Celebrating New Year's with The Youell's

We spent New Year's Eve with David, Carrie and Trey (well...we didn't really see him since he was already in bed). We drove from Lebanon as soon as Chad got off work and got there just in time for dinner - Carrie prepared a great meal and David provided the wine and champagne as well as a little wine lesson. As you can see from the pictures, Chad wasn't exactly the life of the party. On the other hand, Sophie stayed up the entire time and brought in the new year with us. She had slept in that morning and then took a long nap in the afternoon (for once on her own without me even holding her to get her to sleep) and then slept the entire way to Knoxville. 

Carrie's friend, Rachel was also there for the celebration and just by chance we all had on blue shirts (Carrie and Rachel had on the exact same shirt). 

We left just after the ball dropped and headed to our cabin in Dandridge. We stopped at the Pilot on "the strip" just before we got on the interstate in Ktown to get Sophie's milk. I was on the phone with Amber but noticed Chad was having a conversation with the cashier and he was obviously amused. When came out I asked what was going on. The guy checking him out was overly excited about waiting on him and asked how his new years was and Chad said fine and then awkwardly asked him how his was knowing that he was working at the Pilot and didn't expect that it was that great. His response was, "well I'm here, strike up the band!" This was said with a sassy hand flip up in the air. Imagine this coming from a larger, tall, goofy looking guy with a feminine voice. You just have to hear Chad tell the story to make it funny...sorry.

Christmas with The Truitt's

Yes, we had our final Christmas (the 6th event counting our Christmas morning at our house with just the three of us). We had pizza and enjoyed a very low key evening...unless you count me having to run after Sophie as she explored the house (and the antiques within her reach). She especially loved the bench with stuffed animals. She found a small Barney book and took it to Pam for her to read and Grant joined in...it was a cute moment. Sophie got Christmas books with "Sophie" as the main character. She was cute and took it to Andriana to read right away. For those of you who know Jay and Brenna (ring bearer and flower girl in our wedding), look at how grown up they look this year!!! Crazy how fast they are growing up.

Lunch with Jenny and Brittany

Brittany was in town visiting Jenny, who is expecting a little girl in April, so they came to Murfreesboro to have lunch with Sophie and I at Toots. Jenny lives in Nashville, but I hadn't seen her since she found out she was pregnant and I haven't seen Brittany since her wedding in December of 2007. Time goes by so fast!!! I wish we all lived in the same place...it was so great visiting and catching up.

Zack Brown Band Concert

Grandaddy and Grandmama came over to watch Sophie while Chad and I went to watch the Zack Brown Band at the Ryman Auditorium. We met Misty and Heather there and had a great time. The band was so talented and the Ryman is just an amazing venue. Chad and I probably had just as much fun watching the crowd around us. We were surprised to see so many kids. One guy kept taking his little girl, probably 3 years old, with him when he got a beer. He was spilling his drink on her stuffed animal he was dragging along. Thanks to Grandmama and Grandaddy watching Sophie so that we could go!

Christmas at Mammy and Pappy's

We started our celebration at 3pm instead of the usual 7pm on Christmas Eve. I have no idea how the kids could have made it to the usual 2am, because they were worn out at 10pm when we finished this year. Mammy and Pappy gave all the kids a wooden chair and they loved them!! Sophie did not want to sit through all the photos this year...she wanted to play! I just had to grin and bear it as she pitched a fit when we tried to get the pictures. You can see she wasn't the only one who didn't want to cooperate the whole time....the picture of Mammy and Pappy and the kids was like herding cats. Mammy did her traditional money tree and also decorated a candy drop tree with the kids. Also notice that the babies are into "riding" everyone's legs. Sophie has to do it anytime Grant has a turn.

We had such a great time with McClaran family...we keep growing and growing every year!

Sophie's 59th Week at Church

We were trying to rush home after church to get a nap before heading to Mammy and Pappy's for our 5th Christmas celebration. Cousin Chelsea helped us out with the photo shoot:)

Christmas at Nanny and Grandpa's

We celebrated Christmas with the immediate Lamb family on Saturday. We started off with a great breakfast prepared by Grandpa. We opened presents a little at a time and the kids even took a little nap in between (Sophie probably slept 10 minutes, but Grant got a good one). Sophie was full of herself - laying back on the presents, getting in the chimney (we thought she was looking for Santa so we put him in there with him), playing with Grants presents. She was so cute when she opened the Barney dvd and headed to the TV with it. We had a fun day that ended that night with Nanny playing the piano and Uncle Michael, Chad and Andriana singing Christmas carols. I could have sworn I took a picture, but I could have picked up Jennifer's camera instead of ours...or maybe I just video taped it.

Late Night Skype

Sophie slept on the way home from Granny's and then got a sudden burst of energy and did not want to go to bed. I think she had missed her new toys she had already gotten for Christmas. She was very determined to stay up so I decided it was a good time to talk to Aunt Alli in Singapore (12 hours time difference). We had a good conversation with her and Kyle. They got to see her show off all her toys. We had skyped earlier with Aunt Joan, Big Dave, David, Carrie and Trey and we noticed that she really interacts with you on skype now - waving and blowing kisses. It is too cute!