"More, Peez?"

This morning as I dressed Sofie for the day she was distracted by all her pretty bows. So, I put one in her hair. She continued to insist on "more?" (which is a word and a sign that she's got down pat) After 5 bows I decided that would be enough for now :) So darling!

A little fancy for breakfast, but she was pretty pleased with herself!

A doppleganger to be proud of!

Not a darling picture of Sofie, but Bon Jovi was the first thing that came to my mind when I got her out of her crib this morning!! A good laugh!

Yay! I Did Something Crafty!

And it WORKED!!

A darling little dress for Sofie

(made out of.....drumroll.....an old pillowcase!!)

link here

Detail from the bottom of the pillowcase/dress

My messy little model (nearly impossible to get a shot). She loves it!
I made it big enough for her to grow into this summer.

Merry Christmas Happy Birthday to me!!

Some of you may know that I have a tendency to hang on to money and gift cards that I get at birthday times and Christmas. I just so rarely get to spend money on "whatever" that I have to make sure it's a really good purchase. Make it absolutely worth it. So, today I received in the mail one of those absolutely worth it purchases! I had cash from my last birthday (9 mos ago) and a JC Penney gift card from 2 Christmases ago (thank you Ronica!!), and used some thriftiness of online discount codes, and a good find. And got this for free!! I'M SOOOOO THRILLED! Derek and I have never had a real bedspread, not to mention a matching skirt and shams!

Here's the whole getup. We got the spread, skirt and 2 shams. (picture courtesy jcp.com)

Here's one of the shams, my camera doesn't do the sage any justice. It looks blue in this pic. I'm just so happy that I finally have a bedspread that will match all my random Chinese junk!

And.....drumroll please......I have been given the OK to buy a new mattress! Yay!! Mine is a NIGHTMARE! New bedspread+newmattress=best Valentine's ever!

Kiss It Better

Not neccesssarily what I had in mind when I taught her how to "Kiss it better."

But it's sure dang funny!

Is this MY baby?

The Evil-Eye and terrible manners! She does the evil eye thing all the time, but got shy when the camera came out, darn it! Cracks me up every time.

Big Weekend!

This last weekend we had a houseful!! My brother Tom and his girlfriend came, as well as my sister and her family. And the basement is under construction, so it was pretty crowded, but so much fun to see everyone at once!!! (minus Roo of course) We kept busy eating way too much food, watching movies (including home movies) and just playing around. And then, as usual, after they leave, I get to spend the next week taking care of a sick sick baby girl (this time it was puking and juicy-diaper, hooray!)

Watching Snow White on G-ma's bed

The darling duo, (or Salt and Pepper as G-pa calls 'em) taking turns sucking on magnet alphabet letters. Whatever keeps 'em busy!

And of course, we said goodbye to the Mullett FINALLY!!
(before)

Sofie did really well holding still.

Bye Bye Mullet!! Thank you Shayla!

Why We Love G-pa A

He's so much fun!

Trying to Start a New Year Tradition...

...But it's kind of hard when someone throws a Mission District Party at your house (okay, we can't complain, it's free rent), so I just did it tonight and pretended like it was New Year's Eve.

I want to start making jiaozi every new Year's Eve, like this, because by the time Chinese New Year comes around, I completely forget. I found a few new recipes 'cuz I didn't like the one I've been using. And decided to try them out in my bamboo steamer. The recipes ROCKED! I did a tofu/veggie one and a shrimp/pork one. Unfortunately, they only had square wrappers at the store, and they sucked really bad and they were too dry to fold, so I ended up having to wrap them like wontons... But they tasted awesome! We also had egg drop soup.

Sofie is getting practice early in life :) I'm hoping someday she'll be old enough to help me wrap the dumplings.

It only works if she stabs the food...

And if anybody has great recipes that require a bamboo steamer, send 'em my way! There's not much online.

Christmas Videos

Sofie's first taste of real freedom, learning to run like a wild stallion at Jumpin Jacks!

Is this what walking on the moon feels like? This is how we got her to stop crying after Jake took her down a slide.

I just can't get over her cute little voice in this video. And thanks again Kasey! Such a cute gift!!

I love how out of it she was! We woke her up around 8:00 so the boys wouldn't have to wait for her all morning (she usually sleeps in 'til 9:30!) so she was still half asleep, but happy enough. (and you gotta love Ronica's helmet...)