Thanksgiving

We ended up spending Thanksgiving alone this year. It sure was quiet and it would not be true if we said we did not miss being with all our extended families and joining in all the fun they were having together. We did however make the most of our family time together. We played with Sophie’s large box house, and while I made a yummy Thanksgiving feast Stewart and Sophie played with technology.

During the month of November, as a family we decided to start a new tradition. I made a large tree using craft paper and hung it on the wall. I then cut out some leaves using scrapbooking paper, and as a family we wrote things we were thankful on them each day. We added them to the wall to look like they were falling off the tree. I thought it turned out pretty awesome, plus it was fun to read all of the things we were thankful for when we took them off the wall at the end of the month. 

Thankful Tree

For the love of Technology

Leaves Leaves Leaves

Stewart and Sophie sure did enjoy the fall foliage from our large Oak tree in the back yard. It was fun to watch them play in the leaves from a distance since I am allergic. I am glad Sophie has a good father who wants to spend time with her as much as possible and always makes time for her.

Family Pictures and Sophie's Two year Pictures

Back in October I arranged to have our family picture updated and some two year pictures of Sophie to be taken. The Dentist I worked for has a brother in-law that takes pictures professionally so I got his contact info and asked him to take our pictures. We traveled to Lewisburg, WV the morning of Saturdays session of General Conference took pictures and then drove home in time to catch the first session of conference (you can do that when you live the eastern time zone because conference does not start until 12:00 noon).  I LOVE LOVE LOVE how they turned out, he did such a great job plus he was fun to work with. Here are a few of our favorites; I love how he captured our little Sophie’s personality in them. Enjoy!

If you are in the area of WV here is our Photographers info if you want to look into him taking your pictures: http://www.joshnibertphotography.com/

Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween, Stewart and I came up with a fun idea to dress up as…

WASHER AND DRYER and Sophie went as the SOCK MONSTER! We had a lot of fun designing our costumes and being remorseful. 

We also got a fun Halloween treat… SNOW! Because of Hurricane Sandy, we got about a foot or more of snow dumped on us. It knocked out a lot of people’s power again for up to two weeks. We were one of the lucky ones whose power was not even affected. Sophie wanted to go out and play in the snow, but once she got out there she decided that she enjoyed looking at the snow more then she enjoyed playing in it. It was fun to be snowed in for a while, but Stewart had a big task digging us out, which was not so much fun.

Trick or Treating was postponed this year until the following Saturday because of the snow. We decided not to take Sophie out in the cold for two reasons: one- we did not need/want the candy in our house and two- Sophie was sick and we did not want to get her more sick (even though we let her go play in the snow a few days earlier). We did however enjoy handing out what candy we could round up in our house to those who came trick or treating to us.  It was a fun Halloween for us, we hope it was the same for you. 

Pumpkin Patch

We took a family field trip to a nearby pumpkin patch one Saturday when Stewart had the time off. We had a lot of fun and I think Sophie really enjoyed herself. The pumpkin patch is someone’s farm so it is not really a nice commercialized pumpkin patch. They did not have any cool paintings that you can take your pictures with by putting your head through the holes or other fun things like that. But that is okay, because Sophie loved playing in the box of shelled corn they had for kids to play in (she would have spent all day there if we would have let her) as well as the haystack they had for kids to climb on. It was a fun family outing and we had a good time being together. Here are some fun pictures of our field trip adventure. 

Playing in the corn box

Still playing... 20 mins later

Sophie and Stewart checking out the pigs

Sophie playing in the straw bales, she loved climbing all over them

On our way to pick out our pumpkins

And just in case you were wondering what we turned our pumpkins into here they are all carved up. 

Can you guess which one Stewart carved ... BOO!
(PS. Stewart's is the angry looking one just in case you could not figure it out)

Our pumpkins... my favorite one is the one in the back with the pigtails. 

Happy Happy Birthday Sophie

Our little Sophie turned TWO on October 1^st; wow has time gone by quickly. I can remember clearly the day Stewart and I welcomed her into the world. She is a delight to have in the family, always making Stewart and I smile.

Because Stewart was on the road coming home from his two month rotations in Colorado and in Wyoming; we were not sure he would make it home in time to celebrate Sophie’s birthday with us. So we decided that if needed we would postpone celebrating with cake and ice cream and presents until he arrived. Lucky for Sophie, Stewart got home that afternoon while she was taking a nap. But I will get to that later on in the post.

Last year I threw Sophie a large fancy party this year I decided that I was going to do things low key and just invite a few of her friends over for a small play date. It worked out perfectly, her little boyfriends (I say boyfriends because all the little girls her age have moved so she hangs out with all the little boys now) came and played with her, we had cupcakes, and made a fun spider, and then they left. It was good morning and I think Sophie enjoyed herself. Here are some fun pictures from the play date.

Playing with the Kitchen

Sophie and her "boyfriends" with their spiders we made
Jeremy, Calvin, Collin, Sophie, and Jack

The mini Cupcakes I made for Sophie's play date

After the play date we cleaned up and then I put Sophie down for her nap. While Sophie took her nap Stewart got home and unpacked (it is so nice to have him home by the way). When Sophie woke up from her nap I told Stewart to go to the living room and wait for her to come find him. I told Sophie that I had a surprise in the living room and that she should go find it, she walked out there sleepily rubbing her eyes, looked at Stewart and said “hi dad” she then did a double take and ran to him and gave him a big hug. It was cut but I was to slow at getting the camera out to capture it. Darn. Anyway, we opened her gifts later that afternoon, and then had cake and Ice cream with her after dinner. It was a great birthday, and we loved spending the time together as a family after such a long time being apart.

Sophie and her Daddy when she woke up from her nap

Opening her Gifts

Making the most of the box her boots came in :)

Sophie and her Cookie Monster Cake

Should have covered the cardboard with foil... lesson learned. 

One of the gifts we gave Sophie for her birthday was a family trip to the Columbus, Ohio Zoo. Since Stewart had the week off, before his next rotation started in town we took off and spent Thursday night and Friday day in the Columbus area. We had a great time going to the zoo and exploring some of the Columbus area. Sophie enjoyed the zoo; her favorite exhibit was the fish probably because they were the most active. She also liked the Elephants, the petting zoo, and anything that was up and moving around. Although the zoo was a lot a fun, I think Sophie’s favorite part of our mini vacation was walking around the park we found in the downtown area of Columbus. The park was large with some botanical gardens, a walking trail wondering through it, a man made stream with small water falls and several small ponds. We had fun playing by the water falls, in the shallow areas, wondering through the gardens and playing hide and seek from Sophie. Sophie was truly enjoying herself not worried at all about keeping up with us. She took her time stopping to pick up rocks or a stick, looking at this bug or that plant. After the park we drove to the temple and walked around the temple grounds. It was neat to tell Sophie more about the temple, and know she understood what we were telling her. We had a lot of fun on our mini birthday vacation, it was nice to take our time and be together as a family.

At the Zoo

 At the Park

Sword Fight

  At the Temple

Look there is Angel Moroni