Connor & the Bebe Pod Seat

The Great Thing About Saturday's

Two of my babies asleep on the couch this morning.

Christmas Day....What a Day!

Goodness gracious...our Christmas day was so packed with fun and excitement that it took me over an hour JUST uploading these photos. Wow! We started off our morning at home and it was so fun seeing what Santa brought for Madelyn & Connor. The magic of Christmas was really in our home this year. Here Maddy is opening up her new toy box and the first thing she noticed was the Elmo book set. Elmo is her favorite these days!

Digging deep into her stocking to find more surprises...
Look how excited Connor was about his stocking!

WOW, he's actually playing with the toys! Way to go Santa!!

I guess all that playing wore Connor out. Whew.

Thanks for the sweet ornament Madelyn!

After opening up all the gifts at home we drove over to my parents home in Worthington to celebrate Christmas with them. Here Madelyn is with the new play-food set from Natalie. What delicious strawberry ice cream!

Surprised faces of joy are one of my favorite things at Christmastime.

Yay! A REAL ice-cream maker. Gotta love that.

Mom with some of my knitting projects (a few dish cloths)

Here Connor is modeling the gorgeous baby booties knit with loving care by JulieAnna's grandmother in Argentina. They are so warm and cozy and fit him perfectly. What a special gift!

The recipe book. I so loved making this gift for Natalie that I had to order one for myself!

After all the fun and excitement at my parents home, we drove to Pataskala to celebrate Christmas with Gary's family. MORE GIFTS????!!!!

I just love this photo of Maci and Maddy. It's like Madelyn is saying "I don't get what's so funny?"

Gary's parents with all their grandchildren.

Jon, Janie, Maci and baby boy on the way (due in March. We can't wait to meet him!)

Todd Smith and his girls (Lindsay, Kylie and Erin...oh, and Molly the doggie)

And here's our last family shot for the day. What a long, WONDERFUL day!

It truly was a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.

THANK YOU EVERYONE for all the amazing gifts.

We love you all!

Christmas Eve 2008

Maddy's First time to put out cookies and milk for Santa. So cool!

This was at our Christmas Eve service at Vineyard
We loved getting to see our good friends, Amy & Chris Nickell and their kids. Too bad they had to move to Denver. Boohoo.

Back at the Vaas home for the big, yummy traditional Christmas Eve dinner together.

My wonderful siblings, Jonathan & Natalie.

My amazing family.

Gotta love these kids!

My BABY Sister is Engaged!

We're all so excited about this recent engagement and can't wait to officially have Mike as a part of the family. We've already decided that our kids will be calling him "Uncle Mike" from now on. What fun! Here are a few photo highlights from the quick throw-together engagement "toast" on their behalf with both sides of the family.

The Happy Couple - returning from their Boston trip where he popped the BIG question!

Jonathan and Connor

Both sets of parents

Mike & Natalie with our family.

Jonathan after eating one of the yummy cookies Mike's mom made!

Entering a New Phase....

Madelyn is really starting to get the hang of going pee-pee on the potty. And what an exciting thing this is for all of us. The problem is that she's also mastered the ability of getting herself fully undressed, so this results in frequent moments of indecent exposure here in our home. One morning I went in to get her out of bed and THIS is how i found her. Yikes!

And here's some proof that she's having fun with the potty thang. What a wild child she is!

(Yes I know, I have my hands full!)

Wildlights At the Zoo

We had so much fun seeing the Columbus Zoo all lite up on this COLD Friday evening in December. It was 7 degrees and we braved the cold with both kids and actually had a wonderful time. Thankfully Connor slept peacefully the whole time, all bundled up in the baby carrier. And Madelyn didn't even seem to notice the cold as she was enjoying the winter wonderland! This will definitely be an annual tradition for the Sammons family.