HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIE!!

Sophie is now 1!!! Her Birthday was August 11!! I cant believe how time has flown!! I know people always say it goes by so fast, and I believed them, but it still is crazy. :) Anyways... for Sophie's birthday Nick's parents came here to Reno.It was so fun to have them here. They got here on her birthday, so we had a little party that night for Sophie. It wasn't anything too special, but I made her a cake and we opened presents. She loved the cake! I made a little lady bug cake for her, and the "head" of the ladybug was a mini cake for Sophie to have all to herself.

 We let her eat it all by herself and she really dug in! It was hilarious!! She went from using her hands to just stuffing her whole face into the cake. It got all over her, and the walls, and everything, but it was definitely worth it!!

I realized in the middle of her eating the cake that the color of frosting I used probably wasnt the best choice. It looked really gross haha (but it tasted good)

After cake (and a bath) we had her open presents.She was very excited to be opening them. It was so fnny because She would scream ( a happy scream) everytime she opened a new present. It was very cute, and she definitely got spoiled, especially by Grandma Sue and Grandpa Scott. :)

Anyways... in celebration of her birthday I wanted to tell about some of the things she has learned and likes to do in this first year of her life. so here it goes:

1. She has learned how to crawl (ya it took her a long time, but she definitely has it down really well now, I think she will be walking any day now, but you never know with her)
2. She can feed herself (and she now doesn't choke on things as much, which I am very glad for)
3. She can wave.... at everything, its her favorite thing.
4. She can give mommy and daddy kisses... SO CUTE!
5. She can sleep through the night (YAY!!)
6. She can clap her hands
7. She can draw (kind of)
8. She loves to look at books
9. She loves her pink blanky
10. She loves to play catch with daddy (but she wont throw the ball for some reason, she hands it to him nicely haha)
11. She can brush her own hair... this is so cute!
12. She loves mommy to hold her.... ALL The time!
13. She loves to watch baby Einstein movies ( best invention EVER)
14. She loves to go on walks in her stroller
15. She loves animals, especially dogs and birds
16. She loves to go swimming
17. She can dance, and she loves music... its very cute
18. She loves little kids and babies
19. She loves to look at pictures of Jesus (and wave to him, cutest thing ever)
20. She loves her mommy and daddy, and we love her very much!!

We are very blessed to have such a sweet little girl. It definitely is such a learning experience but I am very grateful for it. I love (almost) every minute of it. I love watching her learn and grow and sometimes I still cant believe she is ours, and that we actually have a little girl! Being a parent is the best thing in the whole world! Happy Birthday Sophie!!!!

What a great summer....

Man!! I was just looking back at pictures that we have taken in the past 2 months and wow we have done so many things. I actually have been wanting to blog about each one seperately, but as you can see, Im not the best at blogging! :) But I have wanted to share some of the fun things we have done.

1. We went to San Francisco about a week and a half ago. It is about 3 hours away from Reno, so we figured since we are this close we had to go at least once. It was great! We went with Jeff and Hetti Gower. Jeff is in the pharamacy program with Nick, and his wife Hetti is what I would consider pretty much my only friend here in Reno. She's great! Anyways... it was a fun trip! 

Me and Sophie with the Ex con... apparently being an ex-inmate in alcatraz makes you some kind of a celebrity.



She was so tired!

In the Alcatraz Prison

Sea Lions at Pier 39

Golden Gate Bridge

Lumbard Street

Those hills in San Francisco are brutal!

2. Nick just finished up his 2nd rotation here. It was a Walgreens rotation and the lady who was in charge of him was going to be gone for Nick's last week. She was very very nice and decided to let Nick have off Wed.- Fri. So Nick surprised me and let us go on a little trip back to Pocatello (which for us isnt such a little trip, its 9 hours from Reno). We actually surprised my parents too and just showed up at the door. Well technically we set Sophie on the door step in her carseat, covered the car seat with a blanket, and rang and ran, My dad answered and actually thought some random person was trying to leave their child with my parents. You know, like in the movies kind of. Anyways... he totally blew past Sophie (who was crying) and came running out after whoever dropped the baby off. It was actually really funny! Im laughing just thinking about it, and he was way suprised when he saw it was us. I couldnt believe he didnt even look at the crying baby. Who does that?!
We were actually in Burley first, before we went to Pocatello, to visit Nick's parents and it was so fun seeing them too. Nick was way excited to be able to go water skiing, and golfing. And it turned out to be perfect weather for both of those. The river in Burley was as smooth as I have ever seen it. And Nick and I and Nick's dad all went golfing and Nick shot the best round he has ever shot,and he beat me by one stroke, which is quite the accomplishment for him, and a bummer for me because until now, golf was the only thing I had up on him. oh well! : )
It turned out be be a perfect week to visit Nick's family because Chad (nicks brother) blessed their new little baby Quincy, so the whole family was in town for that. We were very excited to be able to go to that and see everyone.
It also turned out to be like the worst weekend to visit my family. My parents had their 30yr highschool reunion that weekend and they both were involved with planning it. And Mandy and Bryson had a big tennis tournament that weekend also. It was still fun to see them, but we just didnt get as much time with them as I would have liked. Mandy and Bryson dominated at tennis though, and we watched their matches so that was pretty cool.

She loves the water!

Nick doin his thing on the water ski

Cool sunglasses huh! :)

Me... attempting to wakeboard. Ever since my fall on the motorcycle Im terrified of wrecking on anything. I was really scared to go wakeboarding, but Nick talked me into it, and it was pretty fun. Even though I suck! :)

You cant really tell from this picture but Sophie is waving too. She waves at everything... its so cute!

Grandma Sue, Sophie, and Mary on the boat

The Barker family!

3. With all of this time on my hands here in Reno ( ya right) I have worked on a few projects. I guess one of the advantages of being poor is that I never want to spend money, or rather I dont have the money to spend, so, I teach myself how to make things, and I think I prefer it now to buying stuff. I feel like I appreciate it a lot more, and its fun! I would definitely recomend it. And seriously if I can do it anyone can! I dont even know what im doing really, I just kind of start and hope for the best.
The first project is a new carseat cover. I made it because the original one on the carseat started falling apart, and to buy a new one costs a lot more than I was willing to pay, so... here it is...... before...

notice the duct tape?

And the rips?

And After.... what do ya think? Dont look too close. ;)




 I have also been working on a Quiet Book for Sophie for her birthday ( which is tomorrow, YAY!!!!) I dont have any pictures of it yet, but its pretty cute! It was really fun to make.


My most recent project is a curtain covering thing for our entertainment center. Sophie loves to pull out all the movies and fling them all over the room, so I am covering it so she cant do that anymore. That project is actually not finished yet. Hopefully soon. :)

 SO............ Like I said, this has been a great summer so far. We have really enjoyed our time here, and the summer isn't over yet! We still have more fun things ahead!  :)

~LateLy~

WOW! It is officicial I am SO bad at keeping up with this blog. I think about updating it all the time, but when I get time to sit down and do it, when Sophie is taking her nap and the house is somewhat clean,  I decide I would probably rather do somthing else, like read a book, or watch a show that I have recorded (DVR is like the best invention EVER! haha). So updating the blog isn't a first priority, but we have had some fun thigs going on, and I really wanted to put it in here. That way if I forget to write in my journal, then I can always come and look here at my blog. :)

Anyways..Nick, Sophie, and I have been enjoying our time here in Reno. Its fun being somwhere new, and different but I will admit we really miss our families. Nick's brother Jono sent Nick a picture of a fish he caught and Nick was so jealous!! He really misses fishing ( and Jono ;) and the rest of his family. I miss mine too, but this last week they came down here to Reno to visit us and it was SOO great having them here. I knew I missed them, but I think I realized it a lot more this week. After they left I was so sad! Its kind of pathetic actually, because this is really the second time I have seen them since we have lived here in Reno, and we have only been here since May.

At the beginning of June I was able to go to Pocatello and see my family and also a lot of Nicks family too. That was also realy nice to see them! I really miss Nick' s family too! Hopefully some of them can come visit us sometime.

Sophie Hallie and Grandma Sue playing in the park in Pocatello

Sophie playing with Kyler

Me and My parent when they came to pick me up from Reno, we were freezing if you cant tell!

The reason I went to Pocatello in June was because for mine and Nick's anniversay we got tickets to a Cake concert in Boise, so I went down a few days early ( my parents came and picked up me and Sophie here in Reno). Then Mandy and Bryson (sis and bro) drove me to Boise and we picked Nick up from the airport and headed to my aunt and uncle's house. They live in Nampa and let us stay with them while we were in Boise. Friday night was the Cake concert! It was really fun! We definitely recommend it!



Nick and I at the Concert



This is the lead singer for CAKE

So this last week with my family here we had a great time. They came the Friday before the 4th and my parents left on Tuesday the 5th and Mandy and Bryson stayed until Saturday the 9th! We went to Lake Tahoe one day, we played tennis, went swimming at the pool here at our apartment complex, went to a minor league baseball game, we also went to a ward breakfast on the 4th which is kind of a funny story... So the breakfast was from 7am- 9am well we were all like "7am! Thats too early! We will go around 8" Well we end up getting there about 8:30. Its at this park and everyone is stitting around listening to this speaker., and we all just kind of walk up, then after he is done with his talk they are like "Thank you all for coming have a nice 4th of July!" So ya... basically we missed the breakfast part, but since EVERYONE saw us come late, they were like "oh it looks like some people havent eaten yet,  raise your hand if you havent gotten food" So, of course, my Dad and brother Bryson raise their hands. I think Me, my Mom and Mandy about died from embaressment! We were the only ones who hadnt eaten and everyone was like getting ready to go. Anyways... we stayed and ate, but I felt so stupid the whole time, because first of all we are still really new in our ward and nobody really knows us, so they were all probably wondering who we all were,  second the whole breakfast was over when we got there and the only food they had were these pancakes that had been sitting out for and hour and an half, and anyway it was just embarrassing. Other than that though the 4th was fun! We went and hit golf balls at this really cool driving range and we looked around down town, then Nick made a really good dinner and then we went and watched the fireworks!




At the Reno Aces Baseball game!



They do fireworks after the baseball game and these are the sweet glasses they give you to watch the firewroks with.

the Boys with Tahoe in the background



The girls

The water in Tahoe was Freezing! This video got cut off before we all jumped in, but its still kinda funny!

The rest of the week we just kind of hung out and went to the malls and more tennis, and swimming and on Thursday we went to the water park here in Reno, and that was really fun! Unfortuatly we left the card that goes in our camera home, so I couldnt get any pictures at the waterpark. Basically the week was really fun! And now I miss my family! Its nice to have a clean house again though! :) 

Here are some pictures and things of Sophie now. She is 11 months old today!!

ridin'  the Kirby

I got her hair into a little pony tail for the first time today! :)

This video is from about 3 weeks ago, but its so cute!