Sophie's Birthday Party

Sophie had an owl birthday party.  It was really fun to decorate for it.  I even made her cupcake owl cake, which was easier than I thought it would be.  My mom and dad came out for the party, and my mom made Sophie's owl outfit and some really cute owl cookies.  She also made Noah an owl shirt and some stuffed owls for party favors and decorations.  We had a great time celebrating with Sophie's family and friends.

Sophie's 1 year pics

That's right folks!  Our little Sophie is one!  Where does the time go?  I can't believe she is already one.  As you can see from the pictures, she has quite the personality.  She is such a social butterfly.  Everytime we go to a store she smiles at people and has started saying. "Hi!" as well.  People just fall in love with her wherever we go.  I don't have much time now so I will post more about Sophie and her birthday another time.  In the meantime, just enjoy those adorable pictures!

Trip to St. George

We took a trip to St. George last week to visit Daniel's sister and her family.  Daniel's mom and stepdad were also there.  We had a great time.  We got to go on a ride with a donkey.

We visited the St. George LDS temple.

                                                    This is Noah with his cousin Breccan.

Dakota finally got Sophie to sleep.

                                                   And we did some hiking at Dixie Rock.

Brother and Sister Love

 Here are just a few pictures from the last few weeks to prove that Sophie and Noah actually do get along with each other sometimes.

Here they are watching a cartoon together.  I thought it was so cute.  Sophie didn't last too long in that chair.

                 I just added this picture because it shows Sophie's hair in pigtails.  Isn't she so cute!

Happy 4th!

We had a really fun 4th of July this year.  We started off by going camping the night before since Daniel had the 4th off of work.  We went to Palo Duro Canyon, which is about 20 minutes from Amarillo.  It's the second largest canyon in the U.S. (after the Grand Canyon).  Noah and Sophie had a blast!  Mom and Dad had fun too, even though it was blazing hot.

                                                                  Here we are in our tent.

                                                       Sophie was sacked out!

                     Here's a shot from the top of the canyon, but you can't really see it.  Sorry!

After camping we woke up on 4th of July morning, and headed back home to get ready for the party at our church.  We had a potluck breakfast, some olympic games, and a parade.  We had a really good time.

                                        This is Noah with his tricycle that he rode in the parade.

                                                      Enjoying some watermelon.  Yummy!

That afternoon we went to our friends' the Rutledges for a barbecue and then headed to a festival at a park near our apartment.

                             Noah and his friend Sara wanted to see the helicopter at the festival.

We had a jam packed day, but it really was a lot of fun.  We even enjoyed the fireworks that night as we rode home.  Unfortunately, the kids were already asleep.  

New Teeth Pics

As promised, here are a few pictures of Sophie's  new teeth.  My friend Rhonda took them at the zoo today.

Feeding the Ducks

I had some leftover bread crusts that I had saved to feed the ducks so we decided to use it today.  We went to the pond by the Discovery Center, and those ducks were sure glad to see us coming.  Noah had a good time feeding them and then playing at the playground afterwards.  I think Sophie was just so hot that she was ready to go home.  She didn't complain though.

Fishing Derby

My friend Allyson told me about a fishing derby that was happening yesterday at a park just down the road from our apartment.  It was for kids 12 and under and was totally free, which was a plus.  So we decided to try it out.  We got there and Noah decided to take a few "practice swings with his rod".  Well, he casted the line one time and it got all tangled up and was pretty much unusable after that.  I was so disappointed!  Luckily they had lots of fishing poles there for kids to use in case they didn't bring one.  So Noah and Daniel got another pole and were ready to fish.  While Sophie and I were waiting for the boys to come back with a new pole, the guys next to us caught 2 pretty big fish.  So I thought maybe Noah did have a chance at catching something.  

                                       This is Allyson's son Tommy, one of Noah's good friends.

Well, it was so windy that it was really hard to cast your line out very far.  So, we ended up not catching anything.  Oh well!  At least we got a free hot dog out of it!

The L sound

Noah has trouble saying the L sound.  He says a Y (as in yes) sound in place of the L.  Being a speech therapist, I know that this is totally normal and I shouldn't be worried about it.  Well, one day I couldn't help it so I showed him how to make the L sound by putting his tongue behind his top teeth.  He tried but couldn't get it.  So I let it go and thought we would just try again later.  The next day he came up to me and placing his tongue in the correct position said, "La La Lei-La".  He has a friend in Mississippi named Leila and I told him that her name has the L sound in it.  He said the sound and her name correctly!  It was so cute.  Now you can hear him randonmly practicing his L sound.  It's so cute because he has to really concentrate to do it the right way.  But he'll walk around going "La La Lei-La".  He should be really good at saying Leila's name so the next time we see her he can say, "Hey La La Lei-la".

Two Teeth!

Sophie is 10 months old now, and is finally getting some teeth.  She has two coming in on the top of her mouth.  These have been a long time coming.  She has had some restless nights and went on a food strike for a couple days so I'm glad these teeth are finally here.  I don't have any pictures of them yet because they're barely poking through.  But stay tuned for some adorable pictures of our little girl and her new teeth!