Outdoor Fun

Our family returned home from Nashville on Monday after Easter. On Wednesday afternoon, Matt's parents rolled into Charleston for a visit during Matt's mom's Spring Break.

Sophie gets ready to help Mimi and Paw Paw Tom do some heavy duty yard work while they are visiting.

Sophie takes gardening very seriously and she doesn't stay clean doing it either. Here, as you can see she's very wet from watering herself as she waters the plants. Later, she's covered in dirt as well and loving every minute of it. This was Sophie's first experience with planting flowers. Our yard looks much better thanks to everyone's help-especially Paw Paw Tom and Mimi's.

On Saturday, we all visited the Middleton Place plantation and walked around the gardens and visited the farm animals. Everything was so beautiful! Sophie really enjoyed seeing all of the animals!
A monumental occasion occured at our house this week-Sophie used the potty for the 1st time. Yay, Sophie! It's just the beginning but it's still exciting. She gets a couple of M & M's when she's successful.

Easter weekend

Paula's dad's siblings-Uncle Mike with Sophie, Paw-paw, Uncle Bobby,
Aunt Patti (front), Aunt Mary Tom, Uncle JoWie at Mary Tom's party

Sophie with her Easter goodies

Paula & Sophie-Easter Sunday

Sophie with Uncle Phil and Aunt Martha

There was a lot going on over Easter weekend this year. My great aunt, Mary Tom, turned 100 on April 7. Almost all of my 1st cousins (Paula's) and their families were able to come and celebrate her birthday and we had a big party for Mary Tom. Many of her old friends, relatives, neighbors, etc were able to come and celebrate with Mary Tom. She was well remembered because her church also held a large party in her honor and the assisted living facility where she lives honored her. We were glad that we could be with her to celebrate! I wish that one of us had taken more pictures of us cousins together but maybe someone got some pictures.

Sophie enjoyed spending time with her cousins. On Sunday, many of them had to head for home but we stayed in Nashville and went to church with Paula's family. On Saturday, even though it was very cold we had an Easter egg hunt for all of the kids. We had lunch together, we all went to the party for Mary Tom that afternoon and then that night we got together. Needless to say, by Sunday after church, Sophie was exhausted and took a 3 hour nap.

What will I be when I grow up?

Sophie and Paula spent about a week down in Nashville visiting Paula's folks and several friends before Matt joined them a couple of days before Easter. Sophie enjoyed playing doctor and she had some really exciting things happen while visiting her Nana and Paw-paw. One was that Paw-paw drove a school bus to the house one night and Sophie got to get up on the school bus. She loves pointing out school buses and had been playing with a school bus a lot recently. When Paw-paw had to leave and go pick up some inner city kids, Sophie ran over to her car seat and said, "Sophie's seat" "school bus" because she wanted to ride with Paw-paw (but she didn't get to go). Later that week, Paula's uncle, who is a captain at one of the fire halls in Nashville, invited our family over to visit the fire hall. Sophie got the "grand tour" of the fire hall and fire engines. She got to get up on the fire truck and see the lights and sirens in action, etc. She loved it! So which will it be-doctor, school bus driver, or fireman. Matt wanted to be a trash collector when he was little because he thought the trucks with the special mechanical arms were cool. So, in other words, you just never know what your kid will end up doing. =)

It's time to stop and smell the flowers

After we came back from Kentucky, Aunt Martha came in for a visit. We had a good time but unfortunately, Sophie still wasn't sleeping well after we got back from Kentucky. We found out that she had a second ear infection and a sinus infection. Our yard has been beautiful with all of the flowers and trees in bloom! Here's Sophie in front of our azaleas. Hopefully, Sophie will get to feeling better so we can get some pictures and Paula and Sophie can enjoy their extended visit in Nashville.

March Madness / St. Patty's Day

We took a family trip to Kentucky this past weekend to see some of Matt's extended family. Sophie had a great time wearing green for St. Patrick's Day and carrying around a basketball to show her support for Kentucky and Vanderbilt basketball teams.

We visited Matt's grandparents and aunts and uncles in Wurtland, KY. Sophie met some of her distant cousins. This picture shows Matt's grandparents with a few of the great grandchildren: Caitlin, Katie, Jacob, Sophie, and Jordan. They all had a great time playing.

Before we flew back to South Carolina, we stopped in Cincy to visit Paula's cousin, Beth, and her children: Rebekah, Judah, and Anna.

Miss Sophie's Latest Tricks

Well, I wanted to include a picture of Sophie's room first for those who haven't seen it. Just this week, I took the bumper pads off though. Another little girl recently broke her arm by falling out of her crib and she's about Sophie's age. So, although it was a sad moment for me, I finally took Sophie's bumper pads off. In the last couple of weeks Paula's Uncle Walter came through Charleston and stayed with us for a couple of nights on his way to Georgia for a kayaking trip. He came back through here on his way home. We had fun spending time with him and showing him around Charleston some. This past Thursday Matt & Paula got to go see Mamma Mia which was really fun. We had front row seats!! The not so fun part was coming home to a crying toddler who had woken up a few hours after going to bed for the babysitter. It turned out that Sophie had an ear infection.

As you can see in the bottom picture, Sophie is trying to carry 2 balls up the stairs. She has gotten to where she really likes carrying lots of things such as a purse, one or two baby dolls, a book or two, etc. I guess she's probably seen her parents try to carry lots of things at one time.

One of the cutest things that Sophie did recently was sing "where is daddy?" complete with hand motions to the tune of "Where is thumbkin?" She loves to sing and make up her own songs.

Sophie is also very proud that her mama has recently set up little potties and stools in our bathrooms. We haven't really begun formal potty training yet but she is very fascinated with her new things.

Also, for the past week or two, Sophie has been saying, "Mama, Daddy, ai-pane (translation-airplane)" We are planning to fly to Cincinnati on Friday and then drive down to Northeastern Kentucky to visit Matt's grandparents and several of his aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Sophie and the guys

Here's Sophie at the top of one of the tunnel slides at our local park. Paw-paw Waggoner and Uncle Phil came in to visit last week. One day, they offered to babysit Sophie while Paula ran some errands. They took Sophie to the park and had a lot of fun. That night, we all went to a restaurant called "The Queen Anne's Revenge" that had a pirate theme. It was about 45 minutes away but it was really good.

Matt, Paula & Sophie at "The Queen Anne's Revenge" with replica of a ship.