One Year Older and Wiser Too

Sometime last week, I informed the kids that all I wanted for my birthday was a full page filled with things to "fill my bucket" from each of them.  Being a "bucket-filler" is something they talk about a lot at school and since they're already fairly accustomed to giving compliments around the dinner table each night at home, I figured it would be easy enough for them to do.  I was wrong.  Apparently it was too difficult for them to do ANYTHING for me today.  Hahahaha.  But cue Scott.  Since I've already documented all the presents I've splurged on for myself, I told Scott that for this birthday he didn't need to spend another dime on me.  Being the perfect husband that he is, though, he couldn't let my day go by without doing SOMETHING, so he did what the kids didn't do -- he filled my bucket.

I woke up this morning, to find an actual bucket on top of our dresser filled with tons and tons of messages to make my day.  Grace -- who slept half the night on the rocking chair in our room -- was especially excited by the bucket upon waking and took great delight in reading them out loud to me before we all went down for breakfast.

The rest of the day was pretty much just the same old, same old.  Alex, however, decided to win extra brownie points today by having his first happy and non-cranky/clingy day in 2 weeks!  I think he's finally kicked whatever sickness he had to the curb.  Thank goodness!  He was so delightful today it was adorable.  I'd like to say that ALL the kids were as equally delightful and adorable, but that wasn't really the case.  Oh well -- you can't have your cake and eat it, too.  Suffice it to say, that my best birthday treat this evening was to be able to go to the kids' {rescheduled thanks to the snow day} parent teacher conferences all by myself at the school while Scott stayed home and put the kids to bed on his own.  Hahahaha.  Winning!  {Duh.}  Here's to hoping 33 will be the new 22!

Sick Kids and Snow Days

We're a mess over here.  Literally and figuratively.  So much for all my cleaning and organizing!  Between sick kids and snow days, the house has become trashed once again.  Alex is going on almost 2 weeks now of a snotty nose, off and on fevers, and an emotionally needy alter-ego.  He is a mess.  Jane -- always one to hop on board the crazy train -- came down with a milder version of whatever he has a couple days after Alex did and has done her best to completely run me ragged.  Throw in a slightly sick Ethan, two snow days in a row, and lots and lots of sleepless nights and you can probably understand why blogging has been put on the back burner.  Hahahaha.

As it is, there's nothing REALLY all that note-worthy to record other than the fact that today is my Birthday Eve Eve.  Hahaha.  I've decided to really go ahead and treat myself this year {after saving up my spending cash for the last couple of months and selling a TON of clothes at Once Upon a Child} in order to go big for my 33rd benchmark.   As such I've gone ahead and gotten my hair done {after almost a YEAR}; ordered a big shipment of books on Amazon; and splurged on a GPS running watch.  Which I'm in love with.

 My Hair:

  

 

 I think the kids these days are calling this a selfie.  I'm so in the know.  Hahahaha.

My Books:

 

 Are you sensing a theme?  No junk January has spurred a revolution.  I've given up sugar for Lent.  Even though I don't technically celebrate Lent.

 My Watch:

 

 Garmin Forerunner 10.  Love.

It's hard to believe that February is almost at its end.  Here are a few more brief highlights of the month that have not yet been covered:

Ethan's Blue and Gold Dinner --

The theme this year was superheroes and the cake he went with was Spiderman themed.  The dinner was a lot of fun, and the kids really had a blast.  Alex especially was in heaven due to the presence of BALLOONS and basketballs floating around the court. {Although not literally, of course.}

 Seriously.  How cute is that???  He's hugging the balloon.

Grace's Earrings -- 

The 6-week mark has come and gone for her beginner studs and she can now switch things up to suit her fancy.  When she got her ears pierced after Christmas, she picked out some rainbow colored, spiky balls to be her very first replacement pair.  She was SUPER excited -- until she realized how hard it was to get the first pair off and how sensitive and tender her ears would be.  After a week or so of wearing the spikes, however, her ears were really hurting and looking a bit red so we took them out and I let her borrow a pair of mine until we could get her another pair.  I really wish I would have snapped a pic of her with my dangling, pearl "church" earrings before she traded them out for some more of her own.  It was hilarious looking.  We were finally able to make it over to the mall on Saturday night for her to pick out some new pairs and after a couple of HOURS of searching around we were all set.  She has a very distinct sense of style for an 8 year old.  I kind of love that.  Hahaha.

Between Justice's 40% off and "buy 2, get 2 free" and Claire's "buy 2, get 1 free" I would say Grace is pretty well stocked for the future.  

This is her very favorite new pair.  Dangling, giant sequins.  She's very mature.  Hahaha. {They're from Justice in case you were wondering.}

Sick, sick, and more sick --

As I've stated, Alex kick started the fever and snot parade this month, with Jane and then Ethan quickly following suit.  Before that, however, there were a couple weeks worth of nuisances from Grace, Sophie, and Jane and their eyes.  It wasn't pink eye -- more like a cold in the eye kind of a thing -- but it was annoying to deal with.  Especially with Grace.  She is quite possibly our worst patient.  Ethan on the other hand becomes ridiculously easy when he's sick.  In fact, my first clue that something was wrong and that he might be coming down with something was when he started doing extra chores around the house without being asked and without complaining.  Sure enough, the next day he was running a fever.  Hahaha.  Poor little lamb.  Luckily, his sickness has easily been the shortest while poor Alex's continues to stretch on.

Falling asleep on the floor while watching TV?  Definitely sick.

 Cute little sick man -- sitting in a basket and playing with toys.  So cute and so pitiful.

An Apple a Day --

In one of the more tranquil moments of the afternoon on Snow Day #1, Ethan, Grace, and Sophie settled themselves down to play a game of Apples to Apples, Jr. in the Family Room.  This was remarkable for a couple reasons -- 1.)  They turned off the TV on their own without being forced to and opted to play a game instead; and 2.)  The 3 of them were all playing together without any ire.  {Ethan is usually the only one who likes board games in the family and Sophie is rarely included in an Ethan-and-Grace venture.}

After the game was over, Ethan fell asleep on the floor and the girls went out to go sledding. 

Scott got served --

And finally, to finish off the month, Scott has Jury Duty this week.  And I am totally jealous.  No lie.  Hahahaha.  Am I the only person in the world who would actually LOVE to serve on a jury?  Perhaps so -- although it would be REALLY hard for me to not be able to discuss anything about the case until it was all over.  I've informed Scott that he will be doing a blog post about his experience when it's all over.  {I know you're all pumped about that.}  Hahaha.

And that is that.  I'm hoping the little ones get better soon so that I will no longer be going cuckoo for cocoa puffs here at home.  Until next time!

Because Everyone Loves a Before and After

For the last few weeks I have been feeling super overwhelmed with all the things I need to get done.  And I mean the important things that need to get done, not even the "oh yeah I really should do that but if I don't get around to it that's okay" kind of things.  I mean things like getting the house cleaned, and making dinner for my family, and studying my scriptures, and preparing my Sunday School lesson, and getting to the gym, and making time to spend with the kids and with Scott, and teaching the kids how to be more responsible and respectful {and respectable}, and well -- you get the picture.  All these things are good things and important things, but they are A LOT of things for one person to do.  Even if she is an extremist.

As I began to study my scriptures one day last week, I said a quick prayer asking for help in knowing HOW to prioritize all these things and get them done.  I went on to read a few chapters in the Book of Mormon -- in which the theme of almost every verse seemed to be that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers -- and then as I sat down to begin working on my lesson for Sunday School, something very interesting happened.  As I was looking up scriptures for my lesson, my eye was drawn to the following verse in the Doctrine and Covenants:

 "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;"  {D&C 88:119}

I had to stop what I was doing and write this down.  "What a good reminder!" I thought.  Then, as I went on with my lesson preparation, I found that my eyes were drawn to scripture after scripture that continued to underscore this same idea -- organize yourself, set your house in order, and -- my personal favorite -- "keep slothfulness and uncleanness far from you" {D&C 90:18}.  It wasn't until I read a final verse in D&C 93:44  -- "...therefore, first set in order thy house" --  that the light bulb went on over my head and I realized that THIS was the answer to my prayer.  What had I been praying for?  The wisdom to know how to prioritize.  And what was my answer?  I needed to FIRST get my house in order.  So simple, yet so profound.

I sat the kids down the next day and informed them that we would be doing a whole lot of cleaning and organizing over the next few months.  Aside from the fact that it will be helpful when it comes time to move, I think the greater help lies in the fact that a house of order is much more likely to create a peaceful and loving environment.  I know for myself that when the house is in shambles, I tend to feel extra chaotic and crazy as well.  I let the kids know that I wasn't expecting Rome to be built in a day, and that it would most likely take days, weeks, and even months until EVERYTHING was in order, but we all needed to pitch in and just get started.

And just what should that starting point be?  Well, since the weekends are always so much fun, I thought it might be best to begin with our Saturday chores.   Hahahaha.  After talking with a couple of friends, I decided to implement a few of their ideas in order to tackle this beast for our family.  I basically came to the realization that I needed to devote the entire day to training and then supervising the kids on all of their chores until they had them all down pat.  Running errands and doing other things just for ME would have to wait.  So for today,  I assigned each kid a one hour time slot in which they were to watch me demonstrate how to do their chore and then check things off the checklist that I made for each room.  Ethan was assigned to clean his bedroom {which he shares with Sophie}; Grace was assigned to clean her bedroom {which she shares with Jane}; and Sophie was assigned to clean the Kids' Bathroom.  In the end, Ethan's room took me an hour and a HALF to clean; Grace's was done about an hour (during which she spent the majority of the time lounging on her bean bag chair and reading a book); and the bathroom took only 30 minutes thanks to Sophie actually pitching in and helping and Grace popping in as well.  {She REALLY wanted to watch an episode of Jessie and I told her they couldn't watch it until ALL the chores were done.}

Ethan and Sophie's Room -- Before...

...and After.

Grace and Jane's Room -- Before...

...and After.

Kids' Bathroom -- Before...

...and After.

Not too shabby, eh?  Most productive Saturday EVER.  Hahahaha.  Because I was on such a roll of productivity this morning, I decided to really knock things out of the ballpark and tackle Jane's hair this afternoon.  You see, we've been having a recurring problem lately with a little thing called a rat's nest at the back of her head.  Anytime Jane goes more than a couple days without brushing her hair, it starts to get tangled and matted and ratted and teased in the back until it's a giant mass of hair that can't be brushed even if she would let you.  I've been threatening her for the last couple of months that if she didn't let me brush through her hair everyday I'd have to cut it so it wouldn't get so tangled.  "No!' she invariably cried, "Then I will look like a baby!"  Well, this week I could threaten no longer -- it was just time to DO.  Even after I brushed out the nest, her hair was so frizzled and frazzled that her ponytail was about 3 times thicker than normal.  After spraying it down with water and then running some conditioner throughout, I went ahead and gave her a trim.  The end result?  Super cute and I wish I would have done this MONTHS ago.  Hahahaha.

Jane's Hair -- Before...

...and After.

{I probably cut about 3 inches off the bottom.  It looks so much better now!}

And there you have it.  We are off to a fantastically successful start to our new "House of Order" initiative!  Hopefully, the enthusiasm won't fizzle.  Hahahaha.

We Have a {Half} Birthday Boy!

February is a busy month.  Not only do we have the 5 Days of Valentine, but we also have 2 real birthdays and 3 half-birthdays to celebrate as well.  And all in just 28 days.  Today just so happens to be Alex's Half-Birthday.  Lover Boy is 18 months old!  It is so hard to believe how quickly the time has passed by.  One the best milestones that comes along with being 1 1/2 is that this coming Sunday, Alex will FINALLY be able to go to Nursery.  {Nursery is a Sunday School type class for little kids aged 18 months to 3 years old at our church.} Yay!  No more trying to contain him for the last two hours of church!  Scott brought him in for part of the time last Sunday and Alex couldn't have been happier.  Hip Hip Hooray!  :)  To commemorate his special day, here are just a few little things that we want to remember about Alex...

 

Alex at 18 Months Old:

• He LOVES his elephant and still carries him around just about everywhere. 

• He loves his "wuh-wuh." {pacifier}

• He climbs up on EVERYTHING.

• His newest obsession is playing in the toilet.  So gross!  He loves to unroll all the toilet paper, rip pieces off, swirl it around in the toilet bowl and then throw it on the floor.  Seriously disgusting.  I have to make sure the bathroom doors are closed around the house at all times.

•  He can say mama, dada, wuh-wuh, E-E {for Ethan}, uh-oh, look, buh-buh {for bye-bye}, car, and the cutest little vocal slide of a sound that he uses to call his elephant.  It is adorable.  I really need to get it on tape before he grows out of it.

• He doesn't understand the concept of a photo shoot.  Getting him to look up and at the camera is almost impossible.  He's just too busy. 

• He loves balls, cars, and all things little boy-ish.  

• We've been trying to teach him to say "I am a robot" thanks to these super cute jammies I found at Target.  {I have also been trying to teach him that "Mommy likes sleep mode."  Hahahaha.  (That's what the other pair of jammies in the pack say).} 

• He is an easy-going, happy-go-lucky little kid for the vast majority of the time.  And even when he's not, he is still so cute and funny as he throws the most hilarious little dramatic temper tantrums I've ever seen.  {At least it's cute and funny for now.  Hahahaha.}

• We're so glad he is in our family!!!  

Little Lover Boy decided to kick his special day off EXTRA early this morning and woke up at 5:20.  He also woke Jane up with all his grumpy pants little fussing which resulted in a hot mess of a morning.  Jane didn't fall asleep last night until almost midnight thanks to a 4 hour nap yesterday and an all-nighter the night before due to a major asthma attack.  Luckily there were no hospital trips involved this time around, but I'd say that she and the nebulizer are still going steady.   It's at times like these that I wish I could fast forward to naptime.  Hahahaha.
 

Happy 4th Day of Valentine!

Mad Libbing

It's been documented before, but I'll recap for posterity's sake that in our family we celebrate the 5 Days of Valentine.  A few years after we were married, I decided that one day just wasn't sufficient to celebrate this thing called love and decided to tack on a few more.  Even though we "celebrate" for 5 days instead of just one, I really haven't done much in the past couple of years to make things extra festive or fun.  This year however, I'm discovering how helpful it is to be able to delegate things over to the children now that they're all getting older.  By assigning each day to one child, I have officially freed myself up from having to do too much of anything and they get to have the fun of planning.  {Although I should mention that  2 out of the 3 children so far have not really done anything for their day anyway.}
Sunday was the first day of Valentine and Ethan was in charge.  We ended up making sugar cookies and Ethan helped me to fill them all in with icing, and that was about it.  Today was supposed to be Sophie's day, but since she was home "sick" from school and Jane was up almost all of last night with an asthma flare-up, I was not about to run to the store during the day with the 3 little ones for the construction paper to make Valentines like Sophie really wanted us to do.   

Yesterday, however, was Grace's day and she really got a kick out of her planned activity.  While at Barnes & Noble on Saturday, I saw a Valentine-y version of Mad Libs and went ahead and bought it thinking it would be fun to do at some point during our 5 days of celebrating.  Since Grace was in charge of the activity for Family Home Evening last night, I suggested she use the Mad Libs and then introduced her to the joys of Nouns, Adjectives, and Verbs.  To say that it was a hit would be an understatement.  Hahahaha.  Both she and Ethan got the biggest kick out doing them -- and I was surprised to see that even Sophie caught on pretty quickly to all the different parts of speech.  In addition to completing the Mad Libs in the traditional way, Ethan and Grace took to filling them out in a very personalized manner as well.  The results were kind of hilarious.  I've lost count of how many "love notes" I've received from them at this point and I had to laugh out loud when I went upstairs last night and saw a note that Grace had carefully placed on Scott's pillow at some point during the day.  Hahahaha.

 

 {Even funnier than the actual note is how funny Grace THOUGHT it was.}

So there you have it folks,  the true story behind the day that Scott and I met.  Hahahahahaha.  Happy 3rd Day of Valentine!

Epic Fail

Another weekend has come and gone and as it's ending I find myself wondering if we are doing something fundamentally wrong here.  Every Saturday {and Sunday for that matter} it seems as if we are fighting an uphill battle with our children from sun up to sun down.  Seriously -- all day long we hear meltdowns galore, freak outs about nothing, screaming and fighting amongst the children, and children fighting with and screaming at US.

Yesterday's festivities finally abated by the afternoon, but probably only because the kids had friends over {we do a baby-sitting swap with another family at church} and we were planning on finally celebrating Sophie's birthday.  Which brings me to another epic fail.  You see, as Grace and I picked out the last of the birthday presents yesterday morning I realized we had a bit of a Barbie theme going on.  Jane had picked out "Happy Birthday, Barbie" at Target a few days ago, Ethan told me to pick out an easy reader Barbie book from Barnes & Noble {"like the one she just checked out of the library," he said}, and Grace ended up picking out a Barbie DVD while we were still there.  Once we were home, I suggested the grand idea for a Barbie cake to Sophie and she jumped right on that plan and requested a lemon cake.  

I had heard that making a Barbie cake was pretty simple -- all that's needed is a Pyrex type glass mixing bowl to bake the cake in and then once it's dumped out and inverted, it looks like the bottom half of a dress for Barbie.  Ice the cake to look like a skirt, stick the top half of a Barbie in the center, and Voila!  A Barbie cake.  After googling some images and tutorials it seemed easy enough and I went right to work.  In theory, it should have been as easy as that.  In actuality, it was a bit of a disaster.  Boo.

Sophie said it was fine if we ripped the legs off of a Barbie we already had in order to provide the cake topper.

Problem number one was that I was trying a brand new recipe {from scratch due to Sophie's egg and dairy allergies} and I don't think it made quite as much batter as a standard cake mix.  Problem number two occurred when I didn't grease the bowl well enough, and the bottom stuck as I was dumping it out.  This made a "skirt" layer that was not that much taller than a regular cake pan would have created.  Problem number three was that I started this cake way too late in the day for a do-over and I also didn't have enough time to let it cool completely before icing -- and the freezer was too stuffed to fit it inside for a quick fix.  The result?  Barbie looked like she had no legs and was wearing a tutu.  And to top it off, she began a slow but steady tilt backwards over the course of lighting the candles, singing the birthday song, and making a wish, and in the end was practically laying on the cake. 

Poor Sophie -- I don't think this was her best party ever. 

As the icing started to run and slide down the edges, I tried to make the best of it and told the kids excitedly that it made it look like she had ruffles on the bottom of her skirt!  Hahahaha.

Cute little Soph -- She was a good sport.

Barbie bending over backwards to make this party a hit. 

In the end, the cake tasted fine enough and the icing was actually delicious, but I think Sophie was still left a little disappointed.  All the other kids assured me that even though it looked like an epic fail it still tasted really good.  Sophie, on the other hand, I don't think has ever actually TASTED a lemon cake before and was not a fan at all.  Hahahaha.  I'm not sure why exactly she requested something she'd never had, but her response when I asked her was hilarious.  "Because," she said, "I didn't know it would taste really gross!"  Hahaha. 

I let Ethan and Grace do all the wrapping jobs.

Doesn't she look excited?  Hahaha.

More Barbie stuff -- She can barely contain her enthusiasm.

Oh well.  I did my best, and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.  Perhaps when it's my birthday in a couple of weeks Sophie can return the favor and force a theme and a cake on ME.  Hahahaha.  

Happy First Day of Valentine!

Flashback Friday -- In the Beginning {The Sophie Edition}

With Sophie's birthday yesterday, I've been reflecting a lot on her first beginnings.  Seeing as to how she was the very first child to be documented on this blog from birth on up, many of you may remember what those first few months of Sophie's life were like.  For those of you who don't, here is an excerpt from my journal from when she was about 2 months old:

Sunday, 1 April 2007 -- 

"TIRED.  That pretty much sums up my life right now.  Sophie is a sweetheart and I love her, but she's definitely not the easiest baby in the world!  She gets a little colicky every now and then, and needs to be held quite a bit which is challenging with two other little kids."

Poor little eczema girl.  :(

Understatements of the YEAR up there.  Hahaha.  For as much of a realist as I pride myself on being, I was clearly trying to fool myself here.  I was so hopeful that it was just a phase and wouldn't last too much longer that I resisted telling it like it was for the longest time.  At the back of my mind I was also worried that if I admitted exactly how hard she really was, everything would start to spiral downward and become even HARDER.  Even in my personal journal, the only hint of trouble I gave was that she was  "... a little colicky every now and then."  HA!  I don't know why it took me so long to be able to admit out right that Sophie was just plain difficult, but it did.  My life was a living nightmare for the first 6 months of her life and only slightly less nightmarish for the following 6-12 months.  Poor little thing. Not only was she colicky, but she had major acid reflux {projectile vomiting ALL the time}, head to toe oozing rash eczema, and {as we started finding out around the 6 month mark} MAJOR allergies.  Not to mention she NEVER slept for longer than like 2 or 3 hours at a time.

 She always had socks on her hands to keep her from scratching at her itchy skin.

Compounding all the difficulty was the fact that Scott was in school, we moved across the country for a 3-month summer internship when she was only 3 months old, and our neighbors in our apartment complex HATED us {with our loud children and crying, screaming baby at all hours of the night}.  Oh, because did I mention?  I also had a 2 year old and a 3 year old.  I really don't know how I survived under all the stress and lack of sleep.  I think I must have had angels watching over me.  Seriously.  I remember looking in the mirror a few different times during that summer and thinking that even my skin looked tired.  That poor little lamb aged me about 10 years over the course of those months.

Luckily for all of us, things eventually started to look up.  By the time she was about 18 months old, she was pretty much the funnest, cutest, feistiest little toddler on the block.  And now she's 6 years old.  She can still be a tempest in a teapot, but when she is happy, she is the bubbly-est, sparkling-est, brightest ray of sunshine you will ever see.  And even though she still has allergies {although not as many} and asthma as well, she is SOOOOO much easier to take care of that it's practically a piece of cake.   And that's saying something.  Hahahahaha. 

Sophie is Six!

Six years ago today our world was changed forever when our cute little Sophie Lynn was born.  Little did we know then the difficulties that would be in store for us over the next few years as we navigated her colicky beginning, gradually discovered her multitude of allergies, and wound up in several different hospitals at different times for asthma flare-ups and other issues.  There's a reason Sophie came with such a STRONG and spirited personality.  I think she needed it to survive.  Thankfully, we have everything under control now.  Or at least we mostly do.  Hahahaha.   That Sophie is a firecracker and I'm so glad she's a part of our family.

When she came home from school yesterday, she somehow managed to convince us that we should all go out to dinner to celebrate her birthday early.  Since tuna was on the menu and I knew that no one but Scott and I would really eat it {and possibly Alex}, I figured an outing to Bread Co. would make EVERYONE happy.  As soon as Scott got home, we loaded all the kids up and headed on out.

 So excited!

So homeless looking.

Classic family photo. 

Don't worry, the outing was nowhere near as painful as Scott's expression might suggest.  Hahahaha.  I just happened to snap the shot at an awkward moment.

We made it through the entire meal without any real incident {other than a gigantic mess from lover boy}, and once we were done and back home the two little ones went right to bed.  Poor Jane was so tired and spaced out it was hilarious.  Nothing like a hard day's work to wear one out.  Hahahaha.  

Chicken Noodle Soup in a Bread Bowl -- her fave. 

So, so tired. 

And so, so messy. 

Finishing off the night with the nebulizer.

Sophie's breathing was a bit wheezy yesterday and before going to bed last night she ended up needing a couple of breathing treatments.  Unfortunately, that wheeziness and difficulty breathing reared up again in the middle of the night.  Scott was up with her from about 1-3 doing more breathing treatments while I dealt with our pesky little roommate Jane who has basically set up permanent camp in our bedroom where she continues to wake us up on a regular basis.  The last few nights it's been because she's wet the bed {HERS, thank goodness, not ours -- the toddler bed is still in our room}, but last night she woke up and just couldn't fall back asleep because she was scared.  Her only solution, of course, was to climb in bed with me.  So that made for a fun night's sleep for all of us.

I was worried that Sophie's breathing would still be bad in the morning and she'd have to stay home from school, but thankfully she woke up without any other problems.  To celebrate her birthday and reward us for our long and exhausting night, we were blessed this morning with a gorgeous, full  rainbow.  And it was even a double one!  It was impossible to get the whole bow in the shot, but it was a beautiful sight to see as we all gathered outside to admire it before Scott took Ethan off to school for his early morning Boys' Choir practice.

Sophie has been begging me for the last week to please, please, PLEASE make her hair curly for school on her birthday, so how could I not oblige such adorable persistence?  Hahaha.  I also made her day by letting her wear a "church" dress to school instead of just a play one  and she completed her look with some tights and gold, sequined shoes.  Before we dashed off to school with her pack of Oreos in tow {a "birthday snack" for her class}, Sophie paused long enough to give me a few of her best "poses" in a super quick birthday shoot.  After school, she finished off her day with a Daisy field trip to the Fire Station and a Birthday dinner of chicken nuggets.  All in all, a fairly fabulous day for our little supermuppet.

Happy Birthday, Sophie!  We love you!