My little girl is growing up - 18 months!

My little Sophi! I can't believe you are already a year and a half old. You have blown us away in how much you have grown over these last 6 months.

You still LOVE to talk and pretty much talk from the moment you wake up to the moment your eyes finally shut as you drift off to sleep. You are speaking in more sentences now, and it is so fun to listen to you express yourself. Some of your favorite phrases are "I love you," "I see birdies," "Lovie with you" and "Hi, Shiloh."You can say anything you want to say and still love to mimic. 

 You have discovered singing and love to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", the "ABC" song, "Elmo's Song," "Jesus Loves Me", and "Old McDonald Had a Farm." You often burst into song out of no where with so much enthusiasm it still surprises me! 

 You are such a sweet little girl (most of the time) and truly have a tender heart. You do not like to hear people cry, you love little babies, you love giving kisses and hugs. You are having a difficult time right now expressing your frustration through hitting as well as saying no. You have so many words, however, you can't quite grasp how to express that emotion. We know you will in time. You are very strong willed and already quite the independent little lady. As trying as it can be on my patience sometimes, I am enjoying watching you grow into your big personality.

 

 You love to wash yourself in the bathtub, put on your own shoes, go down the stairs by yourself, push the stroller, and on and on the list could go!

You love your sweet friend Caroline and ask to play with her constantly, which is fun because that means I get to spend lots of time with her sweet mommy, Ellen. You love to pray and thank God for Caroline, Ellen, Jeff and Baby Harris. You usually don't pray for anyone else but have to make sure to mention all of them by name! So sweet! You love knowing people's names and always remember them after the first time you meet. I think you are going to have a gift for remembering names, a gift for loving people.

You also love animals. Dogs rank at the top of your list and Shiloh is still one of your best friends. He is really learning to love you too (especially because you have discovered feeding him from the table and giving him treats!). You also really enjoy going to the zoo and seeing all the "aminals" as you call them! Your favorite zoo animals are the monkeys and the elephants!

Your favorite things to do right now are go to the playground and go to story time at the Library or Vroman's bookstore. You only take one nap a day now so we have more time in the mornings to go to these fun places.You and daddy have started going on daddy/daughter dates every Saturday morning 

and you love this special time with him. You are really becoming a daddy's girl.

 

You still LOVE to read and could read a majority of the day! Your favorite books right now are anything Dr. Seuss, "You are Special" by Max Lucado and our Read Aloud Bible Story books. 

I can go on and on about all the things you are doing these days. You are the light of my life, you bring me so much joy and continue to teach me so much about myself and our awesome Creator. I am so lucky to get to share my days with you. I can't wait to see all that God has in store for you in your life. I feel honored to be your mommy and pray that God will give me the wisdom to be the best mommy I can be for you right now. You are my precious little girl and I love you!

Sophi's 18 month Stats:

Height: 32 inches - 60th percentile

Weight: 23 pounds 15 ounces - 50th percentile

Mama Hazel

My great-grandmother, Mama Hazel, passed away this past Sunday at the age of 95. She had not been herself for awhile and although it is sad to not have her here with us anymore, I am so thankful that she is now at peace and at home, rejoicing with the angels living in the presence of God.

My Mama Hazel was full of tenacity and passion, she had to be raising 5 girls! She loved her girls, her grandkids and her great grandkids. How awesome that she lived long enough to meet her great-great-grandkids too!! 

I have such found memories of visiting my Mama Hazel. She would always make me fried okra because she knew it was my favorite! I also have a found, funny memory of spending the night with her, sleeping in bed with her and laughing with her about taking out her teeth!! 

Her loving influence shaped my Nana, who helped shape my mom, who helped shape me into the women and mom I am today and will be a part of the shaping of Sophi.

 

I am grateful for the legacy she left during her life and honored to be known as one of her great-grandchildren. 

I love you Mama Hazel and look forward to the day I see you again!

Busyness and a maternity shoot

This week has been super busy! It started last Sunday with our first open house, followed by another on Tuesday, Thursday and again Sunday with showings by appointment in between! Whew!! And let me just say keeping a house picked up and stainless steal appliances fingerprint free for a week with a toddler running around is nearly impossible! But somehow, with God's help, we pulled it off! On top of all that our precious little girl had a GI virus, sinus infection and burst eardrum all in the same week!
Needless to say Josh and I enjoyed our one night a month of tv watching tonight as a reward for making it through!
 In the midst of the craziness I had the opportunity to take some maternity pictures for our good friends Nate and Kristi. This was my first attempt at anything photography and I was quite nervous but surprisingly pleased with the results. Nate and Kristi were so great and patient with me as I learned the ropes. I have A LOT to learn about my camera and the art of photography but it made for a fun Saturday morning. Here are a few of my favorites.

 

We are preparing now for our trip to Nashville over spring break to visit Josh's family! It will be nice to be back in the south for a bit and spend time with family and friends.
Sophi turns 18 months next week and I honestly can not believe it! Check back soon for her 18 month update!!

Weekend in Vegas

For Christmas my parents bought Graham, Ashley, Josh and I all tickets to see Cirque du Soleil's "O" in Las Vegas. Graham and Ashley would already be in Vegas that week for a photography conference and we were just a short drive away! 

So this past Saturday morning Josh and I headed out of town, leaving Sophi in good hands with our sweet friends Kyle and Lahela. Josh and I both relished our time alone in the car, quite peace where we could actually focus on what the other was saying. We arrived at our hotel a little after noon where we were pleasantly surprised to receive a free upgrade on our room upon check in! 

We stayed at the Trump International Hotel just off the strip! It was fantastic, quite, and just close enough to all the action without being right in the middle of it! And our room was fabulous! A one bedroom suite complete with a full kitchen and two bathrooms, one with a two person jacuzzi tub overlooking the city! If only could have stayed a little longer!!

 The show was to start at 10:00pm that evening so after strolling down the strip to check out a few of the resorts we quickly headed back to our room to take a nap. It had been a long time since we had stayed up that late!!

We met up with Graham and Ashley, who had just arrived that afternoon, at the MGM Grand to eat a yummy Japanese dinner at Shibuya! The food was awesome! After dinner we walked over to the Bellagio, where "O" was preformed, and caught one of the water fountain shows on our way in!

 We, of course, all took a hand at the slot machines (unfortunately no one came up lucky) then headed on over to the theater.

Our seats (thank you Dad!!) were on the front row!! It was so amazing to see everything going on in the show from that close a veiwpoint! The performance is done around and in a 25 foot deep, 1.5 million gallon water pool where the "actors" dive, jump, swim, and do almost every type of acrobatics over the water. It was AWESOME! I even got to be a tiny part of the show when during one of the scenes a performer had me come up and handed me a flower! Too cool!

 "O" ended around midnight and Josh and I decided to walk the mile or so back to our hotel. If you are in Vegas, you might as well walk the strip at night right?!  Needless to say we were pretty tired when we finally reached our room!

We slept in the next morning, ate some room service then headed back to Pasadena. We laughed a lot on the way home listening to The Ricky Gerveis Project podcast!

Sophi seemed to have done pretty well with Kyle and Lahela while we were gone and I think we were more excited to see her than she was to see us!

We are so thankful for the occasional weekend away to reconnect, refresh, regroup and recharge! Thank you dad for the amazing tickets and awesome dinner. Thanks Graham and Ashley for being willing to share the experience with us! And thank you Kyle and Lahela for being willing to give up your weekend to watch our little girl so we could have a break! 

Now back to the realities of life....

Love is in the Air

In light of the upcoming "love" holiday our chatter box, Sophi, wanted to send a "love" shout out to her Lolly and Pops and her Grammy and Poppy!

(Please excuse her nakedness in this post bath video)

Happy Valentines Day Weekend Everyone!

Reminders

With thoughts of moving on our mind we are reminded of so many things we will miss about California. No matter what time of year we can always be outside, which is heavenly with a toddler! We love Lacy Park for a quite weekday morning, or The Huntington Gardens on a warm Saturday afternoon. We have so many great memories of running around the track at the Rose Bowl, and we are making so many new memories at the AMAZING Kidspace Museum. And of course there is the LA Zoo, Disnyland and all the Rose Bowl Parade activities right in our backyard. Our church has been such a blessing to us in so many ways and we can't imagine living here without our LifeGroup! What sweet friendships that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. My just down the street first mommy friend, Ellen, and her sweet family. What an example they have been to us of how to be Godly parents. This list could go on and on.
California: although at times you have seemed harsh and oh so far away, I am reminded today of just how good you have been to us. I am thankful that we still have more time here to spend in these special places and with these special people. Thank you God, for this little reminder, to not get so caught up in the unknowns of our future but to simply enjoy the life you have given us, right here and right now.

Lolly and Pops!

As I mentioned in my last post, Lolly and Pops came to visit us for a week. It had been awhile since they had been with us and we so loved having them here!
We spent one day at Disney, enjoyed seeing the LA Zoo, spent time at one of our favorite places, Lacy Park, did some shopping, and spent as much time as we could enjoying the 80+ degree weather!Most of our days were planned around where we would eat, and we ate A LOT!! My dad's favorite fast food burger is an In-N-Out found only here in California (and maybe a few in Arizona?) so we had to eat there a couple times during their trip. We walked over the Norma's Taco Stand on Green Street for lunch one day and enjoyed eating our yummy tacos outside in the sun. We ate at our favorite BBQ place in town, Zekes TWICE once for lunch and Sunday for their delicious southern breakfast where I had biscuits and gravy with a side of grits for the first time in years! One night we drove over to the cute little town of Sierra Madre for some Mexican food and decided to go back the next night and try the pizza place next door! We finished off our eating frenzy with a yummy steak dinner at Houston's, a family favorite for years.

My parents got me a sewing machine for Christmas and we bought it while they were out here. My mom was so patient with me and helped me learn how to work my machine while starting me on my first project, a cute little dress for Sophi. We laughed a lot while making it but I think it turned out pretty well.My dad went to IKEA twice to find just the right table for my sewing machine and set me up with a great little work space to keep my new hobby going! Thanks Dad! You're the best!

Lolly and Pops helped us out so much while they were here, stocking our pantry and freezer with plenty of food, fixing little odds and ends, and helping us get our house ready to put on the market in a couple of weeks.We so enjoyed our time with them and hated to see them go. Sophi and I drove them to the airport and watched as they flew away in Pops airplane. The whole way home Sophi kept saying "Where Lolly go?"
Thank you Lolly and Pops for loving us the way you do and spoiling us while you were here. We love you and can't wait to see you again soon!