Sophie Kate’s Journal

We had quite a weekend with all of Chad’s family in town, well almost all of them we were missing one brother-in-law, but all the cousins were in full force so they could not have been happier.

Grey has officially been unleashed in the pool, he is no longer confining himself to the steps…

Jacob’s third and final birthday celebration. He is definitely 7 now, ending his tour of birthdays with a baseball cake made by Aunt Aimee.

Sophie Kate’s first trip to the zoo!!

Continuing with the firsts…SK’s first train ride…

All of the cousins…

My sweet girl was looking so deliciously cute in her little stripped dress the other day that I could resist an impromptu photo shoot with her and Grey.

Funny story about blankie…the other day we were getting in the van and Grey asked me to buckle blankie, oh yes like in a seat belt. Blankie has started taking on a life of it’s own. The funnier thing is that I actually did it…ok Grey blankie is buckled in, now can we go?

My absolute favorite, I love, love, love this one!! I wonder what she’s thinking about her big brother, he’s pretty awesome isn’t he Sophie? Well…he’s pretty taken with you too, baby girl.

Chad, Cooper and Jacob had father/son baseball camp at UAB this week. The highlight of the camp was the father/son game on the last night. The sons had a winning streak to protect, the dads have never won…

Too bad daddies, better luck next year, you ain’t getting a win on these boys…not to be left out, Grey played the role of team mascot.

Cooper and Jacob with Coach Shoop (head coach of the UAB baseball team). Again, I can’t say enough good things about this camp, Coach Shoop and his coaching staff, it was a great week for everyone.

Here are my boys with the most important man in their life. They couldn’t be happier when they are with him and I wouldn’t have it any other way. They have a great role model in their daddy and that they want to grow up and be just like him thrills me.

Just a quick word, if you check in on us and the website is down…just know that webmaster Chad is working on getting us completely converted over to the new website.  Everything will still be under www.sophiekate.com so just keep checking back if you find that one day we are “under construction” b/c we will be back. 

Alright, I think this will officially wrap up our Smith Lake trip. My dad rented a boat for a couple of the days we were there and we had a blast.

All of the cousins on the boat, doesn’t SK look thrilled…

When we asked who wanted to be the first in the innertube, of course Jacob’s hand shot straight up. He really is fearless, don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

This is what happens after 2 days of boat riding and tubing…

My sister and Grey, she was the best, she went with him every time and as long as Daddy didn’t drive too fast, he was lovin‘ it.

Cousins Cooper and Emma Claire, he was so sweet with her and she just adored him. He never stops being the big brother.

Life Jacket-check, floaty ring-check, ok now Grey is ready to get in the lake.

After SK got dressed that morning she was really hoping it was the 4th of July, love her sweet smile…

My mom and Sophie Kate…

Oh please, don’t act like you didn’t know they would have on matching dresses that day, my mom made certain of that.

All of the cousins…

Thanks PawPaw and MiMi for a super fun trip with the whole family. Praise God for family and fun times, good weather, good food and worn out kids. SK did great, she spent 2 full days on the boat and didn’t miss a beat. She was held, fed, loved on, played with and fussed over by many people who love her. Thank you Jesus for her health this summer, she has been our go along and get along girl and an absolute sweetheart. We spent 8 days swimming, boating, tubing, eating, playing Wii, watching a little Star Wars, ummm….floating, running wild, sleeping (some) and even less bathing (for the kids of course) and SK was in on almost all of it.

This is my gift, when I look at these faces it’s almost more than my heart can handle. I want to give them the bestest, most funnest summer before scheduled, routine life catches up with us again.

These next 2 posts are going to be heavy on the pictures and light on the words, hope y’all can handle it.

One of the sweet pictures of SK from our Smith Lake trip…

Fun with glow in the dark swords, lots of light saber battles going on here…

Sophie Kate was not allowed in the lake water due to her gtube, so we did the next best thing…

MiMi and Grey…

The kids would pull this rope way out in the water and then have one of the grownup boys pull them in…

Grey never got in the water w/o his life jacket and his ring, this boy was NOT going under…

We celebrated Jacob’s birthday early since we were with my family. Now with a kid party and another family party yet to come, we won’t be able to live with him by the time all the celebrating is over…

My niece Emma Claire and Grey enjoying Jacob’s cookie cake…

I love this one of Emma Claire and Sophie Kate…

Bedhead…

Yes, I think I took a picture of her almost every morning we were there…

This is the evening all the girls were playing beauty shop…

My mom and her two granddaughters…

Didn’t realize I took so many pictures while we were there. In an effort not to overload y’all with pictures, I’ll save the rest for another post. Thanks for checking in on us.

P.S. I love it that my spell checker is trying to tell me that gtube is not a word. Well guess what…it is in our world.

We have spent the last week at Smith Lake having an absolute ball. I kept wondering to myself all week long how is it that we have lived here for 10 years now and have never been there? It was 8 days of great weather, great company, good food and nonstop swimming, boat riding and tubing.

This was one of the closest trips we have ever taken, only an hour and a half from our house, but we still had to endure those all too familiar phrases uttered by every child as soon as you hit the interstate, “Are we there yet?” as well as the fan favorite “How much farther?” Well, I guess the upside for us was that we only had to endure it for 1 1/2 hours, right?

This was the view of our dock from the house, we were in a perfect little cove for the kids to swim.

It was so perfect where we were situated that the kids could swim across the lake and explore undiscovered territory. You may not be able to see the little dots across the way, but those are all the kids over there, they would go back and forth across the lake to their little island.
 

Sophie Kate and her cousin Emma Claire love to dress alike whenever they are together…

Another one of SK’s favorite past times at the lake…

There is so much more I want to share about our trip, but it will have to wait until I can come out from under this mountain of laundry that we brought back and I even did 4 loads while we were there!!! More to come soon including Jacob’s birthday, tubing pics, more of SK being adorable and SK sleeping. Sorry no “Grey in his underwear” pics, there were others in the house so he had to try and behave himself. Thanks for checking in.

I love the freedom that comes with summer.  No alarm clocks, no getting up and getting dressed and having to be 4 different places by 9:00.   I guess it’s just the slower pace we all crave this time of year. 

Time for playing in the backyard…

Time for naps…

WAY too much time spent doing this…yes he’s been put in a trance by the TV.

Time for therapy…

Some of our best time is spent poolside…

Don’t know, just liked this one…

Time for the debut of Sophie’s Swimwear 2009…

You all know that SK loves the perfectly heated therapy pool at Wet Tots, well I am also happy to report that she is also loving the outdoor pool at her Grandparent’s house this year.  She’s having a ball swimming with her brothers, although she doesn’t appreciate getting splashed, that doesn’t really happen to her at Wet Tots, you know.

We are taking some family time next week, we need to unplug, decompress and rejuvenate ourselves.  Thanks for praying for our girl, love y’all.

It was a great week of Vacation Bible School at First Baptist Church Trussville, I think the adults may have had as much fun as the kids.  Being a part of 1, 060 kids singing, laughing and praising Jesus was indescribable, but I’m gonna try.  I love watching them worship Jesus in their own way, with their own music played loud and with lots of jumping around.  Y’all hearing all of these children singing the words “We belong to Jesus” sent goosebumps up and down my arms and caused huge tears to well up in my eyes.  Kindergartners through Sixth graders singing “And in this world we will shine” made my heart so full.  I know it blessed our Lord to hear those sweet voices of praise and absolute genuineness (if that’s a word) of heart, it sure did bless mine.

All my kids got to experience VBS, yes ALL of them.  My boys (even little Grey) are seasoned pros, they look forward to this week every summer.  For Sophie Kate however, this was her first experience with the loud fun chaos know as Vacation Bible School.  She had her own class to go to and what a blessing that was.  I was totally conflicted on whether or not to take her out of therapy and let her go to VBS and I am so glad that I did b/c she got to experience a lot of firsts this week.  Of course without question I know that our family and friends want so much for SK and will do pretty much anything for her and will help her achieve any goal that is set before her, but when people you don’t even know feel the same way about your child it is an equally precious thing.  SK’s teachers were fabulous and did sooo much with her, they weren’t about to let her sit around and watch and I just loved that!!

SK each morning before VBS…

SK and Mrs. Cindy coloring…

SK making a bookmark…

SK painting during crafts…

SK in music…

SK and Mrs. Melanie made an angel…

Oh my goodness how is it that SK has never petted a dog.  I can’t believe I have denied her such things, look how happy she is…

SK each afternoon after VBS…

Praise God for a wonderful week, most importantly for the lives that were changed and turned toward Him.  Oh that we could all experience that child-like faith in God, it is real, full-on, exciting and genuine just like they are.  Thank you Jesus for blessing my heart this week through your people!!

Seems like this week is going to be just as busy as last week.  It’s Vacation Bible School time at our church.  Some of you may be wondering why this is news worthy, well I’ll tell you…it’s Miss Sassy’s first VBS.  Last year we were in Atlanta for the month of June for Hyperbaric Oxygen treatments, which I am so grateful that we were able to do, but we sure did miss Bible School week.  

Sophie Kate is in the “special needs” class this year.  I am going to start by saying that that pill was a little difficult for me to swallow, but it was far outshone by the love and care born out of that class.  We have an unbelievable support system through our church here in Trussville (First Baptist).  I have thought though, since SK has been born what it would mean to me as a visitor in any church for someone to welcome us there and have a special class for our girl.  It would mean the world to me as her mother to have someone take her to her own class and for her to be cared for there and for her to be able to interact with other children, she loves that.  Well, our church has made that happen this year for VBS, isn’t that so cool?  I don’t know all the details at this point, SK has only been one day so far, but what I do know is that she has been a very smiley girl today. 

I’ll definitely get some pictures and post them later and let you all know how the week turned out, but for now I will leave you with these pictures from a friend’s birthday party this weekend where Miss Sassy and her daddy went down the big slide at Pump It Up.  

Did SK like the big slide?  Let’s put it this way, she didn’t cry but she didn’t really want to keep doing it either, so you decide.

Also, I have been getting reports that the website is acting up for some people, pictures aren’t downloading and some people are not being able to get on the blog at all.  Well, changes are coming soon to www.sophiekate.com.  I will definitely keep y’all updated but I have been wanting to get off of this blog for a while and I am so excited that it’s fixin’ to happen, so hang tight, it won’t be much longer.  Thanks for checking in on us.

So far this summer, this is what we have been up to…

Slip n’ sliding…

Grey served as the slip n’ slid "monitor."

Enjoying popsicles with cousins…

Cannonballs…

just all around cuteness…

and buzz cuts…

SK sleeping in her new "Mac Daddy" of all strollers, more to come on that later…

Our oldest has spent the week at UAB baseball camp and consequently I have spent more time downtown at UAB than I probably should have.  As a side note to all our local baseball buddies, this is a great camp and I highly recommend it.  Cooper has had a great time.  I am so proud of him for doing this, it was totally out of his comfort zone.  He knew none of the coaches and had no friends doing this with him.  Now take Jacob and put him in a situation where he knows no one and he will totally thrive and come out with lots of new "best friends,"  Cooper on the other hand, not so much.  I am so proud of him and what he has accomplished this week.

They were teaching the kids sliding techniques here, great idea to combine that with water, thanks a lot coaches.  The boys loved it!!

Coaches hosing the boys down after practice one day, it’s really been a fun week for Cooper.

On the last day of camp Cooper had his picture made with some of the coaches…

Coach Walker-Cooper was in his group each day for the morning session of the camp

Coach Polk, probably didn’t mean as much to Cooper as it did to me, but he is a "hero" on the campus of Mississippi State University a former Bulldog baseball coach.

Coach Shoop-head coach of the UAB baseball team, also former head coach at Mississippi State, can’t say enough good things about him.  He is all about forming character in these boys along with teaching them the game of baseball.  He speaks openly about his relationship with Christ, what and great role model he is for lots of boys and young men I am sure.

Hope you all are enjoying your summer, thanks for checking in on us.

This is the reason we set up a fund for her…

This is one of the reasons I get up so early and go to bed so exhausted…

This is one of the reasons my committed husband and devoted father to our four children gets up and goes to work everyday… 

This is the reason we all smile today…