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A couple Quotes!

2012-02-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

A few things I've heard Sophia say lately:

1. "Happy Valentine's Day, sweetheart" :)
2. "When I grow up I want to be a babysitter. No... a hockey player!"
3. "Mommy you frustrated my reading!"
4. "The boys were tussling on the teeter-totter? Ridiculous!" (She says the word "ridiculous" with great drama... it's the cutest!)
5. "Do cats have bones? What do they look like?"
6. "What do blood cells do?"
7. "I want your coworkers and me and you and daddy to go to Minneapolis."
8. "Grammy is an almost vegetarian." (I think mom said that during her last visit... it's amazing what kids remember!).

Valentine's Party!

2012-02-15T08:31:00.001-08:00

I was able to slip over to Sophia's school for a bit yesterday and take part in her classroom Valentine's Day party! The kids had strawberries and bagels with strawberry cream cheese for snack...

The Montessori philosophy places great emphasis on fostering independence and confidence in small children... it was such a treat to watch Sophia prep her own food and handle snack and clean up all by herself... I would never have her do all of that at home!

She made a "love bug," which is now proudly displayed in my office :)

And she showed me a few "works!" This is a pouring "work" using small beads. Turns out beads are a lot more challenging to pour than water!

Her friend, Gowri, pitched in. It was a fun afternoon!

youTube Link for the Pop Diva Sophia!

2012-02-12T07:16:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmfwBPX-qNg&feature=youtu.be

A few recent pics...

2012-02-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

Sophia loves making lego garages for her cars!

This was Sophia's first ballet recital: a 5-minute segment during the winter showcase. The dance school was PACKED!

Aria is now in Sophia's ballet class, and a couple weeks ago she came over for a playdate after their lesson. She really likes the pets!

The girls had a very busy crafting playdate!

Practice :)

The joy of bed-jumping!

Christmas! Christmas! Christmas!

2012-01-12T06:39:00.001-08:00

Travis was thrilled when Sophia stuck a mini basketball in a blue ring and announced it was Saturn... she gets all of her science education from him! They're both really into "outer space!"
The Academy for Children put on an awesome "Winter Carnival..." see the video in the post below this one!

All preschool songs have hand motions :)

Sophia's FIRST BUS RIDE! She was SO thrilled! (The Academy bussed the kids to and from the performance center where they sang for the parents).

Grammy came Christmas Eve, and Sophia had a solid week of being spoiled!

Christmas morning!

Here is a link for a video of Sophia unwrapping the tractor in the above pic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKUtVSIAYZ8&list=FLEu2PP31BwRFKQ_t7wOAOrw&index=2&feature=plpp_video

Of course Christmas is fraught with difficult, tiny construction projects!

Holding up a Disney princess for her new princess castle (thanks, Chris and Sammy!). Aunt Berta (Sky's girlfriend) made Sophia an AMAZING art carrying case!

Here is a link for a video of Sophia unwrapping this present from Chris and Sammy (another Disney princess doll!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1jonE86mTU&list=FLEu2PP31BwRFKQ_t7wOAOrw&index=1&feature=plpp_video

The present opening took over 2 hours, and actually got kind of overwhelming :)

Sophia unwrapping legos from Chris and Sammy... here is a link for a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cClgbCkLSw&feature=autoplay&list=FLEu2PP31BwRFKQ_t7wOAOrw&lf=plpp_video&playnext=2

Yay! Long underwear! Haha. And, yes, I don't love posting pics of me in glasses and no makeup and PJs, but this is reality!

The shrapnel!

This just sums my daughter up: she had her Cinderella doll driving a John Deere tractor!

After presents at home we headed north to open more presents with Grandpa and Grandma!

All the cousins were there! Ava is such an adorable little butterball!

Travis' parents, three siblings, and the our families!

Next we headed to Sophia's great-grandparents' home for Christmas dinner! Ava again :)

The kids wrote and directed a Christmas skit, of which Kevin (Travis' uncle) was a super compliant participant! The two older kids in the background are Travis' cousins... they were slightly more reluctant participants, but very good sports! It was hilarious!

Kevin, the pregnant santa :)

Jaylin (striped shirt) usually does the screenplays and directing!

Sophia and Grammy, having a little mellow play time after the Christmas hoolpla!

A few days after Christmas our friends Leslie and Leonard and daughter Aria came over for a wrapping paper and boxes bonfire!

The girls got into the candy canes...

Sophia's first writing! This pic is sideways--sorry--she wrote "Sky!" It was a card for my brother, who's birthday is 2 weeks after Christmas!

Sideways again... "love Sophia"

She is LOVING the art set from her great-uncle Kevin!

Again... she has princess dolls for this furniture, but this is how my daughter plays! That would be Holly Shiftwell and Finn McMissile from Cars 2! She's obsessed!

Cars love going to the theater, you know...

Aria came over Sunday morning for a playdate... she has just joined Sophia's ballet class, so the girls wore skirts and "practiced!"

Aria is a leader in all things silly!

Preschool Performance!

2012-01-11T10:23:00.000-08:00

This is a little video from the "Winter Carnival" that Sophia's preschool put on! It was SOOO cute! The classes were bussed to a nearby performance center, and then they were bussed back to preschool with the parents following, and we all enjoyed a nice reception at the preschool.

Yankee Swap!

2011-12-19T10:32:00.000-08:00

Sophia is becoming so deeply involved with a few of her toys (cars being one of them!). She let a dinosaur get in on this meal, too!
Luckily she helps me with dishes every night!

Car school

The annual Williams "Yankee Swap Christmas Party!" We were there on Sunday the 18th, which was a stunning 50 degree day! Here are some of the girls!

Getting ready for the icecream bar dessert! Aunt Kathy knows how to put on a party!

Sophia unwrapping her Yankee present (a paint activity that she loves and was working on last night!)

Grandma Mary got the adult, leopard-print footie pajamas! Too funny!

Sophia performing with some cousins! Check out the video on the post below this one! Merry Christmas!

Sophia Singing!

2011-12-19T10:28:00.000-08:00

All of the cousins were performing at the Yankee swap (Christmas songs and a beautifully choreographed ballet performance! I was SO impressed!). Sophia wanted to get in on the fun, but the only song that came to her was the one that her preschool sings at the beginning of each music class. The song is called "Hello, how are you?" (in case you couldn't tell!). :)

First Snows!

2011-12-12T11:40:00.001-08:00

I was kind of waiting for some "real snow" but here we are sitting on Dec 12th and still have not had any real snow! We've had ground dustings twice that quickly melted. Our pumpkin caved in a couple of weeks ago, so I guess the little bit of snow in the above pic will have to do for our 2011 annual "pumpkin-snow pose!"
2010 (when we had a LOT more snow!)

2009

2008!

A Lil Nov-Dec Catch-Up!

2011-12-12T10:42:00.000-08:00

We are "go-go-go-CRASH" lately!
Christmas cookies... I was so impressed by Sophia's decorating skills! I didn't lay a finger on these cookies! Pretty meticulous for a 3 year old if you ask me!

Lots of crafting, as usual... I took a pic of this bird craft because Travis made it up all by himself! He's constantly evolving as a daytime stay-at-home dad, and I think he's pretty awesome :)

Thanksgiving! This is our Goddaughter, Ava, with big bro DJ

We had Thanksgiving with Travis' maternal grandparents, Snooki and Cash.

Lindsey and Ava... so sweet! Gotta love those nursing comas!

It was a really nice dinner!

Sophia and DJ at the kids end of the table... they both look so grown up to me!

Sophia with her Great Grandmother, Snookie

Great-Grandpa Cash

Later on we stopped by the paternal grandmother and crew's gathering, and Sophia had a little playtime with her 2nd cousin, Mairie

Waiting for ballet class to begin!

Sophia made "alphabet soup" a couple of weeks ago, using her play kitchen equipment and magnetic letters!

A plate of alphabet soup!

Just goofing off...

Sophia came up with this spelling of "T-rex" (the dinosaur) all by herself!

And her version of how "Sophia" is spelled... she always gets all the letters, but instead of "sounding out" her name like she does with other words she just assembles the letters as she comes across them... she often types her name out similar to this foam letter version.

Christmas tree! Hooray! Cliche to say, but witnessing Sophia's experience of the holiday is truly magical!

MURAL! And I am happy to say it is DONE! (For now)... I would not wish a wall mural on my worst enemy. We all really love it, and DID have fun with it (even Sophia helped paint!) but Travis and I figured that we spent well over 40 hours on it... a massive labor of love! Here are some pics of the progress and the finished product!

Tiny butterflies... I intend to keep adding sweet little details. Sophia loves all the hidden little bugs, flowers, etc.! You can also kind of tell from this close-up how many layers of paint and different brushes/sponges, etc. were used to get different textures and effects. I discovered that acrylic really shows brush-strokes and direction, and it took me a little time to figure out how to use that to my advantage!

The Way Sophia Plays

2011-11-27T15:40:00.000-08:00

Ok... so I have been trying for DAYS to get this video of Sophia to upload! It's about 2 minutes long and apparently blogger just can't deal with that much video. I finally decided to upload the video on my Youtube account (which took about 2 minutes!) and post the link here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OptVpnHO2I

And here is a little text about the video... happy viewing!

I've been wanting to record the way Sophia plays for some time, and I was finally able to sneak a recording of her without her noticing! Sophia happily plays by herself quite often. I think it's interesting that she narrates and provides dialogue for characters, like she's telling a story. This also fascinates me because I can remember constantly "narrating" or telling myself stories out loud as a child. I still do this in my mind! I might hear a car alarm, for example, and I reflexively come up with a plot in my mind and find myself narrating the plot (briefly). I don't know how common that is... I don't think I've mentioned this to many people! Whether or not it's common to narrate and make up stories, it's so incredible to watch Sophia do this without having been taught to, in the same way that I used to! How did she learn this? So interesting!

"Sophia-isms"

2011-11-17T12:13:00.001-08:00

"When I grow up I'm going to be a kindergartener!"

"I fell in love with that boy" (playground romance!).

"My foot died!" (Sometimes she "gets stuck" in a passe during ballet practice!).

Sophia: "I wish we had a minivan."
Me: "We don't need a minivan; minivans are for huge familes."
Sophia: "But you're huge!"

Sophia: "Are we going to the liquore store?"
Me: "Why would we be going there?"
Sophia: "To get daddy beer. Daddy loves beer!" (Not true; I'm the one who loves beer!)

"I would like some pizza. We can get pizza, right? There's a place called Papa John's that's open, right?" (This is after throwing up several times in the wee hours of the morning).

"I just took a tiny, standard bite."

"I'm doing a good job," "I'm doing it right," and other phrases to confirm that she's little Ms Perfect! She's exhibiting some of her mom's OCD and competitiveness!

More Mural Progress!

2011-11-13T19:36:00.000-08:00

Sophia was clipping nails tonight :)
And, more progress on the wall mural! One more mare and a foal to go, and then we'll start painting the landscape in! This is tedious, but it's also really nice to paint again. I haven't been in touch with my "inner painter" since I left VT six years ago! I did use a projector to pencil in the images, but the painting I have to figure out myself from the photos, which is a very fun challenge! We're getting there!

Party time!

2011-11-12T20:32:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday was packed! We had the morning ballet lessons, and then Sophia's first classmate birthday party, and then headed up to Grand Forks for Grandma Mary's 90th birthday party! Sophia's classmate, Elly, had her party at a local children's museum, and the kids had LOTS of fun there!

Enjoying the museum's interactive exhibits...

A quick nap in the car, and Sophia was ready for her next party!

The world's best birthday girl!

Cousins performance!

Of course the party continued well into the night back at Carmen and Ralph's!

Ava helping her Grandpa Ralph with his cards! ;)

The next morning Sophia insisted on the usual diva outfit, and then helped her cousins Gunner and DJ make carmel rolls for Grandma's birthday breakfast!

Cuddling on the way to breakfast!

Sophia with her great grandma! So, so special :)

Sophia LOVES babies, especially Ava!

On Veterans Day Sophia's Godfather, Brandon, paid a surprise visit and we roped him into babysitting while Travis and I went to our first parent-teacher conference, which was FUN! We took Brandon out to lunch to thank him and managed to sneak in a few photos of Sophia with her Godfather Brandon!

I know these are hard to see, but this was phase 1 of Sophia's "room redo!" We are doing a wall mural of horses in fields, and started by sketching in the outlines and some shading from projected photographs. Here are the sketches!

We're slowly getting there! Acrylic paint is difficult, but I'm getting the hang of it!

Tummy face! The joys of washable markers! :)

Ballet Videos!

2011-11-12T20:12:00.000-08:00

So my sister in law, Sammy, recently said, "I can't wait to see some ballet videos on the blog" and I wondered why I hadn't thought of that sooner! Here are a couple short videos that I took at Sophia's lesson today!

One more Halloween Pic!

2011-11-04T06:35:00.000-07:00

On Halloween day Travis and I both volunteered in Sophia's classroom during her Halloween party! It was so fun; we helped the children get into their costumes and then enjoyed a "concert" of Halloween songs! We had a great time post-concert with helping children do Halloween crafts and admiring the clever Halloween snacks... It was such a treat for us all to enjoy this fun party together, and to spend some extra time at Sophia's school.

Happy Halloween!!!

2011-11-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

We've done LOTS of playing in the leaves lately!
Sophia's wonderful new rake from the "small hands" Montessori supply catalogue! Small Hands has lots of awesome, "real" tools for children to use... she also got a chopping knife that works really well, and is one of her favorite things to use!

Posing with our "silly" jack 'o lanterns...

Halloween night! Leslie and her daughter, Aria, joined us for trick or treating in our neighborhood... one of the wonderful things (and yes, there are wonderful things!) about living in a suburb: safe and fun trick or treating among many neighborhood children! On SIDEWALKS!

The girls have so much fun together! Aria is a hoot!

One of the most beautiful, warm Halloweens. Ever.

Trying out one of her treats...

Waiting to shout those magic words!

SUPER scary decorations at this one house! Might have been rated a bit PG13ish for our little girls... they didn't know what to think! I mean, there was a LOT of blood!

Not feelin the PG13 place...

Ok, so LOTS of the families out trick-or-treating were the ENTIRE family: mom, dad, gaggle of kids AND the dressed up family dog! I couldn't BELIEVE how many dogs in costume were out!

After a good hour we returned to my place and Leslie and I chilled with glasses of red wine while the girls went through (and consumed!) their loot. It was a pretty awesome, mellow, fun, perfect Halloween! Considering Travis had to work, Halloween was on a Monday, and we missed out on the epic cousin festivities, I was pretty happy :) HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

A Note on Sophia's Musical Taste

2011-10-28T07:18:00.000-07:00

Sophia loves a range of songs and musicians, but here are a few of her current favorites:
1. Neil Young, Neil Young and more Neil Young! Her favorite Neil song right now is "Unknown Legend." You can listen to it here: Legend
2. Classical music in general (especially now that she hears it so much with ballet!) and Chopin in particular. You can listen to our current absolute favorite (and perfect for ballet!) Chopin song (Polonaise Op. 53 in A Flat Major) here: Chopin
3. The science songs group They Might Be Giants. Sophia loves almost every science rock song they've recorded! A good example is a song about the planets, called "How Many Planets." You can listen to it here: Planets. I'm a huge fan of their catchy song Electric Car ...not necessarily because I think electric cars are the answer to our planet's problems (at least not until we create cleaner electricity!), but because the tune is addictive!
4. Almost forgot! One of her absolute favorite songs (for a very long time) is Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier," which she calls "Buffalo Solja." Listen to it here: Buffalo Soldier. She also really loves Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry. Lots of daddy influence here, but I can't say that I mind!

Some fall pics!

2011-10-23T16:22:00.000-07:00

Sophia's new wheels! She calls it her "electric car." :)
The box was almost as fun as the car!

Sophia went roller skating for the first time with her class!

More ballet pics... she's really starting to "get it," and loves practicing every night :)

At the barre!

We've been spending a lot of time in GF lately! This pic is from a couple weeks ago. Travis enjoying our Goddaughter :)

Sophia's cousins are so sweet about including Sophia and doting on her!

She has to get up on the horses every time we're up there!

At her 2nd cousin, Mairie's, 2nd birthday party!

At a table full of her cousins :)

Watching Mairie unwrap... check out the get-up she insisted on wearing!

Love my lil girl's sense of style!

The sunsets here DO have a particular beauty! It's like living on the edge of the world!

This was from Oktoberfest, after my last marathon event (1/2 marathon) of the year!

Sophia waiting to go on a bouncer with her cousins Jaylin and DJ... check out Jaylin holding Soph's hand :) Love cousins!

Sophia tried her first mechanical bull!!!

They had weiner dog races and lots of the dogs were in costume. It was just beyond!

There was a little jockey on the brown one!

Pics from the Bismarck 1/2 marathon! Sophia with her boy cousins, Gunner and DJ!

Pigging out after the race!

Laura and I, pre-race!

The cousins by a water stop! The volunteers at these marathons are just amazing!

That's me coming up in the blue!

Laura at the finish... the kiddos escorted her in! It was so sweet!

Bonding with Ava back at the hotel :) MOST. MELLOW. BABY. EVER!!!

Travis' new toy!

Sophia helped me deck the house out for Halloween last weekend

Sophia's new bed! It's SO cozy!!!

Fairy costume! I let her wear it as much as she wants... I'm not a fan of a $40 kid's outfit being worn just once!!!

Love the hair accessories

Life can just be so exhausting! :) I love the way sleeping children look... complete angels.

Busy busy busy!

2011-09-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

More swimming lessons, at Concordia College just down the road!

The ballerina swimsuit is too adorable! The wonders of Target!

We had "Greater Moorhead Days" last week, and managed to squeeze in the parade this year! Sophia REALLY enjoyed it! (Especially all the candy... she got as much candy from this parade as she gets at Halloween. Someone IN the parade finally took pity on my bulging purse and camera bag and gave us a shopping bag to put the goodies in... and we FILLED it!).

Sophia sees Bonnie, a Ladies Auxilliary member who I work with!

One hand for a flag and one hand for candy... notice the sticker collection she was starting on her shirt...

Moorhead highschool has awesome cheer and dance squads, and the marching band was HUGE and wonderful!

Picking up candy...

End of the parade!

One of the MOST exciting things (2nd only to starting school): Sophia has started ballet lessons! She's taking a small group ballet class at Gasper's School of Dance.

She loves the mirrors... the music... the props... it's fun! The instructor is definitely also a bit strict and demanding, and I appreciate that :)

How cute are these little girls??!! Sophia's all the way on the right (the littlest one!)

At the "ballet barre" (took this pic in the mirror)... Sophia all the way to the right! Her first class was a little overwhelming, and about half of the class has already had some ballet. The teacher assurred me that Sophia will catch on and we should stick with it and help her practice, so we've been working on first position, plie, passe, and pointing and flexing toes. She catches on really fast; the thing to work on is keeping her still!

This last Saturday we joined our friends Leslie and Leonard (and daughter Aria) at their beautiful, early 1900's home for a little dinner party! In this pic Aria and Sophia were pretending to be dogs.

Leslie and Aria

Ok... so Aria and Sophia are less than a year apart... Aria just has TALL parents and Sophia has SMALL parents! :)

On Sunday we went over to the neighbor's (across the street) for a little pool party and a few beers. Good timing! I think that was our last 80 degree day of the year!

We've been really enjoying the sweet corn... one of Sophia's favorites! Happy fall!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

2011-09-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

On August 30th Sophia had her first day of school! She is attending afternoon preschool 3 days a week at "The Academy for Children" in downtown Fargo. It's a WONDERFUL school! I cried dropping her off the first day, so the principal sent me 3 email updates at work letting me know what Sophia was working on, and the staff took many pictures of her throughout the afternoon and then Sophia and I viewed the pictures when I picked her up at 5. Sophia got "a little sad" the first 2 days, but by day 3 she was fine the whole time! They do lots of wonderful things at her school, including music and French lessons and lots of field trips. Her first field trip is in 2 weeks; they are going to the art museum! They also go to the park down the road quite a bit, and the children are growing vegetable "box gardens" around the school grounds. There are so many wonderful things about her school! We all just love it! Sophia is very excited to go back after our long weekend together. :)
First day of school poses outside the front door!

Sophia brings her Dora backpack

Hanging up her backpack on her very own hook!

When we left her she had very comfortably joined the other children in "circle time" to hear a story!

These pictures are from her school orientation the week before she started classes! The new kids each got to have a private orientation with the teacher (Ms Maria) and the classroom.

Sophia's school is a Montessori school, and they have fabulous Montessori-specific learning materials. The school is very experiential; there is no lecturing. Each child does what they call "works" throughout the day on his or her own work mat. It's a pre-k/Kindergarten combo class and the kindergartners help the younger children.

Ms Maria helping Sophia learn how to use her work mat! You can just barely see Sophia's name tag (with her symbol, the red diamond) on her mat. That's how Sophia can "save" her work on her work mat if she needs to do something else, like snack or recess, etc.

Sophia got to meet one of her classmates; who had the next orientation time slot!

Pulling papers out of her own cubby

The southwest corner of the playground

Sophia circling her choices on her first book order! Yay for school!

Visit with our Alaskan Besties!

2011-09-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we headed out to Kari's parents' farm for Levi's 2nd birthday party... it was so nice to see our good friends again! Now we just have to get out to Alaska to visit them...

Levi got right into being a dirty lil farm boy!

Sophia and Levi going for a ride with Kari and Aaron on the 4-wheeler!

This last weekend Kari, Aaron and Levi came over to our place on Sat and spent the night, and headed to the airport from our house Sun morning! It was so awesome to spend Saturday with them... very sad to see them go again. Levi really bonded with our cats!

Hanging out in the backyard

Levi and Sophia at the wine table!

Excuse the hose... what can I say? I'm the daughter of a firefighter!

Sophia and Levi in the bath! I keep waiting for her to notice the major difference between girls and boys. She hasn't noticed yet!

Sophia and I on Sunday the 4th, after our workout! She ran half a mile with mommy! Then mommy ran 10 miles! Sophia might participate in her first running event this October... we'll see if she's ready! She sure loves to run!

Sunday afternoon we headed out to Buffalo State Park. Our plan was to camp, but Sophia and I both woke up Sunday with colds, so we decided not to push our luck by camping out in 40 degree weather! We've had some chilly nights lately, and beautiful days!

The dogs enjoyed the park VERY much!

Sophia and Casey running down the Prairie trail.

We saw lots and lots of butterflies

We got lost trying to find our way through the prairie off the trail! The grass is deceptively TALL!

Casey had to bounce through the grass. We couldn't even see Charlie!

Checking out more butterflies!

After hiking around for a couple hours we were ready for a picnic!

Sophia couldn't resist the swimming pond!

Sophia can walk Charlie by herself now!

After all that vigorous activity Sophia and I needed a long, hot bath with our lavender salts :)

Sophia chatting on her cell phone!

2011-08-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

Sophia and Travis come and have lunch at my office quite frequently, and I occasionally have to take a phone call while they're in... as you can see, Sophia has started integrating some of my "office lingo" into her imaginary phone conversations! Here is a transcription of her conversation: "I'm sorry, I'm at my county office. And my co worker's taking pictures. Okay? Cheese! Say cheese, mommy! I taking pictures!"

She's ready for office work! (Although, I do have higher aspirations for her... unless it's the oval office we're talking about!).

This Summer Meant So Much

2011-08-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

We started the sunny season with tulips (this was the summer of GARDENS GALORE!)

We had lots of wonderful family park adventures! Sophia loved trying out kites this year!

Sophia's getting better at socializing! These siblings (there are actually 4) are some of the most amazing kids I've ever met. Super respectful and devoted to each other and lovely. And Home-schooled... hmmm....

Lots of playing around in our yards!

Of course, we had the marathon in May! Here are the damp but still wonderful cheerleaders!

My sister in law, Laura (shirt backward around her waist) running with her sister in law, Lulu (to Laura's left) in the 10K!

That's me in the green shirt/black pants, showing off my muscle at mile 20! I ran the 26.2 miles in just under 3 hours & 58 min, averaging just over a 9 mintue mile. One of the most amazing things I've ever done! I can't explain how awesome it was : the crowds cheering, little kids handing out water, the live bands, the adrenaline... just amazing! I have plans to run 2 half-marathons this fall!

We spent lots of time at one of our favorite places, lake Bemidji. Sophia was having some quality morning time with Grandma in this pic :)

"Fishing" with Grandpa! (Sophia uses a sinker; no hook!). She can make her own choices about real fishing when she's older!

Sophia's oldest cousin, Jaylin, fishing off the dock too!

Boat rides...

More fishing....

One night the storms were so severe (the night there were 2 F1 tornadoes in Fargo/Moorhead!) we just threw in the towel and brought Sophia's toddler bed down and we all spent the whole night in the guest room in the basement!

The safest place in our house during a tornado... an interior closet in the guest room! The 3 of us can fit... barely. You can see some kid books... we were never in there longer than 30 min at a time, but 30 min in that closet can get long!

Sophia loves that central A/C! (We all do!) It was a hot and muggy summer, with a couple days over 100 degrees!

More yard fun...

Putting in the vegetable garden!

Starting a garden is an INSANE amount of work (and then the rest is fairly easy)... I'm glad we only put in a 10 x 11!

Some early results! So far we have eaten: lettuce, spinach, green beans, peas, tomatoes, basil, cilantro, and parsley out of our garden! More coming!

Sophia eating my homemade ginger snaps the same way I do :)

YUM!

Sophia's first day of swimming lessons! Her dad took her to her lessons (I was working)... hence the backwards straps... :D

Sophia was the youngest pupil, and lagged in some areas, but was definitely one of the best at the pre-swimming stretches! She always stretches with me after our jogs together! Love it.

Learning to backfloat! Her instructor. Yeah. That's all I'm sayin!

She loved it :) Sophia is continuing her swimming lessons at concordia college this fall!

One of the MANY community hooplas that we enjoyed this summer! We spent lots of time on bouncers!

Lots of time on the barrel trains...

We always hit the hay wagon!

Um... Sophia is fascinated with bras...

More swimming lessons!

More Lake Bemidji! We are still just glowing over becoming Godparents!

Our Goddaughter and niece, Ava, with Grandpa Ralph

Girl cousins!

Of course, more boating!

And more "fishing!"

Tubing behind the boat is so much fun! This is Sophia with her cousin, Jaylin (to the right) and one of Jaylin's cousins from the other side (her dad's) side of her family!

Sophia and Travis hanging out in beautiful Lake Bemidji! We love the beautiful park and beach right next door to grandpa and grandma's!

Her final swimming lesson! I love "the train!"(Sophia is in the front!). I took an off-campus lunch that day so I was able to watch Sophia's last lesson with Travis. We also spent many, many evenings at the free wading pools around the city! Sophia is so comfortable in the water now.

Sophia will eat raw green beans, spinach, lettuce and peas if she pockets them in the garden!

Sophia has a weird thing for "edges!" She's the only kid I know that eats the crust first on a slice of pizza!

Our recent, big summer project! Painting! Good-bye gray!

We had a whole paint crew over on a saturday: Travis' sister and husband, his parents, his cousin Tim, and four kids and they only picture I took was this one of sweet little Ava sleeping! It was so much work, but totally fun... lots of food and music and hanging out! I might just have the best in-laws ever!

The new look :)

Close up of the newly painted deck and new light fixtures!

The nighttime look... I love our new garden lights! Our house looks so much prettier... plus, we rehauled our old shade garden and put in a new, matching shade garden on the other side of the backyard, and bought a fire ring for bonfires... lotsof fun projects!

A note about the somewhat nostalgic title of this post: I am having very mixed feelings about this summer. So much has changed! Travis got a new job, and the big change for me was my new job! In June I was promoted to full-time work as the Clay County Veterans' Benefits Coordinator. I spent my whole summer inside an office! It's the first time since I was 8 months pregnant that I've worked full time, and I'm painfully aware of everything I've missed. Not just the swimming lessons, but all the crafting, cloud-watching, baking, cooking, time for organizing and cleaning, library time, park time, museum trips, the daytime community hooplas, the just doing nothing together time... I love my new job, but won't pretend for a second that it isn't a huge, whole-family sacrifice for me to return to full-time work. Although, it feels GREAT to be getting somewhere career-wise, and I can't say that the bigger paychecks don't make lots of things easier and nicer. This is a long way to say that it's been bittersweet to go back to full-time work. ANOTHER reason to be nostalgic/melancholy is that Sophia is GOING TO SCHOOL... TOMORROW! This was her last summer of "babyhood!" Even though her school is "play-based" (Montessori), she will have so much more structure and will be spending SO much time outside of our home! Tremendous changes are afoot at our home... I know that the summer of 2011 will always be remembered by me as "the beginning of the end." And, of course, the start of new and exciting things! Bittersweet.

Stormy Weather!

2011-08-01T07:07:00.000-07:00

Sophia has finally reached an age when she is aware of thunderstorms. We've had plenty of severe storms this summer! She's learned that, when we hear the sirens and the storm seems really bad, we head downstairs. Last night we had a powerful electrical storm--nonstop lightening for over 1/2 an hour! The thunder was really shaking the house and there was also high wind and heavy rain. Travis and I were listening to the radio and keeping an eye on things around 4am when we heard Sophia hollering. I went in her room and she was begging to go downstairs to "be safe." I reassured her that there were no sirens, so we could stay upstairs. Finally we all just decided to lay in "the big bed" together and wait for the worst to pass. Here are some of the comments Sophia had on the storm:
"Is Lightening McQueen outside?"
"THAT'S a sketchy one!" (after a big clap of thunder. Travis and I were in hysterics!)
"Is the lightening breaking the telephone wires?"
"That's a huge, humongous weather!"
Sidenote: I'm so tired today that I accidentally ran a red light on the way to work. I will be SO glad when the summer storm season is DONE!

In a Magical Place Called Vermont...

2011-07-23T16:07:00.000-07:00

Sophia on the airplane early in the morning on June 25th, ready for take-off!
Sunday morning we walked down the road to attend church at the United Church of Lincoln, and then headed up to Auntie Deb's for a little social gathering. Sophia loved playing in the gardens with Joseph!

Half of my bridesmaids! That's Jenna (Deb is her mom), me, Ruth, and Michele.

More gardening...

One foot!

Aww! "Reading" together inside the house.

The next day Alice and Ruth came up to my parents' house in Lincoln for a little chillin by the river! That's baby Ethan in there!

Sophia and Joseph paddling around!

So beautiful...

Best friends, 1st and 2nd generation! (The newest best friend is in that tummy on the left) :)

Hot mama :)

Uncle Chris joined us...

Another hot mama! Cuddlin with the kiddos!

This is another place I grew up swimming in; Bartlett's Falls. Alice and I took Sophia there on Tuesday before heading out to Alice's farm... I love sharing my childhood haunts with Sophia!

At the farm! VT cows are so happy!!!

Sophia was SO intent on catching a chicken!

She's a natural farm-girl! My little redneck :)

Next we went to Ruth's for dinner... and more chicken chasing!

The beautiful old stone wall on Ruth's property. So Vermonty! :)

Alice, Ruth, Joseph & Sophia! And yummy pizza!

The cute kind of pizza-face!

Travis flew in Wednesday, and then on Fri we headed down to my brother, Chris's, wedding site!

Beautiful Castle Hill Resort in Ludlow, VT

Baby brother Sky and his awesome girlfriend, Berta :)

Joseph was the ring-bearer!

Rehearsal dinner

With my new sister, Sammy! We weren't trying to coordinate our outfits... great minds just think alike! Haha

Chris (the groom!) had to row back to the hotel :)

The rehearsal dinner after-party, back at the hotel!

The brothers! Partyin' it up!

Dad, partyin' it up!

Chris & Sammy :)

Next new sister? ;)

Chris & mom, partyin it up! :)

This was officially the MOST I have ever partied with my parents! FUN!

The groom finally called it quits at 5am, the day of his wedding!

Joseph the ring bearer and Sophia the flower girl, ready for action!

Opening her special bracelet :)

Travis was a groomsman!

Ruth and me :)

My fabulous brothers!

Mom, dad, Sophia

Such a beautiful wedding, on a super beautiful day!

First dance :)

Love these mother-son pics... I have the best family :)

Brothers again...

The Cake was hilarious!!!

More partying! You can see Joseph up on someone's shoulders in the background... the kids danced the night away!

Chris and an old Lincoln friend, Donnie, during the dollar dance

Sophia with her grammy

Looks like a deep conversation with Auntie Berta!

Bouquet toss!

Getting the garters... hilarious! There were like 20 of them in there! Chris and Sammy's wedding was fun, fun, fun! From the rehearsal dinner to the cook-out at her parents' house the day after the wedding! Just perfect.

The plane ride home. :) Good bye, Vermont! Miss you already!

Best Sophia Quote To Date

2011-07-19T14:09:00.001-07:00

Last night I was snuggling Sophia after her bath and she looked at me and said:
"Mommy, I love you. You are wooooooooonderful!"
I can't describe how completely happy I felt at that moment. :)

See what the big THREE year old's been up to!

2011-07-16T16:48:00.000-07:00

On July 6th Sophia and I buzzed up to Grand Forks, ND to meet the newest cousin, Ava Joy. I am a very proud Godmother!
Ava with her mama (my sister-in-law); Lindsey

She is so beautiful!

Two days later we had a small family celebration of Sophia's THIRD birthday!

Sophia eating cake with one of her presents: a fork and spoon shaped like tractors, from Uncle Sky and Auntie Berta! She LOVES them! That's my sweet little redneck!

Two days later we had her big party at the splash park in Grand Forks! It was a hot, beautiful day! Sophia chose "Carnival Theme," so we set up loads of games around our Pavillion. It was so hot the 6 eldest cousin decided to turn the duck fishing pool into a reprieve from the sun!

Little Ava having a diaper change :)

Cousins!

Grandpa hanging out with his two littlest girls (the two Joys!)

The pinata was a hit!

Gabby getting in a good hit!

The dive for treats!

Talk about beating a dead horse...

Jaylin's "action shot"

Dennis and Travis testing out the badmitton!

Then the horse shoes! (Nothing like mixing beer and kids' games!)

The boys, DJ and Gunner, doing the ball toss!

Grandpa Ralph shows off his juggling skills!

Awww... little miss Ava with her doting daddy!

Cake time!

Yes, Sophia gouged the cake with her toe and then licked the frosting off her feet... it's her birthday! Anything goes!

Sack race!

Gunner and Sophia doubled up!

Opening presents...

Travis and his mom hitting up badmitton again!

Later on Sophia had to try out all of her presents, of course! I like this look!

Today we braved temps in the 90's and high humidity and headed to the fair with some new friends! Sophia loved holding the newborn quail chicks in the Ag Ed barn!

Sophia and her friend, Aria, in the "Corn Box." How do you know you're in the Midwest??? Hey, I have to admit, it feels pretty cool to hang out in a corn box!

The girls admiring the duckling slide! The ducks seemed to like it!

Sophia with a chicken chick

Petting zoo!

And, of course, the girls had to hit a gazillion rides! This year Sophia was close enough to 36" tall to go on them by herself! I know she looks serious in the pics, but she LOVED it!

That's Aria to the right and Sophia in hot pursuit!

Roller Coaster!

And the bouncer, of course!

One last motorcycle ride!

Ended with a bale maze. Love fairs :)

Happy Spring!

2011-05-07T16:59:00.000-07:00

April 17 was Travis' birthday... Sophia and I waited up for him to come home from work and then we celebrated! (We also snuck to his work and filled his car with balloons, which I hear got him lots of "happy birthday" wishes!)
Nothing like homemade applesauce spice cake... at 10 at night...

Sophia tucked in her horses :) (and an airplane in the foreground)

Grammy (my mom) flew in from VT on Travis' birthday! She wasn't able to stay up for the 10pm celebration... but that's ok since it took her 2 days to get here! United Airlines. Yeah.

Grammy helped Sophia participate for the first time in my family's tradition of dying hard boiled eggs!

Sophia looking for the hard-boiled eggs! My family's tradition was to dye them and then "the Easter Bunny" would hide them Easter eve and all of us kids would find them in the morning. It's so fun to continue traditions with Sophia!

Easter celebration in Grand Forks! Sophia's big cousin, DJ, took her for a ride!

Looking for eggs (the plastic kind with treats inside!) at Ralph and Carmen's "Belmont House."

The big search!

Sophia with both of her grandmas!

All the cousins! Soon there will be 7!

The cousins with grandparents Ralph and Carmen...

The Easter gang! (Sans my mom, who was taking the pic)

Three generations :)

Sophia's loot!

The three big girls! After the big Belmont egg hunt we walked to Laura's house for a wonderful, fattening, very fun Easter dinner/celebration!

Soph with her grandpa Ralph

Travis and his sister, Laura, enduring a "happy birthday" song (both born in April)... mom and I made a carrot cake and stuck a couple candles in it :)

Performances, of course!

The boys attacked Travis!

He got them back!

Then the girls pitched in!

DJ feeling his new baby sister :) Awww...

The real Easter morning! Sophia woke up to find her basket and presents in her bed! After some basket fun we got dressed up, went to church with my mom, and then went to the airport to see her off!

Sophia LOOOOVES the airport!

May 1st... ugh...

The tulips were like, WTF?

Thank goodness that didn't last! We've been enjoying some beautiful days... today was hot and in the 70's! This is a pic of one of our recent picnics at the park by our house... having picnics is one of Sophia's new fave activities!

Lots of fun at the park :)

Happy Spring!

Snow, Flood and lots in between!

2011-04-09T15:09:00.000-07:00

Just two weeks ago we had plenty of snow for some sledding with Lindsey, Dennis, and Sophia's cousins Jaylin and DJ! We went sledding on the new dike 10 blocks north of our house... its' the perfect sledding hill! And is some pretty handy flood protection, too :) Snowball fight!

Snowball licking!

Playing in a hole in the snow!

I came across Sophia's old baby sling... we put her in it for fun and GUESS WHAT?! She still loves it!

Sweet, sweet mommy-practicing

GOOD FOOD!

Sophia's tastes are becoming so varied and unusual that I thought it would be fun to share some of her favorites. Her absolute favorite foods--above even the obvious ones like cake and candy-- are:

1. Homemade vegetable pot pie

2. Pesto on bread

Some other foods that she loves:

Lentils, kidney beans, black beans, tofu, edamame, brown rice, peanut butter on bananas or apples, raw fruit or vegetables dipped in applesauce (???!!!), sunflower seeds, oatmeal (with walnuts, craisins, raisin, brown sugar and maple syrup!), and salad, to name a few!

Sophia eating some homemade garlic bread... melted butter, chopped garlic and parsley slathered on a halved homemade (half wheat, half white) baguette, sprinkled with mozzarella and parmesan and baked... YUM!!!

Sophia's #1 favorite food! Homemade vegetable pot pie!

Salad... I make her salad with red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, sunflower seeds and balsalmic vinagrette... she eats every last bite!

Sophia "making her own bread"

Circus! Sophia's first cotton-candy experience! She warmed up to it VERY quickly!

Kitty lovin' :)

CRAFTS! CRAFTS! CRAFTS!

Sophia loves "arts and crafts" and we thought we'd share a few of our latest!

Necklaces!

Crowns! (Sophia came up with "Jelly fish!"

Sophia's art display :)

Our butterfly mobile!

Egg Carton Caterpillars!

Some more art :)

I had to take a picture of this... Sophia was trying to write a grocery list like mine. I love how she made her scribbles in lines! She was also "spelling out" words (saying "buh-buh-butter... B is for butter!" as she was writing, although obviously it's hard for her to actually write a B). She can always guess the first letter of words, and is getting better at guessing multiple consanant sounds in a word! Super exciting!

This week we've had some beautiful weather, and the flood really started ramping up. Today (Saturday) our flood is cresting at 39 ft... there's rain in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow so we're keeping our fingers crossed! We took these pics earlier this week.

This is the park that we were sledding in 2 weeks ago! See the basketball hoops around the center of the pic?!

One of the clay dikes

Normally the river runs close to the far edge of this building!

Yikes

I took this pic on Thursday... This is a house 2 blocks west of ours. The owners just left before the flood hit. :(

Sophia loves this tractor, at one of the new pumping stations a block west of our house.

We just took out her slide! She loves it!

Snuggling in her princess bed. :) I love how she sleeps with pink sheets in a princess bed and snuggles with toy cars and "Lightening McQueen" books... funny girl! I just love, love, love her personality! Each day is more interesting and lovely than the last! Which isn't to say that being a mother wasn't thrilling from the start but, well, most people know how I feel about babies :) I'm loving every minute with my big girl!

2011-03-22T15:38:00.000-07:00

I really can't get enough of how Sophia plays... witnessing her creativity and make-believe is an incredible privilege! In the above pic she's snuggling with a bundled up dinosaur. She can be very maternal with just about anything; from dinosaurs and toy cars to my hand (which she pretends is a kitten or a spider).

Sophia painted this for her godfather, Brandon. I made Travis take a picture of it because it's the first time she's put legs on something (the big blue blob is a "monkey face" with two legs coming down from the bottom).

Sophia reading to her "friends." Ignore the fact that they're in a plastic bag. :)

More play!

Silly kid!

A couple of weeks ago Travis took Sophia to the air museum. Travis and I have been really focusing on Sophia's education (and the state of public education at large), and Travis has decided that she needs extra exposure to math, science, and the arts. Since then Sophia has been to the air museum, a kids lecture on the moon, some art museums, and the planetarium! And, of course, the usuals, like story time, the Celtic festival, etc. Next up? She's signed up for several spring and summer classes, including swimming and art class, and we're working on finding part-time preschool!

Sophia loved the air museum! She has a very strong interest in all sorts of vehicles; namely planes, trains, and cars.

Travis wanted me to post this with the caption "what Sophia's reading lately." Haha! She does enjoy flipping through all sorts of books and magazines... it's nice for some quiet time!

Two weeks ago we went to Grand Forks for DJ's birthday... Sophia spent the night with her Grandpa and Grandma... no mom and dad! Mom and dad went out to a really fancy restaurant and then played pool and had mucho pitchers of beer! :) She didn't cry and didn't want to leave! The next day I drove up and joined her for DJ's party, which was held at this awesome indoor play place. Sophia loved it!

Spiderman! :)

She just seems like such a big, independent girl!

Playing with her little 2nd cousin, Mairi!

Aw....

More daddy naps!

This weekend we went to Grand Forks again for Gabby's birthday... Sophia arrived just in time for cupcake decorating! Check out her super cute sweater vest that "Auntie Deb" (Deb Geehan) knitted for her!

I think she filled her annual sugar quota!

Our most exciting news: Laura passed on a Princess toddler bed for Sophia to use! Her very first night Sophia refused to sleep in it and begged for the crib and then, inexplicably, has since decided that cribs are for babies and she loves her new bed. She's sleeping in it right now! I can't believe how big she is!

A Bathtub Story, by Sophia J Williams

2011-03-10T08:46:00.000-08:00

Roy G Biv
A rainbow
and colors
color letters
Dived in with Doc!
Doc was being naughty big-otty.
Doc splashed in!
And made a huge dive.
Doc went into the water
and popped out
silly!
And popped out again
and SPLASHED in!
He put up his wheels
and splashed in
and Mater crawled in
and was feisty with the cups!
And Mater was laying in the water
and on the eggs.
He eating them?
And splashed in!

Transcribed in February of 2011 with no editing!
Some reference points: Roy G Biv is an acronym for the rainbow colors (Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). Sophia is really into the movie Cars (Doc and Mater are two car characters). She has foam letters and cups to play with in her bath. :) She loves making up stories! Coming soon: My list of hilarious and striking things that she's said these last few weeks!

February!

2011-02-22T15:50:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we went over to the twins' place for a playdate!

We went outside for a little sledding, but it was hard to do without snowshoes!

A couple weeks ago we started to get a little warmer, so we tackled the park by our house. Sophia was undaunted by all the snow!

Our snowman, circa 2/12/11 (someone finally ate his nose! I blame Bubba the squirrel!)

Sophia is very into art lately. This is a milestone picture because she announced she was going to paint spirals and then she did! Her first intentional artwork!

I got my first birthday present a little early: a cherry red helmet to match my hot little motorcycle!

Sophia loves stingrays. It's because of the teacher in Disney's "Finding Nemo;" Mr. Ray. She has never seen the movie, but has had lots of other Nemo exposure :) Chris and Sammy got Sophia a stuffed stingray on their last cruise... perfect timing!

More toddler fashion! Dino sweatshirt and jewelry

Her penchant for sorting and organizing makes my heart sing! :)

We've been dog-sitting Joey this month. They all get very cozy, but I think Joey and Charlie are in love!

Travis and I took Sophia ice-skating for the first time this month! She LOVES it!

Our snowman again. I took a couple "snowy pics" around the middle of the month at the start of our big thaw... I'm hoping the snow in these pics marks our high point!

I "roof-raked" the snow off our roof this month. I wore snowshoes to get around our front yard. I know that sounds dramatic, but I literally had to wear snowshoes... the snow is up to my waist in some places!

Another playdate with the twins! We had a beautiful Sunday before my birthday so we took the 3 kids skating and sledding. Fun!

"Stomach-sledding" :) I think she might have liked this as well as the actual sled!

Building a snowman...

Eating the snowman...

He never had a chance! :)

3 against 1!

After the twins took off we stuck around for a little more sledding and playing in the trees... We were at the sledding hill for about 2 hours and Sophia was in her underwear! YES, she is now "day-time potty-trained" (only wears a diaper for nap and bedtime). We've taken her to the mall, playgrounds, library... she's used big potties and little potties... it's so awesome!

Our snowman after the "big thaw" :) We're down to a foot or two of snow! Actually, we're getting more snow again now, but we don't talk about that!

Enjoying the thaw! There were a couple days that almost made it to 50 degrees!

Sophia helping to make loaves of whole wheat bread. In an effort to slash our grocery bill we're making almost everything from scratch! It's kind of nice! You just have to plan ahead. I'm eating our "loaded oatmeal cookies" (oatmeal, raisins, chocolate, coconut, and pecans) as we speak... yum! Way better than anything from a box!

Sigh...fresh snow... and back to well below freezing...

Mushing through January...

2011-01-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

So January is always one of the hardest months... the holidays are over... there's still 8 weeks of hard winter left (I even have a countdown to March 1st going!)...winter seems endless! We've made it through several weeks of bitter weather to finally arrive at some decent temps--around 30 yesterday and today! However, it's difficult to enjoy nice weather with 2/3rds of the family fighting the flu. :( Sophia and I did manage to get in some good outdoor playtime yesterday, before the bug struck Sophia in the wee hours of the morning (Travis has been fighting it since Monday). I'm onto my 2nd toddler movie in a row at the moment, and decided to take a break and update the blog a bit! Send us healthy thoughts!

Toddler fashion... naked butt, pink socks, princess shirt over sweatshirt, cowgirl hat, and baby bib!
We've been doing a lot of baking during the super cold and sunny weeks... good bread-baking weather! Here's my first attempt at a traditional Swedish bread (Go Swedes!): a braided Cardamom loaf! Yum!

Sophia has been drinking lots of herbal tea and, her fave, hot chocolate!

Cocoa goatee!

A few words...

2011-01-21T07:22:00.000-08:00

Here is a (very incomplete!) list of a few of the things that Sophia has said lately that gave me pause:

"Mommy, please may I go to the zoo?"

"I need coffee! Just like mommy and daddy!"

"Sophia feels frustrated."

"Soy Dora!" (Translation: "I'm Dora!")

"Don't call me Sophia! I'm Garlic!"

"Is there a whale under my bubbles?"

"He's a tramp, but I love him."

And a recent conversation:
Sophia: "Mommy, take it off?"
Me: "Take what off?"
Sophia: "My body? I don't want it."
Me: "But where will your heart live?"
Sophia: "On the beach."

That might have been one of the most thought-provoking conversations I've had in a long time! I'm still thinking it over!

Catching up!

2011-01-15T22:47:00.000-08:00

Last week Sophia had her first bubble bath! Followed by her 2nd, 3rd, 4th... :)

Sophia consistently shares her meals with friends

Lots of cat-cuddling and loud proclamations of love for Suki and Dali lately!

Sophia finally has her very own slippers! She LOVES them!

Last weekend we zipped up to Grand Forks on Sunday to help celebrate Magdalene's birthday! (Magdalene on the far left). She turned 6!

Who's the biggest kid? :)

Mike had some leftover goodies from the New Year celebration at his bar, so the kids put them to good use! Gunner enjoyed the noisemakers!

Sophia and Gunner, making some noise!

If you're too young to read, it doesn't really matter what the tiara says :)

Gunner really enjoyed his cake!

Gunner and Sophia always end up playing with the trucks together...

And can share nicely MOST of the time!

Last week Sophia also got her first tattoo! It's a dinosaur, from a coloring book that Uncle Sky gave her for Christmas (thanks!). She LOVES her tattoo, especially because it's "just like mommy's and daddy's." And, yes, she picked out her clothes the day I took this picture. Even her socks were stripey!

One of Sophia's favorite things to do is to wrap a blanket/towel/rag/diaper cloth/whatever around herself and call it a "princess dress."

Our princess. :)

Snow! Snow! Snow!

2011-01-02T17:37:00.000-08:00

The final December snow results are in! Amongst my friends and family (who are sane enough to live in more inhabitable regions!) I'm the snow winner! Now, if only we had mountains...
The Ford parked out on the street... if we get much more snow we won't be able to see it from the house any more!

Sophia standing in our driveway. Our snowblower broke down after the first blizzard. Ouch.

Dad introduced Sophia to an activity that was a favorite for me and my brothers when we were little: "rocketship." She couldn't get enough!

The rocket-landing :)

Holiday Mayhem!

2010-12-31T10:33:00.000-08:00

The week before Christmas we spent the weekend at Carmen and Ralph's and attended the annual Williams Yankee Swap party as well as Carmen and Ralph's 30th Anniversary party! Prior to all of the party madness Sophia shared some (very brave!) downtime with the bird...
Hanging with Uncle John at the Yankee Swap

The cake Laura ordered for Carmen and Ralph's party!

Carmen and Ralph!

Playing in the snow! We have had 7 large snowstorms this month, with another one coming tonight! We have several feet of snow right now

Christmas morning! We followed a tradition started by my paternal grandparents: we filled Sophia's stocking on Christmas Eve and laid it in her crib (at like 2 in the morning) and then watched Sophia find it and open it Christmas morning :)

About to unwrap!

After unwrapping presents at home we picked up my parents at the airport and headed to Carmen and Ralph's country house (Grand Forks) for more Christmas!

Carmen and Ralph with all of their grandchildren... number 7 is on the way!

Mom with her new "Sophia bag" (Carmen got one too!)

Next we headed over to Travis' grandparents (Snookie and Cash) for Christmas dinner!

Sophia with her great-grandpa Cash

Finally, we headed over to Grandma Mary's to say hello to Mary and Kathy!

Christmas night we hauled over to Ralph and Carmen's lake house (Bemidji) to spend a couple of days hanging out

Sledding! Sophia LOVES sledding!!!

And snowmobiling!

This one is for blackmail... we can send it to Ralph's Dr to prove that Ralph hasn't been very good at convalescing!

Before our latest round of poor weather we had a couple of beautiful days in Fargo/Moorhead and indulged in a sleigh ride!

Followed by cocoa and cookies

My parents wrapped up their vacation by helping us load our friends' U-haul... they are moving to Alaska! Sad :( But, we're really happy and excited for them! Today we are all snowed in at home, and just baking/cleaning/and packing! My parents fly out tomorrow (New Year's Day) and then life will be back to "normal." Happy New Year!

One More!

2010-12-17T06:27:00.000-08:00

One of our VSO volunteers just shared this photo with me... she snapped this shot of of us in front of the Usher's House fireplace at our office's holiday party! Can you see the feral gleam in Sophia's eye? It was soon after this picture was taken that she (and the other toddler in attendance) discovered that there were doors on each end of the (interior) room, and commenced running in circular laps. :)

Catching Up!

2010-12-13T13:55:00.000-08:00

So things have been a little hectic lately! We thought we'd be having a fairly quiet week last week... we spent much of last, last weekend just hanging around and enjoying a playdate with Levi and "Auntie Kari." But, on Monday my father in law, Ralph, went into the hospital with chest pains, and by Wednesday he was in surgery for a triple bypass! So we spent much of last week traveling back and forth to Grand Forks and crossing our fingers. Luckily, Ralph has pulled through the surgery and is already home! And now things are getting (pretty much) back to normal, and I thought I'd just catch up on the blog a bit before things get crazy again with the big Williams "Yankee swap Christmas Party" coming up this Saturday!

Yes, it's been frigid, but we all have our little tricks for staying warm! Sophia and Charlie can often be found snuggling in the sunshine.

We have french toast every Sunday morning before Trav goes to work... last, last Sunday the horses had a hankering for French toast, too!

I think that Clydesdale is keeping an eye on Sophia... making sure she doesn't eat all the French toast...

And on Sunday we had a playdate with Levi and Kari! Doesn't Levi look thrilled to be going outside?!

We pulled them on sleds through the neighborhood...

And even took turns climbing the big mountain in the park!

Yes, this is the big mountain. And, yes, Sophia calls it a mountain! :( Flat-Lander!

After sledding we went to the library, which Levi was much happier about!

This last weekend we were trapped inside quite a bit... the wind chills on Sunday were so bad that Sophia and I literally did not leave the house! We stayed inside cooking and baking all day! We did go out Friday night for my office Christmas party, which was SUPER fun! Sophia was WILD! She was especially excited to wear her special Christmas dress, with the matching doll dress. She has been in the habit of begging to wear this dress every day, and sometimes I let her. She was over the moon to be allowed to wear it out to a party! I love the dress, and you'll be seeing it a lot more in pictures to come! :)

More winter!

2010-11-30T17:23:00.000-08:00

Prior to our latest blizzard we actually had a couple of nice days when we could go out and enjoy the snow!
I think the snowman likes it! ;)

And our very first real Christmas Tree!!! LOVE IT!!!

Comparison Photos!

2010-11-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

Sophia...
And me!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-26T18:06:00.000-08:00

We went and stayed with Carmen and Ralph in Grand Forks for Thanksgiving... On Wednesday Sophia got into the dress-up clothes and modeled a few princess dresses! Here's dress number 1...
And her favorite, dress #2!

Getting silly with Aunt Lindsey

Playing with cousin DJ

Digesting on the floor with Grandpa! We had Thanksgiving dinner with Carmen and Ralph and Lindsey's family, and then went into town to visit with Laura's family and Grandma Mary/Aunt Cathy.

Sophia saw her 2nd cousin, Mairie, and Grandma Mary's... Mairie is SO into Sophia!

Mairie kept hugging Soph... it was so sweet! And of course I could only get blurry pics or they would turn their back to me.

Saying goodbye to their great-grandma Mary! It was a busy and fun Thanksgiving!

First Snows

2010-11-22T16:35:00.000-08:00

2010...
2009...

2008 :)

Hello, Winter!!!

2010-11-22T16:12:00.000-08:00

This weekend I convinced Travis that it was time to bust out the Christmas gear! Spent much of Saturday shopping and decorating. Dali was a sport and modeled a couple old Christmas Cat Hats we had kicking around!

Sunday we had a playdate with Amelia! One of the twins. She's gotten so much bigger... and way more chatty! Lots of practice sharing... and Sophia could use LOTS more practice!

Hello winter! We jinxed ourselves last week by talking about how lucky we were with our extended fall weather...

Sophia loves the snow!

I had to fetch a pumpkin from the squirrel food pile for our annual "first snow with the pumpkin" pic! And YES... the squirrels are devoring our fall decoration pumpkins/gourds/corn, so I just buried them all in the hedges! Happy squirrels!

New Fortress, Grandma Mary's 89th, Choosing outfits!

2010-11-16T18:46:00.000-08:00

Last week Travis and I undertook a new project in Sophia's nursery--I mean "Big-Girl Room"-- creating a "secret fortress" in one of her big closets! She LOVES it! And it was so fun for us to work on all together!

The outside... she loves going up and down the ladder! Such a climber!

She's into dinosaurs these days.

This past weekend we spent the weekend in Grand Forks, and did lots of visiting with lots of family! Cousin Timmy did a lot of good bonding with Soph...

You know she likes you when she dumps puffs in your mouth!

Timmy getting ambushed by the youngest kids/grandkids

Sophia with her cousins Jaylin and Gabby!

Soph and Uncle John smiling nicely...

And sticking out their tongues!

Chowing down with Aunt Kathy... Soph found this bonnet in the dress up clothes and loved it! And, as you may have noticed, she was VERY sociable this weekend... getting more extroverted every day!

Joining the girls for a sing-a-long performance!

Uncle Dan broke out the guitar...

...and Travis joined on the harmonica! One of my favorite things about Williams family get-togethers is that they always involve lots and lots of music!

Grandma Carmen was a sport and played Sophia's favorite game: Grandma Horsey! (or mom horsey or dad horsey... she's not picky!)

Sunday morning! For Grandma Mary's 89th we all went to Catholic mass at St Mary's, and then to the Hilton for brunch with the whole family! Sophia and 2nd cousin Mairi are the two littlest, and both were in plaid on Sunday! Too cute!

The cousins, serenading Grandma Mary

The cake!

Grandma Mary is every bit the Williams family matriarch; she is one special lady!

More bonding with Timmy :) He totally has a way with the kids... a good skill for someone going into teaching!

The barbarshop quartet!

With cousin Magdalene

The group! About 1/2 of the Williams clan (close family) don't live in the area, so this is about 1/2 of the usual suspects... that family is SO big!

Mary with Ralph (her son), Carmen, 1/2 of Carmen and Ralph's kids/spouses and all their grandkids (and another on the way!)

Sophia and Mairie

Being babies!

Love this picture! Sophia is so happy around her grandparents!

Back at home on Monday... Sophia is insisting on dressing herself, and she picked out this outfit: pink mock-neck, boots, pearls, and playing with dinosaurs! (No pants) :)

Bath pics... I'm trying to recreate a bath pic my mom took of me when I was a toddler. Hopefully I'll have some side-by-side comparisons next week!

Clinging to the sunshine!

2010-11-09T16:41:00.000-08:00

We are revamping Sophia's nursery to make it more "big-girl friendly." Travis found this counter scrap at the local hardware store and used it to expand her play kitchen area... she loves it! Next up: creating a "mini nursery" for all of her dolls and doll accessories, and turning one of her closets into a private fortress full of stuffed animals, toys, and lights that she can operate herself. Fun!

We've been taking advantage of our beautiful weather! Sophia helped string the Christmas lights :)

We're keeping the fall decorations out until Thanksgiving... then it's Christmas all the way!

Today (a gorgeous, sunny day in the 60's!) Sophia and I took the bike and cart to the library and then went to the park for almost 2 hours. We had so much fun, and there were lots of kids for her to play with! And trees to climb! (She's a climber, in case you couldn't tell!) :)

We knew it was nap time when tree-climber turned into grass-rolling!

If only it could last forever...

Funny/Silly Questionnaire:

2010-11-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

I stole this questionnaire off of my BF, Ruth's, blog (www.stilltheflowersgrow.blogspot.com), just for fun!

1. If you could be in any TV show when you were a kid what would it be?
For all the TV I watched as a kid I can't think of anything! I actually really liked the "Little House on the Prairie" series and had a very idealized view of prairie life... I'm sure I would have loved being in that show. I can more readily think of books I would have liked to have lived in!

2. What has been your favorite Christmas gift as a child?
Definitely my hamster. Snuggles.

3. What actress would you want to play you if your life was a movie?
This is not the actress who should play me, but the actress I would want to play me: Cameron Diaz!

4. What decade fad do you wish would come back?
Everything from the 60's... long hair and cute peasant clothes especially!

5. What song describes your life?
The song "Beautiful Day" (U2) really resonates with me.

6. What was your favorite subject in school?
Always English! My favorite class ever was Critical Theory in college. I also really liked my philosophy courses.

7. If you could have a dream job for a day what would it be?
Sitting in an office at home, writing for a living

8. If you could be any animal, what would be and why?
I would be one of my cats: spoiled, lazy, independent and free to do whatever and come home to food and a cozy bed!

Halloween! And lots more!

2010-11-04T16:28:00.000-07:00

Chronicles of an Only Child, Part I! Sophia is playing with a potato.
She was very maternal with the tater, and "put it to bed" in the napkin several times. She has insisted on playing with a potato several times since. This is what happens when you don't have siblings or a TV! Too funny!

Halloween weekend! We went up to Grand Forks on Saturday, and horsed around with Grandpa and Pepper the pony a bit :)

Halloween party! Laura threw an AMAZING Halloween party all day on Sunday. The kids had so much fun!

Cupcake decorating... one of the many "kid activities"

Sophia and Gunner

Sack race!

Gunner in his sack... the sack race was hilarious!

Sophia watched the sack racing with Grandpa

Magdalene participating in the relay race (teams running candy corn on a spoon between two buckets... also hilarious!)

Getting ready for trick-or-treating!

Maddie was the Geico Gecko

Gabby and Jaylin

The two bumblebees! Sophia and her cousin, Magdalene

The cousins, ready to go!

Sophia and DJ hitching a ride between houses

Trick or treating! Sophia was fearless... she said "trick or treat" at each house and was so excited to be given candy each time! And she was very good about saying "tank oo" :)

Short break between trick or treating neighborhoods...

We took 5 at Grandma Mary's house during trick or treating

My fearless little bee!

Hitching a ride with Gunner

Full wagon! The 3 littlest cousins: Gunner, Sophia, DJ

And on Tuesday Sophia voted several times!

On Wednesday we were very happy to be able to witness cousin Sammy's confirmation at Sharon Lutheran Church in Grand Forks (Sammy is Travis' cousin, not one of Sophia's... so many cousins!) :)

Cousins Madelyn, Samantha, Aunt Paula and cousin Joey... it's been a busy and wonderful week!

2010-10-24T15:47:00.000-07:00

So I was trying to explain to my mom how we've rearranged our living/dining areas, and I decided to just post a picture! It's so much more cozy this way... feels more "lived-in!"
And the fall/Halloween outdoor decs, for fun :) The little white things along the front walk are little ghosts that Sophia helped me stuff with leaves on Friday... it was so warm we were out there in tank-tops!

New kitchen adventures: home-made croutons! I KNOW I'm a dork for posting this BUT I have to share because this was such a heavenly discovery... I made these croutons by toasting chopped up leftover homemade Rosemary focaccia in a skillet with lots of olive oil and they are the BEST croutons I have ever had in my life--I can't believe I didn't try this sooner! They were so divine that even Travis (who does not care for croutons) stood there with me eating them warm out of the pan. I fully intend to start baking hundreds of loaves of rosemary focaccia so I can eat nothing but croutons all winter! Haha

That warm weather I bragged about above? Yeah, it's gone now. Check out Sophia's new pea coat! I love it; I think she looks like such a little lady! You have to ignore her puffy little face, though, she has quite the little cold :(

My cutie!