New Mexico and Sophia... Mostly Sophia

My sister, brother-in-law, and their two kids live in New Mexico in a really super small town, called Portales. (I'd never heard of it either!) So last week, my mom, Sophia, and I all went to visit. I am super glad we went to visit and it was a lot of fun seeing my family. Here are just a few photos of our trip...

Sophia's first plane ride. She did really well!

My niece, Katelynn, with a brand new baby lamb. This little guy was born the night before. So sweet!

Some more sheep and lambs. (For those of you who don't know this... I LOVE sheep! I could watch them all day. They are the dumbest animals, but maybe that's why I adore them so much!)

This lama is there to take care of the sheep... much like a sheep dog would. Interesting, huh.

Sadly I didn't take many pictures while I was there. I'm not the best picture taker... for some reason, I don't think of it unless the camera is in my hand.

Anyway, back home in SLC, Sophia had her 6 month well child appointment. She had to have 4 different shots... so sad! She is now a little over 2 feet tall (34%), weighs 15 lb 11.5 oz (31%), and is in the 49% for head circumference.

What she's up to:
* She's still not the best sleeper, but usually has 3 naps during the day and goes down for the night usually around 6:30 or 7, then wakes up 2 times to eat and then is up for the day at 7.
* She's great at holding her own bottle. She'll even hold it in one hand while the other is searching for something else to grab.
* She has a great laugh. She mostly thinks goofy sounds are the funniest.
* She is a great people watcher. She seems very curious and interested in what others are doing... especially in a big group. When we are in a group, she gets very quiet and still and just stares at people.
* Sophia is SO close to crawling. She scoots around on the floor and likes to follow Rocco around. This is a game that can last forever because Rocco is ALWAYS avoiding her.
* She is eating "solids" now. She is really good at eating whatever I shove in her mouth. I gave her peas a couple times and it doesn't look like she enjoys them at all. She looks at me with a confused expression on her face, but she still eats it.
* She likes to play in the jumper she got for Christmas. Sometimes she gets bouncing super fast and when this happens she has the biggest grin on her face.
* Ahhh, the binki... I've waiting a long time for her to like the binki. It's a life saver! I think she uses it as a toy more than anything, but it works to keep her quiet in church and she'll use when she's getting tired, but then spits it out when she's ready to fall asleep. She likes to lay on her tummy and suck on it, then throw it and scoot over to it and put it in her mouth. This keeps her occupied for awhile.
* She LOVES her bath time. It's fun to watch her play in the tub. She likes to splash and chase her toys in the water. For some reason, she likes holding onto the drain. Last night I tried to redirect her with a toy when she really wanted to play with the drain, but she's was single minded. I pulled her toward the back of the tub and she scooted toward the drain as fast as she could with a huge smile on her face while was breathing really loud and excitedly. It's the funniest thing!
* Still no sitting on her own
* When being held, she leans to one side. It's like she's trying to lay on her stomach in my arms. My mom says I was just like that as a baby.
* When she gets upset and wants me to pick her up, she refuses to scoot over to me. She'll just stare at me and cry. No amount of encouragement will make her come to me. It's pretty cute.

I sure love this little girl!

Christmas Day

Christmas this year was a lot of fun, and it's hard to believe that it's over. When I woke up this morning, Rich had already taken down all of our decorations... the only signs of Christmas are our little piles of
gifts that haven't been put away yet.

In the months prior to Christmas, I spent all of my free time knitting these GIANT stockings for us. I was surprised at how big they are, but on Christmas morning, they sure are fun!

Sophia seemed to enjoy Christmas morning... she liked pulling the paper off and putting it in her mouth. She got a jumper from Santa and she already loves it. She also got some toys, shoes, and clothes.

The stockings got even bigger when they were full!

We went to church with the Bowens and then to their house for games and some gift exchanges.

Grandma Sorenson got all they new babies their first American Girl dolls. It was really sweet of her and fun to see the babies lick and drool on the dolls. They'll get some good use, for sure!

Halloween festivities

I love making dinner in a pumpkin at Halloween time. It feels so festive. Rich and I had some friends over and we ate this and watched Troll 2. This is a little tradition I started when I was in college. If any of you haven't seen Troll 2... get on it! You won't regret it!

We decided to make Sophia a little duck. It was super cute seeing her doing normal things like eating and sleeping when she was dressed up in her costume.

On Haloween night, we went trick-or-treating with Sophia, Brooklyn, Becky, and John. Aren't they cute! I was so excited to go trick-or-treating again. It was a lot of fun!

If you look close on this next picture, you can see Sophia's trick-or-treating basket that she's holding. It would only fit a tootsie roll or one kit kat bar in it, but it was the perfect size for her. She was a trooper and held on to it most of the night.

Becky and Brooklyn

Rich and Sophia

After walking around for about 15 minutes, Sophia was exhaused. Too much sugar, I guess. :)

It was fun having trick-or-treaters come to the door. My favorite was when my two friends from Vegas stopped by in their homemade costumes. They are bloodshot eyes, if you couldn't tell.

Here are a few more of Sohia in her costume.

Some Photos

Here are a few quick photos of our little Sophia. She is growing up so fast... Sometimes I wish I could make time slow down!

Here is Sophia with her 2nd cousin, Tyler. He's such a cute kid!

I'm excited about fall because that means staying indoors more... which means more knitting and crocheting. This little duck hat is my first project. I'm happy to have such a sweet model. :)

Here is Sophia and Rich.

This Brooklyn and Sophia hanging out together. Such cute girls!

Brooklyn REALLY liked Sophia that night! HAHA!

Las Vegas... Again

Rich had a conference in Las Vegas last weekend, so we decided to make a vacation out of it. Before we left, I had to run some errands. When when I got back home, I found Sophia like this...

throw up everywhere! I don' t know how she fell asleep in that mess... I had to bath her and do a quick wash of the car seat before we started the big road trip. YUCK! Anyhow...

We love going back to Vegas... mostly for the food. :) We also did some touristy stuff while we were there.

We saw the Hoover Dam... which is always neat, but we thought the new bridge was a lot more exciting. I've seen this thing being built from the beginning, so it was amazing to see it all finished.

We went shopping at Town Square, where I hit up H&M. Sophia loves her Baby Bjorne. She loves looking around at everything, and I love not carrying her in my arms! (Thanks again, Jess, for the Bjorne... it's the best!)

While Rich was at the conference, I went to my old work place and saw some of my co-workers... and friends. :) It was fun visiting with everyone and watching them "oh" and "ah" over Sophia. I got so many different comments. Some said she looks just like me, others say she looks just like Rich. Some said I looked just the same, others said I've gained weight (Haha! No offense was taken because I did just have a baby.)

Here I am with Sophia and my good friend, and former boss, Megann. She took the chance and hired me after I moved to Vegas, even though I had no nursing home experience. I was really blessed with a good job there, thanks to her. :)

These two made me laugh every day. They are such fun girls!

Rich and I took some time and walked around the strip. He took me to the coke store (which I had never been to before) and we tasted all the different flavors Coke makes all over the world. It was a lot of fun! I lost $3 at this outing because I dared Rich to drink a whole cup full of a nasty flavor. I'm not sure how I feel about paying that to him... what's his is mine, right??

And we get to my favorite part of the whole trip! Meeting the Coca-Cola bear. He was so funny! We could have sat and watched him all day. In one of these pictures, the bear was biting Rich's head! It was so unexpected and funny! I wish we would have gotten video. Anyway, I could go on and on about the bear... but I think it's one of those "you had to be there" events.

We also hit up the M&M store. It's so pretty in there with all the different colors of M&M's!

And then, of course, we had to go see the Gardens at the Bellagio.

Rich was a real champ, carrying around my purse/diaper bag all over the strip. What a guy!

We also saw my old roommate, Megan, and her hubby and daughter. It was a good time, and I'm so grateful we got to get out of Salt Lake for a bit. It was a lot harder doing Vegas with a baby, that's for sure! When I walked through the casinos with her, lots of people stopped to admire her... I like to think it's because she's super cute, but it was probably just because she's a baby in a casino.