Saturday in the Park

Mike, Sophie, Bjorn and I ventured out to the park on Saturday to get out and let Bjorn and Sophie run around. Sophie was a little scared to get on the sand in the playground area, but as long as I was holding her hand, she pushed on. When Sophie and I went down the slide, we got some serious static. Mike got these great shots of my hair going crazy.

It was fun to let Sophie just walk around and watch her discover.


This shot of Sophie and Mike is my favorite. Mike you are such a great daddy and husband. I love you so much and I know Sophie does too!

Sophie's is Now Over 13 Months

I like to say that Sophie is 13 months and not to say that she is 1. Saying she is 1 makes her seem too old and I am not ready for that yet. She is doing so many things and talking non-stop. Sophie has recently discovered her love of shoes.

She has always liked to play with everyone's shoes, but now that she has a few dozen pairs of her own shoes, so her love for them has grown. (Just a note. All of the dozens of pairs of shoes have all been hand-me-downs from family. I have not had to purchase any of them.) One of my favorite things is that she will go and get a pair of shoes from her room and bring them to you for you to put on her. Sophie has also started to carry bags around like purses and likes to have her hair done. I love it all. I just eat it up that she is so girly.

Sophie continues to do well with potty training and I am so sure that when she is older she will appreciate that I blog about her learning to go potty. (Sophie, when you become a mommy you will understand.) She poops and pees on the potty a few times a day everyday. We decided to buy her a potty seat because she is so little that she can't get on and off the big potty by herself.

It seemed like a good idea until we realized that we were going to have to clean it all the time. Needless to say, we just mostly help her on and off the big potty.
Sophie is learning to feed herself, but still will let us help her from time to time. She has learned how to give a high-five and kissies (open mouth baby slobber kiss of course). She is walking and running everywhere and is gaining more and more balance everyday. She has also learned how to get what she wants by being cute. If you have to tell her no, so will smile at you and then try it whatever it was again. She is still our good eater and will eat just about anything we give her. Unfortunately she has figured out if you are eating a cookie and you have given her a banana, she wants the cookie.

Sophie is a talker. She will jabber at you until she is blue in the face. I love to listen and pretend that I have any idea what she is talking about. There are a few words that we can understand, but for the most part it is just a foreign language.
Sophie, mommy and daddy love you so much! Even though you are growing up, you will always be out little baby!

LAGOON DAY!

Last week Mike and I got to go to Lagoon with some of our nieces and nephews, Mike's sister Amiee and Sister in Law Juli. It was really a fun day. It wasn't too hot and the lines were fairly short. We only had to wait 20 minutes or so in the longest lines. Here are just a few shots from the day.

Mitchell and Westen (and Mike in the background)

Chelsea and Ethan

Nathan and Nyan

Emma Jane

This next picture is one that I took after Aimee and I got off the ride and everyone else stayed on. So the just of it is that we got on the ride and I didn't work right and they needed to run it again to reset it. Aimee and I decided that once was enough and so we hopped off and let everyone else ride again. Emma and Mitchell were on our side.

We just had a great time and it is so fun doing things with the kids now that they are getting older and can do so much more. We love you all!

Erik and the Golden Spike

A few weeks ago, my brother Erik came down to visit and to attend the LDS program Especially for Youth at the University of Utah. After the week at the U he came and spent a few days with us. On one of the days, Erik, Sophie and I decided to go to the Golden Spike Historical Site. It was actually cooler then I thought it was going to be (and also a bit further away then I thought).

There was a little hallway museum with a time line of the project of the transcontinental railroad. I thought they did a great job with it considering that they had very little space. This is a shot of one side of the "museum."

Since we went on a Saturday, we got to see volunteers do a reenactment the ceremony of the Golden Spike.

They talked about how the ceremony was delayed by two days because one of the railroad companies had not paid their workers and they wanted their money before they would take the railway owners to the ceremony. It took two days to have the money wired and pay the workers. In the mean time, people had traveled for days to come to the ceremony and had to wait around for the other train to arrive. They said can you imagine having children with you and waiting around for a few extra days! Sophie loses interest after a few minutes let alone a few days.
We also had brought a picnic lunch which turned out to be a really good thing because there was no food within 30 miles of the historical site. I truly is in the middle of nowhere.


Thanks for coming to visit Erik! It was really fun to have you. See you in a week when you come again.

Bedroom Decor

Now that we are a bit more settled in our place, I am starting to work on the room decor. We bought our first bedroom set when we bought the house and WE HAVE NIGHTSTANDS!!! We have never had real nightstands and I am excited about it.
I wanted to get lamps for our nightstand and we found these great ones at Ikea for only $10 each. I love them!

I also was finally able to hang the pictures we had above the bed. I think that it is turning out nice so far. We still have some floating shelves to hang and then those will need some accessories.

Bjorn Sleeping

It is hard to hear in this video, but this is something that is hard to capture. When Bjorn is sleeping he sometime makes a noise that sounds like dripping water. You can't really hear it in this clip, but you can see him move like he has the hiccups.

Update on the Potty Training

So in the last week Sophie has peed and pooped on the potty everyday. Yesterday she went on the potty 6 times and stayed dry during her afternoon nap. From the time she got up from her evening nap to when I changed her this morning she kept her diaper dry. We are just putting her on the potty every couple of hours and she totally has figured out what to do. It is really cute because she will smile when she starts to pee. Maybe by 18 months she will have it down. We will see.

Early Potty Training

Mike and I have always talked about wanting to potty train our kids early. Having never tried to potty train a child we just figured that we would start trying and see how it works out. I know that Sophie just turned one, but we thought why not now. We have been making a bit of an effort just before bath time and before and after naps. We are only on day two (of what will probably be a year journey) and Sophie has already pooped and peed on the potty and has stayed dry during her afternoon nap. I know that she doesn't really understand what it happening yet, but she likes to sit on the potty and her body is learning what to do when she is there.