SOLD!

TJ's cheesecake sold for $50!!!! Oh yeah!

And here it is...

I know I've already bragged about my hubby, but I have to add on to my story. The dessert was done at 11:00pm, but little did I know that it had to cool for an hour or more. TJ stayed up later than me (1am) to make sure the cheesecake got in the fridge and woke up this morning to put it all together.

WA-LA....WHITE CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE (with dark chocolate topping) ALA TJ!

Fancy huh?! Looks beautiful. I think it will go for millions at the auction:)!

Why I love my hubby

I came home last week and told TJ that I signed up to make a dessert for an auction at my school to support 5th grade camp. I basically just told him so he could help me remember, but little did I know that he was totally going to do it for me. He said he wanted to look up something fancy since it's for an auction and we want our dessert to go for lots of mula! We remembered on Friday night but he still didn't know what he wanted to make, so we said we'll do it on Saturday. Well, Saturday came and went and Sunday came and went and the dessert topic never came into our conversations. So here we are Monday night at 10:55pm waiting for the dessert to finish baking. TJ ended up making a white chocolate cheesecake (every thing from scratch-so not how I bake, ha!) and hand dipped chocolate strawberries to place on top and around it. Going once, going twice, SOLD!!! That is just another reason why I love my hubby. He supports me and my school, he was eager to help, and still hasn't ditched me for bed (11:00pm). I am one LUCKY girl!!!

Little Einstein Party!

"We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship, zoomin through the skies, Little Einsteins!!!"

Sophia chose her birthday theme this year. When giving ideas about her party theme she would respond with "no" until I said, "Do you want a Little Einstein party?" YAH! This is the only movie she will sit and watch...

I made her cake (got the idea online) and am quite proud of how it turned out!

This year we only invited her cousins and had 9 of them come. They decorated rockets that they used to help them with a mission at the end of the party. The mission was to find Sophia's party bags using the clues given. They followed the clues and found the party bags in Sophia's bed...MISSION COMPLETE!
The gangs all here (except Jackson is sitting by himself at the little table). Lunch time- The menu was a classic kid choice: Hot dogs, macaroni and cheese (homemade), and veggies.

After lunch was presents. I love watching kids open presents. The kids who were watching kept creeping closer and closer to Sophia and the presents. Isn't that a classic kid for ya? TJ thought of a good idea....Get one of those huge baby gates, make a circle with it, and stick the person opening the presents inside so no one else can help them, ha! Sophia didn't mind the help though:)

Sophia liked the happy birthday singing, but then turned her head when it was time to blow out her candles. She had too much attention on her (which by the way was so like me as a kid) so she got some help from Daddy.

I also made cupcakes...yummy!This girl has had a week full of celebrating...Until next year!

More Birthday...

Birthday Fun...

I knew if I went to work on Sophia's birthday, then I would be grumpy and wishing I was with her on her day, so TJ and I took off the day to spend it with the birthday girl!

Her day started with:

Waking up to balloons covering the floor in her room, which she thought was pretty cool.

Then, we went downstairs to open presents. We got her a basketball hoop (and yes it's in our family room, which is not my favorite...come summer, it's outside).

And her baby was even spoiled! We have now been "baby-fied!"

It's amazing how naturally it comes for little girls...Such a good mama!

Then,

We went to the Children's Museum in Tacoma. I was hoping they changed their theme since the summer, but they didn't. Sophia didn't remember though and still had fun. I think her favorite was the market with all the fruit, veggies, and food.

What a multi-tasker: Making food, answering the phone, and dealing with money in the cash register.

Time to pick apples

We traveled to the Native American area. Sophia caught a fish!

Hiding with Daddy in a cave

Painting time. She would paint with each color for about 3 seconds and then say, "All done!" That's the attention span of a 2 year old:)

Next,

We ate lunch at a little cafe near the Children's Museum.

Finally,

We met some of our family at Red Robin for dinner. We can't pass up the FREE birthday meal! Sophia sees arcades and asks for quarters now. Good thing Gamma was there. Sophia put her quarters in the stuffed animal/candy machine...No Animal, but got some candy. TJ had to try it too! $1.00 later, he won a doggie! So lucky on Sophia's birthday!!!

Here's the gang that joined us for dinner!

I was not sure how she would react with the LOUD "Happy, Happy Birthday" song from Red Robin, but she actually enjoyed it (whereas last year, not so much). For some crazy reason she didn't want her ice cream, so her 2 cousins enjoyed it! Ahhh look at her...So big!

One Last Thing:

After we got home, got on our jammies, we sang, "Happy Birthday" to end the night! (You'll see her nicer cake for her party).

More fun is to come at her family birthday party!!!

The Big 2

2 years ago our baby was born

Date: January 12, 2008

Time: 5:10pm

Weight: 8 lb, 11 oz

Height: 19.5 inches

Most frequent comments about her: "She's beautiful and She's SO Alert (and still is)!"

1 years old
Happy Birthday Sophia...The big 2...Such a big girl! Lover of:
- Singing
- Playing with cars, balls, trains, babies, kitchen, blocks, etc.
- Reading books (Favorite: "Go Dog Go" and can say it word for word)
- Non stop talking (picks up everything!)
- Learning (counts to 30, knows her ABC, can spell her name, knows how old she is, etc)
- Her family (her mommy is her favorite:))
- Gumballs
- Playing outside (asks to go to the park all the time-which we miss these days)


Does not like:
- Animals up close
- Some puppets
- Strangers
- Riding in the shopping cart for a long time
- poo in her diaper
- Santa up close

How Time Flies:
I know everyone says that, but it's true. All day I thought about the day I had Sophia and can't believe that it was 2 years ago. TJ and I are grateful for Sophia. She brings so much love, entertainment, and laughter to our family! We can't wait to see what her 2nd year of life brings her....(even if it may be terrible 2's, ha!)

New Years Day

We celebrated New Year's Day going to the snow with Kevin's family. We drove up to Snoqualmie with the plan on tubing down Hayak, but everyone else had that plan as well. When we got there it was full, so we found a different spot that was perfect for the kids. I wondered how Sophia would do in the snow seeing as though she was scared of it last year, but she ended up loving it.

Here she is in her snow get-up. She had on thermals, footie pj's on top of that, and then her snow overalls. She wasn't too excited about the gloves at first (I think because they didn't match, haha j/k), but she got used to them and stayed very warm.

Sophia started down the hill with me a couple times to warm up. Jackson rode with us too! (Later on we walked across the street and found a bigger hill...Sophia went down that one with TJ)
Now she's comfortable...Ready, set, go!!!

Making snow balls.

Papa Brown came with us too. It was nice because the hill was right by our car, so you could take a rest if needed. Mollie and the hand warmers were best buddies.

Kevin and Jayden striking a pose

Mollie, Hollie, and Jackson (oh no! I didn't get a picture of Miles, but he was there too:))

Look at that form!

Happy New Year

Happy 2010!

For New Year's Eve a group of our friends got together and hung out in Seattle. While Sophia spent her night with Gamma and Papa (thanks mom and dad)!

1st Stop: Ferry Ride

(TJ, Mark, Kim, Rachel, and Chris)

2nd Stop: Cheesecake Factory

We knew it would be a long wait considering it is usually an hour wait on a typical Saturday, but we waited for almost 2 hours. Good thing we weren't in any hurry!
3rd Stop: Gameworks
Thursday night special: $10, all you can play from 9pm-1am (18 and older). It's been awhile since we just played like kids, so it was really fun! TJ and I raced in the hummer together. It went in all crazy directions, but I had to turn off the motion because I was about to throw up.

Kim and Mark did a little motorcycle racing

First picture of 2010 with my very hot hubby!

These videos should be flip-flopped. We ran outside of Gameworks to see if we could catch the fireworks, so Mark did a little count down action for us. 3, 2, 1 Happy New Year! We ended up seeing the finale to the fireworks through 2 buildings. If you look closely you can see the space needle.

It was a fun night...good company, good food, good games, good fireworks, and to top it off we drove right onto the ferry and didn't have to wait at all....I say that's a pretty perfect evening!!!

Christmas Day

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

We had a very nice Christmas day! It all started with me at 3:30am. I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, I was so excited! I have always been a lover of Christmas, but having a child makes it even better!!! I laid in bed and finally got up about 6:30am and woke up TJ too (haha). We woke Sophia up about 7:15am to see what Santa brought her. When Sophia saw the plate she left for Santa she said, "Santa ate my cookie all gone." "Drank my milk too!" Santa sure was hungry!

Sophia was good this year, so Santa brought her all this stuff.
Sophia LOVES this marble set. She has a similar one at preschool, so I knew it would be a hit. It took "Santa" about an hour to put it together and there are even more pieces. You can build a bigger one than this, but this track it good for now.
Whenever I would ask Sophia what she wanted to get Daddy for Christmas she would say, "motorcycle." Little does she know he would love a real one, but Sophia picked out this one for him instead! TJ's main present was his truck he got last month and we got him accessories for it (including a license plate cover that reads, "1968 THE BEAST", jumper cables, garbage bag, etc). TJ TOTALLY surprised me with a new road bike..watch out triathlons...I'm in business now:) (I forgot to add the picture).

They both got gummy bears in their stocking. When we asked what she thought Santa would bring her or what she thought was wrapped under the tree she would either say, "candy" or "gumballs".

After we were done with Christmas morning at our house. We headed over to my parents house for another Christmas morning. Christmas morning is the best there. All the kids and adults pile up on my parents bed and then make it down the hallway while my dad gets all the cameras ready. After many pictures, my dad says, "On your mark, get set, go....!!!" We all run down the hallway to see what Santa brought us!

Sophia has been wanting her own scooter! Love Radio Flyer! Thanks mom and dad!

YAH! A baby doll stroller:) Graco even makes little ones! She is quite the good mama these days.

After looking at our Santa gifts we had our traditional cinnamon rolls, eggs, bacon, sausage breakfast we opened presents for the family. My Aunt Sarah got her this hat...isn't it adorable! Around 12:30pm we went over to TJ's brother's house to do Christmas with TJ's Dads side. We got to visit with Nana, Aunts, Uncle, and cousins. We enjoyed Nana's special and delicious fried chicken! After being with them for a few hours, we headed back over to my parent's house to enjoy dinner, games, and dessert with them. It was a busy day, with no nap for Sophia, but it was all well worth it. We are truly blessed and spoiled!!!!

Christmas Eve

We started off Christmas Eve at my parents house for the traditional frosting of cookies in the morning. Sophia picked a snowflake and really only focused on that one...frosting...putting sprinkles on...eating the sprinkles...more eating sprinkles...and then she was all done. It turned out beautiful (you'll see it at the end of this post).

We spent Christmas Eve with the Vergeer family (TJ's mom side) and decided to do it at our house so the kids could run around and play. On the menu was brunch foods, good conversation, Wii playing (look even TJ's Papa gave it a try:)), and a white elephant exchange.
After the extended family left, TJ's parents, brothers, sister, and us did our Christmas. We were sure spoiled! Some of our highlights included: Sophia's metal pots/pans, play food, cute outfits; my sewing machine bag, carrier, and tools, and cute church bag; TJ's Wii stuff, and clothes. The best of all was from his brother Caleb (who plays baseball for UW). He got him a UW baseball jersey with "BROWN" and number on the back. Oh man is he going to wear that with pride!

After everyone left, we got ready for Santa to come. New snowman PJ's (thanks Gamma and Papa), check! Cookies for Santa, check! Milk for Santa, check! Carrots for the reindeer, check! I asked Sophia where she wanted to put the plate for Santa and she said by the tree (makes sense!). She was getting excited!

Last year my mom had made Sophia a Santa plate that says, "I've been good this year," so we were ready to use it. Here is her masterpiece cookie.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night (little did I know that I would be the one waking up at 3:30am so excited!!!!)

Sophia's Preschool Christmas Program

All last week I was talking about Sophia's preschool program to her. We talked about how we watched her cousin sing and on Friday it would be her turn to sing, yadda, yadda. She would always reply, "No want to!" (even though she would practice at school). She is one to check things out first before jumping in, so I thought there was no way that she was going to sing in her program. She got to wear her Christmas dress, so we took some pictures before we left.

Another cute pose!
When we got there we started to eat, but then Ms. Shelby called for all the preschoolers to go with her to get dressed. TJ took her up and she followed Ms. Shelby (phew). The little guys were turkeys (they sang some turkey and Christmas songs). This is Sophia and buddy Jackson.

Towards the end she started chewing on her feathers.

After they performed they got a present from Ms. Shelby.

She got many books, pencil, and eraser and had to show it to Papa Brown (who is not of fan of singing programs, but he survived it).

They sang "12 Days of Christmas" (Ms. Shelby version). I'll just write the lyrics from 5.

"5 Star Listeners

4 Runny Noses

3 Temper Tantrums

2 Untied Shoes

And A day off so Ms. Shelby can sleep!"

Sophia's part was 4 runny noses...It was hilarious because she had such a low voice when she talked into the mic.

There was also Santa at her program, but Sophia is still not a fan up close, but likes him from a distance. I am very surprised and proud of my little girl for getting up and performing with her friends! What a fun time:)