Isi in the Spotlight!

Looks like this post is going to mostly be about our littlest star of the house. Does she make an adorable snowman or what? She was so cute, the teachers really do a great job with all the kids.

When we were decorating our tree this year Isi found this old tree stand and decided to make it her own tree and that made for a one of a kind, Isi creation. Her little tree is still up right beside the big one.

Here little Is is hiding with a mouth full after I caught her sneaking chocolates the other morning. She definitely knows that was a big no no.

Our Christmas was beautiful. Athena got her new cell phone and it is awesome. Ted managed to hide it in the cushion behind her while she opened gifts Christmas morning and when she was all done he phoned her on it. Her reaction was priceless. Now we are already dealing with her glued to the phone texting all day.

Wish you all a beautiful Holiday and Happy New Year,

Love the Sfikas Family

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays! Hope you are all enjoying the season. We kicked off the weekend with Hera and Isi's dance show. Hera was a reindeer and awesome on stage and Isi was a little snowman, pictures of her to come. Great show, I am so proud of the girls. I learned a lot about being a stage mom, we had to get up at 6am to do hair and makeup for the rehearsal in the morning, I ran to work from the theater to work, ran back to the theater straight from work in my ugly clothes I got the girls ready and finally sat down only because Hera was willing to watch Isi behind stage. It was crazy but worth the memory and we plan on being much better prepared for the next one.

Here is Isi in the poncho my mom made for Isi from scratch. I love this photo and sweater on her.

Our biggest treat of the season was that Chris and Artie came to visit for a few days. I actually was brave enough to set foot on the golf course and give it a try. Turns out I am not too bad and maybe should go out a little more often.

Now there's some good looking men!

This photo is for anyone I may have missed sending. The first night Chris and Artie were here a drunk driver plowed into the brick wall around my house and actually drove off before we could get out to him. They caught him right away and my wall is already fixed. Thankfully no one was hurt and we don't even have to pay the bill or deal with the mess thanks to our HOA. Turns out our guest bed must be really cozy cause Chris and Artie had no idea anything happened till the morning.

I have been booked solid for grooming and can't wait for a nice long weekend with the kids and Ted. We'll be in touch soon!

Merry Christmas,

Love The Sfikas Family

Hello to all checking in! We have had a busy month and I am finally finding time to blog with hopefully as few interruptions as possible! Work has been getting pretty busy for me which has been really great. Ted has been traveling a lot again which is fine until your car battery dies at the soccer field on the day you brought all the kids and dogs, and the other nights where you don't get home till 9pm. Thank goodness Ted is very good at taking care of everyone and letting me sleep in on the weekends to catch up.
Finally I am posting pictures of the kids on Halloween. Isi is actually just dressing up for fun from the dress up set Auntie Connie sent and wore her birthday outfit trick-or-treating. I can't believe we got the scary outfit on her! I have to say she makes a darn cute Dorothy below and that is my favorite.

Isi just had a visit with the allergist last week and somehow tested negative to 35 different things including dog! As happy as I am for her I find it a little confusing because she has been sick constantly for the last 3 months. We are trying a nasal spray but I guess she may just be catching cold after cold. No more seizures, I just wish I knew what, for sure, caused the first one.

Isi has also finally started her new daycare this month and is adapting beautifully. We had to wait till she turned three to qualify for the part time, three day, program otherwise I could only do drop off or sign her up for the whole week. I miss the last daycare but saving all the extra cash is much more appealing.

Athena has finished the soccer season and will be trying out tomorrow night for the travel team. Fingers crossed!

Here, I wasn't quite ready for my photo, oh well. This is a necklace I beaded, even the pendant is beaded around. I need more time to do stuff like this.

Hopefully my next blog will be a little sooner, till next time,

Sending Love, The Sfikas Family

3 Years Old

Happy 3rd Birthday my little Flutterbug Princess! Isi was thrilled she was finally the one having a birthday party.

Athena and her best friend Sam.

I had to add this because it almost never happens, a photo of Ted and I together!

Isi's princess palace cake. I set everything up and the girls decorated, we are getting better every time!

Everything went well, Isi just had one moment while opening presents she decided to be scared of the dark and we had to take the rest of the evening inside. We even spent the evening with the Hilcove family along with Tim's cousin Kim Critchley and her family! Small, small world. It was a great time and I look forward to the next party!

Sending lots of love,

The Sfikas Family

Time is Flying!

Wow, is it really almost Halloween? September just vanished right before my eyes! I hope you all are enjoying Fall. It's been beautiful here with gorgeous temperatures, I wore jeans today without sweating to death! Above are my beautiful girls on picture day. They are clean and looking nice so I had to make that memory last a little longer.
A big highlight of the last month was when Athena's soccer team was invited to a clinic held by the women's ASU soccer team and then we watched the game after. Athena is receiving autographs from the team above. One of the women playing could do an entire flip to throw the ball way, way down the field and another women playing was from Burnaby (Kylla Sjoman) who's parents live in Terrace now and she once had a grandfather who was even the mayor of Terrace (can't remember name or find it at the time).
Hera and Isi have started dance classes this month. Little Isi is in pre-dance and love, loves it. Hera is taking Jazz and Musical Theatre and also loving it. So now all my kids are in a sport, whew! Isi is finally doing a little better after having a seizure (thank goodness just one) we believe was brought on by a sinus infection. Part of the reason I haven't written for so long has been because of all the cleaning we have been doing to ease Isi's allergies and help her get over the infection. She'll be going back to the doctors soon to make sure she is fighting it off OK by herself. I also made an appointment with the allergist next month but I am conflicted about going since there really isn't anything they can do, we'll see how things go.
Last but not least, since I have pictures of all my kids up I felt I needed a new picture up of our beautiful, mischievous, eight month old pups! There color is changing and all the brown is going away. Jackson has a puppy cut for his face and Clara actually has a full set of bangs that I thought I would pull back for the day with bows just for fun.

Time to get back to Halloween costumes which I somehow got talked into making, can't wait to post more pictures!
See you all soon!

Good Job

Looks like Isi posted my blog before I was ready, little mischief. Now I really better finish it. Before I go on do you see Ted's smile? Just thought I would point that out.
The weather has been awesome here. It's been a cooler summer than the last two years hovering between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius. It has been a very active monsoon season which keeps the evenings and mornings cool and it's awesome to watch all the lightning activity at night.
It's been a while so lets see if I can fill you in on what's up down here. Starting with the most present we had a great time yesterday with Ted for his birthday. We went out for lunch where I had the waiters sing to Ted and bring him a little cake. Then we actually had him convinced that the surprise outing we were planning was to Costco and he was thrilled. Goofball, that had us girls giggling for an hour before we finally fessed up! We actually took him out to 'Dave and Busters' which is like a giant Chuckee Cheese for adults where you can take your kids, and you can drink alcohol. Now that's how to do it.

Isi is growing in leaps and bounds. She says all kinds of sentences like, 'I can't swim Ana', 'I pind (find) it', 'Cut it out', and 'Good job'. She has also decided she needs to be my mum and will get a towel to clean my face or the marker that was on my arm yesterday. She packs a purse where ever we go which makes all the ladies go crazy over her and has her lipstick inside which she is constantly applying. Isi has also figured out how to use the computer. Her favorite site is Barbie.com which she can actually play games and has no issues moving around the mouse to click on what she wants. Crazy how fast they pick things up.
The girls are settling in to another year of school, 5th and 7th grade. Hera is doing great, as always and Athena is turning into a little lady wearing makeup and spending a lot more time on her appearance. Thank goodness because I was worried it wasn't going to happen. Hera I still have to remind to shower! Hera is about to start Hip Hop dance, and Athena has already started soccer. Isi will be ready to take dance classes when she is three so I am counting down the days. Athena is also saving for a cell phone. All her friends have one but we have been really tough on her about it and she has to save up for a years worth of payments, save a percentage to her bank account, and pay for her phone. It's a lot of responsibility and she has to prove to us she can handle that. At the rate she is working and saving she may have it before Christmas, yikes!

Above I tried to get Isi to smile by sticking out my tongue, it totally backfired.

I am now working on Wednesdays and Fridays at 'Bubbles and Paws'. It's working out well, now I just need more clients. Things have really moved along better than I could imagine in the last six months. I am still awkward and have a lot to learn but look forward to seeing how much I change and improve over the next year.

Other than that it's been a pretty quiet summer. We are starting to plan a trip to Mexico for my Dad's 50th and my aunts 40th after Christmas. We are almost ready to book. Ted has been traveling like crazy for the air miles to make it much more affordable especially since we are bringing the kids. I can't wait and am dreaming of beaches!

With Love,

The Sfikas Family

Happy July!

Beautiful Sofie after a morning of being pampered.
Happy July! It's been pretty cool here for July and I am trying to not complain even though I am soaked in sweat after taking the dogs for a walk at six in the morning. The last few days we even had some cloud cover and that has been a huge relief and we even had an awesome storm in our area a few nights ago. The thunder and lightning can be pretty cool this time of year.
We spent 4th of July at Big Bear Lake in California with the dogs and kids at a friends house. It was a really great short get away. We went early Friday and took the kids to the beach that evening where they played charades for about 2 hours waiting for the fireworks. You think they would have been bored but charades ended up really contagious and even the adults were playing. We did tons of walking, some hiking and even had a grown up night out. It was very interesting going to a bar in Big Bear on fourth of July since it was full of Hells Angels, patrolled by an entourage of cops and then to top things off I was hit on by a woman who's hand was swollen from punching another woman who she thought wasn't nice to her. It was definitely an interesting night in a town that can be very quiet.
Above is the gorgeous Sofie who is my first neighborhood dog I have groomed. I asked if I could practice de-shedding her before she was shaved to see if it would help. Labs have tough outer guard hairs that help protect them from water, cold and even shelter them from sun and when you shave dogs with hair like this they lose that protection. Unfortunately results were only good for a couple of days and she is coming back today to be shaved. My de-shedding program hopefully will work better on a dog with longer hair. I'll have to hunt down a new guinea pig. I already have a few lined up this month and look forward to what a learn next.

I rescued this big bug out of my swimming pool last week and very much alive. This insect is called a Cicada and you hear them fairly often but they are pretty rare to see so I was very excited and had to take a photo. Doesn't it kind of look like a cross between a moth and a cockroach?
Toby and Jackson taking a quick break from rough housing.

Other than just hanging out at home we have had a special guest staying with us. Meet Toby! He is only a few weeks older than my pups and very adorable. He has been hanging out with us all week and goes home today. I think my pups are going to be a little sad when he goes since they all have become pretty good buds. They won't miss him for long though cause he'll be back again in a few weeks for another stay. Helping take care of neighbors dogs and grooming them just makes me fall in love with dogs even more and I can't wait to meet the next one.
Hope you all have a great week with a little sunshine,

Love the Sfikas Family

Parties and Lipstick

Hera's party guests.

What a crazy month, I don't know how on earth it went by so fast.

We had the kids birthday party's at the end of May so more kids could make it before taking off for holidays. We hosted Mystery parties for each of the kids with Ted as the host. They were great and a lot of fun. Athena's was probably more fun since the kids had stuff they had to do to make themselves look guilty and play out making for a lot of participation and you didn't have to be really smart to figure out the mystery. Both girls had sleepovers, even though I promised myself I'll never have a sleepover again last year and the year before, and both times the kids were so loud I went downstairs to sleep with them. Worked like a charm. Thank goodness both are now done for another year. Poor Ted at one point in the evening said to me during Hera's party, "I don't think I can do this."

Athena's party girls.

I am almost done my grooming course and would like to take on an internship. Between this and having to severely penny pinch lately things were getting pretty stressful but somehow that lead to the right people coming into my life at the right time and things are just working out. Funny how that happens and I just can't help thinking that somehow when you are heading the right way doors just open, such as I am already lining up business.

Clara before grooming.
Clara after grooming. You have no idea how long this took because Clara is incredibly squirmy. What you can't see is I trimmed her ears, tail, feet and around the eyes. Jackson isn't on here because I tried to use clippers around his eyes. Not a good idea with a wriggly pup.

My mom is undergoing tons of tests right now to try and pin point a partial blockage. We are hoping that someone cancels with Dr. Evans so he can look at her soon so she can finally go in for surgery. It's incredibly painful for her and I can't stand waiting another week for doctors to do surgery. Unless her intestines burst all we can do is wait. Anyone looking for a career should think of becoming a "Butt Doctor" and moving up to the Terrace area.

Did I mention last month I backed into Ted's car! Yup, while Katherine and Vince were here. Just had to get that out since Ted is embarassing me with it when we are out with friends. Now no one can give me the, ' You did what?', look. Now they'll just look at me like,' At least I didn't do that.'

I have an interesting fact to share with you I just learned, a Monsoon is defined as "any wind that reverses its direction seasonally." So it's a little more than freak thunderstorms and winds and officially started this June. Haven't seen any storms yet but can't wait to see and admire them.

Little Isi found my lipstick and she thinks she is gorgeous. Wish I could show you her face when she saw this picture.

I miss all of you!!!

Extra big hugs,

Charmaine and Family

My Little Balerina!

Here is my sweet little ballerina. Little Isi dances ballet everyday. I can't wait to put her in classes when she is three. Hopefully she stays interested for a while.
We recently enjoyed a fantastic visit with Katherine and Vince. The photo above is from the 'Out of Africa Safari Zoo' which has some awesome animals and a really great tiger splash show. The weather during that day was horrible and we actually could have used winter rain gear. We didn't get to do the whole park because of the darn weather. It was very expensive for a Zoo so far out of our way and don't know if I would go back but it was definitely worth going to once.
We did lot's of shopping and cooking and just hanging out. I hope they come back soon. Vince made an amazing Carbonara. It was a huge portion that lasted several meals but no way did one single noodle get wasted.

During Katherine and Vince's stay we were invited up to Vince's uncles cabin for the day. The kids had an awesome time and where even horseback riding. Can you believe Isi on this huge horse all by herself? Isi was in heaven and it was almost impossible to get her off. I have never been so close to a horse that I remember and actually was leading him around, that was pretty cool.
I'll have to add more puppy pictures next time. They are growing too fast and really starting to lighten up. The girls and I took them swimming with very interesting results. Clara hates the water and will try to get out as soon as you put her in, while Jackson wants to keep going and will actually turn away from the way out if you bring him to the stairs before he is ready to come out. The most interested thing they did was when Clara was frantic to climb out of the pool in the wrong spot Jackson came along, grabbed her by the back of the neck and yanked her out. I was completely amazed. I wonder if that's what they'll be doing to us when they get bigger?

Check out more photos on facebook!

Love Charmaine and family

Glasses and Puppies!

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's (woman's) Day. I had a relaxing day catching up on lots of sleep and then my girls gift (along with gorgeous hand made cards) to me was to babysit Isi while Ted and I went out to diner. Perfect! Turns out Athena also glasses and here she is sporting one of two cool pairs. Their are way too many fun frames to choose from so that Athena almost found it impossible to not be excited about them. One of the pairs I got for her has clip on arms so you can change them to different colors and designs. Too cool. She'll have to wait a year before she can get contacts (which she really wants) for her focusing to become strong enough to tolerate them. Funny thing is we never suspected she needed glasses like we had with Hera. I had taken her to the doctor for shots when she did crappy on the eye chart. Even though I don't have a lot of faith in eye charts I thought to make her a visit to the eye doctor just to be safe since we're covered, and sure enough she is near sighted just like her Dad and Hera. Wonder if Isi will take after me and be glasses free. At least we come from families that have good teeth. I would rather pay for glasses than braces.
Here I am showing off the girls and puppies. I am officially so busy that house work is being prolonged in some cases for weeks. Along with being tired with these five it is just hot enough to turn anyone into a snail. We are actually supposed to hit 100 F this weekend. Ouch, I'm not ready for it!
We had swimming pool issues the last few weeks to finally discover tubes and filters and everything was clogged with leaves. We finally cleaned everything out and I had shocked the water to clean it better and Ted decided to run the pump all night to keep the water moving. The next morning Ted tells me ' I fixed the pool problem', I am thinking 'what are you talking about', I look out the window to find a completely empty pool! Ted and forgotten to turn the back washing system off! I can't believe no one woke us up in the middle of the night to see where all the water might be coming from! Now it's crystal clear and ready for the hot weekend cause we're going to need it.

Clara and Jackson have already bonded deeply with all of us and grown like weeds. I can't pick both of them up at the same time anymore and I am sitting on the floor in this picture to get them together. The white in their coat is slowly coming out, I don't look forward to their first hair cut cause their colors are so cute right now.

Sending Love,

Charmaine and Family

Hello from Beautiful, Sunny, Glendale!
We just had a fantastic visit with my Dad and Patty for a week. I don't know if this is a photo they like very much but it's one of my favorite of them. I still sometimes can't believe they finally made it down and had a little taste of sunshine. We were as laid back as could be between the kids and two puppies. We did manage to pull of a day road trip north to see Montezuma's Castle, and Montezuma's Well, cut through Sedona and drive back home through Jerome. We should have stopped and took some pictures of Jerome because the views were FANTASTIC! The whole little mining town is all built on a cliff and just amazing. The other big event while they were down was Castle's and Coasters. Now some of you know I am a huge chicken when it comes to rides, even with my influence Hera went on the big roller coaster with Gramps and Patty which had two loops. I admire how brave she is though it doesn't make me any closer to getting on something I'll end up upside down on. We all had a blast and can't wait till their next visit.

Now time to show off our adorable new family members Jackson (above left) and Clara. They are already ten and a half weeks old and growing fast ( Clara 1lb a week and Jackson almost 1 1/2 lbs a week. They are awesome if you can handle continuous peeing. Thank goodness I have lots of help and hard floors.
These two are very different but very bonded and never leave the others side and heaven forbid you try and separate them to bath or train because the other just goes nuts.

Jackson is on the move all day and hard to keep up with. He is also the king of getting into things. He has figured out how to open the automatic garbage can, climb on chairs (below is Jackson in his chair) and how to climb up and over the baby gate (Yup, so much for baby gates). Even so he is our big fluffy teddy bear and likes a good snuggle when he settles down.

At two pounds less is sweet little Clara. Clara loves to be loved and give love. She is the first to sit nice for you and loves a good belly rub. As sweet as she is she has a crazy wild side and is always coming up with new attacks on her brother like jumping off the little brick flower garden wall to knock her brother clear across the yard. She is also most determined to figure out toys by jumping on them and hitting them with her paws as well as barking (she is the loud one out of the two, I think I only have heard Jackson bark twice). Little Clara seems very calm and cautious at first but when she lets loose she is by far the more energetic one.

We are all loving these two pups tons and have lots of fun with them and can't wait till they have all their shots so we can show them off. That will be in another 10 weeks (groan) because of a bad parvo season down here. Oh, well, better safe than sorry.

I look forward to talking with you all soon,

Hugs and Kisses,

The Sfikas Family

Free At Last, Free At Last.....

'Free at last, free at last, thank god almighty, I am free at last' (MLK).

As most of you already know we have our GREEN CARD!! WhooHoo!! I can actually apply for a SSN card. I can't tell you what a big weight it is off our shoulders that we now can't get kicked out of the country. I think we will have to throw a party.

It's been a really great month. We had an awesome visit with Ted's sister Soula and her kids. It was great to have all the kids hang out and little Alex provided us with tons of laughs. I can't believe ten days went by so fast. Hopefully we can do it again sometime soon. In the photo are Hera, Kallista, Alex, Athena and Isi.

The kids are all doing great, just passing there cold onto me. I advise anyone who has a bit of a cold not to try 'hot yoga'. I thought it would help me sweat it out, it sure did, I was on the couch the whole next day and even had to go to the doctor to treat an eye infection. Thank goodness I am feeling better now, maybe I had a lot of toxins to release.

Today is one of the most exciting days for us because Ted is driving back from Seattle as I write this with two gorgeous wheaten pups, Clara and Jackson. It was getting too difficult to try and get them on the plane and noway were we putting little pups in cargo, so Ted decided to drive. I don't know how we are all going to sleep tonight! Ted will make it home tomorrow evening hopefully close to diner time.

As for me, I started a dog grooming course since these pups are going to cost a small fortune to groom. So far I have completed the first two tests. It is really exciting and liberating for me to do something like this since I have been home taking care of kids for so long. Maybe it'll even turn into a paying at home job down the road. The coolest thing is I can do pretty much the whole course over the Internet during my own time.

With some exciting weeks ahead I can hopefully find the time to share with you all more pictures and stories. Take care!

Love The Sfikas Family

Family

It's been a great week here in the Sfikas house. We had a surprise visit from Grandma Dawna and Pete who stayed for three nights. It was a blast having them here and we learned some interesting things about our family. They stayed just long enough to be part of the BBQ/Birthday Party I threw for myself (is that a little crazy?). We were missing a few people but still had a pretty good time. Grandma Dawna spent a lot of time trying to see if Ted was worthy to be called grandson or not. He lost ground when the BBQ caught on fire one night with flames that were eight feet high charring our chicken because he got caught up doing something in the house instead of watching the grill, he won points for helping clean up the kitchen, he lost points for letting Grandma bake a cake (from cold stone creamery, yum) after telling another woman attending our party to bring a cake, and he won points for being pretty good lookin'. At least he didn't end up in the negatives.
We are so excited to be having a lot of company over the next month. Ted's sister and kids come next week, and my friend Rachel is coming on the 28th. Along with the fact we are going puppy crazy! I have already set up a trainer for the puppies and started buying them a few toys, only one more month and we are counting every, single day!
I look forward to sharing a ton of pictures during the next month and will see you back here soon!

Tons of Love,
Charmaine and Family

PS. I posted pictures of Grandma, the kids and Pete. The silly one of Isi was taken a while ago, my friend brought back a hula outfit from Hawaii for her and she loves to swish the skirt and laughs like crazy to see herself sticking out her tongue.

Happy Birthday To Me

Happy Birthday to Me!! Yup, my birthday was yesterday. I am very proud to be 31. Have any of you ever checked out a website called Realage.com? I am also proud to say according to healthy habits my real age is 25. Whoohoo! I plan to keep it that way a long time.





















This week has been much more of our usual pace. Ted has been traveling every week lately so we thought putting Isi into daycare two days a week might be a good idea since I am having a bit of a hard time here without a lot of help. Isi's first day going to Kindercare was Wednesday and she loves it. To the right is a picture of her as we are heading out the door to 'school'. She will be attending every Wednesday and Friday and I am so excited for her, she really needs to be around kids her own age more. I also need a little time to breath and get things done that I can't do with her home.
The girls and I attended a very humorous play at the school on Friday put on by the teachers. To the right is a photo of Mr. Yorke (Athena's teacher) as the Fairy Godmother with Hera and one of her friends. I knew it would be funny but I couldn't stop giggling for ten minutes after seeing him dressed like this!


Saturday the girls took part in another chess competition. Hera one two games out of five qualifying her to compete in the State Championship and Athena won four out of her five games winning a fifth place trophy and also qualifying for the State Championship. Between Chess and Tennis these girls minds and bodies should stay in top shape. Now if I could only play chess with them and actually beat them.
Ted is actually flying up to Toronto this week. He has never been before and should be an interesting trip. He must think it can't be much colder up there because I caught him trying to pack only a blazer to keep warm and had to fight with him to at least bring a light sweater. Fingers crossed he stays warm.

Thank you for all your phone calls and thoughts this week, I look forward to having you check in next week!

Love Charmaine and Family