Abbie's 1st Road Trip

Abbie, Jacob, Sophie & Katie
Abbie's thinking "who's holding me and why is my sister sticking her hand in my mouth?"

Abbie with Paw-paw Tom

Sophie & Luke

Last week, we travelled with Matt to Lexington (for his work). We stayed there for two nights while Matt worked. We were able to visit Matt's cousin, Mark, his wife Ashley, and their two boys. We were able to meet our newest cousin-baby Layton but I don't have a picture of him. Sophie had a great time with his big brother, Luke. Then, we headed on up to northeastern KY to visit Matt's grandparents and extended family. Sophie enjoyed playing with her cousins, Jacob and Katie, there. Matt's parents met us in KY and they were able to show Abbie off to their siblings and to the great-grandparents.

Both of our girls did really well on the trip. Abbie has a bad cold that she is trying to get over now. In the picture above, you can see her in the cow outfit that someone with a sense of humor gave us. We all got a laugh from it because the "cow" pants even have a tail in the back. There are matching socks with cows on them and they have tassels for tails as well. It would be perfect for Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A. We came back home on Sunday. Everyone was really worn out from travelling, sleeping in different places almost every night, and being on a different schedule. I was so glad that we all survived though without too much mishap and that Abbie was such a good traveller.

Funny Quote from Sophie

The other night Matt was getting Sophie ready for bed and he had a little sneezing fit. He was sneezing into his arm so that he wouldn't spread germs. Sophie walked right into the area where he was sneezing and got sprayed a little. =) She said, "Daddy, stop bless-youing on me." The picture is totally unrelated. I just wanted to include it.

Early Birthday Gift

Sophie with her new playset

Sophie & her friend, Carley, swinging

Sophie's 3rd birthday is coming up soon. For her main birthday gift, Sophie received this playset (a little early) from both sets of grandparents and from us. Matt hired someone to help him assemble it. When Sophie arrived home from school the other day, she had a big surprise waiting for her-her new playset. She kept saying, "now I have 2 playgrounds." She really likes her new playset! Abbie can use the little one because it will be more her size for a while with the little swing and slide. Sophie has been playing on it every day so far. Her favorite thing to do is swing. When her friends, Carley & Jessie, came over they got to try it out too.

New Tricks for Abbie

Abbie in the Bumbo chair

Paw-paw and Abbie

Abbie playing on her activity mat

We've had a lot of things going on this past week. Sophie's gotten to play with a couple of her friends, we went to the zoo one day, we attended Joshua's 1st birthday party, and more. At all of these events however, we didn't really take any pictures. We have good intentions but with two kids and all of the pariphenalia (sp?) that goes with them (mostly Abbie's), we're usually doing good to get out the door with all of the essential items like diapers and pacifiers.

Abbie can briefly hold onto a toy or rattle if you place it in her hand. She has a great personality that's coming out more and more but sometimes freezes up when she sees me grab the camera. When I put her on her tummy to play, she kicks and kicks as shown in the bottom picture. She has been trying to turn over more recently but no luck. We've also been trying out the new Bumbo chair that the Davis family was kind enough to let us borrow. Thank you! Sophie & Abbie have both had colds so we are hoping that they get over them soon. We are planning to do some travelling next week and it would be nice if the girls are feeling well.

It is really fun to watch Sophie interacting with Abbie. She says the funniest things sometimes. Today Sophie told Abbie not to pull her dress up. She said, "No, no. You don't need to show your diaper. Don't pull your dress up." I'll try to get more pictures of Sophie soon.

101st Birthday Celebration

Mary Tom & Phil

our family with Mary Tom

Yesterday, April 7th, was my great aunt Mary Tom's 101st birthday. She couldn't have had a more beautiful day weather-wise for a birthday. It was sunny with a high around 75 degrees. Last year, we had a huge birthday party for her but this year we kept things a little more low-key. Our family met at Rafferty's to celebrate and had cake afterwards. Mary Tom has been well remembered for her birthday. She does really well overall considering her age. We were glad that we could celebrate with her (even though restaurants can be a bit challenging with 2 little ones). She is a wonderful lady!

Just Like Mama

Sophie with her mop

Sophie & Abbie

Here's a couple of random pictures from last week. Sophie sees me get out the broom or mop very regularly and she will often run and get hers too. Then, it gets interesting because sometimes she is right in the way of where I am trying to sweep. There's a fine balance there between encouraging her to help me around the house but also wanting to somewhat do it "my way". She's funny though. Whether she's trying to feed her babies like mama, change their diapers, put them down for naps, or clean up around the house, she definitely is modeling everything I do and say so I need to be very careful!

Sophie likes to love on Abbie but I have to keep a close watch on her. I'm glad that she loves her but she's not always as gentle as I would like. Abbie is usually OK with some attention as long as Sophie doesn't get too rough. Abbie has been laughing more in general. I'll have to catch her in action soon so I can post some pictures. She's just too cute! The last couple of nights she's been sleeping for very long stretches (like 10-11 hours). I'm afraid to brag too much but we are very thankful. The ironic thing was that Sophie woke up in the middle of the night last night and required some attention and Abbie didn't. Why is it that it's so hard to have both kids sleep well (whether it's naptime or bedtime) at the same time?

Tinklebell

Hopefully, I won't scar Sophie for life but this picture was too funny. Here's Sophie trying to practice potty training in her "big girl" panties. Matt came up with the title for this post, by the way. She didn't want to really get dressed that morning and stayed in her Mrs. Potato Head shirt. Then, at some point, we were talking about Cinderella because Sophie was trying to put Abbie's shoes on herself. Anyway, she put on some of her dress-up clothes. Too funny! Sophie has done really well. She had mostly worn pull-ups for a couple of weeks while potty training but she's been wearing panties this week. She wore them to school yesterday and was accident-free so we had a little ice cream party at home. It was just our little family but Sophie was really pumped about it. It's always something though. Yesterday Matt picked her up from school and they said that she had bit a couple of other children. I felt really bad about that, we had a talk, I called one or two parents for damage control, etc. I hope that doesn't happen again!