Sophia Turns the Big 2!

Hmm, maybe you're not supposed to use that phrase until they're at least in the double digits...oh well. :) Anyway, Sophia turned 2 on Wednesday, November 30 (have I said before that I can't believe I have a stinking 2 year old???) and to celebrate we had her birthday on Friday, December 2. Normally I had only planned on doing big parties for certain ages (1, maybe 5, 8, 12, 16 - you get the idea) but since we're down here with no family to come and visit I thought I would throw her a party with some of her little nursery friends from church to make up for it. Since last year was a big party and was so much fun but so stressful and tiring, I decided that this year would be small and simple - just cake and ice-cream and presents. Oh boy, even that had me all worked up! But it turned out good - we had a great turnout and Sophia loved it! The theme was "Pink and Purple" since I want to save the princess theme for a birthday she'll be able to remember/enjoy more, and because pink and purple are Sophia's favorite colors lately. Seriously, she gets so mad at me if I get her a cereal bowl and spoon without one of them being pink or purple, it's ridiculous. Blue bowl and yellow spoon is like a slap in the face to her. Anyway, yes this was the theme, now here are the pictures. :)

Starting earlier in the week: We got presents from Grandma's and Grandpa's! She was pretty excited to see this big box just for her!

Then the first present she opened was a thing of Mini M&M's, and she decided she didn't need to open anymore. Little stinker!

Then she finally did and had so much fun opening everything! She got a pink skirt, a shirt, some pink pajamas, some pants, the movie The Sword in the Stone and a bear puzzle that has snaps and buttons and zippers and all kinds of fun things! Thanks Grandma Daugherty!

This was the best picture I could get of her jammies - they were her favorite and she cried when she had to stop wearing them a day and a half later because they needed to be washed! LOL

Then she had a tortilla, which is her favorite food now. Weird...

Not pictured here are the gifts from other Grandma's. Grandma Hunter sent us some birthday money that went towards buying The Lion King (Sophie's new favorite movie! Thanks Grandma Hunter!) and Great-Grandma Nielsen sent Sophie a small baby doll with a crocheted bassinet and blanket, where the bassinet turns into a little drawstring purse that holds the baby and the blanket inside! So cute, and Sophie loves it! Thanks Great-Grandma Nielsen!

Then the day of Sophie's party! The cake is far from professional, but I was pretty proud of my skills with an icing bag since it was the first time I can ever remember using one! :)

Singing Happy Birthday

Blowing out the candle! (Daddy had to help a little because Sophie kept trying to grab it!)

All of her little friends after we opened presents! We have Taryn, Jesslyn, Gracie, Lindsay, Lilly, Sophia and Suzy. What a bunch of cute girls! Not pictured is her friend Kate (who was woken up from her nap for the party and not very happy about it!) and baby Brielle. (Hope I spelled all of those right!)

After everyone left Sophie systematically would bring me one toy at a time to open, play with, and then would bring me another. She loved every one of her gifts!

She even got a dress-up set!

And 3 days later, she's still singing "Happy Birthday to Me!" and carrying that dang balloon around! :)

It was such a fun day, and much better than her actual birthday where she got shots and then screamed at a restaurant that night. Thanks to everyone who could come and those who couldn't make it we missed you! :) I just love my little girl!

3 Months???

It's really been 4 months since my last post??? (Ha ha, I'll bet some of you got all excited for nothing!) I was just reading a friends blog and saw a link to mine that said "Last Post: 4 months ago" (Note: I did the math, and blogger was wrong, it's only been 3 months!)

.....Yeah I should probably do better with this. :) So life lately....has been great! Jon's doing well in school, getting A's and B's. I can't believe he's already gone through 2 quarters (and it's still weird getting used to the quarter system instead of semesters...Ah the joys of accelerated programs!) This means that we are 1/4 of the way through the academic portion, and 1/6 of the way through all of it! Translation: 1/2 a year down and 2 1/2 to go! It's gone by a LOT faster than I thought! But it's good.

Pretty much our schedules consist of Jon going to school, all freaking day, coming home to study, and then going to sleep. Meanwhile, Sophie and I find stuff to do. Usually it consists of playing with every toy she owns for 5 seconds each, and then watching me clean them up, and somehow finding time to eat and sleep in between. This week we got to celebrate her 2nd birthday! Holy cow I have a 2 year old. This has been my mantra all week. Catchy, eh? Yeah. But it was a good week, other than being dumb and planning her 2 year well-check visit on her actual birthday (yikes!) Shots on birthdays are never fun, in case you were wondering. Luckily, I had the foresight to plan her party for Friday, 2 days after her birthday, because had it been the same day it would have been a complete disaster. DISASTER, I tell you. As it was, however, it was good. She had some friends come over, got some AMAZING gifts (seriously, they were all perfect!) and got to stuff her face with pink and purple cake. It was some good times! As soon as I upload the photos, I'll put them on here. :)

The other exciting thing in our life has just been getting ready for Christmas. I've had so much fun Christmas shopping so far, probably because most of it has been online. Ah, Internet, how I love you. :) Since we're going to Utah for Christmas I want to make sure that we have ALL of the shopping done before we have to leave so I can focus purely on packing. I'm not too excited about the 10+ hour drive, especially since Jon will be studying in the car while I'M driving (it's in the middle of the quarter - boo.) but I will do it just for the fact that I miss my family and friends and mountains so stinking much! Really, I love it here and am very happy here, but I miss family. And friends. And real mountains. (Sigh) Only 3 more weeks!

Anyway, since I am super tired and have to get up early for church tomorrow and teach 12-13 year old kids (which I actually really enjoy! If it were Primary aged kids....well I have a hard time being trapped in a room with lots of children...thus I'm not an elementary school teacher like I once thought I wanted to be....yay for anxiety!) ....wow long tangent. Anyway, I'm going to bed. However I will try to post something wonderful and exciting next time and will try to make it sooner than 3 or 4 months. O_o I might have to make something up, but I'll try to make it sound good. Until next time faithful follower! (...followers? I doubt anyone knows this blog exists anymore!)