The Allen's are Moving & So are We

 Since October, I've been watching our friends' (Molly & Casey) kids (Tessa & Blake). Tessa is just seven months younger than Sophie. They have had some really wonderful times together and some epic fights, but they really do love each other. They get so excited to see each other. My favorite was when Sophie and I would go get Tessa when she woke up in the morning. Sophie would burst in there and climb up on the crib and they would essentially just yell at each other. They could barely contain their excitement. It's been a great teaching opportunity for Sophie on how to play with friends (although she's still far from perfect) and how to be soft with babies. I've loved getting to know Molly and spending time over at their house visiting her even when I wasn't babysitting. They recently made the decision to move to Alaska which made me terribly upset, but guess what? We are moving too, so I guess it doesn't matter too much in the end.

So back in March Daniel found out that they are closing the PowerBar factory where he works. First PowerBar was sold from Nestle to Post. Then Post shifted PowerBar from CEO to CEO and never really made strong efforts to incorporate the company. They are moving production to a co-manufacturer in Nashville so everyone at the factory is out of work. We waited awhile, but then Daniel started applying for work elsewhere. He had a handful of leads and a handful of rejections. He had a few interviews and was really close to landing a job at Scentsy in Meridian. That would have been a spectacular place to work, but the position was more of a side-step in his career than a forward motion. That same week he had a phone interview with Kyani out of Idaho Falls. They wanted to meet with him in person after that. So he ended up driving to Idaho Falls while I was already there helping out Daniel's sister who just had a baby. He loved his interview and it went really well. They called the next day just after we got back to Boise with a great offer. We mulled it over for the weekend, but it was too good to pass up. We didn't hear back from Scentsy until the end of that week and they didn't offer him the job anyways. It looks like we were meant to go back to Idaho Falls. I'm a little torn about it still. I'm bummed about having to sell our first house that we've been in for only a year (I've been having to keep it crazy clean. I'm exhausted) And I love our friends, ward, my calling, & Boise in general. I'm excited about a lot of things in Idaho Falls too, but this will be the hardest move yet. Not too mention my mom is really not thrilled about us leaving her here. Sorry mom!

Mother's Day

I was far too spoiled for Mother's Day. Daniel bought me a new camera lens that gives me dreamy blurry backgrounds like this (excuse my early morning model):

 I'm taking pictures for a friend's wedding and I wanted this new lens for that and for our family vacation in July. Maybe it will have to count for my birthday too. We all drove out to my parent's house after church for a yummy dinner. I made Daniel take pictures of Sophie and me because I feel like we never have anything but crazy selfies together. 

 Sophie does this adorable thing when she holds your face in her hand, then she usually looks for a second person and gives everyone kisses. It's silly and ridiculously cute. 

I also wanted Daniel to capture part of our bedtime routine. Sophie requests "pee-low" and "bank-it" and we snuggle next to the closet and book shelf. Then we read until I can read no more. After that she gets scooped up, pillow, blanket and all, and put in her bed. She's getting remarkably good at repeating back sentences and phrases to books that we read a lot. I've even caught her reciting a book to herself while in the bathtub or in the car. She can say the whole last page of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." We have two copies so it's extra fun to read side-by-side. Those moments snuggled up to her are truly the best parts of being a mom. 

The Leftovers

As usual, there are photo leftovers after a long stream of blogging. 

 Sophie and I randomly got to have a grandma day in downtown Boise which was super fun!

 We have these wonderfully kind older neighbors who always love a visitor or two. We took them our pack and play to borrow for some grandkids and they wanted Sophie to try out their rocking horse that has been in the family for over 100 years! What an amazing piece of family history. Sure, it has had a few breaks and fixes along the way, but they have pictures of great-great grandpa on it. So neat. 

 So since everyone else was taking their little girls to see the new Cinderella movie and I really wanted to see it we thought we would take Sophie. She loves popcorn and she loves movies so we thought she would make it through just fine. Wrong. So wrong. She liked the previews and the little Frozen short before the movie but was awful every moment after that. She flipped the empty chair next to us, talked loudly, lost her binky, spilled a whole cup of water...Daniel took her out and came back. Then I took her out and came back. Then I took her down to the front where at least we weren't sitting by anyone and then she proceeded to honk like a goose and stomp around loud enough that Daniel could hear her up in the top of the theater. I took her out again. Then I tried sitting in the hall and watch the movie while Sophie pulled on my shirt and said, "Mommmmmmy, let's go!" It did no go well and I saw about 50% of the movie. We won't be trying that again any time soon. 

 Sophie found the ants on the patio very interesting. 

 So proud of her mess. 

 Sophie and Tessa climbing under the bed. 

 So Favre the dog follows Sophie around whenever we are babysitting, especially if she is holding a snack cup. It's really cute when Sophie feeds him, but I think those dogs eat nothing but goldfish crackers when we are there. 

 Say hello to my first real child induced injury. Thankfully it was not maliciously given or else I would be a lot more upset about it. I was sitting on the floor next to Sophie and she had a toy xylophone in her hands. She turned it sharply and accidentally knocked me right on the edge of the bone under my eye. It instantly swelled up and I had to sport a black eye for four or five days. Thankfully the next day was conference and I didn't have to go anywhere until Tuesday night. You could still tell something was there, but I did my best to cover it up. Daniel said he felt guilty even though he wasn't the one that gave it to me. It sure look liked the work of someone bigger than Sophie.