Sydney - Blessiing Day

This is LONG overdue. We blessed Sydney on the 27th and were thrilled that about 20 of our closest friends and family joined us for a wonderful day! Simon gave Sydney a beautiful blessing that will be treasured forever. She wore the same gown that Sofia wore at her blessing last year. Thanks mom (GiGi) for giving us such a priceless gift! Also, thanks to mom, dad, and Dee-Dee for making and bringing dinner and dessert to our house for everyone to enjoy. Everything was delicious and beautiful. Here are some pictures from the day: (Thank you Sitterud family for sending the beautiful bracelet for Sydney to wear-pictured above. We really felt as though you all were with us!) More pictures to come...

Lessons from Sofi

As mentioned below, Sofia gets REALLY excited when she accomplishes a task, like putting a puzzle together, saying a hard word, etc. One day, Sofi and I were on the floor working on a puzzle. She was trying to figure out which places to put the different shapes (circle, triangle, square, etc.). Each time she got one right, I would clap and say, "YAY"! She would get so excited at the praise and would look up to make sure that Simon was watching. He would then join in on the praise and she would get more excited. She is most definitely a daddy's girl and loves Simon so much. And it makes her ecstatic to see him praise her! Now, we see her ecstatically happy everyday...

I've learned a great lesson from this experience. Although Heavenly Father's love is a free gift to each of us, how wonderful it would be if I took each moment to "get it right". Just as Sofi sought the praise of her earthly father, I await the day that we will receive our own praise from our Heavenly Father as he welcomes us with open arms.

Sofia - 16 Months

Sofia is now 16 months and boy have we entered the world of toddlerhood! She now weighs 21 lbs. and has quite the vocabulary. She understands more than she can say and it's sometimes frustrating for her, hence the "whining". The funniest is that she can repeat anything we say. I guess we are going to have to be careful :). She can say: thank you, amen, juice, up, down, dog, bear, book, no, baby, momma, mom, daddy, etc.
Here are some things that we love about Sofi:
-Has 14 teeth (8 up to and 6 on the bottom). Her top molars just came all the way through...
-LOVES her baby sister (gives her hugs and kisses)
-Loves to give Simon and I hugs and kisses
-Gets excited when she learns something
-Still loves the library and story time
-Is an entertainer
-Loves clothes
-Waves and says "hello" to everyone
-Loves her extended family very much
-Loves her Dora videos
-Loves to play with other children
-Loves to play outside and waits like a little puppy by the front door for us to take her out to play :)
We recently took Sofi to a place, with our church playgroup, called Jump Zone. It's filled with inside inflatables. She had a blast (while Sydney slept the entire time) jumping and sliding. We learned something new about her this month. Although she is adventerous, she likes us to do new things with us so that we can show her how to do them. Once she is shown something, she wants to explore on her own! It's very cute...Here are some pictures from Jump Zone:

(this was the biggest slide EVER and Sofi handled it like a pro...)

Thank You

Thank you everyone for your support and love! We appreciate the calls, cards, dinners, hugs, listening ears, and most of all, your friendships! What a treasured gift we have been given, friendship! It's hard, losing a sister! But we know that she is now resting in the arms of the Savior.
Love you all!