First Snowfall in Kentucky and a Visit from St. Nicholas

We had what was to be the first of many snowfalls here in Kentucky in December. Although the snowfalls after Christmas were much more abundant, Sophie was excited with this dusting we got. She insisted on getting her snow get-up on and playing:


One of her favorite things to do is to make snow angels:



We also celebrated the Day of Saint Nicholas in December. Traditionally, German children put out their shoes/boots for St. Nicholas to fill with treats. Sophie put out her rain boots, and St. Nicholas dutifully stopped by!

Take Two with Santa

Sophie was able to visit with Santa again at our work Christmas dinner. This time, she refrained from giving any inappropriate gestures:

...And 3 Months Later!

Okay, so we haven't been so great at updating Sophie's blog since we returned from France. I'm hoping, though, that we're finally settled in, and my New Year's resolution is to be more diligent about posting here. (And this is a big step because I never ever ever make New Year's resolutions!)

To start us off, I thought I'd share Sophie's visit with Santa last Saturday. She was not shy at all, and in fact monopolized Santa's break time by chatting to him non-stop for 10 minutes! I absolutely love this picture because she looks like she's flipping off the camera...although I think that she's actually surreptitiously stroking the fur on Santa's coat--she loved that thing!

She also surprised Santa by telling him that all she wanted for Christmas was a "shiny gold bell." Santa is working on finding this mystery item as we speak.

More Christmas Pics and Sophie's First Haircut

I think I'll be posting Christmas pictures all the way up to next Christmas! Here are a few extra pics. The first one isn't the best of Sophie, but it's the best picture we got of her in her Christmas outfit.





Sophie received a harmonica in her stocking and hasn't stopped playing it since!


And she received her first haircut while in California. She was looking kind of scraggly, but her new cut turned out nicely. She didn't really like it much until they gave her a sucker.

Daddy's Home!

Ian came home from his class trip to Europe last night, and Sophie was so excited to see him! I wasn't sure how she'd react since he'd been gone for a while, but as soon as she saw him she ran straight to him! She wanted him to hold her the rest of the night (even insisting that he change her diaper at the airport...I didn't protest!). When he was getting the luggage, she'd get a little upset whenever she'd lose sight of him. Most of the time that he was gone, she'd had trouble sleeping, but she slept right through the night last night!

Needless to say, Mommy's just as happy that Daddy's home safely!

Here are some random pictures of Sophie over the holidays. The first one is one of my favorites. I remember this pretty clearly...Sophie watching Shrek the Third (which she got for Christmas) with her new Shrek and Donkey dolls. I'm not sure where she got this pose from, but she seemed extremely comfortable!

Sophie enjoyed sitting on Grandma's Harley...no rides, though, for a few more years!

Sophie received a hat in her stocking on Christmas morning and insisted on putting it on right away...that girl loves hats!

I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but she received a little stuffed hippo from her great uncle Kenny. She is really into wrapping her animals and dolls in blankets and putting them "night-night," but we didn't have any blankets handy, so she stole some tissue paper from someone's present and insisted on wrapping the hippo in it!

"Official" Santa Picture...Finally!

This one was worth the wait, folks! I finally scanned Sophie's Santa picture, and all I can say is that I think she must have just been informed by Santa that she was naughty this year!

Christmas Eve Continued

Okay, so I won't be able to post the "official" Santa pic yet because my mom informed me this weekend that it was sitting on their desk in Apple Valley. As soon as I get that, I'll post it.

Instead, I'll post some more Christmas Eve pictures. We had my mom's side of the family over for a Christmas Eve dinner, including Sophie's newest cousin (once removed or second or somesuch designation), my cousin's daughter. Sophie usually loves other babies, but I think the lure of presents kept her from really interacting with Chandler. Here are some pics from that afternoon.

Here is one of the only pictures of the two little ones together. Sophie wouldn't get any nearer to Chandler because she was afraid that Chandler was going to steal her baby. So far, I haven't figured out who has the picture that has them both looking at the camera!

Here is our five generation picture with Sophie's great great grandma, Grams, her great grandma Linda, my mom, my aunt Chris, my cousin Sharri, her daughter, Chandler, Sophie and me.

And here is a pic of the two mommies and the babies:

And the proud grandmas with their granddaughters:

Grandma Linda brought a tent and tube set for Sophie to play with, which she loved!


Sophie being silly with one of her toys:

And me with Chandler:

Sophie's Visit with Santa

Sophie really liked the idea of Santa Claus this year, but when it came time for her to visit Santa, she wasn't having it! She pretty much screamed or pouted the whole time. As you can see in the first picture, she's trying to escape. The second one is a great one of her screaming. They finally wised up and tried to distract her with a book, which kept her from screaming, but she still pouted. I forgot to bring the "official" picture to scan, so I'll try to post that next week.

"Christmas" morning in Kentucky

Santa arrived in Kentucky a little early. Isn't it great that Santa always knows when you'll be somewhere else at Christmas???

Santa brought Sophie an easel, which she loves. She really likes to draw right now, so this works well for her and she'll be able to grow into it.



She also enjoyed her stocking, but got easily distracted by each toy she pulled out.


And finally, I just liked this picture. She really liked this really long stuffed snake at Ikea, so I snuck it home. This is the easiest way for her to carry it around!

Check back tomorrow for Sophie's trip to see Santa!

"Christmas" in Kentucky

We celebrated Christmas in Kentucky over the period of a couple of days before we left for California. We spread the present opening out because we discovered that Sophie insisted on playing with each toy as she received them, which would have taken forever in one sitting. So she opened a couple of presents from Mommy and Daddy and all from Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt, Grandma Dennis, Aunt Heather, and Uncle James, Aunt Lea and Ayden on our "Christmas Eve."

We bought her a Cabbage Patch Kid, and here she is opening it. After this experience, we'll definitely open and assemble all toys in the future before wrapping them. She was so excited to play with all of her toys that she'd get really upset when she couldn't get to them right away.



Her baby came with a bottle, which she loves to feed to all of her babies and stuffed animals (and occasionally to herself!)


She really liked the train set that she received from Grandma Dennis and played with it for quite a while. She also insisted on wearing her new dinosaur sweater as soon as she opened it until...


She opened another outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt. She then made me change her again and wore the new outfit for the rest of the evening.

Christmas Eve Night

Finally, I've had a chance to upload some pictures from Christmas to our computer. Being a single mom while Ian's in Europe has had its challenges, so I'm running behind on almost everything! I hope these pictures make up for the delay. Grandma Schmidt made Sophie's dress that she wore to church on Christmas Eve. She looked adorable!



I have some more pictures of her in her dress, but I forgot to upload them last night. I'll post more each day this week until we get caught up from Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

For posterity (and because I'm sure I'll lose our copy eventually), I'm posting this year's Christmas card. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas Tree Decorating

Sophie has decided that she absolutely loves Christmas this year! She loves Christmas trees (which she calls "ississ ee"), snowmen, Santa Claus, and Advent calendars with chocolate in them. She's almost figured out how to get the little cardboard doors open on the Advent calendar we got her this year. She really liked "helping" us decorate our little tree. Now that it's up, she says hi to it in the morning and "nigh-nigh" to it when she goes to bed...I'm not sure what we're going to do when we have to take it down!

In this picture, Sophie's learning from Daddy how to hang an ornament:

And here she is hanging her own:

We tried to get her to stand or sit in front of the tree and smile, but the camera ran out of batteries before she ever did: