Hap"BEE" Halloween!

Sophia loved her first trick or treat! Once she got the hang of it she loved it. She came home and emptied all her loot for mimi and popop and then took a sampling of everything :) Her and Winston were the cutest bees ever!

We're ba-ack!

Hi everyone! Long time no blog huh? Summer has been busy for us and has forced us away from the laptop and outside (I know this is so not like me! LOL). Sophia is now 22 1/2 months old and we have been a family for 10 months! Honestly the time has just flown by!!! Allthough we haven't updated our blog we try to check in on all of you as much as we can!

So what has Sophia been up to?

Sophia had a 1st and 2nd combined BIRTHDAY party! Since Sophia was in the orphanage for her first birthday and her 2nd birthday is the beginning of November we threw one huge party! 60+ people.

I love CAKE! Bounce house!

The theme was Poodle's in Paris and mommy was in heaven planning this party! Kept her very busy! mommy and daddy bought a bounce house for 13 kids most under the age of 3 to bounce their little hearts out. Of course, we had it in September to utilize the outdoors and guess what? You guessed it - - HURRICANE rains rolled through but good news is we had about 2 hours of the party we opened up the backyard and bounce housed it up! Sophia had a blast. She got tons of new toys, a doll house, a vanity, an easel, a kitchen, little people, clothes, food for her kitchen, doll baby strollers and babies, art stuff.... She woke up the next morning and was like - WOW this really did happen??? It wasn't a dream!

Doll house she loves it's fisher price twin house and it is sooo cute, she plays with this for hours on end!

aunt keri and uncle bo bought her a princess talking vanity. This was a hit. it talks and tells her how beautiful she is, how great the color looks on her , like daily affirmations- - my question is how can I get one of these??? I need this while getting ready in the morning!! It is really cute.

Sophia got a new kitchen which has proved the best investment yet - she plays with this for hours and allows mommy to get some cooking of her own done! Mommy puts real ice cubes in the cups and I think I'm hot stuff!

Sophia has hit the party circuit - attending 3 birthdays (not including her own) each weekend since the beginning of September.
Sophia and Robert - trying to get these two to sit still for a second was near impossible but they loved Robert's elmo couch!!!

Yeah folks this is how we roll!! Out hello kitty sunglasses we refused to take off - even napped in them for Maggie's 3rd bday

Thank you Mr Josh and Miss Michelle for this gorgeous little number I wore to party #3!

Sophia went to her first amusement park - Dutch Wonderrland and loved it! It was HOT, very HOT, she rode a pony for the first time!

Sophia peed on the potty for the first time (yeah mommy didn't get a pic of that - haha) but without even asking she said Peepee potty and I put her on and she went! I about passed out she's not even two, I'm not ready for this yet - guess i better get ready huh?

Sophia became a sunglass and shoe addict. Seriously it's worse than before. No sunglasses or shoes are safe in the house

She had her first Penn State Friday and survived her 1st PSU game day!! Oh and she says - WE ARE - PENN STATE and then roars like a lion!!!

In my PSU dress - daddy dressed me for school!

Game day with Uncle Justin and Elliot

Bounce House = good and bad! Sophia learned it's possible to jump on the bed TOO - here is maddie and sophia - double trouble. Yeah they were VERY quiet at my folks house and all the sudden we heard tons of giggles - and here is what we found!!!!And she's just been busy being cute as ever!

This has truly been an amazing last few months - although challenging at times as sophia struggles for some independece she is growing and like a sponge as far as learning.

We talk non stop. We sing. We scream at school buses causing mommy to almost wreck the vehicle. We talk in small sentences - Mommy more rice please!!!!! Can you believe it? We love books. We want to do everything all the older kids do and mommy - if mommy rolls her jeans up she needs hers rolled up if mommy has sunglasses on her head = sophia needs sunglasses on her head - if mommy well you get the picture. She is my little shadow.

She is a girly girl - hates her hands to be dirty, hates her toys to be dirty (outside!! like I can control that! hehe), she loves her nails painted and screams NAILS, NAILS! Loves make up (may-tup), loves shoes - accessories are king. She loves to comb her hair and put her hairspray on (detangler) and actually deodorant too - yes she saw me do it so I now put the cap on and let her do it she lifts her arms to show her pits and eveything!

She will shake your hand and say "meet you" for nice to meet you, she says please (which apparently to toddlers means they get anything they ask for), thank you , bless you, welcome (you're welcome), love you, sweet dreams, wake up, good bye and of course the crowd favorite - Holla!! And if you say it - - she responds by saying HOLLA BACK. Which is just hilarious. Of course we teach her the important things huh?

All in all she is doing well - she weighs about 22 lbs now and really getting tall. TONS of hair, like overnight! Her talking is what is blowing us away and how she comprehends stuff now - she will react to stuff with the appropriate reaction now and tells us what she wants, what she wants to wear. She loves books and has many of them we read at night memorized even to the back cover. Oh and of course let's not forget the tantrums - yeah we do them to and mommy has to walk away because some of them just make me want to laugh hysterically - she is going to be a drama queen - I guess what comes around goes around huh???? LOL

Hope everyone is doing great!!

Happy 20 mths and 8 months as FAMILY!

Sophia is 20 months!!! I can hardly believe it - she has grown so much in the last few weeks. We experienced our first growth spurt with Sophia and it was very obvious. She was eating us out of house and home and sleeping like it was her job - 3.5 hour naps and sleeping in to 11:00 on the weekends. Well, after a few days of checking her breathing every hour, we realized what was happening as all of her 6 - 12 months clothes she's been in since January are too short, getting snug and cannot fit into them anymore!!! It was actually quite crazy to experience. It was like overnight and I know everyone says that but it is the truth.

Our little lady is 21.7lbs and almost 30 inches long. She is finally in 12 - 18 mo clothes although still a little big. Her hair is growing at lightening speed and she is losing that "baby" look and really looks like a toddler now. She talks ALL THE TIME and has started singing a lot too. She eats everything or at least tries it. Her favorite food continues to be green beans (yeah I know - we buy Wegman's out every week!) and she loves "ice" (ice cream). Her favorite song is to sing "appy bb" (aka Happy Birthday) and she now sings along with the Elmo theme song on sesame street. Rain Rain go away and Wheels on the bus are always crowd favorites.

She is addicted to shoes - she is in my high heels everynight clinking through the house, it is hilarious. She loves "nack" (snack) and loves her doggie "tin tin" (Winston). Her love of diamonds from when Judy visited SLC back in October 2007 is still going strong - as a matter of fact her daily report from daycare once a week mentions her love of diamonds and how she obsessed with the teachers diamond and any jewelry. This of course makes me smile and somewhat feel bad for daddy at what is in store for him a little later - looks like we'll be buying a lot of diamonique - hahaha

She is getting very bossy lately telling everyone to SIT. We have hit the toddler tantrum stage and from time to time we are definitely testing our boundaries. She loves puzzles and books and is smart as a whip. She doesn't miss a beat and truly does everything we do it's like having a little shadow in the house - LOL. The new stage is babies. She loves babies. Her baby dolls are now part of our routine and she feeds them, changes their clothes and diapers, puts lotion on them and uses like 100 wipes a night. We then put our baby to nigh nigh (night night) in their tent, give them their blankie and then cover them with a sleeping bag. It is very cute and she is strict with the flow. Baby get bib on before she's fed, baby gets lotion on before she gets her diaper on, she get her bottle at the end and so on and so forth, Mommy tries to switch it up and she says - nonono Mommy. she's a cute little momma.

She has now discovered biting - she's not doing it but she has been bit and she tells me who bites her at school which is somewhat unusual at her age - she will tell me even if someone bit someone at school that day. Her teachers are amazed that she is doing this already but she says so and so bite...and then she frowns and fake cries and says "ice" at school when they get boo boos they get TLC and ice so she knows this is the routine. She looks for boo boos on us everynight which is normally a freckle or something and then she will kiss it.

We've been a family for EIGHT MONTHS!! It's amazing and how quickly the time has gone by. This date is significant because Sophia has now been with us as long as she was at St. Lucy's Center! I cannot believe last year at this time we still didn't have a first decree and now our daughter has been home as long as she was at St Lucy's. Amazing.

We are still working on the readoption here in the states - we are hoping to get this done before the end of the year. We're a little slow at this one so we need to pick up the pace!!

This pic was taken on her first ride on the Wildwood NJ Boardwalk. As you can see she LOVED it!
CHEESE! We now say this anytime a camera comes out and then look away really fast!"ello?" This is what we say everytime a phone rings anywhere - this is us talking and drivingHer face and thoughts on housework match her mommies!!!! lol

Sophia's Got a new "do"

Doesn't she look like such a big girl now? We won't sit still or keep one pony but the two ponies - she loves. After we get dressed in the AM she asks for her "ponies" LOL
'

Our Little Beach Bum

**I am SO behind on posting and I have many started - so we'll start at the beginning and I'll post more - this was our first beach trip June 7 - 14th**

We just returned home from a week at the beach! There is so much to share. Sophia turned 19 months while we were there and we marked 7 months as a family last week. It seems so crazy how fast time has gone and how much she has truly changed. Last year at this time we were sitting on the beach reading magazines and books resting and working on our tans.

Fast forward a year and well let's just say I have never been more sandy in my life, built so many large holes in the sand, ate sandy sandwiches and food and had the most uneven tan of my life but it was by far the best beach trip - - - EVER.

My first time seeing the ocean - exact word "whhhooooaaaa" Sophia loved the beach, the sand, crabs, waves, sun - everything about it. She was such a trooper in 100 degree beach days, loss of power on the island, sleeping in the same room as mommy and daddy (winston too) and I'm amazed at how well she did with no schedule.

She woke up every morning standing in her pack and play saying - Mommy - sunshinnnneee, sunshinnneee, beech beech! I couldn't believe it. Huge smile on her face. I'm convinced there is no better way to start a morning!

Here are some more pictures - we took over 800 photos during the week ! Don't worry I just picked a few :)

Always loungin...

I wasn't too sure of the water but by day 3 I was running for it!!I love digging in the sand!Loungin again!!!!! Life is tough :)Night beach trip - one of my co-workers Jackie bought this dress for sophia and I couldn't wait to put her in it at the beach - it has gold starfish and seashells and sand dollars embroidered in it, absolutely beautiful and sophia loved twirling in it on the sand (a few falls to boot!)
I love this picture - napping on the beach