Birthday, Christmas tree, and more

Happy Birthday to me!

It seems like every year I get older it feels less and less like my birthday on my day, so TJ made sure that it felt like my birthday. He waited until I went to bed (stayed up till 1:30am) to decorate the house for me! Her are balloons on the stairway:

Every where I turned he had a "Happy Birthday" sign up. There were 7 total signs (so I wouldn't forget it was my birthday....clever hubby!)

TJ also covered our room and bathroom in balloons...Sophia loved it:)

Isn't it beautiful?! I always tease TJ about his wrapping job, so he really made my present beautiful, ha!

Since my birthday was on a week day, I had to work, bah! But we went out to dinner. I didn't want anything fancy and I was craving pizza and salad, so we (some of my family and TJ's parents) went to Spiro's! Tossed Green Salad...delicious! When we got home I opened the present and cards from TJ and Sophia.

I love my North Face jackets, but none of them have hoods, so TJ got me one with a hood...Perfect for Washington:)

Oh Christmas Tree!

We've had our tree for a week and it took us that long to finally get it all up and decorated...We love our tree! It is 91/2 feet tall (thank you vaulted sealing) and wonderful with lights, bubble lights, and train:)

TA-DA! TJ and I had to sit there in the dark with the tree lights on and admired it...(I know we're sappy, but that's what this time of year brings...love it)!

Did you know we had a puppy?

Sophia was interested in the tree, but not the whole time. As we were finishing up with the tree, I kept hearing the bathroom sink on. And this is what Sophia was doing...

She was being such a nice girl and giving water to her puppy! She put a little cup down with water and then poured it on the floor...we had drops of water from the bathroom to the family room. (Don't mind the mess in the video...I got knew organizers for my birthday too, so we were in the middle of sorting through toys...)

Best Long Weekend

Thanksgiving Weekend is one of my favorite weekends of the year...Eating good food, family time, Black Friday shopping, and chopping down a Christmas tree! Here is a taste of our weekend:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sophia made an APPLE PIE at her preschool. She picked the apples off the tree, peeled them, and rolled the dough out. She has one up on me because I've never made a pie! We had TJ's family over to our house and ate at 2pm and then we went over to my parents house at 4pm, so yes we ate twice!

Black Friday Shopping is next...

It actually started Thanksgiving night. We spent the night at my parent's house, along with my brother, Nate and his family so we wouldn't have to wake up the kids. So at 8:00pm we went to Michael's because they had their Cricuit cartridges (scrap booking) on a great deal. The plan was to go to bed and wake up at 2:30am to head to ToysRUs (who opened at Midnight). As TJ and I laid our head on our pillows, the phone rang...It was TJ's brother. He said that he drove by ToysRUs and the line was already wrapped around the building. I sat up and said, "Let's go!" So...TJ, Nate, and I went to ToysRUs at 11:40pm. We got in and got everything we were looking for. The store was CRAZY and the worst one all day! An hour and a half later we got out of the store alive...phew! We went back to my parents house to pick up my dad and sister-n-law. Instead of going to sleep we were just going to head to Old Navy who opened at 3am, but the line was crazy and we didn't need clothes that bad...Next was JcPenney. We were the 2nd ones in line, so we grabbed everything we needed and were out in a flash! On to Target...merged in line with some friends in the very front of the line and my dad and I merged in with my sis-n-law a little farther back. Well the ladies a few people back from Christine did not like the fact that we merged. My dad, Mr. Honest got out of line and went all the way back to the end (which was around the building), but I stayed put! Once again, we grabbed our items and headed out to Home Depot (for my dad). Last stop was Fred Meyer (7am). Got to get 1/2 socks, ha! By then I was glazing over a little (mind you no sleep still)! We took a cat nap (1 hour), then continued shopping and getting ready for our next activity, which was...

CHOPPING DOWN THE TREE

Good ol' Bacon's Tree farm. I am extremely picky. My mom always steps out of the car, points to a tree and says, "that's it!" And that's always the one she gets. I am not as lucky..."too skinny, weird shape, dry inside, etc, etc." TJ is a good sport, so we hiked all over the tree farm. Sophia wasn't in the best of moods, but I wasn't going to let that slow us down.

Wa-La...This one is the winner...Perfect proportions and 10ft tall! Our tallest tree!

Last year TJ cut down 3 trees with a hand saw and was done with that. I think it was his excuse to use a manly tool! (I did have a picture of him with it, but it got deleted and I am NOT redoing it, so you can visualize it).

Great 4 1/2 days off work...very hard to go back to work today...but 3 weeks till Christmas break!:)

Unexpecting Moment

I totally celebrate all moments in Sophia's life....even the POOPING ones! I walked into Sophia's preschool and everyone was under the parachute tent they made and were having lots of fun. Little did I know that the news would get better. As I crawled into the tent, Ms. Shelby told Sophia to tell me what she did today. I was thinking she painted or made a craft or something, but NOOOO.... Sophia said, "Pooped in da potty!" I cheered, Ms. Shelby cheered, Sophia jumped up and down. Sophia then had to show me the stickers she got on her chart next to the toilet (this is new for her) and she showed me the underwear she picked out (Elmo, pink stripes, and cupcake ones). I am lucky that Ms. Shelby loves potty training, even though I'm not going to start until I can be consistent with it (maybe Christmas break or the summer)? I guess peer pressure works. I heard the best way to potty train is stay inside for 3 days, use underwear, so kids can feel it rolling down their legs, and put them on the toilet like every 20 minutes...that sounds exhausting! Any other ideas for me so I can be ready when the time is right???

The Happiest Place on Earth...well almost!

My parents got tickets for the whole family to see "Disney on Ice!" on Saturday. Sophia woke up with a cold forming (runny nose, droopy eyes, sneezing, etc), but she did not want to miss out (sounds like her daddy and I) and was quite the trooper! We took the Kingston/Edmonds ferry. As you can see it was extremely windy and the boat was rockin.

We got to the Comcast Arena in Everett. I'd never been there before.
We got there quite early so we were able to walk around and get our seats. They were selling so many light-up souvenirs, water bottles, food, etc, but it was expensive. Aunt Mindy and Aunt Christine were smart and brought glow in the dark necklaces to share and wave around. We were only 5 rows back! Perfect Seats!

I wasn't quite sure how Sophia would do, but she was ready for the show and ended up loving it...what kid wouldn't?!

Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse introduced the show with their friends Goofy and Donald Duck!

First up was CARS! All the cars were very cool and a great way to start the show! TJ wants the job of driving them:)

The gang was all there (there is a lot of pictures, but I couldn't leave anybody out):

Next up was Little Mermaid...Under da Sea...

Kiss da girl!

Then, Lion King

Rafiki (spelling?)

Daddy and Simba trying to get out of the stampede...

One of my favorites...Timon and Pumba (can you imagine ice skating on all 4s?)

Intermission: Great time to change Sophia's diaper. I thought I scored because I found a "family bathroom" with no line and no one in it! yeah! Except..what family bathroom doesn't have a changing table in it???

Sophia needed to visit Gamma and read the program during the break.

Finally, Tinkerbell and the other Fairies. This was probably my least favorite, but I'm sure all the little girls loved it:) I guess I'm not up on all my fairies. Mickey and Minnie came back out to close the show...Lots of Fun!

After the show we headed for the Old Spaghetti Factory in Alderwood. It was going to be an hour and a half way, so my smart hubby called Tacoma's Spaghetti Factory and put our names on the list. So, we got back in the car and headed for Tacoma. We arrived and our table was ready for us 5 minutes later...Good thinkin' hubby!

If you ask Sophia what she wants for breakfast, lunch, or dinner she almost always says, "Noodles!" So she was diggin' dinner...YUMMY brown butter with mazithra cheese!

Classic Lady and the Tramp...Sophia thought it was hilarious and wanted to continue to do it. Probably not the best table manners!

Slurp...KISS!

We didn't make it back home until 10:30pm. It was a full day filled with good company and lots of fun:)!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Sophia woke up from her nap just in time to get dressed as a tiger and go see GG at her house. GG got Sophia and her cousins a little Halloween treat.

Here are all the Uffens side cousins...We have a pirate, mermaid, tiger, Anakin Sky-Walker (don't know how to spell) and Darthvader! Sophia was scared of Anakin's mask because it looked so real..kinda freaked me out too!
We rushed home to meet the Brown cousins at our house. Here we have muscle man, a monkey, a frog, and the cutest tiger. I think it's skill to get all the young kids to pose with a smile.
But just as fast as we could pose them, just as fast they were done with the whole picture thing...Notice muscle man is already gone....haha. Hollie and the kids went with us to "trunk of treat" at the church building. The parking lot was packed with cars and the kids got loaded up with candy. Trunk or treat was perfect for Sophia and the little guys because they didn't have to walk too far. And it didn't rain, yah! Notice Sophia is dragging her pumpkin bag because it got so heavy with candy (that TJ and I have already devoured into!)

Mommy needed a picture with the tiger too!

We were done about 7pm. Sophia had to check out her goods as soon as she got in her car seat.

We ended our night at Gamma and Papa Uffens house to eat chili and corn bread.

And yes the treats aren't over. Gamma, Papa, and Aunt Nancy gave her some more goodies!

October Fun!

Pumpkin Patch

Sophia had her first field trip to Hunter's Farm to pick out a pumpkin with her class. TJ took off work to be a chaperon. It was raining and muddy, but they made the best of it. Gotta love rain boots and coats!

When you ask what kind of pumpkin she got she says, "a lil' one and daddy got a big one!"
Pumpkin Painting/Carving
Sophia's school was having a pumpkin contest and obviously Sophia couldn't carve her own so I had her paint it instead. She painted it black all by herself...I just did "blob" patrol. Then we turned her pumpkin into a...BAT!

Then it was time for daddy's big pumpkin...She helped scooped it out a little, but then kept saying, yucky! TJ did a good job carving and actually got into it (Halloween is not his favorite).

TA-DA!!! Frankenstein and a bat...By the way she one the BEST PUMPKIN AWARD at her school!

My School Fall Festival

Okay so I have to give a little background on her costume...Sophia decided she wanted to be a tiger so she could "ROAR!" at everyone. I knew she wouldn't keep anything on her head or face, so I decided to make the costume quite simple. And yes, I wanted to try to sew it. I've never really read a sewing pattern before so I had my mom help me. I swear those are written in a different language. Well, I made the skirt first. It went fast and it was easy for me. Then I started the shirt. It was a size 4 pattern so I knew it was going to be too big. As I started sewing the neck my mom and I noticed that it was going to be way to big, so my mom helped me cut it down (okay well she did). It was all finished and Sophia had her costume party on Thursday, so that night I just had this little feeling to try the shirt on. WELL...let's just say it didn't fit over her head and she has a small head, hahaha! I called my mom laughing and thought "this is why I don't sew, ha!" I got the good ol' scissors and cut a slit in the back and WA-LA, it fit over her head. I guess this is why people buy their Halloween costumes. Never-the-less, she is still the cutest tiger, I am still proud that I sewed it, and it's a great story to tell.

Sophia was a little timid at first with all the people and costumes, but she warmed up. We bought some tickets, so she played some games. She got to toss bean bags into the ghost. Sophia style was to walk right up close to it and drop it in!

She also helped me during "Trick-or-Treat Lane!" She got the hang of it. She would say "trick or treat" and help herself to the bucket of candy we were suppose to be handing out to the kids, haha!

I signed up to do a game in my room, so I decided to have the kids play pumpkin bowling at the "Pumpkin Alley". Here Sophia is ready to roll her pumpkin down the lane. I think this was her favorite game:)

After our bucket of candy was gone, Sophia was on the hunt for more. She was practicing for tomorrow night with my best teaching buddy.

Perfect photo op! Sophia posed by it, but obviously on this shot she turned a little. Then she was perfectly posed and even saying "CCCHHEEESSSEEE" with a smile when...MY BATTERIES DIED, ahhh! So that was it for pictures.

Other highlights from the festival: cake walk (we won!), ring toss, shooting basketballs, cotton candy (but Sophia doesn't like it), and more.

MORE FUN TOMORROW!

Terrible Twos???

Okay we're back...We have been busy, busy and I have not been motivated to blog, but now that we're in our new place and the Internet is hooked up we are ready to go...I thought I'd share with you the naughtiest night of Sophia's life...

So we met my mom at McDonalds (not my favorite place) so she could play with her cousins and as we were getting ready to go the fun started. I told Sophia that it was time to go and she responded with, "No want it!" as she runs away from me (yah, that's not going to happen). I snatched her up and go to the car. This is where the fun really starts...As she is stiff as a board I am trying to put her in her car seat. She is crying and throwing herself from side to side. I am using all my force to keep her down in her seat. With all the thrashing around I am staying quite calm but using a firm voice when all of a sudden she SLAPS me in the face. I think my mouth dropped as I am trying to process what just happened. As I'm processing she looks at me again with that, what are you going to do about it? look and does it again. "OH NO YOU DIDN'T!!!" My initial reaction was to beat my child, but I thought that wouldn't be a very good example of not hitting. We had the whole not hitting talk, etc etc and when she got to Gamma's house she sat in the "Time-Out" chair to have some thinking time. She said sorry and gave me loves...pheww, are we staring terrible twos already??? Bring it on...

So you don't think my child is totally horrible here are some of her favorites lately:
-Counting to 22
-Singing "It's Raining, It's Pouring"
-Singing "5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate..."
-Pretty much singing any song
-Counting backwards from 9 (I couldn't believe it)
-Knowing the sounds for the letters a and b
-Arguing with "yes it is or no it's not"
-Telling me it's O-O-October!
-Putting herself in "thinking time/time out" and not budging until I come get her (I know that one won't last)!
She is definitely learning and picking up a lot from her Preschool!! It is very exciting to be a part of her learning:)!