Loving Our Family

Category: Misc

  • Sophia’s Best Friend..

    I have always been an animal lover! I grew up with animals – cats specifically and when Nate moved out I surprised him with cats of his own. Needless to say I always believed that when I had kids I would have animals for them as well.

    When Sophia was born, we had two cats and a dog. The cats are quite timid, as they were always alone with just Nate when he lived on his own, however our dog Meeka is another story. Sophia LOVES her and the feeling is mutual from Meeka. Meeka has from day 1 always been gentle with Meeka, knowing just when to play or leave her be. Nate and I will often find Sophia throwing toys for Meeka, chasing her and other times Meeka will be cuddled up to Sophia on the couch- its precious! Meeka and Sophia can also be sneaky, where we find/catch Sophia sneaking Meeka food from dinner or her snacks, haha!

    Here are some pictures of Sophia’s best friend Meeka.

    This is one of my favorite! Soph giving Meeka a hug.

    They share a love that I have always believed was important and I am so happy Sophia has animals in her life.

  • Elmo makes music..

    Sophia is such a huge fan of Sesame Street and Elmo, we decided to surprise her and take her to see Sesame Street Live, Elmo makes music! I was excited, yet nervous at how she was going to react to seeing Elmo and his Sesame Street friends live in person. This is because Sophia is not a fan of balloons, people dressed up in costume or anything else to that affect. However I was still optimistic, since last year we went and she loved every minute of it.

    This is how our day went… We told Sophia about seeing Elmo the morning of and she was so excited, however the closer it came to the time she was more hesitant. We drove to Gma & Gpa M and when we picked them up she was excited again. That is until we arrived at the target center. She was so nervous, wanted me to carry her and wouldn’t let me out of her sight! Before the show if you paid extra you got to have extra time with Elmo and his friends, I decided to show Soph Elmo through the glass and girl lost it! Screaming & crying as all the other little kids were watching her (insert me feeling like a bad mom for doing that!). Needless to say, that was a bad decision and Sophia kept telling me she wanted to leave and didn’t like Elmo any longer. We decided to stay and show her they were nice, but she wanted nothing to do with any of the Sesame Street friends, she wanted to stay far away, yet still be able to see them so they wouldn’t get close.

    We finally did get her to warm up to the characters that were her size and didnt move. She would take pictures with those, still keeping a close eye on all the other singing and dancing characters before the actual show began.

    We found our seats, sat down and it was then that Soph decided that she still did in fact like Elmo and was excited to see him and all his Sesame Street friends. The show started and Soph sang and danced with all the songs= success! She had a great time and we were glad we stuck through it.

  • Gma P & H

    We try as much as we can to visit family as often as we can, but as most can relate life gets hectic and busy and at times we aren’t to fulfill family time as much thats needed or wanted. So, when we can visit family especially Gparents we try and make it as special as possible. We recently went to visit Gma P & H on a much needed visit, and it was so wonderful. We were able to relax, chat have some lunch and Soph even got to play with Gma H’s new Bengal kitties- she was in heaven! Sophia had so much fun doing Gma H’s hair and I watched the love shared between them capturing these two pictures, that are beyond precious. I know they will always hold a special place in all of our hearts.

    Soph doing Gma P hair
    LOVE this picture!!

    I love the last picture, how Soph and Gma P are deep in conversation holding hands. Filling the love bank!

  • Friday Quicky..

    The next few weekends are going to be busy, crazy busy- all good. I will be back to talk about our good busy weekends filled with fun. But for now I will leave you with four things we are currently enjoying.

    1. Sweets!!As many know, Sophia does NOT like sweets at all. We have tried: ice cream, chocolate chip cookies-well many different kinds of cookies, cheesecake, brownies, cake, cupcakes, you get the idea. The only sweets that she would eat is M&M’s and we save those for when she goes potty on the big girl chair. Recently she has taken a liking to Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and she LOVES them!

    Enjoying a Reeses

    2. Goofiness. The other night we were eating dinner and all being a little goofy, I turned to Soph and she was making this goofy face- girl had us laughing.

    3. Spending time with cousins. Family time is important to us and we have been making many deposits of love into our bank. Soph loves her cousins.

    Cole, James & Soph
    Sawyer & Soph

    4. This Smile. Enough said

    Happy weekend!

  • Park Playdate- Take 2

    As many parents out there know, our kids LOVE to play outdoors and Sophia is no exception to this. She will beg, cry, scream and nearly scratch her way out of anywhere she is just to go play outside. We do our best to make sure everyday she gets outside to play. This past weekend we decided we would try out a new park, so we packed up the car and headed to Elm Creek Park. We have heard many good things about this park and what fun it is, and let me tell you this park delivered! Sophia had a blast!
    Playing on the Ladybug
    Favorite thing to do, going down the slide!
    She was so cautious of this, she did not like this at all!
    FAVORITE picture of all time!! <3 our girl!

     Some friends of ours met us at the park so Sophia could play with her friend Lizzy. We love watching her grow & blossom in friendships.

    Lizzy & Sophia playing
    She wanted me to ride the Bumble Bee with her

    My favorite picture of the night, was a family shot. My family is everything to me!

    Daddy & Sophia leaving the park

    Park time is one of our favorite past times- something that we love to do and is money deposited into our love bank!

  • Mid week mini vacation..

    Grandpa Russ & Carly are in town for the week to spend some much needed time with family and friends. We were lucky enough to take a few days off of work and head up North to Cross Lake to hang out at the cabin they rented. What a nice break from the day to day grind of things and have some relaxation on the lake, and let me tell you it was beautiful! The added bonus was Sophia spending some quality time with Gpa R, Carly and Great Gpa Jake! 
    View from our cabin 🙂

    Sophia had a great time with staying up late gazing at the stars, swinging in the fun chairs that hang from the ceiling to riding in a speed boat! She even got to swim in the lake 🙂

    Swinging in the fun chair that hangs from the ceiling
    Mommy & Sophia on the speed boat
    Gpa Russ, Carly & Sophia having fun on the boat
    Sophia helping Gpa drive the boat, she LOVED honking the horn!
    Gpa, Daddy & Sophia swimming in the lake

    Spending time with family is like adding money to your bank account; more money deposited-bigger bank account. The more time spent with family-more love deposited into. We love teaching our girl the importance of family.

  • 3 Generations..

    This picture has got to be one of my favorites. It shows the 3 generations of Kindom’s. Nate, his dad (Russ) and Sophia.

    This picture was taken at Russ’ business when we were out in California last November 2010.

  • Weekend..

    Over the past weekend we finally had the opportunity to enjoy the nice weather outside and play with James and Cole! It was so relaxing to sit outside and enjoy the warm summer air, accompanied by a cool breeze every once in a while so we didn’t get to hot. Sophia was able to put on her new “supposed” to be tankini from Nana and play in the water with her cousins. I say “supposed” to be tankini cause Sophia has a little belly that causes it to pull up, cute as can be!

           

    Eating some mandarin oranges, she LOVES her some fruit!
    Playing with the lawn mower, LOVE her facial expression.

    Sophia LOVES to be outside; whether its playing outside, letting Meeka outside with mommy or daddy, helping mommy water her flowers or even just hanging out on the deck. Its one of her favorite things to do.

  • Lauri…

    As most of you know Sophia has been going to daycare part time a few days a week at Lauri’s. Lauri is an in home day care provider and she is amazing! There are many benefits for Sophia going there, and the added plus is her cousins James & Cole go there as well. Lauri plans many activities for the kids to do, she tries to go outside on a daily basis and also teaches a pre-school curriculum!

    As of February 7th (Cole’s 2nd Birthday-Happy Birthday Bud!), Sophia is now going to Lauri’s every M, Th & F and then every other W- for Wacky Wendy Wednesdays. With this schedule she is able to go to Lauri’s and still go to see Grandma Ruth, Grandpa Dan & Sawyer! 🙂  Sophia has so much fun with Grandpa, Grandma & Sawyer as well, so Nate and I both thought it was important to keep her going there. They also provide activites for Sophia and she enjoys playing with Sawyer. We decided on this schedule based on our pediatrician recommendation of socializing Sophia with kids, the preschool curriculum plus it is so close to our house!

    Update: Sophia LOVES it at Lauri’s! We got our first pieces of artwork during Halloween and it was so precious! We have since received many other pieces of artwork and have saved them all! Sophia also has many new friends at Lauri’s- some of her favorites being Lauri’s daughter Megan or Mimi, Julia or JuJu and then baby Zada. Every night when we pick her up she always has to give baby Zada a hug-it is so cute!

     **We cant ever thank Grandma Ruth & Grandpa Dan enough for providing the 1:1 attention for Sophia when she was a newborn, it means more to us then anyone will ever know! We hope when Sophia gets another brother or sister they will be able to provide that again for us!**

  • Family..

    A few favorite pictures of mine from our recent trip to San Diego..

    Sophia giving a kiss..

    Sophia & Daddy..

    Our family picture in front of the Christmas Tree on Catalina Island..