Welcome to our blog!

Many of you may be new visitors to our blog and we bid you welcome! Thank you for taking the time to see what we have been up to since Sophia has been born...those of you who visit often - Thank you for continuing to check in on us :) The posts, are as always, in reverse order! Christmas with the Shepherd's was our first Christmas celebration this year!

Presents from Missouri

The day after Christmas brought one last round of presents! My dad (Bito to Sophia) send a box full of presents!

A little girl with her dog! Sophia is fascinated by Callie!

Playing with ribbon from Bito & Tina's presents...
Sophia with a present ready to open!

Thank you for my presents!

Christmas on Dog Creek Road

After opening presents on Christmas morning at home, we packed up and headed to my mom's for Christmas! I think this was the first time bad weather didn't interfer with our travel plans!

Grandma Kelly in her Zips (University of Akron mascot - Ian is a freshman there) gear with big-bow Sophia

Just what I always wanted!!!
This picture is meant to mimic one I had taken at my first Christmas!

Ian presenting Sophia with her very own Zippy!

Aunt Becca giving my baby bunny ears!

Random videos.....

This is Sophia playing with her Zoo!

This is Sophia cracking up laughing! Callie doesn't look too excited this time, but usually she is running and jumping up towards Sophia! (no animals were harmed in the making of this video!)

Christmas morning!

Santa visited our house this year! We just couldn't believe all the toys he brought for Sophia, so we took a little picture! Santa brought her bath toys, a toy phone, a ball that sings and rolls around on the floor and a book in her stocking! Well, Sophia recently learned a new trick! She can sit up!!! Though she can't recover if she leans to far to one side, she can sit up! She loves the zoo toy Grandpa Tim & Mary K got her for Christmas - forget Santa's toys!
Look at my little girl! All posed in her Christmas outfit in front of the tree - sitting BY HERSELF!

Shepherd Family Christmas

Of course the pictures are in reverse order, but still enjoyable!
As we've done for several years, Patrick and I hosted Christmas Eve at our house for the Shepherd side of the family! We love having everyone over and fixing food that will be different than the traditional Christmas meal that will be served the following day! This year we had soup and sandwiches....YUM!

The whole family! I'm impressed it only took 2 shots to get this picture!

Row 1: Leigh Ann & Sophia, Mary K, Granny, Lenane & Sam, Rob & Jack

Row 2: Patrick, Bill, Betsy, Tim, Edward, Thor, Manda & Anna

Manda with the girlie girls!
Sam wanted to read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to everyone. He did a very nice job!

Maw & Sophia

Sam & Jack opening their helicopters from Uncle Pack & Aunt Lan

Mommy & Sophia waiting to open presents!

Sophia opening her first Christmas present! She loved the tissue paper!

Thor & Nan

Merry Christmas!!

Betsy & Bill

Enjoying the food

It took me forever to get all 3 of them to look at the camera!

WILD LIGHTS @ the zoo

Natalie and Ryan invited us to visit the zoo this past weekend. Sophia and I bundled up and headed out for a busy afternoon of Wild Lights & later in the evening, my work Christmas party.
We got to the zoo around 4pm, which was perfect! We were able to see the animals before it got dark and then spent some time walking around to see the lights. Sophia enjoyed the light show and all 3 of the kids were well behaved given the cold weather! Jim later told us that over 21,000 people were walking the zoo that evening (compared to approximately 1000 walking the park while we were there)!!

The Grandstaff Family

(Claire, Natalie, Ryan & Oliver)

Oliver all bundled up!
Claire checking out the goats.

Sophia's first trip to the zoo!

Check out my awesome hairdo!

5 month picture

Are we noticing a trend?? It's taking me longer and longer to post events! Sophia turned 5 months on Dec. 8th! Here is her official picture.

5 months old already!

This is video from her first time eating cereal! This activity has slowly gotten messier and messier! Last night she still had cereal in her eyebrow :)

more pictures!

Patrick hates finding the camera laying around the house, but I love taking pictures! I guess I need to get better about putting the camera away but then it isn't handy when I need it! She is so fun to take pictures of these days and smiles for the camera (though she smiles more for my camera phone!).

Sitting in the kitchen while I made dinner.

She figured out that she has a tongue and that she is in control of it! Now she won't keep it in her mouth and I have a feeling it is going to stick around. In my family it's called the "Gilbert Tongue" My Grandpa Howard used to stick his tongue out, just like this, when he was concentrating. My uncles, mom and youngest brother all do it occassionally!
Just a close up view! I was trying to put her clothes away but got distracted! Later, Patrick found the camera on the floor! HAHAHA!

Sophia getting ready for her bath with Daddy!

5 months old

I'm a little behind with posts, so we'll see how caught up I can get with my dial up!
Sophia recently had her 5 month birthday! This is her official picture. I really cannot believe she is already 5 months old. I am looking forward to what this month will bring!

First bites of real food!

We introduced Sophia to the world of real food this past week! She has been watching us eat and drink with interest for a while now and we decided to let her join in on the fun. Once she realized what was going on, she just couldn't get enough! She leaned in to the spoon with her mouth wide open! The second time we tried, she was reaching for the spoon and pulling it into her mouth :)

This is me before.....

YUMMY!

Daddy takes a turn giving Sophia a bite!

Thanksgiving!

So much has happened since our last Thanksgiving. We had so much to be thankful for this year and I couldn't help but think back to last Thanksgiving and the announcement that a new baby would be joining our family! Now look! That little baby turned out to be a little girl :) Enjoy the pictures I snapped between our different Thanksgivings.

What a cute little smile - kinda ornry!

I think they were watching Labatt (my mom's dog) walking around. Sophia loves dogs!!

YUM! Look at that bird! I can't wait to take a bite...

Oh No! Stop that baby! She's downing the whole thing!!!

Aunt Diane & Sophia

Last Thanksgiving Aunt Diane made our big announcement to Patrick's family during our prayer before dinner!

Jim with Sophia

Granny & Sophia just lounging before dinner

She likes to sit in her bouncy seat. I was able to capture her getting very excited over the toys and music.

More videos!!!

Here are a few more videos for your viewing pleasure! Sophia's exersaucer is her favorite toy right now! She gets excited just looking at it from across the room.

Whenever we lay her down to change her, she instantly reaches for her feet! Well, if you look close enough you can see why she is getting changed less than 5 minutes after I got her dressed!

4 months old

I know it is late, but this is Sophia's official 4 month old picture! I take a picture every month to put into her baby book. Uncle Stuart also requested video - so I've included a short video as well! Enjoy :)

Hanging out at home!

Another month just flew by....

Well, my baby girl is now 4 months old! I cannot believe how quickly she is growing and how much fun stuff she can do! I saw a picture of my 20 week ultrasound yesterday and I can't believe that was 8 months ago - 8 months ago I could only see a picture of my baby "snickerdoodle" and now I can hold her and take my own pictures whenever I want!

At her 4 month well baby check up Sophia weighed 13lbs. 1oz. and is 25 inches long. She is really showing us more of her personality lately - she is definitely the daughter of two persistent and opinionated individuals! We had her 4 month pictures taken on Sunday and she did fabulously (during the photo session!). I thought for sure we would have a hard time getting consistent smiles, but she hammed it up and was nothing but smiles :) I'm only providing a peak at the pictures for the time being. Enjoy!

My beautiful little girl!

My family

Where did October go?

WOW! It has been far too long since I've posted any pictures! We've been busy lately and have pictures to prove it. Sophia keeps growing and discovering new things. She is very good with her hands these days, has been sleeping through the night, survived her first cold and experienced her first trick-or-treat! I'm in the middle of my last fall quarter at OSU - I can't wait to graduate (not till June though)!! Patrick just got a new job at Buckeye Nissan. We are very excited about this new opportunity! Enjoy the pictures!!!

Sophia rooting for the Buckeyes!!

Our friends Nicki & Brent Barson welcomed their son Evan into their family on October 14th! We were excited to meet Evan and compare "new parent" stories!

Bath Time!!! As you all know, I love to take bath pictures!

Look at those big, beautiful brown eyes!

We recently had our nephews, Sam and Jack, spend the night while Manda and Rob ran a 5K! We love having them stay over! We played K'nex, colored, had brownies, ice cream, popcorn and pancakes, and played Old Maid. These are a few pictures taken by Jack!

They love their "baby Sophia"!

AAAAAAAHH!

The boys and Uncle Pack trying to make Sophia laugh.

We recently celebrated Betsy's 25th Birthday!

Anna tasting the icing to make sure it would be safe for the rest of us!

Betsy & her fiance Bill

"What happened to my forehead?"

Uncle Ed

We participated in the AutismSpeaks walk with my office.