Wii and Mini Wii

In the previous two posts I have mentioned many times how blessed we are and what a wonderful Christmas we had surrounded by our family. From the pictures you saw that Sophie received many, many wonderful gifts, but she was not the only who received big this year, Neal got a Wii!!!! He was so excited and still is. He has been talking about wanting a Wii for quite some time now, but knew that financially we could not swing buying one for ourselves, so thanks Mom and Dad K, you have made my hubby's gaming dreams a reality! I didn't think that I would enjoy it as much as I am but it is so much fun, we have been playing since Christmas Day! We have been playing so much we are sore, my hip is killing me from bowling and Neal's arms and shoulders hurt from baseball and boxing, how sad is that, just shows how out of shape we are!!!!!

Anyway the main reason for this post is to show once again how darn cute Sophie is and what a genius she is. My mom came down one afternoon, because she was bored, so we showed her how to play Wii. Sophie picked right up on what to do and started imitating what we were doing and started going through the motions with us as we bowled and played tennis! She loves the Wii controllers and has to hold her own when we play. So cute and so darn smart too! Love it! Love her!

She loves stickers, Princess stickers I might add.

Helping me bowl.

Celebrating my strike with me.

Giving the assist to Gigi in a game of tennis.

Holding on tight to her Wii controller.

The Joy of Christmas

So I am finally getting around to posting some pics from all of our Christmas festivities. We had such a wonderful Christmas and we are so truly blessed to have what we do and be surrounded with such love. Sophie is a very lucky little girl, she received some very nice and very generous gifts from so many people especially her Gigi's and her Papa's. I think it is safe to say that this year was the year of the Princesses, as I mentioned in the previous post Sophie is obsessed and I mean OBSESSED with the Disney Princesses and any gift that she received that had even the smallest Princess on it was a huge hit, especially the Princess cardboard dry erase board my mother got her from the dollar bin at Target....go figure!

We spent Christmas Eve at Neal's parent's house (my parent's joined us there) and had the Slimick Family traditional Christmas Eve dinner.....crab legs Mmmmmm Yummy, we look forward to it all year! Sophie pretty much filled up on crackers before dinner so she really didn't eat much, oh well it's the holidays right? Christmas Day was spent at my parent's house where Neal's parents and Joe joined us as well. We had such a wonderful time enjoying good food and the company of family and of course watching Christmas unfold through the eyes of a two year old child. We opened presents with my parents before Neal's family arrived. Sophie was so sweet, each time a present was handed to her she simply said, "Thank you" before gently tearing into it. I swear I saw my mom's eyes fill up a few times when she handed Sophie a present and Sophie looked at her so genuinely with her big brown eyes and said in her little soft voice "Thank you, Gigi". I know by nature toddlers are very egocentric little beings and have very little regard for others at this stage in their development, especially when gifts are involved, but Sophie is so sweet and I see such genuine compassion and gratefulness in her so often, she just melts me. When ever she hears Neal or I say "ouch" or if I trip (which is pretty much daily, I am quite clumsy) she will ask, "Are you okay Mama/Daddy?" She is such a little love, I just want to squeeze her! Okay, Okay, back to Christmas.... Sophie was so excited to have everyone from both sides all together for a second day in a row, her face lit up when she saw Gigi and Papa Slimick walk through the front door of Gigi and Papa Keilty's house, she giggled and said "Gigi, Papa" and then let out this funny little laugh and proceeded to go into toddler show off mode running around like a crazy lady!

I can't help but smile now when I think of all the joyful moments we had this Christmas and the look of wonder and gratefuleness in Sophie's eyes as she opened each gift, SHE is our the best gift and biggest blessing of all. I hope that everyone's Christmas was as joyful as ours was.

Presenting Gigi & Papa with the birdhouse she painted.


Showing off the loot she received from Great Grandad Hatfield.


So excited about her Princess Castle!

Enjoying one of the many books she received, this one is from Daddy.


The Target dollar bin Princess dry erase board, we had to hide it so she would open her other presents!


The pillowcase that she made for Neal & I at preschool!


She was so proud of herself, how cute is this???


Girls like trains too!


Giving Gigi & Papa K. their birdhouse.


Loving her new Princess back pack.


Our little present!


Adjusting the sacred back pack.


To quote her, "I play basketball!"

Enjoying a little pre-dinner Little Einstein show, note the Princess back pack is still on!


The WHOLE gang!

The Slimick's


Papa K's decorations! Nice job Papa!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope that your Christmas morning was as blissful as ours was. We were woken up at 6am to the glorious sounds of a happy two year old playing in her room, we gave her (and us) a little more time to wake up and then went up to her room to greet her and let her know that Santa had indeed visited our house. Sophie's reaction to the presents under the tree cannot be described in words, it is just too cute, so I will let the video posted below show you that!

Unwrapping the presents from start to finish took close to an hour, and there was really not a ton to open. I thought for sure she would tear through all the presents and be looking for more. Not our Sweet Sophie, she was just so excited about each gift that she opened, especially gifts with anything Princess in it, on it, or around it! We could not have asked for a more perfect morning, Neal and I are truly blessed to have each other and such a beautiful, happy, healthy child. We are grateful for all we have in life especially all our family and friends!

Sophie was so worn out after all the present opening festivities and playing with her new toys, she was begging Neal to go to bed at 10:30! She will need her rest, because as soon as she gets up we are packing up and heading up to Gigi and Papa K's house for more presents and food! We will post more Christmas pics later I just wanted to get this video up for all to see!

O Christmas Tree

Thought I would share a picture of our beautiful Christmas tree and show off the photography skills of my fabulously talented husband. Sophie is just itching to get at those presents that are already under the tree. Neal and I can't wait to see her face once she wakes up tomorrow morning to see all that Santa brought her! Merry Christmas everyone! I hope Santa is good to you all and that your Christmas is filled with love and peace!

Appreciating Art

Sophie loves to paint and for a two year old she remains relatively clean while doing it so I have no problem letting her paint. She is not a fan of getting her hands dirty which makes clean up a breeze. Yesterday was a pretty cold day so we spent much of it indoors and to pass the time did a lot of painting, we painted once in the morning while in our jammies and then again later when Neal got home to show off Sophie's skills and pass some time until bedtime! She is so serious when she paints. Check out her beautiful works of art!

Extra Postage Required

With Christmas right around the corner several of our loving family members have been so thoughtfully sending packages to Sophie for Christmas, which she is all to excited about. Anything resembling a box she now calls a present, regardless of whether or not it is truly a present! She has been so good about just opening the postal box and then placing the wrapped gift under the tree and not opening it, Neal and I have been telling her that she has to wait until Christmas morning, and she has been listening....such a sweet girl. Not that she is not interested in the presents, because she is, she will point to the presents under the tree and say, "presents" and then go over and hold the most recent one that came in the mail, but all are still wrapped and intact, not even one little tear!

So with all that said, since she can't enjoy the actual present just yet she has been having fun with the boxes that the gifts arrive in, most recently a small box from Neal's Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky in Virginia. Yesterday she got in the box and said, "Too big, Sophie too big" then she tried to sit down in it and said, "Too big, too big sitting box". Her vocab is growing each minute and we are just amazed at how smart she is! I am sure every mom says the same thing and thinks that her child is a genius, but I think Sophie really is! What can I say? I'm just a proud Mommy! Her interest in the box is still going strong, because this morning she sat and watched her Little Einstein's in the box while decked out in her Princess jammies, a belated birthday gift from Auntie Michelle, Uncle Nelson and Braedon (which she has yet to take off since she first put them on!). So I had to snap some pictures of "Too Big Sophie" attempting to squeeze herself yet again into the tiny box. I will post a disclaimer with these photos: Neal was not home to help me edit the photos, so I apologize for the grainy shots and yellow tint the pictures have, I will get better I promise! Enjoy!

Starbucks and a Meltdown

As many of you well know I am a Starbucks fanatic with my favorite drink being the Nonfat White Chocolate Mocha no whip! A mouthful I know, but well worth it and I feel like I fit in with the all the coffee house hipsters when I place my order super fast and say it without messing up!

The other day Sophie and I made the hike up to Birkdale Village to hang out with my mom, have lunch, and do a little window shopping to help keep the boredom at bay. Despite being a relatively warm day for mid December (about 63 degrees) the wind was really whipping around so we decided to duck into Starbucks to get out of the wind and enjoy a mid morning coffee. With the holiday season Starbucks brings out it's seasonal coffee and specialty drinks, my holiday drink of choice is the Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha Nonfat no whip, you should try it, sooooo good! Sophie was being such a good girl and I decided that she deserved a treat too, so while Mom and I enjoyed our Tall Peppermint White Mochas, Sophie savored her first ever hot cocoa, at Starbucks nonetheless! Nothing but the best for my girl! I was very impressed with Starbucks, the kids hot cocoa comes in a perfect kid's size and they have a kid's temperature too so the kid's don't have to scald themselves while trying to enjoy a simple treat! Sophie was so excited to be sipping her cocoa (that also had whipped cream and chocolate sauce drizzled over top) from a cup just like Mommy and Gigi's! I had my mom take a picture of Sophie having her first hot cocoa/Starbucks so that we could send it to Neal, so sorry for the poor quality of the picture, but at least I have a picture to hold the memory with! As you can see in botttom of the picture Tinkerbell made the trip with us and she too enjoyed the cocoa as Sophie was kind enough to share with her!

Although it sounds from the start of the blog the day was picture perfect.......think again, my child is two years old! After Starbucks we hit the pavement checking out the shop windows and browsed around Williams Sonoma and GAP kids real quick and then decided to grab lunch at Red Rocks. Sophie did really well up until it was time to leave the restaurant, I took Sophie out of the high chair and was making sure we didn't forget anything; sippy cup, purse and the ever sacred Tinkerbell, when Sophie decided she was about to show us (me and the room full of people) what two year olds were really made of. She deliberatly threw Tink on the floor and started whining/crying because Tink was now on the floor. My policy is you throw it, you pick it up, so there I am in the restaurant trying to keep my cool and convince my child who is rapidly coming unglued to pick up Tinkerbell. After several failed attempts and my fake out of, "OK Mommy is going to leave without you" and then hiding behind a pillar, I realized what a fool I must have looked like and realized that this was not a battle I was going to win. I picked up Tink and Sophie and carried her, literally kicking and screaming out of Red Rocks. Ahhhhh, two year olds.

Waffles

Sophie loves to help in the kitchen and it is hard to cook without her right by your side. The minute that she sees Neal or I getting ready to make anything in the kitchen she is already dragging her chair over to the counter to help out. Such a sweet girl. So this morning Neal was getting ready to make waffles and of course there was Sophie dragging her chair over saying, "I help waffles, I help waffles" how can you resist that sweetness? Neal got all the ingredients out and Sophie helped to put them in the bowl and mixed them up (mixing is one of her all time favs) she was mixing with the whisk saying, "I mixing, I mixing, I mixing waffles" she was so proud of herself and every now and then she would just let out this huge giggle/laugh type noise to let us now just how excited she was to be helping. She watched Neal pour the batter into the waffle maker and was in awe as she saw the steam coming out of the machine as the waffles were cooking. Just as the waffles were done Neal put a pile of 3 plates out next to the waffle maker and Sophie proceeded to unstack the plates and lay them all out side by side telling us whose plate was whose, she was very careful not to clank the plates too much or drop them, Neal however, was a little nervous watching our 2 year old handle ceramic plates!

Breakfast with Santa

Last Saturday we had breakfast with Santa at Skyebrook Golf Course with my Mom and Dad. Sophie actually stayed overnight with my parents Friday night and was staying with them again on Saturday night as well, but Neal and I made the 45 minute trip up to the Golf course for two reasons 1. so we could see Sophie sit on Santa's lap and not have to wait in line at the mall and then pay ridiculous prices for crappy pictures and 2. FREE breakfast...thanks Mom and Dad! Breakfast was great and Sophie got some quality one on one time with Santa, she wasn't too sure of him, she never appeared scared, just cautious. She could not stop talking about him after it was over though. It was a fun morning and what made it even more fun is that when breakfast was over, Neal and I got to go home.......childless! We did miss Sophie especially having been away from her since Friday we were anxious to go and pick her up on Sunday, but she had so much fun with her Papa and Gigi.

Girly Girl

Sophie loves getting her nails painted and anytime that she sees that I have painted my toes or fingers she insists that I paint hers too. However it is very interesting to try and get a two year old to sit still while A) you paint her nails and B) her nails dry. Finally I have perfected the art of painting her nails by only putting a thin layer of polish on her nails so that they dry in no time!

Recently, Sophie and I made a trip to Walgreens down the street because Mama needed a few various items one of which was eyeliner, low and behold the brand that I buy was having a buy one get one free off anything in the line, so I let Sophie pick out a new nail polish. Being the girly girl she is she headed straight for the clear polish with sparkles in it. She was so excited and had to hold the nail polish in the car on the way home and could not stop talking about how Mommy was going to paint her nails with the "sprinkles" as she was calling them. Time to paint. With it being the holidays I decided to get a little festive and paint her nails red first and then put the "sprinkle" polish over the top. Genius and super cute, right? Wrong.....more layers of polish only increasing drying time which increases time two year old has to sit still......FAIL! So, she only ended up with paint on her toes since she kept smudging her fingers, all in all though she was still pretty excited to have "sprinkles" on her toes.

Virgin Blogger

OK. So the time has come and I have jumped on the band wagon of the millions of bloggers out there. I so enjoy reading the blogs of my friends and thought well, I spend enough time on blogspot reading their blogs and then find myself slowly navigating my way through all my friends friends blogs. I thought that creating my own blog would be a much better use of my time rather than aimlessly wandering the blog pages of complete strangers! So here I am creating a blog about a day in the life of the wonderful Slimick family. This will hopefully create another way to keep family and friends in the loop with what is happening with us and our sweet precious girl Sophie Ann.