Birthday Parties and Sickness Galore!!!

I can tell the newness of my life in San Angelo is beginning to wear off somewhat by my slightly negative attitude toward the plethora of birthday parties we attend. I need to be thankful we have birthday parties to attend. When we lived in Marlin, I was thrilled when Sophie got an invitation to a party. It meant we had something
to do! Not only that, but it meant she would be around other children, which was a rarity. Usually when we got to the parties I would know no one other than the parent giving the party and it would turn into a time of awkwardness as soon as the parents found out I was the "preacher's wife". Don't get me wrong, I loved living in Marlin, but Sophie's interaction with peers was very limited, which is probably why she rarely got sick whereas we can't seem to get John Curtis well.
Anyway, back to birthday parties. Now we mainly attend parties of kids in the church where I know many parents and have lots of people to visit with. I guess my negative attitude today stems from so many people having January babies (just kidding if you are one of those people:) John Curtis was actually supposed to be a January baby, but it really seems that more San Angelo babies were born in this month than any other. So far this month we have been to a princess party (see previous post), a pottery party, a party at Funtown with inflatables, and today a mermaid party. Sophie had a great time at each party, but I only took pictures at the mermaid party today. It was at the cutest little place where all they do is theme parties. They dressed all of the little girls up in mermaid costumes and they decorated tiaras, played games, and ate a beautifully decorated cake. They even let the girls drink out of real tea cups. Sophie held hers up and said, "Look Mom, it's breakable!" She thought she was a big girl. The whole time I was thinking what a dream party it was for a little girl. I had pretty much talked myself into splurging a little and having Sophie's next birthday there. Before we left I decided to check out prices. Are you ready for this? $285! That might be a normal party price in some areas, but I have always pulled off parties for well under $100. To be perfectly honest, as shocked as I was by the price, I was waiting for Sophie to get in the car and start asking me for a mermaid party, too. I actually would have been tempted to give in if she had wanted it bad enough (if her dad had let us:) Amazingly, all Sophie said was, "That was fun!" I even prompted her a little and asked if she liked the mermaid party better or the party we went to last night with the inflatables. She said she liked the inflatables better! It's good to know my girl doesn't have as expensive taste as her mom! All that to say, I'm back to planning yet another swimming party or a party at the (free) church, and Sophie will have a ball!
Meanwhile, John Curtis is continuing to cough. He started running a little fever, but I think he's trying to cut all four of his top teeth at once. He's miserable! I'm including a picture of him looking at the birds out the window.

It's Cold Outside!!!

It has been cold in San Angelo this past week, or at least cold for us. We have had to find creative indoor activities to do. As you can see from the picture, John Curtis has fun emptying out the Tupperware cabinet. Anything to keep him happy when he can't go outside. He goes to the door and cries. He also enjoys looking out the kitchen window at the bird feeder. He walks over to it periodically to check if the birds are eating. We have some beautiful cardinals visit occasionally. The other day he found Sophie's shoe and tried to put it on all of our feet! Sophie has kept busy working on her Disney World scrapbook. She likes for me to print out pictures and uses my scrapbook paper and stickers to put them in her Disney autograph book. It's turning out really cute. Also, just a tip for you moms, the author Jan Brett has some great winter books to read aloud and a fun website with activities that go along with them. I used to use them in my classroom all the time. We have been reading The Three Snow Bears and making paper doll polar bear characters from the website. I would love any other ideas anyone has to pass these long winter days!

Another New Floor

While Sophie and I were having fun at Disney World, Taylor was home putting in a new floor in our kitchen (with a lot of help from babysitters for John Curtis). The living room was phase one. This was the second (and final) phase. I think he did an excellent job. It was a lot of work for him and it took us all week to get everything back in its place. We hope we are finished with home improvements for a while!

Our Magical Disney Vacation

Sophie and I spent last Thursday through Sunday in Orlando with my Mom, Dad, and sister. We went to Disney World on Friday and Saturday and had a GREAT time. I was worried Sophie might be a little young, but she loved it and didn't want to leave.
We left from San Angelo early Thursday morning. It was Sophie's first plane ride. She freaked out and cried when she had to take off her shoes while going through security. After that I was afraid what the rest of the trip would hold, but she did great. She enjoyed the plane ride and wasn't scared at all.
We met up with my family in Dallas and while waiting for our next plane, Lindsey noticed that Todd, the winner of the last Survivor, was waiting as well. He got on our plane and while waiting for our luggage in Orlando, Lindsey go up the nerve to take Sophie over to ask for his autograph. He was the first to sign her Disney autograph book!

We spent all day at Disney World on Friday and Saturday. Sophie's face lit up the first time she saw the castle and we immediately saw the princesses in a show in front of it. She loved the Dumbo ride, carousel, Winnie the Pooh, It's a Small World, and The Magic Carpet. Her very favorite though was the teacups. She rode them at least three times and laughed the entire time! Her least favorite ones were Snow White's Scary Ride (the picture with the scared look on her face was taken there), Peter Pan, and the Jungle Cruise. She wasn't a huge fan of the 3-D movie when things came at her, especially when they blew air on her or sprayed water.

She got to meet a lot of characters too. Her favorite of course were the princesses. She was so excited to talk with them and hug them. It was so fun that she thought it was all real. After the light parade on the last night she told me the princesses were going up to the castle to put on their pajamas and go to bed. She avoided some of the characters like Captain Hook. We took a ton of pictures and the Disney photographers took some of her with the characters as well. If you want to see more pictures go to www.disneyphotopass.com. Log in with my e-mail (thesandlins@verizon.net) and the password is MickeyAa7. The character pictures that the professionals took will come up. If you put your cursor on View All at the top and click My Uploaded Photos you can see all the pictures I took.

Outside Fun

It was a beautiful weekend and we spent a lot of time outside. Sophie helped Taylor take down the lights with her new wheelbarrow. She likes to work just like Dad. John Curtis loves being outside and both of the kids really enjoyed all of the leaves. Sophie and I raked them up and they jumped in. John Curtis even tried to rake, but really had fun throwing them in the air. Yes, I know we probably should rake our leaves more often so we don't have quite so many, but if we leave them on the ground the kids have something to play with:) That is what we keep telling ourselves anyway!

Princess Party

On Saturday Sophie went to a princess birthday party. She decided to go as Cinderella and wear her new "slippers" Santa brought her.

New Floor!

For Christmas, Taylor and I decided to get each other a new floor. The carpet in our house was nasty, especially after one round of potty training and a baby who spit up everything he ate. I have been wanting to get rid of the carpet for a while so we spent the last 4 1/2 days putting in a new laminate floor in the living room. Most people told us it was a weekend project, but as you know 4 1/2 days is longer than a weekend. I'm not sure why it took us so much longer, but we are very proud of the work we did. It was exhausting, but we did it all on our own and only made a few minor mistakes (if you consider nailing the pocket door to the laundry room open when we put the base boards back on minor). Everything was rectified. I am posting a picture of the way the room looked when we moved in. I didn't really take a picture then, so I found one that showed most of the room. Then I'm including a picture of the room when we painted it back in September, and finally some of the finished product.