Christmas with family

Our Christmas this year was a two and half week whirlwind of family and friends, good food and great memories! Instead of telling you all about our adventures with words I thought I would let the pictures mainly speak for themselves.
(Be warned: there are A LOT of pictures on this blog!)

Playing at the playground with Evie

Cousin Love

Decorating sugar cookies with Lolly for Santa
On the train ride at Stone Mountain
At the end of our Stone Mountain day (can you tell?!) waiting to see the parade!

Headed to church for the Christmas Eve Service

Pops reading The Night Before Christmas to his granddaughters before bed
Sophi Loving her new chair Christmas morning
Playing in their new kitchen from Lolly and Pops
Christmas morning with their Great Grandma (GiGi) and Great Grandpa (Paw)
Having fun opening gifts Christmas morningSpending time with their Great Grandparents (Nana and Papa) Christmas afternoon Sophi's first White Christmas
Playing with her new baby stroller at Grammy and Poppy's houseSophi loves spending time with her Grammy and Poppy
Helping Bella with her new mixer
The Strahan cousins

Sophi loves Mikey!

"Helping" Grammy and Poppy take down their Christmas Decorations

We pray your Christmas was very merry as well and that you are all settling into this exciting New Year!

Christmas in Pasadena

Josh, Sophi and I celebrated our family Christmas here in Pasadena this past Saturday. It was so much fun to watch Sophi this year as she discovered her gifts and unloaded her stocking! Sophi got the Little Tykes Coupe Car from Mommy and Daddy and she LOVES it! All she wanted to do for the rest of the day was be in her car. She isn't quite big enough to push herself in it so mommy and daddy do a lot of pushing and Sophi does alot of riding! Even Shiloh got to go for a ride!Oh, and the box to the car was a hit too!Her other favorite toy is her stuffed Llama Llama, the character from one of her favorite books, Llama Llama Red Pajama. He now goes with us everywhere, along with Lovie of course!That afternoon we enjoyed a picnic lunch from Portos, one of our favorite places to eat, at the Americana in Glendale. Sophi had so much fun watching the water show and simply playing in the grass!

(Notice the shorts. It was 80 degrees that day!)


We leave Tuesday for Christmas in the south. We are excited to spend more time with family and friends as we celebrate and remember the awesome gift God gave us in sending his son to be born as a baby so that we might have eternal life with him!
Merry Christmas Everyone!

Thanksgiving in the South Part 2

We flew on Pops plane up to Nashville, TN to spend Thanksgiving day with Josh's parents in Columbia, TN. We had so much fun spending time with Grammy and Poppy and their new dog Mikey! Sophi LOVED Mikey of course! It was also fun to see Josh's brother, his wife and their three kiddos. It is always fun to watch the kids play together!We had to go to the park of course while we were there. Sophi can't seem to get enough of playing outside these days!We ate some yummy food and enjoyed relaxing with family before headed back to Atlanta on Friday.Friday afternoon was spent watching one the most amazing college football comebacks I have seen in awhile! And may I say WAR EAGLE!!!We said goodbye to family early Saturday morning and headed back to Pasadena. Fortunately we will be back in 2 weeks to celebrate my FAVORITE time of year, CHRISTMAS!! And this time Shiloh will join us for all our crazy adventures!
I can't wait to celebrate this special time of remembering Christ's birth with family! Hello December, it's been too long!

Thanksgiving in the South Part 1

We headed back to the south this past week to spend thanksgiving with our families. We were fortunate enough to get to spend time with both sets of parents which was such a blessing! We spent the first part of our trip in Atlanta with the my parents while Josh attended the Society of Biblical Literature Conference downtown.

Sophi and Evie had so much fun being together despite their sickness throughout the week! What little troupers they are!

They both know each others names really well now which is super cute. Evie would come into my parents house every time saying "Hi Soph" and Sophi would constantly be calling out "Ebie, Ebie" whenever Evie would disappear out of the room. These girls are going to be best buddies for sure!

Sophi also got to spend some good quality time with her Lolli and Pops. They recently got a new playground in their neighborhood that is fantastic. Sophi loved playing there with Lolli and Pops and I think they might have enjoyed it too!

Aunt Joyce and Uncle Tom and their dog Max stopped by to visit on their way from Florida. Although Sophi enjoyed getting to see Uncle Tom and Aunt Joyce I think she was way more excited about spending time with Max. And I have to say I am pretty much sold on getting a Collie for our next dog! He was so great with her!

We flew up to Nashville, TN on Pops airplane with Grandma (GiGi) and Granpa (Pa) to visit Josh's folks. Sophi LOVES flying on Pops airplane and it was fun to spend some one on one time with Grandma and Grandpa.I will post about our time in TN soon so stay tuned!

Happy Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving Josh and I are thankful for so many things. We are thankful for our precious little girl Sophi, who is healthy and happy and brings so much joy to our life. We are thankful for our marriage, the way God has continually drawn us closer together even in the midst of so much change. We are thankful for our families, who love and support us despite the distance between us. We are also thankful for the opportunity to travel home and see them during the holiday season! We are thankful for our California friends who have become our second family, who have carried us through the ups and downs of life over the past two years. We are thankful for the education Josh has received from his time at Fuller. We are thankful for the provisions God has provided for us during this financially difficult time in our lives.
We are most thankful and grateful for the sacrifice God made for us in sending his son to live and die and raise again so we could have eternal life with Him.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Our first Visit to the ER

A little over a week ago Josh and I experienced our first Emergency Room visit with Sophia! The story goes something like this...

In an effort to quiet a whiny toddler right before dinner time, I allowed her to get on our bed with me while I folded the laundry. After being on the bed less then a minute, one jump on the pillows had her falling off the side of the bed, hitting her head on a side table on the way down. I, of course, panicked and was relieved simply to hear her cry right away as opposed to being passed out. I quickly scooped her up only to realize she was bleeding from her ear. This made me panic again and rush downstairs to call Josh. Josh, who was on his way home, told me to put her in the car and we would head to the ER together as soon as he got home. As I am rushing down the stairs to the garage with Sophi in my arms screaming and Josh on the phone in my other hand I realize she is also bleeding from the mouth. I proceed to panic even more and tell Josh "there is blood everywhere!!" Of course, he thinks she is seriously injured by this comment and rushes home.
Once Josh arrives we begin making the short drive to the ER. Before we even reach the ER Sophi stops crying (unless of course I begin to cry which was helpful in making me stop!) We pull over before actually getting to the ER to assess the situation further and make sure we really feel it necessary to go. With much debate we decide to proceed.

Fortunately we didn't have to wait too long to be seen, during which time Sophi proceeded to eat an entire piece of pizza as well as carrots and peas. This told us her mouth that had been bleeding earlier....well it was just fine!

We saw the PA on duty who felt like her ear was probably fine to heal on its own but wanted to call the plastic surgeon just to be sure. The plastic surgeon wanted to come in and see her so we had to wait another 45 minutes while he finished his dinner. Once he arrived his evaluation was that it needed to be stitched up. Yuck! Sophi was then wrapped in a sheet to keep her arms and legs from flailing, a nurse held her head down, Josh held her legs down and I held her arms while the doctor stitched her up! She screamed the whole time but was really brave for a 13 month old!(Right After the stitches were put in - 3 stitches)

Once stitched up we were able to go home. Sophi didn't once bother her ear in the week after her stitches were put in and was so brave when we went back to the plastic surgeon to get them removed this past Tuesday! The doctor said she is healing beautifully and shouldn't have any problems with her ear in the future!(After the stitches were removed)

Sophi, we have decided, is just going to be our accident prone child! She has very little caution and goes at life full force! These characteristics will serve her well in the future but may cause mommy and daddy several more trips to the doctor in the coming years! She is crazy but we love her all the same!

TV what?!

This week marks one month without tv! Josh and I have done a lot of this....

and this...
and of course plenty of reading!!

We are actually really enjoying it (a surprise even to me!!). We had our "once a month movie night" two weeks ago and decided to use the time to watch a few episodes of some of our favorite comedies. Although we enjoyed laughing together, this "treat" of tv was not nearly as exciting as we had hoped. I think we have already gotten used to life with out it!
Of course, thanks to our friends Ellen and Jeff we do get to watch the Auburn football games on Saturdays! We enjoy spending that time cheering on our favorite team but even more than that truly love spending time with dear friends!
We have also been on several outings in the past couple of weeks. I took a few pictures on our trip to the zoo with Ellen, Jeff, Caroline and their sweet friend Denise who was visiting form out of town. I really can not get enough of my baby girl these days! She is so full of life and is just a joy to watch as she discovers the world. She is truly becoming a big girl and although this sometimes makes me sad I love getting to know the little person God is shaping her to be. I never thought I would want to have a little girl (rough and tough little boys were more my thing) but now I there is no possible way for me to imagine my life without this little one!