The Adventures of Sophie, Lauchlan, Katie and Steph: Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year to you all

This was Sophie's second Christmas and she was in no mood to miss out on all the fun - she kicked off the party season in style showing off her dancing and musical statues skills.

Check it out

Sophie rocking musical statues, Olivia and Sam in the background

Sam, Sophie and Olivia

The butler at the party was realy helpful

Sam, Sophie, Olivia and Alexander

Lauchlan was determined not to miss out on the fun

A very proud Mum taught her everything she knows about partying.

Before Christmas we also got to visit Uncle Paul and Auntie Nicole who had a wee party at theirs to see everyone before they flew over to spend the festive season in Belgium.

Sophie and Mum went to the shops one day with Lauchlan and found there to be tons of Christmas things going on - Santa had even parked his sleigh whilst he popped into Nando's for a quick lunch.

Sophie hopped in to take his seat but couldn't get the reindeers started.

As part of Sophie and Mum's trip to the shops they also got to meet one of Sophie's favourite cartoon characters - the accident prone, clumsy, fire marshall (called Marshall) from Paw Patrol. Sophie was way more excited than the photo suggests.

Sophie loves playing wih her brother and even had him come and try out her bed (soon to be his).

All fun and games until....

Someone does a poo....

Lauchlan continues to surprise us with his smiley, calm nature during the day and then sheer noise and tears during the evening. Only joking he has got a lot better and actually we have let him off because he actually got a tooth at the start of the month and we believe he has another one on the way. Besides - with a wee face like this you can't be annoyed at him for making a bit of noise.

Part of Sophie's Christmas experience this year was going to be moving into a new bedroom - this had been discussed a lot in advance and was referred to as "My Princess bedroom". I think Sophie and Mummy had been hatching a plot behind Daddy's back to make sure he was kept busy in the run up to Christmas.

Not only did the entire room need repainting - a room that Daddy had painted in the summer I may add. But a bed needed built, a new custom built wardrobe needed painted, shelves needed put up and there was the (not so ) small matter of a doll's house that required to be built before Christmas day.

Needless to say it was all done with time to spare - so Sophie and Daddy headed out to walk around the neighbourhood to spread some Christmas cheer and to check out everyone's Christmas lights. Sophie was actually loaded with the cold and we wanted to perk her up a wee bit and get her some fresh air.

When Daddy got home and Sophie went to bed - Daddy put together the finishing touches to the "Princess bedroom " - I was wrapping the doll's house at 11pm and can you believe that a friend of Katie's actually critiqued (questioned) my wrapping skills!?!?!

So the scene was all set and Santa came down the chimney with all the presents for Lauchlan and Sophie - Sophie had asked Santa for a Police Car (randomly) so she got one of those and a couple of other things before reading the note above Santa's head that said something like:

"Well done Sophie, what a year, Mummy and Daddy are so proud of you for being such a great big sister. Now for your big Christmas surprise, go up to the spare room, you won't believe your eyes!"

"Chase is on the case! (Paw Patrol)"

Sophie got a great present from Gran and Grandad and was keen to showcase her talents

After all the excitement of Christmas day and Boxing Day we headed down to Carradale for a wee visit before returning home for New Year.

Lauchlan charmed the checkouts in Tesco

Sophie ate her lunch at Gran's on her own

Lauchlan slept for a while

Then stopped Gran eating her lovely soup

Sophie tried out her scooter (she did actually get on it)

And then Mummy said - shall we go and give baby Amber a carrot? And Sophie said yes! When we got there though Sophie said "I want to ride her" - and so she did! Thanks to Louise and Leah once again for being so kind.

We then took a long walk home and went out for a nice dinner together - they even had gluten free fish and chips!

When we got home we had a lot of fun bouncing about on the beds and building dens before bathtime

before we left the Holiday house - it was important to visit as many relatives as we could and it is always a pleasure to pop down and see Auntie Margaret - it was Lauchlan's firt visit so the attention was all on him. Sophie and I went outside and watched the fishing boats come in and we were really lucky to see a seal in the sea! Meanwhile Lauchlan was trying to catch Auntie Margaret ;o)

Tiring work all this fun -

And then we were home and in the run up to New Year we decided that Sophie was also ready for taking on the potty - we have been using it and talking about it for months but the nappies are now off and we are going for it - Sophie is as always being an absolute star about the whole thing.