Mexican and Cutting Potatoes

Aunt Morgan was getting her hair done by Amanda so we went to Eagleville a little early to have lunch at the Mexican restaurant. We had a table full of kiddos - Grant, Luke, Wyatt and Sophie were very well behaved! 

Sophie and I went to the playground for a little bit and then to visit Grandpa and Dustin at Granny's while they were cutting potatoes. Of course Sophie puts the potato in her mouth immediately when I gave it to her for the picture. It was still dirty so she had a messy face afterwards!

When we got home, Daddy brought in the mail and Sophie had some Easter cards. She is really enjoying cards now. She likes to carry them around and play with them:) 

Sleeping...

So I forgot to mention that Sophie has been going to sleep in her bed on her own for about 6 nights now. She has always slept in her bed all night, but we would get her to sleep and then move her upstairs without her waking up (for the most part). This was not the original plan, but it worked since she went to sleep pretty quickly. I didn't want to make her "cry it out" if it was that easy....until recently when she decided she didn't want to go to sleep but wanted to play even though she was exhausted (and we were falling asleep in the couch waiting for her to go to sleep). 

So we decided that we had to make the change now before baby #2 comes (and before I get so big and uncomfortable that I couldn't hold her on the couch at night to get her to sleep). The first night she cried for 20 minutes and then literally "fell" asleep. About the same the second night and then 30 minutes the third. After that, it only took about 5 minutes of crying and then another 5 to finally go to sleep. It was really hard for me to wait that long, but we were watching on the monitor the whole time and knew she was okay. She woke up happy and didn't hold a grudge (like I expected). She did, however, learn very quickly that she did not want to go to her bed when we would ask. She would climb up on me and lay very still and act like such a little angel. I felt bad making her cry a little since she was being so good, but in order to make this work, we had to stick to it. I think we made it over the hump and can now actually put her to bed before she falls asleep. We still need to work on daytime naps...I will keep you posted.

Camera Damage

Just a glimpse of what the lens looked like after I threw it to the ground in order to save myself from killer birds:)

It looked worse at the zoo when it was attached to the base and we didn't realize all the parts were attached to the lens.

Sophie's 71st Sunday - Easter Egg Hunt at the Methodist Church

We went to Rocky Glade for our service and then to the Methodist for the Easter egg hunt afterwards. Just to explain, Chad's Dad's side of the family go to the Methodist and Mom's side go to Cumberland Presbyterian (Chad started going there when in high school but grew up in Methodist Church). Ginger goes to Rocky Glade most of the time, Jennifer goes between the two and Don and Dustin go to Methodist.

Anyway, they had the egg hunt in the sanctuary due to the weather and the kids had a good time. It was a task trying to get a picture. By the time everyone was there and ready it was mainly Sophie who started getting up to walk away every time. When we added Wyatt to the picture she was way too interested in him. Sophie wasn't super competitive with the egg hunt and even put her eggs in other peoples baskets too. Thanks to Jennifer for letting me use her camera and get some pictures (I felt lost without my camera with me!).

Vandy on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the Spring...

After the zoo we stopped by the popsicle place on 12 Ave South and then headed to the AOII house at Vandy. I volunteered Chad to hook up the Wii since the girls were having a hard time moving the TV (oh...I am President of Corp Board who deals with house stuff). Anyway, we get there and I was like...what is going on today? Really it was just a beautiful Saturday and the fraternities had music playing and people all out on the lawns. Lots of short dresses and shirtless guys. It is amazing how quickly I have forgotten what it was like to live in the middle of all that. The house director came to assist (good thing b/c I was busy keeping Sophie out of everything). The HD had just been dealing with ZBT trying to get them to stop throwing beer cans on our lawn.

When I took Sophie out to the car to change her diaper I made a walk around the yard and there were more beer cans. I decided to throw them back at the guys (and girls) dancing on a table toward the back of the dance party they were having. So there I am heaving the beer cans over the fence with Sophie on my hip. They quickly noticed what was happening as I was yelling that they had to stop throwing them in our yard. I'm sure I was super intimidating. Wasn't long before another beer can came flying our way and then a shirtless guy with pink shorts comes over to apologize and say he is trying to keep them under control. I think I might have scared Sophie a little. 

The random picture is of the new front door we had replaced at the house (and the back door also). They look really nice and the locks have a system that doesn't require both hands. Only you AOII readers will really care.

A few pictures from the zoo (before the accident)

I managed to get a few pictures off the memory card that I had taken before I broke the camera. Just to clarify about the birds, the website does say there are over 50 lorikeets free in the area. They weren't all flying toward me or anything and we probably only saw about 25 or so. Throwing the camera like I did was totally irrational and I blame it on being pregnant:)

A Very Expensive Trip to the Zoo

Chad and I decided to take Sophie to the zoo on Saturday afternoon since the weather was gorgeous. We went ahead and bought a membership since we plan on going some during the week this summer. Sophie is free until she is two so we just got the dual membership ($55) and left the second adult as a "guest". That way mom can go with me for free (or anyone else who wants to join us). Chad even found a coupon online for $12 off so we really got a good deal.

The expensive part comes about 15 minutes into the zoo trip when we were in the "Lorikeet Landing" bird sanctuary. Just so you know, these are just medium sized parrots - not anything big or scary. Anyway, there are about 50 of them just flying around in the cage and you can go in and feed them and touch them (if they let you). Sophie was loving it!! We had been there for a little while and the birds started flying by pretty fast (I was beginning to get a little uneasy about it). We were watching one that had landing on a man's arm when it suddenly flew off towards us (at least I thought so at the time). I was holding our camera and screamed (bet you can't guess what I said) as I threw it down (I think I closed my eyes too). The camera was laying there in two pieces with all kinds of inside parts showing. Did not look good...

Chad gave me a very disapproving look, but wasn't too mean about it (I was almost in tears). He lightened the mood by saying that he was glad I wasn't holding Sophie. It was hard not to think about it the rest of the time, but I managed to still have a good time since Sophie was having so much fun. She chased the goats in the petting zoo area and "loved" on them. She loved the monkeys and the elephants (and the birds). We rode the carousel with her even though we almost didn't since it was $2 a token and didn't think it was worth it. She just seemed so excited when she saw it and we knew we couldn't just pass up fun things anymore without her noticing. She was so cute (too bad we don't have a picture). 

So the camera is ruined. It was mainly the lens that we saw the inside parts, but the body is cracked and the memory card won't stay in (either that or it gets stuck). We may go ahead and send it to Nikon to get an estimate to fix it, but I assume the cost will be more than just buying a new one. With Easter coming up, I didn't want to take a chance of being without a camera so we ordered one on Amazon last night. They have discontinued the D40 that we have (although you can still find them for sale) so we decided to go with the D3000. It is closer to the D60 (also discontinued) with a higher megapixel than our D40. We don't use any fancy stuff on the camera so we decided to go with the best price. Urgh...still not we had planned to spend money on right now.

So that is how the zoo trip got a little more expensive than we planned...

Dinner at The Parthenon Grille

Nanny and Grandpa came to Murfreesboro to see Sophie on Friday night. We ate dinner at the Parthenon Grille and used a buy on get one 50% off coupon. We have been all about printing coupons online lately. I tried the mahi mahi this time and it was great. They get you with all these yummy toppings to add to your meal (I tried the crab scampi on the side). It was good, but the fish was just as good without anything added. Once again we had the parthenon dip as an appetizer (a must try if you go). It was a great evening!

Feeding the PSF Students

Thursday night we helped serve the food our church prepared for the Presbyterian Student Fellowship. It was a rainy night and Sophie was sporting her raincoat.

Sophie Meets Gaines...

Sophie and I had a day of shopping on Wednesday. We went to Opry Mills after lunch to check out the Coco Bonbons "warehouse" sale at their new outlet store. Unfortunately, it wasn't as good a deal as I was used to and we didn't buy anything. 

My friend Christy (who I met junior year of high school at Girls' State) had taken a personal day and was going to pick up Gaines a little early from school so we shopped a little in Mt Juliet so we could see them before heading home. Gaines was born 3 days after Sophie (even though Christy was 3 weeks ahead of me). We had lots of lunches together while we were pregnant, but haven't gotten to see each other as much now that we have the kids (and I'm not in Nashville for work anymore). I can't believe this is the first time Sophie and Gaines got to meet! Christy is due with her second little boy May 21st. 

Big River

Chad and I went to see Big River at TPAC on Tuesday night. It was in the Andrew Johnson theater, which is pretty small. There really isn't a bad seat. I think most tickets are $40. This is a great show about Huck Finn and Jim and their adventures. This was my third time to see it with Chad (I think he had seen it before we were together too). It runs until April 10th if you get a chance to see it.

Nathaniel's First Birthday Party!

We celebrated Nathaniel's first birthday at Aunt Deborah and Uncle Bill's on Sunday night. Sophie wore her little "Mamma Mia" outfit that Grandmama bought for her. 

Sophie's 70th Sunday

We spent most of the service in the nursery because Sophie was having a rough time being quiet. We were trying to be strong and not give her the paci, so this was the result. We have been very fortunate so far that this doesn't happen often.

Feeding the Goats with Grandpa

We were in Eagleville on Saturday afternoon for Easter pictures. Sophie had pictures taken with real bunnies! She wasn't afraid at all and even picked on up by its ears (hope she got that picture). I can't wait to see how they turn out. 

We stopped by Nanny and Grandpa's on the way back and took Sophie to see the goats. Grandpa got some bread for her to feed them and she decided she needed to eat it also. We just tried to keep her from eating the bread after the goats licked it! She was loving running around outside...we are so ready for the warm weather! 

I had my long lens on the camera b/c my other lens isn't working (realized this on Thursday when I was at lunch with my friend Jenny and couldn't take a picture).  Anyway, I was able to get some good shots from a distance.