Give Thanks

A perfect Thanksgiving, in my opinion. Growing up, my family and I spent Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house in Kalispell, Montana. We managed the trip in a wood-paneled station wagon with 9 people in the car. My mom would have my younger sister on her lap, and I and my older sister would sit in the front seat between my mom and dad. The other four siblings sat in the back seat. It was definitely tight, but I look back on it fondly.

This was the first year Matt and I were able to spend Thanksgiving with my family, and for me, it was bliss. I love the quaint little town, my Aunt and Uncle's cozy little home, and the wonderful smells of Thanksgiving dinner. It was very nostaligic.

One of the best parts of the trip was playing games at night. We were in a hotel, so we all put our kids to bed, plugged in the monitor, and met in my parents' room for intense game-playing. We laughed a lot, stayed up late, and ate plenty of popcorn and junk food.

We also took Sophie to Madagascar 2. Surprisingly, she sat through the ENTIRE show. I only had to leave about 5 minutes early to change her diaper. We shopped, of course, but we didn't do the 4 am thing. Not worth it in my opinion. Kalispell has a great little downtown with some fun shops. We spent more time there than anything. Lastly, we ate. We ate at some yummy, unique restaruants, and we enjoyed the after Thanskgiving turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce. My fav. A perfect Thanksgiving, in my opinion.

30

This guy turned 30... about 3 weeks ago (So I get behind on blogging sometimes.) I threw a surprise party for him, which apparently wasn't much of a surprise after all. He had some hints along the way.

Anyhoo, we had a lot of fun with it. I asked everyone to bring an inexpensive, or even free gift of something that reminded them of Matt. He's such a funny, quirky guy, some pretty great ideas came out of it. Among them were: a bidet, a dented toy car (A story from high school), plastic money, an afro wig, a home perm kit (yes, he once permed his hair), a weird plastic skull head with hair (story from high school involving a locker war). We laughed at the stories everyone had to share about Matt and also enjoyed a little cake.

I also put together a memory book as a gift for Matt. I asked several friends and family members to contribute pictures and stories to make this a really special gift. I spent countless hours on the computer putting it all together, and it finally arrived in the mail on Saturday. I was so excited to show Matt, and this is what it looked like:

The cover--looks pretty good (even though my picture of it isn't so great) But once we opened the book up, this is what we saw: pictures of some guy HUNTING and drinking beer. I was mad at first about the mix-up, but then we got a pretty good laugh about it!

I'm not a fan of hunting, so these pictures of gutting a dear completely gross me out.

Yeah, that's right, drinking from a beer bong.

Hopefully the REAL book will arrive in the mail soon!

Halloween

I know, delayed Halloween posting, but better late than never, am I right? I got behind on my blogging because of a surprise birthday party I threw for Matt recently (more info on that later)

Halloween this year was a lot of fun, especially since Sophie actually grasped the concept a little bit. She insisted on carrying her own treat bucket (who can blame her?!), and it was hilarious to watch her decide on which candy to pick. Lots of suckers. And thanks to this candy-filled holiday, she now officially knows what candy is, and asks for it all the time.

Check out this adorable picture my friend Veronica took of Sophie. Yes, she is a rock star photographer. Check her out http://veronicareeve.com/

Wheeler Farm

My cousin, Vanessa, and I are only 2 months apart in age. We have always been pretty close and spent lots of time together when we were younger. We were kind of weird, though. When Vanessa slept over at my house, we would sneak up to the kitchen late at night and eat, get this, homemade dill pickles. We loved them, and would usually make several trips to the fridge.

Fast forward 20 years, we have toddlers only 6 weeks apart in age. I love how it all worked out and we try to get these two together once a month. This month we made the trip to Wheeler Farm and let them see cows, sheep, horses, chickens, and my personal favorite, baby pigs. so cute. We also took a ride for the steep price of $1.50 on a wagon to tour the entire farm. (I love how inexpensive Utah is!)

Sophie showing me Hayden's eye

Annual Funk Halloween Party

Not a great picture, I know, but the lighting in a church building is not the best. Halloween is one of my family's favorite holidays, and they love to go all out on the party. (No costumes this year--separate story)

Here's what we did:

1: Dinner of chili, rolls, salad, and doughnuts. This has been the menu for as long as I can remember. It's comforting.

2: Pumpkin carving/decorating contest. Matt and I made a "Sophie" pumpkin. Didn't really look like her, but we had fun doing it. I thought we had a chance at winning, but my brother beat us out with a "Hamburger" pumpkin. Clever.

3: My sister made up her own game of "Survivor"--Halloween style. She's the clever slash crafty one in the family, so we leave that stuff up to her. You can see pictures below of the dress-up relay part of the game. I know these games are cheesy, but we have a lot of fun with them.

4: I did face painting for the little ones. I love how excited they get to have a lame little spider painted on their cheek. It's cute.

That about sums it up.

The winning pumpkin

Sweet action shots from the relay game

Dinosaur Park

My sister-in-law and I spent the afternoon at the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. The weather was perfect, which we are desperately trying to enjoy before it is gone. I think Sophie is still a little too young to really appreciate the dino exhibit, but she had a great time playing with her cousin, Alivia. There was this great little playground specifically designed for littler kids. They both loved climbing the stairs, going down the slide, but most of all, playing in the sand.

Another highlight of the day was putting Sophie's hair in pigtails for the first time. Her hair has the strangest growth pattern right now. It's very short in the back, but long on the sides. We just laugh and say that she has an extreme A-line cut. Very chic. I think I will take her to my hairdresser in a couple weeks to get it trimmed.

What do you think?

I recently came across this blog:

seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com

Tell me what you think. Heads up: it's not real, it's a parody.

Check out my sweet new header

Creepy, I know. This picture is totally random and has nothing to do with my post, but I felt like I needed something. Let me explain. This was Sophie's first taste (and probably last) of a slurpee. She was completely off her rocker and our sides were aching with laughter after watching her. Not sure we should have compared her to Jack Nicholson from The Shining, but the resemblance is uncanny.

Anyhoo, back to the subject. I spent a week in California with my talented, beautiful friend Mandi and she created this amazing header for me. Not only did she design my blog, she also made adorable head accessories for Sophie, (check out rubysclips.com) hooked me up with free gym classes which left me aching for days, took me shopping, lunching, cooked me delicious meals and desserts, and above all, entertained me with her charm and wit. Oh, and not to mention the most beautiful "botanical gardens" I have ever seen (wink, wink) Seriously, though, this girl has more talent and creativity in her little pinky than I have or ever will have in my entire body. Yes, cliche, but I'm not great with words. Thanks for the good times, Mand (Can I call you Mand?)

Disappointingly, I did not snap a single picture, so just imagine what the pictures might have looked like.

Glasses

We recently got glasses for Sophie, but not this kind...


















...this kind

















Everybody has asked me how I knew Sophie needed glasses. Around the age of 11 months, I noticed her right eye was starting to cross, so I took her to the Opthamologist, The doctor said she is cross-eyed as well as farsighted. (I STILL don't understand how they can tell a baby is farsighted. completely amazing to me!) When the doctor told me she would have to wear glasses, I totally felt like crying (silly, I know) For one, I was worried about how I was expected to keep glasses on a one-year-old. And two, I know it sounds shallow, but I was worried about her looking like a nerd. It has all worked out much better than I expected. She not only tolerates the glasses, but loves them. Who knew. And I still think she is as adorable as ever!

Food, Parade and Fireworks

What better way to celebrate the 4th! We spent the weekend in Burley, Idaho with my sister and her family. All the usual elements for a great holiday were present: festive red white and blue pancake breakfast, parade, afternoon BBQ, and of course, fireworks. Since Burley is such a small town, we had the best seats for the firework show. We didn't even have to camp out or wait hours in advance. They set them off at a golf course overlooking the Snake River, and I have to admit, I was really impressed! It was fun to be so close and I could not stop myself from oohing and ahhing. I was nervous about Sophie since this was her first real firework show, but she loved it!

Birthdays and Vacations

I need to play major catch up on my blogging, so this is going to be a long post. Our most recent excitement was Sophie's first birhday celebration. She turned 1 on Sunday, June 1st. It was a pretty low-key party with cake, ice cream and a few presents. Matt and I gave her a little car she can either push or ride on and she LOVES it. In fact, last night Matt had to let her sleep with it in her crib! It was the only way to get her to go to sleep! We took it out of her crib once she had fallen asleep, but not without snapping a picture first. We had a good laugh about it.

We also recently got back from our visit to San Ramon, California. We had such a great time visiting friends, shopping, and eating out. The weather was a little cool, but we still had such a great time. We miss California, but we are getting more and more used to being back in Utah.

CALIFORNIA TRIP

Sophie loved the sand...so we burried her in it!

I got to spend some time with the family I used to nanny for. They were so sweet and took us to dinner and gave Sophie a present for her 1st birthday.

We were able to see my friend Brinly's brand new little baby. He was so sweet and tiny!