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!

Wilson Family Reunion

Typically my family has a family reunion every Fourth of July.  This year was a little awkward since the holiday fell on a Wednesday.  So the weekend following the 4th we attended my father's family's family reunion.  My grandma's not as mobile as she once was, so we held the reunion in the tri-cities where she lives.

Both of my parents grew up (well, my mom graduated high school there anyway) in Pasco, WA.  While I was growing up all of my grandparents lived there so Pasco was our perpetual vacation destination!  It's been years since I've been back and Jeff had never been before.  It was so nice to go back and reminisce.  I have so many fond memories of Pasco, even if it is mostly farmland!  It was nice to share those memories with Jeff as well.  As we drove around Pasco, my dad described his memories and shared his thoughts on the area.  It's so neat to have experiences with your parents as an adult that allow you to see them in a new light and gain a better understanding of them.  I could picture my dad as a youth working on the farm in Pasco and now understand why he has such an amazing work ethic!

Thank goodness Families Are Forever!

Aspiring Ballerina

I've always regretted not taking ballet longer.  I LOVED dancing, but I was very shy and couldn't bear the idea of going to dance class by myself so eventually I quit.  However, I have since then taken many dance classes at BYU including ballet and jazz and have also starting doing technique workouts at home.

I was thrilled a few days ago when Sophia started practicing ballet in her jumper!  Perhaps she and I will get to dance together someday!

Retire

Arabesque

Tendu back

Tendu side

And finish with a pas de bourree!

Late Night with Jeffrey Simpson: Season 2 Episode 1

Background: Sophia finally started sleeping through the night last week!  It is so exciting!  The second night she slept through the night, I was peacefully sleeping as well when suddenly Jeff was shaking me awake.  I looked at the clock...4:30 AM.  The following conversation ensued:


Jeff: Kneeling in a prayer position on our bed, "Will you please say the prayer?" said in a tone identical to the one used when we're blessing dinner.
Jan: "What?!"
Jeff: "It's 4:30." Still in a very conversational tone, as if we'd been waking up at 4:30 every day for the last 10 years.
Jan: "Are you getting up right now?" totally confused why we needed to say our morning prayers so early.
Jeff: "There's a deadline." 
Jan:  Confused why he had a deadline on the Fourth of July asks, "Are you working today?"   
Jeff: "No, but isn't there a deadline today for that baby thing?"
Jan: Completely bewildered, "What baby thing?"
Jeff: "Isn't there a deadline to vote for the baby button thing online?  You know, where you choose a button..." starting to trail off when he hears me laughing.
Jan: "I have no idea what you're talking about." 
Jeff: Lying down again, "Oh, I thought there was a deadline."
Jan: Still laughing
Jeff: "I'm making sense!"
Jan: Getting up to get a paper and a pen.
Jeff: "I'm awake!"
Jan: "Yes, I know.  But I believe you are telling me your dream thinking that it is reality."
Jeff: "Oh."


Jan and Jeff try to fall back asleep.  Ten minutes later Jeff begins snoring...what's new.

Jan: Nudges Jeff to make him stop snoring.
Jeff: Still snoring.
Jan: Nudges Jeff again and says, "Stop snoring!"
Jeff: Sitting up and speaking in a slightly irritated tone, "So, I guess you hear snoring when I'm talking in my sleep!"
Jan: "No, you're really snoring!"
Jeff: "Am I snoring now?"
Jan: "No."
Jeff: "Oh."

And we both roll over and go back to sleep.

What would I do for entertainment each night without Jeff?!

The downside of being flexible

I've always been really flexible.  And I mean REALLY flexible.  Even at times in my life when I haven't exercised and/or stretched much, I've always been able to do the splits all three ways.  I didn't exercise at all whilst pregnant because it made me throw up, yet now that I'm finally working out again after a year, it's as if I'd been stretching all along.  It's kind of weird...I'm like Gumby or something.

Seemingly unrelated, my big toes curl upward.  It's also really weird.  When wearing flip flops, my big toes have a shadow of their own because they curl up.  I always assumed this was because I wore too small of shoes at some point in my life.  However, I recently went to the podiatrist because it felt like I was getting an ingrown toenail.  I was surprised when the first question he asked upon seeing my feet was "are you really flexible?"

Apparently some people just have really flexible joints. I'm one of those people and my toe joints are no exception!  As such, they bend up AND down whereas most people's big toes just bend down.  Since my toes point up they constantly touch the top of my shoes which puts pressure on my toenails which forces the toenails to become ingrown...and there you have it...the downside of being flexible!  The doc said to expect lots of ingrown toenails in the future given the flexibility of my big toes.

Needless to say, it was a very strange doctors visit. Didn't help that the doctor himself was really awkward.

Not a great pic...but you get the idea

Will Sophia have the same fate?

I tried to put her hair in a ponytail...didn't work that well

Not quite enough hair yet!