Countdown to Noon

We all get the babies together on New Year's Eve to celebrate the countdown to 12:00 noon :) It is really cute and us mommies also get to celebrate in our own way because most of us will not make it until midnight. Also, tomorrow is Claire's 3rd birthday so we celebrated that as well. Sophia always has a great time getting together with all of her friends. Plus, I get mommy time with the other mommies.

Visiting Aunt Michelle

We went to LA yesterday to visit Aunt Michelle. Sophia got to meet her two new kittens. She was in love with them. She loved to have them chase the feather at the end of the string. It was so cute. I think we have to get a cat now. We will see if I can put that off for a little bit. We them went down to Santa Monica to walk on the the 3rd Street Promenade. Sophia LOVED all of the music. There was a booth selling techno music and she was dancing to the beat. People stopped to watch her :) Then, there was a guy playing the clarinet. She was enthralled with the music.

Pictures from Christmas Day

We spent Christmas with my mom, my aunt, and my cousin. There were only a few of us this year. Aleksandar and Stephan went back to South Africa for a month. They are visiting family and friends. Kelly had to be home for a job interview (hopefully it went well). It was still fun to hang out and see everyone.


Daddy reading to Sophia.

My aunt, the homeopath, got a desk calendar. "What is your poo telling you." Perfect for her.

Sophia wanting to be picked up by Michelle. She got her way and Michelle read to her.

New books for Sophia. Yeah, something new to read :) hehe.

Christmas with the Morans

Aunt Jenny reading to Sophia

Sophia loves Aunt Becky

Great Grandma Jeanne reading to Sophia
Grandma Kathy and all of her babies (Becky, Chris, Kathy, Jenny, Cindy)

We had Christmas Eve with Chris' side of the family. The twins were in town so we get to see the whole family. Also, Sophia's great-grandmother and great-grandfather were here from Yuma. We had a great dinner and it was great to see everyone and catch up on everything. Plus, Sophia got some new reading partners :)

Santa Came!!!

Santa came last night and dropped of Sophia's presents. Chris had to put together the playhouse he left. It was quite comical to see Chris climbing in and out of that little playhouse. Sophia loved it. She started to cook a meal and loves the phone that came with it :) Thank goodness he didn't care that Sophia ate half of his cookies hehe

Cookies for Santa

Sophia got her Christmas pajamas to wear tonight when Santa comes. We also baked cookies for Santa, but we found our little sneaky baby double fisting. She had a cookie in each hand and was eating them like we never feed her and she has to scrounge for food. Poor Santa has half eaten cookies. Oh well, he needs to lose a few pounds anyway :) Have a great Christmas.

Happy Christmas Eve

We have been tracking Santa all morning using http://www.noradsanta.org/. Sophia is so into the videos that are on there. The China one has the Bird's Nest from the Olympics so it is really up to date :)

Christmas Tree

When we first put up the Christmas tree, Sophia was in love with all of her new "balls" as she called the ornaments. So we lost three because she pulled them off of the tree and tried to bounce them on the ground. So we had to put up the Superyard to save the ornaments. We did a deep cleaning of the house and took away the Superyard. Sophia has been fine with the tree ever since. She has also done well with the presents which I am so surprised about because I thought she would want to play with all of the bows and the wrapping. So far so good. There are only a few days left so I hope I didn't jinx myself.

Beach Montage

Here is the montage of when we went to the beach to scatter grandma's ashes. We just got the new camera and didn't know it stopped the video if you took a picture :(

Goodbye Grandma Duck

At the beach for Great Grandma Duck

We went to the beach today to scatter Grandma Duck's ashes. It was fitting because she loved the beach and she lived at the beach from the moment she moved here from Ohio. Almost everyone was there. Matt came home from Miami and Steph and Al are going back tomorrow to South Africa for a month to visit. It was great to see everyone. Sophia loved the tide pools and running away from the waves. RIP Grandma. We all love you.

Sophia's New Reading Partner

Sophia got her latest victim, Auntie Kelly, to read to her last night. All Sophia wants to do now is read her books over and over again. We are really excited that she wants to be read to, but after an hour of Cat in the Hat, I do not like them Sam I Am!!!!

Lights at Mission Inn

We braved the bitter cold and went out with the Ommens to see the lights at The Mission Inn. The kids had a good time walking around and looking at all of the lights and the ice skaters. We ended with some dancing to a band by the ice skating rink. It was good to get out and see some lights to get into the festive Christmas spirit. Except there were some decorations that were really weird. There were these carolers that were very creepy looking. Sophia is scared of Santa so i knew if she saw these things she would lose it.

Our own kind of snow

We had a huge storm come through last night and today. It brought snow to the local mountains. There was a car that had snow on top of it so we borrowed some for Sophia to play with. At first she was freaked out but then she got the idea and loved it when we made balls out of it. We are going to have to take her up to the real snow so she can sled and make real snowmen not just a "fake" one.

Retail Therapy

We are a bunch of sickies here today. Sophia wasn't feeling well for a couple of days and she gave it to me. So I have been milling around on the internet and Amazon is having great deals. It is like an auction, do I buy now or will the price go lower. Sometimes the price goes up and you kick yourself because you wanted to to go lower. Here is the Movers and Shakers list. This tells you what is reduced the most. I got Sophia a Cabbage Patch thats was 29.99 for 9.99 and an easel that was 59.99 for 25.99 and a playhouse that was 79.99 for 29.99. We have her birthday and next Christmas covered.

Hugs from Zach

We were at a playdate and Zach gave Sophia such a huge hug. It was so sweet. Don't mind the naked baby doll in the picture...do you think it is a look into the future? Hehe

Story time with Grandma

Sophia now loves her storytime. We read to her before she goes to bed. When we try to put her down she says "re mo" and does the sign for more. I of course think she is saying read more because I have a genius baby :) So she drags anyone willing to her room to read to her. She loves to turn the pages for you (even if you are not done reading the page). So grandma was doing her duty and reading Sophia her new favorite book.

Trimming the Tree

Sophia really did not get the concept of the hook on the ornaments. She thought that if you threw the balls at the tree they would stick. It was quite cute. We have had one mishap where she ran off with an ornament and dropped it on the tile. It shattered into a million pieces and it scared her to death. Luckily it was a generic ornament and not one of the one of a kind ones.

Market Night

Sophia was dancing to all of the DJs playing Christmas songs. We stopped at every one so she could dance to the music. She also wanted to push her own stroller. I think we use it more for storage now rather than actually pushing her in it. She was only in it from the parking lot to State Street.

Kisses for Jordan

I am on a mommy board where I have a great group of friends who all had their babies in August of 2007. We post all about the babies and what they are up to. In this video, Jordan was giving kisses. Sophia loves to watch the videos of the other babies. She had to give Jordan kisses back.

Eating with a Fork