Lovely Gift from Abbie

Abbie decorated this beautiful pillow and gave it to Matt and I for Christmas!

In Abbie's recent Girl Scout meeting, a couple of the moms helped the girls decorate these lovely pillows so that it would a nice gift for their families that could be enjoyed year after year.  I just loved the way these pillows turned out.  It was such a nice gift!  Abbie actually said that it was for her daddy but I LOVE it.  The red pillow goes so well in our living room.  Thanks Abbie!

A Cheekwood Christmas

The girls with live reindeer!

Having fun climbing up in a tree house.

Yummy fun decorating Christie cookies.

Abbie and I with the American Christmas tree

Sophie with one of the Christmas trees.  (I think it was supposed to represent Japan.)

One Saturday when Matt was out of town while his dad was in the hospital, I took the girls to Cheekwood.  We saw the live reindeer, did some Christmas crafts, they climbed up in the tree house and we enjoyed walking through the mansion to see the Christmas trees representing different countries.  We all really missed Matt while he was out of town but this made for a nice diversion.  I had not been to Cheekwood during the Christmas season in many years.  The night before, Sophie had spent the night with one of her friends and Abbie had the younger sister come to our house and eat pizza and snacks, play and watch a movie.  

Breakfast with Santa

The girls with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Sophie with her friend, Carley (in green)

Abbie and Kaitlin enjoyed their donut holes, cheese and pigs in a blanket (Abbie just ate the pig part).

Look at my pretty snowman ornament!

Here's mine!

The month of December has been gone by in a flash.  We went to Breakfast with Santa at a church on the 1st Saturday of the month.  It was a lot of fun!  This year, Paula helped set up for it so we were able to take our picture with Santa a little earlier.  The girls enjoyed eating breakfast with the Gray's and the Zirkle's.  Then, they had fun making some crafts.  It was a busy day because after that we went straight to Sophie's violin recital and then both girls had parties to attend in the afternoon!

Thanksgiving in Virginia

Abbie and Sophie with the state flags.

Abbie, with lots of theatrical drama.

our family

Sophie, Paula, Abbie, Matt, Aunt Jo and Uncle Gary.

Sophie and Papa Tom

Abbie, Sophie, Matt, Papa Tom and Paula

Yes, I know.  I'm way behind on blogging.  We drove to Virginia for Thanksgiving on Tuesday of that week.  As I was looking through these pictures tonight and over the last week or so, they are more special to me because Papa Tom is in heaven now.  He passed away on Monday, December 15 and we went back to Virginia this week for his funeral on Thursday.  Matt's Uncle Gary and Aunt Jo came to spend Thanksgiving in Virginia as well.  Matt's mom, Teresa, sister, Leia, and her fiance, Rahul, were there for Thanksgiving as well but I did not include any pictures of them in this post.

Matt's dad, Tom, was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, in November 2013 and it was a fairly fast progression.  He started having symptoms of the disease however, several months before and it took a while for him to be diagnosed.  We debated about whether to go to Virginia for Thanksgiving but now, I'm really glad that we did.

While we were in Virginia, we visited the Science Museum and even went back a second time just to see their huge train display which was a special exhibit.  Matt loved that exhibit!  We also took the girls to visit the White House of the Confederacy where Jefferson Davis lived when he was President of the Confederacy.  It was becoming harder for Matt's dad to get out and do things so sometimes our family of four would go and do things on our own.  We left Virginia on Saturday to head back to Tennessee.  Instead of driving straight home though, we stopped in Sevierville and spent the night at the Wilderness Lodge which has an indoor water park.  That was a lot of fun!  We hadn't stayed there in a few years.

Ice Exhibit and fun with cousins

Abbie at Ice Exhibit

Sophie and Abbie with a big Christmas tree made of ice!

Mama and Abbie in the ice exhibit.

cousins!  Grace, Harper, Caleb, and Karina in back.  Abbie, Sophie, Evie and Ellie (front).

Same kids with addition of Monroe (center), Morgan and Ty.

My girls were out of school for the full week of Thanksgiving.  We enjoyed some time with Paula's extended family and cousins from out of town for the first part of the week.  Craig and Megan came in with their 4 kids from northern Virginia and all of the local folks got together with them to celebrate an early Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, my cousin, Amy, was dealing with a sick little girl so they didn't come but other than that, we had a great turnout.  The kids had so much fun!  Paula's cousin, Beth, and her family also came through Nashville for one night while passing through town.  Sophie and Abbie loved putting on little skits with Caleb and Anna, who live in Cincinnati.

Since the girls were out of school, Paula wanted to take the girls and do something really fun.  They enjoyed spending time with cousins, including Morgan and Monroe but we also visited the Ice exhibit out at Opryland.  Abbie had never been before.  This year, the theme was the Night before Christmas.  Paula took the girls on the Monday before Thanksgiving.  It was somewhat warm outside and unfortunately, it was very busy at the Ice exhibit.  There were a couple of large school groups that had gone through the exhibit shortly before us.  Paula, Sophie and Abbie still enjoyed it even though it is only about 8 degrees inside the ice exhibit.  Abbie loved going down the slides made of ice.

Saying Goodbye

Silly girls!

Sophie, Nagisa and Allie (the 3 Amigos)

Moms and daughters

Yes, I know.  It has been almost a month since I've blogged on here.  Life has been busy as we get closer to Christmas around here.  We travelled for Thanksgiving and there's been a lot going on.  Sophie's been good friends with Nagisa since 2nd grade and now, she is moving back to Japan.  She has lived in the U.S. since she was five years old because of her dad's job but now they are moving back.   Sophie has almost been best friends with Allie since first grade but Allie is at a new school this year.  We had a little going away party for Nagisa.  We ordered pizza and the girls got to hang out.  They enjoyed just being silly and playing some games.  We will miss sweet Nagisa but hopefully, she and Sophie and Allie can stay in touch through e-mail.

A Day off from School!

"Aunt Paula" and Monroe

Sophie enjoyed playing on the tire swing!

Abbie and Morgan playing in the sand.

Last Tuesday, the girls were out of school for Election Day.  It was a beautiful day but a little cold and windy.  I asked the girls what they would like to do on their day off.  We ended up driving up to Kentucky to visit Aunt Martha, Morgan and Monroe.  The girls had a great time running and jumping in the leaves with Morgan.  We took turns (and the kids did too) raking up a big pile of leaves so that they could jump in them.  Monroe still takes two naps a day so he was taking a nap at the time.  The girls and I had fun playing with the boys and hanging out with Aunt Martha.  We had lunch with them and the girls enjoyed playing Bananagrams.  We went to a playground nearby at the school while Aunt Martha voted (I voted early this time).  Morgan LOVED going down the slide and did it again and again.  When it was nap time, Morgan wasn't able to go to sleep.  (I think he was too excited because he knew that his cousins were there).  Abbie even went in there and laid down in the other bed in his room but he couldn't go to sleep so we left after a while so that Morgan could get a nap.   It was a fun day!

Trunk or Treat-Fifties Style

Sophie as Nancy Drew and Abbie as Rapunzel

Ava Grace, Meagan, and Abbie

Paula and Matt 

Sophie and I

Sophie and her friend, Carley.

On Wednesday night, we had trunk or treat at our church.  Usually, we just go and trick or treat but this year, Sophie really wanted to decorate a trunk.  I wanted to think of a fun theme.  Then, I thought of my poodle skirt.  I was reminded of some of our friends who had a 50's party a few years ago for a 50th birthday.  Matt bought some old records from Goodwill and we hung them up.  Sophie created a sign for us that said "Starlight 50's diner.  Matt and I were in good shape because not only did have a poodle skirt but we also had some letterman jackets we could borrow from my dad and granddad.  I am wearing my dad's Hillwood jacket and Matt is wearing my granddad's Nashville Gas letterman jacket from 1956 when we planned on a baseball team through work.  My parents also have my brother, Daniel's letterman jacket but it's red so I didn't want to wear a red jacket with a hot pink skirt.  Matt fixed us up with a CD full of great 50's music so we played that from our van during trunk or treat.  We didn't mind that it might have drowned out some of the kids singing to "Let it go" for the umpteenth time in one of the cars near ours.

I wish that I had taken more pictures of the girls but I only took one of them together.  We'll have to try again on Halloween night.  This year, Abbie dressed up as Rapunzel and Sophie is Nancy Drew.

It was a lot of fun giving out candy for a change!  I felt like I got to see more of the kids since I was in one place for a while.   One of the cars near us did Chick-fil A for their trunk theme.  A bunch of the kids dressed up as cows and they gave out chicken nuggets.  The CFA cow was even there for a while.  Abbie didn't want anything to do with him though.  Thankfully, she didn't cry though.  Then, the girls and I ate some hot dogs at church while Matt gave out the rest of the candy.  We had a ton of trick or treaters.  We went through all of the candy that I had brought.  Happy Halloween!

It's Pumpkin Carving Time!

Abbie enjoyed helping Daddy clean out the pumpkin.

Matt and Abbie with their jack-o-lantern.

They are all smiles!

This past weekend, we had a good visit with Matt's parents who drove down from Virginia.  Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures.  They were able to come to the girls' soccer games on Saturday morning, along with Uncle Phil, Nana and Paw-paw.  Abbie scored a goal and Sophie almost scored one.  On Friday night though, we had a wonderful dinner, complete with yummy homemade apple dumplins and fudge pie.  Matt and the girls carved a pumpkin but Sophie was grossed out after a few minutes of helping.  It's a job that Paula gladly lets Matt do each year.  =)

Matt's parents stayed in a nearby hotel that had the accommodations that Tom needed (he has ALS that's progressing somewhat quickly).  Abbie enjoyed going for a swim a couple of times in their indoor pool.  Sophie had other things going on at those times like a birthday party for her friend, Carley, and attending the Latin American Missions Dinner with her mom, and other family members on her mom's side in support of her Uncle Phil.  After the missions dinner, Sophie said, "can I go on a mission trip one day?"  I said, "sure, but you've got to be at least a few years older first."

Annual trip to Walden Farms

Abbie in the hay maze.

Abbie loved playing in the corn trough!

She's queen of the world!

Our two lovely girls with the big wagon!

Sophie and Abbie loved the big see-saw too!

Mama and Abbie as a farmer and a pumpkin.

This past Friday, was a beautiful day.  (I wish the girls fall break had been a week later.)  We hadn't been able to visit Walden Farms and do all of the fun stuff that we traditionally do each year because it had been too rainy! We were having trouble making everyone's schedules align so the girls and I went after school on Friday but Matt did not make it.  He was attending a conference in Nashville Thursday-Saturday.  We saw some folks we knew, enjoyed the kiddie areas, the animals, Abbie enjoyed the small hay maze though she was getting a little lost in there =), and we had a lot of fun looking around.  They had the big hay maze closed while we were there because it was still muddy so that was too bad.   Abbie's favorite animals were the little pigs!

My big pumpkins in the pumpkin patch!!

Fall Break Fun

Here's Sophie with a little witch that she made.

Here's Abbie with her little ghost craft.

Sophie jumped in the leaves! 

Sophie and her friend, Abby.

Abbie took a turn jumping in the leaves too!

Sophie and Abby C. (back) Abbie V., and Sophie C. (front)

Our family often goes out of town on a fun trip for fall break but this year we decided to stay home.  I had thought we'd do fun things like visit a local pumpkin farm, go and visit Cheekwood to see all of the scarecrows, etc.  Well, it turned out that it was a very RAINY fall break so we couldn't do much of that.  However, the girls were able to have some fun and take it easy.  We visited the Adventure Science Museum on Friday, made Halloween crafts, and made cookies.  Friday night, we watched the movie, E.T., but the girls didn't like it as much as I thought they would.  Saturday, we visited the library, did some shopping and played lots of games.  That night, Nana babysat so that Matt and I could go to a dinner at his work.  Sunday, we went to church, ate lunch at Chuy's (YUM) and stopped at a local pumpkin stand to pick out some pumpkins and gourds.  That afternoon, Matt talked the girls into going to the Lane Car Museum with him to see lots of one of a kind cars.  The girls weren't too sure about this outing but since a trip to Sonic was included, they went along.  Paula skipped the car museum and went for a walk and read a book instead.  =)  

On Monday afternoon, Abby and Sophie Clark were able to come and play after they returned from their grandparents in Atlanta.  The girls had a great time raking leaves and taking turns jumping in them.  They also had fun playing tag.  Sunday and Monday the weather was somewhat decent but the rest of the time it just rained, rained, rained.