7 months old!

Our little miss is now 7 months old!!! It's unbelievable how fast it all goes!!

We don’t have another dr. visit until she’s 9 months old so I don’t have a weight update (even though I planned on weighing her myself today…and then completely forgot before I put her to bed!)  At 7 months she’s wearing mostly 9 month clothes (and a few 6 month pieces that still fit ok) and size 3 diapers.   She loves to spend time sitting up and playing with her toys…either on the floor or in her pack ‘n play.   She’s also been much happier now that she’s figured out how to sit up when she’s lying down.  She’s still scooting around backwards, and has also figured out that if she lies down, then sits up,   then lies down, then sits up again (repeat, repeat repeat) that she can cover more distance :)  She’s thisclose to figuring out how to crawl so I’m assuming she’ll be starting that any day now.

Sophie is a fairly good sleeper - she still sleeps through the night more often than not (although the past 3 nights have involved wake-ups between 2 and 4am!) but no matter what I try she’s still a serial cat-napper!!  She loves sleeping on her belly and insists on doing so no matter how many times I flip her to her back.  She makes a little tripod with her hands and rests her face on them (so she’s facing the mattress rather than turning her head to either side).  I’d try to get a picture but that could wake her up and none of us want that! 

Here’s a look at Sophie from months 1 to 7 :)

 

Rainy Day Fun!

Today is just dark, gloomy and rainy so we spent the day inside reading lots of books, doing puzzles, taking nice long naps (the girls - not me!) and relaxing.  When Addison got up from her nap this afternoon she was insistent about wearing a dress that her Gaza (grandma) made for her.  My mom is a fabulous knitter and had made this dress for Addison last year but it was a little too big then.  Now it’s fitting her perfectly!  Recently she made a coordinating outfit for Sophie so I decided to dress both the girls up and take a few pictures by the Christmas tree.

 

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Santa pictures

Last Friday Erik took the day off so we could take the girls for their Santa pictures.  I was less than hopeful that the picture would turn out well after last year’s fiasco.

Naturally, we arrived at Nordstrom just after 3pm to find a sign that said Santa was ‘feeding his reindeer’ until 4pm.  Of course.  So Erik got in line with Sophie while I tried to keep Addison from collecting balloons from the shoe department, riding up and down the escalator, touching EVERYTHING, tripping little kids…oh wait, that last one was just a joke :)

The time actually passed quickly (and we were second in line) so we got to head back right at 4:00.  We walked in the room Addison spotted Santa right away.  She immediately started jumping up and down saying “Hi, Santa Claus!”.  It was so cute…and made me hopeful that the picture wouldn’t be a complete disaster this year. 

Those of you who have met Sophie probably know that she is a little wary of people at first and really prefers to be held by mommy and daddy, so I was surprised that her first sight of Santa didn’t send her into hysterics.    After Addison chatted with Santa about her wish list (choo-choo train, Barbie dolls, babies, etc) we set Sophie down on Santa’s lap and backed away slowly…fingers crossed. 

I have to say that I was *thrilled* when this came in the mail yesterday.  Sophie may not be smiling but she’s not screaming so I’m happy!

Just for fun…here are Addison’s pics from 2008 and 2007.

               Is it wrong that I laugh out loud every time I see this?!?!

 

             So sweet at 9 months old…if we only knew then what we know now ;)

Fallen Lakewood Police Officers

I know anyone local is aware of the recent killing of four Lakewood Police Officers on Sunday, Nov. 29th.
http://police.cityoflakewood.us/

My friend Kerra knew one of the officers and his family well and has spent the past week organizing a benefit dinner and auction for the families of the fallen officers. The benefit is open to the public (and is free to attend) and will be held on Sunday, Dec 13 from 3pm-7pm at Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood.

I'm doing my best to help Kerra in every way I can by collecting items for the auction and raffle, and also by collecting financial donations.  If anyone is interested in donating here are the options:
- I've been collecting donations (cash/checks/PayPal) from family and friends and then will write one large check at the benefit along with a list of everyone who contributed. If you'd like to donate via PayPal you can do so at deniseopsahl@gmail.com
- You can write a check to Lakewood Police Independent Guild Charity Fund (501 c3) and give it to me to me to bring to the auction along with my check.
- You can donate directly to the Lakewood Police Independent Guild online at http://www.lpig.us/

This has been a very sad week and is just so tragic for the family and friends who lost someone that day...please keep them all in your prayers, especially tomorrow during the memorial service.

Halfway to 1 ???

This past Sunday (the 29th) was Sophie’s 6 month birthday!  6 months seems like such a huge milestone since we’re now halfway to her first birthday. 

Lately she’s really perfected sitting up and she’s LOVING it.  Our pediatrician even said she’s sitting like a 10 month old!!  She’s still having fun rolling all over too -  on the floor, in her crib, getting her diaper changed, etc.  The last week or so she’s been putting all her effort into figuring out how to crawl.  She’s scooting all over (mostly backwards) so I know it won’t be long before she’s cruising around after Addison and Sampson!

Here’s a look at Sophie’s first 6 months :)

We love you so much Sophie girl and we can’t wait to see how much you change in the next 6 months!! 

Kids say the darndest things…

I always swear to myself that I’ll write things down so I’ll remember them when the girls grow up, but I keep forgetting to pull out the baby book so into the blog it goes!!

Yesterday I found out that a local Target would be giving out H1N1 shots to ‘priority groups’ this coming Saturday.  Erik and I fall into this group since Sophie is under 6 months old.  In order to guarantee that a shot would be available for us we needed to go into the store to pre-register so we headed out right when Erik got home from work. 

When we arrived the pharmacist asked us if we qualified for the shot, how old Sophie was (5 months) etc.  She then started talking away to Addison while we filled out our paperwork.  The conversation went something like this:

Addison:  See my new Hello Kitty coloring book?

Pharmacist:  Oh, it’s very nice!  What’s your name?

Addison:  Addison Opsahl

Me (translating) :  Addison Opsahl

Pharmacist:  How old are you?

Addison: 2 and a half!

Addison:  And this is Sophie and she’s 9 months!

Um, what??  First of all, she’s never once said anything about how old Sophie is, and second, she’s only 5 months for goodness sakes…and we’re signing up for a shot that requires her to be UNDER 6 months!  We were all (pharmacist included) laughing hysterically.  The pharmacist said she had a 10 month old at home so she knew Sophie was not 9 months but it was still a little embarrassing!  I know a lot of people are panicking about getting the vaccine so I’m sure some are willing to tell all sorts of lies in order to get one!  Erik started referring to Addison as the new ‘balloon boy’ after her little white lie :)

As my mom always says, “out of the mouths of babes”.   I say “it’s a good thing she’s so cute or we might try to trade her in…” 

Pictures!!

Since there’s no such thing as too many pictures (right??) … here’s a few random ones from October and November.

Addison helping out with Sophie’s dinner 

Reading a story with Grandma

                                              Modeling Auntie Tricia’s scarf

  Auntie Tricia & Sophie

Happy girl

Enjoying a treat after Joey & Stella’s Halloween party

  A rare pic of me and Sophie

 Sophie trying out Addison’s chair

Chase, Addison & Joey

Fun times with Nana! 

Addison & Chase having a snack, and a heart to heart.

  2 year olds + cupcakes = HUGE mess!

Helping daddy put together her new baby bed.  Love the tool belt!

Sophie with her new toys

Addison reading Sophie one of her current faves….Goldilocks has Chickenpox

Classic Sophie face!

Happy 1st Birthday

Wishing Miss Vera a very, very Happy 1st Birthday!!!  It’s been so fun for our family to watch you grow from a tiny baby…

To a beautiful little girl full of *so* much personality!! 

 

We love you so much and are so blessed to have  you and your wonderful parents in our lives.  We can’t wait to continue watching you grow up!! 

Lots of Love,

The Opsahl Family

November already??

Even though it’s practically the  middle of the month…I’m still having a tough time believing that it’s already November!  And that we only have 6 weeks until Christmas!

We’ve had a busy but fairly uneventful month so far.  We started out with another fun trip to KidsQuest Children’s Museum but most of the pictures didn’t turn out :( 

After playing we headed to Red Robin for lunch.  There were 6 adults and 10 children (both toddlers and babies!).  The staff at Red Robin looked truly frightened to see us coming and quickly ushered us out to their indoor patio area to eat…conveniently FAR away from all the other diners.  Surprisingly all the kids did really really well and we had lots of people stop to admire our *adorable* kids - and also to tell us how brave we were to take them all out to lunch!  Here’s a shot of Bridget, Chase and Addison walking through the mall to the restaurant.

We’ve also been working on potty training this month.  Sophie doesn’t seem quite ready (kidding!) but Addison is really starting to get the hang of it.  Things are going well so far and we’ve only had 2 minor accidents - both of which happened when Addison had a friend over so she was busy playing and wasn’t worried about anything else!!  Our biggest challenge so far has been getting her to believe that this is not the purpose of her new potty seat… :)

 

This past weekend Erik took Addison to her first movie (in a theater).  They saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Addison LOVED it!  It was so fun to listen to her tell me all about her day out with daddy - especially that she got to have popcorn and gummi bears :)  Too cute!  Of course there are no pictures since I wasn’t there snapping away…haha. 

Saturday (Nov 7) was also Uncle Jordy’s 25th birthday -- we were sad that we didn’t get to spend it with him (he lives in Sacramento) but Addison did get to call with her best attempt at singing Happy Birthday.  Here’s one of my favorite pics of Jordan from his 23rd birthday, which we spent with him and the rest of the family in San Francisco.

Saturday also brought the arrival of our friends Malinda & Cam’s baby - Miss Graciana Janelle.  Erik and I were lucky enough to visit them on Sunday before they were discharged.

Who’s ready for Baby #3????  Kidding…we’re not quite there yet!

With Malinda & Graciana

We have a fun weekend coming up.  Saturday we’re taking Addison to see Disney on Ice, which I think she’ll LOVE.  Every time she sees the commercial for it she asks if she can ‘go to that movie’ so it should be a fun afternoon!  On Sunday we’ll be celebrating Miss Vera’s 1st birthday.  Vera is the daughter of our best friends, Nate & Chrissy, and I can’t even believe that she’s turning 1!!  We can’t wait to celebrate :)

Halloween - Part 2

Addison was up bright and early Saturday morning, and the first thing out of her mouth was “It’s Halloweeeeeeeeeeen!!!!!!!!!!!”  It was great to see her so excited for the fun day ahead.  She started out the day baking a cake with Nana for her Great-Grandpa John’s birthday!

Next we were off to run some errands before getting ready for our little party that night!  After a yummy (and easy!) dinner from Papa Murphy’s it was time to sing Happy Birthday to Grandpa John.  Addison is just learning the Happy Birthday song so she had fun singing along and she even got to help blow out the candles.

After cake we bundled the girls up in their costumes to head out for some trick-or-treating.  Of course we had to snap a few pictures before we left. With Grandpa & Grandma

With Nana

Annie & Sophie

                                                 Joe, Erik & Addison

Love this one!!  Addison ‘flying’ with Big Joe

After all the pics we headed out!  Our first stop of the night was at Auntie Tricia & Uncle David’s house (about 2 minutes up the road).  Tricia had fun bringing the girls to trick or treat at her neighbors houses…such a proud Auntie!

Next we were off to meet up with Addison’s friends Chase & Joey for some crazy toddler trick-or-treating!!  Sophie and her friends, Stella & Reese, weren’t quite ready to trick-or-treat this year ;)

Such good buddies…always holding hands :)

One of the neighbors had a great set up for the kids to roast marshmallows - and they had coffee and hot cider for the parents.  It was a fun stop…and they even handed out 6 packs of mini Butterfingers!!

Later on we ran into some more friends…Siena & Avery!

We did our best to get a group picture…but didn’t have much luck.

One of the last houses we visited had me cracking up.  It looked like they were having a big discussion about who was going to knock on the door.  Too funny!

We finished up the night with some Baileys and hot chocolate at the Quinlans…perfect way to end the night!

My first attempt at a pic of the babies…

Finally - Reese and Sophie…happy to be out of their costumes!

It was a fun Halloween … Addison is still asking when it’s going to be here again!  It’s hard to believe that next year we’ll have two little trick-or-treaters to chase after!!  Hope you all had a great holiday.