Snow, Snow Everywhere!

We've had a very snowy winter here in Kentucky, and in honor of it finally getting warm this week, I'll post some pictures of a beautiful snowy Saturday.

Sophie attempted sledding, but didn't really like how fast she went downhill.

One of her favorite snowy pastimes is making snow angels. Apparently, she got tired of making them the old-fashioned way!

And a picture of a lovely winter bush in our yard:

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!

Playing Around

Just a couple of pictures of Sophie (and Daddy) playing around with Sophie's vampire teeth:



Sophie's drawing has also improved dramatically lately. This picture is from before Christmas, but I liked it because she drew me and the baby. The baby is the splotch in my body:

September/October 2009

In the interest of trying to catch up on posts here, I'm am going to wrap up the last few months in just a few posts. They were busy months, but I think I can do it!

We had planned a camping trip in September to Cumberland Falls, but when we got there, it was pouring rain, and our campsite had a river of mud flowing through it. Luckily, Cumberland Falls is only a couple of hours from our house, so we turned around and "camped" at home.

Sophie also had her school picnic in September, and she tasted cotton candy for the first time, strangely enough. Her reaction was mixed:

Most of the afternoon was spent climbing on the strange playground toys they had at the fair grounds (where the picnic was held).

Later in October, we went to a Cincinnati Reds game with some friends of ours. The stadium is beautiful--right on the Ohio River.

Surprisingly, Sophie enjoyed herself the entire game! (Soon after this, we had to hunt down a kid's baseball bat, and Grandpa Wilson sent a small baseball glove for her. Pictures of that adventure to come...)

Planting Fall Flowers

Earlier this week, we decided it was time to spruce up our front yard and plant some flowers. Sophie was very excited by the prospect, and because of this, while we were at the store, we found the cutest kids gardening gloves for her to wear.

Some times she was more of a hinderance than a help, but she had fun. (I think she's actually putting dirt back in the hole Ian is digging in the picture below!)

And surprisingly, she was willing to clean up!

Now the hardest part is getting her to not pick the flowers!

A Day at the Park

Well, I had the best of intentions for getting pictures posted here and at the Wilsons in Europe blog, but it has just been so crazy at work and at home the last couple of weeks. These pictures are from last weekend at Millenium Park in Danville. Sophie hadn't been here since before we moved to France, and we thought she'd like the large playground, the paths, and the lake with ducks. (Some of you may remember this park as the place where we celebrated Sophie's first birthday.)

We started at the playground, where Sophie had fun climbing everything in sight:


Eventually, we moved to feeding the ducks.


And then we got a little bike-riding practice in. The paths here are much flatter than our driveway, so it was a little less scary for her. She got the hang of pedaling a few times, but then would accidentally step on the brake and stop! She gets frustrated really easily with the bike, so we'll just keep practicing when we can.


And finally, on our walk around the lake, we spotted this crane (or heron?). It was fun to see other animals besides the ducks, including some turtles that live there.

Hopefully, there are more pictures to come soon. At the very least, things will slow down a bit in a week or so...

Fishing with Uncle Kyle

So, it's been a while since we've posted here, and I wanted the first post to be Sophie's first day at pre-school pictures, but since those pics are at work, I thought this post would be better than nothing! We visited Uncle Kyle in Pennsylvania (along with Grandma and Grandpa Fine) this last weekend, and Sophie would not let Uncle Kyle forget that he had promised that he'd take her fishing long ago. He ended up buying her the cutest little starter fishing kit with princesses all over it! She didn't catch anything, but if the amount of mud on her was any indication, she had a great time!

After-Cake Play

I'm sorry it's been so long since the last post. As you can imagine, Ian and I have been incredibly busy preparing for our trip. My grandma Linda also came for a visit last weekend, so we just haven't had time to post more birthday pictures.

After cake, we took Sophie out to play with her new sprinkler. She loves playing in the water! And I know that there are a lot of these pictures, but I think that they were the best ones of the weekend!








Here, Aunt Heather is teaching Sophie that she can direct the water wherever she'd like:

In her mouth...
Or at everyone sitting on the porch watching her play...you should have seen everyone run!

We wrapped her up in her towel afterwards and called her "Burrito Baby." She insisted on walking around the yard like this: