Thank you for ....

As we prepared for dinner tonight, I heard Sophie inform her Daddy that he needed to wait until we said the prayer before he started eating. She's heard us give her these instructions a few times before. So anyway, I finished the last minute meal preparations and headed to the table. As I got there, Sophie started saying the prayer (without any prompts-this was a new thing). She said, "Dear God, Please be with Paw-paw Tom and Mimi", she prayed for others in our extended family, and we prompted her to pray for some. Then, we helped coach her in what else to be thankful for. It was so sweet. Once she started going though, she wanted to thank God for her passy, etc and could have gone on and on. Later that night, we were out in the yard and she was playing with her little toy mower. I heard her say, "Dear God, thank you for the rain" and she said something else. She's only 2 but it's amazing what kids are capable of learning sometimes. I was so proud of her for saying the prayer and felt bad that I hadn't really thought to encourage her before. Thanks to the Davies because I read your blog and got the idea that we should be teaching Sophie to pray. Sophie heard us talking about it one night and probably decided to try to pray.

Baby Update

I am now into the 23rd week of my pregnancy. I am still feeling good. Today, Matt & I went for an ultrasound in hopes of being able to get a better look at our baby's face. However, she didn't cooperate (again). I tried turning in different positions, etc but she kept her arm up over her face and kept turning towards my back. The ultrasound technician confirmed that we're having a girl and she now weighs about 1 lb 3 oz which is average for her age. The tech did glimpse our little girl's nose and her upper lip. Our doctor felt that our baby is probably just fine so we will not do another ultrasound. It would have been nice to see her face so that we could have a nice picture to put in the scrapbook but we are thankful that everything seems "normal" and healthy. I made the comment that our baby is stubborn like the rest of our family. =)

Kentucky Horse Park & Luke's B-day

Paula & Sophie after taking a carriage tour of the Kentucky Horse Park

Sophie likes horses but this is the kind that she's not afraid to touch!

Sophie & her cousin, Luke, at his 2nd birthday party

We had a great week this past week. Sophie went to her Mother's Day Out one day, we had a fun day in the park with some friends on Tuesday, I can't remember much about Wednesday, and then on Thursday, we left for Lexington, KY. We had been invited to attend a birthday party for the son of Matt's cousin, Mark, and his wife, Ashley. Their son, Luke, is only about 5 months younger than Sophie. Luke & Sophie enjoy the times when they are together and we don't see them that often because until now we haven't lived close. We always enjoy getting to spend time with them. It also worked out that Matt needed to do some work in Lexington so we were able to combine work and a fun trip to see family.

On Friday, Matt's aunt, JoAnne, came down to Lexington too and several of us visited the Kentucky Horse Park. It was a nice place where you could see many types of horses. I hope we can go back sometime because Matt didn't get to go and there's so much to see. On Saturday, we all went to Luke's party which was at a local park. It was very hot (as you can probably tell by looking at Sophie)! She didn't get sunburned though as it appears. She did get a little sun but I promise that she wore sunscreen! We had fun at the birthday party. I wish that I had gotten some better pictures of Luke & Sophie. If I get some better ones, I'll share them too! Ashley, Luke's mom, made sure that Luke got to try some icing before everyone dug into the cake. Once he tried the icing, he loved it and had to be stopped! We enjoyed getting to spend time with Matt's Aunt JoAnne & Uncle Gary, Mark, Ashley & Luke.

Day at the State Fair

The flying dragon and elephant ride

Miss Sophie's Wild Ride. The boy in the back seat really wanted to get out while Sophie had the time of her life.

Nana and Paw-paw treated Sophie to a trip to the state fair. Sophie enjoyed seeing giant pumpkins and watermelons. The first place pumpkin was grown in Maryville, and weighed 1065 pounds. Sophie had been talking about what animals she wanted to see for weeks. We thought we might be able to take her to a farm so she could see cows and horses, but her list of animals grew to include tigers and giraffes. She had a tall order to fill. Well, we did see all of the animals at the fair except for giraffes. Sophie also got to ride a couple of rides (something she wasn't going to let us forget about). Then, we had some lunch and Paw-paw treated Sophie to some cotton candy as promised-it was her first time. All in all, we had a great time and the weather was nice. Sophie fell asleep on the way home.

Saturday Fun

Sophie on one of her tricycles

Sophie checking to make sure that her "bike" is OK

Sophie on her playset

On Friday, Sophie had her first day at her new Mother's Day Out. She will be going 2 days a week so that Paula can get some errands done, shopping, and go to appointments, etc. Sophie did great on her first day! Of course, she's been to Mother's Day Out programs in the past. The only downside to her first day was that she didn't take a nap during their scheduled nap time. However, as soon as Paula picked her up from "school" and got her in the car, she fell asleep and slept about 3 hours. She woke up in time for dinner and still managed to go to bed at her normal time! Anyways, on Monday when she went back to Mother's Day Out she took a nap. Probably partly due to the fact that she was completely wiped out from the weekend. She likes going to school where she can play with her new friends.

Matt's been travelling a lot so far with his new job which has been hard. We're just trying to tough it out right now and pray that it will lessen up once he's gotten some of the job training under his belt and can set his own schedule. He was gone a lot last week. We were glad to spend some time as a family over the weekend. On Saturday, Sophie enjoyed riding one of her tricycles and playing on her little playset while her daddy worked on some projects in the garage. Sophie announced to Paula recently, "I want to buy a car, Mommy." She pointed to one of those cars that little kids like to drive where they pedal with their feet. It was just too funny. Then, that afternoon we went to a 1st birthday party for Gracie, one of Sophie's 2nd cousins. We all had a nice time visiting with family. Of course, we had to explain to Sophie that the toys were not hers to monopolize but really Gracie's. =) Despite our attempts, Sophie missed her nap on Saturday and then conked out before 7 PM that night, on our way home from dinner and slept a solid 12 hours! On Sunday, she missed her nap again (unfortunately) even though it wasn't that busy of a day. She just wouldn't take a nap!

Twinkle Twinkle

Keep Thinking Pink

After much anticipation, we found out yesterday at our ultrasound that we are having another little girl! We are very excited and thankful that everything looked healthy-her brain, heart, spine, etc. The only thing negative was that they couldn't get a good view of her lower face. Just as a precaution, we will have another ultrasound done in a month. They just want to make sure that there are no facial abnormalities. We have all really felt like we were having a boy this time so we will have to change our way of thinking. Sophie even says that her baby girl dolls are boys. I think she's still a little confused because she got the chance to tell some of the family over the phone and she said that she was having a baby sister but then if you said, "is it a boy or a girl?", a time or two she would say "boy."