1 Year Old!!!

On noes! I'm officially the mom of a toddler! Ahh! Sophia turned the big ONE!! I am so proud of my big girl! Once again, she continues to awe and amaze me every single day!

I swear just even looking at her, she looks so much older. She's not my "baby" anymore. But I am so excited to see what a beautiful, smart, big girl she's turning out to be! 

(getting into trouble)

This month we took her for her 12 month check-up and found out that she is 30 inches tall, and 18 lbs! Yay! Now just two more pounds to go and we can turn her carseat around!

(doing circles around the house)

She has also mastered the art of walking, and now practically runs around the house. She also really loves to climb, anything and everything that she can. She's also become more interested in books and likes to look through pictures, and SOMETIMES have me read to her, instead of her past of just wanting to eat them. Haha.

She had a highly successful, wonderful first birthday party! I spent the whole week prior stressing, and spent an entire day/night making homemade cupcakes, and my help got there a little late so decorations weren't completely up by the time people started to arrive, but it turned out great! There were an unfortunate few that weren't able to make it, but I was so glad that so much family was able to share it with us, and I want to say that it was the first time since our wedding that both families were together, so that was nice too :) My dad was even able to come!

(swinging at her birthday party)

She had a blast! She loves the mac n' cheese that we had, and all of her necklaces, and loved getting to swing on the swings next to her cousin, Nathaniel. 

(opening presents)

She didn't really seem too excited about opening presents, but I'm sure that will definitely stop by the time her second birthday comes around! She got some super cute new outfits, a water table, a rideable train, diapers, books, a popper, a shopping cart and a tent! (Sorry if I forgot anything!) And she's used and loved everything so far except the water table (because of time, and our weird Florida weather) but we'll get there!

She was seriously the cleanest birthday baby I've ever seen. I had a spare outfit, a giant towel, and LOTS of wipes ready because I'd seen all of the pictures of everyone's kids that were just COVERED with cake. I tossed even giving her one around back and forth for a while because I was concerned about her having the sugar (I keep her on a pretty healthy diet) but decided that it was her birthday and she deserved a shot at cupcake. 

But instead of crushing the cake and making a HUGE mess, she took the cupcake and just stuck it to her mouth, where she then proceeded to simply lick/suck the icing off of the cake. After she'd finished all of the icing, I thought for sure that the cake was going to be thrown aside or mushed, but she did in fact eat 90% of the cupcake too! 

What you see here is the extent of the cupcake mess, which was confined to her hands, bib and face. Pretty impressive, I think! Then I worried about "oh god, all that sugar, she's going to be such a handful!" Nope, not my perfectly amazing daughter. My kid went right to sleep and took a two hour nap! Man I got lucky or did something right!

(hating aging! lol)

This year has gone by way too fast! And I'm sure that the next year will too! I'm just so grateful that I got to be here to see it all happen and that I was able to document so much of it through pictures and video. I know that I will be so happy that we did when I go back through the years and reminisce. 

A very big, Happy First Birthday to the love of my life, Sophia!

My baby is a big girl..

When did my baby become such a big girl? I don't understand!

Happy New Years!

Okay, so I'm not one to really make a new year's resolution because those never seem to really work. However, I do like to try and set goals for the year! So this year's goals are:

• Grow a vegetable garden
• Trade out the car for a mini-van
• Craft more
• Learn a new language, and polish up my German
• Get pregnant with our second child
• Learn to cook food from Calabria
• Post more on the blog
• Sell more Thirty-One
• Take more family pictures
• Catch up on scrapbooking
• Get a king sized bed
• Sing more & record some
• Research more genealogy
• Finish planning the Eissmann family reunion
• Rekindle relationships
• Keep a jar of the good things that happen this year to look back on at the end of the year

11 Months

Seriously! I know that I say this every time, but what the heck!? Sophia is 11 months already (well...2 weeks from one year!) and I don't know where it went! 

So much has happened this month! She went to her first Christmas parade (both Mims and Titusville!)

She got to help decorate her first Christmas tree! And celebrate her first Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, she learned to walk! All by herself! She took 7 whole steps!! I literally almost cried. 

Then the day after Christmas, she learned to climb up stairs, and then the next day she learned how to WALK back down them! Insane!

Her weight before we left for the trip was 17 lbs. 2.5 oz. 

She learned to shake her head no when you ask her a question and most of the time it's only when she does in fact mean "no." She waves when you tell her to say "hi." She says "oof oof!" when she sees a dog or hears one bark! She claps when you congratulate her. She laughs when she burps. She also has this new like awkward moments laugh that is simply hilarious! And she pouts her lips when I put on Chapstick so that she can get some too! How cute is that!?

Seriously she's growing up so fast! She doesn't even look like my little baby anymore! Now she's this little big girl that is growing and turning into a toddler before my very eyes! I just can't believe that in a few short weeks that she's going to celebrate her first birthday! It just blows my mind! Good god I love that kid so much! 

Oops and I forgot to mention that she's got 6 full teeth, and snuggles her babydoll like it's a little person. :) Cute!

Pocock Christmas 2012

On to Christmas, Round 2! :) Since we were out of the country for Christmas as well as other members of our Pocock family that had been traveling for the holidays, we waited to celebrate the Pocock Christmas until we came back! So the day after we returned from our trip we got up nice and early and headed to my inlaws' for round 2! :) 

This year marked the first Christmas not only for Sophia, but also for her cousins, Nathan and Delaina! :) Yay! They all looked so cute in their little Santa hats that Grandmommy got them. 

The kids opened their presents and we all ate. 

And Aunt Elizabeth made all of the kids these super cute super hero capes!! They all looked absolutely adorable!! 

Then all of the kids went out to the back yard to play for a while. It was a beautiful day out!

(all of the kids/spouses)

Unfortunately, that was the start of my getting sick, so we ended up leaving a little before everyone else, but it was wonderful to get together with everyone and let all of the kids play together! :) Christmas #2 was definitely successful! 

McDaniel Christmas 2012

This past December marked Sophia's very first Christmas! We were very lucky to have at least my family together for the holidays, and even moreso to be in Canada for a cold and lightly white Christmas! It felt like something out of a movie. 

It started out by us waking up bright and early and gathering for breakfast. After breakfast we grabbed one of the presents for Sophia from under the tree to let her open that morning so that she'd have something (new) other than the same toys she'd been playing with in the car for the whole trip. 

(Daddy giving her hair static from the blanket)

The rest of the afternoon was a pretty lazy, relaxing one. Auntie Vinn said the girls had had all of the food planned and that we were not to do anything. So after a few hours of chasing Sophia around, I put her down for a nap, and David and my siblings took a walk down to an old Indian burial mound. 

A few hours later the rest of the family started to arrive. :) It's been 9 years since we'd last seen the majority of them, so it was really nice to see everyone! 

Sophia sort of made friends with my cousin's 2 year old son, Aaron. That is until he tried to take out both of her beautiful blue eyes with his fingers! :( 

We had all sorts of yummy desserts including yummy little cheesecakes that my cousin made, and of course the rum & khalua balls that I made, and pizzelle's that David and I made, and the yummy snickerdoodles and smores cookies that Renee and I made. Yum!

Sophia ended up with way more presents than we'd imagined! David and I had brought up all of our presents for her so that she'd have some to open and as it turns out, all of our family up there supplied gifts as well! My cousin Charmane was the most excited though because all of their children are boys and she's been dying to spoil a little girl!

It was honestly the best Christmas I could've asked for. It was the perfect first Christmas for Sophia, and honestly the most stress free Christmas that I've had in a LONG time, which I think that we all REALLY needed. I am definitely going to miss all of them. I really wish it was easier to get together for often, but am so grateful for the trip that we had and the time that we DID get to spend with them. I really hope that everyone else had a wonderful Christmas as well!

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