Memorial Day

For Memorial Day, Derek woke up early and worked all day to finish my parents' beautiful block retaining wall. Then Sofie, Derek and I walked down to the cemetary to see Derek's Grandparents' graves. We're so grateful for the awesome weather we had today! Now the yard is ready for Roo's Mission Farewell.

Here is the lovely garden that Derek first made ready, and that my mom put together. (Derek and I planted the chives) We were so excited to be able to use our radishes, chives, and spinach already this week!

Workin' hard!

Still a little bit more work to be done around the stairs, but the rest of the wall is done!

Fort Collins, CO

Brother Tommy graduated last week from CSU with his masters in "Natural Resources Stewardship; Forest Rangeland and Watershed Stewardship." Basically he got his masters in getting paid to hang out in the forest. The multiple car caravan made the trip to Fort Collins to enjoy a riveting graduation ceremony.


All the siblings (minus Scott who is working for the Forest Service Fire Management this summer in Cedar City). Tommy made sure he had a well groomed mustache for the occasion!



Us being bored during the ceremony. Of course, out of over 700 graduates, Tommy was the 5th to the last name called...
(Sofie was interested in the program even though it only had lists of graduate names and no pictures.)



Pictures of the family visiting Horsetooth Reservoir overlooking Fort Collins.



Sofie "Hermione" Blatter having fun and practicing her wizardry at the city park.


Posing at the other park we visited (they had one every two blocks or so).

Sofie exhausted after all of our running around.


Sofie and dad visiting Rocky Mountain National Park.

Baby Tricks

TRIANGULARS: the best birthday desert. This was a Centennial II apartment 14 classic! Thanks Roo for remembering the greatness. They're so easy and tasty! Just mix up a cake as the box directs and instead of baking it in the oven you just use a sandwhich maker. Pour it in and a couple minutes later you have a triangular, perfect with your choice of frosting.

Clapping

Whatever this is called

The first day of official crawling from one place to another. On my birthday! She takes the pegleg approach. One stiff leg that pushes and the other one bent underneath. So cute. A little inefficient, but it works!

Derek's Project

Derek has been working this Spring on building my parents a new retaining wall in their backyard. Hard work! He also turned their old swingset/sandbox into a new spot for a garden.

The wonderful and heavy block.

Working hard! Note the cute garden there to the left. Derek is actually a lot further along now, but I haven't had a chance to get an updated picture.

Quarter Century!

Today is my birthday! I'm 25...granny! It's been one long day of birthday fun all weekend. It all started on Wednesday when my family and I all went out to Bombay House (Indian food is one of my all time favs!). Then Saturday I had some long time high school friends over for homemade pizzas (dough courtesy Pizza Factory). Sunday, was of course Mother's Day, my very first one (and I had to give a talk in church!) so Derek gave me my gift then. Now, today is finally my real birthday but I don't think there is anything planned! And of course, I woke up with a terrible sore throat, and Sofie's got somethin' brewing as well. :(

Opening Derek's Mother's Day/B-day gift to me!
A Queen size memory foam mattress pad. The best thing in the whole world!! I haven't slept that well in a long long time! So amazing!


The birthday party. And of course, as always, lots of babes. Ashlynn, Chloe, and Sofie. (Serena's isn't due for another week or so, and Lisa's didn't come, so there could have been even more!)

The topping spread.

Derek and I didn't plan the matching shirts, I promise!

Pic of the Day & Bloopers!

yikes!

Happy Mother's Day to me! So Cute!

8 months

Learning to stand against stuff! Don't worry, Mama's near by!

Sofie Winfrey

For a good laugh

Pic of the Day

I can't tell you how nice it is to know she is a happy baby!

Learnin' to Crawl!

I am sooooo close to losing my freedom! But I'm very excited to see Sofie is learning how to crawl! I won't be able to eat or shower, for years to come, as I will soon be chasing a mobile Sofie. She has also sprouted a little tooth on the bottom this week. I didn't know she had it until she bit down on my finger the other day. She didn't do the typical fussy baby thing that I had expected, hopefully we're just as lucky with the other teeth...