Sophie's field trip to Black Island Farms

On September 29th Sophie's preschool class got to go to Black Island Farms, and Lydia, Mia and I all tagged along with her. We got in with a super discounted price and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to go together, so that's what we did! We started out with a hay ride and learned about some of the crops they plant at the farm.

We passed around a carrot that looked like it was pulled fresh from the ground, a humongous cabbage and a sunflower that had already had many of it's seeds harvested. It was pretty cool to examine the seeds up close. We got to hop off our ride so everyone could pick a pumpkin before heading back to some of the other activities Black Island provides.

Sophie was a bit of a grumpy pants (she's given me permission to say so) and her attitude didn't allow for us to do much. I'm pretty sure that Lydia and Mia had more fun that she did! She and Lyds had a good time sliding down some slides built on bales of hay while Mia and I watched. And they almost went in the cow bounce house together but Soph changed her mind at the last minute so Lyds went by herself but didn't stay in there long. We watched the turkey race (we got to see a pig race at Lydia's field trip last year) and that was super interesting to watch. The turkeys chased these remote control cars that had food on them. Looked like a turkey or two got a foot run over at one point, but they didn't seem to mind. They were highly motivated by that food and moved incredibly fast! We didn't have time to go on the train, and that was completely heartbreaking.

Soph tells me that her faves included: The slide, and the turkey race and the cow jump house, the pig race (must be remembering this from last year) and picking pumpkins and going on the hay ride. I think her memories are much better now than what she actually experienced in the moment. And I'm glad it's not horrible for her to look back on her first field trip!

Modeling for PeekABootSocks

These two had the opportunity to mode for PeekABootSocks on Zulily. Jon's cousin Amber started PeekABootSocks (she designs some incredibly cute clothes and hats and such and has inspired Lydia to design and create her own clothes and accessories for her toy animals. Just another one of the many aspirations this little lady has). Amber asked us at the Frazier family reunion over the summer if we'd allow her to use Lydia and Sophie as models for some of her clothes. She told Mia that she wasn't quite old enough yet. ;) The photoshoot was on August 29th and these ladies showed up on Zulily September 6th.

And they loved it their experience! It was so entertaining to see some of the poses Lydia came up with. I have no idea where she came up with them, but she has major personality! She'll strike poses occasionally since then and they kill me! Sophie tried to call time of death on the shoot after falling asleep on the road in between the shop and the park. I was convinced that she'd reached her limit and no amount of coaxing or bribery would make a lick of difference. But I didn't count on Amber. She worked her magic and got Sophie to pose and participate without knowing that that's what she was doing. "Sophie, I'm going to have Lydia come and stand next to you. But remember, it's not your turn. I just need you to hold still while I take pictures of Lydia." She hopped from one spot to the next and had the girls do what she was doing. Totally effective and incredibly fun! Sophie lasted way longer (and cheerfully too) than I would have thought possible.

And Sophie was asked to come back to model a few more things. I was incredibly entertained with her moves and poses. And Lydia got to jump in for a few minutes too. Amber told us that she loved working with these ladies. They're super cute, but even more importantly they follow directions well. And it was just so fun for them. I heard Sophie telling our little neighbor about her experience and asking her if she'd ever modeled before. "If you haven't you've got to try it! You'd love Amber!"

Lydia's class party

My class Field trip was at the same time as my ballet class, so I had to choose. I've never been on a bus before, but I have tried on costumes (that's what we were going to do at ballet that week) so I decided to go on my field trip. The bus was nothing special. Nothing special at all. It was like a big car that fit lots of kids in it, but no seat belts.

On the day of my Halloween party I was going to PE and some of my costume parts fell off. And I gone to computers. Nothing fell off there. And I was having really fun. And we only got to do two games that we'd already done. We didn't get to do anything new. And I gone to Art. I did a spider web which was really fun. I used a white crayon on white paper and when I painted it I could see it. It was really cool and fun. And then I went back to my classroom. And we did some fun activities. And Traci said Madalyn was saying, "where's the puppy? Where's the puppy??" (Lydia went to Traci's house while I volunteered in Sophie's class and she brought her mechanical dog Oreo which terrified little Madalyn and because she was upset Lydia was too. So tender, this one. Traci was reassuring her that everything was okay with her dog.) And Mommy came to my party! She played some games with my class and my partner Nathan was in my group. So was Nettie and McKay. We were supposed to get three witches or ghosts in a row. I did Oreo spiders too, and I did Frankenstein's made out of plastic bottles and grapes and marshmallows and markers. The M&Ms were for playing a game. And we tossed some balls in the trick or treat bowls and then we got a sticker. It was a really fun day!

Sophie's class parties

At my gymnastics party we got to wear costumes there. And we got to have ring pops and have treats. And we got to trick or treat. I was Anna from Frozen. And my teachers got to dress up too. And my friend Lydia got to dress up as Sophia from Sophia the First. I gave some ring pops to my friends at gymnastics and at home.

At my preschool class party we got to dress up as Minnie Mouse. Me, Sadie and Hallie were all Minnie mouse. Kyree had a pink infection in her eye so she didn't come. Mom came and read Boris and Bella to my class. And The Little Old Lady Who was not Afraid of Anything. And I got to make a ghost out of glue and white cotton balls. And we got to have a cupcake and purple juice outside. And my juice fell on the way home and I got sad. And it was a fun party. And one of my classmates got to dress up as a storm trooper. Breanna was a storm trooper!

Flu shots and trick or treating at JUB

On October 6th we dressed up to go trick or treating at Jon's work. Oh wait! And get flu shots. Yep. That was actually the purpose of the visit to JUB, but the idea was to make it more enjoyable for the kids, so they got to dress up and trick or treat at each of the offices in the building. So calling it a work party is definitely not accurate, and yet that's what we called it! For the week or two leading up to it, as soon as the girls knew about it. I think in hindsight the girls would still call it a party, but Lydia felt very differently about things while we were waiting in line for our shots. And yet she survived! And bled all over her Elsa costume. She was so tense! Jon went first to show her there was nothing to be scared of. Soph sat right down and didn't even blink during her turn. Mia and I went next and there were no tears, but Lyds was gripping the door jam like her life depended on it. And then her turn came and went and she moved on. Thoughts of candy and seeing how Jon's coworkers had decorated their offices was reason plenty to be cheery. And so we made our way through the offices and enjoyed the remainder of our time. Definitely time well spent.

Mr. Zomba with his hand in the candy cauldron at Dad's office was a favorite.

Sophie moments included Grandma's spooky hand inside her trick or treat bowl and her skeleton. Soph would not touch the creepy hand even though it was just soft and squishy. She did not want to say goodbye to Grandma when we left because of the spooky decorations. "Grandma's hand was small and her skeleton was big. I was brave getting a shot. And I liked getting a sucker and a cookie."

Lydia said, "my favorite part was all of the skeletons. I even liked the pirate skeleton. And I liked the boingy skeleton. And I liked Dad's skeleton (mr. Zomba) and I liked Grandma's skeleton. I was a little bit (I'll insert deathly) scared of the shot. I went last. I bled a lot and got it all over my Elsa costume sleeve. And I liked getting suckers and I liked getting sweethearts. And I liked the cookies we got after the shots. And I liked getting a snickers. And I liked getting that gumball."

Mia. Oh Mia! I loved watching her toddle around in her costume! The Olaf head kept getting in her face. She always had to have two treats, one in each hand. At each office she'd trade in what she had in her hand for whatever was in that bowl. We hadn't planned on her really participating, but she just loved following her sisters around and needed to do whatever they were doing. She was wearing the tiniest little boots (says Jon's boss) and may have even been on tiptoe. I'm not sure her feet fit in those boots as well as we'd like. She started following someone else thinking it was us and more importantly because she couldn't hardly see. She kept trying to keep up and almost fell over multiple times. But she never cried about falling, or the spooky décor. She was having the time of her life!

And I just have to include these:

Jon took the girls to J&J for a hayride while I wrote my talk a few weeks ago. Father of the year! They came home with some great pumpkins and got to get pictures of them looking like this! Mia knew just what to do when given the chance and made it very clear that she needed to get in on the action after watching Lydia and Sophie stick their heads through a few times.

Tornado in Layton

September 22nd started out as a beautiful day. Absolutely GORGEOUS weather! We dropped Sophie off at a neighbor's a few minutes before preschool started so that we'd be to Mia's 15 month check up on time. Lydia was having a wart examined as well. The doctor's visits went without a hitch. Mia doubled her weight percentile. She went from 1% to 2%. That's our girl! Lydia was brave while the doc applied a coat of medicine and we were on our way.

Somewhere on our journey to drop Lyds off at Kindergarten Mia lost a flowered hair clip. I don't know why I was so upset about it (it was a gift and I like that it had a match. Sets for pigtails are the best), but really, it's shouldn't have bothered me so much and yet it did. I was determined to get it back. I figured if I waited for school to let it out it'd be less likely we'd find it. I drove to the school and back. Nothing. So I got Mia napping and Sophie practicing her ABCs/watching a show and walked to the school. Fortunately I only made it 3/4 of the way there when I found it in someone's driveway. It's amazing how my afternoon suddenly seemed so much better. Such a silly thing and yet I was so relieved to have it back!

Our cute neighbor Evie then came over and she and Sophie painted pumpkin pictures for a few minutes until it was time to pick up Lydia. I sent Evie out the door with her drying picture and was surprised at how intense the winds were. I was taking the girls to a neighbors at 4:00 so that Jon and I could go to the temple and though I'd planned to walk to school to pick up Lydia I was starting to reconsider. School gets out at 3:30. That might not be enough time... so we ended up driving. At 3:28 Sophie confessed to needing to go to the bathroom. And she couldn't wait. She hadn't brought shoes, but no matter. She'd left a pair of flip flops in there previously and we rushed to the bathroom. She finished up the same time the bell to go home went off. So we rushed outside and met Lyds in the usual spot just as things got crazy. A ton of leaves/other things that hang from trees were suddenly swirling through the air. In the minute it took to open the car and climb in we were joined by lots of leaves and loud howling wind. And then as we slowly crept home we stared bug eyed at little kids huddling together, just holding each other tight as garbage flew up fences next to them. It was trash day so the entire neighborhood had their garbage cans out. I'd rolled ours to the backyard just before picking up Lydia, but while we were inching home in our van we saw two garbage cans swirling in the street. This poor little girl was sobbing hysterically as she tried to cross the street; every time she moved forward the garbage cans moved toward her, seeming to taunt her and block her path. Garbage cans were everywhere. One neighbor lost three of their park strip trees. They'd blown apart about four feet up the trunk. I've never seen anything like that. And once we were safe inside eating a quick snack the girls stared out the window at the gray skies. The top of our sandbox blew off and settled at the base of our yard. We had a discussion about the weather and the girls asked if Jesus could stop the winds. I told them He could but that doesn't mean that He would. They said, "He sends the rain. Maybe He can calm the winds." I was grateful they weren't too scared. We got ready to head to the Price's and when I dropped the girls off I noticed this beautiful bird on their porch. So pretty and so unreal looking, and yet it was. Real, that is. Their grill blew over and they later found that the top of their sandbox made it over two streets to land in a neighbors yard. But the girls had a great time while Jon and I were at the temple and when we came home we discovered that other than our sandbox lid relocating itself, only a panel in the fence had gotten loose. Nothing serious.

Our neighbors were not so lucky. When I'd gone to pick Jon up from work Gentile was completely blocked off. I turned around and took a different route to get him. We later found out that trees had been knocked down, blocking the entire street. And a few homes on Gentile had giant trees fall on them, bashing in the roofs and causing much damage. Saturday was spent chopping up trees and cleaning up the devastation. Lots of progress was made, but not enough. Our Ward Conference was supposed to be on Sunday, but word from our Bishop and Stake President went around saying that all meetings except Sacrament would be cancelled and the morning would be spent continuing what was still left to do from Saturday, so come in your work clothes. There were dumps open special for the disaster relief efforts so we were going to take advantage of that. Not your typical Sunday, but what needed to be done for sure. Jon represented our family while I stayed home with the girls. I love where we live and the support of the community for each other. While we were driving one day the girls would point out things they could see that had happened because of the storm. Fences ruined, roofs damaged, trees knocked down. One of my friends told me about seeing the sky turn brown (she's sure a tornado touched down in our neighboring fields and her husband chopped up some twisted tree roots that appear to be evidence of said tornado) and rushing her kids into the bathroom (the only room in the house with no windows)  when their trampoline crashed into their home and then blew over their fence into the street behind them. It was terrifying. She'd almost gotten them in the bathroom when the deafening crash occurred and her infant son woke up screaming. Her five year old son is still terrified every time the wind blows. It was definitely unnerving. Whoever says we don't get tornados in Utah is mistaken. This is the second one I'm aware of in my lifetime. We were incredibly lucky and I'm grateful things weren't worse all around.

Lydia says, "I remember that there were garbage cans in front of us. I remember that it was raining and windy. I know how to draw wind. I was thinking 'that's so sad' about the little girl going home from school who couldn't get across the street. Leaves were blowing on our windows.  There was a family who found their trampoline hanging in their tree."

Sophie says, "I remember picking up Lydia from school. I felt like I was going to blow away in the wind. I saw lots of broken fences. I thought that our tomatoes were going to blow away. I was thinking that Jesus could make the wind calm down. The top of our sand box blew off. There was a dead bird on Ms. Lisa's front porch. Some trees fell down."

Such a surprising turn of events after our day started out so bright and beautiful.

 I didn't take any pictures during all the excitement, but these were the tomatoes Soph thought might blow away. Our tomato "tree." It looked like our tomato plant might actually kill the poor tree in it's clutches. Those vines are incredible! We won't soon forget this year where we actually reached up to pick tomatoes off what appeared to be our tomato tree. And our plants did well! We were sharing the fruit with family, friends and neighbors. Anyone who would take them!

Sophie starts preschool

Oh my. Where does the time go?? Sophie dear has been ready and waiting for this day ever since Lydia started preschool two years ago. And after Lydia started so many weeks ago it's been a long hard wait. I think getting her school blessing early was good for her. "Sophie, you will be starting preschool very shortly and it will be a wonderful time for you to grow socially, make new friends and learn new things. I bless you with happiness. You can show other people the light side of life and happiness. Go to school and feel comfortable there. It'll be new; strange people there; you'll enjoy it. You'll learn new things. I bless you to be able to make new friends and they'll see the positive in you. The light in you. You'll enjoy gaining knowledge. You'll thirst to learn new concepts. Hunger and thirst for knowledge, but also in the gospel. Hunger and thirst after righteousness. You'll be able to help mom and help with your younger sister Mia and help with responsibilities you have- you're capable of. Help mom in this transition. You will be a positive light in our home. Help mom and dad be happy. Help sisters be kind and happy in all they do. Mom and dad love you so much. We're so grateful for all you do in our family. Heavenly Father loves you. He's happy with the girl you are and the choices that you make. I bless you with these blessings and any others that you stand in need of in the name of Jesus Christ Amen."

Back to school night was September first and she got to see where she'd be sitting at the rug, and the table, where she'd hang up her backpack and where she'd be playing outside. She even got to go into this amazing little playhouse (shed) in the backyard that had been turned into a kid's paradise. She slid down the slide inside and went upstairs where all the bean bag chairs are. She got a picture with her friend Sadie and enjoyed a cookie while I signed up to volunteer at class parties.

And that was the moment when this school things became so much more real for her!  So when September 6th finally rolled around she was crazy excited!! She got to pick out her backpack from Kohl's the night before and has known that she'd be wearing her sunny dress since July (when school started for Lydia) and the wait to wear her new Minnie mouse shoes finally came to an end! I wasn't sure what to expect when I dropped her off, but she didn't even need me to walk in with her. I did though, and she just hung up her backpack, found her seat (after hesitating between hers and Sadie's. Those S's were throwing her off!) and was ready to go and didn't look back once.

 

And I'm just so excited for her!! If she had been sad or scared I think I would have been so anxious for her the whole time she was at school, but as it was I rushed home to Lydia and Mia and we got to work.

We were plenty busy at home missing her and hoping that preschool was everything she'd hoped and dreamed it would be. Lydia has been whispering her secret surprise plans of what she wanted to do for Sophie on her first day while she was at school for months now! And she kept busy the whole time Soph was gone. She and Mia helped me make cookies, but before that and while they were baking Lydia drew Sophie a castle and colored it in all her favorite colors. Mia was the holder and warmer of the butter so that we could get them to reach room temperature a little more quickly and both girls had to sample the dough and make sure it was prepared well enough to be baked for their sweet, absent sister. 

We baked the cookies and watched the clock and when school was almost out we rushed to Ms. Lisa's so we could find out from Sophie what school was like and get her home to enjoy her cookies. Because if she was enjoying them that meant that everybody else could enjoy them too.

It was so fun to hear about her first day. She loves Ms. Lisa already. She told us all about her friends, and the class rules, and how much fun it was to play outside. I feel like her backpack, which is almost as big as she is, is going to knock her over backward, but she loves it! And she hasn't hesitated once to walk right into class and get to work.

Since then she's wanted to take a picture outside on the way to school (like we did on her first day of class) in her new school clothes. She's also reported that many of her classmates don't follow the rules and "aren't obedient." Her teacher sent home an Assessment Report and told us that "Sophie is going great and is such a sweet girl!" She told me that Sophie is happy to wait for her classmates to line up or get drinks or whatever and that she's happy to be last. She's very patient. So nice to know what she's like at school! We love this sweet, spunky girl!

Aunt Amber gave us some books that have become fast favorites. One of them is called How Fletcher was Hatched. The girls love it. There's a part where Fletcher (who is a dog) is sad because his mistress doesn't seem to care about him anymore and spends all her time with these little chicks. Sophie scratches his ears on the page it talks about how long it's been since Alexandra last scratched his ears. She gets such a kick out of making him feel better. Her prayers are still amazing! I love how sincere they are and specific to each day. She knows who she's talking to! I love hearing her sing. Lately it's been, I'm not the kind of girl to wish and tell..." from Sophia the First, When you wish Upon a wishing well. I could listen to her and Lyds sing all day. I also love giving these ladies baths. We've started doing "cake" baths where we put different ingredients in their hair to make an apple cake or a carrot cake or a kiwi, chocolate or strawberry cake. Whatever kind of cake they're in the mood for. I crack "eggs" in their hair and put "sprinkles" on top besides the usual flour, sugar, milk, etc. Sophie always wants her cake topped with vanilla cream frosting. And I love they way she says it. Jon's back has been hurting so he and I were talking about doing stretches to help things out in the morning and at night. Sophie suggested we do back stretches at night as a family. Which we've done and was so fun and entertaining. Another day Jon mentioned to me something about his shoulder not feeling great and Soph immediately suggested we do shoulder stretches that night so that he'd feel better. She's so sweet and so thoughtful.

I've also got some Sophie stories that I shared in a talk I gave on peace. They've become pretty meaningful to me and I love that because of who Sophie is we're able to have these conversations:

I have two examples I’d like to share of times where one of our daughters was very troubled. The first happened a few months ago when my phone went off because of an Amber alert. When they heard it, my girls wanted to know more about it.  They started asking all sorts of questions. At first I tried to keep my explanations more general and vague, not wanting to scare them, but as the conversation continued I could see that Sophie was terrified. She wanted to know if the people who took the child were near or far. She wanted to know if they were bad. She wanted to know if someone was going to take her from our home. While she was playing in the backyard? I assured her that her Dad and I wouldn’t let that happen. The thought that anyone would do something like that had never occurred to her, and it was clearly unsettling. Jon came home from work that night and the conversation continued. He reassured Sophie that that was something she didn’t need to worry about.

The second experience came during scripture study one night. We were watching the children’s scripture video about Cain and Abel. It went into detail about Cain slaying Abel and Satan’s role and how he had great hold on the hearts of many of Adam and Eve’s descendants. I looked over at Sophie afterward and saw that she was very upset. She wanted to know more about Satan and if he was going to try to hurt her. She couldn’t believe that Cain had killed his brother. She wanted to know where he was and why he was so mean. I explained that Satan doesn’t want us to be happy. He isn’t happy. She was concerned that he was going to get her. I told her that he didn’t have a body. She then asked if he had a head and I suddenly realized that my explanations were not coming across as I had hoped and were certainly not what she needed. That’s when Jon came to the rescue and explained much more clearly that because of Jesus Sophie didn’t need to worry about Satan. Satan won’t win. Christ has already won and because of Him we can find peace and happiness no matter what fears we have or what trials come into our lives. 

 We love this little girl and and are so excited to see what her future will be. Lucky us that we get to be a part of it all and have such great seats along the way!