Arika & Alivia

Things were a little crazy before, during, and after Christmas...so I'm just now getting the chance to catch up and share a few things with all of you.

This post needs a little background info: My mom's best friend, Bonnie, has a daugher Arika. Arika is my brother's age, and we grew up spending a lot of time together. I'll never forget our many roadtrips to Winter Park, CO. Good times. We were quite the little ski-bunnies. Well, Arika now lives in Japan with her hubby and gorgeous daughter, Aliva. Aliva is just a few months younger than Sophie, and they got to spend some quality time getting to know each other while they were in town for a visit.

We were able to get together two times. The first time they all went to the zoo while I was at work. After the zoo I met them at the mall to introduce Alivia and Sophie to Santa.

Here they are at the zoo:

Here's my mom, Bonnie, and the granddaughters at the mall:


This next one needs no explanation:

Priceless.

That sums up how she feels about the big man in red. Not to fond of him yet...neither was Aliva.

After Christmas we got together again to go swimming at the YMCA. The girls LOVED it!!

The girls were getting a little frisky before jumping in, but once they hit the water they were the best of friends and had a blast.

That's all for now, friends. I'll post more about our Christmas adventures soon! Stay posted.

Doing it Sophie Style

Sophie has been a bit of a picky eater lately. If she doesn't like something, she pushes it out with her tongue or throws it on the floor. She does pretty well during the day, but dinner just isn't her thing. Tonight she wasn't interested in what the house had to offer, so I counted on her trusty favorites to come through for me. (Considering she's 18lbs at 16 months old, we don't have any room to miss a meal around here.) Two things Sophs loves: black beans and frozen peas. I threw some in a bowl and let her go wild. Usually she chooses to eat them with her fingers, and she started off that way tonight, but it wasn't working for her. This was the more efficient method in her opinion:

"Yeah, so what?"

As you can see, we are clearly still working on our table manners.

No Luck

So, we bought a car tonight. Finally. It has seemed like a long journey to figure out what to do about the hole in the engine of the Subaru. We finally decided not to fix it and look for a new/used car, and then the hunt for the right car for us seemed like it took FOREVER. Just as I started to get really frustrated, we found it. We ended up with an Equinox. I love it and Matt likes it. (He just wishes it had more cargo space to haul things around. I can't blame him. He's a guy and guys like to haul things.)

We came home and I was feeling great about the car decision, put Sophie to bed, and started some laundry to get ready for our trip to WI. As I was down in the basement, I realize that the furnace was turning on and off repeatedly. My initial wonder turned into panic as I quickly realized that our furnace has done this before. Yep. It's busted. Again. Some luck, huh? We can't seem to catch a break.

I called my folks to tell them about the car and subsequently about the furnace. They gave the usual parental advice and as we hung up, my mom said, "Well, good luck." Sorry, Mom, but we ran out of luck a while back...right before the engine got that hole.

Our Latest & Greatest

I'm not a very good blogger. Sorry about that. I love reading other blogs, but feel like I don't have much to say or share about our lives. Anyway, maybe it will be my New Year's resolution to be better about that. Maybe. I watched Julie & Julia the other night and was so impressed that Julie started a blog not knowing if anyone at all was reading it. Sometimes I feel like it's not worth blogging, because I don't really know if anyone is reading. Is it worth it? Are any out of town people reading this thing and enjoying updates about our family? Are you out there?

Anyway, for the sake of keeping this blog alive, I'm going to give you a few Schaefer family updates and up load some recent pictures we've taken. Enjoy them...whoever you are!

Updates:

1. Our Subaru has a hole in the engine, so we're scrapping it and cutting our losses. We're heading out this afternoon to look at some cars. Wish us luck!

2. We're headed to Wisconsin to see family over Christmas break. Should be a good time had by all. We're excited to see everyone ooh and ahh over how big Sophie is getting. She's changed so much since we were there in August. Most notably...she walks & talks a lot more now. She's going to be the life of the party, I'm sure!

3. Sophie has her first cold. Last night she had a 101.5 fever. My poor baby. I am, however, so thankful that she made it 15+ months before getting really sick.

4. Yeah, I can't think of anything else. See, I'm not so good at figuring out what you guys want to know. So...I'll let some pictures do the rest of the talking:

Sophie is big enough to have blankets & baby dolls in her crib now. This was a big step for me; it was like a "coming of age" moment in her life. :)

Speaking of getting big...she can now climb up into the rocking chair in her room. (Please ignore the hideously old and worn chair...I got it for $5 at a garage sale when I was in college.)

She is definitely a climber. She loves climbing in and out of her toy box.

She'll just sit in there and play with her toys.

Just had to throw this one in. She's such a clown.

Sophie put the star on top of the Christmas tree this year. (Not really, but it makes for a cute photo, right?) She was sleeping when we set up the tree and put the lights on. When she woke up she came out and was so cute as she explored the tree and "helped" us decorate it.

Sophie with her aunt Joy.

Sophie has her first cold, which is why her nose is all red in this picture. We gave her a pretzel to munch on and she took it over to the pillow on the floor and just hung out there eating her snack. When did she turn into a little kid?! Matt and I can't handle that our baby girl is slipping further away every day. Her expression here is priceless. Speaking of priceless expressions...check out this one:

This is one of those photos that will show up at every family get together when Sophie is older. Priceless.

Tagged for a Cause

I've been tagged...but it's okay, because it is for a good cause. It's the season of giving, you know.

My friend Jen's husband works for Habitat for Humanity (HFH) out in Colorado. Now, I don't live in CO, but I know that Dan's job means a lot to him and that it does a lot of good for A LOT of people! That makes me smile. So HFH is doing a fundraiser so that they can reach out to even more needy families. It’s called “HFHSVV Five Dollar Difference” and it goes like this - five minutes of time to donate five dollars and pass it on to five friends. The goal is to reach $15,000 by the end of the year.

So I thought about it and decided that $5 isn't really much of a sacrifice for us right now and that it was feasible. If you think that you and your family could spare $5, please consider donating.
I'm supposed to tag 5 people, but if you are reading this, just go ahead and consider yourself tagged.

Here's what to do:
Click the picture below. Donate 5. Send to 5 more friends. Then, leave a comment on Jen's blog page, cause she'd like to keep track of how far this can go. Plus, if you comment, she'll even send you a copy of her fun Christmas mix CD that she likes to call, "Christmix 2009". Piece of cake!

click here to donate!

Family Photos

Erin Duggin took some fall photos of our family recently. I am in love with them for so many reasons...here are a just few:

1. I think Erin is amazing and so talented. She always captures the perfect moments, like this one:

2. I LOVE fall!! I love fall weather and fall colors! It is my favorite season and it just makes me happy to have some family photos during this time of the year.

3. I bought the dress Sophie is wearing in the pictures for her 1st birthday, and I think it's so cute on her, so I'm glad we have some great photos of her in it! :)

4. I've always been a fan of fields. Yep, you read that right. I love fields. I love the patterns made by the tractors; I love fields of grains that turn a deep red in the fall; I absolutely LOVE fields with one single oak tree in the middle (there's a great one on the way up to the rural town where I went to college), and I especially love fields of tall grasses in the fall...which is perfect, because that's where this photo shoot took place...by happenstance, actually.

So, if you want to check out the rest of them Click here and enter schaeferfam as your password. I think you'll see why I love them so much!
Thanks Erin!!

My Big Brother

I have to give a little shout out to my brother. Click here and here for some cool stuff he's featured in. (The video takes a while to upload.)
As we were growing up, I always said he'd be the next Frank Lloyd Wright and that students would learn about him in their art history and architecture classes in the future. I do believe he's well on his way.
Sooooo proud of you big brother!!