How do you go from this:

to THIS, in 1 year?

Man, time certainly does fly!! I can't believe it's already been a year, an EXCITING year at that. 

We sure do love this little girl!  

 

We had a simple birthday with of course CAKE! 



I think she liked it!

 

Happy Birthday Sophie (a month ago)

Hey look ... I'm blogging!! GO ME!

Saturday we dropped Sophie off at a friends while we took Emma into UBC to do her first 5k race ... the Color Me Rad! It was AWESOME!! It was a lot of fun, despite the fact that Emma had NO intentions of running at all!! It's not a timed race, its purely just for fun ... and fun it was. We made sure to wear white so the colors would show up better - and we also made sure to wear clothes that we didn't mind it if they got ruined. (good thing too because they are totally ruined) I highly recommend this race to EVERYONE!!
It is a lot of fun for the whole family!!
 Go to their website colormerad.com and check it out!! Just an FYI ... they will be in St George November 10th!!

The Family BEFORE the race

the first COLOR storm we hit

if you can't recognize her ... this is Emma!

she had a lot of fun playing in the powder paint ... in the road! You only live once!

COLOR BOMB! (as soon as you finish the race they give you a packet of paint and then every 10 min they have what is called a color bomb where everyone releases their paint)

the family AFTER the race, they were trying to show you their white legs where the paint didn't get ... however the paint actually seeped through the clothes so there wasn't an actual white line!

look at those blue eyes  - so beautiful!

WINNERS

mommy and Emma

Oh Emma ...

Oh how we love our little Emma. She has quite the little imagination. With Sophie's room next to hers, I can hear Emma while playing in her room on Sophie's monitor. She can always put a smile my face!! She really does brighten my day!

Let me tell you a little more about this little sweetheart...

Every night at 8:00 we say our prayers, read a book and sing a song before going to bed. Then we let her be in her room. She tends to get up to read more, or play with her stuffies. We never really know what it going on up there ... and we tend to keep having to remind her to go to sleep. Then, before WE call it a night we ALWAYS go in to check on our sweet little angels. For the most part everything looks normal in Emma's room, but on occasion we find surprises.

What kind of surprises? Let me tell you...

One night I went into her room, and she had this big lump under her covers. At first I thought it was just her pillow shams, until I saw those onthe floor. The curiousity got the best of me, and when I pulled down the covers this is what I found

That would be EVERY shoe from her closet and most of her stuffed animals!! Seriously, I knew she liked her shoes but I didn't know she needed to sleep with them!

I love how she puts them towards the bottom so they don't disturb her sleep!

On another night I went in and found this...

EVERY book not just lying on her bed, but opened up to a particular part of each story!?!? What can I say, the girl likes her books!

Now, this one takes the cake~

I walked into her room but could NOT find her in bed?!? I could totally hear her sleeping though!?!? I honestly had to look around, I even checked the closet. When I finally found her, I started laughing ... She seriously climbed out of bed and went under her bed!! That would be her little head poking out. Oh I love this little girl!! She totally cracks us up!!

She is also quite the singer ... her favorite songs right now are:

Selena Gomez: Love you Like a Love Song

Bruno Mars: Marry You

Katy Perry: Firework

LMFAO: Party Rock Anthem

I will try and get her on video singing them, because honestly it's the cutest thing ever!

Sophie goes ice skating ...

It looks like this might turn into an annual thing, but our ward for the second year in a row has had an ice skating activity. So we of course headed out for a fun Saturday activity.

So when you have a little one they let you take them on the ice in the stroller!! Not only is it WAY better than strapping a baby bjorn on, but the stroller sure helped me stay standing!!

As I was heading out onto the ice I was stopped by one of the "ice guards" who told me if I was going to take her on the ice she would need a helmet!?!? Okay I said, do you happen to have one small enough?? This is what they had ... we got a really good laugh out of it at first and then realized, this was quite possibly one of the cutest things EVER!!!

There is my sweet Sophie and her helmet!!

Now, we were worried how Emma would handle it all. Last year was a total bust. So when we asked her if she wanted to do it this year she said "I'm bigger now mom, so I think it will be fun"

She was So excited to get out there! She did only last for about 15 min, but it was a BIG improvement from last year.

She decided she didn't need mom or dad anymore, just her friend Isabella. So we let her be!

It sure was a fun Saturday out ... and we will never get over just how cute Sophie was in that helmet!!

I'll stick to camera duties ...

Emma recently had a "field trip" for preschool to the pet store. She was SO excited!! This was not the typical cats and dogs kind of pet store, in fact they didn't have any cats or dogs. Instead they saw lizards, bunnies, fishes, SNAKES and SPIDERS!!

As the kids sat in a circle and the worker brought out animal after animal I found myself stepping further and further away from the kids. I am NOT a fan of animals that don't have fur and don't cuddle!! Not even a little bit ... In fact my two biggest fears are SNAKES and Spiders. Oh how I loath them!! They literally do terrify me. (like I was going to tell Emma that) I, like any good parent, encouraged my daughter to touch or even hold the little creatures.

So let's start off with the cute little fury bunny ... I liked this little guy a lot

Then ... the snake!! Seriously, I have yet to figure out the purpose of their existence!! I had NO desire to even get close to this little guy - thank heavens for ZOOM!

She really did touch the snake ... I was a milisecond too late!

Now onto this guy ... EWW! I was very proud of Emma for holding him, because we all know I had NO desire to do it!! Go team Emma!!
It was a fun little field trip ... she learned quite a bit about these little "animals" (if thats what we should call them)
Emma LOVES preschool!! She just loves being around her friends and learning new things everyday. This year she goes only 2 times a week ... but next year she gets 3!! YAY!!

I kind of like my 2.5 hour break as well, because I get to spend it with this beautiful little girl!! She is now 4 months!! Insane!! It really is flying by!!
She went for her 4 month check up last week and is now weighing in at 14 lbs. 7 oz!! That's my girl! (surprisingly it puts her at the 50th percentile)
We sure do love our little girls ... drama and all!

Grandma's and Grandpa's ...

So, way back ... like before Sophie was born ... we had the pleasure of having Grandma Gordon-Smith (aka Babi) come and visit. When she found out we were expecting again and when the due date was, she booked her flight. I was due with Sophie October 26th, so she booked her flight so that she would arrive on October 31st. We all assumed that was a safe bet and that she would arrive and get 2 full weeks snuggling our new little bundle of joy. Well, Sophie had a different plan in mind. Her coming 10 days LATE took away 1 whole week of snuggle time from Babi. But it all worked out ... Emma made sure that Babi was plenty busy playing games, hide and seek, tag, pretty girl, and so much more. We had a wonderful visit with her and are very appreciative of all she did for us while she was here.

Babi and Sophie ... the night she was born!

Babi left November 14th, and then my parents arrived November 18th. It's always SO much fun to have visitors. Even though we didn't get out much because of Sophie we still had a wonderful visit. They came up for US Thanksgiving, which of course was delicious. We also decided that since my parents were up we would take advantage of having my dad here and we went ahead and blessed Sophie. Yes, she was only 3 weeks old ... but having my dad in the circle was very important to me!! It was a wonderful day, and we are SO grateful for the amazing little spirit Sophie is!!

Bless my dear mother for helping us find the perfect white dress for sweet Sophie. We think she looked beautiful!!

This is the only shot we got of Sophie ... by the time we got back from church and did pictures, she had had it!!

Family photo

Mom and Dad with Sophie

We were also lucky to have our good Friends, the Elliotts in town! They live between Nicaragua and Vancouver and we were so happy they were in town and could share in this special day with us!

Merry Christmas ...

from our family to yours!