HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT JACKIE

A big happy # 29....PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT to Aunt Jackie Ducker from the Belz clan.... It gets better starting at 30!!! Sophie says EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW to Mya Grace.

Hello Spring & Saturday Fun

Tricia's parents (Grandma & Granddad) are in town and we have been keeping busy. We went and had Sophie's hair trimmed went over and ate pizza and played some games at Incredible Pizza. After a nap, we went out to play with some of the neighbor children who love Sophie. They teach her words and she really is catching on. The walking in the grass is funny to watch. She has some challenges but will be good to go soon, just like everything else she is acomplishing. In just 4 trips she has mastered climbing up the ladder to the top of the playset to go down the slide!
We are also glad to welcome Spring! Winter has been long and cold this year. The grass is starting to kick back and the trees are beginning to flower a little....

Mommy, Soph, Grandma and Granddad [

Riding the horse with Grandma

Fresh from nap, learning to walk on that grass!

Trying to walk... :-) Funny to watch.. She can move around well on anything BUT grass!

I want to SLIDE!!!

Ready.......

Hi Spring time!!!!

Love these type of pictures.....

Learning to say food words. She repeats thing so well!

Playing in the tree house with friends.


Slide time! Hey I did this in Viet Nam!

All by myself.....

Sophie's 20 Seconds

Well we received the still images from the JumboTron video at the Blues game from Sunday thanks to my friend Jackie down there! THANKS JACKIE! The e-mail string was kind of funny to the video guy. They shoot hundreds of fan videos each game, but narrowing ours down was a tad easier as it was the ONLY one of an Asian girl ~2 years of age. I placed all of the images in order as they were streamed on the scoreboard.

And below is my photoshop of what it would have looked like on the scoreboard..

Anniversary With The Blues!

Sunday we celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary as a family taking Sophie to her first NHL game featuring our very own St. Louis Blues and those nasty Minnesota Wild. It was the perfect time to take her, an early 5pm start. Sophie has learned to root on her team with Hank pumping her fist when he says LET'S GO BLUES! And when he asks her what she thinks about the the other team, like "Hey Sophie, what about Minnesota?" She gives a thumbs down and sticks her tongue out making the PPPPPPFFFFFFT noise.
So she loved every minute of the game, minus the 500 decibel horn that went off 5 times when the Blues scored. She even made it on the jumbo tron, full face shot! We are working on getting that video from the Blues folks.
We also had our 3 month visit from our Holt social worker last night and she was just amazed at how well Sophie is doing and at her level of vocabulary and intelligence for being 2! Of course we take ALL the credit as parents :-). Our next visit from Holt is in June, so it will be fun to see where she is then! Below are the pics from Sunday at the game. LET'S GO BLUES!!!!

Ready to cheer in my pink Blues gear thanks to Deni Allen of the Blues! Sophie is proud to wear the Blue Note on her chest!

LET'S GO BLUES!!!

Mommy and Sophie love cheering on the Note!

Father and Daughter moments.....watching the Blues on the power play.

Our family photo

Naw Naw visits..

Sorry these are a couple weeks late. My best friend Crystal, whom I have known for 18 years, came to see Sophie. We had the best time. We spent all day Friday doing girl things like shopping and the Magic House. Sophie LOVED the Magic House and did not want to leave. Saturday we just played around the house and Sunday we went and rode the carousel at the Mall. Sophie calls Crystal Naw Naw and the funny thing is, Sophie thinks Naw Naw means donkey! I often say the word donkey and Sophie repeats with Naw Naw----a few hours later she was pointing to Crystal and calling her Naw Naw and well the name has stuck. It was so great to have her visit we even got some time in on Friday night for ourselves. It was a great treat for Mommy and Sophie too. We miss you Naw Naw

All hail the princess!

Oh no....mini Mommy!

She loves to shop!
And shop!

So fun!

I love Naw Naw!

See Grandma Smith I can play too!

All aboard!

The Magic House is fun!BFF's!

Sophie and Naw Naw!

YO-FEE

Well the language thing is in full force, new words every day with Sophie. Honestly we never thought she would catch on this fast. We are learning that she is so very smart and understands most of what we say. The obvious NO from a two year old. 90% of the time it is English 10% in Vietnamese. But here in the past few days, she now can say her own name when you ask her. It sounds more like YO-FEE but hey! We take the small steps. When her what my name is, she says Poppa and the same with Tricia it is Mommy or Momma. Below is a video of her this evening drawing on her aqua doodle. She LOVES to draw and paint.

Prayers For Moots

This past week has been a difficult one around our house. Sophie's Moots (Hank's Mom) was admitted to the hospital here in St. Louis with pneumonia. She was in town helping my sister Libby after her surgery, but fell ill and soon was in the ER.
She has had wonderful medical care at St. Luke's in St. Louis. After one week, she is set to be discharged and fly back to South Carolina with my step-father Top who has been here since early last week.
Tricia has been SUPER MOMMY taking care of Sophie, doing everything...So thanks to my wonderful wife!!!
Thanks also to my oldest sister Diehnee for flying in to help. It was her fist time to meet Sophie, but not the best reason to come! She is mom to four, so thanks Caroline, Ro, Pete and Jack....as well as Chris!! Special prayers are needed for Mom aka Moots to Sophie. We love you Moots!!!!! GET BETTER SOON!!!!!!!!

Sophie makes a trip to see Moots and give her kisses...

St. Louis Is Ready For Baseball Again!

Yep....Cards had first spring training game yesterday....and obviously people here in STL are ready for the birds to be back.....we are already expressing our love for the north siders, this pic was taken just outside of Busch :-) We are looking forward to seeing Sophie in her Cardinal red at her first game very soon!!!