Happy birthday Sophi!!

Well it's taken me almost a week, but here is the run-down of Sophi's 1st birthday!

First thing when she woke up, she got to have some of her gifts from Mommy and Daddy. She loves her new wagon!



We then headed off to Tot Spot (our church's playgroup). She had fun and her favorite part was getting the green balloon, which she calls "ball." (Pretty much anything round is a "ball" :) )

After having some lunch, we drove to Chandler to see my first friend, Allison, who was in town from Nebraska. She took our pictures over the summer and we had another photo shoot at her Grandparent's house. Once we get those pics in a couple weeks, I'll post some. The best shots (I predict) will be when we gave Sophi a cupcake in her diaper. It was so cute and funny!

Both Deric and I were so surprised during the day at Sophi's behavior. She slept the 45min. over to Chandler and that was it. She was so happy and didn't fuss at all!! It made it easy for pictures and for us to sit and visit with Allison.

Around 5pm we headed to meet my family for dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. Deric and I chose Logan's because it was the same restaurant we ate at the night before Sophi was born. We felt like we had to bring her back for some memories. (Although it was a different location, but same food). Sophi enjoyed eating bread (her current fav), carrots, chicken, and some mac 'n cheese.

With Gammy (the name my mom wanted to be called)

Practicing her writing with Grandpa

Uncle Josh (or Uncle Jim like he wants to be called-don't know why! ;) )

With Uncle Justin (Soon to be a married man!! )

After dinner we all saved room and headed for frozen yogurt. Reading Nienie's blog, she mentioned this new place Yodipity. Since it was right across the street, I had to try it. It was good. There were so many choices for toppings, I had a hard time choosing. In the end, I got vanilla, cakebatter, snickerdoodle, topped with cookie dough and hot fudge. Weird combo. The snickerdoodle was gross, but the rest was good.

Here is Sophi eating some of Grandpa's banana yogurt. She thought it was pretty good!

I can't believe Sophi is 1!
Daddy and his baby girl!

After yogurt we headed home. It was a fun and busy day! Sophi rode her wagon to her bedroom. We think she'd say it was a fabulous day! :)

I'll post about her party and other updates later.. time to get out of these pjs!

It's beginning to look a lot like Disney!!

Last Friday I volunteered at Glencroft Retirement Community's Annual Quilt Auction. The volunteer service was part of Disney's "Give a day, Get a day." It was funny to see the majority of the volunteers had the same "I'm a Disney Volunteer" badge on.
I was really fun working at the Quilted Cottage booth. Because it is a retirement community, there was obviously a lot of elderly people coming and going. There was a also a lot of families there too. I ran into my old college roommate and another family from my church-totally random. One couple that was volunteering with me, plan on going to Disneyland, then taking a 32 day cruise from Thailand to Alaska! CRAZY!
The best part of my night was when a man dressed in a vest, bowl hat, and small, round glasses came to the booth and bought a pair of scissors. He proceeded to tell me and the other volunteer that he loves old things. "That's why I'm buying these scissors. They look old." He also said, "I love the 1890's. It is a great time period."
After he left our table, we got a good chuckle. It was very obvious he loved the 1890's, he didn't need to tell us. He was sure proud of those "old" looking scissors.
My booth was inside a big white tent. At 7pm, the band started playing so we weren't as busy. It was so cute to see over 100 elderly people singing lyrics to songs I've never heard. (It reminded me of the music my grandparents play in their van!) I sat back, listened to the music, and enjoyed my kettle korn.
I really liked talking with the people and seeing how much people will pay for a quilt. The quilts sure are beautiful!!
Now it's time to plan my Disneyland vacation!! Deric and I will probably wait till Christmas time. Sophi will be almost 1 1/2, so it will be a great little vacation for our family.

Sophi at 11 months

Happy Valentine's Day!

So big at 11 months!

Sophi's little faces!

Here we are, just to approach the big number 1 for little Sophi Jean.
January has flown by and Sophi has seemed to changed from little baby, to little girl over night. Sophi is much more vocal, expressing her needs and demands! Little mini-fits have started coming around during bath time or diaper change time. However, she continues to have a sweet, funny spirit about her, making us laugh and treasure all those moments. I love when she gives me a brief hug or kiss! :)
Sophi's milestones this month included:
-crawling (Still loving the army crawl, but she can successfully crawl on all fours)
-pulling up and getting down from objects. There was a couple days were she wouldn't get down from things, but she now has the confidence to do it herself.
-Baby food, blah! We have pretty much weeded out the baby food. I just use it for supplement when needed. It makes my job a bit harder- making sure I have enough veggies and fruit in the house for Sophi to eat. I really want to make sure I'm giving her healthy options!
-Sophi continues to say, "Bye Bye" "All done" "Night-Night." She says all of these with a little wave, so we really have to listen closely!
- Her new word is "Hi!"
-Sophi can find her belly and hair. She can also find noses on her animals and other people. She just hasn't found her own nose yet.
-Exploring is Sophi's middle name. Sophi ventures into other rooms looking for paper to rip, or books to look at. She loves our closet. If our bedroom door is open, she makes a fast crawl to the room. Something about a big walk in closet is so fun for her. She pulls out all the hats, socks, and purses. It makes getting ready each day easy for us! (Someday I'll post a picture!)

Well, that's all the updates I can think of for now. Sophi Jean, my jelly bean, still the cutest baby ever. :)

Random pics

Currently Sophi has a fever, this means Mommy lets her have her pacifier during the day (not just at sleep time). Sophi wanted both pacifiers and she played with one hand, and held one pacifier in the other hand. Sometimes she'd switch pacifiers, it's like it was a new flavor or something.

Sophi is pulling up now on everything. We had to finally lower her crib because we found her one morning on her knees trying to pull up. She still hasn't gained the confidence to get down, so she yells for help!

Here's my final cake from my decorating class. Roses are fun, but a bit tricky to make. I'm overall happy with my final cake. It was a fun class. I'm looking forward to using my skills for future baking!!

Here we are out in the cold from our day trip to Prescott. We were hoping to get some snow falling during our pictures, but at the moment no snow was coming down!! (Just rain!)

We took Sophi to the Sharlot Hall Musuem. It was neat to see all the old buildings and learn about some of Arizona's history. Sophi slept 1/2 of the time, but she woke up to see all the old cars, carriages, and bikes.

Just a cute shot of my cute Snuggle Bunny!! Her hair is so long! :)

I've been awarded by Karilee!!

I love silly surveys, so here are 10 honest things about myself. In no particular order. :)

10. I love going to the mountains. Mostly because its normally cooler, but I enjoy hiking, boating, and the beautiful scenery.

9. I have to eat dessert every night before I go to bed. I know it's not healthy to eat right before bed, but Deric and I have a routine of eating dessert and watching a show in bed. My favorite dessert is always icecream, we have atleast 4 flavors in our freezer right now. :)

8. I am an extremely routine person. I also get very cranky when my routine is interrupted w/o warning. I have been a little more flexible since Sophi was born, but she's been in the same routine for almost 5 months now and she gets cranky too when things aren't the same.

7. My DVR (Digital Video Recorder) is my lifeline. I never watch a show live (unless it's The Today Show). It becomes so convenient, especially with kids here all the time. I love afternoon nap time, I can watch my recorded shows and eat. I also get very cranky when the shows "mysteriously" erase. When Deric and I were trying to figure out what to cut back "money wise" I admit, I had a little fit, demanding that the DVR will never leave this house!!! Call me crazy!!

6. I'm always ready to have another baby. I love kids in general. Being a Mom is rough at times, but the most natural thing that I am doing. My love for being a mom is reflective in my every day life. I read endless books, magazines, blogs, etc. on anything and everything Mom and baby related. I think pregnancy and child development are so fascinating.

5. I still have a small (small) crush on Justin Timberlake. He won my heart years ago and everytime he is on t.v. or has a new song, I have to check it out. Don't worry, Deric is still the hottest man I know. Justin just still is second. ;)

4. I would love to live in a small town in the Midwest. I do admit, we have a couple friends who are always keeping an open ear for job opportunities for Deric.
I love snow, small communities, and any temperature that is below 85.

3. I could watch Dirty Dancing over and over again. It is my favorite movie of all time. I'm never sick of it.

2. I have long-term goals of opening up a cooking school for kids. I love kids, teaching, and baking/cooking. My future sister-in-law is also a great chef, so I'm hoping I can convince her to go into business with me!!! If you have any great recipes, send them my way, I love trying new things!! (Especially if it's cute for kids!)

1. Deric and I rarely call each other by our first names. We have nicknames for each other, even for Sophi. I don't remember the last time I called Deric, Deric. Sophi, on the otherhand, I use her name more frequently, but it usually is accompanied with her middle name-Sophi Jean. It just goes together so well!!

I tag:
Stephanie
Krystle
Angela

Have fun!

Our house has WAY TOO MUCH cake!!

Cake decorating is hard! After my first class, my arms and hands were so sore. It really is a work out to decorate your cake all fancy!!
This class is very intense. You have to bring a cake each week frosted. You also have to bring a ton of supplies and 2lbs of buttercream frosting. It took me forever to frost my cake the professional way. I still didn't like it. I know I'm too hard on myself, but it looks so easy!!!
It took me awhile to get the hang of piping my border around the cake. Half-way I decided I didn't like it, so I made it shorter. We learned how to make stars, zigzags, write, and started the first step in making roses.
Here's my first cake. I hated it, but Deric said it was good for my first class!! The rainbow is made with piping gel. We learned how to transfer a pattern on a cake, avoiding free-handing it.
Next week I will learn how to pipe a clown on the top of my cake. Look for pictures!!

Sophi at 10 months

Clapping to the music!!

No more single digits. My baby girl has now reached the double digits in months. Sophi continues to be my little snuggle bunny. What I thought was a phase, has now developed into something more permanent. I'm okay with that, but it sure makes it hard some nights to get dinner on the stove!! She still doesn't like hugs, but she'll give you plenty of kisses!! Here are some things she is up to:
- Sophi still sleeps 6:30-6:30. Nurses 4 times/day. Eats 3 solid meals.
-Sophi is phasing out baby food and loves all finger foods we have given her, except for mashed potatoes. It's been fun making little bite-size portions for our big girl!
-Sophi still rolls, but army crawls even faster.
-She has started pulling herself up, but would prefer if we just put her to that object standing.
-Sophi can say "Bye-Bye" (with wave) "Dada" "Mum" and "Done"(with sign). I love how she calls me "Mum!"
-Sophi points to everything and says "Dat!" She loves looking at pictures.
-She can clap, raise her hand when we ask, "How big is Sophi?", and bounces to music. We think she'll be a musician of some type. Any music she loves to dance and clap to.
-Sophi loves cats, stuffed or real.
-Sophi loves to scream or squeal in excitement!

I'm sure there are more things she is up to, but I can't think of any at the moment.
I didn't really come up with a New Year's Resolution. I have some goals, but they were made before January. Deric and I have been doing a Game night once a week, however it had to be moved from Mondays to Thursdays due to the Bachelor. :) I'm going to be starting a Purity Small Group starting in March for some of the Jr. High and High School girls at our church. I'm really excited about that!! I've also been taking a cake decorating class at Michaels, trying to finish a little sewing project, scrapbook, work out, all between watching kids full-time! :)
Deric has been busy and has been able to be home earlier lately to spend more time with Sophi before she goes to bed. That's been great to have a little family time every day.
I'm also THRILLED that my brother Justin is getting married to Michelle. Finally he popped the question!! She is such a wonderful woman of God and has really brought out some wonderful qualities in Justin. They are perfect! :)
I hope your new year is starting off wonderfully too!!