Lotsa Stuff!

So tons of stuff has happened since the last time I blogged, what was it now, 3 months ago?! Holy cow! We moved, got an awesome new iMac, which I'm still adjusting to and learning how to use, Josh got a full time job at Wild Waves as the Foods Manager (hallelujah!), and our baby turned 1! Where did the time go?! So here are a few pictures to satiate your tastebuds. ;) I'll be trying to post more over the next little bit. We've done A LOT of stuff!

1. Sophie's 1 Year Birthday Party!

Sophie on her royal princess couch from Grandma and Grandpa Dickinson. Look how popular she is already...haha j/k It was fun to have all those kids running around though.

So these are out of order because blogger is stupid and I don't have time to rearrange them, so work with me here, but here is her demolished cake. I seriously have never seen a kid actually eat their cake like she did. It was awesome! She ate it true fatty style!

After. I don't know what's on her eye, I don't think she got cake on it, maybe it's just the way the picture turned out. Still pretty cool though!

Before. I had to help her dig in, then the rest was history.

Mommy and Sophie on her 1 year birthday.

Her birthday hat and pin.

Her cake.

The cake for everyone. It turned out awesome! Go Safeway! (Nope, I didn't make it. I'm not creative like that. Safeway did a great job for me! haha)

The decorations, courtesy of Josh and his brothers. They actually did a really good job!

2. We went on vaca with my family to Lake Mojave, it's been a few years since I've been there, or seen the sun for that matter. :) haha Josh couldn't come because of his awesome new job! We missed you!

Sophie with her Grandma and Grandpa Bateson (my parents), her Great Grandma and Grandpa Bateson (my dad's parents), and and her Great Great Grandma Wagstaff (my Grandma Bateson's mom). Wow!

Sophie wasn't too fond of the the dogs at first.

But she warmed up. :)

The desert IS beautiful!

Sophie on the beach, she loved it.

We went innertubing! My little daredevil!

First bath camping. Fashionista!

Sophie and Tommy the Turtle. They were friends. haha And yes, that is my sister shaving her armpits in the background--hahahaha The joys of having a blog that your sisters don't check. :)

3. Josh and I went on a date to the temple, I hadn't gone since before Sophie was born! Awful, I know...but it was soo nice to go back!

I love us! Especially him ;)

I love my new dress! Thanks Josh for letting me buy stuff I don't technically need, but really want every once in awhile! I think it's healthy to do that sometimes. =0)

4. Random goings on at our house. The zoo with Josh's brother David, his wife Kimberly and their adorable little girl, Lydia. Etc., etc., etc.

Kimberly and Lydia.

The polar bear was actually awake!

Sophie looks happy.

My crazy little munchkin, oh how I love her. And do you like my pedicure, I did it myself, I was very proud. :)

It's been a lot of fun moving into our own place, we LOVE our apartment, it even has a dishwasher (woo hoo!), having Josh start work again, and watching our baby grow. I can't believe it's already July, partly because time goes way too quickly, and partly because it still feels like it's January--it's been oh so rainy and dreary here. I love my life, sometimes I get lonely staying at home with Sophie all day, but I'd rather be here than anywhere else in the world. It's been interesting managing our own budget again, making our own food again, and being our own family again. Josh's family was so gracious to us for letting us live with them for a whole year, but it's really nice to feel like a real mommy and wife again, I kinda felt like I was faking it when I wasn't able to make meals for my family and really feel the full weight of being a wife and mother. I must say, it feels good to do laundry and take care of my own house; to be alone with Sophie and see how just the two of us interact. It's refreshing. Maybe that's why we had to live with Josh's family, so that I would really appreciate being able to have my own family and being a stay at home mother. I look at it as a blessing now, and not a curse. Not to say that everything's perfect and that I don't get frustrated, bored, overwhelmed, lonely, etc., sometimes, just that I love every minute of it--good or bad. I love the time we spent with Josh's family, but I love my family time even more. :)

More posts to come. Hopefully I can finally figure out how to get videos on here that don't need to be shorter than 2 seconds. :)

Great Wolf Lodge

So for President's Day Weekend in February we went to the Great Wolf Lodge. It was Sophie's first time playing in water besides her bath, and she seemed to like it! We have some great pictures to commemorate the event. Sophie got 2 new bathing suits, which are both soo cute! We had a great time! And please disregard our whiteness--we've lived in UT for 4 winters, and Washington for 2 summers. It was hopeless that we'd tan. :)

Josh on a ride--what a dork! I love him! I know he's hott, but please refrain from drooling over him, he's a married man. :)

Our family! Again, please refrain from Josh's sexy hairyness. I love him!

She's so funny! Love's mouths.

Cheese!

We thought this one was so artistic. I was pretty proud of myself for taking the picture.

Toodles!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

So I know it's a little late, but Sophie wanted to say, "Happy Valentine's Day!" :) Love you all!

Recent Happenings

So here are just some random pictures from our recent excersions and such. Sophie is now 8 months old, as of yesterday, and has her two bottom teeth. She really is such a mellow kid. She just kinda goes with the flow. She doesn't really cry, and when she gets overtired or upset, she goes stiff as a board and crosses her little legs straight out in front of her--it's so funny. And it's always left foot on top, we've tried to put her right foot on top and she always uncrosses and then recrosses them, the "right way".

Here are some things I love about my little Sophie:

1. Her squishy, soft face
2. Her blue, blue eyes
3. They way she smiles, even if you just look at her
4. Her sweet little spirit
5. They way she watches new people until she deems them ok
6. That she touches my face sometimes and just watches me talk or make silly faces
7. I love that she usually doesn't cry very much, I hate when babies cry--I know, I know, our next baby will be a cryer. :)
8. That she crosses her feet when she's overtired or upset
9. That she sits and plays by herself for long periods of time
10. That she's so mellow--it's like she says, "It's cool if I don't crawl, I'll just roll there, no big deal!"
11. She's cautious about situations until she knows it's ok--like the way she watches people
12. That she LOVES the kitty and talks to him, sometimes he comes over while I'm out of the room and will lick her--GROSS! I know, but she loves it. She gets so excited and will kinda pet/grab him. He's a really good kitty and doesn't scratch her or anything.
13. That she rolls under the coffee table and plays with your feet.
14. That her tongue is always sticking out, especially when she's concentrating or happy. :)

There's so much more that I love about her. It's wonderful to be her mother and have a set rythym in our day now. She makes everything new and exciting for me. I get so excited because she's excited. I've been amazed at how children come with personalities all ready to go. It reaffirms my testimony in the Plan of Salvation and that we did live in the preexistence before we came here. I am so thankful to have her as a part of my life forever.

The crossed feet, she must be tired.

Touching the sea creatures with daddy.

Cute face!

She loves her unicorn that Gramla got for her. And I love her little barette. So cute!

Our little beauty on her 8 month birthday. Gorgeous darling! I love her little sunglasses!

At the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. I LOVE this place. MayrLu and Clay got us a membership for my birthday, and I love taking Sophie there. She loved the fish.

Sophie with daddy looking at the fish. I made her hat, I was soo proud! I love my new calling as an Activity Day Assistant. We learned how to loom hats. Awesome!

She's blinking here, but she loves to roll under the coffetable. Half the time I don't even know how she gets under there, but she especially loves it if someone if sitting there because she'll roll under the table and then start playing with their feet.

Momma and Sophie on her 8 month birthday. Yay for Sophie!

Coming soon--our trip to the Great Wolf Lodge! It's an awesome indoor water park, because it's always raining in WA, and Sophie's first time playing in water besides her bathtub. The pictures are on my in-laws computer, so it might be a little bit.


P.S. Josh has been applying for work everywhere, but still no responses. There is one place that he's had 3 interviews with! But they still haven't let him know if he's got the job or not. They're driving me crazy! If you hear of any work near Tacoma, WA, let us know! Thanks! :)

Sophie's First Encounter with Santa

So here's our family at the ward Christmas Party on the 19th, which was actually Sophie's 6 month b-day (she's getting soo big)! Josh looks a little drugged up, but that's ok because me and Sophie look cute, which is really all that counts. :)

So this is actually the second picture we took with Santa, because Sophie woke up for it. She wasn't scared of him or anything, she was just kind of indifferent. But still, fun memories none-the-less!

Here's the first one, where she was sleeping. So cute! (and I loved the elf, oh Taylor!)

Daddy and his girl! Apparently Josh's face tasted good--weird! haha

So funny!

The End!

I gradiated--It's Official!

So I got my diploma from BYU in the mail today. It was kind of anticlimatic because I've been now for awhile, but we still managed to make an event of it! So following are pictures of me "receiving my diploma." I worked really hard for this, by the way. It took a lot of patience, hard work, sleepless hours, and tons of determination to finish. My internship was really hard for me to do since I had to leave Sophie at home--but I finally finished! I officially graduated with a degree in the Recreation Management and Youth Leadership major with and emphasis in Therapeutic Recreation. Now all I have to do is pass my national certification test--it's always something. But now I must go because everyone's waiting for me to go get Papa Murphy's Pizza to celebrate! And thanks to all those who made this moment in my life possible. You all know who you are and I love you to death! I'm an alumni!! Woot woot!


Sophie with mommy and the diploma.


Dang it feels good to be a gangsta. :) G-Unit!

Woo hoo!

I wonder what could be inside. (And please disregard my muffin top, I'm still working on it!)

I felt like I was getting a mission call or something. Awesome!

So I guess after all that, this is all I get, a little piece of paper. But really I know I got so much more from the experience. I'M DONE! YAY!!! :)

Zoo Lights

Every year we're in Washington for Christmas we go to the local Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium and go to the Zoo Lights. They decorate the entire zoo with Christmas lights and it's awesome! This year was no different and Sophie loved it! She loves lights anyway, so the fact that there were tons of them everywhere meant that she was in heaven!!! And our camera did a pretty good job of capturing the lights without making them too fuzzy or anything-awesome!

Speaking of Christmas, this Christmas was great for us. Because Josh has all brother we have to plan having Christmas in between missions with his family. His brother Adam will be serving a mission next Christmas, so we were in Washington this year for the Holidays. It was kind of nice not to travel, but we sure did miss my family! I'll be posting another set of pictures of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning later. Enjoy!

Fish!

We're the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!


Josh's family under the rainbow.

So this isn't the Zoo Lights, but one day she was laying and playing on the floor and rolled herself up in the blankets and then fell asleep, how sweet!

Our family!

Us again, I love this one! (Of course we forgot the stroller, but Sophie's carrier worked out better anyway.)

Mirror!

Watching the Meercats. What a sweetie! You can see how tired she was.

Mirror images!

More lights! They really were beautiful.

Josh and his brothers in their natural habitats. :)

Daddy and Sophie.

Our cute little family.

Beautiful lights!

Mommy and Sophie, I love her bear hat and mittens!