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).