Finally some snow!

We have had a pretty snowless Winter so far here in my neck of the woods. We finally had some snow stick on the ground and Abby was rarin' to go play in it. I made her wait until after school, but she pretty much came in the door and went straight for her snow clothes. Sophie, of course, wanted to go play as well. We don't have quite as much gear for Sophie as we do for Abby, but she didn't complain.


Abby wanted to make a snow angel - so down she went. I think she did it a couple of times. I don't really like laying in the snow, so I didn't join her. I even saw Sophie trying to imitate Abby. It pretty much consisted of her laying down and kicking her feet for a couple of seconds, then getting back up. I'm not sure she really got the point yet . . .


Abby tried to throw snowballs at Sophie, but I nipped that in the bud. I told her it was okay to throw them at Po, however. He's pretty quick in the snow, though. He leaps through the gigantic snow drifts like a pro. I think Abby got close to hitting him once, but that's about it. Abby was chasing him around saying "I'm gonna get you Po!" and Sophie toddled after with her own version "I go getchoo!". They were both pretty excited.


Sophie decided it was a good idea to play with her pool floatie in the snow. At least it made for a cute picture. Abby later filled it with snow and made a snow cupcake. I'm not sure how that makes a cupcake, but I don't usually question Abby's unusual statements.

After letting Po back in from going potty this morning, I decided it was time for a haircut for the dog. What do you think? Look at those legs!!

Happy Late Birthday Sophie

Sophie turned 2 on Saturday and we had a little party for her that day, Monday, and we'll have another one this Sunday. We like to spread birthdays out around here. Honestly, she had a pretty crappy birthday on Saturday because I had to work ALL day. (I really mean all day.)

She really loved getting new toys and having all the attention focused on her for her party. She even did her VERY best to blow out the two candles on her cake. I think she might have had a little help, but don't most kids get help from all their friends and siblings that are close enough to blow?


Sophie is a wonderful blessing in my life. She is so sweet and caring sometimes, and other times she'll glare at you and give you her best stink eye. She's hilarious. She has just started giving me impromptu kisses and hugs. I love it when she shows me she loves me. Neither of my children started out particularly cuddly - just too independent - so it's nice when they have gotten older and actually show they need me.

I think Sophie is turning into a pretty typical two year old already. (Honestly, she started that phase pretty early.) She fake cries all the time, she throws herself on the floor when she's been offended. She takes off her diaper at night. She even backtalks when I chastise her. She's fabulous! I'm so glad I've been blessed to care for this wonderful little spirit. I think she's really smart and funny. She tells knock-knock jokes without end and is talking so much. She loves to take care of her babies - it helps her lay down at night if she thinks she's putting her babies to bed too. I love my little Sophie!

Disaster Area Part 2

I broke up my disaster posts for the weak-hearted. Or maybe for those that don't like to read long things. I hope it helped. My next disaster area is more out of my way - but MUCH larger. Here are some pictures. And, yes, that is a sledgehammer sticking out of the wall.

I'm excited that Tom is finally taking some action on the garage conversion. I'm tired of having a useless room in my garage when I could be parking there. It's just a gigantic mess and I'm not sure how quickly it will get cleaned up. We found someone that wanted a bunch of the old insulation, so that was nice, but nobody seems to want our busted up drywall . . .

The girls (mostly Abby) decided to have a picnic outside while Tom worked on the garage. Who wants a picnic when it's 40 degrees outside????? At least it made for a fun picture. After a few minutes I made them come in. Sophie was getting into the construction - not a great place for a curious toddler.


I'm hoping I can get another post really soon out of the *fixed* version of our disasters. (It may, however, end up being a post of the snow covering our disaster instead . . . )

Disaster Area Part 1

So, I haven't posted for a while. I couldn't think of anything particularly noteworthy. I thought of something big today, though. We've been making some home improvements. Or at least that is what they are intended to be in the end. We had AJ and JoAnna come over and paint the girls rooms. Tom and I don't particularly enjoy painting, so the only way we figured it would get done would be to pay somebody to do it for us. AJ and JoAnna were the willing suckers.

Here is a before picture from Sophie's room:



It was a really cool castle room with matching heavy drapes and all the fixin's. However, we don't have any boy children. So, we painted over the castle and now it's glass green. It looks kind of minty, but you can't really tell from the picture. I still need to hang things on the walls and figure out some sort of window thingy, but I'm excited to put

Here is an after picture, it's much brighter and will be a lot more hospitable to a new baby:


Abby's room, however is not finished yet. The paint is all done and brightened it up in there a bunch too. It was a fairly dark purple before and I got kind of annoyed with it after a year. Here's what her room looks like now. It's all pink, so I didn't bother trying to capture a panorama.


The problem here, is that we are getting new carpet some time soon. So, this is what the living room looks like as I'm typing:

I'm hoping to get my living room back sometime this week, but it kind of depends on us finding time to go pick out carpet and get the installers to come. Wish me luck! There won't be any Christmas at our house until we can get all this stuff put away.

Tagged by Laura

So, Laura tagged me 3 weeks ago. I guess I'll finally post my version - I hope it isn't too painful. I am going to try to list 6 unspectacular quirks about myself.

1. Most days I don't bother fixing my hair. If I use a brush before putting my hair up, then I feel like I've accomplished something. You know I'm going all out if my hair looks like I used the hair dryer on it. It sure is a good thing I wasn't born with totally nappy hair!

2. I don't like to call people on the phone. I'm always afraid they don't really want to hear from me. This tends to include the pizza guy, the utility company, people at work, and the people I'm supposed to be visiting teaching . . . I wouldn't recommend this quirk to anybody

3. I ask too many questions. Those of you that know me have probably already figured this out. I wonder about a lot of different things. I suppose I should just travel around with an encyclopedia so I can look things up instead of asking whoever is around me. At least the encyclopedia won't get mad at me.

4. I've been wearing the same CTR ring since the 8th grade. It's been pretty bent out of shape, but I still wear it daily.

5. I don't like to play with dolls. This mostly includes Barbies, but just about any doll is no good. They are okay for dressing up on occasion, but I really just don't enjoy dolls. I never did as a kid (ask my sister) and I still don't (ask my daughter).

6. I'm a total spazz when it comes to playing basketball. I wasn't ever any good as a kid. I just always watched the clock and waited for the buzzer to go off. (Not to mention the part where I don't get the ball into the basket.) During college I developed an amazing game plan where I run all over the court. I didn't really contribute that much, but at least I was doing something. I still play like this and I'm still completely awful. You know my ward YW basketball program is bad when you hear that I was the coach last year.

I'm not really into tagging people, cause that might make them feel like they are obligated to post something. So, if you like this one, go ahead and pretend like you were tagged. Sorry to make you read all this stuff about me. It was pretty random. :)

More Pictures

I don't have much to say today, but I've got some fun pictures to share. Sophie really wanted to play with this completely flat ball. I thought it was kind of funny. Sophie has also been REALLY enjoying the Halloween candy we acquired last week. She especially likes suckers - as you can tell from her blue mouth. I get some good chances to take silly pictures of Sophie when Abby is at preschool.

Fall Colors

We had a nice day on Monday and the girls went out to play in the leaves. Sophie is decent for pictures, but getting the girls together is a nightmare! I don't know how the professionals do it. In the 2nd picture, Abby decided to start posing, and Sophie was trying to get me to fill up her juice. Kids are nuts.

It snowed last night and I took a few pictures of the girls, hopefully I can find a decent picture with both girls looking in the same direction.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is always a lot of fun for me. I REALLY like candy, so that's a big part of it. I also like costumes and dressing up. I didn't dress up, but the rest of my family did.

This is how I sent Tom to work yesterday:


He was the lunch lady - you know from the Chris Farley & Adam Sandler skit. He looked pretty ridiculous. I even worked the night before (with his enforced aid) to make him a large man skirt. He bought himself a lady blouse and a wig and voila! Tom actually won the most creative costume category at work, so he got a $25 gift card to Chili's/Macaroni Grill. I suppose that helps pay for the outfit, right? (I'm thinking he won't get a lot of future use out of the blouse and skirt . . . )


I brought the girls to Tom's work for some workplace trick-or-treating. Abby just wanted to keep going after that and start in on the neighborhood, but I had to hold her back. She really likes this novel way of getting bags of candy!

I didn't get a whole lot of fabulous pictures of the girls. I can't generally get one of the two of them looking in the same direction at the same time. But here you go:

They were Mariposa and Tinkerbell. Abby gladly told just about everybody who opened their front door their names and who they were dressed up as. She sure is friendly! After trick-or-treating we visited with both sets of grandparents and got even more candy and treats. We ended the late night getting the kids in bed around 10:30. They never would have made it that long if it weren't for all the candy . . .

Some fun pics

We haven't been up to anything particularly worth mentioning, so I don't have much for you. I did find some good deals at ShopKo the other day and got some new clothes for myself and for Abby. I had Abby try the clothes on and Sophie wanted to participate too. She really wanted to try on the new snow bib I got for Abby. I thought it was pretty darn funny!

Haunted Gingerbread House

Okay, so it's not really a masterpiece, but Abby had a blast making her Halloween Gingerbread house. The Beehives made them on Wednesday and, luckily, there were still some materials left for Abby to have a go at it.

We had some leftovers and we made "fields" with them with m&ms growing in the fields. Abby has a funny imagination. The fields were delicious, in my opinion.

I opened the door and to my surprise . . .

a naked Sophie lay staring up at me! Yes, that's right, Sophie was naked. I went to get her this morning and she had stripped down to nothing in her crib. There she was nice and wet - along with lots of other things in her crib. I guess she's done with nightgowns for a while! Abby went through a taking off the diaper in the crib stage. It wasn't pretty. We used a lot of duct tape during that phase. I'm hoping to not use the duct tape this time around, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Here's the culprit - after her shower this morning.

My Little Chef

Abby found some little wooden spoons and decided she wanted to be a chef the other day. She asked for more stuff and I obliged - although a bit sparingly. (Abby goes overboard whenever possible.) So, I got out the play apron and chef hat and various bowls and utensils for her to cook with. She wanted to teach me how to be a chef, so she invited me outside to her bake shop.

Abby made me MANY cakes and even some soup pie. I got really full from all that imaginary food. She attempted to recruit Sophie a few times, but Sophie doesn't last long with most activities.

Abby said she wanted to pretend to be a chef so she could get some practice to cook later. She wants to be such a big girl most of the time!

Abby's Soccer

The fall season for Abby's soccer is over now. It's kind of nice to not have to go 3 times a week for practice or games. It was a lot of fun to watch her out there enjoying herself. She doesn't seem to have any talent for it so far, but she is still young. Abby particularly enjoys telling the other girls to go get the ball.

Sophie was NOT fun to have at the games, but I guess that was predictable. She's just a little free spirit and loves to do whatever she wants. No limits for that kid!

Sorry I don't have any action pictures of Abby playing - there weren't a whole lot of times where I could have gotten a shot of her actually near the ball. Maybe in the Spring . . .

Can you tell?

Can you tell if I'm a boy or a girl? Let's test your elite ultrasound reading skills. (Really, if you can't tell, then you're going to need to practice up a LOT.)

Abby's First Day of School

Abby's first day of preschool was on Tuesday and she absolutely LOVED it. She was mostly excited to tell me about the different toys they had that she'd never played with before. There are eight kids in her class. Many of them are from her class in Primary, so she was happy to see them there. That's about it. I'll try to post some of the things she is learning about sometime.

Soccer Season

Abby started soccer on Friday with her very first practice. She was super excited and put her jersey on as soon as she could. She is on an under 6 girls team. I don't think she realized just how much "exercise" she'd get playing soccer. All that running around really wore her out and she was ready to be done by the end of practice.

We were pleasantly surprised that Erika was on her team. We forgot to request the same team and figured they would be put on different ones since we are in different elementary school districts.

Sophie tried to be a member of the team too, she kept wandering as close as possible to where the balls were. She doesn't seem to realize she is 3 years younger than Abby. She wants to do everything her big sister gets to do.

If anyone wants to come, Abby's games are on Wednesdays (at 5:00) and Saturdays (at 11:00). The first game is tomorrow, then she skips Labor Day Saturday and has games from September 3rd through the 24th. They rotate through fields SM 1 - SM 8 on this map: http://oremyouthsoccer.com/pages/maps.

They play kind of funny for the under 6 kids. They play 4 on 4 with no goalies and not any real refs. They also have each team play on 2 fields at once so more kids get a chance to get in. We'll see how it goes!

Scabby Legs McGee

So this is what the rashy legs turned into. Scabby legs. She's doing a TON better, it just looks bad. I thought you might like a little update on Sophie. Thanks for all the kind words!

Sad little rashy legs

Don't neglect your little diaper babies! I didn't realize Sophie had a big old poopy diaper today and it leaked out. Super wet, all over her cute little legs. She had some (apparently) extra-chafing jean shorts on and she got the saddest rashy raw spots on her thighs. I put her down for a nap soon after and thought maybe they'd be all better after her nap. She woke up after about an hour and she was really sad. I hadn't realized the damage was that bad. She was totally miserable for about an hour after her too short nap. I think the raw spots started to heal over after a while and they stopped stinging quite so badly. It was SO sad.

I gave Sophie a bath tonight and she was pretty cheery after that. You can see her little rash - and I had to take some video of her trying to walk. Her thighs hurt too much when they rub anything, so she keeps walking all bow legged. It's sad and a little funny too if you can get past the crying. (I know, I'm a terrible mother.)

Dinosaurs!

So, Laura found out about this amazing deal at Thanksgiving Point. Every Tuesday in August is $2 Tuesday - you can get admission into Farm Country, the Gardens, or the Dinosaur Museum for only $2/person. Abby, Sophie and I would have had to pay $18, but we only had to pay $4 to go see a bunch of fake dinosaur bones. That's quite the deal. Of course, everybody and their 30 closest friends in Utah County go for cheapy day at the museum. It was totally crowded, but I think it was worth it. Laura brought her four kids and my mom came with us as well.

The museum is pretty neat, they have some cool looking displays. I didn't get to look that closely, though, because I was wrestling with the strongest 1 1/2 year old in the world. (I'm pretty sure I won, but I'm not positive on that point.) Sophie wanted to get down and run around, but with 5000 people around she would have been easy to lose track of. Abby thought it was pretty cool, except for at the end where she got all whiny and pretended to be too scared to look at the fake sharks.

They have a neat water table with sand and water and toy dinosaurs. Abby seemed to enjoy it, but Sophie didn't want to have anything to do with it. Near the end of the museum they have a big sandy dig area. Both girls had a lot of fun there. Sand is a bit hard to come by here in Utah. I was glad it was over at the end, but it was something I can check off my list for a while.

Should've brought the camera

So, we had a ward party tonight and it was really fun. We started off with a picnic with lots of good food. They even had a candy cannon where they shot loads of candy for the kids to get beaned with. It was cool. After the food, we went to the pool and had a "private" party with just our ward. It was so much less crowded than normal days, and when some kid bumps into you it isn't quite as annoying because you know them and who their parents are.

Anyway, Abby has been wanting to jump off the diving board for a while now. Here swimming teacher didn't ever have them do it and she was disappointed. She practiced jumping into the deep water and swimming about 7 feet, then turning around without touching anything and swimming back to the side. She did it a few times and I was really proud of her. We figured she was probably ready enough, so Tom took her over to the diving board. He jumped in first, then swam to the side, and she jumped in after and swam to him. It was really cute and she was SO proud of herself. She did it one more time and did even better the second time. (From where I was it sounded like she tried to cough up the whole pool the first time.)

Sophie loved being in the pool too. The only problem is she starts shivering about 5 minutes into swimming time. She's so cute with her little shivery mouth. She had fun anyway and loves to go down the little kid slide and walk around in the shallow water. I was swimming too, so I wasn't really in picture taking mode. I really should have brought a camera to capture my two little girls in all their swimming pool glory. (I found a nice generic picture of the pool to post.)

Oh Baby

Well, I suppose I'll make it official by posting on my blog. I'm pregnant! I just had an ultrasound this morning and everything looked really good. I'm about 12 weeks along and due either on February 6th or 8th depending on what you go by. That's about it for now!

Tahoe Report

We had lots of fun in Tahoe, but I think I was just too lazy to take a lot of pictures. I'll have to see if AJ or my mom got any pictures of the kids I could steal. The girls loved the water, Abby especially loved the pool.

We were lucky enough to go see Emerald Bay before all the smoke settled over the lake. There were about 300 fires in California that decided to blow their smoke into our area to try to ruin our vacation. There was a large fire last year on the south shore of Lake Tahoe that didn't even make it this smoky. Oh well! What can you do?

I got a cold about 3 days into our trip and felt pretty miserable for most of the duration. We came back a day early since we were ready for our own beds and some clear air. Vacations sure are fun, but they help you appreciate your home MUCH more.