Movin' on up...

This past week we took down the pack-n-play from our bedroom and stashed it in the closet because Sophie has officially moved into her own room now. Call me a baby, but I'm very sad about this. Why does she have to grow up???????

Side note: She LOVES having her face covered up when she sleeps... if she gets fussy we can often calm her down if we just put her pink elephant over her face. Don't worry, she can still breathe just fine.

What did you do on your snow day???

Nice of you to ask!

Watched our deer friends... at one time there were 10 in our backyard...
Enjoyed the view from the porch...

Mixed, baked, and decorated Valentine's Day cookies...

While Sophie slept...

Lucas did the dishes (he offered!)...

Sledding outside with Daddy...

and shoveling...And Sophie's job all day... lookin' cute. She fulfills that roll pretty easily.

6 months old!

Sunday, January 31st Sophie turned 6 months old. She's a half of a year old!!! Here are the highlights so far...

In 6 months Sophie has:

• been to Lake Michigan/Little Eden (at the ripe age of 8 days old!)...did I mention suntanning on the beach!??
• been to a gazillion freshman football games to cheer Daddy's team on... the crowd loved you!!
• been on lots of playdates with her buddies Camden, Ella, Graham, and Parker.
• attended the homecoming parade in Westfield and the Thanksgiving parade in Archbold- pretty much sleeping through both of them... but still counts!
• had some great babysitters... Grandma, Nali, Paul/Jacque, and Amanda have all taken good care of you while we have been away for short periods of time.
• been to the pumpkin patch and helped (sort of) pick out her first pumpkin.
• dressed up as a cowgirl and a black/orange cat for Halloween and trick-or-treated around the neighborhood
• been in her first airplane ride from Indy-Chicago-Seattle, final destination-where she met her cousins Zara and Caden for the first time. Long plane rides, but she did great. I was so proud of her!
• started going to the nursery at church, just a bit, though. She prefers to sleep in my Moby during the service. (Okay, so she only spent 1 Sunday in the nursery and we were called out to get her since she wasn't too thrilled about it... we'll try again some other time.)
• had just a few little colds, but no big sicknesses! Good for you baby girl!!!
• survived Mommy heading back to work, thanks to Grandma who took over for a few weeks.
• went downtown Indy for the first time to see the Christmas lights
• had her 1st Christmas in Ohio at Grandpa and Grandma's house
• went on Road Trip #2 to Missouri for Christmas and met her Missouri cousins
• started school in the TOTS infants room where she gets taken good care of!!
• had her first cereal (rice), vegetable (sweet potatoes), and fruit (prunes).
• learned to hold her head up, smile, laugh, roll over, grab and pick up toys, and sit up on her own.
• grown from 6 lbs 13 oz to nearly 15 lbs! (Currently in size 3 diapers, 6-9 month clothes)

That's quite the list. The past 6 months have been so fulfilling for me, as a mom, watching Sophie (and Lucas) grow. I love seeing the milestones come and go... and I'm so thankful for such healthy happy kids. God has blessed us...beyond our imagination.

Christmas in Missouri (a little late...)

We had a great time in Missouri celebrating Christmas with Eric's family this year.

While there we spent lots of time playing games (the famous people game and PIG to name a few), watching the cousins play together, and viewing a gazillion reruns of the Gummy Bear show. Lucas loved every minute of it. He and Joe are quite outnumbered but I'd say they did just fine...

One morning we woke up to some great snow so the kiddos headed out with Uncle Greg and Eric and went sledding and built a pretty sweet snowman... I'm trying to figure out if A) Greg pushed Lucas off the big snowball or B) he's about ready to roll it over him. Hmmm... knowing Greg... anything is possible!!!! :) PS- Greg calls Lucas Charlie and boy, does that get Lucas laughing pretty hard.

Time for hot chocolate and marshmallows!!!Nali with Sophie and Miss Sarah...

Watching Peep, of course...
Sarah and Shelby...Sophie and Erin...

All 8 grandchildren... in one picture. Amazing.

Bath time is the best time...

Both kiddos have exzema and this time of the year is the WORST for it... so we grease them up with Aquafor about 3-4 times a day!

Daddy's turn

It is late (at least for us) and I have a sub tomorrow, so I am here at school making sub plans. This is the way it usually works anytime I have a sub, I wait till everyone is in bed, then head up to the school to get some work done. It can take anywhere from an hr to 3 hrs. Tonight is going to be a long one, so I took a break. Like many of you, my camera phone takes pictures that never get shared. So I took a little time to use the bluetooth on my school computer to upload some gems I need to share.

Enjoy

daddy and sophie's favorite thing... naptime. I was very tempted to get this shirt for Mindy now that she is married to a MU Tiger.

Lucas is going to be in a wedding this May. Here's the little stud trying on a tux.

One of Lucas' favorite things is to stop at the "basketball store" After shooting hoops for 5 minutes, he then tries on any helmet that is not packaged up.

MLK Jr Day means no school for us. After a quick trip to the store, we spontaneously decided to go duckpin bowling. It is pretty sweet. Here are the scores Lucas, Daddy, Mommy. Notice the weak start by mommy that turned into a steamroll. And for the record, only Lucas had bumpers.

Here's video of the duckpin adventure.

Puppet Show

Here's Lucas performing his own puppet show. He came up with the idea on his own while I was piddling around in the kitchen. Pretty creative I'd say. : )

Whoops.

One particular morning last week we all got up and went through our usual morning routine...getting ready...getting the kids ready, etc. As we were getting our coats on and heading out the door I noticed a message on my phone. 2 hour delay. Had to capture the moment before we turned around and crawled back in bed.
PS... Anyone else impressed that we can get ourselves ready plus 2 kids...and be out the door by 6:30 am???? Impressive.

Family Bonding...

When the 4 of us are home together in the evenings... the fun doesn't ever stop. Here are some moments I've captured from the last few evenings. Oh yeah!!! Sophie is sitting up on her own now... check it out!