Christmas Celebrations, Part 1-Family Photos

Well, there has been so much going on over the past month, I wasn't sure where to start. So I thought I would break things up a bit, starting with the oldest pictures (around the first part of December)and moving my way to the most recent.
Here are the family pictures we had done. My cousin, Kimberly, recently started her own photography business, called Captured Keepsakes. She was nice enough to shoot some pictures for us so we could send one out on our Christmas card. And while we were at it, we had a full-out family portrait session! I was so glad to get some pictures of the three of us. You parents out there know how hard those are to come by! If anyone in this area is interested in using Kimberly for your photo shoots, let me know and I can give you her contact information!!

Hope you all enjoy seeing the pictures.....I think they turned out really well!! :)

Merry Christmas To All!

We hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas! I had planned on making one big pre-Christmas post because I have TONS of pictures from the past few weeks from Christmas parties, baking day, Christmas parade, Santa visit, etc......but I have decided to do it after the holidays. I'm sure I will have a little more time on my hands then! Merry Christmas to you and yours. Let us all remember the reason we celebrate this most special day.

Ella Has Made Her Mark....

Although I have a massive pre-Christmas post to make, I decided this couldn't wait. I was at my mom's house yesterday baking, and Ella and Daddy were hanging out at home. Tom called me and told me that while he was picking up the kitchen, Ella was being very quiet. So he went in her room to check on her and this is what he found:

Tom said when he went in there, she was 'hiding' behind her chair.....and when she heard the "beep beep" of the camera, she came out and said "CHEESE!"
Behind the rocker.

Her activity table. Luckily, the marker wiped off of this.

Ella got a little messy, too.
It cracks me up how she is holding her hands out here.....

It was EVERYWHERE!!

Is that face pure mischief or what?

Another shot of her handy work.

Tom called me and told me all about it. He was so dumbfounded, he could barely speak! Mostly, I just heard this: "Ella........she was quiet.....black marker......everywhere! Oh my gosh!!!....." I asked Tom if he got after her for it, but he said he was so taken aback, he just called me first! I think she knew she was in trouble, though, because she just hid behind her rocking chair. I realized that she got the marker in the very back of one of her dresser drawers....I had used it as a scrapbooking pen for her baby book! After he told me all about it on the phone, I told him to take pictures. I mean, hey, we'll laugh at this someday, right? (already!)

Ok, as I mentioned before, I have a huge pre-Christmas post to make. Hopefully I'll get that up in the next few days!! Hope you all are getting ready for Christmas!!

Dinner with the Apostle's!

We were so lucky to have the chance to catch Mike and Jess on their way home to Colorado from Illinois last weekend. So, we drove up to St. Louis to meet them for dinner as they blew through town! It was an hour and a half of non-stop laughing and talking. It had been almost 3 years since we'd all been together.....how is that possible? The thing about great friends, though, is that you get together again and it's like not a day has gone by. As we left them that night, all Tom and I could talk about was how much fun we have when we get together. Here are some pictures we managed to get!

The four (and a half!) of us after dinner.
Two of my best girls. I love this picture!

The Veo clan after dinner, with the Arch in the background. Not too bad!

Me and my best. Love her :)

We had such a great time! It was funny too, because Mike kept "subtly" dropping hints for us to come to Colorado. So hopefully, sometime we'll have pictures of all of us on their turf!!! Thanks for dinner, guys! We love you!

MY BIG GIRL!!!!

ELLA PEE-PEED ON THE POTTY TODAY!!! I can't tell you how proud I am of her! If any of you don't want to read about bodily functions, you can stop reading here ;) She has been interested in sitting on the potty a lot lately, and we've talked about it a lot, but up until today, she would just sit there and then say, "Done!" before she did anything. Well, she was on there this morning (yet again) and the phone rang. So I said, "You stay here on the potty and go pee-pee and Mommy will answer the phone." When I walked back in there (not even 10 seconds later......the phone was just in the living room!) she had gone!! I was screaming and so excited and telling her what a big girl she was!! Of course I wanted to praise her very well so she knew what a good thing she had done! She gave me a high five and we did a little dance right there in the bathroom :) Then we poured it into the big potty, said bye bye to the pee-pee (oh..the things we do for our kids....), flushed and washed our hands. Then she got a sucker, of course :) My friend Liz recently made a post about her daughter going poo-poo on the potty, and she mentioned how she wanted to shout it from the rooftops. I know what you mean, Liz! I know it sounds silly, but you Mommies out there know what a HUGE deal that is!! I seriously called everyone I know! And, I dare say that I almost found myself a little sad.....to me Ella is still just a baby, MY baby. Not big enough to go in the potty! It just reminds me of how fast she is growing. It is also interesting, I think, because Ella didn't go when I was in the room......she waited until I left. Usually I'm sitting right there in the floor saying, "Come on, baby...you can do it! Go pee-pee!" But if you really think about it, it is probably much easier for her to go when she has a little privacy :) And Liz said her daughter did the same thing...she wasn't in the room when it happened. Maybe our girls are just being modest :)

Anyway, here are the pictures I took after the blessed event!!

Ella enjoying her sucker........she was loving that thing!

Ella's big girl potty!

Self portrait of a very proud Mama and Ella.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the news....I'm sure it was TMI for some of you!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from The Veo's! Hope your day is as great as ours!

Give Thanks

I am always excited for Thanksgiving. But this year, I find myself ecstatic. Why? Because I have a list of things I am thankful for that is a mile long. So, I thought I'd share a few with you.

1. My family. My wonderful husband and daughter. I am head over heels in love with both of them. Amazing parents on both sides. Sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins. Lucky is not a big enough word. I love you all.


2. My friends. Really, these are bunched in the same category as family. I have an amazing group of friends. Friends from all walks of life. Friends that would be there for me at 2am if I needed them. Thank you.


3. Health. Good health for my family and for myself. I have recently been reminded of those who are not healthy. Those that are fighting terrible diseases and ailments. It makes the little things I worry about seem so insignificant. It is a good reality check for me. It reminds me not to take things for granted. For that I am thankful.

4. Being able to provide for our family. With the current state of our economy, I am even more thankful to have a good job. Tom has a good job. We can provide for our family. Many cannot do this. Whenever I start to complain about my job, I remember this.

5. On that same note, I am thankful to get to stay home part time with Ella. I am glad to have the opportunity to spend as much time with her as possible, while still getting to help support our little family. While I always long to stay home full time with Ella, I remember that many Moms don't have that choice.

I certainly recognize that not one of the things I am thankful for would be possible without God. Ultimately, He gives us our wonderful family and friends. He gives us health. He provides for us. And to Him, for all these things, I am thankful.

Shout Out!

My friend Liz has started her own business making baby dresses. They are so adorable. She was nice enough to give us one of these dresses at a play date we had back in September. Thank you, Liz! I have been meaning to post a picture of Ella in one of the dresses. Is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen? I have included a few different angles so that you can see the back as well. And this one is reversible with the cutest stripe design on the inside. Didn't my model do a good job? ;) Check out her site here. I know I plan on ordering some!!

Here, Kitty Kitty!

Ella had a great Halloween as a kitty this year. She had a great time, and I can't believe how much candy she got! We mostly went to family and friends....didn't really do the door to door thing. She was the cutest little kitty I've ever seen, if I do say so myself :)

HALLOWEEN 2008!

Here's the kitty, getting ready to head out trick-or-treating!

My niece, Skyler came over before we left the house. Doesn't she make a great Raggedy Ann?

All of us at Tom's parent's house. She already looks tired!

Huh?

Trying to get a good photo, but she is a little squirmy ;)

Ok, that's better. It's amazing what a little chocolate will do ;) If you can't tell, Tom was Indiana Jones. Isn't he cute? I didn't dress up, but still tried to look festive. You can totally tell I have my "hurry up and take the picture!" face.

Emma and Ethan. She was a candy corn witch.....is that not the cutest thing? And Ethan was Batman, of course. They looked so great!


In the car....I asked her to show me her teeth so she would smile for the camera...instead she pointed to her teeth. Still cute!

Post sucker sugar high. Can you tell?!? :)

A shy little kitty resting on Daddy's shoulder.

Indiana and the kitty :)

It was such a fun night. I am really treasuring these traditions with my family. I know I will blink and Ella will be grown up, so I am taking it all in as slowly as possible, and enjoying every second. Hope you all had as Happy a Halloween as we did! Now comes Thanksgiving and Christmas......I can't wait!

Pumpkin Carving

We had a great time carving our pumpkins last week. Ella actually wanted to help, at least with the messy part :) But then when it was time to carve, she moved on to better things and let Tom and I do the hard work. I tried to carve a really cool cat design from those pumpkin carving kits. The result was NOT good! So then I had to just cut a big hole in the front and try to salvage it into looking like a big scary mouth. Tom's pumpkin on the other hand turned out great. To boost my confidence, I carved one more and it turned out ok. Ok, here are the pics!!

PUMPKIN CARVING '08!

Helping Mommy carry in the pumpkins! Doesn't she look so proud here? :)

This looks messy and fun!

Ok, nevermind.....I don't like that mushy stuff!

Ok, ok....I guess I'll help out!



Cleaning out the pumpkin with my Mommy :)

I think I'll play with my shopping cart. This pumpkin business is starting to get boring.

Tom, hard at work scraping out his pumpkin!

This is the monstrosity that was one of the pumpkins I carved. I tried to make a kitty, but it was held to the pumpkin by really thin strips, and they broke. The kitty itself actually turned out, but there was no way to hold it to the top and bottom of the pumpkin :( So this is what we ended up with. Yikes. It's scary, alright :(

Ella posing with the other pumpkin I carved :)

What a little ham :)

Ooooh! Look at how big I am!

This is Tom's pumpkin. It's kinda blurry, but you get the idea. It turned out great!


Ok, I'm done with the pictures and it's past my bedtime!

All in all, it was a fun night :) Stay tuned for the Halloween pictures!