Thanksgiving (late!)

Well, I have AGAIN gotten behind on the blog :) No surprise, of course! I was thinking about doing my Christmas post, and then realized I never did my Thanksgiving one! There were just too many good photos so I thought I'd go ahead and get them posted. Then hopefully, I can get the Chrismtas post done before Valentine's Day ! ( ha ha ).
This Thanksgiving, we went to my sister's house. We had a great time. The kids played, the boys watched football, and of course....we ate LOTS of good food :)

Noah and Emma, hanging out on the couch.

Summer and Hannon (cute picture!)

Tommy and I. LOVE him.

My parents with grandkids! (Miah and Hunter had already left :( )

Tom and Dad watching (of course) football.

The beautiful dining room where we enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner. And it was snowing outside! (hard to see in this picture).

Ella, Miah, Emma and Noah having dinner.

My handsome little man on his first Thanksgiving!

It was a great day! We had MUCH to be thankful for :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you all have a great day filled with family, friends, laughter, and of course...turkey! :)

Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween this year! I won't bore you with too much talk, everyone just wants to see the pictures anyway :) Ella dressed up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Noah was, of COURSE, Superman :) This year was extra special because it was Noah's first Halloween and Ella was so fun because she really had the trick-or-treating thing down pat.

Dorothy, all ready for trick-or-treating. Have you ever seen a more beautiful Dorothy? Me neither. :)

I love her face here, she just looks so excited.

Da-da-da DA!!!! Superman!

Both my babies :)

Ella showing off her candy basket at the end of the night.

She did really well!

It was really a lot of fun. We are so excited for the holidays with the kids. It will be Noah's first, and at 3 &1/2, Ella is just fun all the time. Hope you all had a great Halloween, too!

Quick Update

Hey everyone! We have been CRAZY busy with moving, so I have been a very bad blogger lately. We finally got moved to the new house about a week ago. Seems like we are still living in chaos, but the boxes are getting unpacked and we are trying to find homes for all of our belongings. We are so grateful for this big, beautiful house that we now get to call home. All this space, inside and out......we are so blessed! We are still doing a lot of work on the house, but it makes it easier now that we are living here instead of being back and forth from house to house all the time. I PROMISE a big post dedicated only to the new house, as soon as I get it in picture shape :) But until then, I thought everyone would appreciate a few pictures from the past few weeks (and months!). Let's face it...my rambling is what everyone puts up with to get to the pictures ;)

My sweet girl, getting ready for gymnastics. She started in August and LOVES it!

My niece, Emma at cheerleading. Can you believe how grown up she is? Love her!! :)

Mommy, Daddy & Ella at Disney Princesses on Ice. Ella loved it, and so did we. GREAT show! (And parents...totally worth the extra for the close seats!)


The little man. LOVE this grin!! I know he gets so tired of his Mommy kissing his chubby cheeks ALL of the time, but I just can't help myself! Could you? ;)

Ella and her first trip to the dentist. Her teeth looked great, and she goes back in 6 months for her first official cleaning.

Ella and Daddy on his new John Deere mower....he LOVES it! That is our new front yard in the background.

This picture is kinda old but too good not to share. Do you love the hat??

So anyway, that is a mini-update of sorts. Most of these pictures are at least a few weeks old, so I will try and be better and get some more recent ones up. Ella & Noah are growing so fast. She is 3 & 1/2 and he is 9 months old. I can't believe how fast time flies. But we sure are having fun and we are very excited for the Fall! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Ella Starts Preschool

Ella started preschool on August 17th. She goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She absolutely LOVES it. I was a bit of a wreck that first week, but we took her in and dropped her off and I managed to hold it together until we had walked out (I didn't want her to see me cry). She was all about it....no separation anxiety (except for me!!), no crying. We snapped a few pictures and she was off exploring her new classroom. We are so excited for her. She is so eager to learn, and so very smart. And yes, I'm her Mama so of course I say that...but seriously folks. This girl is brilliant. Her teacher is loving her and Ella is definitley loving her teacher. We have already had school pictures and our first book order. The fire truck came to school last week. Next week is Johnny Appleseed week. And in October we take a trip to the Pumpkin patch. What fun for our girl!!

With Mommy and Daddy, before we headed to school.

In the car, showing off her Dora lunchbox.

Backpack on, check. Lunch in hand, check. All ready for school!

I love the look on her face here. Full of happiness and excitement. This is where she was when we left and don't think she really even noticed.

I'm not sure how it is possible that my baby girl is in preschool. Seems like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant with her. Seems like just yesterday we brought her home. Doesn't time go by in a flash? There is no doubt that her first day of school was one of my proudest moments so far. And I know there are many more to come :)

We are Here.

Hi everyone. It has been a very long time since I have posted anything on the blog. It has been a rough few months for us but we are doing well. Most of you already know what has been going on. Without getting into too much detail on the world wide web, I will just tell you that our precious Noah was hurt at the babysitter when I went back to work after maternity leave. He is perfectly fine now, but we have been dealing with trying to get to the bottom of what happened ever since then. We have yet to find an answer. What we focus on is that he is perfect, healthy, happy and SAFE as neither of our kids attend a babysitter now. My big girl started preschool a couple of weeks ago (how is it possible???) and we are lucky enough to have only family watching our babies while we are at work and while Ella isn't at school. Let me tell you that Tom and I are so very blessed to have such wonderful families. Both sides have chipped in and taken charge of watching our kids while we work to keep us from having to take them to another sitter/daycare. Our hearts just couldn't handle that. We certainly appreciate prayers that we get answers as to what happened and that someone is held accountable.

ANYWAY....all that to say.....we are here. Some fun news is that we just bought a new house and plan to move within the next few weeks. It is perfect! Lots of space for our family....now we just have to sell ours :) We have been working hard at the new house, fixing it up since we closed, making it our own. Like I said before, Ella started preschool this month and LOVES it. She also started gymnastics which she is loving, so she is a busy girl. Noah is 7 & 1/2 months old now and let me just tell you, he is Y-U-M-M-Y. I could kiss him all day long!! So right now we are busy with getting into the new house, trying to sell this one and raising two sweet kiddos. We are continually reminded how very blessed we are.
Hope you all are doing well. Hope we still have some readers :) I'll leave you with a couple of pics of my babies that my BF Jess took in July.

Baby Boy

I still need to post pics from Ella's bday party, but had to update everyone with this sweet pic of my boy. He is 9 weeks old today. How is that possible? Check out this precious shot. Warning: You may just want to eat him up :) Enjoy!!

Ella's 3rd Birthday

Last Friday was Ella's 3rd birthday. We headed to Columbia for a fun filled day. And it was just that! We took Ella to her favorite place....Bonkers. I didn't get any pictures of her playing on the equipment, but here is a cute shot of her and Daddy taking a break to play some arcade games.

So serious! :)

After some play time at Bonkers, we headed to the mall. We had a little shopping to do, and Ella always wants to ride the merry-go-round. Which she did. 3 times.

No pictures, but we spent a lot of time in Barnes & Noble letting Ella pick out some new books. This girl LOVES to read. Yes, I know most kids do. But she would honestly rather sit with a stack of books than do almost anything else. So she picked out TONS of new books and has been enjoying them every day since. I am glad she is growing up with an appreciation of books :)

Here's my girl on the way home....tuckered out. We skipped nap so this little 30 minute snooze was all she got that day. There's too much fun to be had on your birthday to sleep, right? :)

So sweet.

Every year on Ella's birthday, we head to Alex's, our fave pizza place in town. This year was no exception. We enjoyed the yummy pizza, and our favorite appetizer.....cheese balls. Nothing healthier than little bites of fried cheddar cheese. Yum-yum! Here is me and my birthday girl at dinner.

Daddy and his girl.

The whole family. Hey, Noah....you're not looking at the camera! ;)

Such a big girl! 3 years old!

I say this every year, but I can't believe another year has passed. Where does the time go? This little lady is growing into the most amazing person. Her heart, her charm, her fun-loving personality. And her sense of humor....my oh my is this little girl funny. I am always telling her how much she makes me laugh, so her newest thing is, "you know, mom? you make me laugh!" Wow. (clutching my chest). This girl owns my heart. Happy Birthday baby!

3 Years Old

My baby girl turned 3 years old on Friday. It was a great day, we spent it in Columbia going to Bonkers and shopping at the mall. Ella spent a lot of time at Barnes & Noble picking out some new books (her favorite thing!) and we had such a perfect day. Today is her big Princess party and she is so excited. So we're gearing up for a house full of people in a few hours, and we're so excited to celebrate the most beautiful, warm hearted 3 year old we know. Happy Birthday Ella Grace. We are so proud to be your Mommy & Daddy.

Happy Snacking!

I wanted to share my yummy trail mix recipe with you all! We have been on a trail mix kick lately around here, so instead of continuing to buy it, I thought I'd put together my own filled with all of our favorites :) And I just had to take a picture....it's so pretty!

Peanuts, Almonds, Cashews, Dried cranberries, Yogurt covered raisins and M & M's. Voila!

Way. Too. Funny.

So Ella was walking around the other day in her underwear and cowgirl boots. It was so cute I told Tom to take her picture. She has this new face she gives (see pic below also) that we call her "mean" face, she does it just to be silly. But this photo came out looking more like a pose for a magazine. It just cracks me up every time I look at it. Seriously...I laugh until there are tears streaming down my face. That crazy girl!!!

A close up of the "mean" face. Don't ask me where it came from. I am telling you....this girl brings so much laughter to our lives. I can't even keep a straight face as I type this post. That's my girl!

Ella meets Noah

Watching Ella meet her baby brother for the first time was so sweet. She was so gentle with him and she just kept smiling the whole time. I missed Ella so terribly when we were in the hospital, so it was so good to see her. I knew she was having a good time though, because she was with my Mom and Dad the whole time. So it was really nice to know that she was having a great time and that she wasn't upset about being away from Tom and I. And when it was time to leave the hospital, she was excited because Mimi & Papa were taking her out to lunch at Applebee's. So cute! Here are the pictures....

Just look at that smile.....now THAT is a proud big sister!

It was amazing how BIG she looked to me after Noah was born! (Don't you love the cowgirl boots?) :)

Laughing with Mommy when Noah made a funny facial expression.

My sweet girl. Like I said, I think I was most emotional about being away from Ella. Gosh, I love that little girl.

I love how gently she is holding him here and the sweet, quiet look on her face. I also love seeing her little hands cradling him.

Ella is an amazing big sister. Tom and I are so proud of her. She loves to hold Noah, and help take care of him. Every time he cries she says, "It's ok, Noah. Big sister is here!" Oh, and she refers to herself as "Big sister" now. I have to call her that, Tom has to call her that, and if we don't we are corrected quickly ;) She has had some minor issues with her bedtime routine, that is, she hasn't been wanting to go to bed for some reason and has been giving us a bit of a hard time with that. This was starting slightly before Noah arrived, so I'm not sure if it's directly related or not, but I'm sure it has something to do with it. She never acts jealous or resentful toward him, which is good. We have noticed her having a little more "attitude" with us lately though, which I'm sure is just how the adjusting is manifesting itself. I mean, no matter how hard you try and make sure things stay consistent and normal for an older child, there is no doubt that their world is turned upside down by the addition of another child. But we are getting into a nice routine, and things seem to be returning to a more "normal" feel, or at least what the new normal is for us! Having 2 kids definitley keeps our hands full, but we wouldn't have it any other way. We have some fun things coming up that I'll be blogging about, in addition to updated pics of Noah. On the agenda: Valentine's Day, MU/KU game (going with my Dad and Sis....SO excited!), and Ella's 3rd birthday coming up on March 5th! My how time flies! Hope you all are doing well. Thanks for checking in on us! :)

Noah's Big Debut

What a great day January 14th was. We welcomed our son into the world! Let me tell you ladies, labor was MUCH easier the second time around. I woke up that morning with a backache, but got ready and headed to work. All morning my back was hurting, and I thought maybe some really early labor was starting because the back pain would come and go just like a contraction. But it was still tolerable, so I stayed at work all morning. Then I went home for lunch, and decided to put my feet up for awhile to see if they subsided. Well, they didn't and I noticed that they were moving to the front of my belly as well. So I called Tom (who was heading home for lunch anyway), and we decided to head to the hospital. We got there at about 2pm, they checked me and I was dilated to a 3. Then right after they checked me, my water broke. I got the epidural(otherwise known as HEAVEN) around 3pm. It was great and kept me very comfortable. It was so nice because Tom, my Mom, Dad, Summer and I just chatted and laughed....and I was able to just relax and enjoy their wonderful company. At 4pm the nurse checked me again and I was a 6. Then at 6pm they checked me again and I was a 9. Everything progressed so quickly! Then just about 10 minutes after the nurse checked me, I knew it was time because of the ENORMOUS amount of pressure. I started pushing at around 6:15pm and Noah was born at 6:49pm. Not too shabby! Things did get a little tense right before I started pushing, because he was having some pretty bad decels (down into the 60's and 70's) with my contractions, so the nurse told me she wanted to move things along. Her guess was that the cord was wrapped around his neck (which it was). All the while, my Dr. had been paged and was on the way, but things went so quickly (thank goodness) that my nurse almost delivered him. I noticed that all of the sudden, there were about 8 nurses in my room, they slapped the oxygen on me and basically said just to go ahead, that he needed to get out of there. So just as his head was delivered, my Dr. blew in the room and got there just in time to suction him, unwrap the cord from his neck, and deliver him the rest of the way. But the second he was out, he cried a WONDERFUL, loud, precious cry. There is no better sound in the world, I tell you. Especially when you're worried about your little baby....to hear them screaming at the top of their lungs is the sweetest sound. He weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20 inches long. We couldn't believe it because we just KNEW he was bigger than Ella was, but he tricked us all and was smaller by 7 ounces. He was longer though, as Ella was only 18 1/2 inches long when she was born. He is just such a tiny little peanut! There has also been much less discomfort this time, and although I was a little sore, I didn't really feel like I had given birth! It really was a wonderful experience, and we feel so incredibly blessed to have a healthy, beautiful baby boy. So here are some pics from before and after delivery:



SO excited and happy (and comfy...thanks to the epidural)! That's my Dad's hand on my stomach, feeling how tight my belly got with the contractions.

Tom and I.....waiting anxiously!

I was so glad Summer was able to come and hang out while we waited. I love my sister :)

My baby boy, right after he was born. What a precious pouty face :)

Getting checked out and cleaned up.

Noah and Daddy getting aquainted.

Getting weighed in. I know, buddy. I hate getting on the scale too ;)

A thrilled Mama and Noah after delivery.

So happy to have our baby boy here!

Noah Thomas Veo *1-14-2010 6:49pm*

We have a LOT more pictures to share.....especially the ones of Ella and Noah meeting for the first time. I'm trying to get caught up one post at a time, so up next will be Big sister and Noah. Just wait until you see those......ADORABLE.

Thank you to all of our wonderful friends and family for all of the support, prayers and congratulations. We are so blessed.