Christmas Lights on Temple Square

Sophie just loves trains and the whole time we were in Utah, she kept asking if we could ride the train.  We decided that we would ride the train in to downtown to go to dinner and then to see the lights on Temple Square.  Dad took us to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and the food was so good.  We got peppermint bark cheesecake and dulce de leche cheesecake to go and we ate them later that evening and they were both absolutely delicious!  While we were waiting to be seated Mom and I took Sophie to the Disney store.  While we were in the store, I saw two different friends from Bozeman, Kameron Abbott and Darcy Francis.  I talked to Kameron for a few minutes, long enough to find out that they've moved back to Utah.  We had a very yummy dinner and a fun evening.  The trains were a little delayed going home, we thought we were going to miss our train, but we made it just in time.  Thank goodness we did, because we would have had to wait another hour for the next train, and as it was Sophie fell asleep just before we had to get off the train.  She was such a tired girl, but I think she had a fun evening.

 

Sophie on the train.  Notice the dark spot next to her left eye.  She fell off the bed and cute her eye just before we had to leave to catch the train.  She ended up getting a black eye from it.  Poor girl!

 

Riding the train into Salt Lake to see the lights.

 

Papa, Maemi and Daddy on the train.  Sophie was in the picture, but she ducked down right as I took the picture.

 

All bundled up to see the lights.  She loved seeing the lights, but loved eating the snow even more.  It was old snow, but she was determined to eat some. 

 

Mommy, Sophie and Daddy at Temple Square.

 

The beautiful Salt Lake temple with all the Christmas lights.

 

Papa, Sophie and Maemi enjoying the lights.

Sophie's First Haircut

 Sophie had her first haircut on May 8th.  It was getting long, but very shaggy looking, so we took her to see Amy Osborne, one of the sisters in our ward.

 

 I was sad that I wouldn't be able to put her hair in a ponytail like this again.  I just love her little pony!

 



 My happy girl!  She did so well, I was very surprised at how well she did holding still. 

 

 Eating her chips so she'd hold still.

 

 

My cute girl with her new haircut.  Isn't she beautiful!

 

Kansas City Trip

In May, we took a trip to Kansas City to visit some friends, Ben and Karen Divine.  We met them when they moved to Mankato for school, but Ben graduated with his Masters and got a job in Kansas, so we don't see them much anymore.  We were there for six days and we had a blast.  Unfortunately when I uploaded the pictures, they uploaded in reverse order, so the pictures from the end of our trip are first.

 

 Sophie taking a nap in her toddler bed.  Monday after we got back from Kansas, Jon started teaching his 5 week summer session.  I tried putting Sophie down for a nap and she wasn't happy.  She didn't take naps while we were in Kansas, so she didn't want to take them at home either.  I went downstairs while she was crying and a few minutes later I heard a big thud.  I came running upstairs and found Sophie out of her crib.  I called Jon and told him that it was time to change Sophie's crib into a toddler bed.  As you can see she did adjust to taking naps once again.

 Since we were so close to Missouri and many of the church historical sites, we decided to see the sites.  The picture above is taken at Adam-ondi-ahman.  It's beautiful but there isn't much to see other than a lot of land.  What matters most is what is to happen here in the future.



 This is the Far West temple site.  Again not much to see, but you can see the four cornerstones for the temple.

 

 Our good little traveler.  She did so well with all the driving.  We were worried, but she was a little angel for the most part.  She read books, played with her toys, watched movies and slept.

 



 Sophie with her friend Avery.  They are 3 years apart in age, but they sure had fun together.  Avery was so good to share all of her fun toys with Sophie.

 Karen took us to a local farmstead.  First of all it was free, which was wonderful and secondly it was so much fun.  Sophie loved it!  She loves farm animals.  We got to feed the baby goats a bottle.  I think Sophie was a little nervous at first, because the goats know what you have and we had at least three or four attacking us as we walked in the pen.  They were so cute! 

 When I was 9 years old, my dad decided to go back to school and get a second Masters degree, so we moved to Warensburg, Missouri.  Warrensburg just happens to be about an hour and half from Kansas City, so Jon was sweet enough to take me so that I could see where we lived.  I was surprised by how much I remembered about the town, and I was very surprised to see that it seems much smaller now.  Everything seems so much bigger when you are young.  Anyway, this is the townhouse we lived in for a year and a half while my dad worked on his Masters.  It looked exactly like I remembered it.  It was fun remeniscing.  I actually remembered quite a bit.

 We went to the Independence Visitor Center.  I went when I was 9 years old and it looked very different then.  They have made a lot of changes since I was 9.  One of the changes is this statue of the Christus.  When I was 9, this wall was a mural of Christ descending from heaven and it was two stories in length.  Now the stairs are actually in front of where we are and they have added a lot of neat things, one of which is a childs play area.  They have also added a lot to the tour.  During the tour you go into a replica of a cabin and learn about the pioneers.  I don't know how to describe all of the other areas, but it is very nice and I'm sure others who go who aren't members of our church enjoy the tour much more.  It is very visual.

 Sophie riding the horse that is pulling a covered wagon, down in the childs play area.  There is a small cabin in the play area too and Sophie had lots of fun playing inside.

 We also went to Liberty and saw the Liberty Jail.  I didn't remember that the jail had actually been demolished.  The church bought the land and rebuilt the jail and then built the visitor center around the jail to preserve it.  I believe the beams that are used in the walls and the rocks are from the original jail.

 The Kansas City temple was dedicated a few weeks before we went, so we tried to get in for a temple session, but they were completely booked.  With the temple being so new, you had to make an appointment to attend a session.  We decided to drive up and see it, since it was on our way to Liberty.  It's a beautiful temple!

 Sophie became good friends with Percy, the Divine's dog.  She had so much fun playing with Percy and I just love this picture.  It looks like Sophie and Percy are having a wonderful conversation.  I'm sure Sophie was telling Percy all sorts of stories.

We also went to the Kansas City Zoo.  This was Sophie's very first trip to a zoo, and she enjoyed it.  It was a neat zoo.  The animals are in areas that are similar to their natural habitat, as opposed to being in enclosures.  Sophie was excited to see the giraffes, but they were in their natual habitat with the zebras, out in the open African planes, and they were too far away for her to really see. I was used to the Salt Lake City zoo where all the animals are in enclosures, and you can see them up close but not here.  I think the neatest animal to see was the kangaroos.  They don't have a fence around them or anything, they are free to roam, but they don't.  They stay in their area even though there isn't a fence keeping them in.  It was a little crazy to watch them and to know that there was nothing between us and them.  We never felt threatened, they didn't really move much.  The zoo was huge!  Jon said we probably walked about 5 miles, just walking around the zoo.  It was big!

My beautiful Sophie girl waiting to go to the zoo.  She is holding a stone frog, that sits on the front porch.  She loved this little frog!

 

We had a wonderful time in Kansas City.  We happened to be there over Mother's Day, so I got to celebrate Mother's Day with Karen.  We went to their ward on Sunday.  After Sacrament meeting Jon and I brought Sophie home so she could take a nap.  I really wanted to attend Relief Society, since all the sisters would be together, which meant that Karen wouldn't be in Primary that day, so I drove back.  It was the best Mother's Day Relief Society lesson I've ever had.  It seems that more often than not, on Mother's Day the presidency decides to do a lesson on visiting teaching, because all of the sisters are together.  I HATE it!  I think it's awful.  We should be talking about motherhood and womanhood, not worrying about visiting teaching.  We have plenty of other times to talk about that, we only have Mother's Day once a year.  Anyway, when I walked into the gym the sisters were all lined up.  I couldn't tell at first, what they were lined up for, and then I began to see sisters with plates of food.  The Relief Society presidency had brought fruit, fruit dip, banana cake and a veggie tray for all the sisters to enjoy during the lesson.  How awesome!  The lesson was taken from President Uchtdorf's talk "Forget Me Not".  I left there feeling uplifted and hopeful as a mother.  I was so happy when I left.  It was truly amazing!  I think that all Mother's Day lessons should be like this.  I forgot to mention that the gift we got after Sacrament meeting was two chocolate covered strawberries, my all time favorite treat.  It was a wonderful Mother's Day and a very fun trip.



Almost two!

Sophie has been up to so much these days. She keeps me busy and has been giving us a taste of what it will be like when she turns two. She has been getting in to everything and went through a hitting phase. Thankfully she isn't hitting much anymore, but she will says hit alot. We'll be talking about her friend Elsie, and Sophie will say "hit Elsie". I don't know if it's because she knows that she isn't supposed to hit, so she says it and mentally she's picturing herself hitting or what. She is so funny! The other day she saw a picture of Christ and she said "hit Jesus". I told her that "we don't hit anyone. It makes Jesus sad when we hit. We want Jesus to be happy, so we need to be nice." She has been talking about Jesus a lot lately and she asks us to sing Primary songs for her. One of her favorites is "Jesus peep" which is Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam. She also asks for the "star song", I Am Like a Star and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. She likes the "temple song" and "popcorn" (I Love to See the Temple and Popcorn Popping). Sophie is getting very good at putting words together. She doesn't put more than two words together at a time, but she is speaking so well. Today as I was getting ready, she came in and said "Mommy pretty." It made me feel so good! Here are some pictures of the many things Sophie has been up to these days.

Playing at the park. She loves to hang on things at home, so when we go to the park she really likes to hang on the bars.
About a month ago, I was getting ready and Sophie was in the bathroom with me, as she always is and I had my flat iron plugged in. I'm always telling her to be careful and to stay away from the cord, but this particular day she got too close and her hand caught the cord and the iron fell. I moved out of the way so that it wouldn't hit me. When I looked to see where it landed, I saw it sitting on Sophie's leg and foot. It all seemed like slow motion and her cry seemed a little delayed, but she was so brave. She didn't cry for too long. I immediately put her foot in cold water and then we put some burn cream on it. When I first saw it, it didn't look too bad. Not long after it happened, Sophie went down for her nap. When she woke up I was quite surprised to see that the burn was much worse. It was a lot bigger than I thought. Here are the pictures of her poor leg.

The two marks on her ankle were actually blisters. I felt so bad that she got burned.

I love this picture! Jon took this picture of Sophie while she was watching TV. If I had to guess, I'd say she was probably watching Toy Story. She is obsessed with Toy Story. We have decided to throw her a Toy Story party for her birthday. She just loves Wooody and Buzz.

Sophie loves to read books. She is reading her Bumble book to Max.

One morning Sophie was in my closet while I was getting ready and she put on my heels. I was quite surprised that she could actually walk in them. I brought her downstairs so that I could take a picture of her and this is how she posed.

Fun with lipstick!

Sophie has been getting into things while I take a shower. The first time, she found some toothpaste and rubbed it all over her arms. She had it all over her clothes, in her hair and on her face. I couldn't wash it off with a washcloth, so I ended up putting her in the tub to clean her off. Another day I caught her using Jon's deodorant as chapstick. She loves to play with Jon's deodorant. I finally decided to put everything up high and I put all the towels and sheets down low so that Sophie can't get into things anymore. Unfortunately she got my makeup bag while I was getting ready, and of course I didn't think much of it until a few minutes later when it was very quiet. I was nervous, not sure what I would find. I found Sophie in the spare bedroom sitting on the floor holding my lipstick. She had lipstick all over her leg, on her hands and on her face.

Lipstick on her face. I sure love this sweet face!

Cute dirty face! Sophie had fun playing outside. She loves to touch the cars, and of course they are always dirty.

This is Sophie's Christmas dress. I was never able to get a picture of her in her dress until last Sunday. She doesn't like to cooperate when I take pictures, but I still got some cute pictures.

My beautiful girl! She looks so sweet.

Sophie has outgrown the towels that she had as a baby, so I bought her some new towels. I have seen cute towels that were sewn with a washcloth as the hood and I wanted to sew one for Sophie. Our bishops wife was sweet enough to help me and let me use her sewing machine. Here is the cute towel we made. We didn't have time to do both towels, so I will post pictures of the yellow towel once we finish it. Sophie really likes her new towel. I think she likes that it completely wraps around her. Tonight Jon was holding her like a baby while she was all wrapped up in her towel.

So I still haven't learned. Today while I was in the shower Sophie got my makeup bag. I knew she was up to something because she was so quiet. I didn't want to get her attention, because she'd come and bug me. She loves to open the curtain while I'm showering. Anyway, when I got out of the shower, I found her in our closet sitting on the floor with my makeup bag. When I found her, she said "Don't" which is what she says when she doesn't want us to see what she is doing. I was worried that my makeup would be all over the carpet or on the clothes, but this was all she did. She put on some eye liner. She watches very carefully everything we do and she has learned that eye liner goes on the eyes. Oh what a silly girl!

Easter

I love this picture. I made an ABC book for Sophie and I needed a picture of eggs. Since we had out Easter decorations out, I had Sophie pose with her basket full of eggs. She just looks so cute and happy. I'm surprised she sat so still and smiled. She doesn't usually cooperate with me when I pull out the camera.
Sophie got her Easter basket Saturday morning, but it was such a busy day, I didn't get a picture of her with her basket. She got her ABC book, the new Winnie the Pooh movie, 2 Toy Story sippy cups, and some candy. She loves her sippy cups!

My beautiful girl in her Easter dress. We had Easter dinner with friends. I was a little unsure how the afternoon would go, since Sophie decided she didn't want to take a nap, but she did well. Thanks to Kaylee, Sophie had a lot of fun. She played with Sophie the majority of the time we were at the Jeffreys. They jumped on the tramp and Kaylee showed Sophie her parakeet, which Sophie thought was so neat. Dinner was very good and we had strawberry pie and strawberry shortcake for dessert. Yum!

Spring Break

The week after Sophie and I got back from Utah was Jon's Spring Break. We had such a fun week having Daddy home everyday. Monday, Jon and Sophie had a dentist appointment, and Sophie got her teeth cleaned for the first time. She did so well! She opened her mouth and let the hygienist clean her teeth. I was so proud of her! After the dentist appointment, we went to breakfast and then to the mall to ride the carousel. Sophie loves to ride the horses every time we go to the mall. We had such a fun morning!

Tuesday, was a very fun day. We went to the Minneapolis to the Children's Museum and Sophie had a blast. There was so much to explore and she just couldn't get enough. We first went to the baby and toddler exhibit and she walked around and explored. In the above picture, she is sitting in a birds nest in the toddler exhibit.

We then moved on the room where she learned a little about nature. There was an ant hill and she could crawl around like she was an ant, but she didn't seem to like it too much. There was a wheel that you could turn and create a thunderstorm. The clouds would come out and then you'd hear the thunder and see the flash of lightening. Sophie got a little nervous any time she heard the thunder.

This is also in the nature area, and of course this was her favorite place to play, because of the water. She got so wet! They had plastic salamanders and tadpoles, but Sophie didn't like them too much.

Another exhibit was the make believe room. Here Sophie is at the cash register in the grocery store. She had fun pushing one of the shopping carts, and everything was set up like a grocery store. As you can see they have plastic fruits and vegetables, bread, canned foods and boxes for the kids to place in their carts. I think this was my favorite area.

Sophie's favorite area was here where she could play with water and bubbles. By the time we left, Sophie's pants and sleeves were soaked, but she had so much fun.

Playing with bubbles. This tube was full of soapy water and there were wands like you find in a bottle of bubbles, but these were larger so you could make large bubbles. Sophie had so much fun. She really likes bubbles.

After the museum, we went to the Mall of America for lunch. We ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. It was quite pricey and the food wasn't that great, but it was a fun place to eat. Sophie loved seeing all of the animals. We were in a rainforest and we got to sit next to one of the fish tanks and watch the fishes. We also sat near the waterfall and the elephants. Every so often there is a thunderstorm and once again, the sound of the thunder made Sophie a little nervous. Sophie ordered dinosaur chicken nuggets, the same ones that we have at home. We could have bought a whole package of nuggets for the price we paid for 6 nuggets, but again, it was all about the ambiance.

Daddy and Sophie outside the Rainforest Cafe.

Sophie had a fun filled day, but she was exhausted by the time we went home. Thankfully she can still fall asleep in her carseat. I love watching her when she sleeps. She is so peaceful!

The rest of the week was fun, but not as busy. Wednesday was a lazy day. We stayed home all day and spent most of the day in our pajamas. Thursday, we went to the Children's Museum here in Mankato. It doesn't quite compare to the one in Minneapolis, but that doesn't matter to Sophie, she still has lots of fun.

Friday we watched our friend Mia while her parents went to Rochester for a doctors appointment. Sophie was such a big helper. She wanted to help feed Mia, although it made for more work for me. She loved holding Mia!

Jon holding Sophie and Mia. Two thirsty girls!