Sophie at 4 years old

Our Sophia Elaine turned 4 years old in March.  Due to the crazy that is our daily life, I'm just now writing about her. We had a great time taking pictures with Sandy, our photographer.  I took Sophie to have pictures taken by herself, and Dan stayed home with Grant.  It was special that it was just Sophie and I.  

 

Love this girl

My favorite! The grass matches her hair!

Those eyes...

We had fun on the tire swing!

Gone Fishin'

She definitely turned on the cheese!

Sophie is a smart girl.  She is still attending school at a daycare at the church in downtown Orlando.  She loves her teacher Miss Tanya, and she has a lot of friends in her class.  She has learned how to write her entire name.  Counting to 20 is now a breeze for her.  She thinks she can count to 100, and she tries, but she skips around missing the 60's, 70's and 80's entirely.  Sophie has participated in ballet at school as well as a program that teaches her about sports.  Running is one of her pastimes.  If she could quote Forrest Gump, she would, and she would say, "If I was going somewhere, I was running!"  I swear, she runs everywhere.  Running from room to room in the house is her favorite.  The girl does not walk.  It's funny to picture in your head what it might look like if no one walked... 

Sophie is a tall and skinny girl.  Consuming food is not a priority for her. When she does decide to eat, some of her favorites are pizza, hamburgers, Grandma's baked ziti, macaroni and cheese, granola bars, and pop tarts.  Chocolate milk is a favorite drink of hers, but has recently discovered hot chocolate and enjoys it during a tea party.

She has beautiful dirty blonde curly hair, big hazel eyes, and a smile that can melt your heart.  Most people still say she looks like Dan and I would agree.  Sometimes I get the comment that she looks like me, but I know they must not know what my husband looks like...

Sophie still loves being tickled.  She asks to be tickled a lot, just not as much as she used to.  I never knew anyone who liked to be tickled.  To most, its torture, but not to this girl.  She gets to laughing so hard that she gets the hiccups in 2 seconds!  And she still asks for more!

I wish I could remember all of the funny things she says.  Here are a few that have stuck with me:

"When I grow up and get married, they have to have good hair.  I'll marry Daddy, he has nice hair."

"I had a wis-gust (disgust) day"  In reference to her day at school and characters from the movie Inside Out

"I just been kidding!"

"Mommy/Daddy?  I just love you"


Sophie had a wonderful party with her friends and family for her birthday.  She loves watching the Lion Guard on Disney Junior, so that was our theme.  For those of you who aren't familiar, its a version of the Lion King, sort of...  We had planned on having her party at the park again, as we did in years past, but it started raining that morning.  We scrambled and whipped up an in home party right away.  Dan contacted all of our guests while I worked on some form of entertainment.  How about a clown?  Nah, too scary.  A magician? Nope, not good enough.  So, I settled on a face painter.  I started calling these poor souls at 7am, apologizing to each person for calling so early in the morning. I actually found someone to paint faces at the last minute!  Thank goodness, the kids loved it!!  Sophie and her friends enjoyed getting their faces painted, eating hamburgers, hot dogs and cake, opening the piñata, and destroying her room.  I think she really enjoyed her day.

Sophie with her favorite character, Fuli, a cheetah



A funny family

Fun with friends

Birthday cheetah



Cheetah Merida.  I mean princess. Princess Merida!!

Sophie and Sloane

Make a wish...

Elaine was here to help us celebrate the birthday!  Thank goodness she could help us take care of the kids and enjoy some adult time as well.  We had a nice dinner together, sans kiddos.

Elaine and Dan

She managed to spend plenty of time with the kids as well!

Grandma and Grandpa Swartz were able to make it down to celebrate Sophie's birthday and few days early.  What a lucky girl!  Celebrating her birthday all month long!  It was a good visit, they were able to celebrate right along side of Sophie since their birthdays are in March as well.  Any excuse for a yummy Publix cake is good enough for me!

 

It was great having Grandma and Grandpa in town to visit and celebrate!  Come to find out, they want to live in Florida with us!  It was just a matter of time from this point until the day came that they would move down to Florida forever.  Check back for a look at their new house...

Love,
The Yorks