Miller Life: December 2010

Happy Birthday Sophia!

It's hard to believe that it has been a year since Sophia Rose joined our family! Our baby girl turned one yesterday and we are so thankful to have her in our lives, she is such a blessing! We celebrated Sophia's birthday on Sunday so that the aunts could attend. It was a little hectic trying to clean and get ready for a party the day after Christmas. My strawberry cake looked like it belonged in a Dr. Seuss book so I ended up running to Publix to buy a cake an hour before the party. Lesson learned, no more trying to bake my own birthday cakes-at least the morning of! We had a brunch with salmon lox and bagels as the main course. My mother helped out bringing ambrosia (a Christmas favorite of mine), pumpkin bread and fruit. Justin helped make pigs in a blanket. Believe it or not that was the first time we ever made those-too easy! And of course we had mimosas (well at least I did!) Sophia was scared at first of the cake and cried, but Chasen showed her that the cake was nothing to fear and she ate some with big brother. What a difference between the kids! I remember Chasen going for the cake with all his might and having to spray him down afterwards because he was so messy. Sophia barely had enough icing on her to wash off! Chasen helped Sophia open all of her presents and of course he is enjoying playing with them now. Sophia has to fight to play with her Melissa & Doug pizza set, but as she gets older she will learn how to handle her big brother I'm sure!

Baby's First Christmas

Sophia had her first Christmas-and a white one to boot! It snowed in Atlanta Christmas night, the first White Christmas we have had in 150 years! We woke up Christmas morning to find that Santa had been here! Chasen didn't even check on the tree in the morning because he thought he had been too bad...but I guess Santa can forgive the tantrams of most 4 year olds! Santa gave Chasen Iron Man toys and Sophia a puppy that can say her name and sing her to sleep! At the Thompsons Chasen received robots and "boy toys" and Sophia got a lovely princess toy cube where each side has something to play with (it's awesome)! At the Millers both kids were given lots of clothes and Chasen received an aircraft carrier toy and Sophia was hooked up with Melissa and Doug wooden toys. Justin and I were given lots of cooking gifts like a new set of pots/pans and a gourmet cooking basket full of yummy cheeses and sauces. We are excited to try them all out! Feliz Navidad!

Last Visit to the Museum

Our Children's Musuem pass expires next week so we took one last trip to the musuem with Chasen and Sophia. We'll probably start going again when Sophia is a little older, though she seemed to enjoy herself as much as Chasen did! We let Sophia walk around on her own and she did really well! She wasn't afraid of everyone running around and noone knocked her down. If anything, she knocked other people down as parents grabbed their kids away from her trying to be nice. She was kind of like Baby Godzilla! The only downside was that our $5 parking spot turned into $10 so that was disappointing. If only I could do life over, I would buy a parking lot!

Christmas can't come soon enough!

Oh how sweet and innocent my children look for the camera! What you can't see is how they both went on a rampage in the church during "Cookies and Carols"! Of course rampage is a strong word, but that's how it felt when Sophia wouldn't stop wandering off after the Christmas tree and Chasen wouldn't stop following her! He was so overprotective of her, he didn't like anyone holding her or getting near her! Honestly, he was either being overprotective or just showing off his baby sister! Come on Santa, I don't know how much longer they can keep up the "good" act!

"It's almost Christmas!!!"

"It's almost Christmas!!" is Chasen's favorite phrase lately! He is really excited about Christmas this year, he really seems to understand what Christmas is all about-Santa Claus and Baby Jesus! We look forward to baking cookies, driving through the town to see Christmas lights, singing Christmas songs at church, and watching Christmas movies!

Chasen had his Christmas party at school on Friday and came home with holiday pictures and an ornament to put on the tree (this is the picture). His class watched The Polar Express and he got to wear pajamas and eat cocoa all day! At my school I wore antlers and participated in the Reindeer Games, our holiday version of Field Day! I got a little too involved and wiped out on the court, my knees are bruised and sore and I ache in places I didn't know existed! But it was a lot of fun!