Christmas Treats

Sophie and I enjoyed making our very first gingerbread house a few weeks ago. Actually, she pretty much specialized in quality control while I decorated, although she did manage to get a few pieces of candy on the house instead of into her mouth. It was fun, and I'm sure it will become an annual tradition.

Wedding Bells

Last Saturday, Sophie had her first flower girl experience in Matt's mom's wedding. Despite the fact that she had no nap that day and had an ear infection (which I wouldn't discover until Monday), she did great! I'm sure it helped that she got to follow her cousins, Anna and Maggie down the isle because she always wants to do whatever they do. All three girls were precious...it was a beautiful ceremony. She also had her very first sleepover that night with her cousins. She loved it so much that when Matt showed up in the morning to pick her up, she ran from him!

Sophie and sweet Jack stealing a kiss!
this must have been her 10th cup on punch. I had to use it to bribe her to walk down te isle. The girl loves her punch

The three sweet flower girls

Santa and his Reindeer

We took Sophie to see Santa a few weeks ago and as you can see below, she was none too pleased with the visit. She has had another encounter with him since at her school Christmas party, and apparently she had the same reaction. Oh well, she did love his reindeer!

I love her expression in this pic. - she looks like she's plotting something!

the only way I could get her to sit this close to Santa was by sitting with her, but still she screamed

I've been tagged by Lyla to take the fourth picture from my fourth folder of pics. and post it with a description. Oddly enough, the fourth folder just happens to be entitled "Angie's pregnancy" so here's a pic. of me at 25 weeks pregnant. Since my mom lives way up in Seattle, I would periodically take belly pictures to send to her so she could see my progress. :-) Plus it's kind of neat to go back and now and see how I grew. This fortunately was before I really blimped out and got three chins. :-) Those pics. are not so neat to look at!

Another trip to the ER

No, Sophie wasn't in a boxing match. She fell from the bed and met with the corner of a table on the way down. Or at least that's what I think happened. I was sitting right there, but one minute she was jumping on the bed and the next minute she was in a heap on the floor. To her credit, she only cried for about a minute despite the fact that I was freaking out over all the blood pouring out of her lip. It was a pretty deep gash, so we decided it best to take her to the ER to make sure it didn't need stitches. Fortunately they just glued it. Far less traumatic than stitches, but still not fun to hold your sweet baby down while someone dumps glue into her cut. As you can see, she has a fat lip that rivals any I've seen. She doesn't seem too bothered by it though, other than the fact that she can't use her pacifier. Tonight may be a long night!

Halloween 2008

Halloween this year was a lot of fun. We took Sophie to a neighborhood in town where some of our friends live to trick-or-treat. As soon as we went to the first door and Sophie realized that she got candy as a reward for simply standing there, she couldn't get to the next house fast enough. At one point during the night when a woman put a piece of candy in her bag, she looked and her and said "more!". Needless to say, she was very into the whole trick-or-treat experience. It's a little hard to tell in the pictures exactly what her costume is, but she went as a puppy dog. Her friends Kate, Parker, Rebecca and Grant were with us and they all had a blast.

here's the gang minus Grant, who was a banana :-)

Sophie and Kate from behind...so cute!

Sophie eagerly awaiting her candy riding in the wagon with Rebecca
here they are again...at the end of the night. Notice Sophie's big yawn. :-)

and finally, I just had to put her halloween pic. from last year for comparison :-)

Halloween Fun

Sophie had her Halloween party today at Mother's day out. She of course refused to wear her sweet little puppy dog costume when they took them around to trick-or-treat, as she has pretty much refused to wear it every time I've attempted to put it on her for the past several weeks. I don't know why she dislikes it so much, but she does. I decided that just wasn't a battle I was willing to fight and she can just go trick-or-treating as herself this year. :-)

I like that everyone else is tearing into their suckers and she's just content with her binky. Can you tell she never gets candy?

20 Months

I know that 20 months isn't exactly a milestone, but I feel the need to write a little something about Sophie at 20 months just because she has changed so much since 18 months! In two months, she has gone from 2 and 3 word sentences to full conversations. In fact, the child never stops talking. She amazes us every day with what she's capable of. I know she's probably no different than any other 20 month old (although, as her mother, of course I think she's the smartest baby ever) :-) but the change in two months is amazing. I think this is my favorite phase so far, just because it's fun to have a conversation with her now knowing that she understands everything I say. She is counting, recognizing letters and numbers, and can say her ABC's (with a little coaching). I can't believe my little baby is going to turn two in just a few months. She's growing up too fast!

Sophie with her "piggie tails" that she started asking for the other day. She has worn them for 3 days straight. They make her look so big!

Fun on the Farm

We took Sophie to Walden Farm on Saturday to pick some pumpkins. Needless to say she had a blast. Between the farm animals, play toys, pumpkin patch and tractor, she was in heaven. Too bad it was in the high 80's on Saturday, otherwise it would have been the perfect fall day!

sitting on the great pumpkin

of course she found the tractor

giving the pumpkin some love

I want this one! (she was actually loading them all into her stroller)
feeding the sheep
little farmer Sophie

somebody give me a pitchfork!

Pink piggies and more

Sophie had her piggies painted for the very first time today. We were at her cousins' house and they had the polish out and she pretty much insisted that hers be painted. There is just something about painted piggies that screams "I'm a big girl!". She of course tried wiping all of the polish off as soon as we were done, but that's just Sophie. Always cleaning up! This was the best picture I could get. You can't really even tell they are painted, which is just fine with me. It is very hard to get a picture of a toddler's feet - they never stop moving!

Another first we had today was Sophie learning to climb up into her crib. She went into her room this evening to put a toy away, and when I heard her yelling for me I went to see what she needed. When I looked in, there she was, standing in her bed. My only hope is that my little monkey doesn't learn to climb out of her bed!

Matt lost track of Sophie for a while last Sunday morning, and this is where he found her. I guess she's ready to go on vacation again already! Note the necklace around her neck. She has to wear one whenever she sees me putting one on. Fortunately I got it off before we went into church. :-)

Seattle 2008

Now that it's been over a week since we've been back from vacation, I'm finally finding time to post. We had a wonderful time, but of course could have used a few more days to do all that we wanted to do. We had a great visit with my grandparents who made the trip to Seattle from Eastern Washington, and we also got to see one of my cousins and her family. Sophie had a great time getting lots of attention from Grammy and the rest of my family. I miss the Northwest so much; it's so beautiful up there! I am posting a ton of pictures; we took so many that it was hard to choose!

Matt and me at the Mariner's game
Matt found this at a drugstore - like Sophie's pose?

We went to a little town called Leavenworth up in the mountains. It is modeled after a German village. Here's Sophie in the hat store - she kept going back to this particular hat, which was very disturbing!
This is a pic. of Leavenworth. It was so beautiful that day.

This is what you see all around you in Leavenworth. Mountains everywhere!

Family picture

This was on the beach where my cousin lives. We had a picnic dinner right there on the water and let the kids play. Sophie kept wanting to get "nakie" and "sim" in the water

Here's Sophie with my cousin's kids on the beach

Riding a lizard at the zoo
Bein' catepillars at the zoo

What would have been a good family shot had Sophie not stuck her blue tounge out at the last minute. Thanks mom, for sharing your licorice ice cream with her! :-)

This was taken at the Saturday farmers' market. You could buy huge boquets like this for $5
Sophie having the last sip of my Mocha. Hey, when in Rome......
Sophie and my sister's kids, Kayla and Skylar
Sophie and Grammy
Hangin' with the monkeys at the zoo

Vacation!

Why is Sophie running? She's trying to get away from this HOT weather! On Friday we leave for Seattle where the temperature is going to be in the low to mid 70's. We can't wait for the cool ocean breeze....y'all (thanks Meleah, for teaching me how to spell that correctly...tee hee) stay cool next week!

18 Months

Sophie had her 18 month check up last week and all went well. She is 30.5 inches long, which is in the 19th percentile and she weighs 22 lbs., which is in the 17th percentile. If this is any indicator of who she is taking after, I think it's safe to say that she will favor her mommy in stature rather than her daddy.

Sophie is really talking now, putting sentences together and suprising us every day with her ever-growing vocabulary. She is REALLY into shoes, and puts her shoes on every morning as soon as she gets up and begs to go "side" (outside). She can now open everything that has a twist cap on it, including her sippy cups. My favorite words of hers right now are "morie" which is more, "pappy" which is pacifier and "oh no" which she says WHENEVER she sees any kind of mess (garbage in a parking lot, a crumb on the floor, dirt on her hands....yes, she is a bit compulsive!). Sophie has a great sense of humor and loves to laugh. She also loves to cuddle and love on everyone, even if they don't want it. :-) She is a sweet, sweet girl and we're having a blast watching her as she becomes more of her own little person.

This is how she dressed today - she insisted on those shoes and the hat. She has her own opinion about fashion already....

Home Spun Family Fun

We went to the fair on Tuesday night and had a blast. It's so much fun to see things through your child's eyes. To say that Sophie was amazed would be an understatement. She loved it. She rode the carousel three times and would have gone all night had we not run out of tickets. We also visited the petting zoo and watched the pig races. Yee haw!!

Pure joy!
Here she is about to get her fingers lopped off by this goat. Never mind all the signs that warned to keep your hands FLAT while feeding the animals! How do you explain that to an 18 month old?!
Yeah, I'd be crying too if I had that demon-posessed looking thing staring me in the face...

The big T-H-R-E-E

Cousin Jack turned three this month and we had a little family party on Saturday to celebrate. He got a John Deere tractor and the kids had a blast riding it. Sophie even got in on the action and actually figured out how to push the pedal down to make it go. She loooooved it! Happy birthday little Jack, we love you!

Jack with his cake that Anna decorated all by herself!

Little farmer Sophie!I took this at the party and just had to post it...so sweet.