May - June

This is going to be brief & mostly pictures. Enjoy!

Steven loves the game "Angry Birds" and was so excited to find Angry Bird fruit snacks!

Me, Ginelle, my mom. My mom came to visit for about 10 days at the end of April. This is the three of us at Women's Conference at BYU 

 At Women's Conference during the concert on Thursday night. During one of the songs they had people turn on these electric tea lights. It was soooo beautiful!

 My sister, Ginelle, has chickens! Sofia was checking them out during one visit

 Steven & Sofia both thought the chickens were awesome

 Sofia enjoying one of her first snow cones of the season

 Sofia making silly faces when she was playing in her pack-n-play

 Steven had to join the fun ;)

 Sofia swinging at the park. I think it was Memorial Day

On Memorial Day we took the kids to visit their angel cousins

 Steven & Sofia checking out the ducks at Wheeler Farm

 Checking out some of the animals

 Steven was helping me make strawberry jam

 I started out trying to have him mash them with a potato masher...that did not work too well

 ...so in the blender they went!

Steven loving the slide at the water park for the first time this summer

 They both love to swim!

 I realize now how cheesy this picture is, but it's at one of our new favorite restaurants downtown and they have the best butternut squash ravioli appetizer!

 Josh & I after dinner walking around City Creek Center

 The kids really liked to "paint" with water this summer. They also liked getting in the bowls...

 ...and water pitchers...

 Josh & I were a "ma & pa" on a mini-trek at This is the Place park with our stake this summer

 It was 95 degrees out but Sofia insisted on wearing her winter hat

My "before" picture

 My "after" shot

 My sister, Sammy, & I at her salon

Relaxing while getting pedicures

 Our awesome toes

 My favorite Ben & Jerry's ice cream! They don't sell it in Utah :(

 I went down to Arizona for Sammy's college graduation (Bachelor's degree). Here is her name in the booklet!

 Sammy on the jumbo-tron!

 L-R: Mike (Sammy's brother-in-law), Irwin Sr. (Sammy's father-in-law), Sammy, & Irwin (husband)

 Sammy & I

 

Favorite Pictures of Sofia (04/11 - 04/12)

It is amazing how much Sofia changed from between her birthday last year (2011) & her birthday this year (2012)! I forget how big of a difference a year is when they're toddlers until I look at these pictures.

From a young age, Sofia has been our artist and also our milk-aholic. She still colors a TON and carries her milk around with her wherever she goes.

 Sofia so excited to see the neighbor's cat

 July 2011; at a birthday brunch for Josh's younger brother

 Sofia as a lady bug for Halloween 2011

 Helping Daddy decorate the Christmas tree

 Steven, Josh, & Sofia during Christmastime

 Sofia modeling in her Christmas dress

 Steven & Sofia showing off their Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve 2011

 So excited to have her new chair!

Steven & Sofia. Love this picture!

 Modeling a hat her cousin, Lizzy, knit for her

 Playing with Daddy

 Like I said, she still colors on everything. This was after she had taken permanent marker and colored in most rooms of the house & herself

 Rockin' her shades

 Already in to make-up :-/

 Chuggin' apple juice

She loves to help with the dishes

 

 

Sofia's Birthday

Wow, it's been almost 5 months since her birthday, and I am just NOW posting about it. Must get better about blogging!

Sofia on her birthday helping me make her special breakfast. Notice her special birthday crown, too :)

 We made pink pancakes because she loves pink, of course!

 Getting ready to blow out her breakfast candle. Love this picture!

 She loves strawberries and whipped cream (just like her Mommy).

 Steven wanted to get in on the fun, too.

 Two (now three) of Sofia's cousins were born the day after she was (and the third cousin was born within a week of her birth day), so we decided to do a triple birthday party this year. I volunteered to make the cakes. Here they are lined up waiting to be decorated.

 The finished products. Nothing too fancy, but very tasty. I am pretty picky about frosting, so I'd rather have a cake that may look simple but tastes better than have a cake with a frosting that I won't eat. It was fun making these, though!

 The bouncehouse we rented for the party

 The three birthday kids

 She just dug right in

 Enjoying her ice cream. It was so funny to watch her lick her ice cream cone. She did it very slowly and thoroughly (as the next pictures show)

Bringing her tongue back into her mouth slowly

 

Just a cute picture



 

The cupcakes I made for the adults

The finished product. Not super fancy looking but they were good! The pink frosting is a fluffy strawberry one and then it's dipped in chocolate. So good!

The original recipe for cupcakes (and much better pictures) can be found here. This blog is my go-to blog now if I'm looking for a good recipe. Everything I've made off of there has been great and many of the recipes have now become staples at our house.

Easter

This year for Holidays I have been trying to make them more special. Some attempts are more successful than others. Here are pictures from the week or so before Easter.

Every year our condo association puts on a Easter egg hunt. It's pretty fun for the kids. The eggs are empty inside but everyone gets a bag of candy and a toy at the end. Like last year, it was pretty cold this year, but still fun.

Steven, Sofia & I in front of the blow-up bunny.

 

The next few pictures are from ideas that I got off of Pinterest (yes, I AM addicted to that website, just like everyone else ;) )

This is of an Easter egg hunt that we did for Family Home Evening one night. There were 12 eggs (I think) and each had something inside that represented something about the meaning behind Easter (the Atonement, Resurrection, etc.). I don't think the kids really got much out of it, but it'll definitely be a repeat for us.

I only have this picture, none of the stuff inside the eggs.

Another day we did an Easter egg hunt for the kids lunches. I thought it was a really cute idea and the kids really enjoyed finding all the eggs. Plus, their lunches are never this "extravagant" so that was fun for them, too.

Steven looking for his eggs

Sofia finding her eggs

Checking out what's inside

Ahh! She's getting so big! When did this happen??

Another thing we did was color some Easter eggs to put on our door

Not shown here: the Easter egg hunt we did at my in-laws. I don't know why I didn't get any pictures, but they had a blast at that one, too! :)