What a Trip!

We had such a wonderful trip to Vancouver! Angelina got to see all kinds of neat things and people. She also got to eat like royalty, as did we all: super fresh salmon and prawns, steak, and delicious authentic indian food. Matt and I also had lots of sushi, and man, is it ever good over there.

We had one really weird Griswold-type day, including a small car accident and stepping in swamp water, but even that day was really fun. In fact, it might be my favourite.

It was also really cool to see everybody. Most of our friends live in Van now so we got together with a different couple almost every day. It's so great to see what everybody's doing.

The best part, by far, was spending 24 hours a day together for 10 solid days. Angelina became even more of a little daddy's girl. On the last day, Matt went out to the car for a minute and Angelina was clawing at the door, crying and calling "dadaaaaaaa!" It was a hard adjustment for both of them when Matt had to go back to work.

Here are some pictures of the Aquarium, Angelina's favourite place.

A trippy aquarium playhouse for babies

Watching the dolphins

My little merbaby

Baby Beluga!

Wow!

Too Much Fun for One Post...

... so here is the zoo, suspension bridge and Lonsdale Quay market.

Wow, look at this thing!

Can we take him home?

The best critters of all

Treehouse buddies

What a handsome view!

My Smartypants

It's incredible how quickly Angelina is growing up. Suddenly she can say a lot of words (mama, daddy, ball, dog, baby, and more)and she understands most of what we say to her. All we have to do is show her a new skill or word a few times and she's got it down.

She even figured out all on her own how to say her name; she calls herself Nana. She says "Nana" when she's pointing to a picture of herself or something she wants, as in "give that to Nana". What a clever girl!

We're leaving tomorrow for Vancouver and scambling to get everything ready. We haven't even called anybody who lives there... but don't worry, we're there for 9 full days so there will be time to get together. We'll call ASAP! We can't wait to see everybody and to show Angelina some really cool stuff. Matt is especially looking forward to 10 whole days with his little princess... that's Angelina, not me.

The Fun Never Stops!

This baby loves to watch soccer! She also played ball with some big kids.
We were there to watch Lee's dad in a tournament

Story time

Deigan's hamming it up for the camera

Aww, the little Garcias out for a day of fun.

There's a First Time for Everything...

...and here's Angelina's first time eating sugar. Love at first bite!

Happy Birthday, Binky Bear!

Angelina's birthday was on Sunday and we had a huge barbeque dinner party. Angelina had lots of fun!

It was a nostalgic weekend for me, reliving my experiences one year ago. On Saturday morning I thought, "one year ago right now I started having contractions" Saturday night: "this is when I checked in to the hospital" and Sunday morning "this is when I gave birth to my beautiful babygirl".

What a lot has changed; one year ago Angelina was a 7-pound little thing who couldn't do anything but cry. She had no control over her little body at all and had no idea what was going on. Now she's a little girl! She's not very big but she can stand and get around on her own and communicate (even talk a little) and has such a wonderful, distinct personality. I am so proud of my little sweetheart.

And here are some pictures of the party:

We bought a castle for our little princess

Daddy's little birthday girl

"What am I supposed to do with these?"

"Daddy, my cake is on fire!"

"The party's over, but I still want to play!"

Funny Accidents

These are accidents, but I love when they happen 'cause they're so hillarious. The first one is from January and the second one is from this week.

Arty, not Wal-Marty

We had a professional photographer take Angelina's picture in the park on the weekend, and yesterday we saw the proofs and ordered the pictures. It's so exciting! The pictures are very cool and uniquely Angelina, not like you get at Wal-mart. No offense to anyone who gets their pictures done there, 'cause those can be really cute too.


The photog brought her 4-month old over yesterday and he weighs more than Angelina (that's not unusual)! Some of the pictures are of Angelina sitting in a patch of tulips and you can really see how small she is compared to them. So adorable! We will get the pictures this week and I'll post some. The photog loved Angelina and will be putting her picture on her own website as well.


Meanwhile, here are some pictures taken by little old me.

What a doll...

...and look how smart!

" We're ready to go out now!"

Angelina Ballerina

Family Pictures, Sort-of

Mama and her tiny princessWhat a lucky lady I am!

Poor daddy always gets his head cut off


Well, there are most of our faces

Good News

Matt booked the time off work for our trip to Vancouver. We will go on Saturday June 9th (evening) and then back on the 17th or 18th (oooh look at us, we're flexible!) Hopfully all you coastal folks can fit in a visit during that time! Angelina will be so grown up by then, walking and talking. Oh, I can't wait!

Also fabulous news: my mom and her boyfriend are going to Mexico for Christmas this year... so we're celebrating Christmas with her on the 17th and we only have to do two Christmases at Christmastime! Aaaah, it will be like a vacation. Just thinking about it makes me want to dance.

One more happy thing: Angelina built a tower out of blocks this morning. She is so fracking smart!

Kibbles n' Bits

Yay Robin, congrats! Is Kindale a home for mentally handicapped people? We would be up for a barbeque.

What a weekend we had; all three of us were wretchedly sick! We had to cancel Easter. Oh well, we're mostly better now (Angelina is still a bit sick). This weekend we'll go to Kelowna and buy Angelina a jungle gym and some other more age-appropriate toys since she can climb now and is just so darn smart.

We saw "The Persuit of Happyness" and they do explain why they spelled happiness wrong. Well, it's not really a good reason but at least there is one. Anyway it's quite depressing. The movie that is. And the spelling.

Also I read Freakonomics recently. What a cool book! Has anyone else read that? It's so interesting.

My life right now

OMG Keira, Gina is SOOOO cute and smart! It's so incredible how much little babies/kids learn so quickly!

I don't have many new pics of Hailey uploaded onto my computer from my camera yet, so you guys will have to wait for that.

I am just about to graduate with my Arts-Psychology degree!!! Yay!! Finally! So I was thinking about having a HUGE day where we all get together and celebrate ME ;). Are you guys interested in having a bbq with me or something?? Some of you haven't even seen my new townhouse yet!

I am so working at Kindale now. I haven't started yet because I have to go and do all these errands for them first. Like yesterday, I went to get a criminal record check, my class 4 learners book (cause I have to get this in order to drive wheelchair accessible vans), my drivers abstract, a new bank account at the credit union, I have to take a St. John's Ambulance course, and so on... it's incredible how much work it takes! But I will be starting out really soon there. The whole "personal care" part of Kindale I am not looking forward to. But I am trying to get out of it because I am doing behavioural and medicinal therapy instead. That is what I went to school for... if I wanted to do nursing stuff, I would've gone to school for that LOL! But in a couple of months I am probably going to be working one-on-one with a 22-year-old woman who just got into an accident and now has brain damage and will not longer develop. And they want me to test her using psychometric tests and analyze her data to see which parts of her brain are damaged and so on. THAT is what I'm looking forward to!! I can't wait, I really hope I get that part!!!

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well. Happy Easter! For those of you (like me) who do not celebrate Easter for the sake of Christianity, happy chocolate eating!!! :)

Robyn

Smart as a Whip, Cute as a Button

My babygirl is sooo clever...
...she figured out how to change the song. Also, the other day she came over and gave me a big kiss for seemingly no reason... then I realized that the song we were listening to said the word kiss! It wasn't even a song about kissing, it just said "kiss" once. Wow.
This one blows me away. she wanted to play with the buttons on the TV but she couldn't reach, so she brought this pillow over to climb on. That's amazing!
Whatever she's not supposed to play with (like the remote), that's what she wants. Today she got hold of my Freakonomics book. She didn't rip or chew it, she actually turned the pages.
So that's today's rant on how smart my little girl is. Also she is stunningly beautiful and unbearably sweet.

What a wonderful world...

Hello Everyone! Glad to hear things are going well! Lee and I just got back from a wondeful weekend in Whistler - we rented this cabin up there for 3 days/2 nights and WOW! Besides 2 of the days being gross, cold, windy, rainy it was still nice. Today was gorgeous - here's a few pics below of our trip.

This is of us in front of Tantalus Mountain - It's hard to see but the top of the mountain was covered is bright white snow.
This is a picture of the cabin we rented. It was 2 levels/950 sq ft. Hardwood or slate floors, 10 ft ceilings and fully loaded with the newest kitchen gadgets and comfy furniture. On Saturday night we went out for dinner to Earls in Whistler Village (and seriously had the worst service ever!!! OMG!) then came home and had a relaxing bubble bath together with this stuff we bought from Lush....it was a great way to spend our 9 month anniversary. Other than this weekend things have been okay - had a good visit with the family in Vernon, saw one of my best friends are her kids in Kelowna, work is going okay at a slow point right now but I know that won't last too long. Very excited for upcoming weeks and month - My Grandparents get back from their 5 month trip to California this coming weekend, Leah,Dave & Kids are coming down from Kelowna to visit, I'm helping my friend Natalie do some wedding stuff for her upcoming nuptials, my Mom and Bill (Step-Dad) are coming to visit in 5 weeks!! Yay!! And...if I'm lucky spring is finally here...Vancouver weather has been teasing all of us lately we get rain, flooding, sunshine, snow and wind all in the same week lately. Enough is enough though - I want flip-flops!

This is a picture of Lee and I on the way home from Vernon/Kelowna a few weeks ago. We stopped at Bromley Rock for a stretch and pee! LOL!! The weather was super nice once we hit the Hope-Princeton and when we hit Penticton the temperature hit 17 degrees!!! Fabulous! We also saw tons of wildlife on the way home - deer, bald eagles, racoons, tons of birds etc. However, as soon as we hit Manning Park the weather turned to rain and wind....stayed like that all the way home in Vancouver where there was major flooding. Aww, got to love the sun when it's around.

Key - Did Lee leave a white Quicksilver hat at your house??? He seems to have misplaced it on our trip up there and I thought we may have left you two gifts instead of just one - LOL!

Hope everyone continues to do well, keep on blogging!

Busy with school

Hey Everyone,
Happy Belated Birthday Keira!!
I just updated myself with the blog and loved looking at the pictures. I'm glad to hear everything is going well. Keira, how did the baby picture contest go? I was sick one day from school, and 'Regis and Kelly' came on after the morning news. They had pictures everywhere at the studio. Did you see Gina's picture on T.V?
Kristen, I am so glad you didn't take the picture of your dog with the outfits. I was scanning down to the bottom of the blog when I saw the pictures, and I thought to myself...oh no, Kristen dresses her dog in outfits, but everyone feels the same way I do about the outfits.
Robyn, how old is hailey now?
I am busy with school (as the title says), the last month of school can be the worst with stress and lack of sleep. I have two big group projects this semester...not my favorite. I really enjoy the business program and am learning so much about me in the process.
I was down in Vancouver at the end of my reading break (Feb 24th ish), and I managed to hit some sunny weather. It was a bit cold (it did snow overnight) when I was there but the sun did come out during the day. I also had to drive a friends car while she was telling her family that her water had just broke. It was a pretty amazing weekend. My friend Sarah lives downstairs from Steve and Tanene (also friends of ours). Sarah, Tanene, and I had gone to watch "Half Nelson" at Tanene's friends house in deroche (30 mins away) when her water broke. When we got back to Tanene's house, Sarah and I started organizing her bag for the hospital. The baby was a week early, so Tanene had a couple of thing packed but not everything. I was using a little card she had gotten from the midwife. She was in labour for about 12 hours. Sarah and I hung up blue ballons in the tree which is in their front yard. It was some of my excitement for that weekend.
Keira, you were talking about how Angelina gives you kisses. My other friend's daughter gave kisses with her mouth open when she first learned to give kisses. Now she closes her mouth and makes a mmaahh noise. Morgan does some cute things. When I saw her last (during the same vancouver visit), she bounced her way to her grandma while clapping her hands.
I am going to go and do some homework. Great catching up. Keira, we should do lunch after my final exams. I can wait to see Angelina again.
Everyone, enjoy your easter holiday.

Chow,
Sammi

Princess Ponytails

Oh man, I am sooooo excited that Angelina can have little pigtails now. She is so fricking cute!
My little munchkin, munching away, no idea how adorable she is.
She still uses a newborn-size bottle with a newborn nipple. We keep trying to upsize, but she won't have it. This bottle is half a cup.
Aww
Gotta love those stubby little baby arms!

Angelina can stand on her own briefly now and walk with help. She also points to things and tells us about them in baby-language. Also I ask, "where's mama's nose?" and she touches it, and I ask "where are mama's buttons?" and she lifts my shirt and finds my belly button ring! Nothing compares to having a baby. She is so wonderful! Me and Matt are completely nuts about her!

This coming weekend is going to be busy and fun again. My aunt is visiting from Calgary, and Lisa and her new bf are staying at our house for the weekend.