24th of July, A Visit from Uncle Erik

So I started a bunch of blog posts and have yet to finish them. So prepare yourself for posts that are not even close to being in time order.

Uncle Erik came down to go to EFY at BYU for a week and then spend the weekend with us for the 24th of July. We headed to Fairview for the 24th of July Parade and demolition derby. Not to many pictures. Just the highlights.

Erik and I at the Derby. Mike was judging, as he does every year, and Sophie was at Emilee's mom's house with Cambree and some other kids.

The moon coming up before the sun had set.

In between the parade and the derby, we head over to the little fair that was going on and let Sophie go on some rides. She loved the bounce house, but was not a willing subject for a good photo. All in all a great time as usual.

Softball Daddy

Mike has been playing on a Softball Team with a bunch of guys from work. Sophie and I went out to a game last week and he did AWESOME! He helped get 6 runs in between two at bats!

Sophie is so kind to share he sucker with Daddy

This is Mike hitting a double. I didn't get his triple on video but it was great too! Bases loaded.

Sophie Moments

Today Sophie dropped her potty seat on Grandma Suzie's foot. Suzie told Sophie that it hurt and Sophie said with out missing a beat, "it's ok, the doctor should fix it."

I was reading a book to Sophie and the line in the book said count your toes. So I asked Sophie to count my toes and she counted them in SPANISH! I had no idea she knew any Spanish. I guess we have been watching a lot of Dora.

Overveiw of Being 2

Holy Cow...2...Really? How did this happen? I swear it was just the other day that Sophie was born. I know that it has been almost two months since her birthday, but I feel the need for a better 2 year old update. (The professional pictures in this post were done by a friend of mine and they are so beautiful. Here is the link to all of them.)

First and foremost WE ARE POTTY TRAINED!!! About three weeks ago we decided to head for the home stretch. She has be potty trained for pooping on the potty since she was 18 months and will go pee when ever we have taken her to the potty, but now she is telling us. She has been in big girl panties for 3 weeks and of course we have had our share of accidents, but all and all she has done great. Way to go Sophie. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you.

Next is the opening of doors. About a week ago, Sophie opened her bedroom door for the first time. Since then, she can open any door including the front door. She has not figured out the deadbolt yet, but I am sure that is coming. Since Sophie is not too adventurous she has not gotten into too much trouble with her new found door opening skill, but we have to watch her more closely now.

Our little chatter box. Sophie can talk about anything. She bumped into Grandma Beaird yesterday and said, "oh, I'm sorry. It was an accident." Or when Mike was calling for her to come and eat she said in a very sweet voice, "I'm on the potty. Hold on a second, Mike." I replied back, "that is Daddy to you," and she said, "oh ok, hold on a second daddy."
She always has funny little replies and is very polite. Please and Thank You for everything.

About food she says "I can't like that" or "Mmm, Yummy" (but she will just be pretending to eat).
When she hugs you "I like you."
What'ch doin?
How's it goin?
What's that Mama?
Oh no, are you ok? You feel better.
Whenever we Skype my parents she always asks where's charlie?

Sophie is our little singer. In church Sophie will sign out loud to the hymns. She also sings all of the stories in her books while sitting on the potty. I swear she knows every song on all the shows she watches and can sing them word for word.

Lately you and daddy have been playing Dragons. He will say "Sophie, DRAGONS!" and you and daddy will run and hide under the covers of mommy and daddy's bed. You love this game and play it almost everyday. You also like to pretend that Bjorn is a Dragon.
You love both Kuma and Bjorn. (BTW we got a new dog a few months ago.) Kuma is very big, but that doesn't stop you from playing with him. The picture below is from June 19. Kuma is about two or three times this size now and will continue to grow. I think he will end up the size of a small pony. He is an Akita.

Sophie you are amazing, smart, funny, kind, observant, polite, beautiful, sweet and a million other great things! I love coming home everyday to hear everything you have to say.

Sophie's First Movie (We have lots of Firsts)

This is from July 2, 2010
Something that I have talked about in my adult life was questioning which was the first movie my parents took me to when i was little. I don't know that i know the answer to that question. The first one that I remember was seeing The Little Mermaid at the Roxy Theater in downtown Renton.

I am blogging this so that Sophie will know that the first movie we took her to at a theater was Toy Story 3. She loves popcorn so that makes going to the movies even more exciting. She sat for the first 1hr and 15mins watching the movie. The rest of the time she ran up and down the stairs and through the rows of empty seats. The theater was not very full so she had plenty of room to roam. I think she liked it. We still agree that Toy Story 2 is our favorite.

Sophie's First Hair Cut

This was actually back on July 15th, a few days before Sophie's second birthday. I had never cut her hair, but her bangs were a little out of control so I decided to finally do it. I took her to Cookie Cutters. I think the part she liked best was playing on the slide in the waiting area.



The girl was kind of in a hurry and took more off the length then I wanted, but it looks really cute. I think they are sort of on auto pilot there for kids hair cuts. Not every child needs the same cut.


Love you Baby!

Making Old Things New Again

My Friend Ciara posted on her blog shoes that she had Mod Podged fabric to and they were so cute I had to try it. These are some shoes that I was thinking about giving to DI, but now I love them again. It is was honestly really easy.







Can't wait to do some more...I think I feel a girls weekend coming!!!

How many times must I learn...

before I listen?

As we were heading to the rodeo tonight I had a thought pass through my mind saying, "you should bring a second set of clothes for Sophie and a jacket for myself." I immediately dismissed the thought by saying why would I bring a change of clothes? Sophie is nearly potty trained and we never have to worry about anything like that. And a jacket? It is 95 degrees out.

Well, as I am sure you have guessed, I should have listened. While at the rodeo Sophie puked all over herself and me. I am now the proud owner of a Day's of 47 souvenir t-shirt and my SIL Tara fortunately had brought pj's for her kids that we bummed for Sophie.

Lesson learned. Listen to what you are being told and don't think that you know better then the Lord. He has blessed us with the Gift of the Holy Ghost to help us be prepared for life's happenings.

Elmopalooza

It was Elmopalooza at our house yesterday for Sophie’s second birthday. We had Elmo everywhere, balloons, hats, cupcakes, a poster, piñata and books. It all turned out pretty cute.

Grandma Olson and Uncle Erik were in town and got to join us for the party along with lots of Beairds and Cravens.

Even Bjorn got into the action.

For a few days we had been telling Sophie that she was going to have a birthday party and she kept walking around singing the Happy Birthday song. It was funny because she kept saying “Happy Birthday Dear Grandpa” (well really “crappa”) instead of Sophie.

Sophie blew out her candles all by herself.


Sharing some cupcake with Daddy and Mommy. Such a nice girl.





To burn off the cake we went outside and jumped on the trampoline that we bought for Sophie for her birthday. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Olson for pitching in. Sophie and her cousins had a great time.

After some time on the trampoline Sophie opened her presents. She wanted to play with each gift and not move on to open the next one. She got lots of really fun toys and dress up accessories as you can see from the pictures.

She put nearly everything on and went to her room to check it out in her mirror. As she was standing there she was naming each item to herself. “That’s my purse, my glasses, my phone…” It was so cute! Sophie you are so precious!

And then there was the piñata. This piñata was well built and after each of the kids got a few turns trying to break Elmo open he was no worse for the wear.

Mia really got into it

Lauren was not to sure about the whole thing and gave the bat right back.

So I tried to help Sophie break it open, but after beating Elmo with the plastic bat still nothing. Next Mike and I helped Sophie jump up and down on him but Sophie was not a fan of that and burst into tears.

We figured that it might be traumatic beating Elmo, but thought it would only take a few hits and it would be over. After calming down Sophie by giving Elmo a few hugs, we pulled the strings on the back of the piñata poured the candy out.

It was such a great party and thank you to everyone for coming to play with us. It is always a blast to have our family around. Happy Birthday Sophie, we love you!


This was just a funny and totally cute picture of Mike and Chelsea.