A whole month without blogging - I think thats a record! To be honest I've been avoid my blog a little bit. There is so much that I want to write about BUT because its all built up its overwhelming and normally my computer time happens when I'm feeding Sophie so its hard to type but she is currently having a good sleep so I'm biting the bullet and will try to update.
* Sophia's dedication
I'm embarrassed to admit that Sophia's dedication was on July 19 and I'm only just documenting it. It was lovely to have a lot of our family and friends come to share in the service as we commited to raise our daughter to know God and thanked Him for the blessing that she is to our family. Sophie wore the baptism outfit worn by Paul and Tony when they were little (and also worn by Becca and Emily) and looked very cute. She wasn't too keen on the whole experience as she was ready to eat and when our minister took her she promptly began to scream all the way through his prayer - poor Neville! He was a good sport and plowed on while trying to bounce her and get her to be quiet. There was a round of applause when the prayer finished :)
Sophia's dedication
She wasn't terribly impressed by the whole event
Longsuffering Neville holding a screaming Sophie
Nicky travelled all the way from Armidale for Sophie's dedication - thanks Nick!
Sophia in her dedication outfit
Emily's dedication - its interesting to see how similar all the girls look.
Becca at her dedication (she was very tired so no smiles)
* Africa Trivia Night
The young people at church have been fundraising to put a roof on a home in Sudan. The owner is the mother of some of our Sudanese ladies and one of the events was a trivia night with an African theme. Our girls were excited to have the opportunity to dress up, particularly as they won a prize! Sophia has been extremely clingy to Paul and myself and generally cries if somebody takes her until she is returned to us. On this night however she was quite content to have one of my Sudanese friends, Veronica, hold her for most of the night. She even went to sleep in her arms!
Lioncub Sophia
Veronica and Sophia
Veronica with my baby lion cub showing her tail
Fierce warrior :)
Paul as a Masai moran
Emily as a Maasai little girl carrying a baby
The braids took a long time to do!
Becca as a cheetah
Becca's tail
Cheetah Becca - the facepainting was so much fun!
The girls were so excited that they won something :)
Thank you Leesa and Dawn for the use of your photos from the Africa night! :)
* Christmas
Did you know that some shops already have Christmas decorations up? I was shopping last week and saw the first Christmas things for sale, on the 2nd of September! Time is going so fast that its a little frightening.
* Dairy and eczema
Sophia has had problems with eczema since she was about six weeeks old. After eliminating soaps didn't help it was recommended that I try elimating dairy from my diet. This is a HUGE thing for me, I LOVE cheese. However it was worth a try and Sophie's skin did seem to improve. I wasn't convinced it made a big difference since the eczema didn't go away completely but then a couple of days ago I accidentally ate something that did contain dairy and poor Sophia had a big flare up of her eczema. It looked SO sore although she didn't complain very much. Anyway, I think dairy is off the menu until I stop breastfeeding.
* Sophie update
You know those babies that are happy to just sit and and watch the action going on around them? Well I don't have one of those! Sophie has become quite high maintenance at present. She is just sooo frustrated with her lack of mobility. If she is lying on her back she constantly does little stomach crunches trying to sit up. On her tummy she'll grab the carpet and pull herself forward or spin herself 180 degrees but she can't get to where she wants to go. She can roll over both ways but doesn't do that very much. She just wants to crawl but her little arms aren't strong enough to lift herself enough. It all makes for an extremely frustrated baby who wants to be carried all the time. All. The. Time. Not in a sling anymore though, oh no! Not for this little girl, she prefers to lie across my arm on her tummy and is quite content to view the world from this vantage point. She LOVES to play and enjoys giving raspberries (very sloppy ones!) almost as much as recieving them. I've started jumping with her (gently) on the trampoline which she thinks is wonderful, especially if Bec and Emily are jumping with us, and she quite likes her swing too. Poor bub, Sophia seems to have started teething and is sporting bright red cheeks and dribbling copious amounts while she shoves anything in reach into her mouth. This has coincided with a return of night-time feeds but hopefully this stage will pass....right?? Lucky she is so adorable!
* Emily update
Emily starts school in less than six months, can you believe that?! She'll have kindergarten orientation next term and I don't know that I'm ready. She is VERY ready for school though :) She is very interested in learning to read and has made a lot of progress with reading little words. She's desperate to read chapter books like Bec so thats a little frustrating for her. She is a big help with Sophie who will laugh just looking at Emily!
* Becca update
Bec is doing well. She's not keen to feature on the blog too much so I'll just say that she got a great report at the parent/teacher interview last week. We're very proud. She also just started piano lessons and is enjoying that so far. She also can get Sophie laughing without much effort, whereas Paul and I have to work much harder to coax laughs out of our baby.
Ok so I'm mainly caught up on the things I'm allowed to blog about - yay! :) Mom and Dad are coming to stay this afternoon and Paul's parents will be here tomorrow for Grandparents Day at the school so I should get moving to get the guest room ready. Have a great day! :)
Please click the postcard to enlarge it
Our day started at an early hour :)
Becca went to the movies with her friends to celebrate her birthday last week so today's celebrations were lowkey but nice. Grandma and Grandpa joined us for dinner from McDonalds as requested. 
One of Bec's favourite presents was a "furreal" puppy that she has named Charlie and she asked for a birthday cake that featured him instead of the safari theme she had wanted. I had no idea how to do the safari animal one easily so was happy to comply with the change of plans. It didn't come out quite as I had in my head but was close enough to keep her happy (the blue thing is supposed to be a ball)
