Christmas Eve 2007

I can't believe that Christmas is already here! I had dreams that Santa Claus came last night and forgot to leave gifts. That was one of the worst nightmares I ever had and even made me wake up to check the calendar. I am always the first one up in the morning so let's see if this holds true for another year. Even though it's just us this year we are still planning on having a turkey diner tomorrow, my mouth is watering already.
As for every year, the school has a 'Gift of Caring' tree and the kids get to bring an ornament home, we purchase the gift for someone on the ornament and send it back to school. This year made me bawl my eyes out because I bought for two moms. One mom wanted a gift card from a grocery store so she could buy food for Christmas, and the other wanted toiletries ( I went a little crazy and bought her a nice brush, toothbrush, a shaving gift pack with shampoo and conditioner, and a body lotion gift pack with soap included. I can't imagine asking for these things for Christmas and wish them better years to come.

I am finally putting up some photos from our 'Reindeer Run' which had a great turn out. It was almost freezing that morning which made the muscles really tight and harder to breath but we still made it the whole 2 1/2 miles (4 km) with three very brief stops. This week alone we manage to hit around 15 degrees Celsius during the day but get all the way down to freezing at night. This is about 10 degrees cooler than average for winter. We definitely feel it a lot more this year than last.

Do you love our antlers? They even light up! This photo was when we finished the race. When we finished we were given raffle tickets and prizes were given out when everyone finished. We won a gift certificate to a restaurant called 'Pei Wei'.
While we took part in the race Ted hung out with Isi playing on the playground. I had to have a picture of Isi's hair when she came down the slide.

Yesterday we visited the Zoo for their annual 'Zoo Lights'. It was gorgeous and a lot of fun with mule/wagon rides, carousel rides, and of course all the amazing lights. I knew it was going to be busy but never did I expect to see that many people in one place. It was nuts but well worth it.

We miss everyone and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love The Sfikas Family

Well, I know I have waited too long to post when I have a ton of things I want to share with all of you. We have slowed down lately since soccer is finished, along with tennis lessons, and weekend chess and it has been really nice to do what we want when we want and just have fun as long as the homework is done. Homework and projects are driving us crazy! Even at this moment I am practicing staining paper with coffee for Athena's Egyptian Newspaper she made to make it look antique and it's due tomorrow!
We had a community event called, "Snow Day In The Park". Above is Isi falling in love with Daisy bear who runs a booth where you can make your own Teddy just like 'Build a Bear' but they are mobile so you could actually have this company come out to your house for a party.
The kids actually got to play in snow that was made just for this day. Isi enjoyed it as well and was happy for hours just trying to walk on it without slipping. I could have done without it since I found out I was just tall enough to be a snowball magnet and Isi was just short enough to be missed entirely the whole day.
A crazy rainstorm came through Phoenix. I thought for sure this water was going to come right up to the sliding door but the rain would let up just enough here and there to keep it from coming any closer. The 'wash' system they have in place around here works amazingly well so there was no flooding in our area. Because it rains so little here when it does something weird happens to the pavement and it becomes as slick as ice. You wouldn't believe how many cars had slid off the roads and into things like the brick walls that we have around our yard.

Hera has been a crafting maniac lately. This is a 'lime, milkshake puppet' she made. You can move the mouth with a stick that is glued to the inside. She has made many flavors and has been mass producing them for all her friends at school because they are in such high demand. Hopefully that ends soon cause I would really like to have some of my kitchen counter back. I also keep telling her she needs to start charging money for her work.

Both girls participated in,"The Clash" (chess tournament) this weekend. Hera won one game out of four which is pretty good since she is still just a beginner, and Athena won a trophy for placing 22nd in her division ( kids from here till about 12th place have won two to two and 1/2 of their games). I am so proud of them and expect some even higher results in the next tournament.

Here is my finished dining area after repainting the whole thing. The 'Aztec Brick' looks much more muted in person but I couldn't get good enough lighting to really show it off. The rest of the walls were painted in 'Bagel'. I am very happy with the results and can't wait to start on the next area. I even already have the paint for the next living area.

My littlest Isi has days where she throws tantrums left, right and center, wants to be naked all the time, and doesn't always take naps anymore. This can lead to time outs and in this photo she had fallen asleep in her time out spot after refusing to apologize for hurting one of her sisters. She is so cute!!! It took all my will power not to pinch her to pieces.

Chat more soon!
Charmaine

Hairchop?

Here I am in my new hair cut. Ted loves it however I am disappointed with my top weave. I had the same thing done as last time by the same hairdresser and the light parts are too light and the dark ended up too dark. I didn't go in expecting to loose so much hair either but my hairdresser twisted my rubber arm to do a strong bang and, what you can't see, a lot of layers. The cut is 'kind a' cool but the color should be warmer and lighter. My hairdresser said I to come back if the excess color doesn't wash out and Ted keeps arguing that it's beautiful and that it's fun to do things a little different. I guess I'll give it a week before making a final decision to go in and have the color fixed or not.

This weekend was supposed to be family picture weekend until I found out last minute the kids had chess, then it was too dark when they got back, now Ted is leaving the next two days to California. I was hoping to use the photos to make cards like I did last year, now that will depend if I can get the photos done Wednesday.

Most of our outside lights are up and all my gifts to be sent are wrapped. Now I somehow still have to package everything up and get it ready to go.

Of course with all this to do we have started painting again. Can't wait to show you all the colors I picked. I am trying to pick desert type colors and am having a lot of fun with it. This however means no one is allowed to visit my house because it is really embarrassing how messy it is with boxes of decorations all over and furniture out of place along with painting stuff all over my counters. Oh well, it'll get done when it gets done and eventually look fantastic.




I am leaving you with a picture of my snowman family for my yard that I guilted Ted into buying because we don't have enough stuff after all these years to even light up the whole front of my house. I can't say I feel guilty about any of it myself cause their just too cute.


I wish you all peace, patience, and happy moments during this stressful, beautiful time of year.
Hugs and kisses,
The Sfikas Family

Flashback!

I was having a moment where I was thinking about where we were last year this time in our lives and brought up these pictures, especially because I have no new pictures at this moment. Get a load of how much my kids have changed in just the last year.


It's almost Thanksgiving! That means if I want to blend in with other Americans I have to have all my Christmas decorations up this weekend. Scary or what?
Things have been a little slower around here lately. Hera took part in her first Chess tournament last weekend. Kids who go to these things are usually really good so you can imagine how proud I was when Hera won one of her games out of the three she played. I would put them in more if our weekends weren't full of soccer, tennis, and super group (weekend chess).
Athena is finally feeling better after taking her to the doctor with a bad cold to have her tested for strep. When we had her tested the doctor said she was negative so I started teasing Athena that she was going back to school only to have the doctor say he was concerned that she had the first stages of pneumonia, put her on a round of antibiotics and said I really need to keep her home because she is really sick! He even wrote me a note to excuse Athena from school.
Isi had her shots this last week and started crying ' Sorry, sorry!' at the nurse as if to make her apologize. She couldn't have broken my heart more. Isi is also officially in potty training! I didn't expect her to be ready yet but thought I would let her wear her new princess panties a few hours a day to get used to the idea but now as long as she is home she wants to wear panties and is willing to use the potty. She has been using her own potty all week and even ran to it the other night without me asking and bringing her. We are so proud. Now to get her trained outside the house.
Ted spent the last week in Vegas and is slowly recovering. This week we are going to watch the LA Kings play the Coyotes. It should be a blast.

I hope everyone is doing well and
Happy American Thanksgiving!
Love The Sfikas Family

How is everyone out there? Hopefully still checking in now and then on us. We had a really fun Halloween and hope you all did as well. My pumpkin carvers in the last Blog were, Hera - Mummy, Athena - Skull, and Ted - Bat. We discovered that the Arizona climate makes your pumpkins shrivel really fast. Good thing we did them only a few days before Halloween.


Here are my girls all dressed up. The girls had to meet up with friends after Chess therefore they never made me up like they wanted too. I can't say I am too upset by that. Isi is now a candy addict and harasses me for more junk all day long. On Halloween night she would yell, 'Come back!' at the top of her lungs (sounded mad) at all the kids who started walking away after getting their treats. She also thought when she went up to people's doors to trick-or-treat that was her cue to try and get in their house. Because of the weather everyone in the neighborhood grabs lawn chairs and sits in their driveways to hand out candy and chat with neighbors (at least that saved on how many houses Isi tried to get into).

Isn't Hera smart and beautiful in her new glasses? I am so happy she can see better and she likes her glasses.

Finally we had Isi's birthday, Souvlaki party. A few people we invited never made it due to illness. Isi must think a birthday lasts a whole month. While she opened her gifts the other kids had to be right in there helping her tooo much. Good thing she doesn't mind yet.

I had to put this picture up because every time I look at it it cracks me up. I can't get over the silly expression on her face and that she is covered in pop and food. Must be a sugar high.

Isi is blowing out her candles all by herself. We put on the number two and two regular since she has so much fun blowing them out, one just wasn't enough. I made her a 'Baked Alaska' cake. My meringue wasn't as stiff as it should have been, I guess I had too much wine before trying to make it and added too much sugar.

Till next time,
Love From the Sfikas Family

We just finished carving pumpkins last night and will hopefully have a few more Halloween decorations up this evening. The girls carved their very own pumpkins without any help. I also managed to get Ted to carve a pumpkin as well, it's like pulling teeth to get this guy away from his computer for so long. I dare ya to try and guess who carved what!
I was going crazy not being able to carve myself due to a very bad cut on my right thumb last Friday along with a minor cut on the other hand. Ted and the kids have been entirely in charge of cooking and cleaning all weekend. It wasn't so serious that I went to the doctor (didn't want to pay the emergency room visit) but it was bad enough I couldn't sleep for two night because of pain. Had this happened before the weekend I would have gone to my regular doctor but things never seem to work that way.
Sunday was supposed to be Isi's birthday party which had to be canceled due to vomiting the night before by Isi. Of course this is the night that Ted went out with some friends to a football game and I can barely take care of Isi because of my fingers. My amazing girls came to the rescue helping me clean Isi up all evening along with whatever else ended up in her path including myself. This led to the fact we were going to be awake along time that night and maybe the kids and I can watch a scary movie. The kids are getting older, what could be the harm? Well I came across a movie that I had never watched in it's entirety and thought it being something a little older maybe the kids wouldn't be as scared of it. We all watched "IT". It's still just as scary as ever! Hera refused to even look at the 'Clown' Jack-O-Lantern pattern when we were carving pumpkins.
To back it up a little more, Tuesday we went to court to try and 'Mediate', with the neighbors after tragically losing our dog. The good news is we settled and I think everyone left satisfied. Ted made me a proud woman standing up to three lawyers. Yes, that's right, they had three lawyers. I wish I could say more however I have signed a confidentiality agreement and am supposed to keep my mouth shut. I feel we can mover forward but I don't know if I'll ever be able to find any forgiveness for them.
I am ending with pictures from 'Crazy Hair Day' at school. I used wood skewers in Hera's hair to hold it up. These photos were taken after school, but before school, both Hera's braids stood straight up. They also have streaks of black in their hair which I learned would be much better to spray outside. That hairspray crap has a way of ending up all over the bathroom including up your nose from breathing it. Athena is getting too cool to do anything too crazy so hers is just messy with black streaks.



Stay in touch,
Hugs and Kisses,
The Sfikas Family

Arizona Sunset

I am finally back! We are getting back into old routines after having an awesome visit with my Mom and Terry. We went to Sedona to site see and visit the art show, we went to the Grand Canyon overnight where we saw the Canyon for 30 seconds before being caught in a downpour with hail which made us spend the rest of the evening drying off in the hotel. Thank goodness the next day was good and we saw a deer, a coyote (6 feet from the car), a raven, drove by a freshly killed skunk which stunk up the car for an hour, then on the way home we were stuck in an extra two hours worth of traffic due to an earlier accident. We made visits to the Botanical Gardens and the Zoo then ended with a Sunset Jeep Tour just north of where we live. Here are some of the pictures from it.

We all took turns shooting a 22 caliber gun.

We each had six shots and I hit my target, woohoo! Ted was aloud an extra six shots with a larger gun but it still never helped him hit the target, na, na, na, na, na, na. Woman rule!

Mom are Terry also tried out their gun shootin' skills and apparently Terry has a really amazing shot. When I told Athena about this she asked, 'Has Terry ever killed someone ?' I couldn't stop laughing.

Everything else is going great here. Isi is officially saying too many words for me to keep up with. Our 'Biometrics' are done, just finger prints and a photo. I don't know if we are now done or if we might have an interview to do also. As for me, I have been on a cleaning marathon and am driving the whole house mad. Even so I think they are all catching the cleaning bug because I even managed to get the kids to start going through all their things without my help. Yup, I see a fantastic garage sale in April.

Arizona sunset.

This is the hat I designed for Hera. The ribbing wasn't very strong so I made this daisy chain with stretchy cord to help give it a nice fit. The yarn if soft and has just a hint of sparkle. I have already started a different one for Athena and can't wait to see how it turns out.

Till next time,

Charmaine

Mix and Taste

Taste, testing and....

mixing things up.

Isi loves having her little cooking set out with some goodies while mom fixes something yummy.
Isi's last allergist appointment went great. She is responding to her meds well, which now she only needs to take as needed, her skin cleared up, and we took a few things out of her diet just to be safe.

Things are all going well around here. I started yoga classes and am loving it. I am hoping to somehow get out twice a week, I really need to get out of the house a bit. My mom also just arrived in town with Terry last Wednesday. Looks like we will be heading up to Sedona tomorrow for a little scenery and art shopping, then off to the Grand Canyon next weekend. That should mean some good pictures coming up.

Here is Isi hanging out watching one of Athena's soccer games. Too bad I had the camera on a bad setting and none of my pictures turned out of her. I can tell you, Athena is going to be a much better player than I ever was and her outfit rocks so I can't wait to show it off.

We had a really, really, really late birthday party for Hera due to friends and herself being out of town. We took her just today to a pottery painting studio where the kids got to go crazy for 2 hours. These are our friends Jenna, Jordan, Christina and Shea.

Friday the 21st we are off to have our Biometrics done for the Green Card. Pretty fancy term Biometrics, should be interesting. No, this does not involve retina scanning although that technology does exist. The government will now officially know more about us than most people in the US. I haven't decided if I am more excited about getting the Green Card or kind of freaked that we are doing all of this for government records.

That's all for now, I hope you all are doing well and you'll check back in soon.

Love The Sfikas Family

Isi's new words - (H)Appy Day, help (hep), cheers, pretty, home, turtle (tootol), yummy-yummy, Anna (for Athena), and hun.

Dashing All the Way

Dash Point State Park in WA.

Isi and Dad throwing rocks in the creek at Dash Point.

Piece of drift wood at Dash Point.

Looks like I am almost all caught up and we have started the crazy school year off at a very high pace. Isi and I are now part of a Mom's group and meet once a week, I am swapping kids with a friend two mornings a week, Athena is playing soccer twice a week not including games start next weekend, Hera has started Choir and goes twice a week in the morning, both start Chess this week and Hera will also start dance. So much stuff and somehow we survive. Foreseeing how busy we would probably get, I officially am packing around a planner. I can't even begin to tell you how much of a lifesaver it has been.

Isi has had another allergy attack since the trip and we have had to take her to an allergist. I feel better doing this because she has now had several good attacks. We tested her for 18 airborne allergens and 8 common food allergies. She did awesome with all the pin pricks and only decided she didn't like them when we were almost done. She reacted immediately to dogs! That really, really sucks. The only other thing to be concerned of is Soy but the result may mean nothing.

Ted turned 27 (in his mind!) last Thursday. I tried to take him out to buy some new clothes, since his fit horrible with his weight lose, and made the big mistake of taking Isi. I thought she would enjoy getting out a little but she decided she would run non-stop everywhere through Macy's. She had a blast, I was exhausted. I actually had blisters on my feet from my sandals from chasing after her. My other kids never did this. Needless to say we only found Ted a pair of pants and went home. I cooked Ted an amazing diner of steak with a savory sauce, home made french bread, some mixed veggies, and Greek potatoes to help make up for things. Now I should be able to get away with stuff (like buying new clothes) for a long time after a meal like that.

I am currently working on a knit, lace hat for Hera and should have it done for my next post (Knock on wood that I don't now have to frog it because I said that). In the meantime here is what I knit for Connie's baby, Ryder, along with what Athena and I sewed and embroidered for him.

This sweater has jungle leaves, a tiger, an elephant and a giraffe (cut off) for buttons. I loved this sweater so much when I made it for Isi I couldn't help to do it again.

Athena and I embroidered all around the larger puppies and their is one more in the middle of the back. I had to hand sew almost the whole thing because it was too small to go through the machine. I ran it through the washing machine to make sure it wouldn't fall apart.

Hugs and kisses from all of us,

Charmaine

Isi Milestones; She is climbing on all the furniture including dads sink where she can go as far as turning the sink on, is completely fascinated with the toilet, can say yes or no when you ask her a question, can say bear, blanket (just today), shoes (and say it as if she is calling them when she wants to wear them), Josh (neighbors boy), Isi, fly, no way, and make tons of animal sounds, and attempts to sing the alphabet, twinkle twinkle little star.

The Wedding

Ted (hubba, hubba!) and his youngest sister, Katherine.

Soula, Yiayia, Papoo, Ted, Katherine, Hera, Isi and Athena.

Gus (Papoo) and Ted.

I love Isi's crossed feet in this photo. She has done this since she was born but now that she is older you don't see it so often. There was a man in the background of this picture and I am pretty proud at how well I got rid of him.

At the reception, while diner was taking place, Isi decided she liked to lie down in the middle of the dance floor all by herself.

Theia Stephanie (Isi's Nouna), and Ted paired up for the ceremony.

This was the lollipop made from Canadian maple syrup that was supposed to help me keep Isi in her seat. It didn't help! She decided she had to run up and down the main isle so I missed most of the ceremony. I tried, sometimes they surprise you and behave awesome and sometimes they really, really don't.

All my gorgeous girls.

Everything at Chris and Artie's wedding was beautiful. Ted was the MC. I missed all the speeches because of a little monster. Even though I started wishing I hired a nanny I was honored the whole family could take part on such a beautiful day of two people who are so special to us. I had my hands so tied with the baby I am counting on some of you to send me a few pictures because these are seriously, the only ones I have (I love taking lots of photos).

Yasas!

Charmaine

Seattle and Whistler

While in Vancouver we couldn't resist going down to Seattle for a few days. My friend Rachel and I have been talking of doing a cruise for years around Seattle and through the locks so we finally did it. We spent some time at the aquarium, snagged some grub and off we went on an evening cruise. If you look closely, Mt Rainer is in the background of this picture.

A beautiful beach to visit in Seattle is Dash point. It's great when you have kids because it is shallow a long ways out and is usually pretty quiet. The kids all took turns burying each other in the sand.

Braedon, Athena, Hera and Kaj.

We crammed so many visits into a few days it was nuts and I would do it all over again. One of our best visits was a playdate for the kids at the school. I was so happy to see so many of the girls friends turn out, play and have pizza!

Anna, Athena and Isabelle at Maywood Hills Elementary.

A silly attempt to try to pose with Isi in a picture.

After arriving back in Vancouver we made a spontaneous last minute decision to head on up to Whistler for two nights. I am so glad we did this, it was a blast and a good distraction from the death of our dog which we had found out about on the way up.

The girls with an Inukshuk

We went hiking and swimming, and the kids went rock climbing, the luge, and all kinds of activities just for them, and I went white water rafting. Great, great time. We even saw a Mama bear with two cubs stroll by from out hotel room!

When we came back we were off for a barbecue than the wedding in downtown Vancouver. I have a few more pictures but that will have to wait till next time.

See you soon!

Charmaine