funny video

our daughter is just a little bit of a goofy girl...and likes to be in the spotlight!

Christmas

With so many pictures to choose from over the past week of celebrating Christmas twice, I decided to make a slideshow to show off some of our favorites. If you want, you can click on it to see the slideshow larger as well. Enjoy!

what happened?

We still can't figure out how this happened. One minute she was playing with a dish towel, the next her arm is out of her pajamas. It was the funniest thing. We laughed for quite a while!

15 months old

Sophie had her 15 month check up the other day. She had her final immunizations until kindergarten! For those who are interested, here are her stats... 23.5 pounds (60th percentile) and 32 inches (91st percentile). Tall & skinny just like her dad!

decorating the tree

Sophie was very much into helping us put the ornaments on the tree. It was so cute and fun to watch. And, she's pretty much ignored the tree since, which is great for us! We realized how different it is decorating a tree with having a little one around. All of our breakable/glass ornaments are all on the top half of the tree, but we think it turned out ok still!

O Christmas tree...

We finally went out and got ourselves a Christmas tree. We had the grand idea of continuing our tradition of going to cut one down, but time (and the very cold weather) just didn't allow it. We found one we liked though and now our starting to really feel in the Christmas spirit! Here are a couple of pictures of our adventure.

fun times

just a glimpse of our life with a very goofy one year old!

saying goodbye

Death is hard. Over the past couple of days, we have grieved with Matt and his family. Many, many tears have been shed through the visitation, burial, and memorial service. If only we could help ease their pain... This time has been hard but it has also brought us closer as friends to one another as we lean on each other to grieve our loss of Carleton personally, but also I think we feel closer to Matt. He allowed us to be a part of this extremely difficult time with him. And for me personally, I had the honor of speaking at his father's funeral. Knowing that Matt (and his family) trusted and believed that I could say the right things to honor this incredible man that they lost meant more to me than they will probably ever know. And now as life continues to move on, we will all miss Carleton and we will continue to do whatever we can to be the friends we need to be.

it is a sad day. today we all lost carleton peterson, after a three year fight against cancer. he was an incredible man of God that has influenced and helped so many people, us included. he has an amazing family that is so open and loving, which we have witnessed and hope to grow in our own family. we have had the privilege of knowing him for many years, and have had his incredible guidance during our annual friends retreat. it's just not possible to explain all the ways he and his family have impacted our lives here, so we'll just leave it as he will be incredibly missed and remembered by a lot of people. peace.
mike

friends retreat

this past weekend almost 30 of us headed up to Covenant Pines for our annual friends retreat. It's a great time to get away from our busy lives and reconnect with those who are closest to us. Each year brings a slightly different group of people which makes each retreat unique. It was also a different experience having an active 1 year old to take care of but there were plenty of people willing to play with Sophie, read her books, and just make her laugh. It was fun to see that our little girl is loved by so many. Sophie was great this weekend. Even being surrounded by people constantly and being in new surroundings, she hardly stopped smiling the entire weekend. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

she was really scared of the drum at first but she quickly learned it was pretty fun to play!


guitar lessons from uncle matt


we got about 10 inches of snow while we were up there...Sophie's a little scared of it but she did great walking in it!


had to have a picture to show how deep it was!


yep, that's our cute little marshmallow!


bedtime story with uncle matt & sarah


helping clean up before we left...she of course was incredibly helpful (:

While this was a fun weekend, it also had a sadness surrounding it. For the past 3 years our friend's dad has joined us to help facilitate our weekend. He asked us hard questions, he cared for us, and genuinely wanted to know how we were doing. Unfortunately he was unable to make it this weekend as his health is failing. And while we were all saddened by the knowledge that he will probably not be with us much longer, it was also amazing to hear how much he has influenced us all. We also missed our friends Matt, Chad & Heather and their daughter as they stayed home to be with their family during this time. Please keep this incredible family in your prayers.

thanksgiving with family

This year we drove down to KC to spend the long weekend with my family. We had a great time hanging out and having Sophie entertain us. It's getting to be a long drive at this age...we might have to look into flying for awhile! She's a trooper though, we really can't complain. On the way home, we were able to stop and visit Mike's grandma. It was a great weekend, but we're sure tired today!

Sophie being silly after Thanksgiving dinner

we decided we should take pictures of ourselves every once in awhile

bedtime stories

trying to entertain Sophie while we waited for a table for lunch one day

Becca and my adorable grandpa!

We were able to visit my friend Kylene and her family. It was fun to watch the 3 girls playing and thinking about how we couldn't have imagined this moment growing up together but we sure talked about it a lot! This is Molly and Sophie hugging. Molly was very nurturing towards Sophie. It was adorable.

in the car on the way home...we just had to document that there actually were a few smiles along the way (and yes, she is smiling behind her nuk!)
showing off for her great-grandma

another 4 generation picture!

thanksgiving with friends

Inspired by our first Thanksgiving together after we were married where we went to California to visit my friend Kylene and her husband, Eric, we decided to host a "friends Thanksgiving dinner." We've talked about how fun it would be to spend a holiday with our friends, but everyone is with their families (of course). So we finally realized we can still celebrate a holiday even if it's not on the exact day (duh!). Anyway, we crammed 13 of our closest friends into our house and enjoyed a great meal (thanks everyone for bringing food!) and lots of great conversation. It was a much needed time with some pretty amazing people.

we don't have enough of anything for 15 people so everything is a hodge-podge of stuff, but we like how it turned out

Kevin and Mike carving the turkey (I forgot to get a picture of all the guys outside watching the football game while the turkey was in the deep fryer...it was quite the sight!)

Mike, Jed, Kevin, Kari

everyone else...Janna, Mandy, DeNae, Sarah, Matt, Bryan, Greg, MK, Brent, Karna

yes, that's a big bowl of mashed potatoes, which if you know me, you know I LOVE, so it's fitting that it's in the picture with us

Sophie slept through most of the meal, so this is the only picture I have with her in it, with her auntie Janna

gymboree time

Yesterday, Sophie and I went to a gymboree time at our nearby community center along with Lisa and her 2 girls, Ava and Lauren. Lauren's too young yet, but Ava and Sophie had a blast.

this has to be one of my new favorite pictures

snack time

making her daddy proud...it's close to a broomball stick!

I LOVE THIS ONE! We hope Ava, Lauren, and Sophie will all be friends...this makes it look like we're well on our way!

getting her jumping exercise time in

big girl

we still have trouble believing Sophie can pretty much eat everything we eat now, especially since she has most of her teeth and her first 4 molars. So here are a couple of pictures of her eating a pb&j sandwich for lunch and the last one shows the mess she made feeding herself yogurt at dinner.

Homecoming weekend

This weekend was homecoming at the U. Saturday we took Sophie to the parade on campus and then we went to the football game that night (which was so bad we left at halftime). Tonight, Sophie and I went to the Gopher women's basketball game with Oma. Sophie did great and loved watching the band and was always on the lookout for Goldy. She actually watched some of the game! She even picked up a new skill (see last picture).

pre-parade

post-parade

enjoying the goodies she got at the parade

watching the women play basketball

telling oma about the band

and, finally, her new skill...picking her nose. we couldn't be prouder.

trip to KC

I had a week off from school this past week, so Sophie and I made a road trip down to KC to visit my family. Traveling for 8 hours with a 1 year old by yourself is a little tough, but we made it through. We've been pretty intentional about not letting Sophie watch tv, but I unashamedly admit that I was saved by a portable DVD player and a couple of movies! We had a busy time, so there are quite a few pictures. I had trouble picking and choosing, but here are some of the highlights...

watching a movie in the car...I just loved how her legs were crossed!

at a rest stop somewhere in northern Iowa

carrying her bucket of balls at the children's museum we went to
(doesn't she look old in this picture?!)

goofing around with aunt becca at the museum

at the cider mill where we always went as kids

cleaning out the pumpkin that aunt becca and brian picked out for her
don't be fooled...she didn't like the pumpkin guts very much

at the deanna rose farmstead (a free outdoor activity...very cool!)
sophie loved this bridge...we actually had to drag her away from it

who could pass this photo-op up?

sitting on an old-fashioned tractor at the farm

visiting my grandpa...the 4 generation picture with my grandpa, mom, me, and sophie

sophie LOVED kisses from my grandpa

family pic...we tried to get one with jenny (my grandpa's wife),
but sophie was done with pictures after this!
hanging out on my dad's tractor before we left