Saying Good-bye

Sophie, Aunt Leia, Abbie & Paw-paw Tom

We ate lunch with Matt's family on Saturday after Christmas before starting our long trip home. We had decided to split the trip up on the way home. Matt drove his company van which meant he had to go all of the driving. We all had a great time in Richmond. We stopped in Knoxville on Saturday night and spent the night at a hotel. We made it home on Sunday morning and took naps that afternoon which was much needed! As soon as we got home on Sunday (we stopped at Paula's parents for lunch first), Sophie said, "I'm going to go and start a new list for Santa. I didn't get everything that I wanted." Matt & I just looked at each other like, "you've got to be kidding me?!" I said, "well, your birthday is coming up in a few months so you can just tell Daddy and me what you want. I also told that Santa wouldn't be coming back until next year." It just seems so ungrateful but I guess that's how most kids are. I hope we can teach her though to try to be grateful for all of the nice things that she has. I think there was only one thing that she really wanted that she didn't receive-a play cash register. Well, and of course with Sophie, she never has enough baby dolls (in her view) because she loves to mother everyone (especially Abbie).

Happy New Year everyone! If you read a lot of my recent posts, you are probably either asleep or worn out by now. =)

Christmas Day

Abbie's thrilled that Santa came!

Matt in his Santa apron and hat that he got for Christmas =)

Sophie with her new Play-doh ice cream shoppe set

I forgot to mention earlier that our Elf on the shelf made the trip to Virginia too. Sophie had been very adamant before that Crispin, our elf, was not going to VA with us. I think she was afraid that somehow the elf would get mixed up or something and not be able to find his way back to our new location in VA at Matt's parents house. However, she was thrilled when Matt had put the elf inside our van for the trip (on the dashboard). After about the 1st turn that Matt made, Crispin went flying. I told Sophie that since I was an adult I could pick up Crispin and let him have a rest during our trip in the glove compartment. During the trip, every so often she would ask one of us to open up the glove compartment so that she could check on him.

The night before Christmas, we had fun spreading out reindeer food in the yard and putting out Santa's cookies and milk. During our stay with Matt's family, Sophie stayed in the room with Matt's parents. She woke up at 4 A.M. and she was ready to get up. She told his parents, "I think someone has been here. We need to go and see if Santa came." They told her to go back to bed because it was too early and she slept in till almost 8 (which was unexpected but nice). One of Sophie's favorite things that she got from Mimi and Paw-paw Tom was her play-doh ice cream shoppe set. She also loved her big measuring tape and her new baby doll among other things. Abbie had a nice Christmas too although all of the celebrating just made her sleepy. Matt's sister, Leia, gave him the Santa apron shown above. Matt helped his dad deep-fry a cajun turkey which was really good!

Random Pictures from Christmas Week

Abbie modeling her stylish new outfit

Sophie riding a Christmas train in the mall

Sophie & Paula outside one of the homes in the tacky lights competition

Leia, Matt & Sophie at Chuck E. Cheese's

We travelled to Richmond the weekend before Christmas. It was a long road trip for us but we decided we would drive rather than fly this time. The girls did great for the most part but Sophie was so excited that we were going to Richmond. We heard, "when we will be there?" about 50 times at least. It took us over 12 hours to get to Richmond so it was kind of a marathon trip. She finally fell last asleep for the last hour or two of the trip. We had a good time with Matt's family. We went to Chuck E. Cheese's one day, the mall (and she got to ride the train), the park, we did our own tacky Christmas lights tour, and I can't think what else we did. =) Some of the homes in the tacky Christmas lights competition, were very tacky and some of them were pretty fun to see. I thought the last picture from Chuck E. Cheese's was funny because this is usually Sophie's favorite ride and while you're on this ride,
the machine takes your picture. We always take our own too and Matt manages to get in there with Sophie alongwith someone else from the family.

More Santa pictures

Santa (Phil), Aunt Martha, & Sophie

Nana & Paw-paw with Sophie, Abbie & Santa

At Nana's house, Sophie was excited to get a play doctor's kit and a play Diego camera as well as some other things. Abbie got a play musical instrument set, some books, and a cute little riding toy among other things.

Our Favorite Santa

our family with Nana's tree

our family with Santa (Uncle Phil)

The weekend before Christmas we celebrated an early Christmas with Paula's family in Nashville before leaving for Virginia to celebrate with Matt's family and spend Christmas there. We enjoyed our time with both of our families and thankfully, everyone stayed healthy. We all had a wonderful Christmas and were well remembered! This was Abbie's first encounter with Santa where I tried to hand her over to Santa and she cried!! Poor baby! I thought she'd be O.K. this first year, but no. I took pity on her and picked her up. When we had visited Santa at the mall, we weren't trying to get pictures or anything so I didn't try to put her in Santa's lap. I was proud of Sophie this year because even though she still didn't want to be too close to Santa, she was brave enough to talk to him at the mall (even though she was very nervous).

Lunch with Santa

Paula with Sophie & Abbie on the train

Sophie all dressed up to cook! =)

Well, I'm going to try to catch everyone up a little bit on what's been happening in our world. Right before Christmas, things got pretty busy with parties and stuff. On Dec 13th, we went to our neighborhood's big Christmas event. They had Santa come in riding on a fire truck, kids' activities such as jump castles, arts and crafts, etc. We had a potluck style lunch, you could ride a garden train around the block, and get your picture made with Santa (Sophie was not interested in the latter). I had taken Sophie to visit "Santa's helper" in the mall the week before so Sophie said, "I don't want to see Santa. I already told his helper what I wanted." She told everyone about how Santa had come from the North Pole and then rode to our party on a fire truck. We had a nice time although I was kind of disappointed that we couldn't do the breakfast with Santa at church too. They were the same day though. Last year, breakfast with Santa was absolutely crazy so we decided to try this instead.

Abbie's 11 months old

Well, I've been behind lately on blogging so I'll try to catch up after the holidays but we've had a lot going on. Abbie is 11 months old today! She took a 3 1/2 hour nap this afternoon! I don't have any pictures to post (sorry!) because we are in Virginia visiting Matt's family and I've already uploaded the pictures to our computer at home.

I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas! We celebrated Christmas with my family in Nashville on Friday night. Then, we left town for Virginia on Saturday. Uncle Phil dressed up as Santa Claus for the girls so that we could actually get some pictures with Santa (we had seen Santa a couple of times this year but Sophie wouldn't get in his lap for pictures.) Abbie cried when she saw Santa and clung on to her Mama.

I'll try to post some pictures in a few days!

Christmas is coming soon!

Abbie & Matt

Sophie & Matt

our "elf on the shelf" in our Christmas tree

Abbie & Sophie all dressed up

We've been busy with a little bit of a lot of different things which is common for this time of year I guess. We got the house decorated for Christmas this past week. I REALLY didn't want to put up our big tree this year (which I know is probably terrible if you have a 3 1/2 year old) but I also have a 10 month old who loves to cruise and is walking some too and puts everything in her mouth. Plus, we won't be around much at Christmas this year. However, we went ahead and put the tree up (mostly because Matt just went ahead and assembled it and I felt guilty). After I had finished decorating it the next day, Sophie at some point said, "Mama, I think we have the prettiest tree ever!" That statement made it all worth it! Of course, we have the challenge of keeping things out of Abbie's mouth but this year we have our big plastic corral around our tree to somewhat keep her out of the tree.

Sophie really enjoyed helping me decorate a little bit (not much though) and "helping" me wrap presents. She loves getting out tape, scissors, paper, and all that to create things. As you can see, Abbie likes to stick out her tongue and she has new teeth trying to come through. This year, Matt had seen the "elf on the shelf" set at a local store and told me about it. We thought about getting it but didn't rush right out and buy one. Then, we heard about them from a couple of our friends and we've had so much fun with it! The story tells you about a special elf who comes to your house from the North Pole. He will be watching children all of the time to see if they are naughty or nice. Then, he goes and talks to Santa each night to give him a report. He flies back each night while your children are sleeping. Therefore, each morning the Elf is in a new place. Sophie asks so many questions though and she thinks very analytically like her Daddy so I got a little concerned even the first day that this might not have been such a great idea. She asks a lot of questions trying to figure things out. It's been fun each morning though and if she misbehaves, we say, "the elf is watching you" or Matt just says, "elf on the shelf". It's pretty funny! Today, she told me that the elf would probably come back next year but Abbie would be the only child. I said, "and you, Sophie." She said, "No, I will probably grow up this year." I said, you'll still be a little girl next year. Sometimes Sophie does speak like a little adult.

Also, a fun thing to do with your child even if you don't have an elf on the shelf is to check out this website and it will take you on a tour of the North Pole and let you see Santa's workshop, etc. Thanks to Laura Beth for sharing this. Sophie & I had fun checking it out one day. It's so fun to experience Christmas and anticipate it's coming with a child!

The picture of Matt & Sophie was taken at the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro on an old truck. It had been about a year since we had been and they had added some new exhibits. They were having their Holiday Open House so there was free admission (which came as a surprise).

Indian Girl

Here's "Princess Sunshine" AKA Sophie

This past Tuesday, Sophie and her classmates got to dress up and play Indians. Sophie was so excited about it. The night before she said, "please help us to be great at playing Indians" or something like that. =) Her teacher gave them each Indian names and she was Princess Sunshine. They made these shirts and hats at school. They also made little drums and had a tepee that they got to play in. Sophie was not acting very sunshiny by the time she came from school so it was hard for me to get her picture. As you can see, they also got their faces painted (it was really washable markers). I wasn't sure how Sophie would like this because in the past whenever we've asked her if she wants to get her face painted, she says no.

Overall, we had a nice Thanksgiving. On Wednesday before Thanksgiving, it was so warm that my sister and I took Sophie to the zoo while my mom kept Abbie so that she could get a nap. For Thanksgiving Day, we went to my aunt and uncle's house in Chapel Hill, TN and got to see most of my dad's side of the family. Sophie enjoyed getting to see some of her other cousins. It was warm enough for some of us to play kickball in their backyard that afternoon. I was reminded once again why I didn't stick with sports for longer (I'm not talented in that area) and why I only play every now and then for fun.

More Fun with Cousins

another cute picture of Sophie & Emma at the Grinch ice display

Caleb, Sophie & Emma at the science museum

Abbie, Anna, Emma, & Sophie

Grace, Paula, Abbie & Anna

I forgot to mention in the last post that my mom was kind enough to babysit Abbie so that I could go and do something just with Sophie on Friday. It was really nice because I don't think she would have liked the freezing cold environment anyway. On Saturday morning, I stayed home with Abbie while Matt, Sophie, Nana (my mom), Caleb, Emma, Aunt Mary, and my sister, Martha, went to the Adventure Science Center. It was Sophie's first time to go and they all had a great time! I don't know too much about it since I didn't go but they got to see some trains, climb on some playground equipment, and more. Matt was adventurous enough to try being lifted by something that makes you seem weightless like an astronaut (or something like that). I was glad that Abbie got her nap that morning because she slept for 2 1/2 hours! That is not normal for her at all so she must have tuckered out. =)

On Saturday afternoon, one of my other cousins, Beth, came in from Ohio (my other cousin lives in Arkansas) with her youngest child, Anna, and they got to join in the fun. On Saturday night, we celebrated an early Thanksgiving with all of my mom's family at my aunt & uncle's house since we had some family members in town who normally aren't around for Thanksgiving. Plus, it saved us from having to do two Thanksgivings in one day which I was grateful for! All of the kids got along well for the most part. Grace lives in the area and she's about to have a new sister soon. My mom and dad have stayed with us for the last few nights while there were first five extra people and then seven extras staying at their house. It worked out fine for us! Sophie really loved getting to spend time with her cousins! She doesn't have any first cousins so second cousins or first cousins once removed (whichever it is) are the closest it gets for her.
(I hope this post wasn't too confusing!)

Seeing the Grinch

Caleb, Emma, & Sophie

the people of Whoville

Sophie & Emma

the Grinch

We have been pretty busy the last few days. On Thursday, Sophie went to school as usual and then, that afternoon my cousin, Sarah and her husband and kids came in town for a conference, as well as my Aunt Mary. My aunt came along so that she could babysit the kids while Sarah and Jason went to their conference. We had dinner with them that night at my parents' house and then spent the next few days hanging out with them. Sophie was excited to be hanging out with her cousins. Everywhere they went together Sophie wanted to hold their hands. Poor Caleb because he was the only boy cousin around! On Friday, my aunt & I went out to Opryland to see "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in Ice. It was really awesome and also freezing cold. Everything inside was made out of ice in the display. It wasn't crowded and all of us went down the indoor slides except for Sophie! That was a blast! I think I was more into it than the kids were because they said they were freezing. I was like thinking, "we're here, we've paid the money (it wasn't cheap) and it's not crowded so let's don't go through this too quickly." They have everyone wear the big blue parkas inside and Sophie looked so funny because hers was huge. She fell down one time and was having trouble getting up because the sleeves on her coat were quite long as well as the length of the coat itself. It was good for keeping her warm though!

Afterwards, we decided to head over to Opry Mills Mall (right next door) and let the bigger kids see the Aquarium Restaurant that has a huge indoor aquarium. My aunt just suggested that we go ahead and splurge and have lunch there so we did. The kids all loved that. Sophie had been before but she was in heaven getting to spend time with her big cousins. =)

Sophie and her babies

Sophie is always talking about all of her "children". She'll say I have 3 kids. Then she says, I have 3 babies and some boys and girls. She is so cute because she has such a great imagination and she is really good about entertaining herself a lot of the time. One night before bed she was talking about her children and how she has to get them all dressed. I'd say it's a lot easier with "children" who don't whine, talk, spit up, cry, wake up in the middle of the night, etc. =) In the bottom picture, Sophie was potty training all of her babies. I am all for her potty training Abbie when the time comes. One of my friends has all girls and her older one trained the younger one. Wouldn't that be wonderful if it worked for me too? Abbie has still had a cold and cough this week, plus she is teething, so it's been a difficult week! I'm hoping that Abbie will keep getting better. We have really missed Matt! He's been in Maryland for training all week.

Sophie says funny stuff all of the time but it's hard for me to remember sometimes. One day, I was trying to help her practice her counting. She always thinks that "19" comes after "13." We took turns counting and I was trying to help Sophie figure out that 14 comes after 13 so I said what comes after 3?. I said, "how old will you on your next birthday?" She had a little trouble coming up with "4" (pretty sad). Anyway, when I told her that she would be "4". She said that she would be "4" and then that next year she'd be "18". I thought, "heaven help us if that were true!" I don't want to skip from "4" to the teenage years. Another funny thing that Sophie said was about Santa and the gang. We went to Publix's annual holiday fest or whatever it's called on Tuesday. Sophie got to see Santa Claus and although she was shy, she didn't cry this year. Later, she asked, "where was Mrs. Claus?" I said, "she's probably baking cookies or something." Sophie asked about the elves too and she said "I bet the elves are sick and Mrs. Claus is baking them cookies." =)

Abbie will be 10 months old tomorrow! It's hard to believe! It's hard for me to get good pictures of her now because she is always "on the go" and checking out her environment. I keep expecting her to really take off and start walking but not yet. One funny thing about Abbie is that she got into the pantry the other day and came out with the Cheerios box. I thought it was too funny because she loves Cheerios!!

Smiley Girls

Abbie pushing a chair

Sophie with her special snack of popcorn with M& M's before watching a movie!

I haven't been doing too great at blogging lately. I thought I'd put these cute pictures on here. This past weekend, Sophie came down with a really bad cough and she still has some cold symptoms. Of course, kids share everything including their germs so even though I repeatedly asked Sophie not to cough all over Abbie and touch her face and hands, she did and now Abbie has a bad cold with a cough. Poor baby! As you can see above in Abbie's wide grin, she has two teeth on the bottom. She is almost walking too. Abbie tries to get into everything including the toilet, toilet paper, anything you have lying around that she can put in her mouth. It's hard for me to find time to sit down and relax when both of the girls are around, that's for sure! These pictures were taken before the girls got sick!

On another note though, this week we had most of our downstairs painted and that feels wonderful. Also, Matt had a shelf built for the garage. Slowly but surely we are getting our house decorated the way we want it.

Fall Foliage Fun at Leipers Fork

Matt told Sophie that we could go on an "adventure" last Saturday morning. Matt had in mind that we could drive 15 miles to Leipers Fork, eat lunch at Puckett's Grocery, and look at the fall leaves on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Sophie was so excited about going on an "adventure"; she even asked if we would be staying in a hotel. Puckett's Grocery has been around for a long time, and the focus now is on homestyle dining rather than groceries. However, they still sell groceries, which was good because we bought some baby food for Abbie. Sophie enjoyed the cornbread shaped like pancakes.

After lunch, we walked around downtown Leipers Fork, and went on little drive on the Natchez Trace. Overall, we all had fun on our "adventure."

An All-American Family

Can you see that look in Sophie's eyes?

Paula, Abbie, Sophie & Matt

On Friday evening, Paula's parents and Aunt Patti came by for a little bit to see the girls dressed up. Then, we met up with some of our neighbors and walked down to Publix for their games and trick or treating. We came back and did some trick or treating around our neighborhood while Paula's mom gave out candy. Abbie was happy for a little while in her stroller and then, she started to wear out. Paula & Abbie came back home while Sophie & Matt finished trick or treating with our neighbors. As you can tell, Sophie really enjoyed getting all of that candy! She didn't let her pumpkin filled with candy out of sight much for a while. However, I was proud of her for sharing with her parents! =) In case you are having trouble guessing, Matt dressed as U.S. Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps, and I dressed as Nastia Liukin, the U.S. Olympic gymnast. These were the same outfits we wore for the Couples Costume party. Matt really enjoyed wearing 8 gold medals and hamming it up as Michael Phelps (i.e. doing some of his warm-up routine at our party). The costumes were not too difficult to pull together and it was fun! The girls were Titans cheerleaders. Go Titans!