In church on Sunday when everyone was praying I turned around and saw this..
Sophia had her hands folded, eyes closed praying with everyone. This melted my heart. For Nate and I it is very important to us to install God in Sophia’s life and heart, and this picture to me is so profound. Sophia prays every night for dinner, and is starting to learn the prayer we say every night before bed. If you ask her where is Jesus, she will point to her heart and say that’s where he is. We are very blessed!
Today was a much needed girls day! My good friend E and her daughters came over and spent time with Soph and I. Its not to often in the daily chaos of life that either of us moms get an entire day to relax, enjoy each others company and spend time with our girls.
To start the day off we headed to Rainbow to do some couponing! E is my coupon partner in crime!! After this E headed home to unpack her groceries, pick up some Starbucks and lunch and then they headed back over. In the meantime Soph and I went home unpacked our groceries, at lunch and Soph went down for what was supposed to be her nap- however it never happened! Instead we just hung out playing with baby T and soon to be Miss teenager T. Soph just had an absolute blast playing with big T! She would follow her everywhere wanting to do everything she did. It was so fun to watch them interact with each other.
** This picture really captures the day. Sophia’s laugh and T laughing as well. I truly love this picture!!**
I love that Soph gets to play and spend time with E’s kids, it warms my heart! I know we all had so much fun this day! I cant wait for another girls day!!
I have always been an animal lover! I grew up with animals – cats specifically and when Nate moved out I surprised him with cats of his own. Needless to say I always believed that when I had kids I would have animals for them as well.
When Sophia was born, we had two cats and a dog. The cats are quite timid, as they were always alone with just Nate when he lived on his own, however our dog Meeka is another story. Sophia LOVES her and the feeling is mutual from Meeka. Meeka has from day 1 always been gentle with Meeka, knowing just when to play or leave her be. Nate and I will often find Sophia throwing toys for Meeka, chasing her and other times Meeka will be cuddled up to Sophia on the couch- its precious! Meeka and Sophia can also be sneaky, where we find/catch Sophia sneaking Meeka food from dinner or her snacks, haha!
Here are some pictures of Sophia’s best friend Meeka.
They share a love that I have always believed was important and I am so happy Sophia has animals in her life.
Sophia is such a huge fan of Sesame Street and Elmo, we decided to surprise her and take her to see Sesame Street Live, Elmo makes music! I was excited, yet nervous at how she was going to react to seeing Elmo and his Sesame Street friends live in person. This is because Sophia is not a fan of balloons, people dressed up in costume or anything else to that affect. However I was still optimistic, since last year we went and she loved every minute of it.
This is how our day went… We told Sophia about seeing Elmo the morning of and she was so excited, however the closer it came to the time she was more hesitant. We drove to Gma & Gpa M and when we picked them up she was excited again. That is until we arrived at the target center. She was so nervous, wanted me to carry her and wouldn’t let me out of her sight! Before the show if you paid extra you got to have extra time with Elmo and his friends, I decided to show Soph Elmo through the glass and girl lost it! Screaming & crying as all the other little kids were watching her (insert me feeling like a bad mom for doing that!). Needless to say, that was a bad decision and Sophia kept telling me she wanted to leave and didn’t like Elmo any longer. We decided to stay and show her they were nice, but she wanted nothing to do with any of the Sesame Street friends, she wanted to stay far away, yet still be able to see them so they wouldn’t get close.
We finally did get her to warm up to the characters that were her size and didnt move. She would take pictures with those, still keeping a close eye on all the other singing and dancing characters before the actual show began.
We found our seats, sat down and it was then that Soph decided that she still did in fact like Elmo and was excited to see him and all his Sesame Street friends. The show started and Soph sang and danced with all the songs= success! She had a great time and we were glad we stuck through it.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
I hope everyone had a safe and happy time bringing in the New Year! We spent a low key night at home playing with some play doh! And we had a blast.
We had a fun evening and we were all in bed before midnight! (Nate and I must be getting old!!)
Here is to a New Year filled with great things!!
I LOVE decorating the house for Christmas! I LOVE Christmas lights, tree up early kind of love! We normally put our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving, but due to our hectic schedule we were a little later then normal to put up our tree.
Let me tell you, Soph loves decorations like her mamma! She wanted to put up everything with me! It was so much fun having mommy/daughter bonding time with her as we put on Christmas bulbs and misc ornaments, put up the Nutcracker (which was her favorite), put up the reindeer and many more decorations.
We also had her cousins over to put together out first gingerbread house. They all had so much fun putting up every sort of candy on the house, it was a bit messy but so worth the memories.
I have to admit, its pretty good for our first Gingerbread house!
We decided again this year to go out to sunny San Diego and visit Gpa R and Carly for Thanksgiving. We think its important to spend time with family, especially during the Holidays but also to bring Sophia to see where Gpa R lives and enjoy time out there. We boarded a plane Nov 19th- me beyond nervous as Sophia is now 2 and cant sit on my lap, she needs her own seat. And if any of you know flying with a toddler can be especially difficult when it comes to a car seat. The airlines require only specific car seats that are compatible with airplanes and cars and we don’t have one and aren’t going to purchase one. So Sophia flew in a seat ALL by herself and she couldn’t have been more proud!
Given the circumstances, Soph did amazingly well on the plane! Once we landed we were greeted by Gpa R & Carly and we made our way to Gpa R house to settle in for the night, as it was way past Soph bed time. Plus we had fun festivities planned with Gpa R!
Going to California and spending time with Gpa R and Carly is always such a joy. Watching Sophia take in different environments, interacting with her Gpa and Carly makes our hearts swell with love. Soph always has such a good time experiencing new things, and I am so glad that she can acclimate to new places so well. We were fortunate enough to bring Soph to the Wild Animal Park and she had such a good time pointing out each animal, making sure to let us know each noise they make.
We also took many walks along the coast, pointing out the waves, surfers, birds and many other different scenic views. If anything this was our beautiful “go to” for Soph to burn off some energy!
Gpa R took us on “adventures” as well, through different parks and trails. Sophia got to run up and down hills, talking with Gpa- great memories!
We also had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner that was prepared by Gpa, Carly and Esteff and it was delicious! I don’t have any pictures to share from that, other then our girl wearing her Thanksgiving shirt- and let me tell you how true that shirt is! We couldn’t be more THANKFUL for her, she is such a blessing in our life.
We are so thankful to be have the opportunity to go on vacation, yet spend quality family time. Family is so important and I know I have said this a few times, but it is so important to show and share love with those around you! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!
A few misc pictures from our vacation.. Enjoy!
Oh I almost forgot, the night we got home Sophia was BEYOND tired and we tried to feed her dinner, only to turn around and find this…
She looks so precious and peaceful, we let her sleep! 🙂
We try as much as we can to visit family as often as we can, but as most can relate life gets hectic and busy and at times we aren’t to fulfill family time as much thats needed or wanted. So, when we can visit family especially Gparents we try and make it as special as possible. We recently went to visit Gma P & H on a much needed visit, and it was so wonderful. We were able to relax, chat have some lunch and Soph even got to play with Gma H’s new Bengal kitties- she was in heaven! Sophia had so much fun doing Gma H’s hair and I watched the love shared between them capturing these two pictures, that are beyond precious. I know they will always hold a special place in all of our hearts.
I love the last picture, how Soph and Gma P are deep in conversation holding hands. Filling the love bank!
The next few weekends are going to be busy, crazy busy- all good. I will be back to talk about our good busy weekends filled with fun. But for now I will leave you with four things we are currently enjoying.
1. Sweets!!As many know, Sophia does NOT like sweets at all. We have tried: ice cream, chocolate chip cookies-well many different kinds of cookies, cheesecake, brownies, cake, cupcakes, you get the idea. The only sweets that she would eat is M&M’s and we save those for when she goes potty on the big girl chair. Recently she has taken a liking to Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and she LOVES them!
2. Goofiness. The other night we were eating dinner and all being a little goofy, I turned to Soph and she was making this goofy face- girl had us laughing.
3. Spending time with cousins. Family time is important to us and we have been making many deposits of love into our bank. Soph loves her cousins.
4. This Smile. Enough said
Happy weekend!
It happened. Sophia is now a big girl, her personality coming out in full bloom! Making decisions on her own, accomplishing tasks on her own, helping out mommy & daddy all the time now, and also being very smart in regards to her ABC’s, 123’s and many many songs.
Since she turned two, we thought it was best for a variety of reasons to take away the “nukie” (as she calls it). I was nervous, sad and anxious all in one. Sophia was no longer a baby, no strings left that tied her to being a baby, she was officially a BIG girl. We decided it would be best to take away her nukie on the weekend in case a fight ensued. Well Friday, September 30th 2011 came and i cut her nukie officially “breaking” it.
Nate and I discussed prior that this would be the best route to take since we both tried for weeks to get her to give her nukie to the babies since she was a big girl. Being as smart as she is she always had a way to finagle her way around that. We couldn’t throw it because she knew where to find new ones, so we decided it would be best if it “broke”. After I cut her nukie I showed it to her and said, “uh oh Sophie your nukie broke.” She came running over looked at it and said, “its broke?” And that was it. That night she went to bed only asking for it once, and we again reiterated that her nukie was broke and she went to bed with no fuss and no fights. Phew!!! The weekend was good for bedtime, our only problem was nap time in which she didn’t want to nap at all! That was a week and a half ago and she has only asked for it one other time and in the same time stated that it was broken.
She is now a big girl! YAY & 🙁 ..Time goes to fast..