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!

Zoo Time

We visited the Metro Richmond Zoo while we were in Richmond for Thanksgiving. Sophie loves seeing all the animals. She is getting less and less shy with animals, and she now loves to get close and touch the animals (at least the small animals). Sophie also loved riding the big carousel (twice!) and the little coin-operated carousel. She had a great time, she even skipped her afternoon nap.

Gobble Gobble!!!!!!!

I helped everyone get packed and ready to go for our trip to Richmond.
I made this beautiful Indian headdress in my Parents and Children Together class.

The turkey frying crew of Grandpa, Me, Daddy, and Great-Uncle Gary

Happy Turkey Day!!!
At this time every year, I think of things I am thankful for. Currently, I am thankful for Pepperidge Farms Goldfish, Fisher-Price Little People Farm and Zoo playsets, Little Tikes playground equipment, and the Wiggles and VeggieTales DVDs. I also am thankful for Mommy, Daddy, friends, and family.

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Richmond for Thanksgiving. I am going to get my first taste of deep-fried turkey (Just like the Pilgrims and Indians did at the first T-giving in 1622). It has been cold and rainy here, but hopefully it will warm for us to go shopping tomorrow at the doorbusters' sale at Macy's tomorrow at 5AM.

XOXO Sophie

Around the house

Sophie has just started to practice feeding herself with a spoon. It makes quite a mess so her Mama has been reluctant to let her take over and feed herself! Sophie is quite a helper around the house (or tries to be). Here she is putting some clothes in our new hamper. She also enjoys playing with her Little People Farm Set. A couple of months ago, Sophie started saying "E-i-e-i" because she's familiar with the song "Old McDonald"; but she doesn't finish it off with "O" though. Sophie was introduced to The Wiggles on DVD. At first, her parents got more into dancing to the songs than Sophie did, but she quickly learned that it was a lot of fun to be silly and follow along! Her favorite Wiggles song is "Can you (Point your Fingers and do the Twist)?"

Catch me if you can!

Sophie loves going to the park and playing on the playground. She recently started making fish faces after watching "Finding Nemo." She also can say "fish" now.