Sophia's in a photo contest...

Sophia is in a Photo Contest!! She has the chance to win $2000 towards her education or other prizes.

You can access the voting gallery by clicking this link http://photocontest.babystages.ca/en/vote/vote.php and search for her photo by this number 140345.

If you have not voted yet you will have to put in your email address, then verify the email in your inbox. This prevents cheating and keeps the contest fair. You can only vote 1x per day, so keep this link handy. Feel free to pass along to anyone as Sophia has some catching up to do.

For those of you that are voting daily - THANK YOU!!!!

What we've been up to...

The past few weeks seemed to have flown by... I can't believe that April is almost here! Life is sooo busy!


A couple of weeks ago Adrian found out that he got a new position with MTS... Field Survey Tech. He's got 2 weeks of training then he's on his own! Because he's the only one doing this position, he will be working mostly days which means he'll be home evenings and weekends! Wooohoooo... Yay Daddy!


Last weekend we went to Grand Forks with our friends Doug and Angela and their little girl Alex. We stayed at the CanadInn's Destination Grand Forks Hotel. The kids and Daddy's had a blast in the water park. Shopping was quite the experience with a 5 year old and a 5 month old. Anika wanted EVERYTHING and Sophia HATES her car seat and stroller - or anything that buckles her in. By the end of the trip, Mommy was glad that she got the super big bottle of Gin rather than the smaller bottle that you are allowed to bring across duty free!!


This week I started a fitness boot camp. For any of you who wonder what that is... its HELL. (well not really but pretty close). My girlfriend Wendy called me a couple weeks ago and was telling me that she was going to join and wondered if I wanted to. I talked to Adrian and he said "sure if you want... or you could use that money and go to the spa for a full day!" Well the spa isn't going to help get me in shape so I decided to join. For anyone that is interested their webiste is www.sfbootcamps.com . Hell, I mean Boot Camp is 3x per week for 4 weeks. Its at 5:30 am. So if I thought I wasn't get much sleep before... I'm getting less now 3 days a week!! LOL - yes I'm a sucker for punishment! So I've got 2 classes under my belt and even tho my body is super sore, I feel fantastic when I'm done. Only 10 classes to go!!


Anika had a great Easter. The Easter Bunny visited us at the hotel and brought her Squackin' McCaw and some other goodies. Mommy and Daddy found Anika a couple of Hannah Montana t-shirts which she LOVED! If I'd let her wear them every day she would! When we got home, the Easter Bunny had left her an easter basket full of crafts, a new Webkinz, and chocolate eggs. She was sooo concerned that the Easter Bunny would skip her all together because we were going to be in the States! Next week is Spring Break. I've got to start looking around to see what kinds of things Anika, Sophia and I can do. Maybe a trip to the Forks, Children's Museum or even the Museum of Man and Nature would be fun!


Sophia turned 5 months old on Saturday. She's changing so much and is growing up so fast. She is rolling from back to belly and is sitting unassisted now. She gets so excited when her Daddy and Big Sister come in the room and will turn to look to see where their voice is if she can't see them!


These are a few pictures from Easter at Grandma's...

Sophia's 4 month appointment....

Drum roll please.............................................

Sophia weighs 16lbs 1oz

Sophia is 26" long

both are in the 90% for her age... she's doing wonderfully... big thighs and all! She had 2 needles, and just like last time the first one didn't bother her a bit, but the 2nd one made her bottom lip come out and she let out a good cry.

She is being refered to Dr. Becker - an allergist because of the shellfish problem. We aren't sure if he will take her so young. We might have to wait until she is 18 months for her to be tested. In the mean time we are avoiding all fish and shellfish. Its hard because you don't realize how much you like something and miss it until you can't have it. I dream of sushi... almost nightly!

Here is a picture of her today... This is by far my favorite picture of her :)

Children's Museum

On Sunday, Angie, Caden, Livia, Jack, Anika, Sophia and I went to the Children's Museum.

The kids had a blast! Here are a few pictures!
(pictures to come... apparently I'm having a problem uploading them to blogger)

Crazy Anika...

Anika and I were having fun the other night...

Sophia & Hailey

Sunday we popped by Shawn and Shirley so that the girls could meet Hailey. As excited as Anika was to find out she had a girl cousin that lived close by, when she saw how small she was, their dog was a little more fun! LOL...

Here's a picture of Sophia the Giant next to Iddy Biddy Hailey! Thankfully Sophia hasn't mastered the art of rolling over because she would have crushed little Hailey!

Sophia Laughing

After a zillion attempts of getting Sophia to laugh while the camera was running, we FINALLY got some footage!! Turn up your speakers, sit back and click here... its HILARIOUS!

I lost ANOTHER tooth!

On Thurday, February 28th, Gramma came over to babysit Sophia while Mommy went to do a big grocery shop while I was at school. Grampa came with Mommy to meet my bus. When I came in the house I showed Gramma my VERY VERY wiggly tooth! Gramma said "lemme see that tooth - how wiggly it is". So I let her wiggle it.... and she pulled it out!!!! AND... I didn't even know it!


So nearly a month after losing my first tooth in Mexico, I lost my second tooth. Gramma felt bad and gave me $5, and I guess my starring at Grampa with my bloody, toothy smile worked because he gave me $3... and the tooth fairy gave me $2. $10 total.. not bad for a tooth!


Here I am showing off my big space on the bottom :D

Happy March!

We are so glad to see February done! The weather was sooo cold, both Sophia and Mommy are sooo sick of being held hostage in the house. So we ordered up some nice weather, this past week and this weekend were beautiful. Sophia and I have started going for walks right after we put Anika on the school bus. We head home, grab the dogs and off we go. Its was sooo nice to see the sun out and get some fresh air! Now this week the weather is supposed to get cold again. I think I actually saw -29 on the weather channel for the end of the week. Bleh. Hopefully they are wrong and we can go back to having our walks - it does us and the dogs good.

Here are a couple of new pictures taken March 1st! By looking at the pictures, you'd think we have the baby that never smiles, but she's constantly is hamming it up until she sees the camera, then its "Serious Sophia". One new thing that she did this week was find her feet! Its definately a challenge for her to get her thick thighs up high enough to grab her toes but she has mastered it.

Anika and Sophia would like to introduce....

Their first GIRL cousin ~ HAILEY ANNE, on Sunday, February 24th @ 2:30am!! She weighed in at 6lbs 2oz and measured 20"!!

Anika is soooo excited to finally have a girl cousin that lives close by!

Congratulations, Uncle Shawn and Auntie Shirley...

she's soooo cute!!

4 MONTHS OLD!!

Wow... where is time going?? Sophia is FOUR MONTHS OLD!!

Everyone has asked what is new with Sophia, what is she doing now?? And she hadn't done anything UNTIL the day BEFORE she turned four months she rolled from her belly to her back. She probably would have done this much sooner, however I hadn't been giving her tummy time. No particular reason - just didn't want my baby to grow up too fast :( Now as soon as you put her on her belly she will flip right over unless something catches her eye. She is also starting to get her chubby little legs up under her belly and trying to push herself forward. Anika was crawling at 6 months... wonder if this one will as well???

Here are a few pictures of Sophia playing...

(click to enlarge)

On an Anika note - incase you are wondering why there hasn't been any photos of her... well she's been a little camera shy lately and doesn't ever want to get into the picture with her sisiter... hopefully soon Mommy can get a few of her and will post. Her 2nd wiggly tooth is holding on by a thread... should be coming out any day!!

Video Time...

Sophia has become such a little person in the last little bit that we've taken lots of video of her. Each passing day she does something new and these moments are flying by.

I'm going to get a little bit sentimental here, but when I was 6 months pregnant or so... I had a dream and saw my little girl in this dream. I thought to myself when I woke up in the morning that there is no possible way that the little baby girl that I saw, was the one I was going to hold in my arms because she had dark hair. She had this incredible smile that would melt your heart and the most beautiful eyes. When Sophia was born, I couldn't believe that God gave me a baby with dark hair.... was this her? Well, at 16 weeks I am 100% certain that the little baby that was in my dream is most definately the little girl that I cuddle every day. For those that have met her, you know how beautiful her eyes are and how her smile melts your heart. I can't imagine what life would be like without little Sophia. I'm soooo glad you made your way into our hearts and life my little monkey.... We love you to the moon and back!

Ok... here are a couple of video's of Sophia. The first one is Sophia and I playing and the second one is of Sophia eating cereal

Enjoy :)

Bath Time!!

Sophia loves her bath!!

Click on here to see a video of Sophia going to town in the bath...
(turn your speakers up as Anika and I have a little conversation that is priceless!!)

I'm 16 weeks old....

Sophia turned 16 weeks old this week. Where has the time gone? My little monkey has grown so much and is the happiest baby I've ever met. We thought Anika was a content baby... Sophia blows her out of the water. She doesn't make a peep unless she's talking away in her bouncer or giggling at her Daddy and Sister.

She has found her hands and loves to chew on anyones finger if you let her. We can see 2 little white marks on her gums so I'm sure she'll be sprouting up some little pearly whites in the next little while. She's dodged the flu so far, but has picked up pink eye over the past couple of days. We thought perhaps it was a blocked tear duct but no such luck. So hopefully she'll be on the mend in the next couple of days.

Vacation Time!!!!!!!!!

On January 19th we jumped on a plane and headed down south to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for our first vacation as a family of four! We couldn't have planned it at a better time, as the temperature dropped down to -37C the day we left and we heard that it got much colder than that the week we were gone. When we returned it was a balmy -18C, which was ok... at least it wasn't -40C!!

Anika had an incredible time at the resort swimming with her Daddy, spending the afternoon at the swim up bar in each of the pools, and making new friends. She met a couple of girls (Nicole and Ola) from Vancouver, and a boy (Jared) from New Jersey. She attended the Kids Club a couple of days and did some arts and crafts, swam, and went on the trampoline. We also spent some time with Mom and Dave and my Aunty Pat and Uncle Larry and their friends Sherry and Jack, down in Old Puerto Vallarta as they were down the same week as us. Sophie adapted to taking stroller naps - pool side in the shade. The sound of the ocean was wonderful and put her to sleep instantly!

We celebrated Daddy's 37th Birthday, Anika losing her first tooth, and Sophie turn 3 months on the trip. Mommy celebrated the fact that she didn't have to do laundry, clean, or cook for a whole 7 days!!! Yahoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone had a fantastic time. Sophie went swimming for the first time, and Mommy overheard her say she prefers the warmer weather!! We also think that poor Sophie has a developed an intollerance or allergy to shell fish. Her face gets all blotchy with hives and she had diahrea when ever Mommy eats Shrimp, Scallops or Mussels... but it wasn't until we got home that we put two and two together.... so we are staying away from anything fish until we can find out for sure!

We can't wait to do another trip next winter. We are talking with our good friends Doug, Angela and Alexandra about doing a trip with them (and who ever else wants to join in) next winter. It always fun to have other people to do things with, especially when the girls get along so well.

Here are the pictures from our trip... click on them to enlarge :)

Cheers!