Yankee Swap!

Sophia is becoming so deeply involved with a few of her toys (cars being one of them!). She let a dinosaur get in on this meal, too!
Luckily she helps me with dishes every night!

Car school

The annual Williams "Yankee Swap Christmas Party!" We were there on Sunday the 18th, which was a stunning 50 degree day! Here are some of the girls!

Getting ready for the icecream bar dessert! Aunt Kathy knows how to put on a party!

Sophia unwrapping her Yankee present (a paint activity that she loves and was working on last night!)

Grandma Mary got the adult, leopard-print footie pajamas! Too funny!

Sophia performing with some cousins! Check out the video on the post below this one! Merry Christmas!

Sophia Singing!

All of the cousins were performing at the Yankee swap (Christmas songs and a beautifully choreographed ballet performance! I was SO impressed!). Sophia wanted to get in on the fun, but the only song that came to her was the one that her preschool sings at the beginning of each music class. The song is called "Hello, how are you?" (in case you couldn't tell!). :)

First Snows!

I was kind of waiting for some "real snow" but here we are sitting on Dec 12th and still have not had any real snow! We've had ground dustings twice that quickly melted. Our pumpkin caved in a couple of weeks ago, so I guess the little bit of snow in the above pic will have to do for our 2011 annual "pumpkin-snow pose!"
2010 (when we had a LOT more snow!)

2009

2008!

A Lil Nov-Dec Catch-Up!

We are "go-go-go-CRASH" lately!
Christmas cookies... I was so impressed by Sophia's decorating skills! I didn't lay a finger on these cookies! Pretty meticulous for a 3 year old if you ask me!

Lots of crafting, as usual... I took a pic of this bird craft because Travis made it up all by himself! He's constantly evolving as a daytime stay-at-home dad, and I think he's pretty awesome :)

Thanksgiving! This is our Goddaughter, Ava, with big bro DJ

We had Thanksgiving with Travis' maternal grandparents, Snooki and Cash.

Lindsey and Ava... so sweet! Gotta love those nursing comas!

It was a really nice dinner!

Sophia and DJ at the kids end of the table... they both look so grown up to me!

Sophia with her Great Grandmother, Snookie

Great-Grandpa Cash

Later on we stopped by the paternal grandmother and crew's gathering, and Sophia had a little playtime with her 2nd cousin, Mairie

Waiting for ballet class to begin!

Sophia made "alphabet soup" a couple of weeks ago, using her play kitchen equipment and magnetic letters!

A plate of alphabet soup!

Just goofing off...

Sophia came up with this spelling of "T-rex" (the dinosaur) all by herself!

And her version of how "Sophia" is spelled... she always gets all the letters, but instead of "sounding out" her name like she does with other words she just assembles the letters as she comes across them... she often types her name out similar to this foam letter version.

Christmas tree! Hooray! Cliche to say, but witnessing Sophia's experience of the holiday is truly magical!

MURAL! And I am happy to say it is DONE! (For now)... I would not wish a wall mural on my worst enemy. We all really love it, and DID have fun with it (even Sophia helped paint!) but Travis and I figured that we spent well over 40 hours on it... a massive labor of love! Here are some pics of the progress and the finished product!

Tiny butterflies... I intend to keep adding sweet little details. Sophia loves all the hidden little bugs, flowers, etc.! You can also kind of tell from this close-up how many layers of paint and different brushes/sponges, etc. were used to get different textures and effects. I discovered that acrylic really shows brush-strokes and direction, and it took me a little time to figure out how to use that to my advantage!