who we'd been missing

We went to this cool park behind the West Jordan city building one morning.  Sophie was really grumpy and only want to play with me even though she loved the playhouses. 

   

We soon found out that Sophie was pretty sick when she started crying and barking like a baby seal during lunch.  Doctors described to me what croup sounds like many times but I never quite understood.  The moment I heard it, I knew what is was.  The poor thing was having trouble breathing and fell asleep while I was trying to comfort her, drooled down my shirt.

That evening I went over to the Chapmans' without her (thank you Jenny and Mom for taking care of the sickie!)  Her sweet cousin Elise was bummed she couldn't make it but colored her some nice get well pictures.  It was fun to spend a little time with Dan's family (even though he wasn't there)  I do feel like they are mine too!

After a night's rest her fever was gone!  Sophie still acted cranky but according to the trusty internet, she wasn't contagious if her fever's gone.  So we went to the dollar movie with Elise.  They held hands just for fun, so cute.

That night was another long one for me and I was dreading the drive home like you wouldn't believe.  I just knew it would be a disaster; the longest 9 hours of my life.  Things always seem worse when you are sleep deprived.  I don't know what I would have done without Jason and Nicole.  That's right, my big brother and his wife came to the rescue!!  Let me explain; they live in Houston and decided to fly to Denver and then drive to SL with me for the shower, instead of flying straight to SL, it saved them a few bucks and helped me out a TON.  So they rode with us both ways!  I know, so nice.

The drive home wasn't near as bad as I imagined, chalk it up to low expectations I guess! Sophie felt cruddy but had a good attitude.  Thanks again Jason and Nicole, we owe you BIG BIG BIG!!

Continuing with my out of order theme... here are the rest of my pictures!  Most of them are from shortly after we arrived in SL playing in my parents' back yard.  The first one though, of Sophie is funny NOT because of the look on her face but because of the irony.  Funny enough, she received an umbrella from one grandma and a rain coat from the other the same day (uncoordinated) with the same monkey character on both!  Wow, are they ever on the same page, they both seem to know my girls pretty darn well!!

My dad also drove out to Denver so we'd have more room to travel to SL in.  You can't tell from the picture but Sophie was happy to see him... Tessa, well, not so much.  We all love an excuse to get out the air mattress!

 

This last picture is my favorite, how cute are they?

So I didn't get a picture but I have to mention that we are sporting a new MINI VAN!!!  Well, it's not really new, it's old... the same age as our car, but it's new to us!  We actually didn't buy it, nor did we trade for it... we just swapped with my parents temporarily.  I think I've complained too loudly after making the drive to Utah in our Accord and so my parents said they wanted to swap my car for their van.  My mom doesn't really need a mini van (although I know she likes them) and they have another one anyway.  It's a Toyota Sienna and we are really loving the extra space!!  We went to Costco last week and ALL of us could come and we didn't even have to take the stroller in the apartment to make room for our stuff!  Pretty awesome.  Just in case you're wondering, it's a long time dream of mine AND Dan's to own a van.  In fact, I think he's more excited than me! 

a little "vacay" in happy valley

Yeah I'm cool like that, I can use slang like vacay... no not really, but I wanted to anyway.

So as much as it kills me to do things out of chronological order, it kills me more not to post ANYTHING for so long.  So here are the pictures I had time to go through.

On my parent's playground shortly after arriving.  Tessa was loving the water table with aunt Jenny.  And that's Jason stretching his legs on the tramp.

Uncle Matt's birthday dinner of lasagna.  We missed James, Dan, and Jack who couldn't make it.  (Joni's there, just hidden behind Mom.)

 

Matt yo-yoed for Sophie FOREVER, poor guy.  Sophie was amazed by it.  Just yesterday we were playing with playdough and I made a yo-yo cut out.  She picked it up and said, "Uncle Matt  yo-yo!"  This sweet woman is my Grandma Ellis, I love her to pieces.  

Here's the main reason I drove out, the baby shower for my niece and nephew on the way who live in Houston.  The one on the left is my little sister Jenny, and Nicole is my brother Jason's wife.  Such cute bellies on these two!

 

They both got lots of great gifts!

On a completely different note, poor Tessa is cutting teeth.  What the heck is that black thing on her gums?  Could it be a blood blister?  Ouch!  I thought it was a piece of the dried fruit she had after dinner and tried to dig it out last night, poor thing.

I'll work on piecing together the rest of our vacay later, life can be crazy!

being a good sport

Would I have gone to the stake fair if I didn't have an assignment?

Probably not.

But I did...

I actually love the stake fair and look forward to it every year but this year (our 3rd) it was freezing cold and pouring rain!  It's usually hot and sunny.  The watermelon and snow cones weren't a big hit this year.  I think most of the people in attendance were there because they had to be. :) 

This one, on the other hand had a great time!  She LOVES the rain, and I painted her face like a cat.  She's really into pretending to be animals lately.

I was in charge of the face painting booth for an hour, my young women really came through.  Every single showed up ON TIME for her shift and painted faces for an hour (and one girl did 2 hours!).  I am very proud of them.  We were happy to be inside the semi-dry tent!    

In other news, Sophie is improving her potty skills.  I am much more relaxed about the whole thing.  She's finally started going #2 on the potty! (Can I hear a WOOT WOOT?!!?!!) She only has accidents on occasion now like if she's playing with a friend and too busy to bother with such matters.  I am SO proud of her.  We are getting along much better these days, I think I'm taking her off the market, she's not for sale anymore. :)

In fact, I want to gush just a bit about how much I love my kids.  Tessa is simply delightful.  I love it how every time we make eye contact she gives me a smile like she hasn't seen me in 5 years.  She is getting a back bone though and will scream or pull hair if her sister tries to steal her toys.  Tessa babbles as she happily plays with toys for an hour at a time.  Sophie's vocabulary expands daily and she is more and more well equipped to articulate to me what she's thinking about.  She will ask me to play puppies with her or even just "talk a me."  I enjoy being able to talk to her more and more.  She loves her Daddy so much and talks about him periodically throughout the day reminding me he's at school.  Sophie also loves to sing and knows the words to lots and lots of songs.  I think her favorites are, "I am a Child of God," "BINGO", "Old McDonald," "The Wheels on the Bus," and "Once Upon a Dream" of course!  I love my girls! 

SMART... aleck?

I love these movies.  We picked them up at Costco for $6 each.  Sophie watched the Letter Factory twice and could tell me all the letter sounds!  And sing the song of course, "The A says Aaaaaa... Every letter makes a sound, the A says Aaaaaa!"  Sounding out words is a bit more complicated but she tries.  I've no doubt she'll be reading words sometime in the next year or so.  She sounds out the words on the cover all the time.  I'm so proud of her!

On the other hand she's such a smart alek!  She doesn't want to do anything I want her to do, let me give you an example.  The other night I made spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner.  I watched her down the sauce with a spoon in about 10 seconds.  As she was bringing the last bite towards her mouth I said, "That's yummy sauce huh?"  She puts the spoon down on her plate, pushes it away and says, "No, I don't like it!"  What a little stinker!  Here's another funny example. When we take her out on her little tricycle and want her to turn to the right all you have to do is tap her handle bars and say, "Let's go this way," (turning it to the left) Sophie will promptly turn the handle bars sharply to the right (the way I wanted to go) and say, "NO, this way!"  Works every time.  Also, if she's walking too slow all I have to say is, "Sophie, let's walk slow... SO SLOW."  And she'll break into a run!  Yep, she's 2.  At least she's predictable. :)  I think it's hilarious.

Speaking of AWESOME... (good transition, I know) I am so excited about these new clothes I picked up at Target yesterday with my birthday money!  I've been wanting a mustard sweater and trouser jeans for A LONG TIME and I finally found some, when I had money to spend, AND  at the right price!  I love Target.

We were lucky enough to have a few friends over for tea on Thursday.  What cutie's!

Coming soon... pictures from the stake fair!  I'll keep you POSTED, ha ha ha.

my birthday weekend

Friday - swimming

I sat on the side and let Dan do the work, ahem, "playing" with our darling girls.  It was kind of chilly, but they don't seem to mind.  I love the picture of Tessa grinning at her Dad, they love each other.  No doubt that Sophie is Daddy's girl either, I kept telling him this day would come!  Now he's the favorite, well, unless there is an injury.

Saturday after Dan helped me scrub the bath tubs we went out to lunch at the Olive Garden.  It was so very yummy and we got to use a gift card from my grandma, what a sweetie!  I have to say, this woman has over 50 grandchildren (and nearly that many great-grandchildren) but still remembers to send cards and make phone calls, she's amazing.  I wish I had a quarter of her memory NOW let alone when I am her age!  And we got to go to lunch KID-LESS thanks to our good friend Kim who came over and watched the girls for us.  It is so nice to get a chance to really talk.  That night we got to go watch the BYU game at the Lawrences, so excited they won!!

My actual birthday was Sunday.  I feel silly that I didn't get any pictures of me... sorry.  It's hard when you're always the picture taker.  I enjoyed a beautiful day at church filled with uplifting lessons.  Dan made me breakfast, lunch and dinner.  He would tell me to "get out of MY kitchen," if I tried to help with anything.  We had a few friends over for dinner and Kim made me some birthday cup cakes, THANKS KIM!  I also got lots of phone calls and emails, which I really appreciate!  Plus gifts in the mail from both of my moms.  I'm blessed to have so many good friends and family.

My birthday present from Dan was the new version of Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements (for video).  He ordered it online all by himself!  I think this is the frist year he didn't tell me to just go shopping for my gift.  I am so excited about my new Photoshop, because now I can shoot in RAW and have so many more options for making my pictures look good even if I don't shoot them perfect!  I shot in RAW at the zoo the next day to try it out, I LOVE IT!!  I haven't tried the video thing yet but will ASAP.

Monday - zoo

That drum is probably her favorite part of the zoo, we have to tear her away.  Sophie looks a little loopy in the picture with Kim, and about 5 minutes later she was passed out on top of Kim's head.  Who would have thought you could sleep on someone's shoulders?  That didn't stop Kim from nabbing a picture of the cheetah though.  Tessa seems to mostly just endure the zoo these days probably due to the fact she always seems to be missing a nap. She is interested in very little outside of her snacks. The zoo always wears my girls out. 

Last night we went to a potluck at the park with a bunch of friends.  We left in a rush and I forgot my camera darn it!  It was really fun for about an hour until Sophie had an messy accident (2nd of the day) and we had to go.  I brought her a change of clothes for the #1 type, but this had to be dealt with at home.  She was so sad to go (so was I) but hopefully she will learn from the experience. :)  At least she was accident free on my birthday!