Muffin Tin Monday ABC & 123

We haven't abandoned MTM totally, but it has been a while since I've posted anything. This weeks theme was ABC & 123. I had fun planning this one for Ellen and she had a lot of fun eating it.


Top row: Applesauce, Butter Bread, Cheese (ABC's)
Bottom row: 1 Apple slice, 2 Broccoli stems, 3 Chicken Nuggets (123's)

For more MTM ideas check out www.muffintinmom.com

Way too big

Can this really be happening?

I guess it's official! Sophia is pulling up. This morning Tim went into her room and found her standing up in her bed. Then, this afternoon, she was standing up at the back door looking outside with Ellen.

The Girls

Just a fun pic of us girls today!

Latest Projects

Ellen is on the letter "M" this week. We have learned our verse and re-visited the book If You Give a Moose a Muffin. After we read the book we made Triple Berry Muffins. Ellen gets so excited when we do little things like this.

*If you can't read the verse, it says..."Make a joyful noise unto God." Ps. 66:1

We have been making a lot of joyful noises this week with her instruments! Sophia is even getting in on the music making.

I wanted to share Ellen's most recent family portrait.

First Big Girl Bike Ride

We have had some amazing January weather! This past week we let Ellen get out and try riding her big girl bike that she got for Christmas. She is a natural! She is going to have a blast this spring and summer.

I don't have pictures of it, but Sophia enjoyed riding in the stroller just about as much as Ellen did riding her bike. Sophia would just bounce up and down and clap her hands as we went down the street.

By the way, we will get Ellen a helmet when the spring time rolls around. This helmet stuff is all new to me. (I mean, we all survived our crashes didn't we?) :)

9 Months

Well, another month has come and Sophia is now 9 months old. She is crawling (she started around Thanksgiving) all over the place and she's pretty quick. It has helped her relax so much now that she can crawl. She would get so frustrated about not being able to get to where she wanted to go.

She has cut her first tooth!!! She was working on it pretty hard over the Christmas break (sorry to everyone who had to go through that) but it finally made its appearance within the last couple of days.

She wants to pull up on stuff but isn't too sure how that all works. She did manage to pull herself up to the coffee table the other day, but didn't know what to do once she got there. I have a feeling she is going to have a few more bumps and bruises than Ellen did. Ellen was so careful about everything and Sophia just goes for it full force! As I write this she is trying to climb the chair into my lap!!!

Sophia has turned a huge corner! We were having such a hard time getting her to take naps during the day. She would only sleep for 45 minutes at a time and was terribly cranky. Now, she's taking a good morning nap and a great afternoon nap. So, both girls are down at the same time in the afternoon and I'm able to get some things done. I makes my day go so much smoother now that she's on a schedule. If you know me at all I LIKE MY SCHEDULE!

Sophia's diet is expanding. She has started eating soft finger foods and loves it. I haven't found a food that she doesn't like.

Now on to Ellen. Ellen is such a great big sister. She helps me know where Sophia is and what she's doing. : ) She'll call Sophia to her room and will let her play with her toys. It is so sweet to see them playing together. Ellen will ask me if she can share her things with her sister. I love it!

Ellen has learned how to write her first name and is working on her last name. She wants to know how to spell everything and is learning the beginning sounds of lots of words. We still do little activities during the week and we cook every once in a while too. Now that Sophia is napping in the morning we are able to do a little more.

Ellen has been doing gymnastics since the fall and she is getting much better. She really enjoys going and is learning a lot. She likes to practice in the living room for whoever is willing to watch. Ellen LOVES dancing and singing. Everything she does is done to some type of movement or song. She's quite the little entertainer...I don't know where that comes from : )


Here are Sophia's 9 month pictures. As you can see, getting the picture was a little harder this time.

I couldn't find a 9 month KU picture of Ellen so I found another to compare with.

Snowman

Boy oh boy did we get some snow here in Bolivar. The schools were canceled on Monday, Thursday and Friday. Ellen wanted to get out and build a snowman so bad, but it was too darn cold. The wind was the biggest problem. It finally warmed up this week and the snow started to melt quickly. So, Tim and Ellen made a quick snowman in the front yard. It was the only place left with snow because of the shadow of the house.


Ellen and Tim getting started on the snowman


Proof of how little snow was left



Ellen (making a weird face), Tim, & the snowman. I must tell you that the snowman was according to specific directions from Ellen.



The snowman in all his glory. I don't think it lasted a day. : )

Valentine's Day

I recently posted some new Valentine's Day bows on my blog. Check it out. I've been busy making them for 3 ladies that work with Tim.

Backwards

I know I haven't posted in a while and the purpose of a blog is to show the most recent post, but I had to play catch-up so the next few posts are backwards. Sorry about that.

Christmas at the Jenkerson's

We spent the second part of our break at my mom and dad's house. We got in on Monday afternoon and celebrated after Dustin's basketball game.

What a pretty tree!

Nana and Papa gave the girls one of the recordable books of "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

It's a really neat book. Mom and Dad recorded themselves reading the story and it reads it by itself. Ellen loved it!

Ellen got some new bedding and a rug for her room. I'll post a picture of that later.

Dad got a phone! Hold on to your hats folks...He thought it was a joke at first!


This is totally unrelated to Christmas but it was too cute to pass up.

Nana and her girls!

Lindsay and Ellen playing Pretty Pretty Princess.

Goodies

Grandma Jane has this awesome cabinet full of toys for the girls to play with. The great thing about this cabinet is that the toys belonged to Tim and his siblings when they were kids.

Dress shopping

Kristi and Bryan are getting married in May, so the girls went dress shopping the day after Christmas. While I would love to show more pictures of our day, I don't want to give anything away. Kristi tried on several dresses and Gina and I tried on a couple of brides maid dresses too. Ellen got a little sad that she didn't get to try on any so I went and found the biggest flower girl dress (yes, she's the flower girl) that they had. She loved it! Well, I think loved is an understatement. It totally made her day. This may not be the dress she ends up wearing, but she had a lot of fun trying it on anyway.

YOU GOTTA GET UP! IT'S CHRISTMAS AFTERNOON!

We had an interesting start to our Christmas morning...that's all that needs to be said about that!

Ellen and Sophia opening the first gifts of Christmas. Ellen got Sophia a new teething toy and a pink rubber ducky.



Sophia got Ellen some new lip glosses.

Ellen was such a helper and Tim got the outdoor gloves that he was wanting.

Sophia and Uncle Justin

Ellen got lots of Princess stuff. Here she's showing off her new coloring book.


She also got this super cute bath robe.

Charlie entered the group of "man" gifts this year. He never understood why Tim always asked for tools, so this was a first for him!

The big moment...We had Ellen close her eyes while we brought the bike in.

She knew just what to do. She hopped on like she's been riding a big bike for years. She said, "This is so AMAZING!" That made it totally worth it. The only trouble she had was she kept pushing the peddles backwards and it would break. On her tricycle she could peddle forward and backward.

I believe this is another viewing of Robbin Hood.