First Haircut

So Miss. Sophie was in dire need of a bang trim. Being the good mother that I am I just whipped out my scissors and went to work.

                                                                  Before, hair in the face.

                                                                     During, look how good she is!

After:  Gone is my little baby

Merry Christmas

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Santa's Here!

Okay so Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday. I love it! Ask any of my family and they will tell you how nuts I go for this holiday. I love decorating, I love baking, I love wrapping presents, I LOVE Christmas music, I LOVE it all. Well one of my favorite things is seeing Santa and the magic behind believing in Santa. I never want my girls to not believe, its just magical. One night last week we went out to eat and after dinner we went for a walk and Santa was there just getting ready to leave. Olivia was SO excited to see him. She ran over and gave him a huge hug (unfortunately the camera wasn't quite ready). It was so sweet to watch though and I hope that I never forget how precious it was. She really believes in him and the magic behind all that is Santa Claus.  

                                              Look at that smile, she was a happy girl!

Another December Another Hospital...

Well we are back in the hospital.  Sophie has pnuemonia again and is in to be monitored to make sure it doesn't get worse.  She is doing good, we arrived here yesterday and so far she hasn't had to have an i.v. put in.  They say that if she keeps drinking she probably won't have to have one.  She did have a fever but that is has gone.  We are hoping that with the antiboitic she is on that she should make a quick recovery.  Well quick for Sophie.  Since she has her underlying breathing problems it will probably be a couple of weeks before she is completley up and running.  If she keeps going like she is and not getting worse hopefully we will only be in here for a few days.  The nice thing is though that this hospital we are in just opened a year ago, and just opened there pediatric floor two months ago.  So everything is brand new and REALLY nice.  Sorry for no pictures Damon forgot to pack my camara.  Hopefully he will bring it for me, so I can get some of Sophie in her hospital gown.  On the plus side since Sophie isn't feeling well I have been getting ALOT more snuggles than usuall, I'm am taking them all.  She is so sweet.  She is pretty terrified every time a nurse or tech comes in though.  They have had to suction her out a few times and that is the worst.  I have to leave the room.  Her screaming and then the gagging she does is just to much for me to handle.  I think Sophie will be very glad when she gets to go home, we all will!

Thanksgiving!

So I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  We sure did.  This year was different for us though because we didn't spend it with my parents.  I was therefore in charge of cooking the turkey, and the rest of dinner.  AHH!  I was a bit freaked out and called my parents TONS on Thanksgiving day with questions.  Everything though turned out great,  except the gravy which I added a bit to much of the turkey juices to it.  I was SO excited though with how the turkey looked when it came out of the oven!  These are the only pictures I took though the whole evening, just of the food, go figure! 

This was the yummy pie that Megan made!

Bijou Market!

 

Okay so for any of you who are going to be in the Provo area this weekend, I highly recommend going and checking out the Bijou Market. 
It is my favorite boutique by far.  They have so many vendors with some really cool stuff.  Go and check it out, I know you won't be disappointed!

Hee Haw Farms

Back in October we went to this great farm. They had all sorts of things to do: petting farm, hay rides, corn maze, a wagon train and lots of other fun stuff. 

Olivia petting her first pig.  I loved being with all the animals they were so cute.

Going down a big slide.  Don't let her face fool you, she LOVES big slides.

Jumping into a hay pit.

Sophie on the wagon train.  I know we actually got her out of the stroller and let her do something!

Driving the tractor.

Sophie playing in the corn box.  She loved it.

Corn maze!  This was actually my very first corn maze.  I loved it.  We let Olivia pick which way to go, and she actually got us out of there in about 15 minutes.  She definitely has my sense of direction and not her dads, or maybe not.

We made it!

Y'all come back now, you here!

First School Photo

Here is Olivia's school photo for preschool this year.  I love how it turned out, she looks so cute!

Look what I made!

I saw this wreath on a craft blog and knew I had to make it.  I did it yesterday and I'm SO pleased with how it turned out.  I love it!

As requested here is a link to where I found this.  Mine is a little bit bigger than the one they show though.  http://www.howdoesshe.com/corn-husk-wreath-tutorial

Swing Time!

Here are some photos of Sophie on her first swing ride. Is she not the CUTEST thing ever! Oh I just love her to pieces and her smile just melts my heart. She loved the swing and would have stayed on it forever!

Blog is Fixed, YAY!!!

I need to give a HUGE thank you to the amazing Julie and her wonderful team at leelou blogs
They were able to fix my blog and make it pretty again for me.  Thank you guys SO much, I am useless at figuring that stuff out and would not have been able to do it without them. 
Julie you are the best!

My Husband the Nurse!

Two weeks ago Damon graduated from nursing school. One week ago Damon took the NCLEX and passed. Damon is now a registered nurse and I couldn't be more excited. Now we just need to find him a job.

His graduation was very nice and not to long, which is always good with two kids. Damon's parents and sister came from Portland for it and my parents were also able to come. We had a full house.
It was great having them all there to support him.

It has been quite the ride getting him here, but we are DONE!!!! I am so incredibly proud of him and his hard work to get finished. If you think about it, it was not the easiest to get done. We had Sophie, then Sophie got sick and then Sophie is still sick. He amazingly juggled it all. Good job Damon, you are amazing! Love You!

I look a little more excited than Damon.  Sophie obviously doesn't care.

Preschool....

Olivia had her first day of preschool today.  She was so excited and looked so cute in her skinny jeans.  I can't believe that she is old enough for this, just one more year before she is in kindergarten.  She goes three days a week for two hours and 15 minutes.  Her teacher is wonderful and she said that she did great.  I was also excited because I went to the store with just one kid today and it was SO much faster.  We are so excited for her and to see how much she will learn.

A Post Finally!!!

Well I don't even know where to begin, I have been taking a little hiatus from this blog this summer. We have been having a great summer with much of it traveling to Lakeview. Damon just has one test left before he is done, YAY! Graduation for him is on the 22nd of September. He has been applying to nursing jobs everywhere from Utah to Virginia to Texas. We aren't sure where we are going yet.

On the 22nd of August I went to Portland to see if a lower altitude would make a difference for Sophie. I think it did, she seemed to do alot better and was breathing slower and not panting all the time like she does. Damon and I wanted to see if a lower altitude would help as to help our decision as to where he should apply for jobs. It will be a year in October since Sophie was put on oxygen and we still don't have any answers as to why she needs it.

Olivia was able to come to Lakeview on the 16th with my parents and spent a week here before I got to Lakeview from my trip to Portland. She had tons of fun with Nanny and Grandad and was getting lots of attention. They also signed her up for swim lessons which she did quite well in. Olivia will be starting preschool this Wednesday, she is SO excited. Hopefully she does well and actually learns something.

We are heading home to Utah tomorrow and I think Damon will be glad for us to be home. This last weekend has been busy with it being the Lake County Fair and Round-Up, it is a crazy weekend here in Lakeview. I was able to do something rare and go out Friday night without kids and go and catch up with old class mates. It was nice seeing people I hadn't seen in years, but it made me realize how very grateful I am for my life. Well that about sums up what we have been up to.

Oh I almost forgot one of the big things to happen this month is the fact that Sophie is walking!!!! It took her awhile to do it, but now she won't stop and gets into everything! She is so cute though, and says hi to everyone. She really is the sweetest thing and is such a snuggler I just love it.


Now I'll just post some of the photos from this last month, there are tons

Olivia with her swim instrutcer Carlee, she was great, and Olivia loved it!

Olivia riding her first elephant, this was a new attraction at the Lake County fair.

Olivia with her friend Rhianna.

Sophie doing some walking.



The iron lung.

Getting ready to throw out candy for the Labor day parade. My dad pulled the iron lung for the rotary club.

27 days!!!!

That's is how much nursing school Damon has left. I am beyond THRILLED!!!! I can't believe it is almost done! YAHOO!!!!!!

July....

Okay I can't believe that it has been a month since my last post. Where has July gone, it has just flown by. This post has tons of photos, because I'm just going to blog about the whole month. So lets begin with the fourth. My little sister was having her reception in Lakeview over the 4Th of July weekend. I wasn't planning on going, but at the last minute (night before) I decided to carpool down with Megs and her hubby Tim and the girls. It was lots of fun to see everyone, and the girls were SO excited to see Nanny and Grandad. The reception was lovely and I ate my fare share of key lime pie and raspberry cheesecake. One of the highlights for me was getting to see my best friends family. I love the Knowles family, they are like my second family. It was great getting to catch up with them! Oh and I also got to go to my favorite restaurant the Aspen Ridge, YUM!

When we got back from Lakeview, we came home to not only Damon but my other sister Emma and her family. We knew they were coming but because I went to Lakeview last minute, Damon got to entertain them for a few days. There main reason for coming to visit was Steve (brother-in-law) his parents were just coming home from serving for the past three years as Mission Presidents. They had to come with Utah to pick up a car, so Emma and Steve made a vacay to see them and us all at the same time. They also blessed baby Oscar too. Who is adorable and little chub. I think he weighs the same as Sophie. I don't know why but I didn't take any photos of him, and only a couple of Betty. I was SO excited to see Miss. Betty. She is so much fun, and talks your ear off.

Since all the Kings girls were in Utah, my parents of course were here too. We actually got some family photos done by Megan and Tim's wedding photographer. We haven't seen them yet, I'll be sure to post some when we get them back though.

Now we are to the end of the month and it has finally calmed down around here. We are keeping busy trying to stay cool. Olivia would have about 5 popsicle's a day if I let her. Sophie is STILL not walking. I think she just figures she has it pretty good with us carrying her. That's okay though she is such a sweet little snuggle bug that I'll take it. Sophie's new thing is holding up one finger. If you ask her if she is number one and she will stick it straight up. She has now even started waving it around as if to boss us around. Funny thing. Olivia is getting excited for preschool to start. We have been going over raising our hand and being patient. Tough things to teach, especially the being patient, but she is learning. I am especially excited for her to start preschool, three days a week two hours each time. I'm sure though on her first day I will cry though.

Well that about sums up the month for us. I promise it won't be another month before I post again.

Some pictures of Megan and Tim's Lakeview reception.

The Two Amigos
(at least when they are getting along)!

Sophie showing us who is number one!

Pigtails!