BJ and I took wedding announcement photos for his cousin Cindy. We went to the location where they met and we were able to get some amazing shots. I had fun picking the locations and posing them while BJ set up lighting and his umbrellas. We were a really good team, and I even grabbed the camera a few times and took some awesome pictures. BJ was impressed. We have also been asked to photograph the wedding! Blake and Cindy were so pleased with the photos they found it almost impossible to pick just one. So Blake had the wonderful idea of using multiple shots for different invitations. That allowed them to use 6 shots. Here is a sample of some of the photos used.

I did something a little out of the ordinary this week. On one of the days working for my mom I had to go to the post office to mail a 25lb box. It was 2pm and I had not eaten lunch and was starving and feeling sick. My plan had been to go get lunch after the mail, and I knew I needed to hurry back to Granny’s to a hungry little Sophia. So, I am hot, hungry, tired, in a rush and there is a long line at the post office and only one person working. Another lady was kind of coming in and out but not helping yet. This man walks in after me, clearly physically and mentally handicapped. His mouth is hanging open and he is drooling on himself. After what seems like forever I get called on by a 2nd worker that finally came out and the man gets called by the lady next to me. He is speaking through an open mouth and is almost impossible to understand. The employee is clearly not understanding him and doesn’t seem to want to try. I can sort of tell by what he had on the counter what he wants so I just butt right in and tell her what I think he wants, he acknowledges that I am correct. I had to write 2 addresses down, get his ID card to get his return address, and figure out the spelling he had someone else write on a piece of paper. I surprisingly understood his grunts and attempts at letters. (Hindsight: I realized it wasn’t luck that I understood him. I have a 2 and 1 year old at home! I can understand all sorts of random chatter and noise!) The postwoman was so thankful and I am sure a lot of frustration and stress was alleviated by my interference. I was also hoping that an example of kindness helped the others in line, that were clearly agitated at the wait, soften a little and calm down.

So you might be thinking, “What happened to Heather’s forehead?!” I actually chose to do this to myself. I had a burst capillary on my forehead since I was a teenager that caused red splotchy mark. I remember my sister, Tiffany, teasing me that it looked like a pimple. I always covered it with makeup but I got real tired of that and couldn’t see doing that for the rest of my life. I had it lasered away but it left this nasty purple bruise. BJ told me it looked like a big mole. Other friends have teased that they wondered if I was changing cultures/religion. I’ll just be glad when the bruising goes away and I don’t have a red mark to look at!

Sophia has started enjoying being naked, well, at least a diaper on. I will find her at our house or Granny’s suddenly without a shirt or pants or both. I am pretty much okay with it until we were at a store recently and she took her shirt off when my back was turned. I hope this unclothed phase will pass soon.

Phoebe is definitely down to only one nap a day. I am kind of sad the 2 nap a day life is over because only having one child conscious is a lot easier. However, it has allowed for me to go out more and do stuff knowing she won’t have to take a nap until later in the afternoon. Sophia, is becoming hit and miss in the nap department as well. She had 3 days in a row with no nap but it caught up with her! I am not ready for her to have no naps yet!!!! I will have to see how this progresses.

Sophia got invited to a birthday party this week and Phoebe got to tag along with us. We enjoyed making visors and playing with friends and toys. Phoebe was just happy to be there with so many other kids and new toys. This gives me more hope she will transition to nursery at Church fairly easily. Sophia got a goody bag to take home. In it were Disney Princess stampers with an ink pad. I discovered the first go around that the ink was not kid friendly and would not come off her fingers. No big deal, so I let her play with it the next day. I walk out of the room for 5 minutes and come back to this. It was on her face for almost 3 days.

Sophia has also taken to cutting paper. She has these kid safe scissors in an art set Granny gave her. She spends lots of time just sitting there cutting the edges of the pages of her coloring books.

BJ and I got a children’s plastic table from Ikea for the girls. I got rid of her highchair at the table so she can eat, paint, color, whatever at this table and I can care less if it gets stained or scratched. Both girls have fallen in love with it and Phoebe really enjoys sitting with her big sister sharing snacks and watching her color.

Whenever Sophia has hurt herself or fallen we immediately ask her if she is okay. She will respond with either “I’m fine, “I’m okay”, or “yeah.” That has all been bypassed now. Before we even have a chance to open our mouths she is saying “I’m okay” when she gets injured or falls. We find this very sweet and funny.

She has also taken to having little conversations with herself. If we don’t say your welcome after she tells us thank you she will say it for us. Or other times she will ask questions or make comments about something and then answer with a follow up. It amazes me how much her talking and conversation skills have come along in just about 2 weeks!

Wonderful progress with potty training! Nana and Poppy recommended giving her an M&M treat every time she sat on the potty regardless of any result. She has gone in the potty more times this week than she ever has before. She even told me a couple times beforehand that she had to go. We bought our last box of diapers for her and our next trip to Costco we will be coming back with training pants!

I have a ton of Braum’s paper bags in the house. I decided to cut out some holes for Sophia’s arms and head and make her a ‘robot’. She was so thrilled with it, and I have made more paper bag robots this week than I care to think about.

In the middle of sacrament meeting Sophia, somewhat loudly, asks me to “draw boobies” on the Dora I had just sketched on her magnadoodle.

Phoebe is really trying with her vocabulary. At times she sounds like she is almost repeating things we are saying like “that” and “yes”.

Phoebe has started a naughty little habit of pinching. She has made many small injuries to her parents’ faces and arms to pinching. She has a much stronger grip than one would think by looking at her. She also grabs her own cheeks too. Not sure what that is all about other than her cheeks are quite chunky and pinchable!

BJ had sharing time at church this week. For those of our friends not sure of what that is, it is basically a 15 minute interactive lesson to a group of about 30 kids ages 7 to 11. He has a great lesson planned on baptism. Halfway through it an older boy commented to BJ that his “older brother wanted to get baptized in a swimming pool so afterwards he could swim in his sins.” BJ almost died laughing, I think, and the sharing time was quite hard to finish because he and some other teachers couldn’t compose themselves.

The girls are really impressing me. Sophia is showing more patience with Phoebe and a willingness to interact. She actually will try and call Phoebe over to her to play with her or tell her what to play with and what to do with it. They hold hands in the car between the car seats and Sophia gets worried when Phoebe drops her blanket in the car too. I find a reason every day to smile at their blossoming relationship.

Tags: bj,Heather,Phoebe,Sophia,Weekly Family Update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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No, our house hasn’t been taken over by a Silent Hill like dark dimension, Sophia just likes to walk around with things over her eyes. It just so happens that a swim diaper is both hilarious and creepy.

Tags: bj,creepy,silent hill,Sophia
Categories: BJ, Sophia
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One thing I failed to mention in last weeks post was that when we left town we accidentally left our older cat, Dawn, locked in the office. We had left all other doors open in case they had been in those areas, but we never thought about the office since she rarely ever goes in there. She was in there from Wednesday afternoon to Sunday night. We are so lucky we didn’t come home to a dead cat. She could barely meow and felt so light. She ate and drank right away and promptly barfed it all back up in our closet. After a couple more days she was back to herself and was putting her weight back on. We felt so terrible and vow to double check the house before we leave.

Continuing to work on the potty training this week with no luck. Not once has she gone while sitting on the potty. I feel as if she is teasing us now about it. One night she says, very sincerely “Sophia poopoo potty.” My reply, “Sophia are you REALLY going to go on the potty?” “No, don’t think so.” I should have known….

I have this little sing song saying when playing with Sophia to get her to dance a little for me. I simply say “Jam out tttttttt, jam out! Jam out! She never once has repeated it but this week I caught her saying something that I couldn’t figure out. I am usually the one interpreting for BJ, but he nailed this one. She was saying “Jam out tttttttt” while bopping her head. I hadn’t said it in weeks so I don’t know what made her think of it but she sure enjoyed it.

Just in time for her birthday, Phoebe cuts tooth number one–bottom right. The exact same one Sophia had cut first. Phoebe has been flicking her tongue quite a bit over this new thing in her mouth.

Phoebe has also abandoned crawling. She started the week with what I call “momentum walking”. She would throw up her arms and take a couple normal steps, then she would see the thing she wanted or the place she wanted to go and she would start walking really fast with such a momentum behind her. Then the speed would catch up with her and she would fall forward or on her butt. By the end of the week she had learned some patience and paces herself better and walks everywhere. Sophia is helping too. She caught Phoebe crawling one day and said to her, in a firm voice, “No Phoebe, walk! Walking!”

A little scary thing happened for me. I had my teenage sister-in-law babysitting for me this week while I worked for my mom. I had the girls happily playing and watching a cartoon while I could take a shower. Just as I had gotten my bathrobe on I heard voices coming through the front door. I know I had both locks done up and I promptly found out what happened. When Mike and Catey knocked on the door (they said she started to yell mama right away) she went to the door and they were able to talk her through unlocking the door. When they heard the clicks they were able to get right in. I often bathe while the girls are awake with this same set up (otherwise I would never get a shower!) and so it makes me worried to do so now. What if a solicitor comes to the door? Or UPS delivering a box? I have thought about a doorknob cover but there is an open hole over the lock that would still allow her to get her little fingers in it to unlock the bottom one as well. As Pooh Bear would say….”think, think, think.”

Sophia got a new night light this week. We were so impressed with the pink flower from Ikea that cousin Gwennie had in her room we got one for Sophia. As soon as she saw it she said “Gwennie light!” We like it because it puts out about the same amount of light as having the scarf over her bedside lamp. But now she can’t turn this off or on or possibly knock over her lamp by pulling off the scarf anymore! Plus, she just simply loves it!

BJ was in Fort Worth for 3 days staying at the Fort Worth Stockyards Hotel. I called it “his vacation” since he really didn’t DO work, had a bunch of meetings, and ate steak and other great food while having no toddlers to bother him or drain him. Although, he was so ready to come home the 3rd day and he missed all his girls.

We bought a sit and stand stroller, finally! I thought I would try and put it together while BJ was gone. I had done well until the very end. I won’t necessarily explain the logistics of it but I smashed 3 fingers on my right hand very badly. My whole arm was shaking from the pain and still today my middle finger has pain and even some strange numbness to it. The pointer finger isn’t 100% either. I hope it is all better by next week. The girls were very impressed with it and Sophia wouldn’t stop sitting in it until she went to bed.

Sophia discovered broccoli this week and loves it. However, she held it up and proudly announced “a tree!” I explained to her what it was and then later she exclaimed “grass!” Oh well, like it really matters, right?

Sophia has also really taken to singing songs. I have sung to her all sorts of songs and she loves singing along now. Even her nursery leaders have commented on how she is the loudest and best during singing time.

Sophia has to be the one to say prayers every night now. She repeats as much as she can and does pretty well. A close friend of mine recently got diagnosed with diabetes. The first night we prayed for her Sophia was repeating me and actually managed to say diabetes perfectly, but then said “I don’t know” right after. BJ was busting up, very obviously I am sure, since she has never said that word before and doesn’t know what it is or means. We quickly ended the prayer for daddy’s sake and tucked our smart kid into bed.

Phoebe turned one year!!! We had a family BBQ on Saturday and enjoyed yummy ribs and good company. Phoebe (and Sophia) got some great gifts. One of them being a porcelain tea party set. Sophia adores it and it will be even better once Phoebe is old enough to play with it the ‘right way’ an not knock everything over sending her older sister into a tailspin. She also got a little cooking set with pots and pans and spoons. She already had plastic fruit and veggies so she and I have been enjoying ourselves “cooking”. She is so willing to do so and is very interested. Phoebe is having fun with the 2 push toys she received and the stability it gives her while she is still learning to walk is great. There is also this automated pat-a-cake bear that the girls both adore. The first encounter was one of just shock and awe. This is what I imagined they were thinking “This stuffed animal is MOVING!! They aren’t supposed to move! What is going on?” Sophia was so excited about the whole party idea all day long and since she got gifts too, how could this have not been all about her? When we did the birthday cupcakes and sang to Phoebe she was so hurt. She hung her head down and the saddest face I have seen. I think her heart was broken. We sang to her and re-lit the candle so she could blow it out too. When we started singing her face was one of unsure intrigue, then when we got to the part where we say her name she broke out into a HUGE smile and very proudly blew out the flame. This whole day only made us excited for Christmas for the girls!

I can hardly believe Phoebe is one year already. Didn’t I just have her?! I love her so much and enjoy every week that she is a part of my life. She is so sweet and quirky and fun. She is a great playmate for Sophia and I know things will only get better for the two of them.

Tags: birthday,bj,Heather,Phoebe,Sophia,torturing cats,Weekly Family Update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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Just FYI. Heather is pretty busy and has a lot to write for the weekly family update. She’s pretty enough that I’ll forgive her.

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It’s been a while since I’ve been in a position to post anything of note. I spent most of last week at a work conference. The fun part is that it was held at the Ft Worth stockyards, so I got some fun pictures.

Some of the following pictures are HDR pics, but I’ve tried to be a little more subtle about them than others you might find on the web.

Also, the hotel was supposed to be haunted, so I took some long exposures to see if I could catch anything. You’ll have to look close and probably turn up your brightness a bit, but I think I see something by the window…

Tags: bj,photo highlight,photos,work
Categories: BJ, BJ's Life, Photo Highlights
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Granny and Grandad are painting their house and therefore cleaning out the house. They found boxes of some of my old toys they kept: Barbies and their furniture, She-Ra and her battle cat, etc. Sophia was so intrigued and impressed with the dolls and played with them for the rest of the day. I boxed them up again that night after she went to bed because I need to clean them and all the clothes. She didn’t even seem to remember them the next day but I know she will be delighted all over again when I get them out. I just know we will have lots of fun dressing them up and making houses.

Phoebe is fighting back and holding her own against Sophia. He big sister has a habit of smacking her on the head when she is doing something she doesn’t like. She is getting better about not doing it but Phoebe is retaliating and one day I caught them both smacking at each other at the same time with both their hands. It was the typical sissy, girl “cat” fight. I couldn’t help but laugh before breaking them up.

Phoebe has also taken to trying to bite Sophia when she is mad at her. I have caught her with her mouth wide open on Sophia’s hand or arm or face. I know EXACTLY what she is trying to do and Sophia (because it is more slobbering and tongue than anything) thinks she is playing with her and giggles. Alas, Phoebe still has no teeth. She has made progress, though, because you can actually see where the teeth are about to come in. Just a little more and both bottom teeth will break through.

We spent the 4th of July with Jennifer and her family. Grandad let us borrow their new Honda Odyssey and it made our trip so wonderful. We spent our time going to the pool, playing with the slip and slide, wonderful fireworks show, going to see the movie “Hancock” and lots of playing around with the cousins. Sophia is so attached to Gwennie. Whenever she couldn’t find her she would wander around the house calling out “Gwennie! Gwennie! Where are you?!” We can’t wait to go back.

Sophia has developed saying “I don’t think so.” to all sorts of questions. It has made me reflect on what I have been saying to her and wondering if she got it from me, or if it’s another random thing she has learned.

Phoebe is back to saying “mamamama” and I am loving it!!!!

She has also gained more confidence in walking and is choosing to walk more and more around the house. Sophia tries to be so helpful and do as I do by holding her hand to walk her. Their relationship is blossoming so nicely and they truly are playing better together. They are entertaining each other so well and I find them laughing at one another several times a day.

Sophia was getting a little stir crazy by the end of this last week since she had not left the house since we got back in town. Friday night I had an errand to run to Hobby Lobby and then we went out for ice cream at Marble Slab. While at the craft store Sophia enjoyed herself by walking around with a pirate hat she found. We were impressed when she was able to put it back without any fuss before we checked out.

Saturday night we ate dinner at our friend’s house, the Brady’s. They prepared a lovely dinner for us and then the Brady’s and BJ proceeded to have quite the fun time playing Rock Band. Sophia was a big help in playing the drums for them. I finally joined the fun when they brought out Sing Star. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, sounded absolutely terrible, and can’t wait to do it again!

I thought this would be so much longer considering I am covering 2 weeks worth, but that is really all I can report at this time. BJ is very busy with work because his big project FINALLY rolled out this past week for company use. I have been working for my mom and just trying to get by day by day with the girls and having lots of church meetings. Until next week!

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I forgot to mention this little story in my weekly update so decided to post it entirely separate. Sophia, being the climber that she is, climbed up onto the couch armrest and promptly fell (very awkwardly it seemed) right off of it. She landed on the handle of her toy stroller that had fallen over and was facing upward. OUCH! Well, she was very scared and had an abrasion just above her hip. I went to calm her down and told BJ to get her ice pack from the fridge. Only seconds later I heard this loud crash and moan come from the kitchen, followed by laughter. BJ had slipped on a little bit of water and tried to brace himself (very unsuccessfully) on the counter and dishwasher. He had really hurt himself and would have cried but for the fact that Sophia had fallen only moments before and this injury came about in the process of trying to help his child. Sophia was still in tears while mommy and daddy laughed as we continued on with soothing the booboo.

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Now that Sophia can say her first name appropriately she walks around saying it all the time. “Sophia, Sophia, uh, Sophia.” And then sometimes she will say “So-pia.” It is pretty sweet to hear her running around the house chanting this.

Sophia is trying to be a mini-mama to Phoebe. She shushes her and tells her to be quiet when she is crying and tells her to not touch all sorts of things around the house. She hears me “bossing” Phoebe around all day so why can’t she, I am sure she is thinking.

We are also dealing with Sophia trying to feed Phoebe. Mostly wanting to feed her the baby food from the spoon, but I can’t quite trust her enough to not slop it everywhere or jam the spoon too far into Phoebe’s mouth because she doesn’t know better. She also wants to feed Phoebe her Goldfish and pretzels and other small food items. Obviously making me nervous since Phoebe has no teeth and can only really handle half a Goldfish and no pretzels. Although we have progressed to Cheerios this week and she even got to sample some beef Stragonoff and 5 spice chicken breasts. She is looking to be like her big sister—loves food and not picky!

Sophia’s bangs are starting to get wavy, another sign she will most likely have curly hair. They were also getting too long. Not wanting to pay a ridiculous $10 or more to simply have her bangs cut again I attempted it myself. Getting an almost 2 year old to sit still and look up at me while I come at her face with big scissors is really difficult! At least at the hair salon she had a sucker and a kid’s show. In the end I got her bangs cut and they look pretty good. Maybe I can keep this up until BJ I and decide to grow her hair out.

Sophia has gone from hitting too much to hugging Phoebe too much. She is still hitting occasionally but hugs on Phoebe whenever she can no matter where Phoebe is. If she is on the ground then it seems Sophia is laying or sitting on her, if she is standing then Sophia might as well be pulling her down. Sometimes it is a neck hug and then she is just straight up being strangled. It’s been hard letting Sophia know I am proud of her for being nice and that while she is doing a sweet thing she has to let go for being too rough. Most of the time she hugs her it ends up with Phoebe crying or yelling at Sophia.

The last couple months whenever I have been changing Sophia’s poopy diapers I have been commenting that they are “gross” or “stinky”. The “gross” comment has mostly been for Sophia’s sake since she began to have a hand that was wandering South during these diaper changes, and I did not want to have to wipe a nasty poopy hand too. For the last few weeks she has been saying “gross” when I change her diaper, whether it is poop or pee. She has also begun to try and help us wipe herself. Anything will do, a wipe, her blanket, her pants, or any other nearby material. Fortunately, BJ and I have been able to block all attempts, but this is just another sign to us that she is getting ready for potty training.

Sophia had another cat food snack this week. I was at Granny’s house tending to Phoebe when I finally see Sophia with crumbs of something around her mouth. I took her hand for her to show me what she was doing, and I was led to the kitchen and found cat food all over the floor. BLECH!

BJ broke the fun light toy we bought at the circus. It was under a blanket and he was walking in the living room when we all heard a crunch. I immeadiately knew what it was and he had to whisk it away before Sophia could see what happened. I was upset because I saw $10 down the drain but BJ reassured me Sophia got her $10 worth of play out of it.

Phoebe can now transfer from furniture to furniture with no problem. She can also get down from a standing position without falling. She is very slow, but direct and therefore avoids many bumps to the noggin.

I had my CT scan. The radiologist let me look at the screen when she was done and explained to me what she saw. My left sinus cavity is half full of fluid and my right sinus cavity had fluid lining the entire thing, a thin layer, but still there. My septum looked pretty crooked to me but my doctor can be the one to tell me what he thinks and the angle. Hope it isn’t as bad as I THINK it looks. He told me once he saw the films we would call me with a plan of action basically. Well, his office called and said he has looked at them and wants to meet with me for a CT film review. It’s got me all worked up now thinking he is seeing something more that he wants to actually sit down and talk with me and can’t just call me on the phone. grumble grumble……..

While getting my scan done I had the girls stay with a friend they had never been with before. Phoebe is so mama clingy and cries when I am gone even with her daddy and granny. Luckily, both girls did beautifully and I think hardly noticed I was gone. It gives me hope to be able to leave them with non-family babysitters. However, I did feel sorry for my friend—in the 2 1/2 hours she had the girls she had to change 3 of their poops. Sophia was still on antibiotics and they both had blueberries the day before. I can only imagine what little gifts she found.

We all enjoyed a morning at the mall looking for Sophia birthday gifts and getting a much needed new diaper bag for mama. We found a wonderful baby sling bag at Pottery Barn kids, and I am loving my new purchase. No luck on the Sophia gifts yet.

BJ went to Oklahoma this weekend. Saturday the girls and I went to the park and ended up being there for 2 hours. I had only intended a short visit but being the friendly chatter bug that I am, as well as Sophia being a social butterfly, we met another mom and little girl there. From information I gathered during our conversation I was strongly prompted to exchange numbers. Right before we left this other mom was telling me as they were walking up her daughter saw Sophia and commented that she looked nice and hoped that they could be friends. I told her I guess her daughter got her wish!

The park had its price. We all ended up sunburned on our faces and Phoebe on her ankles as well. The days of summer and playing outside are definitely here—and so is the sunscreen!

I managed to get to church on time with the girls all by myself, and not forget anything in the diaper bag or my Primary stuff! Yet somehow that doesn’t always happen when it is the 4 of us. Hmmmm. Anyway, BJ came home Sunday afternoon while we were still at church and set up a bed frame for Sophia’s mattress to go on. She noticed the change but didn’t have a huge reaction. Maybe because the mattress and sheets were all the same, only a little higher now!

Tags: bj,family,Heather,Phoebe,Sophia,Weekly Family Update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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