Fall Family Pics

With all of the pretty fall leaves, I really wanted to get family pictures. Since Sophie and I were leaving to go to Utah, we had to get them done or the leaves would be gone by the time we got home. The day we chose to take pictures, the temperature was a record high of 90 degrees. So much for wearing long sleeves or sweaters. Rita took our pictures again this year and she did a wonderful job. It was fun to have Sophie with us for our annual fall picture. Thanks Rita for taking our pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

This is the only picture we got with Sophie smiling. I love the little smirk on her face.

Happy Birthday Jon!

We didn't get to do too much on Jon's birthday. It was a crazy day, but I did make his favorite meal for dinner, meatballs with gravy and mashed potatoes. After dinner we went to Target and bought the new Karate Kid movie. After shopping we went to Cold Stone and got a free ice cream that we shared. I know it wasn't the most exciting birthday, but things have been a little different for us this year. I think he still had a good birthday. When we got home there were three messages from family and friends wishing him a Happy Birthday. He also got a few more phone calls that evening.

We celebrated Jon's birthday again, with our friends the Andersons. Rita made yummy Greek chili for dinner with Rosemary bread and I made chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. We also had ice cream with mini peanut butter cups, which are Jon's favorite. After dinner we watched Karate Kid. We had a fun evening. Thanks Andersons for celebrating with us!

Mom's Favorite Pictures

I wanted to share some of my most favorite pictures of Sophie. It wasn't easy to decide, I love all of the pictures of my beautiful baby girl.

I've almost forgotten how small she was. She only wore this outfit twice, she grew out of it too quickly.

Another one of my favorite outfits, but she didn't wear it very much.

I love the hand behind her head. She wore this hat while camping. It reminds me of the hats that my grandpa Reed used to wear.

My sweet baby girl!

Notice the fuzzy hair. Jon's niece, Makenzie, called Sophie the fuzzy haired baby, before she could remember Sophie's name. Her hair is getting longer, but it still is a little fuzzy after being washed.

This is probably one of my very favorite pictures. Aunt Nicole was keeping Sophie warm after dipping her toes in the pool.

Cute little tongue!

We are wearing matching bracelets that we recieved as a gift. I love Sophie's hands!

Another beautiful smile! She is such a happy baby!

Such a big girl, sitting up in her Bumbo. I love the Bumbo!

Just a sweet face. I love her dress too. Thanks grandma Reed.

Silly little baby!

More Favorites

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures of Sophie

She loves to snuggle with a blanket or something soft when she goes to sleep.

I love all of her expressions.

She knows how to roll over on her own, and I just loved this picture. She rolled over and stayed on her tummy, which she doesn't usually like. I thought this was such a sweet picture and a different look.

Now she falls asleep with the blanket over her face, instead of just snuggling with it. She kicked out of her blanket and pulled it up over her face.

Two of my favorite people. It was a little dark in the living room, so the flash caused her to have such big eyes.

Sophie and Elsie, best friends. I made each of them a pumpkin hat for Halloween.

Another sweet expression. Grandpa Reed loves the brown and green dress. Hehe! He doesn't think brown is a baby color, let alone a baby girl color.

My happy Halloween baby girl!

Summer in Utah

I know it has been so long since I have posted any pictures. Life is busy with a new baby, so I'm a little behind, but I'm trying to get caught up. Here are a few pictures from our Utah trip this summer.

With Grandma and Grandpa Harper

All 12 grandkids in Jon's family. We went "camping" up American Fork canyon. Jon, Sophie and I didn't camp, it was a little too cold at night to camp with Sophie.

Our little family, on Sophie's first camping trip.

Aunt Nicole and Uncle Scott

Loves from Grandma Reed

Snuggling with Grandpa Reed.

(notice the cute little smile while she's sleeping)

Kisses from Uncle Nick. He sure loves his little niece.

Four generation picture with Grandma Reed, Abuelita, mom and Sophie.

It was so good to see my grandma (mom's mom).

Another "Four Generation" picture. This is my mom's American mother. Grandma Reed, Grandma Stuart, Mom and Sophie. Grandma Stuart was so excited to see Sophie. She cried, which I'm sure is a surprise for those of you who know her. Hehe!

Four Generation picture with Mom, Great Grandma Reed, Grandpa Reed and Sophie. My grandma has dimensia, so she doesn't know who we are anymore. She knows I'm her granddaughter, because I call her grandma. I'm sure she didn't quite understand who Sophie was and I know she didn't remember later, but she sure loved holding her. When anyone else held Sophie, grandma couldn't take her eye off Sophie. She just couldn't get enough of Sophie, she kept telling Sophie how much she loves her.

Sophie's Photo Shoot

I wanted to get professional pictures taken of Sophie while she was still a newborn. Things were a little crazy here at home before we went to Utah, so we had them taken while we were in Utah. A friend of mine from highschool is a photographer and she took the pictures for us. We also got a few family pictures taken.

I love her blue eyes

I just love those little toes!

My sweet angel baby!

This is the only picture where she kept her legs tucked in.

My beautiful blue eyed baby!

Kisses from dad and mom

The happy Harpers

Sophie update

Sophie with Aunt Nicole
Sophie with Grandma and Grandpa Reed

Tanner wanted to hold the baby. He was so cute with Sophie.

Her new dress from Aunt Nicole

Our 4th of July shirts. Sophie's shirt says Daddy's Little American Beauty.

It's Jon's favorite onesie of hers.

A friend of ours is a photographer and as a gift to us, he took pictures of Sophie.

The best family picture yet.

This is my favorite picture of Sophie. She loves to pucker her lips.

Life has been utter bliss, with a little less sleep. We are truly in heaven with our sweet baby girl. She is absolutely perfect and we love her so much. We ended up staying in Illinois for 10 days. It was a little long, but wonderful at the same time. We had nothing to do and no one to share Sophie with. We just had 10 days to just hold her and love her. It was wonderful! It really gave us the chance to bond with Sophie and to get to know her a little. She is such a good baby, we just feel so blessed. She is a pretty good sleeper and she eats very well. She doesn't cry too much, except when she's hungry.

Our trip home was a little scary. Everything went really smooth, Sophie slept most of the way, and then we got to Wells, MN which is about 40 minutes south of Mankato and life got difficult. We happened to be listening to the radio and they began doing a weather report, reporting a tornado warning. My parents had just arrived at our house and I knew they would start to worry once the tornado sirens went off. Anyway, Mankato received golf ball and quarter size hail with extremely strong winds. No tornados touched down in Mankato, thank goodness. My mom was a little scared and the house has some hail damage, my hostas were shreded, but other than that everyone was fine. The storm was heading east, so we thought we would just wait it out, well things changed. It decided to head south and we got hit. By the time we realized how bad it was going to get, we were stuck and had to wait it out in the car. I have never been so scared in my life. The car shook and it rained and hailed like nothing I've ever seen. Luckily the hail we got wasn't quarter or golf ball size, or our car would have been damaged. I prayed harder than I've ever prayed while sobbing and fearing for the life of my baby girl. Sophie was an angel through it all, she was happy as could be, completely oblivious to the danger outside. The Lord watched over us and we were protected. It didn't take long before the storm passed through and the winds died down and the rain stopped. As we drove away, about two blocks from where we were the wind had snapped two power poles in half and the power line was going across the road that we needed to be on to head home. We had to detour through the town and we saw many huge trees blown over in he middle of the road. As we drove, it became more and more apparent how much the Lord truly had watched over us and blessed us. We ended up with several more detours, and eventually arrived about three hours later than planned.

My parents and sister, Nicole, were here anxiously waiting to meet Sophie and to see that we were finally safe at home. We had a wonderful welcome with signs saying It's a girl, balloons, and flowers and dinner. We have the most wonderful friends who are so good to us. Thanks Carrie, Shannon and Rita for all you did. My family was here for a week and a half and we thoroughly enjoyed having them here. They loved holding Sophie and feeding her and just watching her. Sophie is the first grandchild on my side of the family, so she is quite spoiled. My parents were such a big help to us, staying up with Sophie and relieving us early in the morning, so that Jon and I could get some sleep. Thanks so much Mom, Dad and Nicole. We love you so much.

Sophie is doing so well and is growing so much. It is killing me knowing that she is getting bigger. I want her to stay my little peanut. I am loving motherhood and I just couldn't be any happier. Thank you to all of you for your kind thoughts and prayers.