Sophie's First Birthday Party!!

Sophie had a wonderful first birthday party. Thanks to everyone for making it a special day!!! As you can see, it was a Wizard of Oz themed party that started with a yellow brick delivered to family members as an invitation (thanks to Aunt Alli for a great idea). A special thanks to Aunt Amanda for letting us use her house and building . Sophie is so fortunate to have so many people who love her:)

Sophie's First Halloween!

Last year Sophie was a pumpkin (in my belly). My water broke just 4 nights later and I had her on November 4th. This year she bounced back after her 1 year birthday party (early that day) and celebrated like a rock star:) As you can see, we were The Flintstones. We started off at Aunt Amanda's and then went to Nanny and Grandpa's (where we got to see Grant the cow) and then to Granny and Papa's and Aunt Joyce's for a quick "trick-or-treat". We stopped at Mammy and Pappy's to see the McClaran clan and eat a bowl of chili. Eliza (Strawberry Shortcake) was making it her mission to take care of Sophie and make sure she didn't get into anything she wasn't supposed to (so cute). Sophie was taking a few steps (as she had been off and on for a couple of weeks, but not enough to say she was really walking). 

After Mammy's we drove to Aunt Amber's to see Grandmama, Grandaddy and the Youell's. Karlee and Trey were already in bed, but as you can see Sophie was wired. Grandmama got to play with her while the boys finished watching the UT game (and Chad slept). Poor Chad had been up most of the night working on last minute details for the party. I had been driving and he slept on the way home. Good thing I have a friend half way around the world that I can talk to late at night when I'm not afraid to call too late (thanks Alli).  It was a fun night with family! 

The Night Before the Big Party

Grandmama and Grandaddy were helping out the night before. Grandaddy had been out to Eagleville to help Chad and they got home after 10pm. Grandmama put him to work cutting grapes for the chicken salad and they left sometime after 11pm. The picture of Chad was at 1:15am when I gave up and went to bed. He just starting to put icing on the cakes (that I baked). The cake turned out so cute and it tasted pretty good too:)

It had been a long week. Chad was in Eagleville almost every night working on the decorations. He had Grandpa and Uncle Dustin to help out most of the time and I took care of Sophie. We went to the Doctor's office twice during the week for her wheezing. We had a chest xray and breathing treatment on Wednesday and went back on Friday and got a good report. She never acted sick and hasn't run a fever. The breathing has been the only indication that anything was wrong. They diagnosed it as peribronchial inflammation and reactive airways disease.  I'm still not sure what that means, but they seem to think the medicine will take care of it. So basically I did nothing to help with the party all week. The first time I saw the room was when we walked out to the party and everyone was there. 

Grandmama and Grandaddy Come to See Sophie

Grandmama and Grandaddy were waiting on us when we got back to Murfreesboro. They were even nice enough to pick up dinner for us at Cracker Barrel. We had skipped lunch b/c of the flight and time change so we were pretty hungry and no food at the house. Grandaddy and Grandmama had been in Colorado while we were in California and they had brought back gifts for their little bit. Sophie loved her new tutu that Grandmama picked up (along with many other clothes). Sophie brought Grandaddy a book for him to read to her....I think she has him wrapped her around his finger!

Pumpkin Pictures at Nanny and Grandpa's

We went straight from the airport to Eagleville to get fall pictures taken at Nanny's. The photographer had been there all day and we weren't sure we would make it, but since we had two outfits packed that would work we decided to give it a try. Here are a few we took next to Grandpa's pumpkin:)

Sophie's 50th Sunday - at LAX

We didn't get to go to church, but had a flight out of LAX at 9am. Sophie flew home in her Pj's since we only got to bed at 2am and had to get back up at 5:30am. We had a straight flight home and Sophie slept for about 3 of the 4 hour flight...made it go by much faster. 

Day 4 - Disneyland

We had a great (but long) day at Disneyland. We didn't leave the park until 1am. You can watch the slideshow full screen and see the captions if you click on the pictures. Sophie had a great time and enjoyed all the characters.

Dinner in Santa Monica

We left Universal Studios when it closed at 5:30pm and headed to Santa Monica for dinner at Houston's. I used to wait tables at a Houston's in Nashville and loved their food. We had also heard that this was a good place to spot celebrities so thought we would give it a shot. No celebrity spotting since it was Friday night. Our server said they mostly come during the days or on a week night. Sophie was wired during dinner. They had some kind of high chair that attached to the table and she was able to get leverage and stand up so it was a task just to keep her in her seat. She wanted to look over the booth at people and she played peek-a-boo with the napkin. We walked the promenade in Santa Monica and then down to the pier. I discovered an awesome yogurt place called Pinkberry where we enjoyed dessert. It was so good I almost had it for breakfast at 8am in the airport on the way home. 

Day 3 - Universal Studios

We spent the afternoon at Universal Studios on Friday. Sophie had her first encounter with a character and she handled it pretty well. Curious George came up to her and she wasn't scared at all...she actually wanted tried to put her hand in his mouth. He went over to the shade and sat down and asked to hold her...she loved it! We took a studio tour on a little tram type car and Sophie took her nap while I held her. She even slept through the earthquake special effect. Tara and I switched off riding a few rides with Chad. He convinced me to walk through House of Horrors with him and people would jump out of dark corners at you or come behind you...I can't believe I even went through that! Shaggy was all about how he and Sophie had the same color hair and Sophie only wanted to play with Marge's necklace. We had a fun time at Universal and learned a little about how movies are made.

Miss Hollywood

We spent about an hour on Hollywood Blvd where we saw the Chinese Theater, "the sign" and all the stars (the ones on the sidewalk). We weren't seeking out certain stars, but it was fun to notice the celebrities you like as you walked. Chad had to get a picture with Chad Everett's star for his Mama since that is who he was named after. We also took pictures with Michael Jackson (noticed his since there was a line forming around it to get a picture) and Reba (one of Daddy's favorite red heads). We figured Sophie needed a picture with the hand prints of Judy Garland (since she will be Dorothy for her first birthday party) and Shirley Temple (adorable red headed child star). 

Sophie with Aunt Tara in LA

We got into LA around 10pm and Sophie had slept the whole way so she was rested up and excited to see Aunt Tara. This is her telling how old she is going to be. This has turned into a much shorter time of the "1" being held up since she has to clap for herself right after...you have to watch closely or you'll miss it. Sophie had fun playing in the apartment and wasn't really ready to go to sleep when we were. 

Sophie with Cali and Norman

Sophie loved Dallas and Stacey's dogs, Norman and Cali. I, on the other hand used to run from the door to the couch when Cali was a puppy (and they lived in Nashville). I met Norman in 2005 when I was visiting San Diego with Misty and we fell in love with him. I was a little worried knowing my fear of dogs, but he is one of the calmest, most loving dogs I have ever met. Cali has also calmed down in her old age and was so great with Sophie. I think she is going to love having the twins around given the amount of food Sophie dropped for him on the floor. We hung out with Dallas and Stacey Thursday night before driving to LA around 8pm (it only took us 1 hr and 45 minutes at that time of night). 

Day 2 - San Diego Zoo

We spent the day at the zoo on Thursday. The gorillas were our favorite and Sophie did a lot of pointing (as you can see from the pictures).