Family Pictures

I'm always happy when our family pictures are OVER. I hate the stress of planning outfits and scheduling a time that *hopefully* won't interfere with naps, lunch, or work.  We used Fotofly On The Spot, where they came to our house and did a photo shoot. I am pretty happy with the way they turned out. It is so nice to have professional pictures of the kids.

In these pictures, Sophia is 2 and Max is 10 months.  

I love that Rocco got to sit in a few shots with us. He is 9 years old now, and such a great family dog.

November 2013

This kid loves her books! 

And her dad!

For Thanksgiving this year, Rich smoked a turkey again. It's delicious, as you can imagine. I love the gravy he makes from the drippings. Mmmm... Gravy. Just thinking of it is making my mouth water!

Early that cold morning, we ran in the Turkey Trot in the canyon. Rich pushed our stroller (which is not meant for running, by the way!) and ran with me. I think that's the first time he's ever run with me because I'm too slow for him! It was super fun though. 

The kids got lots of comments on their turkey hats. It's funny that making these takes HOURS and they really only wear it for that 30 minute run. At least I got some mediocre pictures that will preserve all my hard work. 

Sleepy head!

We all got together and had dinner at the Bowen's. After we all stuffed ourselves, some old puppets were pulled out from when Rich was a kid and the next generation (with Jeannette's help) performed the story of the first Thanksgiving. It was really cute.

Another hat photo. When I say they took hours to make... I mean hours and hours.  For several days. Oh, well.

A tradition Rich and I have started is doing a Christmas puzzle together on Thanksgiving night. It's surprisingly fun, but I have to admit, I barely contributed to this puzzle. Rich was flying on it!  Another tradition we have is pulling out everyone's Christmas blankets to use until after Christmas. Also, Grandma Sorenson gives all the grand kids Christmas pajamas. I love the beginning of the Holidays!

October 2013

Sheesh! October was so long ago! But here are some photos. 

Sophia loves to do things "together". Here they are chewing on toy horses together.

I love this picture! They are both smiling so hard! 

Here we were, right in the thick of potty training. I left her alone in the bathroom for a minute and when I came back, she had found a book to read. 

It's rare to see a picture of Sophia without her blanket. 

She's so excited because we got her big bed all set up! Jeanette told me she read somewhere that if you stuff a swimming pool noodle under the sheets, it acts as a barrier and keeps kids from falling out. We tried it, but the noodle ended up sliding off in the night. Maybe it would work if the sheets were tighter.

  

And this is how she fell asleep that first nap out of the crib. FREEDOM!!

Hanging with Dad after church.

Playing under their blankets together.

Pretty hair!

Cheese!

Haha! I don't think I've seen this expression since I took this picture! (P.S. I have since made rail covers fitting for a boy crib.)

For Halloween, these two were Ms. Piggy and Kermit. I made Max's Kermit hat, and most of what Sophia is wearing (wig, ears, nose, and feather boa) is a hand-me-down from when I dressed up as Ms. Piggy a few years ago. She was a surprisingly good sport at keeping all that stuff on! We went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and got loads of candy. It is so fun trick-or-treating again!

Poor Max. He was a good sport most of the night, but at this point- not impressed.

Family photo! Can you guess what pumpkin was mine? Hint: it's a big one that looks like it was done by a 7 year old. I think I actually carved that same face onto many pumpkins over the years. Still haven't perfected it!  

A few more of Ms. Piggy.

Oh, that hair!

Soon I'm going to have to plan this year's Halloween costumes! Oh, boy!

St. George (plus some)

Earlier in the month, Sophia came out of her room like this. She's got style!

We think it's so funny how she's started "feeding" her babies. (Again, she dressed herself in this photo!)

I think this is Max's favorite smile for the camera. He always has his lower lip tucked in. Such a handsome guy!

He's started pulling himself up on furniture and it STRESSES me out! Yesterday he fell and hit his head on the bottom shelf of our TV stand and got the biggest bump. Then he tried to stand up by the bathtub and fell and hit his head. Then it happened in our room. Then in the living room again. He's nothing if not persistent! I told Rich I want to get a baby helmet for him! He also crawls under the kitchen chairs and gets stuck. He'll try climbing head first over the bar to get out and I have visions of the chair toppling over on him and blood everywhere! Argh... I wish he would just focus on crawling for now!

This President's Day weekend, the Bowens invited us to meet them in St. George for their kids' soccer tournaments. It was so nice of them to invite us (and give us the big room!) (and let us use their van!). While down there, we went to Zion National Park. One of my favorite places on Earth! We took the kids on a little hike up Emerald Pools. Sophia did great and wanted to walk most of the way. My legs were a little shaky when we were done from carrying an extra 15lbs, but Max did great too! 

Sophia's smile kills me! 

I love this kid! He got so happy thinking I was going to let him play with the camera. After this picture, he started screaming. :)

Sophia and Hailey taking a break and replenishing their energy with crackers. 

Sophia kept calling the condo we were staying at, "St. George". By the time the hike was over, she was hungry and exhausted and kept saying, "I want to go back to St. George!" 

On the ride back home, Sophia's favorite girl in the world got to ride home with us. Kate is such a nice and sweet girl and always looks after Sophia. I thought this was so cute, Kate let Sophia hold her hand while she was falling asleep!

Some other fun things we did this while we were there:

Rich played lots of Clue with the Bowen kids. He won all but one game (he lost the only game he played with adults), but the best part was that during one game, he was the first person to roll, he got into a room, and made a guess and he was RIGHT! The game ended on the very first turn! Everyone was amazed that that he happened to get into a room on his first roll and that he guessed everything right without any clues!  Amazing!

Rich took Sophia fishing at the little pond.

We went swimming. Sophia amazes me at how fearless she is in the water. I think Max is going to be the same way. He'll stick his face in the water (he does this in the tub, too) and comes up smiling, like feels pretty cool. 

We watched some soccer games. At the soccer compound, there was a really fun play area for kids with lots of farm animals too. Sophia loved it!

We also watched Downton Abbey in our room on the big TV while we let Sophia watch the ipad. I think she thought it was cool to sit on the big bed and stay up late watching a "show" with us.

On the ride home, Sophia got car sick and threw up twice. That is the worst! It was kinda cute though because she said she wanted lotion to make her tummy feel better. (I put lotion on her at night, telling her it will make her skin feel better and she must have thought it was a cure-all for tummy problems!) Then when we got home, she fell asleep on the couch two different times before we finally put her to bed at 6. She slept until 10 and woke up for some toast and a story, then went right back to bed and woke up at 6:30.  She might have caught a little bug or something. Or else she's just exhausted from not napping at all this weekend.