Oh, this made me laugh so hard!

The Happenings

Every day with little Sophie is such an adventure! She is into everything, of course, and she loves to do everything with her Mommy.
Here she is painting a picture for her friend Simon's birthday. I didn't get pictures of it when it was done, but it went from what you see in the background to being brown smudges all over the poster board. She had a great time!

And here she is with Simon. She just loves him to pieces. Every time we tell her she's going to see him, she gets so excited. She calls him "My Simo."

He and Kristy came over for his little birthday celebration!

Sophie loves to try and distract Justin from his homework. Because Justin would rather do almost anything besides his homework, she is often successful.

There goes Sophie! Justin and I won new ipods recently, so here is Sophie listening to my old ipod shuffle. Do you think I'll ever get her to listen to me again???

Justin surprised me with roses one day (he's so wonderful)! A few days later, I found Sophie perched on the table ripping them to shreds. What do I do with her!

This is something I see quite often in my little world. Sophie loves to read books, and not only that, she loves to read the same books over and over and over until Mommy wants to go crazy! I seriously spend about 2-3 hours reading her books every day. I would just tell her to scram, but she recently learned to say please without being reminded, and let's face it saying please with that cute little face is a death sentence.

This is Sophie's other love....the park! She loves to go there every day! This particular park is tucked away at the back of a neighborhood about a 1/2 mile away from our house. It's always deserted which means Sophie can climb up the slides without any interruption, and yes I did say up; I don't get the fascination. I do love the park; it prevents Sophie from making huge messes in the house, and we get some much needed sunshine (maybe my legs won't glow in the dark this summer). The only problem is Sophie loves to walk to the park, not in a stroller, but by herself. A 1/2 mile is a long way for a little kid and even longer for an adult when she wants to examine every rock, pine cone, and flower on the way there. It usually takes about 1/2 hour to walk there, 1/2 hour to walk back, and a total of 20 minutes getting drinks from the drinking fountain. I have just learned to find joy in the journey!

When we do get there, she loves to do this...

The binky in her mouth is really cool. If it drops, it snaps shut to prevent it from getting all dirty. Perfect park solution I must say.

Being a mom certainly has its challenges, but when I get to see this face all day, it makes it all worthwhile.

Salt Lake City Marathon

After months of training, the Salt Lake City Marathon was something of a disappointment. I started off strong, finishing my first 5 miles in 45 minutes. I was feeling great! I even got to see my Cousin Brooke and my Aunt Cathy.
About mile 6, disaster struck! A woman in front of me had a shirt tied around her waist. As I was getting closer and about to pass, her shirt came off. I caught my foot on it and came down twisting my knee. This happened right by the EMT station, and they all came running (which I thought was great at the time). They checked my knee, told me it was sprained, put a red band on my arm to mark me injured, and followed me in a flashing truck. Talk about embarrassing!
Every few miles, the EMT guys would check my knee and retape it. This caused me some time delays, but I still hit mile 10 at 2 hours. It was all downhill from there. The pain in my knee really started to set in at this point, and it took me 35 minutes to make it the next 3 miles; at which point, I was no longer granted medical clearance for my knee. So the man following me in the flashing truck yelled, through a megaphone I might add with many runners around, "Get off the course!"
I was humiliated and extremely upset. I called Justin sobbing to tell them they kicked me off the course (they said I could continue on the sidewalk, but that they were no longer responsible for me). I walked to Cottonwood Elementary School and waited for Justin there.
The good thing is that the EMT guys called the finish line, and when I went to pick up my gear at the finish line, they gave me a 1/2 medal. So I guess it wasn't all bad. What a round of rotten luck! I guess there is always the St George Marathon! I am hoping to train hard and finish it in 4 hours!
While I was disappointed in the situation, I did the best I could, so I couldn't be disappointed in myself.
Thanks so much to all my family who came to support me!
My little sister ran with me. She was able to finish the whole marathon! Way to go Jen!

And my lovely half medal!

I will try to post some pictures of my black and blue and very swollen knee for your viewing pleasure!

And now for the grandmas and other people who look at this blog mainly for the purpose of seeing my adorable baby, here's the good stuff...

Sophie was playing with the big kids at my Aunt DeeAnn's house. She's getting way too big

She especially loves Emma!

Anna's Birthday

We celebrated Anna's birthday a few weeks ago. It was the first event without Justin's brother Michael there since he headed into the Air Force. It was different to have him gone, and he was greatly missed.
Here is Anna in the apron Justin and I made for her.
It was such a beautiful day, we spent most the time playing outside! Outside is pretty much Sophie's favorite place to be.

She loves to rearrange these rocks...

Justin playing outside. Check out the view from their yard!

Singing to the birthday girl!

I really should have people take more pictures of our family. Usually, I get just one, so I have to use it even though it's not too great.

Sophie wanted to wear this arm brace. She had Grandpa put it on, and she just loved it.

Park City

Last weekend Justin and I had the opportunity to go on another Allconnect trip! This one was to The Canyons Resort in Park City! We had a fabulous time! Justin went snowboarding for the first time (I didn't go because I was too afraid to break my leg 4 weeks before the marathon). We also got wonderful Swedish massages, and we went snowmobiling!

We survived our flight up on this little baby! I got a little nervous when landing because I thought the whole thing was going to fall apart, but we landed safely, and we were ready to start our adventure!

Here we are at dinner the first night. Everyone was doing engagement style poses, so we are staring dreamily into the distance. At least, I was; I'm not sure about Justin's expression...

Here we are with old Smokey himself, and yes, we were insane enough to get ice cream in this blizzardly cold.

By the end of the night I was so ready to head back to the warmth of the fire in our room. Check out how red my nose is. Yeah, I don't deal well with cold...

On Saturday, we headed out on our 2 hour snowmobiling tour. It was so awesome! There were several people who sustained injuries on this particular excursion (who would have thought that people from Atlanta and St George would be unfamiliar with snow and thus unfamiliar with dangerous snow events). One girl from Atlanta even drove off the 1000 foot cliff they specifically warned us about. Luckily, she was caught by a tree and is just fine. Others had minor injuries like a sprained elbow, bruised nose, scrapes, etc. Despite all my fears though, Justin and I came out just fine.

Here we are all geared up with our many, many layers. I felt much like the stay puffed marsh mellow man.

Our friends Tyler and Nicole standing by the beautiful overlook.

And us too...

I survived the experience!

Here we are at Justin's award ceremony. This year Justin earned double diamond status!

Here he is with one of his diamond awards! Good job Justin!

It was very difficult to leave Sophie for 4 days, but we had an absolute blast! Much thanks to my mom and Justin's mom for taking such good care of our little girl! :)

Random Pictures

It's been a while since I updated, and the longer I wait, the more daunting the task. Finally though, here are some random pictures from the last couple weeks.
Here is Sophie all bundled up for our morning run. It was so cold the last couple weeks, but training must go on.
I often wonder how I always have so much to clean around the house, but this picture helps unravel the mystery. Every time I turn around Sophie is pulling things out of something...

She gets away with it though because she is just so dang cute!

Sophie loves to ride on her horse.

We've also got way into finger painting lately! I'm trying to spark Sophie's creativity, and she just loves having permission to make a huge mess.

I've been experimenting with time out lately, but Sophie just hangs out in the corner all the time now. She thinks it's great fun! I guess I'm going to have to work on another discipline tactic...

This is a blurry picture because Sophie hardly ever stops moving, but here she is playing at Justin's parent's house. She loves to have this monkey around her neck the whole time she is there.

I've been working on making baby blankets, but Sophie thinks all of them belong to her, so I usually can't get much done while she's awake.

Here she is spreading yarn all over the house!

We finally got a bountiful basket drop off in St George! Here is what we got in our last basket, and it was all only $15!

We had a James Bond murder mystery dinner party with Justin's family a little while ago. Here is our table all set up...

And here is the cool poster my cousin Megan painted...

And here we are all dressed up!

A few nights ago, we made some caramel corn after Sophie had gone to sleep. The next morning she found the bowl and decided she wanted a taste too...

Sophie loves to haul blankets around like this. Too bad she missed the mink stole fashion movement of the '50's... (Please ignore all our laundry in the background.)

And there is a quick update on our lives the past little while!