Angel

Sophie is a sweetheart.  Period.  She truly is a little angel.  Not to say that she doesn't have her moments.  When she's hungry she doesn't just sit back and passively wait to be offered something to eat.  Oh no!  She lets her need be known!  And for that I"m grateful!  But she really is so sweet!  She smiles at everyone; she'll make your day if you're feeling lonely, I promise.  Just give her some attention.  If you make eye contact and smile at her, she'll smile right back at you.  I love this about her!  But lately I've noticed how much she adores her big sister.  She could watch Lydia for hours and hours.  In fact, if you ask Sophie, Lydia may as well be a comedian!  She loves to laugh when she watches Lyds.  She loves to be near her.  I could be wrong, but I like to think that Sophie has looked forward to coming to earth and being Lydia's little sister and I like to imagine that she looks up to her so much already.  I wish that I knew what Sophie was thinking.  I'm pretty sure the veil is thin when these precious little ones arrive and I'd love to find out what they know!  Obviously that's not possible, so I'll just enjoy the sweet relationship these little girls have at this point and hope that they want to be each others best friend!

Little Doll

So I've been thinking of all the cute and funny things that Lydia says, and I'm not sure that I can remember all of them... but yesterday Abby asked Lyds what her name is.  She paused.  Looked thoughtful, I'm sure.  And finally said, "Listen! (Maleficent) Mean!"  I'm not quite sure what this fascination with evil cartoon characters is, but she certainly is intrigued by them!  I know that she knows her name is not Maleficent.  Pretty sure, anyway. ;)

She asks to "carry you" all the time.  One of these days she'll understand the difference between YOU and ME.  And maybe if I actually let her carry me she'll stop saying it!  I kind of really love it though.  One day she"ll figure out those tricky pronouns!

A few weeks ago she climbed up on one of our bar stools.  She labored fairly intensely to make it to the top and when she got there she gasped, "I made it!"  So triumphant!  I can't wait to see her run in her first race, provided that's something she decides she's interested in.  And I hope she is!  I'd love to cheer her on!  It's no longer difficult for her to get on the bar stool, in fact, she climbs right up on the counter and starts "cleaning" everything with the scrubbing brush.  Everything from the counter top and faucet to her feet and any of her animal's feet too!

Probably my favorite and most recent Lydia moment was listening to her when she was sitting in her high chair ready to eat, watching Sophie bounce in her bouncer.  "Learn to share," was what she said.  Still not real sure who she was talking to when she said it.  I think she was talking to herself, maybe reminder herself that learning to share is a good thing, but she very well could have been teaching Sophie.  Either way, what a great lesson!  And it hasn't stopped her from getting in Sophie's bouncer.  After all, it used to be hers!

 

She's been enjoying her new kitchen, thanks to Aunt Cathy and family.  They've been so generous!  Lydia woke up yesterday morning and the first thing she said was, "food time!"  She gets a little cup and spoon and feeds Sophie ice cream or juice or cereal.  I told her that she can help me feed Sophie when Sophie reaches six months and it appears she'd like some practice between now and then!  Sophie starting solids.  How crazy!  I had to include this picture of Lyds.  Doesn't she look adorable?!  That kitchen has been so fun for her!

Pioneer Day

The 24th was my birthday; 36 years old.  Becca said I could totally pass for a 30 year old.  I was hoping for 25, so 30 didn’t sound like much of a compliment.  It ended up being a really busy day for us.  I wanted to do something that we could enjoy together as a family, so we decided to visit the Museum of Natural History at Thanksgiving Point and the learning farm there as well.  We had been talking about dinosaurs to Lydia, and I was excited to have her see all of the full size exhibits that they have at the museum.  We drove all the way down to the museum, found a great parking space, and we were all so excited to go in.  We opened the door, and there it stood, a full size cast skeleton of an allosaurus.  Lydia took one look at the display, said “dinosaur mean”, and refused to go into the building.  I picked her up and carried her into the lobby where they had some other displays.  She kept her face buried into my shoulder and refused to get down.  We decided that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to fork over the $20 admission and skipped the rest of the museum.  I guess we’ll just have to wait on the dinosaurs…

The next stop was at the learning farm located behind the museum.  This was a much better experience for Lydia.  They had several breeds of cows, horses, goats, sheep, chickens, llamas, pigs, and turkeys.  They had food that you could purchase and feed to the animals.  Lydia loved watching the horses and cows eat from my hand.  She would never get close enough to let them eat out of her hand, and when they were eating out of my hand she refused to touch them.  She would just let out a huge giggle and hide behind my leg.  The culmination of the visit was the pony rides.  They had several small ponies connected to a center pivot.  The kids got to sit on the ponies while the pivot rotated and the ponies walked in a circle.  Lydia loved it!  We got done with the first ride, and nothing else that the farm had to offer was good enough to keep her attention.  She kept running back to the pony ride no matter where we were at on the farm.  We ended up buying a few more passes for the pony ride because she loved it sooo much.  After her third ride we had to carry her kicking a screaming away.  The rest of the day all she could talk about was riding the ponies.

In the evening we met up with the Blackhurst family.  Everyone was coming over for a July 24^th BBQ to celebrate the holiday.  We were able to talk with everyone for a bit, and then we went to my parent’s home.  We had a great visit with them as well, even though we kind of crashed their dinner.  They had just gotten back from visiting my sister in Palmyra, New York, and we got to hear about the fun they had there.  They were out there during the Hill Cumora Pageant.  My brother-in-law is the elder’s quorum president of the Palmyra 1^st ward, and they always receive service assignments to help out during the pageant.  My dad got to work security one night for his service assignment. 

The rest of the week has been filled with family reunions.  Friday we got together with my mom’s side of the family.  It’s really odd because my mom’s mother left when my mother was really young.  Her father remarried, and the woman that he married is who I always knew as my grandmother, even though she was not blood related to me.  After I returned home from my mission, my grandfather passed away.  My grandmother ended up remarrying a few years later.  Now I have two grandparents that are not blood relations.  The family reunion had the family that I knew and grew up with, and my new grandfather’s family.  Needless to say the two sides don’t mix well.  Our family was outside talking on the patio, and his family was inside talking in the kitchen…oh well.  I suppose it doesn’t really matter because I was on Lydia duty.  I spent the time walking around the yard with Lydia as she explored.  I can tell the farm had a huge impression on her because every shed was a “barn”, and every “barn” had piggies sleeping inside.  

 

Saturday was the annual Frazier family reunion.  This reunion is a lot of fun, and tends to get really competitive.  This year my uncle Larry was in charge of the reunion, so we had it in Deweyville, UT.  Deweyville is just a few miles east of Tremonton.  The area is very beautiful and very rural, not to mention very far away from just about anything.  We gathered together at a park, and as luck would have it, it rained…all day.  Of course a little rain doesn’t stop the Frazier brood from playing games.  There were some water games that everyone played, and even if you didn’t need to get wet to play the game, at some point you would get wet.  We had a great time and we got to see members of the family that we don’t see often.   

And Sophie is rolling over like a pro.  Check out that back bend!  She's been rolling well for about two weeks now, and does it fast and like it's no big thing. Ü  Jon obviously wrote this post.  He sent it in a letter to Nate and I loved it so much I thought I'd paste it on here.  Happy birthday Jon!  You could totally pass for 25. ;)

I decided to include this picture because for about two weeks (maybe just one, but it felt like 2!  Or more!) Sophie was waking up at 1:30, then 3:30 and then again at 5:30 and I felt like we were back to her first days home from the hospital!  So exhausting!  That is why we are sleeping on the couch like this at 4:00 in the afternoon.  She's been sleeping much more peacefully at night and we think it may have been because she'd outgrown her bassinet.  She seems much more comfortable now and much better rested.  And for that we are all grateful.