more photo fun

Here are some more photos from our 'pregnancy' photo shoot.
No baby yet, we'll keep you posted!
If you'd like to order copies of these, please go to our friend Sandra's website.

notes from the week

Well, one week today the new babe is due. I think it'll be late, but it has been quite a journey over the last month getting ready mentally and emotionally a far as Soph is concerned. I've gone from mourning the last vestiges of her baby-hood to really just enjoying these last days with just her. I can't wait to see who the new little one is, and I know Soph will be good big sister. I get emotional thinking about what I would do if I didn't have my little sisters so I know there is no doubt this is a gift from God and the right thing for us now, just incomprehensible beforehand in all it's wonder and sleep deprivation...

Also Soph is turning into a big kid now. Well, not really. My dear friend Mark always used to say about his little girls that if you asked them "Who's big?" and they say "I am!" then they are technically still small. From that test Soph is still little (phew!) but a few things over the past week make me realize how fun and funny - and real! - it is she is growing so fast.

- We were shopping this week and it had been quite a long day. Soph was sitting in the front of a shopping cart with her head resting on her arms when she stopped a woman walking past her and said "'Scuse me sir, you do a favour?" The woman said, yes, and Soph replied "You come a sweep this floor and sweep all this floor?" The woman responded that Soph would need to find someone in a uniform to do so. The woman seemd puzzled and slightly amused. I thought it was hysterical.

- Today at church someone wanted to say hello to her so she obligingly gave them a hug and then she said. "I have a father and a mummy. My father is Wade. My mamma name Je-ana. I a big sister. I two and a half." Yep, apparently she has been gathering intel on us and she is ready to spill.

- She has a dress-up mousie which this week she decided to name "Gumdrop." Considering the fact that everything else that has come into the house in the last 2 months has inexplicably been dubbed "Nina", I found the sudden burst of originality a thrill.

- Yesterday we went swimming in the pool and she was just so cool. She floated with Uncle Mat's water wings on and "swam" so well (with me hanging on, of course, but there was head back, kicking action!). Afterwards we went to Dairy Queen and she ate her first Dilly Bar. I have very strong Dilly Bar childhood memories from the DQ in Rutland, and it was fun to watch her discovery. "Mama it has a stick, for licking." "It has a belly button!".

- We stood and looked for an extended period of time at Thomas the Train stuff in a toy shop window and talked about the different trains and sets. It felt like a very big kid thing to do. She ran all down the street afterwards singing and talking about the Percy the engine with the lights and sounds. Don't tell her, but we already bought it for her. It's the present that the baby is going to "give her" when he/she is born. That should buy some credit in bigsisterland for the little gaffer for sure.

So she is doing great, and seems to be as ready for a new baby as you get when you're 2, still, keep her in your thoughts and prayers in the next couple weeks for the big transition, okay? Thanks fans, love you and love it when you leave us a comment too..




Sandra, Sophia and I showing off our supper last week. Yes, she also wants to sit in a "big girl chair" now too....

photo shoot

This past Saturday we had a photo shoot with our one of our dearest friends, Sandra Vander Schaaf.She is not only an incredible friend, she is a professional photographer, writer, Wade's dread technician (yep, she did 'em!) and permanent dinner guest. Everything she does is art and this time was no exception. We haven't seen the whole lot, but here are the first few photos she sent us today. While it was meant to be a bit of a 'pregnancy' photo shoot, it is quickly apparent that best photos are not of Wade and I...enjoy!

A note of professional courtesy: these photos are sized for viewing online and not a good file size for printing. All of the photos are copyrighted to SandraVander Schaaf
Photography. Should you wish to use, copy or buy any of these prints,please contact Sandra at www.onceuponalifetime.ca
You can also see photos of us both before and after Sophia's birth there too.

blue loves me

The other day Sophia told me she loved me for the first time. This was the first time that she has initiated the thought, I mean, as opposed to her saying "I love you" in response to us saying it first.
The only thing about it was that at the time she was pretending to be Blue, the puppy from the TV show Blue's Clues. Sophia often pretends that I am Joe, one guy from the show, Wade is Steve, the other guy from the show, and she is Blue. For example, when Wade went to Seattle last time she actually said "Where's Steve?" when she was asking for Wade.
So she was hugging me and she said, "I Love you, Joe, I Love you, Joe." I was so touched, but I couldn't get over the fact that this lovely moment was happening and she was calling me the name of an over-enthusiastic TV host who hangs out in front of a blue screen all day. I actually did say, "Can you say it again, and call me Mum?" So she humoured me and said, " I love you Mum." Then she said, "I love you, Joe."

snowmen, pedals, and stripey tights

We've got snow here this week again. During the last snowfall our downstairs neighbours built a great snowman in the front yard and it became a daily activity to check in on it. This time when Sophia woke up to snow she looked outside and said "Where's the snowman?" I had to explain that they don't just come down with the snow, that someone has to build them. We decided to build these ones out of playdough. They are a Daday snowman and a Sophia snowman. Please note the Daddy snowman's dreads.



Speaking of Daddies, there was much joy in our house this week when we figured out there was enough money in the "gear" savings account to buy the bass guitar pedal Wade has been dreaming of for four years. This is the moment when Wade brought it home and told Sophia it was a new toy. She began jumping up and down and said, "Play your guitar, Dad! Make a party dance! Make a party dance!"



When we were on tour in 2003 there was a little girl we loved who always wore fabulous stripey tights. I remeber thinking if I had a little girl I would love her to have some too. Look at that....
By the way, Sophia eats a lot of pretend ice cream. Here's another cone of pretend love.

this year on new year's eve, wade was in seattle and sophia and i settled in to watch the movie 'cars' for a treat. she liked it after a few viewings, but the first time she got bored and wanted to fingerpaint. then she decided to get naked and paint herself, like the pigs do on one of her favourite books, 'the pig's weddding'. usually i make her pretend, but i figured it was a special occasion, and boy did she get into it! in the book the pigs hose off and paint fancy clothes on themsleves for a wedding, including glasses, watches, etc. we cropped the image above for internet viewing, but let's just say the full body one will be in her wedding slideshow for sure.




sophia and i baked two pumpkin cheesecakes for her god mother, angela's birthday this past week. soph is so great at helping in the kitchen. here she is decorating her cake. you should have tasted them, they were amazing!

sophia saves the day

Yesterday night I sat down to sort out some bills from the last month. It was one of those times where I thought we were doing great, better than great with money, and then I managed to forget a few key things and all of sudden there was a heck of a lot less than I thought. Even though we're just fine, the initial realization was such a disaappointment (in myself, mostly) I started to cry. I was trying to cover my eyes and reign it in, when Sophia said "Mum what are you doing?" I told her, "I feel sad and frustrated, because I made a mistake."
Earlier in the day I had given her a little fizzy drink made with a vitamin/homeopathic mix to help her kick a cough she has. She still had some left in her little tin mug and she went and got it off of her high chair tray. She brought it to me and said. "Here, this will feel all better." It was such a lovely thing to do, that it did indeed make me stop crying and I said, "Thank you, I do feel better." She then yelled "Hooray! I saved the day!"
As I feel asleep last night, it was my happy thought.

christmas charm and cheer

last night we had a really great night. my mum and dad have been here visiting from victoria over christmas, and we all went down to stanley park to ride on the christmas train. it was so fun to see sophia take it all in. during the train ride, she randomly pronounced that when she grows up, she is going to be a fireman. then she said she would also like to grow up to be a snowman. she liked the lights and the dancing cowboy (yes, we don't know why there was one either.)

we went out to dinner afterwards and the coolest thing happened. we went to the keg because wade and i had been given some gifts cards to go there. we had been in the restaurant for a while when the men at the next table began to talk to wade and sophia. she was pretty tired by then, but she was still being really good. one of the men asked wade if he could give her a gift, and with wade's permission then handed sophia a little envelope and said "here you go, sophia, you take your mummy and daddy out to dinner sometime." it turned out that he was the OWNER of the keg and his 'little gift' to sophia was a $100.00 gift card! so for a really nice dinner for all 5 of us, we had enough gift cards to cover the whole thing, with $1.04 left over! wade also had a really cool exchange with the man and his brother and both wade and soph were their usual charming selves. we just felt so, so blessed, like it was just a big kiss from God through this super-kind man.

we've had a wonderful christmas. here are some photos from our time over the last few days. check our wade's step-by-step guide as to how he coooked our turducken by clicking on the "Daddy" link to the right. happy christmas!

squid and signs

this is sophia eating a big piece of squid.

her dad took the photo with his phone to show me her chowing down...wade and uncle mat took soph for chinese food and apparently squid and veggies were a hit to the point they were saying, "if you don't eat some more beef, you can't have any more squid."
they were both pretty impressed with her... uncle mat had her chowing down on big pieces of raw fish at the sushi bar the other day too.. go sophia!

the other hilarious thing that happened today was this: we were eating lunch and sophia wanted to get down from the table and made the sign for "all done" with her hands when her mouth was full. the sign is waving both hands in the air. i said, to her, "sign language is something you can show the new baby." wade chimed in and said, "sophia, will you show the baby sign language?" and so sophia leaned over towards my belly and waved her hands in the air at my belly! needless to say we cracked up!

advent

the past 2 weeks have been fun getting ready for Christmas, Soph is registering everything for the first time and it is such fun to explain everything. here we are filling the advent calendar with chocolate. this has now become a high point in every day and a good exercise in sharing...though usually it works that sophia 'helps to share' whoever's chocolate it is that day.

while it was a bit of a coincidence, our aussie shirts are a shout out today to Ben - Happy Birthday Benny!!!!! we miss you so much...
speaking of aussie shirts, Leigh's Mum sent Sophia this Australia world cup jersey. she calls it her 'team shirt' and it is her favourite shirt. she likes to put it on to play soccer in the hallway with her beach ball. someone showed her the holding the soccer ball under the arm stance and she is a pro. sometimes when no one is there she will pretend her uncles are here and play soccer with them.
she also had braids (aka plaits) in her hair for the first time this week. i'm pretty sure this is one more official big kid thing to do.

we've been painting up a storm getting sophia's 'big sister' room ready with the babe only 2 months away. we got soph her own purple paint brush and here she is with her dad working hard.


decorating the tree was a big highlight this weeek. she did the bottom, which you can see in the back ground. being that she is all about imaginary games, and apparently mixing her seasons, in this photo she is pretending this ornament is an easter egg, which she puts in the little snoopy bag she has over her arm and does easter egg hunts with. she then pretends to give us them to eat. one of my favourite moments recently was when she gave me a pretend easter egg recently and i "bit" into it and she scolded, "mum, don't eat the wrapper!"

goodbye uncle ralph

tonight we said goodbye to ralph. i know i posted one of the first posts on here about how much he and soph have meant to each other. my heart is broken he is going, he is my brother, our brother and having him live with us for the last year was so amazing, such a surprise how much we all needed each other. we've travelled the continent together and he was one of the few who really listened to me talk about how much i wanted a baby before we had soph, and now here it is, time to go.

he is going to england to do the next thing he's supposed to do, and that's good and right, but we won't be the same without him, christmas won't be the same without him. in the photo above soph is wearing our buddy ben's hat. when ben left last year to go back to oz, it felt like this too, but i am consoled in that even after a year soph knows who uncle ben is, and she knows he flies planes in australia where the wiggles live, so i'm trusting she'll still know ralph in her way too.



ralph and soph have had a thing about reading stories ever since she really started noticing books. when she started to talk she would make the sign for 'book' and say, 'aa-boo, a-boo'. sunday night ralph came by for a last supper-for-a-while, beer and stories. here's a shot from then below.


we love you ralphie. mawa!

hallowe'en

so even though it's a bit late, we had such a good time getting dressed up for hallowe'en i thought i would post these anyway. sophia was a leopard and was really good at roaring and also saying 'trick or treat!'. she thought the bit about the candy was amazing. we stumbled into a pro who painted her face earlier in the day. if it had been up to me, it would have been eyeliner on the nose, and that's it...good fun in the end, though she found the grown ups dressing up a bit too scary - next year we may just hit the mall...we loved the candy too!

summer update

sorry it's been so long since i posted - since we moved july 1 we haven't had net access at home so the internet activity has been super basic...thought all you sophia fans could use a fix and and overview of our summer. i'll try and post more soon.

sophia has discovered tattoos (temporary, that is - here she is showing off her latest)

this is what sophia got with her birthday money from auntie jenny and uncle mike. she LOVES it and puts it on almost daily to help cook. the over turned rocking chair beside her is her 'stove' where she cooks with her new pots and pans. yes, she is only 25 months old. i know.


lots of talk about babies at our house lately with my tummy growing and mega excitement ruled when jessi and mike and baby kael came to visit. sophia prefers to call him 'kael asher'. i did crop her filthy socks out of the photo. please note both the band aid (decorative) and the taattoo on the hand.


with the lovely caroline parsons at caroline and ben's canadian wedding. sept 2.

having a tubby at the sink at pine grove camp at papa don's 60th this past july. we had such a good time with all our friends. daddy did lots of dishes in this kitchen in his early ywam days, this was way more fun!


our last day with auntie rachel before she went to england..with one of sophia's faves - gelato!
(we miss you rach!) sophia actually refused the average vanilla cheapo ice cream that was her free kid's meal dessert just minutes before we came here - she had heard us talking about gelato...yes, she is being raised in little italy with GREAT taste!


reading with uncle mat. both classic a clssic sophia pose (she is an avid book lover) and a classic uncle mat pose too. august, our new house.


new vans skate shoes from auntie hannah and uncle nick, new clothes from auntie zippy (heather) and uncle super dave, new play dough from uncle mat... having a birthday rocks!


aunite jesssi left her glasses at the house so sophia thought she would wear then while taking a call. (on the calculator).

jamie and craig get married!

the last two days we have been happily up to our ears in wedding bliss.

our dear friends jamie and craig got married yesterday and we were all involved.
wade dj'ed, i helped do the flowers, and sophia was a flower girl.
here are some of our friend emily's beautiful photos of the day. we love you all!

sophia and ari

this is sophia and her buddy ari. ari comes to play with us most saturdays and he and sophia really love each other.

sophia got to go to ari's house to play the other day.
here they are wearing mr. potato head's glasses.

the crazy thing is that when ari comes to our house he is the more subdued one (see top photo) and sophia hugs and kisses him and won't leave him alone, and all the pictures from their play date at ari's house show ari smothering soph...pretty funny...

beautiful babe blowing bubbles by the sea

This is one of my favourite recent photos of Sophia. She was blowing bubbles with Wade when we were on the island. The black rubber boots are a favourite of hers, as is the hat, which came from Auntie Kelly and was an immediate hit because it looks like Uncle Ralph's winter hat. She knocks me out, she's so great.

pallisters first e-letter

Here is our first attempt at an e-newsletter, a snapshot of the last year, a brief overview of life and ministry and the scoop on our financials too.

Wade did a great job of designing it, but I cannot figure out how to send this in a small enough way to email it out. I really want to get this out in a timely manner, so I beseech you to take the time to download and read this update of ours.

For the front of the newsletter, click here.
For the back, click here.

If you would be so kind as to post a comment here, or email us and let us know you've read our news, we'd be most grateful. Lots of love to you all....

away...

sophia and i are away visiting my mum and dad on the island for the first week wade is in cambodia. we miss him very much and we are so, so happy for him.
we just went for a walk in the sun and the wind. it was an exploring walk with no purpose, yet in one walk i showed sophia about crossing the street to look for cars, how the wind blows your hair and how you can make your shadow dance. she discovered on her own the noise metal manhole covers make when you step on them. it is amazing to get to be the first person who tells someone all the stuff everyone just knows.