Grace is 4 months old and Happy 30th Birthday Jeff!

Gracie turned 4 months old on March 6th. At her checkup on Tuesday, she weighed in at 13 lbs, 8 oz and measured 24 1/2 inches long...she's really growing! She is such a laid back and happy little girl and loves her big sister! She also started noticing the dog and scoots herself around the room.

We had a lot of visitors over the last few weeks. Dan, Julianna & Drew visited in late February. Ella and Drew had a lot of fun playing together, especially in the ball pit. We also ventured out to the Mall of America with the kids. Ella's favorite part was the escalator rides, which was a new thing for her.

Ella & Drew in the ball pit.......... Shopping at Mall of America

Grace helps Daddy shop........Ella & Daddy on the escalator


My dear hubby celebrated his 30th birthday on March 1st. We celebrated with Dan & Julianna while they were visiting and also had a date night to Ruth's Chris (yummy!). Check out all the candles on the cake, we almost started a fire! And notice how smoky the room got after blowing out all those candles. What an old man! :)

"Grammie" & "Grampa" Van visited last weekend. The girls had a blast playing with them and Jeff appreciated the extra help while I had to work. Ella & Grammie took advantage of the nice weather and took a wagon ride outside.

Miscellaneous Pictures:

Ella & her deer antlers from "Grampa"

"A little more salt dad"...helping Dad make mashed potatoes

Ella ready to play in the snow

Ella likes to serve Lambeau food in her kitchen

Happy Valentines Day

We had a busy but fun Valentine's Day. Ella had a Valentines party at her school and made her own Valentines to pass out to her classmates. We then babysat her friend Kyle on Valentine's Day evening so Ella had a little Valentine playdate. Kyle even brought her a heart ring, which Ella loved! Ella's favorite thing these days is "Jammie Day" so occasionally she'll get to stay in her jammies all day if we have nothing going on.

Ella making Valentine's for her classmates (look at all that concentration!)

Grace observing the Valentine-making process

Ella playing with her friend Kyle in the ball pit and him giving her a ride in the stroller...so cute!

Ella loves pigtails these days!

Gracie hanging out with the other babies....Ella didn't want her to feel lonely!

Everyone watching Sesame Street on our "Jammie Day"

Ella is TWO! Grace is 3 months old!

The big event that has occured with us lately is that Ella turned TWO on January 29th. We had a bumblebee birthday party with her friends from ECFE school and playgroup and she had a blast! Ella continues to amaze us daily with new phrases and words and her memory is unbelievable...sometimes a little too good!

Grace is growing so fast! She turned 3 months old on February 6th. She is smiling all the time now, having coo-ing conversations with us and sleeping through the night (between 9-12 hours)...which has been so wonderful for Mommy! She is such a little sweetheart and we all just love the new addition to our family.

I'm now back at work and that is going well. I'm only part time, which give me the perfect balance between being a Mommy and an NNP. Jeff has been enjoying his job and recently traveled to Taiwan, Singapore and Seattle for work.

Here are some pictures of Ella enjoying some of her fun birthday presents:

Ella ironing

Grace isn't too sure about Ella's new ball pit

Gotta love the static hair!

Smiley Grace

Video of Gracie smiling....

Sweet sisters...

(Ella was trying to wink) (Grace tired of the photo shoot)

Ella decided that Grace wanted to play with the dolls too...

Holiday Photos

I know I'm very behind...but here are some of our photos and a brief summary of our Christmas holiday. We took a road trip to Green Bay to celebrate with our extended family. We celebrated Christmas Eve with the the B's and Christmas Day with the V's. Ella and Grace both received wonderful Christmas gifts and we are so thankful to everyone for their generosity. We also met up with friends during our trip. We had a fun get-together with Chris and Gina, complete with a traditional Green Bay fish fry. Unfortunately for us, their beautiful Maya didn't arrive until the day we left town so we weren't able to meet her on this trip. We also had a first of many playdates with Ben and Jack, in which Mommy had fun catching up with Angie and Marc and we watched the Packers close out the frustrating season with a win over the winless Detroit Lions. Jeff happened to be at that game, witnessing history of the first 0-16 team. Other than that, we spent a lot of time with the girls' grandparents, uncles and aunt, and other members of our extended family. Grace got to meet her 3 great grandparents for the first time. There was a TON of snow in Green Bay and Ella had her first experience "playing" in the snow. There was so much of it that she had trouble walking around. Daddy did enjoy teaching her to throw snowballs at Mommy though. We came back to Minnesota before New Years and had a quiet New Years Eve at home. The holidays were a blast, but also a little hectic so it is kind of nice to be settling back into our routines. We hope everyone else had a great Christmas and Happy 2009!

Ella opening her new kitchen set

Gracie excited for her first Christmas

Ella, taking her job as present deliverer very seriously

Grace trying on her new beret

Enjoying present opening

Ella admiring all the pretty ornaments

Grace meets Great Grandma & Grandpa


Grace and her boyfriends Ben & Jack

Ella "stuck" and not quite sure what to do in the snow

Daddy teaching Ella about throwing snowballs, Mommy was unfortunately the target

Video of Ella and the Christmas Goose:

Patrick, Greg & Jeff tailgating outside Lambeau field

Happy Holidays

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! I'm not sure if I'll get to post again before Christmas as things are about to get really hectic around here...but here are some new pictures of my two lovely ladies.

Grace is getting very strong and can hold her head up quite well. She is also starting to follow things with her eyes and smiled at both Daddy and I for the first time last night (her first "real" social smile...not just gas!) We were so proud. She is sleeping a longer stretch at night (~4.5-5.5 hours) so that's a nice Christmas present for Mommy!

Ella has had lots of fun making Christmas presents for people; she has really been into the art projects more lately. She may even start up her own ornament making business! Her other favorite thing is to have family dance time every night to her favorite song "All I want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey (currently playing if you have your volume on) and we all have to dance around the family room together.

The girls sat on Santa's lap a few weeks ago. Ella didn't cry but looked scared to death and wouldn't talk to him. Luckily Mommy was there to tell him what she wanted.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

It's December!

Sorry it has been so long since our last post...the girls are keeping us very busy these days! Grace has been sleeping much better at night between her feedings so that is good. She has been having more awake, alert time during the day which is fun. She enjoys being under her activity gym and looking at all the dangling toys. We have resumed our normal schedule so Ella has been happy to be going back to her weekly school and playgroup. Ella has been getting more adjusted to having Grace here to share the attention of Mommy & Daddy but still has some occasional jealousy. Overall, things are getting easier for everyone!

We celebrated Thanksgiving here in Minnesota and Grandma & Grandpa B drove out to visit. Grandma cooked a yummy Thanksgiving dinner, Ella especially loved Grandma's stuffing and the cranberries.

We also celebrated St. Nicholas' Day this past weekend. We all woke up on Saturday morning to find our stockings filled with lots of goodies...St. Nick brought books for both girls, a puzzle and videos for Ella and some baby toys for Grace.

In addition, Grandma & Grandpa V came to visit us this past weekend. They were very excited to meet Grace and Ella was happy to get some extra attention (and Jeff was happy to have Grandpa here to help with the shoveling...yes, we have snow!!)