Mountain vacation

Last week we went to the mountains and had a blast! We went snow tubing, creek wading, Comedy Barning,  Dixie Stampeding, and laid around and read books. Sophie made us some yummy chocolate chip cookies. The kids explored the woods by our cabin in their pajama's,,,(hey it's vacation).  Laura and I had a FULL day of shopping and Bart and Bert took the kids to the creek. That was our second trip to the creek that week, b/c I accidentally erased all the pics(snow tubing, picnic,creek wading) when I tried formatting my disk. WAHHHH.  The snow tubing was really cool unfortunately Sophie hated it. The bad thing was she didn't decide she hated it till we were to the to of the hill. We all took turns holding her and trying to persuade her but to no avail. So finally I just held her down w/ me and she screamed bloody murder the whole way down! I just knew DHR was gonna be at the bottom of the hill waiting for me. I don't think she even took a breath! Thankfully she didn't cause an avalanche or anything. Don't worry she recovered right away.   All in all we had a great week. 

Ski Bama!

So we had a blast on Martin Luther King day snow skiing in Mentone ALBAMER! We were such excellent, famous skiers that Fox news was there and we actually made it on TV. *don't blink or you might miss me!

The video

Sophie goes to 3K

Chillin w/ my Leapster before school.

All that and a bag of chips!

I think I like this teacher..

Yes, I do like my teacher!!

We had an exciting week in the Pierce household. Sophie's first day of 3K. I was never really intending to send her to preschool, but considering she is around older kids and adults all day long we thought it might be good for her. Well, we were right! She absolutely loves it. The cool thing is, she is going to the same 3k, 4k, 5k school her older siblings went to back in the day. She has the sweetest teacher and Sophie was so happy to make new friends. She only goes for a few hours twice a week. It is also nice to be able to homeschool the older kids w/ out so much distraction. As sweet as she is she is very busy and keeps us on our toes. lol. Here are a few pics from her first day.

Cold feet anyone?

I just loved these 2 pics! Time spent w/ dad is priceless! Bert love's to make up stories to tell the kids. They love to hear them b/c he always makes them the hero. I hope he knows he is OUR hero!

Christmas Baking 08

I wish I would have taken an "after" picture of the mess!! Thankfully the memories were priceless!!

Christmas Banquet 2008

We had our church Christmas Banquet this past Sunday. It was so fun! EG played the piano, read scripture, sang and mimed! Wow was she busy. Tyler played the drums. Micah and Sophie decided to sit this year out, but maybe next year they will give it a try.

2 year Gotcha!!

Yesterday was our 2 year gotcha day. I simply cannot believe it! The time has just flown.  It feels like we have always had Sophie, and I can't believe she spent the first 19 mos of her life w/ out us.

 We started yesterday morning laying in the bed and showing Sophie pictures of herself in the orphanage and the pictures of the day we came home w/ her. We talked about the day mommy and daddy came to get her in China.  I had the kids write letters to Sophie..of course this totally made me cry. Then we went to children's theatre. We let Sophie pick out where we should eat. She had a hard time picking between McDonalds and Chinese buffet, but the buffet won out in the end!  Sophie has grown leaps and bounds and is truly a joy in our lives.  She is definitely trying at times but nothing more so than any other 3 year old. She is such a little diva and everyone is constantly reminding me of how much I wanted a "girly" girl! She loves to change clothes constantly..loves shoes, loves to get her hair fixed.(like Amber's, or a braid like Lody) She can put her hair in a ponytail by herself.  She like's to change her name and have us call her Brooke, or Hannah or AntieRay. She is just too funny!  She loves to sass her older siblings and that really irritates them which makes her want to sass them all the more! I was really worried about what kind of letter's they were going to write to her! I told them they could be anything about Sophie (memories, poem etc.) lol.  I tried to take pictures of the letter's but they wouldn't show so I am going to type them. Grammatical errors and all.

Here is Tyler's:

2 things I remember the most about Sophie is that her hair was short and she was small. Now its hard for me to hold her without my arms breaking and me getting a mouthful of hair! I feel sad to know how fast she is growing.

Micah's: 

Dear Sophie to me you are a trophie       (omg I loved that  line)

you have shown me how to believe

and how to deceive                         (what!! lol she is a major trickster)

and may you have another great year.

EG's:

Sophie is the sweetest sister in the whole wide world. here are some memories of her

I remember Sophie always wanted mommy and never daddy, I remember how she did sign language, I remember how her first word was apple. but more importantly she needed love and care, so i think she got the perfect family in the whole wide world.

Hello Cupcakes

My friend Ashley bought this awesome cupcake book called Hello Cupcake. Well, being the experienced cake decorators that we are we got busy making some serious cupcakes. Every cupcake in this book is like a piece of art. Seriously, if I made something that looked that awesome, nobody better touch it..let alone eat it!!! But no need to worry we didn't make anything that came even slightly close to looking like anything in the book. I made the cupcakes and we had some awesome decorators! Look at all the sprinkles on Sophie's plate! They had more fun dumping out sprinkles than anything else!

Lucas will be ready for the action next year

14 years and counting...

Bert and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary the weekend of the 8th. My parents kept the kids at their house while we went to Chattanooga for the weekend. We had so much fun! I took so many books and I enjoyed catching up on my reading. The scenery was awesome! Our cabin was way up high in the mountains and the view was phenomenal. Check out the 2nd picture in my post. Bert actually woke me up at 2:00AM to show me that picture! He had so much fun taking pictures. We ate at Aretha Frankensteins on Friday night. Saturday we just chilled at the cabin most of the day and then went to the mystery dinner theatre that evening. Sunday we went on a fall lunch cruise on the river. We werent supposed to go pick up the kids until Monday but we decided to surprise them by showing up a day early. The older kids weren't that excited(go figure) but Sophie was thrilled to see us. I soooo appreciate my parents keeping the children and letting us have time together. We had a blast and I am so thankful for the wonderful husband God has blessed me with! (yes, babe I ended that sentence w/ a preposition just for you)!