Sophie's Birthday

Earlier this month we celebrated Sophie's 2nd birthday at our home. We had a little party with some good friends and my parents were in town as well. Sophie seemed to have a great time and got some super fun gifts thanks to the generosity of such great friends.

The night before the party Erik's dad and grandmother were in town so they brought some presents. Sophie knew exactly what to do w/ them :)

Cupcakes for the party - thanks to a lot of help from my mom.

Sophie's "Grandma Jan" and Mr. Chris and Miss Amber were able to come for a bit and brought her some Play Doh - her first experience w/ this delicious toy.

Sophie's sneak attack hug with Riley.

Ava, Sophie & Riley

Mmmm...Monkey = delicious

And here's a little video of "Sophie" blowing out the candles:

Our Singing Sensation

Since she was really little Sophie has loved to sing, and the older she gets the more songs she learns and the more often we are surprised by the words she knows. A couple of weeks ago we filmed this while she was eating (the only time she sits still long enough to get a video).

I'll try to post birthday pics later this week, but for now here's a video of our growing girl. It's such a joy to hear our daughter singing songs about our Father and we pray daily that he will call her to Himself and she will one day love Him.

Daddy on the Radio

So a good friend of ours has a radio podcast called "IkeRadio" and for his latest segment he interviewed Erik about the movie blog. Sophie is so proud of her daddy! If you have some time, check it out here. Erik's interview is about 1/2-way through the latest segment. Or you can just visit www.ikeradio.com

Also, here are a few recent pics of the kiddo:

Fun w/ Gran & Papa

My parents were here last week and Sophie had a grand time w/ them. They like to take her to Rainforest Cafe when they come, which is fine w/ me as long as I'm not the one doing it. After she goes she obsesses over the animals for days and talks about the "Cafe" and beats her chest like a gorilla. It's a little wild. So we've made that a "you can go there when Gran & Papa come" kind of thing. Anyway, here's a little video of them playing together in our messy house. And yes, I will still post pics of the house. I'm a little too proud to post them of the house in it's current state. We have Rainforest Cafe figurines and fake pumpkins and gourds all over the place. But one day when I'm super motivated I'll clean and take pics...soon, I promise.

Newest Member of the Parks (Blogging) Family

No, we're not having another baby. I just thought that might grab your attention. Actually, I wanted to give a quick plug to Erik's baby, his new movie blog. Most of you have probably seen it, but just in case, here's the link. Check it out and let him know what you think!

A Walk in the Parks Movie Blog

The Talkies

So I recorded several videos tonight of Sophie, mostly for the grandparents, but maybe others will enjoy them as well. She is talking pretty much nonstop these days and is super active. Here are a couple of the videos and I'll try to post some more in a few days.

Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home

A week and 1/2 ago we closed on our first home. We are loving having a bit more space than our 2 bedroom apartment, and Sophie loves her "new house." Whenever we go out for awhile she says "new house" to try to get me to take her home. I can tell you this did not happen at the apartment. We have lots to do still, but we're so indebted to our parents. Erik's parents took Sophie to their house in AL for almost a whole week while my mom was here helping us pack, move and unpack. We seriously could not have done it without them. So here's the new place:


Since we have so much unpacking to do, Sophie has started helping out a bit more around the house. Saturday I was doing laundry and I started the washer and walked away to do something and when I came back Sophie was taking all the clothes out of the basket and putting them in the washer. She did a whole load of laundry for me. Check out those calf muscles. Glad she's finally pulling her own weight around here. I'm not sure which of her grandmothers taught her this, but thank you :).





Today my friend Nita's little girl Cate is here playing with Sophie. They went in our closet and Sophie wanted to play dress-up so I picked out a shirt for her to wear. Not to be outdone, Cate also wanted to dress up. Aren't they lovely?



I'll try to post some inside pics of the house soon...it's definitely going to be a work in progress for a long time, but we're making headway.