Sushi

Last night after my chemistry final (woo!  I'm done!), my mother-in-law was awesome enough to invite us out for dinner.  There's a great sushi place (I can't believe that the words "great sushi place" are coming out of my mouth & that I am actually the one thinking it...) near my in-laws that they frequent quite regularly.  (They have a 50% off special Tuesday & Wednesday nights so that makes it even sweeter.)  We met there and ordered.  I wasn't sure if Steven was going to eat much because he's not a super big eater in general and what is a 2-year old going to eat at a sushi place anyway?  We ordered him a kid's meal but it didn't arrive until after the sushi did.  Josh gave Steven a piece of sushi that had been fried in tempura just to see if he'd try it.  That kid of mine ate the whole piece!  We didn't have to coax him or bribe him or anything!  He probably would have eaten more if his meal hadn't arrived then.  My mother-in-law said, "Josh, you're raising that boy right!"  I was shocked that he ate it and how much else he ate!  Steven is constantly surprising me :)

Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving we spent with Josh's family again.  And yes, we did go to the Grand America brunch again.  It's so good, what can I say?  This was a little different, though.

Apparently there are two events on Thanksgiving day at the Grand America.  One is a buffet & one is a brunch.  Apparently the brunch is the one we usually go to & the one that has more variety.  No one told this to my mother-in-law when she set up the reservations (nor did they mention it the several subsequent times that they called to confirm) & we mistakenly signed up for the buffet.  It had a lot of the same food, and the food was great, there just wasn't as much variety as the one we usually go to.  The atmosphere was much better this year, though, because it was much quiter, more intimate, and a lot less crowded.  However, I'm pretty sure we'll be going to the bigger one next year...the variety just can't be beat. 

After we ate, Josh & his younger brother went over to their brother, Jeremy's, and played Halo for a while.  That evening, Chirin, my mother-in-law, & I continued our tradtion of a Thanksgiving Day movie & saw  Morning Glory.  (If you haven't seen it, I would recommend it.  It's pretty darn funny.) 

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing.  I don't really enjoy shopping in general so I didn't join the masses for Black Friday shopping.  I did, however, go shopping on Saturday with a good friend of mine...but that was more about spending time together than anything.  Also on Saturday we had some friends over for game night which was a ton of fun. :)

I was only able to upload a few pictures this morning before work so I will be adding more hopefully today.

This is Sofia & I in front of a Christmas tree at the Grand America after we ate.

The guys were playing nerf wars & Sofia got caught in the crossfire ;)

Okay, so this actually wasn't on Thanksgiving...it was when we got together for my birthday the Sunday before.  Close enough ;)

Halloween

A bit late, I know. I think I've mentioned this before, but although I do have time at work to blog, I don't have access to my pictures so I hate posting things without pictures. Therefore, I put things off until they are late. Anyway, this Halloween was pretty fun! Last year I invited my siblings that live here over to my house to carve pumpkins the week of Halloween. I decided to continue that tradition this year. My family came over the Sunday before Halloween & we had dinner before carving the pumpkins. (Thanks, Ginelle, for the yummy soup!) I also associate donuts with Halloween (I'm not sure why...it probably comes from my mom) but since it was Sunday I didn't really want to go buy some & I didn't want to buy them a day early & then be stale. So...I decided to make my own! Let me tell you what...they were pretty good, but not really worth the effort in my opinion. It took quite a long time to make the dough, roll it out & fry it. I didn't even get to carve my own pumpkin! :( Bummer. So next year, I'm buying them or we're not having them at all.
The Tuesday before Halloween, Steven had a party at the babysitter's. They were able to dress up in their costumes & they even trick-or-treated from each other. I think they had a pretty good time. :) Steven was a frog (inspired by his occastional hopping on the floor & saying "Ribbit! Ribbit!" & Sofia was a "Halloween ballerina" I guess you could say. I didn't really have a specific idea in mind, I just kind of threw some things together. I wanted to get her a cute black tutu & decided to make one instead. It was pretty easy (although time-consuming) & WAY cheap. I also found some cute orange leggings in Target's $1 section so I used those as well.
On Halloween (well Utah's Halloween [Saturday] because Halloween actually fell on Sunday) we went to my sister's house in Sandy. She made really yummy chilli & cornbread (the delicious form that is a mix of yellow cake mix & corn meal) so we ate dinner before we took the kids trick-or-treating. It was SUPER cold & really windy that night so we didn't stay out that long. I was a little bummed for Steven that he didn't get to go out more but then I remembered that he's TWO & doesn't know the difference & that meant less candy he tried to eat. He was super cute in his frog costume & he had a lot of fun going out. He definitely caught on to the whole idea of Halloween!

Sofia hanging out while everyone carves pumpkins

 Steven & Josh carving a pumpkin

 I love how concentrated my niece, Anna, is

 Steven showing off his pumpkin

 Steven in his frog costume at his daycare Halloween party

 The princess & the frog ;)

 Steven & Sofia

 Sofia in her cute Halloween costume :)

 I LOVE the faces she makes!

Random Funnies

-Last weekend Josh & I went out to celebrate both of our birthdays.  Both of our birthdays are in November & we got a bunch of free meal coupons so we decided to take advantage of one of those offers.  One of my co-workers' daughters babysat the kids for us that night.  Steven asked to play with Josh's iPad (which he actually calls "Steven's iPad" ;) ) but the babysitter told him no.  Steven didn't like this so he put her in time-out.  I laughed pretty hard when I found this out.  :)
-Steven likes to put just about anything & everything in time-out these days.  He'll put his toys or his juice or even movies in time-out & sometimes will even set the same timer we use for his time-outs.  We don't even put him in time-out all that much (maybe once or twice a day on average) but it must be making an impact on him if he's putting other things in time-out.  ;)
-A week or two after Halloween Steven randomly started knocking on things (the door, the wall next to the bathtub) & saying "Treat!".  One night we were sitting at the table for dinner & Steven said, "Go bye-bye" & pointed to the door.  Josh opened the door for him & Steven walked right out into the hall.  Josh closed the door & watched him through the peep-hole.  Steven was talking & walking around the hall a bit.  After about a minute, Steven knocked on the door & said, "Treat!  Candy, please!"  Josh opened the door & said, "Yes?  Can I help you?" & Steven responded with "Treat!  Candy, please!"  I gave him a little cereal puff thing & he proceeded to go back outside.  He repeated this a few times before we finally had him stop.  It was so funny! :)

6 months

Sofia turned 6 months on the 28th (of October)! It's so crazy how fast the time has gone by. We just went to her 6-month well-child check up & she now weighs 14 lbs & is 26 1/2 inches long. She right about 40% for height & 10% for weight. What a shocker! She's going to be short & skinny, just like her brother ;) Here are some things she's started doing recently.

-She loves to roll over but generally only rolls from her back to her stomach & stays there. She'll prop herself up but hasn't quite figured out how to lift her stomach up off the ground.
-She can sit up! She's still a little wobbly, but usually she will stay sitting up just fine on her own. Yay! It's so fun when they start to sit up.
-She still has just her bottom two teeth & she doesn't seem like she's going to start teething any time soon.
-She's getting pretty good at eating solids. She still spits out the majority of it out so it takes quite a while to get it all in her but it's getting better!
-She is a super happy baby & loves to be around people. When I pick her up after not seeing her for a while, she'll get really excited & sometimes try to eat my face. ;)
-She sleeps through the night pretty well. She'll typically go to bed between 8 & 9 & then sleep until 5:30 or 6. Sometimes she'll wake up earlier than that, but that's usually because she's gotten cold. Whenever she wakes up, even if it's just because she's cold, she thinks it's time to eat.
-She loves her big brother & loves to play with him.

  Sofia sitting up

"Boo!  I scare you!"

I just love her face in this one :)

Sitting up but about to fall over

What a beautiful baby I've been blessed with :)

Steven & Sofia in Steven's bed before reading stories at bedtime

Occasionally, if she's hungry enough, Sofia will manage to hold on to her bottle to feed herself.  This comes in really handy around 6 pm when she's super hungry but I'm trying to fix dinner.

Steven & Ethan helping to feed Sofia :)

Family Pictures 2010

Last year we got family pictures & I loved them.  Unfortunately, the photographer raised her prices shortly after we got ours done & were a bit out of our price range right now.  I looked on KSL's classified section for photographers & found this year's photographer.  Check out his website here.  He was trying to expand his portfolio so he did our pictures for free!  Yay! 

I wanted fall colors so we went up to a place right near Brighton ski resort.  You might not be able to tell, but it was freezing!  I wish we could've gotten more poses & more locations, but it was cold & it was free, so all-in-all, I'm pretty happy with the outcome :)

It's hard to tell on the blog how funny this picture actually is.  I especially love Sofia's pose...Oh & the we'd ask Steven "where's the dinosaur/zebra" so he would smile but he would point at the toy instead of just smiling...

Steven was not too thrilled about staying in one spot or being a good sport about the pictures...but I think we still got some pretty cute ones :)

 I think this one's pretty funny

 The photographer had some toys & Steven was only really happy when he was holding them...hence toys in the next few pictures

 I LOVE this picture!  Sofia was such a good baby even though it was pretty dang cold

 :)

 The dinosaur & zebra were fighting...

 Too bad there are animals in this one...

A Higher Standard

I love food.  It's just a fact.  I also love baking.  Growing up, I baked cookies once in a while but now that I'm married & living in my own space, I seem to have an urge to bake way more often.  Not just cookies but eclairs or chocolate souffles or cookie salad, etc.  For a while after Sofia was born I felt like it was an almost all-consuming thing.  It was really frustrating because I felt like it was a really hard struggle to not eat sweets/ice cream, etc. all the time.  Fortunately, that intense kind of craving has subsided but I still struggle with trying to work out, eat right, spend time with my family, as well as the miriad of other things I have going on in my life.  For a little while about 2 months ago I decided to "give myself a break" & not worry about working out so much & just do it when I "had time".  I quickly realized that that wasn't really working for me.  A few weeks ago I'd got up to about 7 lbs heavier than the lowest point I'd gotten after having Sofia.  I realized that if I kept going with "giving myself a break" I could easily end up at the point where I was before having Steven.  I did not want that!  I made a new goal: 10 lbs by my birthday (November 22nd...feel free to buy my presents! ;) ).  I still don't know if I'll make that goal but I've realized something in the process.  I don't really ever remember a time when I'd set a weight loss goal & actually met it when I had planned to.  The only time I've had a lot of success when it comes to weight loss is after I've had my kids, & that wasn't because of anything I had done.  I also realized that that trend carried on into other parts of my life as well.  There are a lot of things (especially big plans) that I've said I was going to do but never did or finished.  I also started thinking about how awesome it would feel to complete a goal I'd set for myself by the time I wanted to finish by.  I really need to hold myself to a higher standard.  I shouldn't say I'm going to do something unless I'm actually going to do it.  With that being said, I don't know that I will realisticially be able to lose the 10 lbs total I had wanted to by my birthday but I am going to try my hardest!  (I still have 7 more lbs in 3 weeks... :-/ )  Yes, it's definitely hard to resist the urge to bake & eat lots of yummy food, especially around the Holidays.  And yes, it is hard to find the time to work out.  But I can definitely tell a difference in my mood & attitude when I work out & when I don't.  I really only have time to work out early in the morning (except on the weekends).  I've started to feel lazy if I sleep in until 6 or 6:30, let alone 7!  I especially love being able to work out on the treadmill.  I've taken to reading a good book while I work out & it makes it even that much more enjoyable.  The workout room in our complex is fairly nice & I've never seen anyone else in there, which makes it nice & quiet.  I just wish the hours weren't so lame...it's only open from 2-7 pm.  Anyway, I'm trying to do better & am very determined to do better with my goals!

Sofia 5-month pictures

Yes, yes, I know these are late.  I know that Sofia's going to be 6 months in a week...sorry but I hope you enjoy these anyway! ;)

Josh with Sofia :)

 Sofia & I

Sofia getting ready for her first solid food experience.  She was staring very intently at the box of rice cereal...

 Yes, the above picture is at a different time than this one.  I was alone when I took the above one & then I had Josh take some pictures of her actually eating

 She's so happy to be on her belly!  She loves to do push-ups, too ;)

 This is a toy to help strengthen a baby's neck.  Josh's mom got this for Steven but he didn't really enjoy it a ton.  Sofia likes it pretty well.

 Steven did really enjoy spinning her around, though...