On the surface it would seem that I haven’t done much for my wife this year in the way of Mother’s Day/Birthday/Anniversary. This trifecta of sentiment is a little draining and for my poor wife it’s the time she can cram to get all of her good will for most of the year.

A few interesting notes however. We won a drawing at a NICU reunion for Phoebe which will allow us to stay one night for free at the Westin in Frisco.

Heather called me one day a few weeks ago and was complaining again about her 1991 Honda Accord. It was a serviceable car with relatively low repair costs. The transmission seemed to be in the process of failing however and after some consternation on Heather’s part and some quick googling, test driving, and investigation on my part and she had a new car in the driveway… well a used car, but a fairly nice one.

You might roll your eyes and think that I’ve given her a gift that I seem to benefit from. This might be true. I might even have had this intention. You should also know that she guards this vehicle with everything she has. Her confidence in her tinkering husband is immediately called into question when he opts to install an iPod interface in her vehicle.

“You have to what?”
“Why does it need one?”
“Do you really have to take the dash apart.”

I am happy to report that only 2 screws did not find their way back into her dashboard and there are no scratches that did not already exist. Also, her car has a decent stereo in it already… subwoofer and all.

There is no question this is her car. I have to plan hours in advance to actually be able to drive the family anywhere since it is the family vehicle. She is more than willing to play chauffeur at a moments notice. In order to console myself I also bought a car; a car I could tinker with endlessly.

It’s fun.

There’s something else I have to get her for her anniversary… but I can’t say what it is.

Tags: anniversary,bj,Heather
Categories: BJ, Heather
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Heather is working on a longer post about the various activities and fun things we did over our Thanksgiving vacation. We have plenty of pictures of all the fun moments we had. After reading some of her draft, I realize that we have pictures to illustrate pretty much every fun moment we spent with family.

There won’t be enough room in her post to show all of these pictures so I’ll try and share some highlights.

Tags: bj,Heather,Phoebe,Sophia
Categories: BJ, Photo Highlights
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It is actually BJ’s fault this is 2 weeks late. I wrote the previous week’s post but the pictures for it had not been downloaded off the camera yet (which I don’t know how to do) so my words sat there and sat there. I could have just hit the ‘publish’ button and been on my way. But I hate doing a long post without pictures…..the grandparents need their eye candy! So before we both knew it one week turned into 2 and here we are. Once again, get ready for a LONG post! (BJ Note – I had pneumonia )

I think as I mentioned in the previous post we had ended the last week with Sophia and BJ getting a fever. BJ’s fever hung on for a few days and other symptoms came on. In the end he went to the doctor and as you saw from his post he had developed pneumonia. Sophia kept fighting an off and on low grade fever all week and seems to still have it. Phoebe had a day here and there with low grade fever as well. I don’t know if they have a simple virus or are trying to get more sick. Either way I hope things get back to normal soon. Although, even through all the sickness BJ at least managed to get his early voting out of the way!

With the weather cooling down it has become necessary to get slippers on the girl’s cold tootsies. I brought out Sophia’s pair from last year for Phoebe but haven’t gotten a bigger pair for Sophia yet. She was quite distraught when she didn’t have a pair of her own so the next day we went out and bought her some princess slippers. She absolutely loved them. However, this darn Texas weather is so finicky and constantly changing that within a day or two of buying them the weather warmed up and we were back in T-shirts and flip flops. Oh well, we have them ready to go whenever it gets cold again.

Phoebe has had a strange habit for months now that whenever she is just in a diaper she pulls on her diaper constantly trying to pull it off. She will tug and tug as she walks around the house or playing. She has never been successful in getting it off thank goodness, but the picture below shows just how far she has gotten. Just enough to let a cute little butt crack stick out. Oh baby cheeks!

The girls and I had a bad fall this week. Sophia was in our bathroom trying to do ‘make-up’. I needed to get ready so I picked her up and turned around to carry her out of the bathroom. I got just to the doorway when I kicked and then tripped over Phoebe. I totally didn’t see her so I stepped into her full force. So I tripped, and as I was falling I had enough time to realize that I can fall completely on top of Sophia and crush her with my whole body, or drop her off to the side as I roll to the other side. Well, my body said to “DROP!” so I dropped her to my left as I fell to the right and let out a big scream because I knew we were both going to fall pretty hard. Sophia basically did a belly flop onto the carpet and I landed on my side. Phoebe was crying from being pushed over, Sophia was crying from being dropped (and I am sure scared from hearing me scream out) and I was crying because I knew I hurt both the girls and I was shaken up from falling too. So BJ comes into the room with all 3 of us sitting on the floor crying trying to figure out what the heck happened. It took Sophia the longest to calm down. I know part of it was seeing me cry and that had her really worried. Fortunately none of us were hurt bad, more shaken than anything.

Sophia, sadly, has graduated to size 5 diapers. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to get there and that she could be potty trained. Potty training has kind of stagnated at this point. I am not consistent enough (and too lazy right now) to keep up with offering every 30 minutes or so or other methods. She has so many positives right now and is capable of potty training in so many ways, but I think ultimately even her desire to do it isn’t there yet. Her telling us she wants to go and asking is so rare now. She seems way too content to be in a diaper. I have decided for my sanity and hers to put potty training on hold until the new year, unless she shows me signs otherwise……I am hoping!

Mama got a break from the insanity of the house. I was getting tired of Sophia’s behavior and attitude this week and seeming to constantly fight with her, I was doing almost all the children’s care due to BJ being so sick and therefore I was exhausted and agitated. My rest and break came in the form of my old (she’s not old, we have just known each other for years, had to clarify Rach!) and good friend Rachel. We enjoyed lunch at PF Changs and catching up with each other. Once I came home I felt refreshed and ready to take on the kids again!

With BJ being sick and Phoebe being the only one without fever it seemed pointless to just take Phoebe out. So we all stayed in and I passed out candy. We got about 30 trick or treaters which is slightly down from last year. Sophia was so excited whenever anyone came to the door she ran and got her own trick or treat bag and stood at the door with me. I felt so bad for her and as it turned out her fever broke that evening. I was hugely tempted to throw on her cowgirl clothes and take her out but decided not to. Instead we had her trick or treat at every door in our house and I gave her candy in her bag. She really enjoyed herself and then looking at all the candy she got.

Sophia and I (mostly me) carved pumpkins that Halloween morning. No pictures, I was too embarrassed! I took the seeds and roasted them using a recipe I find in a small mail in recipe book my mom got centered around Halloween themed foods, snacks and drinks. I was amazed at how the seeds turned out and they were so good–too good in fact–BJ and I ate them in 2 days. I wish I had just pumpkin seeds (don’t want to hassle with getting them FROM the pumpkin again) now so I can make more! Yum Yum!

We ended the week with BJ’s pneumonia getting better from his antibiotics and me getting a sinus infection. yay……

I bought 4 avocados the last time I grocery shopped and suddenly one day I noticed they were all gone. I asked Sophia if she knew where they were and at first she said “No.” BJ and I were looking all over the kitchen beginning to worry that we may end up smelling rotting food after several more days somewhere in our house. We kept asking if she did something with them and this was her final confession. “I put them away. I put them in the um, in the……um…..in the, in the…..TRASH!!” So with a rubber glove I trash dove and there they were, all 4 of them, on the bottom of the trash. I took them out, thoroughly washed them and she will never know the difference!

Sophia saw ‘Kung Fu Panda’ a few times this week. It is her new favorite movie. She tells us she is the “Dragon Warrior” and has her stuffed animals say it too. She also yells at the TV when the 2 tigers are fighting and tells them “Stop fighting! Mama and Daddy tiger are fighting! No fighting!”
Phoebe’s front teeth are coming in quite nicely. However, it has definitely become evident she is going to have a big gap. She looks real cute still, of course, but the gap is so big I think you can almost put a quarter between them! Jenn, I am beginning to think Phoebe has some of your genes…..thumb sucker, blondish hair, and gap teeth…..she would fit in nicely with Gwennie and Casper!

BJ’s cough is still hanging on a little bit, not much, but it is still there. He gets tired kinda easily (but I secretly think it is more from having sat on his butt so much for almost 2 weeks than his recovery!) but otherwise is on the mend!

Our family enjoyed an evening at Nana and Popi’s house. They had a fun (and loud) surprise at their house for Sophia—a drum set just the right size for her! She loved it of course and played with it for most of the rest of the night. Uncle Michael pointed out that her white tank top made it picture perfect, although completely unintentional!

Phoebe has started randomly walking on her tip toes. Just walking anywhere and anytime, I will catch her up on her toes. Ballet in her future maybe?

I got to enjoy a baby shower on Saturday for an old co-worker of mine. I made her a name board for the baby’s room. Besides the girls’ boards this was the most detailed one I have done, but it turned out beautifully I think.

Tags: Heather,Phoebe,Sophia,Weekly Family Update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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Phoebe has discovered the white nobs on the end of spring doorstops. Throughout my day I am constantly finding them in her mouth. For awhile I would rinse them off and put them back with a false hope she would leave them alone…….NOPE! I gave up and have put any away that I find, but I have not taken them off of the ones she has not gone after yet. Just the other day she actually tried to push me out of the way so she could get to the one to our room! I have also caught her going back to the original scene of her crimes to see if the white nobs have returned. One day I will be able to put them back!

Sophia got to try for the first time (compliments of Granny) those frosted Mother’s brand animal cookies with sprinkles. Sophia has only ever seen sprinkles on cupcakes so when Granny handed her one and asked her what it was she stared at it for a bit then said, “a cupcake!”

Sophia watched the original Disney version of Peter Pan. Hook has a particular way of saying Peter Pan; it is more like “Petah Pan.” Sophia picked up on it and for the rest of the movie would repeat, “Petah!” Days later she is still going on about “Petah! Petah!”

Sophia has always been a bit of a gassy child but something is up with her this week!!! I’m worried to light a candle in this house from all the gas that little girl is putting off! I have not changed anything about her diet and she is not eating beans or broccoli and yet she is blasting us constantly. I am only mentioning it in this post (because admittedly this IS a strange thing to write about) because it is SO MUCH! BJ and I have been in complete shock and awe from this. I would hate for her to grow up to be Ms. Toots Too Much.

Sophia finally got cowgirl boots! I have been shopping around for months until I found out Stride Rite was going to get them in for the Fall. I have been waiting for about 2 months and then Granny took us shoe shopping. They had them in multiple colors and styles but the metal tipped, light pink ones were iresistable. I was stressing over getting them too since we have been also planning for months for her to be a cowgirl for Halloween. Having the boots was the last thing we needed to get and would complete the outfit perfectly. If we didn’t get them in time I was going to have to make her a pirate like the rest of us. We also got treated to new church shoes and some sneakers for the Fall/Winter. Thank you Granny! She has loved showing off her cowgirl boots to anyone who will look.

My sister Jennifer and her 3 kids arrived in town as well as my other sister Tiffany. We enjoyed 2 nights with “Auntie Tiffduhdee” as Sophia says, and have been having Jennifer stay with us off and on between my mom’s house and here. Tiff left this weekend but Jenn is here to stay for another week, which I am excited about because I feel like the kids haven’t had enough time together. We all went out to eat at Babes Chicken House Saturday night. For anyone who has not been there they are a great family style dining restaurant with great fried chicken and home cooked style veggies. They will pretty much bring you an unlimited supply of mashed potatoes, cream corn, green beans, salad, and biscuits if you ask. It is all so yummy and I definitely recommend it as a place to eat! Phoebe even surprised me with how much chicken she ate.

My discipline is rubbing off on Sophia too much I think. I caught her playing with 2 of her stuffed animals. The larger one “Meow Kitty” was the daddy and “Penny”, the much smaller pink one was the child. She had them facing each other and in a rough voice said “Do you understand?” Penny’s reply, “No! Do YOU understand?!” Meow kitty, “Tough luck!” This is added onto by her telling me when I make her upset that I need a “pop” or to got to “time out” or “go to bed”. I would actually like the last one, going to bed at anytime I want sounds nice.

Sophia hurt both her knees by falling on the concrete out back. She whines to me telling me she hurt her knees but I was busy with Phoebe so I said from afar, “Oh baby I’m sorry. Kiss Kiss.” I guess I was supposed to actually go over and kiss her because she came up to me, smacked my butt (I was bending over tending to Phoebe) and said in a demanding voice, “Mama! I need kisses!” So I sat her down and obliged.

Sophia has taken on with a passion pretending to be a cat. Everyday she is a “kitty cat” and will crawl and meow, even when she is asking for things or trying to tell us something, it will be in her meow voice. I, of course, at times play along with it and treat her like a little kitty cat and meow back at her. So she and I established who we all are in the house: I am Mama Cat, BJ is Big Cat (her words not mine), she is Little Kitty, and Phoebe is Baby Kitten.

All the cousins, Jennifer, BJ and I enjoyed an early morning trip to the duck pond to give the ducks their ‘breakfast’. They were very hungry and ate every crumb of bread we brought. It is so much fun when they come up so close to you and are willing to take it from your hand. The kids had a blast needless to say.

This weekend Phoebe FINALLY cut tooth number 3! It is her top left and has only barely broken through the skin, but it is there! We now have proof there are more teeth in her head, they were just taking their sweet time! Hopefully this marks the beginning of several more teeth coming in very soon.

The highlight of the week was going to see Neil Diamond live in concert with my sisters and our dad. We purchased tickets for his birthday that was in July but the concert wasn’t until now. We went to the Claypit to eat Indian food beforehand and it was very different but delicious. It was so nice just having the 4 of us go. Growing up we used to have daddy-daughter dates so it was nice to have another one all these years later and to share it with my sisters. Some of you might think, “what the heck?! Neil Diamond?! Is she nuts?!” I know I am 26 years old and ND seems like a strange choice of music for me, but there is history there. My parents like ND and listened to him while I was growing up. I have known of him and his music for as long as I can remember. I saw The Jazz Singer very young as well. I can remember car trips when we were on vacation and trying to fall asleep and hearing his music playing over the radio and either not being able to sleep or simply finding myself singing along. I don’t think anyone can listen to ‘Comin’ to America’ and not be moved somehow or enjoy the song in its simplicity. The man is nearly 68 and he can still perform so wonderfully. He took time to speak with and about the audience. His voice is not as strong as it used to be but it was still sensational. All in all it was a great night with great people.

Tags: bj,Heather,Phoebe,Sophia,Weekly Family Update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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Man is this long overdue! So much, too much, has been going on in our house so sitting down to do a post is hard to do. I barely get to do e-mail some days! I have waited so long I know this is going to be long, I am really almost dreading it, but I know so many family and friends are looking forward to it. So here goes the novel…….

Sophia is progressing well (but not fast enough in my opinion!) with potty training. She is telling us more often when she needs to go and is more willing. We have even had 3 Sundays during sacrament meeting where she has told us she needs to go and then she has gone in the women’s restroom! We were so proud of her. The only problem is that when she does have to go she always tells us “poopoo potty”. Not once has she gone number 2 in the potty so I don’t know why this is her choice of words to tell us, but at least she is communicating!

On a day I worked for my mom I let Sophia play in the sand box. I thought I had shaken out all the sand from her and her clothes until that night after her bath. BJ noticed a pile of something on the bottom of the tub when he was getting her out, and very concerned it was poop, promptly and nervously asked her what that was. Of course, following up with “Is it poop? Did you poop?” (we have had problems in the past of Sophia pooping in her bath after dinner) She looked at it and proudly announced “I pooped that!” BJ calls for me to come in and says “What the heck is that stuff? Sophia said she pooped it!” I saw what it was and through much laughter I explained it was sand from earlier. Thankfully much easier to clean from the tub than poop!

Sophia comes to me with a pair of training pants on her hand like a paper bag hand puppet would look and talks for it by telling me “Hello!”

Aunt Catey (BJ’s 16 year old sister) typically wears white tank tops with brightly colored v-neck or round neck shirts over them. I came out of the room one morning with a white tank top on with a bright pink shirt with flowers on it. Sophia points and says “That’s Catey’s shirt!” I told her no, and that mommy can wear stuff like too. At least not as well as Catey considering I am about 40 pounds heavier than her! It also goes to show Sophia is paying attention and getting used to Catey and what she wears!

Sophia is showing more aggression toward Phoebe. I feel like I can’t ever leave the 2 of them alone for 1 minute before she is biting, pushing, swiping, hitting, or sitting on Phoebe. It is exhausting and frustrating. We give time outs or pop her on the hand and manage to get her to say sorry and kiss Phoebe on the head, but 10 minutes later she will get at Phoebe over a toy if she can. I must say, though, Sophia is getting really good at tattling on herself. We have gotten to the point where if I am not around to see what happened and Phoebe is crying all I have to do is ask Sophia what she did or what happened. She is prompt and honest, “I pushed Phoebe.” or “I hit Phoebe.” etc……

Phoebe has started an icky habit of sticking her finger up her nose. It could be anytime, anywhere and she will just stick her pointer finger up her nose.

Phoebe has also discovered the power of her mouth. She can click her tongue, make a fish mouth, make tooting sounds, and blow. She will also anytime, anywhere make these noises and goes on and on.

We have begun the process of breaking Phoebe of the bottle at nap time and bed time. She seems to be doing fine at nap time without it but bedtime has been hit and miss. Once we are successful with this our next battle will be to break Sophia of her sippy cup at bedtime. This will help us with the potty training too so she isn’t loading up on fluid right before going to bed. We have had several mornings of wet sheets from leaking out of her diaper even!

Speaking of breaking old habits, we have been able to break Sophia of sleeping with her light on. She still has the flower night light, which we are fine with, but I hated that she had her light on too. It only took a few nights of sticking to our guns and she is fine!

Sophia’s bangs are finally coming in! They no longer look too short and have a very nice length as of now. Hopefully I can manage her hair while we are trying to grow it all out. Phoebe’s hair is getting so long too. Mostly unruly. Since it is coming in curly it sticks out in all sorts of directions, but it just makes her all the more cuter! It isn’t tight curls, mostly loose curls like mine but time will tell as more hair comes in.

Sophia and I have been practicing colors. She can accurately identify, most of the time, purple, pink, red, blue, black, brown, white, yellow, orange, gray, and green.

Phoebe has taken to crossing her arms like during a prayer, then she will take the outer most arm and hand and clap it against her other arm. Random, very random…..

Phoebe has also started a new thing of walking backward. She is very funny to watch when she does it, but she loves doing it. Eventually she will bump into something or simply fall on her butt, then she gets right back up and is at it again!

I bought a small pumpkin (pie pumpkin is what it was called I think) for Sophia. She has seen pumpkins around due to it being Fall and I thought I would indulge her. She was so excited when I brought it home and it had to go everywhere with her. She bounced with it outside, slept with it next to her bed, went potty with it, read books, etc. We drew a face on it and managed to keep it for a few weeks before it started to get too soft.

Sophia has grown short lived attachments to various stuffed animals. I work for my mom 2 days a week and literally every day it is something different that we take with us. It used to be that as long as I had her blankies and a sippy cup we were good. One day it will be Nemo, the next Pablo, then her beanie Ostrich, Lightening McQueen…..one morning we left with Pablo, a baby duck, a Siamese cat doll from Granny’s house and a ‘jingle bell’ bear that ended up coming home with us previously. She just HAD to have them all. This is on top of her blankies and cup. Needless to say getting in and out of the car ends up being a process of getting my kids AND all their crap out of my back seat!

There is a lovely duck pond and walking path within a short driving distance from our home. I have never been there early in the morning but with the weather being so nice I couldn’t resist. We were at the pond by about 9am. We took only a small amount of bread with us. The first group of ducks we came to (about 10) immeadiately came up to us on the grass when they saw they were going to get fed. They surrounded Sophia and I and came right up to our feet. Sophia was so overwhelmed nd was tripping on the ducks because they wouldn’t get out of her way and she couldn’t walk. She almost fell over on top of one. THAT would have been quite an incident. They were eating out of my hand and I even got nipped twice. Needless to say we ran out of bread very quickly and continued on our walk. The ducks were clearly NOT satisfied enough. They slowly followed us in the water along the path. There were other ducks along the path and they too thought they were going to get fed and started to come up to us, but we had to move quickly since we didn’t have anything. We ended up going back home and I grabbed whatever bread I could find, mostly old hot dog buns and flour tortillas, and rushed back. It was just like the first time. I have never seen ducks so aggressive and so willing to get so close. It was a little scary for Sophia and I (Phoebe had been safe in the stroller). I think being the first ones to feed these guys in a day is more than we bargained for.

A friend had her baby and he was in the NICU very sick for awhile. One morning I was very sad about his condition and was crying. BJ said he was sad too. Sophia was seeing and hearing all this so she asked about daddy being sad. BJ simply explained to her that mommy’s friend had a baby, he was very sick, and we didn’t know what to do. Sophia had a sweet answer for us. She said “Give baby ice pack.” We always give her an ice pack when she gets hurt so her reply made perfect sense!

We had a family friend come to town with his 2 children for 7 days while his wife stayed back at home working hellish overtime for end of the year stuff. Sophia was so excited to have a little friend over and was quite a shadow that first day. I could see, however, with each passing day that they were both wearing thin of each other and the crying, whining, and fighting were increasing. His daughter, who is 3 1/2 years old, came up with a very cute and funny nickname for Phoebe. She started calling her Phe-bob. Don’t know where it came from or if it was influenced by something she heard BJ and I call Phoebe, but it ended up rubbing off on us and we started to call her that too while they were here. We did take a trip to the Wiggly Play Center (just our family) where Phoebe thoroughly enjoyed the bounce house slide and Sophia loved the cars, as always. We all took a trip to the aquarium. Phoebe and Max (our friend’s son who is only 4 weeks younger than Phoebe) did not get much from the visit since they were trapped in strollers. It was nice taking Sophia back since she had not been since she was about Phoebe’s age. BJ got a great opportunity to set up one of his backdrops (first time too!) and take some fun portraits. He did as well as he could with a 3 1/2 and 1 year old! We got a few good shots and that is all it takes to print one to frame and love! The practice was good for BJ too.

Towards the end of our friend’s visit BJ’s grandfather got sick and was in the hospital. We no sooner had the company leave when other family came into town to rally around Grandpa. One of these being BJ’s sister Bekah. A bunch of family spent an evening visiting with Grandpa and each other at the hospital. I’m happy to say Grandpa improved and got to come home after only 2-3 days in the hospital. We got to also enjoy an evening alone with Bekah and have dinner. It is something I don’t think we have ever had and we had such a nice time. She brought ‘bribery’ gifts for the girls and they have thoroughly enjoyed playing with them. To this day she is still asking about Bekah and where she is and what she is doing. She has even begun to mistake her nursery leader for Bekah (who also has lots of freckles) and has been calling her that.

I proceeded to get sick with bronchitis during the remainder of the week. I had mild laryngitis for a couple days and after that just sounded like a quiet frog. Plus I had an annoying cough to get all the gunk out of my lungs. The coughing and rough voice carried into the weekend of the wedding unfortunately.

Since (cousin) Cindy’s wedding was right around the corner, Bekah stayed in town and drove with other family to Tulsa, Oklahoma. BJ and I left on a Friday morning. The car ride was about 4 hours and very strange without children. Within 10 minutes of being in the car I was shocked at how quiet it was. I was not constantly turning around to break up a fight, pick up dropped blankies and cups, offer snacks, etc. It was very relaxing and I ended up sleeping most of the time.

So much family came out for the wedding and it was so wonderful seeing them and even meeting some for the first time. BJ and I had a good time taking photos, but will readily admit it was also very hard. There were a lot of ’shots’ we wanted to get and so little time! We have discovered why wedding photographers, and good ones, charge $2,000 or more. We have now spent the following week going through what I had initially thought was about 1,500 photos but was really almost 2,000!!

Anyway, Granny watched the girls while we were gone and they did a great job. They weren’t upset, they didn’t even miss us, and they acted for her like they would for us! Which actually probably isn’t a good thing……Granny was more than ready for us to come home and was exhausted. Only trouble is, they all did so well, despite the half dead Granny we came home to, that it has given BJ and I hope that we can now have a vacation (within the next year or so) all to ourselves!

Tags: Heather,Phoebe,Sophia,weeekly family update
Categories: Heather, Phoebe, Sophia, Weekly Family Update
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Yes, I know this is extremely late. One week turned into 2 weeks and I thought I could get it done, and before I knew it 3 weeks were gone. Plus, I think it was some procrastination that turned into total laziness and a strong desire to NOT do this post. However, if I let it go any longer I fear I will never catch up and then we will never get to document what the heck are kids were up to in September 2008!

Lots to say about Sophia. Her communication skills have blossomed over the last few weeks and she is retaining so much of what she hears and learns. She always seems to have something interesting (or silly) to say. Here is just a sample of what we have experienced:

Mama: Sophia, go get Phoebe’s blanket out of her crib for me please.
Sophia: No I can’t. I’m too heavy.

While coloring a picture…..”Behold!”

Sophia: Mama!
Mama: What?!
Sophia: I don’t know……

Watching Curious George, Sophia: It’s George!
Mama: What is George? (expecting her to say monkey)
Sophia: Curious!

She has been getting mixed up when she wants to tell us of she likes something or not. So when we offer her food, that she apparently doesn’t want, she shakes her head no and says in a rough voice “I like it!”

I am busy talking to someone at the door and Sophia wanted BJ to get her something. She walks up to him and tells him “Get off bum daddy!” BJ had been sitting in the living room playing a videogame…….

A nickname BJ and I have for Phoebe is ‘Chubbs’. Totally inappropriate, I know, considering she is not chubby, fat, or chunky in any way. But we like it and so it is here to stay. Sophia has never repeated it until recently. She will repeat most of my commands to Phoebe to “not touch this” or “don’t do that” but added Chubbs at the end.

Sophia is obsessed with tractors. Whenever we drive anywhere she is on the lookout for them and gets excited when she sees one. We have so much construction in our area right now and along the roads we travel it is pretty hard to never see one when we go out. She will yell, “Look mama look! A tractor, I see it, I see it!” OR “A tractor! Oh my goodness.”

After playing with her Optimus Prime transforming robot (a cheapo thing she got in a Happy meal), and calling it a “robot”, she calls him a “beat boxer”. He continues to be a “beat boxer” and not a robot for the rest of the night.

Sophia is playing in the bath, we hear a loud crash followed by a splash. I was in the process of getting up to check on her, but I wasn’t overly concerned because there was no yelling or crying, when she calls out in a very matter of fact voice “I’M OKAY!!!!” I hadn’t asked yet, but good to know!

Speaking of the bath, she has discovered having her head, but not her face, underwater makes everything sound different. She can often be found laying in the bath with just her little face poking out. She seems so relaxed.

She is back to sleeping with her night table light on, much to my dissatisfaction. That is what her big flower night light was for! It gets her to fall asleep and I just sneak in later and turn it off. We don’t know what started this up again but hope she regains her confidence and feeling of safety back.

Sophia is also quite the mini-mama right now. She wants to look at and/or do all the things I am doing. If I have a pony tail and she has one too she will say, “Just like mama!” She wants to put on make up like me, cook dinner like me, etc.

She also tries to ‘parent’ Phoebe all the time. “Don’t do that Phoebe.” “Let go Phoebe.” “No touch Phoebe!” and on and on. Pretty much any scolding we have said to Phoebe Sophia will repeat. It has been hard explaining to Sophia why it is okay for BJ and I to say those things but not her. Really we are trying to teach her roles in the family and that we are parents and she is a child. Not easy to do on a 2 1/2 year old!

We had heavy rain and some wind due to Hurricane Ike. Sophia was desperate to go outside (luckily we had no lightning and thunder) and look at the rain. She has become really fascinated with rain and wanting to be out in it ever since daddy took her out that first time to collect water in her bucket. It was POURING, but I was tired of her whining and figured it wouldn’t hurt. We let her play out there for what ended up being half an hour. Phoebe couldn’t resist being a part of it too and joined us. Sophia was cold and sopping wet (but happy) by the time we brought her in.

Phoebe’s turn! Oh, what can I say about that little piece of deliciousness! She is almost running and really has to just to keep up with her sister. In fact, if she is doing something she shouldn’t or we tell her to stop doing something and get up to go get her she starts to run away.

She has quite the temper and doesn’t like Sophia touching on her too much. I think she has just had too many bad experiences in her life up to now of Sophia touching her in mean ways—hitting, pushing, kicking, biting, etc.—that she doesn’t want her touching at all. Admittedly, when Sophia touches her it is usually negative even to this day. She always seems to be taking something from her or pushing her hand away from something Sophia THINKS she shouldn’t be touching or simply does not want her to. As a result of all this Phoebe lashes out by trying to bite. She started this a couple months ago but it sure has gotten worse! Biting at Sophia is her first reaction. She has 3 areas on Sophia she will ‘target’–her hands, arms, or torso. And if Sophia was too quick and pulled away Phoebe will bite her own hand or wrist. (Jenn, I am sure you are totally laughing right now!) The thing is, she still only has 2 teeth so no real damage is done. You can see where some other teeth are about to cut through, but it is taking forever!

Phoebe has discovered frothing her spit and drooling it out. She mashes her lips around to get the spit all bubbly and of course, it eventually drools all down herself.

Her hair is coming in more and more curly. If we don’t brush it after a bath it tweaks out all over the place. It sure is cute. Her hair really is a lot like mine was as a child. Blond and wavy/curly.

She has discovered the trash can. We have the kind that you have to tap the top for the lid to open, but it still has the main part of it that you open when you want to change the bag. She can lift that part very easily. I have scooped countless items out of the trash. I think she saw me open the trash like that one day and has been hooked ever since.

Her speech is coming along nicely too. She said “thank you mama” one day that completely shocked BJ and I. She makes all sorts of sounds and you can totally tell she is saying something, but she just isn’t precise enough yet for us to understand.

If you ask her to give you a hug she will lay her head on your chest and snuggle. She hasn’t figured out the wrapping the arms part yet.

She is proficient in climbing and, just like her big sister, can be found climbing the furniture, stools, chairs, etc all the time.

Tags: Heather,Phoebe,Sophia,Weekly Family Update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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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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As BJ said I have been very busy. Been working hard at my mom’s since she is (mostly) out of commission due to surgery. She is doing better and when she is in the office I realize 2 are definitely better than 1 for the job! I have also started to rearrange things in the master bedroom and organizing things better. I also put up new curtains and the room is coming together nicely, but I still have lots of work to do. Spring cleaning the master bath, re-organizing, and packing away old baby clothes. I have also been working on Phoebe’s wooden name board. I love crafts and really liked the idea of having decorative name boards for the girls. Phoebe’s is not quite done yet but I can’t wait to post a picture of it. I feel like I have started all these projects and have only accomplished half the work. I had done a 1 year hand print and photo frame for Phoebe these past 2 weeks as well, but that actually got finished. It has also been on my mind to finally paint the hallway too. I just can’t seem to sit still. Plus we had birthday week and we hosted the party at our house. We celebrated BJ’s 29th, Michael’s 19th, Cindy’s 29th, Jeff and Sherry’s 3rd anniversary of turning 25! Lot o’ birthdays!! I am not like my other wonderful family and friends by posting a sweet birthday note to my hubby. I am lucky to get this post done right now! BJ knows I love him and will take care of him in his old age! ;P

As BJ mentioned in another post he went to OK this past weekend. I was tempted to go but didn’t want to put the girls out too much. However, I felt like I was going to lose my mind this weekend dealing with the girls fighting and almost constant care and attention. Add a little exhaustion and I was VERY ready for him to come home.

What Phoebe has been up to:

She has become such a copycat. Any noise or sound (or screech) that she can mimic she will. Some of it is really cute and some of it definitely not so much. She has added “wow”, “whoah”, “no”, “ball” and “oh” to her vocabulary and uses them almost constantly throughout the day. She has also increased the amount of pointing she does and points at almost everything and exclaims her new words in the process.

Phoebe has developed a temper and attitude as well. It used to be if we heard Phoebe crying or fussing it was because Sophia did something to her. Now it is due to her not getting what she wants, not getting where she wants to go, Sophia taking a toy, or not playing with her, etc etc etc. Or if she wants something or wants somewhere she will scream and yell at us. We know exactly what she wants but apparently we don’t move fast enough! And obviously she has no other way to tell us what she wants, so yelling it is.

She is such a confident walker now and has tried to start running when she gets really excited.

Still only 2 teeth, but it doesn’t stop her from eating anything she wants.

Latest compliments from strangers besides her beautiful eyes is that she looks like the Gerber baby. We sure think so.

Phoebe has never hung out with us in our bed before. One morning was really rainy. The girls woke up around the same time (which rarely happens) so we piled into bed with blankies and sippy cups and watched morning cartoons for a bit from our comfy, warm bed. As you can see the girls enjoyed themselves very much, and Phoebe even looks like she still wants to sleep.

What Sophia has been up to:

She has started this thing when she wants to identify something. She waves her arm in a circle and repeats “It’s, it’s, it’s it’s…..” and then I have to help. She has also started asking me “What’s next?”

Sophia again identifies mommy as a girl, daddy as a boy, and then BJ asks Sophia if she is a girl. She assuredly says “No.” BJ, shocked, then asks her what she is. She exclaims “I’m a cowgirl!”

I went shopping at Target one evening and come home with several bags. Sophia starts tearing into them saying each time “What’s this?!” Getting tired of that I quickly pull out the new shirt and shorts I found on the clearance rack (the shorts were 98 cents!) and tell her she can have them. She grabs them up in her arms, hugs them, and says “Oh! I love it!” Then immediately has to wear the new outfit. Her ‘before’ hair picture is of her in the new clothes.

Nursery was missing the chorister for singing time one Sunday. Sophia started singing in the middle of doing her coloring activity and some of the other kids joined in. She then led the rest of ’singing time’ by picking the songs they would sing and singing the loudest.

Yep, we took her to get her hair cut. Don’t worry, her bangs weren’t touched, they clearly don’t need it. We wanted to even her hair out and get rid of the tangly, thin hair in the back. We were nervous about her first ‘major’ haircut and didn’t want to lose the curls, but it turned out very well and we can still do ponytails and pigtails. She looks a little more grown up too.

Sophia was jumping on her trampoline with Daddy watching when BJ comes in and tells me I have to come out and listen to what “my daughter” is singing. I go out and am greeted by the funniest thing. She is singing another random song that I sometimes sing around the house but that she has never repeated before. It is an Avril Lavigne song and she is jumping up and down singing “hey hey you you I don’t likeurgirlfiend no way no way.”

Another wonderful Friday. We went to the Wiggly Play Center and met daddy for lunch where a little boy hit her a couple times within 10 minutes of being there thus crushing any excitement she had gained from being there. With lot’s of hugs from mama and reassurance she warmed up to the place. Phoebe had a blast and loved every minute of it. We ended the day with swimming where Sophia was just as independent as before with swimming by herself.

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