Grandma and Grandpa

These pictures are priceless! Grandpa and Vaughn having a serious man to man (baby) chat. I caught Vaughn's first big smile that was not gas or pre-spit up while Grandpa was telling him the ways of the world.
Since Syd no longer takes morning naps she gets a lot more one on one time. She and Grandma like to read the newspaper together on Wednesday mornings. It is adorable, they chat about what they are reading!

Catherine and Kirk's Wedding

My cousin Catherine married Kirk in Indianapolis on August 20th. When we found out the date Chris and I were not exactly sure how we were going to handle this one with our young family. I really wanted the girls to go to meet many family members, but also because I knew they would have a ball dancing. We decided after running through many options that I would take the three girls and he would stay home with Vaughn. The logistics of bringing a 2 month old who was still waking up to eat and often crying at night was going to be too much in a small hotel room. Chris stayed home with Vaughn and the girls, Busia, Papa and I hit the road to Indy. We had a suite which worked out really great. It was still a small space for three almost 2 yr olds and three adults. My parents stayed with us the first night and then Auntie Ang stayed the second night.

We got in around 5 and ordered room service which was OK, my Dad headed to the rehearsal dinner while my Mom and I got the girls settled. Overall it was great, Taylor had a little trouble getting down, so she got a few extra snuggles with Busia. We had a hilarious moment as we were getting ready for bed, Brooke kept dropping the sippy cups into their pack n plays so I was telling her to stop and in true Brooke form she held the cup over the side staring right at me and then she yelled "SORRY" and dropped it in! She is a stinker!

Brooke with all the sippy cups!!!
Taylor unwilling to sleep, gets extra snuggles from Busia
In the morning we met one of my dearest friends from college for breakfast with her husband and 3 month old daughter. Then back to the hotel to to attempt naps. That took awhile, but I knew they needed something to make it through the wedding and reception. They managed to get a good hour and a half in which was great.
Alison and Charlotte
Brooke watching Mom get ready...she looks like such a big girl
The wedding was at 5:00pm and it was gorgeous. Catherine was a stunning bride and everyone looked amazing!!! The girls were great, except that Brooke was drilling holes in my lap with her gas which did not smell good and Taylor began singing the ABCs during the ceremony. It was actually quite cute, and didn't disturb things too much. I also made the mistake of giving them their mini sesame street books, so they began blurting out "Elmo". Oops!

The girls were great at dinner playing in the ketchup and honey mustard that was served with their chicken nuggets, they were a mess! Then the music began and they did not stop until I had to make the call at 10:15. I couldn't believe how well they did going four hours past their bedtime. I love special occasions like this when the rules and tight schedule we normally follow goes out the window. I know they had a great time and they sure were entertaining. It was a wonderful night and we were all beat and slept like rocks!

Catherine dancing with Syd, others dancers in the back drop
Auntie Ang looking gorgeous with TaylorSyd and MomTaylor and Papa dancingSunday morning we headed over to my Aunt's house for a delicious brunch. The girls again had a great time with all the family. Brooke even decided to start going up to people and taking their shoes off their feet so she could have a little fun.

Kirk playing with Taylor
Brooke stealing my cousin Elaine's shoesMy cousin Laura and Syd

2 Months Old

This is long overdue, seeing that Vaughn is almost three months old at this point. He is doing incredibly well, but I first want to start with his stats from his two month appointment.

Weight: 12lbs 3 oz (60%th percentile)
Length: 23 inches (60%th percentile)

I gave up on the nursing when he was about 5 weeks old, it was much too much for me to handle with all else going on. He seemed to do better as well, regarding his spitting up.

Vaughn is a super chill little guy, he pretty much only fusses when he has gas or is totally bored and wants to be entertained. Can't beat that! We are also really happy to share that this little boy is a 12 hour/night sleeper. We started the sleep training with him on August 1st and exactly one month later (while we were up North), he started sleeping from 7pm to 7am. Whoo hoo!!! He will sometimes wake up around 3:30 and cry a little, but he typically puts himself back to sleep rather quickly. It is amazing to have the long nights of sleep back!

Here are a few pics from last month, he is getting BIG:

So smiley!

Lounging!

Uncle John's Visit

Uncle John was in town for a few days on the tail end of his annual trip to St. Germain, WI. I love to see they way he interacts with the girls and Vaughn, it is pretty cool that he jumps right in and goes with the flow with the craziness of our home! It is very LOUD most of the time. Vaughn and he seemed to have a special bond, Uncle John really took care of him one afternoon when he was extremely fussy. I kick myself for not taking the time to take a photo, but he was walking him around calming him for such a long time until he finally fell asleep. It was so sweet to see Vaughn totally knocked out snuggled into John.

Uncle John's brushing Syd's pearly whites


I know the members of Father John's parish are avid readers of this blog, and with a quick apology for my lack of attention to it lately, I also want to send a big shout out to all the faithful readers from Sts Joachim and Ann Parish! I know you are out there waiting for updates and I hope to get back to my old ways writing new posts a few times a week.

Busia's B-day, Auntie Ang's Visit, State Fair 2011

What a weekend it was. My Mom's and Dad have a tradition to go to the WI State Fair on her birthday, August 6th. I would typically meet up with them at some point in the day. This year was extra special because Ang was in town and it was the first fair for the girls. We went early and although we didn't get to see as many animals as I would have liked, we saw the chickens, rabbits, goats, pigs and a few random cows. They girls got a little freedom walking which is a needed change. We love to give it, but only when there are enough adults to chase them!

Ang, Brooke, Taylor and Papa
Papa, Taylor, Sydney and Dad
Ang, Brooke

Papa and Taylor

BrookeMe and Vaughn, we both look like we could use a burpThe weekend was a lot of fun. We had a lot of laughs as always!

Group photos are still few and far between...
So sweet!

Tummy Time/Bumbo Time

The girls love to join Vaughn in tummy time. He is getting so strong!!! They also love to play with and sit in the Bumbo chair. In fact, Sydney was really possessive of it the first time she saw it. She was carrying it around, putting it down, sitting in it and yelling, "sit DOWN". Huh, sounds a lot like something I often say when they are standing in the tub or on the sofa. Yieks, I better watch out what I say. It seems these little ones have quickly become little repeaters!

Taylor watching over her brother, both a little sleepy.

Silly girls, you can almost hear the giggles...


Smile my sweet boy!
Gotta love the open mouth profile shot!

Auntie Beth's Visit

Well, it has been almost a month ago, but better late than never, I guess. Sometimes, I forget about a batch of pictures that I uploaded, if I don't look at them immediately after the upload then I tend to overlook them. Thank goodness Auntie Beth reminded me to send her the pics of her and the girls from her visit after Vaughn was born. The girls had a great time playing Auntie Beth! We went to breakfast on Saturday morning and spent a lot of time together hanging out at our house! These pictures are awesome, it is so rare these days to get them all to look. I love these action shots, it is obvious how much fun they were having!
Aunt Beth, T, B and S

Vaughn's Newborn Photo Shoot

One of the things we did not do with the girls that I was determined to do with Vaughn was to have a newborn photo shoot. With the girls we waited until they were about 3 months old and they needed to be smaller and more sleepy newborns to capture the shots I was looking for. So, for Vaughn we had a family friend who has recently gotten into photography do a newborn session. As it turned out, we had it done when he was less than 2 weeks old which was perfect, except that he screamed the entire time. I even decided to feed him thinking that was the issue, but that didn't work either. We got some great shots, one of the shots I really wanted was one of Chris with his son and we got it!