Flashback Friday and Thanksgiving

This FF is one of my favorites! She was almost 5 months old, and we were in Sears getting the tires rotated. I put them on for fun and snapped a picture. So cute!


















Yesterday was Sophie's first Thanksgiving. She's still a little young to know the full meaning of the day, but she's the living example of how significant the day is to us. We are so blessed and thankful to have her in our lives. We went to site for dinner and I made cupcakes. Here is a sampling of what I made.

Turkey cupcakes




























Red velvet football cupcakes and
Banana cupcakes with homemade Nutella buttercream frosting
with leaf sprinkles












Stripe cookies with chocolate-covered marshmallows
to look like pilgrim hats

Update

Grandma Mallory came to visit us last weekend, it was wonderful! That's the one downside to being on the road, being so far away from our families. That's the whole reason I started this blog. Plus it helps me write down all the cute stuff that happens so I won't forget. When Sophie is graduating high school we can look back and have these blog posts here to remind us how she used to be.
Anyway, Grandma, Sophie and I went to Universal Studios and had a great time. There were hardly any people on a Sunday and no lines for anything. Sophie met Dora the Explorer, Bart Simpson and was a total sweetheart. Of course, she has no idea who those characters are, but anyway...
















































































SO! Lots of stuff happened within the last week! Sophie is CRAWLING!
She is clapping and waving now too!
She is a pro at eating finger foods! She even uses her pincer grasp and puts them in her mouth herself! This is a HUGE milestone! Her favorite are the sweet potato puffs, green puffs and Cheerios. Here is a video of her eating a puff, then showing me it's "all gone!" [Note: make sure your sound is off, I may have squealed excitedly a little bit during the filming of this puff being demolished.]

A la plage

Today Sophie experienced the So Cal sand for the very first time! We had a lot of fun and she thoroughly enjoyed playing. Surprisingly, she did not attempt to have it for lunch. Here's a quick video and a few shots of her playing.

Happy 11 months, my love!

Halloween '09

Today was Sophie's first Halloween. A few days ago, we carved a pumpkin and roasted the seeds, which turned out yummy! It was the first time in the 11 years that Jim and I have been together that we've done this. It was very fun and I think we're going to continue the tradition!
This morning, we went to Kindermusik in Hollywood [www.littletreblemakers.net] where all the kids had their costumes on - except Sophie. Whoopsies! She did have a Halloweeney t-shirt on, and the costume she was going to wear is from the show, and would have required a bit of explaining.




























Then I brought the 112 mini cupcakes I baked and decorated to site where they held their Halloween party. I made four different kinds: mummy red velvet; spice with and without chocolate chips; cookies 'n cream with spider rings; and vanilla with ghost sprinkles.














































We trick-or-treated with the school and showed off how cute Sophie was. Her costume? The Innocent from our very own KOOZA.
























































About a week ago, I bought some material and a very nice and generous woman from wardrobe named Collette dyed, cut and sewed it together to make this beautiful garment. It was perfect. Plus, we paid her in cupcakes. We owe her some more.

And here's when they met for the first time. Stephan had no idea.




































Kooza had a separate party, and we took Sophie. I was dressed as a guilty prisoner and Jim was a judge. Get it?! Innocent? Guilty? Well, we had fun anyway!