Chi-Town, Installment #2

New Year's Day we loaded up Nana and Papa's Highlander with a tremendous amount of crap (I mean essential kid related items) and spent a lovely day at Grandma V's beautiful downtown condo.  Dude thought it was rather cool to be on the 52nd floor of a high rise, looking down on teeny tiny people below.  Mom and Marc cooked up a delectable southern meal, complete with collard greens, black eyed peas and honey baked ham.  Delicious.  Nick, Caylei and baby Chase joined the mix - it was so fun to have the two babes together (they're only 3 days apart).  We had an awesome day.  Thanks Mom and Marc for hosting the organized chaos at your place!   

 Dude and Squirt were spoiled with cool kid clothes from Nick and Caylei.  They're always up on the latest little people fashion. 

 Dude read Chase his "Pajama Time" book.  We love giving Chase our favorite night time reads.

 N & C bought Mom and Marc and us these fabulous hand made serving trays.  We're using ours today for the Bronco's game.

 This precious shot captures boyish looks of awe and joy found when you introduce a remote control, toy helicopter into the mix. 

 This is what Nick and Chase were watching.  All the boys were rather infatuated with this little device.  My boys still are, 2 weeks later.

 3 of the 7 Vog grand kids.  Cute stuff. 

How Can it Be?

She's one.  How is that even possible?  It seems like last week that we were sitting in a Wyoming hospital waiting room in our own little made for TV movie, waiting and praying and waiting and praying for this little bundle of girlness to arrive.  And hoping with all our hearts and souls that her birth parents would decide to allow us the privilege to raise her and love her and cherish her.  January 7 of 2011 was the longest day of our lives.  8 hours waiting with a family that was so incredibly connected to us but yet total strangers.  And a young, scared kid sitting in the corner, responsible for the existence of this baby girl.  These two Wyoming kids did this amazing thing and I don't think they have any idea of just how much they have impacted our lives in the past year.  I don't think they quite know just how mature and selfless their decisions were and what an absolute miracle of a baby they produced.  I wish they could see her squinty smile and the way she giggles at herself.  They would be so proud of what they did.  I know we are.

This has been a year full of activity and laughter and crying and smiling and mess making and learning and growing and sleeping and eating and fighting and playing and developing and snotting and giggling and cuddling and screeching and living. At 12 months, Squirt is lovin life. She is quite independent and finds mischief around every corner. I'm getting used to Squirt produced mess. She's not quite walking, but close. She snuggles, a lot. And loves flashing her cheesy smiles to just about anyone who smiles back. She adores anything soft and cuddly and will bury herself in any unsuspecting rug or blanket available. She also adores her brother and finds him to be the most charming guy around.  She's still a fabulous sleeper, still loves to eat (and toss her food on the floor) and still b-lines for all staircases.  Now she can go down and up in a safe manner, so we've ditched the adult hazardous baby gates. 

We cherish our sweet Rea Rea.  She's the very best one year old baby girl this family could ever dream up.  Thank you God for the blessing she is to us and to all her peeps.  Below is a video highlight of her 365 days.  She's a well documented young lady. 

Music by the oh so talented, Jon Troast.

Chi-Town, Installment #1

I'm always a nervous jumble come time to load up on an airplane with kids in tow.  As was the case over New Years when we headed to Chicago to do late Christmas with both our fams.  I worry about the flight, delays, screaming, puking or blowing out poop everywhere en route.  But I'm happy to report that this trip was flawless.  All around.  We got there with ease, the kids were happy little campers, we all stayed healthy, we played hard and giggled a whole lot.  Nana and Papa make it quite simple to come to town, so we thank them for making our time so enjoyable.  This Mama especially thanks them.

There are a ton of pics, I know.  But I can't leave out a morsel of memorable cuteness from my dude and dudette, so skip over the boring ones. 

 Papa's gym (my high school almamater) is one of our favorite spots to play.  You can see why.

 My dad would probably let me crawl around on the floor when I was a baby....so I love this shot.

 Doesn't my mom look so beautiful here?  Can you believe she's over 50?  Just by a smidge.

 Is my name one of the ones featured on the back wall?  Well, no.  But they're considering me for their next track all star plaque.  No they're not. 

New Year's Eve day was spent with my entire family, at Nana and Papa's house.  Kyle and Becky just moved to GR, Michigan and drove in to spend the day with us.  And Ross, Kira and the boys drove out from downtown.  It was a rather perfect day.  The cousins played, played, played and the adults actually got the chance to speak to each other.  And my parents outdid themselves with the food.  Oh, the food.  It was a highlight of the trip. 

 Babies LOVE this spot at Nana and Papa's house...check out Dude and Dylan below a few years back.

 If you know my brother, Ross, this photo is almost scary.  Clones.

 Ky and Becky have given all the kids Build A Bears.  Squirt fell in love with hers and couldn't stop wrestling it.

 It was a Christmas of movies for Dude.  Add Cars 1 and 2 to the Vogel library.

 And it was the year of the iPad.  We're now proud(ish) owners of our very own. 

 Oh that little toosh.  The rolls are slowly decreasing on those chub legs:(

So concludes the Kwas family day.  We managed to stay up until 11:30 for new years eve, which was more than fine with me.  We're party people...what can I say?  I'll do installment #2 of Tim's family day and more Chicago related fun soon. 

Mile High Talent Show

We have many talents here at the residence of Mile High Vogels. We sing, we wrestle ourselves, we are "so big," we play instruments. And so it wouldn't be right or just if I didn't share some of these talents with you. I put Dude and Squirt before my adult piano recital, as that's really intended for my dad. He loved it when I played this Mannheim Steamroller piece in high school and I've been practicing so he can hear it again in my oldish age. Feel free to skip over me.  Focus on the cuteness that kicks off the video.

Flowers and Candles

I have a New Year's Resolution.  A legit one.  I typically never bother because I can't come up with a resolution that I feel confident about keeping.  Like exercising.  But this one I do.  Because it's simple (to most people).  It should be simple, but for this planner and anxious stresser, it's not.  Are you ready for this? 

I'm going to breathe.  Deeply.  From the depths of my small chest to the top of my average sized nostrils and out my oh so big mouth.  In slow motion and often.  When Dude is asking why he can't have candy for breakfast for the 134th time in his cheapy birdlike voice, I'm going to breathe.  When Squirt poops the very second we're loading up house and home to get Dude to school, I'm going to breathe.  When I sit in 45 minutes of traffic trying to get my 8 hours in at the office, I'm going to breathe.  When Tim tells me of another week long work trip, I'm going to breathe (more breathing will be required for this one).  And when my house looks like the Polar Express just charged through it, depositing toys in every direction, I'm going to breathe. 
The breathing won't be the hard part.  It'll be the regular reminders to myself to produce the breath.  I'm hoping this resolution will produce more calm around my house and that my handsome and naturally deep breathing husband will reap the benefits of my new, chill existence.  Ok, that might be exaggerating what I'm capable of, but you get the idea.  As Dude would say, "Smell the flowers and blow out the candles."  Here's hoping for lots of visual flowers and candles for me in 2012.   By the way, that's suposed to be me breathin' in the flowers above. In Tim's dreams.

And again, me.  Blowing out the candles. 

Dude and his Papa

I have a slew of pictures to get through from our Chi-town trip, so in the meantime, I decided to dedicate a post soley to my little man and his adoring Papa.  The two of them make quite a pair and these shots are proof of their adoration for each other.  Most of them were taken at Papa's gym, one of our favorite places to burn energy.