Oh, Sofia is 4!

In Celebration of my beautiful, mischievious daughter Sofia Caroline and the glorious event of her turning 4!  Can you believe my baby is 4.  I cannot.  Anyway I am going to write 44 marvelous things about my daughter.

1.  She Loves Pink.  It's her favorite color.  You should ask her.  She also loves purple and yellow is her third favorite just like her mom.

2. Sofia loves to snuggle.  And wants someone to snuggle her to sleep every night.   She has a great fear at night.  Not of anything in particular.  She just is afraid and wants someone near. Her daddy and Aunt Christel were the same way as kids

3.  She loves to hide.  And when she is ready to fall asleep.  She burrows herself underneath the covers so that nothing is showing and falls asleep.  One of her favorite games is hide and seek.  She begs anyone who will to play with her.

4.  Sofia is a fabulous ballerina.  Everyday all day she is dancing.  Going on her tiptoes,  doing her "Bal-leaps", and twirling.  She plays pretend ballet teacher and ballet class.  She loves everything about it.

5.  She has a lot of imaginary friends.  One named "Headda".  She is a girl and loves to play with her.  You often hear Sofia say "oh, that is just like a Headda".  Her other friend is "Chitaa" sometimes things are "like a Headda and a Chitta" and she laughs and laughs.\

6.  So far Sofia has had 2 husbands.  The first one Sal, died of old age.  And now she is married to the dashing Dom.  He is a good husband, goes to work, watches her kids and they have a LOT of love songs.  And he loves to dance with her and kiss a very long time.

7.  This girl loves to sing.  When she was littler she would sing, I would run cause I thought she was yelling.  As she has grown, she has a beautiful voice and can carry a tune.  Most of her songs she makes up herself.  Yesterday she made up the "song you sing to hot dogs"  and the "Christmas Magic Elf song".

8.  She makes up words and has her own language.  Like she says "that is pet er abba.  or 'her name is deeboe etc and etc.  or like dance like a firea

9.   She never says that something is beautiful, It is always "beautifuller"

10.  When she is saying something she deems important she smacks her lips together between words.

11.  She has a great love for the computer.  She says she is doing her "computer checks".  She loves disney jr.com and barbie.com.

12. She is so beautiful that her Dad and brother faint all the time when she is ready for church or the day.
She was so confused when the boys at school did not faint on Halloween when she was Tangled.  We had to explain that they were little and did not understand true beauty yet.

13. Any time she kisses her Uncle Nik he faints.  And it can happen over and over again.  Luckily Nik got some Kissing proof armor.

14.  Sofia now has armor too.  It is invisible.  But she has pinching proof armor,  tickle proof armor,  Luckily she does not have kiss or hug proof armor yet.

15  When she grows up she wants to be a Mom, a doctor and a ballerina.

16. Dentist is one of her favorite games.  She puts on gloves and a mask, has a flashlight and looks inside your mouth.

17.She says she has Green eyes like Rapunzel.  But her eyes are really blue.

18. Her favorite lunch is Macaroni and cheese.

19.  She loves to eat meat.  Especially, Chicken, Ham, beef, ribs, salomi,  You name it she loves it.

20.Her favorite doll is Bella,  a Madame Alexander Baby that Annie Rutherford gave her when she was born.

21  She also has twin babies dolls and their names are Eliza and Sally.

22. When she wakes up in the morning she instantly turns into a puppy.  Specifically a Chocolate dog, who wants chocolate milk.

23. She taught her mom that to help your body get out of bed in the morning you need to stretch two times.  She taught me that.

24.  She LOVES to color and to draw.  All day everyday you find her coloring.

25.  Lately I have been finding artwork on things throughout the house.  For example:  the laundry basket, the cupboards.  Dad's Xbox.  We had to have a long talk about what is okay to color and paint on.  I don't think it helps that she see her mom painting furniture etc all the time.

26.  Every morning she has to throw a random major fit about something.  Usually her clothes or breakfast.  It gets old but we know what to expect.

27.  This girl is Passionate about life.

28.  She has the most joyous, wonderful, fabulous Laugh.  It is my favoirte sound  to hear her laughing.

29.  Noah always plays a game in the car.  She likes to play too.  It is funny to hear her make explosion noises and kill bad guys with her pink gun.

30.  Sometimes a Cinderella coach and fairies help us fight the bad guys.  Magic wands and blasting fireworks help too.

31.  All day she plays pretend.  She plays house, princesses, ponies,  doggies, kitties, dentist, doctor, teacher, fighting the bad guys and anything else she makes up.

32.  She LoVEs Chocolate, She NEedS Chocolate, She Wants Chocolate.  Chocolate.

33. She calls Bobby pins = Fireworks.  And asks me to put fireworks in her hair.

34.  She loves to pretend that she can read.  And loves loves loves to be read too.

35.  She is not an easy one to distract away from something she has decided she wants or is right.  She is not easily fooled or persuaded.

She made this face even when she was a baby and upset

36.  Sometimes when she is throwing a huge fit and having a meltdown.  If you start to pretend she is a baby.  She will calm down much more quickly.

37.  She wants her belly rubbed all the time.

38.  She is obsessed with "Lips".  That is chapstick, lipgloss, lipstick and all the above.

39.  Lotion and hand sanitizer seem to be two of her favorite things.

40.  She never stops talking.  She chatters away all day long about everything and everything.

41.  If she stays in her bed all night long she gets to pick her clothes in the morning.  If she sneaks upstairs to Mom and Dads bed we get to pick her clothes.  This is fate worse than death.

42. She knows she is beautiful and I hope she continues this.  She says with confidence.  I have long beautiful legs, curly hair and big feet.

43.She still wants me to hold her all the time. instead of asking if I will pick her up, she says "I want to hold someone."

44.  She loves to say:  "Guess What?  Guess What?  Guess What?  until you say a bit annoyed "What?'
and in a very sweet voice she says "I Love You."

Don't forget to scroll down a bit and see her performance on the Stage.

Christmas Highlights 2011

Nativity

Every year growing up.

Before we could open presents from each other on Christmas Eve.

We reenacted the nativity.

My mom asked us to do it again this year.

I personally think we were a lot cuter when we were little.

But Look at those angels,  they are stinkin adorable!

And Joseph and Mary were marvelous parents.

And as per tradition, Nik was Caeser Augustus and the Donkey!

It was great fun!  So glad we did it

Oma Christel got her Christmas wish

Christel Auguste Flurer, 87, returned to her heavenly home on December 11th, 2011. Christel was, born December 13th, 1923 in Fischhausen Germany. She was the youngest of 5 children. She married the love of her life, Rolf Flurer in Germany.

They started their family in Germany, but decided to come to the United States to provide a better future for their children. Christel and her family moved to the United States in 1959. She was sealed to her family in the Salt Lake City Temple shortly after arriving in the U.S. Christel and Rolf raised three children; two sons and one daughter.
Christel remains a brilliant example of faith, personal strength and charity. She served in various callings in the L.D.S church and opened her home to everyone. Christel never hesitated to help those in need.

Christel is preceded in death by her parents and her husband. She is survived by her children; Heinz (Monika) Flurer, Joseph (Deanne) Flurer, Judith (Larry) Wilkins and her 9 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 AM on Friday December 16th at the Kenwood 2nd Ward, 3080 South 1765 East S.L.C., UT. A viewing will precede Funeral Services from 9:00 AM to 9:45 AM.

2nd Grade Star of the Week

Noah is the Star of the Week.

He made this poster at the first of the year.

He is really proud of it.

He pointed out that the poster is now wrong.

Since tonight at Karate, he just got his blue belt.

To me, this boy is a star all the time.

Sofia's Dancing Debut on the Stage

Sofia in her Stage Costume

 Sofia started taking Dance in the fall.

Every Wednesday there is a whirlwind of excitement as we ready ourselves to go.

To her real ballet class.

Her teacher is Ms Stacy and she loves her.

All day everyday we play ballet teacher, ballet class, dancing etc.

In other words she is obsessed.

That is one of the reasons we put her in a class.

 She had two performances.

One at the Festival of Trees 

and the other at their Dance Recital.

Her costume is so adorable, with the gloves, the yellow and the flower.

She got to wear makeup.

Luckily she had a birthday party to go to earlier in the day to break it up.

I LOVE this,  it brings me almost as much excitement and joy 

that it gives her.  It was so so fun.

Kristin (13) and Sofia after the Performance

She was spectacular. 

Kersten admitted a couple songs in that it 

actually was really fun to watch these recitals.

The kids are so so hysterically adorable. 

My brother Nik and his wife Lena even got her flowers for her performance.

Video of Sofia's Dance

I just filmed this on my point and shoot camera but you get the idea

Lights on Temple Square

Every year the day after Thanksgiving

We have a marvelous party downtown

with my husbands fam.

We eat amazing food 

hang at the Plaza

And see the glorious lights on Temple Square

In Salt Lake City.

bundled up family

 It is always crowded.

This year a bit bitter cold.

Magical.

This is one of my very favorite traditions ever.

I look forward to it every year.

Sofia by the pink lights

 Sofia is at the age where everything is 

wonderful,

magical,

and extra special.

She loved every minute of it.

She saw the Christus through the window of the visitors center

and insisted we go up there.

It was so packed we barely got up there.

The look on her face as she gazed at the statue of Jesus

made the crowds and hassle totally worth it.

At least for me

Noah under the "Red Tree" we got engaged by

Noah is older and it getting into stories of our little families history.

It was a big deal to him that this is the tree, we got engaged by.

They both wanted to walk around to see the nativities from around the world

just to see the cute baby Jesus'.

This was a marvelous night.

Ask Me about Dom

A couple weeks ago  on a tuesday,  my Sofia informed me that her husband Sal had died.  He had been her husband for a couple of months.  She would wax poetic about what they did together and that "he Love me".  I was horrified that my son in law Sal (who I always secretly thought was a trucker) had died.  He died of old age.

"He was really really old."

 She informed me then, that she had married Dom that afternoon in the Juna Temple.
I asked her to tell me about him.

"Well, He is a husband."

Like a husband is some kind of species.

She then explained that he had spiky hair that is dark.  He is tall and big.  He is a good dancer at a ball.  He loves to use keys.  And he likes to eat fish.

And he is really old.  He is eighteen.

Sounds like an amazing husband

Happy Halloween 2011

Add caption

 Happy Halloween!

Good Ninja with Stealth and Awesome fighting moves

I am Tangled, you have to dance and make funny faces

Mashed Potatoes I think

courtesy of KFC

I wish I could sit down and type something witty, sarcastic and so funny your gut would hurt.  I have blogged numerous times during my sleepless, hacking, coughing nights, mulling through all the thoughts in my head, finding that one who would be worthwhile to actually sit down and type as fast as my fingers would allow.  They are all just mashed up like potatoes, gooey and messy.  Sticking to all the corners in my mind.  So I decided to just spread the potatoes all over the plate and sculpt them into a volcano until gravy erupts all over.

You would hope as you grow older that you would learn that others opinions do not matter in the scheme of things.  And that you would stew and simmer the little things someone has said over and over until you go a bit dizzy.  A thoughtless word or joke turns into bubbling cider that its so hot it burns.  The way you want to be.... is not how you are seen... and you have to be okay with that.  The endless talking and talking.  More thinking ....All any of us can do is our best right.  As they say 'until you walk in their shoes or my shoes".  So I have to tear down walls brick by brick.  Keep trying and moving forward,  doing and being my best, moment to moment.

Now I am choking on my next thought,  I can't swallow,  Oh, oh, oh,oh, oh
I was called to the principals office.  And not for my son, but for me.
 And if you want to get technical it was the Vice principal i actually spoke with.
Did she really just say he has been Tardy NINE times and it is only October?
Yep I am an awesome Parent.  I swear it has not been that much.

Oh, and now a private meeting with the teacher.
heart hurting again, pressure behind my eyes.......
It has happened, it is beginning.
Oh, how being a mother can hurt.
Grateful it was swiftly, artfully handled.
Noah did not even hear a thing.
Small blessings.
So nice an apology email from one of their dads.
Kids can be so mean.
Wow, my boy has so much self confidence.
Another blessing.

I seem not to be able to stay on top of everthing this school year.
I did remember picture day at Sofia's preschool.
She really is stunning.
Wow,  my girl is beautiful.  I am not bias in any way.
She is a tough one, my Fia.
Her new things is that she can't walk and I have to hold her.
Luckily sometimes her legs can still hop like a bunny,
waddle like a penquin or crawl like a puppy.
It seems to get us to where we need to go.

Picture by Ashleigh Butler

Oh, she has a kissable face.

And just for so you all know who I hung out with this weekend

My Brother in law Jason

Creepy isn't he.....

Things you might have missed

june 2011

 Kersten's work had a trivia contest.

And Team Ninja Zombie reached the final 2.

Do you LOVE their t-shirts?

Pure luck that Kersten got questions he for sure knew about

like Arrested Development and Green Day.

And as luck would have it THEY WON

and he got a gift card to the movie theatre that basically

we could take our family to 2 movies a month.

This is how we saw Pirates, Smurfs, Harry Potter, Cars 2, The boys saw Transformers,

Noah and I saw Captain America, X-Men First Class etc

So we really took advantage of this card and even got popcorn too.

We still have a bit on it and we are saving it.

We are a movie loving family so it has been an extra treat this summer and on.

Aug 2011

 Yes. this is our family at a Mustache Party.

We look totally awesome.

Everyone at Grahams birthday had to wear a mustache.

Maybe for my birthday I will have a 

Aug 2011

 An In-N-Out Burger opened close to our house.

Everyday we would drive past it.

Noah would update us on it's progress and what was new.

We have gone a couple times since it opened.

On one of the visits our kids received Hats.

For 3 days straight my kids played In-N-Out

they would take orders and make burgers.

I heard them laughing so hard once and when I asked them what happened

Apparently, Phineas and Ferb's dad (Lawrence Fletcher)

kept coming in trying to order a chicken salad.

And they only serve burgers.

It was hysterical and they were entertained for days.

Sept 2011

Hooray!

We got a new car, a Honda Pilot 2005.

My Corolla had 3 big things break in a week.

So we traded it in.

LOVE my new car.

I love the space, the way it drives.

It makes me happy.

Noah and Sofia named it the BHB

the Blue Honey Badger.

The Honey Badger is the fiercest in the animal kingdom.

Just ask YouTube. 

Sept 20,2011

 Sofia went on her first field trip to the Apple Orchard.

Her cousin Kaitlyn went to her preschool last year and came with us.

It was super fun.

We went on a hay ride and got to pick apples and leaves.

She was really excited to meet the farmer.

And was very disappointed when Farmer Randy

did not wear a hat and overall.

Sept 21,2011

For Amy's Birthday all she wanted was 

The Captain Jack Sparrow Barbie.

We went on a treasure hunt to find him.

It was delightful and delicious.  

We found him and he is absolutely beautiful.

I collect Barbies too and have not wanted one for awhile.

But Johnny Depp is just to beautiful for words.

In all forms including Barbie form. 

Sept 2011

 Sofia loves her picture taken.

She wanted a picture in the new car

Pretending to sleep.

She usually wears her jammies to drop Noah off unless it is a school day for her.

Silly little woman.

Sept 23,2011

 Noah class learned about the Constitution.

His whole class can recite the Preamble 

and do it in Sign Language.

It was really impressive.

They went on a Field Trip to the State Capital

and had to dress up like one of the delegates from 

the Constitutional Convention.

Noah was assigned a delegate from Virginia

named Edmund Randolph.

He could not make up his mind so he didn't sign.

Luckily we have hookups.

Papa Al has period clothes.

So everything but Noah's socks and shoes are period.

He was the hero in school.

I came in the day before to show them the clothes and a powdered horn.

I love the hat.  I think he looks rather dashing!  Don't You?

Fly Like an Eagle

I helped out at Noah's school on Monday.
I was the spelling helper.
One of the words this week is eagle.
I asked the kids if they knew how to fly like an eagle.
One kids said he could if he used a hang glider.
Most of the kids gave me blank stares.
Which made me sad, cause this means they are growing up.
After I demonstrated flying like an eagle across the room
while spelling the word eagle.
Some of the kids totally got it after that.
I had a lot of fun helping out.

Later that night, I asked Noah if he liked me helping out.
'Oh Yeah"
I said that it was fun seeing his friends and meeting his new friends.
Then he proceeds to tell me that Tyson said at recess

"Your mom is kinda weird"
Noah responds  "yeah she is"
Tyson says "Is she always like that ?"
Noah clarifies  "yep all the time'

I have arrived..... My sons friends think I am a bit crazy.  I love it
This has made me smile all week.

Eyeshadow

 Imagine me sewing, happily talking to my friend, while Sofia and Dylan play downstairs.

All is peaceful and their is enough noise that your not worried to much.

Sofia comes running upstairs so so excited.

"Mom, mom look at my eyeshadow"

Yes that is blue marker and she is elated about how beautiful she is.

 Dylan looked so guilty so we asked him what happened.

It was all Sofia's idea and he watched. 

Even though it is washable she still has a bit of blue on her eyes.

What a silly little woman.

Best Sunday of the Year

The Primary Program is really the best Sunday of the year.  Yesterday was no exception.  My kids were pure entertainment.  We spent the week and morning before church beautifying them and practicing their parts.  I look forward to this every year.  And I know the Primary Presidency works really hard on this.

Now for my kids,  Shall we start with the oldest

Noah:    who is 7 

The entire time he looked like he was extremely tired and totally bored.  He had a dead pan look on his face.  He was wearing his "James Bond outfit"  from Ginny's wedding with no tie.   He rarely sang the songs except every once in awhile one of the sentences.  Kersten made the comment that he needed to teach Noah the "watermelon" trick.   The boys and their Dads sang the 3rd verse of Praise to the Man together.  Noah just stared into the microphone.  One of the Sunbeams was singing his heart out,  which made this fabulous.  

When it was his turn to do his speaking part
which was to be about how he loves the stories of war in the Book of Mormon, such as the Armies of Helaman and Captain Moroni.
He swaggers up to the microphone as if to say "I am going to nail this"
and says " I love the temple because we get married there, not on the beach or in a church but in the temple" and struts back to his seat.
Kersten and I were laughing so hard that the bench was shaking.  A couple behind us tapped us on the shoulder and said that it was their favorite part of the program so far.  He spoke with such confidence and was factual.  This is the boy who at the age of 3 played Star Wars and flung Spiderman webs all over the stand during the program.

Now for my Sofia: who is 3

This girl said she looked Perfect.  She wore her Easter dress and a flower headband

 she got from Avery's birthday party (Kieran's daughter).

She threw a huge fit before church because she had to wear makeup,

so chapstick was smeared all around her mouth and on her cheeks.

because it was a "special occasion"  I gave in and put a bit of eyeshadow on her eyes.

When on the stand her hair had flipped over the headband and was in her eyes.

She attempted to sing only her favorite songs. 

She started rolling her eyes into the back of her head and 

pulling on them so you could see the whites of her eyes. 

She has dancing fingers so they were all over during the music. 

Our favorite part was when she starting swaying back and forth like Stevie Wonder, 

looking up toward the ceiling, bumping into the kid next to her. 

When her turn came up for her speaking part... That morning she had it down pat.  

She was suppose to talk about how she loved the temple because her mom and dad got married there.  

And that we are a family forever.

She talked all week about how she got to talk in a real microphone.

She says "I love the temple, it's great.  I go there. "

Gives her million dollar grin and bounces back to her seat.

And her parents go into another round of hysterics.  

Their performances were really quite epic.  

At least our children offered up some entertainment in church yesterday.

They made me proud.

Painting Sofia's Kitchen

Before

 Last weekend Dad went backpacking, so Sofia and I decided to do something fun.

We painted her kitchen.  This kitchen used to be mine when I was a girl.

As you can see it needed a little tender love.

Sofia had to help so I put one of my paint shirts on her.

And we began.

I love painting furniture.

I love the evolution of it all.

As something old looks fresh and new.  

After

I painted it a retro blue color.  

I matched the color of the paper that I made her light switch and the letter I in her name.

I LOVE how it turned out.

Originally I was going to get some red and pink flower handles from Hobby Lobby.

And I still might get them.  I had these knobs hangin around so I used them

Sofia loves her new kitchen. 

That is blue, the "color of moonlight" just like Cinderellas dress.

I am very happy with how it turned out.

I was nervous how it would look on her bright pink walls

I think it turned out fantastic.

I bought 3 cans of paint at Home Depo 

and all of them were different shades of blue for different parts of my house

Hmm,  I see a theme right now.