually pick a few.  Lately it's been a doll, a zhu zhu pet, a handful of books, and a stuffed animal.  It used to be a set of flash cards, books, and a foam puzzle.  She is so silly!

Sophie gets grumpy a lot and as my cousin pointed out she still does cry quite a bit over things.  She gets sad when anyone leaves.  She also has a hard time transitioning from one thing to another sometimes.  She likes to be independent and do things all by herself.  She has the funniest grumpy faces and I just have to laugh sometimes.

She is so sweet and loves hugs and kisses.  She likes to dance and play.  She is such a fun little personality and I love being with her.  She has a lot to say and when she gets excited it sounds like she speaks a different language!  She is so smart and loves to color, look at books, do puzzles, and point out different objects throughout the day.  She likes being outside and espeically has liked riding the 4-wheeler this summer.  We have had a great summer and a great three years!  She is such a blessing and we are so lucky to have her in our family and in my life!

Sophie's Dinosaur Birthday Party

Sophie's birthday fell on a Monday this year so we had her party on the Saturday before (September 29).  It was a lot of fun and we had been planning it for a few months!  We had a dinosaur theme and some bounce-houses.  We kept Sophs inside until about an hour before and when we took her out she was SO EXCITED to see everything all set up!  She loves the Kangaroo Zoo and so I knew she would love having bounce houses.

I loved finding cute dinosaur themed foods.  We had "Tree Trunks" (brownies cut like a tree trunk), Dino Claws (Bugles filled with peanut butter and dipped into green chocolate), Dinosaur track cookies (sugar cookies with little dino footprints in them), Dino Dig Jellies (Layered Jello with a little dino bone in the layers), Dino Twigs (Pretzel sticks), Fruit-A-Saurus (fruit chunks), Molten Lava Cakes (chocolate cupcakes with red lava coming out), and Dino droppings (no-bake granola balls).

It was fun to have everything to make a dinosaur desert bar; I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the food table.  We made it easy on me and just ordered some pizzas for everyone.  We didn't have a cake but had some frosted cupcakes with the cutest little dinosaur cupcake liners.

We loved having our friends over to the party and it was so much fun to see everyone.  Sophie was so happy the whole time and loved all the action!  She loves dinosaurs and this was the perfect party theme for her this year!

We have such cute Grandma's!  We had dinosaur masks for everyone.  I also (what was I thinking) made a billion Dinosaur feet for everyone too!

 I even made some big feet for the big kids!

We had a few different activities for her party.  We had a fun bounce house and a bounce-house slide for the kids.  It was fun to see everyone play and all the energy the kids had!  It was great weather.

One of the big hits was the "Dinosaur Dig"  I had little shovels, rakes, buckets, and brushes and the kids were able to dig around for dinosaurs!  I think this was probably a favorite activity.

We have such sweet friends and neighbors.  Thank you everyone for coming!  It was a blast!

We had a "Build your Own Dinosaur" craft table with lots of paper dinosaurs, glitter glue, and embellishments for everyone's dinosaur.  Sophie loved going around checking everything out and was quite the social butterfly.  I loved it.

We also had a dinosaur volcano!  I was going to do the kind that explodes but thought it mights not be a great idea with so many little ones, so we did a more gentle volcano!  Preston and Ro were the volcano guys!  We did two... it as fun to watch. 

Sophie was so blessed and so lucky to get so many cool birthday gifts.  Thank you again to everyone who came and made this birthday special!  

We love you Sophie!  Happy Third Birthday!

Date Night: Ghost Tour

Our date night this month was from a groupon I got back in February.  It was for a ghost tour in Salt Lake City.  We were actually running late and weren't sure if we would even make it in time - especially because parking in Salt Lake can be difficult.  We left right when Kale got home and met our friends, Drew and Mary in Salt Lake.  We got on the tour bus and were trying not to laugh too much at our very good actors (aka tour guides).

I will say that this date night was very different and so it was fun.  The tour was pretty cheesy and I felt that the guides kept making Jabs at "Mormons" throughout the tour.  Of course, we were the only LDS members (I can only assume) and everyone else would laugh or have something else to say - and sometimes the things they were saying were more of a stereotype instead of factual.  I ALMOST said something about it but didn't.  So besides that kind of bothering me, the tour was really fun.  It would drive to different locations and we'd get out and walk around the building (unfortunately we couldn't really go inside anywhere).  The tour guides would tell us stories about the buildings and how they were haunted, ect.  After the tour Drew and Mary treated us to a caramel apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and it was DELICIOUS!  Thank you guys!

September Photo Check-In

We are still waiting to do two different fun dates!  Where does time go... why does it seem that Fall/Winter has so much more time to do things?  At least it's been a really fun summer.

Sophie loves to paint and color.  That is my go-to activity when I'm also working on a project.  She is such a sweet girl.

In August we had her cousins come over and have a sleepover.  It was a big hit and everyone had so much fun.  We played at the park, visited the dinosaur park, and went swimming. 

The girls were such great helpers and Sophie was entertained the entire time.  She is getting so big.  She loves to sing and play and be around other kids.

Here is a link to a super-cute video of them on the tire swing:

http://youtu.be/AMZXOA5llqw

Sophie loves the pool in North Ogden and was excited to show the cousins how much fun it was!  

She was cracking me up because she kept hugging Eva!  

Sophie my little fish.

Later in August we had a family wedding in Rock Springs.  It was neat to see all the family together and we got to meet some extended family visiting from France (they only spoke French!).  Sophie really warmed up to her Grandpa too!  It was so much fun.  I had to work early the next day so we had to leave pretty early but I hear the party really got started once we left.

At the park where the wedding was held, there was a big playground.  It was for older kids but Sophie got help from her Daddy and cousins to get up and go on the slide.

At the end of August we went to Lagoon to celebrate a birthday.  Sophie hadn't been much this summer (last year we had season passes) so she was loving it!  We got to go on a ton of rides and she was tall enough to go on more rides than last summer.  They had a blast.

We talked Grandpa Mark into watching the three girls so we could go on some 'big kid' rides.  He was regretting it when he realized how sick he was!  Poor fella.  At least the girls had fun.  

Earlier in the summer we went with our Friend Emery to the splash pad.  It was fun but Sophie doesn't stay entertained as long as I wish she would there.

How lucky are we to have so many fun parks around!  Sophie is such a big girl and this summer she can swing on a big-kid swing and hold on tight!  She is growing up so fast.

She's got a few favorite foods: popcorn, "treats," chips, and ice cream!  This girl loves Ice Cream!

She is so sweet.  We play outside.  I was spraying out the garage and she brought me this bouquet of flowers.  I laughed!

She loves talking to her Bettolo Grandparents on Face-time.  She thinks its so cool!