Pumpkin Festivities

One benefit of living way out west is that you can go to a local pumpkin farm and pick out your own pumpkins. This used to be, and I say used to be, my favorite pumpkin patch, because you could pick up a wheel barrow and scavenge through the field for the perfect pumpkin and then cut if off the vine yourself! (Cutting if off the vine yourself is the best part I think.) But this year they had the field cleared and all the pumpkins lined up in rows. They still have lots of neat tractors to climb on and Sophia still got to ride in the wheel barrow. Good times this fall.

Tunnel time at the playground

Draper park has a great playground for kids. Sophia found the swings to be a terror ride (I don't know why, she likes her swing out in our backyard). However, she loved playing in this tunnel and picking up little pieces of bark and munching on them. This little boy is Benton Anderson - her boyfriend in secret, but don't tell that to Cody.

4 generations

This fall, my grandma came into town and so we decided it would be a good time to get some pictures of the 4 generations together. If I hadn't styled my hair straight and if you could see Sophia's hair, you'd notice we all of curly hair, we are all tall and lenky, and we definately have a lot of the same mannerisms. Girls, girls, girls!

These are my cousins, Gentry on left and McCall on the right. We joke around that my grandma got a perfect variety in her grandchildren, a blonde, a red-head, and a brunette.

Sophia's 1st Birthday!

Sophia is now 13 months, but we had such a great time at her birthday party. The weather was sublime and we held the party at a park by my mom's house. All the family was able to make it. I was concerned that Sophia would be quite clingy and give everyone that serious stare (that I am sure you've all experienced) when she feels uncomfortable or that she doesn't know you. Surprisingly, it's like she new that day was all about her! She was so animated and cute; just smiling, laughing, letting everyone hold her. She was especially proud walking around the park with her new scooter and would look back to make sure people were watching her - so proud! She wasn't the least bit interested in getting messy by digging into her cake (such a girl) but loved her gifts and all the festivities. Thanks to everyone who helped put this together and came to enjoy.

Sophia's Birthday

I usually check a few random blogs a couple of times a month. But by the time I get finished, I have spent all my free time looking at the "going-ons" in everyone else's life that I've posted zilch (you can hear this word in your head, but I'm not so sure how you spell it) about my own. Now I have finally spent some free time updating the background of our blog so that I don't look so boring, and now I have no have time for posts. So there you go. I'll be back, this week is my goal, with more posts of our recent activities. In the meantime, just look at that cutie! She's a walking little busy-body. My best helper in just about every activity around the house. For example, laundry - opening and closing the doors, carrying around clothes, the dishes - handing me each piece of silverware out of the dishwasher as fast as I can get it in, and pulling out Mom's bathroom products on a daily basis. She love's dogs, ducks, stuffed animals and hats. I'm so lucky that she'll happily wear this adorable hat!

Trip to Denver, CO

Over the 4th of July we took a plane ride over to Denver to visit my Dad & Lynda for the first time since having Sophia. Sophia did fairly well on the plane (except for the last 30 min. on the way to Denver - no worries - I was that parent with the unconsolable screaming baby.) Other than that she was a little social bug who was talking and waving to everyone on the plane. Dad and Lynda also bought a little frog play pool for Sophia to splash in and Sophia had great enthusiasm for going up and down the little stairs in their house. We enjoyed some nice time together as a family. Check out this first picture where we are flashing our ultra cheesy smiles - my Dad and I look nearly identical.

Boating

This past week we have taken Sophia boating 2 times thanks to invites from the Hansen's and the Tycksen's. Sophia was unsure about the sound of the motor and the feel of the boat the first hour, but after that she really seemed to love it and took a long nap in my arms. Unfortunately I have no pictures to support my claim that I got both on and up, although it was brief, on the air chair. I also have no pics to show off Cody's mad skills on both the air chair and the water ski. Next time I'll be a better photgrapher. The two sweet girls pictured with Cody and Sophia are Christine (7) and Mary (5) Tycksen.

Little Hiker

As usual I am behind in posting the Done events, but on July 19th we took a brief hike up to Donut Falls up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's an easy, quick hike for Sophia's first time in the hiking pack and she LOVED it! After the hike we decided to take Donner (sp?) Pass into Park City and enjoyed a dinner together at the Park City Resort. It felt great to get out of the polluted summer air where it's pristine up there. The next hike on our list is Secret Lake up Big Cottonwood in the early evening when the trail is in the shade and we'll be taking a picnic. If anyone would like to join us, just speak up.

I've been tagged by Suz , so here it goes...
Four jobs I've had:
1. U.S. Dry Cleaners!
2. Reigstrar's Office at Westminster
3. Assistant to Financial Planner
4. Valley Mental Health

Four Movies I've watched more than once:
1. Singing in the Rain (I LOVE old movies)
2. A League of their Own (I cry every time in this movie, dorky I know.)
3. Youv'e got Mail
4. 13 going on 30

Four places I've lived (changing it to 4 places you would like to live):
1. Steamboat Spring, CO
2. On a Ranch
3. Jackson Hole, WY
4. Millcreek or Holladay

Four TV shows I watch:
1. The Office
2. HGTV
3. Don't really watch TV
4.

Four people who email me regularly:
1. Vocabulary word of the day
2. Funny forwards from Annie
3. Book club girls
4.

Four of my favorite foods:
1. mexican
2. Indian
3. Cookies
4. Pies

Four places I'd like to visit:
1. Greece
2. French Riviera
3. More places in Italy
4. Croatia

Four things I'm looking forward to this year:
1. Sophia turning 1
2. Being able to ride my bike outside, will it ever happen!
3. sleeping through the night
4. family camping trip

I tag:
1. annie
2. Karly
3. Sue Slade
4. Val

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice but, for those who love time is eternity."
From the moment Sophia arrived Cody has exceeded any comprehendable expectation I could have of what a father is. Without him I would be no where near the mother I am trying to be today. Sophia looks as her Daddy and definately is her Daddy's girl. What a man!

These are such priceless expression! Whenever I look at these I just feel PURE JOY! These photos were also in the 'Daddy's Love Book.' The latest & greatest on Sophia is that she is nearly 9 months, has started crawling and is trying to pull herself up to things, and is now teething for the first time. Lately we have been taking a parent-tot swim class and it's a lot of fun. We coast along the water, while kicking her legs singing "motor boat, motor boat go so fast, motor boat, motor boat step on the gas...
Good times.

Daddy's Love Book

Unbeknownst to Cody, Sophia and I met Cody's mom at the Jordan River temple before she went in to work at the temple and took pictures for Cody's Father's Day gift. Now Cody has a book called "Daddy's Love Book" is has pictures of, who else, but us! It's a flip book for each day of the week with a picture and inspirational/go-get-em quote for her work desk.

Splashing in the pool

I hope this video posting works. If it doesn't I'll try it again. If it does work then notice how cute she is when she splashes herself in the face with the water and how her breathe is taken away for a brief moment. Isn't she so cute?

This past weekend we used a certificate that we have had for nearly a year to the Zermatt Resort in Midway, UT. We had a fabulous time, but the highlight of the trip was putting Sophia in the swimming pool for the first time. First of all, just look at how cute she is in her little brown mosaic tankini with sunhat. At first she wasn't quite sure what to do in the water but she was soon splashing with her hands in the pool the kicking her legs out behind her. Cody and I enjoyed stuffing out faces at the delicious restaraunt called Schneitter's. They have a gourmet buffet (an upgrade from the Chuck-A-Rama style) and we also viewed the movie Vantage Point (still in theatre's) from the privacy of the flat screen in our hotel room. How cool is that? I didn't even know you could view movies that are still in the theatre like that. We also went on a beautiful walk and saw deer and a den of fox cubs tumbling and playing around. What a getaway.

Mother's Day

For our moms for Mother's Day we took some pictures of Sophia at Cody's Aunt and Uncle's home in Holladay. It's a rare occassion to get her smiling on cue so these actually turned out quite perfect. We had tried to create one of those hand/foot prints that you press into a mold like a circular plate, but that whole situation was rather entertaining. We had the bright idea of mixing up 2 batches of the mold at the same time so that we could just quickly press her hand and foot into each of them. Little did we know that each minute that passed as the mold was setting was like a ticking bomb to utter and complete mold solidification. In the 3-4 minutes that we had the mold ready for Sophia to put her impressions into we could hardly make a mark into them; they were nearly hard as stone already. Not to mention that Sophia had decided at that moment that she was going to have a meltdown any time we so as much touched her hand, let alone try to flatten it out to make her mark. So then we had the brilliant idea that we would just add water and make the mold more malleable again. The harder Cody was mixing and stirring the compound mixed with water the more solidified it became, but being the man that he is he just kept on stirring, putting all his might and strenght into each turn of the spatula. Finally when the mold had basically solidified itself into my baking mixing bowl I said, "Uh, I think you can stop now, it's probably ruined." Whelp, there you have it; 12 precious $$'s waisted on a memorobilia of Sophia's hand and foot impression. We resorted to using an ink pad for her hand and foot print.