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!