Sophie's first Christmas

Merry Christmas Sophie Claire!

What did Santa bring you this year?

Your first car! Oh my, you must have been a very good girl ;-)

Sophie finally met her aunt Jenni, cousin Jensen, uncle Chris, aunt Molly (taking the photo) & cousin Ireland 

Jenni & Jensen

Chris & Ireland

Great Grandmother Carolyn 

More family, Alli & Brenna and Jill & Emerson. Em is 12 hours older than Sophie

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, love Sophie.

Missing you

The hustle and bustle fade away
Sophie's first and memories are made
In our hearts you're dear
but to be honest you don't feel so near

i miss you

In a moment it's all over
and we are on our way home again
It's in those moments
silent car rides, quiet home life
Where the weight of your absence remains

i miss you

I cry alone, again
my heart aches for you again
how has so much time passed
are we moving on too fast

i miss you

I thank God for you
I wish so badly I would dream of you
I feel your love in a two year old's embrace
And am reminded that I will never forget the first time I saw your beautiful face

i miss you

Happy 5 months my love

(December 18, 2013)

Happy 5 months Sophie Claire! Month four brought so many new and exciting things for you that I am really looking forward to what we will see during month five. In the past month you have conquered rolling over from tummy to back and back to tummy. You have also tried several new foods and you seem to like them all with the exception of bananas. And, you are also sleeping in your own room now and napping in your crib. So many changes and milestones met last month! You can sit up on your own if you are leaning forward and putting your weight on your hands to support yourself, but I dont think it will be very much longer before you can truly sit by yourself. You also seem to enjoy being on your tummy now and have even taken a few nice long naps on your tummy. While on your tummy you reach out for toys that are close by. It will be so much fun once you learn to crawl.  You are growing and growing and already fitting into 6th month clothes! 

On the 18th of this month you met Santa again at the Christmas party at daddy's office. You were a bit unsure of him which seems to be the case with new faces now too. I think youre beginning to realize who you know and who you dont and while youre a little timid at first, it doesnt take you very long to warm up and smile at the new faces you see.

Youre a very happy, easy-going baby who has discovered her voice and coos and razzes all day long. Dad and I get a kick out of listening to you make lots of noises when you wake up in the morning or from a nap. Youre little baby coos are so sweet to hear. You seem to really enjoy when we sing to you too, your favorites are the ABCs and Somewhere Out There.

We are looking forward to watching you grow and learn so much more this month too.

Sophie meets Santa

Last weekend Sophie's Aunt Leslie came for a visit and we had a great time together. On Saturday night Joe surprised us with a trip to the Lights Festival in Westland. Sophie slept through the entire thing but we three adults still enjoyed seeing all of the cool light displays throughout the park. On Sunday we headed to Twelve Oaks Mall for the very exciting introduction of Sophie to Santa. I don't think Sophie actually noticed Santa but she was a very good little girl when it came to sitting on his lap.

Sophie's first Thanksgiving

We packed up the car Wednesday morning and managed to find room for the three of us too. Babies sure do require alot of stuff. This was Sophie's first long car ride, approximately 5 hours to Illinois to Joe's parent's house. She did so well in the car. She would sleep two hour stretches at a time and then we would stop to eat and stretch and play for about a half hour and then it was back in the car. She really didn't seem to mind it all that much. We ran into some pretty heavy snow and a bad accident on 94 which caused about a half hour delay. So our trip ended up taking 8 hours but as I said Sophie did very well.

Let the shoe fetish begin!

This adorable Thanksgiving dress was given to Sophie from a new friend at MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). If you think this is cute, just wait to see what she'll be wearing at Christmas!

Sophie met several of her family members for the first time at Thanksgiving, including sweet Farrah and her mommy Meghan. Farrah is a little miracle baby and I was so excited to finally meet them both. 

 

Thanksgiving isn't complete without an adorable cupcake hat. Thanks Aunt Fran!

Our girls

I've been meaning to post about Sophie's first Thanksgiving, but today I just really want to write about both of our girls.

I'm pecking at the keyboard with my right hand and holding a sleeping Sophie in my left. She's been sleeping for an hour now and I can feel the warmth of her body against mine. I could put her down to sleep in her bassinet and type this post out twice as fast with both hands but today was her 4 month check up and second round of vaccinations so I'm going to love on her a little extra and hold her a little longer. There is nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby.

Plus, I was reminded the other day just how quickly she is growing. Yesterday I packed all of her 0 to 3 month clothes in a storage bin and I got a little emotional as I came across her newborn outfits. She was so tiny. Those newborn outfits are so small. I would hold one up after the other and picture her in them and think back to what we were doing the day she wore them. I'm a little surprised I can remember so much because at times those initials days, weeks and months were really a blur.

I was so scared bringing Sophie home from the hospital. I was so worried I was going to do something wrong and harm her on accident or that some how we would lose her too. I was terrified of loosing another baby. I must have had the same conversations over and over with Joe, my friends, my sister, my cousin, my mom, Joe's mom, the nurses, really anyone who would listen and reassure me that I was doing everything fine. That Sophie was going to be okay.

And today's doctor visit reassured me of that too. We are doing everything just fine. She's happy, healthy and thriving and there is absolutely nothing else we could ask for.

Over the past few days my heart has felt a little heavy and at times I've been brought to tears in the middle of a mundane task at home. I haven't quiet figured out what it is. Maybe I feel a little homesick and miss our family after the really nice visit we had at Thanksgiving with Joe's family.  I'm so looking forward to seeing mine at Christmas.

Maybe it's all of the holiday cheer, our tree is up, Christmas music is playing all day long, and our month is quickly filling up with visits with family and friends.

Maybe it's because I'm 10 days out from finishing a 90 day reading plan of the bible,a persona; goal I've had for some time now. I've never before felt so drawn to the Lord in my life and coming up on the day of His birth I feel so very blessed to call Him my Lord and Savior.

Maybe it's because today in my arms sleeps a beautiful baby girl who I've been given the gift of parenting and loving. At this time last year we shared the news that we were expecting this precious child with our family and our prayers for a healthy baby and pregnancy were answered to the fullest.

Maybe it is because I still feel a bit of guilt when I find so much joy in experiencing all of the first with Sophie while at the same time wishing we experienced those first with Elliott too, Maybe its because while I know Elliott is in heaven, my heart wishes she was here. Maybe its because today is the 3rd and Elliott would have turned 22 months today. Maybe its because the more and more I look at Sophie the more I see her sweet sister Elliott.

Just last night I was looking through the recent pictures the our friend and photographer Kathryn Gibson took when I came across a picture of Sophie that is very similar to my favorite picture of Elliott.

Four months old already!

November 18, 2013

Happy four months baby girl. You are growing, growing, growing! I can't believe how quickly, almost daily, you are changing right before our very eyes. While you were never a "difficult" baby, you certainly had your moments where I couldn't seem to figure out quite what you needed, but within the past few weeks you seem alot happier, and more content. Just in time for teething to begin, and it has poor thing.

But lets get back to the fun stuff. Don't let this picture below fool you, you smile All The Time. And you laugh alot too, but only a few times have we heard the true deep baby giggles and they are oh so sweet. You seem to have gotten the hang of tummy time and will put up with it for a good 5 minutes or so. You're lifting your head so high and looking around at everything. You coo and razz alot, especially when your pink elephant plays twinkle twinkle little star. It's as if you're singing right along with her. You LOVE to "stand" and we tell you, Sophie you're the tallest girl in the world which always brings the biggest smile to your face. You get so tickled when playing with that adorable baby in the mirror so much so that you always leave her with the hick-ups. You hit a big milestone a few weeks ago by rolling over from your tummy to your back and just the other day mama finally got it on camera to show dad. You've recently mastered the skill of sitting up in your bouncy seat so much so that I'm worried you will top over if we're not careful with you. I don't think it will be long before that thing is packed away. When did you get so strong! And, you're new favorite place to be is in your pounce n play so you can see all that's going on in this big world of yours. 

As I said before, I can't believe how quickly you are growing and changing, and it's so amazing to see. 

To celebrate turning four months old we gave you some yummy rice cereal. It didn't take you very long to figure out the spoon and before we knew it you were slurping the stuff right up. And the rest you finished in a sippy cup which was pretty cool to see since you never took to a bottle. Good job Sophie Claire! This new phase allows daddy to get in on the action of feeding you too and getting more Sophie time. 

Playing it cool. Yea, that's right I'm four months old. 

Joe's awesome mustache for no shave November.

Not too sure about this.

If you say so mom

Despite this look on her face she did seem to like the cereal

Dad and Soph time - yea!

Way to go Sophie, drinking from a sippy cup. 

Full belly + cool new toy = one happy four month old Sophie Claire

Sophie's first Halloween

Who is the cutest ballerina in the world might you ask?

Sophie Claire Jensen is!

That's right. We really really enjoyed Sophie's first halloween together. Of course, it was so much fun dressing her up in this adorable outfit especially seeing her super cute chunky legs in those stockings. But what made the night even better was seeing all of the kids in our new neighborhood. We weren't sure if we would have very many kids come to our house since we are new here but they came and it made us feel right at home. 

Practicing for their first daddy daughter dance.

I got to tell you, baby girls are so much fun!

Classic Sophie face.

Happy Halloween!

I hope there aren't any ghosts or goblins under my crib...sweet dreams everyone.

Fall fun and Family

A few weeks ago we took Sophie to Plymouth Orchards and Cider Mill to pick out her first pumpkin and have a little fun. She made it very clear that we each needed to get a pumpkin too.

And a few weeks later Sophie received her first visit from her one of her cousins, Luke! Hopefully, Jensen and Ireland will make their way to Michigan to play with Sophie sometime soon.

It's always great having family in town. We got the kids out of the house a few times and were able to get a little bit more done around the house. My dad taught Joe how to do some plumbing and they both repaired all three toilets in the house. We also, finally, picked up Sophie's crib for her nursery,

which may take some time getting used to...

We took the kids to the Henry Ford Museum and Luke absolutely loved the tractor exhibit ESPECIALLY when he was able to sit in the big combine. I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to get him out of the combine, but he was such a good boy and was easily lured out when told there were more tractors to see.

We also went to Northville for the halloween parade and trick or treating through the town shops. Luke was a very happy little Elmo when he received a puppy beanie baby, some candy and a balloon.

And we were all pretty happy after some warm cups of coffee and family pictures. 

Thanks Abbie & Luke, for making the long trip from Missouri to Michigan to visit us.

And last but certainly not least we ended the weekend together by celebrating my dad's 63rd birthday! Happy Birthday Papa Timmy, we all love you so very much.