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!

Want to Take a Tour?

So now that we are mostly moved in we thought it would be fun to give you a tour of the place. I still have not decorated our home yet but that will come in time… we have only lived here a month and you all know that is not enough time to decorate :) So for now sit back, relax, and enjoy this virtual tour of our new home


Living Room: This is the first time since Stewart and I have been married that people don't walk in to our house through the kitchen... we are loving that!


Kitchen: We have lots more counter space in this kitchen, I LOVE THAT! Our oven and stove are gas, and as you can see they are a bit old fashioned. I am just now getting the hang of how to cook with gas... I think I may be hooked by the time we leave.

Garage: We have a GARAGE! I enjoy not having to go very far to unload our car after a shopping trip, also if you look on the other side of our car you will see a golf cart. Yep a golf cart that we drive around the yard sometimes just because we can. Anyone who wants a FREE golf cart ride come visit!

Dinning Room:

Deck: Just off the dinning room is our deck, we have enjoyed having a deck so far, it has come in handy for me to sun Sophie's diapers, enjoy the morning sunrises, and much more. Below is the view from our deck looking at our yard.

Hallway:

Craft Room/Study: Now depending on who you ask this will be a craft room or a study, can you tell whose tittle for the room is whose? Yes it looks a little crowded and it is, but we are enjoying having our own space.

Sophie's Room: Sophie now has her own room! Our land lords left this nice recliner for us to use, so we put it in Sophie's room... I love having a chair in here to rock her to sleep with, plus it is the perfect size too. We also have an extra bed in here for guests, or eventually it will be Sophie's bed... yes that is the same bed we used as a couch for the first 3 years of our marriage, we have gotten some great use out of it.

Master Bedroom: Check out this lovely wall paper! They repainted the whole up stairs except for this room, i think they ran out of steam to finish this room. Our land lord gave us permission to repaint and I plan on it as long as he pays for the supplies. Also check out the closet doors... they are more like accordion style screens that you magnet together in the middle (way out of date).

Bathroom: We love the little chair here, and the light on the mirror make you feel like you are a movie stair. So far when we have friends over this is where their kids end up to entertain themselves.

Basement: So this is our basement, in the first two pictures you can see a clothes line. Yep we have a working clothes line in our basement, i have never seen one of those until now. We also have a fun bar, and an A-Track player... that still works. We decided to put an extra bed the land lords left down here so that we would have a place for guests to stay if needed. Also in the basement is our laundry and more storage. Stewart hopes to use some of this space as a work bench for some of his projects, and Sophie likes to practice walking in her walker down her since there is so much unused space. One thing is for sure this is a great party place, and we hope to have a few parties down here before we leave.

The curtains and the wall behind the bar match!

Well this concludes our tour, we hope you liked it. We feel so blessed to have found this great place to live, and for cheaper then what we were paying in our last place. So now that you have all seen it via the web, you should come and see it in person... hint hint!

P.S. Blogger has a mind of it's own... no matter how many times I have closed all the gaps and deleted the spacing between the pictures they always come back. Sorry :)

Sophie 8 Months old

Our little baby girl is growing up fast! I now understand why my dad always joked about trying to find the stop button when we were growing up. I am amazed at how much Sophie changes daily, she is learning so much. I put her on the scale the other day because it felt like she was heavier, she now weighs 15 pounds, that’s a big jump since has been sitting at 14 pounds for a few months now.

AT EIGHT MONTHS OLD

Sophie has learned to (or rather started the process of) crawling. She gets caught up in her legs most of the time but she has started to be a little more mobile. She is also getting pretty good at scooting around on her rear-end while sitting up.

She still has only two teeth

She is getting really good at copying us with sounds we make. Stewart taught her to stick her tongue out and blow, smack her lips together, and make a squeaky noise after he does it. It is kind of funny for now, although one day it may become annoying.

She loves it when Stewart and I turn on the music and start to dance around with her.

She is a lot like her mom in the fact that we both love to look at ourselves in the mirror a lot.

Sophie is learning to eat better, she loves to eat an apple slice and use her bottom teeth to shave off small pieces. The apple slice to me takes on a characteristic of an apple being nibbled on by a mouse.

She is such a happy baby hardly ever crying unless she is tired. She wears a smile a majority of the time.

When she wakes up she does not cry out for us to come get her, she just starts kicking and talking to herself until we poke our head in to see if she is awake.

She loves to help me make dinner, often I will put her on the counter with me when I am cooking and she loves to help me put some of the ingredients in. She is lots of fun to bake with when there is flour involved.

She still loves people although she is getting kind of clingy and won’t go to people as often as she did before.

She has big blue eyes that sparkle, when we are out in the community several people stop and talk with her always commenting on her blue eyes. I have had several people tell me she is a “doll baby” I don’t know quite what that means, although it is said as a complement.

I took some fun 8 month pictures of Sophie on our back steps in our new home, she was so fun to photograph as she knows what the camera is and loves to pose for the picture. She is such a little ham and we love her to pieces, we have been richly blessed by having her in our family.

Sophie crawling for the first time on June 17, 2011

Making Peach Cobbler for Stewart on Fathers day

Eight Months Photos

(this face is becoming one of her favorite smiles to use when we take pictures)

MAY

I am not going to give you all the details of the month of May in our lives but I will give you the highlights so you know that we are still alive and what we have been up to.

The big thing that happened in may for Sophie and I was our trip to Idaho to visit our families. Sophie did great flying both coming and going, I have jokingly told people that she is a saint and needs her own holiday and a statue. She made lots of friends on the plane; we had a lot of fun. Stewart and I were standing around the baggage claim waiting for our luggage when we flew back, he was surprised at how many random people from our flight came up and said goodbye to Sophie. If I have not already said this, I will now: this little girl makes friends wherever we go.

Our time in Idaho was short, but long at the same time. We both missed Stewart and wished he could be with us, but he stayed behind to study for his board exam he had coming up. We spent most of our time in Bruneau, since my parents bought our plane ticket as a birthday gift to themselves. But we did take a trip to Rexburg to visit Stewart’s parents, since we were so close.

One of the first things we did as a family was go to the Boise Idaho temple; it was nice of my Aunt Wendy to take care of Sophie for me so we could all go. This was the first time all six (Dad, Mom, Katie, Becky, Margie, and Emily) of us were able to be in the temple together. We have all been endowed but because someone in the family was always on a mission or one of us moved across the country we have not all been to together in 4 years and have never all been inside the temple to do an endowment session before now. It was a neat experience and I am grateful we were able to do it.

Sophie loved the farm life; we visited the baby cows, drove the car, played with Rupert, and of course played with Grandpa/ma and her aunts. We even visited my Grandma Hegerhorst, and borrowed her dentures for a minute, before grandma took them back.

Sophie with Great Grandma Hegerhorst

Sophie and her Grandpa Hegerhorst

Sophie and that baby cow

Sophie driving on the farm with her Grandma Hegerhorst

Video of Sophie Driving

Sophie and Rupert, she always had to be at his side when he was around.

Sophie with mom and her Aunts: Margie, Emily, & Katie

Sophie having fun with her Grandpa Hegerhorst

Like I mentioned earlier we took a quick trip to Rexburg so Sophie could meet her grandparents, aunts and uncles on Stewart’s side of the family and of course her ONLY cousin, Blaz. We both had a great time visiting. Sophie loved playing the piano with Uncle Alex, those two together made some great music. She also enjoyed meeting Blaz, and playing with him as long as he did not invade her personal space to much.

We also took a trip to Pocatello to have a BBQ at the Hudson’s (Sophie’s Great Grandparents… Stewart’s Grandma/pa). While we were there it just so happened that the stars all aligned and all four of the Hudson’s great grand kids were there. We tried to get a good picture of all of them, but not everyone wanted to take a picture. Sophie was happy about the idea, until some of the others started to cry and then she started to cry as well, funny how kids can influence each other. While we were there Sophie also got to meet her Great Grandma North and her Great Aunt Barbara. We were glad so many came to meet Sophie and that Sophie for the most part took to all of them rather well. She met a lot of new people while we were in Idaho and I personally think she did amazing!

Uncle Alex teaching Sophie how to tickle the ivories


This is for posterity sake same ball two different people in the pictures

Aunt Camille with Sophie, and Blaz (Blaz is Sophie's only Cousin for the time being.)






Blaz and Sophie playing together


Uncle Alex with Sophie and Blaz putting on a concert for us

Sophie with her Great Grandma North

Sophie with her Grandpa and Grandma North

Sophie with her Great Grandpa/ma Hudson and all their great grand kids. Olivia, Sophie, Blaz, & Kylee

Okay, I believe that I all I have to say about the Month of May, besides our trip to Idaho Sophie and I came home and continued our packing project so we could move in June. See ya!