2014 Stories

I have a little magnetic notepad on the fridge. On it I write all the little silly things Sophie and Sabrina say. Here are the stories I wrote down from this past year:


At the 2013 Hancock Christmas white elephant gift exchange, Dave scored a new frilly pink apron with cupcakes on it. Later, back at home, Lindsey used it while baking. Sophie didn't really like her using it. "That's Daddy's apron!" she said.


Lindsey to Sophie and cousins Kingston and Lowe: " You can eat your cheese crisp first, and then you can eat a cookie."
Sophie: "Yeah. That's what I do. I eat the good food first and then after that I can eat the bad food."


Sophie: "Sabrina is so cute. When I get kids, they're gonna think this baby is so cute."


Sophie: " Is it not spring break anymore?"
Dave: "Nope. Spring Break is over."
Sophie: "Yea!"


As we were getting ready for church one morning, everyone was packing their bags with all their essential "church things." So while Lindsey was packing the diaper bag, Dave was gathering his notebook, and Sophie was packing toys into her bag. Sabrina came out with her bag full of little shoes. She walked out the door with the bag in one hand and another shoe and blankie in the other.


Sophie, waving the American Flag: "Happy Fourth of July!"
Dave: "Do you know what that holiday is for?"
Sophie: "Uh-huh!"
Dave: "What?"
Sophie: "I forgot."


Sophie to Lindsey: "I figured out your favorite day is sleep day."
True dat.


Lindsey asked Sophie to do something, but Sophie was playing a Lego game on the tablet.
Sophie: "I can't! I'm working!"


Lindsey was taking a poll of the family, to see if everyone thought the new baby would be a girl or a boy.
Here are their answers:
Sophie: "Boy."
Lindsey: "Boy."
Dave: "Girl."
Sabrina: "Pig!"


Sabrina slept in to almost 10am one morning, which is very unusual!
Lindsey said to her when she finally woke up: "What are you? A teenager?"
Sabrina: "Yes."


Sophie: "Mom, remember when you used to make cookies?"
Lindsey: "Um, yeah."
Sophie: "Why don't you make them anymore?"
Lindsey had made some a few days ago.


What we found in our garbage disposal after it stopped working:
2 chopped up sippy cup stoppers
7 rocks
1 beat up jar lid.


While driving through ASU campus, Lindsey explained to Sophie: "This is where big kids got o school. They can take classes to become a doctor, or a teacher..."
Sophie: "Or they can learn to drive a bus!"
Lindsey: "Yeah. I don't think they have classes on that here."

Christmas Day

Halloween!!

This year for Halloween, we had two little kitties running around trick-or-treating.

Sophie is like Dave, in that she is not motivated very much by sugar. Sabrina, on the other hand, takes after me. She couldn't stop herself from devouring everything in her candy bucket!

Luckily, the Halloween Witch visits our house. We leave our candy out on the doorstep and the witch takes it and leaves something else in it's place.

Sabrina, though, has not stopped talking about candy. Or ghosts. I think she loves to "see" ghosts. There are some in our garage, and sometimes in her bedroom. That's what she tells us anyway.

By the way, please check out my new website Lindsey Joslin Photography if you haven't already!

100 Books

Sophie has read 100 books since the beginning of the school year! She is now reading words like "shore" and "sail" (she read a book about the beach recently, you can tell by the words)!

Way to go, Sophie! You have come a long way in the past 3 months!

Fun at Schnepf Farms!

This year, we went to Schnepf Farms for some festive pumpkin patch fun! This place was really great. It had everything.

 Here is Dave off-roading through the corn maze and Sophie leading the way!

Some of the paths were definitely NOT stroller friendly.

 Sabrina LOVED the jumping pillow.

 This is the girls' first experience with cotton candy. It had to be documented.

Sabrina's 2 year old pictures

So, I had a 2 year old portrait session with Sabrina around her birthday, but I never posted them because it took me a while to start editing them. And I didn't really like them anyway.

So here are a few from that session and a few others to document her transition to 2.

Also, I find it very ironic that though these photos are from four different days, Sabrina is wearing the SAME shirt in most of these photos. We really like that shirt.

Facts of a 2 year old

Sabrina, you are a very fun girl. Here are a few facts about yourself to prove it.

Anytime I sit to play at the piano, you touch my hands and say "peeze!" (please) and I know that to mean "Please play 'Phantom of the Opera' so I can dance around!" That is pretty much the only piano song I am aloud to play when you are in the house.

One of the first words out of your mouth was singing "Let it go!" over and over, especially right when you would wake up. Actually, you still do that every morning. Even now, when you hear Frozen's "Let It Go" on our Grooveshark playlist you have me put on Daddy's old superhero cape around your shoulders and run around singing "Let it go! Let it go!"--but only during the chorus. For the rest of the song, you just stand around waiting until the "good part" starts again. But my favorite part to hear you sing is the last big note Elsa holds out in "Let the storm rage ONNNNNN!!!" You love to sing that big note and it is always adorably off-key.

While we're talking about music, I need to mention a few more of your favorite children's songs. You love "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Hot Potato" from The Wiggles. Those always put you in a good mood.

Sabrina, you only have to wake up each morning, and your hair is perfectly styled and volumized. See?

You are not very good at swallowing your food. There have been several instances where I have laid you down in your crib shortly after lunch only to find your cheeks stuffed with half-chewed leftovers.

Some children explore objects by sticking them in their mouths (such as Sophie did), however you explore objects by throwing them. Specifically, at Mommy's head. In fact, you ALWAYS throw it right above my left eyebrow. You have really good aim, and it hurts. A lot.

If I happen to tell you "I'm going potty," you take that as an invitation for a bathroom party. I said those every words a few days ago and you responded with "Otay!! Potty!!!!" and ran down the hallway to the bathroom where you sat on the toilet fully dressed, threw TP in the bowl, then flushed it down saying "Bye, bye!"

First Day of Kindergarten

Here is Sophie on her very first day of Kindergarten. As a mom, I didn't get too upset dropping off my very first kindergartner at school, but Sabrina was soooo sad when Sophie got out of the car and didn't come back!

We chose to put Sophie in Pomeroy's Montessori program. It is a traditional public school, but also has a separate Montessori program. It attracts families all over the valley. Luckily, it isn't too far for us. I agonized for months what kind of school to send her too, but now that we've been in school for a few weeks I couldn't be happier with our decision to send her there. I'm not going to lie, those first couple of days were really hard on Sophie emotionally but she has embraced her school and loves it.

She looks forward to attending her class every day. Her reading skills have blown me away. Within the first week, I noticed a huge change in her willingness and ability to read. And even tonight while reading scriptures she was tackling longer words that would normally intimidate her. She still reads very slowly but I have seen great progress. I have no idea what her teacher is doing, but it is working!

I asked Sophie what her favorite part of school was, and true to an elementary student, she replied, "Lunch and playing at the park [or playground]."

Here is a little comparison of Montessori vs Traditional schools, if interested.

Faces II.

 Sophie: Age 5

Sabrina: Nearly 2

5 kids

Dave and I don't know how many kids we want. The ideal number is changing year after year. A few weeks ago, however, we tried out five kids: Sophie, Sabrina and their three cousins Stephanie, Kate, and Megan. To say Sophie loved having some girl cousins around everyday would be an understatement. Our days are quite less eventful now that they are gone.

I learned a few things myself about having five kids in one house. Namely, these:
1. We would need to make a lot more money to feed 5 hungry kids on a gluten free diet. One loaf of GF bread=1 meal.
2. I would need to make a lot more food. Bleh.
3. Five kids under one roof is actually much easier than two kids. They entertain each other.
4. Clean ups can happen more quickly when their are more kids to do it.... If they do it.

The first day they arrived, all three of the Hancock girls found something in Sophie's closet that fit them and they went around wearing her clothes. Little Megan especially loved wearing dress after dress of Sophie's. 

Our days were spent in lots of water environments, dancing to some awesome musics, and playing at some fantastic parks. 

We had some definite fun.