Enjoying a White Christmas

It was an exhausting trip here... it involved a long delay in the Seattle airport, kids getting over-tired and cranky, me having a breakdown near the end of the flight because I was exhausted & knew we missed our connection, getting stuck in Chicago overnight (with basically only our diaper bag - Travis had to walk to the store at midnight to get diapers), traveling the next day in clothing we had worn the day before, but the good news is that we finally made it!!
Here is what Xmas in Michigan with my family looks like:
Looking forward to a double date with Kara & Josh tomorrow night for NYE!!!

Silent Night, Holy Night...

Merry Christmas!! Here are a couple pictures from Mass tonight...

Luke 2:10-14: And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Evelyn's Pump It Up Party!

We had Evelyn's 3rd birthday party last night at an "inflatable party" place. Her birthday isn't until the 26th -- but it is hard to pick a good date that isn't right in the middle of the holiday rush/madness. It was her first big girl birthday party with her own friends (in the past we have had just a little gathering of friends at the house). She had a blast!!! Here is a picture of one of the inflatables... a huge slide that all the kids were going down (the littler ones went with their parents) This is our neighbor Jody and her daughter Turynn:Here is Evelyn in action with her Uncle Chuck:Noah enjoying the party:Evelyn blew out her candle on the first try :)Noah kissing the birthday girl Evelyn & her friend Kaylin (seriously, Evelyn was such a little busy-body it was impossible to get a good picture of her -- this is the best it gets)

I will post a link to some pics on Snapfish once I get more uploaded, just in case anyone is interested in more pics from a 3-year old birthday party :)

ONLY 3 DAYS UNTIL X-MAS!!!

Craft Stuff...

A few people asked about the countdown blocks I recently posted... believe me, I didn't come up with that idea on my own!

Here is the site for ordering the "countdown block" sets:

http://windmilllettering.blogspot.com/2009/08/super-saturdaytis-season.html

I went in with a group of others so we received the pricing for 10 sets or more. She does have an etsy site, but I think she sells the finished product for $40.

Here is another craft project that I just finished -- a hair clip/barrette holder for Evelyn:I made mine with brighter colors to match the kid's bathroom which is pink/purple/green.
Here is the site where the inspiration came from:
http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/2009/04/bowhair-clip-holder.html

All for now - life is busy these days. Tis the season!! :)

Family "Photo Shoot"

I am incredibly behind on things... I was going to post xmas tree cutting pics, xmas decorating pics, etc -- but I am going to start by posting our family photo shoot pics and maybe I will get around to posting the others :) The photographer did a great job -- especially considering it was drizzly/rainy outside and both kids were fighting bad colds!!She even captured a few "crabby" shots of the kids that I think are pretty cute:

Complete Craft Projects... check

One of my friends out here (Brianne) is the craftiest, most talented mommy that I know. She invited me to a craft day at her church last year and has also organized a couple different craft nights. I finally put a hanger on the back of the magnet board below -- and it is now hanging in my office. It is going to be a picture/artwork brag board :)
And I finally finished my countdown blocks (unfortunately I didn't finish them in time to use the Halloween ones...)

She is also the reason why I have a neat "Vandervort Family" growth chart hanging upstairs. Thanks for being so artsy-craftsy Brianne -- you inspire me!!

I am thankful for... my smiley, playful kids :)

Back to the grind I guess... the long weekend was such a treat -- something to be thankful for :)

Park pics from Saturday late afternoon -- both pre-slide & post-slide:

Noah slides down on his own, too -- but he giggles even more when he has a buddy with him!!
Picture of Evelyn from last night -- just because she was being extra cute! She can sing the entire ABC song now, and it always puts her in a giggly mood when we sing songs together.

We haven't done any Christmas decorating yet -- believe me, I wanted too!! -- but it was just too busy of a weekend with thanksgiving, guests in town, etc. We are going to get our tree next weekend -- and my goal is to be done with Xmas shopping by the time I decorate. I don't have any lunch meetings planned this week -- so I will be shopping during my lunch hours. I hope to be able to thoroughly enjoy the season without being bogged down by the craziness of holiday shopping.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Forgot to get a family pic on Thanksgiving... ugh! Here is one of the kids ruining their appetites by eating Fritos before dinner: (disclaimer: they don't do this regularly... but it is thanksgiving and Nana is in town, so pretty much anything goes)Thanksgiving dinner was amazing. I joke that everyone is afraid of my cooking because they always assign me fruit salad -- but maybe it is because they know that I love fruit so much? (and so do the kids) I will just keep telling myself that :) I ate the perfect amount of food this year. I hate the over-stuffed feeling for the rest of the day... so I tried to cut back a little. We ate around 5PM and I was actually hungry again before I went to bed. It probably was partially due to the 6 miles I ran during nap-time (another reason I liked my assignment, I had free time since I didn't have a lot of cooking/baking to do)... but I was happy to grab a little snack before bed!

Here is Evelyn getting a horsey-ride from her Uncle Chuck. She adores him :)

What else goes along with Thanksgiving weekend??... FOOTBALL!

The kids both love to watch football. They request it to be on tv regularly... whenever they hear the word "touchdown" they both throw both their arms in the air to signal for a touchdown... Evelyn will even take the football and throw it towards Noah and say "Go out for a pass Noah!"
Here they are on Friday morning having some fun playing with the football on our dead-end street:

And here is Evelyn leaving Noah in her dust and going for a touchdown :)

Fun on a Rainy Day

The weather here hasn't been the greatest lately -- so we decided to mix things up & bring out the giraffe tent for the kids. As you can see -- they had a blast. Evelyn loves to lay in there and read her books. Not much else to report... I had a great run today. I went to the gym during the kids nap-time and it was one of those days when running is easy, your mind wanders, and the miles add up before you even realize it :)

I'm looking forward to the short work week!!

Big Girl Bed... Kinda :)

Can you believe that Evelyn is going to be three and she is still in her crib?! The girl loves it -- she fits fine and has never tried to get out. Well -- I decided this morning that we should at least start the transition to a big girl bed. We converted her crib to a day-bed with a toddler rail. I thought for sure she would crawl out and play through her entire nap-time... but surprisingly enough, I think she stayed put :)

Home Sweet Home

It was great to visit Michigan - but it is good to be home and getting back to our normal routine, too. I think since we already know we will be back to see my parents between Xmas and New Years it made it easier to leave... I hate not knowing how long it will be before we see them again. I hadn't seen my dad since last Xmas... It was nice to be home for a while :)
Pic of my brother & Noah:Noah discovered my mom's 2 lb handweights -- he enjoyed carrying them around. He already loves to work out -- like mother, like son I guess :)"Like mother, like son" hopefully doesn't apply to our thighs though... not sure where those hams came from!!

pics from Michigan

Well - Noah and I survived the red-eye flight back to Michigan. He did really well - a little tired/cranky at first... but then was able to catch a few hours of sleep, so he was much happier.

The trip has been pretty relaxing... went to the park, Papa took Noah on the 4-wheeler, Noah has been learning the names of a lot of animals that are stuffed around our house (for those of you that don't know, my dad flies around the world to hunt big game animals), visited with extended family/neighbors, caught up on sleep, I even managed to fit in a few runs - even on the freezing cold days! Remind me not to think the weather is ever too cold in Seattle for running... I just need to remember what it's like to run in Michigan and be thankful for the weather I have :)


All for now... we fly back Monday morning. Just going to relax and enjoy the remainder of the visit :)

1 Dragon + 1 Unicorn + 1 Angel + 1 Bunny = the most adorable chaos EVER!!

Halloween was fun -- I had to fly solo though -- Travis stayed in to watch the Notre Dame game. Good thing our neighbors have kids the same age, I went with them -- and they were a ton of help. Noah ready to go:Here are the kids -- it was hysterical to see them all in action. Evelyn (almost 3) was the oldest - the others were all under 2. They got the hang of it after the first house - and quickly became pros :)By the end of the night I was absolutely exhausted! Good thing I work out a lot -- I was so sore from lifting the kids up & down front porch stairs all night. They can usually manuever stairs on their own... but with all the other kids around & them wanting to be in a hurry... it was much safer for me to help them up and down. At least I got in an extra work-out!

Halloween decorations down - Thanksgiving decorations up - clean house - trip to Michigan next week - life is good :)

Buzz Buzz...

I brought Evelyn to work with me today -- we handed out Halloween candy to some of my favorite clinics/customers. This is something I have done the past 3 years with a couple of co-workers. Today we had 2 bumblebees, 1 ladybug, Dolly Parton, and a nerd.

I brought back Evelyn's bumblebee costume from last year for the occasion. When I discovered that my co-worker's daughter Hallie had the same costume for this year -- I couldn't resist the opportunity to have them dress alike :)
Evelyn was extra cute -- I am thinking she might have helped my sales $$ today :)

PACE Race

We participated in the PACE race 5K for Prostate Cancer this morning with some good friends of ours. Melissa runs it every year in honor/remembrance of her dad. We were happy to be able to join them this year for the event :) The weather was brisk this morning (probably around 40 degrees) -- but beautiful. It was a fun course -- very scenic, kinda hilly... but Travis and I took turns with the stroller, so it worked out fine.

Group shot:

Jim, Lucy, Travis & Evelyn before the race (Jim ran the 10K)

I finally feel like I am getting caught up... at least on the blogging portion. I have a bunch of stuff to do for work later tonight. Not sure when the housework will get done though... oh well :)

Halloween Preview - Pumpkin Prowl

Well -- the event wasn't worth it (in my opinion) -- but here are some pics.

Getting the little dragon dressed:Evelyn as a unicorn (adorable from behind -- I will have to get some better shots on Halloween)It is nearly impossible to get good pictures with both kids. Since I am usually the photographer, I made a point to ask Travis to get a picture of us. Here is our attempt: