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!

Thanksgiving in California

We spent Thanksgiving in California with my family. (Yes, I know that this post says that Ian is posting, but my account is too full to post very many pictures, so I'm going through Ian's account.) We were so tired from the long semester that we didn't take very many pictures, but here are some of our favorites from what we did take.

You can't see it, but Great Grandma Linda is reading Sophie a book here. Sophie was fascinated with her necklace:

Here she is with Great Grandpa Fine:

Giving Great Great Grams a kiss:

One of the highlights of her trip was to make cookies with Grandma Fine. On Nick Jr., her main source of cartoons, they played a segment (endlessly) of a man making turkey sugar cookies by using their hands as the base for the turkeys. Sophie was set on making these, and Grandma had the patience of a saint when she helped Sophie for over three hours with them!


Sneaking a taste:


Very proud of her creations: (There were more, but these were the main turkeys.)


Eating the turkey cookie that's almost as big as her head!

Halloween 2009

Well, we've finally made it to the end of October here on the blog! Halloween was really fun with Sophie this year because she actually understood what was going on. We carved pumpkins, which we didn't get to do last year, and Sophie really enjoyed herself--except that she really didn't like the slimy parts!


Here she is after we finally got the pumpkins on the front porch:


She wanted to pose by her pumpkin before we went trick or treating. Hers is the cat pumpkin.


She dressed up as a lion, thanks to a friend of ours whose kids also dressed up like lions. :-) She really got into her costume and started roaring like a lion. She even won a costume contest at Centre's Halloween festival!


At the festival, she won a pair of vampire teeth, which rounded out her costume nicely.

A group of students got together and recreated Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Sophie loved it, and I think they did a pretty good job!



The students had all sorts of games and crafts at different tables for the kids:


And we even ran into some of Sophie's friends!

Sophie showing off all of her loot after the festival and normal trick or treating:

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.

Mother's Day Card

Sophie made me two cute cards for Mother's Day at daycare. Here is a copy of the one with her hands:

We had a nice Mother's Day. We've been so busy lately that we haven't had time to relax or go to Lexington, so we did both. It was rainy and stormy, so outdoors activities were out. Ian let me sleep in, and then we went to a student art show. The we went into Lexington, did some shopping, and ate at a pub where they serve draft cider...mmmm! This weekend was the first weekend in a long time that I felt rested by Monday morning!

Happy Easter!

I'm going to post pictures a little backwards from the past week. Today I'm posting Easter pics. I'll try to post some pics from our trip to Baltimore and Chapel Hill throughout the rest of the week.

Sophie really enjoyed Easter this year. She got the hang of Easter egg hunting, and really got the hang of the idea that each egg had candy in it! We don't give Sophie much candy...not because we're against sweets or junk food or anything, but because she likes so many different healthier foods that we just don't bother to give her junk that often. I think that Easter may have changed the landscape a little, though. She definitely knew that there was chocolate wrapped up in that foil...

Here she is, stuffing her mouth at the first chance! (We put bunny-shaped marshmallows in all of her eggs.)

Grandma Fine sent Sophie bunny ears that she enjoyed:

And also a little play camera:
Getting ready for the Easter egg hunt. Of course, her doll, Laila, had to join us as well:

Hunting:

Stuffing her mouth with chocolate:

The aftereffects of eating so much chocolate:

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!