Mimi's Birthday!

Wednesday was Mimi's birthday and we were happy to help her celebrate the start of a new year! We celebrated Mimi's birthday by going out to her favorite sushi restaurant with all the ladies (and Gavin)! It was a fun time with delicious food and great company! Mimi opened her gifts at the end of the meal and had lots of help from Sofia, who wanted to open them for her. That evening Joseph surprised her with a beautiful lemon layer cake - it wasn't too beautiful to eat though! Sofia got in on the action, of course. However, despite our best efforts Sofia wouldn't join in singing "Happy Birthday" to Mimi....next year!

Mimi's birthday sushi!


Now that's the way you eat your miso soup!


Sofia helps Mimi open her presents from Kris....


...and tries on the necklace while playing with the wrapping.


Kris and Sofia - I love this picture!


Kris and Mom


Mimi helps the Sofia ride the elephant in the front yard


Happy girl!

Visiting Mimi and Grandpa Joe

Sofia and I flew out to Mimi and Grandpa Joe's house to spend a week with them and to celebrate Mimi's birthday on the 3rd. Sofia's Papa joined us on Friday evening and spent the weekend with us before we returned home. It was significantly colder and wetter than in past trips, so we stayed inside a lot, but we still had fun. Sofia enjoyed sitting by the fire on the little arm chair that was mine when I was little (recently reupholstered) and reading her books - mainly the Little Red Train, her recent favorite. She also played with Play Doh, which we picked up at Target along with a Play Doh press, like Grayden has. She made all sorts of silly pressed Play Doh. She also helped Mimi feed the koi and played with Maggie (when she wasn't telling Maggie to "go away"). One of her favorite things to do was to ride the "elevator" which is the chair lift my Mom has on her staircase. Sofia would get it all ready, sit in the seat and push the button to make it go to the top, get out, close it all up, and go about her business. She would do the same coming down too, which was adorable because she'd have to find the right spot where it rests (otherwise it beeps) and then she would say "that's the perfect spot."

I realized we are raising a true North Texan when we were driving one day and Sofia asked Mimi and I what "those" were. It took us a few minutes to figure out that she was pointing at the hills! Needless to say, it's very flat where we live! I really wanted to get to the beach again, but the weather wasn't warm enough.....so that means we just have to visit again!!

Feeding the fish with Mimi


Playing with Play Doh


Playing with (or maybe taunting) Maggie


Reading by the fire....


"Drinking" granola and yogurt....one of her molars started coming in so I had to blend her breakfast. Strangely nothing has poked through yet....


Using the Play Doh press


Sofia's finger puppet!


Riding the chair lift with Purple Pony


Closing it all up!

RIding the Rides!

While we stood in line for the petting zoo (in 34 degree weather, might I add), Sofia was transfixed by the rides! Immediately after leaving the petting zoo she took off for the rides and decided to do the teacups first. We all wanted to ride and after several minutes of figuring out how all our long legs fit into such a small space, we were ready! It was really fun and Papa got it going really fast! Sofia kept saying "Watch Papa so you don't get busy (she meant dizzy)" which she says when he spins her around at home. After the teacups, she and I went on the Merry Go Round, which was really fun! From the Merry Go Round she could see the train ride, so that was next! Amazingly, she is tall enough to ride all the kiddy rides solo - she's 38 inches and the requirement is 36 inches! She sat in the middle of the train while two kids sat in the engine. She said it was fun, but literally didn't move or crack a smile the entire ride! I think it was a bit overwhelming maybe.

As we started to head to the car, she was desperately wanting to go on the dragon ride but we didn't have any more tickets....the ride operator overheard us and told Sofia to jump on! It was so nice and Sofia loved it!! After Sofia thanked her, we headed out to the car - Sofia singing "Ring Around the Rosie" the entire time! After about five minutes our little girl was out like a light! She had such a big day and so much fun and enjoyed her much-needed nap!

All of us on the teacups


Sofia's fun smile!


Cute!


On the Merry Go Round


A very serious girl on the train


Going around again!


On the dragon ride


Getting a hand from Papa


After a long day!

The Petting Zoo

After the rodeo, we headed to the petting zoo, which we visited last year. The petting zoo had chickens, ducks, goats, and bunnies running around a large area as well as llamas and a miniature horse and cow in separate pens. Immediately Sofia headed for a duck and came back crying - the duck bit her! We finally convinced her to head back out into the animals (and avoid the ducks)! She pet some chickens and goats and then was completely in love with the bunnies! It was so cute! I picked her up so she could pet the llama before we headed out to the rides.

Petting a chicken


and a goat...


Trying to pet the miniature cow...he wasn't that interested since we didn't buy food.


Bunnies!


Is your momma a llama?! (one of Sofia's favorite books)

The Rodeo!!

On Sunday afternoon we headed to the Ft Worth Stock Show to see the rodeo! It was such fun and even better than last year, as they had done away with the annoying clown intermission! We arrived a little late, loaded up on popcorn, soda, and peanuts and headed to our seats. The seats weren't the best in the arena, but they weren't bad and we were able to see the whole show. Sofia had a great time and clapped after each participant. CK and I couldn't decide who is crazier - the rodeo clowns or the cowboys who ride the bulls! I didn't take a ton of pictures, since we were so busy watching the action!

On the train ride from the parking lot to the main entrance


Checking out the view


At the rodeo - watching the calf roping


Sofia really loved watching the chuck wagon races, which were a lot of fun!

The Year in Review

Admittedly I got this idea from "Blog Surfing" as I call it. There is this great button on blogger that is titled "Next Blog" and if you click on it, you are directed to the blog that was most recently updated. As you can imagine, 99% of the blogs are kid-related and some are so incredibly moving (adopted babies and the long, painful wait to finally become a mother). One I visited had a year in review, that posted pictures of twin boys in the prior 12 months and I thought it was a great idea. It's taken me a while to get around to it, but here we go.....Our Year in Review! I can't believe how different she looks!!

January - Our visit to the Ft Worth Zoo!


February - Our little cowgirl at Ft Worth. We visited Ft Worth with Mimi, Grandpa Joe, Aunt and Uncle just after Valentine's Day


March - Walking to our lake to look for beup-beups (frogs - she still couldn't say it then)


April - Sofia's very first Cub ride (yes, she fell asleep)


May - Gardening


June - Hiking with Papa at Tent Rocks, NM


Making funny faces inside Aunt and Uncle's casita


July - Her 2nd Birthday!


August - Going for a tricycle ride around the 'hood


September - Labor Day Weekend with Cousin Chandler


October - Visiting the pumpkin patch


November - Hanging out on the beach


December - All set for Christmas!

A Room Rearranged....

Two weeks ago I decided to rearrange Sofia's room, since I figured it would actually give her more play area if the bed were against the far wall, and it would get the changing table a bit closer to being out the door and in storage. Potty training isn't really going well yet, but it's more my lack of effort than anything. However, I am very excited at the prospect of freeing up the changing table (it's just all that potty time I don't look forward to). So, one day I moved everything around and really fell in love with the new arrangement! I must confess I was a bit worried how Sofia would take it, since she is definitely an order, rather than chaos, girl. She likes everything in it's place, but she took to it immediately and I think she likes the larger play area at the foot of her bed better. She did mention that she wasn't able to see her night light (it's right by the door, across from her bathroom), but she's fine with that now. My next project is to rearrange the art work, which you'll notice is still in the old layout still. But, I'll get to that....


Sofia's "old" layout


Her big girl bed fits so perfectly between the window and looks good


The dresser


And the new and improved room.....please note that I took these pictures after our cleaning lady left, so her room looked like this for approximately 10 minutes before books were everywhere and music was playing!


The Big Girl Bed in it's new location


A lot more area to play!


The soon-to-be-gone changing table


Toys and her monthly picture chair