Indian Girl

Here's "Princess Sunshine" AKA Sophie

This past Tuesday, Sophie and her classmates got to dress up and play Indians. Sophie was so excited about it. The night before she said, "please help us to be great at playing Indians" or something like that. =) Her teacher gave them each Indian names and she was Princess Sunshine. They made these shirts and hats at school. They also made little drums and had a tepee that they got to play in. Sophie was not acting very sunshiny by the time she came from school so it was hard for me to get her picture. As you can see, they also got their faces painted (it was really washable markers). I wasn't sure how Sophie would like this because in the past whenever we've asked her if she wants to get her face painted, she says no.

Overall, we had a nice Thanksgiving. On Wednesday before Thanksgiving, it was so warm that my sister and I took Sophie to the zoo while my mom kept Abbie so that she could get a nap. For Thanksgiving Day, we went to my aunt and uncle's house in Chapel Hill, TN and got to see most of my dad's side of the family. Sophie enjoyed getting to see some of her other cousins. It was warm enough for some of us to play kickball in their backyard that afternoon. I was reminded once again why I didn't stick with sports for longer (I'm not talented in that area) and why I only play every now and then for fun.

More Fun with Cousins

another cute picture of Sophie & Emma at the Grinch ice display

Caleb, Sophie & Emma at the science museum

Abbie, Anna, Emma, & Sophie

Grace, Paula, Abbie & Anna

I forgot to mention in the last post that my mom was kind enough to babysit Abbie so that I could go and do something just with Sophie on Friday. It was really nice because I don't think she would have liked the freezing cold environment anyway. On Saturday morning, I stayed home with Abbie while Matt, Sophie, Nana (my mom), Caleb, Emma, Aunt Mary, and my sister, Martha, went to the Adventure Science Center. It was Sophie's first time to go and they all had a great time! I don't know too much about it since I didn't go but they got to see some trains, climb on some playground equipment, and more. Matt was adventurous enough to try being lifted by something that makes you seem weightless like an astronaut (or something like that). I was glad that Abbie got her nap that morning because she slept for 2 1/2 hours! That is not normal for her at all so she must have tuckered out. =)

On Saturday afternoon, one of my other cousins, Beth, came in from Ohio (my other cousin lives in Arkansas) with her youngest child, Anna, and they got to join in the fun. On Saturday night, we celebrated an early Thanksgiving with all of my mom's family at my aunt & uncle's house since we had some family members in town who normally aren't around for Thanksgiving. Plus, it saved us from having to do two Thanksgivings in one day which I was grateful for! All of the kids got along well for the most part. Grace lives in the area and she's about to have a new sister soon. My mom and dad have stayed with us for the last few nights while there were first five extra people and then seven extras staying at their house. It worked out fine for us! Sophie really loved getting to spend time with her cousins! She doesn't have any first cousins so second cousins or first cousins once removed (whichever it is) are the closest it gets for her.
(I hope this post wasn't too confusing!)

Seeing the Grinch

Caleb, Emma, & Sophie

the people of Whoville

Sophie & Emma

the Grinch

We have been pretty busy the last few days. On Thursday, Sophie went to school as usual and then, that afternoon my cousin, Sarah and her husband and kids came in town for a conference, as well as my Aunt Mary. My aunt came along so that she could babysit the kids while Sarah and Jason went to their conference. We had dinner with them that night at my parents' house and then spent the next few days hanging out with them. Sophie was excited to be hanging out with her cousins. Everywhere they went together Sophie wanted to hold their hands. Poor Caleb because he was the only boy cousin around! On Friday, my aunt & I went out to Opryland to see "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in Ice. It was really awesome and also freezing cold. Everything inside was made out of ice in the display. It wasn't crowded and all of us went down the indoor slides except for Sophie! That was a blast! I think I was more into it than the kids were because they said they were freezing. I was like thinking, "we're here, we've paid the money (it wasn't cheap) and it's not crowded so let's don't go through this too quickly." They have everyone wear the big blue parkas inside and Sophie looked so funny because hers was huge. She fell down one time and was having trouble getting up because the sleeves on her coat were quite long as well as the length of the coat itself. It was good for keeping her warm though!

Afterwards, we decided to head over to Opry Mills Mall (right next door) and let the bigger kids see the Aquarium Restaurant that has a huge indoor aquarium. My aunt just suggested that we go ahead and splurge and have lunch there so we did. The kids all loved that. Sophie had been before but she was in heaven getting to spend time with her big cousins. =)

Sophie and her babies

Sophie is always talking about all of her "children". She'll say I have 3 kids. Then she says, I have 3 babies and some boys and girls. She is so cute because she has such a great imagination and she is really good about entertaining herself a lot of the time. One night before bed she was talking about her children and how she has to get them all dressed. I'd say it's a lot easier with "children" who don't whine, talk, spit up, cry, wake up in the middle of the night, etc. =) In the bottom picture, Sophie was potty training all of her babies. I am all for her potty training Abbie when the time comes. One of my friends has all girls and her older one trained the younger one. Wouldn't that be wonderful if it worked for me too? Abbie has still had a cold and cough this week, plus she is teething, so it's been a difficult week! I'm hoping that Abbie will keep getting better. We have really missed Matt! He's been in Maryland for training all week.

Sophie says funny stuff all of the time but it's hard for me to remember sometimes. One day, I was trying to help her practice her counting. She always thinks that "19" comes after "13." We took turns counting and I was trying to help Sophie figure out that 14 comes after 13 so I said what comes after 3?. I said, "how old will you on your next birthday?" She had a little trouble coming up with "4" (pretty sad). Anyway, when I told her that she would be "4". She said that she would be "4" and then that next year she'd be "18". I thought, "heaven help us if that were true!" I don't want to skip from "4" to the teenage years. Another funny thing that Sophie said was about Santa and the gang. We went to Publix's annual holiday fest or whatever it's called on Tuesday. Sophie got to see Santa Claus and although she was shy, she didn't cry this year. Later, she asked, "where was Mrs. Claus?" I said, "she's probably baking cookies or something." Sophie asked about the elves too and she said "I bet the elves are sick and Mrs. Claus is baking them cookies." =)

Abbie will be 10 months old tomorrow! It's hard to believe! It's hard for me to get good pictures of her now because she is always "on the go" and checking out her environment. I keep expecting her to really take off and start walking but not yet. One funny thing about Abbie is that she got into the pantry the other day and came out with the Cheerios box. I thought it was too funny because she loves Cheerios!!

Smiley Girls

Abbie pushing a chair

Sophie with her special snack of popcorn with M& M's before watching a movie!

I haven't been doing too great at blogging lately. I thought I'd put these cute pictures on here. This past weekend, Sophie came down with a really bad cough and she still has some cold symptoms. Of course, kids share everything including their germs so even though I repeatedly asked Sophie not to cough all over Abbie and touch her face and hands, she did and now Abbie has a bad cold with a cough. Poor baby! As you can see above in Abbie's wide grin, she has two teeth on the bottom. She is almost walking too. Abbie tries to get into everything including the toilet, toilet paper, anything you have lying around that she can put in her mouth. It's hard for me to find time to sit down and relax when both of the girls are around, that's for sure! These pictures were taken before the girls got sick!

On another note though, this week we had most of our downstairs painted and that feels wonderful. Also, Matt had a shelf built for the garage. Slowly but surely we are getting our house decorated the way we want it.

Fall Foliage Fun at Leipers Fork

Matt told Sophie that we could go on an "adventure" last Saturday morning. Matt had in mind that we could drive 15 miles to Leipers Fork, eat lunch at Puckett's Grocery, and look at the fall leaves on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Sophie was so excited about going on an "adventure"; she even asked if we would be staying in a hotel. Puckett's Grocery has been around for a long time, and the focus now is on homestyle dining rather than groceries. However, they still sell groceries, which was good because we bought some baby food for Abbie. Sophie enjoyed the cornbread shaped like pancakes.

After lunch, we walked around downtown Leipers Fork, and went on little drive on the Natchez Trace. Overall, we all had fun on our "adventure."

An All-American Family

Can you see that look in Sophie's eyes?

Paula, Abbie, Sophie & Matt

On Friday evening, Paula's parents and Aunt Patti came by for a little bit to see the girls dressed up. Then, we met up with some of our neighbors and walked down to Publix for their games and trick or treating. We came back and did some trick or treating around our neighborhood while Paula's mom gave out candy. Abbie was happy for a little while in her stroller and then, she started to wear out. Paula & Abbie came back home while Sophie & Matt finished trick or treating with our neighbors. As you can tell, Sophie really enjoyed getting all of that candy! She didn't let her pumpkin filled with candy out of sight much for a while. However, I was proud of her for sharing with her parents! =) In case you are having trouble guessing, Matt dressed as U.S. Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps, and I dressed as Nastia Liukin, the U.S. Olympic gymnast. These were the same outfits we wore for the Couples Costume party. Matt really enjoyed wearing 8 gold medals and hamming it up as Michael Phelps (i.e. doing some of his warm-up routine at our party). The costumes were not too difficult to pull together and it was fun! The girls were Titans cheerleaders. Go Titans!