Pics from the V Christmas celebrations

Little N and Great-Grandma B

Grandma V

Cousin K and Mr. M

More pics to follow soon from when we had S' fmaily over on Saturday!

Merry Christmas to all!

We hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas, surrounded by lots of family and friends. We sure did! What a great season! First we spent Christmas Eve with P's family at Granny's house(forgot the camera, but Aunt S is going to help us out and email some). Then, on Christmas Day, we got to hang out at home, just the 4 of us and unwrap the presents that Santa left us and our gifts to each other. It was so nice to have a little lull in the festivities to just be a family and hang out in our jammies! Christmas night we went to the V extended family celebration in Hastings and had a very good time. Then, on Saturday, we went to P's extended family Christmas that had been postponed from the previous day due to weather. We had a fantastic brunch and then headed home to have S's family at our house. Whew! It was a lot of parties, but so great to get to see everyone and just enjoy each other's company. We have such great families and are so thankful for all of them. One very special present for us was that Grandma and Grandpa V were here and stayed with us for a few nights. Such a treat for us! Little N absolutely loves it when they come sleep at his house and so do we! Thanks G & G, we miss you already!

S & Daddy opening presents

Just what I wanted! Santa brought Miss M her very first Cabbage Patch baby doll.

And N got his rocket that he asked for...must have been a good boy!

Super sweet "McQueen" slippers!

Checking our stockings!

Check out Miss M's fancy new stocking, courtesy of her Grancy!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

And boy did it! With all that snow we got last week, we couldn't wait to get outside! It was not too cold and N had a new shovel that he was itching to use. S went out and fired up the snowblower and N and Mommy shoveled the top stairs and sidewalk. N then shoveled our front yard while I got Miss M from her nap and brought her out for a little fun too!

So much braver this year than last! He dug right in!

Just loving it!

Snow banks sure work great for propping up babies! :)

Snow buddies

On the first Day of Christmas....

my Mommy gave to me.....some Pears and they were super yummy!

That's right! Miss M has "graduated" on past baby cereals. She got to have pears the other night as her first fruit and, not a big suprise, but she ate them all up and yelled for more!

This little Sweet Pea of ours is now 6 1/2 months old. We all enjoy her so much. Today, I get the great pleasure of being home with the kids and I am loving every minute of it. I did a little photo session with M this morning...

Look at me! I have pigtails!

Too cute!

And then N and I played Memory and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse....if only every day were like this!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Love,

The V's

P's Annual Girl's Night Out

Every year, I go out over the holidays with my friend's B and TR2. We have a routine....we go downtown Minneapolis, get ourselves a coffee, watch part of the Holidazzle Parade, then we head to the Macy's holiday display(A Day in the Life of an Elf was this year's theme). We then finish our night with a nice dinner. For the second year in a row, we went to The Melting Pot, which I absolutely LOVE! Love you ladies! I hope we do this forever!

Outside at the Holidazzle

Our "Flaming Turtle" dessert....chocolatey goodness!

Dessert is by far my favorite part! :)

Oh Christmas Tree!

We finally got our tree last weekend and boy does it smell good! I smile every time I come home. Daddy did all of the lights on Sunday(P's least favorite part) and on Monday night, P and Little N did all of the ornaments(S' least favorite part). We are the perfect pair! :)

Hanging all the ornaments

Little N was very excited that he got to help this year!

Tada! Look what we did!

It's Christmas time!

Almost every day lately, N asks me, "Mommy, is it Christmas Day?" When I say "No, not yet!" He always responds with "Oh! It's Christmas time!" I can't argue with that! With all the holiday parties and decorations, it is most definitely Christmas time and we are having so much fun now that N is a little older and excited about the holidays. P's company had a holiday party at the Embassy Suites for employees and their children that we attended last weekend. N and M got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus, which was very fun. They even each got a present to "tide them over!" N of course reiterated that he would like a rocket! We also got to have yummy treats, play games, and do crafts! It was a blast! There were 4 babies at the party, including M, that were all born within 4 days of each other. It was fun to see them all together....guess who was the biggest??? You got it! Miss M took the big baby prize! :) Wouldn't have it any other way!

Miss M and Mommy waiting in line to see Santa

The kids with Santa and Mrs. Claus

Mrs. Claus took a fancy to Miss M. It just so happens that this is the very talented lady that made M two very fancy bibs when she was born with her name on them, so it was fun that they were able to meet!

He had a little heart-to-heart with Santa

Playing the ring toss game

Happy Half-Birthday to M!

Miss M had her half birthday last Friday. I cannot believe that she has been with us for 6 whole months already. Oh how time flies! She is such a joy to all of us! We love you to pieces M! Here are her 6 month stats from the doctor and a few pictures of the little lady! The doctor confirmed our suspicions, that she is in fact perfect! :) She was off the chart in head size(thanks Daddy!) and in the 95th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height.

Weight- 19lbs. 2oz.

Height- 26.5 inches

Such cute little ears!

I just want to eat her up with those cheeks!

Lazy Sunday

This morning, everyone at our house slept in a little. N did get up once, a little on the early side, but I put him back in bed for a bit. Then, around 8:00, I hear Miss M moving around a bit, then yelling a bit. I laid there a few minutes and then heard N talking to her. I took this opportunity to spend a few more minutes in bed. I figured if I could hear both of them, things were probably going ok. So, finally when I decided to get out of bed and check on things downstairs, this is what I found.....

Miss M looks a little sad in the picture, but it is because Mommy stopped to take a picture instead of picking her up. She was really having a very good time with her big brother! I did ask him to please not get into her bed in the future, but it was pretty darn cute. Big Red Bear even came to keep her company too!

Hope you all had a great weekend! We sure did! We got to hang out with lots of XJers(Mesaba folk) on Friday night and we owe a big thanks to DH & Grancy, who sat with the kids! Then, on Saturday, we went to MM's birthday party at Pump It Up in Burnsville. She is 6 years old now and what a blast we had helping her celebrate. Sorry that I forgot to take pictures! It is a big warehouse full of inflatable jumpers, slides, and obstacle courses and the kids and the parents got to play. So much fun! Then, on Saturday night Grancy watched the kids again and we went to the VW holiday party. Whew! What a full weekend, but well worth the craziness!

Love,

P, S, Little N, and Miss M

Exciting times!

M has had a busy week so far, and it's only Wednesday!
Yesterday, she entered a whole new world. One of food! Nothing too exciting mind you, since it was her first time, but bring on the rice cereal because she loved it! We had been meaning to try this for the last couple weeks, but just never seemed to get to it. So, last night after N and I ate, I put her in the highchair(with a couple screeches of suprise from N) and we mixed up a bowl of cereal. She happily ate away and even yelled at me some when I was too slow. She is a girl after my own heart...bring on the food!

So excited to be in the highchair like a big girl!

More please!

After dinner, we took N over to Granny's house for a sleepover. On the way home, M took a little snooze. Here is how I found her when we got home. Peek-a-boo!

Now today, we had another exciting adventure. Since N was at Granny's and then headed to Grancy's(he has a very full social calendar), M and I had a little Mommy and M time. I picked her up from TR2's house and we headed out to run some errands. Ever since we talked about having kids, we always said that if we had a little girl, we would pierce her ears when she was a baby, so......

here's a little sparkly accessory to go with my sparkly personality! You have to look close to see it, but M got herself some fancy new earrings tonight and she's pretty darn cute with them if you ask her mom! :)

Ok, Mom, I want to go to bed now. No more pictures.

And to top it all off, tooth #2 arrived tonight! Whew! What a week!

Nighty Night!

Love,

P & M

N-isms for the day

So, on our drive home from TR2's house today, N said a few things that cracked me up and I just thought I would share....

First, M was crying in her car seat as we started out, and he just kept saying "aye, aye, aye M!"  Not sure who he got that from, but it was funny to hear a little guy saying that.

Then, he insisted that he call Grancy, so I dialed her up, and I hear him say "You are at your office? Are you doing oatmeal on your computer?" I thought for a few seconds and realized he was talking about email. We were at Grancy's office on Thanksgiving and she and I walked into her office to find N in her chair at the desk working in her Outlook email. Hope he didn't delete too many! :)

As he was chatting with his Grancy, he yells "Mommy, there's a police car!" Indeed, there was a police car with lights flashing on the side of the road. Then, he says "just a minute Grancy" and puts his hand over the mouthpiece, like the police car is just too important not to deal with immediately. Cracked me up!

I love all the little mannerisms he picks up from us when we don't even realize he is paying attention...all good so far thankfully! We try to be careful!

Love you N! Thanks for making me laugh!

Love,

Mommy

Corn on the cob anyone???

Miss M here! Last week, I had a few rough nights where I did not let Mommy get much sleep. I was also chewing on anything within reach, mostly my hands! I did have a bit of a cold, but Mommy was pretty sure that my teeth were causing me to be a little out of sorts. So, I have been letting Mommy check on those little pearly whites every day and today, I finally got my very first tooth! I wouldn't let her photograph it, but here are some pictures of me today in my new dress! Some of our friend's do a "Sunday's best" every week with their little girl's, but typically Sunday's are our lazy days where we just work around the house and I am usually in my Jammies all day! So, we thought we would take advatage today!

Here are a couple more pictures of me from last week...

This is a new hat that came in the mail for me last week....Mommy and Daddy's friend P2 made it for me and I am very cute and elf-like in it! :)

Daddy was in the kitchen the other day and heard me giggling in the Living Room, so he came to see what was going on. Here I was, playing peek-a-boo with myself! I crack myself up sometimes!

Have a great day!

Love,

Miss M

Getting ready for Christmas!

Today, while N was eating lunch, I thought maybe I would start prepping him for Christmas. We discussed how we were going to start decorating the house today, and how soon we would get a tree, and if he was a really good boy, Santa would leave him presents under the tree. Then, a little later, he was resisting naptime and I said, "N, you need a nap so that you will be happy tonight." He said "Where are we going to go? To Christmas?" Maybe I should have just waited. 4 weeks is going to seem like eternity to a 3 year old!

We decided to take advantage of the rare occasion where both kids are napping at the same time this afternoon and put up the christmas lights. Just as we were almost done, Miss M woke up. Since she loves the outdoors so much, I decided to bundle her up and help S finish the job.

That tongue is almost always out these days! :) Silly girl!

She just looked too cute in her snowsuit, so we had to take some pictures!

N woke up as we were finishing and was very excited about the lights and of course wanted to help. We have a little tree that we put in the porch, so N and S stayed outside and decorated the tree with lights. After he came in, I let him have his first ever cup of hot chocolate. He said "Mommy, I like it! It's so yummy!" Looks a little like his Daddy with that mustache! :) 

I am so looking forward to the holidays this year with the kids. N is so into the lights and Santa and just the holiday in general, whereas in past years I think he didn't fully know what was going on and M just enjoys everything, so it should be a blast!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Love,

The V's

Happy Turkey Day!

This year for Thanksgiving we got together with P's family at Grancy's office downtown St. Paul. She moved to a new office a few months ago and it is very nice. There were 40 of us there and it was so much fun! This year, I was most thankful for family, both our own little family, with N and M and our extended families. We love you all so much! We are also thankful for all of our friends and love you too!

M eating her turkey! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! N was so excited for the party, that he must not have noticed M until we were eating that day. All of a sudden he said "Oh! M has her really cool dancing clothes on!"  That must be what you do when you dress up...go dancing!

N and Daddy

Grandma C, M with Beanie, everyone just letting the turkey settle

N playing "Cut the turkey's head off"

When we got home, M had just a little bit of hat hair, which we thought was too funny not to capture.

Hope everyone had a great day!

Love,

The V's

Pictures

Here are the pictures that should have gone with my last entry!

Happy Birthday T!

Last week Grancy made a turkey and she said when she was washing it in the sink, it kind of reminded her of M....hehe. So, here is our little Butterball Turkey taking a bath in the sink! Though, we think maybe her legs have more meat on them than the turkey! :-)

Happy Girl! Showing off those rolls on the legs! I just love 'em!

This is her new fascination. Her tongue!

N went to church on Sunday morning and when he went 2 weeks ago, they had donuts and since he had been good, he got one. There were no donuts this week, so D stopped on the way home and bought some. Look at the size of the one he picked! Needless to say, there was some left this morning...mostly the bottom half! :)