S-U-P-E-R-S-T-A-R!

Like mother like daughter! Love of accessories...shoes, sunglasses, purses, jewelry. I'm in heaven.
Aye Matey!

Throughout the adoption process you hear so much about the matching process. Many parents find themselves amazed at how perfect the child is for their family. How the personality traits, likes/dislikes and overall demeanor fit with the family. I must say I found it somewhat hard to believe while reading it - but now that we are living it - - it is nothing short of a miracle and it is evident that God handpicked Sophia for us. She is so much like Chris and I personality wise it's almost scary. So all of you adoptive parents waiting for that referral and picture of your newest angel - know that the wait will all be worth it as God's is handpicking and finding the perfect child for you and your family.
The weather is PA is fabulous...January 7th and 56 degrees today, 65 tomorrow so we'll be hittin the park circuit tomorrow (haha)

Lounge Lizard

This is us before Sesame Street Live -

Lounging watching Elmo in Grouchland as preparation for today's festivities

I'm ready - - let's GO!

This me after Sesame Street Live - after consuming chix fingers, turkey, soft pretzel, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cookies, wearing my Tutu from Aunt Jackie while running with Lily and reagan through the halls and tons of fun! She LOVED it - and was WILD!!

Climbing the stairs...time for GATES

Kickin Winston off Daddy's lap...

I never thought she would make it through 2.5 hours but she was rockin out to Elmo. She was nonstop. Jumping, dancing, screaming, clapping, talking...and of course...eating! Regan and Lily were hilarious as they sang along and looked for their fav characters while holding hands - it was too sweet. I forgot my camera (of course I got home and emptied the diaper bag and I HAD IT THE WHOLE TIME) but Aunt Lo took some and I'll post them. Shout out to Aunt Lo for the killer box seats and parking! Thanks so much for inviting us to join you!! The tix stubs are already in her baby book!!!!

Morning Rituals

Sophia has started some new AM rituals..

Watching the time by wearing daddy's watch...

Realizing we have time for a little morning Yoga - notice the "down dog" position

And we started brushing our teeth for the first time this morning (we have 3 more teeth popping through, a new one this morning)

If only I could take notes from her on how to enjoy morning! haha

Life is Great in 2008!

chillin in the ball pit
a favorite christmas toy that she can perform her songs and dances!Dancin Queen
This dress looked so cute on her - - she looked like a little princess. The barrett she is wearing in her hair is the same one I wore during our wedding day!
Sophia and cousin Maddie were having a blast running around and dancing!

glamour girl
just like mommy!

Chef Sophia awaiting her gourmet frozen french toast stix
What can I getcha? A Keebler Cinnamon Sandies Cookie perhaps?
Happy New Year!
The girl's eating their New Year's Eve cookies with icing and sprinkles - this was prior to the dance off so we believe this may have sparked it! SUGAR HIGH!

Mel and Danny Christmas Day PRIOR to the big day! First time meeting Sophia :)
Here comes the bride....check out the dress, beautiful!
They're HITCHED!!!!!

Sophia had her first trip to Chef Wong's our fav Chinese restaurant and she was a HIT in her new t- shirt from Aunt Megan and Uncle Ken in CALI - they are waiting final travel date to go pick up Sophia's bestie in the westie (hahaha) Kimi :)

Trying on Daddy's boots!The purse lady!
Chillin with Dad playing with another popular crowd favorite toy!

I am so sorry for the lack of posting, I've missed you all so much! The holiday's were a whirlwind, yet fabulous. Having Sophia made it all worth it. We could not have asked for a more perfect gift than having her to share this holiday season with. This will be a long post so please grab a cup of "joe" and relax to catch up with our "going ons"

Chris's nickname for Sophia and our dog Winston are Professor Chaos and General Disarray. This pretty much sums it up here lately! LOL There is no relaxing during the day with this little lady let me tell you. She is like a world explorer and is in to everything. I am amazed at how well she did with all the people and travels over the holiday's.

Christmas Day was GREAT! We had my parents, Uncle Bo and Sophia's great Nannie over for breakfast and then lead sophia into the room with the tree - we had a ball pit all set up for her and although hesitant with it at first, that lasted all of about 3 minutes. We came out later to see her standing in it with her bottle!!! This has been the most played with toy - she loves it!!

She received so many toys and she loves them all - I have taken half of them away for later in Feb and March so I can reintroduce them and switch out the toys. She got great fashions too! We cannot thank everyone enough for giving her such a special, great 1st Christmas.

We spent time with Missy, Zach, Fel, Seth and Ben the day after Chistmas and it was great for us all to be back together again and the kids got along great playing and destroying the house! Much like how we destroyed our apartment in college (17G girlz in da house!)

Sophia went to her first wedding after Christmas!! CONGRATULATIONS MEL AND DANNY!!!! It was beautiful! The church was still decorated for christmas and it was at 5:00 in the evening and all in candlelight! Mel wore a dress with red designs and then the girls wore red it was gorgeous. They came out of the church to sparklers! Sophia had a great time and did really well - she missed the whole ceremony due to us discovering our voice and screaming - but during the reception she did great - she danced and ran around. However, this will probably be her last wedding for awhile as daddy and I were EXHAUSTED chasing her around :) I didn't get to shake my grove thang as much as I'd like! But it was wonderful.

New Years Eve we went to Aunt Lo's house to hang out with Lily and Reagan and it was a super fun time. The girls had a dance off and it was by far the most hilarious thing I think Lo, jackie and I have seen in a long time. We were laughing so hard! I'm going to try to load a quick video at some point but I think we could win the grand prize of America's Funniest Home Videos with that one! We came home and put her to bed and our friends adrienne and justin joined us to ring in the new year at midnight.

Sophia is now running through the house. She has discovered that "dog kibble" not only tastes good but expands when thrown in dog's water dish!, we love trying on all the shoes in the house (that's my girl!), she opens and closes doors, discovered steps, her 2 front teeth popped through so it will be no time now until she can really chomp our fingers, she talks CONSTANTLY - she doesn't stop all day long, she says "nighty night" thanks to a doll my aunt sue got her that says that when you lay her down,

She now helps pick up her toys when asked,she loves purses - she loves to wear them over her shooulder - fill them up , empty them and then fill them up again - she LOVES music and loves to dance - she watched the Doodlebops on Disney and actually danced to all of their songs between playing, she loves to play with her tea set - we can stir the tea, blow the tea (cause it's hot ya know?) and also share the tea - she noticed mommy wears her sunglasses on her head so mommy put her zebra sunglasses on her head = she loved it and then she actually wore the sunglasses all through the mall - while "waving" to everyone in the food court and KEPT them on, my mom and I were dying of laughter it was soo funny - now, she is addicted to her sunglasses and must have them when she's in the car. My mom thought my Michael Jackson glove was embarrassing! She can also blow her nose (well pretend to anyway by making blowing noises) She is learning so much and developing such a little personality right now. Everyday we keep a list of what we did so daddy can see what all we've discovered during the day.

Sunday we are going to Elmo Makes Music at the Giant Center with the girls and this week we start our My Gym classes and the library so we can get out and start doing some things before I go back to work in February.

Wishing all of you love and happiness in 2008!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

Happy Christmas Eve!

before last minute shopping with daddy
in her first christmas outfit looking so beautiful although we only got 3 pictures and this was the best one so we'll have to see what the fam got :)
Sleigh ride - my folks have this sleigh - thinking she would hate it we put it in front of the tree...well she jumped in and started shaking it like it was a ride.
our newest trick - putting the phone up to her ear when someone says - hello?

Happy Christmas Eve!Wishing everyone a super, blessed Christmas!

Cannot wait to read all the adventures and I'll be sure to post ours. Here are a few pics from Christmas Eve.

love to all...

What a month's it's been!!!

Enough said!!

Daddy and sophia on their laptops
Came home and chris had his nacho libre wristband which came free with our DVD last year..sad thing, she loved it!
Crazy Christmas with the girls (and Jimmy!)
Reagan and Lily checkin out their viewfinders
Maddie and Sophia on Maddie's new couch from Uncle Bo had we known this was all we had to do to get them to sit beside each other and both looks at the camera we would've done this 3 weeks ago when both my sis Keri and I tried and then my mom came over last weekend!! :) They were sooo very cute together!

Grandpa Dutton and Sophia. G-pa has been very sick since we got home fromeTaiwan and has only seen sophia from a distance and couldn't visit for the last 3.5 weeks and she was very excited to see him again

Grammy had cookie and this is what happens - sophia and winston on their best behaviors
Storytime with Aunt Keri

Daddy dressed me today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

posin for christmas photo
and again....
and again!!!

HAPPY 1 MONTH HOME BABY GIRL!!!! I cannot believe it has been a month already but yet feel she has been with us forever :) My apologies for lack of postings but tis the season, huh?? Sophia has experienced it all these last two weeks folks - - she has been busybusybusy!

She has met some new friends (sophia and olivia), she had her first U.S. shots (BOO!), cleared her first row of shoes with her arm from her stroller this week at Kohl's (I don't blame her the shoes were not good-lookin at all - LOL), experienced her first ice storm as we saw 2 trees go "bye" in our yard. She went to her first family christmas party - which is our extended family party with 70 adults and 14 children and had a super time. She learned 4 new tricks this week. She can blow kisses, give kisses, make clicking noises with her tongue and she can roll her eyes when she's not getting her way. Yes it's deliberate and yes I'm pretty sure she's seen me do it 100 times to her, LOL. She had her first christmas with her aunt keri, uncle justin and cousin Maddie and also with her aunties and her friends Lily and Reagan.

She has also started mimicking everything we do (good and bad) She also had her first photo shoot for christmas pictures! Last but not least - she has discovered how fun the toilet water can be. I was emptying a load of laundry and our powder room is right across from the dryer. I literally turned my back for 3 seconds to put the laundry in the basket and I hear this giggling. I turnaround...she had opened the toilet and dropped two of of her animal magnets from her leapfrog fridge farm (favorite toy) and was reaching in and splashing to get them! Guess it's time to install the toilet locks huh? She of course thought this was hysterical.

She's very verbal these days, talking up a storm in baby babble with an occassion, mamma, dadda, bababa (bottle), duhduh (dog), and HEY! And I got my first scream "mmmoooommmmmyyy this week as I did not have her milk fast enough for her at breakfast. She's sassy and we LOVE it!

It has been great preparing for the holidays although I'd be lying if I said it's been smooth sailing - it's harder with a little one in tow! How naive of me to think I could wrap all the gifts and put them under the tree? Yeah right they now have no bows and half of them have ripped paper now! It's pretty funny. Shopping for sophia has been fun and it was hard to contain ourselves at toys r us but we did but we let her test out the toys to be sure it was something that interested her - - at least for that minute :)

She really is doing great. I've been really impressed with how she has adjusted and what a completely different child she is right now. She is a lot of fun as she experiences something new each and every second. She challenges me everyday. We are so blessed to have her in our life. I am hoping I have the opportunity to post before Christmas but if by chance something comes up we wish each and everyone of you a very very Merry Christmas!!!