Catching Up

I know, I know. It's been almost 2 months since my last post and now I have 2 in one night. I'm just crazy & unpredictable like that...or maybe I'm just not meant to be a blogger. You pick.
Anyway, I'll try to catch you all up to speed. We've had a trip to Wisconsin and a cute little girl who turned TWO between then and now, so there's lots of pictures of both events!

Until I gather the photos and get things in order, here are a few of my favorite pics from the end of summer to tide you over.

"By the door"

Lately I've been trying to be better about having Sophie help out around the house so that the idea of chores isn't a foreign concept to her down the road. So tonight, as I was getting her ready for bed tonight, I took off her shoes and asked her to put them by the door. I assumed that she was familiar enough with watching us take off our shoes and put them on the mat we have placed "by the door." When she didn't come back with her shoes, I figured she completed the job. After I put her to bed and came back out to the living room, this is what I found:


Now that's what I call putting your shoes "by the door"! Hilarious.

Lovin' the Hand-Me-Downs!

My grandmother passed away a little over a year ago, before she had a chance to meet Sophie, who was only a few months old at the time. She had a large jewelry collection, and I saved some for Sophie to have for playing dress-up when she was older. I thought it would be a nice way to keep her memory alive in our home and something for Sophie to know is from her great-grandmother.

Sophie has had a thing for beaded necklaces (the Mardi-Gras kind) ever since her sitter gave her one back in January. I haven't been wearing much jewelry this summer, but this morning I put on a necklace (not the Mardi-Gras kind). Sophie noticed immediately and wanted to wear it, so I decided it was time to get out Great-Grandma Trettel's jewelry. It was a HUGE hit!


Yesterday, my co-worker and friend, Gary, gave us this really cool stove play set with some pots & pans to go with it. His twin boys are seven and are to "cool" for a toy kitchen. I have been wanting a kitchen set for Sophie, but we don't have a lot of space for one. This one is perfect because it's small and fits perfectly into a little corner in our dining room. Here is Sophie riding her scooter bike from Oskar & Poppy, wearing her necklace from great-grandma Trettel, while cooking on her new stove from Gary's boys. (And, yes, I eventually got her dressed for the day.)

Summertime Photo Dump

I think this is going to be my all-time favorite picture from this summer. It captures everything I love about Sophie as well as how I feel on the inside about it being summertime!

Sophie loves putting shirts on her head. It's just her "thing" right now. It makes her feel all warm inside.

Same day. Different shirt. Same style.

Different day. Different shirt. Same style.

She loves her phone. She likes to chit-chat with Elmo every now and then.

Love the sunglasses up on her head mimicking how mommy wears her's.

Barefoot in the yard = summertime bliss!

My first attempt at braided pigtails. They didn't last long, though.

Daddy & his girl all fancied up for Grandpa's birthday celebration!

The 4th of July is always kinda sad for me. It marks the halfway point of summertime goodness. You can bet I'll be savoring the next 5 weeks with my shnug.

Scott's House

My big brother has been designing and constructing his home for the past two years...if not longer. However, I can safely say he's been dreaming it up in his head since he was, oh, probably six or seven. I'm sure it's taken a few twists and turns in its design during those 25 years or so, but it is finally becoming a reality.

You see, my brother isn't just an architect. He's an artist. His work is not just throwing together something that looks nice and that main-stream America would like. He's not concerned about main-stream America at all...in fact, his opinions about main-stream America houses are probably R-rated. I digress.

Anyway, this house is a reflection of himself and how he and his family live life. It is his art. I know I'm biased, but my brother truly is a genius and this house is a labor of love for him. He has designed every part of it down to the doors and windows. Heck, he even MADE the doors and windows himself. A few people have helped him here and there, but he has done most of the work with his own hands. Scott designed it with environmentally conscious materials and they will pretty much be able to live "off the grid."

Can you tell I'm proud of him? Yeah. I am. But I'm also very glad that the end is in sight and life will go back to "normal" (whatever that may be) in about a month. Oh, did I mention that he and his wife are expecting their third child about 2 weeks after their move-in date. Talk about being pressed for time.

Okay, I'll stop bragging now and show you a few pics of the place.

All the way to the right is the garage. There is a covered walkway to the house. The main entry is right in the middle...you can see the double doors to the right of the truck bed.

This is the hallway that leads to the master bedroom. Not shown, but just to the right of me are the kids' rooms and bathroom. The windows to the left look out to the courtyard, and the windows in the master (straight down the hallway) look out into the backyard.

Turning 45 degrees from where I was standing in the previous picture leads to this view of their kitchen/"dining" room. All of the windows to the right have a view of the courtyard/backyard and the windows to the left look onto the front yard. Up above are a series of skylights all the way down.

This was taken at the other end of the room, looking back to where I was standing to take the previous picture. On the wall behind Oskar will be the kitchen area. The light coming in at the top of the wall is from skylights.

The half-bath. (Notice part of the pipe missing on the sink...yeah, I turned on the water and made a mess on the floor. Luckily, the tarp was down for idiots like me that just want to try out the sink.)

The picture above and below are of Amy's art studio. It is a beautiful space.

The windows and door you can see here lead out to the courtyard.

This is a set of doors in the kitchen/dining area that lead out to the front porch area and the driveway. See Sophie? :)

Hanging out in the courtyard.

That is the outside of the master bedroom.

That is Amy's studio to the right and the kitchen/dining area to the left.

Pretty much the same picture as above. Their backyard reaches out to the right of this picture all the way to the river. They'll have a HUGE backyard and will never have to worry about backyard neighbors.

Visit to Lawrence

I got to go visit my brother and his family in Lawrence last week. Matt couldn't go because of work, which was sad, but Sophie and I went with my parents and we had a good trip. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We got there after lunch, and Sophie didn't sleep at all in the car, so we put her down for a nap right away. While she snoozed, we played with a new bubble toy that my mom brought for the kids. The bubbles it made were HUGE! The kids loved it and took turns until all the bubble liquid was gone!

Poppy was showing me how soapy her hands got from the bubbles.

After Sophie woke up, we walked over to their new house that is still under construction. It's getting close to completion, though, and they hope to move in by the first week of July. (I'll make another blog post with pictures of the house.) Poppy and Oskar took turns pushing Sophie in her stroller. They LOVED Sophie and doted over her the whole time we were there. (You can see how pregnant Amy is in the picture above. She is due mid-July...which makes getting into the new house even more important!)

That's my brother, Scott, on the right watching the kiddos. Poppy pretty much never left Sophie's side.

My dad and brother talking about house stuff. Scott designed and constructed almost every element of the house (down to the doors and windows, too).

We tried so hard to get a good picture of the cousins together. These three were the best we could get.

Sophie really likes rocks, for some reason, so she entertained herself for a while.

LOVE this one!

I brought back a bunch of things Amy lent us when Sophie was born so she would have them when baby Iris arrives, including this bouncer. When we got back, the kids strapped Sophie in it and were bouncing her around like crazy. Luckily, she thought it was fun. We got a hilarious video of it on the camera, but I'm not sure how to upload it. I'll try to get that on the blog here in the next couple of days.

The next day we decided to go to the pool. It didn't open until 1pm, so we spent some time on the playground before we could get in to the pool.

Oskar went off the diving board for the first time ever while we were there! He was so brave!

The girls jumping in! (You can see Oskar walking up on the left.)

That's pretty much the whole trip. We left and headed home after the pool, thinking that Sophie would sleep the whole way home. We were so wrong. She only slept from Lawrence to Kansas City and was up the rest of the drive. Oh well, at least she's happy in the car.

It's hard to believe the next time we see them they will be in their new house and I'll have another niece! Sophie won't be the baby of the family anymore!