September

Gotta love this cute face!

And now to catch up with a little of September!

To start, this is what happened when we went to visit Tyler at work one day. When we were leaving he buckled Sophie in and apparently handed her 3 chocolate covered pretzels. When I got home and went to get her out, I seriously thought this was blood! Luckily it wasnt but she was a huge mess! Look how tan our little blondey gets though. She must have Tyler's skin coloring and my hair!
This dog is not ours. (Thank goodness!) But one night we went for a family walk and this cute little dog followed us home. Sophie was soooo loving it! It ALMOST made me tempted to get a dog, but not quite. Anyways, the dog followed us from one of the neighborhoods above ours and would not got home! It finally came in our garage and was running around and Sophie was chasing it all over the place thinking we got a new dog or something. She was squealing and so excited. So, when I went to get the camera it full on ran into our house as fast as it could! It actually scared me to death. Long story short, Tyler eventually drove it back to the area where we found it that night. It was fun having a dog for an evening though, that is definitely long enough for me!
Also in September, it was our friend Mark's wedding. He has been our friend from college and he is also Tyler's brother Justin's friend so Justin and Mega and their daughter Mia came to Utah from Texas for the wedding. We were excited to see them! One night we went to Olive Garden and there was a really long wait. It was a really nice night though so were just waiting outside talking, and Mia and Sophie started marching around in a big circle (Sophie copying Mia) then grandpa started in and they were all marching around. It was pretty funny. I wish more of Sophie's cousins lived closer cause she loves to play with kids!

September in Utah was perfect weather this year! Mark's wedding night was gorgeous and it was nice to be outside. Todd and Kimiko came from Logan and we had a fun weekend with everyone! Here's all of us outside the reception. Me with my tan sister in laws!
So I forgot to mention that 'brother, Todd lived with us this summer while he worked with Tyler. By the end of the summer Sophie sure loved her Uncle Todd! He is so nice to her and between him and Tyler she has been so spoiled with attention! For about 3 months after he moved out she still thought our spare bedroom was "Todds room." We actually really have missed having him here! I love this picture of them!

August!

I know I know.. Everytime I blog again I say I am going to be better and I get too overwhelmed because now I am so behind! I still cant decide if I should just give it up or try to move forward full force! Anyone anyone?
Well lately I have been feeling like my baby isn't a baby at all anymore! She is getting way too big. I definitely have never felt like time has gone by this fast before! It seems like its speeding up or something. In 4 days, Sophie is 20 months old. Crazy. She gets more and more fun every day and I wish she'd just stop growing! We have been loving how things are with her lately. She sleeps in until about 9 30 every morning (which means so do I) and usually takes about a 3 hour nap from 2-5. Its a pretty awesome schedule. Its been hard for us to take the leap of trying again when we love her so much and are content with just having us 3! Lately I've been saying to Sophie "We're best friends hu?" and She says "beffriends!" We couldn't love her more!

Anyway I have decided to just go back to a few of the main things that have happened since the summer post I last did. First of all, in the end of July, Ashley had her baby, Cooper! I was probably the most excited person there was (besides MAYBE my mom). Leading up to the birth though one of my favorite things was Ashley coming over to our pool very pregnant and laying out with me and Sophie. The day she had Cooper she looked more like an indian than a white person. It was so fun though to have those memories with her out there reading our magazines, floating on our floaties, and playing with Sophie on her "step". I wish I had a picture of that!


After he was born we couldn't get enough of him. Sophie even was always saying "Coopa Coopa". On his blessing day, in the middle of his blessing, Sophie was really worried where he went and she was saying "Where's Coop?!" Cooper is the cutest little boy ever and we love having a new nephew!
A few weeks after Ashley had Cooper, Josh got to come to Idaho for a visit (it had been WAY too long!) and he even brought his wife and kids with him. We hadn't seen him in so long, but Emily and Abby hadn't seen him for 4 years! 4 years since we had all been together. So, of course we had to get family pictures. Some of them turned out okay, but I love this one so much with me and my cute siblings! Its wierd how out family goes brown blonde brown blonde brown, hu?
We had a lot of fun things planned for when he came out and we tried to be in Idaho as long as we could to be with them. Sophie loved playing with Henry and Lala (Olivia) and they were so cute to her.
One night we rented a movie projector and watched a movie on the trampoline and chairs. We were all laid out on my moms whole backyard with pillows and blankets and watched the movie on the back of her house. Even though the people on the tramp always move to the middle and half the people fell asleep it was one of my favorite nights there! We also played night games at the park by my moms house one night. Walking to the park it reminded me of the good old days of having all my siblings together again! I wish it happened more often.


Another one of my favorite things we did was go camping and floating the river at Warm River. We reserved a spot and camped out all night. That night I was lucky enough to have Henry and Olivia both fall asleep on my lap! I love them so much. Isn't it weird how much you love nieces and nephews?! Even if you don't ever get to see them! I love those kids.

I also just loved seeing Josh love spending time with his kids! Henry was like his little buddy that didn't want to leave his side. I wish he got to see them more! It really does make us all so sad. Oh, the hard thing about divorces! Isn't this the cutest picture of them?
Sophie was loving all the kids around at Warm River! All my little cousins were there and they all loved to play with her. While we were there though somehow she managed to fill up her little toy cups with river water and started chugging the water down! I was so worried about her because she had major diarrhea for almost two weeks after. She is so fast at everything too, that it was almost impossible to prevent, (she eventually was fine though). Also, Josh brought his dog to the campsite and Henry accidentally stepped in its poop and didn't know it, and climbed on Monica's lap. There was poop everywhere! Kids really bring excitement to things.

Now, Josh is living in Germany! There are so many things I have loved about the Army, but I do NOT love how he has to live so far away! We are all hoping we can save some money to go see him while he is over there. It was a fun week with them here though and it will have to last for a few years til we see him again.

The next weekend my Grandma and Grandpa Allen came to Utah from AZ. They barely ever come out here because their health is getting alot worse and it was so nice to be able to see them since we hardly ever do! They are so nice to each other and have had such a good marriage their whole lives. My grandma was a little out of it, but my grandpa told us some stories and bore his testimony to us. It was really cool to hear, but sad because he told us that this would be his last time to Idaho and Utah and that they had come to terms with things being "the last time" for them. They are such good people and I will never forget hearing his testimony. I was so glad we got to see them and Sophie could meet them! One of my favorite memories of them is when they would come stay with us in Idaho, how much my grandma loved it when I played the piano. I would sit there forever and play song after song, and later she I would hear her humming some of my songs to herself.

Last but not least, in August Tyler took me to a Tim McGraw concert. It was for my birthday present and it was one of my favorite presents I've ever gotten! It was really one of my favorite nights I can remember with him! The concert was outside and the weather was perrrfecct. I LOVE Utah's summer nights!
We had a babysitter and went out to dinner for Wings before the concert, but made sure to get there with plenty of time before it started. Tim was with Luke Bryan and the Band Perry who both did awesome too. Alot of really lucky things happened that night, for one Tim opened his part of the concert in the middle section where we were and and I immediately weaved my way down to the front of the section and right when I did, he walked by to walk up to the stage. So (obviously) I stuck my hand out and acted like a total idiot! But at least I got to touch his hand! haha. I was so excited its a little embarrassing to admit. The other lucky thing was right before it was Tim's turn, this girl came up to us and said "hey we are leaving do you want a wrist band for the front general admission?" Of course we did, so we took turns going up to the front and that's when I pushed my way to the very front again and touched him again (apparently I am pretty good at that). Afterwards we went to Village Inn and ate (yes again), and then went and picked up Sophie. It was such a good night with my best bud.

Actually 9 years ago for my 16th birthday, my friends surprised me and took me to a Tim McGraw concert at that same place! I have the best friends. We all made shirts and drove down to Utah, it was one of my other favorite birthday presents! Isn't this picture so good of him!