Finally!!!!

Yeah finally she did it! We were over at our friend Katie's house for her birthday, and Sophie started CRAWLING! She only went like two steps but I saw it and she really did it. I am so proud of her. Hopefully, she'll be able to get stronger and keep it going.

Brusha..Brusha..Brusha

Well, at 10 months old Sophie can't crawl yet, but she can brush her teeth. It is so cute!! She loves to grab the toothbrush out of our hand and she refuses to let us help her.

Gentlemen (i mean little girl) start your engines.....

This was the funniest thing ever.... she had me in tears after this. Sophie used to only be able to move the walker in kitchen or in the bathroom because it was a smooth surface. Well now, she has figured out how to work it on the carpeting. And let me tell you the dogs better watch out. She is coming!!

HELP is needed!! Please help Sam!

This unfortunately is not one of my funny or happy posts that I usually write.

This past weekend a friend of mine from high school was in a terrible snowboarding accident. He is only 24 years old, has a new son and a wife to care for. He unfortunately does not have insurance due to being inbetween jobs and in school. Sam broke 3 bones in his neck leaving him as of now paralyzed from the ribs down. This family needs any help that it can get. I have put the link to there website under my favorite web sites. Please visit it and read more about his story. There is also a link on that site where you are able to make a donation, obviously anything is helpful and VERY much appreciated. If you are not able to donate please keep this family in your prayers and please pass this information on to anyone that you know.

Thank you!!!

Valentine's and Love...

What a wonderful day Valentine's Day is?!?!?! I love that we have a day where the focus is on love. And I like that it is love not only for your spouse, but your children, extended family and friends. But I think that this is also a wonderful time to remember our love and gratitude for our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Now, I have to tell you about my wonderful husband. He had to work until 8pm on Valentine's so we weren't able to spend the whole day together, but he managed to get off work early and rushed home to see his family. He showed up with these beautiful roses that Sophie is pointing to, a beautiful balloon, and than proceded to make me dinner with all of my favorite foods. Do I have the best husband ever or what????? I say so. I hope when Sophie grows up she is able to find a man as good as her dad!

Now, I have to tell you about some of Sophie's loves. First of all I have to tell you that we do do other things than watch t.v., even though Sophie loves these following things. Number one and I do mean number 1 would be the Cellular South commercials. (we call them the asterisk commercials-they show usually a cartoon chopping down a big asterisk symbol) I don't care what is going on or which way Sophie is facing but she will make sure she can see that commercial. Usually that leads to a bottle flying, or food getting rubbed all over her face. It is hilarious!!!!! Number two is baby einstein movies...she practically goes into a trance while it is on. Number three would definitely have to be dogs. Jon and I can always tell when the dogs come walking into the room, because she will not pay any attention to us. What is funny is that it is not only our dogs that she

loves, but all dogs. This we learned when we went to Florida in December. We stayed with some friends that have a dog and Sophie sat and laughed at the dog hysterically for approx. 10-15 mins. She just thought he was the coolest thing. Now, I also have to say that Sophie definitely does love her parents and she is such a sweet, cuddly and adorable little girl, but we do have to admit that if any one of the previous things listed is in her line of sight, or if she hears one of the items, than we are definitely put on the bottom of her list. Which I for one think that is absolutely not fair especially since I gave birth to her. But at least we know that she always comes back to us and than we become Number 1!

Happy Mardi Gras!!

What an experience Mardi Gras is!!!??? Every town has a parade, sometimes 2-3 parades per town, in a one week time period. You might ask what the reason for the parade is....it is to throw things at people. And almost anything gets thrown from the obvious, beads, but than there are cups, frisbees, tshirts, stuffed animals and MORE beads. I never thought that I would purposely subject myself to having things thrown at me, but I did it not only once, I did it 3 times. One of the weirdest traditions that exists which we have not yet been able to figure out why is that people will wear thong underwear on there head, and some wear it over there pants. And they all got it from the same place because its matching purple, green and gold mardi gras thongs. I DON'T GET IT!!!!!!! One really fun thing we did though, was Jon was picked to go on his float for the Hard Rock. He was actually the only one picked from the whole table games department, which has over 300 employees. So, I went to the parade with Sophie, my friend Katie and her son Vince, and Katie's neighbor Veronica and her daughter Jordan. It was a lot of fun!! The kids really got into it, especially Jordan, and they loved getting the beads and stuffed animals. Jordan had so many beads on at one point that she took them all off and handed them to her mom because they were so heavy. We had a really fun day, and we completely exhausted all of the kids. Now, I have a question though....... any ideas on what to do with ALL of these beads???? HELP!!!

Goal!!!!

Last night (thanks to a change in Jon's work schedule) we were able to go to our local Mississippi Seawolves hockey game. They won 4-2. Yeah!!! We also got to celebrate our first ever Mardi Gras parade on the ice. A whole bunch of trucks drove out on the ice and than circled the rink while throwing beads. Sophie even managed to catch some. That's my girl!! The funniest part of the whole night was Sophie falling asleep in my arms, in the midst of fans screaming after goals and extremely loud music. How she managed that one, we are both still trying to figure out.

Fun times at Larsen High...

Here's Sophie after dinner rockin' out to music on "Dada's" phone. She thought dada's "oldies" (you know.. music from the 80's) was lame. Sorry dad, you are no longer "hip."











Here is the boy that gave Sophie her "first kiss." (Vince Hochhalter) He just crawled over and planted one right on her cheek. My girl, she is so smart, looked at him and started crying. That's right Sophie you don't like when boys kiss you!!








Here's Sophie and Dada. Who can not love that smile?!! I am sooooo lucky!!!!

Normal????

Wow!!! I can't believe that it is February already! Time just goes by so fast. Sophie is 10 months old today!! Yeah! I am just amazed at her and how much joy she brings me. I always knew that I wanted to be a mom, but I never expected that I would be so in LOVE with my children. As of her 9 month check up she was 20 lbs and 2 oz and a little over 28 in long, which put her in the 75% for both height and weight for a "normal" 9 month old. Ok, so I have to ask... Who invented this whole "normal" thing anyway. I have been having issues with that lately. It seems like everytime I go out with Sophie undoubtedly someone will ask me how old she is, and than ofcourse the "big" question... Is she walking yet? Which ofcourse my response is that, "no, she is not even crawling." I had one person, tell me after that, that Sophie was lazy, and another just looked at me, like I told them that Sophie was dying. They acted so mortified for me. What is the deal with this? Why is it that we feel the need to compare our children to others, and than when ours is doing something there's isn't we feel superior? AAAAAGH!!! I feel so frustrated!!!

Ok enough of what Sophie isn't doing and lets talk about what she is doing.

First of all, she is the light of my life, and she makes my world better!! She is sitting up, and rolling around and she is trying to pull herself to a sitting position. (that is her new project) The funny thing is when she is trying to sit up, she looks like she is doing leg lifts, and than her face gets all red while she is just grunting away. You'd have to see it. She has gotten one of her bottom teeth and now she is cutting her other bottom tooth and both of her top front teeth. (All at the same time... :( ) With as much as she is chewing on her hand, I am surprised she has not chewed through it yet. She says "mama", and "baba or ba-bye". Daddy's working on "dada" but she's not quite there yet. Sorry dad! :(

Ok I will stop ranting now! I hope all of you are doing well and 2008 has been good so far, and to all of you out there judging my baby...I think she's perfect and if you don't think so there is one thing Sophie will ALWAYS win... she's the cutest...HAAH!!!