Merry Christmas - Picture Heavy

Merry Christmas Everyone! We had a great day. Here's a photo of Sophie hanging out with all our Christmas presents.

This is Sophie and a friends baby on Christmas Eve. She just loved him and I know she's going to be excited when we bring home Max in a couple months.Here's Sophie opening a present at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve. They must talk to Santa because they got her a baking set.

Here's Sophie opening her gift from Santa, a new kitchen. She love's it.
Sophie also got a tricycle from Grammy and Grandad. She LOVES it!

Here's my present from Santa. He got me a Sizzix Big Shot, which I can't wait to use. That Santa is a peach and he sure surprised me.
I made Sophie some felt food. Here she is trying it out.
Sophie and Dave enjoying their new books from Grammy and Grandad.
Santa is one tricky fellow and really surprised Dave with a special gift in his stocking.

It's Yuengling. A beer that can only be found on the East Coast. Santa must have had a lot of help (wink, wink) to get that to Hawaii. Let's hope he doesn't get arrested.

Merry Christmas!

A green Donkey and a fabulous gift

Sophie received this green donkey from her Grammy and Grandad (Dave's parents) last year for her birthday. It's been a constant around the house. For the most part Sophie wasn't really interested in riding it, she was more inclined to move it randomly around the house. In fact, she would carry it from room to room until she found the perfect spot for him, usually in the middle of walking traffic. A couple weeks ago, she started playing with Donkey as he is supposed to be played with. She is saying, "Ride, Donkey" repeatedly in the video. In case you can't decipher her two year old speak.

Most of you know that for the last month I've been looking after my friend's daughter. Nicole is currently in the hospital awaiting the birth of her twins. So I looked after her older daughter, J, in the afternoons. It was actually a lot of fun, as Sophie and she get along quite well. I had hoped that it would also encourage Sophie to share a little better, as she is well into the "No, mine" stage. While Sophie isn't sharing any better, we did have a lot of fun eating popsicles and chasing the dogs. Nicole was sweet enough to send me a gift basket as a thank you. Since we're good friends, she knew just what to get me. It seems to be a snack/chocolate lover's dream. There are several different cookie options, popcorn, some different nut mixes. I've been slowly demolishing it. Dave had an unexpected trip out of town, so I guess it's up to me to eat all the food. Good thing I've been really hungry.

Lady Bug Diaper Cake

A good friend of mine is expecting a baby girl in January. She already has a sweet little boy at home. JP is about the same age as Sophie and they attended play group together last year. I know how exciting it is to have a little girl at home and I wanted to put together something special for her. I chose a lady bug theme for no particular reason. I thought the cake turned out really well. It has two receiving blankets, two ladybug outfits, and ladybug hat, rattle, some hair clippies, soothie pacifiers, Baby Legs, 5 handmade thank you cards, three handmade burp cloths (not ladybug themed) and some socks. I'm pretty proud of my creation, and Amanda was impressed with my handiwork =).

Presents Please

Sophie had the chance to meet Santa on Saturday. We've been prepping her for about two weeks now in the hopes that sitting on Santa's lap wouldn't be too traumatic. Dave decided to teach her to say, "Present's please" when she saw Santa. So she's been saying that off and on for a couple days now. Sophie was okay with seeing Santa from a distance, but did not want to sit on his lap. The minute Dave tried to sit her on his lap, Sophie started screaming. The first photo taken was a pretty close approximation of the Santa photo from last year. The difference this year was that Santa was giving cookies. She immediately stopped crying when presented with a cookie and promptly gave Santa a big hug. She then sat back on his lap (clutching her pack of cookies) and took another photo, which you can see here. Sophie is a sweetheart, and completely bribable.

Tree Decorating 101

Wow, it's amazing how hectic things get around the holidays. Between buying gifts, wrapping gifts, taking care of kids (I've been watching a friend's daughter in the afternoons) and everything else that's going on I've started napping with Sophie. I know how lucky I am that I can nap during the day.

We started decorating the Christmas tree a couple weeks ago, but we were interrupted by one of Dave's many trips to Guam. We finally finished the decorating, and now there are presents under there. Mostly for Dave and Sophie, as Dave won't start shopping for me until the 24th. We just found out the Navy Exchange is open till 11pm, so that gives him plenty of time to procrastinate. The tree looks great. We decided to go with a LIVE tree. Dave was the driving force behind that, but I will admit that a live tree makes the house smell fabulous. Dave also did a great job with the lights, he put a lot of time into making the tree seem to sparkle. Sophie really got into hanging ornaments, or more accurately she happily plopped them on any available sturdy branch. She is really enjoying turning the lights on in the morning when we wake up and turning them off if we leave for the day. She's also getting a kick out of turning the outdoor lights on in the evenings.

We walked around the neighborhood this past weekend to check out all the Christmas light. Quite a few of our neighbors got into the holiday spirit and Sophie had a really good time walking in the evening with Dave and I. We decided we would have to continue evening walk even after the holidays. This week should be pretty busy with gearing up for Christmas. Ordering last minute gifts and making sure everything is ready to go for our trip to Houston in a couple weeks.

Sophie getting a piggy back from Daddy

Dave strategically placing lights.

Sophie hanging her first Christmas ornament.

Giving Thanks - 2009

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Another first for our little branch of the Edgerton family. It was the first time Dave, Sophie, and I celebrated Thanksgiving in our own home. It was also the first time I made a turkey. It turned out really well, but it was lucky that my parents came over early. My Dad saved the day by discovering that I hadn't removed both bags of "stuff" inside the turkey, just one. Everything tasted wonderful and we had a great time hosting Thanksgiving for my parents. Sophie really enjoyed the food and actually had nuts for the first time with no adverse reactions.

Edgerton Version of National Lampoon's Family Christmas

This year is super exciting for us, it's the first year since Dave and I have been married that we will be celebrating Christmas together and in our own home! Such is the life of a Navy Family I guess. This will also be Sophie's 3rd Christmas, but the first one where she is really understanding what's going on. We had a good prelude of opening presents for her birthday, which she quite enjoyed, so I think Christmas is going to be fun. As I'm sure you can all imagine, my Type A husband is really getting into decorating for Christmas, so Thanksgiving weekend found him on the roof risking life and limb to get us into the Christmas spirit. He's a real trooper though, and the house looks great. In fact, our neighbor down the street and around the corner can see the glow from our house. Sophie is getting a big kick out of turning on the lights every evening.