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!