Soccer Shots

These pictures are not particularly great but I thought those family members who are far away might appreciate them. Matt took them at Sophie's game this past Saturday. This is Sophie's first time to play soccer and she seems to be enjoying it! Her soccer team is made up of some really sweet girls, some of whom she goes to school with. Sophie's not usually the first one down the field but she works hard and is learning the sport. The girls call themselves the Blue Rhinestones which is very intimidating (NOT-J/K!). One of the dads calls the girls the Rhinestone Cowgirls. It sounds a little tougher so I kind of like that nickname.

Home Projects





our home before the new roof goes on





Abbie's big girl bed (she has a siderail but I took it off for the picture.).







Another area of Abbie's room




It's fun to help Daddy wash Mama's car!

For about a week, Abbie had a pretty bad stomach bug. She is feeling much better now. We had to keep her home for several days. This week, we got a new roof put on our house. It wasn't that old but there was a hail storm in May that damaged some of the roofs on our street pretty bad. Thankfully, insurance is covering most of it. Also, about a month ago, we painted the upper half of Abbie's room (pink, of course!) and redecorated her room. She moved to a big girl bed. She does fairly well now with staying in her bed but it was hard at first. I finally remembered to take some pictures to post.

Sophie still loves school! She's learning a lot of new sight words. When they learn a new list of words, her teacher gives them a piece of candy. Very effective I might add.

My Little Buddy

Will & Abbie at the zoo

Abbie likes to make a mess & occasionally help clean it up.

Abbie all dressed up

Now that Sophie's in school, Abbie and I have some days where we just hang out and others where we've had some fun play dates. Last week, we got together with Joshua & Julia one day. Abbie and Julia were crazy about each other. Yesterday, we met Will and his mommy at the zoo while their big sisters were in school. Abbie and Will are in the same class at Mother's Day Out. It was a great day for the zoo! Abbie loves wearing her hair in pigtails but in the bottom picture, you can tell that I had to fix her hair a few times too many because they are totally lopsided. Oh well, she's cute anyway! I can't wait for Halloween! We've got the girls' costumes ready to go!

Capture the Moment

It's been a while since I've posted.  Last week I had a terrible cold but I'm feeling better this week.  I LOVE the cooler fall weather!!  I have a lot of random thoughts to share it seems but I'll try to make sense.  I still miss Sophie being around but I'm really glad that she likes school.  I feel like I get the "leftovers" of Sophie meaning she gives her best at school and then, by the time she gets home from school, she's pretty worn-out.  Maybe this is why I dreaded her really starting school because I knew that once she started, she'd be gone so much of the time.  Don't get me wrong though, I'm really happy for her.  Sometimes it's the little things that make Sophie so excited to telll about her day like being praised for being good, getting in the treasure box, etc.  On Friday afternoon, I was just thinking, "I wish that I could capture this moment and make time stand still for a little while."  Sophie had her first loose tooth and she was so excited about it that she wanted to call several family members.  She was skipping around the house, wearing her school shirt with her hair pulled back in a pony tail.  It's one of those moments that I hope I can look back and remember.  She just recently started skipping. 

Abbie, on the other hand, is talking so much clearer.  The other day, I decided to walk with the girls over the hill to a neighborhood playground.  We were almost there. Sophie had taken her scooter but Abbie was walking with me.  Abbie said, "I 2 now.  Abbie need princess scooter too."  It didn't come out that clear but I realized what she was saying and it was so cute.  =)  By the way, another thing that I may forget one day is that Abbie asks everyday, "Why Sophie go to kindergarten?"  I have to explain that she's 5, etc, etc.  I tell Abbie that she'll get to go one day too!  Abbie asks a lot of "why" questions now.  She also likes to do everything by herself!

Sophie was trying on some shoes a few days ago that a friend of mine passed along.  I said, "did you try on the red shoes?  I wanted you to try them on."  She says, "yeah, but I took them off."  I told her that I had wanted to see them on her.  Then, in her serious voice she said, "My feet just know it's not time to wear them so they want to take them off."  I thought this was very creative of her and I just laughed.  I said, "you mean your feet know that they are church shoes or that the shoes are a little too big?"  Kids are so funny sometimes. 

Soccer and Body Art

Here's Sophie all suited up for her 1st soccer game!

Here's Abbie a few days ago. Matt took her for a drive to see if he could get her to take a nap. He didn't realize why it took a while for her to go to sleep. She had found one of his pens in the cars and she was drawing all over her legs!!

Sophie is playing soccer for the first time this fall. One of her best buddies who is a neighbor of ours was also playing so we were hoping that they would be on the same team but they are not. Sophie's team had only had a couple of practices before their first game. She's having fun learning to play soccer and some of the girls on her team go to school with her. They do not keep score at this age. All of the girls got a chance to play but they also got a couple of breaks. I don't think Sophie minded because by the end of the game, I think she was tired of doing so much running. Mama, Abbie, Nana, Paw-paw and Uncle Phil were all able to come and watch Sophie's first game. Her daddy had to miss it because he's teaching a class on Tuesday nights. Hopefully, if Sophie keeps practicing, she can score a goal or two!

Recent Zoo Trips

Abbie goes beyond the call of duty-she's got a brush on each hand.

                                                      the flamingoes are here!

                                                       Abbie's 1st day of school

This past week, Abbie started back to Mother's Day Out.  Yay!  Both of my kids are back in school.  While I'm still adjusting to having Sophie gone every day and really wish that she was around more, I was excited to have a day or two that's scheduled where someone else is watching my kids.  After having them home with me all summer, it will be nice to have a break!  Anyway, Abbie did fine at school but she hasn't taken a nap so far.  I'm happy that Abbie is in Ms Katy's class and several of her friends from church are in there.  While Abbie was in school, Matt & I both worked on getting her room painted so that we could transition her into a big girl bed over the weekend.  Pictures of her room to come soon...  Abbie has done really well with that transition.  Her first night in the big girl bed she was grinning from ear to ear because she was so excited about her big girl bed.

On another note, the weather has been a little cooler outside and we've been able to go to the zoo a couple of times.  I didn't take very many pictures but the first time it was just me and Abbie.  We had a great time but poor Sophie missed out (and Daddy).  This past weekend, we planned it so that we could all go and we were able to see the new flamingo exhibit.  The zoo got pretty busy since it was so pretty for Labor Day weekend but we still had a nice time!

A few more favorites...

I had the girls pictures made a couple of weeks ago and we also took some family pictures. I really wanted a good picture of the girls together and it had been a long time since we had had individual pictures of them made. We did it just before kindergarten started going in full swing. Abbie was more photogenic that day than I think she's ever been for a photographer. I thought we got some great pictures of everyone!