Big Girl Bed...

The other day during nap time, I went to check in on Sophia to make sure she was sleeping. When I opened her door I caught her midway attempting to climb over her crib with one leg over the side. That night, she went to bed with no problem. But last night after rocking her to sleep and laying her down. She woke up and started crying for me and Jeff. After a few minutes the crying stopped and I heard her door open. You can imagine all of the possible scenarios running through my head as I heard her door opening. I knew Jeff was out in the garage working out, so it couldn't be him, and for a split second I thought someone was in her room, because of course it wouldn't be Sophia opening her own bedroom door. Well, there standing up at the top of the stairs, was a teary-eyed, red-nosed Sophia looking at me so innocently. When I brought Sophia down to Jeff and told him what she had done, we both couldn't believe she climbed out of her crib without hurting herself. So today I drove to Baby's R Us to get a safety knob for her bedroom door handle so she can't open it and come down the stairs at night. After she attempted to climb out of her crib again during nap time, we decided it's time for her to go one step up into a "big girl bed". Thankfully the crib we purchased for her goes into a day bed and then changes into a single bed. Now the next task at hand, getting her to stay in her bed and not get down and play with her stuff in her room.

A Busy, but Fun Weekend!

Our busy weekend started out with my cousin, Michelle's wedding Friday night at Camp Colton. It was such a beautiful ceremony inside a gorgeous old fashioned chapel, surrounded by tall trees and a stream. Michelle looked absolutely stunning in her wedding dress and her best accessory, her great big smile. Her and her husband looked so incredibly happy and what made the ceremony sweater was when her dad walked her down the isle holding their 9 month old little girl, Evelyn. It was very important to Michelle that her daughter be a part of the ceremony. After dinner and some visiting, Sophia was pooped, so we headed home for a good nights rest.

Sophia all dressed up for the wedding

Saturday morning began as it always does, with Sophia and I eating breakfast together and watching Disney Chanel. Then at 10:00 am, my good friend Kristen came over with some strawberry lemonade and quiche and we headed off to have a "brunch" picnic at the park. When we arrived at the park, we were pleased to see only a couple other people there. The sun was out and there was a light breeze, and the weather was perfect! After setting out the fresh fruit, pound cake, quiche, and drinks,on a blanket on the ground, we were greeted by a group of curious bees. I'm guessing the good smells attracted them. After shooing them off and retreating to a picnic table, we were finally able to enjoy all the yummy food Kristen and I had prepared. Sophia seemed to love the quiche and ended up eating a whole plum by herself. She is becoming so self sufficient these days, and saw the plum, grabbed it and bit right into it. Then continued to finish it off, lol. I am so glad she is a fruit and veggie fan! After filling our tummies with all the good food, we picked up and headed over to the playground with Sophia. Little miss independent (Sophia) climbed up the steps by herself and went down the slide, and continued to do this for quite some time. The only thing she needs assistance on, is the swing, which by the way, is her ultimate favorite activity to do at the park. As usual, Sophia didn't want to leave, but it was getting close to her nap time, so we headed back home to put her down for her nap. It was so nice to sit out in the back yard and visit with Kristen while Sophia was asleep. After Kristen left and Sophia woke up from her nap, I put Sophia in her stroller and walked one street over to my Aunt Debbie's house, where they were having a family BBQ. It fun to visit with everyone and hang out for a bit!

Sunday morning we picked up Starbucks and went to go visit East Hill Foursquare, our old church, for my cousin, Silas's dedication. He is such a cutie and was so good while Pastor Jason was saying a prayer for him. He has these big blue eyes and gorgeous blond curls! After the dedication we drove to Sandy, where we celebrated Silas's birthday at my aunt and uncles. There home is amazing and they have a big play structure with swings for the kids to play on. Sophia had a blast climbing up it and going down the slide all by herself. It turned out to be a beautiful day and aside from the bees, it was a wonderful afternoon!

We had quite the busy weekend, but it was so wonderful to spend it hanging out with friends and family that we haven't seen in a while!

P.S. Sophia is continuing to do great with potty training and went potty for the third time in the toilet this morning! It is taking a lot of patience on my part with trying to keep her occupied long enough on the toilet to get her to go, but I know it will all pay off when we no longer have her in diapers and she's completely potty trained! Keeping my fingers crossed that this pattern continues :)

Busy, busy, busy...

We have been so busy the last two weeks, that I just realized I am almost four months along in my pregnancy already! I have been busy working on new jewelry designs for my site, play dates with friends and getting ready for our camping trip coming up next weekend!



Another page turned in our family book, Sophia turned 18 months on August 11th and is growing up so fast! She is increasing her vocabulary like crazy these days and has added~ help, love u, hello, please, Shaky (Shakespeare our pug), and much more to her list of words she can say. We have officially started the potting training process and are hoping that by the time #2 comes along we will have Sophia completely potty trained. She went "potty" (poo) in the toilet for the first time the other day and we were so excited and after she realized what she had done, she seemed quite pleased with herself. We have also been very proud of her lately, because she is getting better and better with listening and doing what we ask her to. She is also throwing less and less tantrums and has pretty much stopped with the pinching and hitting phase she went through when she wouldn't get her way. I am hoping that phase is one we won't re-visit. Since I have been a stay at home mom for about two weeks now, Sophia and I have really enjoyed spending time together doing various activities. One of which, is getting together with my good friend Courtney, and her daughter, Elle. We have had several play dates and just yesterday we met them in Portland to play in a fountain and enjoy the sun! Sophia had so much fun splashing and playing in the water with Elle! Here's a few of the pics I captured of them playing together.







I am LOVING being a stay at home mom and can't wait until our second child is here so that I can enjoy every moment with my kids!

13 weeks and counting...

On my way up to Washington, two weeks ago, I got a phone call from Kaiser explaining that we needed to go in for our second part of our first trimester screening for Down Syndrome. I immediately started asking questions. They explained to me that they have to schedule an ultrasound for anyone who's results come back greater that 1 in 2,000. My blood results were almost a thousand greater at 1 in 1,146. Hearing this, my heart started to beat and my mind began to race. I soon called Jeff to let him know the details and that we were going to need to go in to the doctor again. As the days went on I got more and more anxious, but soon realized, this whole situation and the outcome wasn't in my control. As I prayed for patience, strength and peace of mind, I immediately was at ease and knew that everything was going to be all right. Well, yesterday soon arrived and as we drove down to St. Vincents, I once again started getting butterflies. I began again, placing it all in God's hands. We waited in an exam room for over an hour before they finally came to get us to perform the ultrasound. When they started doing the ultrasound and I saw our little baby moving around inside my stomach with it's little heart pounding, all of the uncertainty and fear left. We got to see the profile and he (I'll call our baby a "he" for now since we don't know the sex) kept on arching his little back and moving his hands up by his face. I forgot how much their features are formed at such a young age! We were bummed we couldn't find out the sex yet, but were surprised when they handed us a bunch of ultrasound photos including 2 4-D photos, which we had to pay for with Sophia. After about 15 minutes in the ultrasound room they took us back to the exam room, where we waited again for about 20 minutes. Then the doctor came in and said he had good news! After doing the ultrasound and measuring our baby's spine and body the chances had rapidly decreased and we were in the clear! I almost cried I was so happy! Because my pregnancy with Sophia was so easy and we didn't have to go through any of this, I kind of took having a healthy child for granted and now I know how truly blessed we are! Here are a few of the photos they gave us.

4-D Close up of our baby's face

4-D of our baby's body

2-D of our baby's profile

2-D close up of our baby's face

A much needed visit...

On Friday we got back home from visiting my dad's family up in Mt. Vernon, Washington for a week. It had been over a year since we had visited them and it was so nice to catch up and see everyone. We stayed with my grandparents the entire time and my aunts, uncles, and cousins, came over everyday to hang out and have dinner together as a family. We relaxed, visited, went shopping, and I even made it to a few bead/jewelry stores while I was up there. Since last Fall my grandpa's health has been declining due to two strokes that he suffered last year. He now has to be in a wheel chair and three times a week they have a nurse come in to bathe him and help him get some exercise. My favorite thing to see, was when Sophia and my grandpa were sitting up at the table together and Sophia was feeding him her sweet potato puffs. She warmed right up to him and was soon teasing him by acting like she was going to put one in his mouth and then would put it in her mouth instead. It was so sweet to watch them together! We had such a nice, relaxing time up there and it flew by way too fast, as it always does!

Officially done at work....

Last Tuesday was my last day of working for my parents as an office manager for their two businesses. Though I'm going to miss getting to see them everyday, I am really excited about getting to spend the days at home playing with Sophia. Last week I was pretty busy helping with my sister-in-laws wedding, so now that tings have finally slowed down I'm anxious to dive back into making jewelry for my business "Glass Cocoon" and adding some new designs that have been "in the making". I am also excited to start working with Sophia on words and letters. I bought her "My Baby Can Read" and am hoping this will jump start her with her vocabulary and speech. Jeff also came home the other day and surprised her with a foam alphabet that she can play with in the bath tub and stick to the inside of the shower walls. They are so fun, and we go over the alphabet while I wash her and while she plays in the bath. I want to make learning as fun as possible for her. Kind of a random thing, but last night I made artichokes for dinner, and guess who couldn't get enough? Yep, once Sophia got the hang of using her teeth to scrape the meat off the leaf, she kept on wanting to do it, lol. She also loved the heart of the artichoke and ate half of mine! I swear their isn't anything this child doesn't like. Which I am very thankful for. In a few weeks we will be taking her in for her 18 month check up and I'm so curious to see how much she's grown and how much she weighs. I can barely hold her for very long these days and usually have to pass her off to Jeff because my arms will start to burn. She also is getting so tall that it's becoming a challenge to rock her at night, especially because she always wants to snuggle right on top of me, and I try my best to keep her off of my belly. Dont want to her to squish her little brother or sister, lol. She seems to be starting to understand that my body is changing and continually comes over while I'm laying down and lifts up my shirt and kisses my tummy over and over again. She is also getting more interested in babies and loves my friends little boy! When she brought him over, Sophia kept on hugging, kissing and patting him. I'm glad she is being exposed to other babies so she wont be so in shock when we bring home another little one. I can't believe I am already three months along in my pregnancy and only a month and a half away from finding out the gender! It has gone by so fast the second time around and in no time our second little blessing will be here! We have already heard the heart beat and I can't wait to feel the baby move and kick in my tummy!
Though things have been quite busy around here with one toddler,two dogs, working, and another baby on the way, I feel so blessed to have the life that I do and can't imagine it any other way!