Birthday Pictures cont.

Abbie blowing out her candle-she almost got burned when she blew it out!

All of these presents are for me!!

Harper, Sophie, Gracie and Abbie

Abbie's not used to being the center of attention but I think she enjoyed it. She was excited about all of her presents. She got a couple of new games which we've been trying out and a Dora suitcase. She saw suitcases right before Christmas and we almost couldn't leave the store without one that day! She also loves her new princess mat with little princesses to play with and her new Strawberry shortcake remote control car. I think she may suffer from withdrawal now that Christmas and her birthday are over! Sophie was a little jealous about all of the attention that Abbie got for her birthday but she'll get her turn in a few months! It's just hard on the sibling having the other one showered with attention.

We had to keep checking on the girls because they preferred to go upstairs and play while the adults were downstairs. Abbie kept locking Sophie's door. Adults kept taking turns checking on them because there's no telling what kind of trouble they could get into on their own. One time, my cousin, Chris, found them all jumping on Sophie's bed. =)

Family Birthday Celebrations

Abbie with her cupcake!

Abbie with Aunt Daba (Martha)

Ha! Ha! A cake for my birthday-wow!

On Friday night, my parents came over and we had a poppyseed chicken with sides and cupcakes for dessert. Then, on Saturday morning, we had a family party with Nana and Paw-paw, Aunt Martha and Uncle Matt, Keri, great aunt Patti, cousins Gracie and Harper, their dad, Chris, Uncle Jim and Aunt Linda. We had pizza, chips and dip, and fruit. Nana had made a strawberry cake for Abbie's birthday. Abbie kept changing her mind on who she wanted on her cake so it was hard to plan for her birthday. Nana tried to make Pooh, Strawberry Shortcake and Boz on Abbie's cake. Even on Abbie's birthday, she kept changing her mind about which character she wanted on her cake! We had a good time at Abbie's party. It was nice that Gracie and Harper ended up being able to come so that they were some kids for the girls to play with. I was glad that the weather cooperated as well so that we could have it!

Abbie's birthday

On Friday, Abbie turned 3. After she had eaten her breakfast, we unveiled her big birthday present which was a baby care center. She was so excited about it! We hid it under a sleeping bag because it was pretty big! It has a baby bed, bathtub, baby seat, mobile and cabinets included in it. It was on clearance after Christmas! Abbie loves her baby dolls so I know she's going to have fun playing with it.

The bottom picture is a picture of Abbie just chillin'. We had planned to get together with a couple of friends on Friday for a little playdate but since it snowed, I wasn't totally sure about the roads, etc. Matt assured me that they were fine. We cancelled the playdate for Friday. Sophie ended up being out of school that day so we went as a family to Bounce U and the girls had a great time jumping! Then, we ate lunch at Moe's and enjoyed yummy cupcakes from Sparkle cupcakes after lunch. It was a nice family outing and a fun way to celebrate Abbie's birthday!

Goofballs

It's war-Daddy against the girls!

Recently, we had a great time visiting Goofballs! We ended up going on a Saturday morning right when it opened and let the girls play. They had a large inflatable that the girls could slide down, a huge wooden play structure with air guns (Matt and the girls loved this). It had tons of tunnels and slides. It also had several of the air guns. We just played for the open play time but they also had video games, bowling, bumper cars (they weren't quite old enough) and they had a little pizza restaurant there too. There were a couple of birthday parties going on that morning but it still wasn't too crowded. We didn't end up really do the video games and stuff. Our girls stayed busy just with the indoor playgrounds and the big slide. Sophie met a little friend who let her do the laser game with her. We felt like we got our money's worth but next time, I think the girls will want to do the video games too!

Busch Gardens part 2

We saw live penguins and then, we saw Pierre, the penguin. Abbie didn't want anything to do with him but Sophie was glad to go and see him.

Sophie with one of the Christmas trees at Busch Gardens.

Busch Gardens-Christmas Town

our family with the snowman

Sophie & Aunt Leia (with her funky hat) with the penguins behind them

me and the girls in front of Santa's workshop

One afternoon, we all bundled up and drove over to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg for their annual Christmas Town. At this time of year, they are only open in the evenings and they have special Christmas shows, lights, Santa Claus, a few rides are open, etc. Anyway, Mimi had given us all long underwear for Christmas in preparation for this because she knew that it would be cold once the sun went down. It definitely was cold but not as bad as it could have been. We saw a couple of shows, some beautiful lights, visited Santa Claus (although next time I would skip it because I thought there was going to be more of a workshop inside), ate kettlecorn and tried to stay warm. Abbie was really not too happy once it got cold. The girls rode one ride while some of us stood right under a heater to try to get warm. It was a fun atmosphere though and very pretty with all of the Christmas lights up. The girls loved the Sesame Street show and there was another one where they sang a lot of Christmas carols that was fun!

Christmas break in Virginia

Sophie stops skating to strike a pose

We're all here-quick, take our picture while we're all standing!

It looks like Sophie's being served for dinner tonight!

All of us worked hard to build this arch at the Science Museum.

The first couple of days in Virginia, there was a lot of snow on the ground so we didn't do a whole lot. The girls just played with their new toys and mostly stayed indoors. After the snow cleared up a little, we were able to go and do more things. One day we took the girls roller skating (for the first time) and it was great because we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves. Both of the girls had several falls so they were probably a little sore.  They both ended up doing best in the skates where you just put your shoes inside them.  They were probably sore the next day!  We also visited the science museum one day and that was alot of fun!

Christmas cont.

the girls snuggled up with their pillow pets in our hotel room

Paw-paw and Nana with the girls

Our Christmas Day really felt like a couple of days because it was such a long day! One part was just being at home and then once we got on the road, we seemed to drive forever. The girls were actually pretty good travellers but Abbie threw fits over the automatic flush toilets that seemed to be in every place where we stopped.

Abbie would have loved to bring all of her baby paraphenalia on our trip but we had to limit her so that we'd have space for everything! Sophie was so excited about her new camera! Actually, a lot of our upcoming pictures were taken on her camera. She kept trying to take pictures from the car while we were driving, etc.

I forgot to mention in my other post that Matt did an excellent job choosing gifts for me this year. (I had given him a few hints but I had no idea the trouble that he had gone to or that he would actually do it. ) He had our entire blog published in a book with all of the pictures and captions from 2006-2010. (all of it) I was amazed. He had spent a lot of time on it. What an awesome gift!! He also gave me a bracelet similar to the Pandora ones with several beads on it and it is really pretty! I had also given him hints for that but hey, it's OK.

I'll try to post some pictures from our Christmas-New Year's in VA next!

Christmas morning

the girls ready to come downstairs (with Paw-paw behind them)

Sophie with her new pink camera!

Abbie's expression is funny in this one. She has such personality. She was wearing her new nightgown with rainboots that we found (they used to be Sophie's).

The girls with some of their new toys.

We had a great Christmas this year. Taking a road trip was a bit difficult to say the least but we all had a really nice Christmas. The girls stayed up a little late on Christmas Eve since we were with family but they still woke up about 7 or so on Christmas morning. They were so excited to go and see what Santa brought. Nana & Paw-paw came over to see them look at their surprises from Santa and the gifts from Mommy & daddy. We had already exchanged gifts with them. We woke up to a dusting of snow on Christmas! =)

Sophie was so excited to get her pink camera, a new doll (she thinks it's an American Girl doll but I haven't told her yet that it's not), a charm bracelet, etc. She and Abbie received Pillow Pets and a Zhu Zhu pet each with a little set for them to go through. Abbie received twin baby girls for Christmas, a new stroller, etc. They both had a great Christmas.

We enjoyed eating waffles for breakfast with Nana and Paw-paw. We spent a little time hanging out and enjoying our gifts and then we finished packing so that we could get on the road to Virginia. We had decided to drive this year to visit Matt's family but we were not sure up until the last minute exactly what would happen with the weather. Well, we left about 11:15 A.M. and headed to Virginia. We were doing OK until it really started snowing in Marion, VA about 6 hours into our trip. It was dark by then. The snow delayed us a bit and made driving more stressful. We eventually decided to stop in Salem, VA for the night and get some rest. On Sunday, we got up and finished our trip so we were in Richmond by midday Sunday. Thankfully, the roads were clear so we didn't have any problem. There's just no one to get around it-it's a long way from Franklin to Richmond if you're driving.

Christmas Eve

Abbie & Sophie with Keri

Abbie loved her little kitty cat

our family

For Christmas Eve this year, my cousin, Keri, and her husband, Matt, hosted all of the Waggoner/Vaughn clans at their house for the first time. We all had a great time! Keri was a little bit concerned about not having enough space but it was just fine. I didn't take very many pictures but as usual, the girls had a blast with all of my first cousins and aunts and uncles. We were able to see several family members that we don't see that often. Sophie helped pass out the gifts and Abbie tried to open a couple that were not hers but we passed them on to the rightful owner. It's kind of a tradition for us to sing "the 12 days of Christmas" and this year my uncle had bought an ornament to represent each of the 12 days to pass out which was kind of fun. The girls were both very excited to go home and get things ready for Santa (put the cookies out for him with a note), put out our reindeer food, etc.