Family photo Oct 2010

Family photo Oct 2010

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Random happenings

I take a lot of pictures of the kids doing just the regular day to day and don't always have a specific event for a post... so this is just a bunch of them together.  Enjoy.
When Dude is at music class the girls come and play in the nursery


this was one of the first pics I had of Norah standing up


What a goob

Goose!


With a hair shtyle
Norah and Lucy were 'racing'


My silly girls

Vroom vroom!

She was so proud of herself

They play together nicely... sometimes...



Hair styled with peanut butter
They were having a little picnic on the table Dude had made


Oh and did I forget to mention Nutella?


Kisses!
Poor Duder fell over backwards and part of a drawer wasn't pushed in all the way and he scraped it pretty badly :(


Papa Selfie!  Not easy to do with all the kiddos!


I got tired when playing on the floor with Norah

Sometimes when we check out the kids like to read Cupcake Digest



Spray painting at church


Lucy our little vandal had no problem at all knowing what to do!


FOB haha

Love that cheeser smile




First solo trail walk with Momma

All on their respective computers



They where having such a fun time running from bench to bench... 


I dunno... I just thought this was pretty funny
Norah fulfilling her destiny... haha... 
We were having sweet snuggles

Norah's new trick... haha




My sweet family
She is so strange


Peek a boo!

Dude wanted her to wear his hat



Roaming at Barnes and Noble

I just thought that this was a cute picture

Dude was sweet and wrote this on an app and sent the pic to me while I was at KPhil
They love each other


She was having a rough day
Norah wearing Momma's old coat!  Yup, I wore that when I was about 2


Out for a lovely walk


Leave it to Lucy to sit like this

JVG

Getting crafty

I have a little bit of time (like 2.5 weeks) before I have to start training for my marathon, so what better time to start obsessing on something new right?  I bought some canvas to make a friend a Mother's Day gift and had seen a lot of cute things on Pinterest that I wanted to make for the kids... so I finally bought the materials for it.  I think that Jane's present turned out really cute and I think she will really like it :)  Special thanks for the men for putting that one together (they did it while Jane and I were out at a concert... so we were sneaky sly!)
I realize I still have to erase the line on there, but I think it turned out nicely.  Her son Christian's handprints are on top and Ava's are on bottom


Then, I painted something for Dude.  He loves the book, "Where the Wild Things Are" and he saw this  and asked me if I could... so while Grace and G were out driving the marathon course I had a little bit of quiet time to finish it.  I think that it turned out really nicely and Dude was pretty thrilled about it when he got home.




I have an idea for Lucy's canvas... I sing "You are my sunshine" to her and I was thinking of painting her that... I've seen a few cute ideas on Pinterest that I think I could pull off, so that will be my next project!  :)  Pics to follow.

JVG

Papa's Marathon

Today is the day that Gaetan killed his marathon!  We are so proud of you! Way to go!  The weather was nice but a bit breezy... but he was a rock star!  (Of course).  He finished in 4:43 and didn't walk or hit the infamous wall... what a beast!




Our friend Gracie was running it as well and came over on Saturday so that we could get them to the start bright and early.  They ended up driving the course Saturday night, which was good because they had changed it from the previous years.  The morning started bright and early because their race started at 8, so we had to get there a bit earlier... so unfortunately we had get the kids up at that time too.  It was so sweet listening to the girls synchronize snore but we had to go, so we just got them up and put them in the car.  Dude had been up for awhile because of a coughing fit, so our day started around 4:30.. oof.  We got them up and out the door on time and to the start with plenty of time for a nice warm up and anything else that needed to happen.  This gave me enough time to get the kids home, get some breakfast in them and a little bit of play time before we had to head out.  My sister and her crew rode with my Dad and they met us at around the 15 mile mark.  At that point G was looking great!  Strong and not winded at all.  :)  We waited a little bit for Gracie to come through and then we went back to our place for a little lunch.  We had Justus and Jack, and they played a few games with Duder while the girls just hung out.  I was getting us ready to head out the door when my sister called and said that they just saw G around mile 22 and he was going strong!  I panicked because I figured we had enough time to get there but when she was saying that he was going strong I got worried!  I thought that I had calculated the time out right... so we hurried and got there.  I would've felt like the worst person ever if we missed his finish.  I was already feeling pretty badly that we only caught him once during his whole race, but with certain roads being closed and traffic... I wasn't sure what we were going to be able to make.  BUT... we made it there in time and Dude even got to run in the finish with him!  I know that he really enjoyed that.  :)
Ready to go!  bright and early 

The cheering crew
Goose holding Grace's sign that Dude made for her at the expo

Dude's special sign just for Papa

Aunt Holly and Norah cheering them on!

Approaching mile 15!


Still smiling



That weirdo listened to a book on tape for the entire race...
Grace at the same spot
Dude running towards papa down the final stretch

Running it in together... I'm not gonna lie, I was getting a little emotional
A sweet moment
Whoo!!
Staying warm at the end
big thumbs up!  Looks great!
Dude was so proud of Papa


Sweet hardware



Hanging out before we got some dinner

Marathon day was hard on everyone haha
May the fourth be with you!


At the end he looked great and said that he felt really good too! Of course he would say that ;)  Unfortunately we couldn't stay and watch Gracie finish because the girls were getting pretty cold and hungry... but she called when she was done and she sounded upbeat and happy.  :)  I was sad that we couldn't stay and watch her finish, but I think she understood.  She finished her marathon a little under 6 hours, which is amazing!  I was a little worried for her since she had only run a 15 before this, but she did it and we are so proud of her.

Now, we can both say that we've completed marathons, which isn't something just any couple can say. haha.  I told G that I deemed us the power couple of the year haha.  Way to go!  You're the man.

JVG

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Best Saturday ever

I honestly never thought in a million years that the things that happened today would happen, but I am truly, honestly, extremely thankful and grateful that they did!  In the morning my sister and I had an impromptu picnic at a playground with her crew and mine and it was a blast.  We played for a few hours and had burgers.  My sister and I got to hang out and just talk.  And talk talk about stupid random things... things that you would expect friends to talk about without any weirdness or worry of a lecture about to happen.  It was awesome.  And the things that we talked about were amazing and fun.  It was a whole new side to my sister that I have never experienced before, and I gotta say, its my favorite.  I know that picnic and a playground don't sound earth shattering but it was... and it was awesome.  I was sad when we had to leave but my kids needed a nap and I had to get ready for a birthday party that wasn't actually scheduled for today!







A friend of mine had her son the day after Lucy was born.  She came into the hospital at the same time I did but since mine was a scheduled c-section I knew that I was having Lucy that day, but she came in and labored and then had Max the day after.  We got invited to his birthday party and I just assumed that it was going to be that Saturday (since his birthday was on Wednesday).  They planned to go on a bike ride (since their family is really into that) but I couldn't see how we were going to fit all our bike riding gear in the car along with everybody... so we planned on hitting the party at their house afterwards.  She estimated that they would be home between 3-4 so we came around 3:45 because I figured that it would take longer than expected.  Nobody was home.  I sent her a text to see how far out they were but no reply.  Since the day was so nice I thought that we would just walk around her neighborhood until we either heard back from them or we saw them come home.  Lucky for us there was a little playground a few blocks away that the kids enjoyed playing at.  I finally decided that we shouldn't wait any longer so I called her to find out what was going on and she said that they were in a different city than the intended bike ride destination!  I was so confused... and then she said that Max's party was a totally different weekend NEXT MONTH.  It never occurred to me that it would not be the weekend of his birthday but... looks like I am all ready to go for when his party actually is!  haha.  We had a nice time outside though so it wasn't a total loss.






Later that night I realized I had gotten sunburned from our outings all day and I have to say, I kinda enjoyed it.  Another first happened with my sister that night as well.... we did car bombs together.  haha.  She is the world's SLOWEST drinker though... we had a laugh about that.  It was really just a great day with family and friends.  Later that night we hid the eggs for Easter which was fun to do!

JVG