Happy Sophie Day!

Two years ago, Heavenly Father saved Sophie's life and returned her to live with us on Earth. We are absolutely forever grateful--there's just no way to give back the equivalent of having your child restored to life. All we can do is testify to the world that truly--He lives!

 Claire took these three portraits of Sophie and they capture her most common expressions so accurately I had to archive them.

 Sophie makes phone calls to Hooma and Papa.

 Depoe Bay-- "Whale Watching" but mainly laughing at seagulls and kayakers that were out tipping in very choppy waves.

 Soap was non-participatory--although she did allow us to give her cotton candy.

 Best friends---this WILL be used as evidence when you are all teenagers, Ladies.

Eloise is a Daredevil (Dareangel?)

Sophie Reading a Book

Burch Girls, Feb 2013

 Happy 6 months Eloise! You can sing and eat rice crackers and you like to secretly practice "Mama" "Dada" and "Bibo" in your crib (I spied on you). You can army crawl about six inches before you poop out. Great growing :)

 Eloise helps Daddy study for medical school. She was shaking her cupcake rattle but then she was overcome by comfitude.

 Sophie thinks winter should be over now. She's almost always buckster. Her bangs are growing enough that I have to trim them but the rest of her hair is too curly to get long. Her favorite things to do are to break rules: ride her trike inside, steal Daddy's chocolate doughnuts, cuddle with Claire's beloved Dream Light and put on Mama's make up. I'm sick on the couch in the background--that's how I spent the majority of January and February (pook).

Claire defeats Zelda bad guys with her Hello Kitty gauntlets made by Hooma.

Sophie dresses herself if she wears clothes at all--as depicted in this video.

Martin Luther King Day 2013

Adam had the day off from medical school so I drove us to the ocean while he studied with the netbook. We shared some youtube videos with the girls about Dr. King in the morning and Claire had lots of questions about how the world could have gotten that far out of hand so she talked to me while Sophie wheezed through a cold and watched Little Mermaid. I could hear Eloise's squeaky giraffe going but I think she mostly stared in adoration at Claire--as is her wont.

 It was sunny, clear and nearly sixty degrees.

 This beach is one of our favorites--Fogarty Creek.

 Claire doing a happy sand dance.

 Handsome (and tall) Dr. Burch with moon in background. The ocean is definitely his happy place.

 Claire laughs while Sophie tries to catch a wave without getting wet.

 The reason we call her Monkey.

 Starting to look for treasures. This beach has four different sand sets and in the higher grits there are agates and other gemstones.

 The forest part of the park is behind Claire beyond the overpass of Pacific 101. In the summer, that's where we find awesome blackberries grown in ocean spray as well as great mushrooms of course.

 "I just saw a whale and it was this big!"

 A bit muted from feeling puny but still happy to make tracks and look for animal prints. We saw dogs, birds and one pony set.

 It was pretty sunny and Eloise went to sleep after a bit. She thinks it's pretty comfy in the "pocket" (baby wrap) anyway.

 I love this Bunny.

 This is where our tidepools *were* but I took the shot too late.

 A fossil cave with lots of cool stuff for little paleobotanists (mostly brachiopods of course).

 Second fossil cave.

 Looking for agates.

 Sophie's favorite find was some slick rubbery sea grass.

Claire said she wanted to pet a sea star but when Adam found one she changed her tune and I suspected there would be a funny video...

Chubby Bunny Gets a Highchair

 Eloise is rocking the solid food scene--Happy 5 Months Bunny! She LOVES boiled potato and little bits of rice noodle. Quickly warming up to Cheerios as well since she can do that by herself. Mainly she digs being able to easily reach all of her favorite toys from her brand new IKEA highchair. Can we say $25 well spent--oh yeah!

 Claire's eye-dimples are so darling. She is certainly, shall we say, "attentive" to Eloise--often resulting in time outs for rough teasing. Really she's just a bit impatient to have her slave, I mean sister, get big enough to run around with the crew. Sophie is naked in the background. When I suggest clothing or notice aloud how cold winter is, all I get from her is, "Momma! I'm not a child!" (Quote from The Little Mermaid being flung at me...). I love them all--that is my mantra and I'm sticking to it.

 Yalkin' it up Sister Style!

 I love all the light in our home. Pretty rare for the Northwest.

 Toe-curling fun with Crunchy Bug--her favorite rattle.

 I recently realized there are NO current pictures of me and that perhaps there ought to be so I turned the camera around. You're welcome, other people.

 Claire thought portraits were a great idea and told me to liven it up and quit hiding behind a book.

PS--These glasses were $6 from Zenni Optical. Boo yeah!

Happy 28th Birthday Momma!

 I made brown sugar hazelnut cupcakes with tayberry buttercream. They were AWESOME! Good thing I only made eight of them!

 The only people willing to pose for pictures at the party.

 Eloise is almost five months old. She loves to play with toys now--turning things over in her hands and squishing things. She also tastes whatever she can reach just to check on its level of deliciousness.

 Note Eloise's furrowed brow. Claire is a very attentive baby sitter but sometimes it gets a little intense...

Sophie doing "lotions" (lessons) on Starfall. Claire is doing homeschool with me and progressing very well with reading. I'm proud of my smarties--including Daddy who just bagged yet another honors grade in medical school!