Some More of Sophie

Don't you love the six hairs in the ponytail? (Oh, you can't see them?!?)
(The joys of trying to get a good shot of a ten-month-old.)



I am trying to make sure Sophie is not the "third child" when it comes to pictures, but I'm afraid it may be true. Here are some recent pictures of her on the move! She is little but mighty--in mind and will! She is standing, cruising, playing basketball, cooking in her little kitchen, playing with "the door." She has all-of-a-sudden discovered the toddler toys. It is so fun to watch, but it makes me sad she is growing up! I want a baby--not a toddler!

Thanksgiving Turkeys

Here are the annual photos with Grandma's turkey. I'm pretty sure they've grown a lot! If you flip back to last year November, you can compare. (Like anyone but me [and maybe Mimi] really is going to do that, right?) We spend the day at the Jorgensen's, since Thanksgiving isn't a big hit in Holland.Big eater!
It was finally Anna's turn for a turkey leg, and she loved it!

Recent Fun

The kids love the snow! We are obviously not in control of the outfits, but how can you not love T? What a kid. Crocs, Annie's gloves, PJ top. . . a character to be sure!

The kids were playing in toy containers the other day, and I remembered that I had some big boxes at school. I brought them home the next day, and here are the creations.

Sophie and Anna

I love these two together. My favorite thing in the morning is to hear Sophie squealing and laughing. When I hear it, I know Anna is awake and playing with her. The first thing Sophie does when she wakes is to stand at the end of her crib to check for Anna--even in the middle of the night. I got them matching outfits, so they wore them on Thanksgiving. I just love the pics of the two of them together. They show their little personalities!

Family Pics

My mom has a picture of each family on the wall at her house. Our picture is quite out-of-date, but I wasn't quite ready to hire a photographer to take pictures of Sophie squirming, Anna chewing gum (so she has a contorted fact in 98% of the pictures--augh!), and Thys posing, so I had my sis bring her fancy camera to Wheeler Farm and take some pics. We would have had a lot of good ones without the gum, but with the gum, we only have a few. I'll save some of the better ones for our Christmas card, but here is a sampling. I think she did a pretty good job with what we gave her to work with!

Sophie's New Tricks

Sophie is learning new things by leaps and bounds. (I was going to say "is growing," but that's not really true. She is a little runt.) She has been scooting on her stomach for months, but she has now learned to climb the stairs, stand up hanging on to furniture, people, toys. . .whatever is handy, and crawl on her hands and knees. And just today, we see a little tiny corner of a tooth! Hallelujah! She has seemed to be in pain for two or three weeks now, and has had a fever twice--who knows why (maybe strep like the other two?), but we're sure glad to see that tooth coming through! Hopefully that will eliminate the pain for a few days until the next one pops up. She is small but fast--can't leave her a lone for a second or she is on her way up the stairs, or trying to head down. She also is a magnet for small items that fit perfectly in her mouth--items that I seem to miss when I scan the room before I set her down. We are pretty sure she can say "all done," and "mamamama" and "dadadada" and the appropriate times. She seems to have plenty to say--I wonder where she gets that? She can compete with the best of them; in the car when Thys and Annie are telling me about school (at the same time), Sophie pipes in just as loud with her stories as well.
Just like everyone else in the family (except me), Sophie loves the chickens! The chickens seem to be amazingly tolerant of the kids. Sophie and a chicken had a staring contest the other day through the patio door. Funny.
Sophie's favorite new hangout: the stairs. We join her there on a regular basis.

Halloween

I'm finally getting around to posting our Halloween pics. We've been a bit under the weather since Halloween, but I think we are about done. Yeah! We had a good Halloween, but Mom, Thys, and Sophie missed several of the events because of fever. Hence, we only have two pics of Thys in his costume, and those pictures have the neighbor kids in them, so I had to crop the pictures. They don't look great, but it's the best I've got. No time for pictures when trick-or-treating and friends are waiting! I only have two pics of Thys, but I have several of Anna because she was feeling great, and dressed up three days in a row in four different costumes. Long live the dress-ups!Halloween cookies (mostly for mom, but the kids have fun decorating)

Thys's pumpkin
Annie's pumpkin
Costume #1: Cheerleader for the school parade
Costume #2: Ballerina for Papa's work and Becky's program (We were so sad that Thys had to miss the program. He sings ALL the Halloween songs so cute!)
Costume #3: Princess for dance class
Costume #4: Hannah Montana for trick-or-treating
Thys as the cutest Thomas in the world!
And finally, our little lady bug--Sophie