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.

Tags: bj,Heather,Weekly Family Update
Categories: BJ
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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!

Tags: bj,Heather,Phoebe,Sophia,Weekly Family Update
Categories: Weekly Family Update
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This is just a preview. There are plenty more fireworks shots in the gallery. I’m also really getting the hang of light room.

Tags: fireworks,Heather,Phoebe,Photo Highlights,Sophia
Categories: BJ, Photo Highlights
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The big announcement for the week is that Phoebe is walking! BJ and I worked with her a little bit with her walking in between us to gain confidence and she is doing wonderfully. By the end of the week she was standing up on her own, no furniture or anything for support and then will take a few steps. She has taken to wanting to climb too. She gets up and down from the girls’ little wooden rocking chair and attempts to climb from the bath.

Phoebe has learned to give and take things from someone’s hand. She is so funny when we are doing it with a toy because she is so forceful and quick when she puts it in your hand. I think she thinks it is more a game than me simply handing her something.

The girls and I spent another afternoon in the pool. I was pregnant last summer and only swam once (hmmm, maybe twice) so I think I am making up for it this summer with swimming every week. Sophia sure doesn’t mind.

As BJ already put in a previous post—Sophia got locked in the van and the fire department was called. I have never locked my kids in the car before and go figure it was in a car I am not used to driving. I will say no more on it other than I was terribly embarrassed and felt so stupid, even though one of the EMT’s assured me it was their second call like this that day.

I attempted to cut Sophia’s bangs this week. I see no sense in driving to a hair place (with the way gas prices are) to pay 15 bucks or whatever for them to cut only bangs on this child! I was able to cut them once before and they turned out okay. Not so this time. She was moving too much and the first cut was too short. Well of course I had to base all my other cuts off that first one for it to look even remotely even. All of it being too short. I only told my closest friends the truth but if anyone has asked at church or random places I have blamed it on Sophia getting into the scissors and me fixing it. BJ and I agree we are growing her hair all out and will clip her front hair back.

We took Sophia to see the new Pixar movie Wall E. She did okay for about half the movie and then got squirmy. It was an amazing movie–Pixar can do no wrong! If you haven’t seen it yet–take kleenex! I can’t wait to have it on DVD.

BJ finds all sorts of random crap on the web and on YouTube. He chose to show me a clip in particular from YouTube one night. Sophia was still up and seeing me sitting next to daddy watching something on the laptop was too tempting for her. She joined us and watched the video clip as well. It was okay for her to watch–it is an animation with no cussing. It is called Charlie the Unicorn. OMG! This child will NOT stop asking to “watch Charlie.” This thing is like 3 minutes long but she has fallen in love with it. We discovered there was a second video with bananas and she loves that one just as much. She asks for it every day and asks to watch it again and again after just having seen it. It is hilarious and totally worth checking out on YouTube (BJ Note: I’ll embed it in another post).

Sophia, my little shadow, pointed out something to her daddy one day this week. She was jumping on our bed and looked over on his side of the floor and saw his big pile of dirty clothes. She said “oh no a mess! Clean clothes, pick up.” I laughed and told her they were daddy’s and HE would need to pick them up. I told her she should tell him that. She bounced off the bed and ran into where BJ was in the living room and yelled “Clean up clothes daddy!” I told BJ, when he came into the room being led by Sophia holding his hand, that she pointed it out first and that if a 2 year old can see they need picking up maybe he should learn from her example.

One morning I was out back with Sophia while she jumped on her trampoline. I heard this noise coming from our drain that comes off the roof and leads down to the ground. It sounded like something was falling inside and I was hearing a few bangs and scraping sounds and then a few more bangs. I was thoroughly freaking out not knowing what was coming out of the drain and not wanting to find out. Sophia did not notice a thing so I took advantage of her ignorance and went inside to watch her from the kitchen. She kept asking me to come outside and I told her it was too hot. I’m so lame. She eventually came inside and hours later I got up the courage to look around the drain out back to see if anything had come out. I was completely speechless when I saw what was sitting less than a foot away from the drain opening—-a baby bunny maybe the size of a lemon. I ran inside to get BJ and he of course took pictures. After much discussion (and putting my desire aside to adopt this cute baby bunny who I was sure had no mommy now) we decided to give it one day to see if the mama would come get it. Considering we don’t know how the ‘wild rabbit’ world works and maybe the mama left there until she could come back. BJ called it our “gutter bunny”. We truly enjoyed checking up on it all of the rest of that day and were sad to see it gone the next day.

Tags: family,Heather,Weekly Family Update,youtube
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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Sooooo anyone who know me well knows I have a “sailor’s mouth” problem. I occasionally have it around my kids and have been working on not saying bad things around them, and then I can eventually work my way to not saying bad words at all. THAT will be a glorious day! Anyway, I am at my worst in the car because I HATE traffic and I think all other drivers are stupid but myself. Typical, right? On one particularly hard driving day something happened that caused me to say “shit” five times in a row. Sophia overheard me and and immediately started saying “shit”. I didn’t want to make a huge deal of it to bring a lot more attention to this new word of hers so I simply told her not to say it and went on with my exasperated attempt at driving. Days passed and no problems. This week we had return of ’shit’. I was driving to my mom’s house for work and we went over a bump in the road. A soft voice comes from the back–”Shit.” I redirect her and say, “Oh, you mean shoot. Shoot is what you are trying to say.” She pauses for a bit then says “shoot.” A few minutes later and another “shit” so another redirection back to “shoot.” At least for the rest of the car ride we managed “shoots” instead of “shits”. After this day we have had no other problems but I don’t put it past Sophia to have that little word still locked away somewhere in her tiny head to pull out a anytime. My ears are on alert. (BJ: and your mouth is on notice :p )

Phoebe has taken to saying “dada” completely. She has also learned to say “hi”. She says “hi dada” real soft one day when BJ got home from work. I am both proud and jealous.

Sophia enjoys playing with wooden clothes pins. She puts one in her mouth and uses her teeth the open and close it. I get a surprise on my bottom while doing the dishes when Sophia decides to pinch me with one using this wonderful mouth technique. She was so excited by my reaction she kept trying to “attack me”.

The same friend I visited last week at the airport called me in tears saying flights had been rearranged due to bad weather. She would miss her connecting flight at DFW. Her option at the time would be to spend the night at the airport. Hell would have to freeze over before her parents and I would let that happen so I picked her up at the airport Monday night. I did not get home until almost midnight and we were both up the next morning by 5:45am. I got her to the airport only for her to miss the 7:20am she was scheduled to be on, but she got bumped to a 9 something flight and eventually made it home! We were both exhausted but glad to see each other again and I was happy to help.

All I have to say with regards to the below photo is “Thanks daddy for leaving the permanent marker out where Sophia could reach and do this to herself.” The one small blessing is she ONLY colored herself–carpet and couches were spared.

I enjoyed another morning at the wonderful Sunset Pointe pool with some friends of mine. I very regrettably did not have sunscreen put on my back (this was the morning after just having had an Enrichment Night discussing Summer safety where sunburns, skin cancer, and the use of sunscreen were discussed). I suffer a terrible sunburn because of my stupidity and by the weekend I am peeling horribly and itching even worse. Phoebe had such a wonderful time and really loves the water. Sophia was once again being a water chicken and had to be in a floaty with my hand on the floaty at all times. Slipping under the water for a few seconds (about 2 weeks ago) has really affected her more than I could have ever imagined.

Sophia and Phoebe are playing so wonderfully together. They are getting along better and better each week it seems. Although, Phoebe (unknowingly) can really freak Sophia out. If Sophia is doing something or walking somewhere, Phoebe will inevitably follow. When Sophia sees her coming at her at a fast crawl she screams out in a terrified or anxious voice. There was one day in particular Sophia was leaving her room and coming down the hallway. I was standing near the hall closet watching over her. Phoebe came around the corner, pretty quickly, to get to Sophia’s room. It was so unexpected for poor little Sophia she gave the most high pitched, intense, frightened scream I have ever heard come out of her mouth. She even jumped! I had to reassure her and then we were all on our way to play. I can’t wait until Phoebe is steadily walking and then eventually running. Then they can REALLY chase each other!

Speaking of Phoebe walking…..she is still being pretty lazy and crawls everywhere. I have really begun to work with her on strengthening her legs and getting used to walking. I will walk behind her and hold her hands and help her walk. Sophia sees me do this and has tried to ‘help’ Phoebe do this as well. However, Sophia’s arms, obviously not being as long as mine, ends up right behind her sister with no room to spare so their feet just get tangled up with each others and I know it can only end badly. I have taught Sophia to guide her by holding her hands in the front. We had a very sweet moment on Sunday of her guiding her little sister around the living room for quite some time.

To also help Phoebe walk she uses the baby stroller as a stabilizer and toddles around the house with the babydoll in the seat. It is so cute too, if the babydoll falls out for whatever reason she stops and puts the babydoll back in then goes on her way.

Sophia has really taken to parenting BJ and I. If we are reprimanding her for something or yelling at her she “shushs” or “shhhhhs”. One day this week I was (very calmly) scolding her for something she did to Phoebe. She gets a scowl on her face, points her finger at me, and says in a low growl “TIME OUT!” I respond to her, with a bit of a giggle, “No, I don’t get time out. I am your mama. Only YOU get time out.”

BJ and I attend the temple again this Saturday to watch the Grumbles Family be sealed. BJ takes the family photos afterward and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. However, now it has him clamoring on how he can get more camera equipment to do more photos or portraits. He really has taken this camera and photography thing and run with it.

Happy Father’s Day to BJ! He enjoyed sleeping in, changing no poopy diapers (totally not on purpose though) and a long nap after church. I made baked parmesan chicken for dinner (which was fabulous and so delicious, will give the very simple recipe to anyone who wants it). It was a new recipe from a cookbook I had received for my birthday. We enjoyed trying out the new meal and were so delighted it turned out so well. We then ended the night with a homemade chocolate cake. Also a first time recipe from the Hershey’s website. The cake was so chocolatey and fudgy we almost couldn’t finish the slices we had. We are going to end up giving away half the cake to my parents because it is too much and too rich for us. Oh so sad, right? BJ and I eat too well and it shows.

Tags: Heather,Phoebe,Sophia,Weekly Family Update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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Monday morning I drive out to DFW Airport, with Phoebe in tow, to meet a friend from Phoenix who has a layover on her way to South Carolina. We enjoyed about an hour long visit over breakfast at the Hyatt. I do, however, have to add this extra bit to my story. I was not able to park on any of the ground levels because they were for one hour parking only, otherwise subject to tow. I was too nervous to park there knowing I would be longer than an hour and could not risk having my car towed. So I end up on the 4th level, get a tired Phoebe strapped into the (big) stroller, and start looking around for a garage elevator only to discover they don’t have any!! Through the kindness of strangers I was able to make it down the stairs safely in time to meet my friend. We had to walk back through the garage and more stairs to get over to the Hyatt. We parted ways at the restaurant and so I was left by myself, no kind strangers in sight, to wrestle the stroller up several flights of stairs to get back to the car. Poor Phoebe was jostled around so badly (right after a bottle too) I was sure she was going to throw up. She didn’t, thank goodness, and a tired, sweating Heather made it back to the car.

Tuesday, we had a very fun play group at the Sunset Pointe housing development pool. They have a sprinkler area for the kids and the pools are sloping at the entrance (like a wave pool) which was real different and fun. Sophia was very excited at first and got right into the pool. Two slips under the water later and she was no longer happy about the water. She was shaking so bad I had to take her out and have her sit in a chair, bundled up for her to calm down and warm up. I then put her in her floaty suite. The shaking stopped, but she remained unsure for most of the rest of our visit and clung to me. It wasn’t until the last 30 minutes she found her independence again and hated to leave. We really can’t wait to go back.

Getting ready for a nap one afternoon I take Sophia’s ponytail out and she tells me “Good job mama.” It’s nice to have encouragement!

Sophia’s manners are getting even better. She says “excuse me” if she toots or burps, but she also says it if anyone else does or if she bumps into something. She is becoming quite the polite little girl.

We had some friends over to play one morning and they brought with them a few rubber butterflies. Sophia was intrigued with them and really enjoyed playing with them. Claire was willing to leave a couple of them since she had several more at home. I thought Sophia would like that, but I was certainly shocked by her reaction. When they were getting ready to leave she was frantic about the idea they might leave them. She ran and grabbed them and held her hands out yelling (very upset) some toddler mumbo jumbo I could not understand other than she was disturbed. She was only okay once they took them back.

Sophia has taken to being afraid of the dark and “monsters”. We have battled off and on for weeks now with her going to bed or having a night light/not having one and other misc. trials. This week she kept asking to have her light on and then would get up and flip the switch herself. I have caught her light on in the middle of the night even when we started with it off. We gave up and have allowed her bedside light to stay on with a scarf thrown over it to dim it just a bit more. It’s just enough for her to be comfortable. Hope this stage doesn’t last too long. (BJ’s note: This all started about a month ago with the imaginative hinting of a certain cousin that there were snakes and monsters in the room and the light should be turned on to scare them away)

Only one mention about Phoebe this week. She impressed me greatly during the above mentioned play date. We were doing clean up and she saw us putting toys into a basket. She joined in and started picking up toys around her and putting them in as well, with no prompting from me. Good job Phoebe!!!

My good friend Meganne received her endowments on Saturday so BJ and I joined in for the 2pm session. We ended up being the “witness couple” which was our first time to do so, but it seemed particularly special since it was Meganne’s first session. BJ and I enjoyed dinner at Rafains afterward and the latest Indiana Jones movie to celebrate our 6 year anniversary.

Tags: Heather,Phoebe,photo highlight,Sophia,Weekly Family Update
Categories: Heather, Weekly Family Update
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Heather turned one year more beautiful today. I just wanted to say on here how much I love and appreciate her.

Tags: Heather
Categories: BJ, Heather
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The post title dates me yet still shows how young I am… heh.

Tags: gwennie,Heather,linus,photo highlight,Sophia
Categories: Photo Highlights, Sophia
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Huh? Where is it? I keep asking Heather and the only thing she says is, “I know, I know, but I’ve been so busy.”

Good I say, that means there’s a lot to catch everyone up on.

Here’s a picture to help pass the time.

Tags: Heather,lazy,Phoebe,photo highlight,Weekly Family Update
Categories: BJ, BJ's Life, Photo Highlights, Weekly Family Update
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