Sophie is 3!

Happy Birthday Sophie!

I can hardly believe how fast it goes by. It seems like it wasn't long ago Sophie was Annabelle's size. She has such a wonderful personality, as she always has. She is full of life, very dramatic, joyful, opinionated, sweet, and of course I could go on. Here are a few things she loves at age 3:

• She loves food; when she eats she often closes her eyes and rubs her belly. She then says, "I lub [butter], it is so yummy for me." Besides butter that sentence often includes peppers, mayonnaise, sprinkle dip (ranch dressing), sandwiches (that have cheese, ham, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, etc. on them), and chocolate.
• She loves to cut up paper, use sticky tape and paint, and create all kinds of things.
• She loves playing with her dollys and her duplo house and people.
• She loves animals; she has stuffed animals that all have names like our family (e.g. Daddy kitty, Mommy kitty, Eddie kitty, etc.). When we pass dogs on the street she always wants to pet them, and she has a special cat that she calls "friendily kitty" that comes to the door step and lets her pet it.

• She loves ballet and has just started gymnastics and likes that as well.

• She loves her big brother Edison and playing with him. She is a really sweet big sister and likes to hold Annabelle and make her smile. She's still a Daddy's girl - always so excited to see him come in the door.

Here are a some more of my favorite pictures of her from the last few months:

We love you Sophie, Happy Birthday!

Leaving darkness behind

The winters are really dark here. The last couple weeks before Christmas break it was dark before I got Edison home from after school football at about 4:30. So with few hours of daylight, and those hours cloudy, when we were offered a look at a time share in southern Spain we couldn't pass it up. So between Christmas and the New Year we headed down to Costa del Sol. It was so wonderful to have a chance to relax and soak up some sun. The forecast was for rain, but we had the best of luck! And yes, we were able to hold strong and say no to the timeshare salesman.

They're always happy at the beach

Annabelle's first time swimming!

Rock of Gibraltar - notice the crosswind and downpour of rain

The sun coming out as we park our 9 passenger van (it was the smallest they had that would fit all six of us). Andy drove this thing not only all over Spanish roads and up mountains, but all around the rock of Gibraltar on tiny roads with monkeys jumping on the roof. (and no, the scrape on the front is not from us)

Edison pointing to Africa from the pillars of Hercules on the Rock of Gibraltar

Cheeky monkeys eating the chips they stole from Edison

Sophie loved the monkeys anyway

with monkeys at the Moorish castle

"New Bridge" in Ronda

view from the bridge

Ronda - still decorated for Christmas

Ronda Billring - one of the oldest in spain (sadly was closed)

another airport hallway

We had a great vacation, and a nice relaxing New Year after getting home. Andy has since bought me the goLITE to make me think there is some sunshine here :-) and the days are already starting to get longer. By some miracle it was sunny on my Birthday too!