The Month in Pictures

I've been in and out of town for a while now.  We're finally in town to stay and so it's time to get caught up on my blog!  The easiest way to do that is via pictures!

We flew to Reno and saw this on the way

Sophia loved the plane ride

We attended the sealing of baby Chloe to Brynna, Neil and family

We entered Sophia into the Gerber baby photo competition

We took family photos

Sophia and I attended another fabulous Harris Reunion in Montana

We took Sophia camping for the first time at Mt. Rainier

...and she liked it!

We explored

and we built fires!

We've had a fabulous summer this year and we're so glad to have Sophia along for the ride!  I'm slightly sad to see summer go but also excited because that means just 3.5 months to Christmas!

Living the Dream

I have a dear friend, Nicole.  She and I have the same life...sort of.  We both went to Utah State and studied  Accounting.  We both did really well in our program and thus landed an internship with Deloitte in London.  After London, we both attended BYU for the Masters in Accounting program.  We roomed together at BYU and thus had the same friends.  We both graduated BYU and started working for one of the Big 4 accounting firms.  Nicole did get married about 1 year before me and she did have a baby about 1 year before me, but you get the idea - our lives are quite similar!  After having her baby girl she struggled to know whether to go back to work and after a long road decided to quit her job and stay home with the adorable Devri.

Why do I share this with you?  Because when she quit her job she had a post on her blog that described exactly how I've felt after having Sophia. Without her permission...sorry Nicole...I'm going to use her blog entry with slight modifications to document my decision to stay home.  This has really been the most exciting part of the summer for me and thus, deserves its own post!  

Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to work in skyscrapers and wear business suits. She grew up, went to college, and started living her dreams. She spent time working in London riding the tube to and from work everyday. She worked for five years, ten tax seasons and put in many long hours. She wore heels and suits, had business meetings, carried her laptop everywhere, and had way too many free drinks at Starbucks!  She was living her dream.

Then one evening, after an exhausting day of meetings and deadlines, she found herself outside walking through streets looking up at all the skyscrapers. She remembered the girl with a dream to work in skyscrapers and wear business suits. As she felt the baby kick and wiggle within her, she realized she had fulfilled that dream and had much bigger dreams to live. Months later as she held that baby in her arms she knew skyscrapers and business suits were a thing of the past, and she wanted to spend everyday at home with her baby girl.

I am finally onto my next dream job! I'm officially a stay at home mom as of July 12th.  I'm loving every minute! I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with this cute face: 

A Golden Oldie

This year I celebrated my golden birthday!  For those of you who don't know what a golden birthday is, I turned 28 on the 28th of July.  I always make a big stink about my birthday (and half birthday for that matter) and this year was no different.  In fact, I started hinting to Jeff about potential gold presents he could buy me back in March!  Jeff sweetly obliges me and my birthday nonsense every year, but this year he went above and beyond.  We were out of town on my birthday, so we celebrated the weekend before.  He made me a charming breakfast of Dutch Babies (because they are a yellowy-gold color) and he decorated the kitchen with a gold paper chain, gold table cloth and gold napkins.  He made me a birthday cake with the only frosting that should be allowed on a cake - Rainbow Chip!  To make it gold, he sprayed the cake with a gold food spray.  My gifts came in a gold bag.  The loot consisted of Werthers candies, gold coins, a gold spray bottle (another story), gold earrings, and best of all a golden ticket.  The golden ticket bought me a trip to my mom's family reunion in Kalispell, MT which I thought I had to miss.

It was a fabulous birthday party!  Sophia even slept in for the first time ever so we could eat in peace!

We were in Reno on my real birthday for a very special occasion.  My sister, Brynna, had her adopted daughter sealed to their family in the Reno, NV LDS temple and my whole family was there to celebrate.  Read more about sealings here: http://www.lds.org/topics/temples?lang=eng.

A happy birthday indeed!