Surprise!!

This year I really wanted to surprise Cory for his birthday. He is such a great husband and a great daddy that I wanted to get him good. He has been talking about going to Great Wolf Lodge for a couple months now so I knew that is what I wanted to do. I thought it would also be a great trip for us to take just as the 3 of us. I will have you know that this trip for him did come at some personal sacrifice for me. I always seem to plan these bathing suit outings when I am VERY pregnant. For our 5th wedding anniversary, we spent a night at Disney and spent most of the time in the outdoor pool. I was 8 months pregnant. This time only 7 1/2 months pregnant. I hated to even think about the swimsuit. But, the things you do for love, right?

I emailed his boss and made sure he could have the day off, asked my boss for the day off, and packed everything on Friday night when he took Sophia to gymnastics. Saturday after Sophia woke up from her nap, we gave him his present. I made him a binder with a letter from Sophia and then pictures of attractions, activities, and restaraunts at the Lodge. It was the only way I could think of that he would have something to open. I think he was surprised.

Giving Daddy his present

Helping Daddy open (good practice for Christmas)

I love the progression of these pictures. Cory starts out a little confused and gets more and more excited as he reads and figures out what is going on. Sophia gets less and less interested. But I do love the legs crossed at the ankles. Sometimes she is such a proper little girl. I have no idea where she gets that from. Not me!

Meeting with Santa

I wasn't sure how this meeting would go. Last year the closest she would get to Santa was on the bottom step of 2 steps up to Santa's chair on her Daddy's lap. That was last year's picture. So this year we decided we had better not spend the money for a picture with Santa and instead try out the free one at Bass Pro Shop. She had a great time with the crafts, their decorations, and the other toys they had there to play with. I was not expecting it to be as crowded as it was. Geez. We could hardly find a parking spot. But all 3 of us had a GREAT time together.

Coloring a picture for Santa

Waiting for her turn to make a craft

Gluing on the eyes

The finished product!

Loving the snowman Really loving Santa's "reindeer"

It's good to see all that military training put to good use with the Red Rider BB gun

Sophia getting in on the action

Taking a quick break for some cookies.

Getting excited to see the big man

Remember how I said she wouldn't get close to Santa last year? What a difference a year makes. She walked right down that red carpet like she was born to do it!

She wouldn't tell us what she told Santa but they seemed to have a great conversation.

Enjoying her first candy cane. What a mess!

On the way out she found something else she might want for Christmas.

Sophia's Christmas Tree

Today we decided to decorate Sophia's Christmas tree. First I took her to Target and let her pick out what color of Christmas ornaments she wanted. She was very set on purple. She also found these really beautiful (and incredibly messy) glitter snowflakes. I thought that silver and purple was a pretty good color scheme for a 2 year old to pick out.

Getting started

Would you like a purple ornament?

(you like the chocolate on the face too, don't you?)

Not too excited for this picture

The finished product.

Shower Markers

A few weeks ago I got Sophia these markers to use in the bathtub. She absolutely loves them. After decorating her Christmas tree, we were all covered in glitter so Cory and Sophia decided to take a shower together. She takes her art very seriously as you can tell by the looks of total focus.

Christmas Tree

Sophia was really excited about decorating the tree this year. She loved being "in charge" of putting the ornaments wherever she wanted them. She is getting to be such a big girl. I can hardly believe it.

Cory explaining the finer points of decorating a Christmas tree

Cory and Sophia putting their trains on the Christmas tree.

Very carefully picking the spot for the snowman.

As you can see, most of the unbreakable ornaments ended up on the very bottom of the tree. I did decide to move them up a little after Sophia went to bed.

Christmas Pictures

On Saturday evening we went to Click for family/Christmas pictures. I wasn't sure how they were going to turn out since the appointment wasn't until 7 pm but Sophia did a great job. She is constantly surprising me. The Family Picture: I was pretty impressed with it. We all look fairly normal. Our beautiful Sophia Grace: Belly shot: I wasn't too sure of this one. I didn't get belly shots when I was pregnant with Sophia but wanted to give it a whirl this time. This one turned out just perfect! I couldn't have asked for anything better. I think Sophia looks so sweet hugging her little brother.

Nativity Set

My mom bought Sophia this great little nativity set that is unbreakable. She loves it. Almost everyday, when she gets home, she wants to play with it. Today she was lining all the characters up and I asked her why she was doing that. She said, "They all have to wait their turn to see Baby Jesus". It wasn't until I looked closer at how she lined them up, that I saw exactly what she had done. It was just too sweet. And, yes, that is a tacky bottle of Tums on the coffee table. Sorry about that. It has reached "that time" in this pregnancy. Even Baby Eba got in on the action.

Sweetness

Sophia has bravely entered the "terrible twos" and we have been forced to follow right along with her. My sweet, precious little daughter has become this occassional beast with attitude that would rival any 16 year old. I have no idea where she gets that from. We go from sweet, to attitude ("You can't tell me no, Momma"), to screaming fits in under a minute. But my sweet, sweet Sophia is always there when I need it the most. I am now 27 weeks along and already getting really tired. I didn't think that was supposed to happen this early?!? Maybe it is the running around after a 2 year old thing. I have also been fighting off a cold for about a week so energy is really low. Just when I had reached my endpoint with Little Miss 'Tude tonight, she put her arm around me and said, "Momma, you're the best". I thought I was going to cry. She is such a wonderful little girl and I thank God every day for her. I know that this determination, stubbornness, and attitude is all going to work out to make her a strong and independent woman and I wouldn't have her any other way. Except maybe at 10:00 pm when she still hasn't gone to sleep.....

One Year Ago...

I was looking through some old pictures and found these. One year ago, this was our little girl. What a difference one year makes. She went from babyish to big girl. Why is it going by so fast??? Can someone please slow this time with her down?

Smore time

Tonight Cory made us a fire. It was so lovely and warm and really got me into the winter/holiday spirit. While we enjoyed the fire, we watched Sleeping Beauty. I just love that movie. Sophia tried her first smore and was not impressed. I think it was the graham crackers that she didn't like. She loved the chocolate but her favorite was the gooey marshmellows. I think I made her about 6 marshmellows. A little overkill I know, but it is so hard to say no to that face.

Notice the big cheek on Sophia. She's working on the first marshmellow while I work on the second.

Poor Eva didn't get to have any. Maybe next year sweets. I wonder if marshmellow goodness is transferred through breast milk???? The world may never know.

What a smile!

Does life get any better than this???

We've been stickered!!

Thanks Cory for such a fun night.

Julia Child

My sister is quite the cook. It has been nice sharing meal prep responsibilities with her. We have had more home cooked meals than ever before since she moved in. I think this picture says it all though.

It is truly a great, professional look.

Chuck E. Cheese

On Sunday evening Cory had the great idea to take Sophia to Chuck E. Cheese. I wasn't sure how she was going to react, but she loved it. Over the last few months she has really become a lot more outgoing and a lot more willing to try new things. I am so proud of her. There wasn't a whole lot of pizza eating going on (although she did eat all the sausage off my piece) but when you're a kid....you don't need to eat. You just need to play. After seeing all the cool stuff to do, she was ready to give up the baby doll and get to playing. She enjoyed the rides..... and the games. (For those of you that don't know, Cory and I have had an extremely competitive air hockey relationship that goes back to the begining of our dating days. It is nice to see Sophia playing with her Daddy. She needs a couple pointers from me though. I have to make sure she beats him with as wide a margin as I do!!) Now the gerbil tubes (what do you call these things anyway?)... As soon as she saw these, she wanted to go in. I wasn't sure about it. There is a slide at SIGS that is covered and took her about 8 weeks to get up the courage to go down it. (remember that, Angie?) She kept saying (about the slide) , "It's dark in there". So, with a whole contraption that is covered aka. dark, I wasn't so sure. What if she got up there and wouldn't get down? I surely could not go and get her. Not with this preggo belly. But, I didn't want to hold her back either. So, I took a deep breath, and said OK. She was too short to climb the stairs that get you up in this thing so Cory and I took turns helping her climb the stairs. Once she was up those, she was off. There were moments of panic when she had been up there a while and you couldn't see her, but she was fine. She loved it. I think she must have gone up into that thing and down the slide 50 times. If only we could figure out how to install one in the basement. And yes, my preggo self got into that hole, helped her up the blue stairs, and then managed to get back out again. It was an engineering marvel. At the top jumping up and down in the cage. She would roar like a tiger. These two pictures are probably my favorite. Cory is trying to play the toddler game to get some tickets for his little pumpkin, but is having some problems.