Sophie turns 12!?

How did my baby Sophie turn 12!? She is such a sweetheart. We are so thankful for such a wonderful girl who is the greatest big sister. She was such a feisty little girl from birth to about age 5 and has slowly gotten easier and easier. We sure love her. She's so much fun and a great example to us all, she reads her scriptures every day and is helpful and kind to everyone. She loves basketball, softball, cross country, reading, excelling in school (she's a straight A student!), camping, nature, playing the piano and violin and being with her friends.

Birthday breakfast!

We got a basketball hoop for her birthday!

Birthday pie! We had ordered all new appliances (hooray!) earlier in the month and they arrived on Sophie's birthday! So Brian spent the entire day assembling things. First the basketball hoop and then all our kitchen appliances. It was a chore!

Brian stayed up until 5am the next day getting all our appliances up and going. The dishwasher had a hose that wasn't working so he had to replace it before installing it. He's so patient at doing stuff like this! Sophie was a good sport just hanging out at home on her birthday.

A few nights later we had a Harry Potter sleepover with her two best friends, Camille and Annabelle. We made library bags, wands and potions and butterbeer then they watched the last two Harry Potter movies.

Summer softball.

Sophie played softball again and we loved watching her play. She had a great team and had fun playing.

Baller

 Sophie played basketball again this winter and loved it. Her team improved SO much from last year! Last year they won 0 games and this year they got 5th place overall. It's been really fun to watch her do something she loves!

Birthday girl!

Sophie turned 11 in July! Crazy. She is as sweet as they get.

Grandma and daddy took her to a local bakery and she picked out a yummy cinnamon roll. Grandma was nice and brought home doughnuts for all the other kiddos.

Grandma and Nora working on Sophie's 8 layer cake!

So lucky to have Grandma here on her birthday!

She is so easygoing it was tough to find a great present for her. There was nothing she could think of that she wanted! We got her an American Girl violin set for her doll, which she was excited about.

And we gave her some cash to take with her on a trip to Chicago we had planned so she could see her best friend Ellie from Michigan.

Such a lovely, sweet and wonderful girl!

Good times.

Sophie had her last basketball games of the season last Saturday. And though her team didn't win any games, they really learned a lot and had fun (7 out of 10 of the girls had never played before!)

Nora of course is wearing all blue for Sophie's team color and made signs for us all to hold up to cheer the team on. Miles' friend had some fancy technology so I'm sure the boys saw 0% of the last game, but that means that Brian and I saw it all. Win-win situation.

Sophie plays hard and gets red cheeks :)

Nora wants to grow her out her hair like Rapunzel. She's getting pretty close!

It was a balmy 47 degrees here last week which meant no coats on our walk to get the kids from school! And lots of puddles to splash in.

The boys and I played a game of Labyrinth while Brian was out of town to a conference. They love this game, even though we may not play it like it's meant to be played.

Just an every day after school mess of coats, games, homework, etc. I can't wait to put the coats, boots, hats, gloves, and scarves AWAY.

While Brian was gone I painted the office/baby room from yellow to blue-ish. The boys liked helping and did a pretty good job not getting too messy. On a side note, Wesley wants to name baby brother Wesley and Miles wants to name him Root Beer or Miles Jr. :)

 

The day Brian got home from his conference we walked to the library and watched a play. Here Sophie is reading a book on archeology while walking home.

We also used the last of some coupons we got as a Christmas gift (in 2012...) and went out for ice cream to Ella's Deli. Always a great way to end a Saturday!

It's nice to have Brian back, even though he was gone only 3 days we miss him when he's not home with us! We are looking forward to 40 degree weather this week. Hurry Spring!