Discovery Center and Christmas lights

One of the trees at the Discovery Center

Look what Sophie built!

Abbie really loved the grocery store checkout conveyer belt the best!

This picture was just too funny. It really captures Abbie-she's always on the move and she's very mischievous sometimes! She had just come down the 2 story slide at the Discovery Center.

Sophie by the lights at Sunnyside.

The weekend before Christmas, we decided to take the girls out to the Discovery Center. I had finished all of my shopping and we just wanted to do something fun and laid-back. I had bought some passes for the Discovery Center so we decided to go and use them. For a while, it wasn't crowded at all. The girls enjoyed working on the car, doing some art, playing in the grocery store, seeing the trains and some new exhibits. Poor Sophie got quite a bit wet before we left in the water play area! We enjoyed seeing all of the displays that they had about how Christmas is celebrated in different countries. Sophie had a unit at school where they rotated among different teachers and learned about how various countries celebrate at this time of year. That weekend, we also visited the Sunnyside neighborhood which we usually do each year. We love their Christmas lights! We also attempted to make gingerbread houses over the weekend but it didn't go so well. The second time was a charm for us!

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!

An Early Christmas

Matt baby and Daba as Abbie calls them

Abbie and Sophie with Paw-paw

Abbie wants to help put her new Tinkerbell scooter together.

This past Saturday, we celebrated an early Christmas with Aunt Martha and Uncle Matt as well as Nana and Paw-paw.  Martha & Matt were in town for several days but they will be spending Christmas in South Carolina.  Aunt Martha just started a teaching job in Kentucky but they haven't officially moved back to the area yet.  Nana hosted a wonderful brunch at her house and invited members from both Nana and Paw-paw's sides of the family.  All of the food was delicious and the girls enjoyed seeing their Burton and Waggoner cousins!  After most of the family left, our immediate family stayed and exchanged gifts.  As soon as Abbie woke up that morning she said, I  want to see Daba (her name for Martha).  Abbie and Sophie were so excited to open all of the gifts.  It's fun to watch them! 

Abbie was really excited to receive her own scooter from Nana and Paw-paw.  Sophie and Abbie received Toy Story 3 which was on their wish list.  Abbie also received a book of Farmyard Tales, a mermaid barbie and some clothes.  Sophie was very excited to receive a large Strawberry Shortcake set that she had on her wish list.  The girls were so excited to see Matt & Martha again.  Abbie sometimes calls Uncle Matt, Matt baby because he used to say she was a baby.  Then, she'd reply, "no, you a baby!"  =)  This was our 2nd early Christmas because we celebrated with Uncle Phil right after Thanksgiving since he was leaving on his mission trip.  It's been kind of nice to spread Christmas out this year but we will miss Uncle Phil and Aunt Martha/ Uncle Matt being around at Christmas.

Opryland Hotel

The day before Thanksgiving, we decided to head out to Opryland Hotel to see the Christmas lights. We dressed the girls up so that we could try to take their picture for our Christmas card. It was great time to go because it was crowded although there wasn't as much going on since we went during the daytime. It was neat to see the hotel now that it's reopened after the flood. For the most part, I thought it looked the same. There were some changes. We were able to get a decent picture for a card but I didn't include it on here so that I don't spoil the surprise!
After we visited the hotel, we drove over to the Bass Pro Shop (the only thing at the Opry Mills Mall now). The girls enjoyed seeing several remote control toys including the train and the big fish tank. We were really hoping that Santa Claus would be there though. He wasn't there since it was a weekday. Oh, well! We've never had both girls so excited about seeing Santa before although Abbie usually says that she doesn't like him.
In other news, Abbie is now potty trained. It is wonderful! I spent a couple of days at home the week before Thanksgiving. She still has occasional accidents and she has to go a lot but she is doing great. Yay!!

Christmas 2009

Abbie is delighted that she got 2 new babies-one even has a paci!

Sophie loves her new doll house that Santa brought her!

most of our crew on Christmas morning

Sophie with her cousins, Layton and Luke

On Christmas morning, the girls were up by 6:30! So much for sleeping in at all. We stalled them until 7:00 giving us time to wake up a little, get cameras ready, and call my parents to tell them to head over soon. At 7:00, we headed downstairs and the girls got to see all of the surprises that Santa brought. Then, Paula's parents, sister, Martha, her fiance (Matt R.) and brother, Phil all arrived shortly thereafter till the living room was almost full of gifts to open. The girls opened their gifts from us and we traded gifts with each other. After that, we enjoyed a nice breakfast together with a lot of good food. Then, shortly after, we headed over to Paula's aunt and uncle's house nearby where we had lunch and spent the afternoon with family. Paula's cousin, Amy, was such a good sport because she let Sophie "paint" her nails, etc with her new play make-up kit. Sophie was somehow using the curling iron to fix her nails too. =) Abbie got a nap while we were there so that was great! It was very cold outside with a few snow flurries but none of it stayed around. We all had a great Christmas!

Abbie got a couple of baby dolls, a play stroller and vacuum, the Mickey Mouse clubhouse and some other things. Sophie got the big dollhouse (shown above), a Barbie doctor set with twin babies (perfect for her), a Leapster like she wanted, Legos and more. Matt got me a Wii for Christmas but wasn't able to surprise me. I sort of found about it. I think he got it as much for himself as for me but that's OK. We've both had some fun with it. I also got the Wii Fit for Christmas. Since I knew about the Wii, Matt also got some Wii games and accessories for Christmas alongwith some other things. We were very blessed this Christmas!

On the day after Christmas, Matt's cousin, Mark, his wife, Ashley and their boys (Luke and Layton) came over for a visit since they were in town anyway. Their boys are close in age to our girls so it was great to be able to get together!

Christmas Eve

Paula, Summer, and Abbie

Paula and Abbie

All of the grandkids and great-grandkids

Matt #1, #2, #3 with their women

If you know the story, it's just been too funny how I married a "Matt", then my cousin, Keri, married a "Matt" this past summer and now my sister, Martha, is planning to marry Matt Riley in June 2010. I suggested we get a picture with all of the "Matt's". I also have a more distant cousin named Matt who wasn't there. He was the "original Matt". =)

This year for Christmas, we stayed in town and celebrated with Paula's family. We spent Christmas Eve at Nana and Paw-paw's house (Paula's parents) with her dad's side of the family. We had a lot of fun as always eating, visiting, singing (especially 12 days of Christmas) and exchanging gifts. As you can see, Abbie was having a great time! She and Sophie both enjoyed handing out the gifts and especially opening them. =)

More to come on Christmas Day very soon...

Christmas Festivities

Sophie enjoys the yummy food at the Christmas party.

Doughnuts!

Miss Sandra's class

This past week, we've been busy with some Christmas festivities. Last weekend, it was Breakfast with Santa at church followed by a Christmas party that night with our Sunday school class. The next night after church, we had fun surprising our friend, Ben, with a big birthday party. Then, this past Monday, we had Sophie's Christmas party at school. The kids enjoyed giving out things that they had made to the parents and exchanging gifts. They were all very excited about their gifts!!! What a fun age to be with at Christmastime! It was their last day of school before Christmas. A few weeks ago Sophie told me that she thought that she was starting kindergarten after Christmas because I had told her next year. =)

On Thursday night, we had Sophie's Christmas program at school. Each group sang several Christmas songs and recited a couple of Christmas poems. Nana, Paw-paw, Uncle Phil, Aunt Martha, and our immediate family were able to be there. Alongwith all of these festivities, we also had a couple of doctor visits but hopefully everyone can stay well for a little bit. Abbie had her second ear infection (in two weeks) and both girls had forms of pink eye. Abbie's case of pink eye was actually more serious because it got into the tissue in her face but she's doing much better after all the antibiotics. Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Crafts

Anna Kate, Mia, and Sophie are excited about making gingerbread houses.

Sophie with her finished product (before we took it apart and ate it later that night)!

Here's our sugar cookies before they were placed in the oven.

Here's Sophie putting the finishing touches on the cookies-Sprinkles!

Yesterday, we had a fun and very creative kind of day. My friend, Lauren, invited us over to make gingerbread houses. Sophie's never done that before but I knew that she would love it. We knew that Abbie and Will would have fun while the older girls made their gingerbread houses whatever they ended up playing. Wouldn't you know that Will and Abbie wanted to sit at the table with the big girls and just eat graham crackers and the other candy decorations? Too funny! Sophie, Anna Kate, and Mia needed a lot of help to stop eating the icing and do some decorating but they had fun.

That afternoon, I had told Sophie that we could cut out sugar cookies and then bake and decorate them. So after lunch with the McDonald's we came home and had rest time. Then, we got to work on the sugar cookies. Sophie and I had a lot of fun! Maybe we'll let Abbie in on more of the baking fun next year!! =)

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).

Indoor Fun!

Here's Sophie with her new tunnel system that we set up on New Year's Day. It's huge! Sophie's on the move in one of the tunnels

This week, it has been very COLD here. We even got to see some beautiful snow flurries yesterday when Sophie got up from her nap! On New Year's Day, after we got our Christmas stuff put away, Matt put together Sophie's new tunnel system and she had a lot of fun! It was a great day for it because it was so cold outside and a couple of places that we thought about going were closed anyway. Sophie enjoyed taking her dolls in the tunnel with her. However, if you are 9 months pregnant I do not advise trying to climb into one of the bigger tents or houses with your child. Sophie wanted me to get in the tunnels with her and I told her that I wouldn't fit but I said that I could get into one of the "house" tents with her and read her a couple of books. Well, it was HILARIOUS!! The doors to the tent did not open as wide and were not as tall as I had thought. So, I had to go in with my legs first and then turn sideways. Sophie was just looking at me in surprise. Once I got into the tent, I totally cracked up and Sophie did too. We just sat there and laughed for a few minutes. Hope you have a happy 2008!

Merry Christmas!

Here's Sophie who has gotten so big in front of our tree. It kind of makes me sad to see how grown up she is becoming. At the same time though, I'm really proud of her and I love being able to converse with her more and more. I can't believe (and yet I sort of can) that we are about to have another baby! It's harder to sleep, harder to bend down, etc. When I see the countdown on our blog page, I'm thinking, "Whoa, we are getting really close. Am I ready for this?" Anyway, it will be neat for Sophie to be a big sister. She is so nurturing with her baby dolls so we'll see how she does with a real baby who is demanding our attention.

So far, getting ready for Christmas (and including Sophie in some of the traditions) has been really fun. She was so excited for us to get our Christmas trees put up a couple of weeks ago. She loved being able to put a few of the special non-breakable ornaments on the bottom of the tree that I had saved for her. She also got to help me decorate our little tabletop tree. She has enjoyed getting to see the Christmas light displays around town, helping me to put some of the presents under the tree, doing an advent calendar, making cute Christmas crafts at school, etc. The not so fun part about December is that this is the 2nd time that Sophie's had a really bad cough and a fever where she can't sleep well. The timing wasn't great because Matt's family came in to spend an early Christmas with us yesterday and today. Oh, well. It's just one of those things I guess.

We visited a house in Nashville with a huge light display on Friday night. Sophie loved seeing all the lights and lawn ornaments.

Clark Griswold did the electrical work for this light display as shown in this photo.

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!