Grandma A. Leaves...

We had a great time visiting with Great Grandma Allred. We were sorry to see her go, but I know she'll be happy to get home and back to her routine. I managed to get a couple photos. Sometimes I wonder how much it would cost to have a photographer follow me around throughout the day. Then I could get really good photos. I imagine it would get old after awhile.

Sophie makes this face when she's nervous about something. This is a much better face =).

Here she is playing on the floor with Lamby and Lovie. These poor security items have sure taken a beating. They are well loved though.
Here she is "cooking" for me. She's a real pistol.

Some Sewing Projects

I co-hosted a baby shower last weekend for a scrapbooking friend. She's having a little girl, but wanted to go in a more gender neutral direction. Our theme was elephants, so I put together a little gift basket to go with the theme. I made some burp cloths out of prefold diapers. I just sewed a length of fabric down the middle of the diaper. I received some of these as gifts when Sophie was a newborn and I loved them. Great for spills and spit ups.
I also tried my hand at applique for the first time. That's an elephant in case you could tell I got the pattern from www.littlebirdiesecrets.com and then shrunk it to fit a size 3 month onesie. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Hopefully it will hold up well.

Sneak Preview of Baby Max

Dave, Sophie, Grandma (my mom), and Great-Grandma (my mom's mom) had a special treat this past weekend. We were lucky enough to get a sneak preview of Max. We had 3d images done of Sophie before she was born and it was so much fun to see her. Since the military hospital I'm going to deliver at only provides one ultrasound for un-complicated pregnancies, we decided it might be fun to be able to check Max out one more time. He wasn't super cooperative, but we managed to get several good shots of his face. I just love his squishy little cheeks...
Sophie was a little confused about everything going on and I think at this point she wanted to see what was in her tummy and sometimes she seems to think she has a baby in her tummy also. I totally get how this could be confusing to a two year old. Speaking of, Sophie had her two year old well baby check up. She's weighing in at a whopping 25 pounds and talking up a storm.

Can you believe the head of hair Max has... I can't believe I'm almost 35 weeks. Only 5 more weeks until my due date. I wonder if Max will be early, on time, or late?

Sophie's Scrape...

Hey all! First things first, I wanted to show off the kitchen cart I put together last week while Dave was off working in Guam. Pretty cool, huh. Aren't I the handy Navy wife =). It was pretty easy to put together, but my stomach's getting pretty big, so it got a little awkward there for a while. I'm not actually using it for kitchen stuff, I've loaded it up with my scrapbooking and crafting tools. It's working out really well for me to work on craft projects after Sophie goes to bed and it makes cleaning up so much easier.

My Grandma A. is visiting from Illinois, I'm sure she's much happier with our sunny Hawaii weather than cold, wet, windy Illinois. This was one of our attempts to get a photo of four generations. It wasn't working out so well. Sophie did not want to cooperate. Is it too much to ask a two year old to smile for the camera. My mom and Grandma are laughing at her. That's my I-about-to-give-this-kid-a-time-out smile. This is actually one of the better ones. I have a couple where Sophie is arching completely backwards in my arms while moaning. She can be a pill.

Here's one of my mom, Grandma, and me. Aren't we adorable!Here's another photo of the pregnant belly. I'm 33 weeks. That's my parent's dog, Lulu, in the background. I spend a lot of time at my parents house when Dave is in Guam. They feed Sophie and I, watch Sophie while I nap, and basically spoil us.

Here's a couple photos of Sophie's scrape. She fell on my parent's lanai (that's a porch for all you non-Hawaiian types), and scraped up her knee.

This is what the next thirty minutes consisted of... then she fell asleep. It really isn't a bad scrape, but to add insult to injury, I made her wear a band aid. Most kids I know love band aids. In fact I'm pretty sure my sister is able to bribe her son with band aids. Not my kid. I actually use them as a threat. I.e. "Sophie if you don't knock it off I'm going to put a band aid on you." She straightens right up.

This is about ten seconds of her whining about her band aid. She's such a little drama queen. I guess she comes by it naturally. Thanks for checking in with us. Check back next week for some 4d ultrasound photos and possibly video of Baby Max. Only about 8 more weeks to go until Sophie's a big sister.

Why, Oh, Why... Potty Training Begins...

I know I'm a little late with the blog update this week. Sorry, I didn't have any new photos at the beginning of the week. I started potty training Sophie on Monday... and stopped trying today, Wednesday. It wasn't going well and she just wasn't understanding what I was expecting of her. I decided to take a little break to regroup and hopefully come up with some new ideas. I've already had a couple friends offer suggestions. So I think we will try again next week. Hopefully, we can figure out this whole potty business before the new baby arrives. Speaking of the new baby, I had my Dad take a photo of me yesterday. Here I am at 32 and a half weeks...

Dave had to go out of town on an unexpected trip for work. He's in sunny Guam again, and Sophie and I miss him as usual. In fact, Sophie has started asking me, "Heard that? Daddy's home!" Whenever she hears an airplane or the Garbage Truck, or any other unidentifiable noise. Since Dave's out of town, I'm spending my evenings crafting, I've been using my Christmas present to make a couple thank you cards. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

Not much else going on this week. We're gearing up to get the new puppy fixed so we'll be going to the vet and I'm having a friend over on Friday for lunch. Mostly I'm trying to organize the new baby's room and closet. I've also been working in the garage to get things organized. Don't worry, I've been waiting for help to move anything heavy. Looks like we're still on track for an early March baby.

Sophie Eating Spaghetti for the Second Time

So you're going to need a little back story to understand how a two year old has never had spaghetti. Dave loves pasta, Italian food, etc. However he hates the noodle, spaghetti. Since the beginning of our marriage, he has asked that I not cook it. Since I could care less what kind of noodles I cook, we don't actually have spaghetti noodles in our home. Just so I don't accidentally serve them. We have penne, elbow, rigatoni, lasagna, everything but spaghetti. Here's the real problem. I have a habit of calling any pasta with sauce spaghetti. As in "I made spaghetti tonight." When what I've really made is penne pasta with a tomato meat sauce. Dave always replies, "I don't like spaghetti." This same conversation has been going on for four years (yes we're really that boring). So thats why Sophie had never had spaghetti noodles until my mom and I went out to lunch one day with Sophie. It was spaghetti or peanut butter and jelly and I still can't get Sophie to eat peanut butter (which is a totally different post). When we were in Texas, Dave's mom, Missy made Sophie some spaghetti with butter for dinner. Here's a short clip of her eating spaghetti. I think it's really funny... but I also think I'm biased =).

Our Holiday Trip to Texas

Dave, Sophie and I traveled to Texas on Christmas Day to visit Dave's Mom, Dad, and Grandmother. Sophie hadn't been on a plane since we arrived in Hawaii over a year ago. She might never go on a plane again. Who knew she could scream for 40 minutes straight. She literally cried herself to sleep. A combination of over-stimulation from Christmas festivities, over-tiredness (I might have just made that word up) from staying up until our 10pm flight, and wearing a lap belt for the first time resulted in a tantrum to end all tantrums. We arrived in Texas exhausted the day after Christmas, but Sophie was on her best behavior for the rest of the trip, and the return flight resulted in 0 tantrums. I have learned that my kid could out stubborn a mule however. A new development from the trip, Sophie now officially likes stickers. We had a fabulous time hanging out with Grammy, Grandad, and Gram-Gram. Sophie ate popsicles and ice cream (although how she managed that in the freezing cold Texas winter, I do not know. Here's some photos of our trip.

Grandad, Grammy, Gram-Gram, Jen, Sophie, and Dave

Jen, Sophie, and Dave. Miracle of miracles, Sophie did not fall into the pool at all during our stay. She has a habit of backing up when she gets immersed in something and it was a near miss more the once. Dave and Gram-Gram

Sophie got to make cookies with Grammy. She loved baking, her new apron, and especially tasting the cookies after they were baked.


Here's Sophie and I all bundled up for a walk around the neighborhood. It was probably around 55 degrees on this day. That warm Hawaii weather has thinned our blood because we were freezing!


Sophie is becoming quite the little piano prodigy. She enjoys playing on Dave's keyboard at home. She really loved sitting on the piano stool because it swiveled.

Here's Sophie opening more presents. She opened presents from Christmas Eve until... well she still has presents to open. Of course she gets through about two a day. So it might be awhile before she's done.

Here's Sophie trying out her Aunt Anne's rocking chair. This was Anne's chair when she was little and Sophie LOVED it. She would move it around the living room until she was happy with where she was sitting and then just grin at all of us.

Sophie and Dave trying out sparklers on New Year's Eve. Sophie was not happy about being outside in the dark and the fact that there were strange popping noises going off all around her. She did better than last year. So maybe next year she'll be excited.

Here's Sophie and I. I am 32 weeks pregnant in this picture. Not fat, just pregnant.

Here's Sophie before she knew we were going to be setting off fireworks.
We had so much fun visiting Texas. It's always fun to see Sophie grandparents getting the chance to spoil her. It's hard on all of us that we live so far apart. I know how much Sophie benefits from having time with all her grandparents. We're looking forward to Ken and Missy visiting in March when the new baby is born.