SOPHIA!

We celebrated Sophia's 8th Birthday last Sunday! She decided she wanted to have a "Taylor Swift" theme - - my response was, "you know this is just a family birthday party, right?" and then to myself, "how am I going to do this theme since there is no pre-packaged merchandise out there?!" So, we got creative and had some fun with it!

Thanks to our friend Tim, we had a customized birthday poster!

Cousins Georgia & Lily - it's great to have built-in friends in the family! :-)

Next year, little Wil will be at the kids table with them!

what a cutie Wil is - he changes so much every time we see him!

special birthday present from Daddy - he built her this picnic table for her American Girl dolls

I gave Sophia an ipod shuffle loaded with positive songs!

sewing machine & supplies from Grammy!

We now have an 8 year old! What?!!! That just seems so old!

Sophia is such an amazing little girl. I know I might be somewhat biased, but she truly is incredible. I have loved watching her come into her own this year - she has really developed some interests and talents. I don't want to forget about them, so please excuse me if this seems like a brag-fest...

She is a GREAT knitter! Her Grammy has taught her how to knit and it is incredible how good she is at it - she gave me a scarf that she has been working on for almost a year - she was so proud of her work and she should be! She has also begun to take an interest in sewing and that is another thing her Grammy is going to teach her. I told her that she needs to learn since I never did and then she can mend all of my stuff :-)

She has taken an interest in art and is really getting good at it! She just finished a 12-week art class and learned all about artists such as Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne and practiced painting in all of those styles. Here is her Cezanne-like work! I will definitely be framing this one.

She is absolutely crazy about music - she can hear a song 1 time and have it mostly memorized (takes after her Aunt Darla in that way!). That is why I've been taking some time to research some positive songs for girls. My favorite one that I found is by India Arie and it's called "Beautiful Flower"

Sophia loves to play school and says she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. She really likes to be in charge! She is a great big sister to Anthony and he is usually very happy to be her student. Sophia is also a fantastic reader - I am so happy that she loves to read so much - I look forward to the day when we can read the same books and discuss them - such a love of mine!

This year was also the first time Sophia and I had a mother-daughter shopping date! So much fun to just be with her one on one and shop and talk. We also went out to eat just the two of us and it was a great time of connecting - Jon and I really want to start doing more with the kids one on one.

I just love having a daughter so much! I am so thankful to God for blessing my life with Sophia - she truly is one of my favorite people to be with! Happy Birthday baby girl!

Best Babysitter EVER!

Our babysitter, Lisa, is in Uganda for 12 weeks (working in an orphanage) and we are missing her something terrible!!! She will be back in a couple of weeks and Sophia and I thought it'd be fun to do a post about her. Lisa has been with us since Anthony was 2 and Sophia was 4. She spends every weekday afternoon with the kids and they LOOOOOOOOOVE her!!!! While she is away, her mom is filling in for her and doing a great job...but we miss our Lisa!

She is the perfect mix of responsible & silly! :-)

While we know that we can't keep her forever, we sure wish we could! WE LOVE YOU LISA BISA!!!!

Another tree bites the dust....

Remember the tree I asked you to remember in my last post (last pic of last post)? Well, this is a pic of it now! :-(

We do not seem to have great luck with mature trees as they are disappearing one by one. So sad as it takes so long for them to grow. This tree just snapped in a bad wind storm. We were out to dinner with some friends and Jon's parents were babysitting and Sophia discovered it on our front porch! Thankfully no damage was done, other than losing phone/internet/cable for about 12 hours.

We haven't had the heart to cut it all the way down yet...hoping for miraculous regrowth?...

SNOW!!!!!!

Okay, I know it's April and beautiful outside, but I've gotten very behind in my blogging and so wanted to make sure I captured some pics from our biggest winter of snow EVER!

The kids spent a lot of time outside w/ the neighborhood kids - so thankful for that as I am not a big snow person! Besides, I technically did not get any "snow days" as I work from home regularly and cannot use the snow as an excuse!

Sledding with friend (almost neighbor!) Gracie

I love the way everything looks all covered with snow!

Remember this tree when you see my next post!

Crutches & Canes?

Due to Sophia's stint as Yoda, she became obsessed with her cane, from there it went to crutches...she started a craze in the neighborhood and now all of the girls have crutches (and Anthony has to get in on it too)...hey, hours of cheap entertainment!

Even the American girls have to get in on the action!
Oh and her obsession has extended to casts too....