December At Random

December has flown by! We had a quiet Thanksgiving at my parent's house. The next weekend we took a little trip to Idaho Falls for our niece Hannah's baptism. It was so fun to be there for that and to have Sophie play with her cousins. They are still the best little playmates with her. We obviously had fun since I have nearly no pictures, but we hung out with Grandpa, built gingerbread houses, and took a trip to the oh-so-exciting Blast Off. Sophie probably would have requested a ball pit for Christmas if she knew how because she loved it! 

Here's what else has been going on:

Sophie had a fairly decent attempt at eating with chopsticks.

She continues to be a bucket of sweetness as she laid some stuffed animals down, read them a story, and gave them hugs good night. (Melts my heart) (Oh, and she is reading them Common Sense)

Sophie has a very particular dance party outfit. She puts on a pink tutu, Minnie Mouse jewelry, cowgirl hat, and Cinderella slippers. Then she requests to "Shake it Off" with Taylor Swift.

We visited the Botanical Gardens in Boise. They deck it all out with Christmas lights. Sophie loved Temple Square last year so we figured she would love this too. She did seem to have fun. We are working on colors and so she ran around yelling "gween, yell-OH! gween, yell-OH!" We went with our friends the Allens and their kids. 

Sophie's obsessed with coloring. One day I taped a bunch of pieces of paper together and let her go to town. She loved it. 

Off to Grandma's! (I realize she slipped her out from her strap--it was quickly remedied)

I'm so tired of terrible phone pictures, but here they are. 

My Grandma Chipman sent Sophie a Fisher Price nativity which she just loves. Such a great toy!

 Excellent quality photos....

 Christmas Shopping at the Village

Another silly Sophie story: She loves to cook her shapes. She will go get a pan from the cabinet and a  very specific whisk (the attachment for the mixer), and put all her shapes from her shape sorter toy in the pan. Then she will whisk them all up repeatedly. I realize that story may only be entertaining to us (her parents) but it's so fun watching her imagination blossom.

Snow Day

 We had our first Boise snow of the winter in our new home. I totally expected a little layer of cute, fluffy snow that would melt away the next day. Nope. It's been coming down for two days. It took Daniel and hour and a half to get home yesterday and he is working from home today. Sophie went out last night for her first real snow experience. Of course, she loved it. Earlier as we were walking home from babysitting all day, she quietly looked around, confused why everything looked so different. I came home, bundled her up, and sent her back outside. She played, stomped, brushed, threw, and even ate some snow. When I finally forced her inside, it was like I crushed her spirit. She bawled and screamed and refused to take her snow gear off. We went out again today and she played with the neighbor girls. Again, another successful snow outing complete with poorly made snow angels, belly flops in the snow, and cold fingers and nose.

Family Photos

Getting these pictures was an adventure. Sophie would not sit still for anything. I expected lots of action shots. We got a workout swinging and chasing Sophie around. Even if I have a few nit-picky complaints, I love these pictures and I'm so glad we had them done. If I could I would have family photos taken every six months just to capture how much Sophie changes (we pretty much stay the same).