Back home for Christmas

On December 20, Sophie and Paula returned to Charleston and started making final preparations for Christmas. Grandma & Grandpa Vergne, Aunt Leia, Aunt JoAnne and Uncle Gary all joined us in Charleston shortly before Christmas. Stephen, a friend from church, also joined us for Christmas day.

Surprisingly, Sophie pretty much left our Christmas tree alone but she liked to look closely at the ornaments and have Mommy take some of them down for a better look. On Christmas morning, she couldn't resist sitting on top of a pile of presents! =) Santa Claus was good to all of us. Much to our amusement, Sophie loves playing with her new cars that Uncle Phil gave her for Christmas (while in Nashville)! She received the cars along with a track tower where she can race the cars. Who said that girls can't enjoy playing with cars? =)

Sophie had a great time playing with Aunt Leia especially and Leia was a great sport about it.

Christmas in Nashville

Sophie and Paula were able to visit Nashville for a week in mid December. They attended Martha's (Paula's sister) graduation from Freed Hardeman University (about 2 hours from Nashville) and celebrated an early Christmas. Matt was able to get away for a long weekend and enjoy the festivities too. Paula was so proud of her little sister who earned a degree in elementary education. Sophie enjoyed spending time with Nana (shown above), Paw paw, Uncle Phil, Aunt Martha, and many extended family members and friends.

Since Sophie already had some baby dolls and typical girl toys, Uncle Phil decided to branch out and give Sophie a little track tower where you can race three cars at a time. Uncle Phil also taught her other useful tricks such as growling like a lion. =) Sophie enjoyed all of the attention.

Christmas is coming!

Here's Sophie in her Santa hat. She loves our Christmas tree and has actually done pretty well around it. One night last week, we went to our local park where you can drive through and see tons of Christmas light displays, get out and see Santa, ride a carousel, ride a train (we're on the train below), and see a sand sculpture. We went with some friends and had a lot of fun. We all enjoyed seeing the lights and riding the train! Sophie was scared of Santa and didn't want to have anything to do with him. In the bottom picture, it's hard to tell, but we are in front of an incredible sand sculpture with a Christmas theme.

On Wednesday, Paula & Sophie will be flying to Nashville for a week to celebrate Christmas with Paula's family. Matt will come on Thursday and spend a long weekend with them. We are all planning to attend Aunt Martha's (Paula'a sister) graduation from Freed Hardeman University. We are so proud of her!

Zoo Time

We visited the Metro Richmond Zoo while we were in Richmond for Thanksgiving. Sophie loves seeing all the animals. She is getting less and less shy with animals, and she now loves to get close and touch the animals (at least the small animals). Sophie also loved riding the big carousel (twice!) and the little coin-operated carousel. She had a great time, she even skipped her afternoon nap.

Gobble Gobble!!!!!!!

I helped everyone get packed and ready to go for our trip to Richmond.
I made this beautiful Indian headdress in my Parents and Children Together class.

The turkey frying crew of Grandpa, Me, Daddy, and Great-Uncle Gary

Happy Turkey Day!!!
At this time every year, I think of things I am thankful for. Currently, I am thankful for Pepperidge Farms Goldfish, Fisher-Price Little People Farm and Zoo playsets, Little Tikes playground equipment, and the Wiggles and VeggieTales DVDs. I also am thankful for Mommy, Daddy, friends, and family.

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Richmond for Thanksgiving. I am going to get my first taste of deep-fried turkey (Just like the Pilgrims and Indians did at the first T-giving in 1622). It has been cold and rainy here, but hopefully it will warm for us to go shopping tomorrow at the doorbusters' sale at Macy's tomorrow at 5AM.

XOXO Sophie

Around the house

Sophie has just started to practice feeding herself with a spoon. It makes quite a mess so her Mama has been reluctant to let her take over and feed herself! Sophie is quite a helper around the house (or tries to be). Here she is putting some clothes in our new hamper. She also enjoys playing with her Little People Farm Set. A couple of months ago, Sophie started saying "E-i-e-i" because she's familiar with the song "Old McDonald"; but she doesn't finish it off with "O" though. Sophie was introduced to The Wiggles on DVD. At first, her parents got more into dancing to the songs than Sophie did, but she quickly learned that it was a lot of fun to be silly and follow along! Her favorite Wiggles song is "Can you (Point your Fingers and do the Twist)?"

Catch me if you can!

Sophie loves going to the park and playing on the playground. She recently started making fish faces after watching "Finding Nemo." She also can say "fish" now.

Trick or treat

Sophie dressed up as a fairy for Halloween. She had not completely adjusted to the time change so she was very tired at 7 PM after visiting with some friends down the street and then getting candy at only 7-8 houses. Sophie loves M&M's, but she really loves to play with empty candy wrappers. She also enjoyed going to Trunk or Treat Sunday night after church. It's definitely easier for the parents and kids! You only have to walk a short distance and you get tons of candy in a short amount of time! =) Everybody's happy that way!









Here's Sophie with two friendly pirates, Jackson and Wilson. Arrrrgh!!!

Trip to the mountains

We had a great time this past weekend in Asheville, NC! Our family met up with Paula's parents and brother, Phil. We enjoyed seeing the beautiful fall colors, touring the Biltmore, and visiting with family. Here we are at Chimney Rock Park which has lots of trails and magnificent views from this point, which looks like a chimney (hence the name).

Sophie, at almost 18 months, wants to do everything by herself. Here she is climbing on a big rock. "Paw-paw" stands guard ready to catch her if she falls. Below is Sophie with Paw-paw and a picture of Matt, Paula & Sophie at the lookout point.

Sophie scouts out where she would like her tree house

Last week, Sophie, Paula, and Paula's good friend, Andrea Hardison, visited the Angel Oak Tree on neighboring John's Island. Sophie was awed by the sheer size of the tree. The Angel Oak's trunk has a circumference of 26 feet and it is the height of 25 Sophie's stacked on top of each other. The longest limb is 89 feet long, and some of the limbs are so huge and heavy that they rest on the ground. The tree is thought to be 1400 years old. Sophie was not feeling very well all last week but she is feeling better now. Sophie and Paula had a good time spending time with Andrea, who was visiting from TN, while Daddy was at work.

Happy Fall Y'all

Over the weekend, we visited a local farm that has a corn maze, pumpkin patch, petting zoo, hayride, and more. We had so much fun! Sophie loved seeing all of the animals up close. On the hayride, the cows came right up to us and you could feed them. It was a much cooler day and we had a lot of fun on the farm! In the above picture it looks like Sophie might have a future in politics. What do you think? By the way, one of Sophie's newest tricks is drinking from a straw. We were so proud of her when she mastered this last week and she kept clapping for herself.

Lean, Mean (Not really) Cleaning Machine

Sophie loves ducks! Can you tell? Sophie's Nana was just here for a visit recently to come and help out. We had a great time visiting with her! Nana brought Sophie her very own broom, dust pan and cleaning set because Sophie had recently started "dusting" her chair as she's seen her Mommy do.

Bridge Walk

Last weekend, we decided to walk across the Cooper River Bridge which was completed a couple of years ago. We walked as far as the first large span that looks like a sail. This bridge connects downtown Charleston with Mt. Pleasant. See casadavis.org for more information! There's another picture of the bridge below.


Can you see the electricity in my hair while I'm playing with my balloon? Mommy was so happy to put my hair in pigtails for church one night and then I took them out on the way there!
Below, I've got the family camera. I'm ready to go do some sight-seeing. This past week, Sophie had hand, foot, and mouth disease which causes a rash in certain areas of the body and is very contagious in kids. We had planned to get away this past weekend but neither Sophie or Paula were feeling 100% so we just stayed in Charleston. One of Sophie's newest things is that she has started helping Paula "dust" the furniture-particularly her little chair. She'll get a rag or a diaper and start "dusting". It is so cute and I know she's just copying what she's seen Mommy doing before.

Splash Time!

The end of summer is here and we made several trips to Splash Zone at James Island County Park, about 3 miles from our house. These were some of our best times this summer. Sophie loved to go down the waterslide with one of us in the children's pool. After sliding she would immediately get up and wade through the water, climb steps, and get in line to go down the slide again. She did this repeatedly.
We also visited the Folly Beach County Park recently. Sophie loves every part of the beach-the water, the sand, everything. It's scary at times because she has no fear! Once she became a better walker, she got to where she would just walk all over the beach chasing seagulls with no real destination in mind it seems. She calls the seagulls "ducks".

Other news with us is that Sophie has a cold right now but hopefully, she'll feel better soon. She's going to Mother's Morning Out again one morning a week. Poor Sophie has had a lot of falls lately so her knees are skinned up!

New Tricks

We took Sophie to Hampton Park in Charleston after dinner one night. There were ducks in a lake who were very friendly and walked right up to Sophie. She kept pointing and saying, "duck!" "Duck" is only about the third word in Sophie's vocabulary. She also says "Mama" and "Dada."


Uncle Phil and Nana came down to Charleston to visit Sophie not too long ago. Phil and Sophie had similar schedules during the day; they both woke up late in the morning and took long afternoon naps. Sophie did go to bed at night five hours earlier than Phil though. (OK, so their schedules were a little different. She's usually up by 7 or 7:30 A.M.)
Sophie has also taken an interest in brushing her teeth. She loves to sit in the sink and brush her teeth. The week before Phil & Nana's visit, Grandma & Grandpa Vergne came down to help get some projects done and help babysit Sophie.

You got it dude!

How do you like Sophie's new look? Matt says that she reminds him of Michelle on Full House. Her hair reminded me (Paula) of the old TV antennae (we still have some)! She kept wanting to try to wear both pairs of sunglasses which was interesting. This is her new adonirack chair that her grandparents gave her on their latest visit. She loves it! It wasn't intended for the living room but it's there for now.

By the way, Sophie's a good little helper in the yard! This mower sends out bubbles which is fun! I think I forgot to mention in our past blogs that along with all of our other craziness, our digital camera broke while we were in Nashville. We've replaced it now though.

Beanie Baby

Sophie just LOVED these beanie babies! They were just her size. The last couple of weeks have been very crazy around our household. As you know, Paula's grandmother passed away while Sophie and Paula were in Nashville. The morning after arriving home, our air conditioner went out. It took us several days to get the air conditioner fixed because we were going through our mortgage company. During that time, we spent one night in a hotel and then stayed with church friends. Many thanks to our friends from church who put us up in their house until the air was fixed. Sophie loved sitting on our friend, Janie's bench and "organizing" her beanie babies! We are very thankful that our air is fixed and we are back in our own home. It was fixed just in time for Grandma & Grandpa Vergne's visit to see us.

Tribute to Virginia Burton

Sophie's great grandmother (Paula's last surviving grandparent), Virginia Burton, passed away this afternoon in Nashville, TN. (Paula and Sophie had already planned to be in Nashville during this time.) Matt was able to drive down in time for the family visitation and funeral. Grandmother Burton lived a long, full life, and she was always glad to see Sophie when she came to visit. We'll be sure to tell Sophie how wonderful her great grandmother was as Sophie grows up. She was always such a generous and wise person who was glad to do anything for you. She loved the Lord and she loved her family. We're glad that she's free of pain now and we look forward to seeing her again in heaven someday. Below is the most recent picture of Sophie and her great grandmother, taken at Christmas last year.