September Stuff

September seemed to fly by extra fast for us, and now October is doing the same thing. I want to blog about the birthday party we had in honor of Sophie turning one but I can’t do that until I tell you what happened in September. So here goes:

At the beginning of the month I noticed our grapes were ready to harvest so Sophie and I went out to the grape vine and picked the grapes. Sophie mostly played on the grass or ate the grass, honestly I was not paying that much attention to her; she was having fun and was in no danger so I was content to let her be. Stewart was home from work/school that day with crohns related sickness. He came to visit us when he got to feeling better and played with Sophie while I finished up picking the grapes. After we picked the grapes we all went up to the deck and plucked the grapes off the vine so I could turn them into grape juice/jelly. It was a long day of grapes but the end result was yummy. Stewart loves the grape juice which makes me wish I would have made less jelly and more juice. Sophie was a big helper; she sat in the sink while I was washing the grapes and made sure I did a good job. She also loved helping us pick them off the vines, she kept wanting to step in the bowl and make grape juice the old fashioned way. I had a fun time getting her clothes stain free when we were done.

September 10th, we did our first family 5K here in Beckley through the YMCA. When we woke up it was foggy, but the weather was perfect for a 5k and we really enjoyed ourselves. I have grown to love the fog that lingers here in the mornings, the pictures do not do it justice, it really is beautiful. Because Sophie has out grown her baby Bjorn we decided it was time to shop around and find a baby backpack to use when we go hiking. We asked around to see if anyone knew of a good brand or had one they wanted to give us; in the end we found a really nice one on super clearance for a good price. Stewart and I both took turns carrying Sophie in the backpack, and Sophie had a great time. We got a lot of comments about how cute Sophie was, and a lot of people wishing they could have a ride too. We made good time, and Stewart even got a trophy for coming in 2nd place in the male division of 5K walk.

After the 5K we went to a parade the city of Beckley was hosting in uptown. The parade was fun; one thing I have noticed about West Virginia is that they have a lot of beauty pageants. Stewart and I counted 15 plus floats with pageant winners. I think our favorite part was the bagpipers, they had Sophie mesmerized. The parade only lasted 20 minutes which was nice because Stewart and I were tuckered out from our 3 mile walk. So after the parade we went home and relaxed the rest of the day.

September 14 thru the 19th Stewart had two weeks off of school so he took a trip to Idaho to see his family since he had not been home in over a year (He was only gone for 5 days). Sophie and I stayed in West Virginia to hold down the fort while he was away. From what Stewart tells me he had a great time visiting family, friends, and most of all meeting our brand new nephew that was born a few weeks before Stewart arrived. While Stewart was gone Sophie and I made good use of our time. We played with finger paints, went for walks, went to a ward fall festival, and cleaned the church since it was our week to do so. To be honest I was super busy during the time Stewart was gone, I hardly had a chance to miss him. We were suppose to pick him up from the airport on the 19th at 10:30pm but Stewart's plane was delayed in Salt Lake which meant he missed his connecting flight in Atlanta and had to spend the night there. We ended up picking him up the next morning (Sept. 20th) at 10:30am. We were glad to have him home for the rest of his vacation time.

During Stewart’s time off we decided to go mini golfing as a family. We went during the day and ended up being the only ones there playing. We enjoyed that because it meant we could take our time and Sophie could crawl around and not be in anyone’s way but ours. We also learned that Sophie could climb stairs, something we did not know she could do until then. We had a fun time until Stewart’s crohns got the best of him and made us quit early. We ended on hole 13 with me at 48 and Stewart at 49, I won!

I think those are the highlights from our September, the rest of the month was spent doing things here at home. Stewart and Sophie played a lot of dolls together while I got dinners ready or did the dishes. We love being together as a family, and enjoy every moment we get. It is hard to believe the year is practically over; we still have so much we want to do before 2012 comes along, so I guess we better get to it. Cheers!

All About Sophie

I realize that I have not posted a lot this year, and now September is nearly over and I have not said one word about what we have been up to this month, but with all that going through my mind I have decided that this post will be all about Sophie. She has had a lot of fun this summer and has grown up so fast; it is hard to believe that she turns one in a few days.

Early on when we moved to Beckley we bought this kiddy pool for Sophie to use. She loves water and had a blast swimming in her pool out on our deck.







I decided that one day I would fill up a cookie sheet with water so she could splash her hands in the water. I had some things I needed to do in the kitchen and this idea seemed like a brilliant plan to entertain Sophie and help me. I had to laugh when I looked up to check on her, she had decided that splashing her hands in the water was not enough but that she had to sit in it as well. She thought she was so clever.





She loves to read books. We have a basket with some of her books in it, she loves to pull the basket out and climb inside to read her books. She jibbers to herself and turns the pages one by one, I think it is so adorable.




We were given this little green car that can fold up into a walker to help Sophie learn to walk. It has actually come in very handy. Sophie loves the car feature, Stewart and I take turns pushing her up and down our hallway as fast as we can. She would not mind if we did this activity all day long she loves it that much. I finally got smart and tied a string to the front handle bars so that I can pull her around instead of having to bend over and push her, this arrangement is much nicer for both Stewart and I. Here is a video that I took of Stewart pushing Sophie; sorry about the bad video taking skills you will have to turn your head or your screen to view it properly.

Sophie loves to help me cook in the kitchen. She loves it when I sit her on the counter so she can watch what I am doing. As she has gotten older, watching has become less of a hobby to her; she would rather help me instead. My wonderful sister in-law made this apron for Sophie and it has come in so handy we use it all the time. Here are some pictures of Sophie helping me make her daddy some biscuits.

About once a day we take Sophie’s green car/walker and go outside (if it is good weather) and practice walking around in the driveway. Sophie is getting super good at walking with her walker. Her she is strutting her stuff.

On September 23, Sophie took two small shuffle baby steps. We knew at that point it would not be long before she takes her real first steps. On September 28th Sophie took her first real steps, I am glad I had the camera out to document this major achievement for her. When Stewart got home from school that night we tried to get her to do it for him but she was not in the mood. Good thing for Stewart and all of you that I got it on camera.

More facts about Sophie

She says hi, hello, dada and sometimes mama. “Hi” is her first word, with dada a close second. She knows the word dada but not the meaning behind it, everything is dada. Sometimes when I point to myself and say “mama” she points to herself and says “dada”.

She has 6 teeth

She loves people, everyone out here says she is a “doll baby”; she will wave to most everyone we see.

She loves to give us hugs and kisses, and has even learned to blow us kisses.

She weighs 15ish pounds; she is a small little girl.

She can climb up stairs

She also knows a handful of signs she uses to communicate with us. She is a smarty pants, she catches on to new things fast.

She loves to play with her stuffed animals or dolls. I love to listen to her jibber to her dolls or watch her play with her dolls when she thinks no one is watching her. She always makes sure her toys know they are loved, because she kisses them often.

She loves to play hide and seek with Stewart and I, one of us will go hide with Sophie while the other counts. Sophie gets so excited when we play that she most often gives herself away by squealing or coming out of hiding. We have learned it is better to have her “find” rather then “hide”.

She just finished reading the Book of Mormon. I have been reading aloud to her everyday from the Book of Mormon since day one, we just finished it on Sept. 25th, a week ahead of schedule.


Well there you have it, a post all about our loveable Sophie. I will post more about her soon since she is having a birthday on Saturday. We are going to have a party the week after since this weekend is General Conference. It is hard to believe that it has been a whole year since Sophie joined us, time is moving to fast; it seems like just yesterday she made her début.

August was a Blur

August came and went in a Blur. I think I spent most of the month in the kitchen cooking, washing dishes or canning. I have been lucky enough to find great deals on produce or have had some produce handed to me so that I could build our food storage up. I am learning that even though it is hard work to can food I am grateful that I know how to do it and most of all so proud of the end result. This year I have canned: blueberry syrup, blueberry pie filling, peaches, peach pie filling, peach jam, grape juice, grape jelly, homemade salsa, and applesauce (I will be caning this next week). I am extra proud of myself since half of the things I have canned I had to teach myself how to do it.

At the beginning of August Stewart and I got a membership at the local YMCA, we have since been swimming together as a family a few times a week. Sophie loves the water and enjoys splashing around. One of us will play with Sophie while the other swims laps. I have been meaning to bring my camera and take pictures of Sophie in the water but it has not happened yet.

Since we have moved to Beckley, Stewart and I have met some wonderful people. We enjoy our new ward and feel so at home with the members here. I mentioned to Stewart it is nice to be in a ward where we are not just another medical student but we are finally individuals. I love it! We were able to go visit the farm of one of our bishopric members. They live about 50 minutes from our house on a narrow windy road. They only live about 30 miles from us, but since the roads are windy it takes longer. When we got there I was a little carsick but I shook it off, and had a great time. Their home sits in a quite little hollow (or holler if you’re West Virginian). They have 4 goats, a horse, 2 beef cows, chickens, 2 bee hives, 2 dogs, a cat, and lots of wildlife including black bears. Sophie loved the animals, she really likes wildlife. We wish there was a zoo nearby so she could see more animals. Anyway we had a fantastic time, they told me us we could come back so I could ride their horse and Stewart could go target shooting.

Sophie was not to found of the horse, I think he was a little too big for her

Speaking of new wards, with new wards comes new opportunities to serve in the church. We moved here in June and in August we finally got a calling. Stewart is now the Ward Mission Leader and I am the Young Women Leader. Both are fairly demanding callings, but we are both excited to serve.

At the end of the month the town of Beckley had a children’s fair one of the events took place at a near by lake called Lake Stephens. Being the adventuresome people we are we decided to take Sophie and visit the lake. We thought there would be more to do but to be honest the fair was lame, so we took a walk down to the lake to play in the sand. If we would have planned better we would have thought to bring our swimsuits. Sophie loved the water, but disliked the sand a lot. We had a fun time together as a family enjoying the last real day of summer.

Sophie did not like the feel of the sand on her toes

Well there you have it, our August happenings. Hugs!

July Happened

Ok so I know that I am a little late with this post now that August is over, but I lost track of time during the month. I had this post started at the beginning of the month and I am sad to say that I did not take the time to finish it until just today. Any who here is the down low on July.

We started off the month of July off by a Sunday drive to Fayette County to the New River George Bridge. This bridge is longest, single-span steel arch bridge in the western hemisphere, (info barrowed from their website). There is one day set aside out of year for people to jump off the bridge; it is called Bridge Day, they close the bridge to all traffic and let people jump or just watch. Anyway we decided to take a family drive and go look the bridge first hand. It is beautiful and I am sure took a lot of work to build.

On the 4th of July we took a family hike to a nearby overlook in a town called Grandview (no joke). There are lots of hiking trails and beautiful overlooks of the famous New River, or “The Gauley River” that people like to White Water Raft. From what I understand this river is one of the premier white water rafting places in the world. Anyway, we decided to go for a hike around lunch time so we could picnic at the over look. It was a beautiful day to go for a hike and to celebrate our independence.

A funny story, on our way home from our hike there was a small country store near the exit that sold garden seeds and plants. I wanted to start an herb garden our on our deck to spice up our meals, so we stopped by to see what they had. When we walked in the store no one was there, so we just walked around looking at the stuff they had available. They did not have what we were looking for so we decided to leave, just was we were walking out this big round man with overalls on came up to us and asked us if he could help (he owned the place), Stewart told him we wanted to start and herb garden. To which he replied strait faced “what like a Marijuana”… we both looked at each other and then back at him, our face must have said it all because he quickly said “just kidding”. He was not joking, we are both positive he would have sold us marijuana plant if we were serious. Guess we will just add this story to our West Virginia experience.

This spot was a natural AC, it had cool air coming up thru the rocks.

We have many July evenings at the park with Sophie, she loves to swing and we love to hear her giggle as we push her back and froth of the swings. We went to the park across from our church building one night; there was no one there which was nice. We let Sophie swing, we took her down the slide a few times, and let her experience all the other toys they had. It was a fun evening together as a family. We also went to nearby pond located at the back of a cemetery to feed the geese. Sophie loves animals and really enjoyed seeing the geese swim around the pond.

One thing about West Virginia is there are lots of “You Pick Farms” that let you come out and pick your own produce. We went Blueberry picking as a family with some friends from our new ward. I decided after freezing a bunch of them to attempt to make blueberry pie filling and syrup. Both turned out fantastic! I ended up freezing the pie filling and canning the syrup.

We have been enjoying the harvest of our garden. So far we have blanched and froze lots of green beans, and have been eating lots of fresh zucchini and lettuce from our garden. It is fun to make meals with the produce you planted and are now harvesting; I think it makes the meal twice as good.

Well that sums up our month for July. Stewart is enjoying his family medicine rotations. He really loves being out of the classroom and in the doctor office to do some hands on training. Sophie and I are doing great here and are making lots of new friends. Ciao!