Justin's Birthday!

For Justin's birthday, we had his family over for a tacky tie party. I had everyone go to DI and pick out the ugliest tie they could find. Justin picked his favorite, and the winner got a prize. Justin loves hideous ties!

This is an Elvis tie from Aaron and Amy. (It was not included in the contest, but this was definitely his favorite.)

I designed this tie cake for Justin, and his mom helped me decorate it.

I couldn't fit 27 candles on the cake...

Sophie loved Rockband!

Every once in a while, she actually hit a right drum...

Baby Coming Soon

We are so excited to meet our new little girl!

With all this preterm labor stuff, it's hard to tell when she'll actually be here, but it should be pretty soon!

Everything On My Camera

Here I am with yet another completed puzzle. Yeah, we kind of have an obsession...
Getting close to D-day!

I now can't cook anything without Sophie's....help.

She loves it! We were making a pie crust for Pi Day! Yeah, I'm nerdy like that, but I look for every opportunity to bake a delicious pie.

That day for lunch we decided to do a shishkabob meal. Sophie was way into the olives.

I put this out, and we all built our own skewers and ate lunch. It was an enormous hit!

One evening, we decided to all make cookies.

We were loving it...

until Sophie fell of the chair and bit through her little tongue. It created a hole about the size of my pinky. We had no idea what to do, but luckily we have a friend who's a nurse who assured us it would heal quicly. (Thanks Nicole!)

Sophie loved eating otter pops for a few days, and she was good as new only 2 days later. And yes, she does wear her duck costume quite often...

Sophie loves to sleep in bins...

We are tired of being on bedrest and are excited to have a new addition!

Fun Times

Things are still going well at our house. Still no baby, but she should be here soon. For the past few days I've had contractions that get very painful and consistent. About the time we decide to leave for the hospital, they slow down dramatically and then stop.

It has been extremely frustrating, but I guess Baby Katie just needs a little more baking time, so I'm trying to be patient. The physical and emotional toll has been immense (I feel like I've been hit by a truck every day), but despite all this, we've still had some good times.

Sophie picked up my book and looked thoroughly engrossed.
We celebrated Dr Seuss Day with a green egg and ham breakfast. Justin even read the book over our meal.

I finally got the opportunity to take Sophie back to Creative Minds. My mother-in-law went with to help, and we had a blast. Sophie has been talking about it ever since she went with her cousin Tucker. She loves this horse; she spent most of her time in this little area.

She played Mommy...

Sophie loves apples, even when they're fake...

Driving

Back to the horse section...

Then she curled up in this chicken coop. She loves tight spaces.

Justin let Sophie pretend to drive...

Sophie loves to go to Arctic Circle for some ice cream and playtime.

Ah, Justin--gotta love him!

I love her smirky little faces.

Sophie loves to play with her cousins! In fact, she asks every day if she can go to Tucker's house.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I decided to take a cue from my friend's blog and post the funny things Sophie does. I love this age so much!

Sophie loves to get ice cream from the ice cream man with Daddy. Now, she thinks all ice cream comes from him, and she calls it "cream man." One day I told her we were going to have ice cream, and she ran to the door. I said, "No, it's in the freezer." At which point, she got a very worried look on her face, and started beating on the fridge door. She screamed, "Help, cream man!" over and over.

I asked Sophie one day where her Daddy was (he was at work), and she said, "seeping side (sleeping outside)." I tried to convince her he was working, but she still thinks he goes outside to sleep.

Sophie went with my cousin Megs to creative minds one day where she fed a horse apples. Since then, we have taken her to feed horses around town. Now, when she is saying her nighttime prayers, she always adds, "Peeze feed horsees apples n grass (please feed horses apples and grass)." You can't argue with the sincere desire of a child's heart.

One day while driving to church, a man cut Justin off, and he exclaimed, "Come on dude!" During the Sacrament, Sophie yelled to our friend Simon, "Come on dude!" So embarrassing!

Every week during the Sacrament, when Sophie eats the bread, she says loudly, "Mmmmm, so good" over and over.

I'm excited to keep a permanent record of the fun things Sophie says. I'm afraid I've forgotten so many already.

Pregnancy Update and Other Fun

This pregnancy has been a wild adventure for everyone in my little family. My first pregnancy was challenging, but this one definitely takes the cake. I am definitely grateful for modern medical advances because to these I owe my life.

Our new situation started about a month ago. I came down with several infections; actually, about every infection in the book really. I had a kidney, bladder, urinary tract, vaginal, uterine, sinus, and ear infection. NOT fun!!! I was put on a bunch of antibiotics to clear all these out, and after 2 weeks we thought the worst was over. Then some of them came back. As a result, I started into preterm labor. Since then, we have been on edge constantly and have made several more trips into the hospital.

The next 2 days consisted of long trips to the hospital for fetal monitoring, and I also received 2 steroid shots to help develop our little girl faster. I was also put on restricted activity/modified bedrest which has, by far, been one of the most challenging things I have ever dealt with. I can get up and move about but only for very short periods of time.

I was also put on nasty medication to stop my contractions. It makes me incredibly dizzy, gives me a terrible headache, and makes me more nauseated than I already was.

I have been learning how to cope and deal though, and every day our baby stays in is a wonderful miracle. There is still a chance she could go full-term, and we are praying we get as close to that as possible.

Here I am at almost 29 weeks!
More of our puzzle obsession. This is a perfect activity for me right now.

Justin went in to give blood, and the technician screwed up on the placement of the needle 4 times. This is his bruise. It's actually worse now--poor guy!

You do have to admit though, it does look pretty cool. Or am I the only one who thinks wicked bruises are cool?...

Justin and Sophie all ready for church. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to join them for this entire month, but I'm hoping this week!...

I think she looks so sweet and entirely too grown up with her little backpack on.

Sophie loves to dress up! Like father, like daughter; Justin was always dressed up as a child.

Sophie is wonderful company while I am down.

If I haven't had too many contractions that day, I take Sophie to the park. I pretty much lay on the grass on a blanket while she expels all her pent up energy! We both love it!

Sophie is never happier than when she is swinging on a swing...

More Random Fun

We are finally posting a belly picture! My pregnant belly has finally made its debut! Here I am at 24 weeks. Time is flying by way too fast! While I don't want to be pregnant anymore because of the sickness, I'm not sure I'm ready to have another little one in the house. I guess, ready or not here she comes! We love to take Sophie to the pet store to look at the animals, and I am really not sure what this dog is doing to Justin...

Sophie loves to feed horses! Every time we get in the car, she either wants to go to the gym or feed horses. On this particular day, we had time to stop. We had so much fun!

Don't worry, we keep Sophie's fingers clear of those chompers! She just gets to watch.

We made bean maracas!

Because Justin is graduated, and we have more time together, we have been doing some fun little projects. Here is a puzzle we did...

And one night we decided to string fruit loops on some yarn for necklaces... Sophie was really good at getting them to stay on her nose.

They had so much fun!

The necklaces didn't make it very far though...

I love pictures like this!

Fun with fruit stamping!

On January 3rd it snowed in St George! In the afternoon, when it was a little warmer, we took Sophie out for a bit to explore.

She loves to jump in puddles!

Have you ever seen a happier girl?

Justin taught Sophie how to throw snowballs at Mommy!

I'm glad Sophie got to experience snow!