Lovely Fall

It seems like I can hardly keep track of the time, somehow we're already halfway through November, and it feels like we were just in the middle of summer. Here is some of what we've been up to in September and October:


September:

Enjoyed our yard and flowers: 

Cheery sunflowers

Our 'wall' of Morning Glory, it was over 15 feet tall by the end of the summer!

 Went to the Utah State Fair:

She thought this was pretty great!  And I'm sure Jon did too...

Kid's Farm Days at the State Fair- She wasn't sure what it was all about, but she got to wear a fun apron and carry a bucket, and that was reason enough to enjoy it!

Enjoyed the warm evenings and beautiful sunsets:

From our back porch.

Planned a camping trip, then it snowed, so we braved it and went anyway:

Everything is better in the camping chair.

It was beautiful in the morning, but we were just a little cold the night before.  Ok, a lot. But we still enjoyed the trip! And the tent heater.

As long as she wasn't stuck inside of it, the tent was WAY fun.

Leaves starting to change-such a pretty day.

October: 

Enjoyed General Conference:

 

 Sofia wore her costume as often as she could:

 

 

We carved pumpkins: 

Ate pieces of the carved pumpkins:

Ok, only Sofia actually ate it. And she ate multiple pieces. 

Went trick-or-treating:

And helped me hand out candy, until she was all worn out:

We've already had several adventures in November, but I will save those until I have the whole month (and more time) to post. 

Sofia is growing up so fast, she suddenly is too tall for several pairs of pants, is retesting all of her (and our) limits, and surprises us pretty much every day with how much she learns.  She sang the ABC's to Jon the other day, which was the first time she'd really done it on her own.  She is a little mimic, she'll hear something once and repeat it back.  She loves dressing and undressing, and usually comes out of her room from 'napping' in either a new outfit, or just additions to the outfit she was wearing before the nap.  I think the highest number of shirts she's had on after her nap was 4.  She loves singing, has started singing along with her favorite movies, any song she recognizes, and still dances to any available music. She makes us laugh often, and is very opinionated about things like what she has for breakfast, which movie she watches, and where Zoey is sitting. 

Blog-A-Thon

I have been terrible about keeping things up to date on here, so I've decided to try and give an update of what we've been doing for the past several months.  Here are some highlights of our last 5 months in pictures:

March:

We started venturing outside more, SO ready for Spring!!

We started seeing signs of life in the yard, I started to feel like I had survived the dark winter months again:

Months of planting, watering, and adjusting the grow lights gave us quite the collection of flowers and veggies growing inside ready to go into the ground: 

We had Easter, and Sofia wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but she certainly enjoyed her Easter basket:

Yum, candy!  If she could only get the egg open...

April

Discovered the joys of glow stick necklaces and bracelets:

 

Visited Washington DC on a work trip:

SO excited about the elephant at the Natural History Museum!

Talking all about that elephant

One of her favorite sites-the ducks.

Photobomb!

Another favorite site- The lion outside our hotel's door.

May:

This was a busy month, with a birthday to celebrate!

Beautiful Spring blossoms: 

A trip to the Baby Animal Birthday Party at Thanksgiving Point: 

First pony ride-we weren't sure how this would go, I thought she'd be scared, but she absolutely loved it!

 

We finally caught this on camera-this was her favorite facial expression for a few weeks:

A birthday trip to the zoo, since it was an elephant themed party: 

Watching the seals swim by

The carousel ride that didn't actually happen-she was terrified! I thought she'd be thrilled after handling a pony ride so well!

And a birthday party, of course!

June:

We enjoyed being outside in the warm weather, and Sofia loves her 'Wimming cool' as she calls it:

We took a trip to Wyoming:

Red Canyon on South Pass-so beautiful

The backyard visitor at my parent's house

Watching Finding Nemo with Grandpa and the cousins

July:

Found the camera during church that I forgot to take out of the diaper bag: 

Decided to just go ahead and put on her favorite PJ's (the 'elephant jammies') over the top of the ones she was already wearing.  She hasn't quite mastered this yet: 

 

Cheeser.

August:

Took a trip to California, which is covered in my last post :)

Kept up our annual tradition of watching the Perseid meteor shower.  Used our camera and tripod to get some cool night sky pics: 

 

Time elapse photo of the night sky showing the rotation of the earth:

The bright corner is from the light pollution from the city.  I see a trip to the middle of nowhere in our future to try and get one without that problem :)

Tried out a ponytail, it looks darn cute!  Too bad it doesn't stay in longer than about 1/2 an hour:

Sofia started climbing out of her crib, so we converted it to a toddler bed.  Now she plays more than sleeps, but eventually gets exhausted enough that she will finally give in:

And since she is so dang tired, she often wakes up on the 'wrong side of the bed' from her afternoon naps (when she takes one):

But she takes care to make sure all of the toys that she insists on being in her bed with her are able to get some rest, even if she doesn't.

And most of the time, she's a sweet, funny, entertaining kid:

And-- you made it through my blog-a-thon!  That is definitely not everything we've done over the last several months, but hopefully you've enjoyed the highlights.