Crazy Driver

Sophie has a new push toy that she loves to cruise around the apartment with. This particular day she kept getting distracted by too many things, but she usually will just go until she runs into something. It's high entertainment, let me tell you! She just needs a little more confidence and she'll be walking on her own in no time, but the minute she realizes she's standing with no support, she'll slowly sink back down to her bum where it's safe. But we're not worried; we aren't anxious to hurry her on or anything, so whenever she finally does it will be great with us!

Hiking the Y

We hiked the Y for FHE tonight, and it was a perfect night to do it because it had cooled down a ton by the evening so we had great hiking conditions. We got to try out our "new" hiking backpack for the first time, and Sophie loved riding on daddy's back the whole way up (what a stallion I married!) but was not very happy in it the way down because we had taken her away from the rocks and dirt she was loving playing with and wanted to go back. So we carried her down in our arms. The view was great, we got to watch the sunset on the way down, and it was a fun chance to take Sophie up Y Mountain for her very first time ever. (We're attempting to so thoroughly indoctrinate her into being a Cougar that she won't want to go anywhere else for school. :D)



I told Joseph that even if we never get our boy, we've at least already got a kid who loves to play in dirt! We'd still really like to have a boy someday, though!

Werewolves, Vampires, and Monsters, Oh My!

I finished reading the third book in the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer today called Eclipse. It was fabulous. I know half of you are shaking your heads in wonderment as to how I could love books about vampires, much less a love story about them, but if you haven't read these yet and you like romance novels (that are clean!--the author is LDS), then you've gotta give these a try. They really are a fun, sweet read. My sister Julie spent practically all of her time at Education Week this last week poring over Twilight and New Moon. I didn't think when I lent them to her that she'd not be able to put them down even to concentrate on her classes, but she said that's why she took notes. :) I don't think I neglected Sophie too much while I was reading them, since I did it mostly when she was napping or after she'd gone to bed, but my house probably wasn't as clean as it could've been. Is it ever, though? (sigh)I even got Joseph to read the first two books so that I'd have someone to discuss them with! They are pretty chick-flicky (if you can apply that term to books, too) but there was just enough "guy stuff" in them to keep his interest and for him to like them. He just skipped over the really sappy parts, which of course are my favorite! I guess they are a little juvenile, but then youth fiction is probably my favorite genre of books anyway, so I guess you can take the girl out of being a teenager but you can't take the teenager out of the girl. I'd love to hear what those of you who have read these thought about them! I won't put any spoilers here just in case you haven't read them yet and are planning on doing it, but let me just say, I'm not sure Bella chose correctly. I'm still thinking that over, though. Who would you choose?

Go Lancers!

Joseph had his high school 10-year reunion on Saturday so we spent the afternoon and evening at the G-House meeting up with old friends and hearing what everyone's been up to for the past decade. They had a picnic in the afternoon for the entire family to enjoy where we got to introduce Sophie and participate in ridiculous games like a spouse wheelbarrow race (which we lost to a couple where the girl was so tiny her husband just picked her up by the waist and she pedalled in the air) and a piggyback race where the wife had to carry the husband (ugh! Too bad Joseph doesn't still weigh what he did in high school!) Joseph's been reading up about his high school peers for the past few weeks at the Granger Reunion blog in preparation for this reunion. I must say, some people have had quite the interesting lives! Most have been pretty normal, though, free from living in polygamous compounds in Idaho and in and out of rehab centers and such. I've gotten to know quite a few of Joseph's high school friends with whom he still keeps in contact, and I can easily see why he loved them so much then and why he still is friends with them today.

Then they had a "Prom" that night at Granger High where we all got dolled up and danced to 90's songs and read what the grads wrote 10 years ago about where they thought they'd be in 2007 and 2017 (Joseph wrote that he thought in 2017 he'd have 5 kids with one on the way. We'd better get hopping I guess!) They started out the evening by having Joseph and Kenny sing the alma mater. They also asked questions to spotlight what people have done the past 10 years, such as stand if you went to college or got married or served a religious mission (I was the only girl standing for that one which really surprised me) or have committed a felony (no one stood for that one--shocking!) It was a very fun evening and I'm glad I got to be Joseph's date for it since we never got to go to Prom together in high school. :) I was the luckiest girl in the room!

Some of Joseph's favorites: Kenny & Bobbie Newton, Scott & Melissa Francom, Ari & Diana Bruening, and the comparative newlyweds on their anniversary. :)

Happy Anniversary To Us!

Joseph and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on Saturday, August 18th. It was a busy day (see previous post) so we started the celebrations on Friday night by me kidnapping Joseph and taking him to a Bed and Breakfast in Salt Lake called the Inn on the Hill. It was beautiful, relaxing, and a lot of fun, and I didn't have to wake up once during the night to put a little munchkin back to sleep! (Thank you, Mom, for staying up from 1:30 to 3 am with Sophie instead!)

The one thing I had to make sure it had was a jetted tub! It was so nice and refreshing!

I love you, Joseph! Thanks for a wonderful 2 years of marriage and here's to 70+eternity more! :)

DT Memories

I know by doing this that I'm a huge sentimental dork, but I realized that with two of the Deseret Towers already being torn down that the others aren't going to last long either, so I had to get a picture by 'my' tower. I moved into 'S' Hall in DT exactly 10 years ago this month and began my college experience at BYU, and I'm so sad that they've decided to tear these buildings down. Some of my greatest college memories were made here (all I need to say is ambrosia, Morris, chin faces, and tonsils :D) with friends who I met here and am still great friends with to this day, like Melissa, Alyssa, Tonya, Alana, Sarah, Eric, & Oliver. I love you guys!We went swimming at the DT pool with Sophie and had a blast. She loves the water so much more now!

That was my room! We used to joke that we had the best view ever because we could clearly see the mountains, the temple, and the basketball court. :)

2 Little Teeth Came Out To Play...

...Over the gums, not far away. Yes that's right, after much struggling and anguish, Sophie's teeth have finally chosen to make their debut appearance in her mouth. And not only that, but I think she's getting the hang of what you can do with these cool white things! She actually bit into her cracker yesterday and took off a chunk and was so pleased wi th herself.

Sophie's First Party

Sophie went to her very first birthday party for a friend last week. Her friend Abby will turn one at the end of the month, but since they're moving before then, they had her party a little early. Sophie watched Abby dig into her cake with awe. I wish we could have caught it on video because she started out just daintily picking at it, and then got more and more aggressive until it was all over her face and in her hair and everywhere. Sophie didn't get any cake herself, of course, but she took lots of notes so that she'll know what to do when it's her turn in just over a month.

BFF! Sophie with her best friends Antalya and Abby.

So Long, Farewell...

We've had to say goodbye to so many friends recently, and it's not our favorite thing. We love spending time with them and it's sad to know that we really don't know the next time that we'll see many of them again.

We had one last get together with the Matthews and the Jones's. Meridith and Bart made yummy homemade pizza and it was delicious! The Matthews moved out of our ward but we're glad they're still in the area, but the Jones's will be moving to Kansas this week, so we may not see them for a while.

Meridith and Tash were not only a wonderful counselor and secretary to me, but they became very good friends as well. I will miss their friendship very much.

The Huntingtons were some of our favorite people in our last ward in Salt Lake, and they're moving to Indianapolis this week where Bryn is getting his masters at one of the top schools for music, and Ann will be finishing medical school and going on to do her residency. Smart couple! We'll miss being close to them as well.

Another One Bites the Dust

My former roommate Bev got married last weekend. We're so excited for her! (Doesn't Sophie look thrilled? It was way too late for her by this point and she wasn't very happy with us.) We were able to see a lot of friends from the good ol' Turnberry/Holladay 29th Ward days at the luncheon and reception.

Here we are with Andrea & Dan Lambert, Danna & JD Bowns (& baby Julianna), Geoff Hack, and Kelly.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

I'm Belle, who is my favorite Disney Princess, but I truly didn't rig it to try to get this result. Honestly I don't know how I ended up being her because my answers were all over the place, but hey, I won't complain! Which Disney Princess are you? Silly quiz, but oh so fun.

Which Disney Princess Are You? Belle You are bookish but incredibly pretty. Belle was first seen in Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.