Sophia's First Christmas

Sophia had a wonderful first Christmas! It feels like we have just celebrated twelve days of Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Jared's family. The festivities included a birthday party for Jesus, complete with pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and a birthday cake. Then the following night, we celebrated at Papa Nourse's house where we enjoyed yummy pot roast and lots of presents. Later that evening, Jared, Sophia and I celebrated our first Christmas as a family in our cozy little home. Wednesday was spent lounging and resting, until we met up with my family that night. Andy and Shannon flew in from Providence, Ben and Ariel drove from Tennessee, Shinae and Josh came from Maple Grove and we all camped out at Mom and Dad's. The next few days were filled with delicious food, movies, naps, shopping, games, mitten-making, socializing, and lots of fun. It was one of the best weeks I've had all year.


Sophia has been growing and developing so fast! During the past week, she has become quite the little chatterbox. She will carry on a long babble, with anyone willing to babble back. Also, she is able to sit up on her own if we prop her up on the couch. (Meaning she doesn't fall over immediately. She can hold herself in an upright position.) I believe she is beginning to teeth already too. She will gnaw on anything, and drool runs from her mouth like a trickling stream. Along those lines, she is beginning to find her mouth on her own. If we put anything in her hands, she will firmly grasp it, and shove it toward her mouth. Over the past few days, she was able to hold a bottle up on her own, hold in her teething toy, and successfully get her nuk in her mouth without help (only once though)!

Dinner with the Crazies

We went

Happy Feet

I just couldn't resist....

Christmas with Grandma Gussy

Jared, Sophia and I headed to Grandma Gussy's annual Christmas party at the nursing home this week. We were joined by Gary and Nathan. This was the first time Sophia met her great grandma. Grandma Gussy is Jared's maternal grandma (Jan's mom). She has been suffering from Alzheimer's for several years now, and is pretty far gone. God has blessed her with a childlike mind in her illness, and she is in a good mood most of the time. (I know sometimes Alzheimer's patients become very cranky.) Anyways, an evening with Grandma always proves to be entertaining. Here is a snippet of a typical conversation...

Nathan: "Do you like your food, Grandma?"
Grandma, pointing her fork at Nathan accusingly, barks: "RED!" (Then she giggles)
Nathan: "What? Where is red? Here on my shirt?" (Pointing to his shirt)
Grandma: "Ooooooh! Where did you get him?"
Nathan: "Well, the red is stuck to me. It is on my shirt."
Grandma: "That's a baby."
Nathan: "There is a stripe of red across my shirt. See?"
Jared: "Nathan! 'Red' is looooong gone!"

One of the funniest memories from this evening was when Gary was praying. Grandma was eyeing his plate and caught site of a delicious pile of red cranberries. All of a sudden, her fork started meandering towards it, and she stole a huge forkful of his cranberries and munched happily on them during the remainder of the prayer. Then she smiled, almost as if she was pleased at how sneaky she had been. It was hilarious!











Nate and Grandma











Sophie and her daddy










I love this man so much. He's my honey.









Papa Nourse











Nathan! Steely blue eyes.










Nourse Family photo













Grandma Gussy and great-grand daughter Sophia











Jared and babe by the tree









Mommy and her little angel












Christmas party with Grandma Gussy

Sophia Smiles

My little angel has been Little Miss Smileypants this week! It is getting easier to capture these precious moments on film now too, since she smiles at us so often. Her smile is just so dang cute, I had to share. I can't believe how fast she is growing. She is almost three months old now. Wow, that went by quickly.

Santa Baby

My Growing Girl

Sophia is growing so fast. I cannot believe how quickly the time is flying by. She weighs nearly 12 lbs now. She is filling out beautifully and has very plump, squishable, kissable, fat cheeks. She is also getting so loooong. She is growing out of clothes faster than I can keep up with. Some outfits that she wore for the first time two weeks ago, are now waaaay too small. I tried to squeeze her into a sleeper yesterday that she had only worn once, but her legs were bowing because the sleeper was so small.

Sophie has become quite the little smiley girl. She smiles at almost anyone who gets in her face and talks to her. She also smiles when she recognizes a voice. This weekend she was smiling big for Papar and Marm, and Papa Nourse when she heard them talking to her! Right after she is done nursing is when she flashes her biggest smile at mommy. And she always welcomes daddy home with a pretty smile. Luckily, we have been able to capture some of these smiles on the camcorder! It will be fun to look back at the video someday.

Sophia is becoming more attentive to her surroundings. She loves to lay on her back and bobble her head from side to side looking at everything in the room. We put up some Christmas lights in the living room and she is just intrigued by them! I can't wait until we put up the whole tree. We are very excited to celebrate our first Christmas with our beautiful daughter.

Roadside Assistance

Last night, I was driving home from Hudson (about a 45 minute drive), and was perfectly exhausted. I had a very long, busy day. About half way home, Sophia suddenly started wailing. She has been sick for the past two weeks, and has been having difficulty breathing through all the snot. I was absolutely not in the mood to listen to her sob the whole way home, so I pulled off at the nearest exit, put her nuk back in her mouth and promised her everything would be okay. Off we went. About a mile down the road, the nuk flew out and another round of wailing came with it. Again, I pulled off on the upcoming exit to calm her. At this point, I was already getting frustrated, because I did not want to stop at every exit between Maplewood and Hugo. When the car came to a stop, I suddenly remembered that I do not need to do this alone. I laid my hand on Sophia's head and prayed. I asked God to calm her and bring comfort to her little body. I asked God to take away her sickness and help her to breath easy, so she could get the rest she needs.

She slept the whole way home.

What an amazing God we serve. So many times, He is waiting to help me-- waiting for me to remember to ask. But so many times, I don't. So many times, I forget. I have been learning so much about God, and so much about myself since becoming a mother. I am more and more in awe of Him with each passing day.