Trip to Tucson and Arabian Horse Show

So it's been quite a while since I've posted anything on here.  I'll do my best to get up to speed!

Earlier in February, we took a little day road trip to Tucson to visit Jim, Wendy and Michaela.  We enjoyed spending time with them and catching up.  Before heading home, we took a quick driving tour of the U of A campus - we hadn't been back there since 2005!  Quite a lot has changed since we were students at U of A, such as Bear Down Field being torn up to make way for a new parking structure - quite sad really!

Also in February, we took Sophia to the Arabian Horse show at WestWorld, where Lori was showing two horses.  Jeremy's Aunt Nancy and Uncle Dick were also in town and got to meet Sophia for the first time.  That same weekend, Sophia and I went to visit my mum at her allotment at Scottsdale Community College.  Sophia managed to get hay in her hair - a sign of a very happy baby :)

Playing with MegaBloks with Michaela

Visiting with Wendy

Sophia loves being outside, especially with Toby!

With Great Aunt Jeanne at the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show

With Great Aunt Nancy and Great Uncle Dick

With Sophia's Great Aunts and Bestamama

With Grandma at her allotment

Broccoli!

Nine Months Old!

Sophia turned 9 months old today!  Photos below :)  Hard to keep her still long enough to take them...

And Just Like That, January Is Almost Over...

Happy 2013!  Jeremy, Sophia and I didn't really do much to celebrate the ringing in of 2013.  We had a quiet night at home, all three of us in bed by 10:30pm.  The joys of having an 8 month old and being exhausted pretty much every evening!

This month also brought Jeremy and my 5th wedding anniversary.  We had a nice lunch out together at True Food Kitchen at Scottsdale Quarter, while my mum graciously took care of Sophia.  We also got to enjoy a re-creation of the top tier of our wedding cake, courtesy of Piece of Cake Desserts, who made our initial wedding - it was delicious!

January has brought some new changes for Sophia.  She is crawling with much gusto and now is pulling herself up on everything.  She gets very upset when you try to take her away from things that could cause her harm (i.e. electrical cords, climbing on things with tile floor beneath them, and doors), likely because her curiosity has piqued and she wants to figure out what everything is.  Her new favourite toy is her play tunnel, also loved by Toby and Emma.  She delights in going through it, turning around to look at Jeremy or I, then speedily crawling around the dining room table to go through again.  Sophia also loves being outside and we took her for her first real hike in her new Osprey hiking backpack (thank you REI and my dad, who helped contribute in its purchase).  She was thrilled to be able to see the desert and the dogs from this nifty contraption, complete with very essential sun visor.  We hope to get a lot of use out of it this spring, before the weather gets too warm.

Tomorrow, Sophia will turn 9 months old, so we'll post her 9 month photo then!  Wishing everyone a wonderful and prosperous 2013 :)

Emma trying out Sophia's tunnel

Toby's turn

"Oh, this is fun!"

"I love this game!"

"Again?"

A lake at Boyce Thompson Arboretum, where we went for a walk earlier this month

Our little family

She loves her dad :)

Happy baby!

Enjoying the sunshine on a walk at Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Helping Grandma celebrate her birthday!

Our very tasty wedding cake

Hanging out with Emma and Toby

Christmas and Sophia is 8 Months Old

Christmas was this past week and it was Sophia's very first Christmas.  She seemed to love the wrapping paper and bows much more than her actual presents - the opening of presents wasn't that exciting apparently.  We celebrated the holidays over three days and there was quite a lot of time in the car, which Sophia didn't seem to mind too much (she slept through most of the car rides).  The day before Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve were spent in the west valley with Jeremy's family and Christmas Day was spent at home with my family.  Later in the day on Christmas, we stopped by to visit the Martin family, where Sophia met June for the first time (Julie and Michael's little girl).  We also took a nice, albeit brisk walk around the Fountain Hills lake. 

This past week also marked Sophia turning 8 months old.  She is crawling everywhere and is now trying to pull herself up to a standing position on any object/person/dog that she can.  She smiles all the time, showing off her sparkly new bottom front teeth (yes, just in time for Christmas, she received her two front teeth!)  

Wishing you all a happy 2013!

Sophia with her Bestamama

Sophia, always on the move

Trying out her new puzzle, courtesy of her Great Auntie Jean and Great Uncle Bernard

Sophia unfortunately couldn't partake in the Christmas feast, but seemed quite pleased with pureed banana and squash

Emma and Toby anxiously awaiting turkey remnants

Sophia meeting June

Michael, June, Julie, JP, Sophia, Jeremy and I

Family time by the Fountain Hills lake

Happy 8-month old!

Seven Months and the Start of the Christmas Season!

Sophia is officially seven months old!  This past month has brought lots and lots of change for her.  About 2 weeks ago, she started crawling and now is an old pro at it, speeding across the living room and attempting to get into all sorts of things that she is not supposed to (like trying to crawl onto the bottom shelf of the coffee table).  We have also been trying several new foods - fruits are a big hit (she loves pears, apples and prunes) but vegetables are pretty much a no-go at the moment (peas are tolerable, avocado brought a significant gagging response and sweet potatoes are blah).  The last few days, Sophia has been exceptionally fussy and today, we realized that it was because she appears to be cutting her first two teeth.  We can just about see the little baby incisors appearing underneath her lower gums.  We hope that they completely appear soon, as we would like our happier baby back!

Christmas is just around the corner, so we spent the day reorganizing the house and decorating.  We had a water heater leak a few weeks back so things have been a little unorganized while things were being repaired.  We had no idea how much damage a broken water heater could do - we had to have someone come out to make giant holes in the wall (in our third bedroom and the garage), then have very noisy heaters dry things for three days, followed by a repair crew to repair/repaint the walls and then a carpet person in to replace carpet padding and clean the carpet.  Needless to say, we were happy when that was all over!  Sophia was fascinated with us decorating for Christmas, especially the Christmas tree lights.  We can't wait until later this month and spending time with everyone!