Merry Christmas ...

from our family to yours!

Happy Holidays ...

A friend of ours came and took some pictures of our girls and some family pics. She then made a "mock" holiday card for us as a joke ...

We however think it sums up everything rather nicely.

So, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

LOVE,

The Gordon-Smith's

One Month ...

It's crazy to think that just over a month ago I was BEGGING to have a baby ... now I just get to hold, cuddle, snuggle and stare at her!! We couldn't be more happy. She is such a good baby. She cries when she is hungry, poopy or has a bubble.

Otherwise, she is awake and happy...

or sleeping!


She also has a pretty adorable big sister who absolutely adores her!!

Introducing...

SOPHIE NICOLE GORDON-SMITH

Born: November 5th 2011 @ 6:45 PM

Weight 8 lbs. 13 oz.

Length: 20.5 inches

Head: 36.5 cm

Sophie FINALLY made an entrance into the world last Saturday! It was a "forced" entrance, but she is here and that is all that matters!

We went to the hospital at 8 AM Saturday November 5th (I am now 10 days overdue) to be induced. Because I was a VBAC, I had to be constantly monitored. There was a nurse in my room at ALL times ... that also meant they COULD NOT send me home to labour. That made me VERY happy! They started of with the non-stress test to monitor the babies heart rate for a while ... she was very comfy in there. Then around 10:00 they started the oxytocin IV. By 11:30/12 the contractions started. And by 1:30/2 I couldn't handle the contractions anymore. I started begging (literally) for an epidural. They thought it was still too early?? Who cares right ... I wanted it, so give it to me!! They told me all they could give me was morphine with gravol ... LAME!! Didn't work, not even a little bit. FINALLY my wonderful nurse called for the anesthesiologist, who wasn't at the hospital?? Apparently they are "on call" so I then had to be even more patient while waiting for my HERO to arrive. However, I wasn't. I just kept asking and asking "where is he." The contractions at this point were unbearable, to me, and I was in tears. They were about 3 min apart, and I was only dialated to a 4! Finally he got there!! And let me tell you ... pure bliss!! I was finally able to just relax, and even get a much needed nap in. They decided to take me off the oxytocin, to make sure I was labouring by myself and that it wasn't doing all the work. Now contractions were coming fast and furious ... I didn't know as I was enjoying my epidural! I was having 6 contractions in 10 min!

Then around 5 PM I started feeling "pressure"!! Uh oh!!! I could slowly start noticing contractions ... they weren't painful yet. And by 5:45 I could feel them. The nurse checked me again ... and was at a 9!! I knew then, that there was NO way I would be getting an epidural "top off".

The Doc came in 10 min later, checked me and said ... "let's start pushing" !!!!

Exciting? Maybe for my husband. I was terrified, I never had any intention to be having a "natural" labour. Not going to lie ... it was totally painful, but all worth it in the end, I think?!?! After 49 min of pushing, and many tears from me constantly telling everyone in the room that "I just can't do this," our little girl arrived.

And boy was SHE a big surprise!! My husband was 100% convinced she was in fact a HE. He also had Emma convinced, as well as me a bit. But we have another little princess and we are just smitten by her. She is absolutely beautiful and we couldn't be happier.

As you can see we have one incredibly proud big sister!! She is SO cute with little Sophie. She is quite my little helper, and she just loves to hold her.So within just minutes we went from a family of three to a family of four!! We love it!!

October Fun

So ... If you are wondering why I haven't blogged in well, FOREVER - it's because I just haven't had the "drive" to do it. I am now 5 days away from my due date, therefore I am VERY miserable. I am doing the best I can to stay positive and happy ... but let's be honest it isn't easy!

Anyway, I do apologize for the lack of blogging, I always say I will do better, but hey I am not going to make any promises. My next blog post will hopefully be about a sweet little baby that has FINALLY decided to make it's presence!!

So we have had a lot of fun the past couple of weeks with our sweet Emma. This picture here isn't from October, but I wanted to include it. This is her very first day of Preschool!! She was SO excited and could hardly wait. After a LONG Summer of asking EVERY single day when it was her turn to go to preschool, the day finally arrived. She loves it!! And I love it too, as I get a nice 2.5 hour break of time all to myself! You think I would spend that time cleaning or doing the things I NEED to get done, but NOPE - being pregnant means I just lay on the couch and veg because I can!!

So a week ago we got to go to Ronson's Farm and Pumpkin Patch with the preschool class. And boy did we have some fun. We lucked out on the weather too, we had gorgeous sunshine!! Our friends went the day before with their little boy and they got rain and lots and lots of MUD.

The first thing the kids got to do was go into the big barn and learn about what grows on the farm and all the animals they take care of. Then they got to feed the cows ... definitely a high light for my little one!

This is a pumpkin they had ... it weighs in at 905 lbs.!!

off to the coloring station ... I would say her least favorite part, but she still enjoyed it.

Next we got to take a hay ride down to the Pumpkin Patch. This is her and her friend Bayley.

She wanted this one ... but I was looking for something MUCH bigger. I did have to pay$10 bucks to go, so I was going to get my "pumpkins" worth. They did say if you can carry it, you can take it! I wasn't going to let this whole "pregnancy" stop me from taking a nice big pumpkin.

CHEESE!

We then took the tractor (aka hay ride) back up to the farm where all the kids got to pick out another little pumpkin for themselves! The pumpkin by her feet was the lucky one chosen to come home with the Gordon-Smith clan!

All in all, we had SO much fun at the pumpkin patch!!

So with our new pumpkins, we decided the following Monday for FHE we would carve and paint them.

*side note...I don't like to take pictures of me while preggers as I look like large Marge, but Wika couldn't resist this picture. I like to call it ... "which one is the pumpkin?"

please disregard the very "drunk" looking face I have going on!?!?

Miss Emma SO excited to paint her pumpkin.

the finished product ... a total masterpiece.

Oooohhhhh scary!!

I look forward to Halloween this year as Emma totally understands the concept. She has known for the past 2 months just what she wanted to be for Halloween. And she can barely wait for the day to arrive where she gets to knock on the doors!!

What is she going to be you ask ...

Why, Rapunzel of course!! Fully equipped with the hair (that she constantly is letting us know she needs more of) as well as her frying pan!!

Pretty stinking cute, don't you think?

Well, like I said we are excited for the upcoming holiday ... there is one rather large problem though. A little special someone could possible ruin it for me. So let's all please pray that this little one comes with in the next week so that I can enjoy Halloween with my beautiful princess.

I will keep you posted ...

Princess or not a Princess ...

Definitely a PRINCESS ...

and not just ANY princess ... she is pretty sure she is Rapunzel. Who else would fall asleep with a frying pan in their bed?? A girls gotta be prepared right?

yes ... that is a phone in there as well, you just never know who is going to call you and when?!?

we LOVE her little imagination!

It's a ....

So we had our first ultrasound today, and everything went smoothly!! The ultrasound tech printed out a picture for Emma so she could have one just for herself, she felt pretty special.

The verdict ... Well it's a

BABY!!

YAY!! Just 1 baby at that!! You see, we are a family that is A-OKAY with not finding out the sex of the child. No need to use the whole "but I want to plan for my baby" excuse. I have a crib, I have a stroller and carseat so guess what ... we're SET!

The best news we got though ... I measured big!! So in a matter of 30 min I went from 20 weeks to 21 weeks!!! BEST and FASTEST WEEK EVER!! The due date is now set for Oct 25th! Looks like we are going to have one fun Halloween!

Can you feel it??

It's CANUCK FEVER!!!!!!!

It's the Stanley Cup finals, and our boys, the Canucks are 3 games away from taking home the most coveted "Lord Stanley" cup!

Now I have been in Europe during the World Cup ... if you don't know how soccer fans get, they are CRAZY!! However, I have NEVER seen a city go SO crazy with excitment as I have seen during these hockey playoffs. HOLY TOLEDO it's crazy up here. But you can't help but join in on the AWESOMENESS!!

Next game is on Saturday, GAME #2 ... and you better believe the Gordon-Smith family will be sporting our awesome Canucks t-shirts, and we will be screaming at the TV like everyone else when a bad call is made or even better yet, when we score a GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLL!

Care to join us??

GO CANUCKS GO!!

3 days of Easter!

We enjoyed a WONDERFUL Easter long break. My sweet husband has been working 16/17 hour days recently, due to this class he has been in, and let's just say it was nice to actually get to spend time with him this weekend. We took FULL advantage of his time off!! Our weekend consisted of:

Face Painting, crafts, train rides, getting to see 2 Easter bunnies, 3 egg hunts, a bunny hop, 3 trips into the bouncy castle, a trip to the driving range, BBQ with friends, Easter brunch, new Easter clothes (for miss Emma), a wonderful and uplifting day at church, a very non traditional but VERY delicious Easter steak dinner AND lots and lots of CHOCOLATE!!

We did A LOT, but it was all worth it. We went to bed every night totally exhausted and it felt great. We certainly made up for overdue family time!!

I didn't get pictures of everything because the camera is out of comission, so this is all we got on our phones!!

Happy Easter!!

. . .

Obviously this is before the hair cut...but what do you think? Pretty cute!

If you didn't "get" the picture, look again!! We're pretty excited!

IT's Time...

This was LOOOOONG overdue... Here is the before:

And the after:

She looks SO grown up...I LOVE it!!

A good 'ole Canadian tradition eh?

So what does one do for a fun ward activity in Canada...well duh...you go ice skating of course!?!? You didn't know that?? You must not be Canadian...

Now, how do you know your daughter who was born in Canada is VERY much American?? When she steps foot on the ice, and wants to get RIGHT off!! She was NOT into this whole ice skating experience!! Well actually, she was VERY excited at the thought of ice skating before we got there...she was even okay once the skates and helmet were on...but the moment she stepped on the slippery ice, she was D.O.N.E!

We tried the little bars she could hang on to, but she wasn't falling for it. We really tried to get her out there...but it wasn't happening for her.

(it actually got SO bad, that we borrwed someone's stroller and we pushed her on the rink just so we could actually get some skating in...pathetic? YUP!)

I am pretty sure our dreams of a future figure skating Olympian are GONE!

We still got clogging we can try for!!!

Maybe we will give it another shot in a few months...year or two!!

After the "fun" skating event we went down to the beach and then out for fish and chips with some friends...this is Emma and her BFF Fyn...they are SO cute together. Fyn is 3 months older than Emma, and they are together ALL the time!!

Too Cute

Chef Emma...and Snow Day

Emma got a very special gift from Santa this year...her very own kitchen!! She didn't even get it until we got back from Utah, because Santa knew it was just too big for mom and dad to have to bring back in the car. So Santa left her dishes and pots and pans at G & G's house with a note letting her know he left it at home. But lets be honest...she could have cared less about the kitchen, she was having way too much fun "cooking" with her knew dishes and food. That was until we arrived home...and started putting her kitchen together!! She could hardly wait for us to finish, we had to put Toy Story 3 on to entertain her while we put it together. About half way through our work Emma had disappeared. I thought she went upstairs to use the bathroom, but when she came down the stairs she had a BIG grin on her face along with her knew apron for her kitchen!! Now she was ready to cook!! It was pretty cute, we obviously worked even harder to get that thing put together. Our little girl is quite the chef! She makes delicious soup...I think that is all she makes...it's all she ever gives us!

We also recently enjoyed a snowfall up here in our neck of the woods. Enough to have to actually shovel the driveway. So we all got bundled up and took advantage of the snow-because we knew within 24 hours the rain would make it all disappear.

she was "sweeping" the snow away...such a good little helper

we even made our own little frosty...sort of...close enough really!
It's always a pleasant suprise to wake up to snow up here...we certainly had a fun day.



Emma really enjoyed it, because that poor little girl was couped up inside for a week recovering from a mild case of Pneumonia...nothing serious...don't worry!! She is all good now!

Utah brought EVERYONE a lot of fun "sickness suprises"

We miss home (Utah), but are happy to be back in the swing of things!