Sweet Blessings and a Promise (to myself)

I was looking back at this little notebook I had been keeping for Sophie with all the little things she's doing and I got so upset when I realized I had just stopped writting in it around 12 months! There are so many things I know I wanted to remember between then and now. I thought surely I could pull some things off my blog, but I just haven't been good at blogging either! I have been racking my brain trying to remember as many things as I can, but it made me realize how good blogging is just for my own sake. So, I have promised myself that I am going to be more faithful at blogging so that I can hang on to each of those special little memories.

So, here is the first post in keeping my promise to myself:



My how the Lord has blessed us! We love having two sweet little girls. It's been a little crazy with having the stomach flu and other illnesses, no sleep, plus just the adjustment of having a new little one, but we are still loving being a family of four.

Miss Maggie is not the best sleeper, but neither was her big sister. Sophie is a fantastic sleeper now. She cracks me up at how much she loves to go to bed. I'm sure it helps that she and her Daddy have a fun bedtime routine that she loves so much.



This little porkchop has more than surpassed her birthweight and at 2 weeks was already at 7lbs 10oz. I can guarantee you that she weighs more than that now at 3 weeks. She is already starting to look so big to me! Today she was trying to coo at us. I love those little new baby coos!



I can't wait to see what kind of personality this little one will have. Will she be serious like Josh thought in the beginning or will she follow in her sister's footsteps and be a goofball?



Sophie girl is adjusting pretty good. She loves "her baby" and always wants to go see where "her Maggie" is. She loves kissing on her and really wants to poke her eyes... yep, gotta keep an eye on her! She loves to help me throw away diapers and hand me pacis. Yes, as you can see, Sophie still has a paci too. Judge me if you want, but she likes it so much that I hate to take it away! She only gets it at bedtime, but today we are having a sick day so we're breaking the rules a little. When she woke up this morning, I asked her (in my sad voice) if she was doing okay. She just looked at me and matter-of-factly said "I'm find. Don't worry, Mommy." Like she was some kind of grown up! Love that girl!



She likes to put the boppy pillow around her waist and say "I wanna go to the pool!"



This morning she put her pants on all by herself and started jumping up and down screaming "I did it! I did it!" Very proud moment in a two year olds life.

Love this life that I have been blessed with! Somedays I have to remind myself of that when I am so sleepy and just want a shower... :)

Silly Sophie

Sophie: "Take picture, Mommy"


Me: "Can you smile?"


Me: "This time can you smile real pretty?"


Me: "Okay, just stick out your tongue."


Me: "Now make a fish face." (which she does know how to do... not sure what this is supposed to be)


Sophie: "I silly Sophie."
Me: "Yep."

Two.

Happy birthday to my beautiful, wonderful little girl!

(two photos on left taken by April Nienhuis)

Sick. Again.

"So tired of being sick."


"Well, maybe it's not so bad..."


"No. This is just getting old!"


Okay, so maybe that's not really what she said, but that's how I feel about it! I love winter, but I'm ready for spring and fresh air and NO MORE SICK BABY!

I Love Fall.

(so wish this one would have been in focus because it just shows how much fun she was having)

Growing Up

The last couple of days Sophie has really been interested in picking out her own clothes. It's just so cute and funny. She brings me all this stuff and says "help, put on" and I just can't resist.

Here are two of her choices:




And we just can't get away from that cheesy smile when the camera is out. Oh well. That's Sophie and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Somedays...

Somedays I'm doing okay.

Somedays I feel like my heart is being ripped right out of my chest.

Slowly but Surely

Well, I'm slowly trying to rejoin the land of the living! It's been a rough few months with nausea and migraines, but I think I have finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel. Woo hoo! I'm almost 19 weeks and hoping to find out soon if this new little munchkin is a boy or girl. Marcie played around today trying to get a peek, but the little stinker wouldn't give us a good look. She did get some cute pictures though:

I like the little "thumbs up".

Now I just have to make the best of these last few months before life DRASTICALLY changes for us! We're so excited, but I do still feel a little sentimental about the fact that it will no longer be just me and Sophie during the days. I'm trying to soak up as much time with just her as I can! She is at such a fun age and talks my head off most days. She can count to 10 and knows her ABCs. We've been working on colors, but so far everything is yellow. She also wants to use the potty so bad she can hardly stand it! She just can't quite figure it out, which makes her very frustrated.

Maybe this is part of her trouble... :)

First day of BSF with Jayden and Nanny. She's little miss social and apparently talked the teacher's heads off.

Sophie and Her Baby

Sophie has this cute little baby that she pushes around in a stroller most of the day. She always stops, goes around to face the baby and says "hi baby". Then, she checks to make sure she's comfortable and goes on pushing. It's so cute! I know I've said it before, but I love this age!!!

Anyway, I tried to "capture the moment" between her and baby, but this was the best I could do.


In this shot she was giving the baby a hug and I couldn't get my camera adjusted fast enough. So, all I got was a cute Sophie and a blurry baby hanging at her side. ***sigh***


Then, I asked her if she could give me a pretty smile. This is what I got:


Silly Sophie. I love her so much.

Big Girl

I love the way these turned out, but at the same time I hate it that she looks so old! I can remember my Mom telling me "you're getting to big! stop growing so much!" And I would just laugh and say "I can't help it"! I didn't really understand what she meant. I just thought she was funny and maybe a little weird... :) I totally understand now. I just want my baby to stay my baby forever!




Once again I'm torn between color and BW. So, I just kept both.

Picnic with our Nature Baby

We love to go on picnics. Sophie thinks eating outside is so fun. Plus this girl just likes to roam free in the great outdoors. She's quite the nature baby. Except when it comes to lady bugs. She's terrified of them. Giant birds land in our yard and she chases the with no fear, but a teeny lady bug crawls across the patio and she runs screaming the other way! Silly girl.

Anyway, I was talking about picnics...

Who said cheese quesadillas weren't good picnic food?!


Ah, the "Mom, I'm trying to eat... leave me alone for crying out loud" look.


Taking a stroll with Daddy. I love seeing them together like this. Makes me feel like I'm going to burst with joy!

Birthday Boy

Wow, I have really been neglecting both my blogs. Summer hits and there just seems to be so many fun things to do outside of the house, that all the indoor things move to the back burner. We have been spending lots of time outside. Sophie got a water table and she LOVES it. She dumps buckets of water all over herself and just squeals and laughs. It's so much fun to see her enjoying the outdoors.



Jayden turned 3 on the 18th. He's just getting so big and is just as cute as ever!



Baby brother enjoyed the party too. Snuggles from all kinds of people... what more can you ask for?! How cute is this little chunky monkey?!



And of course, Sophie enjoyed the party. She was mostly interested in roaming. She was so afraid I was going to pick her up and make her leave that she would run the opposite direction any time she saw me. I was only trying to take her picture! I had to run way ahead of her and snap fast before she did a 180. Most of those shots just turned out blurry... I did get a couple of her enjoying her cousin Kalie and uncle Jerry, though (you can't actually see Jerry, but that is who she is smiling at). Isn't Kalie so pretty?! I love her hair!

Photos are Hard to Take These Days...

because someone would rather play with the camera than stand still to let me take her picture! ***sigh*** Maybe one of these times I will get lucky and get an in-focus shot of her again...

Hello?

Well, I'm feeling like a lazy blogger, but all I have to post about right now is Sophie. She is pretty much my entire day, so I don't have much else to talk about... I love it though!

Sophie loves talking on the phone. To no one. She can carry on quite a conversation. She starts out by saying hello (sounds more like hewow) and then chatters in her own language and laughs. This age is just so much fun!

She also likes you to talk to her "friend on the other line". Here she is sharing phone time with her Daddy.



She also LOVES to play outside (although we haven't been able to for going on 2 weeks now... stupid rain). She collects rocks and makes little piles like this one:



I guess you have to be a mommy to understand just how cute this pile of rocks is to me...

And here she is with her ornery face because she is pretending like she wants to go inside, but as soon as I stand up to walk that way she will take off running and saying "no".

Snow Day

Baby Brother

My baby brother is 16 today! That's crazy!!!

Sophie LOVES her Uncle JC (or Uncle "This" as she calls him). He spent the night with us Monday and she was SOOOO excited. She only wanted to be with him and he's so sweet and doesn't let her annoy him. He even let her help him text people. It was so cute!



Well, Happy Birthday baby brother! I love you!!!

How Cute is This?!

Oh. My. Goodness.



How cute is my girl?! I mean really... is this not cute?!

Enjoying the Warm Weather

We decided to go for a picnic Monday because it was SO beautiful outside. After a little bit of fried chicken, we wandered around trying to get squirrels to come to us. Sophie thought they were dogs.










Can you tell how much she loves being in the carseat... *note sarcasm* Doesn't she just look completely annoyed?