Funny Face : )

Alexandra is always picking up good , bad, and even funny habits from Sophia.

Bedtime with Papi

Papi came to visit. Both girls LOVED seeing their grandfather and Sophia couldn't stop talking about how Papi read her one of her new favorite books

Christmas!!!

Christmas was a little quite this year. With no family in town and no travel plans of our own, it was our first Christmas as a family. So as a family, we started new traditions: Elf on the Shelf, Christmas cookie and gingerbread house decorating and happy birthday Jesus. We also continued a combination of old traditions from mine and Joe's childhood.

It was wonderful to watch the girls get into the Christmas spirit. Joe and I had so much fun putting everything together and watching the girls reaction when they woke up Christmas morning. Here are a few pics from Christmas morning.

Santa brought the girls a bunch of dress up clothes. Here Sophia is a "princess fairy cowgirl"

The first gift Sophia opened was some books. Of course that's all she really needs to be happy! It took a few minutes but she finally agreed to continue opening presents and read her "new books" later. I think she was happy with her decision.

Santa brought the girls a doll house and kitchen!

Princesses for the doll house! Thanks Abu!

Alexandra was perfectly content with the boxes and wrapping paper.

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!!!

Our neighbors had us over Christmas Eve to celebrate Jesus's Birthday. Of course Sophia is ALWAYS ready for a party. She loved singing happy birthday to Jesus and made sure we "saved him a piece of his cake, with LOTS of icing!"

Chuck E Cheese

Where else do we go with 2 weeks of no activities and REALLY cold weather ... Chuck E Cheese!

Never too Cold for Popsicles

Some VERY happy girls!

This is what sharing looks like ... lots of germs : )

It's been uncommonly cold in Atlanta and all Sophia can talk about is swimming and playing outside. To give her a little "taste" of summer ... popsicles were the dessert of choice!

Dancing Video

Below is a video Mrs. Inge took during their

Christmas Party ... enjoy!

Santa Clause is Coming to School

Santa came to visit Sophia at school. Of the ten children in her class only these four were willing to take their picture with him. It didn't surprise me one bit that Sophia was one of the four. She LOVES Santa!

Though, when I showed her this picture I thought she would tell me all about his visit but she was more interested in telling me about her friends. I would say, Sophia is that you and Santa? and she would say "yes and those are my friends from school Pagen (Hagen), Ewan, Jack and Sophia ... look at all my friends mommy!"

Santa

Since we didn't have anything on the schedule Friday, I decided to take the girls to get their picture taken with Santa. Sophia was so excited to see him she could hardly wait her turn in line. Luckily, there were only five other families before us so the wait wasn't too long.

As we approached our turn, my overly confident little girl became very soft spoken and shy. Who knows maybe she was just a little star struck! Afterall, she was about to meet "the man" himself. But this didn't stop her from sitting on his lap and telling him (very quietly) she wanted "lots of presents for Christmas"!

Alexandra on the other hand could have skipped the whole lap thing! She was perfectly content watching him from a distance though we did manage to sit her down long enough for one decent pic : )

After Santa we grab some lunch and took a ride on the carousel and Choo Choo Train!

Alexandra is ONE!!!

I really can't believe my sweet little girl with the feisty personality is one! Part of me doesn't remember life before her but at the same time it feels like this year has just flown by. She has added so much to our lives and I can only imagine it's going to get even better.

Everything, from the cupcakes to the girls coordinating snowman outfits, was transformed into Alexandra's Winter One-derland!

The favors were a "snow globe" cup filled with some hot cocoa mix and a snowman ornament

Yum Yum Yum Yum snowman cupcakes are SO good!!!!

... a few of Alex's quests after their sugar rush : )

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

sweet girl!!!!

Silly Sophia

A new way Sophia entertains herslf while I try to update this blog : )

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at The Barkers in North Carolina. Sophia and Alexandra couldn't wait to see cousins; Ryan, Kevin, and Eric as well as Aunt Judy and Uncle Chip.

The boys were great with the girls and SUPER accommodating. THANK YOU!

They were hoping Alexandra would start walking during our visit. So they practiced and practiced and practiced. Unfortunately, she still needs a little more practice.

They also didn't mind playing a few kiddie games so help entertain the girls.

Kevin and Eric take Karate so after watching them practice of course Sophia wanted to try. She couldn't get enough of it! She even attempted the more challenging move of breaking the board with her back.

After practicing her moves Sophia got a chance to show them off during a wrestling match between Daddy, Kevin and Eric. Alexandra didn't want to be left out on the fun either so she also joined in.

Our mini cousin Christmas where the kids get to put up a little Christmas tree and exchange presents. Nothing like an early Christmas to get them in the mood!

Cookies with Grandma

Ryan and Sophia helped Grandma decorate cookies.

Sophia likes LOTS of icing with even more sprinkles. And why not, it's the holidays!

Sophia admiring her hard work ...

What's better than one cookie ... 2 stacked on top of eachother!!!

Finally, what's she's been waiting for ... YUMMMY!!!!

Alexandra just enjoyed all the satisfaction without having to do any of the work : )