Happiest Place on Earth...

We recently spent a few days in Southern California. Newport Beach, to be exact. We had such a great time visiting our good friends, hanging at the beach and Disneyland. Here are a few highlights from the trip:

Sophie LOVED the water! Sunday we walked along the beach and she probably could have stayed there all day.

Couple things about this picture:

1: Matt is wearing a wetsuit straight out of the 80's...can't say I wasn't a little embarassed. It actually says "Heat Zone" across the front.

2: Is it just me or do they both look like they are posing for some photo shoot? It was actually freezing that day, hence the wetsuit, so maybe that had something to do with it.

PS Matt spent about an hour surfing and looked pretty good while doing it...not so goofy anymore, huh?

THE BLAKES:

Our good looking, gracious hosts for the trip. It was so good to hang out with them and they were completely hospitable. They let us use their car, carseat, stroller, eat their food, stay in their home, and they took us to all the fun places to eat and hang out in Newport.

These two go way back...their families used to vacation together in Lake Powell, where many good times were had. Also spent those wild college days at BYU as roomates.

I tried to minimize any photos taken next to Julianne. She is way too pretty, and I felt way too pregnant. Don't let her good looks fool you, though. She is SO sweet!

DISNEYLAND, OF COURSE:

Favorite ride, hands down was the merry-go-round. This one happens to be located at the mall and cost about $1. Later realized we could have saved a lot of money by riding this one all day.

Yes, we are cheesy. We take all the predictable group shots and no creative spontaneous ones. I will probably always be this way.

BALBOA ISLAND:

We took a ferryboat ride to Balboa Island the day of Sophie's birthday. This was probably my favorite day of the trip. We walked along the pier, Matt and Sophie rode the ferris wheel, ate yummy pizza, and we even took pictures in a photo booth...something I haven't done since high school, but it was a fun way to remember the day.

Favorite moment of the trip: The look on Sophie's face when she realized the dessert with a candle in it was for her! She was so cute with the goofiest smile on her face through the entire "Happy Birthday" song. Priceless.

Wasting no time on that birthday dessert

Sophie and Davis enjoyed riding next to each other in the sit-n-stand stroller. An arranged marriage between these two is already in the works and these pictures will be great for the wedding video one day. :)

Again, I'm thinking of the future wedding video.

Just a cute picture of Sophie taken by Julianne.

So sad to say goodbye! We definitely were not ready to leave.

Sidenote: Sophie is also expecting a child! We got some pretty hilarious shots of her posing with her "belly" and I just had to include one!

It's A Girl!!

I have no idea why it's taken me so long to post about this. The first trimester of this pregnancy had me feeling nauseous and lethargic, so I guess that was my excuse then, but after that, I really have none. I just got lazy and kept putting it off. I'm now almost 21 weeks along and due September 25th. From the looks of my belly, though, you might guess I'm at least 6 or more months along. I get a REALLY big belly and this time it's happening more quickly. This is all sounding a little pessimistic, but I'm actually quite excited and happy now that I'm feeling better.

I was so glad to learn we are having another girl. Truthfully, I'm scared of boys. I mean, I definitely want a boy, and probably next, but for now, I feel safe with girls. Sophie has been a relatively easy-going child and plays contentedly with her babies and hasn't ever been too big into making huge messes. I like that. Plus, we already have the girl clothes and all that stuff, so it will only be that much easier. I can't wait to see Sophie with a sibling. Definitely going to rock her world (and ours), but nonetheless, I can't wait!

There is no way I can catch up on the last 3 or 4 months, so I'm not trying. Here are a few recent pictures.

Hoping

Here is the home we recently put a bid on. It is a short sale, so we'll see what happens. At this point, we are just waiting and hoping.

M.I.A.

I realize we have been missing in action lately. Matt and I have been living with my parents for the last 3 weeks, and have done no blogging while we are here. We don't have the ability to upload any pictures, so we'll just catch up later.

Lots has happened.

Holidays

Another Christmas come and gone....it happened so quickly, I didn't even get to chronicle it. We have had lots of snow lately...lovely, fluffy snow, so my family went sledding (I call it sleigh riding, but Matt has assured me I am incorrect, since we did not actually ride on a sleigh. I still like my term better)

PS Do we look cold? It was cold.

PSS Matt made the hat I'm wearing...my Christmas gift. Isn't it cute?

A close-up of THE hat. What a lucky girl I am. Ignore the gross cold sore on my lip

Be honest, does she look like "Randy" from "A Christmas Story?"

Christmas Eve was especially exciting. My parents received their mission call. Drum roll, please.....The Philippines MTC. My mom will be the medical advisor and my dad will be her assistant. You can see the look of shock and horror on my mother's face as thecall is read, but we are all confident in her abilities. (Sorry about the picture, Mom, but it is just too perfect) They leave March 30, and will be missed greatly! What can we say...the Philippines await!!

Santa came....brought Sophie a cooing doll and a baby stroller. She adores them both, but we didn't get any pictures of her playing with them. Bonus: the doll has a secret recording that says: "Islam is the Light" Didn't pay extra for that.

I'm actually laughing out loud as I post this picture. Family portrait Christmas morning with the camera on a timer. The best we could do. I have been told I'm sort of a "group shot" kind of person. I have to agree. Every event, I try to at least get a group shot. No artistic candid shots, just lurpy group shots.

It wouldn't be Christmas without an evening of lights at Temple Square...and yummy dinner at the Lion House. Ever had their rolls with honey butter? Mmm.

New Year's Eve, eery resemblance to white rapper, Eminem. He could not have been more in character as he sang to the "Beastie Boys" on Rock Band. A moment I will forever store in my brain. I think he really felt like a rock star...have to admit, I didn't exactly hate it.

I am his groupie

Our lovely hostess/host for New Year's Eve party

Had to include this picture...Sophie found this bead hat in Gramsie's box of dress-ups and would NOT let me take it away. Wore it all day. Maybe it makes her feel like a princess. Who knows.

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!