Mexico!

We are back! I would never think we could have so much fun in only 5 days, but did we ever, and it was made even more fun because we met up with family (Brent and Char, Jan and Kenny, and of course Dad and Pat).
I was starting to worry we wouldn't make it on vacation after Jackson got sick and we weren't able to board him, I caught a nasty cold, and Ted obliterated his toe nail thanks to the corner of a wood bench he dropped on it. Somehow everything worked out thanks to help from neighbors and Ted's toe not becoming infected and a speedy recovery for me.

Even with a few clouds the weather was beautiful and warm. Our hotel was awesome with us landing the best suite in the house on the ground floor with the beach right outside the sliding doors. The kids had a blast playing on the beach, (where you could walk forever), swimming in the pool, pigging out on strawberry slushies, and, of course, some fishing off the beach (no luck there). From our beach you could see whales, porpoises, fish, and manta rays all leaping out of the water, very, very cool! The water wasn't safe for swimming in our area but that didn't make the beach any less fun, in fact I think all the waves made it even more fun.

On Tuesday of our trip the girls and I went on an awesome fishing trip with Gramps. In the picture are all the Durados we caught which we brought one back to the hotel and they cooked us a fantastic fish diner for our group. How cool was that for the girls to catch diner? We also caught a needle fish and Gramps will tell you all about the 'huge' fish he caught that are not in the photo (I have already embarrassed Gramps enough so I won't go into too much detail).

On the Wednesday we took a horrible bus ride into Los Cabos. It was insanely crowded to the point if you weren't claustrophobic you still started to feel like it (Hera had to stand the whole time with her poor face at but level) and it was long. Once off we enjoyed the downtown doing a little shopping (Isi's now favorite toy is the cute little guitar above), we got severely harassed to buy junk, and we swam with the dolphins (picture above with us in our wet suits). Very beautiful city, but even so we were happy to pay a taxi back to the hotel and take it easy for the evening.

Thursday we celebrated my Dad and Jan's birthday a little early so we could participate before leaving Friday afternoon. We had cake, too much to drink, live music (very interesting), and tons of laughs.

I have tons of great photos to share so keep an eye on facebook or join up if you aren't already cause there will be some stuff you don't want to miss!

Big Hugs and Kisses from all of us,

The Sfikas Family

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