Cousins

When my friend Rachael, that does all of my photography, posted that she was going to be offering a session dedicated to Cousins, I jumped on it. 

The first thing that came to my mind, was how my mom always took me and my cousin Paula to get our pictures done when we were little. I have several pictures of the 2 of us. We were the 2 that were closest in age (literally 5 months apart to the day) and I always thought it was funny that she as a brunette was born to a mom with red hair, and me, the red head, was born to a brunette mom, and when our babies were born, also in the same year as each other, I got the brunette, and she got the red head! What are the chances??

Also, my cousin is moving out of state in a few weeks. We have just gotten so much closer in the past 2 years, and I hate that she is moving away, so I needed to have these done right away, before the opportunity was missed! These are just the few sneak peeks that Rachael let me see, but I cannot wait to see more!

 

 Can you believe that Ava is only 5 months, and Sophie is 15 months and they are almost the same size?? I have a true peanut on my hands lol.

 I love how in this one, I'm looking at Paula, and she's looking at me, and Sophie and Ava are looking at each other as well!

 

Isn't sweet Ava so beautiful?? I'm going to miss out on so much when they move! 

 And how stinking ornery does Sophie look????

She wouldn't cooperate very well for pictures! She kept running away and laughing!

Now this one might just be one of my favorite pictures. I love my cousin so much and it's amazing to me to watch her grow not only as a person, but as a momma. She is truthfully one of my best friends and I can't imagine not seeing her or bringing her more of Sophie's clothing, or just hanging out. I am so bummed she is moving...but, I am trying to look at it as another opportunity to make visits down south more often...afterall, she'll only be about 2 1/2 hours from my parents!! And who knows...maybe in a few years or so, we'll move down that way ourselves. We aren't ruling anything out ;)

15 months...almost 16 months!

Well, here we are! 15 months, soon to be 16 months. Sophie has only 2 speeds...sleeping, and running lol. She is such a fun, crazy, loving, sassy little girl, and I just can't get enough of her! She has been entertaining us with her many facial expressions, and her new words! She has been saying Thank you, No, Yes, Nice Kitty, Nice momma (as she is petting my face) lol, Hi Dadda, Hi Momma, bye-bye, hello, awe nuts, and many other words and phrases. She will also Roar like a lion and blow you kisses! She also loves to dance, and do what we call the Sophie Stomp, and then spin in circles while yelling "whoo" over and over again. Her giggle is infectuous and so is her smile! This little girl ceases to amaze me every day. I am so thankful to be her momma.

 

 We had some time to kill at Walmart, so we played around. Her little feet couldn't even touch the ground!

 The way she looks at her daddy, melts my heart everytime. She adores him so much.

 My baby finally likes cake! We gave her some carrot cake on Easter and she devoured it!

 Look at that bite!!

 One of her many faces...lol. Apparently she was having a scowl-off with my daycare provider's husband lol.

 When her memaw came to visit, they decided to come and spend lunchtime with me! I loved having her there with me, not to mention just having my mom with me as well!

Seriously though, how can you look at this precious face and not melt, even just a little? Everytime she sasses back and tells me no with her stern little face, I have to hide my giggle so hard, and every time she runs at me with arms wide open and hugs me with her fierce little arms while patting MY back, I melt even more. This little girl is my world and my life.

1st Trip to the Park!

We've finally had enough nice weather to take our little Sophie to the park!! Other than not being a fan of the sand or the grass, she had a blast!!  We did the baby swing, and a couple of slides, which we had to do with her of course ;) But overall, it was fun and I can't wait to take her again!

 

 This is Sophie's favorite game to play with us! If she's bored or getting tired, she will cover her face and we'll start saying "oh no! Where's Sophie??" Then she uncovers her face and we exclaim, "oh! There you are!!" And repeat lol.

Getting ready to slide with daddy! 

 Hanging out in the swing!

 She kept yelling "whoo" over and over!

 Sliding with momma.

 Sophie loves to eat greek yogurt. LOVES it.  Right before I snapped this picture, I had taken her empty yogurt bowl from her and she looked at me with that face and smiled and said, "TANK YOU!"

We decided to try a popsicle for the first time too on the last warm day we had. She wasn't so sure about it at first. I did end up buying some of those icy sticks instead, so I think we will try that later.

Easter!!

 

I know, I know...we are yet again, LONG overdue for an update! I swear I'm trying, but it is soooo hard to keep up sometimes! Easter has come and gone, with about as much fanfare as last year lol. Next year, maybe we'll try dying eggs! That will be an adventure for sure ;)

 I took Sophie, almost last minute, to see the Easter Bunny at Westroads this year. She laughed and smiled at him from the line, but as soon as it was our turn, she went poker face on me. Ha ha.  She refused to smile at all, BUT she also didn't cry either! She's just a tough one sometimes to get a smile out of.

 The Easter bunny visited our house and brought her all sorts of goodies!

 She got a stuffed "ucky" as she calls it...

 3 Dr. Seuss books, and Horton Hears a Who movie, plus a new cup, bath crayons, bubbles and some gold fish crackers...

She also got Peeps for the first time. She took a bite of it, and then immediately spit it out and handed the remains back to me lol. Looks like she might be mine afterall ;) 

The next weekend, we had Easter at Great Gramma and Grampa's! They got her an adorable owl bucket filled with candy, a Peep stuffed animal, a dress, and another outfit, plus a whale bathtime toy! She also got an owl washcloth and towel from Lizsa and Jim Bowers from her birthday!

 Great Gramma and Grampa always have an Easter Egg hunt, and this year was no different, except Sophie got to play too!

 She wasn't quite sure at first what she was supposed to be doing, and she's not a big fan of walking on the grass yet either lol. But soon, she got the hang of it!

 

 So excited to have 2 eggs in her hands lol.

 This picture cracks me up everytime I see it! We were trying to get pics of the 2 youngest kids and it was almost like she was upset b/c he was in the picture with her! This kid is full of facial expressions!!

 

Here she is in her new Easter Dress from Great Gramma and Grampa. It was so stinking cute and fit her perfectly!! All in all, Easter was a blast!