May 2011

We took our annual May 1st picture again. It is amazing to see how Sophia has changed over the years.

Sophia started her horseback riding lessons this month. She is so happy about it. She talks to the horse as she rides it. She is confident on the horse which is a big plus.



We started our vegetable garden in back and planted flowers up front. Sophia loves to dig in the dirt and help out.
We went to see Thomas again this year. Sophia had a great time.



We spent Mother's Day with Grandma Beadle, Grandma Bev and Grandpa Skip. We had a nice day together. Sophia was the only one brave enough to go into the pool.

Sophia had a tea party for some of her most cherished friends. I am amazed with how well Sophia entertains herself. She is quite creative.

We ended up the month visiting Mom in Connecticut. Sophia always has a blast visiting grandma. Grandma always has cool gifts for her when we arrived. Sophia loves shopping, going out to eat and playing with her cousins. We went out on Chuck's boat for an hour or so. The girls had a blast but the movement put Sophia to sleep after a while.

We also went to a Memorial Day party at my cousin, Paul's house. Sophia had a blast playing with her cousins and spending time with Aunt Philly. I am glad we are able to visit Grandma as often as we do.



We also celebrated Chloe's birthday with a can of tuna fish. Chloe is Anne's favorite cat. She turned 15 years old. She has a big tumor on the top of her head but is in good spirits. I know that we are going to have to put her down soon but now we are just enjoying the fact that she jumps up to be petted as soon as I walk into the room, eats well and seems to be pain-free. She doesn't look pretty especially now that it is affecting her eye but we still love her.

April 2011

Spring is here. Things are starting to pick up for us. Sophia is growing up quickly. She likes to pick out her own clothes. She has been into wearing dresses lately. She is truly a princess at times.
We went bowling with Sophia. She had fun. She got the hang of it and did pretty well. She was disappointed that she did not win but we all had fun playing. We went to NJ to see Katie and her crew team row. It was nice to spend some time with Katie. Her team did not win but it was still lots of fun to watch.

Sophia is creative in many ways. It is fun to see her artwork change over the years. She also gets creative with the animals...dressing them up and putting on shows with them.
We went re-enacting with Steve. Sophia has a blast seeing there were other kids in our group. She loved playing with Tommy. In this picture .... she is took the gun from Tommy and told him he was shooting the wrong way. She said "watch, this is how you do it."

She had her first unofficial sleepover with Katlyn. I spent the night there which made it easier for Sophia to spend the night over. The girls had a blast... all of us.. Katlyn and Sophia and me and Heather.
Sophia enjoyed dying eggs for Easter and then finding the candy eggs the Easter Bunny hid for her.

March 2011

We celebrated Katie's 15th birthday this month. I can't believe I have known Katie since she was six years old. Where does the time go?


Sophia also took a free trial horseback riding lesson. She was hooked from the moment she got there. We knew she would be. She has been talking about horses for over a year now. She can't wait for her real lessons to start.

February 2011

Sophia, Katie and BaBa went to Mount Vernon on Presidents' Day. It was a fun little day trip.


Sophia has fun with the dogs and cats. When she is not dressing them up she is making sure they are comfy.
We went to a Chinese New Year celebration at the local Chinese restaurant. Sophia was a bit nervous so she watched from the outside with BaBa. She ended up loving the festivities even if they were loud.

January 2011

Christmas came and went very quickly. We started the new year off pretty busy. We spent time in Connecticut for Mom's surgery. Thankfully everything went well. The were able to remove the lump from her breast. It has not spread to the lymph-nodes. They were predicting a big snowstorm so we went up a day early. Thank goodness because they did get lots of snow.



Sophia was a great nurse. She even gave Grandma one of her stuffed animals to take to the hospital for good luck. She had fun playing with her cousins while we were visiting.



We had some snow of our own at the end of the month. Sophia loves playing in the snow and helping shovel us out. We were even able to build a snowman with this snow fall.

Christmas 2010

It is hard to believe Christmas has come and gone. Sophia enjoyed Christmas shopping for BaBa, Mommy, Nick and Katie. She made beautiful ornaments for her grandparents, aunts and uncles.

We made cookies for Santa but Sophia only left him one cookie and two pieces of cheese. She saw an episode of Imagination Movers where they mentioned Santa needed to go on a diet because his pants did not fit any longer.

We tracked Santa on norad.com. When we first checked in the morning Santa was delivering gifts in Chongqing, China. This was were Sophia was born. To think that we began tracking Santa at the minute he was Chongqing was amazing.

We made ginerbread sleighs to add to the decorations in the house.

Nick and Katie are spending Christmas with us. It is great to have them here. Sophia loves spending time with her brother and sister.

Sophia, Mommy and BaBa went to church and watched the navity pageant. Sophia had one question after another. She is the most curious child I have ever known. I guess that is part of what makes her so smart.

On Christmas morning Sophia woke up at 6:45 and began to ring her "Christmas Bell" saying that Christmas is here... wake up. She woke up Katie and Nick and we all went downstairs to see what Santa left.

Santa left Sophia a big dinosaur from Dinosaur Train along with the Dinsosaur Train trainset. She was thrilled. He left Nick a Harry Potter lego set and Katie a pillow pet. After playing a while we opened gifts from each other. Sophia loved everything she got. Katie got her a horse and Nick got her a remote control car. She got more dinosaurs for her Dinosaur train, a horse calender and a leapster game from us.

We then went to Grandma Bev's for Christmas dinner. It was nice to spend the day with all of Steve's family. We opened more gifts there. Sophia got horse sheets and a blanket for her bed from Grandma Bev and Pop Pop and horse posters from Grandma Beadle. She also got another stocking filled with goodies, stamps for her scrapbook, jelly belly filled crayons and a coloring book. Sophia had a blast playing with her cousin Emma.

I am thankful for the time we get to spend with family. As our own parents are aging we are thankful for the time we do get together. Pop Pop had an "off" day today. He wasn't feeling well. It is hard to see the toll Parkinsons takes on the body.

Christmas in Connecticut

We traveled up to Connecticut on December 17 to celebrate Christmas with Anne's family. We spent the night at Grandma Barb's on Friday night. We were greeted with the typical bag of gifts for Sophia. Sophia presented Grandma with her typical gift of a bag of M&Ms they share together.We headed to Linda's house on Saturday after breakfast. George and his family joined us on Sunday for a wonderful Christmas dinner. We headed home on Monday.

It was great to be all together for Christmas. The kids all enjoyed playing together. They get along so well. There were plenty of gifts to open and good food to eat. Sophia got the gum ball machine she has been longing for from Uncle George. She got a game for her leapster from Aunt Linda as well as things to decorate her room. Grandma Barb gave her stamps for her scrapbook, soft pajama's and a doll.

It was a joyous day after what has been a very difficult month for us. Grandma Barb has breast cancer. She will have a lumpectomy on January 13th. At this point the tumor is small. We are hoping it has not spread but we won't know until later in January after the pathology reports come back. We are hoping that this is an easy surgury and that she makes it through without any complications.