Sophie has arrived!

Sophie Grace Poulsen was born May 29, 2007 at 8:09 am! She was 6 lbs. 8 oz. and 20 and a half inches long. So far most of the pictures of her she is very sleepy because we are too tired to take pictures in the middle of the night when she is wide awake! Sydney was so excited to meet her. Thank goodness this labor and delivery was much easier than Sydney. Actually we only stayed one day at the hospital because the hospital we delivered at doesn't keep the babies overnight in the nursery. Since Mark and I had to stay up all night with Sophie...we just figured it would be easier to go home and go through that with more space at our house.

Sydney just got back from dance class and is helping out by holding Sophie. We think Sophie looks just like Sydney did when she was a baby. Although, Sophie doesn't look like she had such a rough time...because she didn't take nearly as long to come out.

Sophie likes to be bundled all tight like a burrito! When we got home from the hospital Mark went to the store and found this blanket made specially for swadling. It has a little pocket to tuck the baby into and velcro on the outside. We are not as good as the nurses at the hospital at wrapping Sophie up.

Here she is at home, sleeping of course because it is daytime. We give her a bottle about every 3 hours and then she usually goes right back to sleep. We're going to have to work on getting her to stay awake more during the day. She is doing really well with eating and digesting everything. It is such a difference from Sydney. Sydney had so much trouble with eating and was always spitting up all over everything. It is kind of nice for us.

When we got home, Sydney was just playing with all her toys and I guess she drew this picture on her sketch pad. She ran to show me her picture of her and Sophie. I thought it was very cute! We tried to get Sophie to wake up a bit this afternoon by putting her in the swing and Sydney sat beside her and kept singing little songs to her. Sophie only peeped open her eyes and then went back to sleep.

One last cute picture of Sydney holding Sophie...the first time Sydney came to visit. Thank you to all the family that helped watch Sydney. It was very nice to have Mark at the hospital the entire stay. He helped out so much last night. I know Sydney had fun "sleeping over". Hopefully soon we'll get some new pictures where Sophie is a bit more awake.

This was Memorial Day weekend when we were all just trying to relax a little bit before the baby came. Sydney and her Daddy are playing X-Box. At least Sydney likes to pretend she is playing with one of the controllers.

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Sleepover!

We decided to have a fun sleepover for Sydney with her cousins Lexie and Tori last weekend. I think all three of the girls had lots of fun and I'll admit...even though we were exhausted Saturday night, Mark and I had fun too. Girls have LOTS of energy (especially when they all get together)!

Lexie and Tori came over on Friday afternoon and we played with all the toys and ran around the house playing tag and screaming! Then Mark decided to come home and join in the fun.

We packed all the girls into the car and stopped at Little Caesars for pizza and breadsticks and headed to the new splash park to play. There were only a few people at the park so the girls took lots of turns spraying each other with these water cannons. Tori kept squealing and running through the arches that sprayed lots of water. Sydney and Lexie stood underneath the buckets to try and get drenched but then the water kept pouring just right beside them...or else they would jump out of the way, just before the bucket spilled. They even managed to eat a little dinner despite how much fun they were having. We also played in the regular park and went on all the swings.


Afterwards, we dried everyone off and changed back into our clothes. At the same park they were showing the movie "Cars" on a big screen so we found a place on the grass and spread out our blanket. The girls had lots of fun chasing each other in the grass and jumping around until it got dark.


Then like any sleepover, they ate lots of Oreo's and fishie crackers while they watched their movie. Finally we loaded everyone back up in the car and went home to try and start the whole going to bed process.

You would think that after all this excitement and no naps the girls would go to sleep almost immediately. I guess that was only wishful thinking. The next morning we had to get up early so Sydney could go play in her last soccer game. She was so tired and a bit crabby from the night before. Plus it was really hot out...good thing it was the last game of the season. Then all the girls wanted to go back to the splash park one last time so we drove back over there and had some more fun (because they have more energy than Mark and I do, obviously). We made Sydney go to bed a little bit earlier on Saturday night and Mark and I crashed. Mark is such a good sport to spend his weekend with all of the girls. On Sunday we went to a birthday party for a little boy in our ward that Sydney is friends with. Actually she was the only girl there and it was fun to watch her play with all the boys. She had a blast playing light sabers and monster trucks with the other kids. I guess that was a good balance to all the girly stuff she did this weekend. Well I hope everyone enjoys their Memorial Day weekend...and maybe we'll have some exciting news soon.

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Splash Park and Yummy Fruit!

A new splash park just opened up in Goodyear and since it is now in the triple digits, 104 degrees, I took Sydney to check it out this morning! She absolutely loved it (of course). I tried really hard to take pictures of her because she was so cute. However, she probably didn't stand still for more than five seconds at a time (unless she was standing under the buckets that dump water...but then I didn't want to get that wet with the camera). I'll admit that I also went through a few of the mister sprays to cool off too.

When Mark got home from work today...the first thing Sydney asked him was if she could go back to her splash park this afternoon. Hmmm...I bet we are going to be coming here quite a bit this summer. Sydney is going to take swimming lessons this summer too. I am excited that she can finally go into her class by herself, although I am a little nervous about a teacher trying to keep track of eight kids in the water, plus trying to teach them how to swim. I'm sure I'll be watching by the side just ready to dive in at the first sign of trouble!

After she was all done, she climbed up on this wall to dry off and model her Dora sunglasses.

She is enjoying the sun (with lots of sunblock) and just being silly like usual.

After the splash park we headed to my favorite store...Sprouts to load up on lots of yummy summer fruit. Sprouts had this huge box of cherries and you could just pick out as many as you wanted in your bag. I love this idea because it seems like whenever I buy cherries from other places there are either too many in the pre-picked bags or there are some that look kind of squished. Then we loaded up on apricots, strawberries, watermelon, and apples! And of course I brought home lots of fresh vegetables to eat with dip. Sydney's favorite is brocolli and dill dip. I hope I am making everyone hungry and inspiring everyone to eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables! Actually, I have always thought that if I ever got back into personal training again, I would require my clients to shop only at Sprouts because they would most likely come home with a few healthy items! I love summer fruit and vegetables (if you can't tell)! The other best thing about Sprouts is they have really good yogurt pretzels. Those are definitely one of my favorite treats.

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Warming up for soccer.

Sydney is on her second season of soccer this year. She is really starting to enjoy dribbling her ball and kicking it in the goal. I tried to get some cute shots of her during the game but most of the pictures were either of her back or there were other kids blocking the shot. You'll just have to take my word that she is turning into a little soccer star!

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Only four weeks left!

Today I headed to the doctor for another ultrasound to make sure everything is ok. The baby is just fine and about five pounds. Also there is no question...she is definitely a girl. The ultasound tech said she has cute chubby cheeks and a little upturned nose (just like Sydney). Sydney is getting excited for the baby to come. We set up the swing and bassinet, mostly so Sydney could play with them lots before they become occupied. She likes to play with all her babies and push them in the swing and then put them in the bassinet to sleep. Well I just thought I would put this quick post up. Mark and I have been married six years today! Wow...it has gone by fast. And now he is going to be stuck with three girls, pretty much forever!

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