How do they even know how to do that?

A few days ago I changed Sophie's diaper in the living room and out of laziness I tossed the diaper on to the coffee table to pick up later. When I tossed the diaper it rolled off the back of the coffee table and went between the wall and the table. Sophie and I then headed down stairs to play and hang out with daddy.
After being downstairs for 15 minutes or so, Sophie and I came back up. As soon as we got up the stairs, Sophie walked right over to where the diaper had landed, picked it up and walked down the hall to the laundry room and threw it away.
It just blows my mind. Not once have Mike or I shown her how to do that or even really talked about it. Since she typically goes on the potty, we hardly ever even use that garbage for diapers.
So today I handed her a diaper to see what she would do and sure enough she marches it straight to that garbage. Sophie, you are AWESOME!

Sophie now likes the rocking horse!

My parents saw this cute rocking horse at Costco that they felt Sophie needed. So when they came to visit last week my mom took Sophie it to go get one. Well Sophie was terrified of it. She didn't want anything to do with it. She wouldn't come within three feet of it. My mom almost didn't buy it because Sophie was so scared. But my mom decided that Sophie would probably get used to it and so they got it.
Well over the next week Sophie still did not want anything to do with it. I sat on the horse and we gave it loves and kisses. We even put stuff animals and Bjorn on it, but she was still freaked out. So we just tucked it in to the corner and hoped that she would come around.
Well today we had a breakthrough. She actually touched it and then she sat on it!!! Check out this video of her riding her horsey

Country Lane

We love living in the country especially because we are only five minute from real shopping. I also love that we live on Country Lane, it really adds to the whole country living thing. This is a picture from our house to the field at the end of the street and the one below is from the field looking back at our house. It almost looks like we have a yard, but really that is just our neighbors grass.
Maybe someday!


As you can see a bit in the first picture, the sun was red that day. It is hard to get a good shot of it, but here is one. It was much more red then what this picture reflects.

We went over to the field to get a better look at the red sun and to visit one of the horses that was near the fence.


Such a cute little family!

Olson Family Labor Day Visit

My parents and both of my brothers came to visit us over Labor Day weekend. It was really fun. My mom got here Wednesday night, my dad and Erik arrived Friday evening and Scott came later that night. We wanted to do something different because we had done most of the usual Salt Lake touristy things. We decided to make the 4 hour drive to Moab. We left Saturday morning and headed out on our road trip to Price. Price is a small town in Central Utah that has the Collage of Eastern Utah's Prehistoric Museum.


After visiting I would use the term "museum" loosely, but it was still pretty cool. There was a little kids play area that we all enjoyed. I mean that Sophie really liked.



After spending some time at the museum, we got lunch and then putted around town a bit before heading to and even smaller town Green River. We got to our hotel and all went swimming. Sophie had a good time and seemed to really like the water, especially the hot tub. After the swim we all cleaned up and when to dinner at one of the only two restaurants in the whole town.

The next morning we headed out early because we still had an hour drive to Arches National Park. We decided to head to the Delicate Arch hike first becasue it was going to be the most challenging of all the arches that we wanted to see. It might only be 1 1/2 miles but it is hot, a high elevation and did I mention hot? While you are hiking it seems like it might not be worth it, but once you reach the arch you know why you did it. We had such a great time at Arches and was so glad that we decided to go there.


The next day was Monday and Mike had to work (Labor Day was his holiday to work) so the rest of us head to Antelope Island. I had only been there once before when Scott visited a year or so ago, but not everything was open when we went before, so we got to see some new stuff this time. Here are some shots from the island. In case you are wondering where there are island in Utah, it is in the Great Salt Lake.




On the island there is a little ranch with the home where the ranch hands lived since the island was modernly inhabited. It was neat to see how they got by on the island with so little modern technologies. I mean what did they do with out the internet? The pictures below are my parents trying to rope "the bulls." I don't think that they would make very good cowboys.

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.